Review of Kobold Quarterly Issue 11

Disclaimer: This product was given to me for free by the publisher, and it has not been played with in its entirety, therefore this is a cheap idiot review.

Kobold Quarterly is Kobold Quarterly. I did an intro last time and I’m not gonna keep doing them over and on. This time I’m going to skip right to meat, but just remind people of the system here – this blog doesn’t play with 3e so no 3e content will be reviewed. I’ll judge purely on the edition-neutral and 4e content.

1. The first article is about insanity and is called “A Broken Mind ~ Sanity And Mental Disorders.” This is geared towards 4e, but I wouldn’t use it. It contains a system for insanity in games that comes with points, links to ability scores, and effects that happen when you lose enough sanity. I very much dislike insanity systems for games with definite conditions and factors and so on. For one, they end up being bulky. Second, the effects bone you, not make you want to really roleplay. Here, I admit, it does a decent job of balancing roleplaying and boning you, but when it does bone you, it can do it hard.

I like Cthulhutech’s insanity system best, since the insanity effects are mostly roleplayable personality disorders that are easy to deal with, and it doesn’t feel as fat. Maybe it’s just the magazine format making it seem more voluminous than it is, but still, insanity effects aren’t something I go to 4e for. Here, some of the insanity effects are simple, others are really cumbersome. There’s feat support for an insanity system here, to give you benefits that help deal with insanity. There’s a bunch of factors and things, and can you tell I’m not enthusiastic here? Because I’m not. So I’ll just leave it at that.

2. There’s a GM’s round table article with just metric truckloads of dudes, there’s Robin D. Laws,  Chris Perkins, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt, just loads and loads of them, the first two pages are basically big intros to all these guys. How the article works is that a tough GMing question is asked, and a selection of the many GMs give their answers (not all of them though, or else this article would consume the whole of the magazine). It’s pretty interesting, you almost wish they’d do a whole book of this so everyone would get to talk more about more things, and so they can more in-depth. Telling me to make the PCs feel heroic is fine, but how would you accomplish that? These guys just cry out for a larger shared space to really go all-out with advice.

3. The book review section. Nothing more to say.

4. There’s a 4th Edition article called “Wishing Well” that’s about Wishes in 4e. It has these Wishes being equivalent to treasure items the DM can hand out in place of actual parcels of treasure. Heroic Wishes are level 10 items, Paragon wishes level 20, and Epic wishes level 30. If the Wish comes with some strings attached, it has its “item level” reduced so it can be given to lower level characters. There are a lot of rather tweakable ideas presented. Though the items in the article felt kind of wonky, everything else seemed reasonable, well-thought-out and flexible. Thumbs up.

5. “Same Rules, Different Treasure” talks about re-skinning items to give classic items new style and therefore give them new luster for your players. This is something I do a lot of already. This article has some themed ideas, like shadow items, biological items and primitive items. It is fairly short, but nifty. Maybe someday I’ll talk about re-skins for things in Spirits of Eden style.

6. Oh ho ho! Here we go. Paragon paths for monstrous races. This is what I’ve been waiting for.

As usual in reviewing crunch, I won’t write about the fluff in it. It’s not what I look for when I critique this kind of thing.

Blood of Asterion: This one is for Minotaurs. Cunning Charge is a great paragon path ability that lets you get some more use out of your Goring Charge. Mazewalker is weird, as Phasing tends to be. The level 16th ability brings about a change in size and increased reach. I would call this a huge no-no.

The level 11th power is utterly crippled – it doesn’t have an implement or weapon keyword and it does not grant tier-based bonuses to the attack roll, so it will almost never hit, especially since it is targeting AC which is the highest defense, so it is 6-7 attack points behind the curve when you get it and is only getting worse. Also, why is a roar from a Minotaur targeting the AC defense? It is weak for its tier in damage, but grants you an Effect to re-use Goring Charge. It’s in need of changes.

The level 12 daily power is average, having you spend a healing surge to heal and to end movement-restraining effects, but does not stop grabs or forced movement. I didn’t think it needed the restriction. The level 20 power is pretty damn good though.

Overall I feel it needs some changes. You could argue that some of the powers are held back on purpose to make up for the rather strong size-change at level 16, but I’d rather lose that and get stuff rebalanced if that’s the case, and that level 11 power needs an attack roll boost. Permanent, wholesale size changes are a bit weird in D&D 4e, and definitely not paragon tier stuff, I don’t think.

Dragonseeker: This is for Kobolds. The Dragonseeker defense action point ability is specific, but useful, giving you defense boosts and immunity to fear against burst and blast attacks, and so helping you womp dragons I suppose. The second is this really specific, minor boost to certain skills against dragons and reptiles, and a +1 defense boost against them as well. Rather weak. The level 16th ability kicks it up a notch, giving you a huge boost to skills against dragons and reptiles and letting you immobilize them, but still, such specific abilities make this a really narrow path.

