Librum Equitis IV

[HellHound]

Written By: Mark 'neo' Howe
Pages: 38 + cover & OGL

Crafted from the finest d20 components, the Librum Equitis line is the premiere line of d20 prestige class products. Librum Equitis volume IV brings you a full set of 14 prestige classes specifically for elves and their kin. Each prestige class is crafted to suite the elven temperament, society, and pursuits.

Within this book you will find:

* The Arms Captain – a proven leader of the elven military
* Councillor of the Trees – elders and advisors to the elven community
* Keeper of Mysteries – guardians of elven lore and magics
* Elven Knight – elite defenders of elven kind, bedecked in shining elven plate
* Master Archer – precise and deadly master of the elven longbow
* Elven Seeker – scouts and spies, sent into the world to keep their kin informed
* Elven Sentinel – watchers and defenders of the secluded elven cities
* Sea Captain – for not all elves hide their homes in wooded cities
* Elven Smith – master of the crafts and skilled maker of magic items
* Elven Treesinger – elves who remember how to speak to the natural world around them
* Elven Windrider – elite pegasus-mounted knights
* Spell Captain – elite military spellcasters & arcanists
* Unicorn Rider – chaste elves of pure heart never touched by men and their mounts
* Wood Elf Skinwalker – wood elven priests trained to take the forms and abilities of animals

This PDF comes in two versions, both included in the zip file when purchased. One includes background graphics (as shown above) and bookmarks, while the second is designed to be easier on your printer, and contains no background images.

 

[Crothian]

Librum Equitis 4

Prestige classes are still a very common object in the d20 market. With literally thousands of them out there it marvels me to still see more coming out of publishers at a pretty constant rate. It is not a bad thing though. Many people seem to think that there are too many prestige classes and that is just not the case. There are too many uninteresting classes. The thing with prestige classes is that more is better. It is about being able to find the right one and with the more to choose from the odds of finding the right one is greatly increased. But so many of them seem boring have been done before. They might look different with some different abilities but if the concept is the same classes are of less use. This book is all about prestige classes given us fourteen new ones specifically designed for the elves.

First off though, it should be noted that while this is the fourth book in the series it is the third. Librum Equitis 3 has yet to come out yet and hopefully it will be seen from EN Publishing this summer. I have been waiting for the third book in the series and was surprised to see four come first. But these things happen and with EN Publishing’s busy schedule of weapon books, guild books, and upcoming armor books I understand that some times things in the releases schedule get moved around for what ever reason. So, for other people wondering where the third one is, it is coming out later.

EN Publishing is one of the better known PDF publishers out there. They are associated heavily with EN World the site for which I review this book for. And aside from bothering some of the staff (Hound and Denise) at the summer conventions my person connection with En Publishing is nothing.

Librum Equitis 4 is a forty three page PDF all about elven prestige classes. The PDF is nicely layed out, fully book marked, and comes in a print and on screen formats. The art seems like mostly clip art that fits the theme of the book. It is a nice book to look at and easy to read.

The fourteen prestige classes are all for any type of elf except the Drow. The Drow can be used with some of them but very few. The classes are nicely described and with good detail. Some of the rules information was not as clear as I like though.

Arms Captain: This is an elven war leader. Very martial in design and requires Leadership to take.

Councilor of the Trees: This is more of a diplomat type leader of the elven people and also requires Leadership to take.

Elven Keeper of Mysteries: This is a bard like historian though any arcane class will work with the proper skills ranks.

Elven Knight: This is a paladin type prestige class though the alignment restrictions make it so a paladin can not take it. They get smite and some spells and other Paladin like abilities as they gain levels.

Elven Master Archer: One of the classes that the rules do not quite seem to make sense for but it is always nice to see archer prestige classes.

Elven Seeker: They are a group of spies and information gatherers. They serve a network and try to unlock information that affects the elves at large.

Elven Sentinel: This is a Ranger guardian of the elven cities type class

Elven Sea Captain: Another Leadership driven class this one is obviously geared toward the captain of a ship. . Some minor mistakes like the Legendary Captain being described as tenth level ability yet on the table it is listed as a ninth level ability though.

Elven Smith: This crafting class seems to be the best in terms of true power. That might sound odd but it has the ability to craft weapons with greater critical ranges and multipliers as well as extra bonus to hit and damage among other things. It has some abilities that even make crafting items much faster as well as getting bonus feats every other level. It does require arcane spell casting and only grants spellcasting levels every other level but there are a lot of really good abilities in this class.

Elven Treesinger: This is a Druid based class that deals with the elven histories and the nature of trees.

Elven Windrider: These elves ride giant eagles, Pegasus, or the occasional dragon. They are mostly fighter types

Spell Captain: I am very surprised to see this as the only true Wizard prestige class in the whole bunch. The class gains some great magical powers and good feats along the way.

Unicorn Rider: Of course it is only for females but open to half elfs this class is very self explanatory. The character gets a Unicorn companion and abilities that reflect that relationship.

Wood Elf Skin Walker: This is the most creative of the classes here. It uses totems and nature beliefs to allow the character to wildshape into certain animals. The way it is done is highly better and makes so much more sense then the Druids abilities. I will seriously consider using this with all Druids in the future as it has more meaning for the character and for the campaign setting.

This collection of classes is pretty good. But with the amount of elven books already on the market it makes it tough to go for this one over the others. Bow and Blade by Green Ronin, Heroes of High Favor: Elf by Bad Axe Games, and Races of the Wild by Wizards of the Coast are only some of the high quality competition to this book. They do cover some of the same area as there are other archer prestige classes all over the place for instance.

I am surprised to see that this took a much more nature focus then wizard focus. Elves are said to favor the wizard class yet there seems to be very few classes that really show this. Only the Bad Axe Games book really embraces the idea of the Wizards in the elven society.

The book has some nice classes in it and can at the very least make for some interesting major NPCs if the DM likes stating NPCs up with prestige classes. I was hoping for a bit more creativity in the classes though. The first two book in the series I thought had some new and exciting takes on classes that is lacking here.