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d20 Sourcebook for Horses and Mounts
Noble Steeds
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"Noble Steeds" reminds me of a thoroughbred that breaks well from the gate and opens a big lead on the backstretch only to pull up lame in the clubhouse turn and limp across the finish line with the rest of the pack.
Avalanche Press, the publisher, is probably as well-known for the 'babe-alicious' covers on many of their products (particularly http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/revi...ich=esaa[at]Endless Sands: Arabian Adventures) as they are for the actual gaming material they publish. As you can see, this cover is well done without needing to 'tempt' male readers in a certain way... The interior artwork is black-and-white with many illustrations of horses, giving an excellent impression of the variety of horse breeds and what they look like.
The first forty-five pages of this 63-page softcover (the first four pages are standard book intro fare, including a nice table of contents, while the last page is the d20 Open License) are outstanding. The fluffy parts - the history of the domestication of the horse with how it became considered a 'noble' animal and descriptions of the various breeds and types of horse - make interesting reading and are very useful to DMs who wish to establish 'breed' characteristics among the horses in her own game. Liberally sprinkled among the fluff are crunchy sidebar nuggets containing stats for the base horse types, breed stat adjustments, rules for 'cooling out' horses, rules for horse diets and what happens if you try to skimp. A DM who incorporates these rules should expect her paladins and other mounted warriors to start clamoring for the Leadership feat just to get a squire to look after their horses. The author makes it plain that horses are not cars - you don't just hop on one and hold down the gas pedal for 14 hours until you're ready to stop for the night, and you certainly don't just put the horse in the local stable and walk away. I did have a couple of minor problems (irritations, really) with the early material - while the author seems knowledgable about the material, a wee bit of exhuberance creeps in from time to time (one breed is referred to as 'intelligent' on two different occasions in the text - come on, horses have an Int of 2, and this particular breed didn't even get an Int bonus!). More significantly, the stat bonuses given to certain breeds are given in +1 increments, which means that the bonuses given to some breeds have no real game impact. Still, the material seems authoritative and on the whole is very informative. The stats for exotic horse types (such as the terra cotta steed and the fey steed) are interesting, both as possible creatures to encounter and possibly fight with as well as possible steeds.
Then, starting on page 51 with the 'Steed Creation' section, the book begins to break down. Steed Creation is basically like character creation, with breed replacing race, horse 'classes' (like destrier and courser), and classifications replacing...I'm not sure what classification is supposed to replace. The theory isn't terrible, and there are some interesting bits of info here (such as the list of horse-specific feats), but the steed advancement rules work very differently from the standard character creation rules, complete with a different level advancement chart (since steeds only gain XP when donated by their riders). If you like the idea of a 'special steed' gaining levels and abilities along with the party, go ahead and use Savage Species as the base (though you might want to include some of the horse-specific feats as additions to those rules). The rules on magical barding are likewise different from the rules governing magical armor, with many modifications receiving a 'cost multiplier' instead of a plus equivalent (why this is so is not explained). Also, the rules are sometimes inconsistent - the barding table notes that flying creatures can't wear barding because the weight and movement restrictions make it impossible for such mounts to leave the ground, yet on the very next page an armor special property is described which makes barding unencumbering and only as heavy as normal tack, but with no mention of the 'no barding for flying creatures' rule, leaving DMs to have to decide for themselves in the designers intended the armor to be used by flying mounts. (The name of the enhancement - featherlight - suggests that the answer is 'yes', but my experience is that DMs prefer explicit instructions when an ability provides an exception to other rules).
On the whole, the breakdown at the end of the book, the price ($16.95) for a book whose best info can probably be gained for free at any public library, and the fact that DMs will probably get more use out of the book than players will convinced me to give the rating I did. However, if you like horses and want them to be more to your campaign than just oat-eating organic cars, I recommend that you at least pick the book up in your local store and take a gander. To the best of my knowledge, no other book covers this material in this much detail, and you just might find yourself thinking that the flaws are worth the value.
Avalanche Press, the publisher, is probably as well-known for the 'babe-alicious' covers on many of their products (particularly http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/revi...ich=esaa[at]Endless Sands: Arabian Adventures) as they are for the actual gaming material they publish. As you can see, this cover is well done without needing to 'tempt' male readers in a certain way... The interior artwork is black-and-white with many illustrations of horses, giving an excellent impression of the variety of horse breeds and what they look like.
The first forty-five pages of this 63-page softcover (the first four pages are standard book intro fare, including a nice table of contents, while the last page is the d20 Open License) are outstanding. The fluffy parts - the history of the domestication of the horse with how it became considered a 'noble' animal and descriptions of the various breeds and types of horse - make interesting reading and are very useful to DMs who wish to establish 'breed' characteristics among the horses in her own game. Liberally sprinkled among the fluff are crunchy sidebar nuggets containing stats for the base horse types, breed stat adjustments, rules for 'cooling out' horses, rules for horse diets and what happens if you try to skimp. A DM who incorporates these rules should expect her paladins and other mounted warriors to start clamoring for the Leadership feat just to get a squire to look after their horses. The author makes it plain that horses are not cars - you don't just hop on one and hold down the gas pedal for 14 hours until you're ready to stop for the night, and you certainly don't just put the horse in the local stable and walk away. I did have a couple of minor problems (irritations, really) with the early material - while the author seems knowledgable about the material, a wee bit of exhuberance creeps in from time to time (one breed is referred to as 'intelligent' on two different occasions in the text - come on, horses have an Int of 2, and this particular breed didn't even get an Int bonus!). More significantly, the stat bonuses given to certain breeds are given in +1 increments, which means that the bonuses given to some breeds have no real game impact. Still, the material seems authoritative and on the whole is very informative. The stats for exotic horse types (such as the terra cotta steed and the fey steed) are interesting, both as possible creatures to encounter and possibly fight with as well as possible steeds.
Then, starting on page 51 with the 'Steed Creation' section, the book begins to break down. Steed Creation is basically like character creation, with breed replacing race, horse 'classes' (like destrier and courser), and classifications replacing...I'm not sure what classification is supposed to replace. The theory isn't terrible, and there are some interesting bits of info here (such as the list of horse-specific feats), but the steed advancement rules work very differently from the standard character creation rules, complete with a different level advancement chart (since steeds only gain XP when donated by their riders). If you like the idea of a 'special steed' gaining levels and abilities along with the party, go ahead and use Savage Species as the base (though you might want to include some of the horse-specific feats as additions to those rules). The rules on magical barding are likewise different from the rules governing magical armor, with many modifications receiving a 'cost multiplier' instead of a plus equivalent (why this is so is not explained). Also, the rules are sometimes inconsistent - the barding table notes that flying creatures can't wear barding because the weight and movement restrictions make it impossible for such mounts to leave the ground, yet on the very next page an armor special property is described which makes barding unencumbering and only as heavy as normal tack, but with no mention of the 'no barding for flying creatures' rule, leaving DMs to have to decide for themselves in the designers intended the armor to be used by flying mounts. (The name of the enhancement - featherlight - suggests that the answer is 'yes', but my experience is that DMs prefer explicit instructions when an ability provides an exception to other rules).
On the whole, the breakdown at the end of the book, the price ($16.95) for a book whose best info can probably be gained for free at any public library, and the fact that DMs will probably get more use out of the book than players will convinced me to give the rating I did. However, if you like horses and want them to be more to your campaign than just oat-eating organic cars, I recommend that you at least pick the book up in your local store and take a gander. To the best of my knowledge, no other book covers this material in this much detail, and you just might find yourself thinking that the flaws are worth the value.
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