JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Counter Collection IV by Fiery Dragon covers Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. It brings over 575 counters to the table, some of them old friends from previous books, some of them updated old friends from the standard game, and many Arcana Unearthed unique features in addition to an eight page supplement with some new d20 material.
One thing that's problematic about the counters is that the majority of them are head shots. In focusing on the head shots, some creatures, like iron and stone golems, look like adventurers with bad skin tones. The same is true for the giants. Without making the giants two squares large, they are nothing more than humans.
Some old favorites that look to have been revisited include the wyvern, with two old ones and two new ones, although the new ones may be something else entirely, horses, both riding and free, adventurers, both old PHB style, and new ones based on the AU book.
It's interesting to note that in some cases, like the zombies, there are three head shots and right next to it, three with almost the whole body revealed. The ones with the head shots show more detail, but the ones with the full body provide a better sense of what the creature is. In other cases, we've got small creatures like the kobold that have almost full body shots in their little squares and look great, as do the Faen breeds, especially the smaller Sprytes.
Another new feature is a small circle monster based counters. I suspect that this is a numbering circle meant for the GM in order to put multiple creatures out on the floor at once but it could also serve as an ownership circle in cases where two sets are mixed. The player based cards have spots for players or the GM to write the name of the encounter in them.
The thing I like best about the illustrations is that they provide some ideas onto color schemes and appropriate skin tones for the various non-human races of the setting. The different skin shades of the Sibeccai or the Litorians.
Now some of the counters I didn't recognize at all. That's because some of them hail from the d20 supplement in this very book, including the dark scamp, the black scathe, the seether and the Vultrek. Bad news is that under attack, we don't have the standard base attack and grapple but it's full range of attacks. Other bad news is that for feats, it looks like some of the material is coming from the Arcana Unearthed book. No problem if you have it, but worth noting. These monsters are also apparently in Plague of Dreams as they're listed under the counter section as coming from that book.
That didn't explain some of the other counters though. Looking through the mini-book, I noted that there is a listing of the monsters, broken up by book, so we've got monsters from the Diamond Throne, which unfortunately includes the Rhodian, which are also in From Siege on Ebonring Keep, unless that's a mix up, as well as Dream Hunters, and Shadow Trolls, while Siege on Ebonring Keep and Plague of Dreams all include new monsters ranging from Devil Dogs and Gassar Daemons to Blue Knights and the creatures highlighted in this product.
Anyone whose tired of Green Slime as the standard dungeon hazard now has the Sweet Spore, a new obstacle that when overeaten, causes the victim to achieve a 'fungal' state, getting the fungoid template.
The extra d20 stuff is nice, but the truth is, people who buy this are going in it for the counters. The counters do a nice job of covering AU but need to move beyond the head shot and start increasing the size of the golems, giants, and other larger creatures to more than a single card as there are going to be at least giant NPCs who've taken giant levels or golems that aren't medium size, which need to be represented by larger cards.
Between this and Fiery Dragon's new module, I'm hoping that we're seeing a resurgance of one of the early adopters of the d20 system and that their counters will continue to evolve as time goes on.
One thing that's problematic about the counters is that the majority of them are head shots. In focusing on the head shots, some creatures, like iron and stone golems, look like adventurers with bad skin tones. The same is true for the giants. Without making the giants two squares large, they are nothing more than humans.
Some old favorites that look to have been revisited include the wyvern, with two old ones and two new ones, although the new ones may be something else entirely, horses, both riding and free, adventurers, both old PHB style, and new ones based on the AU book.
It's interesting to note that in some cases, like the zombies, there are three head shots and right next to it, three with almost the whole body revealed. The ones with the head shots show more detail, but the ones with the full body provide a better sense of what the creature is. In other cases, we've got small creatures like the kobold that have almost full body shots in their little squares and look great, as do the Faen breeds, especially the smaller Sprytes.
Another new feature is a small circle monster based counters. I suspect that this is a numbering circle meant for the GM in order to put multiple creatures out on the floor at once but it could also serve as an ownership circle in cases where two sets are mixed. The player based cards have spots for players or the GM to write the name of the encounter in them.
The thing I like best about the illustrations is that they provide some ideas onto color schemes and appropriate skin tones for the various non-human races of the setting. The different skin shades of the Sibeccai or the Litorians.
Now some of the counters I didn't recognize at all. That's because some of them hail from the d20 supplement in this very book, including the dark scamp, the black scathe, the seether and the Vultrek. Bad news is that under attack, we don't have the standard base attack and grapple but it's full range of attacks. Other bad news is that for feats, it looks like some of the material is coming from the Arcana Unearthed book. No problem if you have it, but worth noting. These monsters are also apparently in Plague of Dreams as they're listed under the counter section as coming from that book.
That didn't explain some of the other counters though. Looking through the mini-book, I noted that there is a listing of the monsters, broken up by book, so we've got monsters from the Diamond Throne, which unfortunately includes the Rhodian, which are also in From Siege on Ebonring Keep, unless that's a mix up, as well as Dream Hunters, and Shadow Trolls, while Siege on Ebonring Keep and Plague of Dreams all include new monsters ranging from Devil Dogs and Gassar Daemons to Blue Knights and the creatures highlighted in this product.
Anyone whose tired of Green Slime as the standard dungeon hazard now has the Sweet Spore, a new obstacle that when overeaten, causes the victim to achieve a 'fungal' state, getting the fungoid template.
The extra d20 stuff is nice, but the truth is, people who buy this are going in it for the counters. The counters do a nice job of covering AU but need to move beyond the head shot and start increasing the size of the golems, giants, and other larger creatures to more than a single card as there are going to be at least giant NPCs who've taken giant levels or golems that aren't medium size, which need to be represented by larger cards.
Between this and Fiery Dragon's new module, I'm hoping that we're seeing a resurgance of one of the early adopters of the d20 system and that their counters will continue to evolve as time goes on.
