The Avatar's Handbook

[Messageboard Golem]

Avatars are divine servants of the Lords of Good that can summon celestials to aid them. Powerful avatars can even transform into celestials in combat, channeling divine energy directly from the Heavenly Host. Written by Hammer & Helm author and Dragon Magazine editor Jesse Decker, the Avatars Handbook introduces this new core class to the d20 System and gives you all the rules you need to incorporate it into your campaign. In addition to Master Class trademarks like new feats, spells, and magic items, the Avatars Handbook includes full game stats for over 25 new celestials, making it the perfect complement to Legions of Hell and Armies of the Abyss. Righteous paladins and clerics now have a powerful new ally in the struggle against evil.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The Avatar’s Handbook does two things right. It creates a new core class that’s of a good alignment. This helps balance out so many of the ‘evil’ and ‘kwel’ classes like Assassins, Necromancers, Death Knights and upcoming Unholy Warriors that roam about. The next thing is does is acts as a monster compendium of good outsiders.

The new class, the Avatar, is a divine spellcaster whose specialty lies in summoning and binding his being with celestial beings. The class gets the typical run down of background, races, how they get along with other classes, standard abilities like hit dice, alignment, class skills and number of spells. The class almost seems halfway between a cleric and wizard with it’s d6 hit die and lack of medium and heavy armor proficiency.

The main strengths outside of spellcasting that this class has is Heaven’s Mantle, that allows the creature to become a celestial (power level based on character level), and Sacred Boon, where depending on the character’s level and Charisma modifier, the character gains special abilities like the Gift of Life (+3 hit points) or Sacred Focus (+4 sacred bonus on Concentration Checks).

As a core class, it looks like it’ll fall in the roll of bard or poorly played clerics in that it’s going to be doing more support than hogging the spotlight like mainstream wizards and fighters.

In addition to the core class, there are new feats that augment summoning abilities. These can be taken by anyone who meets the requirements, but since the Avatar is a summoning specialist, they benefit the most. The base feat, Holy Summoner, increases the duration by the caster’s Charisma bonus. The bad thing is that it acts as a ‘zero’ feat in that to gain the feats that don’t rely on a stat bonus like Rapid Summons (summon as standard action instead of full round), you still have to have Holy Summoner. In addition, there aren’t enough feats.

Being a new core class, there is a complete list that includes new spells and spells found from the player’s handbook. I was a little puzzled that they didn’t include all the goodies from their Pocket Divine compendium but instead rely on the GM to look over it and The Book of the Righteous. What would it have taken? Another paragraph to add those ‘unofficial suggestions’ to the spell list? The good news is that many of these spells are useable by other classes, like the Cleric and Paladin so GMs who aren’t interested in the Avatar itself still get some mileage out of the spell list.

One of the places where this spell list succeeds is with the Banner Spells. This class of spells creates a banner with special abilities to help those who view it. The Banner of True Light for example, suppresses darkness effects and invisibility. Once again the problem is that there aren’t enough of these new spells, one for each level and the best banner spells are all high level. (As normal with spells eh?)

Now we’ve got a core class with its own feats and spells, but what’s missing? While there are several archetypes, there are no prestige classes. This makes this the first class Handbook to lack prestige classes and puzzles me. I suspect it’s because this product is more like The Secret College of Necromancy, where it’s not really a class handbook but a compendium of themed material. Also missing are magic items, once again making this a first in a class handbook. I’m really hoping we’ll see some serious web expansion to make this Avatar’s Handbook a more worthy class handbook.

What then is the rest of this book about? Monsters. Well, they’re mostly good aligned celestials and upper planar creatures so I don’t know if monsters are the right title. Most of them won’t be attacking good aligned players but with so many options to play evil these days, perhaps the GM will get a nice ratio of use from them.

So what type of monsters do we get? How about the Season Shepherd? These beings aren’t direct combatants but rather are allies of good who help people survive through the seasons. Not combative enough for some so there’s the Arimrawthi, “righteous wrath incarnate”. How about the Victarium, some of the most powerful warriors of the upper planes?

Those not interested in the celestials still get plenty of bang for their buck with new dragons like the Dream, Glory, and Radiant subtypes coming into play alongside other creatures like the Living Flamestrike, a holy flame that moves and burns the forces of good.

Those looking for something a little more details to add to their campaign will flip to Appendix I, Archangels and reunite with their old friend Iblis (a good old devil from Legions of Hell) and read over the stats of Mika’il, the Archangel of Righteousness and Gabriel, the Archangel of Revelation.

The book closes off with new templates like the half celestial dragon, the reforged, a formerly evil being turned good, the sublime, one who attempts to overcome its enemies with questions of morality, closing with the uncalled and the wordbearer. These templates round out the forces of good nicely and allow the GM to change almost any ‘evil’ creature to something that most players would never expect. The last page is an addendum for the character folio that Green Ronin publishes.

The internal layout is good. The art is classic. Liz Danforth, Jennifer Meyer, Britt Martin and Kent Burles all do a fantastic job here. The full-page illustrations are powerful and illustrative of what a book on celestials should be.

There are really only three things keeping this book from a five star rating. The first is not including the spells from the Divine pocket book and the Book of the Righteous even as it mentions them. The second is no prestige classes. The third is no magic items. This isn’t titled “The Guide to Celestials” or “Celestial Courts”. It’s the Avatar’s Handbook and as a player guide, suffers heavily from the inclusion of so much DM material.

