JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Fang & Fury is a textbook example of how to do a good splatbook. Broken up into eight chapters, the book provides the reader with all they need to add the Vampire Scion to the campaign.
Chapter One introduces the Vampire Scion, an undead creature with a semblance of life to it. In the process of becoming a Vampire Scion, they lose most of their organs and must live on a liquid diet and eating actually causes them pain. They still have hearts for example but are infused with negative energy which they replenish by drinking blood.
Many of the traditional weaknesses of the vampire are given to the Scions to make them a lower powered ECL race in order to play them at lower levels. They have issues with mirrors, running water, garlic, entering homes and almost all of the other goodies from vampire lore. In exchange they get some modest stat bonuses, are undead with d12 hit dice, get a claw attack, a blood drain that doesn't deal Constitution damage, but hit point damage, healing the Scion on a one per one basis, and some other little abilities. For example, a +4 to turn resistance and the ability to heal other vampires. All of this brings them up to a CR of +1 and an ECL of +2.
Now because this isn't a class book, there is a lot of information on how to best play a Vampire Scion in different ways. For example, there are types. The different types, from righteous avenger to willing monster are covered with brief role playing notes. Those who already know how they want to play their character will enjoy the look over how a Vampire Scion fits into the traditional classes. I found it strange that they covered the NPC classes from the DMG, but didn't cover their own classes, like the Avatar, Assassin, Witch and Shaman, at least in a side bar.
Those who want something different can look over the alternative racial concepts. How about Psychic Vampires or Blood Symbiotes? The latter remind me a little of the Vampires from the Necroscope series in that the blood itself is a living thing. Each racial variant has slight changes to the racial template.
For the GM, there is a Vampire Campaign Options. These fall under wide subheadings like Slayers, where the party are normal people who take on vampires and other supernatural beings to Hunt for a Cure, where the players look for relief from their disease. It's an interesting idea, but I think more information on integrating the Vampire Scions into a standard campaign would've been another step in the right direction.
Now for those who aren't happy with just a template, they'll want to look over the Feats section. These feats are mainly for Vampire characters but a few have general use. They didn't label the feats as such so when you see General, it doesn't mean general. Some of the feats enable you to feed off of animals and gain the full benefit as opposed to a weaker one while others let you drain different 'humours', the old medical theory from the middle ages. These feats help insure that no two vamprie scions are every alike and players will be able to focus on anything from combat via Empowered Natural Weapons or Improved Natural Weapons, to being shadowy beings using Forgettable and Gaseous Form.
Now for those who want more customization, Chapter Four, Prestige Classes has you covered. For some reason, when the race required is Vampire, they still list the hit dice as something other than d12. Take the Black Abbot, a cleric who raises the undead. They get a d8 but have a racial requirement of Vampire. I can understand why you'd want to leave the hit dice as a standard for a PrC that didn't have a Vampire requirement, but it you have to be undead to take the PrC, the hit die should automatically be d12.
Other PrCs include: Foundling, Vampiric Elves that serve the Unseelie Court, Masqued Player, vampire artists who play different roles with as they go through life, Nighthawks, masters of stealth and hidden movement, Rag Man, undead remains of those dead by suicide, Regent, powerful undead leaders, Reveler, vampires who hunt down and kill other vampires for their blood, Scourge, those who hunt the vampire hunters,and Vampire Mage, mages who seek a higher spellcasting ability. There's a lot of variety here and cooped with the feats, insure that players have a lot of variety to chose from.
Chapter Five, Creatures, introduces the following: Blood Puppet template, creatures that accept a blood gift form a vampire gain special abilities, Daywalker template, half vampires (Blade anyone?), Gore Golem, a blood construct, and the Unseelie, or Dark Fey, withGremlines, Glaistig, Nuckelavee, Redcap and Sluagh. Perhaps most impressive though is the Vampiric Dragon Template. Not as concerned with the balance issues or playability at lower levels, these beings get more abilities despite having the same weaknesses. The Vampiric Thrall, a vampiric servant, and finally, Vermin, including Giant Corpseworm and Giant Mosquito. The monsters usually fall into the variant or servant category and should add some non-standard encounters to any graveward stroll.
