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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vanuslux" data-source="post: 2010818" data-attributes="member: 937">Lunar Knights is a PDF sourcebook about lycanthropy.  I bought it because it promised lycanthropy based on Magical Beasts and Outsiders.  Anything which offers to do something interesting with Outsiders perks my interest.  It also didn't hurt that lycanthropes are a pretty fertile area for developement in the d20 system.  Appearances - Lunar Knights gives us both a regular version with a color cover, art, and border illustrations and a printer-friendly version without any of those.  I'm almost disappointed that the printer-friendly version lacked art entirely, as I don't mind non-repeating illustrations in my printed copies as much as I do repetitive border art.  However, most of the art in the regular version was decent but too cartoony for me to miss it too much.  The only piece that really caught my eye was the illustration of the were-gorgon. All in all, it is pretty average looking for a PDF product.Content -   Chapter 1 - Lycanthropes: Lunar Knights doesn't waste much time getting to the point.  This chapter starts off with an overview of the standard abilities of lycanthropes and gives us the standard lycanthrope template.  This lets us know right off that Lunar Knight's vision of lycanthopes are somewhat different than the Monster Manual version.  For example they get bonuses to Wisdom and Intelligence which are weakly explained as increased animal cunning.  Unless you just want smarter and wiser lycanthropes there is really no reason to use this version of the lycanthrope template rather than the one in the Monster Manual.  After the template we get details on the differences between natural lycanthropes and those that are lycanthropes because they are afflicted with a curse, as well as variations on the curse and what can be done about it.  Chapter 2 - Races: Here is where we get the individual templates for the various breeds in the book.  First we get the "standard lycanthropes", which according to Lunar Knights are werewolves, wererats, and werecats (werecheetah, wereleopard, werelion, and weretiger).  Then we get the "rare lycanthropes" which consists of werebats, werebears (in black, brown, and polar varieties), wereboars, werecrocodiles (in regular or giant varieties), weredolphins, were-eagles, weresharks, weresnakes (in constrictor or viper varieties), and werewolverines.  Then we get more interesting with the "magical beast lycanthropes" consisting of were-blink dogs, were-dragonnes, were-gorgons, were-griffons, were-krenshars, were-manticores, were-winter wolves, and were-worgs.  As you can see, not all the magical beasts got the were-treatment.  Of course, not all of them really warrant it anyway and having all of them would have taken a lot more space.  Not that I would have complained if the book were bigger.   Then there are the "outsider lycanothropes".  We only get four of these.  The were-hellcat, the were-hellhound, the were-howler, and the were-shadow mastiff.  Not a terribly wide variety, but they didn't exactly have a lot of base "outsider animals" to work with.  All in all, that is a lot of were-templates.  This chapter has crunch coming out of its ears, though much of it is redundant.  There's not much here that couldn't be easily pulled out of the information in the Monster Manual.  It is nice to have it in a handy reference work, however.  Given that this supplement pushes the idea of playing were-critters, it seems odd that they didn't include Level Adjustments or ECLs for these templates.  It is also very disappointing that most of the were-breeds only gets a few sentences or so of description and what description the entries do provide often falls into the catagory of dull and uninspiring.    The chapter closes with some notes on how lycanthropy relates to dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, humans, and orcs.  A couple of sentences here and there spark some interesting ideas but over all it is pretty thin.Chapter 3 - Classes: This chapter starts off by saying that all lycanthropes have a class.  So if your generic gnoll gets infected by a were-worg that means he's going to immediately manifest a level in a class too?  This book has a nasty habit of making statements like this that don't seem very well thought out.  After that, we get a brief run down of how each of the core classes appeal or repel lycanthropes accompanied by a few sidebars on the new domains (Lunar and Eclipse), lycanthrope monastic orders, and shapechanging in armor.  The thoughts here range from "Hmmm..." to "Well...duh!", leaning towards the latter sentiment.  Then we get six new presige classes that are a very mixed bag:Dire Lord - Were-critters supersized free for a limited time.  A good idea spoiled by weak execution.  Low requirements, very little benefit.  For the first three levels the only ability of this class is to assume the form of a dire version of the were's animal type once per day.  The only other class abiliy is called Roar, which isn't even described, and whatever it does it can only do once per day until 10th level.  It must be pretty impressive though since being able to use it a second time per day is the only benefit of going past 8th level in the class.  Hidden Talon Ninja - Ninja wererats. Ugh.  The name hurts my ears, but this is one of the better prestige classes in the book.  A bit too easy for a wererat (the class is exclusive to them) to get into, but otherwise a potent but mostly balanced mix of monk and assassin abilities.  I could see taking this class as a player and I could see allowing it as a DM.  Those are the two hurdles that a good prestige class has to cross and this one does.  King of the Wild - One beast to rule them all...except for the clerics who laugh at them.  