Happy New Year, people of the world! Believe it or not, you didn't have to wait two years for the new edition of Table Top Tales! I know, I know, I am nothing if not a generous overlord over all (of the backwoods internet blog) that I survey! Today, much as I did back in the tail end of 2020 (and thank God we're out of that friggin' year!), I want to do a product review - this one I actually paid money for!
Willingly!
Ah, the joys of Kickstarter!
I'm not one to look down on the Kickstarter - the people who start them generally have something finished rather than posting half-baked reviews and What If's that could be stories they're too lazy to write on some backwoods internet blog - but getting into one is always a bit of a gamble. There's the risk that they might get underfunded and decide to pull out of the project entirely, there's the risk that you give money and never actually get the product due to behind the scenes nonsense such as the person or people who put up the Kickstarter using all the money on wild cocaine parties and strippers.
...I'm exaggerating, of course. I'm sure that never happens.
I'm happy to say that I did actually get the book that is in the title - Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters for D&D - but damn if it wasn't a particularly hard road getting there. We can thank COVID for that, though, rather than any behind the scenes rigmarole. Originally set for release and shipping some time in October, Uncle Sam's COVID-based mailing restrictions meant that it took a few days before Christmas for it to be shipped out from the UK and to literally arrive the day after Christmas. Better late than never, I suppose, but it's yet another thing that COVID decided to shove a fist up our collective rectum about.
Regardless, you didn't come here for shipping commentary and I didn't come here to rant incessantly about how much COVID has buggered us all up. I came here to rant incessantly on the title book, and the book that came with it. More on that in a bit.
Mythological Figures & Maleficient Monsters for D&D comes to us from ENPublishing under the Open Game License. It contains a foreward penned by James M. Ward, the original author for Deities & Demigods for D&D 1st Edition, who gives the book his own stamp of approval - which, given the pedigree, the only thing better would be Gary Gygax himself rising from the grave to sing its praises. Ward claims that he attempted to say anything critical about the book, let's see if I can echo that sentiment.
Further on, the book details a new Fighter archetype - the Warlord - that was developed specifically for some of the characters in the book. It's a pretty good archetype on the whole, largely based around battlefield tactics as you might expect, giving bonuses to allies' movement, allies' defense, and so on as well as enhancing or hindering combat prowess. The real meat and potatoes of the supplement comes from the titular Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters within the book, and there are quite a few of them.
More than 90, in fact. Everyone from Achilles all the way to Zhuang Zhou. There's quite a wide spread of them, too, and purposefully made without min-maxed stats in mind, which is a pretty good idea, honestly. Aladdin, for example, is just a rogue of eighth level and could easily just have his statblock used with the name taken off (which the game does suggest a prospective DM does if need be) as a rogue of the eight level.
That said, this is a little bit harder to do with the likes of Confucius, George Washington, or John Henry.
Yes, you read that correctly. All three of those individuals are among those in this book, and therein lies the only real criticism that I have: some of them are just frankly very odd choices. Now, to be entirely fair, most of them make perfect sense: Circe from The Odyssey, Frankenstein's Monster from Frankenstein, Beowulf from...well, Beowulf...and some others.
Then you have ones like Confucius, or George Washington. Now, before anyone calls me a hypocrite, the book does include people like Anne Bonny, Blackbeard, and Ching Shih: legendary pirates and the like. Those make a bit more sense to me because of the enigma around them - even to the ends that they had. Even Elizabeth Bathory being included makes a slight amount of sense given the horror elements that surrounded her entire existence and the fact that her body was missing when her grave was exhumed in 1995. Basically, individuals who there is some mystery and enigma about and who we could plausibly call "mythological" in some respects.
Confucius, though? Guy was a sage and philosopher.
Washington? Everything mythological about that dude has turned out to be a flat-out stinking lie pushed for propaganda.
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| I, too, am confused as to why I am here... |
The choices are just a bit weird. Personally, I would have included Aleister Crowley to play into the occult angle or Ridolfo Capo Ferro if they wanted to put in a skilled swordsman or duelist (then again, they did include Miaymoto Musashi, so maybe they didn't want to repeat themselves in that regard). Sure, particularly in Crowley's case we do know a great deal about their his life given that he lived closer to the present, but there's a lot of intrigue and obvious occult connections about him that would make sense to play with the "mythological" tag.
George? Not so much. Dude's on the Disney's Hall of Presidents tour, c'mon, guys!
There's also the inclusion of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson - but oddly no James Moriarty. Someone that would actually be an antagonist unless your party is just a bunch of murder hobos that Holmes and Watson are trying to stop. It just seems odd to leave that out when that was very clearly a niche
One thing I won't fault the book for, however, is the sheer range they go through. You have the usual Greek, Roman, and Norse heroes and creatures and then diving into other mythologies as well. This includes the Mesopotamians, Japanese, and even Christian mythology with additions such as Lucifer. There's also a good deal of Western stuff as well for those you who are panicking - such as Don Quixote and Saint George. The works of Shakespeare also get a few nods, such as Caliban and Prospero being involved.
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| Verily, I think I shall go beat Lancelot to death some more! |
And, of course, Arthurian lore is put in with Merlin Ambrosius, Lancelot Du Lac, and King Arthur himself (complete with a ridiculously overpowered Excalibur - as is fitting) representing. There's also some American folk lore and the acknowledgement of cryptids that doesn't come up very often in D&D (oddly enough) with things like the Jersey Devil and the Loch Ness Monster. Even the holidays get a little bit of representation with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
...no, I'm not joking. Stop looking at your screen like that.
