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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010399" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine RackSizing up the TargetPlexus: Potent Portals is a 25-page PDF supplement written by Mark Clover and published by Creative Mountain Games. It is available as a $5 download.First BloodPlexus: Potent Portals is a product designed to add a bit of magical excitement to your campaign by providing a menu of over 100 magical archways, doors, windows, and other portals. These items can be used as tricks and traps by the Games Master to spice up a game, as plot elements, or even as guards or wards by players building their own strongholds.Potent Portals is divided up into seven different sections based upon the type of portals: archways and gates; bars and shutters; coverings and curtains; doors and trapdoors; knobs and knockers; latches and locks; and skylights and windows. The various portals cover and extremely wide range of uses. There are beneficial portals like the Gateway of Healing, useful but benign portals like the Alcove of Magic Detection, and clever dungeon-delving gadgets like the Portable Window. Quite a few are useful for protecting important treasures: the Snaplock, which breaks thieves’ tools, for example, or the Latch of the Watch, which summons the local police. Still more can provide information (the Capable Coffin Lid), delay a foe (Knocker of Small Talk), or provide an extra-dimensional hiding or prison space (Drop Box; Slaver’s Hold). There are also a number of surprisingly deadly portals, everything from the Poisonous Portcullis, to the Doorway of Destruction, to the Harmful Handle and Knocker of Death. Some, like the Cursing Skylight, Window of Defenestration, or Killer View, can provide a bit of humor whilst detaining, impeding, or killing those wishing to enter.All of the various portals are written up as standard-format magic items, with required caster level, creation feat, prerequisites, market price, and weight. Virtually all of them function in the exact same manner as the standard spell used in their creation, which makes them quite easy to drop into the campaign and employ. A file of open content spells is included with Potent Portals to provide any additional spell descriptions that might be required.Critical HitsPotent Portals provides a cheap and easy way to add a bit of unique spice to a campaign, particularly if you do quite a bit of castle exploring or dungeon delving. Instead of standard traps or routine treasures, these devices can provide interesting guardians and means of entrance or escape that will keep players guessing. Nothing will intrigue players like a door or other bit of dungeon dressing that doesn’t function quite the way they expect.Critical MissesThe majority of the items in Potent Portals will find their use as traps, tricks, or encounters in a GM’s adventure. Unfortunately, much of the key information the GM needs to use these items as traps is missing. Though saving throw difficulties for spell effects are provided, the Challenge Ratings for each item are not, nor are appropriate skill difficulties to detect, avoid, or disable these portals given. That additional information would make it much simpler for the GM to decide on an appropriate item to drop into a dungeon, and adjudicate it in game – as it stands GMs will have to rely on some experience and judgment to decide when the Harmful Handle (which delivers a harm spell) is appropriate and how it might be detected and bypassed.Coup de GracePlexus: Potent Portals provides most of its content, minus proper names, illustrations, and some flavor text as Open Content. The use of standard spells means the various portals comply well with the established rules set, though that also makes some of their functions a bit familiar. Though designed primarily as a GM product (that requires a bit more work due to some missing information), players designing their own strongholds might find a number of these items useful as well, and the $5 cost equates to a reasonable gaming value – just over 20 items to the dollar.To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to Fast Tracks at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=401&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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