Five Nations

[JoeGKushner]

A geographical sourcebook for play in the Five Nations of the Eberron world.

Five Nations offers players a rich source of information about playing and dealing with characters from the Five Nations of the Eberron world. As any play in the Eberron world is likely to involve the Five Nations or characters from them, the book is useful to anyone involved in an Eberron campaign. The individual nation chapters include information on culture, geography (including maps), guilds and factions and, new prestige classes, equipment, creatures, spells, magic items, and adventure sites.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Solid sourcebook that covers the basics of the Five Nations

Five Nations
Written by Bill Slavicsek, David Noonan, and Christopher Perkins
Published by Wizards of the Coast
www.wizards.com/eberron
ISBN: 0-7869-3690-8
160 full color pages
$29.95

Five Nations is he latest sourcebook for the Eberron game setting. Laid out in standard two-column format, Five Nations uses the same background as previous Eberron games. Not quite up to the Forgotten Realms layout in my opinion, but a solid presentation nonetheless. A little bit of page wasting happens here as the first page is a bull screen version of the first page with the author’s credits and then we get the full cover page reproduced on the inside. A great illustration by Wayne Reynolds. Then we get another page of credits, with the author’s names listed again, along with the other helping hands.

Illustrations are solid, and include a full-page illustration between each chapter. Cartography is handled by Dennis Kauth and Rob Lazzaretti and while there are no removable maps, each country has an up close section in addition to a full page map of Khorvaire. Nothing jumped out at me while reading the book in terms of editing. While the book does not include an index, there’s a page of ads for Eberron, one for purchasing products, and another for the RPGA. Navigation isn’t too bad as the table of contents is a full page and the TOC is very detailed. Monsters and NPCs use the new game lay out for statistics introduced in the Dungeon Master’s Guide II. This makes them easier to see and use, but takes up more space.

Five Nations starts off with an introduction section, and then five chapters, one for each country. The introduction covers the history of the land prior to the Great War, a brief synopsis of the War itself, and a general statement about how things are today now that the war has ended. In short, people are glad that the war is over as trading can proceed again but not everyone finds it easy to forgive the injuries of a hundred year war.

Each chapter includes information on the country. For example, when reading about Aundair, you’ll discover that most of their soldiers come from the commoners as they tend to have large families. Not the only power though, as the wizards of Arcanix, the Starpeaks, have both sword and spell to lend to the combat field.

Each country includes style, five thing everyone knows, plots and factions, view of the five nations (it includes a look at themselves), foreign relations, notable citizens, names, adventure seeds and game mechanics. In addition, a sidebar has a look at the country at a glance. This provides a breakdown of population, area, soverign, capital, major cities, climate, highest point, heraldry, founder, and national motto.

The nice thing is the focus on some of the locations within each Nation. For example, in Aundair, you get a map of Fairhaven, as well as the details of the city, including notable features, leadership, demographics, economics, and notable NPCs of the city.

The nice thing about the various areas and organizations detailed is that they include different Lore checks. For example, if seeking information about the Order of Rekkenmark, there are three levels of information, DC 10, 15, and 20. Most of the prestige classes here, are also done up in a manner similar to the various Races of books, where you get more than just a PrC, you get an organization, background, and various campaign hooks that can be added to your campaign.



Looking at Breland, you’ll discover that Brelish art is focused on freedom and energy while learning that the prime minister, Lord Ruken ir’Clarn dreams of a new era of rulership where the people rule the people, but of course, they need a leader of their own, which Ruken is more than willing to handle.

The full-page maps are a good addition to any Eberron campaign, but since they’re not separated, will require some page flipping or copying. Hopefully we’ll get a download of each section, maybe password protected or something. The only thing missing on the maps is the map key, but most symbols should be familiar to players of D&D. Borders are indicated by making the part of the map not the country a faded color on the outside of the red border line.

In terms of power level, most of the NPCs are low level. In some ways, it makes sense as many of the heroes and great villains died in the last war. Even the kings and rulers of the land tend to be mid-level, incorporating NPC classes into their advancement. King Boranel for example, is an aristocrat 3, fighter 8.

