Messageboard Golem
First Post
My Bias: I think the Conan d20 book is the best thing that has happened to 3rd edition DnD. In my opinion, it offers more useful ideas and options for campaigns than Unearthed Arcana or any campain setting produced by Wizards or Mongoose. That said I do not run a Conan world rather a homebrew world aimed to be role-play oriented and occasionally gritty.
General: This supplement is an expansion for the Conan d20 rulebook. It presents more spells, magical and psuedo-magical items and general information on Sorcery in the Conan setting.
The book is 3/4's new rules, the rest flavour text drawn from the novels, some ok art and advice to the DM as to implementing sorcery
By sections:
Sorcery-
A random spell table is provided for the spells in the Conan books so far. I dig my feet in at random tables, sure tell me what is rare but don't give me the soft option of not analysing what hard won knowledge my NPC Sorcerers/plundered tombs hold.
2 new sorcery styles are described- Cosmic Sorcery and Immortality. They are high level. You need to be 8th to 17th level to have access to them. Tasty, very Conan, but not particularly inspired or accessible for PCs. They are more like plot hooks and weaknesses for high level evil npc sorcerers.
There are new spells for all existing sorcery styles except necromancy & oriental mysticism. All reasonable in flavour, and finally some spells that deal real damage. They are not easily accessible- half a dozen prerequisites and 12th level required for Hand of Death for example. This is in keeping with the setting. There is no healing. More summoning, divination, telekinesis (predigistation), nature magic etc. An interesting chapter but not huge- not in the league of the forgotten realms magister for example. This is a limited magic setting but... this the book the spells should be in.
Feats-
Nice feats, I don't see any balance issues. Most of the feats refer to things from the Conan core book. All in style. Some item creation feats which are very expensive and require dozens of mundane skill ranks as well as magic. Dm's are instructed to warn their players that these feats are not going to be as strong or useful as Item creation feats in standard 3.5.
One interesting feat tree developed in the chapter is meditation. It is intended for oriental spell casters but if you were developing your own campaign could be adapted for any "non-evil/corrupt" spell casters. I have a semi-Arthurian area in my campaign and these feats will be used for praying (recovering power points) in holy sites/chapels etc.
Conan purists out there take a breath and call it Aquilonia. The question of good spell casters is always going to be an issue for the Conan d20 game and here is a nod to that debate.
Permanent Sorcery-
This chapter deals with a lot-
1. spells that last, well, forever. Focus not withstanding.
2. alchemical-magical creation of life and hybrids
3. magical item creation and just when an item is really permanent.
4. the costs for magical item construction
Without going into it in too much detail the general idea is that unless you are really high level with huge quantities of loot you are better off spending your x.p. on levels and gaining skills and feats rather than magical items. Yes they are that expensive. eg- +2 weapon 90,000sp and 9,000xp taking 9 months to create. Some people will love this, others will use the standard rules.
Sorcerous Items-
I really liked this section. Items with built in difficulties, all very gritty and mostly evil. History and cost to create listed. Some have pictures. It includes more drugs and herbal preparations. Extra crunchy goodness.
Creatures of Sorcery-
Rules for animated objects, weird beasties, some demon princes.
No challenge ratings of course. This is Conan. If it looks bad you should have started running last round. Nice descriptions and history. This section is very important because with the damage reduction and parry/dodge rules you need Conan specific monster stat blocks. I have yet to use any of these monsters in my games but reading this section made me laugh evilly to myself on several occasions. As a monster description should, in a gritty, almost gothic setting.
Sorcerous Culture-
This section contains the first prestige classes written for Conan and I have to say I'm not sure I'm convinced. My game isn't going to be missing much for their lacking. I think the writers were torn between the limitations of the scholar progression and giving the classes flavour. These classes seem pretty balanced with the core scholar. For instance one gets a better magic attack bonus but less skill points, another gets fortitude as a good save and loses access to a couple of skills.
I would have liked to have seen some gruesome spells granted or something similar. The bonuses seem very mundane. One class creates a prestige monk class, extending on the Oriental sorcery style. I would have thought something along the lines of the alienist or the slime-lord might have been a good idea. Something with a bit of a cthulu feel.
Wizards and Witches-
This section presents some major spell casting NPCs and a mummification template. It gives some good ideas for making use of the spell casting rules and placing these NPCs at the centre of plots.
Help for Gamemasters-
is a short section going over a few issues in the Conan magic system and how to use spells and casters. The emphasis is no getting the presentation of magic right.
Publishing Issues:
There are a couple of spelling errors and a paragraph that just stops, otherwise editing seems pretty good. The layout is a bit distracting. It gives a style but detracts from absorbing the info. The art is not fantastic but it does portray flavour and is detailed enough for the DM to be able to describe the NPCs in the Wizards and shamans section.
The font is fairly large and there is a bit of space. Some of the pages seem cluttered but when you read them don't actually have much on them. Some of the tables have bold type on them in the wrong places.
The colour, weight and binding of the book seem good and it has held up so far.
Conclusion:
If you haven't read the original Conan d20 rulebook this review is not going to make much sense, and in a way neither will Scrolls of Skelos. It is an expansion of the core magic rules presented in the hardcover Conan, not a stand alone product to tack the Conan magic system onto your DnD game. It is quite well done, despite my nit-picking. It takes quite a hard line with the Conan ethos, not straying too far. This is good and bad. Some inspirational, "out on a limb" ideas in the same direction rather than adaptation of the canon might have taken this book from good to excellent or superb. As it is the purists have their spell book, curse their hides. Even for someone adapting the Conan system this book is worth it's price.
