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Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide

The Kingdoms of Kalamar setting is a fairly straight-laced D&D setting, albeit one with a self-professed attention to realism. As such, for most purposes, you can play Kalamar with the core D&D rulebooks and the notably rules-light Kingdoms of Kalamar setting book.

Be that as it may, Kenzer has brought us the Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide, a sourcebook containing new options primarily targeted at players using the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting.

A First Look

The Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide is a 272-page hardcover book priced at $29.99. The book is priced rather reasonably for its size.

The cover of the book has a leather tome look similar to the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting book. The front cover depicts a hacked-upon shield bearing a coat-of-arms.

The interior is black and white. The artwork is fairly good, though a sketchy style is utilized frequently. Unlike the KoK campaign setting book, there are no color plates, but the art does seem to be better than the campaign setting book.

The typeface used in the interior is dense, and there is not a line between paragraphs as with other d20 books. This gives the Player's Guide a good text density. The leader space is a bit large, however, and the book does not quite have a WotC level text density.

Overall, the layout is nice and readable. The tables are clear and usable and use a style very similar to that utilized by WotC.

A Deeper Look

The Player's Guide is arranged into 12 chapters plus appendices.

Chapter 1: Races

The first chapter covers the various races in the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting. As Kalamar sticks fairly closely to the core D&D model, you will find all of the typical D&D races here: humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, and half-elves. In addition, hobgoblins are an important race in Kalamar, and as such, rules are included for PC hobgoblins and half-hobgoblins.

Each race contains some information about how it fits into the Kalamar setting as well as game information similar to that outlined in the D&D 3e PHB. Most of the races have a variant that is pretty close to identical to the races in the core rules, though there are some subraces that are modestly different from the basic races and from the variants presented in the PHB, and some variants are entirely new. Some of the variants do not have fairly "core" elven abilities such as low-light vision and sleep immunity listed; this seems like an accidental omission to me.

Hobgoblins are different from the hobgoblin as presented in the 3e MM. The Kalamaran hobgoblin has penalties to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, which the core hobgoblin does not have.

The half-hobgoblin does not precisely match the statistics of the half-hobgoblin in the KoK campaign setting book; it has even valued modifiers to ability scores. This is a good thing inasmuch as the half-hobgoblin in the campaign setting book used odd modifiers, which are considered inappropriate in D&D. Instead of just trying to half the hobgoblin modifiers, the half-hobgoblins here have modifiers based on their heritage.

The races chapter also includes some additional details for fleshing out Kalamar PCs, including a sidebar on naming guidelines for the different cultures of the Kalamar setting, age tables, and a table for assigning height and weight according to the character's racial heritage.

Chapter 2: Classes

The second chapter discusses how core classes fit into the KoK setting. The first section devotes a paragraph to each of the existing core classes (including psions and psychic warriors), defining what role the class plays in the setting and where such characters are likely to hail from. One of the core classes is missing from this listing: the monk. It seems to me that given the unique and arguably oddball nature of monks in a Europe-inspired setting, this is a great oversight.

Sorely missed from the KoK campaign setting book, a list of deity domains is provided for clerics. Owing to its "officially licensed status," the Player's Guide contains several domains from other non-OGC WotC sources, such as Defenders of the Faith and the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.

Unfortunately, this application of new domains to the KoK deities seems a little haphazard, especially in the case of the prestige domains. Some of the prestige domains are more powerful than the basic domains (such as celerity), yet KoK treats them like basic domains. This may lead to some unbalanced clerics.

The chapter introduces 5 new core classes: the Basiran dancer, the brigand, the gladiator, the infiltrator, the shaman, and the spellsinger. It labels these classes "variant classes," stemming from the idea in the core books that by changing some class abilities you can create a more customized character.

Indeed, these classes seem like new spins on existing classes more than whole new core classes. The Basiran dancer is a sort of bard variant that relies more on dance than song. The brigand is a basic highwayman, not too far from a rogue. The gladiator is a fighter specialized in arena combat. The infiltrator is another class not too far from the rogue. The shaman looks a lot like a druid. Finally, the spellsinger appears to be a sorcerer that does not need to use material components.

Unfortunately, I feel that the intent of the suggestion in the PHB was to create a more customized version of an existing class to better fit your concept and not to create whole new classes. Indeed, I feel that of the variant classes, only the Basiran dancer and the spellsinger could not be conceptually done with existing classes and feats - and then, the spellsinger is almost just a sorcerer with a different skill list and the eschew material components feat. Overall, I found most of the variant classes were not justified as separate classes.

