D&D 5E (2014) Mythic Odysseys of Theros Reviews

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Definitely. For a Greek mythology inspired setting.

It sucks that there's not Tartarus in Theros

 

[Parmandur]

I don't remember hearing that anywhere. I would like a Radiant Knight archetype for fighters that's like a paladin, but without spells, but I don't think we'd see that in 5e.

It was in the Dragon+ broadcast immediately after the article where Crawford unpacked the UA a bit that he spoke about it originally being conceived as a Fighter option.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Obviously. They should have been in it.

Smells like DMs Guild stuff to me. The question is who will write them up first and submit them?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There is no Divination cleric. I would like something like that for an Oracle.

Ah, you’re sadly right. I’d forgotten that it is a homebrew that (objectively correctly) moves the divination mechanics of the divination wizard to the cleric.

 

[Iry]

Huh. Bear Barbarian, Rune Knight, Oath of Glory Paladin can lift over 55,000 lbs. If it's an Orc for green skin, you've basically got the Incredible Hulk.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Ah, you’re sadly right. I’d forgotten that it is a homebrew that (objectively correctly) moves the divination mechanics of the divination wizard to the cleric.

Odyssey of the Dragonlords' Prophecy Cleric is pretty much exactly what you want (you can get it from the free Player's Guide to Dragonlords). All the subclasses from that are spot-on to Greek Myth-style fantasy (I particularly liked how the convincingly made the Monk into a 300-style Spartan), though their Paladin is setting-specific.

Re: Theros, my overall feeling about the book is positive, though I don't think it's all it could be. The art is pretty near universally fantastic, with some pieces I both loved and which are as memorable as earlier edition art, which has been been rare in 4E and 5E so far (I know it's because it's MtG art, which WotC spend a lot more on, but whatever!).

The Supernatural Gifts are extremely well-done. A straight-up power gain, but that's fine, because they're both interesting and fit with the setting. They also give some good options.

Piety is an interesting mechanic, I need to look at it more but it really seems like it has potential, and maybe not just for this setting.

The races are a bit lacklustre. Centaurs, Minotaurs and Tritons are all rather below PHB races in effectiveness, seemingly because of utterly irrational over-valuing of natural weapons (the stars basically have to align for a Centaur to actually get to use it's supposed "charge"), but races are fairly poorly balanced in 5E generally, so it's not a unique issue. Leonin are okay. Satyrs would be kind of "okay I guess" except random-ass Magic Resistance, which doesn't even really fit the flavour, but er, well, I won't say no. I expect Satyr Bard and Satyr Warlock will be increasingly common over the next few years. They do at least have the interesting "Fey" sub-type (as do Centaurs), which is a double-edged sword. In 5E, you're only one thing at once, so being Fey means you aren't Humanoid. Thus Charm Person, Hold Person, and so on will not work on a Satyr. On the other hand, being Fey means things like Protection from Good and Evil, Oath of Ancients Paladin turn ability and so on do work on them! In fact if you have an Oath of the Ancients Paladin, he can't choose NOT to turn you, if you're within the radius!

Subclasses are also a bit sad. The Eloquence Bard is really good as a "Bard Wot Actually Can Do Bard Stuff Well", because you get Reliable Talent with Persuasion and Deception, which is, in my experience of playing Bards, potentially amazing, because good god the tendency of d20s to roll low, even with Advantage, when you need it, is genuinely shocking. Also being able to nerf saving throws is great for actually landing those Bard spells. Not as optimizable as a Lore Bard, or as Greek Myth-appropriate as the Dragonlords Bard subclass (who composes epic tales based on the deeds of the party, which you need to track), but a solid Bard subclass. Glory Paladin however is just a really bad Paladin. His aura is peak sadness, because not only is inexplicably 5'/10' instead of 10'/30', despite giving a crap bonus, it doesn't even let you do what the lore says it does, unless you're going last on initiative. Monks and Barbarians will be streaking past you from lower levels anyway. And that's it - there are only two subclasses.

The gods, well, I guess. They're fine. They're good in a sense, because they're not mere expys for the Greek gods/Indo-European gods, and some of the lore is fun, but there is also a bit of excessive trope-avoiding, and worse, super-corporate "BUT CAN WE TRADEMARK IT!?" stuff which feels very much like Elf to Aelf, Orc to Orruk, Dwarf to Duardin-type stuff of Age of Sigmar (i.e. Warhammer 2: To Hell With Square Bases). And most of them have kind of dumb names, which doesn't help. Heliod, i.e. Helios with a cold, being the worst offender.

The monsters are pretty great, and there are a lot of them, and I appreciate the short entries for normal D&D monsters which are slightly different here. The Mythic Monsters I'm sure someone else can go into more detail on, I haven't had enough time to look at them properly, but conceptually they seem good.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Odyssey of the Dragonlords' Prophecy Cleric is pretty much exactly what you want (you can get it from the free Player's Guide to Dragonlords). All the subclasses from that are spot-on to Greek Myth-style fantasy (I particularly liked how the convincingly made the Monk into a 300-style Spartan), though their Paladin is setting-specific.

I would not be surprised one bit if the design team went into this project purposefully creating a book that would work with Odyssey of the Dragonlords, rather than try and supercede it. After all, the OofD team now works for WotC itself, so it wouldn't exactly be kosher for Wyatt, Schneider et. al. to copy/replace all of that book's stuff with Theros mimics just because they could. What would be the point? Why muscle other companies out of the market when they can all share the same Greek-inspired space? It would help ALL the companies down the line to each bring their own thing to the table so that all the player base can be inspired by and mix & match all of the options available.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

On the other hand, being Fey means things like Protection from Good and Evil, Oath of Ancients Paladin turn ability and so on do work on them! In fact if you have an Oath of the Ancients Paladin, he can't choose NOT to turn you, if you're within the radius!

Additionally, a Satyr or Centaur Ancients Paladin actually can turn themselves, but it's a bit unclear on what would occur if this happens.

 

[Parmandur]

Additionally, a Satyr or Centaur Ancients Paladin actually can turn themselves, but it's a bit unclear on what would happen if this happens.

I am given to understand that a Pixie dies each time a Paladin Turns themselves...

 

[jerryrice4949]

Having spent time looking through all the material it just feels incomplete. A little bit of everything but to really be a complete Greek setting it would need more monsters, sub classes and races as well as magic items and more world development. It is not a terrible product and when paired with the other Greek stuff out there it could be quite good but for a stand-alone product it is lacking. I agree with the earlier post that it just feels like they went for the quick and easy.

But I think that is WOTCs’ MO at this point. I love 5th edition and own a lot of products but mostly 3P material. Last books I was actually excited about by WOTC were Xanthars and ToF.