Huge red cover would be a serious drain on an ink cartridge.
E.N. Publishing’s “E.N. Arsenal: Whips” is a 26 page .pdf detailing the whip. The E.N. Arsenal line of products cover a specific weapon in a very in-depth manner, including new feats, prestige classes, and just about anything else you can possibly imagine that might have anything to do with that specific weapon. “Whips” is written by Ryan Nock (RangerWickett) for the non-ENWorld regulars. The product sells for $4.95.
The .pdf itself is laid out very nicely, and has bookmarks. There are actually 23 pages of rules total. The first page is the cover, which is a very ink-draining red cover (if you value the red ink in your cartridge, don’t print this page!), the second page is the ToC, and the final page is the OGL. There is actually a fair amount of art in this product, which I didn’t quite expect, including a nice watermark of a guy wielding a whip, a border along the bottom, and some other whips and whip-wielding people scattered throughout. The art itself is black and white, but the section headings are maroon, but printing it on a b/w printer would not diminish the output. The layout itself is in a traditional two-column format with occasional side-bars dispersed throughout.
The first chapter cleverly titled “The Whip” takes us through a history lesson of the whip itself and talks a bit about its role in society. By and large, this chapter could have been left out entirely from the book, as it adds very little, but does include such gems as “Most whips can simply be coiled when not in use, then hung from a hook on a wall or on one's belt.” In fact, this chapter seems kind of repetitive, and not well-researched. Some interesting historical aspects of the whip might have been interesting to include here, like where it originated from, and how different societies use whips. These things are only touched on briefly, but not expanded on. Interspersed throughout this section are mind-numbing mechanics Like this one: “Unlike wood, stone, or metal weapons, whips are not vulnerable to sonic attacks. Divide sonic damage by 4 before applying hardness.” Wow, ouch. How often is that going to come up in a game?
The second chapter “Whip Variants” is actually pretty interesting, and covers some different kinds of whips, and some different kinds of materials to make whips out of. Some of these, however, I felt were probably better served as magic items, rather than mundane, though costly weapons. For example, the “whipsword” is a sword, but can be detached into a whip like thing by pressing a button on the hilt. Imagine a sword laid out, cut into sections with saw, and then pieced together with a metal chain. I can imagine that if such a weapon were actually made, that it would make both a lousy sword – breaking into 30 pieces the first time you hit something with it, and a really horrible whip, if it could actually be used as such. This would have made a much more believable, and interesting magic item.
This chapter includes a section on “craftsmanship” which talks about making whips, and actually has an interesting factual note that states that kangaroo leather is the optimal choice for whips. While interesting, I felt this section would have probably better belonged in the first chapter. And speaking of animal leather, the second chapter covers ways of creating whips out of nonstandard materials such as displacer beasts, or ropers. Interestingly enough, displacer beasts are not in the SRD, the product only refers to them as “beasts with displacement abilities”. Take that, WoTC! Again, some of these are interesting, but I felt like some of this stuff would be a bit more believable as magic items, rather than mundane stuff. Like the moonhair whip, which is created from the hair of lycanthrope victims whose hair has been bleached in the moonlight. Such whips bypass DR as if they were silver weapons.
Chapter 3 is “Fighting and Feats” and reads like a munchkin’s wet dream on “100 ways to annoy and frustrate the hell out of your GM”. This chapter includes new uses for PHB feats, and quite a few non-core feats, even going so far as to include epic-level feats. Yes, that’s right – whip-specific epic level feats and styles, one with a prerequisite list that will make your head spin. I mean, really, how often have you found yourself saying, “wow, there just aren’t enough epic level whip feats” Me too. To be fair, I don’t think these feats are actually specific to the whip, and are merely news whip-centric ways of looking at regular feats as applied to utilizing the whip. Actually, I think most of these feats are simply reprinted from various other sources. So, I can’t tell which of these are just feats from other d20 products, and which ones are new. I admit I’m not a collector of all-things d20, so most of them look new to me.
Chapter 4 is “Whip Prestige Classes”. As if playing a fighter and spending every last feat you’ve got on your whip isn’t enough, you can actually devote your life to the whip and take a prestige class, or two. Heck, this chapter has 4 – yes, count ‘em – FOUR, whip-specific prestige classes. These are all 10-level prestige classes.
The first PrC, the “Thunderchild” combines both the cool elements of being a mountain hermit and a whip-wielding fighter. It’s actually kind of cool, in a weird kind of way, but seems a bit front-loaded. With only two levels you get sonic resistance 5, a +1 to your whip, and all your whip attacks gain a +1d6 sonic damage to attacks. This PrC is not overly powerful, and could actually make a pretty interesting character if done right.
