Devotees of the Gibbous Moon

Devotees of the Gibbous Moon: Secrets of the Beast Form, aside from having an insanely long fucking title, is a focused druid article that contains roughly an equal mix of fluff and crunch pertaining to (what else) wild shape. This is the defining feature for the druid, and I’m hoping to see additional “official” content that allows players to make very thematic characters, since I love me my themes (damnit). I would also like to see added content that lets you take shapes that are not just animals, such as dragons and elementals…

…and if there already are, then let me know, cause I want to make an elemental druid that isnt broken or takes a bajillion fucking levels to do that. >_>;

It does ask some interesting questions of the player, such as how your character regards wild shape, do you retain any animal features in human form, do you have a favorite animal form, do you prefer a beast or human form, etc. Obviously a player can get away without answering shit, and I’m sure many players dont bother, but this is a prime case of a show-not-tell method of delivering character traits and quirks: you can describe your appearance and retain animal features, or you can spend much of your time in beast form to illustrate your preference.

The feats are also really cool, and reinforce a preferred animal theme that I initially saw in Silent7Seven’s Favored Forms supplement (which is like, one fucking dollar). Ape’s Reach gives you an Athletics bonus, as well as increased Reach when you are bloodied and in beast form (which I assume to be some kind of monkey). Monkey Rush also grants a typed Athletics bonus, but lets you slide instead of push on a bull rush. The only shitter is that they are both feat bonuses…

Aside from that, there’s two feats for snakes and then about six others that pertain to their own animal. I particularly like Turtle’s Shell, which gives you resistance to all damage types when you take a total defense action or burn your second wind. Logically, each feat demands that you be in beast form (and often bloodied), so that should allay much multiclassing abuses. Hopefully. ^_^;

The last few pages have nine daily evocations ranging from levels 1-9 that let you assume the form of some primeval animal. These are exactly like warden daily attacks mechanically, except you can use wild shape to end them: you get an effect that lasts the entire encounter as well as a one-shot attack form. I think that these are also great for effecting a theme, allowing a player that really likes wolves to just take a bunch of shit that mechanically enforces the flavor.

Huxtropy Review

Its been awhile, but Silent7Seven has conscripted me into another review by dangling free pdf-produce with promises of card-slinging, gambling-goodness by the name of Huxtropy. Huxtropy runs 19 pages that contains a card game, variant ranger-build, new warlock pact, some magical goodies, and a new-if-unrefined skill. It runs about $5, but until the end of September its a buck off so thats almost 5-pages per dollar.

As per usual, the art isnt anything to write home about. It looks like a changling decked out (har har) in a purple outfit and throwing some playing cards. Kind of like an emo version of Gambit, just badly drawn.

Though art may not be S7S’s strong suits (har har groan) everything I’ve gotten from them has done, if nothing else, stirred my own creative juices. Andrew does some things that I would consider unorthodox, inventing new rules and mechanics with mostly a focus on the concept and not necessarily on balance, and thats fine by me. Even if I dont use it as written, it provides a conceptual foundation for me to build on.

The Game
First things first, huxtropy is the name of a game of chance that also refers to a special card deck that can also-so be used in fortune telling or as a weapon of varying efficacy. In fact, roughly half of this pdf is devoted to explaining the history of the cards, the rules of the card game, and how to use it as a fortune telling device as opposed to a new class like I’d initially thought. In a (very tiny) nutshell, the original card deck was created by a gypsy that stole power from a group of epic-tier gamblers after he bound them to play for eternity, souping up his own deck with Ultimate Power. Really, is there anything those gypsies cant do?

Now, I’m personally all for introducing immersive elements into a game, but my players arent the type to hunker down and play cards as fictional characters for fictional goodies: they prefer the more direct approach of prying valuables from the cold dead hands/tentacles of the previous (and likely rightful) owners, but I digress. In another nutshell, this half of the file just aint for me.

Luckily, we get crunch.

