JoeGKushner
Adventurer
So what is the Deep? It's a 256 page, $39.99 priced sourcebook to bring any d20 fantasy based campaign to an underwater environment. The book is meant for either starting an underwater campaign or bringing your campaign underwater. It's not a book on boats, sea battles or boat racing. It's about being underwater and the underwater experience.
To help set the tone, the book provides just about anything you need to start such a campaign. This includes new races, feats, prestige classes, spells, magic items, monsters, campaign setting, NPCs, and potential tie ins to other settings like Bluffside.
The book provides rules for deep sea exploration. The good news is that it reminds me of the old Of Ships and the Sea by TSR back in the day with its discussion of how water depth can effect creatures and provides rules on the damage you take from deep diving, as well as how you can suffer from the Bliss of the Deep or hallucinations. It acts as an introduction to different real world matters relating to a watery setting like currents, ecology, climates, temperate zones and other useful bits that can make any underwater game more real by having a great consistency with the real world in terms of fish farming, warm, and general underwater survival.
I wasn't too crazy about some of the races. The delphines, intelligent dolphins, and the sharken, intelligent sharks, gave me bad visions of Rifts Underseas. Other races include the merfolk, selkies and the Sel'varahn. The latter are similar to humans in many ways but are wholly aquatic and rely on magic to survive in the surface.
In terms of class, all of the core classes are discussed with information on which races are common among them, as well as what changes, if any, should be used. A new class, the Mariner, is introduced. There aren't humans off to sea, but warriors who defend the depths against the surface world, using close fighting in reefs to their advantage.
Prestige Classes include the coral shaper, a spellcaster who is able to influence coral, a vital part of underwater magic. They can abilities relating to shaping and controlling coral with reduced spellcasting while the coryphene master currents to augment their magic. Other prestige classes help fill out the ranks of warrior and explorers. Mystic Eye doesn't try to do it all. They know that several supplements have appeared before, and suggest some PrCs from other d20 products to flesh out this book. A wise move as it allows them to concentrate on this book instead of reinventing the wheel.
Being underwater introduces serious problems for using the Craft (Alchemy) skill. There is no fire or air. Underwater Alchemy is the solution, using different items and material to craft alchemical items. Other skills are customized for underwater use such as using the Heal skill to prevent a blood trail in the water to rules for the Survival skill.
To round off characters, new feats are included. Several of these focus on crafting living items to replace standard magic ones, or using the underwater Coral to its fullest. A new type of feat, Aquatic, is also introduced. This is for those races with the Aquatic descriptor and includes abilities like Electric, giving the character a electrical attack, to tail strike, giving the user an unarmed attack without the standard penalty of using an unarmed attack.
Now that you've got your mer folk mariner and his feats, you need some new weapons like the obsidian-edge rapier or the coral club. Of course you'll need some new armor to keep yourself from being eaten by a rogue sharken and it's jawblades. This means donning your plated shell armor.
The chapter, Movement and Combat Underwater contains all of the rules needed to battle in the depths. The important things to note are buoyancy, either positive or negative, effected by your encumberance, as well as movement in the water, on the surface or as you exit. After all, it'd be embarrassing to kill the kraken and then get knocked to the beach shore by an errant wave.
You've got your arms and armor and need an enemy. Aquatic Creatures provides a master list of creatures by CR. The list includes size, type, depth, range, and temperature. This keep encounters realistic and saves the GM a headache. I'm not the stat cruncher others are, but some of the monster stats seem off. Take the Giant Crab or Dire Lamprey. No feats on either of them. Others have the same problem. Illustrations are also lacking in this section, making it one of the weaker sections in the book visually.
One thing that this section doesn't do well is presents racial traits for players interested in using these new creatures. Only one, the Otterkin have full statistics. Others which sound more interesting, and will probably see a lot of use by GMs, aren't listed fully, unusually only using the favored class. Somewhat understandable in a tome this size. Read aloud descriptions, a somewhat common thing in monster write ups are also missing, as are round by round tactics.
Now as the setting is underwater, there are changes in the magic system. These range from specific spell alterations to effects on energy types. Those wondering what the Coral Magic I spoke of earlier is, can read about it here. Coral reefs have an innate intelligence and can be used to store magic. They can also send out worms to hosts and the experiences of those worms enrich the reef even more. Wizards can scribe spells directly into coral reefs but if they stray too far, lose some of the utility.
