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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2009443" data-attributes="member: 172">Masters of ArmsMasters of Arms is a rules supplement written by Steven Palmer Peterson and published by Second World Simulations, publisher of the Bodies and Souls: 20 Templates PDF supplement. Masters of Arms is primarily a prestige class and feat book, with some magic items and other materials.A First LookMasters of Arms is a 96 page perfect-bound book priced at $18.95.The cover of the book has a color illustration by Jim Pavelec depicting some green humanoid on a lizardlike beast in front of a female chained up amidst a dreary desert landscape. I found the colors a bit garish, and I am still not sure if the humanoid is riding the beast or fighting it.The interior art features artists Craig R. Brasco, Jim Branch, Jeremy Dale, Dominic Hamer, and Fil Kearney. The illustrations are moderate to good, and the use of art is somewhat light in the book.The interior text is dense, with conservative and straightforward body and header fonts. Sometimes it is easy to skip past the header of a class; a bolder or more stylish title font for the classes or improved layout might have made the book easier to use.The author is a little tongue-in-cheek in places in the book. While this makes the book a bit more enjoyable of a read, I just know some humor-impaired reader out there is going to be madly searching for the hands with opposable thumbs(Ex) special quality.A Deeper LookWhen first looking through this book, I was immediately a little skeptical, as I saw an array of classes that had "feat" listed as a class ability at every level. This set me aback, as that is twice as many feats as the fighter has, which made the classes seem clearly overpowered.A closer look revealed what was really going on. The feats are limited to a number of feats specific to each class, so you won't be taking whirlwind attack or the like with these feats. Essentially, the feats are all class abilities that you may select from as you advance in the class. However, the class abilities in essence double as feats; this allows you to use the feats if you can't or don't want to take the class (e.g., if you can't qualify for it or the DM does not use prestige classes.)The author introduces a few new concepts to help add a little detail to combat and make the classes workable. These include:- Combination attacks: Many of the feats are combination attacks. This means that in a given attack sequence, some attacks receive a certain bonus or penalty. Often, there are benefits to later attacks that rely on the earlier attacks working.- Targeting Attacks: Part of a combination attack, targeting are attacks that you roll, but do not have their normal effect. Rather, if they succeed, they grant a specific benefit to later attacks.- Sacrificing Attacks: This is similar to targeting attacks, but you never roll anything; the later attacks automatically receive a benefit when the character using a combination forgoes the earlier attacks in a sequence.- Defensive actions: This requires the expertise feat. The character receives a number of "defense points" equal to the expertise penalty taken for the round to spend on maneuvers that are performed on an opponent's turn.An example of a combination attack is fatiguing strike from the bashing master. This combination explicitly takes three attacks, which can be those gained from advancement, those gained from feats, and so forth. When doing this combination, the disadvantage is that each strike must hit for the next strike to have a chance to hit. However, if all three hit, the target must make a fortitude save or be fatigued.Most of the prestige classes in the book utilize specific weapons, types of weapons, or combinations of weapons. These include:Axe Power Fighting MasterBashing MasterBow MasterCloak Fighting MasterClub MasterCrossbow MasterDagger MasterDouble-Pick MasterDual Sai MasterDual Swords MasterFlail MasterGlaive MasterGreatsword MasterImprovised Weapon MasterKusarigama MasterLongspear MasterNet MasterPrecision Sword MasterQuarterstaff MasterRanseur MasterRapier MasterScimitar MasterScythe MasterSpiked Chain MasterSword and Dagger MasterSword and Shield MasterThree Piece Staff MasterThrowing Hammer MasterTrident MasterTwo Axe Fighting MasterSome other classes are a little more exotic. The Alpha Beast is a class intended for creatures with natural attacks, but is otherwise similar to the weapon classes. Some classes (Blinking Master and Telekinesis Master) hone a character's pre-existing spell or spell like ability for use in combat. The last three classes (Immovable Rod Master, Rod of Lordly Might Master, and Tensile Mercury Weapon Master) are innovative in that they hone a character's ability to use a specific magic weapon.But wait, there's more!In addition to all this prestige class-y and feat-y goodness, the book has stats for some new weapons, including the sai (unfortunately, the author goes with the cheesy sharpened version of the sai) and the tensile mercury weapon (a weapon made of a metal that can be shaped at will by the user.)Further, if all of this wasn't enough, the author includes a system for designing and balancing your own combination attack feats. The system involves some math, so it's not for the faint of heart. But if "bow master" is too generic for you and you want to create a few tricks to distinguish the thornwood archers from the willowwood archers (TM - my campaign <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ), then you can custom design your own combination class abilities/feats in the same vein as many of the ones herein.The author provides as an option the idea of granting 1.5 of his "maneuver" feats for each feat. While this might be okay for general or fighter feats, I find this idea a little dubious when it comes to the classes herein. First off, the reserved nature of many of the feats makes the classes balanced as is, but pumping the classes up would probably make them unbalanced. Second, most of the classes do not have a sufficient number of class ability feats to last until the end of its progression if you speed up the acquisition of these abilities. Fortunately, this is only an option and not a major assumption of the book.Finally, it is worth noting that the author provides small sidebars with note for adapting the classes to a WP/VP based system such as that used in Spycraft and Star Wars, complete with a "defense bonus" advancement for each class. This being a primarily fantasy supplement, I can't imagine too many people using that, but it is there for those who might have gone to the trouble to port their fantasy games to use this system.ConclusionI really have to give Masters of Arms the thumbs up. I wince whenever I see a d20 system publisher create a special system to represent special training in fighting techniques when there are already mechanics for such things: prestige classes and feat chains. It is quite refreshing to see a publisher not only use the intended method, but to present it in a way that provides a GM with options to create new classes in the same vein. Even if you disdain prestige classes, most of the class abilities are usable as feats and as such allow you to add these styles to your game as feat chains.The prestige classes lack the sort of "campaign details" that help bring prestige classes in books like Path of Swords and the Librum Equitis series to life. However, I find the basic concept portable enough that I don't think that will present an obstacle in integrating the classes into a game.-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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