If you’re a GM looking for a whole heaping of good aligned monsters and information on Archangels, this book is perfect for you. Players should look over the book and determine if an 80-page book with only 18 or so pages dedicated to the class is worth the investment.

 

[Psion]

Avatar's Handbook

The Avatar's Handbook is a book in Green Ronin Master Class series of books which introduce new core character classes for the d20 System. That said, the book also presents a number of good outsiders, and could also be viewed as a sourcebook of such. The Avatar's Handbook is written by Jesse Decker, author of Green Ronin's Hammer & Helm and editor of Dragon magazine.

A First Look

The Avatar's Handbook is an 80-page perfect bound softcover book priced at $16.95. This is fairly standard for a d20 System book of this size.

The cover of the book is illustrated by James Ryman. It depicts an angelic being striking down a demon (an alrunes from Green Ronin's Armies of the Abyss), with a robed figure in a column of light atop a stone column in the backdrop.

The interior is black and white, and features illustrations by Jennifer Meyer, Brit Martin, Kent Burles, and veteran RPG artist Liz Danforth. I find the work by Jennifer Meyer especially good and well fitting to the theme of the book, but the work by the other artists is fairly good as well

The interior text is dense, but paragraphs are double spaced. The layout is functional and attractive.

A Deeper Look

The Avatar's Handbook namesake is the avatar class. The avatar isn't quite the classical definition of the avatar (i.e., a physical manifestation or extension of a deity.) Rather, it is a divine spellcasting class with specialty in summon and taking on characteristics of celestials.

However, one can't help but notice that less than one-fourth of this book is dedicated to the class, spells included. The remainder of the book is creature descriptions, specifically celestials and other good outsiders. That being the case, you might wonder why this book is in the master class series at all. It might be better to slot it in alongside the Green Ronin books of fiends.

However, this is all a technicality. I would guess the decision to present the material this way was to make it more saleable. In d20 System fantasy games, good creatures often have limited roles in the game as the PCs are the main protagonists. This makes a book about benign creatures less appealing than a book about dangerous, threatening, or downright evil creatures. But by presenting a PC archetype that makes good use of this information, a major book with such creatures becomes viable.

The book is organized into four chapters and two appendices. The first chapter describes the avatar and the second new spells. The remaining chapters and appendices introduce new good creatures and creature templates.

The avatar itself is a divine spellcasting class. It has poorer combat abilities than the cleric or druid, with slow BAB progression and d6 HD. The avatar uses Charisma as a casting statistic, and knows a limited number of spells like a sorcerer. The avatar always knows the monster summoning spell of all levels of spells they can cast, and must always be good.

In addition to their spellcasting abilities, the avatar gains a number of other abilities as they advance, primarily the sarcred boon and heaven's mantle abilities. Heaven's mantle ability is essentially like the druid's wild shape ability, except that the avatar learns to transform into the form of celestials that she can summon. As the avatar progresses, more forms are learned and the ability may be used more times per day.

The sacred boon ability operates somewhat like the secret ability of the loremaster. At every five levels, the avatar may select a new ability from a list, and the ability available is determined by the avatar's level and charisma modifier.

A short selection of new feats buffs up the avatar's summoning abilities. Most of these feats are suitable, but one seems a bit off to me. Imperitive summoning states that a good creature summoned by the character gets a partial action the round in which it was summoned and an extra partial action each round after that. The later is alright (if powerful) but the former is misleading as summoned creatures can act normally upon arriving without this feat.

The spells chapter introduces new spells as well as providing additions of summoned creatures in this book to the summon monster spells. All of the new spells are available to avatars, but some are also crosslisted as cleric and sorcerer/wizard spells.

Many of the new spells are banner spells. Banner spells create a magical banner that the avatar must hold that creates a special effect. The character can choose to use the banner to attack a foe with devastating effects, but when this is done the banner is dispelled.

The heart of this book is really the creatures, though. Chapter three lists creatures classified as celestials. One of these creatures fits into the existing subcategory of archon, but most fit into one of the two new categories (aeons and hallowed) or have no subcategory at all.

Aeons are extremely ancient creatures, perhaps remnants of an older celestial order or byproducts of creation of the world. Aeons are all based around a specific concept such as loyalty, sacrifice, or beauty. The season shepherds are aeons that represent the four seasons.

One example of an aeon is the lathar, the aeon of loyalty. The lathar appears like a six-legged hound the size of a horse. Lords of good send lathar to assist heroes. Lathars are fundamentally a good concept, but the book says that paladins of 8th level may select one as a bonded mount. Lathars have the ability to teleport without error at will, along with a rider, which strikes me as way too generous a boon to grant an 8th level character.

I found the martrym, the aeons of sacrifice, to be an interesting and potentially useful concept. The matrym is a relatively weak, low level creature. The matrym can sacrifice itself to give a worthy recipient a temporary boon, which strikes me as a potentially interesting story element.

The hallowed are a sort of celestial with a specific purpose in mind. They are sent by the lords of good to return an evil creature to the path of righteousness. The weakest is the accuser, who can confront a creature with its own wrongdoings. The strongest is the penitent, which can force creatures to turn to good and burn those who refuse. Each hallowed can summon the next stronger type of summoned if the creature admits fault such that it can be moved along the path to righteousness.