To go along with the new material, new spells are introduced. These spells aren't broken up by type and caster in alphabetical order, but rather, in straight alphabetical order. These range from the 4th level sorcerer spell boiling shield, a spell that protects you with superheated water, to the 9th level Sea-God's Embrace, a spell that allows air-breathers to function normally underwater for 1 hour/level. They have swim movement, ability to cast spells, water breathing, freedom of movement, immunity to pressure and surfacing effects as well as an early warning when the spell will fade. Still might be too high a level though.
The new magic items include the riptide whip, fashioned of kelp, to the splendid submersible, an underwater vehicle. Useful for rounding out the section on magic but not vastly detailed. In some ways, I'm surprised that no major artifacts of the different races were detailed with long histories.
Where do you put all of these rules? How about the Sea of Ishamark. See, it has a history with an age of ice, a meteor strike, and all sorts of other good stuff. There is a city with a dwindling adamantine supply that hosts steam gnomes. Is the city Bluffside you ask? No, it's Highscarp, but it might as well be Bluffside with its many surface similarities.
The different sections include details in terms of history, religion, place of interest, broken up into four different sections and a separate NPCs chapter to populate your setting. These sections include different bits of information like the Crater Bay Guard prestige class and numerous encounter charts.
For time pressed GMs, the Depths of Reason, a short adventure for four 6th level characters is included. Characters start in the city and are called upon to investigate the disappearance of numerous ships in the area. It's a good way to introduce the players surface characters to the challenges of the depths and showcase some of the rules in the book.
The book ends with ideas for further explorations, glossary, and index. All good tools for those interested in getting the most out of this book. For example, under further explorations, d20 sourcebooks that could easily tie into this one are noted including Broadsides!, Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood, among others. One missing from the list would be Monsters of the Boundless Blue by Goodman Games to augment your underwater encounters.
The book uses standard two columns for text. The maps, which look great in full color on the interior covers, don't look quite as good in black and white. In addition, because half the book is devoted to locations, there should be more maps. How about some sample caves, grottos and even coral reefs? How about some undersea communities? The internal art is solid with some great pictures, but the book is so huge, you can often go pages without seeing a single illustration. The sidebars present a difference in that they are actually like a flipbook. Things move as you go through the book creating a pleasant visual experience.
The book is immense and has a limited appeal. If you're not interested in this type of campaign, it's use is greatly limited. While the mechanics for players can possibly see some use on land, some of the material is very specific. I will note that with its wide range of uses though, it would be the perfect supplement for an Oathbound game that took to the Deep or a game using Doomstriders to explore the seas.
If your shorebound campaign has become dry and dull, a quick dip into the Deep will liven things up.
To help set the tone, the book provides just about anything you need to start such a campaign. This includes new races, feats, prestige classes, spells, magic items, monsters, campaign setting, NPCs, and potential tie ins to other settings like Bluffside.
The book provides rules for deep sea exploration. The good news is that it reminds me of the old Of Ships and the Sea by TSR back in the day with its discussion of how water depth can effect creatures and provides rules on the damage you take from deep diving, as well as how you can suffer from the Bliss of the Deep or hallucinations. It acts as an introduction to different real world matters relating to a watery setting like currents, ecology, climates, temperate zones and other useful bits that can make any underwater game more real by having a great consistency with the real world in terms of fish farming, warm, and general underwater survival.
I wasn't too crazy about some of the races. The delphines, intelligent dolphins, and the sharken, intelligent sharks, gave me bad visions of Rifts Underseas. Other races include the merfolk, selkies and the Sel'varahn. The latter are similar to humans in many ways but are wholly aquatic and rely on magic to survive in the surface.
In terms of class, all of the core classes are discussed with information on which races are common among them, as well as what changes, if any, should be used. A new class, the Mariner, is introduced. There aren't humans off to sea, but warriors who defend the depths against the surface world, using close fighting in reefs to their advantage.
Prestige Classes include the coral shaper, a spellcaster who is able to influence coral, a vital part of underwater magic. They can abilities relating to shaping and controlling coral with reduced spellcasting while the coryphene master currents to augment their magic. Other prestige classes help fill out the ranks of warrior and explorers. Mystic Eye doesn't try to do it all. They know that several supplements have appeared before, and suggest some PrCs from other d20 products to flesh out this book. A wise move as it allows them to concentrate on this book instead of reinventing the wheel.
Being underwater introduces serious problems for using the Craft (Alchemy) skill. There is no fire or air. Underwater Alchemy is the solution, using different items and material to craft alchemical items. Other skills are customized for underwater use such as using the Heal skill to prevent a blood trail in the water to rules for the Survival skill.