In some ways, due to the very structure of D&D as a game engine, it doesn’t fit. The characters don’t have the necessary skills or abilities to rule. They don’t have anything that should really allow them to have their station, outside of say, tradition and wealth, which in games like GURPS and Hero, would be accomplished through the spending of points, but in D&D, since no mechanic represents that, just seem odd. Sure that 2nd level aristocrat has tons of social influence, but a 4th level bard or rogue with focuses in their social skills should be able to quickly shame and sham them.

In terms of game mechanics, there is no appendix or chapter where everything is collected. Instead, where appropriate, game mechanics are placed at the end of each chapter. For example, if you want to know about the Bone Knights of Karrnath, you’d look towards the end of chapter four. If you wanted to know about the spells of Thrane, you’d look at the end of chapter five.

Unfortunately, while the table of contents does give you a good look at what’s in each chapter, it looks like they ran out of room towards the end. For example, the silver pyromancer is a prestige class. In most other cases, the prestige classes are noted “prestige class: Dark Lantern” This would’ve been a good spot to do some last minute checking as there’s no index.

The PrCs are an interesting mix. Some will see the Knight Phantom as too powerful. This PrC gains d8 hit dice, spell level advancement in every level but the first, good bab, good fort, and a few special abilities as they go up in levels.

Sounds a bit like the Eldritch Knight from the DMG, but better. After all, that PrC only gains d6 hit dice and a bonus feat.

The Knight Phantom has to have Still Spell, Ride 4 ranks, proficiency with all martial weapons, ability to cast Phantom Steed, and be a citizen of Aundair as well as a member of the Order of the Knights Arcane. While a bard or sorcerer doesn’t necessarily want to waste a slot on the Phantom Steed spell, most of those requirements are covered by the Eldritch Knight, which also has to have proficiency with all martial weapons and the ability to cast third level arcane spells. So in exchange for a few social limitations, feat addition, and ride ranks, you get special abilities and a better hit dice?

One of the interesting things in reading the book, is the references to non-primary material. For example, while reading about the Silver Pyromancers, it notes that even warmages adopt the PrC. The warmage isn’t a core class but one found in the Miniature’s Handbook and the Complete Arcane. I think it’s a good idea to note those adaptations where appropriate as it doesn’t take a lot of space and isn’t making the note a feature of the campaign setting.

Some of the wording is a little unclear too. Take Flamebound Weapon, a 1st level paladin spell. As a swift action, the paladin surrounds his weapon in Silver Flame, inflicting an additional 1d6 points of sacred damage when striking an evil creature. Now it doesn’t note if the flame is extinguished upon striking an evil creature or if it lasts for the spell’s duration, which is 1 minute a level. As a first level paladin spell, I’m tempted to go with the former than the latter.

One of the few things I think Five Nations suffers from, is it’s length. At less than 160 pages, due to ads and extra credit page for the writers, it’s got a lot of ground to cover. Each one of these nations could probably have a 160 page book. While it’s nice to see the Lord of Blades stats and some of the unique creatures to the Mournlands, you could have a whole boxed set to exploring some of the ruined cities or learning more about the Cyran natives who want to rebuilt their country and have more NPCs of that vein as opposed to monsters like the undead Mourner or the Steel Krakens, huge constructs built to defend the coast. Hopefully some of the other cities and adventure seeds will be explored further in different sourcebooks.

Outside of that complaint and a few nagging issues about potential power creep, Five Nations offers a lot to the Eberron player and GM. Find character names suitable for your nationality. Discover new organizations to join and new powers to wield. Those yearning for details past the City of Towers borders will enjoy the opportunity to explore Khorvaire even as they wait for more details.

 

[John Cooper]

FIVE NATIONS
By Bill Slavicsek, David Noonan, and Christopher Perkins
Wizards of the Coast product number 178680000
160 pages, $29.95

Five Nations is one of the more recent books in the Eberron series, and to tell the truth, I didn't expect to enjoy it very much. Not because I'm not a fan of the Eberron series - quite the contrary, I really like much of what they've done with the campaign world - but because this looked to be specifically the kind of detailed look at the specific geographical areas of a given game world that I've always found to be very dry reading. Given that, it's a small wonder that I opted to review Explorer's Handbook before tackling this one.

Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised on several counts.

