Way of the Sword

[JoeGKushner]

This review is sponsored by Gaming Frontiers:

Way of the Sword is almost a perfect D20 book. It takes material from Arcana Unearthed relating to fighters and the art of fighting, and puts it into one nice PDF. First off, for those who own the print book, there is no reason to own the PDF unless you want to be able to print out certain sections. Nothing here seems new to me outside of some flavor text at the start of the book.

For those who don't own the print book, there is a lot of fun stuff here. If you're looking for new races, this book has some for you. I like how Monte has racial levels that the races can take in place of class levels. While I find it out of place that racial levels are a new concept, having seen them in Savage Species and in Character Customization, I like the idea. Get better at what you're born as. Of course, that can lend itself to all type of stereotypes if this was based on real people, but fantasy races are okay.

My personal favorite is the Giant, a race that's strong, but a little slow. My other favorite is the Litorian. Despite the racial description of the Litorian, lion men, being strong, fast and tough, they're really only fast. Now to me, none of the races cut any new ground in what they are. Lion Men? Jackal Men? But the descriptions are well done and the stats seem very sound. The fact that the Faen, small lithe races, can change their physical beings through metamorphosis, is a great addition and is fairly unique outside of say a drow becoming a drider.

Those looking for new core classes, get six fully stated out twenty level ones. Many of the traditional roles that the fighter takes are specialized here. For example, the Warmain is the heavily armored type of fighter with heavy weapons while the Unfettered is almost a combination between Fighter and Rogue. They get sneak attack damage, but not that often, as well as bonus feats, but not that often, with a d8 hit dice and more skill pionts than a standard fighter.

Of more interest to those looking for a monk replacement is the Oathsworn, individuals that rely upon their own innate abilities. They get unarmed damage and a flurry, as well as other monk like abilities. Those who enjoyed the Holy Warrior from The Book of the Righteous, will like the Champion, a warrior devoted to a cause who gains special abilities in pursuit of that cause.

The good thing about the Champion and the Totem Warrior, a fighting class whose powers vary depending upon it's totem, is that there are some guidelines for GMs to make their own causes to champions and their own Totems to follow.

Those looking for new feats will find that there are three types of feat to select, ceremonial, regular, and talent. Starting characters get two feats, which works fine for the AU system, but fails for the d20 system unless you give all starting characters that extra ceremonial feat. Talents are similar to those special abilities you can only take at first level in games like Hammer & Helm or Swashbuckling Adventurers. They give you a special ability that is generally unique or 'kewl' like Natural Swordsman, where you gain a bonus to damage rolls and get a bonus to defense against those wielding swords. The feats are a good mix, but some of 'em are overpowered, some under. For example, any campaign with Expertise doesn't really need Defensive, a talent that gives you a +1 dodge bonus in exchange for a -1 penalty to attack rolls. One interesting rule idea here is that at 10th and 20th level, you can swap out feats that are useless by undergoing a ceremony. A nice touch and a way to handle the change in game.

“You can use everything in this book alongside the 3rd Edition or revised 3rd Edition Player's Handbook.” A direct quote from the book. First off, there is currently no book on the market that I've seen that allows you do to this. To do this would require game rules for 3.0 and 3.5. This book has neither. To put this statement out there like that is false. There is conversion work needed not only because 3.5 is different than 3.0, but Monte didn't update this independent file to be anything other than the print version so it's still, in essence, Monte's version of d20, not the standard. Stills still straddle between the two systems unless it's a new skill, feats like Ambidexterity, which were eliminated in 3.5, are still here.

On a more minor note, the main benefit of getting this book is that you're getting some solid fighting material. To put the Mage Blade core class here and claim, “will need the spells and magic rules in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed or the Arcana Unearthed Grimoire” vastly defeats the purpose of seperate books. If you need those things for one core class, how about removing that core class and putting in some of the weapons and armor that the war based classes in here would use?

In the same vein, why keep material that is only referenced and explained in the core book like Hero Points? Why have a feat in this book about getting a hero point to start off with and not explain what a hero point actually is?

To get the 5 star rating, this book would need to drop the whole attitude that it is a pure d20 book or become a pure d20 book. It would have to explain what Hero Points are, or get rid of the Feat that allows you to have a Hero Point. It would have to clarify exactly why you need the other PDF book to use the Mage Blade, or drop the Mage Blade.