Chapter four provides a number of other creature native to the upper planes. This includes three celestial dragons, the dream dragon (CG), the glory dragon (NG), and the radiant dragon (CG). Other creatures include the bizarre psuedo-elephantine gargun, two constructs used in the heavens, and an elemental, the living flamestrike.

Appendix I discusses archangels, including history of the archangel and statistics for a few example archangels. Archangels are unique creatures with only a few common aspects; other than this, archangels each have their own area of governance.

Appendix II continues to dish out the good ideas with templates.

The half-dragon template from the Monster Manual is extended with statistics for three new types of half-dragon corresponding to the three celestial dragons.

The reforged template is the result of a few unique locations in which an evil creature can be infused with the power of good. Such a creature gains additional abilities, and all of its evil powers are turned towards good. Two samples are provided, a reforged gnoll and a reforged cornugon.

Other templates include sublime (which creates a powerful contemplative creature with great nobility of purpose), uncalled (a creature with an unfished purpose returned to life to complete it), and the wordbearer (a creature empowed by a deity to act on its behalf.)

Finally, the book has a character sheet addendum provided for recording summoned creatures.

Conclusion

This idea of the avatar was a hard sell to me, as I imagine it will be for many. If you don't mind a new base class for what is likely to be a fairly rare class, then the class seems balanced and interesting. However, unless your campaign has a large emphasis on summoning creatures or on the armies of heaven, it is not likely that your campaign is ready for this class.

The books serves well as a resource for celestial creatures, and the avatar does serve as a conduit to make these creatures meaningful in your campaign. However, if you are not adverse to the ideas of good monsters as plot elements or sharing the spotlight with PCs (or as foes of evil PCs), many of the creatures stand on their own. Some of the creatures (particularly some of the templates) are not so interesting, but most have some pretty compelling built in hooks and obvious ways to work them into a campaign (much like the devils in Legions of Hell.

Overall Grade: B

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

The Avatar's Handbok is a sourcebook detailing a new 20-level class, the Avatar, along with the celestials the class may interact with.

The Avatar's Handbook is an 80-page mono softcover product costing $16.95. The font is a good size whilst margins are standard and there is little or no wasted space. The art runs from average to superb - Jennifer Meyer's work is particularly evocative to my mind. Writing style and editing are both good.

Introduction
This short intro covers the role of the avatar, a mortal representative of the celestial host, who can summon celestials into battle against evil, and themselves take on some celestial qualities as they rise in power.

Chapter 1: The Calling Of The Avatar
This chapter outlines the Avatar class in standard class format. The avatar uses a d6 for HD, gains 4 skill points per level (with a fairly limited skill set), casts divine spells (with spells per day as sorcerer), has decent fort and will progressions, and a weak BAB (as sorcerer). They also get a bonus summon monster spell, at each applicable level. The Avatar can also transform into a celestial creature from 3rd level onwards for a limited period. From 5th level onwrads they also gain a sacred boon - a level-dependent advantage chosen from a list of available advantages (the higher the character's level, the better the advantage). These include such things as +3 hit points, detect evil x 3/day, +4 bonus to Leadership score, or true seeing once a day.

Some archetypal character types for Avatars are discussed giving a solid roleplaying base, followed by a discussion of the Avatar's role in a campaign, and how to integrate some of their features into a standard party and setting. Finally, four feats for Avatars are offered, boosting their summoning powers.

Chapter 2: Spells & Magic
This chapter begins with the Avatar spell list, which seems quite martial in tone. The new spells provided are also available to other classes and these are defined for each class clearly. A section on rules variants takes a closer look at the 'summoning individual monsters' variant rule from Core Rulebook II in terms of the Avatar, and making more monsters available for summoning from other sources. Before the book launches into the new spells, it describes Banner spells that create mystical banners that bolster troop morale, and some of the intricacies of these spells are explained.

There are about 20 new spells offered, including the high-level Banner of the Purging Flame that spews gouts of mystical flame and the low-level Sacred Weapon, which imbues a weapon with holy energy, giving it bonuses against evil outsiders.

Chapter 3: Celestials
Twenty five new celestials for your campaign. As well as standard information and stat blocks, there is also information on certain creatures use as mounts, and a set of magical items (the Vials Of Wrath carried by the Arimrawthi, celestials of righteous wrath). Two new groups of celestials include the Season Shepherds (celestials with the traits of a season) and The Hallowed (whose role is to bring creatures who commit evil acts back to the path of good). Probably my favourite was the Bene Ishim, a celestial that resembles a devil and whose role is to infiltrate the lower planes, attempting to turn evil in upon itself. Some of the more martial celestials have less potential but serve their purpose.

Chapter 4: Creatures Of The Upper Planes
This chapter presents seven new creatures, three of which are celestial dragons - dream dragons (created by good dreams), glory dragons (created by songs of heroism), and radiant dragons (powerful celestials that can lead celestial armies).

Appendix 1: Archangels
This chapter offers two example archangels, unique beings and their powerful artifacts, preceded by an explanation of the historical backdrop to the archangel's cosmology, and three archangel abilities suited to all archangels.

