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Poisoncraft: The Dark Art
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$2.95 |
| Average Rating:4.7 / 5 |
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A comprehensive, professional and well-integrated description of poisons as a major sub-system of the game - numerous effects and modifications, harvesting and brewing, antidotes, feats, classes, a broad range of venomous or poison-related creatures and adventure possibilities. It's easily comparable to products like the Psionics Handbook in breadth as well as usefulness.
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As a PDF:
The clean and simple layout works well for PDF format, and the influence of Malhavoc Press is clear. Full-page colour pictures are all very well in a glossy hardback book, but a complete pain when chugging past in your Acrobat Reader - Blue Devil Games are wise in avoiding such unnecessary fluff.
As a Supplement:
This book follows the usual 'spaltbook' format of providing new spells, new feats, new prestige classes and new monsters. For me, it is one of the better examples of such work as it passes the acid test - do I feel inspired to use the material? The answer is yes. Most ideas are simple yet elegant (such as the venomous template), and many spawn adventure ideas (a personal favourite are the Bleak Gnomes). The addition of Arcana Unearthed conversion notes are particularly useful to this AU player.
And all at a very cheap price, too.
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Poisoncraft
The art of poison is has a long history in both RPGs as well as real life. The very thought of it is sinister and unwelcome to some while other enjoy the art and the subtlety that goes into it. Poison is often seen as an after thought in the few books that it can be found in. It is tacked on as filler and not really dealt with. Poisoncraft goes the distance and covers poisons and gives them the attention they deserves. As far as I am concerned between this and Bastion?s Pale Designs: A Poisoner?s Handbook the subject is now covered completely.
Posioncraft is the first book put out by the guys at Blue Devil Games. It is released as a PDF although this is one of the few that is probably strong enough to do well as a print product. The files come in the traditional zip file that is a little over seven megs in size. Inside one will find three PDFs. The first is a half meg PDF of the front and back covers in full color. Then there is a slightly bigger file that contains the printer friendly version of the book. There are no pictures, no borders, and the only color is some lines in the tables of the prestige classes. It is formatted well to be printed and one will have an easy time of doing it at home. The third file is the on screen version of the book. It is in partial color with art and borders. The on screen version is fully book marked and well organized. It contains a table of contents and a full index. Many books even by the big companies fail to add these items in their book. It is a small detail that will make finding things in this book very easy.
The color version of the book is ninety six pages in length. That must be the exact size it takes to cover poisons as Pale Designs is also of that length. The art in Posioncraft is very good. The cover is a complicated picture of a person brewing poison. There are many poisonous creatures around him like snakes, spiders, and frogs. There are vials hanging from the ceiling and reference books and parchments on the table. It is a very good cover. While there is not that much art in the book and it is black and white, what is there is also very well done. The style and images are a great compliment to the text and subject of the book. And even though there is not as much art as some books the layout is very well done and allows the pages to flow easily when being read. This is a very professional looking book. I point that out specifically because this is the first product by Blue Devil Games. They did a fabulous job of making the book look great.
The introduction and first chapter gives a great overview of poisons. It defines all the terms one needs, goes into detail on learning recipes to create poisons as well as how to make them using the craft poison skill. There are many options for poisons and it should be easy to follow the rules here to create new and interesting type of poisons and give them a fair craft DC. Creating antidotes and harvesting raw materials is also covered. My one complaint is that they treat all attribute damage equally. They have a sidebar on this and in it they talk of how charisma damaging potions are equal to strength draining ones to the right person. While this is true, it is the constitution effecting ones that are unequal. I say this simply because when a characters constitution is reduced to zero the character dies. All of the other attributes when reduced to zero do not cause death. In the sidebar it does say that the poisons in the DMG are more expensive if thy cause constitution damage and there is an optional rule for costing them. But I would have liked to hear why the author feels that constitution damaging potions are equal to the others.
Next there is the chapter on feats. There are some of the usually get a +2 bonus on these two related skills as well as well as plenty of feats to help one become a better poisoner. Then there are the more interesting metapoison feats. These feats allow one to change the characteristics of poisons. There is Disguise Poison which makes it much more difficult for a person to realize they have been poisoned. There are empowered, extended, maximized, and other metapoison feats that are very similar to the metamagic feats of the PHB. I really like the application of these feats.
The third chapter deals with using magic and poisons together. First there are rules for magical poisons much like potions but they can go up to sixth level. There are also quite a few poison oriented spells presented here. There are some very useful low level spells like Dampen Poison Damage which converts the poison damage to subdual damage. There is also a nice little cantrip called poison dart that deals little damage but can drain strength. Overall it is a good selection of new spells and even a few new domains like a poison domain.
The fourth chapter gives us mundane and magical items that can aid a poisoner in his craft. There are master work harvester tools to help get the poison as well as poisonbane masks to help protect a person from inhaling air born toxins. There area few items specifically designed to help the poisoner from poisoning himself actually. Then there are some new magical weapon qualities like toxifying. It makes any poison applied to the weapon more deadly. It is a good mix of the magical and the mundane and should offer some good additions to any person that pursues the poison craft.
