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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2010079" data-attributes="member: 172">Plains of PenancePlains of Penance is the first supplementary book for the Oathbound setting published by Bastion Press. The book details the areas of the domain of Penance outside of the city of Penance (which was covered in extensive detail in the core book), and includes details on politics, demographics, flora and fauna of the domain of Penance as well as new d20 System rules material.Plains of Penance is written by Greg Dent with adventure design by Darrin Drader (who wrote the excellent epic romp Enigma of the Arcanexus.)A First LookPlains of Penance is a 160 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $29.95. This would be a bit pricey for a black-and-white softcover d20 System rules book of this size. However, Plains of Penance has a full color interior with glossy pages.The cover art (by Jeremy Jarvis) depicts a bizarre creature against the backdrop of the plains.The interior art is color, and features artists Jason Engle, Todd Morasch, Alex Leonard, C. Michael Erikson, Christopher Pickrell, Greg Dent, Ginger Kubic, and Michael Orwick. The art varies in quality from adequate to excellent. Engle (whose style you may recognize from the pages of Dungeon magazine) provides some excellent contributions to the book with his trademark ethereal-looking illustrations.The interior body text is moderately dense, with a stylish yet readable and reasonably sized header font. The layout is attractive and readable, and the book delivers a fair value based on content for price if you factor in the color.A Deeper LookPlains of Penance is organized into 8 chapters and three appendices. Most of the rules material is in the second chapter (covering inhabitants of the plains) and the appendices.The first chapter is an overview, the 3rd through 7th chapters discuss specific regions or other aspects of the plains, and the 8th chapter is an adventure.The plains themselves fall under the rules of Israfel, the same immortal who rules over the city of Penance. Thus the same general rules apply there with respect to enforcing laws on others. Only bloodlords who rule over a specific size community can dare enforce laws, otherwise nobody is allowed to rule over anyone else. You would think that this would create a bandit haven on the plains where the population is too small to allow enforcement of laws. The introductory chapter spends a good deal of time explaining why this is not quite the case, and some of the resulting consequences of this arrangements. Bloodlords cannot enforce laws, but nothing keeps them from entering agreements. In essence, the Bloodlords enter into contracts with the travelers for their protection instead of formally enforcing laws. How Bloodlords deal with those who prey on travelers under their protection varies, but in practice, the result is not so different than a conventional fantasy world. However, it seems to me that such an arrangement would result in protection rackets and the like, a possibility that the book does not discuss but would make interesting fodder for an adventure.The domain of Penance is primarily composed of plains (hence the name of this book), though there are many settlements on the plains. However, the domain includes forests and oceans. Many rivers flow between the mountains and the oceans, and rivers are one of the primary trade routes.As with much of the Oathbound setting, there is a great cacophony of life forms in the plains. The main inhabitants are the goat-like valco, introduced in Oathbound, among other new races and traditional D20 System fantasy races. Several new races make an appearance here: -Aurads: Aurads are tall humanoids with bright markings and have feathers on their scalps. Aurads are describes as mysterious and aloof but generous and creative. -Dolphins: These are theoretically the same dolphins that exist in other worlds, just supposedly "better understood in the Forge." Part of Penance is ocean, but nonetheless, Oathbound is really not an aquatic campaign and there is very little to fit such a character into a more conventional campaign. -Wild Frey: These are wild variants of the catlike race of Frey introduced in Oathbound. -Hovara: Plains of Pennance the tradition of bizarre races begun in Oathbound with the Hovara, a race of flying stingray-like creatures. Hovara are a cruel race, and have some magical aptitude. -Thorns: Another bizarre race, the thorns are sentient plant creatures. They are a generally peaceful race, and while mobile, continue to operate like plants in many ways. For instance, instead of eating, they must "root" for a certain amount of time each day.There are two new prestige classes, both based on the so-called "channeling" system of magic. The basic concept is that there is still divine energy leaking from the core of the Forge, and channelers can take advantage of that energy and use it in different ways. The end result is somewhat similar to the 2e S&P magic of the same name: a point-pool based system that has the side effect of damaging the character if you expend your pool of power points and still wish to channel more.As a side note (or pet peeve, if you will), the author displays a major misunderstanding of the d20 system by mentioning memorization as a step in spellcasting under the core rules. There is no memorization in the 3e/d20 magic system!The two new prestige classes are the artificer and the disjoiner. The artificer can create or repair items, at higher level even merging items, even living beings. This allows the artificer to do things like add limbs to beings. On the other end of the spectrum, the dijoiner class is a purely destructive whose magical abilities are all geared to the destruction of objects, normal and magical.The channeling system of magic is introduced through these two classes, but in the disjoiner it shows how unbalanced the system is. A channeling character gets a number of "power points" to spend on class abilities equal to their Con bonus times the prestige class level. At low level, this is not a problem, but at higher levels, it becomes clear that