Customer Reviews

Lords of Darkness (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Setting)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you play in the Realms and want to flesh out your villians, this book is wonderful. It's the same size and layout as Magic of Faerun, so that right there is a plus. Personally, i think the artwork is much better than Magic of Faerun, and some of the power groups detailed therein are quite intriguing. From the Daemonfey to the old Red Wizards, the book covers dozens and dozens of personalities, locales, and enemies to throw against your party.

If you don't play in the Realms, the book is not as useful, but it is still GRADE A gaming material that could have pieces used in other campaigns. It seems like WOTC is pumping all their best talent and money into the FR series, which is fine by me, but it means that some other lines end up lacking (like the class supplement books).

Yes, the book is very pricey, but for a DM who wants a whole slew of villians, monsters and plots, it's worth the money.

I'll start by saying the book is a good book for anyone playing in the Forgotten Realms setting. This book is perfect for DMs and not as important for players, although players who wish to play in an evil group will find this book very useful. Any DM that wishes to tackle the pcs with an evil group will find a lot of support and ideas in this book including stats, items, influence, npcs, allies, locations, maps etc. It also adds a handful of prestige classes specific to some of the evil groups including Church of Cyric (Spur Lords), Worshipers of Entropy(Entropist), Zhentarim's Sky mages, Thayan Knights of the Red Wizards and even the Darkmask for surface drow that follow Vhaeraun. The end of the book contains favored magical items and favored spells to some of the groups. Some of the groups have character leaders stats and items. I had to hold back from rating this book as a single reason which I thought is important as someone who plays with psionics. The books contains no psionical support, or even a psionical option, for cults like the Mindflayers which are obviously psionically oriented. Other than that, I highly recommend the book, especially for playing in or against evil groups.

Truth be told, you probably have enough information in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting to pass through or conduct simple quests with regard to most of the evil groups of Faerun. All of the organizations in this book are mentioned, with varying detail, in the campaign. They are also described in Forgotten Realms novels, so if you have read a great deal of those, you might not need this accessory.

If you want to get into real detail with the powers of darkness and haven't read that much fiction, then this is the book to have. Even if you have done your homework, there's quite a lot of original material in here. As an example, if you'd like to actually visit the City of Shade, Lord of Darkness contains a wealth of information about how you would describe it. The campaign provides more simple demographics and locations than in-depth detail, so this is most welcome. There are also new encounters, weapons, and spells for the organizations, as well as some pre-made dungeons to explore. Specific points of interest in lands held by the enemy are also noted, as well as details on particular leaders of each order.

In all, every major evil organization is covered, as well as a host of lesser ones. Lords of Darkness has enough info about how they operate and what they look like to give a DM totally unacquainted with the FR setting the capability to correctly portray enemies and guide adventurers through enemy territory.

While the standard paperback offerings for D&D 3 have thusfar disappointed me, the ones for Forgotten Realms have been truly outstanding and have proved applicable beyond the bounds of FR games.

I had high hopes for this book after having gotten Magic of Faerun, I was not disappointed. This book is well organized, sorted by both size of the group (major or minor) and alphabetically, and covers a great many "evil baddies" in the world that can be easily incorperated into either a new game or an existing Campaign.

Groups like The Night Masks, The Church of Shar, The Church of Bane, the Shades, and the Drow are now covered in extensive detail. A rich history is given, along with what are essentially roleplaying notes, and stats on prestige classes and promenant members of the organization.

My introduction to the Forgotten Realms began last autumn when I joined a D&D group for the first time. Since then, I've read several of the novels, but there are SO many of them, and it's quite hard to find some of the ones that have gone out of print. So I feel like I'm constantly lacking in background info.

In a way, this is probably better for me in regards to playing more realistic characters, who wouldn't know every little detail about Faerūn, but I'd still like to know some of the big stuff, as a player and as a fantasy geek.

Although probably not the most extensive and quality publication that could be provided, I felt that this gave me a good rough idea of some of the major and minor groups out there, as well as just enough history so I can understand what was going on. I disagree with the reviewer who felt there aren't enough illustrations. Very few pages are without something, and the complex maps for the major groups I found inspiring to base my own map-making upon.

I'd recommend this book, perhaps not for those who are well-versed in FR lore, but for those who need to get a grasp on some of the concepts of the baddies out there.

--Mel.

This book is excellent in giving the DM resources on the various evil aligned groups found throughout faerun. I think it is an eseential piece for any campaign that wants to be highly detailed and accurate with the forgotten realm campaign. Contained with in it are histories of each group, how they came to be, their main allies (if any at all), there enemies, information on the leaders of each group, the structure...some of them have description of the style of headquarters (in lieu of a better term) they have, etc. etc. I feel that most of the wizard of the coast games are quite often overpriced, but i also feel that in the long run, despite the price you will be glad you have it.

Although the organizations in this book are taken from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, the contents of the book are easily adaptable to any campaign. The organizations are covered in enough detail to allow for them to be placed in any setting and provide long term nemeses for any group of adventurers. The example groups with preset challenge ratings allow the addition of encounters with these groups to fit any level of campaign.

The book continues to use the small font sized used in the campaign setting book so although it may seem expensive at first glance for a paperback, the content is all there. The larger organizations have accompanying keeps and holds that can be placed into any adventure setting as needed and provide a wealth of ideas for any DM.

One of the things I enjoyed about the FR manual was the equisite artwork and extensive detailing of personalities in the FR campaign. It not only showed you the stats behind the characters that are such an integral part of that campaign world, it gave you some ideas on how to build characters (if you are a player) or NPC personalities and monsters (if you are a DM). You find that in the Manual of the planes, as well, where they give you the updated 3E stats for Tiamat and Bahamut. Lords of Darkness gives very little artwork and almost no stats for any of the foes and monsters contained within its pages beyond things like LE human Fighter 2/Wizard 3, and even then you aren't given basic things like hit points or Challenge Rating/Encounter Level. It includes a few interesting bits, like the Spur Lord prestige class (for followers of Cyric), the Darkmask prestige class (for Drow only), the Thayan knight and the Zhentarim Skymage. Some of the history sections are interesting, such as the section on Beholders, but those are often short. But overall this book seemed like a dumping ground for backstories that they couldn't use anywhere else, or which got edited out of other longer works. The prestige classes are limited in their usefulness and application, which is probably why we haven't seen them before, and there are few ridiculous feats like Phanlanx Fighting. Overall, if you are a FR history student, you will find this an afternoon's diversionary reading. Otherwise, if you are like me, this will drift to the bottom of your stack of gaming books, never to emerge again.

This book is a must have for every DM, its great for setting up organziations to attack and battle against if your playing a good campaign, and even better for setting up allies for your ...pc's. It also includes new prestige classes, myself and the group i play with tried playing the game as all ...prestige classes, and it just added a whole nother level. If your playing in faeurn, get this guide, as it is temendously usefull

(...) This is a darn good resource for FR. Don't confuse the size of the book, with how good it is. They could have increased the font size in the printing and those guys would have giving the book a three or four. (...) True, it could have been a bit deeper in some areas, but if every part of the organization is detailed in this way there isn't enough room to add your own personal touches.
If you liked the FRCS and the Magic of Faerūn book (or even the Monsters of Faerūn), you will also like this one. I SURE DO!!!