Review of Bardic Lore: The Fachan & Bardic Lore: Ogham

I am going to review these together, because in my mind they are tied together in a lovely Celtic Knot. For, you will be seeing, this St. Patrick’s Day past I ordered Ogham, at least in part because Fachan was included with the purchase.

Both are small booklets, The Fachan of eight pages, Ogham half again as thick, both are illustrated, have a similar border pattern to tie them together and with the latter containing a photograph of one Ogham enscribed stone in County Kerry.

I have, in the past, used the Fachan in other games, though never in D20, so I was curious what would be made of the creature. I am likely to use it in a magic rich area of my OGL Steampunk game, as a sign that something is very wrong in the area. (In my game world magic leaks through the gates of the other worldly creatures, sometimes other things get through as well...)

The Fachan is much as I remembered him, one eye in the center of his forehead, one arm growing from the center of his chest, and a single leg descending from his hips, with which he moves in enormous leaps, and only a single ear. He was a little smaller this time through the gate, a mere 7 feet tall, and perhaps a bit less robust, but he still had his trusty club, waiting to use it on those foolish enough to try and drink from his well. A paragon class that is included allows him to reach his full stature, to tower above the heroes and roar his defiance.

The Fachan as seen through the eyes of Mr. Perez and Amergin Ó Míl is a simple soul, who likes spending his weekends clubbing, and enjoying a good meal in the afterwards.

The article begins with the journal of an Irish Bard, one Amergin Ó Míl *, as he describes an encounter with the creature.

As described the Fachan is good encounter for a first level party, gaining class levels for progression. Unsurprisingly his tactics are simple, but direct. He makes a good encounter for a Gaelic scenario. I would have liked to have seen some of the names the beasty went by in other Celtic lands, but this is a minor detail, as I intend to use the creature in the hills of Hibernia that the creature as described calls home.

A section of what Bardic Knowledge can tell you about the creature, and the DCs for that knowledge ends the article, a nice feature that I see far too seldom. (The last time I can remember was in Privateer Press’ Monsternomicon.)

It will be interesting to see if Highmoon follows this creature up with others from the mists of Tara, I would enjoy seeing the Children of Danu and the Fomor as well as the original Balor, he of the Crimson Eye. Out of 5 stars I give this work a 4, for those less interested in Gaelic creatures it may be closer to a 3 - while I like it a great deal it is, perhaps, a bit specialized for some people’s games. I am third generation Irish-American, so I may have a bias.The inclusion of Bardic Knowledge DCs brought it up a notch in my estimation.

Bardic Lore: Ogham is a more substantive work, beginning again with the Bard Ó Míl as this time he meets with a Druid, one who will in time become his mentor. This is followed by a historic account of Ogham (pronounced ‘OH-am’) and the 25 characters that make up its alphabet, designed to be scribed in either stone or wood. Mr. Perez adds a few optional characters for English letters for those who wish to simply use Ogham as a cipher.

He cautions that there is no proof that the language was ever used for mystical purposes, but follows with some interesting ways to use them in such a fashion for a fantasy game. Three of the methods described serve to create some very large magic items indeed, by scribing the characters upon the standing stones. Given that the powers he ascribes these stones have been featured in legends of standing stones from all over the British Isles I would call it a decent conceit.

He follows then with smaller, more portable scribings that may be used to duplicate magical feats. Next comes a new item creation feat for Ogham inscriptions, and a new metamagic feat that is pretty nifty. I am going to be using the feat in my D&D game when I pick it back up again in a few months, as well as some suggested additions to the Druid’s spell list. (Geas should darned well be a Druid spell!)

As in Bardic Knowledge: the Fachan a description of what Bardic Knowledge has to say on the subject adds a bit of depth when the scribings are found in game. Unlike Fachan a web bibliography helps those who want a little more information find there ways.

As a third generation Irish-American I give this 5 out of 5 stars, or 9 out of 10, again - the inclusion of Bardic Knowledge DCs brought the rating up a notch, I would like to see this idea used more often. This rating is likely biased by the fact that I was looking for magics to use on some standing stones in my game next week, but I found it exactly what I wanted for my OGL Steampunk scenario. I will be using the Bardic Knowledge information as Knowledge (History) for the game.

* For those of an historic bent, I suspect that this name is most likely taken from the Song of Amergin, an old Celtic lay in Ireland and Wales, though this is not confirmed in the product.