JoeGKushner
Adventurer
The Devil's Player Guide introduces devils as a playable race with new core classes, prestige classes, skills, feats, spells and magic items.
It starts off with some ideas for a Devilish Campaign. The information covers different types of evil campaigns, concluding that a lawful evil campaign is probably one of the easier ones to do as the characters are all bound by some sort of higher power and believe in order, and talks about using devilish servants either as actual devils or mortals as servants of devils. This information is useful in that it could be used in almost any game system.
Rule wise, the chapter might suffer a little as it introduces rituals that allow the characters to become some type of devil. The problem is that some of the rituals seem rather easy, provide stat modifiers, and templates or change the characters race, which in turn provides more stat modifications. It would make for some interesting twists though if the party thought that they could do X against for Y and that foe uses one of this rituals to evolve into a devil to gain more power.
The Devils as a Race do things a little differently. They have a separate advancement table with feats, devilish feats, ability increases and a special field. This benefits are regardless of what class they take, much like the standard player advancement tables where they get a feat every three levels and an ability raise every four. Suffice it to say that GMs using this table want to hurt their players as these increases come fast and furious and provide lots of special abilities beyond their root ones and could quickly destroy a party. In such a case, the GM should probably give the creatures a higher CR rating than the standard as they'll have more powers than a standard devil with a class would.
For races, we have the following: Barbazu, Botis, Cornugon, Erinyes, Flauros, Gelugon, Hamatula, Imp, Kyton, Osyluth, Pit Fiend, and Shabriri. Races start off with name, personality, physical description, relations, alignment, lands, religion, language, names (given and clan), adventurers, racial motivations and racial traits.
Most of the racial stats seem okay in that they mirror what's found in other sources to a limited degree. For example, the Imp in this book and Savage Species match up fairly well. The main problem is going to come when looking at the ECL that Fast Forward has provided. Following the Imp, in Savage Species, it's a starting ECL of 7 with an Level Adjustment of +4. Here, the Imp is +1. These ECLs will not fit in a standard d20 fantasy campaign as they allow the Devil character to quickly overwhelm any other character. Now this is true even if the GM assumes that these races don't start off with any hit dice, skills or feats for the pit fiend here is merely a ECL of +3.
I would use this section for two things. The first is that sine the math on the racial side isn't bad, to customize NPCs. The second is for history. You see, under that personality are often details, some of which relate to the creatures origins. Was it a native of Hell before the fallen angels got there or was it a fallen angel? The good thing is, since it's using Biblical references to Lucifer, it makes switching Lucifer as a central figure out for any other singular figure of evil easy. This makes it a perfect method to customize evil from Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous. It also adds more background to the monsters, even those written up in Savage Species. Compare the Kyton of Savage Species with that of the Devil's Player Guide and you'll agree that a fallen angel with it's wings ripped off and bound in chains is probably cooler than being humanlike and definitely fiendish.
This section closes out with templates involved with devils. You can choose from the half devil or the reborn, where your service to hell allows you to come back as a devil. The templates provide a wide range of options and the only real problem is that while the templates have a challenge rating, they have no ECL rating, making them perfect for monsters and NPCs but bad for player use.
The next section goes into devil core classes. They cover all of the standard classes with a twist. Fighter is now diabolic fighter, wizard is now diabolic mage, etc... The base atack bonuses and saving throws look okay, but the hit dice make me wonder. For example, the mage gets a d8 hit die. Some of the classes may be too powerful as well. The diabloic warrior gets a fighter's bab, two good saves, fort and ref, and a ton of special abilities. Now they don't get a ton of bonus feats so individual playtesting will have to hold out here.
The prestige classes allow for some great customization tools and perhaps even some epic foes. Take for example the Infernal General that has to have a BAB of +15 just to get into the class. These individuals get special goals at every odd level to prove their worth in the class. In exchange, they gain greater improved summoning, more devilish feats, dark bones (special abilities like spell resistance and damage reduction) and finally, a magical artifact from his superiors. Easy enough way to gain such an item eh? While these PrCs allow the GM to spice things up, the real problem will be in using them. How often will the players encounter individuals of such power?
