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That guy is the reason you should buy Champions of Ruin. This book is technically a Forgotten Realms supplement, but with a focus on creating and playing evil characters, it can be used just about anywhere that has bloodthirsty elves or power-mad dwarves.
Introduction
Usually the introductions in D&D books are not worth more than a glance, but this one has an interesting essay on philosophies of evil. It lets you decide why your character is evil – is he cursed, power-hungry, or just denying the existence of evil? Or maybe he is just plain crazy, like the guy in the book sewing a garment out of a man’s skin.
Races
This chapter starts by introducing a new and evil race – the draegloth. That’s as difficult to describe as it is to pronounce, incidentally, but I’ll try anyway.
The draegloth are half-fiends spawned from a drow and a demon. They tend to serve their mothers, but sometimes break off and wander around the Underdark killing stuff or enslaving people. They have six arms, but two are really small, and two are really long. They’re just plain bad, even worse than drow.
The extaminaar are another evil race, and this one is an offshoot of the yuan-ti. They are much more social than the draegloth, tend to make good rogues, and sometimes have greenish skin.
The krinth are the third new race, and they are more morally ambiguous than outright bad. They are a race created by the Netherese to serve as slaves, only since they were the result of more demon-spawning, they have kind of an evil bent. However, it is difficult to feel lots of hatred toward a race when they are enslaved by even worse masters and just want to taste sweet freedom.
Tools of Evil
Feats, spells and magic items can definitely help a player make a diabolical character, though they can be used equally well by the DM to make a really bad villain to oppose his white-hat paladin players. The feats listed here are all handy for bad guys, but good guys might see a reason to use some of these, too. Sure, not a whole lot of righteous avengers are going to need a feat called Bloodsoaked Intimidate or Dirty Rat, but there are plenty of decent characters who could get some use out of Chakram Ricochet.
The spells here are likewise geared toward villains, with a few spells heroes might find handy. Woodwisp Arrow can make an arrow go right through wood, which might be handy – especially to an assassin. Bedevil, Enrage Animals and Necrotic Skull Bomb are spells that would not feasibly be used by a cleric of a wholesome and good-hearted deity.
The magic items would make great accessories for a villain. Hideous hide armor not only protects the wearer, it frightens everyone around. A gnashing breastplate will bite anyone dumb enough to hug you (or slow enough to be grappled). This is cool bad guy gear, from the gauntlet that strips flesh from its target to the blade that drinks blood.
Prestige Classes
If your players are making seriously bad dudes, these prestige classes should be right up their respective alleys. Lots of opportunities for evil abound here, from misguided fools to scary assassins.
The Black Blood cultist has a soft spot for lycanthropes, and tends to bring them dinner from time to time – and in case you’re not clear on that, lycanthropes prefer their dinner warm, and maybe screaming. These are great barbarian characters, able to channel animal instincts to be even more unhinged than normal.
The Justice of Weald and Woe is kind of a mouthful to describe what is essentially an avenger. These are the people who get sent on those black bag missions, the ones whose existence is officially denied. They may not be good guys, but they can get the job done. On the other hand, this class does not have an alignment entry restriction, so you might actually be able to make these killers into heroes.
For a truly evil prestige class, the Night Mask deathbringer is one bad mojo. These assassins drink their own blood from a vampire’s veins, making them hopped-up creatures of the night with a penchant for seriously ruthless violence.
The shade hunter is a prestige class I have wanted to see for a long time, and I was disappointed to see it have an evil alignment restriction. These are treasure hunters, basically Indian Jones/Lara Croft characters, only since they are evil, I suppose they are more like Belloc. They have great skills that would really help a tomb raider, and if you want such a prestige class, I recommend tossing the alignment restriction and using it anyway.
Thayan gladiators are monstrous contenders trained to be extra dangerous with natural weapons. Honestly, this class did not inspire me. There are too many limits on its utility.
Vengeance knights are hired by the Knights of the Shield, a group of merchants and politicians, as enforcers. They might sound impressive, but they are really just hired muscle. Their special abilities make them pretty deadly muscle, though.
