Danse Macabre

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Somewhat Usable

2/5

I'm not sure if parts of this book are unusable because of sheer neglect from the author of if the author honestly couldn't tell the difference between magic and technology.

The entire section on cybernetics is unusable since power requirements for the cybernetics are never covered (unless cybernetics are powered by never ending magic). Suggesting that individuals with quasi renaissance era knowledge and equipment are capable of building ultra tech equipment and performing mind enhancing brain surgeries seriously challenges suspension of disbelief.

About the best weapon in this book is the chainsaw dealing 3d6, criting with 18-20/x2 and capable of running for 10 hours between charging. Most of the energy guns deal laughably low damage for an ultra tech weapon, such as the laser rifle that deals 2d6 on a ranged touch attack. Of course all guns ignore armor no that isn't anything special.

The arc weapons are clearly unbalanced. Arc weapons use lightning to make attacks and gain a bonus to hit targets wearing metal armor, but the armor, which conducts the electricity safely around the target, provides no damage reduction. In reality chain mail is the best possible armor to protect against high power shocks because the electricity is conducted around, not though, the person wearing it. Facts about electrical conductivity have only been remembered when it favors the person using the weapon.

There is no explanation or logic why the scatterlight suits give an armor class bonus against touch attacks such as ghosts, Ray of Enfeeblement, Shocking Grasp, or any other non light based attacks.

Pharmaceuticals are unbelievable, like hemochem which takes affect on the round it is used and grants a subject, living or undead, fast healing for 5 rounds as it promotes the body's natural healing. Working to promote natural healing on undead and forcing the human body to produce a day's worth of blood cells in half a minute are both nonsense for any technology (not a problem for magic though).

Some spells are unusably vague, such as Antitech Field, which blocks and repels ALL technology without specification. Because it never specifies what it affects one is left to assume that it repels anything manufactured such as energy weapons, pharmaceuticals, cross bows, clothing, doors, etc.

If you are willing to fill in a lot of blanks and assume that all the technology in this book is magic rather than science then this book has potential, earning it two stars from me.


Overall good rules for mass combat and nation building

4/5

First off the book is not perfect. There are typos, stats that are never used, and assumptions that don't make any sense. These errors aren't a big deal and can be immediately overcome with some reasonable assumptions. If there had been a little more editing before this book was published then I would have given it 5 stars.

Compared to the Ultimate Campaign (UC) book, I feel that the mass combat rules in Warpath are far superior, for the most part. The equipment, feats, and other abilities of soldiers making up armies is taken into account. Armies can easily be make of many small units. Armies also need logistics and can suffer from diseases, and the formations and maneuvers are realistic. I felt that the UC book lacked all these features. The downside is that leaders don't make much difference in Warpath.

The nation building section is fast, easy, and makes a lot of sense. The down side is that it contains much less depth and customization that Ultimate Campaign. For example, in Warpath a settlement of 6000 people is a small city, with stats identical to every other small city in the world, which makes my job as GM easy, but does not give PC the fun of designing their own towns and being able to see their palace.

I feel that Warpath and UC are each good alone, but it may be best to use them together taking the best features from each book.


Very usefull book for a GM

5/5

Good: Shows many good ways to make classes for player who are looking for ways to work on building their characters. Show how to make good classes out of non-traditional races (like halfling barbarians). Greatly reduces the time GMs have to spend putting together encounters with NPCs. Includes prestige classes. Includes LOTS of examples.

Bad: Doesn't includes classes outside the Core Book.

As a GM this book as saved me a lot time in preparing encounters since I don't have to build every NPC from scratch. I can usually find as class and level that I want and then just make minor changes to things like race, alignment, and spells memorized, etc. to suite the encounter I had in mind. It would have been nice to have classes from more than just the Core, but at 320 pages I can't hold it against them for not wanted to add a lot more pages.

I strongly recommend this book for any GM building home brewed adventures.