General: This supplement is an expansion for the Conan d20 rulebook. It presents more spells, magical and psuedo-magical items and general information on Sorcery in the Conan setting.
The book is 3/4's new rules, the rest flavour text drawn from the novels, some ok art and advice to the DM as to implementing sorcery
By sections:
Sorcery-
A random spell table is provided for the spells in the Conan books so far. I dig my feet in at random tables, sure tell me what is rare but don't give me the soft option of not analysing what hard won knowledge my NPC Sorcerers/plundered tombs hold.
2 new sorcery styles are described- Cosmic Sorcery and Immortality. They are high level. You need to be 8th to 17th level to have access to them. Tasty, very Conan, but not particularly inspired or accessible for PCs. They are more like plot hooks and weaknesses for high level evil npc sorcerers.
There are new spells for all existing sorcery styles except necromancy & oriental mysticism. All reasonable in flavour, and finally some spells that deal real damage. They are not easily accessible- half a dozen prerequisites and 12th level required for Hand of Death for example. This is in keeping with the setting. There is no healing. More summoning, divination, telekinesis (predigistation), nature magic etc. An interesting chapter but not huge- not in the league of the forgotten realms magister for example. This is a limited magic setting but... this the book the spells should be in.
Feats-
Nice feats, I don't see any balance issues. Most of the feats refer to things from the Conan core book. All in style. Some item creation feats which are very expensive and require dozens of mundane skill ranks as well as magic. Dm's are instructed to warn their players that these feats are not going to be as strong or useful as Item creation feats in standard 3.5.
One interesting feat tree developed in the chapter is meditation. It is intended for oriental spell casters but if you were developing your own campaign could be adapted for any "non-evil/corrupt" spell casters. I have a semi-Arthurian area in my campaign and these feats will be used for praying (recovering power points) in holy sites/chapels etc.
Conan purists out there take a breath and call it Aquilonia. The question of good spell casters is always going to be an issue for the Conan d20 game and here is a nod to that debate.
Permanent Sorcery-
This chapter deals with a lot-
1. spells that last, well, forever. Focus not withstanding.
2. alchemical-magical creation of life and hybrids
3. magical item creation and just when an item is really permanent.
4. the costs for magical item construction
Without going into it in too much detail the general idea is that unless you are really high level with huge quantities of loot you are better off spending your x.p. on levels and gaining skills and feats rather than magical items. Yes they are that expensive. eg- +2 weapon 90,000sp and 9,000xp taking 9 months to create. Some people will love this, others will use the standard rules.
Sorcerous Items-
I really liked this section. Items with built in difficulties, all very gritty and mostly evil. History and cost to create listed. Some have pictures. It includes more drugs and herbal preparations. Extra crunchy goodness.
Creatures of Sorcery-
Rules for animated objects, weird beasties, some demon princes.
No challenge ratings of course. This is Conan. If it looks bad you should have started running last round. Nice descriptions and history. This section is very important because with the damage reduction and parry/dodge rules you need Conan specific monster stat blocks. I have yet to use any of these monsters in my games but reading this section made me laugh evilly to myself on several occasions. As a monster description should, in a gritty, almost gothic setting.
Sorcerous Culture-
This section contains the first prestige classes written for Conan and I have to say I'm not sure I'm convinced. My game isn't going to be missing much for their lacking. I think the writers were torn between the limitations of the scholar progression and giving the classes flavour. These classes seem pretty balanced with the core scholar. For instance one gets a better magic attack bonus but less skill points, another gets fortitude as a good save and loses access to a couple of skills.
I would have liked to have seen some gruesome spells granted or something similar. The bonuses seem very mundane. One class creates a prestige monk class, extending on the Oriental sorcery style. I would have thought something along the lines of the alienist or the slime-lord might have been a good idea. Something with a bit of a cthulu feel.
Wizards and Witches-
This section presents some major spell casting NPCs and a mummification template. It gives some good ideas for making use of the spell casting rules and placing these NPCs at the centre of plots.
Help for Gamemasters-
is a short section going over a few issues in the Conan magic system and how to use spells and casters. The emphasis is no getting the presentation of magic right.
Publishing Issues:
There are a couple of spelling errors and a paragraph that just stops, otherwise editing seems pretty good. The layout is a bit distracting. It gives a style but detracts from absorbing the info. The art is not fantastic but it does portray flavour and is detailed enough for the DM to be able to describe the NPCs in the Wizards and shamans section.
The font is fairly large and there is a bit of space. Some of the pages seem cluttered but when you read them don't actually have much on them. Some of the tables have bold type on them in the wrong places.
The colour, weight and binding of the book seem good and it has held up so far.
Conclusion:
If you haven't read the original Conan d20 rulebook this review is not going to make much sense, and in a way neither will Scrolls of Skelos. It is an expansion of the core magic rules presented in the hardcover Conan, not a stand alone product to tack the Conan magic system onto your DnD game. It is quite well done, despite my nit-picking. It takes quite a hard line with the Conan ethos, not straying too far. This is good and bad. Some inspirational, "out on a limb" ideas in the same direction rather than adaptation of the canon might have taken this book from good to excellent or superb. As it is the purists have their spell book, curse their hides. Even for someone adapting the Conan system this book is worth it's price.
