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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 2009043" data-attributes="member: 2013">Librum Equitis is a "niche book" - meaning it is tightly focused and addresses only a very limited portion of the game.  It is a book of prestige classes for the D&D game.  It is 34 pages, in PDF format, with 22 prestige classes.  The book is very sparse as far as artwork goes - the cover is the only piece of artwork in the book.  This is just fine with me, as I am not nearly as concerned with presentation as I am with content.  In my mind, if the presentation doesn't get in the way of the content, it is adequate. With each class having its own page (or pages), there is some wasted space here.  However, I prefer to see thing such as classes and monsters - which clearly require a bit of work to explain - broken up on a per-page basis.  The cluttered format of the Monster Manual, for example, suited me less than the less-cluttered Legions of Hell, despite the extra white space, so I'm not going to knock the book for whitespace inasmuch as the white space is the cost of easy usability.  One thing I did have a problem with, however, as far as the layout goes, is that sometimes you almost wind up with "orphan tables" - pages with just a table on them and little else.  I would have preferred to see the tables moved back a page (to be with the main body of the class) and have a paragraph or two of text thusly "orphaned."Favorite things: The "best use of game mechanics" in Librum Equitis definitely goes to the archery classes, specifically the Longbowman, Military Archer, and Sniper.  In order to make them better with ranged weapons than a fighter of equivalent level, they are given a special ranged weapon attack bonus; however, the price is a cleric's BAB advancement.  IOW, if a 10th-level fighter (BAB +10) takes a level of Military Archer, his BAB remains at +10, though his ranged attack bonus rises to +12.  By adjusting this ranged bonus upwards every fourth level (the level when the BAB isn't rising), you get a class that is obviously geared towards ranged weapons with only a very slight mechanical twist.  Good show on that one.  As mentioned by Psion, there are slight mechanical issues if a character takes multiple prestige classes with this ability, but they are easily House Ruled with the insertion of the phrase "all levels stack on this ability."The other thing that struck me about LE was the Feral Ravager - a prestige class for Large and bigger characters only (read: NPCs).  The prerequisites are such that a Hill Giant "right out of the box" can take it as his first class level - an interesting touch and one that sparks ideas off for me that perhaps some monsters whose advancement is "by character class" just might have a different set of "core classes" than the typical PH races.Finally, I loved the Dark Minstrel.  Perhaps this is kind of obvious since I included it (with slight modifications) in my own work, the Enchiridion of Mystic Music, but it is the first third-party prestige class I have seen with the bard obviously in mind.  I loved the feel, though I thought the mechanics were somewhat poorly done - a bard who takes this misses out on high-level spells; I would have liked to see something to the effect of "bard and dark minstrel levels stack for the purposes of determining spells - use the bard list."My unfavorites: The Dirty Monk, was I felt, a cop-out to those players who want to play a monk but don't want to be lawful.  This is a matter of taste - the mechanics aren't bad, it's just the flavor that rubs me the wrong way - to learn martial arts takes discipline.The tainted warlock, who I feel is a bit underpowered.  As a spellcaster, I fret about taking a class that grants me +1 spellcaster level every 2 levels... the meat of spellcasting is the ability to use high-level spells at high levels.  This one grants me +1 spellcaster every 3 levels without giving me enough benefits to make it worth my while.The psycho pyretic is a psionic class - since I am not big on psionics at all, I have no opinion here... I don't use psionics in my campaigns, so I can't tell you if this is good or bad.Open Game Content: The "flavor text" for the classes is the only thing not OGC.  I like this because it means that you may see these classes cropping up in other works.  This makes LE a good buy for publishers as well, since they don't have to re-invent the wheel.Conclusion: All in all, I liked Librum Equitis.  While most prestige class books (such as the WotC "splatbooks" are heavy on magical and supernatural abilities, the majority of the prestige classes here seem to be less magic-oriented and more skill-oriented - which I REALLY like.  The use of (and bending of) game mechanics was done quite well, I thought.  If you like Presige Classes, this is almost a must-buy.  If not, you obviously have no need for the book.  I would have liked to see some Feats and/or Spells, but that wasn't the point of this book, and I won't dock it because it tells you upfront that this is 100% Prestige Classes, pure and simple.  It's not for everyone, and the lack of art and somewhat sparse flavor text may make some of the prestige classes seem a little droll.  On the other hand, the focus on mechanics makes it easy for a DM to drop these babies anywhere in his world without having to fit them into pre-conceived notions.  The mechanics are probably the most important thing about a prestige class, and Librum Equitis does well here.  Since there are obvious ways to make improvements to the product (stacking - or lack thereof - was a big problem, and of course, the presentation could be improved), I can't give this 5 stars, but it is solid and a worthy addition to my collection.  4 stars.</blockquote>

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