I have to say, while I don't necessarily agree with all the additions made to the book, it's a pretty solid product on the whole. Mythological Figures & Maleficient Monsters for D&D is a pretty enjoyable book, even if a few creative choices make me raise my brow a few times.
This brings us to the second book that I got for pledging at the tier that I did - The Masterclass Codex. If Mythological Figures & Malefi-y'know what, I'm going to shorten it from here on out. If MF&MM attracted me because of the range of NPCs and monsters it promised, then TMC got me because of the promise that it very loudly displays on the cover: "Sixteen new character classes for your fifth edition campaign".
Sweet Sally Sue, mother of Mary! That's a lot of potential character classes, and indeed we do have sixteen new classes to choose from. They are:
- The Alchemist
- The Bloodweaver
- The Cardcaster
- The Diabolist
- The Fatebender
- The Feywalker
- The Gemini
- The Geomancer
- The Gunfighter
- The Lodestar
- The Monster Tamer
- The Morph
- The Noble
- The Occultist
- The Savant
- The Tinker
A lot, right? That's a lot. Now, I could do a full review of every single class, but let me just go through them and give a quick summary of my thoughts.
The Alchemist - interesting to go on the chemical side of being an artificer and looks and plays pretty similar to that, just dealing with potions rather than items.
The Bloodweaver - if you've ever played Dragon Age, think Blood Mages. If you haven't played Dragon Age, but have played Vampire: The Masquerade, think the Tremere. If you haven't played either, then imagine slitting your wrists and making things happen with the stuff that comes out of it. Or slitting other people's wrists and making things happen with the stuff that comes out of it.
"I have the power of God and anime on my side, Senpai!"
The Cardcaster - Isn't this an anime? In all seriousness, an interesting take on spellcasting using cards as a focus item and being able to produce various magical effects from a single card. Really good for the players who enjoy strategy.
The Diabolist - Dean said no, Sam. Put the box to call the Crossroads Demon down.
The Fatebender - You rolled a critical? Oops! I bumped the table. Looks like you rolled an 8.
The Feywalker - So there was this one time a fairy really, really messed me up. Now I stab things and animals talk to me, sometimes.
The Gemini - Interesting hybrid of bard, rogue, and fighter that I don't really have anything snarky to say about.
The Geomancer - I wanna rock! (ROCK!) I wanna rock! (ROCK!) I WANT TO ROCK! (ROCK!) I joke, but I was reminded from their description of a Dwarf character I had in mind who casted all of his spells from runestones. Now I can actually do that.
The Gunfighter - I've never been a huge fan of the inclusion of guns in D&D. I think it really kind of ruins the sword and sorcery fell when you can just whip out a flintlock and just shoot a dragon in the face. Granted, the artificer class also has guns (sort of) in 5E, so I figured I'd give this one a once over. Gunfighter isn't my cup of tea, but I do appreciate it for what it is. Also, I appreciate all the references to Westerns in the flavor text for it.
The Lodestar - Cut my soul into pieces! These are my floating orbs!
The Monster Tamer - ...guys, just play a Beastmaster Ranger, guys. Just make sure it's the Revised Ranger.
The Morph - Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! You are a shapeshifter! Now act like it!
No, not that one! ...I mean...sort of.
The Noble - ...why is a background a class now?
The Occultist - So, you wanna play a vampire, a Frankenstein, or a werewolf? We already have White Wolf for that! Jokes aside, I could see this working well for maybe a horror-themed campaign or a one-shot. For normal play in an ongoing, though...ehh...
The Savant - Want to play Sherlock Holmes without playing Sherlock Holmes? Here you go. Good mix of punching and critical thinking skills. Also, being able to shovel your Intelligence into Armor Class and being able to go "lol fuq u no" to mind altering effects is pretty nifty.
The Tinkerer - I don't understand, we already have artificer?
There is, of course, much more to each class than my snide remarks or even the occasion bit of commentary - including their own archetypes and abilities that would probably require an entirely different post (and might get in the future) to look into. The Masterclass Codex is good, but the classes come off as more than a little gimmicky or redundant given some of the other already existing classes in D&D.
It kind of reminds me of Pathfinder, where they didn't re-flavor existing classes like Cleric and instead just had a few dozen different classes such as Shaman. I understand the want in terms of variety and appearance, but I'm almost more inclined to just have a character who wants to do that go for either Cleric or a Wizard specializing in the School of Necromancy depending on the angle they'd like to go with it, then adjust class abilities accordingly.
That said, I can honestly say that I recommend both books. If you're looking for some NPCs to put in your games and don't feel like rolling up stats - MF&MM is a good way to go. If you want to go for a different flavor in player character classes (or NPC classes), TCM provides. After all, Dungeons & Dragons is a game that is most often played to have fun (a strange concept, I know!)! Sometimes, you want to do something a little different - like, say, rip off the entirety of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame for your campaign plot.
...look, don't judge me, I was 28 back then!
So, yes, both books get a recommendation from me. The link to the EnPublishing site has been provided above, and I will link the Kickstarter that created these two tomes in the description below. See you next time!
Mythological Figures & Maleficient Monsters for D&D and The Masterclass Codex are now available from EnPublishing. Check out their Kickstarter here!
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
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