The Book of Roguish Luck
The Book of Roguish Luck
PDF
By Wolfgang Baur
Malhavoc Press
98 pages, $9.00
The Book of Roguish Luck is the fourth book in “The Book of…” series from Malhavoc Press and rounds out the basic fundamental classes. The PDF weighs in at 98 pages. This includes the front and back cover, the title page, one page for the table of contents, two pages of advertisements in the back, and one half page for the Open Gaming License. There is also one appendix of four and one half pages for Arcana Evolved conversions. In net you receive 87 pages of content for your purchase.
Save for the front and back covers, the artwork is black and white, is of good quality featuring the art of Michael Komarck and Tyler Walpole. I consider good artwork to be anything that either enhances a subject or brings it alive. It needs to tie into the subject in the book and add to it. As an example, when I made my first pass through the PDF, I saw the title to one of the new core classes:
The Gutter Mage. I wasn’t impressed with the choice of name. Then I saw the picture of the Gutter Mage and that changed my perception (I went back and read the class immediately, intrigued). That is what I look for in art and this book succeeds.
Good formatting and design; usual good quality from Malhavoc Press products. The layout and design of this book is consistent with previous books of this line.
The Book of Roguish Luck is broken into eleven chapters and one appendix as follows:
Chapter 1: New Core Classes
Three new core classes are introduced with a roguish theme. These new classes come with the luck die from chapter 6 (see below). Both spellcasting classes, the gutter mage and the shadowsworn, have sidebars with recommended spells from the Book of Eldritch Might and Arcana Evolved.
The Bandit is a rogue who specializes in the countryside vs. your typical urban rogue. His ability progression gives him skills to augment his ability to ride mounts, manhandle opponents, and make a clean getaway. This rogue is more about physical force than your atypical urban thief. He is the most standard of the three new classes as he fills the “rogue in the woods” niche. This class didn’t “wow” me like the next two, but it looks solid.
The Gutter Mage is a rogue/arcane caster with an urban/street wise flair. I like this class a lot. Ever since 3E came out, I have waited for a good version of the Jackal “kit” from Al-Qadim to be published. The Jackal was a kit that allowed the player to steal spells from a mage. The Gutter Mage has a solid mechanic to accomplish this plus more: At higher levels he can also reflect spells, capture spells cast at him, and at 20th level modify a spell that someone else is casting. This class has limited spell progression as a wizard, with it’s own spell list that takes advantage of the new spells in chapter 7. It is balanced with less skill points, a d4 for hit points, and reduced sneak attacks from your typical rogue.
The Shadowsworn is described as a “rogue that has sold his soul to the plane of shadow one drop at a time”. The thing about this class is the “feel”. It is just asking to be used in any horror style game, or sword and sorcery style game where the magic is dangerous ala “things man should not know”. He specializes in shadow abilities and shadow magic, gains incredible darkvision abilities (humans can see out to 120 feet by 17th level), shadow summoning powers, and a shadow-based familiar. Eventually, he can turn himself into a shade. The Shadowsworn has limited spell progression as a sorcerer. To balance this, he gets a d4 hit point progression, reduced skills (only 4+Int mod), and reduced sneak attacks from your typical rogue.
One thing that stood out in the Shadowsworn advancement table is the odd save progression for this class. The “poor” saves for this class is +0/+1/+1/+1/+2 etc… vs. the standard poor save of +0/+0/+/1+/1/+1/+2. The “medium” save mechanic, from those products that use it (like Arcana Evolved), has a progression of +0/+1/+1/+2/+2/+3/+3/+3 etc. I assume this is an error instead of a new type of save mechanic (“Medium-Poor?”).
Chapter 2: Prestige Classes
Three new prestige classes are provided to add to the rogue spectrum of your campaign.
The Deadheart Gangster is your obligatory class dedicated to organized crime. What would a book of rogues be without a crime lord? Heck, the ability at 10th level is called crime lord. The class even has a special ability called “leg breaker”. The other abilities allow you to get information off the streets, ruff up the competition, extract tribute, and gain improved leadership abilities.
The Fortune Hunter is the daring and swashbuckling adventurer. He receives an incredible amount of luck points (from chapter 6) to add to the flair of daring risk and quick escape. The class in novel in that is has a 15 level progression that effectively makes it a carrier choice (you can qualify by 5th level). The class contains special abilities that require the use of the luck system. It’s good that a rules supplement takes advantage of its own mechanics, but if you do not use the luck system provided, then this class falls apart.
