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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2009629" data-attributes="member: 172">Villain Design HandbookThe Villain Design Handbook is a supplement for Kenzer & Company's officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons setting Kingdoms of Kalamar. The book contains both DM-advice type material pertinent to the creation and running of compelling villains in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, as well as a number of new mechanical elements - feats, spells, magic items, creatures, and templates - for use with villainous NPCs.The book is written by D. Andrew Fergesson, Brian Jelke, Don Morgan, Mark Plemmons, and Jarrett Sylvestre.A First LookThe Villain Design Handbook is a 176-page hardcover book priced at $24.99 US.The cover of the book is black and has a leathery look to it. The front cover has an illustration plate with the look of parchment to it, depicting a man armed with a sword grimacing as well as various items from the book. The art is by Arnie Swekel, whose work you should recognize from the sketchy looking illustrations at the beginning of every chapter of Wizards of the Coast's 3e hardcover books.The interior is black and white. There are a wide variety of interior artists. The use of art is a little light and many pages have no art at all. As with many Kalamar products, much the art has a sketchy pencil-drawn look. The art varies in quality from fair to good.The interior text is small and the paragraphs are closely spaced, but the leader space is a bit large, knocking the word count per page down a little.The writing style is generally good, with a few grammar gaffes (for example, when speaking of a villain, the book says that a PC could peak his interest, vice pique his interest.) The biggest problem editorially speaking is that much of the material seems to be missing some explanatory text. For example, some prestige classes are missing paragraphs defining the their spellcasting advancement, and the combat maneuvers are just introduced in the rules chapter with no introductory text explaining what they are.A deeper lookThe Villain Design Handbook is arranged into chapters. More generally, the first five chapters are primarily GM advice and the last five chapters are primarily mechanics.The first chapter is entitled Stereotypes and Beyond. It begins the discussion of villain creation by analyzing several classical villain syndromes including some stereotypes that you might want to forgo to make interesting villains. A few purported stereotypes you might want to challenge are the "damsel in distress" and "necromancers are evil."Much of the rest of the chapter discusses ideas for villains fitting into various categories, such as the villain's race, class, or alignment. For example, the section on alignment provides some ideas for making good-aligned villains.The chapter also discusses a few methods for tracking villain XP, including options linking it to PC advancement rate or basing it on what the villains underlings do. Generally, I think that some of the more exacting methods may fall by the wayside; few DMs have the time and patience to track NPC xp in as rigorous fashion as PC xp.The second chapter is entitled Archtypes. It defines six villain archtypes (deviant, devoted, fallen, inhuman, power mad, and visionary). For each archtpye, 2-5 subtypes are discussed. For example, the power mad archtype includes conquerers, cult leader, dictator, puppet master, and warlord. Further, each subtype has three variant personality profiles to give you still more ideas, and most of the subtypes include a fully decked out stat block example of the subtype in the appendix, including some prominent figures from the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting. This chapter is perhaps the strongest in the book, providing a rich variety of ideas for villains.The third chapter is entitled Inside the Mind of a Killer. It briefly delves into villain motivation and mindset, goals and schemes. Towards the end it discusses villain resources, including costs for henchmen and an alternate scale for wealth of a villain. Much like the discussion on experience, I sort of doubt many DMs are going to so painstakingly track a villain's money.The fourth chapter is entitled Where Monsters Dwell. It is also somewhat brief, and discussed the environment that villains dwell and are encountered in. Both urban environments (with an emphasis an the seedier side of the city) and wilderness locales, as well as rules for lairs and strongholds.The fifth chapter is entitled The Head of the Serpents and discusses villainous organizations. Not much time is spent on the conceptions of organizations, but a few examples are provided such as assassins' and thieves' guilds, merchant bands, governments and so on. Each organization has a 5-feat progression describing typical members of the organization similar to the Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide.The sixth chapter, New Villainous Rules, begins the more mechanical section of the book in earnest. The chapter features new feats, "anti-feats" and combat maneuvers.An example of some of the new feats are:- Craft Trinket: This feat allows the character to craft a number of items that provide very minor bonuses. This feat seems dubious to me; I don't understand why you couldn't just use a standard item creation feat for this purpose.- Destiny: If the villain has a specific attainable goal, the villain receives +1 to all saves in the course of attaining that goal.- Extract Information: This feat is a very shortcut version of torture rules; it requires that the villain have heal, intimidate, and sense motive skills and lets the villain force a captive to make a save or answer a given question truthfully.- Insidious Mind: The villain has a mind that works in strange ways, giving the villain a bonus to saves against spells that "determine the villains' true self" and opposing sense motive checks.