The cover artwork is once again an action scene by Wayne Reynolds chopped into pieces and reassembled across the front and back covers (with some chunks in color and others in black-and-white), with the original, full-color piece reproduced on pages 2-3 in the book itself. While I didn't like this particular piece as much as I did Wayne's piece for Explorer's Handbook, this one still has much to offer - this time, it's a band of adventurers fighting off various undead (which is always cool, and we can always count on Wayne to produce creepy-looking undead), and my favorite figure in the scene is the one chosen to highlight the front cover, the male paladin. Detail is excellent on his intricately-carved armor, and Wayne cuts no corners on the details of the armor of the other figures in the piece - even the female monk gets some intricate sleeves on her otherwise simple attire.

The interior artwork consists of 47 full-color illustrations by 10 artists and 11 full-color maps by cartographers Dennis Kauth and Rob Lazzaretti. My two favorite pieces in this book are James Zeng's painting of Queen Aurala of Aundair on page 22 and his steel kraken on page 93. The rest of the artwork is pretty good, but overall not as good as I've seen in other Eberron books (and it still seems like the worst art is relegated to the full-page "comic book style" paintings).

As you might have guessed by the title, Five Nations is a close look at the five nations on the continent of Khorvaire that were involved in the Last War. The book is laid out rather simply, with a quick, 5-page introduction and then five chapters detailing the five nations in question: Aundair, Breland, Cyre/The Mournland, Karrnath, and Thrane. We learn a brief history of each country, get stats for its rulers and other important personages, learn details about some of the prominent organizations that have arisen in each country, and also get brief descriptions of several geographical locations in each. On top of that, each country gets a bunch of "extras" thrown in for good measure - sometimes it's monster stats for creatures that roam the countryside, or a prestige class local to that country, or a handful of new spells, or whatnot. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the authors made this stuff, as I'm generally bored stiff reading through this type of material.

Of course, it helps that the general quality of the proofreading and editing was very high. Five Nations is back up to the top of Wizards-level quality in those areas, with only a few mistakes that got past editors Bill Slavicsek, James Wyatt, and Kim Mohan. Examples include forgetting to capitalize a size category, the "colored stripes" in two different tables (that differentiate where specific entries begin and end) missing the second line of an entry, those same two tables cutting off the final line of their last entries in column 2, a couple instances of misalphabetization, a governor prince that should have been a governor-princess, a sentence missing a word, a spell name not being italicized, one sentence having the word "often" once too often, and a "2" in a table not being in superscript (like "1" was before it). As far as misspelled words, there was only one that I saw: "Argentum" (an organization) was once spelled "Agrentum."

Finally, there was only one logical flaw that I picked up on: the Crying Fields, a haunted battlefield, has its ghosts reenact the battles where they died "on nights when the moon is full." Mention is made several times of "the full moon" - yet Eberron has 12 moons! Nowhere does it mention if the Crying Field is tied in to one specific moon, or if any full moon will do.

Then we come to the creature stats. Here we have the biggest flaw with Five Nations as a whole, for there are entirely too many errors in this department for me to be entirely comfortable with. I expect much better from development manager Jesse Decker and developers Bill Slavicsek and James Wyatt. Here's my recommended "unofficial errata" section for Five Nations:

• pp. 22-23, Queen Aurala, female human aristocrat 8: I'm not sure where the Diani's enchanted gown +3 is from (it's certainly not detailed in this book, although Queen Diani's stats are on page 140 and even she's not wearing one of these gowns), but if we assume that it grants a +3 armor bonus (which is the only way I can see to get to Queen Aurala's AC 16 as listed), then her touch AC should be 12, not 13 (+1 Dex, +1 ring of protection). +1 dagger attacks should be at +7/+2, not just +7 (she's of high enough level to get iterative attacks, and the new DMG II-style stat block no longer breaks the attacks down to "Attack" and "Full Attack" - it just goes straight to the full attack mode).
• p. 24, Margana Corleis, female human wizard 11: With Int 19, she should know 4 bonus languages, not just the 2 listed. Flat-footed AC should be 14, not 15 (+4 mage armor). Spells/day should be 4/5/5/5/4/2/1, not 5/6/6/6/5/3/2 (4/4/4/4/3/2/1 as a Wiz11, plus 0/1/1/1/1/0/0 for having a 19 Int). She should have 8 feats, not 6 (4 as an 11th-level character, +1 as a human, +3 bonus feats as an 11th-level wizard).
• pp. 44-45, Lieutenant Bara Mernu, female human fighter 1/wizard 5/knight phantom 4: Initiative should be +5, not +4 (+1 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative). With 19 Int, she should know 4 bonus languages, not just 2. Spells/day should be 4/5/4/4/3, not 5/5/4/4/4 (4/4/3/3/2 as a Wiz8 - Wiz5 plus 3 spellcasting levels as a KnP4 - plus 0/1/1/1/1 for having a 19 Int). She should have 8 feats, not 7 (4 as a 10th-level character, +1 as a human, +1 as a Ftr1, +2 as a Wiz5). Finally, there are no familiar stats provided, although her "Special Qualities" line confirms she has one.
• p. 58, King Boranel, male human aristocrat 3/fighter 8: Initiative should be +2, not +1 (+2 Dex). Flat-footed AC should be 23, not 25 (+9 +1 mithral full plate, +3 +1 heavy steel shield, +1 amulet of protection). Fort should be +9, not +10 (+1 as an Ari3, +6 as a Ftr8, +1 Con, +1 cloak of resistance). Ref should be +6, not +5 (+1 as an Ari3, +2 as a Ftr8, +2 Dex, +1 cloak). +1 composite longbow attacks should be at +13/+8 ranged, not +12/+7 (+10 BAB, +2 Dex, +1 magic weapon bonus).
• p. 58, Moonwatcher, male magebred heavy warhorse: Base speed should be 60 ft., not 50 ft. Hoof attacks should be at +7 melee, not +8 (+3 BAB, -1 size, +5 Str). Bite attacks should be at +2 melee, not +3 (+3 BAB, -1 size, +5 Str, -5 for a secondary attack).
• p. 59, Three, male personality warforged fighter 3/paladin 5: Masterwork light crossbow attacks should be at +9 ranged, not +8 (+8 BAB, +0 Dex, +1 masterwork).
• p. 60, Haydith ir'Wynarn, female human aristocrat 1: AC should be 12, not 19 (+2 Dex). Flat-footed AC should be 10, not 19.
• pp. 73-74, Aron "Sharpsword" Fainn, male human rogue 2/fighter 4/Dark Lantern 4: Ref should be +12, not +10 (+3 as a Rog2, +1 as a Ftr4, +4 as a DkL4, +2 Dex, +2 cloak of resistance). Will should be +3, not +4 (+0 as a Rog2, +1 as a Ftr4, +1 as a DkL4, -1 Wis, +2 cloak).
• p. 74, Magebred Brown Bear: Claw attacks should be at +12 melee, not +13 (or +14 as listed under Full Attack) (+4 BAB, -1 size, +9 Str). Claw damage should be 2d6+9, not 1d8+9 (due to the Improved Natural Attack feat).
• pp. 84-85, The Lord of Blades, warforged fighter 2/artificer 5/warforged juggernaut 5: Initiative should be +2, not +1 (+2 Dex). Masterwork composite longbow attacks should be at +11/+6 ranged, not +12/+7 (+8 BAB, +2 Dex, +1 masterwork - he doesn't also get the +1 bonus for +1 bane arrows since he gets a +1 for the longbow itself). Infusions/day should be 4/4/1, not 3/3/1 (3/3/1 as an Art5, plus 1/1/0 for having Int 14).
