The Player’s Guide to Clerics and Druids would be the third in the Sword and Sorcery series of class books, and the one that most caught my interest. Unlike apparently everyone else, I rather like clerics, and the faith of the Scarred Lands is one of the factors that has most kept my interest in the setting. So what do I think of the book?
Well, the cover has that most irksome "Core sourcebook" text emblazoned right on it. Don’t let it fool you; it’s not a core sourcebook, whether for normal revised 3rd edition fantasy roleplaying, or even for the Scarred Lands. It's a sourcebook, simple as that.
Which is another thing you should not be mislead by - the front cover fails to mention the books association with the Scarred Lands, and the only mention that the back cover makes to the book being written with the Scarred Lands in mind lies in the setting stamp in the lower left hand corner, along with the d20 and Sword and Sorcery logo that one might overlook. Don’t let the cover fool you - the book would be better described as being the "Scarred Lands Player’s Guide to Clerics and Druids." If you’re not familiar with the setting, you’re going to be left in the dark on a lot of the information presented within. That’s
not to say that the book is completely bereft of good ideas that anyone can use or other, more universal information, but it is most definitely a book intrinsically tied to a game setting. Over half the text offers up details on the world and faith of Scarn, and a good number of the new rules and options it offers up assume you will be using the Scarred Lands pantheon with them.
The book starts off with the usual introductions Scarred Lands books
offer from the developer and just what the book’s about, and then turns swiftly towards the place and origin of clerics within the setting. The first noteworthy thing mentioned within would be the Pact of Nammul.
Essentially, the gods of Scarn all agreed that to hear and ignore any cries to the gods would be horrendous, and that it would be better to answer the prayers to a false god then let those prayers go unanswered (and for those individuals to possibly turn away from the gods altogether). This explains how one can potentially gain clerical spells from demons, dead gods, or gods that never existed in the first place.
Beyond the Pact of Nammul, most of the first chapter revolves around the history of the gods and their individual faiths, as told through the eyes of various druids and new converts. Standard stuff, fairly worth the read, so long as the gods of the Scarred Lands interest you.
Chapter two continues detailing the clerics of Scarn, this time focusing on the various churches and sects of the gods and demigods, as well as a few notable figures. This chapter helps to solidify some of the settings belief settings, and conversely, offer up options for players to work in their own ideas and takes on a faith. While I believe the mainstream sects were a necessity to include, the one sect which most stuck out for me was that of the Revivifiers, Chaotic Neutral worshippers of the Scarred Lands Chaotic Evil god of destruction and bloodshed, Vangal. Their belief is that from destruction, comes rebirth, and that while Vangal is a terrible and dreadful figure, from his actions comes a better world. While perhaps not the most original of ideas, it’s one that hasn’t been gone into overly much in the Scarred Lands, at least in regards to Vangal. I feel that their presence in the book will cause Scarred Lands DM’s to rethink some of their ideas upon the deity (and possibly other ones, as well). The group also serves as one avenue for PC worshippers of a Chaotic Evil god who can still operate within the confines of an adventuring party.
As for the notable persons in chapter two...all were either fairly bland, or showed up in other supplements. So onto chapter three...
Eight pages and 14 gods having their holy books mentioned makes up the entirety of chapter three. An introduction, the history, and the contents of each are given a brief run down. While giving another small glimpse into the various religions of the Scarred Lands, and certainly nice to have in there - the number of times PC’s in my games, or even ones I’ve played, have been skimming through a book shelf equals probably about a third to half the games I’ve run or been in - none were particularly exciting. Furthermore, a number of them are mentioned as having the details of the powerful true rituals of the Scarred Lands written within them. In light of the availability of these rituals being described as "rare beyond words," for them to be appearing in books that are mentioned as having "enjoyed a wide dissemination" incites some grumbling on my part for the contradiction. Not to mention that some of those rituals are fairly powerful, and a DM might have some arguments about not allowing a PC to have them when the character could reasonably, fairly easily and inexpensively find a source for them according to the Player’s Guide.
With that said, though, onto chapter four, and onto the druids.
Again, it parallels chapter one, only now detailing the history of druids upon Scarn. Most of it comes from the perspective of an anonymous, apparently near immortal author, who takes us through the various epochs of the titans, and the way magic and the world changed each time a different titan asserted their dominance upon the world (or however one wants to view how the epochs changed, which needn’t necessarily have been at the hands of those god-like creatures of the land, the titans). Essentially, druids in the Scarred Lands haven’t always wielded the sort of magic they do now. At times, their magic has focused on the act of creation, at others, mind-control, and much more besides. Nothing new here, at least for the Scarred Lands.
However, one new theory it presents is that the gods are, bit by bit, draining the souls from Scarn. Where once souls existed in a constant cycle of reincarnation, now they’re being drawn out into the outer planes, which is slowly causing Scarn to die. Of course, since this is in the druids section, and is essentially a cry out against the gods, it should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is, at least, an interesting theory.