One thing I found particularly vexing is the justification for making the gladiator a core class. "On Tellene, characters do not adventure for years, all the while hoping to one day become a slave and get thrown in a pit." That statement makes me wonder (1) whether the author really thinks that is how things work in other campaign settings, and (2) if the author understands prestige classes at all. A prestige class like gladiator from Sword & Fist does not represent the totality of all characters that might be called "gladiators." Rather, it seems to represent a certain elite character who has developed skills that let him excel in the arena. There is nothing about being a gladiator that requires a character be any class at all; all that this requires is the character be thrown in an arena. Many gladiators will be fighters or warriors, whether initially or after they have survived a few bouts.

I found this chapter the most disappointing in the book. Other than the weak justification of the "variant classes," there are some other vexing problems and incongruities. The bandit uses nonstandard save progressions. The shaman gets totems that give it single point attribute bonuses, another unconventional technique. The spellsinger gets the ability to cast 2nd-level spells at 3^rd level, but doesn't learn any 2nd-level spells until 4th level.

Further, many of the classes are missing some details needed for core classes, such as starting gold and equipment.

Finally, as a side note, given that the shaman depicted here is little more than a tweaked druid, I recommend that interested readers pursue the much more thorough treatment given by either or both Mongoose's Shamans or Green Ronin's Shaman's Handbook.

Chapter 3: Prestige Classes

The third chapter dives into prestige classes used in the KoK setting, eleven in all. The prestige classes are:

Alliance Merchant: The alliance merchant is a prominent member of the so-called Golden Alliance, a league of merchants in the KoK setting. The concept seems sound, but some of the class abilities struck me as rather cut-and-dried, and they ignored the supporting system. For example, the fool's gold ability lets the character automatically pass off inferior goods as if they were of better value; I would think that a Bluff check versus a buyer's Appraise check would be appropriate. Similarly, the perfect appraisal ability allows the character automatically to know the worth of all valuables, instead of providing a (possibly hefty) bonus to the character's Appraise skill.
Bounty Hunter: There are already many variants of the bounty hunter prestige class in different supplements; here's one if you don't have one already. In contrast to the alliance merchant, most of the abilities seemed well conceived and are worded to work with the supporting system. For example, penetrate disguise allows the character a bonus on Spot checks to notice a character is using a disguise.
Mariner: The mariner is a prestige class representing certain sailor types in the KoK setting, from Reanaarian pirates to Meznam traders. Most of the class abilities are well conceived for a nautical character, but some only seemed useful if the character also happened to be a spellcaster. (As a side note, I find it ironic that earlier in the book, the author disdained the use of prestige classes to represent a common archetype, yet does that exact thing here with the mariner.)
Golem Master: The golem master is a spellcaster specialized in the creation of constructs. In addition to slow continued spellcasting advancement, the golem master receives class abilities that aid in the creation of golems and other constructs. A fairly well put together class.
Muse: This class is a bit of an oddity. It is something of a specialized bard complete with its own skill list. Instead of inspiring courage in combat, the muse inspires characters in other venues, primarily skill checks. While this sounds like an interesting variant, I can really only see PCs taking this class in a very skill oriented game. And then, many skill-oriented games are stealth oriented, so that may be out as well. The stated purpose of the class is actually to inspire works of artistry, so the muse may be more specialized yet. This class will probably primarily be relegated to interesting NPC encounters.
Order of the Slayer: The Order of the Slayer is an order dedicated to the destruction of undead. They are similar in many ways to other iterations of undead-slayer type classes, with abilities that help them combat undead and offset the damage of undead attack modes, as well as having their own spell list. The class seems adequate, with one exception: the death's embrace class ability seems entirely too powerful to me, having a chance of destroying any undead creature regardless of power, without chance of returning.
Restorer: The Restorers are a hobgoblin sect obsessed with restoring a member of an ancient line to the throne of a hobgoblin nation. Members of the class must be hobgoblins who cast their spells as sorcerers (a less than optimum combination, since hobgoblins have a Charisma penalty). They have class abilities that let them lead hobgoblins as well as a few spell-like abilities and modest continued spellcasting advancement. One ability they have seems troublesome: rise a second time. Any event that reduces the hobgoblin to between -1 and -9 HP instead reduces the restorer to 0 hp. It seems like this ability needs more restrictions or it will be rather abusive.
Sentinels of Providence: This class represents members of the Order of Providence, an order dedicated to countering the threat of fiends to the land of Tellene. The class has modest fighting abilities as well as abilities that let it better deal with outsiders. Sentinels also have improved spellcasting advancement, but no actual spellcasting requirements. There is no guidance on how to handle spellcasting advancement if the Sentinel does not actually have spellcasting levels.
Slaver: The slaver prestige class primarily represents slavers of Pel Bronlenon in the KoK setting. They have fair fighting ability and skills, as well as some class abilities to assist them in their task of capturing and keeping slaves.
Vessel of Man: This class is concerned primarily with stopping the meddling of gods and clerics with the land of Tellene. They have good fighting abilities and class abilities that help them struggle with divine spellcasters. They also have their own spell selection, ironically divine spellcasting, though it is granted by unnamed gods of chaos.
Warlord: The warlord is a simple concept, a military leader of men. The warlord gains a number of bonus combat feats as well as special abilities related to leading men. This class is fairly straightforward and some may find it more suitable for "general" type characters than more esoteric choices in other d20 resources.

