Masterwork Characters: Children of the Fey is a pdf product from Clockwork Golem Workshop, one of several in the Masterwork Characters series. This pdf details fey and fey-related aspects for characters, including a new race, new feats, new spells, prestige classes and new magical items and equipment. It's a 22 page pdf written by Peter Ball, of which 20 pages are devoted to the content. This pdf normally retails for $2.95. This review was done as part of Crothian's Review Project.
Disclaimer: The reviewer is a d20 freelance writer and editor but is in no way affiliated with the publisher of this product. Every effort has been made by the reviewer to ensure that this is an impartial review.
Note: This is an older review reposted since the server crash.
Initial Impressions:
Clockwork Golem Workshop present another no-frills layout with this pdf product - simple, clean, but still with a decent overall look. There are three smallish images in the pdf, also very simple and nothing to write home about. The editing and writing is good and clear, and I didn't pick up anything obvious in reading through the pdf. Given the overall good value for money on this pdf, one can hardly complain about what it looks like, so it's best to delve into the content to see what this pdf is all about and what it has to offer. Full bookmarks are included.
The Details:
Clockwork Golem Workshop have slowly expanded their line of Masterwork Characters, and it now includes six products, each detailing with a different concept and expanding upon it. The Masterwork Characters line as the name would suggest is mainly for players, but DMs will find a lot of material in here that can be used to create interesting NPCs. The pdfs all have a similar outline, presenting a new race, followed by feats, prestige classes, spells and equipment. Before delving into the crunch heavy material in this pdf, there is a brief half page introduction detailing the role of fey in fantasy fiction and mythology, as well as giving the design assumption that were considered when designing this pdf. This is a nice idea as it gives a behind the scenes look at the authors intentions with the material, and helps to adjudicate it based on that.
Feyborn: This is a new races presented, and is essentially a character with a touch of fey blood, either through parents or perhaps through other means, such as the blessings of the fey when a character is not yet born. The race description includes a lot of detail on such things are personality, description and their relationships to other races and general alignment tendencies. As a fey their essential racial attributes include bonuses to Charisma, minor spell-like abilities and an aptitude for enchantment spells. Overall this is something that I can certainly see being played, particularly as a more general approach to playing fey creatures. A good and solid race.
Feats: Nine new feats are presented in the next section, and these includes Fairy Gift (receiving a gift from a powerful fey creature, mechanically in the form of skill bonuses or improved spell DCs), Fey Grace (improved ability to dodge creatures), Fey Magic (improved casting of fey-related spells), and Twilight Magic (can cast spells more powerfully at night). Overall this is a good fey-flavored set of feats that ties in nicely to the other material presented in this pdf. The feats are useful and balanced.
Prestige classes: The prestige classes presented are child of the woods (those that harness the power of the fey in their blood), fool king (a fool from the fey realms and fey courts), and warden of the woods (a blessed protector of fey territory). These were solid prestige classes, offering interesting new abilities, good background material, and solid mechanical execution. Definitely something that can be useful in any fey-based campaign. The fool king is particularly good and will make a very interesting bard-based character in a more roleplaying orientated campaign, but the prestige class also offers interesting combat abilities such as stun creatures with your quick and skilled wordplay.
Spells: There are eight new spells in this pdf, all of them 4th level or lower and featuring the transmutation (for some reason the pdf lists these as transformation, an obvious error), conjuration, enchantment and illusion. The spells fit the fey concept well, being glamors, figments, or even affairs of the heart and mind. Voice theft is quite a nice spell that allows you to steal a target's voice, leaving them mute, while fairy glamor grants bonuses to skills to make you look more appealing to others. A good selection, some spells more useful than others, but fitting nicely to the these. The various 'love' spells are probably only useful in certain roleplaying scenarios.
Magic: The last section deals with equipment and magic items. Feywood is presented as a new special material, not very different from mithral armor. There's actually also a pixie arrow of memory loss, something that players tend to ask prices for when playing pixie characters. The items are creative and interesting, offering small amounts of background flavor to make the item stick in your mind a bit more.
Conclusions:
Masterwork Characters: Children of the Fey is a pdf that provides numerous options for players wishing to play fey-like creatures. It's overall a solid pdf, although given that it deals exclusively with fey, something not all that common in most campaigns, some will not find the material terribly useful. The fool king prestige class, for example, requires that the characters spend some time in the fey courts. Unless a character is created at a level where this can be assumed to have happened, it's not going to be something that can happen all that often as players don't want to spend game time in a fairy court while their fellow party members are out adventuring. For NPCs there is some useful material and DMs can flesh out their fey creatures. Players can make full use of the feyborn race in any campaign, and the rest of the material goes well with that. If you like fey, this is a decent product, otherwise it may not be all that useful to you. Based on solid content, usefulness of material, and concepts, I'd grade this with three and half stars, rounding down to three stars.