Another good idea that comes out as an impotent prestige class.  For the first two levels the only benefit is Command 3 times per day.  I can't see any compelling compensation for taking this class rather than taking cleric levels which would allow much the same thing with a lot more perks with the only sacrifice being a slightly lower attact progression.  Prestige classes should not be glaringly inferior to core classes.  Lunar Knight - Conjures visions of the Power Rangers without the giant robots.  Most of the abilities of this heroic class are wrapped up in their "lunar weapons" that they manifest out of nothing at will and gives them a wide range of special abilities to choose from, increasing in number and potency as the Lunar Knight progresses.  As goofy as it comes across to me, it is still a tempting fighting class.  From a DM perspective, it is balanced enough that I wouldn't forbid it except on the grounds of not fitting into my setting.  Moon Priest - Overcoming the curse of lycanthropy one prayer at a time.  The only requirement to enter this class is to be a non-evil lycanthrope which can cast 1st level divine spells.  It has some interesting abilities, the ultimate of which is to remove the curse of lycanthropy at 10th level.  The only issue of questionable balance is their Silver Tolerance ability, which increases their damage resistance (nothing in the description of the ability indicates that they are any less vulnerable to silver) but it is little enough and easily bypassed so it's probably not a big deal.  I probably wouldn't play one, but I'd allow them in my game. Wererat Black Seer - Rock smoking wererat spellcasters...I kid you not.  They are actually pretty cool though.  They inhale the smoke and fumes off burning moon rocks to enhance their magic, particularly enhancing their divination abilities.  They are perhaps a little too potent in this regard, as many of these abilities are unlimited in their use.  However, with the time it takes to use them I can't see this as being too game breaking.  Chapter 4 - Skills: This chapter is less than a page and basically just gives us some notes on what skills are particularly useful to lycanthropes as well as the new Knowledge (lycanthropes) subskill.Chapter 5 - Feats: Some suggestions from existing feats and then ten new feats.  The new feats, logically enough, all require lycanthropy.  The new feats aren't terrible impressive.  Yeah, I suppose some character would want to waste a feat to make their saliva more likely to transmit lycanthropy, particularly if the have the Lycanthopic Master feat which lets them turn a number of those they infect equal to half their HD/character level + Charisma modifier into slavish minions, but frankly the section left me yawning and disinterested.Chapter 6 - Variations: This chapter makes some suggestions for alternative looks at lycanthropes than already presented.  Natural Lycanthropes afflicted by a different kind of were-beast, changing vulnerabilities, immortal weres, not quite weres, regenerating weres, the relationship between werebeasts and vampires, and weres who are vulnerable to specific types of silver as opposed to silver in general.  All these concepts are skimmed (no more than a paragraph or two)...nothing to really sink your teeth into...but they do throw off a few creative sparks.Chapter 7 - Campaign: It claims to be a guideline for creating a lycanthope-based campaign.  It runs through ideas for the origins of lycanthropes, talks about lunar and animal deities, brings up the possibility of multiple moons, then moon rocks get talked about as lycanthropic steroids, and finally the differences between setting lycanthrope stories in wilderness or urban settings.  All these subjects could have been worth multiple pages, but most of them seem lucky to get multiple paragraphs.  Chapter 8 - Bestiary: First we get a new creature, the moon hulk, which is essentially a wererat that has eaten a moon rock.  In context it's not as dumb as it might sound and I can see myself using this critter in the future. After that we get a collection of sample lycanthropes using the templates in Chapter 2 (mostly added to 1st level human commoners, which is reasonable).  Lots 'o stats here.  It's a practical reference and as far as I can tell (when I look at over a dozen pages of nothing but stats they all kind of blur together) they're usable.  Chapter 9 - Resources: A list of stuff that influenced the authors writing.  There's something really telling about the fact that the only two novels on this list are a Harry Potter novel and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.  Among the fifteen other listed inspirations, you'll find the New Mutants comic book, the movie Teen Wolf, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show.  I'm not saying that all these things aren't great, but it gives me an idea of why the depth of this product is lacking.  In Conclusion: If I were an RPG publisher and a writer submitted this product to me as it is, my response would be "This is a great start...now get to work fleshing it out and we'll have a real winner." That's the sad thing about this product.  It clearly started with the right idea, but beneath all the stats, there's not a whole lot here that goes beyond the surface.  It could have been truly great.  As it stands, it is a mere shadow of its potential.  It is a functional reference for lycanthrope stats, and little more.  I hate to give a product that showed so much promise a 2, but I honestly couldn't recommend this product unless lycanthropes were a central part of someone's game and even then I'd put a disclaimer on my recommendation saying that it is lacking as anything more than a niche monster collection.  I don't quite regret the purchase, but it does leave me a little sour.</blockquote>

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