Scions has some big ideas, but not enough play.
by Chris Sims, a.k.a. Khur
Initiative Round
Scions of the Holy Triad is
Highmoon Media Productions’ latest PDF release in the Liber Sodalitas line. A two-color publication,
Scions of the Holy Triad weighs in at 16 pages (counting the OGL). Daniel M. Perez wrote it. The PDF retails for $3.00.
Highmoon’s production quality remains high compared to many others in the industry, especially in the PDF market. This time, however, much of the art comes from Mongoose’s
Character Portrait: Fantasy Heroes and
Character Portrait: Fantasy Heroines PDFs. Such images just aren’t as fitting as custom art and not as cohesive as the use of one artist. The usual indexing found in Highmoon’s PDFs is also missing from this offering.
Scions of the Holy Triad details an organization of the same name. Founded by a sagely priest, whose goal was unity among former divine allies, the Scions are a religious movement. Detailed are the group’s origins, history, and growth. Game material, besides the exposition necessary to work the Scions into your game, includes details on a monastic order, the leaders of the Scions, a typical Scion knight, a new prestige class, a new feat, and a few new domains and spells.
The domains are nice, despite some awkwardness in the granted power of the Holy domain, where it’s unclear how the cleric’s alignment applies to the spells selected, and the fact the “Holy” domain is available to evil characters. But the triad scion prestige class, a 5-level pseudo-paladin, is the highlight of the crunchy bits. It is better balanced and more widely useful than Highmoon’s unsighted (from
Liber Sodalitas: The Blind Path). However, its most powerful ability, to give divine abilities to others, is wonky and the prose is interspersed with the undefined (and non-core) “divine” bonus.
[minor rant]Another use of the divine hinders
Scions of the Holy Triad, namely the use of Greek god monikers. Years of misrepresentation in fantasy media have diluted the Greek mythology so much that it cannot be relied upon to create any one coherent picture without specific definitions.
Scions of the Holy Triad has no such clarity. Unfortunately,
Scions can’t fit into a campaign strictly modeled on the Classical Age and its legends either, because its own assumptions, lack of “Greek-ness,” and skewed versions of the deities rule out such a possibility. Generic divinities would have served better.
[/minor rant] 
Critical Hit
Despite the minor “Greek” hitch, the book’s (so-called) fluff is worthy of some praise. History and development of a schism religion are interesting, from its heretical roots to flight to avoid persecution. More detail specific to this subject, such as the form and seeming of relationships with established religions, would have been welcome. But the taste given here is enough to give an idea of where the Scions fit within traditional
D&D churches—that is, one deity per church. If you have no idea how a heretical theory might form into a cult from an established religion,
Scions of the Holy Triad serves as an example.
Critical Fumble
Mechanically,
Scions of the Holy Triad is far from flawless. The only NPC fully detailed in the publication is the average triad scion knight, and this NPC’s ability scores are better than the elite array could hope to offer. Other problems vary from an exotic weapon attacking multiple targets with one throw, that one throw still counting as a full-attack to that same weapon being just too good for an item without magic enhancement.
Speaking of magic,
Scions of the Holy Triad has two new spells, along with some alternative uses for existing spells. The spells are poorly rendered, however, from nonstandard presentation (personal spells without a target [You] and with saving throws and spell resistance) to the wording in the
aura of faith variant, which seems to turn a 1st-level spell (
shield of faith) into an 8th-level one (
shield of law). Further, both new spells are probably too high in level, and the final alternative seems to forget that
unholy blight already exists as evil’s
holy smite.
Accessory mechanical material needs more careful treatment than
Scions of the Holy Triad offers.
Coup de Grace
Scions of the Holy Triad provides a viable example of a fantasy religious sect, a few useable domains, and a decent prestige class. But the other mechanics in the work are rough, lowering the playability as much as the mechanical rating. Overall value takes a hit from these mistakes, although this PDF is usable in a variety of manners, unlike its predecessors in the Liber Sodalitas line. The Scions are a noteworthy splinter group, and their rounded presentation is a promising direction for Liber Sodalitas. Now, if only the content could live up to the ideal.
Final Score: 3.4 
Scions of the Holy Triad is available at
RPG Now.
This review originally appeared at
d20 Magazine Rack.
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