Messageboard Golem
First Post
The Players Companion for the Dragonstar space-fantasy d20 campaign setting is filled to the airlocks with new feats, prestige classes, PC races, spells, and optional rules systems.
Dragonstar Players Companion
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paqman
First Post
Type : Soft Cover
Page count : 125 including the index page at the end and excluding the 2 publicity pages and one OGL.
Writen by : Mark Chance, Andrew Christian, Mike Hinds, David Lyons, Michelle Lyons, James Maliszewski and Mike Mearls
Presentation : 9.0
Content : 9.5
Illustration : 8.5 (black and white content)
Tilt : 10
Overall score: 9.25
First of all, lets say that this book is a small gem. It uses prestige classes to give a distinct feel to the settings, as it should be, add spells, feats and schools (see further down), spellwares and psi content like new prestige classes, feats and new powers. Overall this book impresses me a lot because I was getting disillusioned by FFG and they suddenly brought me back right under their spell with this book. After Imperial Supply, this is an impressive feat. (note I even decided to give imperial supply a second run and after overlooking the illustrations, I thinks the book is not so bad after all.)
Review by chapter:
Chapter 1, CLASSES, page count : 54
Prestige classes : (As stated above, the prestige classes are designed to give players options that will give them a feeling of beings in the Dragon empire and not in starwars or Alternity’s Star*Drive.)
-Adamantine infiltrator – A member of the Adamantine Order, a specialist in covert operations. Possesses Disguise abilities as well as class mimicry.
-Arcane Commando – Some kind of rogue sorcerer fighter. It’s a mix of multiple abilities, good BAB, spell casting spell increase progression every 2 levels and sneak attacks. Presented In this section is a description of the Shadow Guards, a division in House Noros’ sector.
-Celestial Guardsman – They are the counterpart of the Black guards. Spell progression is increased every levels and BAB are as fighter plus additional abilities. The celestial guards are presented in this section and it is an organization specialized in fighting evil in the outlands.
-Combat Ace – Specialized pilot. Gains extra maneuvers per rounds as well as other abilities. This class was to be expected and would be more apparent by its absence were not present in the book.
-Dark Zone Explorer – A specialized adventurer that explores the Darkzone and profit from it.
-Dragon slayer – Dragon slayers are specialized in slaying dragons…. Quite obvious isn’t it? Since the red dragons started ruling the empire their is a greater amount of these specialized warriors. This section presents the Zorzi, an organization of assassins that are dedicated in killing the greatest of prey, the Dragons.
-Ecoterrorist – Rangers and Druids turned terrorists. They have a good BAB, spell progression increases every 2 levels, good saves and Corosive touch (deals extra damages to metal, plastics and flesh). This section presents the Green Cabal organization; basically it’s a group that consist of ecoterrorists.
-Imperial Arcanist – A class that provides the character with benefits from the Imperial Arcanist Society. The spell progression is increased at each levels and the character gains multiple benefits. The imperial society of arcane magic is also described in this section.
-Info Warrior – A nice prestige class that specialise in computer hacking. Base attack bonus are not good, the saves are not bad and the character gains multiple computer related abilities. The guild of Tinkers is described in this section.
-Imperial Legionnaire – This is the mass of the legions of the empire, the prerequisite to gain this prestige class is +6 BAB, plus many other skills and feats, so we can easily determine that the Imperial Legions is fearsome if all members have only one level in this class it makes a character of level 7. Nice army! This class gains multiple abilities as well as the fighter BAB and saves. The White legion expeditionary force is described in this section.
-Noetic Warriror – A monk psionics member of the Noetic Order, an organization that exists to develop the physical and spiritual well-being of its members.
Royal Marshal Inspector – An organization of Law men that work almost exclusively in Qesemet territory. BAB increases as a fighter, saves are not so bad and they receive a favorite criminal similar to the Ranger ability.
-Unification Missionary – A specialist cleric member of the unification church. They are specialized in converting sentient to the unification church. They increase their spells as a cleric, BAB as wizards and they gain abilities to influence others. This section also presents the Missionary Evangelists of Nasuit.
-RES Trailblazer – Royal Exploratory Service is an organization that explores the boundaries of the known galaxy. The Trailblazer is a member of this organization. They have BAB as a fighter, they have good saves and have multiple abilities to help them in their work.
-Scientific Arcanist – This class is specialized in adopting scientific measures in their magical studies, they are members of the Guild of Scientific Spellcraft.
Legendary classes: These are high level options for character, here FFG presents a new way of gaining class abilities, the legendary classes provides 5 abilities for each of the 5 levels and the character may chose any one of these abilities as they gain level, the only special thing about this is that the order in which the abilities are taken determines of it’s strength. For example, if a class provides a bonus to a skill, if this ability is taken at first level it will provide +1 but if it is taken as the 5th level ability it will provide +5.
-Faithful servant – A draconic servant that provides help to the grand rules of the empire.The faithful servent represents the pinnacle of servants in the empire.
-Galactic Conqueror – They are specialised in conquering worlds, especially the outlying uncontroled sectors.
-Machine Man – The improvement of the soulmech.
Master Roboticist – The improvement of a Mechanist or a Technomancer
Rebel - The paragon of the rebels, equal part terrorist and philosopher.
Chapter 2, FEATS AND SCHOOLS, page count : 20
Here FFG introduces new feats, as is standard in a supplement, but they add schools. Schools are similar to prestige races in Oathbound, you actually pay experience points to get benefits. Each schools contains 10 lessons or trainings that are payed for in experience point, to get a particular level you need to have attained the previous one starting from first level. This gives the player the opportunity to buy benefits without taking a class level that would offer a similar effects. It is a small step in the direction of a point buy system for D20. Very nice addition.
