Heroes Of Battle

[Eagle Prince]

I was suprised to find this book in stock, and I usually am unable to find any books until a month or so until they already have come out (and not just RPG books... grrr, still mad I don't have VHD yet).

This is basically a DM only type of book.  I've looked through it all pretty well, but only about 1/2 done reading it cover to cover (got to do this at least twice for every rulebook you buy IMO).  For those who don't know what its about, its about roleplaying during a war.  The basic emphasis is the war becomes the campaign setting (at least for as long as the war lasts), and your "missions" are the adventures.

To help the DM and players give some kind of measurable scale to how much impact the PCs have on the outcome of the war, it has this point system.  Achieving the objectives of your missions grant varioius amount of points, which you can then compare to your preset DCs.  In the same vain, you can also earn these other kind of reputation points which can be spent to increase your rank in the army or get awards, metals, rewards, etc.

There is also command auras, similiar to the Miniatures rules.  They give a small, feat-type morale bonus to some various stat (AC, saves, attack, damage, etc).  All allies within 30 feet who are of a lower command rank then yourself gets this bonus (so you never get the bonus from your own command rank... if all the PCs are the same rank in the army, then they wouldn't benefit from these at all... but if they have followers, animal companions, mounts, or troops that they are in charge of, then this can help buff them up a bit).  It also as a morale system to figure out if a squad of soldiers will fight or flee.

There is only like 4 prestige classes, each 5 levels long.  They are all really good, and most would be useful in a regular campaign and not just the war-oriented campaign that the book focuses on.  There's not very many new feats either, but they are pretty cool.  There is new Leadership feats that give you bonuses to the Leadership feat (stronger cohort, more followers, etc).  There's also some examples of skill use important to war.

There is these strange team bonuses you can get for getting your group of PCs to work together.  Nice, but there isn't very many to choose from.  I think you could apply the same concept to stuff more outside a war campaign, like a team bonus for working together socially or the like... but you'd have to make those up yourself.  Or maybe they'll make a new book for that type of campaign.  Wouldn't be too surprising since there is already several "series" type of book lines.

Well, that's all I got to say about that for now, unless someone has a more specific question.

Okay, just looking over at the d&d website and noticed "Heroes of Horror" coming out in October.  So I guess this is a new series.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndacc/885227200

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think, with all you've written on it so far, you should just formalize it, add a touch, and submit it as an article.

[Eagle Prince]

huh?  How do I do that?

[Eagle Prince]

I found the 'submit article' link... I didn't really know you could just send in an article, but I guess if you can :shrug:  Well I wrote it up as more of a review and sent it in.

[Spriggan]

I found the 'submit article' link... I didn't really know you could just send in an article, but I guess if you can :shrug:  Well I wrote it up as more of a review and sent it in.

Ya, we're fancy like that.

[Eagle Prince]

I think I left out one or two things I wanted to mention... oh well, it was getting pretty long anyway.

[Spriggan]

it would be easy to add in, just post them here or e-mail it to me or Fell and mention where you want the additions to go.  But its no big deal if you don't want to.

[Eagle Prince]

Either at the end or make this the last paragraph
"
One other thing that I think lowers the score is some of the rules are a bit scattered.  I mentioned this with the new Leader feats that give a +1 to your Leadership score.  Even if they want to mention that in another section of the book, it still should make note of this in the feat section and/or feat itself.  There is a few other overlooked things like this.  This makes mastering the new rules a bit more difficult, which at the very least is annoying from a book that asks you to have rules mastery.
"

That was the most important one I left out IMO cause it was part of the score... I forgot to mention the team bonus section, but the review is kind of big already.  I don 't think anyone wants to read a long review, and its already like 2 1/2 pages.  I was also thinking I might like to rerank it at 4 1/2 clocks... I think I mentioned 5 of 6 in the text, so you might need to edit that part too.

I have quite a few books there is no review for, ie Lords Of Madness, Monster Manual 3, Frostburn, Eberron (maybe this was reviewed), Sharn: City Of Towers, Draconomicon, etc... should I be trying to write reviews for these too?  I mean, I usually start a new thread after I get done reading my newest book, although usually nobody is very interested in talking about it.  Never thought of doing a review really.

Actually, I was going through the website and saw quite a bit of these are reviewed... guess I don't pay a lot of attention.  Don't know if its a mistake or not, but most of them are under "review" but not the specific D&D or d20 subcatagories.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I made the changes you mentioned. I haven't read the whole thing though, so you may get more feedback as Fell has a chance to get to it (I won't be taking back over posting duties for a couple more weeks).

We generally have a problem with articles being too SHORT rather than too long. If it's really way too long, we'll just break it into pieces.

we also don't generally have a problem with repeat reviews, if they express a different point of view or add something substantial to the existing review. Go ahead and submit them if you want to write them.

[Fellfrosch]

I love long reviews, and will almost never shorten one. I'll read your review and give feedback when I get a chance.

[Entsuropi]

What about my WFRP review? That was so long it bored even me

[Fellfrosch]

The official review is up: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1078

[Entsuropi]

I'd just like to mention the mass combat rules I once experienced in GURPs 3e. Each player told the GM how much glory his character was going for. The GM then rolled on a couple charts, one for the battle as a whole which told him how it went. He rolled a few times to get the entire battle. Then he rolled on a chart for each player, seeing what happened to them. More glory you try for, the more chance of mishaps.

Not exactly indepth yes, but I liked it. The battle took as long as the GM wanted to describe it, and it felt like we actually did something (even though as players we didn't). Good if all your wanting to do is have a little battle and get to the aftermath.

[Eagle Prince]

Recognition Points basically amounts to glory.  Its like experience points, but instead of using them to level you use them to gain fame and fortune.