Psion
Adventurer
Mystic Warriors
The third edition D&D game (and ergo D20 system) brought with it many refinements and a few new features. One of these is the prestige class mechanic. This provided a method to introduce new character options into the game under the scrutiny of the GM.
This creates possibilities for the format of new products. A great many D&D and D20 system products have featured prestige classes as at least part of the material to help shape setting material or other special character concepts associated with the product. However, to date few products have made prestige classes their major focus.
Mystic Warriors is among the first such products. The book details a number of distinct warrior traditions that share the use of a force that the book call vitus. The various classes use vitus to use some of their class abilities as well as a number of special abilities that the book calls techniques. The book is written with Mystic Eye Games' The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting in mind, but claims that the classes with in can be used in other settings.
A First Look
Mystic Warriors is a perfect bound soft-cover book with 128 pages. The book sells for $14.95 US. This gives Mystic Warriors a price per page that is very low for a book of this price and size. Compare this with books with more typical pricing. Most $14.95 D20 system books have about half as many pages, and most books with 128 pages are priced in the $20+ range.
Looking inside, the font used in the book is rather small, and the line spacing is rather close, giving a fairly high text density. However, there are some practices that detract from the delivered value somewhat. For example, the tables detailing class features have cell padding that is rather excessive, and there are two tables that are repeated many times throughout the text.
The cover graphics are fairly good. The book has a grey stylized backdrop, and the color picture on the front cover is a decent depiction of three of the classes in the book in an arboreal setting.
The interior artwork leaves something to be desired. The illustrations appear somewhat unprofessional, with a sketchy appearance and depicting characters with disproportionate body features and unrealistic looking faces.
A Deeper Look
The presented mystic warrior traditions form the bulk of the material of Mystic Warriors. Each includes a prestige class. These prestige classes share a common underpinning: the vitus and technique system presented in the book.
Techniques are special abilities that each of the presented prestige classes can use. The classes receive them in a similar manner to spells. The techniques are arranged into 5 levels, and each class has a chart describing how many techniques they can use of each level according to their class level. Like the spells of a sorcerer or bard, there is a table determining how many techniques the characters knows and a separate table describing how many they can use per day. Unlike spells, you get more techniques known from high ability scores instead of getting more uses per day. However, one error in the text is that the book never states which ability score you use to get extra techniques, though it would be possible to make an educated guess that it is the same stat that the class uses to get bonus vitus (see below).
The book states that techniques are all special abilities. I found that decision somewhat questionable, as many of the abilities sound like they could only come about by magical effects and should be considered spell like or supernatural abilities. For some techniques this makes sense, such vital strike that give the character a chance at a critical strike automatically. However others do things like make a glowing double or create a burst of life force that seem like they would be explicitly supernatural to me.
In addition to the limited uses per day, techniques cost the character a number of vitus points. Vitus are a resource representing the warrior's self confidence. In essence, the vitus system is a spell point system. In addition to being the currency with which you pay for the use of techniques, vitus is also used for the class abilities of some mystic warriors. Some techniques can be enhanced by the expenditure of additional vitus.
A new skill is introduced in the book, harness vitus. The primary purpose of harness vitus is to enhance the use of techniques. It can also be used to give the character a second chance saving throw if she fails a willpower save. For some reason, no vitus seems to be expended in this latter use of the skill. The skill is a cross class skill for all classes but the mystic warrior classes presented in the book, and all such classes require some ranks in the skill as an entry requirement.
All classes gain some vitus each level. This is a meager 3 points per level for non-mystic warrior class. Mystic warriors receive from 7-10 points (depending on class) plus charisma bonus plus the bonus from one other stat (again depending on class) per mystic warrior class level.
The tracking of vitus seems like it would not fit well with the styles of some groups. Fortunately, some notes are provided for excluding the use of vitus and making other adaptations to fit the classes and technique system to a different setting.
Each mystic warrior tradition includes a prestige class that defines members of the order and a short vignette showing an example of the members of the order. All of the prestige classes have a techniques per level table, but it is not made clear whether this is supposed to describe the techniques known or the techniques available per day, but by comparing those tables to standard tables in the beginning of the book, they appear to be the latter.