Appendix 2: Templates
This appendix provides five new templates, most with example creatures:
* Half Celestial Dragons - the result of interbreeding between a celestial dragon and another creature (usually a celestial).
* Reforged - in Chapter 3, The Hallowed group of celestials were introduced as creatures converting those who committed evil acts to the path of good. Reforged are the result of the work of these creatures, adding celestial powers to once-evil creatures. Two example creatures and a couple of examples of powerful locations where a significant reforging once took place are supplied.
* Sublime - creatures with an aura of great goodness, often touched by an encounter with a celestial.
* Uncalled - good-aligned undead with a goal to fulfill an important mission that it failed to complete in mortal life.
* Wordbearer - a character or monster chosen by a good-aligned deity to bring the tenets of the deity's faith to unbelievers.

The book ends with a sheet to record the stats for summoned monsters and heaven's mantle form, aiding Avatar PCs to keep track of their allies and transformations.

Conclusion:
Like previous Green Ronin Master Class products, The Avatar's Handbook comes full of interesting and original ideas with pretty solid rules backing them up. The product seems to provide a mixture of Master Class-style information (though notably lacking the prestige classes, equipment, and wider variety of feats and other background rules found in previous Master Class products) and the creatures found in previous products such as Legions of Hell and Armies Of The Abyss. For me, this captured the best of both worlds - offering an opportunity to logically introduce celestials into the game world on a regular basis (through the summoning and transformatory abilities of the Avatar class) and a host of new celestials and creatures of the upper planes for the GM, which can be used independently from the Avatar if required. I have to say I wasn't completely convinced that the concept of the Avatar class was strong enough to warrant a 20-level class. I may convert it into a pretige class and would have welcomed some advice on conversion (similar to the notes in 'The Book of the Righteous' for the Holy Warrior). Overall, though, a quality product with plenty of inspiration for the GM wishing to bring a little light into her campaign setting, or for players to whom the concept appeals.

 

[GameWyrd]

Don’t try this at home (or in your local store). If you rip every page out of a copy of The Avatar’s Handbook, shuffle them and pick one at random then it would be very unlikely you be holding anything about the avatar class. That doesn’t bode well.

The front cover illustration is great piece of gamer art and a good summary of the book as a whole. On the front cover you’ll see a celestial from the upper planes giving a wretched demon the smiting it deserves. If you drag your gaze away from the illustration’s centrepiece and look upwards you’ll see a silhouette of a man standing in a pillar of light. That’s the avatar. He’s there all right but he’s tucked away in the background. If you have torn pages out of this Handbook and picked one at random then the chances are that you’re holding stats for either Celestial or a creature from the Upper Planes.

This 80-paged Handbook introduces the avatar class, a class that has 5 pages spent on it before we roll onto the new magic and then new celestials, planar creatures and even archangels. The single most important thing a RPG supplement needs to achieve is to do what it sets out to do. It needs to do what it says on the tin. The Avatar’s Handbook doesn’t quite hit this target. There’s absolutely no reason to rip the Handbook up though, the book makes all its Saving Throws, climbs back up through the ranks and reaches the title of "Worthwhile Purchase". If you’re looking for a supplement to bring angelic creatures and the Forces of Good into your game then the Avatar’s Handbook is a great buy.

The Avatar is a divine summoner. He has a number of spells per day that he can cast and his own spell list, in addition there’s access to a specially crafted set of summon spells. It’s this ability – or rather, divinely bestowed gift – to summon celestials and creatures from the Upper Planes that defines the Avatar class. I like it. The class works for me. Author Jesse Decker (who penned on of Green Ronin’s all time top five books; Hammer & Helm) does well in helping the reader over the looming pit trap where an army of summoned support becomes too cumbersome to bounce dice for. The Avatar archetypes, ways to play the class, inject depth into character right from the start. There are a small handful of new feats. There are no Avatar-styled Prestige Classes, not in the Avatar’s Handbook anyway.

There are new spells. I adore the new Banner Spells. Banner spells are only active while the caster is holding the magically summoned banner; this means disarming the caster can dispel them but it also means that cancelling the spell is a free action. Most banners can be used as a weapon (there’s nothing like smacking that demon in the face with your divinely summoned holy icon) and most banners have an area effect too. The list of new spells kicks off with a Banner spell so I’ll use it as an example. The Banner of Perdition is a translucent white banner with a moving, shifting flame in the centre. The spell caster picks an energy type as he casts the spell and then creatures caught within the banner’s emanation (depends on level) will find that their resistance to that type of energy attack start to decline. Additionally a touch attack with the banner does 1d6 of holy damage per level (up to 10d6) to all evil creatures in a 20-foot radius. Reflex saves help. It’s a 5th level Avatar spell and 7th level Wiz/Sor spell. Not all the spells in the 5-paged New Spells chapter are banner spells but there are enough of them to turn this great idea into a campaign feature.

At page 20 the book starts its 60-page beastiary of celestials, upper plane creatures, angels and templates. The templates make an appearance in the book’s large appendix section and I think are one of the strong points in the book. The templates are another example of Decker’s ability to inject some sugar-coated originality into a high fantasy core. I like the whole idea of a Sublime template for a good creature favoured with a certain nobility of purpose. I tend to not to notice small rules hiccups because they don’t really alarm me but when I found myself checking to see whether the example Sublime Mind Flayer was a valid example or not I had to admit that I was enjoying the crunchy bits of the book. It’s not a valid example by the way; Aberrations aren’t included in the list of creatures suitable for the Sublime template. Oh, I can hear the "Should Mind Flayers be aberrations or not debate" in the background. You’ll find a template for a good aligned undead in here too.

