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Grim Hollow Campaign Guide - 3rd Party Review
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9139741" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p>I haven't reviewed any of the Grim Hollow books. As for being a worthwhile purchase, I'd recommend it only if you're a huge fan of new subclasses. The new races are neat, but they're a tiny amount of page content. And the survey of the lands of Etharis are a fraction of what is covered in the Campaign Guide. There are two new subclasses for each class save Artificer. I cannot find it offhand, but one of my friends who also owns the books and is a bigger fan of the setting said that there are some really OP choices.</p><p></p><p>For instance, the School of Sangromancy is a wizard subclass that specializes in the use of sangromancy (blood magic) spells. Said spells require you to expend hit die to cast them. The subclass grants increased uses of this hit die mechanic, such as granting you a separate pool of d12s to use when casting, the ability to add said dice to the damage of harmful spells, and regaining hit points whenever you cast a sangromancy spell.</p><p></p><p>Some of the sangromancy spells include things like Blood Bond (grants the bonus die as temporary hit points to another creature and can know their distance and direction), Blood Rush (heal yourself as a bonus action with said die), and Circle of Scarlet (create a crimson pillar dealing AoE damage and you get 5 temporary hit points for every creature damaged).</p><p></p><p>Circle of Scarlet is basically the Bag of Rats trick writ large. But wait, there's more! Crimson Lash basically creates a whiplike weapon of blood in your hand for 1 minute. It uses your casting modifier for attack and damage if you desire, has light, finesse, and reach properties, and its weapon damage die is equivalent to the number of hit die expended in casting the spell. AND it reduces a creature's hit point maximum by the amount of damage it took. AND when you cast it at certain higher level slots you can make additional attacks with it.</p><p></p><p>I don't think I need to go into detail on how abusable this is.</p><p></p><p>That being said, Sangromancy is perhaps the most OP result she and I could find, and I don't think that it's the norm.</p><p></p><p>On the more positive note, the Fighter has the Bulwark Warrior, which is a pretty good tank type: for instance, you can taunt a creature you hit in melee that grants you a reaction where you can force them to attack you instead of another target at 3rd level; perform an AoE where all creatures who fail the save within 30 feet have disadvantage on attack rolls other than you for 1 turn and you gain temporary hit points at 7th level; and so on.</p><p></p><p>While not what I'd call OP, the cleric gets a very strong subclass that is a general anti-mage: the Cleric Inquisition domain has features such as dealing bonus force damage, can grant resistance to damage from spells and temporary hit points with channel divinity, spend a reaction to deal force damage on a target that you can see casting a spell, etc. So many types of enemies use spells that you're not just a witch-hunter, you're a supernatural hunter in general.</p><p></p><p>Some other subclasses that looked good and not too OP upon my initial skim include College of Requiems (learn animate dead, undead created by you gain bardic inspiration whenever you'd give a target bardic inspiration, bardic inspiration can be used to deal bonus necrotic damage or be reduced to 1 hit point instead of 0 if a living creature), the Monk Way of the Leaden Crown (turn your unarmed strikes into force damage telekinesis strikes with enhanced reach, spend ki points to do telekinetic-style spells, impose force movement on struck targets who fail a Strength save, etc), and the Green Reaper Ranger (specialize in the use of poisons, can deal bonus poison damage with weapon strikes, spend spell slots to apply unique poisons based on spell level, change poison damage to acid or necrotic). And yes, the ranger in the last example has means of circumventing resistance and immunity to poison damage and condition via the pseudo-spells, but those kick in at higher levels.</p><p></p><p>Moving on, there are new transformations as well as new material for existing ones in the setting book. We have entirely new rules, such as Advanced Backgrounds, Archetypes, and Party Inspiration and Corruption. Advanced backgrounds are like normal backgrounds, but grant you additional features based on general-purpose story-based quests in line with said background. Archetypes are...well, they're just rules-free role-play advice on how to role-play various common fantasy archetypes and personality traits.</p><p></p><p>For Party Inspiration and Corruption, this introduces d6 dice pools on both sides of the GM screen as metagame currency. The Players have a Resolve Pool which they can use to help push on, like removing levels of exhaustion, succeeding on a death save, or spend it instead of a hit die for abilities that require its expenditure. The DM has the Beast Pool, which can be spent to make the PCs' lives more difficult like lowering the attitudes of NPCs and adding additional weak monsters to an encounter. Resolve Dice are added for acting like Big Damn Heroes and good role-play, Beast Die are added whenever the PCs encounter or experience acts of horror or evil. While a clever concept, it's more bean-counting and still weighted in favor of the DM's whims.</p><p></p><p>In terms of raw page content, my favorite part of the book (subclasses) are only a quarter. The other stuff I feel you can take or leave and can be rather a mixed bag. But taken all together, there should be something for everyone here. I would not recommend it as a "player-friendly" version of Grim Hollow, as it makes reference to things in the main setting guide to fully use, such as the Transformations.