The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter

[Crothian]

AUTHOR: Fraser Ronald

The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter is a member of a unit tasked to counter-terrorism or hostage-rescue. CT Assaulters may also be found in other areas of the military and in many police forces at all levels of government, including municipal SWAT teams. CT Assaulters make up the main force used during an entry, room clearing or building assault, be that to rescue hostages, make an arrest or neutralize a threat.

The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter prestige class is an update of the prestige class presented in SEP's Raid on Ashkashem.

The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter includes the Counter-Terrorism Assaulter PDF, the Counter-Terrorism Assaulter OGC document which gathers all the open game content into a Rich Text Format file, and three pictures used in the Counter-Terrorism Assaulter PDF.

The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter is from SEP’s Roles and Classes line. Look for the Capable Hero, the Combat Hero, and the Covert Hero, specialized classes from SEP, and the Special Operations Marksman and the Spec Ops Recce, prestige classes from SEP. Finally, all the talent trees from these classes are presented in Roles and Classes: Talent Trees Assembled.

This 8-page product includes cover, back cover, 5 pages of content and 1 page of legal text. Along with class information, this product includes 2 ready-made NPCs.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Counter-Terrorism Assaulter
Publisher: Sword’s Edge Publishing
Pages: 8
Format: PDF

Overview:
The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter is a new prestige class for Wizards of the Coast’s D20 Modern system. I received this PDF as a review copy in conjunction with Crothian’s ENworld Review Project.

The book contains the new prestige class, as well as 3 new Talent Trees for use with the class. In addition, it also contains 2 example Counter-Terrorism Assaulters. There is a full stat block complete with possessions and a paragraph on the character’s background.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the book’s author had a background as a CT Assaulter, or at the very least in the armed services or the police force. The book’s tone is professional, and written with a quiet authority that makes it seem official.

I was impressed by the writing and real-world research that went into this product, and it is one I would definitely use in my D20 Modern game. In addition, I believe it could easily fit into a D20 Future or D20 Apocalypse game with merely a few flavor changes. The mechanics are solid, and easily will plug into any D20 Modern campaign.

Appearance:
The book is laid out attractively and easy to read. It is a full-color PDF, with eye-catching real-world photographs that fit quite well into the content and text of the product. Even when printed in black-and-white, I found the book easy to read.

Contents:
The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter is a combat-oriented 10-level prestige class for Wizards of the Coast’s D20 Modern system. The class is prefaced by a short description of the CT Assaulter and real-world examples of CT Assaulter organizations, helping to give GMs ideas on how to insert it into their campaign.

The class could be taken by 7th or 8th level if planned out correctly. It boasts 1d8 for HD, a good base attack bonus, a nice array of class skills, and 5 + Int modifier skill points per level. One thing that caught my attention was the saving throw bonuses – they don’t seem to match up to the typical “Good” and/or “Poor” progressions of D20 Modern, but rather seem to be in new, created arrays. I would most likely remap them to use a standard saving throw array, instead of new ones, so the class is more on par with the other D20 Modern classes.

Along with being able to choose Talents from the new Talent Trees as you go up in level, the CT Assaulter also grants bonus feats every few levels, chosen from a rather respectable, mostly combat-oriented, list.

The 3 new Talent Trees are the Assault talent tree (oriented to breaking into a building or hostage situation, SWAT-style); the Firearms Training talent tree (oriented to increasing your skill with your chosen weapon); and the Sniper talent tree (oriented to… well, sniping).

I very much liked the specialized Talent Trees, and it is likely that even if I don’t have a place for the class in my game, I will make the Talent Trees available to some of the other classes.

Last Thoughts:
All in all, the book was well-written, realistic, and fairly balanced with the D20 Modern rules. The concept can fit in just about any D20 Modern campaign, either as a PC or adversary. It’s been a while since a D20 Modern PDF impressed me with its versatility and ease of use, but this one has.

Final score: 4 stars out of 5.

 

[Pinotage]

The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter is a short pdf by Sword's Edge Publishing for d20 Modern, and part of the Roles and Classes line of products. Written by Fraser Ronald, it features the CT Assaulter prestige class, new talents and some example NPCs with brief backgrounds. This 8 page pdf contains 5 pages devoted to detailing the class. The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter normally retails for $1.25. The Counter-Terrorism Assaulter is an update to the class found in Sword's Edge Publishing's Raid on Ashkesham. This review was done as part of Crothian's Review Project.

Initial Impressions:

The pdf comes in a zip file containing the pdf itself, a rtf file containing all the OGL from the pdf, and three images which are larger versions of the photographs contained within the pdf itself. Simple black front and back covers are provided for the pdf, which comes in a two column layout with a suitable military-looking border. The overall impression on layout and art (photographs) is very professional and well-done, something pleasantly surprising for such a short pdf. The three photographs contained in the pdf (courtesy of the Austrian Armed Forces) show suitable images of a counter-terrorism assaulter at his duty. A high standard of presentation from Sword's Edge Publishing.

The Details:

The counter-terrorism assualter is a prestige class aimed at countering terrorism, recuing hostages, and a variety of other tasks, specialising in room clearing and building assualt, threat neutralization, building entry, or other forms of security generally within elite forces. Ample real-world examples are provided of where such characters may be found, such as the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team or Delta Force. The brief description preceding the class provides enough detail to get your started in developing the class, although those not familiar with the real-world examples presented may have to do some research of their own.

The class itself is built around a few new talent trees and some bonus feats, which makes for a solid class, although not necessarily all that exciting and the saving throw progressions are non-standard. Its a balanced and well presented class that fits the flavor text and background well. The talent trees provided include the Assualt Talent Tree specialising in close quarters fighting, breaching buildings and highly trained shooting, the Firearms Training Talent Tree that specialises in weapons training and is little more than feats as talents such as Improved Critical or Weapon Specialisation, and the Sniper Talent Tree that grants talents to camouflage, strike swiftly and quickly, and take careful aim. All talents are well presented, but I couldn't help shake the feeling that they were only feats in another form. Having said that, it still provided a suitable set of talent trees for the class, but perhaps something along the lines of negotiattion, stealth, or speed might have fleshed it out a bit more. Or even abilities focusing more on breaking and entering skills, and formation or tactics. No examples of tactics were given that are employed by such assaulters, and that would've been useful to see.

The latter parts of the pdf present two NPCs, both fully statted and with brief backgrounds. Both are well-presented and give an good indication as to the application of the prestige class.

Conclusions:

This pdf presents the Counter-Terrorism Assaulter prestige class for the d20 Modern game. It's a well-formatted and presented pdf, with a solid class presented, although it would've been nice to see some expanded ideas on, for example, tactics, operational methods and the like. The class itself is balanced, and will provide for a suitable character to handle rescue operation or counter terrorism. Based on a solid class with high quality presentation, but lacking in full explotation of the class' background, I'd grade it with three and half stars and round down to three stars.