Customer Reviews

Dungeoncraft (Legends & Lairs, d20 System)

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

 

 

This book is okay, it certainly has alot of unique information one is not going to find anywhere else. There are some interesting prestige classes, as well as some new feats and equipment (skip-shot arrows: they bounce off walls and negate dex bonus to AC! fun for rangers). Also some wacky ideas for cool dungeons like the Great Machine and a huge carcass the party can walk around in. All the stuff is pretty cool, but if you're not in a dungeon, well then you'll probably have no use for this book. For a exclusive dungeon-based campaign, where the characters NEVER see the light of day, this is the perfect book.
Otherwise, I'd have to say that the few non-dungeon related things that can be cherry-picked from the text aren't really worth the price.

It was written during 3rd edition and uses the d20 system . . .

. . . which is a little unfortunate, since they should have deleted all d20 stuff. The book is more of a general collection of advice about how to make monsters scary but fair, how to make traps interesting but logical, how to make dungeons that aren't monotonous, etc. It' basically covers a lot of same material as the 4e DM's Guide but in a more down-to-earth way. By that I mean that while the DM's Guide talks about player motivation and forking story paths, this one will actually get down to the nitty-gritty of how to incorporate a lava trap or a crumbling bridge hazard while leaving room for the characters to escape.

I got a lot out of it and think it's a good book. My only wish is that they had actually not put the d20 stats in there (there are no many, anyhow), so that it would have been more timeless and universally applicable.