I enjoyed the ability at 15th level. It gives the character the fortune of always being lucky during a chase: A boat is conveniently on hand if you leap into a river or every chasm will have some kind of rope to climb or swing upon. In other words, it is all “flavor” with no actual rule mechanic. The ability is actually weak for the final ability of a prestige class. I mean, how many chases are you going to be in? But I like the concept of giving prestige classes something that goes beyond the rules and gives, well, prestige. I wish more prestige classes did that.
The Silvertongue Charmer is you typical social creature. Whether it is fast-talking or charming others, this class is all about charisma. With abilities like smooth-talk, snake charm, and temptation you can get an idea for the nature of this class. A very nice touch is the spell progression. It gives advancement at every other level, but more importantly a side chart for spell advancement is provided incase you didn’t have spell access when you qualified for the prestige class. This makes the class more universal instead of being obviously targeted at specific classes.
Chapter 3: Sneakier Attacks
This chapter expands the use of standard sneak attacks in the game. First, it provides new rules to change the range limits for making ranged sneak attacks. With these rules, each range weapon is given a new maximum range distance based on its accuracy as a weapon and then broken into two categories of whether the target is moving or not. While I do like the idea of expanding the rules beyond the standard 30-foot limit (or shrinking it for poor ranged weapons), I think the formula could have been streamlined better. The d20 rule system is more about streamlined mechanics than formulas to create accuracy. Something simple like “Sneak attacks can be made on a stationary target within the weapons listed range and against a moving target at half that range” would have sufficed vs. “Maximum range is equal to 30 feet + half the difference between 30 feet and the weapon’s range increment” as written. I know my players and what frustrates them – more rules to learn and track. A table of common ranged weapon is provided to help. I do like the idea however and these rules can be modified or used as is to enhance the use of ranged weapons in your game.
The next section on sneak attacks to disarm or subdue is a bit of a mystery to me. I have read it multiple times and compared the language to the Players Handbook. This seems to just be a reiteration of the rules as written with nothing new (sneakier) added. I can’t help but wonder if something was accidentally left out.
The final two rules do deliver on the “sneakier” title. The first is the “Silent Sneak Attack”. It provides rules to sneak up behind an opponent to grab his mouth/put a knife to his throat and effectively incapacitate him. Or in other words, get the jump on a mark and scare him into submission.
The second is the “Traitorous Sneak Attack”. It provides rules to approach an opponent in a public setting (like a social party or event) or private setting (seduced into a back room) and effectively pull a hidden weapon while surprising the opponent with a sneak attack. This is a great rule option to enhance the game, not to mention interesting roleplaying moments.
I like the last two for the great imagery they provide. I can imagine a King’s Feast full of dignitaries where an assassin makes polite conversation, casually walks up to an ambassador, quietly slides a dagger into his back, then just as casually walk away while the man slowly slumps into his dinner. I also liked these abilities do to the fact they enhance the use of a number of skills, including intimidate, sleight of hand, and bluff.
Chapter 4: Gangs and Guilds
Working on the model of city stat blocks from the DM Guide, this chapter introduces stat blocks for guilds. It’s a nice way to take all the info for a guild and reduce it to a concise peace of information. Or you can take it in reverse and just write up stat blocks for various organizations in your campaign then return to them later when detailing an organization becomes necessary.
One thing that caught my eye was under the various requirements for guild entry was the apprenticeship entry. It lists a gold piece fee that seemed extraordinarily high. A 10th level rogue joining a secret guild would have to pay 15,000 gps. Most players I know would rather spend that kind of money on magic to deal with the challenge ratings of that level. On the other hand, a secret organization working at that level might not give the players much of a choice…
This chapter also provides a full page listing of nifty “Thieves Cant” slang, two pre-made organizations to use, and sample taverns/gambling hells (that is correct – gambling “hells” differ from gambling halls by allowing
all forms of gambling) ready to inset into your game.
Chapter 5: Gambling
This chapter provides rules for a new skill: Profession (Gambling). You can use this skill to win games of chance on an individual bases, make a standard income, or go for broke with weekly gambling checks to bring home the big jackpots. I did need to read through the rules for weekly gambling checks several times before I understood it, but the rest was easy enough and straightforward.
Gambling hells are detailed next along with a look at typical gambling games and rules for resolving them. Also included are rules for cheating (we are talking about rogues after all). Magic/fantasy elements are taken into consideration (for example: griffin races instead of dog races) and spells are looked at to help or block cheating.
Chapter 6: Luck
A new major rules mechanic is introduced: Luck Points. Luck points are a pool of points you receive that can be spent to help your character. The most common is using a point to re-roll your d20 if you fail to hit something, fail a skill check, or burn two points to re-roll a saving throw. Other uses include activating class abilities (for the Fortune Hunter prestige class) or activating a feat with special abilities (see below).