Chapter 3, SPELLS AND SPELLWARE, page count : 21
2 new domains, Dragon and Technology are presented for the clerics and 48 new spells. The spells are original and well thought out. They include spells like the 9th level wyrm that permit the caster to transform in a dragon like creature or the 8th level Robotic Guardians that permit the caster to summon robots to his aid.
There are multiple new spellwares, here is the list:
Arcane : Armored Skeleton, Balancing tail, Dragon’s breath, Energy wings, Enhanced Hearing, Fascinating Gaze, Golem Arms, Image recorder, Immolator, Magic touch, Mental Accelerator, Piloting Rig, Scent of emotion, Skill amplifier, Sonic cry, Soinnerets and Voice Modulator.
Divine : Cleansing light, Divine Sight and Heavenly Shield
Chapter 4, PSIONICS, page count : 22
As an introduction to the psonics section, I have to say that the Tsalokhi race seems to be a very good addition the races of Dragonstar. They are some kind of self evolved race that made sure that their breeding programs would permit the appearance of powerful psionics. I will enjoy making one of them my master villain (Note that they are not especially geared toward villany, I just want to use them like that), that might become a major ally after the PC's learn who from the Darkzone are truly attacking their homeworld (The Mind flayers). In addition the introduction of the original psionic classes into the DS setting is well explained.
The new classes and prestige classes:
-Bio psions - class - A great idea, especially if they are forcefuly created by the ISPD, I can already see my players wondering at the sudden combat against many bio psions that are covert ISPD agents.
Cyberkinecist prestige class - A prestige class that mixes cybernetics and psionics. It provides a small selection of powers, BAB increase as a wizard and some additional abilities.
Net walker prestige class - A prestige class that mixes a hacker with psionic powers, the psionics powers increase as a full fledged psion, with wizard like BAB and some additional abilities.
I also like the Idea of the Crystal ware, to complement the Spell ware
CONCLUSION: A very good supplement. It gives me faith that the DS setting is not dying and that more good material will come out of FFG. If you note the number of writers on this one, it might be a good idea in the future to use more writers as they did on this book, it seems to be a good recipe and I guess that it provides the opportunity for a single writer to give more time to a single chapter as well as giving them the chance to prove themselves by doing the best they can do. Since 9.25 is nearer to 5 than 4 I decided to give this book a 5.
First added to Beholder's RPGZone's review section.
Page count : 125 including the index page at the end and excluding the 2 publicity pages and one OGL.
Writen by : Mark Chance, Andrew Christian, Mike Hinds, David Lyons, Michelle Lyons, James Maliszewski and Mike Mearls
Presentation : 9.0
Content : 9.5
Illustration : 8.5 (black and white content)
Tilt : 10
Overall score: 9.25
First of all, lets say that this book is a small gem. It uses prestige classes to give a distinct feel to the settings, as it should be, add spells, feats and schools (see further down), spellwares and psi content like new prestige classes, feats and new powers. Overall this book impresses me a lot because I was getting disillusioned by FFG and they suddenly brought me back right under their spell with this book. After Imperial Supply, this is an impressive feat. (note I even decided to give imperial supply a second run and after overlooking the illustrations, I thinks the book is not so bad after all.)
Review by chapter:
Chapter 1, CLASSES, page count : 54
Prestige classes : (As stated above, the prestige classes are designed to give players options that will give them a feeling of beings in the Dragon empire and not in starwars or Alternity’s Star*Drive.)
-Adamantine infiltrator – A member of the Adamantine Order, a specialist in covert operations. Possesses Disguise abilities as well as class mimicry.
-Arcane Commando – Some kind of rogue sorcerer fighter. It’s a mix of multiple abilities, good BAB, spell casting spell increase progression every 2 levels and sneak attacks. Presented In this section is a description of the Shadow Guards, a division in House Noros’ sector.
-Celestial Guardsman – They are the counterpart of the Black guards. Spell progression is increased every levels and BAB are as fighter plus additional abilities. The celestial guards are presented in this section and it is an organization specialized in fighting evil in the outlands.
-Combat Ace – Specialized pilot. Gains extra maneuvers per rounds as well as other abilities. This class was to be expected and would be more apparent by its absence were not present in the book.
-Dark Zone Explorer – A specialized adventurer that explores the Darkzone and profit from it.
-Dragon slayer – Dragon slayers are specialized in slaying dragons…. Quite obvious isn’t it? Since the red dragons started ruling the empire their is a greater amount of these specialized warriors. This section presents the Zorzi, an organization of assassins that are dedicated in killing the greatest of prey, the Dragons.
-Ecoterrorist – Rangers and Druids turned terrorists. They have a good BAB, spell progression increases every 2 levels, good saves and Corosive touch (deals extra damages to metal, plastics and flesh). This section presents the Green Cabal organization; basically it’s a group that consist of ecoterrorists.
-Imperial Arcanist – A class that provides the character with benefits from the Imperial Arcanist Society. The spell progression is increased at each levels and the character gains multiple benefits. The imperial society of arcane magic is also described in this section.
-Info Warrior – A nice prestige class that specialise in computer hacking. Base attack bonus are not good, the saves are not bad and the character gains multiple computer related abilities. The guild of Tinkers is described in this section.
-Imperial Legionnaire – This is the mass of the legions of the empire, the prerequisite to gain this prestige class is +6 BAB, plus many other skills and feats, so we can easily determine that the Imperial Legions is fearsome if all members have only one level in this class it makes a character of level 7. Nice army! This class gains multiple abilities as well as the fighter BAB and saves. The White legion expeditionary force is described in this section.
