Appendices would normally begin with a listing of ship Upgrades, but as we reviewed those in an earlier post, we instead begin with some new
Items. The majority of them are magical, and unlike typical 5e products the magic items have listed prices for PCs wishing to buy them with gold or talents. Several were already covered earlier in this review, such as the Nachazor Tablet. But of the outright new ones, we have quite a bit of interesting entries: a Harpoon is a common piece of ammunition for a ballista that can be used to grapple and reel in a struck creature; Masterwork Spyglass can see up to 1 mile away and grants advantage on Perception checks; Sandalwood Incense can be burned, blocking the 20 foot area it fills from divination magic for 24 hours; and Wand of the Sea Witch, which requires attunement and can be used to cast a variety of environmental spells. It can even summon a Kelpie to serve as a mount!
Thoughts: The Item section is short, and most of them look fine from a balance perspective. The Masterwork Spyglass is perhaps the one that will get the most use in play on account of how important line of sight can be in combat. I can see characters putting this to good use with spells and special abilities which specify a “target you can see” but otherwise have vague ranges.
The appendix also includes 21 new
Spells. In terms of level, they’re quite spread out, with a surprising amount of 5th level and higher spells (8 in total) which will either be just learned or out of reach of the PCs at campaign’s end. We get a good amount of cantrips at 5 in total, 4 3rd and 2 4th level spells, and 1 1st and 2nd level spell each.
In terms of classes, the Druid gets access to the most of them by far, at 12 spells total. Sorcerer follows up at 2nd place with 10, followed by Wizard at 9, Warlock at 8, and Bard, Cleric, and Ranger all at 7. Poor Paladin gains access to only 1 of the new spells. As can be expected, a good amount of these spells are themed around water, wind, weather, and exploration. Some of the more notable spells include Blood Curse (5th level, long lasting debuff, where you can select from a list of abilities such as not consuming spell slots when casting Dream or Scrying upon the cursed target, sending a low-CR fiend to hunt down the target, etc), Chaos Wake (4th level, cone-shaped AoE that emanates from behind a vehicle as it moves, causing damage or magical forced movement on targets), Covenant (5th level, akin to a Geas but consensual where the caster and group of targets make a promise, if someone breaks the promise the caster knows), Disorient (3rd level, creates a misty sphere that causes those within to move in a random direction on a failed Wisdom save), Entropy (cantrip, cast as a bonus action to empower a melee weapon to become magical and deal bonus force damage on the next hit), Mend (5th level, makes repairs to 10 foot cube worth of objects, restoring hit points and removing dispelled effects on magic items), Monsoon (6th level, cast for 10 minutes to summon a huge AoE storm that blinds those within, imposes movement penalties, wards against divination magic, enriches crops for 1 year if it reaches full duration, also caster than choose 8 creatures to be immune to the Monsoon), Trade Winds (6th level, summons magical wind that helps creatures and vehicles go to a named destination for the next 8 days with increased speed and ignoring negative nonmagical weather and gases), and Unseen Pilot (1st level, creates an invisible servant for 8 hours that knows how to pilot a ship).
Thoughts: I’m not a fan of this section. Several of the spells are situational to naval combat or watery environments, to the point that they’re not going to be of great use in more traditional land-based campaigns. Blood Curse is perhaps the one with the most exploitative potential. While it requires the caster to obtain the target’s blood, gaming groups of this level shouldn’t have a hard time gaining access to that. I like the idea of Covenant, but it’s too high level and is competing with other potent spells to be an attractive choice. Entropy is going to be a slam-dunk option for gish and bladelock builds on account of its bonus action damage boost, and with a type that is never resisted unless you’re fighting Helmed Horrors. Mend is useful for healing a vehicle while in combat, but outside of combat it is harder to justify in comparison to the Mending cantrip can do the same thing but over multiple castings. Monsoon is perhaps the most powerful on account that it’s a wide-ranging selective AoE that imposes the debilitating blinded condition on targets. While it has a long casting time, a party who manages to unleash it before going into battle can go to town on enemies and outmaneuver them. As long as the cast maintains concentration they’re good to go, and as the spell duration can last for up to an hour this might work in multiple fights!
