Champions of Darkness

[Messageboard Golem]

Second of two companion volumes, Champions of Darkness provides a guide for creating and playing adventurers who have fallen to the pervasive evil that is the world of Ravenloft. Included in this book are rules for creating and developing characters, prestige classes, information on the dark religions and secret societies in the Realm of Dread and ideas for running campaigns focusing on the darkness within.

 

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

It's difficult for me to review this product. Mainly because I tend to get wound up at the gaping holes and ignored premises that riddle this book completely. The authors show no respect for the campaign setting, changing it to suit their needs and not looking at the previous releases, or so it seems.

The book itself is a muddle. The feats are either too underpowered or too overpowered to be of any use. The Prestige Classes are laughable, ranging from completely useless to only userble in a high-powered, hack-n-slash game, which is not what Ravenloft is all about.

The Ravenloft third Edtion line has been pretty hit and miss. The Gazetteers are all hits, Champions of Darkness, Secrets of the Dread Realms, Heroes of the Light misses.

Champions is not good because, and it is an awful thing to say, of the new authors. They seem to have no grasp about what the mechanics of the world are, the flavour of the setting eludes them and the way in which the book is written is laudable. One section, "The Cold War" scenario, seems like an author has taken his own campaign and made it the canon setting for the world because he wants to make his mark. The NPC section too smacks of this. The NPC "Sheriff Von Zarovich" is a walking tank. It has no background on him, just says he appeared and declared himself sheriff. It's not in Strahd's nature for things like this to happen. The point of Strahd is that he is static and stagnent. Nothing changes in Barovia because Strahd never changes. He's not a dynamic character. The premise of Ravenloft is the land mimics it's masters, but that is ignored here.

It's fine to leave your mark on a setting, one of the current Ravenloft authors, John W. Mangrum, did that fantastically with the second edition product "Carnival." But Champions is not a good book. It might be worth a look if you want a general book of evil and don't have the stomach for the Book of Vile Darkness, but not as a Ravenloft product.

 

[Psion]

"The book itself is a muddle. The feats are either too underpowered or too overpowered to be of any use. The Prestige Classes are laughable,"

Could we, maybe, see some examples of each please, and why you think they are strong/weak?

 

[frandelgearslip]

This product comes in at $21.95 for 120 pages. The text tensity is the same as most arthaus products consisting of decent text spacing set off with quite a bit white spaces at the end of every chapter.

ch 1 prestige classes: The prestige classes are all of the 5 level variety, which is usually a bad sign in d20 products. In general the prestige classes are okay descriptive wise but almost all of them are fairly weak and of limited use. There mostly for evil characters so dms can find some use for them and they would make interesting villians as long as they were not supposed to be combat oriented. Furthermore two of them, the manipulator, and the mesmerist are very similar ability wise. In one case with the master of curses the descriptive text mentions a power that the master of curses does not actually have. In general there are many better sources of prestige classes out there. The feats in this chapter have the opposite problem in that they are overpowered. For example the energy drain feat allows a cleric to drain levels by using one of their turn/rebuke attempts for the day. Other feats allow similar powerful abilities available for the use of a turn/rebuke attempt. Another feat is called tantric ability and I assume most people can guess what the feat relates to. The worst of the feats is the deathly pallor feat which is actually identical to a feat in the main campaign setting book, just with a different name and slightly different drawbacks.

ch2 organizations: Details various organizations of varying degress of evil in the campaign setting. The best of these is an update of the carnival which was first detailed in second edition. The other groups are new and for the most part interesting. There is the freemen of falkovnia a rebel group operating in that small country. There is the sans merci a group of torturers. In the end the organizations are okay, but again there are many better resources for orgazinations out there.

ch3 npcs: The npcs described in this chapter are okay, but a lot of the stats are incorrect. For example the vampire jander sunstar has about half the feats that he should have and the alignment listed for him in no way matches with the description of him that is written down. Not to sound like a broken record, but there are better sources of npcs out there.

ch4 campaigns: Various adventure ideas for characters operating in the grey areas of ravenloft.

I have saved the last part of the review for the worst part of the product mainly the campaign idea of the order of ebon gargoyles. This consists of a piece from each section, the nightlord prestige class, the order of ebon gargoyles oragnization, the npc sherrif von zarovich, and the cold war campaign outline. Invariably each of these is the worst parts of there respective sections and show little knowledge of the actual ravenloft campaign setting. They build around this idea of a not-so secret police force in the country of barovia, but the order is very high magic and does not match the low magic of barovia. In fact the order so does not match the country that it comes from that one can not use it unless one is willing to ignore what is written about barovia everywhere else. Not only does it not fit the setting but it is poorly done regardless.

In the end the order of ebon gargoyles is awful while the rest of the book is merely lackluster. There are better products out there.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

OK, where do I start ? With my ending note, I guess it will say it all: 1 on 5. Simply avoid this product. It pain me to be that hard, as I didn't say that often for any product of the Ravenloft line (the other being Forged of Darkness). The concept idea behind the book is good, but in the end, unfortunately, it has numerous important flaws… In short: overpowered and out of place villains (Sheriff VZ) and weird PRCs.

