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Message: <blockquote data-quote="genshou" data-source="post: 2612641" data-attributes="member: 13164">5 Stars for an Obscure ProductI am trying a new format for reviews–please post your comments!Please note that I have received this product without purchasing it, solely for the purpose of posting a review for Crothian’s Review Project.  I love you guys that much <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />The What, Who, and How MuchThe Combat Hero is an eight-page, semi-colored PDF for d20 Modern, that features four pages of actual gaming content, one page devoted to the front cover, one page devoted to the Open Game License, and two pages of light advertising.  It’s a small, streamlined package from Sword’s Edge Publishing (fondly known as SEP to some) which is credited to three individuals: Fraser Ronald as the writer, Dean Martin as the artist, and Rob Wakefield as the “design & layout guy”. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> It is currently available only in PDF form, for $1.00 US.At first glance,the book doesn’t appear particularly impressive due to an utterly stark, black-and-white front cover.  After skimming through the pages briefly, however, I can see this is already a product that shows potential.  One piece of artwork particularly catches my eye, and I can see a fully-detailed character class followed by not one but two example 5th-level characters with the default ability score array, full NPC statistics, and a paragraph of descriptive text (fluff) each, making them ready to drop into a game with only the addition of a physical description.The All-important Language AnalysisA careful, word-by-word, eyesight-vitiating search through the document found no spelling or punctuation errors, and the word choice and sentence structure suffered from nothing more than a minor setback here and there.  The descriptive text lacks either phenomenal imagination or blandness, being more in the middle ground of that which is to be expected.  This is one area the book–while not needing much improvement on–failed to outshine my expectations as it succeeded in doing in so many other categories.Easy to Understand?While I often find something to be confounded by in even the smallest of RPG book attempts, the text in this book is all easy to understand, from the descriptions to the actual mechanical function of class abilities.  This book far exceeded expectations in regard to its ease of understanding.  This makes me regard the writer, Fraser Ronald, very favorably.The ArtworkThe front cover features no artwork, instead having simply a black background with white text in a stencil font commonly associated with the military.  The page borders are on only the outward, left or right edges of the pages, and feature a military camouflage patter on top, and a gradient scale of green hues with an overlaid quasi-silhouette of a character facing away from our perspective, dressed in military gear and wielding an automatic rifle of some kind.  The only other two pictures are a full-body image of a “street tough” style female character, and an upper-body picture of a male, dark-skinned soldier wearing a desert camouflage jacket and equipped with various military gear, wielding a compact, two-handed ranged weapon (though I’m not quite sure what it is, it looks to be some sort of rocket or grenade launcher).  Both images are on a quality level compared to the artwork from a Wizards of the Coast core rulebook.  Kudos to Dean Martin on this one.Down to Crunch Time!All right.  It’s time for the longest and most complicated part of this review.  It’s also my the part I’ve had the most fun writing.  Take a bathroom break and get some snacks; I’m going all-out, no-holds-barred in this section!I’ll first cover the strict “right out of the book” statistics for the class itself, then move into specific examples of character builds and how they compare.  The reason for this format is simple–the Combat Hero is what is called a specialized class: “a step between a basic class and an advanced class.  Its main purpose is to allow a level of specialization in low-level games.  A character can easily enter a specialized class at 2nd level, and gain talents and skills that will enhance and complement the talents and abilities found in basic and advanced classes.”  Because it is a class that has prerequisites (the caveat being that an optimized character can meet all of them in only their first character level), I will use the first section of Down to Crunch Time! to cover its statistical balance with similarly-themed base classes and Advanced Classes, then use the second section to test if taking the class as early as possible allows for optimization that grants abilities at a lower level than they could be gained in the RAW.  The third section will be a brief attempt at throwing together a few sets of character statistics to compare side-by-side.Before that, however, let us take a glance at how the class abilities work in the Combat Hero, as I will refer to them a great deal in Section I but not fully examine them until Section II:The Combat Hero gets abilities in the same way as a base class–a talent at every odd level, and a bonus feat at every even level.  1st-level is an exception to this in that it grants a bonus feat instead of a talent.  The benefits and pitfalls of this will be discussed in Section II, as well as an explanation of how this minor change has caused this class to narrowly avoid a critical balance issue.  The scope of talents and bonus feats is wide and allows for a great deal of freedom on the character’s part, meaning that a Combat Hero can fit a great number of archetypes quite easily.  Again, this will be discussed more in Section II.  And now, without further ado, on to…Section IThe Combat Hero has the highest rate of Base Attack Bonus progression, a rate which is granted by only three classes in the core rulebook: the Strong Hero, the Martial Artist, and the Shadow Slayer.  