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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010239" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine RackSizing up the TargetDogs of War: Series I, Issue I: Trelise Hellstormer & Ogu-Ky is a 16 page PDF product written by Charles Plemmons and published by Mystic Eye Games. This color, illustrated product retails for $2.50.First BloodMystic Eye Games’ Dogs of War series is designed to provide Games Masters with intricate, detailed, unusual NPCs to give their players some interesting opponents. This first release in the series provides two: Trelise Hellstormer, a female half-fiend two-headed troll barbarian/wizard, and Ogu-Ky, a female harpy-medusa bard/assassin.Now, lest you think these characters are just wacky combinations of templates, let me tell you the entire package. Each NPC is fully developed with a detailed history, stats for several challenge ratings and character levels (Trelise Hellstormer at CR 8, 13, and 18; Ogu-Ky at CR 9,14, and 19), adventure hooks based on the character’s back story, campaign notes for use in Bluffside and Gothos campaigns, plus the game mechanics that support the NPCs.Dogs of War makes judicious use of the Open Game License. Trelise Hellstormer is built from the two-headed troll in Tome of Horrors, plus the half-fiend template, plus three spells from Spells & Spellcraft (Fantasy Flight) and Spells & Magic (Bastion Press). Ogu-Ky is built using Sean K. Reynolds’ half-medusa template, plus the Shadow Mage Prestige Class from The Assassin’s Handbook (Green Ronin) and the pestilence weapon special ability from Arms & Armor (Bastion Press). If you don’t have these crunchy bits, don’t fret – they’re all included for you, along with the author’s design notes.Critical HitsDogs of War is the Open Game License at its best. Finally, you can pick up a product that makes extensive use of a wide variety of OGC sources to pull together an interesting product. Best of all, if you like what you see, you get the specific crunchy bits you want right there. MEG has done great work in bringing all these pieces together accurately, with artwork, thorough editing, and the author’s notes there for all to see.Critical MissesI have to admit, when I first skimmed this product I thought: “$2.50 for two NPCs? What are they thinking? What a rip off!” I might still be thinking that, if I hadn’t sat down and figured out how long it would take me to create one of these NPCs, complete with background, from multiple sources and at three different challenge ratings – and ultimately decided I’m paying $1.25 to save me three hours work each. Not a bad exchange, that.I do take fault with the Shadow Mage Prestige Class – way over the top in terms of spell-like ability and spellcasting, with virtually no sacrifice (3 measly ranks of Knowledge (arcana) required) – but that note probably belongs as much in The Assassin’s Handbook review as here. The NPC is still usable at the two lower CRs without the prestige class.Coup de GraceMEG provides Dogs of War with all the crunchy bits as Open Content (sporting of them, considering that none of it is their own). The mechanics work well together, providing a couple of killer NPCs with relevant game mechanics at a cheap price. The product takes a small hit for focus – it’s a GM product – and originality. You could do the work yourself – none of the mechanics are new – but MEG has done a nice job of doing it for you.To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to Fast Tracks at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=&topic=4" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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