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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2008825" data-attributes="member: 172">Counter Collection IICounter Collection II is the second of Fiery Dragon's counter accessories providing the gamer with a variety of flat die-cut counters for use with the standard d20 System 5-foot grid.The PackageThe product is packaged as a staple-bound softcover book shrink-wrapped with a number of die-cut counter sheets. The counter sheets are, of course, the bulk of the supplement. The 8-page booklet packaged with them is just a bonus; it contains new prestige classes and magic items, in addition to commentary on the contents of the counter sheets. The whole package is priced at $14.95 US.The CountersThe counters are color and fit on a standard grid map with one inch grids. The pictures on the counters are done by Claudio Pozas (the same artist who did the prior Counter Collection), with the exception of a few elemental counters that appear to be from Fiery Dragon's early days, when Todd Secord did most of the artwork. I always like Claudio's style; however, if you wish to do a sampling of Claudio's artwork, go to his website at:http://www.d20reviews.com/pozasThe counters depict creatures from the d20 System rules. Though Claudio's take on the creatures is slightly different than that in the core rulebooks, this is probably partly out of legal necessity. Most of the creatures, though, are close enough that you can recognize them. The depictions are mostly side as opposed to top views of the creatures.I have used counters from Counter Collection I for some time and have just started using some from the new collection. I sort the counters using snack-size zipper bags, with a note of what the counters are written on the bag in permanent ink. We generally use miniatures for PCs, but use counters for many NPCs, monsters, and mounts. In general, I find them much more convenient to work with than miniatures, and definitely more portable.I do have some stand-up counters from an old D&D box set, but generally I prefer the flat counters. It's easier to organize and deploy the flat counters, and the stand-up counters tend to tip over with a slight breeze.Contrasted to FDP's Counter Collection I, this one has four major distinctions. First, the creature set is different, so it isn't redundant with first Counter Collection. The first one had many more basic creatures that came in larger hordes, such as orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, skeletons, and zombies. This one has more higher level creatures encountered in smaller groups.Second, the die cutting seems to be much better in Counter Collection II. Counter Collection I had a few horses that you needed to cut apart yourself due to the fact that they had to use the same die to cut all of the counter sheets. Counter Collection II seems to exhibit better planning of the sheets. The only creatures you will need to cut are the tiny animals/familiars, each of which takes up one quarter of the 1-inch counters.Third, this collection has a variety of unique characters. Counter Collection I had only 1 picture for each gender of each race and for the four class-types for humans. Counter Collection II has 75 different characters of a variety of classes and races, including 37 different humans, 14 different elves, 8 different dwarves, 4 different gnomes, 4 different half elves, and 4 different half-orcs.Finally, Counter Collection II has counters for both Large (1" x 2") and Huge (2" x 4") sized dragons. Counter Collection I only had counters for huge dragons, which were pretty much suitable just for high-level parties, limiting their usefulness. Counter Collection II has both sizes of counters for dragons that did not appear in the first one, as well as providing the missing Large counters for the dragons that did appear in Counter Collection I.In addition to the 75 character counter, the counter collection includes counters for the following monsters:Ankheg, Ape, Aranea, Badger, Basilisk, Blink Dog, Bulette, Carrion Crawler, Cat, Centaur, Chimera, Couatl, Cockatrice, Demons (Balor, Marilith, Succubus, and Vrock), Devils (Lemure and Osyluth), Displacer Beast, Dog, Dragons (Black, Brass, Bronze, Copper, Gold, Green, Red, Silver, and White), Dragonne, Dryad, Eagle, Elementals (all, medium sized), Ettin, Genie (Djinn and Efreet), Giants (Cloud, Fire, Frost, Hill, Stone, and Storm), Griffon, Hags (Annis, Green, and Night), Hippogrif, Kuo-Toa, Manticore, Naga (Dark), Nightmare, Nymph, Ooze (Gelatinous Cube, Grey Ooze), Pegasus, Rakshasa, Rat, Raven, Roper, Rust Monster, Slaad (Blue, Death, Grey, Green, Red), Snake, Sphinx, Sprite (Pixie), Treant, Troglodyte, Unicorn, Weasel, Wolf, Wolverine, Worg, Wyvern, and Yuan-Ti (halfblood and an unidentified other type).There is one manner in which the first Counter Collection was better. Counter Collection I's back cover had a guide to which counter was which. Perhaps this was unavoibable, since this collection had a much greater variety of counters, but it does leave you guessing a little.The BookletThere is a small (8-page) booklet that accompanies the counter sheets. The first Counter Collection's booklet contained an unusual NPC villain and an encounter with his followers. Counter Collection II takes a different route. It features new mechanical items for use in the game, including three prestige classes and a selection of legendary magical swords.Of these three prestige classes, the first two are designed by Ryan Nock, perhaps best known for his contributions to ENWorld's Asgard e-zine, and Wild Spellcraft, the PDF supplement published by Natural Twenty Press, the electronic publishing arm of ENWorld. His contributions are the Brotherhood of Form Idealist and the Red Smile Assassin: Death Jester. As with many of his creations, they are both distinctive and well written.The Brotherhood of Form Idealist are members of a contemplative order concerned with the discovery and realization of a number of ideal forms. Their class abilities relate to crafts and engineering, allowing them to repair or damage objects or structures, including constructs. The class appears to be inspired by the order of monks depicted in Fiery Dragon's adventure The Ghost Machine (one half of the double adventure To Stand On Hallowed Ground).The Death Jester is an unusual class, one that relies on combining humor and assassination. Death Jesters have performance type abilities (much like a bard) that assist them in plying their ghastly trade.Claudio Pozas, the artist responsible for most of the artwork, contributes the third prestige class: the Gnome Combat Miner. The Gnome Combat Miner is a good fighter, specialized in fighting in a subterranean environment.The new magic swords introduced include the slicing special ability (very effective against objects), golem killer (a specific sword with the slicing and bane of constructs abilities), the demon sword, the dagger of truth, and despair. The last is a very powerful artifact that I imagine most GMs will be loath to put in their games: it radiates a field of despair that allows no save.While I felt like this was an interesting and well done selection of items (with the exception of despair, which I would never use except as a ringer), I think that Fiery Dragon would have been much better off making material that has better synergy with the counters. For example, I would have found it more functional if they had included some sample battlefield maps, rules for sample battlefields including DCs and other rules regarding unusual features on them, or interesting monster characters of the types depicted on the counters.ConclusionI find the counters in Counter Collection II an interesting and useful method of representing creatures and characters in d20 System games. The artwork is great, and the counters are much more practical in terms of price, usability, and portability than the alternatives.-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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