Those issues, to me, are big, but have little impact on the majority of the rules and thus, little impact on the utility of the book itself. If you don't mind a little elbow work in conversions to 3.5 or 3.0, or you're curious to see some of the stuff in Arcana Unearthed, this is a good place to start.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Combat-oriented classes and races, plus battle-related feats.

 

[GameWyrd]

Nightmare. Horror. Disaster. The last thing I saw before my hard disk gave up the ghost was the email Amazon voucher which would have bought me Arcana Unearthed. It’s a big hardback book and unlucky, unemployed, webmasters won’t be the only people in search of affordable access to Monte Cook’s alternative handbook. (An alternative to the alternative?)

There is hope. Malhavoc Press have a PDF solution. You can’t buy Arcana Unearthed in PDF but you can buy three significant chunks of it in the form of Way of the Sword, Way of the Staff and Grimoire. If you’re buying these supplements for Arcana Unearthed, as seems most likely, then it’s best to buy all three at once in the combo value back. It’s madness not to.

So I approach this review as someone who’s not read Arcana Unearthed (but have flicked through a friend’s copy) and who wants to find out more about the book. I hope this is the silver lining in the dire tale of hard disk death; this is an unlikely situation for a busy d20 reviewer to be in but perhaps the best situation for a disinterested review.

The first thing to note is that Way of the Sword benefits from Malhavoc’s PDF experience. It’s an easy document to read on-screen and to print out. A text file (and they’re still not making that Notepad friendly – use WordPad) explains the best way to print the e-book out; in three stages, the title page separately and doubled sided if possible. A printed copy of Way of the Sword won’t kill your ink. There are illustrations, excellent illustrations, but they’re greyscale and there’s no continuous sidebar there to waste ink on. The table of contents is detailed but not hyperlinked. Since the design favours the printed version you’ll need to add one to every page number if you’re reading on screen. There is a complete and collapsible collection of bookmarks.

Way of the Sword begins with a campaign background story from Arcana Unearthed and the Diamond Throne setting. A warlord may have been inspired, even possessed, by a spirit to re-establish the Way of the Sword, the art and science of the warrior. The supplement, er, well it’s not really a supplement, the alternative player’s handbook sample explains some of the new terms and concepts used by these rules.

Racial levels allow characters to mature into their race, not every fantasy race in the setting have racial levels, but all the ones in Way of the Sword do. I’ve seen racial levels, or something similar, before in d20 supplements and they’re so much better than the dangerously clumsy and unsatisfactory Effective Levels. There’s more than just good mechanics here, very quickly we begin to sense some Monte Cook wizardry. The best that Monte Cook produces, in my opinion, is wonderful blending of mechanics and flavour. Rituals seem to be important in Urban Arcana as does the sense of self – at least, this is my impression from Way of the Sword. Racial levels are optional, there are only three and can be taken at any time in lieu of character class advancement. Not every member of the race, not even the elderly, will have all three racial levels. In addition, it’s often the case that there is some sort of ritualism associated with the racial level advancement.

There are talents and ceremonial feats. We see mechanics encouraging flavour and I love this. Ceremonial feats can only be taken in conjunction with successfully completed ceremonies. The gold piece cost of the ritual components will serve as motivation for characters to go out and get money. Talents are feats that can only be taken at first level, they’re not representative of special training but of a strength of personality, a gift, a talent, a character has naturally.

Feats and talents are one of the game mechanics Way of the Sword looks at. The 57-paged PDF begins its detailed run through of feats at page 42. There’s a limit to the number of talents and ceremonial feats a character can start with and in order to have a ceremonial feat at all at first level the character must know his truename. Little else is said on the issue of truename’s but the need-to-know basics are there. A truename is discovered through a ritual. Humans, of course, enjoy that extra feat and Way of the Sword takes the paragraph required to explain which type of feat it could be. In Arcana Unearthed there are two occasions; 10th and 20th level, when a character can perform a ritual and replace one feat (no longer used, a bad choice, unwanted, etc) with a new one. Here we see the game system encouraging game play. Thumbs up.