some abilities are very abusive if they are not given a spending cap much less than this. A mid level disjoiner could very easily destroy every magic (and normal) item carried by a party in a single round.Plains of Penance includes a number of new prestige races. Prestige races are a mechanic introduces in the Oathbound core book. As my review for that book did not appear here, it is perhaps appropriate that a say a few words about it. Taking a prestige race requires a feat and the expenditure of xp. Prestige races come in several stages, each stage more costly than the list. In this, they somewhat resemble magic items.In general, I do not like mechanics that bypass the class/level system. However, of all such systems to date, I object to the prestige race mechanic the least. The benefits have a very steep cost, and resemble permanent spells or magic items. However, like most such mechanics, it has the disadvantage of invalidating character level or wealth as a measure of power.Prestige race sequences in Plains of Penance include Focus of the Claw (provides enhancement bonuses with natural weapons), focus of the enigma (provides stealth and related ability), Focus of the Huge, [/I]Focus of the Small[/I] (both providing size changes), and Focus of the Light (provides benefits within light.) Some of the mechanics left me cold. For example, one prestige race ability has a DC dependant upon level, which advances much faster than DC saves which typically only advance at ½ per level, making this ability potentially overpowering at higher levels.The ecology chapter covers the flora, fauna, and microorganisms (diseases) of the various parts of the wilds of the domain of Penance. This includes game statistics for such things as the effects that some types of plants have on attempts to be stealthy therein. Animal types are described, though you are referred to the appendix for statistics.The fourth chapter covers druids, which are the prevailing force in the forests of Penance. The "Druids" is actually a hunter-gatherer society that is controlled by a number of druids (in the D&D sense.) The chapter discusses the society and laws of the druids, which aside from the details about how the druids prevail under the laws of governance of Penance is pretty much what you would expect: the druids have laws about preserving nature and limiting the expansion of civilization.The druids chapter also includes a section on the watcher's guild, a group of elite scouts and agents of the druid lords. The guild is expressed in terms set forth in Guildcraft. This is good in that the format covers many pertinent details, but as mentioned in my review of that product, I am not at all impressed with the mechanical approach. Guild members defined under the Guildcraft method gain classlike abilities in exchange for raw XP, which effectively bypasses the level methodology for multiclasses and regresses to the first and second edition level mechanics.The fifth chapter covers the major settlements in Penance, aside from the city of Penance itself (which is covered in major detail in the Oathbound book. Some settlements have millions of inhabitants, which seems a bit of a reach, even if you do consider the unusual flora of the Forge. In addition to the salient details of each city, a few of the larger ones detail bloodlords.The sixth chapter discusses the northern oceans, which fall into the domains of Penance. The oceans are teeming with intelligent species just as the land of the Forge is. The ceptu, an unusual jellyfish-like race first introduced in the Oathbound book, are a major force in the region. The chapter is brief and only discusses the ceptu nation, a few other races, and one settlement. Despite its relative brevity, it provides more adventure ideas than the previous (longer) chapters. However, there is no rules material on running aquatic campaign, so if you are interested in running a campaign in the northern oceans, a book such as FFG's Seafarer's Handbook might be in order.The seventh chapter covers the wilderness and wilderness adventuring in the Plains of Penance. It provides GM advice for running adventures, a few rules on movement and getting lost, and a number of hazards and sites of interest as potential spots for adventuring. This is some of the most fertile material in the book, with a number of bizarre spots like a mysterious giant clock set into the ground that is said to be able to alter time and is protected by a mysterious cult, and a petrified forest that the druids fear.The eighth chapter, Ascension Day, is an adventure set in the plains and incorporating political elements from the plains of Penance and the city of Penance. The players, when investigating an army stationed in a forest in Penance, discovers that a sliver bloodlord is pursuing a vial of blood that will help him achieve godhood. If they party is clever, they can work an exchange with the guardian of the vial of blood and might meet the mysterious Gray Stranger. The adventure is designed for characters of 8th-10th level.The book has three appendices detailing new monsters (mostly beasts that one might run across in the region), new items, and new spells.ConclusionThe Plains of Penance provides the deeper information for Oathbound GMs who want to expand their games into the plains. The wilderness section, though brief, provides some of the best material for adventure. The material on cities doesn't seem quite as fresh or intriguing as the material in the Oathbound setting book.The rules on wilderness travel is somewhat sketchy but still useful, and the races and prestige race material is decent and along the same lines as the rules in the Oathbound book, I found the prestige classes and continued use of the substandard Guildcraft rules to be a wart on the book.The presentation of the book is the best I have seen in a Bastion book since Spells & Magic. Jason Engle's ethereal-looking artwork lends a nice feel to the setting, and even the artwork of the much-maligned Bastion mainstay Todd Morasch is much improved over previous Bastion books.Overall Grade: C+- Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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