The Weapon
The huxtropy deck as a weapon occupies about a page and a half, coming in one of two flavors: a standard deck or razor deck. Both are superior ranged two-handed weapons (one hand to hold the deck, the other to throw a card) with the draw free property (which obviously means that you can draw cards and throw as a free action).

The standard deck does dick-for-damage, described as being about as dangerous as a “kamikaze dragonfly”. It can deal ability modifier damage if used with a power that deals [W] damage, but thats about it. Even magical versions bring nothing to the table aside from the damage modifier. Aside from doling out paper-cuts, they can be used to trigger delicate switches and buttons by making an attack roll (typical AC 20+).

The razor deck, on the other hand, deals 1d6 damage and has a better proficiency bonus. Its also a light blade, so a rogue player can pick it up and sling cards like its no-one’s business. Optimizers need not worry/nerd rage/proclaim brokenosity/generate 1000 threads, as the card proficiency feat applies to ALL card weapons.

Finally, there is a deck holster that costs 1 gp and lets you use decks with one hand instead of two. Definitely something I expect everyone to be carrying.

The Magic
This is where we get a new damage resolution mechanic for D&D. Huxtropy decks dont use damage dice, but cards. Whenever you land an attack, you draw one card per damage die you would normally roll. If its a number card, thats your damage result.

Face cards do various thinks like increase your crit range, attack bonus, or damage. You have to draw other cards until you hit a number card. The real shitter is if you draw a joker and roll a nat 1: you are CURSED WITH BAD LUCK! Its like a disease, but you get better by making social skill checks instead of Endurance.

You shuffle your deck at the start of each encounter. Thrown cards are expended, but your deck regenerates cards every short/extended rest you take, so you basically get 38 shots per encounter when you consider that face cards require that you draw more cards (assuming I did the math right).

A sidebar talks about upgrading the deck without having to fret about finding a better one or falling back on Enchant/Disenchant Item rituals, so DMs dont have to sacrifice logic and reason to placate the player. There’s also four magical aces that you can insert into your deck, giving you extra properties when you draw that specific ace.

The Deckslinger
The kinda-sorta new class is the deckslinger. The idea of any character running around chucking magical playing cards strikes me as more than a bit strange, despite some exposure in mainstream media. Not because it sounds bat-shit crazy, but just because I would be very curious as to how you’d pull it off while making it more than a one-power pony that differs greatly from the ranger and/or rogue.

The answer? You dont.

To be fair, Andrew only mostly takes this route, opting to partially reskin the ranger instead since there is already a ranger build that focuses exclusively on ranged attacks. Having helped a friend work on a ranged martial controller class, its hard to make exploits that dont step on the ranger and rogue’s toes, so this might be an ultimately simpler-yet-functional approach given the fact that since razor decks are also light blades that any rogue player can just use them as written with absolutely no problems.

The Pact
The gambler pact is for the warlock class, mechanically allowing you to use the card-damage mechanic for double dealing (new pact at-will) and your encounter spells. You get to use card decks as implements, but still have to roll damage normally for eldritch blast and your daily spells. As a plus, the pact boon lets you scope out cards ahead of time whenever you drop an enemy.

My only complaint here is that daily spells specific to the gambler pact would have been useful. Unless I’m missing something this pact is below par without spells that get extra oomph from the gambler pact.

The Path
There’s a paragon path to boot, which expectantly makes you really badass with cards: you get skill bonuses to many Charisma skills, a free Expertise feat, can modify energy damage, treat kings as wild cards (or whatever damage card you want), and even reroll missed attacks as long as you have jokers in the discard pile to burn. Its basically the paragon path you’re going to take if you decide to go all out with the deckslinger or a gamblock/warbler.

The Feats
There’s eleven Heroic feats, almost half require classes other than deckslinger to select, and one of them is a multiclass feat. With all the generic feats out there, I’m sure that there’s more than enough to go around.

