JoeGKushner
Adventurer
From Novice to Master, the Manual of Classes has been revised. The book introduces new core classes and prestige classes to your d20 game, as well as magical items, a kingdom, new monster, and background information on the “Origins of Arcana” for the world setting.
On the core class side, they add a harlequin and trap master in addition to some already covered core classes like the bounty hunter, duelist and gladiator. Each core class comes with standard information similar to the Player's Handbook with ideas on why they adventure, typical alignments, religion and backgrounds. Full stats from 1st to 20th level along with class details are provided Each class also comes with an excellent illustration in full color, one of the strong points of the book.
The bounty hunter, cavalier, crusader, duelist, gladiator, healer, and trap master, are all pretty simple to understand. Each one fits a well known concept. The healer uses healing hands to restore hit points and eventually can even resurrect in addition to spell casting. The duelist is similar to the archer from Three Arrows for the King where they excel with one weapon. The cavalier, the horse riding warrior. The crusader, the religious warrior with a bit more fight to him.
This isn't to say that they're all what you'd directly expect though. For instance, the crusader is the first class I've seen that gets 1d8+1 for hit points. In addition, she can cast spells, but does so without memorization at the loss of spontaneous healing. What's the point of the latter if you have the former ability though? The Crypt Tracker, a warrior dedicated to killing undead, gets a handful of spells, turning ability, the ability to smite the undead, but also favored undead enemies. A very specialized hunter.
The one class I haven't seen done too often is the Harlequin. Back in the days of first edition, I had a book called the Complete Adventurer by Bard Games with numerous alternative core classes and in some ways this book reminds me of it. This Harlequin is a chaotic master of theatrics with spell power similar to a bard. One of their abilities is theatrical fighting, using tricks to fool the opponents which gives the user a bonus to attack as well as the ability to ignore shields or ignore an opponents dexterity.
The prestige classes face similar problems to the core classes in that many have been done before. While the Aegis Sentinel is a neat name, it's in essence a bodyguard with some supernatural abilities. These range from Guardian Shield, which provides the Aegis' shield bonus to another creature, to Damage Reduction, where the Aegis shrugs off damage. Others like the Dragonslayer and Runeforger don't even have the name to set them apart from other forgers and slayers.
One PrC looks like its ready to challenge the Epic Level handbook in terms of power. The Lord of Time, a spellcaster who has to have 18 ranks of Concentration and Knowledge Time, making it a potential epic class. In exchange for loss of spell casting abilities, they gain numerous abilities relating to time. This ranges from the ability to cast haste or slow three times per day as a free action to Time Stop.
Another variant, the Malkan Knight is a city guard that requires feats to forge magic items. These construction abilities go into making their Kivonne, wands that form invisible force swords. The Malkan gain greater abilities with their Kivonne as they go up in levels.
Last on the slightly different mark, the Somniomancer is a spellcaster who uses the 'dream state to channel arcane energy.' The requirements are simple. A 16 intelligence and the ability to cast the spell dream. Unlike some PrCs with a spellcasting focus, they don't gain spellcasting ability every level but every other level. Thankfully they have abilities to make up for that like Sleeping Stare, a Supernatural ability to force a target to sleep or Arcane Sleep where they memorize spells during sleep with an extra kick.
One of the things I didn't like about the original Novice to Master was the price. This revised version expands and lowers the price at the same time, making the book more useful and more affordable.
Included in this expansion are magic items for both core and prestige classes. These items range from utility based like flying manacles for bounty hunters, to weapons meant to smite the undead like the sword of disruption for the Crypt Tracker. Each item is professionally illustrated.
The kingdom of Calante includes all important details in a statistical block like major resources, imports, foods, allies, and religions, as well as overviews of the history, geography, currency and laws of the land. One new monster is located in this kingdom, the Githzirrin, variants of the gith subrace, are introduced as creatures crafted by the flayers who were too powerful and utilize psionics. The book concludes with a thief robbing a spellcaster who comes across the Codex Arcana, a book on “How Man Came to Learn the Language of Magick.” Useful material for those looking at making a home brew or using this setting as their own.