The Celestials introduced in the book have a really clever shtick. Each one is something of the embodiment of a good trait. The Lathar, a large six-legged hound (a great riding animal), is the embodiment of loyalty for example. The Lathar is fanatically loyal. It can teleport out of battle but if its companion refuses to leave the fray, if its companion insists on fighting to the death then so will the Lathar. If its companion turns evil then the Lathar still remains loyal. The Lathar is loyalty. The very next creature in the chapter is the Martrym and you can guess already that these little things are the embodiment of sacrifice, of martyrdom. When the going gets tough or even when it seems right these creatures do sacrifice themselves and has it happens this can be used as a supernatural ability that bestows a gift on an ally. This approach really does help explain the rather alien concept of Good that D&D seems to have at time. I’m not sure why Generic Celestial A would slaughter whole tribes of helpless goblins because goblins are nasty but I can just see an Arimrawthi, a celestial of Righteous Wrath, doing it. Very Old Testament. A Hallowed Penitent from the Avatar’s Handbook wouldn’t lay waste to the Goblins either; it represents punishment but also forgiveness. In just a few examples from the Celestials I’ve mentioned loyalty, self-sacrifice and forgiveness. You can find entire supplements devoted to supporting the Good alignment set that don’t mention these qualities once. The flipside, of course, is that this is supposed to be a book about the Avatar summoners; perhaps we should have had Avatars of loyalty, self-sacrifice and forgiveness.

Chapter Four presents the Creatures of the Upper Planes and these are powerful Good aligned creatures without the embodiment shitck. There’s a whole bunch of dragons in here and that will please many; Dream Dragons, Glory Dragons and Radiant Dragons. There are less powerful creatures too. The Watcher Scarab is only a CR 3 construct (so it’s neutral rather than good, and it’s not native to the Upper Planes either... er, but, creatures from the Upper Planes do make them!).

I don’t have Legions of Hell or Armies of the Abyss so I can’t see how nicely the text on the Revolt of the Divs or the Fall of Iblis ties in with what’s been written before. I do have enough at hand to know just how tempting it is to go buy those two books and find out. The two sample Archangels in the Avatar’s Handbook are Mika’il the Archangel of Righteousness and Gabrel the Archangel of Revelation. Beings of this power (CR 36, 35) need two pages or so for their stats, equipment and spells.

The only real problem with the Avatar’s Handbook is the lack of information on Avatars! I’d gladly trade in the pages on archangels for some Avatar suitable Prestige Classes – and I think Prestige Classes are ten a penny. Although it’s up to the GM to determine the exact role of Avatars in any given campaign world I’d have liked to have had more suggestions and observations on the relationships between Avatars and Clerics and Avatars and Paladins. Avatars and Druids is an interesting relationship; is it natural to call a Living Flamestrike to save you from a Gnoll ambush in the dark woods? Is it wise? What happens to Avatars who use their powers irresponsibly? Why can’t Clerics simply perform the Avatar role? Perhaps there are special rites and rituals an Avatar can perform to summon a more powerful ally than usual? It wouldn’t take much more text specifically on the Avatar class to appease me, just a little more. Despite this hiccup there is more than enough in the Handbook to justify its purchase. The Handbooks will help introduce the "Host of the Heavens" to your game; the Avatar just happens to be the one you can play as a core class. I’m being harsh but fair. The Avatar’s Handbook struggles to do what it says on the tin. The Avatar’s Handbook does inspire me; I want to use the book anyway.

* This The Avatar's Handbook review was first published on GameWyrd.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
The Avatar’s Handbook is part of the Master Class series from Green Ronin Publishing, intended for use with the d20 System. Written by Jesse Decker (with input from Chris Thomasson) , this perfect-bound, 80-page work features a cover by James Ryman and interior artwork from Liz Danforth, Jennifer Meyer, Britt Martin, and Kent Burles. It retails for $16.99.

First Blood
Normally, I don’t like to see new classes introduced to the D&D game. The first question I always ask myself is, “Why is this class being introduced? Is it necessary, or could the role be filled by tailoring an existing class?” There have been some that were justified, but more often than not, the new class simply serves as an example (often overpowered) of a highly customized character that could be accomplished using the core rules.

Jesse Decker is no stranger to role-playing games, with numerous contributions to both the short-lived STAR WARS Gamer magazine and Dragon magazine. He also contributed to the new Arms and Equipment Guide and Savage Species from Wizards of the Coast, as well as Denizens of Freeport, Pocket Magica, and Hammer and Helm: A Guidebook to Dwarves from Green Ronin Publishing. In addition, he has served as the editor-in-chief of Dragon magazine since October 2001.

The avatar is a good-aligned divine spellcaster, a mortal tasked with calling the celestial host into battle whenever the need arises. In many ways, the avatar resembles a paladin, but their beliefs are not quite as unyielding. Avatars can be of any good alignment and many do not limit themselves to the teachings of a single god, choosing instead to serve the entirety of the celestial host.