The level 11 power is weird. It has an effect that lasts multiple rounds and creates a zone with an unspecified area – it never really says whether it’s just one square, or a burst 1, or what it is (it’s Ranged 10, making it more confusing). The first enemy to enter this zone is attacked by you for very small damage. The Glyph lasts multiple rounds, so enemies can keep being thrown in and you can making attacks – in theory anyway, because the effect states you attack the “first enemy to enter the zone” so maybe you can’t attack any other guys. It’s in need of some clarifications. Keeping track of rounds for my encounter powers is also something I’m not altogether very keen on.

The level 12 utility power is a nice energy resistance power that works on anything, but protects way better against dragons and reptiles. It’s a nice addition to the theme. The level 20 power is crippled, again, by not having tiered bonuses, a weapon keyword, or an implement keyword, but it’s reliable. It has a weird clause – it’s a Save Ends power you can sustain with a move action but only while the power hasn’t been saved against. It would’ve been better to have that just be part of the Hit Clause, or an Effect. If you have the patience to keep attacking until you roll a 20– no, you don’t. Houserule in some tiered bonuses.

It is a narrow paragon path, that needs some clarifications and changes.

Minister of Wrath: This one’s for Hobgoblins. Wrathful Readiness gives them a huge boost to initiative, and Wrathful attack a great boost to damage when they use action points. So far so awesome. Battle Saint is is a warlord-y ability that lets allies get free attacks on guys you critical. Also great. This one’s shaping up to be the best of the bunch so far.

Oh no.

The Hymn of Wrath, the level 11th power has no tier bonuses, no implement keyword and no weapon keyword! It targets Will, but it’s still 3-6 points behind when you get it! What in the name of Bane’s codpiece? It’d be a great, balanced ability if it had those tiered bonuses! Prayer to Arms (level 12) is another nice ability for the Hobgoblin, very warlord-like, and Castigating Eulogy is crippled for the same reason as Hymn of Wrath, but at least it has an Effect.

If you houserule in bonuses of +3/+6/+9 to the attack rolls of the attack powers, this becomes a strong, balanced, flavorful paragon path for a Hobgoblin warlord. If you don’t, the features are good, but its powers won’t hit.

(Note: Before, the tiered bonus was +2/+4/+6. However, starting with the Vistani, the tiered bonuses take into consideration the necessary boost of an Expertise feat, and have become +3/+6/+9 instead. Little 4e mechanical trivia for y’all. If your game has the Expertise Boost house-ruled in, like my Spirits of Eden alternate rules do, this is unneeded, and a +2/+4/+6 is good.)

Shadowfur Hunter: Bugbears now. There’s a class feature at the start to increase the power of your Predatory Eye, giving it more damage and a bonus to Stealth checks. Awesome. The action point ability and 16th level ability are probably too strong, especially the level 16th ability. Both of them may need some toning down.

The powers, I’m happy to say, are all potent, balanced and interesting!

Overall: This article needs some work. If you’re willing to houserule tiered bonuses all over the place and work out some of the more troublesome abilities, it’s fine. The Shadowfur Hunter is clearly the outstanding winner here, followed by the Minister of Wrath. I could see using both those two, with only some very minor tweaks. The other two are rather unbalanced (both in the “good” way, and in the “bad” way.)

7. A Philosopher’s Stone Artifact in 4e, including a level 30 ritual to make one, that could end up killing you. That’s pretty awesome. Overall, this is a flavorful article I don’t want to talk a lot about. It’s the kind of thing you don’t want to, or feel you need to, say a lot about to someone who hasn’t read it. Kudos.

8. The Howling City, a nicely fleshed out city with a map, locations, and all that jazz.

9. As usual, Wolfgang Baur leaves us off with a nice, flavorful article. Road and River talks about trading from the perspective of a fantasy character. Some nice stuff to get your mind going.

Overall

As usual, Kobold Quarterly is a grab bag. That’s sort of how I feel about it, and I think that’s sort of what it’s for. Seeing paragon paths in it made me excited, but seeing the problems in them made me less so. However, you grab in and you find stuff you didn’t think you wanted – like the Philosopher’s Stone, the GM’s Round Table, and the Wishing Well.

You read along, and you engage the magazine and its content, and you come out better for it. It’s not a splatbook. It’s like opening a booster pack of Magic: The Gathering cards. You might have been looking for a cash rare and got a jank rare instead, but you found all sorts of commons and uncommons for your deck, you didn’t even realize due to always searching for that cash rare. It’s an experience unlike buying a splatbook. A few times a year, I’m going to indulge in Kobold Quarterly. I think the surprising elements of the magazine are well worth the price of admission.

So if you like what you heard, 4e players, pick yours up now!