Chapter 4: Skills

The fourth chapter covers skills in the KoK setting. Included are new categories for Craft, Profession, and Knowledge skills. In the case of the Knowledge skills, there are several categories of military studies: art of war, fighting styles, military logistics, military tactics, and military training. There are applications for each of these. Yet I wonder, given the generic nature of most D&D skills, if these categories are not too fine and if some of them would best be combined.

Many old skills are covered here with new applications. For example, Heal can be used to find weak spots on creatures, and Innuendo can be used to disguise spellcasting.

Only one new skill is provided: Pantomime. As is the case with many new skills introduced in d20 products, I wonder how justified it is given the general nature of D&D skills. It seems to me as if communicating emotions and intents via non-linguistic methods might be a function of Innuendo. At any rate, no mention is given to whether this is to be considered a class skill for any of the core D&D classes.

In addition to the skills provided, there are Kalamar languages and a variant system that provides more detailed treatment of languages. Under this system, languages are not binary in nature, but rather are divided into various levels of proficiency. Characters can spend skill points on languages and also get a number of points to devote to language skills as they advance in level. This is a nice system to consider if you are discouraged by the rather abstract and generous nature of the default D&D language system.

Chapter 5: Feats

This chapter provides a considerable selection of new feats for your D&D game. There are 103 feats in all, though some are reprinted from Wizards of the Coast books, such as Expert Tactician. Many of these feats depend on a character hailing from a certain race or region, much like the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book. Unlike the FRCS, such feats merely make the feat or race in question a prerequisite instead of the more complicated region mechanic.

A description of some of the feats follows:

Animal Empathy: This feat allows the character to use Sense Motive on animals. The feat seems rather unfortunately titled, as Animal Empathy is already the name of a skill in D&D. Further, it seems to me like that very skill already fills the role described by this feat.
Artistic Crafter: This feat allows the character always to be able to "take 20" on a specific Craft skill. I consider this mechanic ill conceived. The mechanical technique of "always taking 20" makes little sense, as in the game it is literally shorthand for a character trying over and over until he gets it right, and it only works in situations where there is no penalty for failure, such as loss of material when making Craft checks. It doesn't make sense for a character to have the ability to "always take 20" in the same way as Skill Mastery always allows the character to "take 10." In essence, the skill is allowing the character to take 10 with a 10 bonus.
Awareness: This feat makes the character immune to being sneak attacked due to being flanked. The character can still be sneak attacked when flat-footed.
Channel Positive/Negative Energy: With this feat specific to characters with the turn or rebuke undead ability, the character can use her ability to achieve different effects depending on her religion (described later in the book).
Commanding Presence: This feat gives you a fear inducing gaze attack that you can use as a free action. Thought the prerequisites are stiff, the feat seems a little giving to me. Perhaps a usage limit or limit on HD of targets affected would be appropriate.
Elemental Adept: This feat is similar to the various "Spell Focus" feats, but boosts the DC of spells with a descriptor corresponding to the four elements (earth, air, fire, or water).
Enhance Familiar: This is not a single feat, but a collection of feats. Each one increases the capability of your familiar in a specific way, such as making it faster, giving it the ability to speak, or giving it tough skin.
Exotic Steed: This feat gives the you a 4 bonus to Ride checks when riding an exotic mount (i.e., a mount other than a horse, donkey, pony, or riding dog).
Fey Blood: The character gains low-light vision.
Gorgeous: The character's Charisma is considered 2 points higher for purposes of the effect of appearance. I think this feat would have been better off if it was phrased as a bonus to specific skills instead of being so vague.
Know Your Enemy: After 3 rounds of combat, you gain a bonus to attacks against a specific opponent. The bonus can be improved if you make a successful Knowledge (fighting styles) roll.
Legacy: You are considered 2 levels higher for the purposes of spell effects that depend on levels (such as cloudkill).
Magical Affinity: You can cast a number of 0-level spells per day equal to your Intelligence modifier.
Natural Mathematician: The character receives a 2 bonus on skill checks related to mathematics. Considering the rarity of such checks in D&D, perhaps a higher modifier might have been appropriate.
Scholar: All Knowledge skills are class skills for you, and you gain a 1 bonus with three Knowledge skills.
Skeptic: The character gains 4 to saves against phantasms.
Tough as Nails: You inflict damage to weapons that damage you.