The Skill
Last we get a new skill, Gambling, and the gambler background (which is linked to only the Gambling skill, though I would also add either Streetwise or Thievery to the list). Gambling has no real mechanical benefit at all except for I guess making opposed checks to determine who wins in a game of chance. The author recommends that you just allow players to substitute Bluff, Insight, and Thievery when playing games of chance, and I agree. There’s not enough oomph to make it work, but if a player really wants to play it up then its there.

If possible, I’d like to see Gambling skill powers (perhaps in a skill power-themed product, hint hint Andrew). Those would make the skill more appealing and balanced in terms of what it can do in-and-out of combat. Simulationists will likely cope just fine, since they tend to also pick up “role-playing” skills like Craft and Profession.

The Conclusion
Whether you will like this depends on if you like social immersion devices. My group doesnt, and we arent necessarily clamoring for new classes, either. I know a lot of groups like engaging in social activities within the game, and the addition of a card game and fortune telling rules will probably have some appeal. It relies on a standard deck of cards, so you dont need to buy a Three Dragon Ante or Harrow Deck in order to pull it off.

Otherwise, its got a very narrow niche appeal in terms of style. You get a new damage resolution mechanic which a select few players might dig, but its not going to appeal much to players who are heavily into crunchy content. If zipping around slicing things apart with cards is your thing, then there’s something here for you, just maybe not as much as you were hoping for. That being said, it does make it very easy to introduce these things into your games (and remove them just as easily).

Delve Night: Silent7Seven vs. Goblins

This is my second stab at doing a delve run using playtest or otherwise new material. Andrew at Silent7Seven suggested I use a lot of their stuff this time around, and I was happy to jump at the opportunity since while I thought it looked interesting, wasnt sure how it would hold up to use. Since I’m cramming for finals, this isnt necessarily a more evocative delve, but it is longer.

Meet The Party

• Garrison (human rune soldier)
• Garrol (shifter bard)
• Howl (warforged druid)
• Xan’tchack (illithid sorcerer)
• Thrystan (dwarf totemist)

Every character here relies on some fashion on content given to me by Silent7Seven. The rune soldier is a heroic playtest class that you can snag for free from Silent7Seven, Garrol is equipped with the Moonleader feat which lets him boost an ally’s defenses when using a healing power once per encounter, Howl is using a wolf favored form feat, Xan uses the aberrant spell source, and finally Thrystan is a barebones class sent to me by Andrew.

Whew.

This was problematic because I was, again, on my own in this endeavor and had to rely on several notepad documents, scratch paper, and pdf files on a continual basis. It took quite awhile to get through this delve run, and one thing that helped was that I wrote a primitive transcript so that I didnt boggle events, hopefully making it more organized this time around.

Encounter 1 & 2: Goblins! (500-1000 XP)
This encounter started as a single 500 XP wave with the potential to add in another 500 XP of monsters if the players made too much noise. I determined this by rolling a d20, with a 10 or higher signifying that the other group noticed something was going on and decided to investigate for…whatever reason.

Here’s the opening shot of the forest before combat breaks out. I think at this point I was still trying to figure out where the party would enter, eventually deciding on the upper-left side. It was far enough away from the camp that it made it easier to justify how the hell the other goblins wouldnt immediately notice or hear combat breaking out.

So, the party universally rolls poorly on their Perception and Stealth checks, meaning that the goblins get a free surprise round. They spend their time basically diving for cover so that they are better protected the following round. This proves to be very good given that they also do really well on their Initiative rolls…

From a very safe distance, the goblins still manage to get in a few licks in before the party can retaliate, nailing Howl for 10 damage.