For those who want to play a devilish character but don't want to use one of the core classes here, FFE has provided a quick guide to the changes that the core classes undergo when used by devils. For example, the bard gains a bonus to his bardic knowledge checks when dealing with items from hell while the fighter gets a larger selection of feats but loses the weapon specialization ability.
The book moves onto new feats, many of which are fit only for an outsider whose evil while some could work for anyone. There is a range of feats based on being an Avatar of some force, chaos, evil, good, law, that allows you to strike an enemy and force them to make a will save or die. Fairly powerful, even if it can be used once a week. Other feats may have to be watched as well like the Crusader type, where you gain a bonus to attack and damage an enemy opposite your main alignment. Many of the feats are based on improving a devil's core abilities. Improved damage resistance, spell resistance or natural weapons. The problem with feats and other mechanics though, is that there is so much 3rd party material, power balance is really in the eye of the beholder. If you own Mercenaries by AEG or Swashbuckling Adventures, also by AEG, you've seen feats that are above and beyond those abilities.
The spells are meant for devilish spellcasters and this is reinforced with the note that devils will hunt down any non-devil who learns these spells. Unfortunately, there is no master listing with a breakdown by class and level, the spells just start off alphabetically. Spells range from the low level (2nd) Garb of the Prince, making him look like a member of royalty, to the high level (9th) Lord of the Pit, transforming into a pit fiend with appropriate stat bonuses and abilities.
The magic items start off with armor and shields and work their way through weapons, rings, wondrous items, and cursed items. The good news here is that unlike the magic itme source books (Rings of Wondrous Power, etc...) which have pages of background and artifact like abilities, these are laid out more like the DMG in that it provides a quick description of what it looks like, the abilities, and the requirements to make it. One thing that FFE got right that I still see a lot of companies missing is the Cost to Create field with gold and experience points listed for the caster.
The last section, the Withered Wood, isn't so much a prewritten adventure as it is a location, a tower and surrounding woodland area owned by a pit fiend. The map would probably look beautiful in color, but it's been grayscaled and doesn't look too good. The individual black and white line drawings are better and allow the GM to know where everything in the tower is but lack any grids. Stats, background and personalities are provided for the GM to use the tower in any way he sees fit, ranging from a starting place for a devlish campaign to a bastion of evil that a high level party must fight.
The book uses a standard two column layout. Editing is fair though most of it with no obvious typos or repeats. Interior covers are not used. There are two pages of advertising. Better than the four pages in the Prestige Class book just put out by FFE but still a little heavy, especially when interior covers aren't used. One of the best things about the book is the art by Phil Renne. Phil does a great job not only of providing a single, cohesive look to the product, but is a great artist. The illustration of the pit fiend wading into combat on page 97 for example or the kyton diabolic monk on page 52. This is a dramatic step up from many previous Fast forward products and in my opinion, is a step in the right direction.
The book has a lot of potential uses but causes many game play issues. Personally, I'd go with Savage Species when it comes to statting out and leveling creatures. I'd use the background from here. I'd ditch the devil base level advancement bonuses as they just make devils too strong, but use some of the devilish feats. The magic items and spells could lend a lot of atmosphere to the campaign. One problem that this book is going to suffer might be timing. As 3.5 is right around the corner, I know that there are a lot of changes to the monsters in order to justify the challenge ratings.
To get a five star rating, we'd need to ditch the ads, use interior covers, provide more balanced rules, not only in terms of the devil's base abilities, but for feats and spells as well. Lastly, the maps. While it is not mandatory to use the one square equals 5 feet rule, it makes sense on a lot of levels and is the standard for most publishers. Perhaps Ed from SkeletonKey Games could help out in this department.
As always, I'd recommend some individual testing for player use. For GMs, I'd say that most of the material here will increase the viability of devilish opponents but just don't overdo it. If you're looking for options, the Devil's Player Guide has them.