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 9139741, member: 6750502"] I haven't reviewed any of the Grim Hollow books. As for being a worthwhile purchase, I'd recommend it only if you're a huge fan of new subclasses. The new races are neat, but they're a tiny amount of page content. And the survey of the lands of Etharis are a fraction of what is covered in the Campaign Guide. There are two new subclasses for each class save Artificer. I cannot find it offhand, but one of my friends who also owns the books and is a bigger fan of the setting said that there are some really OP choices. For instance, the School of Sangromancy is a wizard subclass that specializes in the use of sangromancy (blood magic) spells. Said spells require you to expend hit die to cast them. The subclass grants increased uses of this hit die mechanic, such as granting you a separate pool of d12s to use when casting, the ability to add said dice to the damage of harmful spells, and regaining hit points whenever you cast a sangromancy spell. Some of the sangromancy spells include things like Blood Bond (grants the bonus die as temporary hit points to another creature and can know their distance and direction), Blood Rush (heal yourself as a bonus action with said die), and Circle of Scarlet (create a crimson pillar dealing AoE damage and you get 5 temporary hit points for every creature damaged). Circle of Scarlet is basically the Bag of Rats trick writ large. But wait, there's more! Crimson Lash basically creates a whiplike weapon of blood in your hand for 1 minute. It uses your casting modifier for attack and damage if you desire, has light, finesse, and reach properties, and its weapon damage die is equivalent to the number of hit die expended in casting the spell. AND it reduces a creature's hit point maximum by the amount of damage it took. AND when you cast it at certain higher level slots you can make additional attacks with it. I don't think I need to go into detail on how abusable this is. That being said, Sangromancy is perhaps the most OP result she and I could find, and I don't think that it's the norm. On the more positive note, the Fighter has the Bulwark Warrior, which is a pretty good tank type: for instance, you can taunt a creature you hit in melee that grants you a reaction where you can force them to attack you instead of another target at 3rd level; perform an AoE where all creatures who fail the save within 30 feet have disadvantage on attack rolls other than you for 1 turn and you gain temporary hit points at 7th level; and so on. While not what I'd call OP, the cleric gets a very strong subclass that is a general anti-mage: the Cleric Inquisition domain has features such as dealing bonus force damage, can grant resistance to damage from spells and temporary hit points with channel divinity, spend a reaction to deal force damage on a target that you can see casting a spell, etc. So many types of enemies use spells that you're not just a witch-hunter, you're a supernatural hunter in general. Some other subclasses that looked good and not too OP upon my initial skim include College of Requiems (learn animate dead, undead created by you gain bardic inspiration whenever you'd give a target bardic inspiration, bardic inspiration can be used to deal bonus necrotic damage or be reduced to 1 hit point instead of 0 if a living creature), the Monk Way of the Leaden Crown (turn your unarmed strikes into force damage telekinesis strikes with enhanced reach, spend ki points to do telekinetic-style spells, impose force movement on struck targets who fail a Strength save, etc), and the Green Reaper Ranger (specialize in the use of poisons, can deal bonus poison damage with weapon strikes, spend spell slots to apply unique poisons based on spell level, change poison damage to acid or necrotic). And yes, the ranger in the last example has means of circumventing resistance and immunity to poison damage and condition via the pseudo-spells, but those kick in at higher levels. Moving on, there are new transformations as well as new material for existing ones in the setting book. We have entirely new rules, such as Advanced Backgrounds, Archetypes, and Party Inspiration and Corruption. Advanced backgrounds are like normal backgrounds, but grant you additional features based on general-purpose story-based quests in line with said background. Archetypes are...well, they're just rules-free role-play advice on how to role-play various common fantasy archetypes and personality traits. For Party Inspiration and Corruption, this introduces d6 dice pools on both sides of the GM screen as metagame currency. The Players have a Resolve Pool which they can use to help push on, like removing levels of exhaustion, succeeding on a death save, or spend it instead of a hit die for abilities that require its expenditure. The DM has the Beast Pool, which can be spent to make the PCs' lives more difficult like lowering the attitudes of NPCs and adding additional weak monsters to an encounter. Resolve Dice are added for acting like Big Damn Heroes and good role-play, Beast Die are added whenever the PCs encounter or experience acts of horror or evil. While a clever concept, it's more bean-counting and still weighted in favor of the DM's whims. In terms of raw page content, my favorite part of the book (subclasses) are only a quarter. The other stuff I feel you can take or leave and can be rather a mixed bag. But taken all together, there should be something for everyone here. I would not recommend it as a "player-friendly" version of Grim Hollow, as it makes reference to things in the main setting guide to fully use, such as the Transformations. [/QUOTE]
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