The Complete Adventurer finishes off the character-focused books by Wizards of the Coast. This book’s theme is character’s of skill and provides new uses for skills, new core classes, prestige classes, feats, spells, monsters, organizations, and magic items to add into your campaign. The Complete Adventurer weighs in at 192 full color pages for $29.95, inexpensive compared to many d20 books which tend to range from 160-192 pages for that price or greater.
The interior art varies tremendously and encompasses many styles. Many of my favorites are present, like M. Philippi, Wayne England, Ron Spencer, and W. O’Conner. Several of the illustrations are full page views that show two-related prestige classes like the daggerspell mage standing back to back with a daggerspell shaper or the shadowbane inquisitor in white plate waiting for a signal from the shadowbane stalker clad all in black.
The editing isn’t as bad as the Complete Divine but there are some snafu’s here. My favorite one for meaning is “it allows characters with the proper number of skill ranks access to new…new classes.” So how many skill ranks do I need to take the ninja or scout class anyway? How about the back of the book, mentioning the new monsters? Well, unless they’re printed in some invisible ink that I need to hold the book against moonlight, there are none. In some other instances, it’s a formatting issue as I doubt that the Vigilante on page 86 is meant to have 20 3rd level spells at 7th level and it’s probably 2 3rd level spells and 0 4th level spells, allowing casting only of bonus spells. One thing that could be added is an index.
Like previous books, this one starts with new core classes. This time around, it’s ninja, scout, and spellthief. One interesting aspect to the ninja and scout is that neither has sneak attack, but rather, a variant. The ninja has sudden strike, where they gain bonus damage dice if the opponent is surprised and has no Dexterity bonus, not when flanking, while the scout gets skirmish, where if they move, they deal extra damage. It makes sneak attack in and of itself more valuable and more powerful in campaigns where the ninja and scout are included.
Overall, the ninja is good for stealth and quick strikes having several abilities that allow it to go where no one should be able to. Take Ghost Step, where they use ki (equal to half her level plus wisdom bonus) and can become invisible for one round as a swift action or becoming ethereal at 10th level instead of invisible.
The scout is a good substitute for the ranger in some campaigns. Fair hit dice, d8, good skill ranks (8 level), proficient with simple weapons and some light martial weapons, some trapfinding and dodge ability, and some bonus feats along with some nature survival abilities. No spellcasting and good ref saves gives you a perfect substitute for a ranger in a low magic campaign.
For some reason, the spellthief doesn’t strike me as anything I’d use, but wouldn’t have a problem allowing in my game. They’re similar to the rogue in some aspects like hit dice, not quite as many skill points (6 as opposed to 8),reduced sneak attacks, trapfinding, and then, some magical abilities. For example, if they can sneak attack, they can lose 1d6 points of sneak attack and steal a spell. It starts off at 0 or 1st level spells, but at 18th level, the spellthief can steal a 9th level spell.
They have some other abilities related like being able to detect magic and having a bonus to save against spells. Higher level spellthieves can steal energy resistance, or spell resistance or even absorb spells but they almost seem more like a prestige class in it’s focus as opposed to a standard core class.
In looking at prestige classes, the variety is key. Some of the PrCs work best for multi-classed characters but regardless of your core character class, you should be able to find something. One interesting aspect of many of these PrCs is that they are involved with an organization, detailed latter in the book, that provides an alternative PrC. Good for those looking for more role playing elements in their PrCs.
Many old favorites are updated including the Tarzan inspired Animal Lord, Bloodhound, Dread Pirate, Tempest, and Vigilante, and I recognize at least the Ghost Faced Killer from Dragon magazine. One thing that disappoints me a little about some of the classes, is that those with unique spell progressions like the Vigilante, don’t note which spells from other resources would be appropriate save for those introduced in this book. Still, they’ve all been updated to 3.5 standards, noting the changes in some things like two-weapon fighting for the Tempest, or adding variety to some like the Dread Pirate.