To round off characters, new feats are included. Several of these focus on crafting living items to replace standard magic ones, or using the underwater Coral to its fullest. A new type of feat, Aquatic, is also introduced. This is for those races with the Aquatic descriptor and includes abilities like Electric, giving the character a electrical attack, to tail strike, giving the user an unarmed attack without the standard penalty of using an unarmed attack.
Now that you've got your mer folk mariner and his feats, you need some new weapons like the obsidian-edge rapier or the coral club. Of course you'll need some new armor to keep yourself from being eaten by a rogue sharken and it's jawblades. This means donning your plated shell armor.
The chapter, Movement and Combat Underwater contains all of the rules needed to battle in the depths. The important things to note are buoyancy, either positive or negative, effected by your encumberance, as well as movement in the water, on the surface or as you exit. After all, it'd be embarrassing to kill the kraken and then get knocked to the beach shore by an errant wave.
You've got your arms and armor and need an enemy. Aquatic Creatures provides a master list of creatures by CR. The list includes size, type, depth, range, and temperature. This keep encounters realistic and saves the GM a headache. I'm not the stat cruncher others are, but some of the monster stats seem off. Take the Giant Crab or Dire Lamprey. No feats on either of them. Others have the same problem. Illustrations are also lacking in this section, making it one of the weaker sections in the book visually.
One thing that this section doesn't do well is presents racial traits for players interested in using these new creatures. Only one, the Otterkin have full statistics. Others which sound more interesting, and will probably see a lot of use by GMs, aren't listed fully, unusually only using the favored class. Somewhat understandable in a tome this size. Read aloud descriptions, a somewhat common thing in monster write ups are also missing, as are round by round tactics.
Now as the setting is underwater, there are changes in the magic system. These range from specific spell alterations to effects on energy types. Those wondering what the Coral Magic I spoke of earlier is, can read about it here. Coral reefs have an innate intelligence and can be used to store magic. They can also send out worms to hosts and the experiences of those worms enrich the reef even more. Wizards can scribe spells directly into coral reefs but if they stray too far, lose some of the utility.
To go along with the new material, new spells are introduced. These spells aren't broken up by type and caster in alphabetical order, but rather, in straight alphabetical order. These range from the 4th level sorcerer spell boiling shield, a spell that protects you with superheated water, to the 9th level Sea-God's Embrace, a spell that allows air-breathers to function normally underwater for 1 hour/level. They have swim movement, ability to cast spells, water breathing, freedom of movement, immunity to pressure and surfacing effects as well as an early warning when the spell will fade. Still might be too high a level though.
The new magic items include the riptide whip, fashioned of kelp, to the splendid submersible, an underwater vehicle. Useful for rounding out the section on magic but not vastly detailed. In some ways, I'm surprised that no major artifacts of the different races were detailed with long histories.
Where do you put all of these rules? How about the Sea of Ishamark. See, it has a history with an age of ice, a meteor strike, and all sorts of other good stuff. There is a city with a dwindling adamantine supply that hosts steam gnomes. Is the city Bluffside you ask? No, it's Highscarp, but it might as well be Bluffside with its many surface similarities.
The different sections include details in terms of history, religion, place of interest, broken up into four different sections and a separate NPCs chapter to populate your setting. These sections include different bits of information like the Crater Bay Guard prestige class and numerous encounter charts.
For time pressed GMs, the Depths of Reason, a short adventure for four 6th level characters is included. Characters start in the city and are called upon to investigate the disappearance of numerous ships in the area. It's a good way to introduce the players surface characters to the challenges of the depths and showcase some of the rules in the book.
The book ends with ideas for further explorations, glossary, and index. All good tools for those interested in getting the most out of this book. For example, under further explorations, d20 sourcebooks that could easily tie into this one are noted including Broadsides!, Seafarer's Handbook and Seas of Blood, among others. One missing from the list would be Monsters of the Boundless Blue by Goodman Games to augment your underwater encounters.
The book uses standard two columns for text. The maps, which look great in full color on the interior covers, don't look quite as good in black and white. In addition, because half the book is devoted to locations, there should be more maps. How about some sample caves, grottos and even coral reefs? How about some undersea communities? The internal art is solid with some great pictures, but the book is so huge, you can often go pages without seeing a single illustration. The sidebars present a difference in that they are actually like a flipbook. Things move as you go through the book creating a pleasant visual experience.
The book is immense and has a limited appeal. If you're not interested in this type of campaign, it's use is greatly limited. While the mechanics for players can possibly see some use on land, some of the material is very specific. I will note that with its wide range of uses though, it would be the perfect supplement for an Oathbound game that took to the Deep or a game using Doomstriders to explore the seas.
If your shorebound campaign has become dry and dull, a quick dip into the Deep will liven things up.