Not even the Soldier or Gunslinger classes get this high of a progression.  In the case of a Combat Hero, it’s not just the name that suggests this is one class that deserves the highest attack bonus rating.  These characters are more than mere soldiers.  They are absolute battle freaks.  Their very purpose in life is to bash things.  Thus, it makes perfect sense from a non-crunch perspective for them to have the best level of basic combat focus.  The Combat Hero’s saving throws are almost exactly identical to those of the Strong Hero.  Here’s how they differ.  At any given class level, the Combat Specialist has exactly one more point to base Fortitude save than the Strong hero, and is one class level ahead of the Strong hero when it comes to Reflex.  Will remains unchanged.  The Combat Hero gains Defense bonus in a slightly different and better way, but evens out to the same amount at 10th-level.  The Reuptation bonus is identical.  Combat Heroes get 4 (5 for human) skill points per level, which is amazing for such a combat-heavy character and beats out the Strong Hero’s 2 (3) easily.  Their hit die of d10 is level with that of the Strong hero.  Obviously, this class is more or less on par with the Strong Hero, but definitely slightly better.Now let’s compare with the Soldier and Martial Artist, the two Advanced Classes most likely to compete for the attention of a character who might be interested in this class, as well as being easy to get into for those optimized to become a Combat Hero.  The Soldier suffers a major setback in Base Attack Bonus but makes up for it slightly in his Fortitude and Reflex saving throws.  His Will save, Defense bonus, and Reputation bonus all come out equal to the Combat Hero in the end, though the Combat Hero enjoys a higher starting Defense which is one point higher at 1st-, 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-levels.  The Combat Specialist can imitate the Soldier’s Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Improved Critical class abilities via talent tree.  The Soldier’s Tactical Aid ability is roughly equal to the Combat Specialist’s Leadership talent tree abilities, losing out in duration but making up for it in the number of allies the soldier can affect (all within sight and voice range) as well as in a variable bonus that could conceivably be greater than the Combat Hero’s own.  The Soldier’s Improved Reaction, Greater Weapon Specialization, and Critical Strike have no clear rival in the Combat Hero class, so they are definitely abilities that make the Soldier unique and still a viable option if the Combat Hero is allowed in your game.  The two are equal when it comes to skill points and action points.  Clearly Soldier and Combat Hero are still viable side-by-side, and also have the advantage of being balanced relative to one another.The Martial Artist is a total combat specialist.  The Combat Hero gets no advantage here when it comes to Base Attack, saving throws, or Defense.  In fact, when looking at the Martial Artist’s statistics on this table, the Combat Hero almost starts to look like a weakling!  Remember, however, that the Martial Artist’s class abilities all focus on close-range combat, whereas the Combat Hero only gets martial arts abilities by selecting bonus feats or the Melee Smash talent.  Also, the Combat Hero is much more versatile and gets a better Fortitude saving throw, which is vital to a character who prefers to be right in the thick of things when Massive Damage starts to be dealt.  The Combat Hero also gains more hit points and more skills, so Martial Artist and Combat Hero are more or less on par in the end.Section IIThe Combat Hero has the largest list of bonus feats–twice as long as the second-longest, and as much as three times as long as some of the shortest.  This doesn’t really unbalance the character, but it’s one unnecessary facet of the class.  The amount of bonus feats the class grants is 6, only one more than a base class.  The first two levels both grant a bonus feat and no other class abilities, so this makes Combat Hero feel like nothing more than a “bonus feat class” at first.  However, it is when one reaches their third level in the class that things get truly interesting.  The Combat Hero’s selection of talents is a veritable smorgasbord from which we are unfortunately only able to select four talents.  It features “entry-level” talents from the Strong, Tough, and Charismatic talent trees, as well as a pair of very good talents from the Fast’s Defensive talent tree, minus their prerequisites.  It additionally features a talent tree that allows the character to pick up Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Improved Critical.  The scope of abilities allows for either a specialized or well-rounded character, and if one were to make a homebrew feat similar to the Strong Plus, Fast Plus, etc. from d20 Future (the feats that grant an extra talent from that class) that was instead  Combat Plus, this would be a very good feat to take for cherry-pickers who want a wide range of class talents without taking the actual classes.A critical design consideration is at work with the character’s first talent being received at 3rd-level instead of 1st.  What is this consideration, you ask?  Since the Combat Hero has only parts of each talent tree, most of the talents do not have their former prerequisites, and if a character were to gain a talent at 2nd-level that a character of the appropriate base class couldn’t qualify for until 5th-level, someone would surely feel slighted!  With the first Combat Hero talent unavailable until a character reaches their fourth overall level, this prevents exactly that sort of preemptive cherry-picking.Section IIINow on to an example of one sort of character we can make!  Let’s start with a melee-obsessed character who eventually wants to qualify for Archaic Weapon Master from Urban Arcana, but wants some nifty Combat Hero stuff first.  