It starts off with some ideas for a Devilish Campaign. The information covers different types of evil campaigns, concluding that a lawful evil campaign is probably one of the easier ones to do as the characters are all bound by some sort of higher power and believe in order, and talks about using devilish servants either as actual devils or mortals as servants of devils. This information is useful in that it could be used in almost any game system.
Rule wise, the chapter might suffer a little as it introduces rituals that allow the characters to become some type of devil. The problem is that some of the rituals seem rather easy, provide stat modifiers, and templates or change the characters race, which in turn provides more stat modifications. It would make for some interesting twists though if the party thought that they could do X against for Y and that foe uses one of this rituals to evolve into a devil to gain more power.
The Devils as a Race do things a little differently. They have a separate advancement table with feats, devilish feats, ability increases and a special field. This benefits are regardless of what class they take, much like the standard player advancement tables where they get a feat every three levels and an ability raise every four. Suffice it to say that GMs using this table want to hurt their players as these increases come fast and furious and provide lots of special abilities beyond their root ones and could quickly destroy a party. In such a case, the GM should probably give the creatures a higher CR rating than the standard as they'll have more powers than a standard devil with a class would.
For races, we have the following: Barbazu, Botis, Cornugon, Erinyes, Flauros, Gelugon, Hamatula, Imp, Kyton, Osyluth, Pit Fiend, and Shabriri. Races start off with name, personality, physical description, relations, alignment, lands, religion, language, names (given and clan), adventurers, racial motivations and racial traits.
Most of the racial stats seem okay in that they mirror what's found in other sources to a limited degree. For example, the Imp in this book and Savage Species match up fairly well. The main problem is going to come when looking at the ECL that Fast Forward has provided. Following the Imp, in Savage Species, it's a starting ECL of 7 with an Level Adjustment of +4. Here, the Imp is +1. These ECLs will not fit in a standard d20 fantasy campaign as they allow the Devil character to quickly overwhelm any other character. Now this is true even if the GM assumes that these races don't start off with any hit dice, skills or feats for the pit fiend here is merely a ECL of +3.
I would use this section for two things. The first is that sine the math on the racial side isn't bad, to customize NPCs. The second is for history. You see, under that personality are often details, some of which relate to the creatures origins. Was it a native of Hell before the fallen angels got there or was it a fallen angel? The good thing is, since it's using Biblical references to Lucifer, it makes switching Lucifer as a central figure out for any other singular figure of evil easy. This makes it a perfect method to customize evil from Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous. It also adds more background to the monsters, even those written up in Savage Species. Compare the Kyton of Savage Species with that of the Devil's Player Guide and you'll agree that a fallen angel with it's wings ripped off and bound in chains is probably cooler than being humanlike and definitely fiendish.
This section closes out with templates involved with devils. You can choose from the half devil or the reborn, where your service to hell allows you to come back as a devil. The templates provide a wide range of options and the only real problem is that while the templates have a challenge rating, they have no ECL rating, making them perfect for monsters and NPCs but bad for player use.
The next section goes into devil core classes. They cover all of the standard classes with a twist. Fighter is now diabolic fighter, wizard is now diabolic mage, etc... The base atack bonuses and saving throws look okay, but the hit dice make me wonder. For example, the mage gets a d8 hit die. Some of the classes may be too powerful as well. The diabloic warrior gets a fighter's bab, two good saves, fort and ref, and a ton of special abilities. Now they don't get a ton of bonus feats so individual playtesting will have to hold out here.
The prestige classes allow for some great customization tools and perhaps even some epic foes. Take for example the Infernal General that has to have a BAB of +15 just to get into the class. These individuals get special goals at every odd level to prove their worth in the class. In exchange, they gain greater improved summoning, more devilish feats, dark bones (special abilities like spell resistance and damage reduction) and finally, a magical artifact from his superiors. Easy enough way to gain such an item eh? While these PrCs allow the GM to spice things up, the real problem will be in using them. How often will the players encounter individuals of such power?