-Noetic Warriror – A monk psionics member of the Noetic Order, an organization that exists to develop the physical and spiritual well-being of its members.
Royal Marshal Inspector – An organization of Law men that work almost exclusively in Qesemet territory. BAB increases as a fighter, saves are not so bad and they receive a favorite criminal similar to the Ranger ability.
-Unification Missionary – A specialist cleric member of the unification church. They are specialized in converting sentient to the unification church. They increase their spells as a cleric, BAB as wizards and they gain abilities to influence others. This section also presents the Missionary Evangelists of Nasuit.
-RES Trailblazer – Royal Exploratory Service is an organization that explores the boundaries of the known galaxy. The Trailblazer is a member of this organization. They have BAB as a fighter, they have good saves and have multiple abilities to help them in their work.
-Scientific Arcanist – This class is specialized in adopting scientific measures in their magical studies, they are members of the Guild of Scientific Spellcraft.
Legendary classes: These are high level options for character, here FFG presents a new way of gaining class abilities, the legendary classes provides 5 abilities for each of the 5 levels and the character may chose any one of these abilities as they gain level, the only special thing about this is that the order in which the abilities are taken determines of it’s strength. For example, if a class provides a bonus to a skill, if this ability is taken at first level it will provide +1 but if it is taken as the 5th level ability it will provide +5.
-Faithful servant – A draconic servant that provides help to the grand rules of the empire.The faithful servent represents the pinnacle of servants in the empire.
-Galactic Conqueror – They are specialised in conquering worlds, especially the outlying uncontroled sectors.
-Machine Man – The improvement of the soulmech.
Master Roboticist – The improvement of a Mechanist or a Technomancer
Rebel - The paragon of the rebels, equal part terrorist and philosopher.
Chapter 2, FEATS AND SCHOOLS, page count : 20
Here FFG introduces new feats, as is standard in a supplement, but they add schools. Schools are similar to prestige races in Oathbound, you actually pay experience points to get benefits. Each schools contains 10 lessons or trainings that are payed for in experience point, to get a particular level you need to have attained the previous one starting from first level. This gives the player the opportunity to buy benefits without taking a class level that would offer a similar effects. It is a small step in the direction of a point buy system for D20. Very nice addition.
Chapter 3, SPELLS AND SPELLWARE, page count : 21
2 new domains, Dragon and Technology are presented for the clerics and 48 new spells. The spells are original and well thought out. They include spells like the 9th level wyrm that permit the caster to transform in a dragon like creature or the 8th level Robotic Guardians that permit the caster to summon robots to his aid.
There are multiple new spellwares, here is the list:
Arcane : Armored Skeleton, Balancing tail, Dragon’s breath, Energy wings, Enhanced Hearing, Fascinating Gaze, Golem Arms, Image recorder, Immolator, Magic touch, Mental Accelerator, Piloting Rig, Scent of emotion, Skill amplifier, Sonic cry, Soinnerets and Voice Modulator.
Divine : Cleansing light, Divine Sight and Heavenly Shield
Chapter 4, PSIONICS, page count : 22
As an introduction to the psonics section, I have to say that the Tsalokhi race seems to be a very good addition the races of Dragonstar. They are some kind of self evolved race that made sure that their breeding programs would permit the appearance of powerful psionics. I will enjoy making one of them my master villain (Note that they are not especially geared toward villany, I just want to use them like that), that might become a major ally after the PC's learn who from the Darkzone are truly attacking their homeworld (The Mind flayers). In addition the introduction of the original psionic classes into the DS setting is well explained.
The new classes and prestige classes:
-Bio psions - class - A great idea, especially if they are forcefuly created by the ISPD, I can already see my players wondering at the sudden combat against many bio psions that are covert ISPD agents.
Cyberkinecist prestige class - A prestige class that mixes cybernetics and psionics. It provides a small selection of powers, BAB increase as a wizard and some additional abilities.
Net walker prestige class - A prestige class that mixes a hacker with psionic powers, the psionics powers increase as a full fledged psion, with wizard like BAB and some additional abilities.
I also like the Idea of the Crystal ware, to complement the Spell ware
CONCLUSION: A very good supplement. It gives me faith that the DS setting is not dying and that more good material will come out of FFG. If you note the number of writers on this one, it might be a good idea in the future to use more writers as they did on this book, it seems to be a good recipe and I guess that it provides the opportunity for a single writer to give more time to a single chapter as well as giving them the chance to prove themselves by doing the best they can do. Since 9.25 is nearer to 5 than 4 I decided to give this book a 5.
First added to Beholder's RPGZone's review section.
trancejeremy
Adventurer
The Dragonstar Player's Companion is a 128 page softcover book, priced at $20. The cover features the same trio of people as the cover of Imperial Supply did, in somewhat more relaxed poses.
Basically, this book is extra "crunchy" stuff, it's not really a "Player's Companion". The Starfarer's Handbook was the equivalent of the Player's Handbook. This is just a splatbook, mostly a grab bag of stuff - prestige classes, feats, spells, and some spellware, some aimed at players, some not. It is aimed at characters though, be they Player or Non-Player, and is mostly rules.
The first impressions aren't good. Much of the interior art is, well, awful. Lots of pictures where the person is very very tall in relation to their width. I guess that's some sort of style (I've seen it in another book), but it's a really horrible looking style. They look like anorexic basketball players. This isn't the WNBA. Many also have dead looking eyes, as if they are manequins, or mishapen bodies - in once case, there seems to be a woman with 3 breasts. (The art's not all bad - the ones by James Ryman are excellent, as are some by an artist who didn't sign their work, and it's a shame they didn't have more pictures)
The layout is generally pretty poor. There are only 4 chapters, with fairly broad subjects, things are lumped together. New sections sometimes start at the very bottom of a page, which can be confusing (I almost missed the Legendary Class section, because of this, on my first browse through)
The first half of the book is prestige classes. Not surprisingly, as they take up half the book, there are a lot of them (15). Many of these are actually done the way prestige classes should be (I think), they are all organizations that characters have to join.
