The Review
I'm not sure how to post this as an Official Review, but I'm going to look into it.
Meanwhile, I'll post it here, and ask for comments. If you see any grammar or spelling screwups, let me know!
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Back in the day, as we old-timers say, there was 2E. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the most infamous of the 2E supplements was the Complete Book Of Elves. Who can forget the Bladesinger? Elven Platemail? The Stapling Shot? The Double-Arrow Shot? And, of course, special elf-only artificial limbs, made of mithril.
Those were the days. My views on what I shall politely refer to as The Elvish Problem are well known, and I promise you that the point of this review is not to dwell on the issue. No, I remind you of the infamous CBoE because finally, at long last, it has a worthy successor: The Complete Guide to Drow, produced by Goodman Games and published by Natural 20 Press. It is truly a munchkin’s wet dream, and I have little doubt that little Drizzt clones across the globe will be snapping this sucker up faster than you can say “adamantine limbs”. The feats alone will make your head implode, and I think it’s fair to say that the “playtesters” for this supplement were probably doing large amounts of Underdark mushrooms at the time. But this is not the place for personal attacks. No, the place for that is the conclusion of the review. So let’s get started.
The 56-page .pdf is separated into seven main sections: Social structure (includes warfare), Drow Characters, Prestige Classes, Feats, Drow Magic, Campaigns, and New Monsters. The cover art is painfully amateurish, as is most of the inside art, though I confess that a piece or two are respectable to my untrained eye – I especially like the picture of the drow/mindflayer crossbreed.
Social Structure/Warfare: Not bad. Not much you couldn’t find in a few Dragon magazine articles, but helpful nevertheless. I’m horrible at naming NPCs, and so the list of 200-odd female, male, and drow house names is nice to see. The Guide continues with a list of five new drow gods with paragraph-long descriptions, along with a not-so-cryptic reference to “The Spider Queen” that lives in her “Demonweb”. I guess Lolth isn’t OGC. There are a couple of pages on drow warfare that don’t get into much depth, and then a list of six nifty new drow poisons, some of which are not surprisingly unbalanced. For instance, Lance Flower Extract (type “Injury”) has initial damage of Unconsciousness and secondary damage of Death, save DC17. Compare and contrast to Wyvern Poison in the DMG, which has the same DC but causes 2d6 Con damage instead . . . and runs for 3000gp a shot.
Drow Characters: This section starts with the Monster Manual list of drow stat adjustments and abilities. A notable omission is a suggested ECL bonus for drow PCs, though it does state that drow characters get CR +1 – is this an implied ECL modifier? After a half-page on social status (and how it could affect character generation), the Guide quickly moves on to Drow Mutations, which include mind flayer/drow crossbreeds, driders, a very scary orc/drow crossbreed, a demon-drow crossbreed, and a goblin/drow crossbreed. These are interesting, but the lack of ECL suggestions are bothersome.
Prestige Classes: The crunchiness continues, with the Adamantine Soldier, the Blood Druid, the Dark Blade, the Keeper, the Soulless, and the Weaver of Power. I have neither the time nor the inclination to discuss all of them, but the Adamantine Soldier is worth at least a few sentences. The Adamantine Soldier is made of, well, adamantine – at least, one of his limbs is, and probably two or three. Because he’s drow (and thus better than you or I), he gets fighter BAB, four skill points/level, and Hide, Move Silently, Spot, and Listen as class skills. He also gets some free feats which are a bit on the unbalanced side (more on that later) and, at 8th level of the prestige class (which admittedly requires a minimum of fourteen character levels), gains the ability to “channel the natural radiation of his underground environment through his artificial limb”, creating a 100’ cone of magical force that does 8d6 + d6/bonus pt of Constitution, no save. It’s usable once per day per bonus point of Con. Yeah, that’s what we’re talking about.
Feats: In fairness, most of the material up to this point wasn’t bad – certainly, not for a .pdf. Any book about drow is going to include some munchkin-friendly material – it pretty much has to. And barring the Adamantine Soldier, most of the material seemed balanced, at least on its face.
And then it all went to hell. There are only 14 new feats, but damn, what feats.
There's a feat that gives you +2 to init AND AC.
There's a feat that allows you to make a Reflex save when attacked to "take half damage by throwing up your arm to deflect some of the blow”. I can see all those PCs out there right now saying to themselves “Wow! Throw up my arm! Why didn’t I think of that?!” The DC is 10+damage, but still, given you can use it multiple times/round (with a good Dex) . . . this is just scary.
There’s a feat that gives you double your normal AC bonus from your shield. Nothing suggests that it doesn’t double the effect of the enhancement bonus, so yes, your large shield +5 will now give you +14 to AC.
There's a feat that gives you +4 to Spell Resistance. Before all you kobold and goblin PCs get excited, this one actually has a prereq – SR 12+. Before you say “that doesn’t seem TOO broken”, consider this: you can take this feat as many times as you like. The effects stack. Play a drow, take it three times, and get SR equal to 23+ character level. Unless you’ve pissed off Elminster off at some point, you should be pretty much immune to magic.
There's a feat that allows them . . .