The second Prc, The “whip duelist” relies heavily on the mechanical aspects of the 3rd edition rules and deals with concepts such as threatened areas, and attacks of opportunity. It’s clear to me that Ryan knows the 3rd edition combat rules way better than I do, because I read this with my GM’s hat on, and cringe and the sheer amount of complexity such a character might end up bringing to the table. The idea is interesting enough – essentially it’s a hit and run tactician, but arguably has little to do with the whip, per se, and the concept could be applied to just about any weapon, but preferably some kind of reach weapon. You could even make a bil guisarme champion with this kind of prestige class. If you were so inclined, I suppose. But then, when was the last time you saw anyone use a bil guisarme in a game? I didn’t think so.
The third PrC, the “Ophidian skinbearer” is a bit of an anomaly. The requirements of “the ability to turn into a snake the same as your normal size” suggests this is a PrC reserved exclusively for Yuan-ti, again not an SRD critter. The PrC itself focuses on a few core abilities which are pretty interesting. One called “venomous whip” allows the skinbearer to inflict poison damage with her whip, and then another called “living whip” allows the skinbearer to use a regular snake as if it were a whip. There are other rules that further complicate this matter such as having the snake fuse with a regular whip, and some other complications. This would make an interesting villain in a game, but (allow me to ramble for a moment) clearly showcases the complexities of the 3rd edition system. This is one of those kinds of BBEGs a GM might spend an hour working on – tweaking the feats, adjusting a score here or there, making everything *just so*, only to have it killed in a single round by a well-placed finger of death spell. I’m inclined to believe that such things are better off adlibbed rather than be fully spelled out in tedious detail. But, nonetheless, it would make an interesting, and unique villain that would probably give most players pause, at least briefly. Is the payback worth it? You be the judge.
The final PrC is called a “whimsy” and is primarily designed for gnomish fighters relying on the whip to deal lots of trip attacks. It’s a neat concept, I suppose, but whether it needs to be an actual prestige class, as opposed to just a concept is arguable.
This chapter finishes up with two NPCs – a 28th level Thunderchild, and a CR 10 whip duelist. Each NPC has full stats, a brief description, skills and feats, and possessions.
The last chapter, “Whip Magic” includes 4 spells, magic items (and enhancements) and a deity (of all things). At least two of the spells “dramatic assist” and “pain schism” have really nothing to do with whips at all, so their inclusion is a bit of a mystery. The other two, “drive” and “whipform” are whip-centric, though one could argue that “drive” – a spell which allows you to give commands to the target if you successfully hit it with a whip. This might have been more useful as an actual magic weapon, and seems quite a bit more powerful than the 2nd level it is assigned. Arguably, it could be applied to any weapon, and not just a whip. The last spell, “whipform” just confuses me. Apparently, it allows you to turn any weapon into a flexible whip-like thing, though it retains all the normal damage it had prior. And, all whip-related feats can be used with the weapon. So, even though your great axe is now limp like rope, you can still do d12 damage with it? I’m just not seeing the usefulness of this. Why anyone would bother memorizing this spell is beyond me, especially since a whip isn’t terribly expensive to begin with. And it seems like you’d still need the exotic weapon proficiency to use your flexible weapon regardless.
The spells are followed with some new magic item enhancements. The coolest is “animated” which allows the wielder to use a whip as if it were an rope under the effects of animate rope. Next after these are some sample magic whips, including a whip useful for psions which confers penalties to will saving throws each time the subject is hit.
Lastly, there is a brief writeup of a diety called “Ford”, which is obviously a homage to Harrison Ford, and his worshippers include “archaeologists” and his portfolio includes “rugged manliness”.
Summary, as should be apparent from my comments, this book seems excessive at best, and completely trivial at worst. That said, this is the absolute most definitive work on the whip, so if you are a player, and your character concept relies on heavy whip use, this is the book for you.
The book left me feeling somewhat cold. I guess I could really only tolerate so much whip-related stuff, but oddly enough after reading through it all, I felt like there could have been more! I felt like the book was way more crunchy than it needed to be, and it’s really designed as a power-gamer’s guide to maximizing the abuse potential of a whip. Let’s face it, whips can be a headache, with all the trip attacks. There are also feats in here which cause a PC to threaten areas that normally aren’t threatened by some wielding a whip, and there are feats and items which increase the threaten range. Done right, one could make heavy use of things like combat reflexes, whirlwind attacks, and could just downright drain the night away in numerous attacks and trips all over the place, and could end up being a real headache, so I think some caution is in order.
This book isn’t for everyone. Unless you’re a player looking for maximize your Indiana Jones character, there really isn’t much here for you. If you and your group love rules, and love rules-crunching, then you’ll like this. Otherwise, I would recommend against it.
