It have to be a dangerous time to be a 3rd celebration Dungeons & Dragons firm. The One D&D dialogue shortly sucked all of the air out of the room. Even although the following iteration of D&D is 2 years away, I’ve seen a number of folks declare they are not shopping for any extra D&D books of any form till they see how the brand new model seems. That’s unlucky, as a result of Kobold Press continues to end up some glorious assist for 5e. It lately got here out with Tome of Heroes, its lengthy awaited participant’s choices ebook. I obtained a assessment copy to see what designers Celeste Conowich, Jeff Lee, Sarah Madsen, Ben McFarland, Kelly Pawlik and Brian Suskind did with races, courses and different important character parts. Are these choices actually heroic? Let’s play to search out out.
The ebook kicks off with a take a look at races. There are over 20 within the ebook. Some of them can be acquainted to those that already know in regards to the firm’s Midgard setting, however they’re usually offered as impartial right here. The choices are constructed within the conventional method with particular bonuses assigned to particular stats, however it appears pretty straightforward to pop these away for tables preferring the floating bonuses of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The ebook presents some effective choices, together with new takes on cat folks and warforged type constructs. I assumed the darakhul supplied some fascinating choices, as these eaters of the lifeless select a profit from what they have been earlier than they have been turned undead. There are additionally choices for the Player’s Handbook races, reminiscent of city halflings or sea dwarves. There are different unique choices reminiscent of mushroomfolk or half-humanoid, half-deer that would slot in with a woodsy setting.
Another similarity to Tasha’s comes within the class choices. Tasha’s had loads of class choices with a psychic theme whereas right here, the theme is gunpowder. Yes, if you need firearms in your D&D world, Tome of Heroes is a superb useful resource. Not solely are you able to play a gunslinger that’s half ranger and half bounty hunter, you’ll be able to play a sorcerous gun mage that may use mage hand to wield sufficient pistols to make John Woo cry. There are different enjoyable paths as properly, just like the circle of bees for druids or the investigator school for bards. Many of those choices really feel like they might match proper in Eberron, or any world that’s going for a extra steampunk aesthetic.
The adventuring gear additionally leans into extra unique weaponry. Beyond firearms there are excessive capability crossbows, double axes and the type of issues that inject a little bit of excessive fantasy into any sport. Many of those weapons work together with the fight choices outlined within the ebook which give martial characters a bit extra to do than grind by way of hit factors. My favourite issues on this part have been a number of small objects that walked the road between Elven know-how and small magic objects. For instance, there’s a leaf that clips onto clothes that may develop right into a ghille-suit type camouflage for sneaking across the forest. There is not a lot in the best way of magic gear on this ebook. Most of that got here out in Vault of Magic which debuted earlier this yr.
Backgrounds and feats have a tendency towards highlighting characters who might have fallen into adventuring fairly than basic occupations like soldier or sailor. There are some basic fantasy ones, just like the character who doesn’t keep in mind their previous or the hero who’s destined to do one thing historic.There are additionally backgrounds like servant or diplomat that convey a bit extra weight to social characters with their talents. I additionally loved the retired adventurer background for gamers who need to play that fighter who’s three days from retirement, or maybe convey a personality from an earlier version again to the desk for one final journey.
My favourite a part of the ebook is dedicated to downtime actions. There are quite a lot of concepts in right here that stem from all of the stuff that gamers do as an alternative of the same old premise of a D&D sport. These embody issues like creating artwork, elevating a monster farm, working a felony empire and even constructing a manor to make use of as a house base. These actions differ in complexity however it’s good to see them in print for teams who get into the sport past simply exploring dungeons and battling monsters. These programs additionally supply a means for gamers to burn by way of these gold stockpiles whereas producing new plots to maneuver the sport ahead.
Tome of Heroes affords some nice choices for each gamers and Dungeon Masters so as to add to their D&D sport.
