The Quintessential Fighter

[Messageboard Golem]

The Quintessential Fighter provides vital information for any player wishing to exploit his Fighter character to the fullest. Since the game was first created, many years ago, Fighters have always had a rough deal when compared to the more esoteric classes such as Cleric, Rogue and Wizard. The Quintessential Fighter redresses this balance, taking the Fighter class further than it has ever been before.

 

[Psion]

The Quintessential Fighter

With the publication of The Quintessential Fighter, Mongoose Publishing kicks off their fourth product line, the Collector Series (following their Slayer's Guide, Encyclopaedia Arcane, and Traveller's Tales series). As the title should betray, The Quintessential Fighter is a d20 System sourcebook aimed at expanding the role of fighters and other fighting characters. The book physically resembles the "complete" series of supplements published by TSR for 2e AD&D. The "complete" books have had a good degree of disdain leveled at them by 3rd edition D&D players, and perhaps with good reason: the "complete" series of books were done by freelancers, and varied wildly in style, content, and power level; and their publication was often seen as flooding the market with substandard "splatbooks."

Given this, one might be confused as to why Mongoose would want potentially to associate their books with this stigma. Perhaps, however, they are going for a specific target audience, the audience that appreciated some or many of the books. Indeed, I thought that despite the fact that many of the complete books were blatant power-ups, many of them were very good. For example, I found that many of the complete books had great background ideas for DMs (especially the Complete Wizard's Handbook) and useful subsystems (like the thief guild system in the Complete Thief's Handbook) that made them worthwhile.

So, is Mongoose trying to cast these books in the same light? Well, the best way to judge a book is not by the cover. Let's take a look inside!

A First Look

The Quintessential Fighter (TQF) is a 128-page, perfect-bound, softcover book, priced at $19.95 US. As mentioned, the cover resembles the 2e AD&D "complete" series of books, at least at a distance. The cover has a pattern giving it the look of rusty brown leather on the cover, with gold embossed lettering.

The interior artwork is black and white, and has many of the same illustrators who appeared in Chaos Magic: Wild Sorcery, such as Anne Stokes, with the addition of Eric Lofgren, whose work you may recognize from FFG's Legends & Lairs hardbound books. The art consists of many pencil drawings and some pen-and-ink illustrations, and it is primarily decorative, except in the case of the weapons chapter, which is well illustrated. Of course, Mongoose has the obligatory bare-breasted woman in the book, but at least some ghastly monstrosity is not groping this one. It's still pretty gratuitous.

The typeface and spacing are about average. This combined with the fact that the cost per page is slightly below average delivers a decent value based on presentation and cost alone.

A Deeper Look

As with previous Mongoose products, TQF is divided into topical sections instead of distinct chapters, but the sections are a little larger and more solidly grouped here than in many prior books.

The first section covers what the author calls character concepts. It presents 11 basic character concepts that you can use to add a little spice to your fighter. It is just not background descriptions and role playing ideas, however. It throws a few mechanics in the mix. Each character concept gets a mechanical bonus and a penalty. Yes, they are the 2e kits resurrected -- after a fashion.

In some cases, the nature of the bonuses and penalties are appropriate. For example, the noble gets a surge in his starting funds, in exchange for paying more for everything until 5th level, since a noble "must have the best," which seems like a wash to me. Other concepts, though, seem poorly conceived. For example, a thug gets a sizable bonus to Intimidate (+4) in exchange for a penalty to Diplomacy. I do not consider balanced the trading of a skill you are likely to use for a penalty in a skill you are not likely to use, and I think the magnitude of the bonus is too high for a "freebie." Further, if you wanted a character who could intimidate, that would be the function of buying the skill and taking Skill Focus in Intimidate. I consider the character concepts to be good food for thought, but would take care before using the mechanical aspects.