You know, I don't think you're ready for this. Sit down. Take a couple of deep breaths. Okay. Here I go.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
There's a feat called "Retaliation”. It allows you a free attack at anyone that misses you in melee by five or more.
At your best attack bonus.
And you get up to your Dex bonus in retaliatory attacks per round.
Are you still there? Did your head explode? No? Let me try again.
There's a feat called "Retaliation" that allows you a free attack at anyone that misses you in melee by five or more. The counter-strike is at your best attack bonus. You get a number of strikes equal to your Dex bonus per round.
The prereq? Base attack bonus +3 or better, and Combat Reflexes.
I know what you’re thinking. There’s no way you could have just read that. There’s no way that could POSSIBLY be true. A feat that makes the pre-errata Expert Tactician look about as munchkinny as Endurance? Nope. They couldn't. I apologize. I’m sure I read that incorrectly . . . I’ve really got to start splitting the pills in half.
My sorry addiction to Pez is also causing me to note the feat "Dual Spell", which allows casters to cast two spells per round (with some restrictions, but still . . . ), and the feat that gives a character +2 to ALL ROLLS. The prereq for the latter is that a drow god thinks you’re special. I wish I was kidding.
Drow Magic: Moving on, we have adamantine limbs. Enchanted adamantine limbs, with powers that cost pretty much the same as regular old magic items. Anyone want three new item slots? I figured you did. We also have some especially cheaty drow weapons, worthy successors to the pre-errata mercurial greatsword. The Scissor-Bladed Axe, for instance, is an exotic Medium weapon that does d10 damage and has a crit range of 19-20 (x3). No, there are no typos in there. Damage-wise, that’s equivalent to a crit range of 20 (x5) or 17-20 (x2).
The artificial adamantine limbs are amazing in their own right. For less than 3000gp you can buy a leg that will double your movement speed; if you buy two, you can triple your movement speed. Again, we’re basically looking at two or three free item slots here. I just didn’t know that adamantine was so CHEAP. It seems the drow use it for pretty much everything – baby cribs, coffee cubs, bookshelves, paperweights – I guess why not use it in artificial limbs?
The section ends with a list of new spells and drow domains. The spells do not seem unbalanced, and in fact some are fairly interesting, though I question whether clerics should have a 7th level spell that does d10 radiation damage per level (max of 20d10) in a 20’ radius spread. The drow Combat domain power is also extremely unbalanced -- it gives the cleric +2 to all melee and ranged attack rolls, with all weapons.
Campaigns: “Imagine how you can bring the drow to life in your games: Drow space pirates have hijacked a transport bringing needed supplies to a local moon colony.” Now that’s a plot hook. A plot hook . . . FROM HELL!
Seriously, this section isn’t too bad, as it moves away from the crunchy bits. There’s a list of ten possible plot hooks and a two-and-a-half page guide to creating Your Very Own Drow Family. As with most other “flavor” parts of the guide, the section really isn’t deep enough to do more than spark a few thoughts in a DM’s noggin’, not that that’s a bad thing – sometimes, that’s all we need.
New Monsters: The Guide has stat blocks and descriptions for the Animated Conveyance (a CR2 creature that would last about three rounds in a real drow battle), three new golems (the Rockslide golem is of small size, CR7, and costs 80,000gp to create -- the drow are just not very good with money), a very nifty Tanar’ri spider, and some poison-spitting zombies.
And that’s about it.
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I am of two minds on The Complete Book Of Drow. On the one hand, much of the Guide isn’t that bad. If we completely ignore the new feats, the new weapons, the adamantine limbs, and the Adamantine soldier, we’re left with material that almost passes muster – for a .pdf. The remaining material isn’t that deep – but for some, it’s worth seven bucks to get a few new spells, a usable prestige class or three, a few new monsters, and pleasant daydreams about sending a team of drow/mindflayer half-breeds up against the munchkin party of your choice.
On the other hand, one wants to have high standards, and there’s a lot of d20 material out there that is far superior to what’s here. DMs looking primarily for crunchy bits can probably invest their cash more wisely, and one just can’t ignore the lack of thought involved in the creation of the feats and weapons. I’m not exaggerating when I say that a few sections of the Guide read like a parody of a real splatbook; in that sense, it is truly a worthy successor to the Complete Book of Elves.
In the final analysis, I cannot generally recommend anyone purchase The Complete Guide to Drow. But maybe you’re a killer DM. Maybe you’re looking for printed justification to create super-ultra-twinked out NPC drow to throw against your players (“The guy you just attacked and missed suddenly attacks you again with his adamantine arm/sword, and hits for – hey, don’t start bitching, it’s a printed feat – anyway, you’re dead.”). If that’s the case, then this book is probably worth your time. Similarly, maybe you are one of those wussy DMs that can’t stand to lose players, and so you Monty Haul them to death. Do you play with unerrata’d bladed gauntlets and mercurial greatswords and give sneak-attack damage for magical missiles (individually) and allow players to play monster races without ECL penalties? If that’s your game, then this is the book for you.
But you’re still going to regret allowing Retaliation.
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You seem to have a fair take on the book's strengths and weaknesses; I am more concerned about tone than anything else... I don't want the reviews page to go the way of RPGnet.
