Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rogues Gallery 2001, October 18, 2001
This review is from: Enemies and Allies (Dungeons & dragons) (Paperback)
Back in the late 70's or early 80's, TSR (for those of you who are new, TSR owned D&D before WoTC) created a book of NPCs called the "Rogues Gallery". It was page after page of lists of stats for characters of each class... Boring. However, in the back of the book was 10 or so pages of fully fleshed NPC's (mainly from Gary Gygax's campaign)... and that was the GEM hidden in the trash. Enemies and Allies is the modern version of those last 10 pages... And it is a bit of a Gem itself. Only 64 pages in length, this booklet packs quite a punch.
Each section is divided by evironment (Crime, Religion, Mages, The Law and Adventurers). Each chapter provides a cross-section of fully detailed characters for the Niche they have been assigned. There are unique spells and some new Feats that appear (as one might expect), additionally some of the NPCs run beyond interesting into the realm of inspired (such as the Illithid Assassin Yarrick Zan). The real meat of the book is in the Two-Page "One-Minute NPC" section. Finally, the "Iconic" characters from the Players Handbook are provided (Redgar, Tordek, etc.) Which is just fun. Surely this is not a necessary addition to a Game Masters arsenal, but it is a happy addition for those of us that like to see how someone else thinks.
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15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Enemies and Allies?, November 6, 2001
This review is from: Enemies and Allies (Dungeons & dragons) (Paperback)
I was excited at the prospect of getting this book but when I opened it, I was dissapointed by its contents. I was expecting rules and guidelines as to how to create balanced and proper NPCs but rather I saw a lot of missmatched classes, especially with the "monster" types like Mindflayer Assassin (huh?). In short, I was expecting a lot from this material, hoping this would help me create NPC's (enemies or allies) using sound guidelines but rather the entire booklet is just full of silly and ridiculous samples. If you're not feeling creative, then this might help you. But, if you need to make a perfect villain or ally in your campaign, then stick with your own imagination and it might save you a few bucks!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Has its uses, October 29, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Enemies and Allies (Dungeons & dragons) (Paperback)
Not a bad product, but it could have been better. I like the visual candy a book offers, and i think it helps make the product more fun to read. With all the vaunted artwork WOTC has, this book has overall weak pictures with not a smidgen of color. Of course, all that aside, the content is fairly good. I particularly like the mind flayer assassin. There are groups of non-human parties that are somewhat strange, but i suppose they all fit the flavor of 3rd edition where weird is the norm. Not a mandatory book, and sort of on the thin side, but a resourceful DM can use it.
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