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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2011386" data-attributes="member: 172">Slaves of the Moon: The Essential Guide to LycanthropesSlaves of the Moon: The Essential Guide to Lycanthropes is resource adding background material and rules additions for lycanthropes in d20 System fantasy games. The book is published by Paradigm Concepts as part of their Races of Legend series of race related books. The book is written by Mike Mearls.A First LookSlaves of the Moon is a 96-page perfect-bound softcover book available for $19.99 US.The cover of the book is illustrated by Todd Lockwood. The cover picture is a nicely done image of a white weretiger in hybrid form with a full moon in the backdrop.Interior art is black-and-white, and features work by Ken Burles, Paul Kerrick, Paul (Prof) Herbert, Peter Kopotowski, Raven J. Mimura, Joel Talakco, JP Targete, and Roel Wielinga. The art is nicely detailed. Three of my favorites, Burles, Mimura, and Targete are amongst the talents here, but the remaining artists are also a benefit to the book.One layout convention bugged me: the class table for classes in the book don’t label which class they belong to, so if two are in proximity, you have to deduce which goes with which. Another annoyance is that chapter breaks are not distinct; you need to use the table of contents or be paying attention closely when trying to flip to a chapter.A Deeper LookSlaves of the Moon has a structure fundamentally similar to earlier books in the Races of Legend series such as Unseen Masters. The book has background text relating to the culture, history, and religion of lycanthropes, followed by a rules section defining rules for playing lycanthrope characters, and prestige classes, feats, and magic for lychanthropes. Finally is a GM oriented section for utilizing lycanthropes in the game.The book focuses on the lycanthrope species presented in the MM other than the hill giant were-dire boar: werebear, wereboar, wererat, weretiger, and werewolf. Each of these has a 6-7 page culture section devoted to it. The culture section includes the general character of each of the lycanthropes, (very myth-like) history and tradition, and religion. The religion section includes 1-3 deities for each lycanthrope race. Though some adaptation might be required for specific campaigns, the book is not written assuming Arcanis as a background.The second chapter concerns lycanthrope characters, primarily with a focus on lycanthrope PCs or more detailed NPCs.This chapter proposes three paths into lycanthropy. Afflicted and natural are the two traditional means of being/becoming a lycanthropy. This book adds a third method: wereblooded. Such a character begins fairly normal, but can develop lycanthropic characteristics over time.To handle lycanthropes in more detail, the chapter introduces a number of lycanthrope classes. These are similar in concept to racial classes from Savage Species (and Dragon #313, which had Savage Species style racial classes for lycanthropes). These classes convey the abilities of the appropriate sort of lycanthrope over a number of levels. Unlike savage species, these classes don’t intersperse “virtual levels” that lack skill points and hit dice into the advancement. This means the class won’t quite match the creature as it appears in the MM, but is more consistent with the standard class structure.The number of levels in each class varies by class. The wererat class only has 4 levels, but the werebear and weretiger weigh in with 9.To access these lycanthrope classes, a character must be one of the aforementioned conditions. An afflicted character taking a level in the class gains control of their transformations, but their curse becomes irreversible. Natural lycanthropes are a race; they gain a number of characteristics, including their racial class as a favored class, but lose some abilities of their humanoid race. Finally, wereblooded are treated as members of their basic race, except that the have access to their lycanthrope class (but don’t gain it as a favored class.) This is an interesting and flexible arrangement that allows for a lot of character situations.Thirteen new prestige classes are presented in the chapter. One is for non-lycanthropes, the wolf hunter, which specializes in stalking and slaying lycanthropes. The other 12 classes are exclusive to lycanthopes. Four of these are available to any lycanthrope (like lunar adept and bestial warmaster), while the remaining 8 are only available to specific lycanthrope races (like emerald claw for weretigers or herald of decay for wererats.) All told, this section is a good resource for both GMs in crafting unique lycanthrope villains, or as options for players wishing to define the role of lycanthrope characters better.The feats in the character chapter are divided into two categories. The first is simple lycanthrope feats and general feats that are useful to lycantropes. The lycanthrope feats are available only to lycanthropes, these allow a lycanthrope character to better utilize their abilities, such as using your resistance to normal weapons to allow you to grasp blades.The chapter segues into a different sort of feat with some variant rules on the control shape skill. In the core rules, the control shape skill is only used by afflicted characters to better control their transformation. The feats listed here provide more beneficial options that any lycanthrope with the appropriate feat can use the control shape skill to do, such as transforming only your hands to claws in humanoid shape, or use the attribute scores associated with different forms in your humanoid forms.The new spells are a little more contemporary than the new feats, with many spells that would not be foreign in standard spell lists, and many are not lycanthrope exclusive.The third chapter is GM-directed, and provides guidelines, rules, and advice for using lycanthropes in a game. Topics covered include variations on the role of lycanthropy in a game, expanded variant rules adding depth to handling afflicted characters, ideas for adding significant lunar events to a game, and methods for handling those inevitable worlds with multiple moons.ConclusionsThis is a very nice take on the topic of lycanthropes. It has a nice balance between exposition and rules material, and most of both are carried off well. Slaves to the Moon is a compelling purchase for anyone wanting to feature lycanthropes in a game, in either the role of villains or PCs.Overall Grade: B+ -Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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