- Lust for Glory: If the villain succeeds at a critical hit, he may take an additional attack at his lowest attack bonus by forfeiting all attacks of opportunity for the round. While not a bad basic concept, basing an ability on a characters's lowest attack bonus is not a good idea since the feat can get worse as the character goes up levels. For example, if a character goes from having a BAB of +10 to +11 when gaining a level, the character's bonus with the attack granted by this feat goes from +5 to +1.- Nefarious Visage: The villain gains +4 on intimidate checks and +1 on the DCs of fear or scare spells. This seems a bit out of line with skill bonuses granted by feats, which typically only grant a +3 if it affects a single skill if the application is not limited; that this feat also adds to the DC of spells should limit the bonus to intimidate even further.- Prey on Fears: In using this feat, the villain forces a victim to save against 10+the villain's sense motive ranks or the villain discovers the character's deepest fear. Later this can be used to cause the effects of a fear spell with a DC of 10+intimidate ranks+wisdom modifier. As skills typically advance at twice the rate of saves, this too seems way too handy for a villain to have and makes the saving throws involved too difficult.- Strike the Innocent: This feat allows the villain to perform a Coup de Grace on a character with a base attack bonus of zero, letting the despicable villain quickly do away with minor NPCs.- Metamagic feats (increase arcane spells, increase wizard spells, increase divine spells, spell swaps: The first three feats are similar to feats like extra spell in some WotC books and the last feat allows the character to attempt a spellcraft check to change prepared spells. However, none of these feats are properly metamagic feats as the book implies.Anti-feats are probably the most controversial new mechanic in this book. In essence, each anti-feat provides a penalty equivalent and opposite to the bonus granted by the existing feat. For example, the anti-feat of toughness subtracts three HP from the character. For each two anti-feat the character takes, the character gets a bonus feat, and can take an anti-feat at every level. Further, the anti-feats are determined randomly. The book provides a table of feats with feats from many WotC and Kenzer D&D products, complete with a short description on how to apply the anti-feat.Disadvantage type mechanics can be troublesome even if handled well, but anti-feats don't even earn that accolade. Since the feats are determined randomly, it is quite possible that the villain will receive no feats that hinder him in a significant way, and there are many such anti-feats. Further, I have always been dubious of disadvantage mechanics that allow a character to get a bonus in exchange for taking a penalty in a skill that the character never uses. Do you really think a lumbering warlord type villain deserves a benefit for having the anti-feat of stealthy (giving -2 to hide and move silently checks)? I don't. Further, the statement that anti-feats must be random seems like it would actively interfere with the design of the villain. I could see using these as character flaws for villains by allowing selection and grant no or minimal benefit for the character.There are a few new combat maneuvers. There is an implication that these are "taught", but there is no mechanism (like a feat) to represent this. They seem to be very similar to the "called shots" of AD&D 2e in that they exchange a to-hit penalty for the chance to gain a significant benefit. I find most of these maneuvers dubious in either or both their mechanical execution or balance. For example, disembowel allows you to attack a lightly armored character at -2 to force them to make a fortitude save or have their guts spilled on the ground. The DC for this save is based on what the attacker needed to hit, meaning that the better defended the character is, the harder it is for the character to save!Chapter seven introduces new prestige classes. Most of these correspond to groups in the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting, but in most cases these concepts are portable to groups with similar aims in other settings.The first thing that struck me is odd is that the class abilities are listed alphabetically instead of in the order the class earns them. Though this is not a huge problem, it will take some getting used to since this is not the normal way to arrange such abilities.A few of the more noteworthy classes are as follows:- Unchainer: The unchainers are members of a brotherhood dedicated to the elimination of slavery. This seems like an extremely strange class for a book on villains, but the explanatory text suggests they might be used as "good villains", nominally good characters who have a worthy cause, but cross the line in achieving their goals. One thing about the unchainers that is unclear is the spell abilities. The unchainer gets a free domain and the text says that the unchainer's caster level, and there is a chart that is labeled "free domain spells per day" that goes up to level 20. So do spellcasters continue to gain spellcasting levels in normal spells or not? And why so many free domain spells - as described, the chart would double the number of spells that the character can cast if these spells are in addition to non-domain spells. Alas, there is no "spells" description block to clarify exactly what is up with this.- Darklight Wizard: This class is the result of reading the Darklight Codex, an artifact first introduced in the Kingdom of Kalamar setting book. Characters who take this class lose all other class levels. This is a little drastic, but okay for NPC use. However, the problem does not stop there. The class has a condensed spell progression, shooting up from 1st to 9th level spells over 9 levels. In other words, a nominally CR 9 character is casting 9th level spells; this is problematic. Another problem is that this class has its own spell list, but does not list any 9th level spells.