• p. 86, Hilt and Pommel, advanced homunculi: Speed should be "20 ft. (4 squares)," not "15 ft. (3 squares)," and "fly 50 ft. (good)," not "40 ft. (good)" - studded leather armor confers no speed penalties. BAB should be +7 (as 10-HD constructs), not +5. Grapple should be +4, not +0 (+7 BAB, -4 size, +1 Str). Bite attacks should be at +9 melee, not +7 (+7 BAB, +1 size, +1 Str). Finally, I see no reason why these two have Cha 2 when standard homunculi have Cha 7.
• p. 90, Mirasandra ir'Tharar, female half-elf aristocrat 4/ranger 2/Cyran avenger 3: Will should be +7 (+9 against enchantments), not +7 (+8 against enchantments) - half-elves (like elves) gain a +2 racial bonus against enchantments. BAB should be +8, not +8/+3. Likewise, Grapple should be +7, not +7/+2. Avenging strike should be 3/day, not 2/day (+3 Cha), and it should add +3 to hit, not +2 (also due to a +3 Cha).
• p. 92, Shroud of Death and Despair: No Alignment is given; presumably it's "Always neutral." Since finger of death is a 7th-level wizard spell and crushing despair is a 4th-level wizard spell, this living spell's deflection bonus should be +11 (7+4), not +9; thus, AC should be 23, not 21 (-2 size, +4 Dex, +11 deflection) and flat-footed AC should be 19, not 17.
• p. 93, Steel Kraken: No Alignment is given; presumably it's "Always neutral." Initiative should be +1, not +4 (+1 Dex).
• pp. 104-105, King Kaius, male human vampire aristocrat 2/fighter 11: Initiative should be +10, not +8 (+6 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative). With Int 20, he should speak 5 bonus languages, not just 4. Touch AC should be 19, not 16 (+6 Dex, +3 ring of protection). Flat-footed AC should be 35, not 38 (+6 natural, +11 +3 glamered mithral full plate, +5 winged shield, +3 ring of protection) - I think the problem here is that Kaius wears +3 bracers of natural armor that do nothing for him since, as a vampire, he has a +6 natural armor bonus, and the developers just added both natural armor bonuses together. [edit: I goofed on this one - see comments below for details] Sword of life stealing damage should be 1d8+10/17-20, not 1d8+6/19-20 (+6 Str, +2 Weapon Specialization, +2 magic weapon bonus, and Improved Critical to top it off). The Will save against his dominate ability should be DC 24, not DC 22 (they forgot to factor in the Ability Focus (dominate) feat).
• p. 105, Regent Moranna ir'Wynarn, female human vampire aristocrat 4/wizard 5: This one's easy: They didn't even do up a stat block for her at all! This is especially a bummer, since PCs would be dealing with her face-to-face much more frequently than they would with King Kaius himself. And they apparently had at least intended to give her the full stat block treatment, since they used the same font size and style that they do only for those who have stat blocks. I wonder what happened - did it get overlooked, or pulled due to space considerations?
• p. 116, Skeletal Steed: BAB should be +2 (as a 4-HD undead), not +3. Grapple should be +10, not +11 (+2 BAB, +4 size, +4 Str).
• pp. 121-122, Madox Kaminarr, male human paladin 4/bone knight 6: BAB should be +8, not +9 (+4 as a Pal4, +4 as a BKn6). Grapple should be +11, not +12 (+8 BAB, +3 Str). +1 bonecraft greatsword attacks should be at +13/+8 melee, not +14/+9 (+8 BAB, +3 Str, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 magic weapon bonus). Masterwork bonecraft heavy crossbow attacks should be at +8 ranged, not +9/+4 (+8 BAB, -1 Dex, +1 masterwork, and it takes a full round to reload a heavy crossbow so there should be no iterative attacks with such a weapon). Spells/day should be 2/0, not 2/1 (as a Pal9 - Pal4 plus 5 spellcasting levels as a BKn6 - he gets 1/0, plus 1/0 for having a Wis 13). Caster Level should be 4th, not 5th (he's traeted as a Pal9, half of which = 4.5 = 4).