The fifth chapter gives the prestige classes and this I think is the weakest chapter of the book. It is not a bad set of classes by any means. It is just that the classes are less then inspiring to me. When I read a prestige class I want o be thinking of a character idea that this would fit and feel a need to use it. These never really did that. A nice little detail they included for their prestige classes is a campaign use section. This is a little paragraph that does show how one can use the class in their campaign. It is a very good extra detail. A lot of the classes get plenty of abilities and do look a little good on paper. However as I have not had the chance to really see how they play out I can not do anything but caution one to be a bit careful and look over them closely. They may be just a little on the strong side for some people.
The sixth chapter brings us the monsters and the seventh are adventure ideas. I bring these two together since they serve a close purpose and that is to give obstacles to the players. The adventure ideas are varied by level and while not complete adventures in themselves should serve as a good starting point for many DMs. The creatures are good mix of venomous creatures.
The appendix brings one of the highlights of the book. It has conversation notes for Monte Cook?s Arcana Unearthed setting. It is rare that one sees ways to use books of different publishers together and I really would like to see more of this from companies. There are also appendixes on names for poisons, different families of poisons, and a few pages of new poisons. There are also printable reference sheets for new poisons one creates.
As I mentioned earlier in this review Pale Designs by Bastion Press is the only other comparable book to Poisoncraft. So, how do the two books stack up against each other? Pale Designs has more new types of poisons and toxins. I liked the prestige classes better in it as well. The feats Poisoncraft has the edge with the metapoison feats providing it. Poisoncraft has better art and just looks better overall. It has a few extra details that Pale Designs does not. Both are about equal with regards to new items. Poisoncraft has more spells in it. Both are good books and get the job done. Poisoncraft is obviously a PDF while Pale Designs is a print book, and Poisoncraft is written for 3.5 while Pale Designs is 3.0. Poisoncraft is the stronger of the two books when I compare them side by side but both can be used together with a great synergy. The rules they use are a little different and one might have to rework the poisons of the other to get costs and DC to be using the same formulas.
Poisoncraft is a very good book and a strong first showing for Blue Devil Games. The book is strong in all areas; writing, layout, art, rules, and creativity. The only think that it is really missing is a section on psionics. Their website has that this is coming soon and will be released as a web enhancement.
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<b>LIKED</b>: It goes into poisons like no other priduct I have seen<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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I haven't finished reading the book yet, but I've flipped through all the pages. I'm just going to say that anyone looking to expand on the rules regarding poison, not to mention making poisons more fleshed out a threat, or even making poison a central part of an adventure or campaign; would do well to get this.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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This PDF is a very interesting read. It would be particularly useful if a PC wants to work with poisons, as I tend to gloss over a lot of the fine details for NPCs. I really appreciated the Arcana Unearthed/Evolved conversion notes. They were a big factor in my decision to buy this PDF. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I was a little bit disappointed in the low fortitude saves for most of the poisons as my ?tank? player would shrug most of them off with no effort. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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This is a very comprehensive supplement. I was thrilled to see such a complete covering of this intriguing subject. From spells to professions to creatures to adventure hooks to feats to poisons to game-rules-mechanics... it's all here. Even special items revolving around the creation and use of poisons are included.
This is the kind of longer, encompasing book that you could very well find bound and placed on a shelf at your local RPG store.
<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I gleaned an enormous wealth of ideas and usable material from this PDF. Easily worth the price and then some. And that's coming from someone who doesn't even use a D20 system (most of the best stuff is D20, so I buy and adapt it). It would be worth even more to an AD&D player, who could make use of 100% of the material.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Honestly, I found very little to be critical about on this one.
<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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This a fantastic PDF, full of very useful content, great art, and complete rules to fill in the gaps on poison is D20<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Every facet covered, solid rules for poison use. Signature poison is especially cool.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not much :-)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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WOW!! WHAT CAN I SAY ABOUT THIS PDF.. WELL I DO AGREE WITH THE COMMENTS I'VE READ SO FAR. THIS IS A EXCELLANT PDF. WHOEVER WROTE THE BOOK THOUGHT ABOUT IT LONG AND HARD. THIS IS A EXALLANT TOOL FOR DM'S AND PLAYERS ALIKE(ALTHOUGH DM'S MIGHT WANT TO LIMIT WHAT CAN BE FOUND) IT HAS NIFTY ARTWORK, AND ENOUGH STUFF TO MAKE YOUR PLAYERS CRINGE WHEN THE WORD POISEN IS MENTIONED.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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Now this is excellent. This could rate as one of the best PDF's I've had the pleasure to read. The rules are well constructed and shed a new light on the whole concept of a poison in D&D. Add to this the professionalism of the production itself and I think a new benchmark in the PDF market has been set. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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Very well written, beautiful artwork, and intriguing new rules makes this PDF an excellent addition to my d20 bookshelf. It expands the area of poisons greatly, and gives me as a DM tools to make my players realize that even a little gnome can be dangerous. In my view, this is mainly a book for DMs as a lot of the rules crunch are things I'm reluctant to let my players try out.
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Excellent material for GMs and players. Well written and entertaining with lots of details. Highly recommended.
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Stunning. The best such product ever made. Nothing else like it in the world.
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