Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Villains is a 96-page softcover sourcebook detailing 20 villains, plus the usual spells, feats, and prestige classes relating to villains and their activities.
At a price of $24.95 it seems expensive for the amount of content (26 cents a page). Layout is pretty good and its in full colour which offsets this to a certain extent. It would have offset it more if the art had been above average. Though an improvement on previous Bastion releases, I still find the style of the art to be poor in terms of proportion and texture.
The style of writing is fairly average and editing seems good.
The twenty villains are summarised below:
* Alystin Azmyrial - lawful evil female human Mnk1/Clr1/Enchanter 18. Obsessed with her own beauty, she attempts to disfigure all who threaten her self-perception as the most beautiful mortal in the world from her throne in Sunset City.
* Brenatrius Sloan - chaotic evil male gnome Rog20. Psychotic killer who has set up a series of deathtraps in his lair, and lures parties there to delight in their deaths.
* Brulak Breakbones Of Graud - chaotic evil male half-orc werewolf Bbn2. His tribe massacred by a group of adventurers, he seeks bloody vengeance by any means.
* Gurgulasha - neutral evil female goblin Adept3. A cowardly goblin, whose only claims to fame are a magical crown, the ability to create water, and a knowledge of the local cave system below the goblin lair.
* Khorgus Grubeard - neutral evil male dwarf Drd6/dinosaur cultist 10. Exiled from dwarven society, Khorgus gets swallowed by a tyrannosaur during which he experiences a mystical revelation and lives to gain powers related to dinosaurs. He can shapeshift into and command dinosaurs and uses these abilities to wage war against civilization.
* Lukorazyll - chaotic evil outsider (CR 23) and Clr5 with abilities related to the god of destruction - she wallows in mindless destruction and is known as The Dire Reaper to her followers.
* Nelilah Kearian - neutral evil female dwarf Brd5/Fgt1. A scam artist who uses a hat of disguise to marry wealthy men and have them killed off by thieves guilds so she can inherit their wealth.
* Nerashka Mangutter - chaotic neutral female human Fgt11/Bbn4. Savagely raped by a group of barbarians in her village, she develops a hatred of men and leads tribes of barbarian women in male slaughter (her lair is known as The Temple Of Gelding - I need say no more).
* Pete Dunbar - lawful evil male human Ari2/Rog12. A practiced extortionist, thieves guild leader and all-round male cad, also known as Randy Pete (in tribute to another way he has of making money).
* Rapheel Tanelon - lawful evil male human Clr15/Sea Reaver 5. A necromantic priestly pirate with a crew of undead and a taste for human flesh.
* Rictus Kilgrave - chaotic evil male human vampire Brd8. Dressed as a clown in a morticians suit, he runs a morbid and gruesome circus.
* Rufus Laruel - chaotic evil human male Rog1. A 14-year old leader of a gang of thugs who aims to start a thieves guild.
* Sharu'tai - chaotic evil female gnome Bbn5/Gutter Stalker 3. A feral gnome who lives with rats in the sewers an survives from meal to meal.
* Sketter Haskinhall - lawful evil male halfling Conjurer 7. An ancient halfling that has taken revenge on a magic merchant business and now runs it. He is going insane trying to find an elixir of youth or similar means of evading death.
* The Skinrazer - chaotic evil male half-green dragon half-udamentaz Rgr10. Serves an alien being by flaying the skin of its victims to feed the alien beings need for terror and death. The skinrazer lies dormant for nine years at a time and rises for a year before returning to hibernation.
* Syeranni Tal'telia - neutral evil female elf Bbn1/Exp5. Raised by orcs to hate elves, she is royal torturer for an orc king. she secretly plans to lead an attack on the elven nations.
* Syzzinar - lawful evil male kobold lich Sor19. Gnome-hater, focuses on building constructs, imbuing them with the souls of gnomes slain using his magical dagger.
* Tsystalor Krune - chaotic evil male half-fiend half-human Rgr1/Fgt4/Shadowdancer 5/Bloodtracker 10. A minion of the god of nightmares, this psychotic being slays all friends and family of previously happy-go-lucky victim in bizarre ways. Lives in another plane.
* The Xyryth - neutral evil fiendish dire shark
* Zuratorkul - chaotic evil demon, uses dark champions to bring souls to expand his soul-stealing realm.
Most of these villains are presented with several sections - Stats, Special Attacks & Qualities, Appearance, History, Personality/Goals, Lair/Tactics, Campaign Use (for Low, Mid & High Level parties), and a Minion (with stats and a shorter, more general write-up).
The Appendices cover the following rules issues:
* A new use for the Heal skill - Torture
* 7 villainous spells
* 14 villainous magical items
* 4 Villainous Prestige Classes: Bloodtracker (bounty hunter who uses the taste of the target's blood for supernatural tracking), Dinosaur Cultist (worshipper of Dinosaur gods who can shapeshift into a dinosaur), Gutter Stalker (sewer barbarian with verminous special abilities), and Sea Reaver (barbaric pirates)
* A new monster - the Ahazu, gargantuan burrowing outsiders that can affect dreams, and regurgitate its past victims as fungal simulacrum - mmm...yummy.
Conclusion
This sourcebook is well-organised, and designed to be easily integrated with most campaign worlds due to the use of generic deities, locations, etc. The villains look to have been playtested well, and the stats seem good. There are a plethora of unusual ideas here and at least one of the villains presented here is likely to be usable in your campaign, with very little tweaking. The amount of information for each of the villains (usually three or four pages) is excellent, and the use of the section detailing campaign use for different party levels is very useful.
However, the book is expensive, especially considering that you may only use one or two villains from the book. I would have liked to see more information on developing your own villains, rather than just NPCs. Despite their creativity, the villains in the book failed to truly excite my interest for any length of time. Most of the entries were a bit weird for my tastes - I had difficulty relating to the idea of such villains as a vampire with a clowns face and a morticians suit, and a male half-green dragon half-udamentaz ranger.
So, I would recommend this book to anyone wanting an unusual well-detailed villain and is not afraid of the price tag. If, like another well-known review site, we used two separate ratings for Substance and Style, I'd give a 4 for Substance and a 2 for Style to define my assessment of Villains. As it is, it gets an Average score from me.
