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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merova" data-source="post: 2010795" data-attributes="member: 2505">Avatar's HandbookChosen 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.MechanicsGreen 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.TechniqueWhat 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.AppraisalI 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</blockquote>

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