• p. 122, Madox's Skeletal Steed: Fort should be +9, not +10 (+4 as a Pal4, +5 as a BKn6, +0 Con).
• p. 122, Dire Wolf Skeletons: Ref should be +5, not +4 (+2 as a 6-HD undead, +3 Dex).
• pp. 122-123, Karrnathi Bulette: Bull rush attacks should be at +14 melee, not +15 (+9 BAB, -2 size, +7 Str). Ref should be +7, not +8 (+6 as a 9-HD magical beast, +1 Dex). Advancement is listed as "10-16 HD (Huge), 21-27 HD (Gargantuan)" - that should be "17-27 HD" for Gargantuan size. Disease Fort save should be DC 19, not DC 15 (10+4+5).
• p. 124, Madborn Half-Elf, 3rd-level Ranger: First of all, the "Sample Madborn" description above the stat block calls this guy a "3rd-level half-elf commoner" instead of a ranger. Longsword damage should be 1d8+7/19-20, not 1d8+10/19-20 (1.5 times +3 Str [for wielding the longsword in two hands] = +4, +3 Power Attack).
• p. 141, Dzarro Silvervein, male dwarf fighter 8: +1 dwarven waraxe damage should be 1d10+6/x3, not 1d10+5/x3 (+3 Str, +2 Weapon Specialization, +1 magic weapon bonus). Masterwork light crossbow attacks should be at +9 ranged, not +8 (+8 BAB, +0 Dex, +1 masterwork).
• p. 141, Captain Malik Otherro, male human paladin 8: +1 composite longbow damage should be 1d8+3/x3, not 1d8+2/x3 (+2 Str, +1 magic weapon bonus). Turn undead turning damage should be 2d6+8, not 2d6+4 (Pal8 - 3 = +5, +3 Cha = +8). Caster Level for turning should be 5th, not 1st. +1 merciful greatsword damage should be 3d6+4 nonlethal/19-20, not 2d6+4/19-20 (although since both are options with the merciful weapon quality, perhaps it would be best to list both as possibilities).
• pp. 141-142, Thaedrar, magebred heavy warhorse: Initiative should be +2, not +1 (+2 Dex). Fort should be +11, not +9 (+6 as an 8-HD animal, +5 Con). Ref should be +8, not +6 (+6 as an 8-HD animal, +2 Dex). 50 ft. does not equal 8 squares! (The speed entry should read "40 ft. (8 squares) in chainmail barding, base speed 50 ft." - not base speed 60 ft., as listed, as this magebred animal is of the tracking breed, not the swift breed). BAB should be +6 (as an 8-HD animal), not +3. Grapple should be +16, not +13 (+6 BAB, +4 size, +6 Str). Hoof attacks should be at +11 melee, not +8 (+6 BAB, -1 size, +6 Str). Bite attacks should be at +6 melee, not +3 (+6 BAB, -1 size, +6 Str, -5 for a secondary attack). With 8 HD, it should have 3 feats (plus the 1 bonus feat as a magebred animal), not just 2 plus the bonus one.
• p. 142, High Cardinal Krozen, male human cleric 12: AC should be 18, not 21 (-1 Dex, +5 bracers of armor, +4 +2 heavy steel shield). Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 21. Speed should be 30 ft., not 20 ft., as no armor is being worn that would drag down his movement rate. Finally, the Special Qualities line, which denotes a moderate aura of evil, should state "(temporarily suppressed by undetectable alignment spell)" at the end as it's been annotated that the spell has already been cast.
• p. 154, Kieran ir'Talar, male human wizard 5/cleric 1/silver pyromancer 2: With Int 17, he should know 3 bonus languages. Touch AC should be 11, not 15 (he doesn't get the +4 armor bonus for mage armor, just the +1 Dex). Will should be +11, not +9 (+4 as a Wiz5, +2 as a Clr1, +3 as a SPy2, +2 Wis). Masterwork dagger attacks should be at +3 melee, not +2 (+3 BAB, -1 Str, +1 masterwork). Wizard spells/day should be 4/4/4/3, not 4/4/3/3 (4/3/3/2 as a Wiz6 - Wiz5 plus one arcane spellcasting level as a SPy2 - plus 0/1/1/1 for having 17 Int). Caster Level should be 6th, not 5th. No familiar stats are provided, although his stat block says he has one. Purge undead Will save should be DC 13, not DC 14 (10+3+0).
• p. 156, Wingwyrd: Grapple should be +5, not +4 (+3 BAB, +2 Str).