For those who want to play a devilish character but don't want to use one of the core classes here, FFE has provided a quick guide to the changes that the core classes undergo when used by devils. For example, the bard gains a bonus to his bardic knowledge checks when dealing with items from hell while the fighter gets a larger selection of feats but loses the weapon specialization ability.
The book moves onto new feats, many of which are fit only for an outsider whose evil while some could work for anyone. There is a range of feats based on being an Avatar of some force, chaos, evil, good, law, that allows you to strike an enemy and force them to make a will save or die. Fairly powerful, even if it can be used once a week. Other feats may have to be watched as well like the Crusader type, where you gain a bonus to attack and damage an enemy opposite your main alignment. Many of the feats are based on improving a devil's core abilities. Improved damage resistance, spell resistance or natural weapons. The problem with feats and other mechanics though, is that there is so much 3rd party material, power balance is really in the eye of the beholder. If you own Mercenaries by AEG or Swashbuckling Adventures, also by AEG, you've seen feats that are above and beyond those abilities.
The spells are meant for devilish spellcasters and this is reinforced with the note that devils will hunt down any non-devil who learns these spells. Unfortunately, there is no master listing with a breakdown by class and level, the spells just start off alphabetically. Spells range from the low level (2nd) Garb of the Prince, making him look like a member of royalty, to the high level (9th) Lord of the Pit, transforming into a pit fiend with appropriate stat bonuses and abilities.
The magic items start off with armor and shields and work their way through weapons, rings, wondrous items, and cursed items. The good news here is that unlike the magic itme source books (Rings of Wondrous Power, etc...) which have pages of background and artifact like abilities, these are laid out more like the DMG in that it provides a quick description of what it looks like, the abilities, and the requirements to make it. One thing that FFE got right that I still see a lot of companies missing is the Cost to Create field with gold and experience points listed for the caster.
The last section, the Withered Wood, isn't so much a prewritten adventure as it is a location, a tower and surrounding woodland area owned by a pit fiend. The map would probably look beautiful in color, but it's been grayscaled and doesn't look too good. The individual black and white line drawings are better and allow the GM to know where everything in the tower is but lack any grids. Stats, background and personalities are provided for the GM to use the tower in any way he sees fit, ranging from a starting place for a devlish campaign to a bastion of evil that a high level party must fight.
The book uses a standard two column layout. Editing is fair though most of it with no obvious typos or repeats. Interior covers are not used. There are two pages of advertising. Better than the four pages in the Prestige Class book just put out by FFE but still a little heavy, especially when interior covers aren't used. One of the best things about the book is the art by Phil Renne. Phil does a great job not only of providing a single, cohesive look to the product, but is a great artist. The illustration of the pit fiend wading into combat on page 97 for example or the kyton diabolic monk on page 52. This is a dramatic step up from many previous Fast forward products and in my opinion, is a step in the right direction.
The book has a lot of potential uses but causes many game play issues. Personally, I'd go with Savage Species when it comes to statting out and leveling creatures. I'd use the background from here. I'd ditch the devil base level advancement bonuses as they just make devils too strong, but use some of the devilish feats. The magic items and spells could lend a lot of atmosphere to the campaign. One problem that this book is going to suffer might be timing. As 3.5 is right around the corner, I know that there are a lot of changes to the monsters in order to justify the challenge ratings.
To get a five star rating, we'd need to ditch the ads, use interior covers, provide more balanced rules, not only in terms of the devil's base abilities, but for feats and spells as well. Lastly, the maps. While it is not mandatory to use the one square equals 5 feet rule, it makes sense on a lot of levels and is the standard for most publishers. Perhaps Ed from SkeletonKey Games could help out in this department.
As always, I'd recommend some individual testing for player use. For GMs, I'd say that most of the material here will increase the viability of devilish opponents but just don't overdo it. If you're looking for options, the Devil's Player Guide has them.