Some classes are luckier than others, or more likely, require luck more than others. Each class rolls it’s own luck die when it gains a level, just like hit points. Also similar to hit points, the die rolled differs dependant on the class you play, from the wizard at a d2 to the rogue with a d10.
A new ability score called “Luck” is introduced. You add your luck score modifier to luck points gained at every level. The luck ability score also affects certain skills and spells. If you do not wish to include the luck as an ability score, charisma is recommended as a substitute.
This is basically a new version of another variant rule: action points. The luck point differs from action points in several important ways:
- First, with action points, you only get to increase a d20 role by an average 15% 9+1d6) while a luck point makes the increase completely random. You could go down if you rolled decent the first time or you could get a big boost (especially if you rolled poorly the first time).
- Second, you can’t spend a luck point to duplicate a feat or pull a special maneuver.
- The amount of luck points you get is determined by your class and modified by an ability score.
- A variant is offered to allow players to gain more luck if they accomplish certain game or role-playing goals.
There are a number of things I like and dislike about this rule system. One thing that bothers me is the die roll per class mechanic. I know the randomness of the roll represents the fickle hand of luck, but the random nature makes a poor roll quite bad, since luck point can’t be renewed – once used, they’re gone; even the occasional poor roll for hit points is mitigated by healing magic, making it a renewable resource. And the dice spread between classes also punishes certain classes when compared to the action point system. Rogues don’t need a power boost over wizards.
On the plus side, this addresses issues I had with the action point system. The d6 added to a d20 toll always seemed a little weak to me while the ability to reproduce any feat can be very powerful (i.e. wizards duplicating any metamagic feats on the fly). The luck die by class boosts the bard and sorcerer, which is nice. Finally, using charisma as the modifier for luck points increases the use of that stat and discourages it from being a dump stat.
If you don’t like the randomness of the luck die roll per level, consider flat lining it. If the scores were held at the average result of what is offered, plus one, then that would give the wizard 2 points (vs. a d2), the fighter 3 points (vs. a d4), a ranger 4 points (vs. d4+1), and finally the rogue 6 points (vs. a d10) at each level.
In all, the luck system is a good rule set, but I would recommend you use the optional luck style rules that allow you to gain extra luck. This encourages role-playing and allows luck to be gained. I would also recommend you use the charisma modifier to add to your luck every level vs. luck as a new ability score. This mitigates the randomness and helps strengthen some classes.
Chapter 7: Roguish Spells
New spells with a roguish theme to enhance the game, along with a new domain: Fortune. With the fortune domain, it is assumed that any deity with the luck portfolio has this domain. As for the spells, there are a few for divine casters but the arcane casters come out on top. It was nice to see spells for the assassin and bard in addition to wizards/sorcerers while the two spell casting core classes provided in Chapter 1 make heavy use of these spells. A nice surprise is the presence of a few spells from
The Complete Book of Eldritch Might , converted spells from
Arcana Evolved , and Green Ronin’s
Assassin’s Handbook . I like it when a company utilizes good sources to enhance a product (that, in my opinion, being the point of the OGL); it also saves time from flipping through multiple books.
The spells themselves are interesting. A few seemed strong, like the 4th level cleric (3rd level Fortune Domain) spell
Fortunes B*tch which gives all allies within a 50 foot burst 4 luck points. Speaking of entertaining names for spells, some of the spells come with a second name for street slang (or thieves cant). For example, the spell
Compelling Question is also titled
Shakedown . Nice touch to add flavor to urban campaigns.
Chapter 8: Feats
Thirty-six feats are provided with one reprint from
The Assassin’s Handbook . New Eldritch feats, originally conceived in
The Complete Book of Eldritch Might are provided, along with a dose of general feats and a new feat type: Luck Feats. Luck feats either affect your total luck points or provide new uses for your luck points.
The general feats I found over all balanced and intriguing. Three of the new feats are for bards, which is great. Beyond a few I questioned, I can see using them in a standard game and they would enhance an urban game greatly. No easy task with all the feats on the market these days. The four eldritch feats I also like a lot and was happy to see them make a comeback in this book.
The luck feats I was overall disappointed with. Like the action point feats of Eberron, some of these feats require you to burn luck to use them. For me, an ability you gain has to be pretty darn good for you to burn two non-renewable resources to use it. First you have to take the feat, and then you have to burn the luck point itself. Of course, you can get some help with role-playing bonuses, or a wizard can cast the spell
Fortunes B*tch but that smacks of buffing which is something 3.5 is trying to avoid.