The prestige classes are conceptually sound. Each is built around an order, cult, or sect. The concepts vary widely, giving players a good range of options. Some are typical fare that you might expect your players to want to play, like a pugilist order and a knight-like order. Beyond those, there are many unique and interesting concepts. For example, the Revenant Guard is a very cool concept. People become Revenant Guards who were forced to take vengeance for wrongs done to them. They are sympathetic to the plight of those who passed on without the chance to avenge themselves. They occasionally share their body with the spirit of such an unfortunate, and help them achieve vengeance. Some of their class abilities stem from this co-habitation. This is a great concept, loaded with campaign possibilities.
However, the prestige classes seem fairly powerful. They have moderate to good fighting abilities, a good selection of special abilities, and access to techniques. The author hopes to address this by giving each class several role-playing strictures, a technique that I do not think works in general.
Some prestige classes also use nonstandard BAB and saving throw advancement for no apparent reason. This is despite the fact that in the beginning of the book, they reiterate that the classes will use one of the standard advancement schemes. This makes me suspect that the numbers were in error and that some authors weren't fully versed with D20 system conventions.
In addition to this material, some special magic items and sample NPCs for the orders are also presented.
Summary
In a strange way, this book was disappointing. When I first started reading about the techniques, I hoped that it would pan out to be an interesting and useful concept. To a certain extent it is, but it needs some work. I found it rather odd that they gave both a point system for their use and a uses per day chart, and threw in other uses of the vitus system. Combined, this makes it seem like the system would require some tedious accounting during play to little effect. The recommendations for removing vitus sound like they would make the techniques more workable, however.
In addition, I found the classes a bit overpowered. As mentioned, the authors appeal to the presence of role-playing disadvantages as a balance. In my experience, this does not work out well, and it is a general D&D 3e / D20 system practice to avoid using role-playing strictures as a major balancing point, and for good reason. Consider, for example, how much more balanced and playable the 3e barbarian is than the one that appeared in the Unearthed Arcana years ago. Attitude problems are a poor reason to give characters benefits, especially when virtually any character can have such role-playing issues, yet no other character gets compensation for it.
If you are willing to polish up the classes and work with the vitus system, there is a lot of good material to be had in this book. However, as is the case with any book -- even of this size -- which required a lot of retooling by the end user, I can only give this book an average rating.
-Alan D. Kohler
The third edition D&D game (and ergo D20 system) brought with it many refinements and a few new features. One of these is the prestige class mechanic. This provided a method to introduce new character options into the game under the scrutiny of the GM.
This creates possibilities for the format of new products. A great many D&D and D20 system products have featured prestige classes as at least part of the material to help shape setting material or other special character concepts associated with the product. However, to date few products have made prestige classes their major focus.
Mystic Warriors is among the first such products. The book details a number of distinct warrior traditions that share the use of a force that the book call vitus. The various classes use vitus to use some of their class abilities as well as a number of special abilities that the book calls techniques. The book is written with Mystic Eye Games' The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting in mind, but claims that the classes with in can be used in other settings.
A First Look
Mystic Warriors is a perfect bound soft-cover book with 128 pages. The book sells for $14.95 US. This gives Mystic Warriors a price per page that is very low for a book of this price and size. Compare this with books with more typical pricing. Most $14.95 D20 system books have about half as many pages, and most books with 128 pages are priced in the $20+ range.
Looking inside, the font used in the book is rather small, and the line spacing is rather close, giving a fairly high text density. However, there are some practices that detract from the delivered value somewhat. For example, the tables detailing class features have cell padding that is rather excessive, and there are two tables that are repeated many times throughout the text.
The cover graphics are fairly good. The book has a grey stylized backdrop, and the color picture on the front cover is a decent depiction of three of the classes in the book in an arboreal setting.
The interior artwork leaves something to be desired. The illustrations appear somewhat unprofessional, with a sketchy appearance and depicting characters with disproportionate body features and unrealistic looking faces.
A Deeper Look
The presented mystic warrior traditions form the bulk of the material of Mystic Warriors. Each includes a prestige class. These prestige classes share a common underpinning: the vitus and technique system presented in the book.
Techniques are special abilities that each of the presented prestige classes can use. The classes receive them in a similar manner to spells. The techniques are arranged into 5 levels, and each class has a chart describing how many techniques they can use of each level according to their class level. Like the spells of a sorcerer or bard, there is a table determining how many techniques the characters knows and a separate table describing how many they can use per day. Unlike spells, you get more techniques known from high ability scores instead of getting more uses per day. However, one error in the text is that the book never states which ability score you use to get extra techniques, though it would be possible to make an educated guess that it is the same stat that the class uses to get bonus vitus (see below).
