JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Demon Wars is the new hardcover campaign setting for the d20 system that uses the novels of R. A. Salvatore as inspiration. Demon Wars starts off with a short story. I enjoy books that start off like this because it gives the material some ground to stand on, especially if it's a setting and not just a rule book. The short story provides a quick introduction to many of the important theme of the setting including corruption, the power of the church and the wildness of gem magic.
The first section starts off with characters and goes right into races and classes. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, there are no racial details to be found here, the base race is human and human only.
I have some real issues with the classes here. Bards, rangers, paladins have their spellcasting powers dismissed with a few words with no effort to rebalance them. Settings like Swashbuckling Adventures are low magic as well but made some effort to incorporate the core material with more than a wave of the hand. Of the classes presented, the Abellican Brother, and King's Trooper are so close to being Monk and Fighter variants that there was absolutely no need to give them a full twenty level progression chart and instead, something like the Alternative Class ideas used in say Path of the Sword or Dragon #310, should've been used.
Is it good to see that the King's Trooper has different saving throw arrangements and skills than a standard fighter? Yes. Is it good to see that they get more skill points and different skills but lose the use of heavy armor? Yes. Do I need a full chart of it that doesn't indicate when they can take limited feats like Weapon Specialization? No.
The same holds true for the Abellican Brother. Do I need to see that the saves, base attack, unarmed attack, unarmed damage, ac bonus and unarmored speed are virtually, if not line by line identical? No. The main difference I see is that instead of calling their ability to effect creatures requiring magic a Ki Strike, they call it a Holy Strike and a Quivering Palm is a Lethal Strike.
Don't dismiss out of hand important abilities for core classes that are allowable and reprint pages and pages of material straight from the players handbook. Provide something in exchange to those spellcasting classes like say a feat every level where they would've gained a new spell level. Do something.
Of more unique nature and originality, the thing many people will want to see, are the gem spell casters. We get the Gem Master and the Gem Sorcerer, the former a master of the gems using bonus feats to gain greater power over the spellcasting abilities of the gems and the latter a variant caster, similar in 90% of the ways in terms of game play, base attack bonus, saving throws, hit points, magic points, gold, skill points and feats, but different in role playing aspect. Once again, why do separate charts for essentially the same class? Because it's a different magic system, much like with the standard Player's Handbook, the method of magic isn't described in this section, just the character classes.
Another class that readers will be looking for is the Touel'alfar Woodsman, or the Corona Ranger. Similar to the ranger of 3.0, it has d10 hit dice, ranger bab, good fort save, poor will and ref save. It has a wide range of skills with 4 points per level and proficiency with simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor, but not heavy armor. It's abilities are a little different though as it gains weapon focus, deflect arrows, special mount, and the Bi'nelle dasada or sword dance, where the character gets a bonus that increases as he rises in level that is added to his armor class and either his hit or damage bonus. As if that wasn't enough, half of that is added to his initiative bonus. It does have limits though like can only be used with no armor and can only be used with the weapon the character has weapon focus with. Still, at 20th level, this is a +19 bonus. Probably a little too powerful for some campaigns.
Characters need to know how their skills will be customized or changed for a campaign and need to know what unique feats are available. The skills from the PHB are customized here and added onto with Wield Ring Stone, a skill to command the magic of the gem stones in this campaign that provide the spellpower of the setting.
The feats have many for Ring Stone mastery, but instead of making a note too it, they put [General] in the brackets instead of [Ring Stone] or something to clearly identify it. Not a huge issue but utility, easy visual recognition, things to make the reader's job easier, especially when referencing the book, make a difference. Feats are similar to those in the Player's Handbook like Gem Penetration, giving the user a bonus to his level to beat gem resistance (Spell Penetration and Spell Resistance you say?),Gem Stamina, granting the user +3 magic points and Gem Focus, granting the user a bonus to Wield Ring Stone skill checks.
Now with all this talk of gems and two classes devoted to it, how do you work with Gem Magic? A whole chapter provides the details. The nice thing is the summary on where the gems come from. Although those familiar with the fiction will know the story of how the stones fall from the sky and must be prepared, those new to the setting will find the information useful in appreciating how rare these magic stones are.
