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Okay, so warriors aren't everybody's favorite NPC class. In fact, they're usually glossed over as crappy fighters. Their role has never clearly been defined -- the DMG's explanation of the warrior class leaves them open to interpretation. Warriors aims to change that.
The artwork in the book varies greatly, from obvious black and white clipart to extremely cartoony (the executioner on p. 21 being the most egregious example).
The book begins with an Introduction to warriors in general and a reference to a new innovation, the subtype. The subtype idea is a means of defining an NPC without making them overly powerful. They are not like the old 2nd Edition kits (thank goodness!) but they do help delineate the skills and feats of say, a longbowman vs. a shortbowman. Warriors also claims to have reprinted previously published material from the Experts book. However, there are numerous (and after the first few times, annoying) references to go read the Experts book for more information. Warriors also mentions that it's meant to be 3.5 compatible, but that the conversion might not be perfect (it isn't). It rounds out the introduction with a description of medieval armies that helps set the sometimes gritty tone of the book. Unlike the Experts book, Warriors is largely open game content.
The prestige classes chapter details a wide variety, including Aerial Cavalryman, Beast Rider, Charioteer, Combat Engineer, Dueling Master, Executioner, Forester, Gladiator, Marine, Mechanist Infantry, Militia Leader, Mountaineer, Nomadic Cavalryman, Sheriff, Watchman, and Zealot. Warriors is strongest when it hews closely to the historical archetypes of warriors and is weaker when it ranges into the fantasy genre. Each prestige class is accompanied by an example of the class, helpful to DMs and players alike who know what prestige class they want but wouldn't recognize it by name. Below are a few examples:
- Beast Driver: The Beast Driver prestige class is interesting because it specializes in large, heavy mounts. Any prestige class that gives its riders the ability to inflict a coup de grace on its own mount is okay in my book. One of the appendices in the back later extrapolates on the dangers of rampaging elephants and why such an untimely demise for a mount was preferable.
- Combat Engineer: The Combat Engineer can gain mastery of stone, earth, or wood, which gives him a bonus to related skill checks. He also gets bonuses with explosives.
- Dueling Master: The Dueling Master seems out of place in this book. By definition, someone who is an expert at killing someone else is probably a Fighter. The abilities are what one might expect -- and of course, this class resembles the original, incredibly overpowered duelist from Dragon magazine an eon ago.
- Executioner: The Executioner class gets appropriate abilities dedicated to finishing victims off. He also receives an herbal draught ability that seems out of place. It's likely the herbal draught ability is due to the archetype of Dr. Jest, chief inquisitor in Elric of Melnibone (listed as inspiration). Still, it doesn't quite mesh with the rest of the class, which is dedicated to killing people.
- Forester: A ranger without the spells. An appropriate prestige class for warriors.
- Gladiator: This prestige class exhibits the traits that makes the Warriors book so good - it details the different combat styles, including Roman styles (laquearius, retiarius, samnite, and thracian), Indian styles (banait, bankuli, lakrait, pahluwan, and yak-hat'h) and even non-human styles. There's more detail and respect given to the gladiator than has been published in entire books dedicated to them. Bravo!
- Mechanist Infantry: A combination of an grenadier and a fantasy tinker, this prestige class doesn't do either very well.
- Sheriff: An excellent urban ranger type, this is the rare prestige class that makes it cool to adventure in a city. It has everything from the Track feat to the ability to sense lies, to a home territory.
- Watchman: Like the Sentinel (also from Dragon magazine), this class is similar to the Sentinel guild on RetroMUD. Well done with appropriate people-specific abilities.
- Zealot: The zealot is strangely out of place in this book. It gets the chosen enemy ability of rangers, the damage reduction ability of barbarians, spell-casting and the ability to use clerical magic items. In short, it's a little too powerful for my tastes and seems to be inappropriate for the relatively generic nature of warriors.
The next chapter details warrior subtypes. Subtypes are sort of a poor man's occupations from d20 Modern. In fact, they are quite similar, if a bit more detailed, than occupations. I like the idea -- it helps round out the warrior class and provide alternatives without requiring the levels of a prestige class. Thus, there are longbow subtypes, artillerist subtypes, etc. Each subtype gets a special benefit, usually a class skill -- just like d20 Modern occupations. Unlike the occupations, each subtype comes with suggested equipment and feats it can substitute. The subtypes also include non-military versions, like the bandit and barkeep. Incidentally, this book's subtypes is an excellent complement to Mercenaries: Born of Blood.
The skill chapter goes into exquisite detail about everything from Craft (artifice) to the rune-carving Craft (Koftgari). Warriors keeps the new skills to a minimum, offering Operate Device, Signaling, Smell, Taste, and Torture. Duh -- why didn't anyone else think of the Smell and Taste skills when we have Listen and Spot? One of the best chapters in the book.
The feats chapter details relatively bland feats, including a bunch of aerial combat feats and some feats specific to prestige classes/subtypes.
The equipment chapter is a study in contrasts: fantasy equipment is mixed in with exotic weapons and armor from other cultures. Thus we have the chakram, khandar, and pata mixed in with the assault mechanist armor (in essence, power armor). This is one of those situations where the book overextends itself a bit -- armor of this type is best left to books like D20 Mecha (where is D20 Mecha, anyway?). It also includes rules on making high technology weapons and transportation, including balloons and dirigibles. It even explains how gunpowder is made.
The spells chapter is primarily dominated by battle runes, which are used by zealots. These battle runes are not remarkable -- they're just a variant of material components. Some of the spells have a middle-Eastern feel to them (like eye of Shiva and searing sands). The spell, transformation of Jebus, seems like a juiced up version of Tenser's transformation
The magic items chapter ranges all over the place, from (armor, claw, boots, cloak, etc.) of the beast to more exotic items like the bow of Rama, dwarven firewagon, table of Ezekiel and thunderbolt of Hirtadhvaj. Someone did their homework.
The monsters appendix is unexceptional. It has three monsters in total, the primary focus being the Narasinhai. They're a anthropomorphic lion race. We've seen it before.
The third appendix details sample characters, useful for dropping NPCs that use the Warriors rules right into the game. A sorely needed attribute that takes a LOT of work to create -- I speak from personal experience.
The last three appendices are excellent. They detail chariot warfare, elephant warfare and heraldry. Each appendix is short but descriptive and summarizes all the information you need to know in a succinct fashion.
While the text and artwork may be at times uneven, Warriors achieves its goal -- it fleshes out the warrior NPC class with enough ideas that it can easily be applied to PCs. It works best when applied as a straight historical interpretation of the D20 system and is less effective when it veers off into fantasy elements that are obviously favorites of the authors. Overall, Warriors is an excellent sourcebook that provides breadth and depth to a long-ignored NPC class.
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