Chapter five! Much like chapter two, but it thankfully saves the reader from having to read about any notable figures. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with them, but I like for there have been something memorable about them once I’ve finished reading about them.
But, enough with that.
Chapter five goes into just why druids of the Scarred Lands would worship entities such as the titans who could care less about having followers and sycophants. It offers up one entry on each titan for the how and whys their worship. Once it finishes with those, it offers up one cult for each of the titans. Druids of disease, druids of poison, and so on, and so on.
Instead of chapter six offering up holy books for druids - which one could argue isn’t entirely appropriate - it goes into different forms druidic worship takes place outside of the titans. Just like clerics needn’t necessarily worship a deity due to the Pact of Nammul, one needn’t bother with a titan to draw druidic power off the land. Or ancestors. Or the Beastlords. These three things as forms of druidic worship are the heart of chapter six. A solid if unspectacular chapter.
But what of the feats and prestige classes and new spells? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Feats first, and there’s a number of them. There’s the usual assortment of general feats, and then there are the special miracle, primal and totem feats. Miracle feats all work off of turn or rebuke undead uses, primal feats off of wildshape uses, and totem feats to those who have attracted the attention of a spiritual tribal patron (and are usually restricted to only one totem at that).
Now, my question is, what’s the deal with the +2 Spell Save DC feats in here? While none are necessarily bad in and of themselves, they begin to stack up after a while. One’s only usable in a selected terrain type, but the other works on one selected spell per spell level - which makes it about the equivalent of Spell Focus, in my mind, by being versatile enough to apply to multiple schools, and more specifically, the best save based spell per level. Oh, that feat also increases the casters effective level for that spell by one, too. Some of the revisions made to third edition seem to be ignored in here, and this seems to be just one example. There are a few more, but I’ll not go into them quite yet.
The Miracle feats, as mentioned, rely on the ability to turn or rebuke the undead. From there, their commonality subsides. None strike me as too strong or too weak, and I’m sure most will be able to find something that appeals to them within it. For my part, I’m fond of Casting Out the Unclean and its partner Great Exorcism, which allow clerics some capacity at turning outsiders.
As for the Primal feats, one exists for every titan. They represent lingering power from past epochs that the druid can call upon in place of wildshaping. I, being more a fan of clerics, didn’t find any that stood out for me, but I found no particular complaints with them, and I’m sure someone playing a druid could find something they’d like and could use.
The same goes for the Totem feats. To a degree, they’re all a matter of flavor. System-wise they offer a number of uses per day, and in return, bear a taboo that the feat-holder must follow in order to continue benefiting from the feat. As none are particularly powerful looking from my initial reading, the fact that some of these taboos aren’t particularly troublesome doesn’t bother me overly much. Usually, I find role-playing and fluff rarely balances out a feat, power or prestige-class, at least in many instances.
After the feats, new invocations and rituals are listed for all of the gods and titans. These are prayers and acts one can perform in praise or emulation of a god or titan in order to gain a benefit to skill checks, saving throws, attack rolls and the like. While not necessarily opposed to them - the idea of crying out to a god for aid and receiving it is an appealing one to me - I do feel that too many of these invocations and rituals can potentially be overkill. The book addresses this by saying that DM’s with these worries can restrict the number of invocations usable by a character to those in Divine and the Defeated plus one more for every two ranks one has in the Knowledge (Religion) skill, but this doesn’t entirely balance it out in my mind - it just means that an already strong class, the cleric, will have even more options over other classes. Other than that, they’re a nice touch, and not too unbalancing, so long as the DM properly keeps them in check.
A book like this is almost guaranteed to have prestige classes, and it doesn’t disappoint in this department. So, what are my thoughts?
Well, the integration of prestige classes from the Dungeon Masters Guide and the Book of Hallowed Might into the Scarred Lands is a worthwhile endeavor. However, I found that by tying the Mystic Theurge to a specific pair of faiths was missing the point of the prestige class in the first place, as a multiclassing fix.
What of the new prestige classes, however? Flavor-wise, I felt they were lacking. However, that’s a matter of opinion, and I can be picky. There’s 12, all told, ranging from the Anchorite, a spiritual hermit, to the Totem Caller, who sacrifices spellcasting in return for a full attack bonus progression and different uses and powers based off of wildshaping and the totem feats.
Once past the flavor of the prestige classes, however, we get down to the real nuts and bolts of them. How useful, for example, are they outside of a Scarred Lands campaign? I’d say about half of them can be fairly easily placed into another setting with a minimum of change; the Anchorite, for one, can be used in any number of campaigns, and even the Khetan Phagist - a druidic cannibal, essentially - could readily slide into most games. However, the Initiate of the Ram, Pursuivant, and a number of others all have abilities which, in part, tie into the Scarred Lands, that may need some tweaking if you’re not using that setting (It acknowledges this for the Initiate, at least). The abilities of the Pursuivant rely, in part, on the fact that Rangers, Druids and Sorcerer’s (but not Wizards) receive their power from sources opposed to or different from the gods, as well as on there being titanspawn (monsters loyal to or strongly bound to the titans of the setting). While most can be altered as needed or wanted, so can many prestige classes, regardless of the source, and the less I need to change something from a book, the better that book is, in my opinion. Furthermore, I felt that some of the universal usefulness, regardless of campaign, that this book tried for, in addition to failing at in many instances, also hurt some of the flavor of the prestige classes - if they had just been written with the Scarred Lands specifically in mind, they may have had more appeal to me. As it is, I think a hazy middle-point where no one is really happy was met. Each entry does mention how each class can be used in other campaigns, but these are not always satisfactory.