The only viable tactic I could come up with was to have everyone that had to enter melee to run (+2 Speed but grant combat advantage), but in the end Garrison still had to burn an Action Point in order to do anything useful. This was about the time I had to pause and quickly review how runes worked: Garrison used rune strike in order to deal damage and apply a rune of inferno, which also dealt ongoing 2 fire damage to the goblin (save ends).
Garrol botched prophesied strike, while Thrystan used generic totemist attack and designated it as his prey, giving Howl the prey bonus. The round was handily wrapped up by Xan’s use of mists of disarray, which rolled out 12 damage to one of the archers and pused it away from cover.

The goblins in area 2 failed to notice anything amiss, so kept sleeping, eating, arguing, or whatever the fuck it is goblins do when they arent being harvested for XP. None of the goblins managed to hit anything, but the one taking ongoing fire damage made its save. To make matters subjectively worse, they also noticed the blackblade skulking about a tree. As a temporary DM, I had hoped to keep it hidden a bit longer so that it could spring out and backstab a party member that would ideally be hoofing it for one of the sharpshooters.

On the other hand, the party did pretty shittily as well. Howl and Garrison both missed, allowing the goblin to scamper away, though in the end Thrystan managed to take it down. Garrol continued his missing streak with jinx shot (or is that jinxed shot?). The MVP thus far was Xan, who used induce mutation to good effect despite rolling minimum damage.

The warrior and blackblade both together in order to try and take out Garrison, but neither is able to land a blow, but he still takes an arrow while distracted. One of the sharpshooters panics and tries to flee, its shot going wild and missing Xan.

Garrison reapplies rune of inferno with a well-placed rune strike. Howl uses darting strike to tap one of them and get his ass out of dodge for the time being. I completely forgot about warforged resolve, probably because I kept forgetting that Howl was a warforged. Oh well.
Thrystan continues to use generic totemist at-will, which is basically him tearing the poor goblin apart with his claw-like hands, and giving the bonus to Howl on the off chance that it will actually work. In an unexpected twist of fate, Garrol successfully uses jinx shot. Finally, Xan continues to be awesome and deals 13 damage with induce mutation.

The goblins finally notice whats going on and decide to get up (eventually) and assist. One sharpshooter nails Howl, while the blackblade manages to give Thrystan a spinal tap thanks to his flanking bonus.

Howl leaps into the fray, missing spectacularly. Garrison decides to use rune strike to draw mark of the mindhand so that the blackblade will be forced to focus his attention on someone with heavier armor. Garrol uses majestic word, which is nice since you really cant fuck it up. This not only helps out Thrystan a great deal but moves him into a flanking position against the warrior, and at the start of his turn tears the goblin in half while also using second wind. Xan actually manages to miss.

At the start of Turn Goblin, the ones in area 2 begin closing the distance, using ranged attacks to make themselves known. A sharpshooter manages to drop Howl, and Garrison is bloodied by the blackblade and other sharpshooter. Garrison responds by killing the blackblade (finally!) with revitalizing strike, which heals him as well. Thrystan, suffering from a string of Garrol’s luck, misses. Garrol brings Howl back with majestic word while simultaneously taking out one of the minions, and Xan manages to take out one of the sharpshooters.

Thrystan takes a critical bolt to the face and Garrol finally knows pain. Howl manages to scramble to his feet and take out the other minion, Garrison slaps a rune of inferno on one of the warriors, Garrol responds with a very nice slash from war song strike, and Xan bloodies one of the warriors with a nice 20 damage shot.

Thrystan takes another crit, the minion misses, and the sharpshooter decides to try and leg it to the dungeon entrance. Howl’s favored form feat comes into play, and he is able to trip the warrior thanks to Combat Advantage. Thrystan cant hit shit, while Garrison pursues one of the fleeing goblins and cuts his head off. Xan immediately brings the sharpshooter into bloodied condition with a single critical mutation.

The last round went quick: everyone gang-banged the warrior, and Garrol finished off the sharpshooter just before he got into the dungeon with jinx shot. This encounter took quite awhile since I was rolling pretty badly for the players. I ended up burning through most encounter powers and Action Points, knowing that I was going to award them another after the battle was over since it was technically two combined.

