The Slayer's Guide to Titans

[Messageboard Golem]

Their name has become a synonym for size and might. Wielding one of their weapons has become a famous test of strength for mortals. Their command of magic, both arcane and divine, puts all other races to shame. Physically, they contend with giants and dragons. In matters of intellect and scholarship, their learning and lore are renowned throughout the world. In beauty, they are terrible as the storm and beautiful as the dawn.

They are the Titans. They are powerful beyond reckoning, more skilled than any other race – but still, they bend their knees and serve.

Titans as presented up until now are curious anomalies. While they are obviously inspired by Greek myth, they do not fit into the game as well as other Grecian imports like nymphs or centaurs. They seem to be outside the Celestial hierarchy, and are more human and less alien that most other Outsiders. They are universally good and kind – but also suffer from terrible rages and fits of emotion. Finally, and most curiously of all, they are said to be “masters of their own fates” – but despite their vast power, the Titans seem to have little impact on the world.

What are titans? Where do they live? Any one has the power to challenge a kingdom, or shatter a fortress of evil, but they rarely act for the good they claim to cherish. Why? Who rules the titans?

This book attempts to answer these questions. Where possible, it draws on the knowledge of the titans themselves, and reveals previously unknown facets of the race. In other matters, the titans are strangely silent, and mortal scholarship and speculation must fill the gaps. They are a proud and mighty race, but there are shadows in their past that they do not care to investigate.

Herein, you will learn the secret histories and destiny of the Titan race. You will learn how they fight, and why. You will learn how to battle them – but even in the Slayer’s Guide to Titans, we make no guarantees about killing them.

Even the Gods failed at that task.

This series of supplements, designed for use in all fantasy-based D20 games systems, takes an exhaustive look at specific monster races, detailing their beliefs, society and methods of warfare.
Typically, these will be the races all but ignored by Games Masters and players alike who pay little heed as countless thousands get slaughtered during the acquisition of new levels and magic items.

This book delves into the history and nature of the Titans. Within, the ramifications and uses of their vast powers are explored, as well as tactics for battling Titans (and battling against Titans). Players can use the information contained within to call upon these mighty powers for Good, while Games Masters will be shown a place and purpose for Titans within a campaign. The book also contains several variant types of Titans and Half-Titans, as well as some magic items and spells unique to Titans. Finally, in addition to scenario hooks for using Titans in any game, a short campaign structure centred on Titan characters is included.

Titans are astonishingly powerful creatures (out of all the monsters in the Core Rulebook III, only certain dragons are more dangerous). As such, slaying such mighty entities is secondary to exploring how they can fit into a campaign without overwhelming everything else in the game.

 

[John Cooper]

The Slayer's Guide to Titans
By Gareth Hanrahan
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 0025
32 pages, $9.95

The twenty-fifth (has it really been that many already?) book in the ever-popular "Slayer's Guide" line, The Slayer's Guide to Titans takes a look at an unusual creature straight from Greek mythology that yet rarely makes an appearance in many D&D campaigns. (Certainly not with the same frequency as other Greek fantasy staples, like the medusa, pegasus, and hydra.)

The cover, by Jon Hodgson, depicts a dark-haired titan rushing to do battle with a rampaging dragon that's just set fire to a human dwelling. The picture is unusual in several aspects: first, the central figure (that of the titan, naturally) is shown with his back facing the viewer, the first time I can recall the subject of a "Slayer's Guide" being depicted in such a manner. Of course, since a titan is nothing more than an over-large human, the viewer isn't really "cheated" of anything; this isn't a complaint, merely an observation. Furthermore, the dragon is depicted as a grayish-white, which is definitely at odds with the standard D&D color scheme of evil dragons (assuming it was the dragon's breath weapon that set fire to the house), but that only goes to reinforce that the "Slayer's Guides" aren't just for D&D - they work equally well with any d20 fantasy RPG. In any case, Jon's picture is a nice one, with a mostly-muted color scheme that makes the titan's dark hair and weapons stand out all the more. I also like the textured effect on the word "TITANS" on the cover.

The inside front cover sports the expected "anatomical diagram" of the monster in question. Surprisingly, it's not done by Chris Quilliams, who usually handles these (I assume Mongoose kept him busy working on Conan), but Marcio Fiorito steps up to the plate with a fine titan drawing. Of course, titans aren't all that exciting of a "monster" to look at (being basically a well-proportioned human), which was the same problem with the "anatomical diagram" in The Slayer's Guide to Giants, but you work with what you have, and Marcio did a fine job here. The titan is suitably muscled and his hair and beard give him the look of an actor right out of one of those Ray Harryhausen "Sinbad" or "Jason" movies. The only quibble I might point out is that the titan skull and the human skull are obviously not drawn to scale; if they were, the titan would be a mere 12 feet or so tall.

Marcio is also completely responsible for all of the interior artwork in the book, this time consisting of 12 black-and-white illustrations. These are equally good works, with an eye for body proportions (even taking the titans' extreme musculature into effect). Only one female titan is shown in the book, and she has a tendency to wear much more clothing than the frequently bare-chested male titans. All of the titans depicted are easily identified as individuals, yet each has the "Greek mythology look" about him. I especially liked the contrast between the fine detail of the majority of the titan illustrations and the much "looser" look of page 29's Prometheus bound to a rock with the eagle ready to rip his liver out (again). All in all, I think having a single artist provide all the artwork on a book (especially on a short book of this size, where it isn't particularly taxing on the artist) is an excellent idea, providing a unified look and feel for the creature focused on.