Let’s say I go one level in Strong and then five levels in Combat Hero (to get two CH talents), and then see how well my character can function as a stand-alone as well as how well the concept would be strengthened by the AWM class at the next level.  From the first and only Strong level, I’ll take Melee Smash.  None of the other entry-level talents sound good, and besides, though I can select Melee Smash from the Combat Hero talents, why not get something not normally available to a Strong/Archaic Weapon Master Build?  For my 1st- and 2nd-level CH bonus feats, I’ll take Archaic Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Focus (Longsword).  That qualifies me for the AWM class as far as feats are concerned.  For my 3rd-level CH talent, I’ll pick up Personal Weapon Focus (Longsword), since it stacks with the Weapon Focus feat.  For my 4th-level CH bonus feat, I will of course be taking my personal favorite, Power Attack.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />  My 5th-level CH talent will naturally be Personal Weapon Specialization, to further my focus on my chosen weapon.  Already I have a decent combat ability with an archaic weapon, and I haven’t even taken the AWM class yet!  If I took 2 more levels of Strong Hero and then went straight into AWM, I would have chosen Improved Melee smash for a paltry +1 damage as opposed to Weapon Specialization’s +2, and would have 3 levels of AWM abilities.  This gives me Weapon Specialization (hooray, but where’s my stackable Weapon Focus goodness?), the ability to overcome minor damage reduction, and one bonus feat.  Unfortunately, I would sacrifice a great deal with regard to Base Attack Bonus.  It’s up to you to decide which character is more optimized for archaic weaponmastering.  Crunch time is over for me.  I think it’s…Time for a Little NitpickingThough the Personal Weapon Focus/Specialization and Personal Improved Critical feats can be applied to any weapon as well as unarmed strikes and grapples, the talent tree they are in is called “Firearms Training Talent Tree” and is described as the character having training in the use of firearms.One odd fact I noticed in detailed analysis is that the Combat Hero’s Inspiration ability functions differently from the Charismatic Hero’s version in two fundamental ways.  While the Charismatic Hero’s ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to the hero’s Charisma modifier, the Combat Hero’s ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to the character’s levels in Combat Hero.  This means that the Charismatic Hero’s ability functions for a more or less fixed amount of time, while the Combat Hero learns to somehow prolong his/her ability to affect the morale of allies as his/her training improves.On the other side of the coin, the Charismatic Hero’s Inspiration ability may affect a number of allies equal to one-half his/her Charismatic Hero level, whereas the Combat Hero affects a number of foes equal to the one-half the hero’s Charisma modifier, rounded down (always as least one ally in either case).  The Charismatic Hero will end up getting more allies under his/her effect, especially since the Combat Hero can’t pick this ability up at as early of a level as the Charismatic Hero.  In fact, the Combat Hero will probably never be able to affect a full three allies unless the hero extensively focuses on his/her Charisma score.  This combined with the Combat Hero’s extended duration seems to indicate the Combat Hero is more of a specialist at aiding one or two team members due to officer training that focuses on helping the individual more rather than the group less.  This is a very flavorful design consideration, IMHO, but it raises the question of how a Charismatic Hero who multiclasses into Combat Hero should handle using Inspiration?The sample characters have weird hit point values.  If we’re going with the idea that they should have max hp from their first hit die and subsequently receive average hp per die, Anna Forester should have 30 hp instead of 28, and Armand Marlowe should have 33 instead of 28.The sample characters have correct Defense scores, but it is not broken down in parentheses to make determining that fact any easier.For What It’s WorthFor a buck, I could buy a very small amount of food, or an item of questionable quality and usefulness from the local dollar store.  This product is definitely worth at least a dollar.Would I Buy This?Definitely.  I can spare a dollar for something this well written, and it is versatile enough that it can be used over the course of either an NPC encounter or an entire campaign.Will I Use This in My Next Game?Readily so!  Whether this is an option looked at by the players or the class I’ll use for the NPC security personnel on board the blockade-running cargo ship in which the PCs start the adventure, these guys will be in my next session.Conclusion and Individual RatingsThis little PDF gave me few expectations when I first saw its filesize and its cover, but I have yet again been reminded that both1)    good things can come in small packages and2)    a book should never, EVER be judged by it’s cover.  Well, except for one specific d20 System book that I’ll not mention by name.  If you really want to know what it is, you can ask me. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />Here’s how I’d rate it by individual category:Design & Layout: ****Proper Use of English: *****Innovativeness/Originality: ****Artwork: *****Descriptive Text Flavour (Fluff): ***Usefulness: *****Balance: *****Clarity: ****Value for Price: Can I give more than 5 stars?  Yes?  Then I give it ******* <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Overall Quality: *****This product far exceeds my expectations from a single-class booklet, or indeed an RPG booklet of any kind, and has earned a praiseworthy 5 stars from me.</blockquote>

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