That comes to a total of 28 stat blocks out of the 37 in the book that had problems with them, or nearly 76% of them. (Or, if we drop the missing Regent Moranna ir'Wynarn stats from the equation, we get 27 out of 36, or an even 75%.) Definitely not good by any stretch of the term, and actually worse than the last two Wizards of the Coast books I've reviewed. (I suppose I should just draw comfort from the fact that at least the developers have mastered the concept of uncanny dodge...or perhaps there were just less NPCs with that ability in this book.)

Getting past the numerous stat block errors, though, there's a lot to like about Five Nations. If you're running an Eberron campaign, this book will really give you the details you need to make each nation seem like a distinct entity; not only does each chapter provide the DM (and players) with the important differences between the five nations, but there are all sorts of little things thrown in, like sample names from each country, common phrases and sayings, and even an "interview with a man (or woman) in the street" detailing what the average person of nation A thinks of nations B, C, D, and E (and a couple extra nearby nations as well).

That was another thing I noticed while reading through Five Nations: whoever decided on the names of the rulers opted to make it easy on us all, because more times than not the name of the leader of the nation begins with the same letter as the nation itself. Thus, Queen Aurala leads Aundair, King Boranel leads Breland, and King Kaius leads Karrnath. While it doesn't hold true for the leaders of Thrane and what was once Cyre, I appreciate the mnemonic memory assistance nevertheless.

Other cool things I noticed: the Floating Towers of Arcanix seem to have quite a lot in common with Hogwarts (of Harry Potter fame). First, it's the location of the college of wizardry, where they train students in the arcane arts, just as Hogwarts is where students of the wizardling world go to become wizards and witches. Just as Hogwarts has its four rival Houses - Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff - Arcanix has four separate floating buildings, Glarehold, Amberwall, Nocturnas, and Skyreach. Both Arcanix and Hogwarts have building interiors that constantly rearrange their architectures, and in both are liable to be found dangerous creatures roaming the halls. Oh, and there's also a hippogriff stables at Arcanix, so those who can't fly of their own accord (they're called "muggles" in the Potterverse) can access the floating towers. About all that's missing is a quiddich field!

Five Nations will be especially useful to those who enjoy running an intrigue-based campaign, as each of the five nations has their own "secret service" sort of organization, devoted to finding out what they can about the other nations and going on missions in the nation's best interests. While some of these secret orders end up with their own specific prestige classes and other have a much looser organization, the book has everything needed to run such spy-type groups.

I also liked how each section has an "Adaptation" section so you can tweak it easily into your own Eberron (or homebrewed) game. Don't like the idea of silver pyromancers combining fire magic and holy power? The concept works just as well using cold spells and chaos magic. Want a psionics-based organization? Tweak the Cyran Avenger prestige class to create Kalashtar Mindstalkers. This "toolbox approach" really helps make Five Nations more versatile.

In conclusion, while (once again) I was very disappointed in the quality of the stat blocks, in this case they don't have as direct a bearing on the material (unlike, say, the Explorer's Handbook, where its mini-adventures are intended to pretty much be dropped as written into a campaign). Five Nations is much more at the "background material" end of things, and as such I won't allow the poor stat blocks to drag down my review score as much as I would if the book were otherwise. That means I'm going to go with a final rating of a fairly low "4 (Good)," and just keep my fingers crossed that Wizards will have its developers spend a bit more time on stat blocks in the future.

 

[Kelleris]

Good review as always, but I think you made one slight mistake. You comment that King Kaius' AC is wrong because he has bracers of natural armor and his vampiric increase to natural armor working at cross purposes. I believe those stack, actually, as of the 3.5 revision, since doodads of natural armor +whatever actually grant you an enhancement to your natural armor, like an enhancement bonus on armor. So Kaius starts with a natural armor bonus of +0 (I assume he's human) this is increased by 6 since he's a vampire, and then he gains a +3 enhancement to his natural armor bonus to AC from the bracers. So his AC entry is correct. The other 5 errors are probably actually errors, though.

Come to think of it, you mention a couple of times that people are missing some bonus languages. I'd have to see the original stats to know, but I suspect that those characters started with a lower Intelligence (and thus fewer bonus languages), and then raised their scores through level-based Int bumps. As these are not retroactive (at least, I don't think so), it's possible that some or all of the incorrect language totals are actually not incorrect.

Sheesh, these things ain't easy. Makes me fear for my book when it gets published in a couple of months.

 

[mtgrogan]

Review or Resume

You have to be bucking for a job as an editor at WOTC.

 

[Dacileva]

Good review, thank you. One note, on the rulers' names...

Remember that the Five Nations were each named for one of Galifar's children, so their family lines will probably tend towards the same kind of naming scheme. I know I do that in my own royal lineages (e.g. the Principality of Kana was named for the original Prince Kana, and the most recent Prince (in unbroken line) was Kavall, slain in a hunt, and the half-elf mother of his toddler son Kavaine is now Regent).