Overall, this is a very nice selection of feats, with few blatantly abusive feats. Where feats seems to be unbalanced, it is mostly in the conservative direction.

Chapter 6: Religion

The sixth chapter provides additional details of Tellene's deities. In the KoK setting, each deity is worshiped by different races under different names, rather than there being race-specific deities. In the KoK campaign setting book, names were provided for the various deities as given by the various human cultures; this chapter provides similar information for nonhuman races.

The chapter provides additional salient information on various deities, including alignment, weapons, symbols, and divine focus. The chapter also provides a list of equivalent deities for players converting characters using the default D&D deities or Forgotten Realms deities.

The bulk of the chapter is used describing canons, or religious texts, of various deities. This might be useful as a roleplaying hook for players or a setting flavor piece for DMs.

Chapter 7: Equipment

This chapter outlines a number of new items that can be found in the various markets of Tellene. The chapter begins with a number of alchemical concoctions such as bolomo (a solvent that can be used to dissolve adhesives such as that of tanglefoot bags), lightning bottle (blinds creatures when the bottle is smashed), and noisemakers (basically, firecrackers designed for maximum noise).

Similar to the alchemical items is a number of herbal concoctions. Examples include the celestial health potion (provides a bonus on saves against the effects of disease), hag's curse (causes blindness), and orchidia (causes the victim to fall into a coma like state).

In addition to these beneficial and baneful concoctions are a number of new poisons provided for the KoK setting.

Slaves are traded in certain places in Tellene. To facilitate the possibility that dealings regarding slaves will come up in the campaign, a system is provided to determine typical rates for slaves. The system takes into account such things as race and exceptional ability scores.

Finally, the chapter ends with an assortment of weapons and armor unique to Tellene. These items include things such as lamellar armor, ball arrows (which inflict bludgeoning damage), leaf blade swords, and other variants.

Chapter 8: Combat

The combat chapter is short and focuses primarily on various fighting schools popular in different areas of Tellene and career paths of various warrior creeds. Both include a bit of exposition about the school and creed. The fighting schools descriptions outline what tactics are used and include details such as which skills and feats the schools teach. The career paths are similar, but outline more specific feat chains that a character who is a member of the named fighting force is likely to take. This is an interesting and useful technique to help make characters fit the world.

Chapter 9: Adventuring

Chapter 9 is something of a miscellany for adventurers. It includes notes on what travel is like in various sections in Tellene, as well as details on diseases, nobility, and position in the clergy.

The section on diseases outlines a number of diseases common in Tellene. Though it does spell out the basic game characteristics of each disease, it goes much deeper, describing regions where the disease is found and symptoms of the various stages.

The section on nobility discusses details of nobility should a PC find herself in the situation of holding a noble title. Ideas are provided for entry into the nobility and running adventures with noble PCs. Details are provided on the nature of nobility in various regions of Tellene.

The section on temple rank describes the benefits and responsibilities that a character who holds a position of authority is likely to have. Ten ranks (plus sainthood) are described. This section and the section on nobility provide a good deal of information for running PCs in positions of authority.

Chapter 10: Magic

The magic chapter is divided into two sections: Channeling Positive Energy and Divine Right of Kings.