The rune soldier gave me the most headache due to all the runes and effects that each rune has. It wasnt made any easier seeing as I was controlling five party members, each with new stuff.
I found that Howl was pretty easy to utilize, since his feat provided a nifty, thematic passive benefit. On a similar note, Garrol was easy to use since Moonleader only works once per encounter and does something very, very simple.
Xan was fun, though I found myself relying on induce mutation for almost everything since it was better than chaos bolt (which basically did the same damage but without the benefit). I was bummed that I never got a chance to use mind blast.
Thrystan would have probably felt different had I remembered to use his growl power that imposes a penalty and grants a bonus. All in all he felt a bit leaderly, which I think is totally awesome given the themes behind the gray wolf pack thingy.

In the end this was a fun exercise, and each character contributed well despite their shitty rolls. The only weak character might have been Garrison, since he has to use a rune to mark enemies, and that requires an attack roll to successfully pull of (all other defenders can do so for free or automatically with a minor action). If there was a way to more consistently mark enemies, it would help make him a lot more sticky.

Thats it for the first two encounters, I’ll post the last one later.

Review: Rune Soldier Heroic Playtest

Silent7Seven contacted me about their own ongoing playtest: the rune soldier. The rune soldier is a defender that doesnt have a fixed power source and operates how you would expect, using runes to bolster herself and/or allies, while hindering enemies. On the surface, the rune soldier seems very similar to a swordmage in that they both merge magic and swordplay in some fashion. Rune soldiers, however, are a great deal more heavily armored and utilize magic differently through runes that they can enscribe on targets.

The class is also very, very flexible on how you build it. Perhaps a bit too flexible? Much of the statistics arent filled out, giving you a sort of blank check to work with. You pick from a series of runes that determine armor proficiencies, extra class skills, hit points, and more. Its pretty complex, but if you are digging the complexity of the recent classses it’ll be right up your alley.

You get an at-will called rune strike, which lets you hit an enemy will applying a rune to them, but other powers can also let you use a rune as well. Not only does a rune do something when drawn on an enemy, but after you draw it you can activate it later, which triggers another effect but erases it (you can then draw it again). Finally, you can otherwise apply a rune to a willing creature as a standard action.

What this means, is that in addition to having two at-wills by virtue of existing and at-will derived from your class, that you three other powers that have up to three differing effects depending on what-and-when you use it. Holy power cards, Batman! Granted, the rune effects themselves are fairly minor, but stacking all of that at once is going to be a daunting practice, even for skilled players.

I have no comment on the powers themselves at this point. I would prefer to playtest this and see how well they stand in play as opposed to practice. I’d like to compare and contrast with the swordmage to see how different they end up being, but a brief overview suggests that they are a pretty unique animal.

Mostly, its a great concept and I’d like to pitch in my two cents to help give them as much feedback as possible in order to get a really great end product. I dont think that this is the class for casual players. You’re better off going swordmage if you want to play a fighter-wizard right out of the gate. At the least, do not try to play this class on the fly. Get at least a sheet of paper and jot some fucking notes down.

====================================================================
FEEDBACK
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Since its a playtest, I totally have some feedback. I am keeping in mind that they are trying to create their own class, from the ground up, while also doing their own thing with it. There are a lot of mechanics in this class that we havent really seen yet, ranging from essentially fleshing out the class traits yourself to giving at-wills a kicker effect if you get a natural 15 or higher.

Key Abilities: I would list Strength, Constitution, Charisma, and Intelligence, in order of importance. The fighter lists four ability scores, and from what I saw the elemental runes can potentially add either Con or Cha as a key score.

Armor Proficiencies: Change this to list what every rune soldier would get, no matter what rune they select, and have the rune instead supply additional armor proficiencies listed in the description. For example, if every rune soldier would end up being proficient with leather at the worst, then list cloth and leather. This has a more consistent layout to what you see in official products.