The improvements to the book warrant a separate review and a separate grade. For those who enjoy prestige classes and want more core classes, the revised From Novice to Master is affordable and provides some toys for your new characters to enjoy as they advance in power.
On the core class side, they add a harlequin and trap master in addition to some already covered core classes like the bounty hunter, duelist and gladiator. Each core class comes with standard information similar to the Player's Handbook with ideas on why they adventure, typical alignments, religion and backgrounds. Full stats from 1st to 20th level along with class details are provided Each class also comes with an excellent illustration in full color, one of the strong points of the book.
The bounty hunter, cavalier, crusader, duelist, gladiator, healer, and trap master, are all pretty simple to understand. Each one fits a well known concept. The healer uses healing hands to restore hit points and eventually can even resurrect in addition to spell casting. The duelist is similar to the archer from Three Arrows for the King where they excel with one weapon. The cavalier, the horse riding warrior. The crusader, the religious warrior with a bit more fight to him.
This isn't to say that they're all what you'd directly expect though. For instance, the crusader is the first class I've seen that gets 1d8+1 for hit points. In addition, she can cast spells, but does so without memorization at the loss of spontaneous healing. What's the point of the latter if you have the former ability though? The Crypt Tracker, a warrior dedicated to killing undead, gets a handful of spells, turning ability, the ability to smite the undead, but also favored undead enemies. A very specialized hunter.
The one class I haven't seen done too often is the Harlequin. Back in the days of first edition, I had a book called the Complete Adventurer by Bard Games with numerous alternative core classes and in some ways this book reminds me of it. This Harlequin is a chaotic master of theatrics with spell power similar to a bard. One of their abilities is theatrical fighting, using tricks to fool the opponents which gives the user a bonus to attack as well as the ability to ignore shields or ignore an opponents dexterity.
The prestige classes face similar problems to the core classes in that many have been done before. While the Aegis Sentinel is a neat name, it's in essence a bodyguard with some supernatural abilities. These range from Guardian Shield, which provides the Aegis' shield bonus to another creature, to Damage Reduction, where the Aegis shrugs off damage. Others like the Dragonslayer and Runeforger don't even have the name to set them apart from other forgers and slayers.
One PrC looks like its ready to challenge the Epic Level handbook in terms of power. The Lord of Time, a spellcaster who has to have 18 ranks of Concentration and Knowledge Time, making it a potential epic class. In exchange for loss of spell casting abilities, they gain numerous abilities relating to time. This ranges from the ability to cast haste or slow three times per day as a free action to Time Stop.
Another variant, the Malkan Knight is a city guard that requires feats to forge magic items. These construction abilities go into making their Kivonne, wands that form invisible force swords. The Malkan gain greater abilities with their Kivonne as they go up in levels.
Last on the slightly different mark, the Somniomancer is a spellcaster who uses the 'dream state to channel arcane energy.' The requirements are simple. A 16 intelligence and the ability to cast the spell dream. Unlike some PrCs with a spellcasting focus, they don't gain spellcasting ability every level but every other level. Thankfully they have abilities to make up for that like Sleeping Stare, a Supernatural ability to force a target to sleep or Arcane Sleep where they memorize spells during sleep with an extra kick.
One of the things I didn't like about the original Novice to Master was the price. This revised version expands and lowers the price at the same time, making the book more useful and more affordable.
Included in this expansion are magic items for both core and prestige classes. These items range from utility based like flying manacles for bounty hunters, to weapons meant to smite the undead like the sword of disruption for the Crypt Tracker. Each item is professionally illustrated.
The kingdom of Calante includes all important details in a statistical block like major resources, imports, foods, allies, and religions, as well as overviews of the history, geography, currency and laws of the land. One new monster is located in this kingdom, the Githzirrin, variants of the gith subrace, are introduced as creatures crafted by the flayers who were too powerful and utilize psionics. The book concludes with a thief robbing a spellcaster who comes across the Codex Arcana, a book on “How Man Came to Learn the Language of Magick.” Useful material for those looking at making a home brew or using this setting as their own.
The improvements to the book warrant a separate review and a separate grade. For those who enjoy prestige classes and want more core classes, the revised From Novice to Master is affordable and provides some toys for your new characters to enjoy as they advance in power.
