Dogs of War Vol 2

[JoeGKushner]

The Dogs of War are back and beefier than before. This time the two presented, Arjanis, a half-orc with the lower half of a scorpion and Jhesa, a drow that is half kraken.

The first, Arjanis, is a Ranger-Cleric whose devotion to his dark god leads him to a tomb with a powerful enchantment that changes him from merely a half-orc to a half-orc scorpion 'drider'. Now Arjanis has a history that puts him straight when he gains the 'blessing' of his dark deity and becomes half scorpion. The strange thing about this, is in the adventure seeds, it never once provides the germ of the idea that if the players meet and fight either alongside or against him, that when he does transform, it would be a dramatic sight for them as they're fighting something not human or even humanoid anymore.

Stats are provided for Arjanis at CR of 10 on green background, 15 on yellow background, and 20 on red background. The backgrounds are a little too colorful to me and completely overshadow the simpler and easier on the eyes and printer, scroll like background.

Jhessa follows the same pattern. Background provided with stats for three different encounter levels with different backgrounds, CR 13, CR18 and CR23. Between the two of these characters, most GMs should be able to challenge even epic opponents.

In addition to background and different sets of stats, the author has apparently taken a few of my 'wish lists' from the first book into consideration. No longer are notes provided only for the Hunt and Bluffside, but Freeport joins the gang. No longer are the ideas merely for a fantasy campaign, but a section entitled 'Breaking the Mold' presents ideas for super hero, modern, and science fiction genres. My next challenge for the author is to start tying the characters together. Unless you're working exclusively from the shadows, creatures of these CRs are at least going to be aware of each other and some, especially those in thrall to higher powers, are going to be working against one another actively.

Because the book makes such use of other OGC material and includes samples for various templates, the book's almost worth buying just for that alone. The half-kraken template for example, includes not only the template, but also a stone giant with said template applied. The designers notes also add another layer to the characters as we see what the author was thinking when making said characters.

As with the first book however, the greatest threat to this product remains the free NPCs from the official source. For example, one of their creation, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030505a , is a CR 25 dinosaur with lots of additions to his original stats and this doesn't count the printed books devoted to NPCs.

Dogs of War remains a good source not only for NPCs with variable CRs, but also one chocked full of crunch and ideas.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Release the hounds! Mystic Eye Games is proud to announce their latest PDF product line, the Dogs of War. A monthly series, each Dogs of War presents two non-player characters for use as antagonists in your campaign. However, these aren’t just ordinary characters—each has the following special features:

Complete Character Background
Adventure and Plot Hooks
Ideas for Using the Characters in Gothos or Bluffside
Complete Stat Blocks at 3 Different Challenge Ratings (giving three full sets of stats for each character)
Crunchy Bits Filled with Open Game Content from Mystic Eye Games and Other Companies
Design Notes Revealing “What the Author Was Thinking”
Full Color Art from Leading Industry Artists

Every character is designed with the “complex creature” in mind; these are NPCs who take a while to build due to their multi-classing, templates, exotic races, and compilation of Open Game Content. Mystic Eye Games has done the legwork to collect this material into usable, interesting, and always challenging NPCs. Averaging CR 9 and up, these characters provide a worthy opponent to most middle to high level PC parties.

Each NPC is written by 2002 ENnie Award winning designer Charles W. Plemons III (contributing author to Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie), who is well known to fans of the Foul Locales and Dragonstar Adventure lines. Open Game Content from a myriad of sources is used in the creation of each character, truly showcasing what the Open Gaming License allows publishers to do with new and existing OGC. Don’t worry, all the details to use the OGC are printed in the Crunchy Bits section of each NPC, so you don’t even have to have the original source of the content!

Throw your PCs to the wolves with these dangerous adversaries who are sure to make a lasting impression in your campaign! Whether you are playing a published campaign, a homebrew game, or the Gothos or Bluffside settings, there is something in each Dogs of War for you. Available soon at fine PDF retailers.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing up the Target
Dogs of War: Series 1, Issue 2 is a 27-page PDF product designed by Charles Plemmons and published by Mystic Eye Games. It is available for download for $2.50.

First Blood
This is the second release in Mystic Eye Games’ Dogs of War series, each of which provides two fully-developed non-players characters for use in your campaign as villains. This release profiles Arjanis, a half-orc scorpion drider ranger-cleric, and Jhessa, a half-kraken drow fighter/sorcerer/assassin.

Each NPC comes complete with an entire background and history, complete stat blocks at three levels of development (10th, 15th, 20th), combat tactics appropriate to each stat block, adventure hooks specific to the character, and notes on using the character in the Bluffside, Freeport, and Gothos campaign settings. The designer provides his notes on how the NPC is constructed, and all the Open Content information is provided – the appropriate temples, spells, magic items, etc from a variety of sources used to build the character. MEG has also provided notes on using these characters in other d20 genres – modern, horror, sci-fi, and super hero – so they are not limited to just a fantasy game.

Arjanis was a half-orc ranger who became lost in the desert and learned to serve a dark deity of evil. A curse in a plundered tomb turned him into a scorpion drider – a creature with the lower body of a great black scorpion and the upper torso of a half-orc. The character is constructed using a modified drider template from Green Ronin’s Plot and Poison; the drider temple, as well as scorpion drider and wasp drider templates, are all provided. Three spells (pack of ghouls, poison pillar, and wall of bone) and the acidic weapon property round out the included OGC material for this character, who is a walking nightmare for any party that encounters him given his great size, evil spells, and the huge acidic falchion he wields.

Jhesse is the daughter of a truce between a great kraken and drow elves. Raised y her kraken father and educated by the drow, she has harnessed her innate magical abilites to become a potent spellcaster, feared warrior, and effective assassin. Jhesse is built using Mongoose’s half-kraken template, which is provided. Other open content material include two necromantic spells (flesh slough, touch of the void), a magic item, and construction costs for all the wands the character wields -- a potent foe for both undersea and Underdark campaigns.

Though the Dogs of War PDF file is a nicely formatted, colored production, it does include complete, printer-friendly black and white stat blocks at the end for ease of printing.

Critical Hits
As complex and time-consuming as creating high level NPCs has become in d20 – particularly if you want a character who is unique, or powerful, or uses some sort of temple – it is great to have a product that not only does all the work for you, but does it accurately, and is cheap to boot. If one of these NPCs interests you, the dollar value of the product in terms of preparation time saved is great.

The fact that Dogs of War draws from so many other d20 sources is a great bonus – it’s refreshing to see the Open Game License used to its fullest. This product uses material from Thunderhead Games, Malhavoc Press, Green Ronin, Mystic Eye Games, Mongoose, and Fantasy Flight Games – to name a selection of contributors – and best of all the appropriate Open Content material is provided for you, so you don’t need to own an entirely different product to put these NPCs to use.

Critical Misses
The characters provided are fairly specific – if half-krakens and driders (whether spider, scorpion, or wasp-variety) don’t interest you, then you’ll probably want to pass, or check out a different Dogs of War release, since those two items form the heart of this product – but at least you should know what you’re in for before you purchase.

Coup de Grace
Dogs of War provides its “Crunchy Bits” game mechanics and stat blocks as open content, reserving its flavor text and names as Product Identity. The integration of game material is well done, and a nicely complementary set of mechanics is used in this product to develop two very unique, if somewhat esoteric NPCs. GMs are the primary targets of this product, but for them the time saved could be worth every penny.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to Fast Tracks at www.d20zines.com.