The avatar is a divine spellcaster, but knows only a limited number of spells. They learn new spells from their mentors in the celestial host as they advance. In this way, avatars are very similar to divine sorcerers. In fact, like sorcerers, the avatar does not prepare spells in advance, but instead casts them as they are needed (limited by the number of spells of each level they may cast in a given day).

As they progress in level, they also earn special abilities. The most powerful of these is the ability to all the might and purity the celestial host into their own body and transform into a celestial or other upper planar being. Use of this ability is limited, but it can be very useful indeed. They are also granted special gifts, called sacred boons, from their masters as they gain experience.

There are four new feats described in this volume. Though not avatar-specific, they do fit the class very well and it is unlikely that other classes would choose to draw on them, though the option remains open. All four new feats have to do with the summoning of celestial beings (one of the avatar’s primary capabilities).

Since the avatar is a divine spellcaster, it stands to reason that some new spells would be provided, and there are in fact 21. As with the feats, not all are avatar-specific, though several are exclusive to the new class. A new type of spell is described here, the banner spell, which literally conjures a mystical banner with specific powers that often serve to bolster allies in combat. Also presented is a unique variant on the use of summoning spells; customized summoning lists.

Since the avatar specializing in calling the energy of and summoning celestial allies, a host of new celestial beings is included. Also presented are a handful of creatures that are not celestials, but still inhabit the upper planes and generally serve the cause of good. The highest servants of good are the archangels. These are unique individuals that should be crafted by the GM to fit his or her campaign, but a pair of sample characters should help generate some ideas.

Finally, there are some new templates: the half-celestial dragon (to go with the new dragons introduced in this supplement), the reforged (a being (often evil) that has been turned around and recruited to serve the cause of good), the sublime (a creature with a higher purpose), the uncalled (a good-aligned undead whose true purpose has not yet been realized), and the wordbearer (a mortal chosen to deliver the word of the gods to others). All present some interesting options, particularly for players who might wish to play an “evil” race but do not relish the idea of committing evil acts. Some of these templates are quite powerful, however, and their use for player characters should be carefully considered by the DM.

I do believe that the avatar class falls under the heading of “deserves a look,” though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it is necessary. It fills an interesting niche, a gap created by the introduction of the sorcerer into 3rd edition. While arcane spellcasters had a class that did not need to prepare spells in advance (two, actually), the divine spellcasters had no such representative, and the avatar serves to fill that role. It may serve to attract those who wanted to play a divine spellcaster, but with the flexibility of the sorcerer or bard.

A question of power levels arises, however. The avatar represents a blending of the cleric and the sorcerer, which is as it should be, but they also gain some potentially very powerful benefits as they increase in level, an advantage that neither of the other two classes gains. The class combines the saving throw matrix of the cleric with the spell progression and attack matrix of the sorcerer. The only drawbacks the avatar suffers are a limited spell selection and proficiency with only simple weapons and light armor. To my mind, this seems a bit overpowering, particularly when their special abilities are taken into consideration (the power to assume a celestial form, even on a limited basis, is easily equivalent to the barbarian’s rage capability).

I felt the same apprehension on looking over some of the templates. The sublime, for example, has some impressive ability score adjustments, gains two supernatural abilities that are effectively unlimited as to how often they can be used, and also gains three spell-like abilities, usable at will at the 6th level of ability, an unlimited number of times per day. Yet, for all of this, the CR is only increased by +1? And this is hardly the extreme example; almost all of the templates seem to be low on the CR adjustment. I understand that the CR of a creature is based on the idea that the PCs will only be meeting it once (when its abilities are at full strength), but I still find these to be a bit underrated.

Browsing through the celestial allies section, a few of the CRs there also seem to be off by a little, though most are closer than on the templates. A CR 1 encounter that is immune to electricity and fire, is incorporeal, has acid and cold resistance 10, has celestial traits, and a special ability?! I don’t know, it seems just a little off to me.

Critical Hits
The book is well presented, and takes a good idea (filling the “empty” divine spellcaster niche created by the sorcerer) and expands upon it. I like the avatar class; it fills a need and it presents a new way of looking at a cleric or paladin. I like the idea of the banner spells (the imagery of a warrior waving a magical banner to inspire his allies is very compelling). I even like some of the new creatures (particularly the celestial dragons). If I tinker with their alignments, I may even find a use for them.

Critical Misses
About the biggest problem I can see is the aforementioned skewing of the CRs. The best way I can see to fix them is to limit some of the special abilities in their usage. Right now, many of them can be used an unlimited number of times per day, and several are quite powerful. Cutting these back to once, twice, or even thrice per day can help. Even so, since it is assumed that a creature will only get the opportunity to use a special ability once per combat, this still leaves many of them a little low for my tastes. I think the CRs need to be completely re-examined and checked for balance.

Coup de Grace
Most of the book (about 80%) is designated as OGL, including all of the important stuff that you would want to port over to your own works and, with the exception of the CR ratings, everything seems to be pretty d20 compliant (but these are no small error). The idea, while perhaps not wholly original, has yet to be touched on by any mainstream gaming company that I’ve seen and the class will probably see equal use by GMs and players alike. However, all of the creatures described herein are of good alignment. While the avatar class itself and the new spells are a decent addition, but the rest is going to see pretty limited usage in a typical campaign. If you’re really intrigued by the idea behind the class, by all means, pick this book up. Otherwise, you’re better off passing it over for something with broader horizons.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[Merova]

Avatar's Handbook


Chosen by the forces of Good, avatars have the power to summon forth warriors of the celestial host to combat evil wherever it may be found. A summoning specialist, the Avatar is a class that casts divine spells without the need for preparation, like a cross between a cleric and a sorcerer. Part of Green Ronin's "Master Class" series, this book offers a unique and powerful addition to your d20 game.