For instance, the Adamantine Infiltrator. This is an agent in the secret service of the evil dragons. There are a couple other groups that serve other dragons.
One organization, Wraith Squadron, which works for the good dragons (usually) seems like a complete ripoff of er, Wraith Squadron from Star Wars. Both are "good" mercenary fighter spacecraft units. I know that Dragonstar is loosely like Star Wars, but I can't believe there was something this blatant. What's next? Ewoks?
Also interesting is the Celestial Guard. They're a LG order that rages like a barbarian, kind of (Holy Zeal, the ability is called. It's not exactly like rage, but close to it). Other notables includes the Dark Zone Explorer (though details about what the zone is like are still quite sketchy), the Royal Marshal (sort of a bounty hunter)
It's odd in that there is one psionic prestige class in this chapter. There are also several more in the psionics chapter. Odd putting them in two different places.
There are some more generic prestige classes, too, like the "Combat Ace", "Dragon Slayer" or "Ecoterrorist".
Speaking of which, I also have a strong objection on how the Ecoterrorist class is mostly for characters with good alignments - either CG, NG, or CN. This is moral relativism at it's worst. It's not just okay, but "Good" to deliberately murder innocent people as long as the beneficiary is a planet, an inanimate object. I don't think so...(though of course, I tend to take the same view C.M. Burns does about Mother Nature...)
The only prestige class I really had problems with, game mechanically, was the "Info-Warrior". It's highest power apparently lets the Info Warrior to insert their soul into a computer system, and so hack any computer, to it's core, completely and thoroughly, automatically. They can control everything hooked to it, they can get any data in the system, encrypted or not.
There are also several (5) Legendary Classes. Legendary Classes are basically super-prestige classes, only with higher requirements, only 5 levels of advancement, and a bit more customizable for the player than the usual prestige class. They get things like "Ability I", "Ability "II", up to V (at 5th level, naturally enough), which you pick from a list (kind of like some Rogue abilities work). The Roman Numeral is the power level, the higher, the more powerful it is. So the player has to decide, do I take this power immediately, but have it at a lower level, or wait until later, and have it more powerful.
Some are a bit unlikely to be used by PCs. The Galactic Conquerer, for instance. One of the requirements is they must conquer an entire world, personally (not singled handedly, but has to get his hands dirty, doing some of the fighting. But would take a heck of a lot of time given the fairly detailed nature of D&D/d20s combat system). But then there are things like the "Rebel", "Faithful Servant", "Master Roboticist", which are perhaps more useful, if also rather drably named. There's also the "Machine Man", which seems to be a homage to Asimov's "Bicentennial Man".
Then comes a chapter on feats and "Schools". The first part is self-explanatory if you know anything about d20/D&D 3E, but Schools are new, apparently from the book Swashbuckling Adventures.
Basically, they are a way in which a character spends experience points to earn new abilities. There are ten different levels of abilities to learn in each school. 22,000 XP or so to fully max out a school. That's a lot of xp. If a character wants to learn something from another school, the cost is doubled.
Personally, I don't like these things, because I think it sidesteps the whole purpose of having a level system. In effect, it makes characters more powerful than their level would otherwise indicate. The main reason levels exist is as a way to gauge how powerful a character is, and thus allow the GM to easily tailor adventures for them. By going outside the level system, it both hurts and helps the players. While they have more powers, and thus are theoretically tougher than characters that same level, the GM will be encouraged to throw tougher opponents against them. But not having higher levels, just powers, they will lack higher hit points, saves, and attack bonuses. (They'll also lag about 1 or 2 levels behind their fellow PCs).
The whole concept of schools are pretty much exactly what prestige classes were meant for.
As to the new feats, well, there are 28 of them. Many are Dragonstar background related, but there are some general ones. "Touch to Ray" is a metamagic feat that lets any touch spell be instead cast as a ray spell (but counts as a spell 2 levels higher). Could be fairly useful for a cleric, as they tend to have more touch spells. Also, "Skill Adept", which might be a bit too much - it's like Skill Focus (gives a +3 bonus to a skill), only it stacks on top of Skill Focus. Also "Dead Eye", which lets the user add their dexterity bonus to damage done with missile weapons.
The next section is on spells and spellware (spellware is implanted magic items, in practice, like cybernetics).
There are 50 or so new spells (15 pages worth). Two new domains are introduced, "Dragon" and "Technology", and some of the spells are unique to them. For instance, one of the Technology domain spells lets the caster turn into a cyborg (temporarily).
There is 6-7 pages of new spellware. Some seem a bit too powerful. Dragonbreath, lets you breath an element like a dragon. Another gives you magic wings that work even in a vacuum.
Lastly, there is a section on Psionics. Psionics were added to the d20 SRD after (or around the time) Dragonstar was released. So they couldn't be added to the original two books.
Much like the Starfarer's handbook discusses changes to the core classes, this discusses the changes to the existing psionic core classes.
Also introduced is a new core class, the "Bio-Psion" (Likely soon to be called "Bison" by my players). Unfortunately, it uses non-standard base attack bonuses and save progressions. While I guess there's nothing technically wrong with that, I think it's a bit sloppy, and there are legitimate balance issues when multi-classing is used.