Disclaimer: The reviewer is a d20 freelance writer and editor but is in no way affiliated with the publisher of this product. Every effort has been made by the reviewer to ensure that this is an impartial review.
Note: This is an older review reposted since the server crash.
Initial Impressions:
Clockwork Golem Workshop present another no-frills layout with this pdf product - simple, clean, but still with a decent overall look. There are three smallish images in the pdf, also very simple and nothing to write home about. The editing and writing is good and clear, and I didn't pick up anything obvious in reading through the pdf. Given the overall good value for money on this pdf, one can hardly complain about what it looks like, so it's best to delve into the content to see what this pdf is all about and what it has to offer. Full bookmarks are included.
The Details:
Clockwork Golem Workshop have slowly expanded their line of Masterwork Characters, and it now includes six products, each detailing with a different concept and expanding upon it. The Masterwork Characters line as the name would suggest is mainly for players, but DMs will find a lot of material in here that can be used to create interesting NPCs. The pdfs all have a similar outline, presenting a new race, followed by feats, prestige classes, spells and equipment. Before delving into the crunch heavy material in this pdf, there is a brief half page introduction detailing the role of fey in fantasy fiction and mythology, as well as giving the design assumption that were considered when designing this pdf. This is a nice idea as it gives a behind the scenes look at the authors intentions with the material, and helps to adjudicate it based on that.
Feyborn: This is a new races presented, and is essentially a character with a touch of fey blood, either through parents or perhaps through other means, such as the blessings of the fey when a character is not yet born. The race description includes a lot of detail on such things are personality, description and their relationships to other races and general alignment tendencies. As a fey their essential racial attributes include bonuses to Charisma, minor spell-like abilities and an aptitude for enchantment spells. Overall this is something that I can certainly see being played, particularly as a more general approach to playing fey creatures. A good and solid race.
Feats: Nine new feats are presented in the next section, and these includes Fairy Gift (receiving a gift from a powerful fey creature, mechanically in the form of skill bonuses or improved spell DCs), Fey Grace (improved ability to dodge creatures), Fey Magic (improved casting of fey-related spells), and Twilight Magic (can cast spells more powerfully at night). Overall this is a good fey-flavored set of feats that ties in nicely to the other material presented in this pdf. The feats are useful and balanced.
Prestige classes: The prestige classes presented are child of the woods (those that harness the power of the fey in their blood), fool king (a fool from the fey realms and fey courts), and warden of the woods (a blessed protector of fey territory). These were solid prestige classes, offering interesting new abilities, good background material, and solid mechanical execution. Definitely something that can be useful in any fey-based campaign. The fool king is particularly good and will make a very interesting bard-based character in a more roleplaying orientated campaign, but the prestige class also offers interesting combat abilities such as stun creatures with your quick and skilled wordplay.
Spells: There are eight new spells in this pdf, all of them 4th level or lower and featuring the transmutation (for some reason the pdf lists these as transformation, an obvious error), conjuration, enchantment and illusion. The spells fit the fey concept well, being glamors, figments, or even affairs of the heart and mind. Voice theft is quite a nice spell that allows you to steal a target's voice, leaving them mute, while fairy glamor grants bonuses to skills to make you look more appealing to others. A good selection, some spells more useful than others, but fitting nicely to the these. The various 'love' spells are probably only useful in certain roleplaying scenarios.
Magic: The last section deals with equipment and magic items. Feywood is presented as a new special material, not very different from mithral armor. There's actually also a pixie arrow of memory loss, something that players tend to ask prices for when playing pixie characters. The items are creative and interesting, offering small amounts of background flavor to make the item stick in your mind a bit more.
Conclusions:
Masterwork Characters: Children of the Fey is a pdf that provides numerous options for players wishing to play fey-like creatures. It's overall a solid pdf, although given that it deals exclusively with fey, something not all that common in most campaigns, some will not find the material terribly useful. The fool king prestige class, for example, requires that the characters spend some time in the fey courts. Unless a character is created at a level where this can be assumed to have happened, it's not going to be something that can happen all that often as players don't want to spend game time in a fairy court while their fellow party members are out adventuring. For NPCs there is some useful material and DMs can flesh out their fey creatures. Players can make full use of the feyborn race in any campaign, and the rest of the material goes well with that. If you like fey, this is a decent product, otherwise it may not be all that useful to you. Based on solid content, usefulness of material, and concepts, I'd grade this with three and half stars, rounding down to three stars.
