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The Black Monastery really feels like the labor of love that it is. It is very clear that a lot of time and effort was put into making this a “dungeon” worth exploring.

This module could easily be dropped into almost any campaign with very little work on the part of the GM. The villains behind the monastery are generic enough to fit in almost any fantasy roleplaying world. This is not to say that they are bland. Far from it. The black monks exude a sense of palatable evil which even without the lure of treasure would be enough to motivate many parties. There is plenty of treasure to motivate the rest. Add to that the mystery about where the monastery came from (after all it is thought to have been destroyed), and you will find some motivation for almost any character. One potential negative, and it depends on your preferences as to whether it is a negative, is that there is no central plot to this adventure. It is very much an exploration for the sake of exploration module in the old school style that Frog God Games, and its predecessor Necromancer Games is famous for.

The cartography is beautiful, but unfortunately there are a couple of places where doors to rooms were simply left off of the map. The numbers for the rooms were assigned more or less in order and for the most part it is possible to easily locate any given number on the map. There are a few areas where numbers were apparently assigned later in the process and significantly away from the other numbers in sequence.

The mazelike rooms have their individual challenges, and they feel somewhat random, but there is a sense that they are unified by common theme. There are numerous traps for the unwary, and they are deadly! The suggested range for this module is 7-9, but if a party is careful and willing to run, most of it could be done by a group as low as 5. Most encounters are in the CR3-7 range, but there are some as high as 17. Once environmental hazards are taken into account there are encounters which could conceivably overwhelm a party of 10th to 12th level.

With 80 some pages dedicated to adventure text it is somewhat small for a book at this price point. Thankfully there is a lot of information packed into those pages. There are 221 rooms on the main level, and most of those have an encounter or event of some sort in them. Plus there are two smallish towers and two sub dungeons. If the authors had included the read aloud text common in most modules it would most likely have added another 20 or more pages. In other words there is a surprising amount of information packed into a small space.

Minus 1 star for cartography problems but still a lot of fun to read. 4 stars.
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A couple of minor spoilers follow. You have been warned.

In spite of the criticisms which follow I feel that this dungeon would be worthwhile for most people. I read the print version of the module.

Having read several reviews on this dungeon I fully expected to love it, and I did enjoy it for the most part. I really enjoyed the social interaction aspect of the dungeon, but admit that there were times when I found it hard to believe that many parties would pause long enough for negotiation to begin. All four of the major races trapped in the dungeon are traditionally Chaotic Evil, which makes it hard to place into the typical Pathfinder setting. However, if you play with more alignment grey zone then the social interaction is top notch and there are some very interesting encounters. The module could certainly be run as a generic hack fest, but that loses almost all of the flavor behind the module. Failing to keep my suspension of disbelief cost 1/2 star.

The introduction also cost 1/2 star. In my experience Magic tech is very setting specific and you either love it or you hate it. I tend not to like it. Entry into the dungeon is via a mechanized Bulette drilling machine. This almost immediately jolted me out of a feeling of world neutrality into the perception that there were presumptions behind the world that I did not like. With some work the module could be modified to remove the magic tech, but I do not like having such a key element of the adventure interfere with the world view. In order to run the module as is, I would have to significantly modify either the setting or how the characters get into the dungeon. Other than that this dungeon could be placed in almost any Pathfinder compatible world.

There were a few minor editing errors, but nothing major. Final assessment 4 stars.

There are a lot of interesting ideas in this book. I was a bit disappointed that there were no rules for spellcasters (but I knew there was a Mystic Godling book, so not too disappointed). The two base class types of Godling presented here are Mighty and Clever. They are approximately equivalent to Fighter and Rogue.

I felt that the prestige class was a bit lacking and seemed almost like an afterthought. It could work for a character that does not manifest their potential until later in their adventuring carreer, but provides very little to recommend it over just taking one of the base classes instead.

I would give this one 4.5 stars if that was an option. Rounded up 5 stars.

I really wanted to give this one 5 stars, but I found it lacking in some key areas. Like the Genius Guide to the Godling, this book provides an interesting approach to playing characters with divine blood. This time it is expanded to spellcasters.

Where it falls down is the lack of significant rules to allow existing characters to manifest their divine heritage. After reading the Godling I expected a prestige class option for this book as well. This is especially important because spell progression plays a critical role if you want the higher level spells. I was also disappointed that there was no option for a prepared spellcaster (my personal preference).

In spite of these limitations, there is a lot of good information and creative material in this book. If you like spontaneous casters (either 6 or 9 level spell progression) and are starting from first level this is well worth having. Therefore, I give it 4 stars.