By Bruce Boughner, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
Path of Shadow is a 172-page hardcover accessory published by Fantasy Flight Games in their Legends & Lairs series. The authors are Mark Chance, David Chart, David Lyons, Michelle Lyons, James Maliszewski, Mike Mearis, Rick Neal and Brian Patterson. The cover is done by Brian Schomburg and is done in the faux-tome cover style and is available for $24.95.
First Blood
The final book in a series for core classes, Path of Shadow is the fourth of Fantasy Flight Games' foray into Class-specific Prestige Handbooks. This tome is intended for Rogues. The Prestige classes listed here contain not only the class itself but an immediate organization of that class for game play.
This series is not big on having a lot of chapters, only five in this one; Prestige Classes, Legendary Classes, Core Classes, Rogues Tools and Schools and Organizations.
This book has 19 new prestige classes for rogues. Each class has a sample group the class can belong to. The classes range from gamblers (Acolytes of Chance) to tumblers (Aerialists) to Halfling Clanwardens. Seekers of magical items (Mystes), beast tamers (falconers), lycanthrope slayers (Night Hunters) and church sponsored assassins (Ossorus) lead the pack of uniquely interesting niches filled in this volume.
The Legendary Classes number more than a dozen. They also range across the gamut of rogues, from burglars on the Abyssal Plane (Abyssal Infiltrator) to the vampire-like Blood Thief to the devil-may-care Fortune’s Fool. It only makes sense that the final book of the series would have the better classes. More of these are more useful in a wider variety of game milieus than in the previous tomes.
As in the past books, a number of Variant core classes are delineated here. They include the masters of disguise Chameleons, the Con Artist, the dungeon-seeking Delver and the Psychic Thief.
Chapter four deals with Rogue’s Tools, starting with new equipment, it features equipment that thief’s use but also that are a thief’s bane such as Burglar’s Bane, an alchemical creation that is undetectable but can start a magical glow that will make stolen loot hard to fence and call attention to those seeking to avoid it. But also things like Gossamer Line, a thin strong rope or the Hanging Man’s Harness used for horizontal work. There are also a couple of weapons but nothing terribly exotic.
The new magic items however are. Cipher Rings used to create unbreakable codes. Gossamer Cloaks that transform into wings are just some of the examples. But the new skill uses are where they really show how to be a rogue. The section takes a number of Bard/Rogue skills and puts them to new use. For example, Decipher Script, normally used for translating ancient archaic text now used for cryptography to make codes. How to the Use Magic Device skill, to run a con, and pass a thief off as a mage or sorcerer, credit has to be given for the creative new use of these skills.
This section also offers some new feats. Things like Desperate Interrupt used to attack to interrupt an attack prior to it happening. Magical Savant giving unusual insight to the nature and use of magic items. Hamstring to cause a devastating attack to a backstab strike. Again, these are maneuvers that have been discussed before but never really explored in any official use text. All of the feats were designated OGL.
As with Path of the Sword, the Schools and Organizations section gives specialization and characterization for your characters. Each school codifies and simplifies skills into ten lessons to give a harried DM or a confused player, not only game stats, but also plot hooks and adventure twists. Lessons can take as little as a day to master and cost 100 GP to lasting a month and costing 5500 GP, provided a rogue can find a willing teacher.
Samples of the schools include the Blade Dancers, rogues who rely on skill and speed rather than steel and armor to avoid being struck during combat but getting in close to deliver a devastating strike. Masters of Venom, who are experts at administering toxins in both apparent and subtle ways. And the Razorfiends, knife fighters who use the terrible skills developed in the Underdark by the Drow to slice up opponents. And the Unfettered Falcons, who are masters of breaking into secure areas or out of dungeons and prisons. Bounty Hunters, trapspringers and explorers all have schools in this chapter, this is a very well developed section.
Critical Hits
Path of Shadow takes rogues, not necessarily into new areas, but fleshes out places we always knew existed through novels and film but didn’t really translate into the game. While most of this isn’t really new, it is undeveloped and uncharted territory for the D20/D&D world. This being the fourth book of the series, it has had the luxury to have time to develop this format and turn it into an art form. Well thought out classes, new uses for old feats rather than just adding to an already burdensome list.
Critical Misses
This entire series looks like it was meant for a specific world, but Fantasy Flight hasn’t published one as yet. The organizations are a little too specific to just drop into Faerun or the Flanesses, but could be easily put into homegrown worlds. Some of the classes are a little top-heavy or bizarre but most are pretty usable.
Coup de Grace
Last of the series, I have to wonder what’s next for Fantasy Flight along this line, their Legends & Lairs series has really enhanced a lot of the adventures I have designed or at least given me ideas to pursue in the future.
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