Evil Organizations
This is where the book starts getting really good. Sure, you could make characters up to this point, but there was not a whole lot for the DM. Now, however, you have some seriously powerful opposition for good players, and great patrons (or rivals) for evil players.
The Cult of the Dragon and the Cults of the Moon share a common theme – the worship of monsters. The dragon cult obviously worships dragons, and the moon cultists worship lycanthropes. They both want to have their monsters bust out some violence on the world as a whole, though they have different reasons.
The Eldreth Veluuthra is a group of elven supremacists who believe humanity should be scoured from the face of Faerun. They are kind of like elf Nazis.
The monks of the Dark Moon and the various Sharran cells share a worship of the Lady of Loss, but their means and ends are different. The monks are the more violent of the two groups, though the cells are still likely to conduct assassinations or desecrations.
The Unworthy of Ilsensine are a bunch of dwarves and grimlocks, all brainwashed by a rogue mindflayer to follow a decidedly evil religion. The Zhentarim need no introduction to a Forgotten Realms fan, but definitely need to be described in a chapter about evil organizations.
Evil Places
Not only do we get evil groups, but we can read up on a few really bad places to have a party. Evil nodes are places where specific brands of villains can charge up magic spells or use special abilities granted by the place. Sacrifices may be needed to take advantage of these nodes, or the supplicant may just need to prove he has hurt someone. The results can be considerable – the villain might become impervious to pain for a day, he might be better able to smite his foes, or maybe he just gets really good at lying.
There are several of these evil nodes detailed here, and they would make great hideouts for a group of evil characters. Of course, if your group is not evil, these would make great places to find bad guys and kill them. The Vale of Whispers, the Bloody Rock, and the Caves of Cwuvain would all make great adventure sites.
Encounters with Evil
As if this book were not already chock full of villainous misdeeds, this chapter provides allies and enemies for evil characters, better known to heroes as ‘targets.’ These are all essentially mortal villains, but any one of them would make a great continuing nemesis or vile patron. Each of the races from the first chapter is represented here as interesting NPC villains, along with several other enemies of all that is good.
Champions of Evil
It’s like an infomercial – just when you think you’re going to find out the actual deal, they add something else. Now how evil would you be?
This chapter is full of the baddest villains in the Realms. The ancient lich manipulating the world from his mountain fortress is scary and powerful, but doesn’t hold a candle to Ityak-Ortheel, the unstoppable elf-eating spawn of evil gods. Dendar the Night Serpent is unimaginably evil, as is Eltab the demon lord (incidentally, Eltab backwards is table. Coincidence? You decide). There are some really awesome villains here that could not be bested unless your characters are far beyond epic level.
Presentation
I actually get tired of saying this, but Wizards of the Coast makes the most attractive game books you can buy. They are full-color, full of art, and they pay a pretty penny for their designers and layout guys. The cover of this book is even better than many other D&D books, with knights on black dragons terrorizing a village. The cover is by Lucio Parillo, just in case you follow RPG art, and is a very cool piece.
The writing in the book is a little dry, sure, but definitely up to the standards of D&D books. It is entertaining enough, mostly because of the fascinating content rather than the draw of the writing style.
Summary
The point is made over and again that this book is intended as a guide for those who want evil characters, but the writers really should have mentioned how great a resource this is for the DM. A DM could use the material in this book to make villains the players will talk about for years to come.
I really wanted to give this book a perfect score. It is such a great resource, whether you are a fan of the Forgotten Realms or not. You can create memorable villains and evil PCs, set your heroes against ancient evils or have your villainous characters follow those evils. But at only 157 pages with a thirty dollar price tag, I have to wonder where the rest of my book went. Another 50 or so pages would have made this one of the best D&D supplements I have ever read.
Style: 5 – Not only is this a gorgeous Wizards of the Coast book, but the stuff in here oozes style, and the art is great, even for a Wizards book.
Substance: 4 – A nearly perfect resource for making villains that feels too short for its price tag.
