Player's Guide to Fighters and Barbarians
I have read both books and they are outstanding even if you don't play in the Scarred Lands campaign.
If you liked Relics and Rituals or other books by Sword and Sorcery you will like these.
For dropping into a non-scarred lands game:
Both give descriptions of Fighting/Wizard colleges, Feats, and Prestige Classes as well as ideas for various movers and shaker you can easily drop into your campaign.
After reading only a few pages, your mind will swarm with ideas about how to add additional flavor to your campaign and keep your players on their toes.
If you liked Relics and Rituals or other books by Sword and Sorcery you will like these.
For dropping into a non-scarred lands game:
Both give descriptions of Fighting/Wizard colleges, Feats, and Prestige Classes as well as ideas for various movers and shaker you can easily drop into your campaign.
After reading only a few pages, your mind will swarm with ideas about how to add additional flavor to your campaign and keep your players on their toes.
Ok, some more specifics on the contents of the Wizards, Bards, and Sorcerers book. Here are some of the things you'll read about:
1) Wizard Traditions: Calastian Battle Mages, Society of Immortals, Necromancers of Hollowfaust etc.
Each group has a brief description, current leadership, base of operations, how to become a member, arcane motifs (you can customize how your spells look), favored feats, favored skills, favored spells.
2) Libraries and Academies: Volumes of Lore (including a random table of 100 sample books complete with cool names like 'Unraveling Albadian Ice Magic'), Spellbook Dweomers and Traps, a varient rule on Spellbook Alternatives like spellstaves, tattooing, and runes.
3) Bardic traditions: Blades of the North, Brotherhood of the Lamp, Chorus of the Banshee etc.
4) Philosophies on bardic magic: including varient rules on how noise levels affect magic, composition and performance, bardic enchantment.
5) Epics of the Scarred Lands: I loved this section because it describes sample epics and songs common to the land. Take these, make modifications, and use them as treasures to be found in your world. Example: 'Of Mithral and Blood' is an epic poem that your bard can recite while casting some common spells (it provides a list of good spells to use with each epic).
6) Sorcerous traditions: the sorcerors of the Scarred Lands seem to be tied to the Titans (those who fought the Gods in the world's history) so this section describes the different 'cultures' of sorcerors. The Bloodtrail, Cult of the Eighth Eye, The Preservers of Life etc.
7) The basics of sorcery: How does it manifest in players--some ideas on how to play them etc.
8) The Ways of Lore: 60 pages of new feats, prestige classes, spells and equipment. Some nice feats include 'Pied Piper,' 'Arcane Trinity' Elemental Focus, and Ghost Spell
prestige classes which caught my attention are: Adept of Flame, Demonologist, and Master Cabalist ("wizards who seek to exploit the pacts and laws that bind gods and their servents to the Scarred Lands")
Like I said in my earlier post, once you read these books, you'll look at the PHB's 'wizard' or 'fireball' and think how boring these sound in comparison to the colorful setting Sword and Sorcery has conjured up with these works.
Gee... what sounds more interesting, casting 'Children of the Serpent Mother' or 'Grease' hmmm...
1) Wizard Traditions: Calastian Battle Mages, Society of Immortals, Necromancers of Hollowfaust etc.
Each group has a brief description, current leadership, base of operations, how to become a member, arcane motifs (you can customize how your spells look), favored feats, favored skills, favored spells.
2) Libraries and Academies: Volumes of Lore (including a random table of 100 sample books complete with cool names like 'Unraveling Albadian Ice Magic'), Spellbook Dweomers and Traps, a varient rule on Spellbook Alternatives like spellstaves, tattooing, and runes.
3) Bardic traditions: Blades of the North, Brotherhood of the Lamp, Chorus of the Banshee etc.
4) Philosophies on bardic magic: including varient rules on how noise levels affect magic, composition and performance, bardic enchantment.
5) Epics of the Scarred Lands: I loved this section because it describes sample epics and songs common to the land. Take these, make modifications, and use them as treasures to be found in your world. Example: 'Of Mithral and Blood' is an epic poem that your bard can recite while casting some common spells (it provides a list of good spells to use with each epic).
6) Sorcerous traditions: the sorcerors of the Scarred Lands seem to be tied to the Titans (those who fought the Gods in the world's history) so this section describes the different 'cultures' of sorcerors. The Bloodtrail, Cult of the Eighth Eye, The Preservers of Life etc.
7) The basics of sorcery: How does it manifest in players--some ideas on how to play them etc.