The Dread Pirate is almost like two PrCs. At 2nd level, the pirate must decide if he’s an honorable pirate or a dishonorable pirate. Each version gains different abilities and sad to say, many of the ‘good’ versions aren’t quite as personally useful to the character as the dishonorable. See, the good version gets the ability to rally the crew, with the bonuses growing as the character goes up in level. A dishonorable pirate gets sneak attack that goes up in level.
My personal favorite is the shadowbane inquisitor. This is a paladin with some rogue training who can sacrifice spells from memory to gain a bonus to Hide and Move Silently checks. Who gains sneak attack ability and Smite ability. It’s a nice example of how non-traditional classes can be combined.
Almost as a side-note, there are some ideas for using the material here in a psionic based campaign, as well as one psionic based PrC, the Shadowmind, although there are no-new psionic powers and no specific psionic feats like Ascetic Psion.
The PrCs will have players pouring over the book for months and allow the GM to add many standard types of characters to his game. Need a street brawler or a master spy? You’ve covered. The repeated text, word for word, on special abilities on the example NPCs though, is once again present and once again, a bit much.
The section on skills and feats, at least as far as skills go, didn’t impress me that much. I like the rules for improving another person’s skill by taking a penalty to your own, or the expanded rules for aid another, where the higher your DC check is, the higher the bonus they gain is, but I was expecting much more from a book devoted to skills. Sure, the expanded skill descriptions themselves are great, but they don’t cover every skill either Some information on crafting poison, and using diplomacy to haggle, are not new things to the d20 system.
Much like the PrCs, the feats cover a wide range of options. Looking to stack your base class levels with your monk levels? Take one of the Ascetic feats. You levels will stack for purposes of determining your unarmed strike damage and often with another class ability. A paladin-monk for example, has levels that stack for his smite evil ability and can multi-class freely between paladin and monk. An ascetic mage, can sacrifice spells to gain a bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to the level of the spell cast.
Bards have numerous feats to review as well. While the book certainly didn’t do enough for the bards through PrCs, it does include some nice Bardic Music abilities. Take Ironskin Chant where the bard gains DR 5/-. Good stuff.
Some of the feats are nice to have official versions, but aren’t new in terms of game mechanics. Take Brutal Throw. You use Strength to attack instead of Dexterity. The opposite of a standard feat. How about Power Throw? Let’s you use Power Attack with Thrown Weapons. How about Tactile Trapsmith where you use your Dexterity instead of Intelligence to find traps? It’s a nice feat but hardly original use of swapping out one stat ability score for another. Some of the feats work well for multi-classed characters. A rogue-wizard for example, can sacrifice a spell to gain sneak attack damage against constructs or undead.
After all of the inherent character abilities via feats and class selection are made, what remains? How about tools and equipment? This includes several new exotic weapons and alchemical items. One of the nice thing about the exotic weapons is that there is a new rule introduced to allow exotic weapons that are very similar to standard weapons, to gain benefits from weapon focus, weapon specialization, and improved critical. For example, the barbed dagger allows a user who has those feats for a dagger, to use them with the barbed dagger. The good news is that they’ve included the exotic weapons from the complete warrior and the similar weapons. The bad news is that they didn’t do it for other releases like the Races of series or the environmental series.
My favorite new weapon here is the Longaxe. You can treat it as a reach weapon any time you use Power Attack and use 3 or more points. Now when it’s in reach mode, you can’t strike adjacent enemies but it’s a perfect weapon to take on trolls and ogres and doesn’t have to be wielded like that all the time.
For alchemy, we have a new subset of items, capsules. These are concentrated alchemical items that you store in your mouth, either through a false tooth or a retainer. They can be activated as standard or as a swift action. They can also be put into weapon capsules and can be held by a standard retainer or a triple retainer for those who can afford it.