The second rules section is entitled The Prestige Fighter. As you might guess, this is where the almost obligatory prestige classes are. Unlike prestige classes you might find in Sword and Fist, the prestige classes herein are all short (5 levels), and most of them do not have the kind of supernatural abilities that some of the S&F prestige classes do. The prestige classes include:

-Berserker: As the name suggests, the berserker is a warrior that enters a berserk rage in combat. I found the class odd on two counts. First, as far as I am concerned, the game already has a berserker: the barbarian. (In fact, AEG's d20 Rokugan book goes so far as to rename the barbarian class as "berserker.") Second, even inasmuch as some of the class abilities might offer a barbarian something the base class does not, a single class barbarian is ineligible for this class as it requires the weapon specialization feat.
-Brawler: The brawler is a character who spends somewhat too much time in mix-ups in various festhalls. The abilities of the brawler include a sneak attack like ability, improved damage, and other abilities improving his standing in a game of fisticuffs. The brawler's skill list seemed rather short to me (Climb, Intimidate, Jump, and Swim). It seems to me that the class could use both the Profession skill (nobody's just a brawler) and perhaps Gather Information.
-Knight of the Griffin: An order of knights that bear no allegiance to a specific nation, but wander the land seeking to vanquish evil. They gain abilities that protect them against fear and assist in a charge. Their heroic stand ability, however, seems either ill-phrased or ill-intentioned. The character can fight until she dies at -10 hp. Yet as phrased, if she goes below 0 hp, she dies at the end of the combat whether she is reduced to -10 hp or not.
-The Legend: This is a character inspired by the like of Siegfried from the Ring of the Niebelung. The legend is a high level (you need +15 BAB to qualify) character that the gods are watching over. The ability of the legend that took me aback at first was the favor of the gods. This ability lets the character ignore the result of a dice roll unless it is a one, and simply choose the result. That sounded pretty nasty to me as a result, until I considered what wizards are doing at level 16+.
-Living Blade: This is sort of TQF's version of the weapon master, though living blades specialize only in bladed weapons. The living blade has some neat abilities, but some take up the living blade's lowest attack as a cost. This is a poor method, since the relative cost varies widely as the character's BAB increases. Some warrior will lose a +1 attack, while others must give up a +5 attack.
-Master Bowman: A straightforward concept, the master bowman is a highly skilled archer. The master bowman can improve his hit and damage rolls under certain circumstances, and can even threaten targets out to 20 feet with his bow.
-Noble Defender: Noble defenders are nobles that act as champions of their people and defenders of the land. They receive bonuses to command others and eventually receive funds for a castle.
-Officer of War: The officer of war is a warrior trained to lead others in battle. All of the officer's abilities are targeted at improving the his leadership ability and the morale of those he leads.
-Peasant Hero: The peasant hero gains abilities to rally other peasants to her side and to take advantage of her station in combat.
-Swashbuckler: Not exactly a new concept in d20, the swashbuckler is a lightly armored, dextrous, witty warrior. Among other abilities relating to their deftness, swashbucklers add their class level to their AC under certain circumstances. I cannot tell you what those circumstances are: an unfortunate layout gaff seems to have snipped the line describing them.

Though the classes have a few bad mechanical implementations, they are generally not bad. The non-magical nature of the classes may make them good for low magic or historical campaigns, and their short nature would be more suitable for GMs that run at relatively low character levels.

The section entitled Tricks of the Trade includes a number of rules observations and variants for use in the game. An example of the former is the relatively simple observation that you can buy your weapons and armor cheaper if you make them yourself. Examples of the latter include rules for breaking weapons with specialized weapons such as parrying daggers, as well as for called shots, jousting, and duels.

The called shot rules allow a character who hits in melee to perform a called shot. If the character scores a threat, the player may declare that she is trying to hit a specific area instead of inflict extra damage. If the second roll hits, a side effect occurs according to the location that the player chooses. These rules favor weapons with large threat ranges over those with high multipliers.

New feats are introduced in the Fighter Feats section. Many of the feats are improved versions of existing feats, such as Improved Dodge (provides an AC bonus against all attackers instead of just one). Some of these, such as Lightning Initiative (gives another +4 to initiative), strike me as a bit much. There are also feats such as Improved Armor Use (reduces the armor penalty for one category of armor) and Sure Aim (lets you aim for up to 3 rounds, granting you a +1 bonus per round on your next attack with a missile weapon).