Secondly, the power point progression is very very screwy (Psionics use a power point system). They start with 5, stay there for a while, then increase by only 2 a level. By contrast, the original psionic core classes have a geometric progression. This also has a geometric progression, but as an extra, you have to spend extra xp and money on them.
I can see how the way it works adds a lot of flavor, but it seems like too much of a hassle for the return.
A new, "Psionic" race is also introduced. The "Tsalokhi". They're basically edgier humans. They like body piercing, shaved heads/mohawks, tattoos, extreme sports (presumably), and are generally "kewler" than human. (at least if you're a 12 year old, I guess). Though going by the illustration, they don't have legs and are about 10 feet tall. As you might be able to tell, I wasn't too impressed with them.
There are 3 psionic pretige classes. The "Net Walker", someone adept at computer hacking psionically, the "Cyberkineticist", which are voyeurs using a combination of psionics and cybernetics, and the "Ascetic of the Noetic Order", sort of like a psionic monk (not a martial arts monk, more like a zen monk).
There's a very minimal table of contents (just lists the 4 chapters. Big help). And there is an index, which is nice, though it's not long. In fact, it's pretty much what a good table of contents would cover - mostly covering the major items.
So, to sum up, the prestige classes are okay, the new spells and spellware okay, the psionics section, well, isn't great, but is useable. Despite the name of the book, I'm not sure it's even aimed at players, as many of the prestige classes aren't overly suitable for PCs, more for NPCs/villains. All in all, an okay book. Not great, not terrible (except some of the artwork), just average.
I personally found this book a bit disappointing. The only thing I actually liked are some of the prestige classes, more specifically, the organizational write ups relating to them. I was hoping there would be more info for players on how to role-play in the Dragonstar setting, not just crunchy bits. Sort of like the Player's Companion for Fading Suns. While I like Dragonstar a lot (I have all the books except the newest adventure from Mystic Eye, and I plan on getting that soon), I've thought the amount of info on the setting itself is rather sparse. Which makes it hard to run.
So if you're looking for lots of rules related material for Dragonstar characters, you should like this better than I did, though I had problems with some of the crunchy stuff, too. C.
Basically, this book is extra "crunchy" stuff, it's not really a "Player's Companion". The Starfarer's Handbook was the equivalent of the Player's Handbook. This is just a splatbook, mostly a grab bag of stuff - prestige classes, feats, spells, and some spellware, some aimed at players, some not. It is aimed at characters though, be they Player or Non-Player, and is mostly rules.
The first impressions aren't good. Much of the interior art is, well, awful. Lots of pictures where the person is very very tall in relation to their width. I guess that's some sort of style (I've seen it in another book), but it's a really horrible looking style. They look like anorexic basketball players. This isn't the WNBA. Many also have dead looking eyes, as if they are manequins, or mishapen bodies - in once case, there seems to be a woman with 3 breasts. (The art's not all bad - the ones by James Ryman are excellent, as are some by an artist who didn't sign their work, and it's a shame they didn't have more pictures)
The layout is generally pretty poor. There are only 4 chapters, with fairly broad subjects, things are lumped together. New sections sometimes start at the very bottom of a page, which can be confusing (I almost missed the Legendary Class section, because of this, on my first browse through)
The first half of the book is prestige classes. Not surprisingly, as they take up half the book, there are a lot of them (15). Many of these are actually done the way prestige classes should be (I think), they are all organizations that characters have to join.
For instance, the Adamantine Infiltrator. This is an agent in the secret service of the evil dragons. There are a couple other groups that serve other dragons.
One organization, Wraith Squadron, which works for the good dragons (usually) seems like a complete ripoff of er, Wraith Squadron from Star Wars. Both are "good" mercenary fighter spacecraft units. I know that Dragonstar is loosely like Star Wars, but I can't believe there was something this blatant. What's next? Ewoks?
Also interesting is the Celestial Guard. They're a LG order that rages like a barbarian, kind of (Holy Zeal, the ability is called. It's not exactly like rage, but close to it). Other notables includes the Dark Zone Explorer (though details about what the zone is like are still quite sketchy), the Royal Marshal (sort of a bounty hunter)
It's odd in that there is one psionic prestige class in this chapter. There are also several more in the psionics chapter. Odd putting them in two different places.
There are some more generic prestige classes, too, like the "Combat Ace", "Dragon Slayer" or "Ecoterrorist".
Speaking of which, I also have a strong objection on how the Ecoterrorist class is mostly for characters with good alignments - either CG, NG, or CN. This is moral relativism at it's worst. It's not just okay, but "Good" to deliberately murder innocent people as long as the beneficiary is a planet, an inanimate object. I don't think so...(though of course, I tend to take the same view C.M. Burns does about Mother Nature...)
The only prestige class I really had problems with, game mechanically, was the "Info-Warrior". It's highest power apparently lets the Info Warrior to insert their soul into a computer system, and so hack any computer, to it's core, completely and thoroughly, automatically. They can control everything hooked to it, they can get any data in the system, encrypted or not.
There are also several (5) Legendary Classes. Legendary Classes are basically super-prestige classes, only with higher requirements, only 5 levels of advancement, and a bit more customizable for the player than the usual prestige class. They get things like "Ability I", "Ability "II", up to V (at 5th level, naturally enough), which you pick from a list (kind of like some Rogue abilities work). The Roman Numeral is the power level, the higher, the more powerful it is. So the player has to decide, do I take this power immediately, but have it at a lower level, or wait until later, and have it more powerful.