Chapter Six takes a different route, going The Gods and Their Servants, providing some overviews of the different gods that Vampires can worship. This ranges from the savage Beast to the deities of the Great House, a pantheon of Gods with different spheres of vampiric influence. It's a short section but it you don't have a Vampire pantheon and want one if your campaign, this has you covered.
Chapter Seven returns to the crunch with new spells and magic items. The spells are first broken up into class lists by level by alphabetical order. Spells from from 0 to 9th level, so there's a good mix of material ranging from Blood Spy, using drained blood from a creature to spy upon it, to False Dawn, where you radiate sunlight. New Domains include Blood, Greed and Mania. Most of the spells are going to be used by Vampires and undead but some of them would be of use to anyone.
Chapter Eight, the closing chapter, leaves us with new items like Embalming Fluid, the dangerous Armor of a Thousand Teeth and Ruszh-Sizral, a bastard sword that works against shapeshifters. Those looking form ore powerful fare have the Black Coach, a powerful vehicle that is sealed against daylight and can move along the plan of Shadow. The First Drops of the Beast allow the user to summon forth a powerful solar from the blood of the old gods. The Dusk Crown is a legendary item whose true powers aren't known, kind of like the Prize from the Highlander series.
The book closes off with a listing of Standard NPCs that have had the template applied to them ranging from standard Fighters to Clerics to Aristrocrats.
Front and back interior covers are used. The book is laid out in standard two column format. Editing is solid and the writing flows easily. The art is done by some of the industry's top professionals and gives the book the standard Green Ronin polish as one of the better illustrated books in the market.
About the only thing the book doesn't do is work with the other Green Ronin books. There are no Character Sheet Folio extras and no notes on how you'd use this class in say, Freeport. Other than that, the book covers pretty much all the bases. Personaly, I found that some of the material was too much a nod to movies or television and would've rather seen more focus on this material. Daywalker? Slayers? Dusk Crown? Skip.
Jim Bishop takes a little from movies, television and other RPGs and wraps it up into the d20 system for players and GMs to mix and match what they want.
Chapter One introduces the Vampire Scion, an undead creature with a semblance of life to it. In the process of becoming a Vampire Scion, they lose most of their organs and must live on a liquid diet and eating actually causes them pain. They still have hearts for example but are infused with negative energy which they replenish by drinking blood.
Many of the traditional weaknesses of the vampire are given to the Scions to make them a lower powered ECL race in order to play them at lower levels. They have issues with mirrors, running water, garlic, entering homes and almost all of the other goodies from vampire lore. In exchange they get some modest stat bonuses, are undead with d12 hit dice, get a claw attack, a blood drain that doesn't deal Constitution damage, but hit point damage, healing the Scion on a one per one basis, and some other little abilities. For example, a +4 to turn resistance and the ability to heal other vampires. All of this brings them up to a CR of +1 and an ECL of +2.
Now because this isn't a class book, there is a lot of information on how to best play a Vampire Scion in different ways. For example, there are types. The different types, from righteous avenger to willing monster are covered with brief role playing notes. Those who already know how they want to play their character will enjoy the look over how a Vampire Scion fits into the traditional classes. I found it strange that they covered the NPC classes from the DMG, but didn't cover their own classes, like the Avatar, Assassin, Witch and Shaman, at least in a side bar.
Those who want something different can look over the alternative racial concepts. How about Psychic Vampires or Blood Symbiotes? The latter remind me a little of the Vampires from the Necroscope series in that the blood itself is a living thing. Each racial variant has slight changes to the racial template.
For the GM, there is a Vampire Campaign Options. These fall under wide subheadings like Slayers, where the party are normal people who take on vampires and other supernatural beings to Hunt for a Cure, where the players look for relief from their disease. It's an interesting idea, but I think more information on integrating the Vampire Scions into a standard campaign would've been another step in the right direction.