The most problematic feat is probably Two-Handed Power Attack, though not for what it does (lets you add 2 times your Strength to damage with two-handed weapons, instead of 1½). The feat supposedly cannot be used in conjunction with the Improved or Lightning Initiative feats. Just how this is supposed to work is uncertain, since round-by-round initiative rolls are not the norm in the d20 System. Do you decide at the beginning of the combat that you will not use your initiative bonus? If so, that seems rather illogical.

Tools of the Trade introduces a variety of new weapons, armor, and equipment for warriors. Many of the weapons listed are ones that Sword & Fist has pegged as being equivalent to other weapons. For example, the flamberge is classified as a greatsword by Sword & Fist. In TQF, the flamberge has similar stats to a greatsword, but has a larger threat range and is more expensive. This may bother some GMs. In general, however, the assortment of weapons includes such items as specialized arrows and should fill out the existing list of weapons nicely.

Those who might have complained that dragon scale armor as described in the 3e Monster Manual just is not good enough may like TQF's version. It is treated as medium armor but has a +10 armor bonus! This just begs to be abused, but hopefully the GM will not make getting such armor too easy.

TQF also provides statistics and rules for blackpowder weapons. This includes a sidebar on how one might go about the research task of discovering blackpowder.

Perhaps the most intriguing section of TQF is Fighting Styles. It introduces 15 fighting styles that characters may learn. Each fighting style has 5 ranks, and each rank has a certain benefit. To learn each rank, you must have prerequisite feats, and can only use it in certain conditions (delimited by factors such as armor and weapons used). To learn a rank in the style, you must be instructed in it, and there is a minimum training time (which often costs money), and you cannot learn a higher rank than your wisdom modifier. But there is no other cost.

This is somewhat similar to the martial arts styles in 3e Oriental Adventures, which you may recall that I was not too fond of. Yet I think that I like TQF's fighting styles somewhat better. You do not just instantly get the benefits the moment you take the last prerequisite feat: you must join a school and put in the time. Also, I like the idea that it is staged better than the "hot and cold" approach of OA.

Fighting style benefits resemble feats and/or class abilities. For example, bloody ground, the third rank benefit for the Fegrin's Pair style (a style using paired blades), is very close to the death blow feat in Sword & Fist in that it allows you to do a coup de grace without a full-round action. The staff fighting style Oakenheart has a stunning jab move similar to the Stunning Fist feat.

Though I find Fighting Styles somewhat interesting, I wonder if a whole different mechanic to represent fighting styles (on top of feat chains and prestige classes) was necessary or prudent. Further, since it does not use these resources, it seems as if the players are getting free benefits. Still, if you are put off by that, you may be able to adapt the fighting styles to feat chains or prestige classes if you are enterprising. The ideas for fighting styles may be worth it.

The are brief sections describing tournaments and mercenaries. The Tournaments section describes the setup of a basic tournament, which you can use as is or modified to create an interesting event for your players to participate in. The Mercenaries section provides some standardized mercenary characters and rules for would be commanders to hire them.

Perhaps the most worthwhile and awaited section of the book is the Open Mass Combat System (OMCS). This system provides a means for groups that want to be able to model mass combats to do so using a system similar to the base d20 System.

The OMCS works by creating statistic blocks for groups of creatures and treating them essentially like one creature. Instead of standard hit points, a unit has unit hit points, which is based on the total HD of all members of the unit, and modified according to factors such as having the toughness of the unit. Other statistics are based on the average armament, armor, and feats possessed by the unit. For example, a unit with Weapon Focus gets +1 in the OMCS, too. Weapon damage is treated as if it were in terms of unit hit points, but damage rolls are modified by a number derived from the size of the unit.

The system also includes such details as siege engines, archers, cavalry, skirmishes, and (yes) morale. In a rather clever mechanical move, all morale bonuses for any other type of roll count as a bonus for the unit's morale roll. Only two things I saw with OMCS bothered me: the quick and dirty way of handling magic seems like it would make it more powerful in mass combat than individual combat, and the fact that losing a member of a unit does not degrade the damage of a unit. These seem like small problems, and it should be fairly simple to conceive solutions.

