Shards of Selune Review

Fetch quests are not new to Dungeons & Dragons (or games in general). In many cases they require you to go to point A to get something that lets you go to point B, and so on and so forth until the writer gets bored or runs out of points. Other models adopt a more free-form “sandbox” approach, giving you all the points and leaving it up to you to tackle them in whichever order you prefer. Shards of Selune opts for the latter, and requires that the characters go about the dark places of Neverwinter on a treasure hunt to locate three of Selune’s tears ’cause the bitch couldn’t cry in one spot.

Eh, could have been worse.

The adventure hook is basically this: the players see some falling stars one night–or don’t–and are petitioned by an eladrin priest named Lady Jasmine to go get them. She gives you the vague locations of all three, but it is up to the party to determine which ones to after in what order. Things get complicated because other factions saw them and want them for various reasons, but character themes can also further complicate things, which is fucking awesome. This part of the adventure design is what draws my interest to what would have otherwise been another ho-hum “go get that thing I want ’cause I want it and oh here is some magic shit”.

Though it seems to work for 99% of World of Warcraft…

Almost every event either requires one or more themes to trigger, or has additional stuff that can occur if a character has one of the indicated themes. None of the events with required themes are mandatory, and either provide extra background information, potential hooks into other adventures, and/or give you a benefit to help you out. It is really nice to see player decisions like this integrated into the overall larger picture, and hopefully it is something we will see in future adventures.


Another thing that sets this adventure apart from others is the almost even mix of skill, social role-playing, and combat challenges (though most of the role-playing ones have required themes). Of the seven combat encounters, only three have tactical maps; the rest give you guidelines of the layout, such as “any city map featuring an alley/road”. While I expect people to complain about cutting costs or whatever, there are plenty of stock city maps, and if nothing else it would give me an excuse to actually use my Dungeon Tiles.

The encounters with maps are well done, with interesting terrain features and potentially dynamic monster rosters depending on the party’s previous actions. For example one encounter involves dealing with a gang that found one of the shards on their flooded-building pissing ground. If you dealt with other factions previously, then the DM swaps out some of the gang members for imps, zombies, dwarves, etc. It is a small thing that helps reinforce that the actions of the players can have consequences, and I fully endorse this move.

Yet another good adventure for the Neverwinter crowd. I am liking a lot of the adventures coming out of Dungeon, and I would like to see WotC round up some of the more talented authors and get a nice adventure path rolled out. Hell, I would settle for an adventure arc that at least runs through the heroic tier. I had heard that they were wrapping up Chaos Scar (yay), so here’s hoping.

Neverwinter Campaign Setting Review

Do not worry: that dracolich is only a Heroic-tier threat.

Neverwinter Campaign Setting is a 222-page hardcover that takes a close look at Neverwinter–which I guess is one of the more noteworthy regions in the Forgotten Realms–providing you with a heap of information with a focus on Heroic-tier campaigns.

Before I get into the chapter-by-chapter overview, I want to open up by (re)stating that I stopped being a fan of Forgotten Realms well before the god/goddess of magic was killed for the umpteen-millionth time in order to lay the chaotic foundation for 4th Edition’s iteration; basically I felt that there was too much damned history and supplements to muck through, in order to find a small plot of land that did not already have its own three-part book series. Sure, Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide fixed a lot of these problems by blowing the place up and advancing the timeline by a century, but by then I had already moved on to Eberron/my own homebrew words.

With that being said I actually kind of dig this book. While it features all the stuff that I griped about in previous editions–extensive information on Neverwinter, the surrounding regions, and factions actively pursuing their own goals–the information provided and the way it is delivered makes it more conducive to planning adventures and campaigns. It is smaller than Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, which along with its tight focus probably makes it less intimidating for new DMs, DMs new to the Realms, or DMs like me that just did not like all the historical baggage. With that out of the way, here’s what you can expect from the book at a glance:

• Chapter 1: Jewel of the North glosses over Neverwinter and the surrounding locales such as Neverwinter Wood, the Dread Ring, and Old Owl Well (along with a map), a two page history of Neverwinter, and tips and tropes on running a campaign in Neverwinter (or just using the book in general).
• Chapter 2: Character Options features a ton of flexible content: themes, racial variants, warpriest domains, and the bladesinger class. Even though a lot of the flavor material is tailored for Forgotten Realms, all of it could be easily be ported out for Eberron, Dark Sun, or homebrews (yeah, even the spellscarred harbinger). I will go into more detail on this stuff in a bit, because I know people looove crunchy content.
• Chapter 3: Factions and Foes details the various factions–such as the Abolethic Sovereingty and Thay–that players can interact with. I like this chapter because it makes it very easy to assess what the faction is all about, and build adventures around them without having to do a lot of research or deal with a lot of history. Even better, each faction has a section where it tells you where they stand with other factions and provides tie-ins for character themes, which makes it easier to work character backgrounds in. Oh yeah, and some factions have ways of granting characters powers in a similar vein to divine boons.
• Chapter 4: Gazetter is the last and longest chapter it is similar to Chapter 3, except that it takes a closer look at six areas in the Neverwinter region, providing you with sample adventure sites, more adventure hooks, tips on using different sites (or what might happen depending on how the characters deal with the inhabitants, such as taking out the mythallar in Kolthunral), more theme tie-ins, advice on leveling/de-leveling threats (including adding some traits to an ogre to get a level-appropriate fire giant), monsters (more nothics and werewolves, a heroic-tier grell, illithid, elder brain, and more), monster themes, sample encounter tables, and more. A very meaty, very useful chapter. 

