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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2010778" data-attributes="member: 9860">This is not a playtest review.Fang & Fury is a guidebook to vampires and is part of Green Ronin's Races of Renown series.Fang & Fury is an 80-page mono softcover product costing $16.95. Layout is pleasing to the eye and there is a tight font, average margins and no chunks of white space, as well as the inside covers being used. The artwork in general is superb; probably the best in any work of this type so far produced under the d20 flag in my opinion. Writing style is also impressive and editing is generally fine with occasional minor errors.The introduction gives a concise and clear overview of the aims of the book - to provide options for vampires in order to allow GMs to surprise their players, to introduce a toned-down version of the vampire for PC use, and to encourage GMs to use vampires as villains due to their roleplaying potential rather than as a list of standard special abilities.Chapter One: The Vampire ScionThis chapter presents a new race/template, the Vampire Scion, for use as a PC race or as a toned-down version of the vampire for use as an NPC. The chapter includes a detailed discussion on becoming a vampire, vampiric abilities and weaknesses, along with options for how characters become vampires and alternative weaknesses. The new race itself is presented in standard fashion, though there is additional discussion on the personalities and motivations of various different (non-good) alignments for vampires. The vampire scion is presented as a template, similar in a few ways to the standard vampire with several notable exceptions including no natural armour class, loss of the Energy Drain, Children of the Night, and Dominate special attacks, as well as all its special qualities except Turn Resistance, plus reduced Str and Dex compared to a standard vampire. All this results in only a +1 to CR and +2 to LA (compared with +2 and +8 respectively for the standard vampire).Chapter Two: The Way Of BloodThis chapter discusses various roleplaying hooks for vampire scion PCs and advice for changing to a Scion from any of the core classes. Alternative racial concepts are given including the interesting Natural Vampire, a new monstrous humanoid race (not undead) with vampire-like features, and psychic vampires (who drain energy instead of blood). A section on campaign options discusses possible campaign hooks for PCs playing vampire scions or vampire slayers.Chapter Three: FeatsOver thirty new feats are provided in this chapter, including several allowing vampires to drain humours such as yellow bile and black bile (based on the mediaeval medicinal belief), and access to some of the special attacks and qualities removed from the vampire to create the vampire scion. There is also a section at the end of the chapter allowing adjustments to the Leadership feat for Vampire Scions and vampires.Chapter Four: Prestige ClassesNine new 10-level PrCs are presented, each with an example character:* Black Abbott - once an evil cleric, now turned vampire, this PrC has a minimum entry level of 5th, poor BAB and good Will saves. Class features include increasing ability to rebuke and animate undead.* Foundling - elf maiden turned vampire by the Unseelie Queen of the Dark Fey, this PrC has a minimum entry level of 7th, an average BAB and good Ref and Will saves. Also benefits from wild shape abilities, improved senses and an unseelie companion.* Masqued Player - theatrical vampire with a minimum entry level of 5th, average BAB, good Ref and Will saves, with theatrical compulsion effects on an audience.* Nighthawk - speedy, stealthy vampire with a minimum entry level of 5th, average BAB, good Ref save, limited arcane spells, and bonuses to speed, initiative and movement/stealth skills.* Rag Man - beggar-like vampire with a minimum entry level of 5th, poor BAB, good Fort saves, and touch attacks causing insanity.* Regent - vampire leaders/aristocrats, with a minimum entry level of 10th, high BAB, good Will saves, with a supernatural aura and gaze.* Reveler - a vampire that gains power from feeding off other vampires. Has a minimum entry level of 1st, poor BAB, good Fort saves, and class features include the ability to overcome vampire weaknesses and command lesser vampires.* Scourge - vampires who openly fight against good, with a minimum entry level of 7th, good BAB and Fort saves, and improved natural combat abilities.* Vampire Mage - vampire with increasing arcane spellcasting ability (+1 level of existing class per level), with poor BAB, good Will saves, and a series of spontaneous spells available. Minimum entry level of 7th.Chapter Five: CreaturesSeveral templates, including half-vampires and vampiric dragons, a couple of vermin including the giant mosquito, and, strangely, a section on Unseelie Fey including the glaistig (again, oddly, this version has no bloodsucking abilities whereas the legendary creature on which they are based does have bloodsucking abilities), redcap, and sluagh.Chapter Six: The Gods And Their ServantsThis chapter presents two vampire religious systems - a monotheistic cult who worship The Beast, and worship of a small pantheon known as The Great House, including deities of madness, destruction, blasphemy, and cannibalism. The two other members include a bizarre deity of mathematical abstraction and the Unseelie Queen of the Fey (worshipped by the Foundling PrC and perhaps accounting for the inclusion of Unseelie Fey in the creatures section).Chapter Seven: Spells & MagicThree new domains are provided - blood, greed, and mania. Nearly 20 new spells are also presented, including spells for vampires such as blood messenger (which allows the creation of a small messenger constructed from blood), and spells for combating vampires such as false dawn, which allows a body to suddenly blaze with sunlight. There are also spells for summoning and controlling vampire scions.Chapter Eight: EquipmentA mixture of mundane equipment (e.g. garlic, embalming fluid), armour and shields (e.g. shield of shade, which protects from direct sunlight), weapons (e.g. the heartseeking special ability), wondrous items (e.g. the mask of the blackbird allows transformation to and from a raven), and a few artefacts (including the dusk crown, actually a prize giving huge power to the last remaining vampire, which could cause a vampire war).Appendix: Standard NPCsFull stats for 20 levels of 5 NPCs including a vampire scion aristocrat and a cleric of The Beast.High Points:For those GMs wanting to run a d20 all-vampire campaign, this book is a must-have as it provides great choices and a balanced option for PCs with the vampire scions and the various feats, spells, and prestige classes. Its still of use to those GMs wanting to provide a slightly weaker vampire enemy and to surprise his players with unusual strengths and weaknesses previously unknown to readers of the MM. Its good for fleshing out vampiric societies in a GMs campaign world too, with vampire religious systems and the other information on PrCs and the like.Low Points:From the introduction, I expected to get more campaign ideas for using vampires as villains - long-term strategies, the use of minions, motivations, that kind of thing. There certainly wasn't enough of this to meet my expectations. The choice of some strange material for the product like the Unseelie Fey and a couple of the (IMO) less inspiring PrCs like the Rag Man and the Masqued Player could have been left out to give more time to campaign aspects for GMs.Conclusion:Well-written and superbly illustrated, this book definitely brings vampire PCs and all-vampire campaigns within reach of those groups interested in exploring this facet using the d20 rules. It is also of use for GMs wanting to pit vampires against lower-level groups and to surprise higher-level groups with changes to traditional weaknesses and strengths. It doesn't cover the bigger campaign picture so well, in terms of developing vampires and vampire scions as nemeses, which was one of the aims mentioned in the introduction, but has plenty of crunch to inspire GMs to do this job themselves. Also has some use for vampire-slaying PCs, but again this aspect is secondary.</blockquote>

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