Finally, TQF covers the creation of strongholds. Simple menus are provided from which you can purchase components of a stronghold, similar to the tables in the old 1e AD&D DMG.

Conclusion

The Quintessential Fighter is one of the more "crunchy" books Mongoose has put out to date. There is little in the way of heavy exposition that marks many of their other books. In some ways, it does resemble the 2e AD&D books it appears to imitate physically, providing character options, ideas, weapons, and optional systems. I will leave it to the reader whether this is a good or bad thing.

This is one of those gaming books whose utility depends rather strongly on the needs of the audience. If you have been waiting for an abstract mass combat system, OMCS is a fairly decent system that should be similar enough to the base d20 System to step into easily and you should probably not hesitate in buying it. The weapons and prestige classes are appropriate in a campaign concerned with such details, especially low magic or historical games.

I cannot say that I was too impressed by the feats and most of the "tricks of the trade" entries, but most of the rest of the book appears fairly useful. I have mixed feelings on the fighting styles. They seem like they would be very neat in play, but I worry about their balance and feel we do not need another mechanic for determing a character's capabilities.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Messageboard Golem]

This doesn't read like a 4 out of 5 review. It seems you have some real reservations about the design and utility of the book. A 3 rating seems more in line with what you had to say.

VJ

 

[Psion]

I'll let you in on a little secret: I am always vassilating on number ratings (speaking of which... 3 it is.) I would be happy not to use them... they are so situational. I would read it as 4 if OMCS is of interest to you, 3 otherwise.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Wow, I never quite read such a well-rounded review as Alan Kohlers!

I have complained in a previous review of their lacklustre covers for their products. How do I comment on this one? They could think to even put a cover on it? I see the tactic is to borrow off of WOTC older established branding of their race/class splat books -but this is just so damn cheap. Artists need your support guys (all d20 publishers) so stop using rehashed covers from old artists and don't forget to even create on in the first place!


The fighting styles should not have tried to use something outside of feats and PrCs. I like the core rulebooks and it is great WOTC opened it up for 3rd party. I do not like companies that change something just so they can say it is theirs. Fighting styles could be completely rewritten to use exisiting rules and not have me figure out something new.

The Open Mass Combat System (OMCS) will not become a standard unless they fill it out with more detail -the magic part of it need major work. It should really be in a book on war -whereas this is supposed to be a class book as I understood it. It could have received better treatment if it was more thoroughly explored.

Ok, Alan summed it up but I am not going to give this a 3. If you are impressing yourselves with making 4 books per month then great -but 4 mediocre to worse books is no impressive feat unto itself -just a waste of alot of trees -please make sure you are using recycled paper.

 

[drnuncheon]

Quality over quantity is a great idea for reviews as well. Unfortunately, your reviews seem to do little more than say "this is bad". Why? I'm not sure. Something about the cover and about "fighting styles", but you don't explain anything about them. I know because I already own the book, but the people this review should be useful to won't, so they won't know what you're talking about.

Several of your reviews also seem to be "reactions" to positive reviews, which makes me question their impartiality.

J, opinionated SOB

 

[Archer]

I don't feel the need to review the points already covered in Alan Kohler's reviews but I do have some things to add.

I want to explain why I gave this book a 3 when it seems like everything I'm going to say about the book is bad. Alan's review covers the good and everything he says is true. I'm just giving the other side more coverage.

If the 600 editing mistakes (about 5 per page) were fixed, I'd give this book a 4. I'm not joking, I could use up an entire red pen going through this book. If some of the questionable elements were fixed I'd give this book a 5. I realize its hard to come up with new feats and prestige classes not to mention a combat system and fighting styles.

More about feats:

A small note, there are a lot of feats that have the prereq of 1 level of fighter. The only feat like the before was specialization. I don't think this is a good thing but the authors of this book really wanted to separate fighter from everyone else. I think the effect is that more people will dip 1 level of fighter onto whatever array of classes their character has (not that a LOT of people don't do this already.)

