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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Macbeth" data-source="post: 2067566" data-attributes="member: 11259">Book of Iron Might is a 66 page black and white well bookmarked PDF (with color cover, advertisements, and back page) from Malhavoc detailing ways to make any character a little more interesting in combat. I use the phrase "a little more interesting" because this book is unusual for a d20 supplement: no new prestige classes. Most combat centric books (such as Complete Warrior, Path of the Sword, and even Malhavoc's own Cry Havoc, to some degree) end up throwing at least one or two new prestige classes into the mix. Book of Iron Might instead gives us Maneuvers, a new race, new feats, and a new selection of 'stunts' for skills. For this review, I'll take a look at each of these sections in depth.First, the maneuvers. This is what originally made we interested in this book: the promise of a system for creating new combat actions. The system gives a list of effects (such as disarm or area attack) and drawbacks (such as full-round or provokes attack of opportunity). Effects inflict a penalty on attack rolls, and drawbacks cancel some of that penalty. Combine any number of effects and drawbacks, and the maneuver is ready. The premise here is great, but the implementation leaves something to be desired. Most of the effects force an attack penalty of -10 or greater (stun is a -30, and area attack is -5 per square), and drawbacks are only either worth 5 or 10, so if you want to avoid drawbacks or have more then one effect (since effects can be combined), you'd better have the base attack bonus to compensate. In my opinion, given some playtesting with a group of characters of levels 4-6, the system is only really useable for characters of at least 5th level or higher, and even then the penalties are almost too great. In the end, I found this to be a good system, but not as good as I was hoping. A few effects with smaller penalties (-3 maybe) and more drawbacks (there are only 11, some of which cannot be combined) would have helped immensely.Next come the Ironborn, a new race of constructs. This seems to be an interesting choice to include in a combat focused PDF, but the race is interesting and useable, so I think it was a good choice. Being constructs of a sort, the Ironborn come in a number of varities, keyed to different tasks such as scouting. This makes the Ironborn a kind of custom build, since a character could easily choose the package to best suit his character. Overall, they seem well balanced and very interesting, allowing a player to get a very specific package of abilites just for his or her class. It would be concievable to just have Ironborn as the only real race, since they can be customized to fill various niches. It's also nice to see height and weight tables included, something that seems to get left out of some racial writeups. There's also information on creating Ironborn, and special ironborn feats to further customize the Ironborn's body, by adding features such as a Holy Symbol or Memory Bank. Overall a very good section, but not always useful since not every DM ewants to add a new race.Next comes the feats, which have quickly become my favorite part of the book. In particular, the Arcane Battle feats seem like a great option. Each feat gives the user a certain ability, useable a certain number of times per day (which grows with the characetrs Base attack bonus). Examples include having your weapon attack on its own, or creating an energy burst. I found this feats to be one of the best parts of the book, a great way to give a fighter or other melee character the ability to do things just as amazing as any wizard's spells. The feats are hard to get, but a great new option for any fighter.The other two new types of feats are Battlemind feats and Fighting Style feats, and each has a new mechanic associated with it. Battlemind feats must be taught by a master, so the  player must announce the intention of taking such a feat a few levels before taking it. However, the development of the feat gives the character a method, a small trick related to the feat which can be used before the feat is gained. Not as cool as the Arcane battle feats, but still good. The Fighting Syle feats are special in that each allows the character to gain an ability from a list, and choose another ability from that same list at every level where her base attack bonus is a multiple of 5. Again, not qute as useful as the Arcane Battle feats (especially since some of the abilites you can choose seem a little weak), but not bad at all.The last real section of the book deals with stunts: new ways to use skills. I found this part intersting, but not amazingly useful, since I tended to allow many of these things in my game already. However, if you want advice on how to add some flair to your combat, this could be it.The book also includes some short notes on using it with Arcana Unearthed. Nothing too amazing here, but it does broden the usefullness of the product.In the end, I think this book is a great way too add flair to your combat. If you want amazing stunts, movie style madness and astounding adventures, this is a good resource, but if your looking to make our combat more realistic, this book would be a big step in the wrong direction. This book definately throws caution to the wind and puts out some outrageous (or dare I say, EXTREME!) new combat options. Overall a very solid read. Nothing quite so revolutionary or amazing as to deserve a 5/5, but continuously good, and without any real problems. A very happy 4/5.</blockquote>

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