Although geared to providing new options to the players, this book also offers considerable new material to the GM. There are over 30 new monsters and 5 new templates introduced herein. However, these are not your standard threats; the creatures described are denizens of the celestial realms and may be used to provide challenges of a non-confrontational sort.

So, how does it work?


Premise


"An avatar wields divine magic through a deep bond with the celestial host. Not only does he carry the burden of deciding where and when the warriors of good will fight in the mortal realm, but he must also be an emissary of good himself." (p.4)


This is the premise of the book. The avatar is designed around the concept of summoning celestial allies, while being capable of competent action herself. This is a tough balance to strike, sliding between "support syndrome" and "uber-buffed."

The success of this project depends upon solid mechanics and useful techniques of implementation.


Mechanics


Green Ronin is known for the reliable mechanics in their products. This book is of solid quality, but drifts in overall balance and player utility. This analysis will focus on three aspects of mechanical design: class features, monsters, and supplemental options.


Class features are very good at promoting the premise. The avatar gets a sizeable selection of spells from which to choose their "spells known." The total of spells known is superior to that which the sorcerer receives and they also receive the summon monster spell of the appropriate level for free. Hit points are decent. They get two good saves. Skill points received are moderate. Armor and weapons are respectable. Finally, they get special abilities, like the ability to change into a celestial or receive free feats, on a sporadic basis. On the down side, avatars have a slow BAB progression, similar to a sorcerer. Starting gold is likewise no better than that which the sorcerer gets.

The avatar features some of the nicer aspects of the bard and the sorcerer, in basic game terms. Overall, this creates a decidedly superior class, although with a limited focus. I'm not a fan of power creep, but, mechanically, the "spotlight" here is focused to a degree that usually the avatar will only be competent, but, when taking center stage, the avatar truly shines. However, savvy rules knowledge opens this class up to wild powergaming opportunities. On the other hand, casual implementation creates a "support" character, which slows down game play through "character" inflation by summoning allies.

Yes, all classes may fall victim to powergaming or casual application. But the mechanical utility of the avatar relies upon balanced implementation. Therefore, the typical problems are amplified. For instance, the magic is based off of charisma and is divine, meaning that there is no chance of spell failure. Expect your player to take a level of cleric or paladin to get better armor, better weapon selections, superior saves, and/or increased special abilities. Usually, multiclassing entails a reduction in premise focus for greater breadth of ability, but because of the avatar's design, multiclassing one level as either cleric or paladin actually increases it.

This could have been mitigated if hit points, saves, or total of known spells were a bit weaker. However, that would have opened up the possibility for the other extreme, casual play resulting in "support" syndrome. Currently as written, even the dullest of players can offer a competent character at the table, although it runs a great risk of typical conjuration "slow down." If the basic power had been reduced to curtail the potential abuses of rules savvy players, then the avatar would have certainly fallen into a reduced utility at many games.

However, it isn't going to be the casual player that goes out to buy a class supplement. The market audience is going to be those players that scrutinize new rules and options to maximize character effectiveness. So, in practice, this supplement will always end up creating unbalanced game play. The rules savvy player will arrange the special abilities, basic character features, and the use of summoned allies to the most potent combination possible. I know I did.


A final point about the avatar's balance is that it makes an obvious superior choice for characters interested in focusing on conjuration, enchantment, or abjuration. It beats out sorcerers and wizard specialists in overall game effectiveness, hands down. I'm not fond of this design choice. No new class should be able to trump a base class at their specialization. For instance, why play a conjuration specialist wizard, when the avatar can summon creatures even better and at greater frequency? There are no significant drawbacks to choosing to play an avatar over a wizard or sorcerer. Oh no! You've got to be of good alignment. Shucks.


Monsters comprise a huge proportion of this book. Why are there monsters in a player book? They are here because the avatar is capable of summoning 23 out of the 32 offered. Yes, this book expands the Summon Monster spell list for the avatar, a major component in their power balance, which I'll discuss shortly.

Conceptually, these creatures fill a void in the d20 "Monster" genre, celestials. From the Aeons, embodiments of virtuous ideals, to the Hallowed, celestials designed to offer a path of redemption to the fallen, these creatures are excellent. There is a lot of potential for higher planar adventuring, now that we've got a bit more diversity among the denizens.

Mechanically, these creatures are fairly well designed. Even the stat blocks contain a minimum of errors, including skill point allocation. The errors that are to be found are trifling, and only to be noticed by the most insanely meticulous of critics. For instance, the Bene Ishim is missing two skill points; the writer forgot to factor in the Bluff synergy bonus into Disguise. However, often times the Challenge Ratings are off.

For instance, the Hallowed Accuser is a CR 3 creature. It has damage reduction, spell resistance, good AC, and a decent attack bonus. Moreover, it has two special abilities that force medium difficulty Will saves; both of which can be utilized for free each round. In playtest, it proved to be substantially tougher than the CR would indicate. This was true for a great many creatures in the book.