There are feats that are exactly worse than existing feats, improved defensive fighting could just be called lesser expertise. Don't have 5 ranks in tumble or 13 int, use the new "lesser expertise" and get -2 to hit for +2 AC.

They also have "reverse expertise" or "exponential rage" (I'm not sure which is a better nickname) which trades AC for damage which stacks with power attack but not more than your BAB, so this is double power attack. This really piles it on if you can cast true strike. If you are going to blow something away, it hardly matters how low your AC is the round after, especially if it already hits you on anything but a 1. This is the same effect as rage (AC for dam) with only BAB as limitation.

Like weapon focus and spec? Well now you can do the same for armor.

There is also "anti-combat casting." This has applies a penalty equal to combat casting to spell casters.

Double endurance, who would want double endurance when no one wants endurance in the first place.

Double Imp. Init, who wouldn't want double init if they have it in the first place?

Some feats just don't make any sense like Side-by-Side, you can aid another but it still costs a standard action but you don't have to make the unfailable roll against AC 10 to do so. Hmmm..... This is different from not having the feat how?

Don't like the way 2 handed and 2 weapon fighting are balanced? Increase your off hand str bonus to full instead of half, but don't require prereqs. Uh huh. Use 2 handed weapons? We have something for you too, increase your damge a half bonus as well but we will word your feat in an odd way so it sounds like we put a lot of work into it (or so we think you will think, but don't.) [sounds odd doesn't it?]

My feel from the feats is that almost without exception is that they push existing feats further (do I mean to say too far?) or hold them up to mirror (a fun house mirror?) and do the opposite.

Called Shots:

For all those people who have been asking (over and over, forever) what happens when they do a called shot to the eye and didn't like the answer they have been getting for the last year (which was no called shots), they now have rules on exactly what happens when you want to shoot the leader in the eye. This was actually mentioned in Alan's review but I figure it was worth mentioning again.

Armor and Weapons:

I was positively sick after reading the weapon descriptions. They essentially copy and paste "allowing it to cause crippling damage to the enemy," "capable of causing damage in the hands of the unsophisticated fighter," and "the wounds it deals are usually severe" into 28 of 35 entries. I wanted to throw the book across the room but I refrained as the book was not mine and it costs $20.

Now that we've mentioned how every single weapon deals severe wounds, let's give an existing exotic weapon a new name and call it a martial weapon. Heck, why not do this 3 or 4 times. (This is sad if you already have the exotic weapon feat and you really want to min-max)

Let's take a (+6) +36,000 gc set of enchantments, make them non-magical, give it to a set of full plate and make all new enchantments start over at +1 and stack. I almost forget, we have to give it a new name and reduce the cost to 4,500 gcs. (I'm going to shamelessly try to push this past my DM because I'm an inveterate min/maxer)

Lets take a chain shirt, rename it, increase the cost and make it medium armor but leave everything else the same. Fabulous! We are geniuses!

While we are at it, take the list of equivalent weapons and actually reprint the whole stat line for the new name.

There are a few new ideas like conversion kits for armor that change light to medium, and medium and heavy to something a little heavier but not beyond full plate. (bah, so balanced in a section that is beyond min-maxers dreams except that chain shirt thing, what were they thinking?)

Fighting Styles: This is for the fighter what OA did for monks with certain sets of feats. If you meet a set of requirements then you get some synergy bonus. Some bonuses are better than other and some are easier to get than others but not necessarily harder to get better bonuses. The real sticker here is that you need 20 wis to max out.

Aaaaugghhh, those monks are sticking it to us again and we aren't even sharing a book with them.

-Tordek, dwarven fighter

Not so fast there Tordek my friend, I think they meant (but did not say) you can know additional styles up to your wisdom modifier but when styles take 7-14 feats, how could anyone have more than 2 and would want more than 1 as they are exclusive? (One style only takes 1 feat but it is a complete statistical aberation) Prereqs are often redundant because if you require 9 feats then BAB 7+ is meaningless.