8) The Ways of Lore: 60 pages of new feats, prestige classes, spells and equipment. Some nice feats include 'Pied Piper,' 'Arcane Trinity' Elemental Focus, and Ghost Spell
prestige classes which caught my attention are: Adept of Flame, Demonologist, and Master Cabalist ("wizards who seek to exploit the pacts and laws that bind gods and their servents to the Scarred Lands")
Like I said in my earlier post, once you read these books, you'll look at the PHB's 'wizard' or 'fireball' and think how boring these sound in comparison to the colorful setting Sword and Sorcery has conjured up with these works.
Gee... what sounds more interesting, casting 'Children of the Serpent Mother' or 'Grease' hmmm...
The Blessed of Mesos is a prestige class which describes them as the "children" of the Titan Mesos. They are hunted and persecuted across the Scarred Lands, but they themselves know they are the "pinnacle of an arcanist's development, unlocking and using the energies of thier birthright"
While I can't post direct information from the book, I will say that you have to be a 7th level Sorceror before you qualify and the powers are:
Meta-sorcery: metamagic doesn't increase casting time
Legacy of Blood: gains extra Spells Known
Unravel Sorcery: may unravel arcane magic (improved counterspelling)
Devourer's Devotion: gains an Arcane Devourer as a pet
Reclaim Sorcery: may suck arcane energy from others and siphon it into sorcery. bwahahhahahaha ;-)
Oh, did I happen to mention that at several points, the authors put a description on "how to use X in other campaigns" Making the books easily compatible with other worlds.
BTW I didn't know squat about the scarred lands, but liked the whole Sorcerors v.s. Wizards background. Again, this could be the entire focus of a campaign!
Nightfall, what do you think of Sword and Sorcery stuff/scarred lands?
While I can't post direct information from the book, I will say that you have to be a 7th level Sorceror before you qualify and the powers are:
Meta-sorcery: metamagic doesn't increase casting time
Legacy of Blood: gains extra Spells Known
Unravel Sorcery: may unravel arcane magic (improved counterspelling)
Devourer's Devotion: gains an Arcane Devourer as a pet
Reclaim Sorcery: may suck arcane energy from others and siphon it into sorcery. bwahahhahahaha ;-)
Oh, did I happen to mention that at several points, the authors put a description on "how to use X in other campaigns" Making the books easily compatible with other worlds.
BTW I didn't know squat about the scarred lands, but liked the whole Sorcerors v.s. Wizards background. Again, this could be the entire focus of a campaign!
Nightfall, what do you think of Sword and Sorcery stuff/scarred lands?
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
Considering I'm a contributor to this book and I helped with PG: Rangers and Rogues, well let's just say I like this setting a lot. 
Thanks btw for posting that info here. I'll make sure to repost it in the other thread.
Now for more info, firstly I found out more about feats and also stuff regarding the fighters school.
For Barbarians, Totem feats. They allow you to channel "spirits" or ancestors to gain greater power. An example of this is Boar, which grants you Improved Bull Rush and +2 to Intimidate checks. Unlike most other feats, you can only do this 1+ your Cha per day, and only for 3+Cha per round. Plus there is a taboo, such as for Boar, you must always stand against an opponent.
New Fighter feats, such as Improvised Weapon (allows you to use various items as weapons, like table legs, stools, etc).
I'll let Ni discuss more of that in detail.
Thanks btw for posting that info here. I'll make sure to repost it in the other thread.
Now for more info, firstly I found out more about feats and also stuff regarding the fighters school.
For Barbarians, Totem feats. They allow you to channel "spirits" or ancestors to gain greater power. An example of this is Boar, which grants you Improved Bull Rush and +2 to Intimidate checks. Unlike most other feats, you can only do this 1+ your Cha per day, and only for 3+Cha per round. Plus there is a taboo, such as for Boar, you must always stand against an opponent.
New Fighter feats, such as Improvised Weapon (allows you to use various items as weapons, like table legs, stools, etc).
I'll let Ni discuss more of that in detail.
Last edited:
Will
First Post
Hi! I'm the author of much of the Fighter stuff in the Fighter and Barbarian book, mercenaries, plus some of the feats and weapons.
I thought pistol grips and basket hilts needed inclusion. And atl-atls and bolas, for some weird reason.
The improvised weapon thing is one of my favorite silly but useful idea. A bit of Jackie Chan, a bit of real world Kung Fu (where several of the fighting styles trained for are things like 'fighting with a bench' and 'fighting with your hands tied together.')
I thought pistol grips and basket hilts needed inclusion. And atl-atls and bolas, for some weird reason.
The improvised weapon thing is one of my favorite silly but useful idea. A bit of Jackie Chan, a bit of real world Kung Fu (where several of the fighting styles trained for are things like 'fighting with a bench' and 'fighting with your hands tied together.')
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