Finally, I have to ask the practicality of putting 6th level and higher spells here, given they won’t see play in the campaign as is.
The
Monsters chapter is split into two entries: the first includes 11 new creatures and 2 NPCs, while the second entry details 15 different kinds of real-world animals.
The two NPCs include
the Tidekeeper and the
Witch of Endor. The Tidekeeper is a CR 13 Celestial who specializes in magic over matter. While he has a typical physical attack empowered by radiant damage, the bulk of his battle prowess comes from his various innate spells that focus on battlefield control, and he has a rechargeable Summon Tide that is an AoE attack. The Tidekeeper’s mental ability scores are very high, is proficient in Medicine and 3 Intelligence skills, and can cast Scrying at will, so the angel’s a great ally to have for PCs who need to find someone who knows things. As for the Witch of Endor, her stats are highly similar to the ones in Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible but with some slight improvements. She is a CR 7 spellcaster who has a mixture of divination and battlefield control abilities, with her main offense coming from her Reveal Soul action that can physically change a target to take on disfigurements in line with their sins. As that one only deals damage situationally, she isn’t very formidable in direct combat.
Four of the monsters are legendary sea creatures that are the bane of seafarers. Each one can be found in a particular body of water, and all are (theoretically) tough enough to be “boss level” monsters for high Tier 2 parties, complete with Legendary Actions and Resistance.
Porphyrios is a whale-like monster found in the Mediterranean and has appropriate offensive abilities like generating an undertow or spraying water from its spout.
Rukk is a titanic avian that attacks land-bound caravans in the Middle East and Horn of Africa, and is actually very slow-moving with a fly speed of 20 feet and no ranged attacks of any kind. This makes it perhaps the easiest legendary creature to fight.
Tanifa are sea serpents native to the Southern Islands, resembling logs or seaweed floating in the ocean. They are not naturally-occuring creatures, meaning that they will attack people even when there’s no logical reason to do so. A tanifa can be summed up as a wingless dragon with a steam breath weapon.
Umibōzu is a humanoid giant that wades in the seas off the northeast coast of China and northern Japan. It is not a unique creature, and they are shrouded in darkness even when attacking ships in daylight. An Umibōzu is primarily a melee attacker, with ranged attacks coming from its legendary actions like summoning waves and lightning. They are easily distracted by riddles and puzzles, and when confronted with one will be Stunned for 1 hour or until it takes any damage should it fail an Intelligence save to solve it.
The remaining monsters are low-CR creatures from folk tales of various cultures. They include the Cetus (ambush predators that fearlessly attack ships), Deepmaw (giant fish in the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers whose harvested hearts are important for spells and rituals), Murex (giant predatory snails with a paralyzing sting attack), Kelpie (shapeshifting horse that charms people to ride it into a body of water to later drown), Nishi Daak (undead originating from India, can disguise its form and voice to be that of a loved one to lure travelers), Terra Cotta Warrior (melee-focused constructs that attack with glaives and have blindsight up to 60 feet but blind beyond this), and Xiezhi (celestials who are similar to lions stat-wise but can also cast Zone of Truth at will and can detect all lies).
The monsters can provide valuable loot and services to PCs: several of the listed creatures have body parts which can fetch a good price if properly harvested, kelpies can be tamed although evil people have an easier time doing this, and terra cotta warriors can serve as NPC marines for parties Allied to China.