Some styles require a feat without saying so such as the skill prereq Knowledge (Anatomy) 12 which requires either education or cosmopolitan feat (neither in the PHB or SRD) or a level of bard/wizard to achieve. No bard or wizard could ever meet the feat requirements and a 20th level fighter could not meet the skill requirements without having FRCS feats.

You better not lose that cloak of resistance and gauntlets of dexterity or you'll forget all your training. (Or at least I think you will, that's why base save requirements should be used. Either that or let me borrow your cloak of resistance while I get some training because I just can't understand this sword technique without it but once I'm done you can have it back.)

Styles give free feats, modify feats and add special abilies. Some abilities are not at all special but fill the space as it was decided all styles must have 5 levels.

Two styles modify whirlwind. One gives attacks against everyone within 10' (13 feats and BAB 16+) and another gives 2 attacks at -1 to hit against everyone within 5' (14 feats, orc blood)

 

[Felon]

Fun and informative review. Thanks for the high level of detail. Sounds like one baked book--which I'm sad to say may be just what the fighter needs to stay competitive.

 

[DM_Jeff]

The Quintessential Fighter is the first in the collectors series of race and class complete handbooks for the d20 game!

The Quintessential Fighter
by Matthew Sprange
Cover art (?!) by Anne Stokes
$19.95 128-page d20 sourcebook for DM's and players alike

Background: For years TSR plagued us with the Complete Handbook series. I was one that fell into the trap, actually. The overall idea was sound, and added a lot to the game. However, each having a different author with no structured system meant balance issues were way out the window, and their usefulness varied highly. As a fact, if a player had the book, they were heads above a player who didn't who played the same type of character. We know the idea was sound because now that we have a solid foundation of rules and a core team of writers, WotC has come out with the six handbooks covering the major classes. When Mongoose first broke news of their Quintessential series, I wondered what they could cover that was innovative, new, and necessary to the game, little did I know this sourcebook turned out to be one of the best ever for the new d20 system.

Review: The Quintessential Fighter is a 128-page perfect bound sourcebook for the d20 system. The cover is of exceptional quality and sturdy, too, with the same texture as Forgotten Realms and Oriental Adventure covers. The layout of all Mongoose books should be familiar by now to many: the borders are fair, the text size and density is very good, art is always good but varied in appearance, and page and section layout is crisp and clear. Editing seems flawless. The table of contents is good, and in the back all the tables in the book are summarized and a full index is provided! There's even a special version of a D&D character sheet for fighters.

The first part is Character Concepts, and I have to use a word for comparison, so no one groan and die on me now...they remind me of Kits from second edition. But where kits were really, really lousy excuses to power up munchkins with a few roleplaying restraints added in, these suckers are well-balanced and give some awesome ideas. In fact their very existence is really owed to an idea in the Dungeon Master's Guide under molding classes. Each concept fully describes a background and roleplaying views of a type of fighter, and then does a swap or trade. They give you a rule-based bonus balanced with a rule-based penalty. The Concepts are Professional Soldier, Tribesman, Noble, Savage, Fop, Nomad, Gladiatorial Slave, Outlaw, Thug, Beast Master, Explorer, Last Survivor and Fighter Assassin. To give you a brief example of the pros and cons of selecting a Concept, here's the text from the Thug:

Bonuses: Thugs are brutal in their methods and know well how to over-awe those weaker than themselves to get exactly what they want. The thug gains a +4 competence bonus to all Intimidation checks.
Penalties: Despite any attempt to hide his origins, many will recognize the thug for what he truly is - mere hired muscle. The thug receives a permanent -4 circumstance penalty to all Diplomacy checks he is required to make.

In NO case do they grant or take away combat abilities or bonuses. They offer a little towards skills, starting cash, and occasionally swap out a class ability for a feat (like granting Weapon Focus: Rapier, but taking away Medium or Heavy Armor proficiency). These are all fair and easy to grasp.