Implements: I would just list wands, and have the property of a rune weapon cite that a rune soldier can use it as an implement. This is again just me trying to maintain a consistent feel with other implement using classes such as the bard, who only lists wand as an implement but can use wondrous item instruments for implements that state as such in the item’s description.

Bonus to Defense: I wouldnt list anything here at all, and save it for the rune’s description.

Hit Points: I would place a flat value here, and have a rune potentially grant Toughness as a bonus feat.
Hit Points Per Level: I would put a flat value here.
Healing Surges: I would put a flat value here, and potentially have a rune increase your healing surges, increase your surge value (as a dragonborn), or just grant the feat that gives you more healing surges (to avoid ending up with too many).

I would change the wording on some powers to, again, maintain consistency. For example, under the rune of mystery it should say, “you slide the target a number of squares equal to your Intelligence modifier +1,” instead of, “the target moves as you desire…”

Rune strike shouldnt be listed in the level 1 at-will powers section, but instead moved to the class features section since its a class feature and not a power that you can opt out of. Also, it is important to note that a player can only take one other at-will in the instance that you wanted a character to still get only two at-wills in total, counting rune strike.

I would almost recommend taking the styles of runes and making them into individual class builds. Like how sorcerers have different Spell Sources, a rune soldier might have their own runic styles, or somesuch. This would give you something like an astral rune soldier and an elemental rune soldier to start with. You can extend this concept to give yourself rune soldiers based around languages, using something like truename magic to fortify themselves.

This could potentially in turn help you define power sources for differing classes, or just solidify on a single power source. Arcane seems a logical choice, and I feel that this class is different in style and scope from the swordmage that even as an arcane defender they wont bleed together. However, the astral runes might better fit a divine character (the description seems to work well with this idea). Finally, if you dont want to define and existing power source you could label their powers as “inscriptions”.

Review: Aberrant Blood

Aberrant Blood is the third product from Silent 7Seven, and its fucking sweet. Like Favored Forms it is cheap, short, and adds specific content to the sorcerer class in the form of an aberrant Spell Source. I’m going to admit that I’m a bit biased on this one, since I am a big fan of Lovecraftian horrors, but this is the best product from Silent 7Seven by far.
Its only four pages, costs only $1.50, but gives you a new class feature, powers, a feat, and a paragon path. Like all three products, it treads on some experimental ground, but even if you think that its terribly broken, and at the least it sparks the imagination and gives you something to work with.

On the tangent of experimentation, one of the features of taking the aberrant Spell Source is that you can shift a bonus from another ability score to Con if you dont have that already. I already know that a lot of people are going to react very harshly to this. My personal thoughts are that its not really necessary, since Con grants the striker bonus and most players are really going to ramp it up, anyway. That being said, if you dont like it, houserule it away. Its not a huge foundation of the class feature.
Perhaps, as a compromise, providing the Toughness feat for free would have been better.

That aside, the other stuff is really good. You get to choose one or two aberrant growths that manifest on your character and grant you acid and psychic resistance when active. If you choose one, then it gets some extra benefits. For example, coiling tentacles causes tentacles to erupt from your body when bloodied, allowing you to make a grapple attack with a reach of 2 as a minor action. If you only took this, then you get a bonus to the attack roll and the enemy takes a penalty on the escape roll. Once you get hit, the manifestation ends.

There arent a huge amount of new powers. Its a bit more like Wizards’ Class Acts articles where you get a handful of new shit spread across a few levels (in this case, 1-9). I like induce mutation, which is the level 1 at-will that deals basic damage with a kicker effect if you are manifesting an aberrant growth. If you took coiling tentacles, then the target grows flailing tentacles that deal Con modifier damage to adjacent enemies when it attacks. Thats. Fucking. Cool.
Also, there’s a level 3 encounter for each growth, which adds a thematic consistency to your character.

