Complete Adventurer : A Hero Series Supplement (Dungeons & Dragons Accessories)

Rating:
Summary: A useful mix with some excellent additions
Review: The Complete Adventurer aims to give some new insight into "why skills and feats are useful", naturally slanting its focus towards the otherwise underemphasized Bard and Rogue classes, and on how to make characters whose focus is "skills" into ones that are fun to play.

The most important things that The Complete Adventurer brings to the table are its three new core classes, of which the Scout adds a mechanically and thematically distinctive flair to a niche that was previously half-filled (like the Warlock in Complete Arcane before it), the Ninja is just there to be cool, and then there's the Spellthief; an unusual concept that requires some tactical ingenuity on the player's behalf. Of the three, the Scout will likely see the most use -- much that was good about the core Ranger class is here, and much that was superfluous is not.

The elaboration on Skills and Feats is helpful, as with just the PHB, explaining their significance to a group of new players -- they want their characters to know how to hit things and make them asplode -- can be somewhat awkward. Well, there are a number of useful suggestions and applications of Skills, like using Sense Motive to size up a prospective opponent's combat acumen. Feats, typically combat-oriented anyway, are nonetheless fleshed out here.

There's a chapter of equipment useful for Rogues and their ilk (examples of which include alchemical payloads for "treated" melee weapons), and a whole chunk of campaign suggestions focusing on guilds and organizations, some of which have some swell adventure hooks (they're "technically" for Greyhawk, but are more than generic enough to be adapted far and wide).

And then there's the lion's share of Complete Adventurer: a motherlode of diverse Prestige Classes, for all Core types. There are Dread Pirates (not left-handed!), Bounty Hunters, several Bard variants, Inquisitors (Paladins with Rogue skills -- nobody expects them, as their chief weapon is surprise) and such, which have the common theme of augmenting, or supplementing, Class abilities with Skills and Feats. Oh, and there's a Beastmaster, dar-rigeur (wokka wokka wokka).

There's a lot of stuff in here. The Scout will find its way into almost any game, but much of the rest of the book really serves to revitalize and elucidate the Skill/Feat system, the largest characteristc mechanical departure of D&D 3.0/3.5 from its role-playing forebears and their war-game roots.

Rating:
Summary: rogues stash
Review: The complete adventurer is the latest offering from WOC and looks pretty good.

The book starts off with three new classes. They are the ninja, the scout and the spell thief. The ninja is rewritten from the oriental adventures and the ninja of the crescent moon from the sword and fist book. The scout is a cross between a rogue and a ranger. One of the feats is skirmish which allows the scout to deal an extra d6 on any attacks made if he moves at least 10ft and increases a d6 every 4 levels. The last new class is the spell thief, their primary ability is to steal spells from spellcasters, generally one level of spell for every three of character level. This allows the spell thief to cast that spell within the hour.

There are several prestige classes some from the various older book series, like the animal lord from the masters of the wild,the dread pirate, thief acrobat and the dungeon dweller from song and silence as well as many others. I particularly liked the wild plains rider as I have a area that has nomadic horse riders.

There is an expansion of the skills such as allowing greater movement while climbing if you are willing to take a penalty on the check. This is repeated with many of the skills like disable device or hide. There are new feats like goad which if the intended victim fails a will save it will only attack you.

There is a section of new equipment like catstink which if used requires a creature with scent to make survival check or lose the scent, or softfoot which adds a bonus to move silently. There are several alchemical capsules as well as new tools for use. I particularly liked this section as I enjoy playing rogues.

There is a new section of magic items like the choker of eloquence which gives a bonus to diplomacy, bluff and perform checks. At the end of the section is a discussion of swift and immediate actions.

There are 16 pages of new spells, some of which are really nice some are so-so in my opinion.There are several spells with the designation of swift and are mostly one round in duration. I liked the ranger spell hawkeye which increased range increment for bows and such by 50% and added to the spot check.

The last section of the book talks about various organisations. It gives some information on various types and how to join and the advantages for joining are. There is a random chart at the end of the chapter if you are inclined to roll to see what is there.

I consider this book to be a very solid addition to the line and am considering what I will foist on my players from this book.