The next section is called the Prestige Fighter, and it gives us ten 5-level prestige classes for fighter characters or any who meet the requirements: Berzerker, Brawler, Knight of the Griffin, Legend, Living Blade, Master Bowman, Noble Defender, Officer of War, Peasant Hero, and Swashbuckler. These are immediately recognizable stereotypes of heroic fighters but oddly have yet to be offered professionally. Five-level prestige classes help you mold your character while not redefining her career or abandoning gaining levels in your core class. If you need a grasp of balance, I know it's there. While a few may seem to push the envelope, look carefully and note the requirements. You will soon see, how I did, how well crafted these were to all levels of play.

Tricks of the Trade comes next and it details a number of subjects of special interest to fighters. It's also one of my favorite chapters. First we get a treatise on Armor and Weaponsmithing, including an overview of construction times and cost. Special rules for attempted weapon breaking are included, as well as the concept of Called Shots. I'm afraid to detail the Called Shots section because it uses the d20 system SO well in it's implementation, but it's so simple at the same time I'd be giving the system away! Essentially when you're done you'll find out how to apply penalties to targets hit with called shots to various body parts. Very well done. Full rules for dueling and jousting are provided, including special moves and standards of the game, including the jousting injury table. Under duels we get a ton of little tricks anyone can try in battle, which adds flavor to the game.

Next comes Fighter Feats, and they provide plenty. Of course if I told you how original and truly useful they are I know there's already folks who think we've seen it all. Not even close, my friends. Take a gander: Armor Penetration, Armor Specialization, Combat Caster Defense, Combat Rotation, Defensive Fighter, Distract, Donning Armor, Expert Grappler, Expert Marksman, Fearsome Display, Improved Armor Use, Improved Called Shot, Improved Dodge, Improved Weapon Focus, Increased Reload, Incredible Endurance, Lightning Initiative, Off-Hand Weapon Expert, Power Charge, Reckless Attack, Rest in Armor, Side by Side, Sure Aim, Team Flanking, Total Defense, Twin Shot and Two-Handed Power Strike. Some of these are Improved versions of other feats, obviously. Some show real mastery of the d20 rules, like Off-Hand Weapon Expert (allows you to use your full Strength bonus with off-hand weapons) and Combat rotation (which allows you and an adjacent ally to trade places with no Attacks of Opportunity).

Next up is Tools of the Trade, another of my favorites. Here we get dozens of new weapons for fighters not yet covered in the d20 rules. From the Ankus, to the Spider-throwing knife, to the War-rake to the Footbow, a host of exotic and mundane weapons are provided. In the style of the Player's Handbook, each weapon has accompanying text; its proper place in a chart of which type of category they fall under, and a picture. Next comes armor, which follows a similar format. We get introduced to dragonscale armor, bugbear hide and hydra hide armor as well as bronze plate, and that epiphany of true knights everywhere, the silk shirt! Next up is a list of useful and interesting equipment for purchase, including a number of new, unique arrow types and weapon add-ons.

In a chapter by itself because of their nature, Black Powder Weapons is next and details their use and (how to handle) abuse in the game. Rules for things we never knew, like its creation, storage, and how gunsmiths ply their trade along with a hearty dose of new black powder weapons.

Probably the largest portion of the book is taken up by Fighting Styles. Fighting Styles is a rules concept not unlike Prestige classes but they require no level gain or experience cost directly. Let me explain…no, too much, let me sum up. Fighting Styles are paths of weapon mastery that a fighter may take to truly personalize his way of fighting. The requirements are frequently brutal, needing a host of feats just to begin the training! We all know that a dandy studies fencing and a dwarf plows through things with his axe, but fighting styles take this further, and allow you to fully take advantage of your chosen fighting style. Each style has five levels of mastery. Each can be self-taught over a long length of time, or you may be schooled for less time but at a very high gold piece cost. The 14 styles are: Rain of Blades (2-weapon), Style of Cordun (knights and nobles) , Stoneholm (dwarven axeweilding), Blackfeather (longbow), Orask (goblinoid), Fegrin's Pair (bounty hunter and assassins), Ralix (commoners and peasants), Desert Scorpion (speed over strength), Horsepike (mounted pole-armed), Arrows of Wind (mounted archery), Bloodsteel (orcs with the double-axe), Eagleshaft Style (heavy crossbow), Mostern Style (gladiators), Pakheart (staff mastery),and Quisane Style (slavers and city guardsmen). Each of the five ranks of a style has a specific named ability that aids in combat. Most styles won't even be qualified for until 10th level and above, and many simply dictate the feats you must have taken at every opportunity to gain the powers listed, but it can really be worth it. This adds great depth and ambiance to fighters like never before.