Some are a bit unlikely to be used by PCs. The Galactic Conquerer, for instance. One of the requirements is they must conquer an entire world, personally (not singled handedly, but has to get his hands dirty, doing some of the fighting. But would take a heck of a lot of time given the fairly detailed nature of D&D/d20s combat system). But then there are things like the "Rebel", "Faithful Servant", "Master Roboticist", which are perhaps more useful, if also rather drably named. There's also the "Machine Man", which seems to be a homage to Asimov's "Bicentennial Man".
Then comes a chapter on feats and "Schools". The first part is self-explanatory if you know anything about d20/D&D 3E, but Schools are new, apparently from the book Swashbuckling Adventures.
Basically, they are a way in which a character spends experience points to earn new abilities. There are ten different levels of abilities to learn in each school. 22,000 XP or so to fully max out a school. That's a lot of xp. If a character wants to learn something from another school, the cost is doubled.
Personally, I don't like these things, because I think it sidesteps the whole purpose of having a level system. In effect, it makes characters more powerful than their level would otherwise indicate. The main reason levels exist is as a way to gauge how powerful a character is, and thus allow the GM to easily tailor adventures for them. By going outside the level system, it both hurts and helps the players. While they have more powers, and thus are theoretically tougher than characters that same level, the GM will be encouraged to throw tougher opponents against them. But not having higher levels, just powers, they will lack higher hit points, saves, and attack bonuses. (They'll also lag about 1 or 2 levels behind their fellow PCs).
The whole concept of schools are pretty much exactly what prestige classes were meant for.
As to the new feats, well, there are 28 of them. Many are Dragonstar background related, but there are some general ones. "Touch to Ray" is a metamagic feat that lets any touch spell be instead cast as a ray spell (but counts as a spell 2 levels higher). Could be fairly useful for a cleric, as they tend to have more touch spells. Also, "Skill Adept", which might be a bit too much - it's like Skill Focus (gives a +3 bonus to a skill), only it stacks on top of Skill Focus. Also "Dead Eye", which lets the user add their dexterity bonus to damage done with missile weapons.
The next section is on spells and spellware (spellware is implanted magic items, in practice, like cybernetics).
There are 50 or so new spells (15 pages worth). Two new domains are introduced, "Dragon" and "Technology", and some of the spells are unique to them. For instance, one of the Technology domain spells lets the caster turn into a cyborg (temporarily).
There is 6-7 pages of new spellware. Some seem a bit too powerful. Dragonbreath, lets you breath an element like a dragon. Another gives you magic wings that work even in a vacuum.
Lastly, there is a section on Psionics. Psionics were added to the d20 SRD after (or around the time) Dragonstar was released. So they couldn't be added to the original two books.
Much like the Starfarer's handbook discusses changes to the core classes, this discusses the changes to the existing psionic core classes.
Also introduced is a new core class, the "Bio-Psion" (Likely soon to be called "Bison" by my players). Unfortunately, it uses non-standard base attack bonuses and save progressions. While I guess there's nothing technically wrong with that, I think it's a bit sloppy, and there are legitimate balance issues when multi-classing is used.
Secondly, the power point progression is very very screwy (Psionics use a power point system). They start with 5, stay there for a while, then increase by only 2 a level. By contrast, the original psionic core classes have a geometric progression. This also has a geometric progression, but as an extra, you have to spend extra xp and money on them.
I can see how the way it works adds a lot of flavor, but it seems like too much of a hassle for the return.
A new, "Psionic" race is also introduced. The "Tsalokhi". They're basically edgier humans. They like body piercing, shaved heads/mohawks, tattoos, extreme sports (presumably), and are generally "kewler" than human. (at least if you're a 12 year old, I guess). Though going by the illustration, they don't have legs and are about 10 feet tall. As you might be able to tell, I wasn't too impressed with them.
There are 3 psionic pretige classes. The "Net Walker", someone adept at computer hacking psionically, the "Cyberkineticist", which are voyeurs using a combination of psionics and cybernetics, and the "Ascetic of the Noetic Order", sort of like a psionic monk (not a martial arts monk, more like a zen monk).
There's a very minimal table of contents (just lists the 4 chapters. Big help). And there is an index, which is nice, though it's not long. In fact, it's pretty much what a good table of contents would cover - mostly covering the major items.
So, to sum up, the prestige classes are okay, the new spells and spellware okay, the psionics section, well, isn't great, but is useable. Despite the name of the book, I'm not sure it's even aimed at players, as many of the prestige classes aren't overly suitable for PCs, more for NPCs/villains. All in all, an okay book. Not great, not terrible (except some of the artwork), just average.
I personally found this book a bit disappointing. The only thing I actually liked are some of the prestige classes, more specifically, the organizational write ups relating to them. I was hoping there would be more info for players on how to role-play in the Dragonstar setting, not just crunchy bits. Sort of like the Player's Companion for Fading Suns. While I like Dragonstar a lot (I have all the books except the newest adventure from Mystic Eye, and I plan on getting that soon), I've thought the amount of info on the setting itself is rather sparse. Which makes it hard to run.
So if you're looking for lots of rules related material for Dragonstar characters, you should like this better than I did, though I had problems with some of the crunchy stuff, too. C.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
The back of the Dragonstar Player's Companion pretty much sums up what's in the book. Over 20 prestige classes, specialty schools, feats, spells, psionics and psionic information, and spellware. It's a book packed to the gills with crunch that doesn't sacrifice the role playing information.
The book starts off with classes. The good thing is that many of these PrCs are just about perfect for any game system. The Celestial Guardsman continues to gain in divine spellcasting ability, even as she gains powers similar to a paladin. Could fit into almost any fantasy based campaign. The Dragon Slayer is another PrC that has abilities with a tight focus, killing dragons, that could easily fit into most settings even as the Noetic Warrior, a monk-psionic based character, would fit into most campaigns that utilized psioincs.