The Slayer's Guide to Titans is laid out as follows:

• Introduction: explaining the "Slayer's Guide" line of books, followed by a page of fiction
• Titan Physiology: the similarity between humans and titans in body structure (if not size), the titan mindset, titan rages and depressions, and titan senses
• Habitat: a titan's home and garden, and titan defenses (including 3 new spells titans use to defend their homes)
• Titan Society: the Elder Titans (who waged war against the first gods and were defeated...but may perhaps one day return), the current titans as fosterlings of the new gods, the difference between "free" and "dutiful" titans (free titans roam where they will and do what they want; dutiful titans are voluntarily in the service of a god), births, marriages, and death, clothing and tools, titan magic, 3 titan metamagic feats (available only to titans or possibly to other equally impressive creatures, like giants or dragons), and the "cosmic function" of certain titans (rather similar to a deity's portfolio)
• Methods of Warfare: titans vs. Huge monsters, titans vs. small groups, titans vs. entire armies, and titans vs. gods; 3 new titan feats, fighting against titans, and 5 typical titan weapons
• Roleplaying With Titans: using titans in your game, the "half-titan" and "titanic creature" templates, Elder Titans, and the 5-level prestige class of Titanslayer
• Scenario Hooks and Ideas: 9 scenario ideas involving titans (but not necessarily about fighting against them, as that would severely limit the character level range of the PCs since titans have such a high Challenge Rating)
• The Tomb of Axeros, the Shattered God: a 2-page adventure location, the Tower of Kyr, whose titan owner seeks to "rebuild" the slain god Axeros whose body was turned to stone, shattered into billions of pieces, and scattered across the multiverse

It took me awhile to find a copy of The Slayer's Guide to Titans. I notice that it was printed in 2003, which might help explain the biggest (but still minor) complaint I have with the book: despite the statement on the back cover that "This product utilizes updated material from the v3.5 revision," little updating was done at all. The Slayer's Guide to Titans still references such things as Intuit Direction, Wilderness Lore (now Survival), Pick Pocket (now Sleight of Hand) and polymorph other (now [/i]baleful polymorph[/i]). Fortunately, all of these are mentioned merely in passing, and it's easy enough to mentally update them on your own as you read. Having a fair idea how long the production process on a game book like this takes, I have no doubt that Gareth wrote it back when the 3.0 rules were still in effect, and it was never properly updated to 3.5 by the editor (Ian Belcher, in this case). Mongoose had a recurring problem with this issue; it looks like The Slayer's Guide to Titans was at the tail end of it. (I've seen Mongoose books published since, and they seem to have gotten the 3.5 update down pat now.)

Still, Gareth has done a great job with this book. I credit him not only for his clear and concise writing skill, but also his inventiveness in coming up with some excellent explanations as to why titans "work" like they do. With as much power as the average titan possesses, if the race was interested in conquering campaign worlds there'd not be a whole lot anybody could do about it. Gareth explains this all away with the average titan's love of exploring the various planes of existence, and his concept of "dutiful" titans goes a great deal towards explaining just how titans can end up working for a god (and yet not have clerics levels). I also liked his exploration into the idea that the gods cannot automatically "sense" titans encroaching onto their Outer Planes, which makes them ideal for stealth missions. (Imagine, a logical reason for a 25-foot tall humanoid to be stealthy!) Titans also make excellent protectors, just the thing to spring on an unsuspecting party who start to think they can just terrorize the local village because they've reached high level.

Gareth's three titan spells are all well thought out and follow the "titan feel"- they seem like something that a titan or two would have come up with over the years. Likewise, his trio of titan metamagic feats "feel" right for titans, although apparently there was some name-changing during the writing process, as "Thunder Spell" is called "Thunderous Spell" and "Unfettered Spell" is called "Joyous Spell." The three combat feats are similarly logical for a creature of that size to have developed. All in all, Gareth has put some logical thought behind this work, making it one of the better in the "Slayer's Guide" series I've seen (all the more impressive for having as its topic focus a race that many DMs may have never given a second thought). The Titanslayer prestige class seems to work okay (not too powerful, not too wimpy), but given the relative scarcity of titans in the average campaign I'd be willing to bet these guys almost never show up, and likewise I doubt there will be too many PCs wanting to add levels as a Titanslayer. This makes it a rather dubious addition to the book, but I can't say it was improperly built. Likewise, I liked the half-titan template - since titans can breed normally with humans - but found the titanic creature template to be less exciting, for two reasons. First, the template is to be used if the gods actually created the titans as a sort of "prototype human," and this is a way to create the "other prototype creatures" (thus, before the gods decided to create, say, horses, they came out with the "titanic horse" first and saw how cool it turned out), which is therefore not very useful in campaigns where that is not the case. Also, there's already a "titanic creature" template in WotC's Monster Manual II, and I've never been a fan of there being two similar but different things with the exact same name, as that just gets confusing.

Naturally, this wouldn't be an "official John Cooper review" if I didn't mention the proofreading. Ted Chang did the honors this time around, and while there were not a whole lot of mistakes made, I think that might have something more to do with the shortness of the book (a mere 32 pages; Mongoose has been putting out quite a few in the 256 and 300+ range of late!) than the diligence of the proofreader, for there are many errors that even a single pass with a spellchecker program would have caught. For the record, the word "followinf" does not exist in the English language (British or American). "That" is traditionally spelled with an "h" following the initial "t" and furthermore, the word "that" and "than" (and likewise, "each" and "eat") actually mean different things and are not in fact interchangeable. Oh well, consider this dead horse beaten enough for this review.

The Slayer's Guide to Titans is an interesting read and a valuable addition to the "Slayer's Guide" line, which sadly is coming to an end this year. I give it an easy "4 (Good)."