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Last year Green Ronin released the Book of the Righteous, which introduced the holy warrior core class that allowed for the construction of paladins specifically tailored to their divine masters. The Unholy Warriors Handbook is intended to do for anti-paladins what Book of the Righteous did for holy warriors. It meshes seamlessly with this earlier sourcebook, as well as Armies of the Abyss and Legions of Hell, to create a complete cosmology. In fact, it’s strongly recommended that one own all three books to complement the Unholy Warriors Handbook, if for no other reason than for details on the various evil deities for characters to serve.
The artwork, provided by the likes of Storn Cook, James Ryman, Toren Atkinson, David Griffith, and Bret t Martin is impeccable and atmospheric, blending nicely with the tone of the text. The editing is generally quite good though a few embarrassing errors have managed to creep in (such as a misspelled chapter heading). That said, in the mechanics, where in my mind it counts most, the work is all but flawless.Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention author Robert J. Schwalb’s imaginative design; this gentleman has a truly corrupt mind, a boon for us gamers to be sure!
As a core class, the Unholy Warrior is well balanced. It shares the paladin’s base attack bonus, hit dice, and spell and saving throw progression. But, like the Holy Warrior as presented in Book of the Righteous, instead of stock paladin abilities the Unholy Warrior gains abilities---deliciously evil one’s at that---based upon the domains of its master. There are twenty prospective domains, and nearly one hundred abilities to choose from.
In addition, at higher levels a unholy warrior also gets the ability to rebuke undead, is awarded a gift of darkness in the place of cure disease (the exact determination of which is dependant upon the nature of the deity), and a mount.
In terms of mounts, unholy warriors have a vast selection from which to choose from, as explained in Chapter 6. A list of some 55 options is provided, ranging from monstrous scorpions to ankhegs, as are five entirely new creatures. These include Carrion Crows, huge infernal cousins of the mundane bird but with a taste for flesh; the Cunae Womb, an elfin-faced maggot-like creature inside which rides the unholy warrior; the Mammoth of Baal, a mutant elephant trained for war; the Putrescent Flow, an ooze encapsulated in a membrane that looks like a festering blister, the passenger riding in a postule; and finally the locust-like Ruklero. There’s also a template for creating demonic/devilish versions of standard creatures.
There are four prestige classes presented herein, each interesting and worthy of play. They are the self-explanatory Angel Hunter; Champions of the Dark Seven, masters of the seven deadly sins; the chaos-loving, mutant Knights of Bedlam (you gotta love the mutation table; it’s right out of Warhammer); and the tyrannical Order’s Tyrant, who rigidly adhere to laws and oppose chaos in all its forms. The classes are easily worked into any campaign setting as they come with negligible background baggage.
A host of new feats are provided, some 26 in all. As the chapter heading correctly points out, most would be applicable to necromancers, assassins, blackguards, and other evil classes. Thus, they should be of immense value to a GM seeking ways to challenge his players. All the feats display a suitably despicable nature, like Vestigal Twin, which sees a fully intelligent vestigal twin growing within the characters body, or Brimstone Death, that causes a horde of fiends to erupt from the PCs body if ever she is killed.
As noted, the unholy warrior gains spells as does the paladin. Twelve new spells are included in the Spells and Items chapter, as are half a dozen evil magical artifacts.
The best chapter, from a GMs standpoint at any rate, is that which describes the dark masters unholy warriors serve. A sample warrior order is provided for each of the four evil gods detailed in The Book of the Righteous, as well as for those serving entities hailing from Hell, Gehenna, and the Abyss. The “classes” come alive through details on the order’s dogma, titles, spell domains, gifts, applicable spells and mounts, and relations with others. Even if you don’t intend to use Green Ronin’s pantheon, these warrior-types are of use because they easily translate to other evil deities---simply have the Brothers of the Savage Storm follow whatever evil warrior god is present in your game world, for example, or the Ember Knights of Asmodeus serve a devil lord with an affinity for flame.
As a reviewer it’s my task to provide a balanced assessment, outlining the good and the bad. It’s extremely difficult in this case to do so, since I’m hard pressed to find negatives. Simply put, The Unholy Warriors Handbook is a superbly crafted, comprehensive, and thoroughly enjoyable examination of its subject. It will, by definition, be more useful to Gm’s than players, but this is less a fault of the book than a reflection of its topic and the nature of the role-playing industry.
If you're looking for unspeakable evil, look no further than Green Ronin and The Unholy Warriors Handbook!
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