The Beasts are mostly sea and aquatic creatures like Blue Whales, Dolphins, Parrots, and the rather landlocked Red Panda. Said animals have stats quite in line with their real-world counterparts, but a few deserve calling out for notable abilities or potential exploits as summoned creatures or for Wild Shape purposes. An albatross has a 120 foot fly speed, and killing it bestows a unique curse upon the slayer. Any ship they’re aboard rolls twice for random encounter checks and always takes the less favorable result. Homing Pigeons also have a speedy 120 foot fly speed, but they can never get lost save via magical means. So they’re a great target for the Animal Messenger spell or for scouting purposes. Blue Whales have the same Challenge Rating as a Giant Crocodile (CR 5), but they have a higher swim speed, much more hit points but a worse armor class, and while they can’t Multiattack they do more damage per attack, and also have blindsight out to 120 feet. Dolphins have the same CR as crocodiles and reef sharks (CR ½), and while a tad weaker than both animals they have better passive Perception, a faster swim speed, and blindsight out to 120 feet. Due to this, dolphins make for decent aquatic scouts.
Thoughts: I like how a lot of the monsters have rewards for their defeat/taming besides experience points, particularly when it comes to harvested body parts. That lines up well with the campaign’s themes. I also like the use of unique sea monsters as late-game opponents. The Terra Cotta Warriors are very good fighters in comparison to the stat blocks for other marines, although the fact they are blind beyond their blindsight means they are impractical for long-range weapons and thus are best used for performing and defending against boarding assaults. The Rukk is the low point of the sample creatures, as its slow movement speed and lack of ranged/AoE attacks means that parties with a decent siege weapon and all but the slowest of ships will easily take care of it.
Historic Battles and
Get Inspired are the last two sections of the Appendices, and individually are quite short. The former lists four real-world battles taking place around the first century (a few being pushed 100 years forward or back to make for an interesting story), noting the makeup of ships and terrain for DMs who wish to run them in the campaign. The latter section is a one-page collection of various videos, films, and songs for inspirational material with appropriate online links.
Thoughts: I don’t have strong thoughts on these sections. I’m not a history buff, so I can’t say how accurate or ideal the sample real-world conflicts will be for a campaign. I do wish we got a Bibliography for the inspirational material, especially given that Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible showed their homework from a variety of sources.
Thoughts So Far: The Appendices do a good job of collecting disparate material in a convenient format, and I do appreciate how PC-friendly material otherwise relegated to the DM’s side of the screen is here as well. The pricing of magic items and harvesting of monsters comes to mind. The spells are my least favorite section, as I feel more emphasis could’ve been put on magic that would see play in the Tiers this campaign operates. To say nothing of the unbalanced options.
Final Thoughts: Between a real-world setting and campaign style which are both well off the beaten path, such a niche product is a gamble when it comes to mass-market appeal. But Red Panda Publishing hasn’t shied away from that, as evidenced with their Biblically-themed adventure paths. So it’s all the more clear that the Silk Road Guide to Seafaring is a labor of love, and the writers provided plenty of material for gaming groups running trade-focused historical fantasy adventures. From the various ways of generating missions to plenty of things for PCs to sell and spend money on, coin and treasure aren’t an afterthought like they are in most 5th Edition campaigns. The factions, patrons, and stand-alone and linked adventures give plenty of autonomy to the PCs in charting their own course. The coverage of various cultures and sidebars explaining their sources of inspiration make the setting feel more “authentic” than a surface-level pop culture treatment.
That being said, the main things bringing the Silk Road down are that it’s a wide sandbox, but shallow pool. When looking at their previous work, Red Panda’s more detailed Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible achieves the best of both worlds. That product has an engaging main quest along detailed locations and characters, while still feeling like an expansive world for the PCs to chart their own path. The Silk Road is much more of a toolbox, where such grandiose plots and places must be filled in by the DM. And there’s the fact that various options, from Patrons and Factions to spells and upgrades, can vary widely in balance and general usability, so the DM has those to look out for as well.
Overall, I’d recommend the Silk Road to those interested in the idea of an historical fantasy sandbox centered around trade and political influence. For those seeking a spiritual sequel to Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible or a more traditional campaign, however, I cannot recommend it.
