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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010225" data-attributes="member: 1129">Dogs of War, a new series by Mystic Eye Games, brings unusual NPCs into the game.  This release brings us Trelise Hellstormer and Ogu-Ky.  The former is a half fiend two headed troll while the latter is a half medusa harpy.  Each is written up with extra class levels and provides a wide variety of uses for the character.Each character starts right off the bat with background and then goes into adventure hooks. One nice touch was the Use in Bluffside and Use in Gothos.  The stats at various levels allow the GM to get more use out of the creature than if you just got one stack block and had to modify it from there.  For example, Trelise Hellstormer is presented as a base half fiend two-headed troll, allowing you to save some time if you just want a generic stat block, as well latter adding levels of barbarian and wizard. After the monster description, you get the crunchy bits that went into making the monster.  This is useful if you want to see some of the base information like in this case, what exactly a two-haded troll's base stats are prior to modification with the template or see the spells that the creature uses.Another enjoyable part is the design notes.  While not everyone is going to want to see these, I find it nice to see what the writer was thinking when he went into the design process and why certain things were chosen.  Another nice thing is it usually identifies where the OGC material has come from even as it reprints it in for ease of use.Just so that there's not confusion, it's important to note that the OGC doesn't limit itself merely to spells or monster blocks, but also templates like the half medusa and prestige classes like the shadow mage, taken from the Assassin's Handbook.The book is full color  using dual columns.  One thing that would've went a long way in providing more utility would be providing different illustrations for the characters as they grow in power levels.  What's the difference in how Trelise looks when she's merely a half-fiend two headed troll as opposed to a powerful wizard half fiend two headed troll?  Speaking from the review copy, I don't know if you can get a black and white text only version for ease of printing.  Something I strongly believe that all PDF's should have.Part of the problem with this series is that it has competition of the worst sort.  Free, online, official competition.  http://www.wizards.com/dnd/archive.asp?x=dnd/cc,3 is the archive of the Wizards Personality Spotlight and you get a wide variety of monsters and characters of various levels with different abilities.  The main benefits of this book over these free samples is that it's in full color and uses a wide variety of OGC, which allows a greater degree of specialization and freedom than the official material can match.A lesser problem is utility.  Why do we get the half medusa OGC material reprinted here, which is online, but not the half fiend? [a]http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/monsters/halfmedusa.html[/a]In addition, since Freeport is OGC from the original modules, and is in place in Gothos, why not a section on using these characters there?  Next question, since the d20 license is more than just fantasy, how about a section on using it in other genres?The Dogs of War is off to a good start by providing a good mix of OGC and a variety in the characters it presents but has to move beyond saving the GM time and increase the utility of the format and the information.</blockquote>

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