The book states that techniques are all special abilities. I found that decision somewhat questionable, as many of the abilities sound like they could only come about by magical effects and should be considered spell like or supernatural abilities. For some techniques this makes sense, such vital strike that give the character a chance at a critical strike automatically. However others do things like make a glowing double or create a burst of life force that seem like they would be explicitly supernatural to me.
In addition to the limited uses per day, techniques cost the character a number of vitus points. Vitus are a resource representing the warrior's self confidence. In essence, the vitus system is a spell point system. In addition to being the currency with which you pay for the use of techniques, vitus is also used for the class abilities of some mystic warriors. Some techniques can be enhanced by the expenditure of additional vitus.
A new skill is introduced in the book, harness vitus. The primary purpose of harness vitus is to enhance the use of techniques. It can also be used to give the character a second chance saving throw if she fails a willpower save. For some reason, no vitus seems to be expended in this latter use of the skill. The skill is a cross class skill for all classes but the mystic warrior classes presented in the book, and all such classes require some ranks in the skill as an entry requirement.
All classes gain some vitus each level. This is a meager 3 points per level for non-mystic warrior class. Mystic warriors receive from 7-10 points (depending on class) plus charisma bonus plus the bonus from one other stat (again depending on class) per mystic warrior class level.
The tracking of vitus seems like it would not fit well with the styles of some groups. Fortunately, some notes are provided for excluding the use of vitus and making other adaptations to fit the classes and technique system to a different setting.
Each mystic warrior tradition includes a prestige class that defines members of the order and a short vignette showing an example of the members of the order. All of the prestige classes have a techniques per level table, but it is not made clear whether this is supposed to describe the techniques known or the techniques available per day, but by comparing those tables to standard tables in the beginning of the book, they appear to be the latter.
The prestige classes are conceptually sound. Each is built around an order, cult, or sect. The concepts vary widely, giving players a good range of options. Some are typical fare that you might expect your players to want to play, like a pugilist order and a knight-like order. Beyond those, there are many unique and interesting concepts. For example, the Revenant Guard is a very cool concept. People become Revenant Guards who were forced to take vengeance for wrongs done to them. They are sympathetic to the plight of those who passed on without the chance to avenge themselves. They occasionally share their body with the spirit of such an unfortunate, and help them achieve vengeance. Some of their class abilities stem from this co-habitation. This is a great concept, loaded with campaign possibilities.
However, the prestige classes seem fairly powerful. They have moderate to good fighting abilities, a good selection of special abilities, and access to techniques. The author hopes to address this by giving each class several role-playing strictures, a technique that I do not think works in general.
Some prestige classes also use nonstandard BAB and saving throw advancement for no apparent reason. This is despite the fact that in the beginning of the book, they reiterate that the classes will use one of the standard advancement schemes. This makes me suspect that the numbers were in error and that some authors weren't fully versed with D20 system conventions.
In addition to this material, some special magic items and sample NPCs for the orders are also presented.
Summary
In a strange way, this book was disappointing. When I first started reading about the techniques, I hoped that it would pan out to be an interesting and useful concept. To a certain extent it is, but it needs some work. I found it rather odd that they gave both a point system for their use and a uses per day chart, and threw in other uses of the vitus system. Combined, this makes it seem like the system would require some tedious accounting during play to little effect. The recommendations for removing vitus sound like they would make the techniques more workable, however.
In addition, I found the classes a bit overpowered. As mentioned, the authors appeal to the presence of role-playing disadvantages as a balance. In my experience, this does not work out well, and it is a general D&D 3e / D20 system practice to avoid using role-playing strictures as a major balancing point, and for good reason. Consider, for example, how much more balanced and playable the 3e barbarian is than the one that appeared in the Unearthed Arcana years ago. Attitude problems are a poor reason to give characters benefits, especially when virtually any character can have such role-playing issues, yet no other character gets compensation for it.
If you are willing to polish up the classes and work with the vitus system, there is a lot of good material to be had in this book. However, as is the case with any book -- even of this size -- which required a lot of retooling by the end user, I can only give this book an average rating.
-Alan D. Kohler