Balance-wise, I was a bit surprised(pleasantly so). One thing I always look for in a prestige class is whether or not it would be worth continuing in the base class. That is, does the prestige class lack something that the base class offers? Or is it just a bunch of new abilities, in addition to doing everything the base class could? For most of these classes, I found that a player actually does have to weigh whether or not they want to pick up the prestige class, or continue advancing in the base class. Most of the prestige classes take away something in exchange for the abilities they offer, to help balance out those abilities. The Oracle of Hedrada grants full spellcasting progression, a Wisdom bonus to Initiative, Uncanny Dodge, and a number of spell-like abilities, but in turn, cuts down on the attack bonus and Fortitude saves of a Cleric; after all, since when have Oracles been known as hardy folk who swing a mace quite aptly? Some might cry that they have to give up something in order to gain some of the prestige classes special abilities, but I personally find it to be a good thing - particularly with clerics, who are a solid enough class without gaining a number of other special powers on top of what they already have. So, while the prestige classes may not have particularly struck my fancy, I don’t believe I would have any problem using most of them for NPC’s or allowing a PC to pick one of them up - which is a rarity for me. There are a couple of exceptions, such as the Cultist of the Forge and the Defender of the Faith, the first of which has fairly lenient requirements and gives up next to nothing that a cleric has, in addition to what the prestige class offers, whereas the Defender of the Faith has slightly more stringent, though still not particularly balancing requirements, which also takes next to nothing from a cleric, yet also offers a number of advantages.
Next on the menu we get to theurgical items and various herbs.
Theurgical items are those blessed by clerics, such as particularly potent holy water, alternative holy symbols, and a few other tidbits here and there. Nothing too out of whack here, nothing that I feel would upset the game, just a few new, fairly mundane items for those who care to make use of them. Much the same with the herbs; different uses for them, how to best brew and mix them...nothing unexpected.
Following this we come to a short section on various places of power touched by the titans. Brief but interesting, they can make for an unexpected surprise - and challenge - the next time the PC’s raid a druids grove or some other sacred site, due to the effects these places have.
The book finishes up with a few new clerical and druidic spells. While I found none of them to be particularly exciting, my eye was drawn to the part on the primal modifier. Essentially, druids of the Scarred Lands do not have Holy, Unholy, Sacred or Profane modifiers in their spells. Instead, these are all replaced with the Primal modifier. Primal damage, primal bonuses, and so on. While I understand the concept behind them, I do question just what effect this may have on certain monsters and the stacking of certain bonuses. Nothing too dire comes to mind at the moment, though, but it may be something to watch for.
Finishing touches:
The artwork was nothing particularly impressive. I did enjoy Yanner’s sketches of various followers of the gods and titans, but other than that, the rest was decent to less than stellar. The artwork of the Stormsinger in particular makes me twitch - she looks like a comic-book super villain. It’s not the worst picture, just not the most appropriate.
Editing/Nit-picking: Just a few small things. First off, the conversion from third edition to revised third edition hasn’t quite been implemented in this book. Take for example the Speaker of the Ancestors feat, which grants a weapon proficiency that also says the weapon counts as a druidic weapon. Druidic weapons no longer exist. There’s also mention in it of both polymorph self and other, as well as the symbol spell. Just small things, but there nonetheless. The book also mentions how druids are not restricted in the spells they can cast based on alignment; unless the Scarred Lands has a different take on how druids cast spells, this sentence is wrong. Based on the fact that it was essentially a small, throw-away sentence (as opposed to a sidebar), I feel this was a mistake, not intentional. There’s also mention of a Chaotic Evil druid, with no explanation as to why, as well as a sect of a Chaotic Neutral deity who typically take Good as one of their domains. While these are all fairly minor points, they’re scattered throughout the book, and begin to add up after a while.
All told, I enjoyed the book well enough, and felt it was worth my money (as much as any other role-playing book, anyway). However, I didn’t find it particularly notable, and believe I would have been sorely disappointed with it were I not both familiar with and a fan of the Scarred Lands - as I said, about half the book is little more than setting material, followed up by another half which is strongly influenced by setting material. It has a few new, or at least, uncommon ideas in it that can be plundered, and I found some of the new feats and prestige classes in it a bit more balanced than those in previous Sword and Sorcery books. If you like the Scarred Lands, as well as Clerics or Druids (or both), then I’d recommend picking it up. If not, take a pass.