The Channeling Positive Energy section (a slight misnomer, since it describes channeling of negative energy as well) describes the abilities granted by the Channel Positive (or Negative) Energy feat and builds off the reference in the DMG that speaks of alternative uses of channeling energy.

The exact ability gained depends entirely upon the church that the cleric follows. For example, clerics of the mule gain an ability called "barrier" that protects them from elemental energy (although it refers to the four classic elements as opposed to the five D&D energies), and clerics of the corruptor gain an ability that can bind enemies (as if bound by rope) unless they can make a Strength or Escape Artist check. Unfortunately, you may find the table difficult to use unless you are thoroughly familiar with the deities of Tellene, as the it lists the abilities by name of the clergy versus deity name. I do find the concept compelling, however, and it is a definite candidate for conversion to other games.

In Tellene, deities grant special favor to the sovereigns. The next section, Divine Right of Kings, describes special abilities that nobility and royalty gain in Tellene. The abilities begin at the rank of Baron and increase until the rank of Emperor. Barons get a bonus to certain saves, the uncanny dodge ability, and the Noble Bearing feat. Higher ranks of ability gain other save bonuses, damage reduction, other class abilities, and spell resistance.

Chapter 11: Spells

This chapter introduces a number of new spells and domains for the D&D game, including those for new classes in Tellene.

As mentioned earlier, a number of domains are included in this product from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book and Defenders of the Faith. From FRCS, only the racial domains other than elf are excluded. The elf domain has been re-titled "Moon: Diadolai," and the Moon domain becomes "Moon: Pelselond." The DotF prestige domains are presented as standard domains, which in some cases may represent a balance issue as some prestige domain abilities are significantly more powerful than normal domain abilities.

In addition, eight new domains are presented for the KoK setting: Cold, Moon: Veshemo, Oblivion, Sentinel, Tempest, Terror, Timing, and Warding.

A new type of spell is introduced, scalable spells. Scalable spells can be cast at different levels with differing results. Examples are spellscatter (which causes the target to lose a number of spells of a level half or less of the level spellscatter is cast at) and summon fey (which summons a fey creature with hit dice equal to or less than the level the spell is cast at). I initially found the concept rather intriguing. After seeing a few examples, the concept seems sound, but I don't see any spell concepts that would not work just as well without the scalable concept.

Of course, the chapter is filled with a plethora of new spells, the details of which are beyond the scope of this review. New spells in the domains reprinted from FRCS and DotF are likewise reprinted. The spells are much like those in the D&D PHB in that they are primarily combat oriented, though many of them are of use to adventurers in other ways.

Chapter 12: Magic Items

This chapter provides the DM with a variety of new items for use in the game. Items of every type are included, including weapon and armor qualities, cursed items, and artifacts. Examples include:

Dodging Death (armor quality): When a character wearing this armor is reduced below 0 hp but not killed, he receives the effects of a cure minor wounds spell, stabilizing him.
Magic-Drinking (weapon quality): This weapon affects the target with a dispel magic if the target does not make a successful Will save. If any effect is dispelled, the weapon gains a temporary 1 to its enhancement bonus.
Potion of Blood: A character who imbibes this potion temporarily gains the racial abilities of another race.
Gem of Illusion: This gem can be placed on the ground to create a specific programmed illusion.
Book of Souls: This artifact is a treatise listing the names of many dead people. The user of the book can speak any of the names in the book to summon forth the ghost of the named person.

Other Materials

In addition to the game material, the Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide contains appendices including a list of references (of WotC books from which the Player's Guide duplicates material), a glossary of terms in the KoK setting, a d100 based table to determine the character's place of origin by race, a compiled feat index containing all KoK and WotC feats, a character sheet with a Kalamar logo, and spell planning sheets for the core and KoK classes. There is also a complete index.

Conclusion

The Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide is a very meaty book, with much useful material. The book should be useful even if you are not playing a game in the Kingdoms of Kalamar. If you are, though, the book is essential.

I thought the major weakness of the book was the new classes chapter, which showed many problems with both utility and system compliance. The book may also be less useful to you if you already own much of the reference materials such as the FRCS or the WotC classbooks. If you held off on buying those books for whatever reason, however, you get a much higher ratio of "crunchy bits" in this book, which has little in the way of exposition and specific campaign details.

-Alan D. Kohler