Saturday, May 25, 2013

"Undead" by various, published and distributed by Alderac Entertainment Group.

ISBN = 1-887953-39-6  AEG # 8504

Quick Look-see:

Introduction

Part 1 - That Which Cannot Live
01) The Land Beyond Death
02) Why Seek Undeath
03) The Hammer of Faith
04) Controlling the World

Part 2 - Hunters of the Dead
05) New Skill
06) New Uses for Old Skills
07) New Feats
08) 14 New Prestige Classes
09) Undead Hunter's Kit

Part 3 - Beyond the Flesh
10) Worshipping Death
11) Lords of Death
12) New Domains
13) New Spells
14) New Magic Items
15) New Artifacts

Part 4 - More than Flesh
16) Undead Archetypes

Part 5 - Beyond the Pale
17) Undead Campaigns

Part 6 - Secrets of Undeath
18) Liches
19) Mummies

Part 7 - OGL
20) OGL

The intro is a one page short story.

In Part One, is an overview of undeath, a few pages about why some seek undeath, a look at faith among the undead, and a couple pages about how to control the world from beyond the grave.

In Part Two, there is one new skill, Craft (Autopsy), and a few new uses for old skills. There are 14 new prestige classes, including Wastelands Druid, Unbeating Heart, Sacred Theurgist, Risen, Raider, Puppet, Paladin of the Pale, Knight of the Eternal Eye, Hunter of the Fallen, Faith Hunter, Exorcist, Dying, Chirurgeon, and Champion of the Dead. There's also a description of a basic undead hunter's kit.

In Part Three, there are two pages about the soul's journey and worshipping the dead, a bit about the Lords of Death, including the domains available from those deities, 13 domains and the spells available from each domain, 19 new spells, 12 new magic items, and 7 new artifacts.

In Part Four, there are 8 new archetypes, including The Avenging, Free Ghouls, Ghostly Advisors, Guardian Mummies, Mad Wraiths, Power Hungry Liches, Vampires, and Zombie Servitors.

In Part Five, this book looks at the possibility of having an entire campaign based solely of undead PC's.

In Part Six, there are many details of Liches and many details of Mummies.

In Part Seven, there is nothing except the usual Open Game License.

This 128 page book is jam-packed with info about many types of undead, and how to add them to a campaign.  With the exception of the 10 pages of unusual ideas about a PC based undead campaign, this book can serve up really detailed undead of various types.  The fourteen new Prestige Classes give quite a bit of flexibility to GM's hungry for more than the basic info on undead, and since most of the new Prestige Classes are meant to be monsters at worst, or evil NPC's at best, the section of new Prestige Classes gives many ways to beef up the usual horde of skeletons.  The larger section of info about Liches is very useful, as is the larger section on Mummies.  There are illustrations throughout the book.  All in all, I'd say that this is another great effort by Alderac - I bought one, and GM's should at least take a good look at it.  Four Star recommendation.

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