I hear these guys are big names in the Realms.

Before I go into more depth on the crunchy content, I want to say that if you are a Forgotten Realms fan I would definitely pick it up. If not, depending on your reasons you might still like it; if you do not like the tone and feel of the setting, this is not likely to change anything, and the same goes if you did not like it being “blown up”. Otherwise, give it a flip through and see if anything grabs you (especially if you do not have/cannot get DDI and want more crunch).

I really like the way the information is laid out and dispensed, and think that not only should Wizards of the Coast make similar books for Eberron, Dark Sun, and the implied setting, but that they could get away with making several books for each setting. It is kind of like a middle-ground between a full-blown campaign setting and an adventure path; a lot of the foundation is done for you, but it is not so expansive as to overwhelm you.

Themes
Themes in this book also come with backgrounds, allowing you to gain a bonus or other background benefit along with theme benefits if you want. There is some advice on themes during character creation, how different themes might interact those other party members choose, and making fun choices. All in all, some pretty staple social role-playing advice. Of the thirteen themes I am going to mention the Dead Rat deserter and devil’s pawn, because of the vocal minority bitching about the lack of a vampire theme and my preference of the warlock’s infernal pact respectively.

The deserter starts out being able to change into a Tiny rat whenever she wants, gains a bonus to Bluff and Stealth at level 5, and an at-will bite at level 10. The three utilities include an encounter that lets you hiss when you score a critical hit, imposing an attack penalty for a turn, a daily that gives you an encounter-long skill bonus to Stealth and lets you reroll in exchange for losing the bonus, and another daily that gives you an initiative bonus as well as standing up or moving your speed. While I like it, I cannot see a all the benefits of the vampire class being shoehorned into this and still evoking the same feel. As a side note, the pack outcast is a similar theme that lets you have werewolf stuff instead of wererat.

The devil’s pawn starts out by giving you an encounter minor-action attack that creates a zone that deals automatic fire damage and imposes a penalty to both attacks and defenses. The only downside is that it targets creatures. The level 5 benefit is just a Diplomacy bonus against devils and creatures that consort with them, but if you are playing in Neverwinter those odds can go up quite a bit. At level 10 you get fire resistance or a bonus if you already have it. The utilities are all dailies, and let you deal automatic fire damage against a creature that hits you (similar to infernal wrath), enter a stance that gives you a Stealth and fire resistance bonus (as well as damage bonus if you are an infernal wrath warlock), and turn into a devil for a turn with an AC bonus, fly speed, and more fire resistance. The drawback is that you have to attack or take damage. The upside is that you can sustain the form, and if you are an infernal warlock gain temporary hit points each time you do.

Racial Variants
There are only dwarves, eladrin, and elves, so no ghostwise halflings or odd-gnomes-out. As seen in a preview, these just let you swap out some racial traits with others, which while not overpowered might upset people who did not like having subraces serve as just another means for optimization. Since dwarves were covered before, I’ll just mention some stuff on eladrin:

• Moon elves–aka eladrin–can swap their skill bonuses to Insight and Streetwise, and also replace Eladrin Education for bow proficiencies.
• Sun elves–again, eladrin–can change their skills to Bluff and Insight, swap Eladrin Weapon Proficiency for all the basic wizard implements, and also lose Eladrin Education for bows.

Warpriest Domains
There are four new domains–Corellon, Oghma, Selune, and Torm–each with their own set of at-wills, utilities, prayers, and class features. I am not about to type out the benefits of even one in its entirety, but I will give a small preview of Selune at 1st-level:

• You gain necrotic and radiant resistance.
• Blessing of light is Wisdom vs. AC at-will that deals weapon plus Wisdom modifier radiant damage, and deals radiant damage if the target hits you or any ally before the end of your next turn.
• Brand of the moon is similar in terms of attack and damage, but deals cold and radiant as well as granting you and all allies a saving throw bonus.
• Moon weapon is a daily utility that cause a weapon to shed light, act as a silvered weapon, and deal radiant damage for an encounter.
• Illuminating blow is a level 1 encounter attack that deals 2[W] radiant damage and grants you or an ally a damage bonus for a turn.
• Life and light is a channel divinity power that grants you and all allies necrotic resistance, and enemies radiant vulnerability. A nice followup for all the radiant damage you can deal.

Bladesinger

I will go into this class in more detail in another post, but for now I’ll post up the two Heroic-tier class features: Arcane Strike (level 3) lets you make a basic melee attack as a minor action after using a daily power, while Steely Retort (level 7) lets you make a basic melee attack as an opportunity action when an adjacent enemy hits you while bladesong is active.

But feel free to mull over the paragon tier table until then.

Neverwinter Fortune Cards

I got in a booster box of Neverwinter Fortune Cards, which equates to a grand total of ninety-six cards. I picked up a hefty chunk of Fortune Cards back when the first set was released, and though I tried to get my group into them they often forgot they had them. This time around the cards do a bit more (especially rares), so I’ll give them another shot–ironically during my Dark Sun campaign–and see if they get any better traction. If nothing else I’ll be taking them with me to Lair Assault games and just throw them at people until I exhaust my massive stack of doubles.

This will still be one of those “love or hate” products, and depending on why you might not have liked the first set of Fortune Cards–power creep, turning the game into a card game, etc–you probably are not going to like these. Me? I like the idea of handing them out as rewards during a game for doing cool shit or for good social role-playing moments.

The cards that were not copies.

The stack of doubles I had left over.

Four of the rares.

Four other rares.