Now for those who aren't happy with just a template, they'll want to look over the Feats section. These feats are mainly for Vampire characters but a few have general use. They didn't label the feats as such so when you see General, it doesn't mean general. Some of the feats enable you to feed off of animals and gain the full benefit as opposed to a weaker one while others let you drain different 'humours', the old medical theory from the middle ages. These feats help insure that no two vamprie scions are every alike and players will be able to focus on anything from combat via Empowered Natural Weapons or Improved Natural Weapons, to being shadowy beings using Forgettable and Gaseous Form.
Now for those who want more customization, Chapter Four, Prestige Classes has you covered. For some reason, when the race required is Vampire, they still list the hit dice as something other than d12. Take the Black Abbot, a cleric who raises the undead. They get a d8 but have a racial requirement of Vampire. I can understand why you'd want to leave the hit dice as a standard for a PrC that didn't have a Vampire requirement, but it you have to be undead to take the PrC, the hit die should automatically be d12.
Other PrCs include: Foundling, Vampiric Elves that serve the Unseelie Court, Masqued Player, vampire artists who play different roles with as they go through life, Nighthawks, masters of stealth and hidden movement, Rag Man, undead remains of those dead by suicide, Regent, powerful undead leaders, Reveler, vampires who hunt down and kill other vampires for their blood, Scourge, those who hunt the vampire hunters,and Vampire Mage, mages who seek a higher spellcasting ability. There's a lot of variety here and cooped with the feats, insure that players have a lot of variety to chose from.
Chapter Five, Creatures, introduces the following: Blood Puppet template, creatures that accept a blood gift form a vampire gain special abilities, Daywalker template, half vampires (Blade anyone?), Gore Golem, a blood construct, and the Unseelie, or Dark Fey, withGremlines, Glaistig, Nuckelavee, Redcap and Sluagh. Perhaps most impressive though is the Vampiric Dragon Template. Not as concerned with the balance issues or playability at lower levels, these beings get more abilities despite having the same weaknesses. The Vampiric Thrall, a vampiric servant, and finally, Vermin, including Giant Corpseworm and Giant Mosquito. The monsters usually fall into the variant or servant category and should add some non-standard encounters to any graveward stroll.
Chapter Six takes a different route, going The Gods and Their Servants, providing some overviews of the different gods that Vampires can worship. This ranges from the savage Beast to the deities of the Great House, a pantheon of Gods with different spheres of vampiric influence. It's a short section but it you don't have a Vampire pantheon and want one if your campaign, this has you covered.
Chapter Seven returns to the crunch with new spells and magic items. The spells are first broken up into class lists by level by alphabetical order. Spells from from 0 to 9th level, so there's a good mix of material ranging from Blood Spy, using drained blood from a creature to spy upon it, to False Dawn, where you radiate sunlight. New Domains include Blood, Greed and Mania. Most of the spells are going to be used by Vampires and undead but some of them would be of use to anyone.
Chapter Eight, the closing chapter, leaves us with new items like Embalming Fluid, the dangerous Armor of a Thousand Teeth and Ruszh-Sizral, a bastard sword that works against shapeshifters. Those looking form ore powerful fare have the Black Coach, a powerful vehicle that is sealed against daylight and can move along the plan of Shadow. The First Drops of the Beast allow the user to summon forth a powerful solar from the blood of the old gods. The Dusk Crown is a legendary item whose true powers aren't known, kind of like the Prize from the Highlander series.
The book closes off with a listing of Standard NPCs that have had the template applied to them ranging from standard Fighters to Clerics to Aristrocrats.
Front and back interior covers are used. The book is laid out in standard two column format. Editing is solid and the writing flows easily. The art is done by some of the industry's top professionals and gives the book the standard Green Ronin polish as one of the better illustrated books in the market.
About the only thing the book doesn't do is work with the other Green Ronin books. There are no Character Sheet Folio extras and no notes on how you'd use this class in say, Freeport. Other than that, the book covers pretty much all the bases. Personaly, I found that some of the material was too much a nod to movies or television and would've rather seen more focus on this material. Daywalker? Slayers? Dusk Crown? Skip.
Jim Bishop takes a little from movies, television and other RPGs and wraps it up into the d20 system for players and GMs to mix and match what they want.
