Goto [ Index ]

One perennial favorite among older releases in the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS line was an item called the ROGUE’S GALLERY. This was a collection of ready-to-go NPCs, and not very remarkable considering that most of the NPCs were rendered in a series of one-line game statistics without a name or even the barest hint of a background. What made the ROGUE’S GALLERY so much fun (besides several pieces of excellent Jeff Dee artwork), was the section at the back of the book that presented fully fleshed-out NPCs, each with a dynamic illustration and a background snapshot. ALLIES & ADVERSARIES, a d20 supplement from Bastion Press, ditches the endless columns of generic NPCs from the ROGUE’S GALLERY and expands on the idea of presenting complete characters for inclusion in any Third Edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game.

The first thing the reader will notice is how gorgeous this product really is. A slim, saddle-stitched volume, ALLIES & ADVERSARIES is printed in full color from start to finish on glossy paper that’s not too glossy to be useful. Artist Jason Engle provides large, evocative portraits for each one of the fifteen NPCs in the book, and the layout’s subtle background graphics are also very pleasing to the eye.

As mentioned, ALLIES & ADVERSARIES contains fifteen NPCs of various stripes. Each receives two pages of detail, including a full stat block, a solid background, and a few tips for DMs getting the NPC’s personality just right through roleplaying. There’s nary a generic character type in the bunch, with each NPC given enough of twist to make him or her truly unique. High points include: Malgrim, the fighter/wizard battle mage who leads a legion of veteran warrior mages; Wenowil, the thousand-year old elven druid who sits on the Council of Dragons as advocate for the non-dragon races of world; and Jessra, the half-fiend bard sired by a succubus who travels from place to place creating havoc with one scheme or another.

Paul Schmookler and J. Darby Douglas remember what makes NPCs worth including in a game. That’s why every character in ALLIES & ADVERSARIES has something unique about him or her that can be drawn out through play. Some characters, like the blackguard called Maliss, could have an entire mini-campaign spun around them. Others would make excellent recurrent allies, such as the drow-slaying dwarf, Dagan. And with a master assassin like Eligon in the mixture, what DM could resist a storyline that makes his or her players the killer’s prime targets?

It’s also nice to see that Bastion Press opened up the entire contents of the book – except the artwork and other graphics, of course – to other d20 publishers. When so many d20 companies only allow tiny fragments of their material to go free under the Open Gaming License, it’s refreshing to find a top-notch product that isn’t afraid to be used not just by DMs and players around the gaming table, but by creative folks who might have their imaginations fired by what they find on the pages of ALLIES & ADVERSARIES.