That's not to say that there are no classes that would be difficult to move into a standard setting though. For example, the Imperial Legionnaire is built around a military force that knows how to use guns with archaic weapons and gains abilities in using those guns as he rises in levels. Not to say you couldn't tinker and put it into Freeport or a similar setting. Another one that might not fit is the Infowarrior, a PrC that specializes in hacking data.
The PrCs start off with the name and focus of the PrC, going into requirements, class skills and class features. This covers all of the mechanical aspects of the class like special abilities, spells per level, and unique powers. The role playing aspect comes afterwards with a sample group. For example, the Ecoterrorist have the Green Cabal that “defends the ecologies of the galaxy's worlds by any means necessary.” This background information includes a line about the leader, current activities and methods of integrating the group into the Dragonstar setting. The nice thing about this is it's a take it or leave it deal where the campaign isn't going to suffer if you make your own Ecoterrorist organization for example. The only bad thing is with twenty PrCs, you've got a lot of organizations running around.
One thing I always tip my hat to FFG for is the introduction of Legendary Classes and this book continues that fine tradition. The classes range from the impressive Galactic Conqueror, a master of warfare, to the Rebel, a warrior whose goal is to throw off the Red Age reign. Some of these PrCs were much more specific to the setting like the Faithful Servant who serves one of the grand dukes or the Machine Man, a legendary class for the Soulmech.
Chapter Two brings together the Feats and Schools and includes such useful feats as Blood Bond, where the character sacrifices hit points to establish a bond with a chosen weapons to the dreaded +2 to two skills in the form of Internal Compass with a +2 bonus to Intuit Direction and Navigate checks. Most of the material falls in the middle though with some odd balls mixed in for exotic characters who want Robotic Familiars or the ability to utilize evocation magic to a higher degree with Destructive Spell. For those worried about Skill Focus in 3.5 being +3 bonus instead of 3.0's +2, Skill Adept here does the same thing.
Now another area that is under debate in terms of game balance and playability are schools. Schools range in level from 1st to 10th level lessons each one costing more experience ,money and time with a level cap. Each level of the school provides an ability, generally getting more powerful as the school's level goes up. To me, this is the one of the ultimate ways to customize a character. Now the bad news is though, if you're using other material like Guildcraft from Bastion or Oathbound with it's prestige races, you can come up with some characters who just break the rules without trying.
The schools provide all the game mechanics and role playing information for the GM to incorporate the material. The only thing I was disappointed in is that there were no wandering masters of the schools here as there were in the various Path Of books. My favorite school in this book is probably the Children of the Blade, an archaic group that focuses on using the sword to end an opponents life instead of a blaster. The good news though is not all of the schools are focused on combat. The Imperial Society of Arcane Magic is a school that provides various benefits to wizards while the Vigil of Sakar school is practiced by the Adamantine Order and House Aranath with abilities relating to spying and data gathering. It's a nice mix and in tandem with the PrCs can make for some very specialized characters.
Chapter Three's title is a bit misleading, Spells and Spellware, as it also includes two new domains, Dragon and Technology. The new spells have no master list but start off in alphabetical order ranging from Arms of the Marility, a 2nd level spell that creates duplicate arms that confuse the enemy to Wyrm, a 9th level Dragon spell that basically turns the caster into a dragon. A lot of the spells have a dragon or celestial focus and the book isn't afraid of introducing several high level spells to the setting.
The Spellware includes goodies like Armored Skeleton and Energy Wings, in addition to other goodies like Image Recording. The material will fit well in the standard Dragonstar campaign but most of it will be out of place in a standard d20 fantasy game.
A pleasant surprise was Chapter Four, Psionics. A new race, the Tsalokhi is introduced, as well as integration notes for standard races, most of which act normal save for the Soulmech who have unique circumstances to their power. The treatment that the standard classes received in the first Dragonstar book is repeated here for the core and prestige classes with appropriate new skills and abilities notes. A new core class, the Bio-psion, a being engineered for psionic power has a little more versatility than the standard psion in some aspects but can't master the higher psionic powers. New PrCs help round out psionics in the setting including the Netwalker, a master of utilizing the Net with psionics and skill to the Ascetic of the Noetic Order, Compared to spells and spellcasters, psionics get the short shift with feats, powers and equipment, but the mere inclusion of them goes a long way in making this book fit my style of space fantasy.
The internal covers aren't used and we get two pages of advertising this time around. The layout is two column standard with good editing. The art is up to FFG's high standards and will evoke the setting for anyone looking through the book for ideas.
If there are complaints, it's going to be how useful is this material. Because some of the goods are highly optional, like Legendary Classes, Schools, and Psionics, the books utility may not be all there for some. In addition, spells and PrCs, like always, should be playtested to insure that they fit with your campaign. Some may decry the lack of hard information on the various organizations and guilds introduced here as there are no NPCs statistics listed out, maps, or other important information but those people aren't looking at this as a Player's Companion. On a meta-note, for the psionics, I wish they provided notes on using Mindscapes version of psionics with or instead of the Player's Handbook as many people have noted that it's a different and perhaps superior way to play with psionics.
In the end, the Dragonstar Player's Companion does all that it sets out to. It augments the listing of PrCs, introduces legendary classes, schools, and psionics, and augments the spells and spellware that are available to the players even as it expands the setting with numerous guilds and organizations.
The book starts off with classes. The good thing is that many of these PrCs are just about perfect for any game system. The Celestial Guardsman continues to gain in divine spellcasting ability, even as she gains powers similar to a paladin. Could fit into almost any fantasy based campaign. The Dragon Slayer is another PrC that has abilities with a tight focus, killing dragons, that could easily fit into most settings even as the Noetic Warrior, a monk-psionic based character, would fit into most campaigns that utilized psioincs.
