A focused and flavorful supplement for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game from Dragon Wing Games, Torn Asunder is for that friend of yours that won’t shut up about Dark Souls; for that dad who’s way into old-school wargames and complains that hiking and climbing are streamlined into skill checks; or that guy at the FLGS with the grey ponytail who keeps recycling the same worn-out stories of AD&D.
While I can certainly understand the appeal of adding a splash of realism to TTRPGs, I believe games should be fun first and foremost, and Torn Asunder takes delight in adding tedium to Pathfinder.
What really sinks Torn Asunder for me is the middling-at-best implementation of these ideas. Almost everything in this supplement is either overwrought or underthought, and has probably been done better elsewhere.
Take, for example, the first section on Critical Effects. While I again applaud DWG for wanting to attach more specific consequences to hit point loss and damage to limbs, the implementation requires checking two different tables and rolling even more dice after each attack is resolved. Who really wants more dice rolling and table-checking in combat?
Unsatisfied with the preexisting rules for Called Shots, the book also includes a whole new section on called shots, except these are more restrictive than even the ones in the Pathfinder Core Rules. Not only that, there is a section specifically dedicated to fumbles - once a common house rule, now an excuse to roll another saving throw and consult another table.
We must move on to the problem of balance. The rules it provides for using the Heal skill to stabilize a dying creature and give it 1d6 hit points comes with, once again, another saving throw, another trip to a table, and a staggering DC 30 Heal check. An equivalent Disguise check would let a character pass off as a specific creature of a different size category to that creature’s dearest friend!
On the other end of imbalance, we cannot finish this review without discussing the Marksman, one of three prestige classes detailed in Torn Asunder. A boon to all critfishers out there, put enough levels into Marksman and you will triple the critical threat range of your favorite weapon and double its critical hit multiplier! While I can appreciate the synergy with the critical effect rules from before, this prestige class seems overpowered.
Beyond balance or usability, Torn Asunder is not exactly the easiest book to read. Small formatting issues plague the text, be they as minor as failures to follow indentation and font style standards or referring to nonlethal damage as “subdual", or as perplexing as having class features negate each other. The book even deliberately repeats itself at one point; after the Critical Effects section comes the line, “While many of the critical effects listed below are identical to those previously listed, some have been modified to better reflect more realistic effects for certain body profiles.”
All is not dire news, however! The art is consistent and consistently excellent – I commend the interior artists for their line art and pencil shading. And, while the tables for the critical effect rules may be excessive, they are also thoughtfully reprinted at the back of the book for ease of use.
Torn Asunder is not a book for every Pathfinder campaign, and I have a hard time imagining it will be for many Pathfinder campaigns. That said, if you want to really turn up the hurt on your players, or they have a hankering for an unforgiving Dark Souls game, this book is for you.
This article was contributed by Ben Reece (LongGoneWrier) as part of ENWorld's User-Generated Content (UGC) program. We are always on the lookout for freelance columnists! If you have a pitch, please contact us!
While I can certainly understand the appeal of adding a splash of realism to TTRPGs, I believe games should be fun first and foremost, and Torn Asunder takes delight in adding tedium to Pathfinder.
What really sinks Torn Asunder for me is the middling-at-best implementation of these ideas. Almost everything in this supplement is either overwrought or underthought, and has probably been done better elsewhere.
Take, for example, the first section on Critical Effects. While I again applaud DWG for wanting to attach more specific consequences to hit point loss and damage to limbs, the implementation requires checking two different tables and rolling even more dice after each attack is resolved. Who really wants more dice rolling and table-checking in combat?
Unsatisfied with the preexisting rules for Called Shots, the book also includes a whole new section on called shots, except these are more restrictive than even the ones in the Pathfinder Core Rules. Not only that, there is a section specifically dedicated to fumbles - once a common house rule, now an excuse to roll another saving throw and consult another table.
We must move on to the problem of balance. The rules it provides for using the Heal skill to stabilize a dying creature and give it 1d6 hit points comes with, once again, another saving throw, another trip to a table, and a staggering DC 30 Heal check. An equivalent Disguise check would let a character pass off as a specific creature of a different size category to that creature’s dearest friend!
On the other end of imbalance, we cannot finish this review without discussing the Marksman, one of three prestige classes detailed in Torn Asunder. A boon to all critfishers out there, put enough levels into Marksman and you will triple the critical threat range of your favorite weapon and double its critical hit multiplier! While I can appreciate the synergy with the critical effect rules from before, this prestige class seems overpowered.
Beyond balance or usability, Torn Asunder is not exactly the easiest book to read. Small formatting issues plague the text, be they as minor as failures to follow indentation and font style standards or referring to nonlethal damage as “subdual", or as perplexing as having class features negate each other. The book even deliberately repeats itself at one point; after the Critical Effects section comes the line, “While many of the critical effects listed below are identical to those previously listed, some have been modified to better reflect more realistic effects for certain body profiles.”
All is not dire news, however! The art is consistent and consistently excellent – I commend the interior artists for their line art and pencil shading. And, while the tables for the critical effect rules may be excessive, they are also thoughtfully reprinted at the back of the book for ease of use.
Torn Asunder is not a book for every Pathfinder campaign, and I have a hard time imagining it will be for many Pathfinder campaigns. That said, if you want to really turn up the hurt on your players, or they have a hankering for an unforgiving Dark Souls game, this book is for you.
This article was contributed by Ben Reece (LongGoneWrier) as part of ENWorld's User-Generated Content (UGC) program. We are always on the lookout for freelance columnists! If you have a pitch, please contact us!