Magic Points are used to power the stones. Those who don't follow the Gem classes can get a very limited number of points via the Ring Stone Affinity feat (not the stone Affinity feat for those looking for this non-existent feat). The thing that bothers me about this is that the amount of points is variable and can lead to tremendous discrepancies between characters in a core ability. It'd be like a fighter gaining a variable base attack bonus or a wizard casting spells not with his level but with a variable level bonus. Magic Points spent are recovered at 1 an hour and those who drain themselves become fatigued with the fatigued penalties (-2 Str, -2 Dex, etc...)
Much of the effect of the stones are the same as the spells they emulate. The spell abilities are listed under the stones, in alphabetical order. For example, under Alexandrite, you'll find that it destroys illusions, the DC and Area of Effect increasing depending on the magic points per round the user uses while Diamond glows with light with the same rule in effect. The rules are broken down in a table format for each gem making it easy to see what the effect is, how much it costs, and what the DC is. For example, say you want to use Magnetite after charging it so that it flies towards a metal object. You wait nine rounds to build up the charge, meet the DC roll of 42, spend your 22 magic points and let fly doing 25d6 points of damage.
More powerful effects can be gained by combining stones and when this is done, the effect is listed such as Animal Mastery, where you use Hematite and Turquoise to control an animal or Swift Passage, requiring the use of Hematite and Malachite for a haste like effect.
While the Gem Sorcery class isn't too different form the Gem Master, the Gem Sorcery effect however, is very different. You see, they use a demon spirit to add power to the effects of their casting. Using the altered power like this is taxing, requiring the user to make a fortitude save or lose their magic points, becoming fatigued per normal rules. Other hazards wait for those who continue to use this power but based on the listing of powers here, in alphabetical order with the gems needed, I don't think too many Gem Sorcerers will hold back. They can use numerous spells with the name Demo nin front of them to inflict all manner of damage or to liquefy the earth itself. A powerful ability with some dangerous drawbacks.
Those wondering about the magic items of the setting will have a new material, Silverel, a unique item to the elves of this world, as well as darkfern. You can read about Hawkwing, Nightbird's longbow or the powerful shortsword Tempest. One of the useful things done here though, is taking existing items from the DMG and showing what gemstones they would need to be recreated here. Makes the book more useful to those trying to keep a traditional D20 game going or mixing the different types of magic.\
The Demon Wars setting has its own perils too. While good use is made of encounter tables that take into account the Monster Manual and introduces several new creatures. Most fans of the fiction will be looking forward to reading about the Dactyl, the main antagonist of the Demon War series while others will be more interested in the giants or Magma Wights. Stacks look better than many past books but playtesting is recommended to insure that you don't use the lowly Powrie, evil dwarves of the setting, and accidently wipe out your party.
The section on the World of Cornona is a good introduction to the setting but doesn't provide enough real detail to get started. Fans of the novels will probably be more interested in the stats of the characters anyway though but it makes it difficult to start a campaign with just the core book as you don't even get a typical village map to start with.
Also of interest to fans of the series is the Demonwar, a summary of the first three books in the Demon Wars series with some advice on how you might be able to use some of those elements in your own campaign.
Now the art in the book is fantastic. There's no doubt about it. I I didn't like it when Pinnacle reused their gaming art like they did with Savage Worlds, using art from other companies and past products. I don't like it here. It gives the product a unified field but why not hire the comic artists to do all new art or at least a few illustrations? Phil Renne illustrations act as a nice counterbalance to the comic book style art.
Nine full page illustrations grace the inside of the game which lends it a terrific atmosphere, but cuts greatly into the text. If this was a 300 plus page book, this wouldn't be a problem but between the map, full page spreads, preface, introduction and fiction, where's the game material?
The maps are different than the standard FFG maps in that they don't look like they were done on a computer and then put through a grayscale process. The reason for this is that this is the map from the novel. This is a good thing as it allows a reader of the book to quickly look at the map and know what it means.
Demon Wars has a lot of potential. The base book is inexpensive and has a lot of material behind it and more material still in progress. There are several things stopping it from getting a five ranging from the dearth of material to actually playing in the campaign to the reuse of core classes with the serial numbers filed off.