An interesting option for the luck feats would be the wonderful “Fighting Style” feat concept from
The Book of Iron Might . The concept involved a choice of a minor power when you gain the feat plus an additional power every time you reach a specific interval (in the BoIM, the interval is every +5 mark of your “To Hit” bonus). This would allow you to slowly gain multiple luck abilities over time for the expense of one feat, but still require you to burn the luck point when activating those feats.
There were a few feats whose power level I questioned:
- Cutting Remark : This feat allows you to taunt an opponent into attacking you by making an opposed bluff check. I think a compulsion affect would also allow a will save. As written, the spell makes it easy to railroad players into a fight.
- Silent Kill : This feat allows you to make an attack silently without attracting attention in a surprise round. Your attack in the first round of combat is also silent if you drop the opponent before he gets to act in initiative. Also, this feat also gives you a +8 circumstance bonus to initiative if you attack a surprised opponent. Don’t get me wrong. I like the imagery and style presented with this feat, but a 4th level rogue can qualify for it, which is generous. A rogue with a16 dexterity, Improved Initiative , and this feat has a total +15 bonus to initiative if he surprises an opponent at only 4th level.
There were also a few feats that made the “hat trick” for me (New, Interesting, and Rule-Solid):
- Shadow Cloak : You can give an adjacent ally your ranks in hide.
- Snake Charm : Your stare can hold a person immobile as a gaze attack. Combine that with the “Traitorous Sneak Attack” ability and you have a classic, and devastating, seductress.
- Slashing Strike : Your first two sneak attack damage dice become d8. On par with Weapon Specialization (+2 average damage) combined with the random nature of the rogue – you may get a little more or less.
All in all, despite my concern for the luck feats, this is a good selection and worth looking at.
Chapter 9: New Equipment
The chapter starts with a good selection of tools of the trade. Features include arrows that cut ropes, extinguish lanterns, or fly silently to their mark along with new kinds of rope and to rappelling equipment. The picture of the weapons and equipment is good.
Next are magic items in which a well-rounded selection of new armor and weapon abilities are presented, along with elixirs and wondrous items. I liked the items and they add to the theme of the book.
Chapter 10: Burglary and Housecracking
This chapter gets into the details of locks, keys, scouting a house, breaking and entering, and rules to resolve a chase scene.
The section on locks and keys is very detailed, teaching you the basics of exactly how a lock works. New rules are given to adapt this detail if you wish, including open lock DCs based on the type and quality of lock with the length of time required to successfully pick the lock. There is also a brief look at magic doors and locks.
Next is an overview of the fine art of breaking and entering (and escaping). A detailed look at ropes (including walking on them for you acrobats), the ins and outs of reconnaissance, and different types of guards and alarms.
The chase rules are thorough without being overcomplicated. A sample chase is also given.
Chapter 11: Bribes and Contracts
The final chapter gives rules for bribing, finding contacts, and fencing stolen goods. Charts and modifiers are present, and these rules give skills new abilities. Sense Motive and Diplomacy to bribe someone; Sense Motive is to determine the CR of the target and what it would consider an acceptable offer while diplomacy tries to make the sale happen. Finding contacts highlights Gather Information. Fencing stolen goods gets mileage out of Appraisal and Bluff checks.
Appendix: AE Conversions
For those who own Arcana Evolved, this section is for you. Most of this section is dedicated to converting the new spells to the Arcana Evolved format. Feats are detailed into which would be ceremonies and which is a talent (there is only one). Luck dice are listed for the core classes. Also, a quick race to class description is given.
I found the conversions in the appendix useful but would have preferred more input. I would have liked an explanation on how to convert the classes that have a spell progression to the spell system of AE. I could just use the shadowsworn’s progression as it uses spontaneous casting, but confirmation would be useful to insure game balance, and the Gutter Mage as stands has a wizard’s spell progression that has no counterpart to the AE system.
Final thoughts:
Despite some critical comments on a few rule mechanics, I did enjoy this book a lot. The new core classes are solid and worthy of a look alone in my opinion. They are interesting in there own right, and more importantly, don’t come across as a spruced up version of the parent class. The Gutter Mage and Shadowsworn will see immediate use in my campaign.
The new rules are over all good and would benefit an urban campaign or enhance the role-playing of rogues in general, and I like the new use for skills presented. The information and details presented can add lots of flavor to a campaign and were chucked full of ideas. The sections on guilds, gambling, and burglary are excellent.
The real question is, does this book make you want to use it? Does
The Book of Roguish Luck make you want to run a rogue or an urban adventure?
The answer is a definite yes.
