Legends & Lairs: Traps & Treachery
May. 18th, 2011 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroLegends & Lairs: Traps & Treachery is part of Fantasy Flight Games' line of d20-compatible products. I bought it specifically looking for new traps and puzzles that I could translate to 4E.
The book starts with a section of rogue-themed splat, including a bunch of details on the variety of crimes one might specialize in. Then there are a collection of prestige classes that are really better suited for NPCs or in a very specific campaign setting (which they acknowledge, so good for them). This book was clearly written for 3.0E rather than 3.5E, as the constant references to the Innuendo skill would indicate. It introduces a bunch of new skills, compounding a “skill creep” problem (too many skills, not enough uses for most of them or skill points to spend on them) that 3.5E tried to correct and 4E directly addressed.
Thinking about it, I think I particularly like 4E setting up completely different rules for PCs versus NPCs. Anyone intended to die in one or two encounters gets a limited selection of stats and powers that can fit on an index card and updated easily, whereas characters eventually get a lot of variety and their stats have a lot of “moving parts”. This book offered a “companion” (in the Firefly sense) class, with a selection of semi-magical powers that are either blatantly intended for non-combat use (in which case, you don’t even really need rules for them) or as so restricted that they barely function in combat and make you far less effective than a standard thief or bard. When I was looking to create a “uses sex appeal as a weapon” NPC for 4E, I essentially reskinned a harpy and called it a day.
They also have a bunch of new feats, spells and items; mostly some splatbook power creep for rogues, nothing particularly exciting. There’s a big section on poisons which is pretty good, as long as you don’t let players at the rules for making your own poisons. It took me about ten minutes to design a 5th-level character than could make a contact or inhaled poison that does 3d6 Con damage with a DC 30 save. And one new monster, just kinda randomly thrown in.
The meat of the book, though, is a huge listing of creative traps, including in-depth details of how they work, how to detect them, and how to disarm them. If you’ve ever wanted more than just, “You make a Disable Device check. The trap is disarmed,” this gives you everything you need to get detailed. There’s also a chapter full of puzzles, divided by type (math puzzles, riddles, word puzzles) that’s basically D&D-themed brainteasers already built into traps, dungeon segments or magical items. Most of them can be dropped into a game with minimal preparation; and with a bit of adjustment (switching saving throws to attack rolls in a lot of cases), you can carry them over to 4E pretty easily. Actually, most of them would work just fine for a retroclone of an earlier edition, too.
It seems like they really cared about making a big book o’ traps, and that’s where the effort went, but they decided that wouldn’t sell and built it out into a “thief class corebook” instead. Protip: If you’re a DM and want to use this, ignore their claims that anything is intended for players. It’s a book full of ready-to-use traps, tricks and puzzles, you don’t want your players to see any part of it!
The book starts with a section of rogue-themed splat, including a bunch of details on the variety of crimes one might specialize in. Then there are a collection of prestige classes that are really better suited for NPCs or in a very specific campaign setting (which they acknowledge, so good for them). This book was clearly written for 3.0E rather than 3.5E, as the constant references to the Innuendo skill would indicate. It introduces a bunch of new skills, compounding a “skill creep” problem (too many skills, not enough uses for most of them or skill points to spend on them) that 3.5E tried to correct and 4E directly addressed.
Thinking about it, I think I particularly like 4E setting up completely different rules for PCs versus NPCs. Anyone intended to die in one or two encounters gets a limited selection of stats and powers that can fit on an index card and updated easily, whereas characters eventually get a lot of variety and their stats have a lot of “moving parts”. This book offered a “companion” (in the Firefly sense) class, with a selection of semi-magical powers that are either blatantly intended for non-combat use (in which case, you don’t even really need rules for them) or as so restricted that they barely function in combat and make you far less effective than a standard thief or bard. When I was looking to create a “uses sex appeal as a weapon” NPC for 4E, I essentially reskinned a harpy and called it a day.
They also have a bunch of new feats, spells and items; mostly some splatbook power creep for rogues, nothing particularly exciting. There’s a big section on poisons which is pretty good, as long as you don’t let players at the rules for making your own poisons. It took me about ten minutes to design a 5th-level character than could make a contact or inhaled poison that does 3d6 Con damage with a DC 30 save. And one new monster, just kinda randomly thrown in.
The meat of the book, though, is a huge listing of creative traps, including in-depth details of how they work, how to detect them, and how to disarm them. If you’ve ever wanted more than just, “You make a Disable Device check. The trap is disarmed,” this gives you everything you need to get detailed. There’s also a chapter full of puzzles, divided by type (math puzzles, riddles, word puzzles) that’s basically D&D-themed brainteasers already built into traps, dungeon segments or magical items. Most of them can be dropped into a game with minimal preparation; and with a bit of adjustment (switching saving throws to attack rolls in a lot of cases), you can carry them over to 4E pretty easily. Actually, most of them would work just fine for a retroclone of an earlier edition, too.
It seems like they really cared about making a big book o’ traps, and that’s where the effort went, but they decided that wouldn’t sell and built it out into a “thief class corebook” instead. Protip: If you’re a DM and want to use this, ignore their claims that anything is intended for players. It’s a book full of ready-to-use traps, tricks and puzzles, you don’t want your players to see any part of it!
