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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010556" data-attributes="member: 1129">In many ways, the Unholy Warrior follows Fang & Fury in being another by the numbers sourcebook, this time in the Master Class series.The book starts with the Unholy Warrior core class. It shares the paladin's hit dice, base attack bonus, spell and saving throw progressions. Where it differs is that it's based on the Holy Warrior class presented in The Book of the Righteous. Instead of paladin abilities, the Unholy Warrior gains abilities based on the domains of its master. Unlike standard clerical domains which grant an ability and a list of spells, the Unholy Warrior's domain gifts are martial in nature.For example, you could have Darkness and Wrath and get powers like Dismiss Light where natural light within 60 feet of the unholy warrior is extinguished or enhanced move, granting the user an extra +5 to movement.  They also gain rebuke undead, a Dark Ally or mount, and a Gift of Darkness, which varies according to their master. One thing that may not sit right with some is that the unholy warrior is a dedicated calling and outside of certain PrCs, including those in this book and the Black Guard, there is no multi-classing for this character.In addition to pure mechanics, role playing information on why they adventure, how they get along with other classes,  background and alignment information are provided. Sample characters are listed.The prestige classes include: Angel Hunter, a ranger-unholy warrior with a thirst for killing angels. Of course the Avatar's handbook is referenced here as an excellent source of material. (Guess they're not selling enough of it based on it's class utility...).Champion of the Dark Seven, a master of the seven deadly sins who can customize his powers by selecting the sins at different levels, granting each sin a different strength.Knight of Bedlam: Think of a Warhammer Fantasy Chaos Knight and you're on the right track. Even includes a mutation table.Order's Tyrant: A lawful evil or neutral knight whose rigid believe in law grants them them resistance to the forces of chaos as well as the ability to smite such chaos and spellcasting powers appropriate to the cause.Each PrC includes mid and high level examples so that GMs have instance NPC stats right away. No background is provided which makes these stats perfect for almost any setting.Chapter Two provides the full listing of the Domain Special Abilities. With over twenty domains, there are a lot of abilities to look through. The good news is that this allows a high level of customization missing from the core paladin group and found in the holy warrior in the Book of the Righteous.New feats are introduced in chapter three. Most of them look right in terms of power and ability but some may stretch the limit. Brimstone Death summons demons from your body when you die. It's a cool thing and insures that you stay dead, but really ,it's only going to be used by NPCs for the most part and acts as high level summoning spell, perhaps a little inappropriate for a feat as opposed to just a story element. Evil's Champion is another one that might be too powerful were it not for the prerequisite of having a spell resistance of 10 to take it. The feat grants you immunity to spells with the 'evil' descriptor and a +4 bonus to Charisma skill checks with evil NPCs. The latter part of this feat is worthy of a feat in and of itself, forget the spell immunity aspect.Most of the feats aren't quite so powerful though. Backstabber lets you attack from shadows with an automatic critical threat with an extra 1d6 of damage added to the critical hit. Blasphemer causes those channeling positive energy to make a concentration check of 5 + your unholy warrior levels or fail to channel. Chapter Four introduces new spells and items. The unholy warrior has the standard paladin four level spell list and has a good range of spells from invisibility to magic weapon, from ghoul touch to nondetection. The new spells aren't listed for other classes, but are noted in the spell description. For example, we see that Expedite Poison is a Drd 3, Rgr 1, UnW 2 spell that causes the secondary effect to onset sooner.New items includes the standard evil weapons like Nightshard, a black greatsword that in an unholy warrior's hands does extra damage against good aligned foes and even more damage to all foes under moonlight, starlight or in total darkness.My favorite part is Chapter Five, Dark Masters. The evil gods from Book of the Righteous get their own unholy warrior orders like the Ember Knights of Asmoedus, the Brothers of the Savage Storm for Canarak, the Edocates of Thelloss and the Black Myrmidons of Naran. Each one comes with titles, requirements, additional class skills, domains, gifts, spells, specific dark allies, conduct and associates. It's an excellent section for those who wanted more in the Book of the Righteous and slots right into that mythology. Even the off shot cults are listed with Maal being in charge or the Cult of the Bloody Blade and Darmon ruling over the Cult of the Possession. Now some may care nothing for said mythology and want to know how to go about granting their own gods evil warriors. There's a clerical to unholy warrior domain conversion chart, as well as additional information on serving demons, devils and deamons with the game information in terms of skills, domains, gifts, spells, dark ally and alignment restrictions. Want to serve Mammon? You take Greed and Lust. Want to serve Orcus? That's be Gluttony and Undeath.Chapter Six, Mounts and Minions, provides the stats for different potential mounts for unholy warriors. The hippogriff for example, has a standard, fiendish and half- fiend listed but perhaps the most impressive is the Mammoth of Baal, a huge creature that looks like a elephant on steroids.Another good role playing chapter with game mechanics is Chapter Seven, Fallen & Redeemed. Ever wonder what happens when a low level paladin falls? It's a lot different than when a higher level one falls. How about the experience point cost for an unholy warrior to find redemption? All covered with a template, the redeemed, that takes a little of the sting out of the experience point cost.Layout is standard two columns. Editing is fairly good for the most part. About the only thing that sticks out is in one of the Gift of Darkness listings, the d is small on one and capitalized on the others. Another minor one, having redeemed spelled redeemded for a chapter heading. Very minor issues like that. The art is top notch by some of today's best illustrators like James Ryamn, Storn Cook, Toren Atkson, Britt Martin and David Griffith. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to not only check out the samples on the Green Ronin website, but also look through the book when you're in the store. James Ryamn does a great job of bringing to life the Ember Knight of Asmodeus and David Griffith's Vestigial Twin illustration is more than creepy, it's downright disturbing.One of the failures of the book is incorporation. Nothing is mentioned of Freeport. What would those who worship that unspeakable deity have for such warriors? Where's the character folio extras? While the Avatar book is mentioned several times as a resource, what about the Death Knight core class introduced in the Secret College? It's nice that the Black Guard is contrasted to the unholy warrior, but if the necromancer is mentioned as one of the allies, I imagine that Green Ronin is talking about their product, the same one with the Death Knight. Where's the death knight information then?My issues with the book are minor ones and more of a wish list than real problems in most cases. Game balance is a gremlin that no two people will agree on but I've always felt it better to under power than over.The book provides a solid class with some abilities that if given unto players without supervision, could lead to issues. GMs wishing to expand their pantheon options from the Book of the Righteous will find this a complete fit while those looking for another variant evil core class now have another option. The Unholy Warrior's Handbook will see more use from the GM side than the players but some campaigns based off of the Book of Vile Darkness or utilizing the Fang & Fury book, Assassins' Handbook, and the Secret College of Necromancy, could easily run out an all evil campaign with little difficulty.</blockquote>

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