- True Disciple of Avrynner: The Disciples of Avrynner are a secret society of psionic characters in the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting. The so-called "True Disciples of Avrynner" is a villainous splinter group. The class is alright, offering abilities that assist in psionic combat. Unfortunately, the class subscribes to the older method of making psionic classes that has them start earning abilities from first level; the approach of adding manifester levels is usually more appropriate, and it seems it would be in this case as well.The eighth chapter introduces new spells. Some of the new spells are as follows:- Body wrack: This 5th level spell inflicts 10d6 points of damage on an opponent with a touch attack, with a fortitude save negating. If this damage reduces the victim below 0 hp, the victim dies. However, the caster permanently loses 1 hp for each 6 rolled on the dice. I don't see the point of incurring an hp loss here as the spell is not especially powerful for a 5th level spell; in fact it is rather weak for a 5th level spell. - Dragon Radar: This spell allows the caster to detect dragons. However, I found the use of the term radar out of place.- Electrical Form: This spell allows the caster to change herself or another character into a cloud of electricity, providing damage reduction and allowing only slow movement. By expending constitution points permanently, the character can inflict 1d6 points of damage per level to anyone in the cloud.- Forget Spell: This 1st level spell causes a character to "forget" one random spell (in 3e, there is no "forgetting" or "memorization" of spells; it is preparing spells.) This seems a bit powerful for a first level spell, and redundant with the more balanced (and properly phrased) spell stupor in the Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide- Resistance to acid: This 1st divine level spell grants total immunity to acid for 2 rounds per level. This is an extremely effective defensive spell for 1st level; the spell energy immunity in the Tome & Blood is not available as a divine spell until 6th level. Even though this spell is less flexible and a shorter duration, it certainly seems as if it deserves to be higher than 1st level.- Sacrifice: This spell allows the caster to change places with someone whose death is imminent. Though not a bad concept, it seems like another bad fit for a book about villains. Further, the spell has a duration of "permanent," implying that its effects can be dispelled, which I doubt was the intent. It should have been "instantaneous."- Swap: Now here is a real spell for a villain! The swap spell allows the caster to exchange an item in hand with one of similar size or weight that an opponent is holding. The effect is suitably insidious for a villain with the right use for it. The limited range makes it a balanced spell for 4th level.- Tooth Decay: This spell is not approved by 4 out of 5 dentists... and probably as many villains.The ninth chapter is entitled Wicked Things, and provides a variety of new magic items for villains, as well as spell-free rules for summoning. Most of the magic items are useful, but most have some manner of drawback. As such, villains without reservations for such things as swords that penalize a users allies will get better use out of these than most PCs. For those who like to throw a few kinks in their magic items, this should be fun.Examples of a few magic items from the chapter are:- Axe of Slaughter: The perfect trinket to give your troublesome henchmen, this axe has an instant death effect, causing a character to save or die when hit. However, if the target saves, the wileder must make a similar save!- Rod of the Necromancer: This rod allows the user to create and contril undead. However, the user of the rod is cursed with black eyes and a fearsome aura.- Ring of lies: This ring provides a +5 bonus to bluff checks, but compels the user to lies.The rules for summoning allows non-spellcasting characters to summon evil outsiders. The rules are very similar to the ones already in place for when magic circle and binding spells are used, but the implication is that the price is much higher.The tenth chapter, Dangerous Denizens, introduces new creatures and templates. The new creatures are the darkling snatcher and guardian effigy. The darkling snatcher is a tough goblinoid creature with spell-like abilities. The guardian effigy is essentially a very small (Diminuative) golem.The new templates are all undead templates. Mode detail is added to the process for becoming a lich and vampire, but the remaining templates (which are similarly detailed) are essentially template versions of familiar undead creatures. The templates and their equivalents are:Avildar - WraithGuraah - GhoulKyseth - MummyReliqus - SkeletonVostarr - WightXenoa - ZombieThe book has four appendices. Appendix A contains example stat blocks for most of the villain subtypes described in Chapter 2. Appendix B is a glossary explaining terms from the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting referred to in the book. Appendix C is a villain-specific character sheet. Appendix D is a short adventure, A Change of Plans.ConclusionsI found the Villain Design Handbook to be a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the villain design advice is pretty good, particularly that in Chapter 2. Some of the rules material is fairly good as well. Though the magic items are a bit monotone in concept, they are still interesting, and the templates could add some variety to powerful undead villains.However, many of the rules leave something to be desired. I found many of the rules explanations a bit muddled, particularly the prestige classes and the combat maneuvers. Many of the spells and feats I would not use due to balance and concept problems, and I found the implementation of anti-feats particularly problematic.-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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