The importance of truenames isn’t the only Arcana Unearthed shtick or rule set that Way of the Sword talks about but doesn’t delve in to. In fact, there are quite a few character classes mentioned without any sort of backup summary at all. Early on in the accessory we’re warned where these missing links are likely to occur. Quite a few of these ‘holes’ can be plugged by simply having the Way of the Staff PDF. Magic, in particular, is missing from the Way of the Sword. This e-book concentrates on the warriors whereas Way of the Staff focuses on mages. The mage blade character class is the obvious troublemaker here, a warrior with magic.

Way of the Sword’s introduction and the assistance it offers to GMs working only with this supplement or the combo pack is perhaps the most important offering in the whole PDF. This section ensures that Way of the Sword holds its own, can be used as a supplement and is more than just an expensive preview of Arcana Unearthed.

There are four races in Way of the Sword: Faen, Giants, Litorians and Sibeccai.

There are three types of Faen and this accessory gives us character race mechanics for two of them. Quicklings are small, thin, friendly and, yup - quick. Forget the stats, Quicklings discover new gods! Okay. They don’t actually explore the cosmos or look under rocks in order to turn up a new deity; instead they seem (or claim) to be aware of the cosmos in such a way that any new, or previously forgotten, deities may become known to them. The timing of this discovery is always good; typically the deity makes itself known at a portentous time. The example given is of a Quickling making a desperate swing on a rope over a chasm suddenly becoming aware of Derrah – the goddess of ropes. Quicklings evolve into the third type of Faen; the Spryte. Sprytes are small and winged fey. They’re literally fey; their type changes from humanoid to fey.

The Giants call themselves Hu-Charad, the Stewards, and are the rulers of the land. The Hu-Charad freed mankind from the tyranny of the dramojh and if we want to find out any more about that history we’ll need to read about it elsewhere. After this liberation was complete the giants used a powerful ritual to change their nature from warlike and aggressive to contemplative and protective. The Hu-Charad are the rulers of the Diamond Throne but the moniker ‘Stewards’ is a better fit; they’re not power hungry, they want order and peace. They’re tall too. It takes rituals and racial giant levels for a giant to grow to her full size.

Furry fiends will be falling over themselves to play the lion-anthro Litorians. The use of the racial levels is important here; you’d expect a lion race to be strong, fast and tough. Young Litorians are fast since the race comes with the Dex bonus, through the acquisition of racial levels the Litorian will bolster Str and Con too (and more Dex). At the start of the race section Way of the Sword makes the point of noting that individuals are all different but that the descriptions here are for typical members of the race. Good. The racial clone factor is something every aspiring alternative d20 player’s handbook should move away from. This caveat is important for the Litorian. A typical Litorian will be out in the wilds, in territory far away from civilization, and hunting. It’s the exceptional, the unusual, Litorian who’ll be part of an adventuring group.

The Sibeccai are a young, jackal-headed race. They’re very young. They were created by the Giants; transformed from a desert animal into a sentient race. The Sibeccai once served the Giants as warriors but are free now. They see themselves as special, as the Giant’s chosen race, they look up to the Giants (sorry) but many consider themselves superior to the other races. Sibeccai are short lived but mature quickly and have the three racial levels common in Way of the Sword. It can’t be helped, there’s an Egyptian vibe that comes off this jackal-humanoids but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

There are six character classes in the accessory: Champion, Mage Blade, Oathsworn, Totem Warrior, Unfettered and Warmain.

The Mage Blade looks interesting, a character who’s walking the fine line between the Way of the Sword and the Way of the Staff but the class requires the second PDF accessory to use fully.

The Champion is devoted to a cause and this devotion is so strong that it provokes or awakens supernatural powers. Initially Champions devote themselves to some broad cause: goodness, evil, death, or life, etc. More experienced Champions can, if they want, narrow this down to a race, a location or even a person. A city’s champion or the queen’s champion is possible. Way of the Sword gives us a whole series of different power ‘trees’ for each possibility. That is to say the PDF lists the powers a champion of freedom has and they’re different from the powers and abilities a champion of life has. Similarly, once the class qualifies for a more specific cause, you’ll find the power trees for champions of places, races and people. Top quality.