If you're tired of the standard D&D spellcasters or want some variants in your campaign for fighters or an alternative name for the monk, Demon Wars has something for you. If you're a fan of R. A. Salvatore's Demon Wars, either the comics or the novels, then this book is definitely for you.
The first section starts off with characters and goes right into races and classes. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, there are no racial details to be found here, the base race is human and human only.
I have some real issues with the classes here. Bards, rangers, paladins have their spellcasting powers dismissed with a few words with no effort to rebalance them. Settings like Swashbuckling Adventures are low magic as well but made some effort to incorporate the core material with more than a wave of the hand. Of the classes presented, the Abellican Brother, and King's Trooper are so close to being Monk and Fighter variants that there was absolutely no need to give them a full twenty level progression chart and instead, something like the Alternative Class ideas used in say Path of the Sword or Dragon #310, should've been used.
Is it good to see that the King's Trooper has different saving throw arrangements and skills than a standard fighter? Yes. Is it good to see that they get more skill points and different skills but lose the use of heavy armor? Yes. Do I need a full chart of it that doesn't indicate when they can take limited feats like Weapon Specialization? No.
The same holds true for the Abellican Brother. Do I need to see that the saves, base attack, unarmed attack, unarmed damage, ac bonus and unarmored speed are virtually, if not line by line identical? No. The main difference I see is that instead of calling their ability to effect creatures requiring magic a Ki Strike, they call it a Holy Strike and a Quivering Palm is a Lethal Strike.
Don't dismiss out of hand important abilities for core classes that are allowable and reprint pages and pages of material straight from the players handbook. Provide something in exchange to those spellcasting classes like say a feat every level where they would've gained a new spell level. Do something.
Of more unique nature and originality, the thing many people will want to see, are the gem spell casters. We get the Gem Master and the Gem Sorcerer, the former a master of the gems using bonus feats to gain greater power over the spellcasting abilities of the gems and the latter a variant caster, similar in 90% of the ways in terms of game play, base attack bonus, saving throws, hit points, magic points, gold, skill points and feats, but different in role playing aspect. Once again, why do separate charts for essentially the same class? Because it's a different magic system, much like with the standard Player's Handbook, the method of magic isn't described in this section, just the character classes.
Another class that readers will be looking for is the Touel'alfar Woodsman, or the Corona Ranger. Similar to the ranger of 3.0, it has d10 hit dice, ranger bab, good fort save, poor will and ref save. It has a wide range of skills with 4 points per level and proficiency with simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor, but not heavy armor. It's abilities are a little different though as it gains weapon focus, deflect arrows, special mount, and the Bi'nelle dasada or sword dance, where the character gets a bonus that increases as he rises in level that is added to his armor class and either his hit or damage bonus. As if that wasn't enough, half of that is added to his initiative bonus. It does have limits though like can only be used with no armor and can only be used with the weapon the character has weapon focus with. Still, at 20th level, this is a +19 bonus. Probably a little too powerful for some campaigns.
Characters need to know how their skills will be customized or changed for a campaign and need to know what unique feats are available. The skills from the PHB are customized here and added onto with Wield Ring Stone, a skill to command the magic of the gem stones in this campaign that provide the spellpower of the setting.
The feats have many for Ring Stone mastery, but instead of making a note too it, they put [General] in the brackets instead of [Ring Stone] or something to clearly identify it. Not a huge issue but utility, easy visual recognition, things to make the reader's job easier, especially when referencing the book, make a difference. Feats are similar to those in the Player's Handbook like Gem Penetration, giving the user a bonus to his level to beat gem resistance (Spell Penetration and Spell Resistance you say?),Gem Stamina, granting the user +3 magic points and Gem Focus, granting the user a bonus to Wield Ring Stone skill checks.
Now with all this talk of gems and two classes devoted to it, how do you work with Gem Magic? A whole chapter provides the details. The nice thing is the summary on where the gems come from. Although those familiar with the fiction will know the story of how the stones fall from the sky and must be prepared, those new to the setting will find the information useful in appreciating how rare these magic stones are.