That's not to say that there are no classes that would be difficult to move into a standard setting though. For example, the Imperial Legionnaire is built around a military force that knows how to use guns with archaic weapons and gains abilities in using those guns as he rises in levels. Not to say you couldn't tinker and put it into Freeport or a similar setting. Another one that might not fit is the Infowarrior, a PrC that specializes in hacking data.
The PrCs start off with the name and focus of the PrC, going into requirements, class skills and class features. This covers all of the mechanical aspects of the class like special abilities, spells per level, and unique powers. The role playing aspect comes afterwards with a sample group. For example, the Ecoterrorist have the Green Cabal that “defends the ecologies of the galaxy's worlds by any means necessary.” This background information includes a line about the leader, current activities and methods of integrating the group into the Dragonstar setting. The nice thing about this is it's a take it or leave it deal where the campaign isn't going to suffer if you make your own Ecoterrorist organization for example. The only bad thing is with twenty PrCs, you've got a lot of organizations running around.
One thing I always tip my hat to FFG for is the introduction of Legendary Classes and this book continues that fine tradition. The classes range from the impressive Galactic Conqueror, a master of warfare, to the Rebel, a warrior whose goal is to throw off the Red Age reign. Some of these PrCs were much more specific to the setting like the Faithful Servant who serves one of the grand dukes or the Machine Man, a legendary class for the Soulmech.
Chapter Two brings together the Feats and Schools and includes such useful feats as Blood Bond, where the character sacrifices hit points to establish a bond with a chosen weapons to the dreaded +2 to two skills in the form of Internal Compass with a +2 bonus to Intuit Direction and Navigate checks. Most of the material falls in the middle though with some odd balls mixed in for exotic characters who want Robotic Familiars or the ability to utilize evocation magic to a higher degree with Destructive Spell. For those worried about Skill Focus in 3.5 being +3 bonus instead of 3.0's +2, Skill Adept here does the same thing.
Now another area that is under debate in terms of game balance and playability are schools. Schools range in level from 1st to 10th level lessons each one costing more experience ,money and time with a level cap. Each level of the school provides an ability, generally getting more powerful as the school's level goes up. To me, this is the one of the ultimate ways to customize a character. Now the bad news is though, if you're using other material like Guildcraft from Bastion or Oathbound with it's prestige races, you can come up with some characters who just break the rules without trying.
The schools provide all the game mechanics and role playing information for the GM to incorporate the material. The only thing I was disappointed in is that there were no wandering masters of the schools here as there were in the various Path Of books. My favorite school in this book is probably the Children of the Blade, an archaic group that focuses on using the sword to end an opponents life instead of a blaster. The good news though is not all of the schools are focused on combat. The Imperial Society of Arcane Magic is a school that provides various benefits to wizards while the Vigil of Sakar school is practiced by the Adamantine Order and House Aranath with abilities relating to spying and data gathering. It's a nice mix and in tandem with the PrCs can make for some very specialized characters.
Chapter Three's title is a bit misleading, Spells and Spellware, as it also includes two new domains, Dragon and Technology. The new spells have no master list but start off in alphabetical order ranging from Arms of the Marility, a 2nd level spell that creates duplicate arms that confuse the enemy to Wyrm, a 9th level Dragon spell that basically turns the caster into a dragon. A lot of the spells have a dragon or celestial focus and the book isn't afraid of introducing several high level spells to the setting.
The Spellware includes goodies like Armored Skeleton and Energy Wings, in addition to other goodies like Image Recording. The material will fit well in the standard Dragonstar campaign but most of it will be out of place in a standard d20 fantasy game.
A pleasant surprise was Chapter Four, Psionics. A new race, the Tsalokhi is introduced, as well as integration notes for standard races, most of which act normal save for the Soulmech who have unique circumstances to their power. The treatment that the standard classes received in the first Dragonstar book is repeated here for the core and prestige classes with appropriate new skills and abilities notes. A new core class, the Bio-psion, a being engineered for psionic power has a little more versatility than the standard psion in some aspects but can't master the higher psionic powers. New PrCs help round out psionics in the setting including the Netwalker, a master of utilizing the Net with psionics and skill to the Ascetic of the Noetic Order, Compared to spells and spellcasters, psionics get the short shift with feats, powers and equipment, but the mere inclusion of them goes a long way in making this book fit my style of space fantasy.
The internal covers aren't used and we get two pages of advertising this time around. The layout is two column standard with good editing. The art is up to FFG's high standards and will evoke the setting for anyone looking through the book for ideas.
If there are complaints, it's going to be how useful is this material. Because some of the goods are highly optional, like Legendary Classes, Schools, and Psionics, the books utility may not be all there for some. In addition, spells and PrCs, like always, should be playtested to insure that they fit with your campaign. Some may decry the lack of hard information on the various organizations and guilds introduced here as there are no NPCs statistics listed out, maps, or other important information but those people aren't looking at this as a Player's Companion. On a meta-note, for the psionics, I wish they provided notes on using Mindscapes version of psionics with or instead of the Player's Handbook as many people have noted that it's a different and perhaps superior way to play with psionics.
In the end, the Dragonstar Player's Companion does all that it sets out to. It augments the listing of PrCs, introduces legendary classes, schools, and psionics, and augments the spells and spellware that are available to the players even as it expands the setting with numerous guilds and organizations.
drnuncheon
Explorer
I don't believe that the 'schools' are from Swashbuckling Adventures - while there may be a similar mechanic, the schools sound like the same sort of thing that shows up in the Legends and Lairs 'Path Of' books.