I find the Oathsworns’ inspiration to be similar to the Champions. They’re enhanced by their devotion to their oath as much as they are driven by it. The difference between the Champion and the Oathsworn is that the latter fights unarmed and unarmoured if at all possible. Okay; think D&D monk, now imagine an interesting version of that same class.

Totem Warriors have to be my favourite of these warrior classes. These are those wilderness warriors aware of the presence and importance of animal spirits. They’re animists (if that’s a word; they practise animism) and fight with ferocity and instinct. Totem Warriors have different totems and so, as you’d hope, there are different types of combat styles and abilities. Warriors with the bear totem are massive and strong and snake totem warriors are quick and lithe. It makes sense that some races will find some totem animals more attractive than others and we’re given pointers here. As the champion class included lists of powers and abilities for champions of different causes this class gives us sets of abilities for warriors with different totems. The totems listed are those popular and prestigious ones from the campaign setting. As a bonus, a rather good bonus, there’s a decent sized section of help for GMs designing their own totem.

The Unfettered and Warmain are something of a ying-and-yang, opposite halves of the perfect warrior whole. Unfettered distain heavy armour, strategy and even patience. Unfettered know the best way to win a melee is to avoid being hit entirely, they’re swift, unpredictable and therefore deadly. The class is likely to appeal strongly to Dexterity junkies. Warmain, on the other hand, are robust individuals, strong and determined to win. Warmain protect their body in heavy armour, armour so solid that it’ll probably take someone of Warmain strength simply to wear it. Whereas the Unfettered have no time for strategy and tactics, the Warmain live by the warrior science, plotting and planning carefully to win every battle they face.

This is a good set of classes. We’ve the game mechanics we’d expect from Monte Cook and the rich flavour we’d hope would be blended with them. An important strength of these classes, for me, is there diversity and their believability. Diversity is important for the sake of the players in the game, there needs to be a type of action hero, a warrior, which appeals to everyone. Believability keeps everything together, if there’s no need to come up with excuses for classes (why do rangers have magic? Why do all uncivilised warriors rage?) then there’s a more easy suspension of disbelief and more time for the GM.

Way of the Sword scores thumbs up for the individual content; everything works. Way of the Sword can be used by itself and I think this is important if it’s being sold by itself. The PDF leaves me wanting more of Arcana Unearthed but I could use these races, classes and feat rules without having access to any other of the rules. Put these two together and Way of the Sword offers rules you want to use and rules you can use. That’s a good product.

* This Way of the Sword review was first posted at GameWyrd.

 

[Voadam]

Way of the Sword is a pdf sourcebook of the martial oriented races, classes, and feats from Monte Cook's alternative Player's Handbook, Arcana Unearthed. It comes on its own or as part of a three pdf bundle that excerpts the majority of the new rules material from AU.

Arcana Unearthed was designed to provide mechanical fantasy archetype alternatives to the D&D classes, demi-human races, and Vancian magic system as well as provide a complete d20 high fantasy game with a different tone from D&D's game world implications. Way of the Sword is almost completely D&D compatible with a couple of small modifications: the hide and move silent skills have been collapsed into one sneak skill, and all characters get an extra feat at first level, either a truename ritual feat, or an extra first level only feat for characters without truenames.

The default world behind the setting has a lot of flavor and evocative history that comes out in both the mechanics of how certain things work and in the descriptions of the various races and classes. For example, rituals and truenames are very important in the world and a number of the feats require the character to have a truename and undergo a ritual as a prerequisite. This allows for more supernatural effects to be available to otherwise non-magical characters. Also the history of Giants as a caretaker patron race that dominates the land is well developed in the racial backgrounds of the other races such as the Sibbecai that they created. This history is even followed through to the extent that the Sibeccai automatic languages are common and giant instead of a unique one of their own.

Instead of the Tolkein derived Elves, Dwarves, and Haf-Orcs, Way of the Sword provides Faen (small elf-like beings), Sprytes (Faen who used a feat to become tiny-sized winged fey), Giants (start off medium-sized but seven feet tall), Littorians (nomadic tribal lion-men) and Sibbecai (short lived jackal-men). All except the Faen have three-level racial classes that can be taken to make the characters more archetypical of their race, gaining further stat bonuses and some abilities such as a bite attack for the furry races, gaining large size after a ritual for the Giants, and spell-like abilities for the Sprytes. None of them have an ECL modifier or a favored class designation.