Magic Points are used to power the stones. Those who don't follow the Gem classes can get a very limited number of points via the Ring Stone Affinity feat (not the stone Affinity feat for those looking for this non-existent feat). The thing that bothers me about this is that the amount of points is variable and can lead to tremendous discrepancies between characters in a core ability. It'd be like a fighter gaining a variable base attack bonus or a wizard casting spells not with his level but with a variable level bonus. Magic Points spent are recovered at 1 an hour and those who drain themselves become fatigued with the fatigued penalties (-2 Str, -2 Dex, etc...)
Much of the effect of the stones are the same as the spells they emulate. The spell abilities are listed under the stones, in alphabetical order. For example, under Alexandrite, you'll find that it destroys illusions, the DC and Area of Effect increasing depending on the magic points per round the user uses while Diamond glows with light with the same rule in effect. The rules are broken down in a table format for each gem making it easy to see what the effect is, how much it costs, and what the DC is. For example, say you want to use Magnetite after charging it so that it flies towards a metal object. You wait nine rounds to build up the charge, meet the DC roll of 42, spend your 22 magic points and let fly doing 25d6 points of damage.
More powerful effects can be gained by combining stones and when this is done, the effect is listed such as Animal Mastery, where you use Hematite and Turquoise to control an animal or Swift Passage, requiring the use of Hematite and Malachite for a haste like effect.
While the Gem Sorcery class isn't too different form the Gem Master, the Gem Sorcery effect however, is very different. You see, they use a demon spirit to add power to the effects of their casting. Using the altered power like this is taxing, requiring the user to make a fortitude save or lose their magic points, becoming fatigued per normal rules. Other hazards wait for those who continue to use this power but based on the listing of powers here, in alphabetical order with the gems needed, I don't think too many Gem Sorcerers will hold back. They can use numerous spells with the name Demo nin front of them to inflict all manner of damage or to liquefy the earth itself. A powerful ability with some dangerous drawbacks.
Those wondering about the magic items of the setting will have a new material, Silverel, a unique item to the elves of this world, as well as darkfern. You can read about Hawkwing, Nightbird's longbow or the powerful shortsword Tempest. One of the useful things done here though, is taking existing items from the DMG and showing what gemstones they would need to be recreated here. Makes the book more useful to those trying to keep a traditional D20 game going or mixing the different types of magic.\
The Demon Wars setting has its own perils too. While good use is made of encounter tables that take into account the Monster Manual and introduces several new creatures. Most fans of the fiction will be looking forward to reading about the Dactyl, the main antagonist of the Demon War series while others will be more interested in the giants or Magma Wights. Stacks look better than many past books but playtesting is recommended to insure that you don't use the lowly Powrie, evil dwarves of the setting, and accidently wipe out your party.
The section on the World of Cornona is a good introduction to the setting but doesn't provide enough real detail to get started. Fans of the novels will probably be more interested in the stats of the characters anyway though but it makes it difficult to start a campaign with just the core book as you don't even get a typical village map to start with.
Also of interest to fans of the series is the Demonwar, a summary of the first three books in the Demon Wars series with some advice on how you might be able to use some of those elements in your own campaign.
Now the art in the book is fantastic. There's no doubt about it. I I didn't like it when Pinnacle reused their gaming art like they did with Savage Worlds, using art from other companies and past products. I don't like it here. It gives the product a unified field but why not hire the comic artists to do all new art or at least a few illustrations? Phil Renne illustrations act as a nice counterbalance to the comic book style art.
Nine full page illustrations grace the inside of the game which lends it a terrific atmosphere, but cuts greatly into the text. If this was a 300 plus page book, this wouldn't be a problem but between the map, full page spreads, preface, introduction and fiction, where's the game material?
The maps are different than the standard FFG maps in that they don't look like they were done on a computer and then put through a grayscale process. The reason for this is that this is the map from the novel. This is a good thing as it allows a reader of the book to quickly look at the map and know what it means.
Demon Wars has a lot of potential. The base book is inexpensive and has a lot of material behind it and more material still in progress. There are several things stopping it from getting a five ranging from the dearth of material to actually playing in the campaign to the reuse of core classes with the serial numbers filed off.
If you're tired of the standard D&D spellcasters or want some variants in your campaign for fighters or an alternative name for the monk, Demon Wars has something for you. If you're a fan of R. A. Salvatore's Demon Wars, either the comics or the novels, then this book is definitely for you.