Perhaps it's because these creatures were not designed as combat foils for heroic and good PCs, but it seems odd that the challenge rating is so consistently skewed. On the other hand, this is not a book designed for GMs. Rather it is a player empowering class book. These celestials are part of the avatar's power balance, and are therefore buffed up to make them easy for utilization.

But this makes them easy to abuse as well.

Let's look at some of the obvious mismatches. At Summon Monster II, the avatar can summon a celestial eagle. It has a moderate AC, can fly, and has some weak attacks. Alternatively, the avatar can summon a martrym, which is incorporeal, does a guaranteed d6 damage and is capable of intelligently scouting, even through solid walls! For overall utility, the choice is obvious. But that's not all! At Summon Monster III, the avatar can summon a celestial bison. It's tough, has damage reduction, and a decent attack. However, they can also summon a penneroth, an intelligent flaming and flying horse that has better attacks and better overall abilities. Forget the holy cow! The choice is obvious.

I can do this all night long. Level by level, the new celestials are substantially superior to the baseline creatures. In actual play, I rarely selected a Monster Manual critter over an Avatar's Handbook celestial. The diversity of special abilities, when applied tactically, allowed for a great deal of flexibility and potency.

Here's where the rules savvy player can create an imbalance. By becoming familiar with the special abilities, immunities, movement rate, and base features of the summoned celestials, the avatar has many more powers at her fingertips than is represented by the class write-up. I'm happy that we're offered something more than the lame old celestial eagle, but this book overcompensates a bit. Yes, a casual player probably will not make the most of her summoned beasties, but it isn't the casual player that will go out and buy this product.

In sum, I feel that these are very interesting creatures, filling an underutilized niche in outsider types. However, their balance does not impress me, especially considering that this impacts the balance of the avatar class.


Supplemental options are things like new feats, spells, prestige classes, and magic items. This sourcebook does a skimpy job here. There are a few new feats, which enhance the avatars summoning ability. I felt that there should have been a significant amount more to help make each individual avatar a bit more distinct.

In regards to new spells, this book offers an excellent new concept, the Banner spell. These spells bring into being a mystical banner that generates a magical effect within a certain radius of it. Alternatively, it may be used to make a single melee attack, which releases a different magical effect upon its target. I really like this concept. I've got two quibbles though. First, the school of magic ought to be conjuration, rather than evocation. Second, I wish there were more such spells offered. In any case, Banner spells are a welcome addition to the game.

New prestige classes or magic items are not offered in this book. This is a pity, since both could substantially help individualize the avatar. A prestige class could have been offered to further the Banner concept, a standard bearer for the celestial host. Moreover, a prestige class could have been offered for those who focus on enchantments and diplomacy, creating a celestial proselytizer or pact maker. There's so much more that could have been done to create a richer class diversity, but the designer totally fumbled the ball.

Instead, we get a few appendices that contain interesting stuff, but nothing of great utility for the player. Archangels are just fine, in a GM book. As a player, I want more feats, spells, prestige classes and magic items to quest after. I don't care about templates for emulating evil creatures that have been "reforged" by the powers of good.


I feel that the mechanics are sound, but potentially overpowered. Moreover, there isn't enough here to create much diversity between avatars. My guess is that most will choose similar spells and similar combat tactics. They'll end up as cookie cutter replicas, designed for maximum effectiveness.


Technique


What type of advice or example does this book offer to help a player, or GM, design scenarios around the avatar concept? Just about nothing. This is an "old school" product; it throws out a bunch of crunch and lets the player decide how to put it into action. Is there any advice on creating pacts or deals with celestial sponsors or allies? No. Is there any advice on creating adventures among the celestial realms? Nope. Are there any examples of military structures of the celestial host, especially as regards the player taking actions within it? There's nothing.

Even the monsters are without techniques of implementation. There are no adventure seeds or plot ideas, beyond the meager hints found in the basic descriptions. To aid in implementation, we need more than dry stat blocks and ability text.

The avatar is a unique type of character. GM's and player's need advice on how they can be integrated into standard play and where they may find spotlight activity. This book offers a few brief archetypes, but it isn't enough. The concept is novel and intriguing, but, without assistance, the avatar will not develop conceptually as anything more than a divine conjurer. This is a pity.


Appraisal


I like this book, but its failings are significant. The class is overpowered. The celestials are rated too low for challenge. There isn't enough helpful advice on integrating the avatar or celestial challenges into play. There is too much GM stuff in this player class book. There isn't sufficient material to create diversity among avatars.

Nevertheless, I think that a lot of good thought went into this product. If you're interested in bringing the Heavenly Host to your game, this is a must buy product for the sample creatures alone. The Banner spells are also worth checking out, especially if you like mass combat type of scenarios.

I'm torn on how to rate this product. As a player, I found this to be a product that rewarded scrutiny and study. It delivered on its promise, a sweet character that could summon all sorts of celestial toughies, while being a tough cookie herself. It wasn't at all balanced, but it sure was fun. As a GM, I'd buy this book for the celestial beasties to be found herein, but I sure as heck wouldn't allow the avatar class into my game.

Although I have strong reservations about the balance of the avatar, it's a good concept and definitely worth looking into. Therefore, I give this product a guarded but strong recommendation to those of you interested in bringing the celestial denizens into your d20 adventures.



---OMW