The paragon path is called twisted descendant, and lets you mainfest an aberrant growth by burning an action point, even if the conditions arent met or you already did so. You also gain bonus damage while manifesting a growth, and deal half damage even if you miss when using induce mutation as long as you are manifesting a growth. The powers granted are likewise awesome: distortion field lets you teleport and push creatures from your starting and ending locaiton, and warp pulse deals 3d12 damage teleports everyone in the area of effect.

My only complaint (aside from, again, the art) is that there isnt enough here. It works out extremely well for a heroic tier campaign, but once you hit paragon there isnt anything for you. The paragon path is all well and good, but without homebrewing your own powers (or a second release by Silent 7Seven, hint hint) you’re stuck with using existing sorcerer spells. Of course, its a relatively simple matter of reskinning them to make them more thematic.

Its not a huge complaint. It is, after all, a very cheap document to get ahold of. I tend to view a lot of Silent 7Seven stuff as foundation products. They very cheap and personally worth the money, even if you disagree with the mechanics or design (and I did with some of the stuff in Lunar Scrolls). On the other hand, each of them has planted an idea with my head and made me think about a mechanic or concept that I might not have before. I want to make clear that this by itself can make it worth the cash. Both Favored Forms and Aberrant Blood have given me some great ideas that I am going to flesh out for future campaigns and characters.

This is the last review I’ve been slated for, and I want to thank Silent 7Seven for giving me the opportunity to let me review their products. I hope they’ve been satisfactory, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the future. I went through each prodoct in the order of release, and I was able to see noticeable growth in the quality and content. They are definitely a third-party company worth checking out.

Review: Advanced Class; Druid

Advanced Class: Druids, is the second supplement released by Silent7Seven. It is a three-page compilation of druid feats that represent the use of a single specialized animal shape that provides additional benefits. For example, you gain a bonus to Intimidate and bonus damage when you charge if you take Golden Pride and assume the shape of a lion. Outside of that form you retain the feat but gain no benefits at all.

Now, you are not limited in the feats you take and can specialize in more then one form. However, when you use wild shape to assume one of your “favored forms” you are unable to to wild shape into another form until the end of the encounter (or five minutes), but are free to shift back and forth between your favored form and natural form. This adds a tactical level of decision making for your druid, since normally wild shape does nothing mechanical except open up your Beast keyword evocations.

There are only two tiers of feats: heroic and paragon. The entry feats all grant a feat-based skill bonus (so will not stack with Skill Focus) in addition to an encounter attack or benefit of some sort. The paragon feats let you take on the form of a more fantastic beast, such as an umberhulk or red dragon, and grant an actual encounter power thematic to that creature. For example, Clawbeak Render lets you turn into an owlbear and grants a double-attack encounter power.

Essentially, Advanced Class: Druid is three pages of feats. I like the concept of a druid becoming so in tune to a specific animal form that she has a special mastery over it a lot. You could restrict these feats as techniques taught by certain druid circles, or to add emphasis to a theme. This supplement, however small, also provides some foundation for creating additional favored form feats and expanding upon them.

Now, in case Silent 7Seven checks this out, I have some requests for the next favored form supplement they make (which they can obviously take or leave).

I would have liked to see some paragon feats growing off of the heroic ones (such as a paragon lion-form feat that lets you rake an enemy if you hit with the charge attack), in addition to more heroic feats based off of the same animal form (such as another lion-form feat that lets you demoralize enemies with a powerful roar, once per encounter or even day). I would also consider making these (or future releases) into Multiclass feats that can replace existing druid powers. I think thats something that can be expanded upon in a really cool way, especially if you combine them with the Favored Form feats, you can really drive the point home that your druid prefers one form over another.
In addition, to avoid oversaturation of feats and allow more flexbile customization, make new powers that are thematic to specific animal forms.