Next up is advice and rules for staging full Tournaments, like jousting and archery contest points and rules of the games, single combat, and who gets awarded "Lord of the Games".

Mercenaries is a chapter detailing men for hire, including their cost, upkeep and recruiting rules. A number of typical mercenaries for hire are detailed with full stat blocks for easy construction of an army. An army? Yes, and you'll need one for…

The Open Mass Combat System, one of the true revolutions of the d20 game and another of my real favorites. A smaller version of this system appeared in Seas of Blood which my group playtested rigorously. This is the d20 system way to handle huge combats, entire armies clashing, with hundreds if not thousands of opponents per side. And it works! As opposed to just arbitrarily rolling a die or two and killing thousands, the system takes many aspects of the d20 system into account and applies it in abbreviated ways to detail units battling and at the same time allows the player character to combat entire units or enemy leaders because the system isn't a wargaming engine but a roleplaying aide! Sure there are stats, but the set up and application is quite easy to grasp. It's fully detailed in only 12 pages of text and covers magic, morale, recovering casualties, archers, cavalry, and war machines like ballistae, catapults, and trebuchets.

The last section is called Strongholds, and true to its name details all aspects of them in play. From clearing the land, to judging income and taxes, this covers it all. Full rules for individual placement of structure parts, their costs, building time, exact dimensions, equipping weaponry and the staff including their cost per month are all detailed as well as their direct game applications.

Last comes the designers notes to explain away some of the hard decisions but logical reasoning's behind some of the systems used inside as well as some darn fine commentary on fighters in D&D in general. As mentioned above they next duplicate all the necessary charts from the book in one place, and then provides an index and a special fighter character sheet.

Conclusion: Mongoose has truly gone into the stratosphere of d20 game design and offerings. While they have been steadily supplying us with quality and reliable work expanding the game without making any of the core rules obsolete, this book alone pushes them to the very front of 3rd party d20 design. The professionalism of the book, the use (not abuse or rewriting of the rules) and the writing style makes this an excellent book all around. It's a good thing it's only January or else this would be sourcebook of the year. In fact I'll just give it my highest recommendation for a d20 sourcebook.

-Jeff Ibach

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The first and worst of the set.

While the rest of the Quintessential series has been pretty appealing and balanced, this book is at least as broken as Sword & Fist.

The first thing that bothers me is the fighting styles. Almost a third of the book is dedicated to these styles, which give something for nothing. That's right. You get the right feat combo and here, POOF, is a free bonus power, free of charge! At least the schools system in The Way of the Samurai had an XP cost for the equivalent of these things. These REALLY should have been 5 level prestige classes with steep entry requirements or handled in ANY OTHER method than as free powers for people who already have too many powers.

Most of the feats are painfully unoriginal, taking SRD feats and turning them upside down, inside out or doubling them. Yawn. The netbook of feats was more creative.

The Armor.

Really.

Why bother ever buying any of the armors from the SRD when you can buy Dragon Hide? Game balance begone! Creatures of Munchkinism, I summon thee to create a book to make Fighters better than everyone else!

Weapons suffer the same fate, with martial weapons that provide better damage and crit ranges than any martial weapon in the SRD.

The character concepts recreate the old 2e Kits. Along with the pitfalls associted with them (look, I get a bonus to a skill I like, in exchange for a penalty to the opposite skill, which I won't be using ANYWAYS!).

The best thing going for this book is the Open Mass Combat System I guess... except I don't use mass combat except as a storytelling element.

Oh well, at least the rest of the set are significant improvements over this book.