Instead of fighters, rogues and monks, Way of the Sword provides six new martial classes.

Champions: supernaturally powered champions of a cause or concept such as light, life, death, darkness, magic or freedom. They gain summonable weapons and shields and varying powers depending upon their cause, with guidelines to create other devotions. At higher levels their devotions can become a specific place, people, or even a single person.

Mage Blades: Warrior mages with 2/3 BAB, and spellcasting up to seventh-level spells. They bond with a blade and can use it instead of somatic components. They use the AU spellcasting method of spell slots to power spells and fixed "readied" spells for determining which ones they can cast in a day. Their spell list is only included in AU or the pdf The Grimoire, but allowing normal wizard spells should not be too unbalancing in a game without those.

Oathsworn: Monk alternatives with 2/3 BAB (and 3.0 monk iterative attacks every 3 BAB) who must always be under an oath and either keep them or fulfill them within a year or lose their class powers. These are very reminiscent of the Bloodguard from the Thomas Covenant novels (as are the Giant race).

Totem Warriors: Wilderness oriented warriors who are chosen by a single animal totem and gain powers and eventually animal companions that grow with them. Their hit die type and the strength and number of their powers (including at what level they can transform into their totem form) vary from animal to animal with guidelines presented to develop new animal types. Core totems include Bear, Hawk, Shark, Snake, Wolf, and Wolverine. They are reminiscent of Shadowrun's shamanic adepts.

Unfettered: Swashbuklers with d8 Hit Dice, 1/1 BAB, non-armor based defensive parrying abilities, and sneak attacks every four levels. A good core swashbuckler.

Warmain: Heavy armor warriors with d12 Hit Dice and two more total bonus feats than fighters but many of them predetermined. These can outtank a fighter but lack the breadth of the fighter's customizability.

The only fantasy warrior niche that is not well developed is the archer, many of the classes can make them but only one totem warrior specialty (Hawk) is specifically oriented to missile fire.

Fifty eight feats round out the supplement. A number are ritual ones such as the Giant only Chi-Julud which allows a Giant to enter a rage temporarily turning points of Wisdom and Charisma into Strength and Constitution enhancements. Others like Affinity with Skill which gives a +4 to a skill, may only be taken at first level (and Ambidexterity is reclassified to be first level only now). A few such as Wealthy and Title are not directly combat related. Straight combat ones include First Strike which provides stackable sneak attack damage when striking flat-footed opponents.

Way of the Sword succeeds in creating quality alternative fantasy races and martial classes. The fairy and giant PC races fill common folklore niches and the furries are a common type of "new" race for fantasy series from the Kzinti to Thundercats. It is amusing though that both D&D Dwarves and AU Giants are medium-sized. The races are well balanced as baseline no ECL races. They have good histories and interesting character traits. They would make a good PC race palette on their own and are easily insertible into most fantasy worlds.

The classes do many jobs well. Champions are a step up conceptually from the narrow requirements of the paladin class, but their powers seem a touch off, for instance their shield and sword can only be summoned for one fight a day. Totem warriors are interesting nature/animal champions but they must be shapeshifters with animal companions, the shark warrior can't really take his companion into the city, wilderness, or a dungeon. Unfettered fill a cool archetype niche that has mostly been filled by multiclassed characters, prestige classes and characters that sacrifice part of the concept (warrior BAB weapon skill) or major class abilities (a fighter's heavy armor and shield for AC). Mechanically the unfettered have a better feel than even the swashbucklers in WotC's Complete Warrior. The mage blade is an attractive warrior mage with interesting abilities, a well done class. Oathsworn are an alternative monk that could represent a different martial art tradition, but their oaths can be as restrictive as a paladin's code. The warmain fills the tank niche very well but seems to do a fighter's main niche better than a fighter can, so the balance may be off if allowed next to D&D classes.

It would have been nice to have the new AU equipment included in the war supplement and the mage blade probably should have been included in the magic user pdf instead of leaving his magic mostly undefined. Overall, however, the races, classes, and feats that are useable out of the box are worth checking out.