All in all, this document is cheap, and by cheap I dont mean poor quality: I mean one dollar. Even for the poorest of gamers thats chump change and I think its easily worth the cost of what you are getting here, which is entirely crunch except for a single image on page 2. However, I will point out again that this is exclusively for druid players. There is absolutely nothing to see here if you arent interested or dislike the class. If you enjoy druids, I would certainly pick this up even just for conceptual groundwork.

Review: The Lunar Scrolls

The Lunar Scrolls a third-party supplement intended to provide you with a moon-themed package to both sides of the screen, written by Silent 7Seven. It runs 34 pages and a little over seven bucks. Admittingly I’d never heard of the company until a few days ago, but in a nutshell Silent 7Seven touts themselves as a company that tries to push the envelope as it were outside of the established boundaries on 4th Edition products.

With that out of the way, its time to check out the product to see if they deliver. The cover immediately put me off a bit. I think its a pretty poor piece, suited more for a novice Deviant Art(ist) than an actual product rendition. Likewise, the interior art where it exists is pretty low quality. That being said, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (even though I often do), so I skipped past it and started browsing the pdf for delicious content.

This is a comparatively small supplement with a lot of big ambitions that will appeal to both players and DMs, and I applaud Silent 7Seven for their efforts. I havent bothered to check and see if the elements included are balanced against everything else: in general if something doesnt interest me I’m not going to use it, and the same can be said for my players. If they like it and it ends up being too much, its a fairly easy matter of pushing things back a notch.

Anyway.

For the players, you get four “paragon classes” that apply to the four class roles (defender, leader, striker, and controller), feats, equipment, and lunar rituals. For the DM, you get more monsters.

The paragon classes function like multiclassing, in which you burn up to three feats to gain new powers and abilities that replace existing powers in your arsenal. Personally, I dont think that its necessary to use the term “paragon” to refer to powers and abilities that can only be gained through feats: if anything people might become confused by the double-use of paragon.

The paragon classes run the gamut of okay to cool. The crescent striker conjures up immaterial blades that you can throw and daze creatures if you take a dive to your damage output, and as you progress through the feat tree can eventually do a totally badass leap attack that hits a Close burst 2, which reminds me of my barbarian days in Diablo 2.
Each paragon class also has a related paragon path obviously requires feats from the former and does its best to improve the powers you got from all those feats you spent. Sticking with the crescent striker, at level 11 you can burn an action point to activate the daze effect from your blades without suffering a penalty to damage, and enemies that damage your illusory duplicates take Wis modifier damage.

Since I almost exclusively play leaders (a combination of choice and paranoia), I also checked out the moonleader. The entry feat doesnt do much: you can use Lunar rituals and once per encounter can also grant an ally a +1 bonus to AC that you heal. The bonus is specified as a “moonshield” bonus, which rubs me the wrong way since it would be better/more consistently pegged as a power or untyped bonus. Adding new types just seems a bit excessive and uncessary, especially when they are so specific.
That, and the second feat grants you the ability to swap out two powers (level 3 or higher attack, and a level 6 or higher utility), flying in the face of all Multiclass feats that we’ve ever seen.
Is this something I would actually take? If I actually had a change to try out a shifter shaman, it would certainly be on the list. Its thematic, new, and adds a crapload of stuff to make a protecting spirit shaman even more durable. Of course, I tend to take things for thematic purposes in the stead of min/maxing or power gaming, so your mileage might vary.

The concepts, story, and much of the content are actually pretty good. I was very pleased with the opening bit about the lunar power source and it how it might relate to existing power sources: good stuff to get the gears turning.
My primary complaints concern the wording of some of the powers, feats and magic items, as well as the creation of new types of bonuses and terms when frankly they werent necessary at all. Understand that this isnt a mechanical issue, but more about product consistency with stuff Wizards pushes out.
On the whole, its a very decently written supplement and about what I would expect when you tread into unfamiliar territory. Good on its own, but I think it will appeal best to people who really dig the primal power source (like myself) and perhaps star-pact warlocks, and with a small amount of work/houseruling you can polish the content here to really make it shine.