Therefore, Aurala, descendent of Aundair(?); Boranel, descendent of Brey; and Kaius, descendent of Karrn, aren't just an easy mnemonic, they're representative of their lineage, which sounds good, and they're all good names.

 

[John Cooper]

Kelleris - Hmmm, it looks like you're right about King Kaius' natural armor bonus. I pulled out my 3.0 DMG and compared its wording of the amulet of natural armor to the 3.5 DMG version, and it does now specify that it's an "enhancement bonus to natural armor" where before it was just a sudden natural armor bonus. Very subtle, that. Okay, I'll go back and give King Kaius his enhanced natural armor back. (Contrary to what some might think, my goal here isn't to "show up the publisher," it's to get accurate stat blocks to those who have purchased the book in question. If I occasionally need help from those who read my reviews, the end result's still the same - a better set of stat blocks. I really do appreciate those who "tweak" my own "tweakings" to get them right!)

As for the bonus languages, you're right, we have no way of knowing whether Intelligence was improved during an increase in levels, or if the character has the same Intelligence score that he started out with. I always throw in the "wrong number of bonus languages" when I'm compiling a list of stat block errors to be thorough, but depending on the circumstances it might not be a problem. Maybe I should just ignore such things in the future?

Finally, what book are you having published in a couple of months?

mtgrogan - No, I'm not bucking for an editor position at Wizards of the Coast. I already have a full-time job that I enjoy. Writing reviews is a pleasurable hobby, and while going through stat blocks is part of that process for me, I'd probably quickly go insane if I had to do that 8 hours a day, five days a week! (I actually did something very similar, on a freelance basis, spending nearly every spare hour of free time I had in the whole month of July working on the stats of a soon-to-be-published, 500-page monster book. While I'm glad I did it, I don't think I'll ever want to do that sort of thing again - at least, not that big of a book!)

Dacileva - Good point. Note I wasn't complaining about the naming scheme, just mentioning that I had noticed it. It does make perfect sense, as you point out.

 

[Kelleris]

Double Post

 

[Kelleris]

Hmm... Hard to say what you should do about the languages. My first inclination is not to mention them, since one language more or less is virtually never going to be game-breaking, especially since PCs can easily communicate with 98% of NPCs as is.

The harder way would be to reverse engineer those character's skill point totals and see if there are any discrepancies that can be explained by an increased Intelligence modifier after 1st level - the NPC would have to be at least 7 skill points behind the assumed total, for instance. If you do that, you have more fortitude than I do with regard to anything I haven't written myself.

The book is my take on fantasy science, which presents technologists as members of a different sort of spellcasting tradition. So you have arcane and divine casters, maybe psionic casters or warlock casters or something else, and this book adds technology-based "spellcasters." The book includes some 230 unique devices of a variety of power levels (for comparison, that's slightly more devices than a cleric receives spells, not counting domains), so the book has all you need to introduce technologists into your game as a new group of spellcaster-like masters of esoteric knowledge. I used the spellcaster model because I like the idea of introducing chocolate technology into peanut butter magic while still having the game play much like classic D&D - high-tech cities are no more common than flying islands, and you don't have to move your setting into an Industrial Revolution-type scenario to include this kind of fantastic science. It's going to be published by EN Publishing once it gets laid out and arted up properly. A teaser should be available soon, presenting a detailed NPC and some sample devices.

But yeah, stat blocks are difficult. I just did a review of my included stat blocks and found a bunch of little errors - a -1 Initiative that should have been +1, a Will save off by a point, that sort of thing. I thnk I caught them all, but every time I read one of your reviews I start to wonder.

If you like, I could ask the EN Publishing guys to send you a review copy once it's finished. I don't know if it's something you'd be interested in, though, as the topic is somewhat esoteric. Not any more so, I would argue, than one of Mongoose's Encyclopedia Arcane books or WotC's Magic of Incarnum, but still a niche sort of product. It's also pretty lengthy, at least for a pdf - my Word file is 278 pages long.

 

[John Cooper]

Sure, Kelleris - it sounds very interesting. Thanks!