Chapter One: Creating the anti-hero - Prestige classes

In general, the PRCs are strange, in the sense they are proposed as PC option, but really I do not see a PC being propagandist or mesmerist… First comment: these PRCs should be mainly for NPCs, and not at all for PCs. Did we need more PRCs is another question. Twelve new PRCs in this book is way too much and looks like filler; 4 or 5 well-made and neatly designed PRCs would have been enough.
The good: Dreamcaster (interesting kit, with good roleplay opportunities), Moon Bane
The average: Master of Curses (interesting idea, but somehow more for a NPC then a PC)
The bad: Highway Rider (a rogue with a mission ? Aren't most heroes on a mission ?), Manipulator (for its very limited use in a campaign), Mesmerist, propagandist and scourge (good NPC classes, but not at all for PC IMHO), solitary outcast (usually, player are more then one, so the use of this one is very limited … Good NPC class however), Worldbreaker (way too weird, even for NPC).
The ugly: Night Lord. That is very ugly. Did we need an overpowered, 'one size fits all' PRC for all darklord's main minion ? No, I don't think so …

Chapter One: Creating the anti-hero - New feats

The good: Brawler, Deadly Presence, deathly Pallor, Dirge of Woe, Ethereal Touch, Piercing Gaze, Unwholesome Ichor
The average: other feats not mentioned elsewhere.
The bad: Tantric Ability (*lol* I don't mind the courageous topic, I just think it's useless as too short)
The ugly: Energy Drain (ridiculously overpowered), Life Force Sacrifice (for the big mistake over requirement for sorcerers. The feat let you change a memorized spell for a different one (in your list). Ahem … A sorcerer can cast ANY spell from his list !)

Chapter Two: Patrons

The good: return of Carnival (however way too short and bland !), Freeman of Falkovnia, l’Académie des Sciences
The average (and of very limited use): Hunt Club, Sans merci, Tribe of Hiskosa
The (slightly) ugly: the funny typo where Drakov's domain is said to be Darkon (p. 57, in the Ivan Rabinski text).
The (very) ugly: Order of the Ebon Gargoyle. Ouch !

While innovative (and we appreciate people taking risks), the concept goes nowhere … "The primary duty of the OotEG consist of ferreting out and executing any member of the Kargat found in Barovia" (and other darklords spies as well). Where does that comes from, a Kargat menace in Barovia ? Perhaps in the time when Barovia and Darkon had a common border, but that's not since a very long time ! We know Strahd hates Azalin, but Strahd has much more to do with the Gundarakites then with Kargat !

First, here's a major continuity problem with the Gazetteer 1 Barovia text, where no mention of the OotEG is ever found (and that is for good reasons). Second, this Order is absolutely unnecessary, as I don't think Strahd could care less about the Kargat while Gundarakite are leading open rebellion against him. Third, it is absolutely out of character for Strahd to surrender his duty to an Order of highly visible (black lacquered gargoyle plate), unsubtle thugs. Four, the Town of Forgotten Whispers as a secret training camp where you get teleported and where food and supplies is also teleported ? No, I don't think so… This is not Forgotten Realms !

My advice: put the Ebon Gargoyals in Falkovnia. Drakov would be a better choice for this gang of thugs.

Chapter Three: Who’s Doomed ?

The good: The return of Jander Sunstar !
The average: most NPC not mentioned elsewhere. Well made but none are outstanding.
The bad: Jander's stat sheet ! (CE alignment ? Missing numerous feats, from his high level and vampiric feats …). By the way, good old Azalin on the Kargatane board 'officially' declared that he should be considered Chaotic Neutral.
The ugly: IMHO, Sheriff von Zarovich wins as the most 'uncanon' thing ever written for Ravenloft … (I would have voted 'no' if it would have been submitted in the USS fan netbook).

Why ? Strahd would never do such a thing. First, Strahd isn't control obsessed, like Azalin is. If his people fear him, he feels good. He doesn't care about what they think as long as they behave. The only thing that interest Strahd are his search for the blonde girl and his magical research. The rest is accessory or something that distract him from his interests. Second, he got the vistani for spying ! Third, continuity: Barovia is a backwoods domain ruled quietly by Strahd. He had 400 years to implement a police. He didn't and left all day to day to his local burgomeister. He intervened only when these could not maintain calm. I just don't see Strahd as changing his mind now. IMHO, Strahd "has other things to do". Four, Strahd has a history of quickly and successfully erasing any threat. Why would he now have to rely on a Sherriff ?

Chapter Four: The Campaign in Darkness
The good: I tried hard to get something here…
The bad: the Barovia-Darkon cold war idea - not at all in the Ravenloft setting continuity, and probably the causing idea behind the flawed Ebon Gargoyle and the Sheriff....

In conclusion, unfortunately one of the most flawed Ravenloft product ever. Consider it uncanon ! I'm sorry to the authors for being harsh, but, really, in my humble opinion, the setting continuity flaws in this book are major !