The former capsules offer bonuses to skills, while the latter, are useful for overcoming an enemies damage reduction. Take ghostblight, an alchemist weapon augmentation that allows you to ignore the miss chance when fighting an incorporeal creature or quickfrost, where you deal extra cold damage.
Not everything is alchemical here though. We have several new masterwork instruments and various tools and skills kits.
Of course, no character book would be complete without magic items. We have new special abilities for armor, shields, and weapons, as well as specific weapons. Try using the Bowstaff that can switch into a longbow or use the dagger of defense that prevents you from being flanked. How about new wondrous items like the collar of obedience, perfect for your animal companions as it lowered the Handle Animal check by 5 points or the Medal of Gallantry, where you get a bonus to Diplomacy, but a penalty to Bluff checks in addition to the ability to use Sanctuary on yourself as a swift action.
As many of the PrCs here include spellcasting progressions, we have new spells. The section starts off with the class, then level, and for arcane casters, the school. Spells are noted for the assassin PrC, but apparently nothing here was suitable for the Blackguard. The Hexblade is included in a sidebar so those who want more spellpower for their favorite evil slanted semi-spellcaster have it.
Several spells are aimed at the multi-classed character like Grave Strike where you can sneak attack undead for one round or the wizard spell, Golem Strike, where you can sneak attack constructs for one round. I can see the point of these abilities, but combined with the feats that allow the same thing, it seems a tad overpowering and should result in lowering the CR of golems and constructs where such spells and feats are common and in everyday use.
Other spells flesh out the range’s list nicely like Blade Storm, a swift spell that lets you make melee attacks against every foe you threaten or Arrow Storm, where you make one ranged attack against each foe with one range increment. I like the idea of the swift spells, but I worry that those too much like feats, like Blade Storm, which is very similar to Whirlwind Attack, will reduce those feats to the realm of never selected. Perhaps that’s the route the game engine is following though as references to Swift and Immediate Actions are in almost every book.
The last chapter of the book, Organizations, includes several new organizations with the following blocks of information; joining the organization, character benefits, roleplaying suggestions, typical members, prestige classes, lore of the guild, a guild campaign, and a sample organization member. Role playing notes on how to emphasize an organization are included and while many of the organizations make direct use of the new PrCs included here, several refer to standard PrCs like the Loremaster, making them perfect for those who don’t want to overburden their campaign with new PrCs.
Rules for building your own organizations are included by going through several steps starting with type, alignment, size, population and resources, demographics, and fleshing out the details.
In some ways, this last chapter can be combined nicely with Races of Destiny. One of the organizations, The Eyes of the Overking, are waiting for their lord, the Overking, to return, and in the meanwhile, try to keep peace between the various realms and are master spies and gathers of information. Perfect for those looking for a way to include the Illumians in their game. The organization rules can be slotted into the rules of community and district details from Races of Destiny.
The book closes out with some details on Epic Adventuring including some Epic Feats and a sample progression, of the Dungeon Delver, as well as the standard information on what benefits you can from advancing past 20th level.
Overall, I like the book. I felt that while bards didn’t get quite the shaft here that they got in Songs & Silence, that there still wasn’t enough material for them. For a book that’s on skill focus, there was still a lot of druid and other “Masters of the Wild” style information included. The rules on skills were fairly brief.
The things I like about the book, are the new organizations and how they’ve tied them into several of the PrCs included in this book, as well as a nod to other books. The similar weapon rules for exotic weapons benefiting from the various weapon augmentation feats, is a good deal but could’ve went a little further like including a Feat to do that with similar weapons. The nod to the Hexblade was a nice touch, but not including the other core classes like the War Mage in the spell listings, should be overlooked to verify that none of these spells are appropriate for those new core classes via a web enhancement.
The Complete Adventurer is a great book for anyone looking for options. If you’re mage wants to become a little more dangerous in melee combat with the Daggerspell Adept or your Bard wants to emulate the Bards of old via the Fochlucan Lyrist, the Complete Adventurer is for you.
