Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Yes, you, too, can now be a monster! (Part Two)

"Complete Monsterous Fighters Companion" by Various. Printed and Distributed by Fast Forward Entertainment. ISBN-10: 1-932201-30-0 -- Hardcover -- 128 Pages. This makes a great companion book to the "Green Races" volume. Now you have expansions to their 'Green Races' characters, providing huge details for the Warrior Class. Details for Fighters for the fifteen new player character races are included, and there is a Prestige Class associated with each one. There are four totally new classes, twelve new Prestige Classes (yes, intelligent creatures can and do learn to specialize!), a few new skills, a few new feats, new equipment and new magical equipment, and spells! The final section of the book deals with playing these Green Races. Their religions, their vital statistics, their motivations, the conflicts between them and other Green Races, and how to use them in a non "Green Races" campaign. I don't know a single player I've ever met who hasn't at least thought of the idea of using a monster as a player character - and this book lets them do that. =Years= before the idea of allowing all intelligent races to be any alignment surfaced recently! As an example, the 'new' race in the center of the book is the underused Hobgoblin. Quite a lot here to admire, as their backgrounds, normal regions inhabited, their culture and cultural advancement, a typical tribe called "The Hundred", The 'Buffalo Rider' Prestige Class, The class skills, a typical Hobgoblin Lair, and other information. The new trend in D&D is towards eliminating the 'requirement' that all of a single entire race needs to be a single alignment was used here first by FFE in about 1972! So this book may have even more usefulness today! Although this race is not included here, one of my favorite PCs used a 'converted' mind flayer as a PC. She 'got Religion' and felt that it was her ultimate goal to bring her new religion to the her fellow Mind Flayers. At the back is the usual OGL. It's too bad that Fast Forward Games disappeared from the market, as many of these books also included online material which does not seem to be available anymore. However, these Fast Forward Entertainment books rarely disappoint me. As a companion to my favorite "Green Races" book, this one can't be beat! Recommended.

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