RedMage125
2014-05-24, 03:20 AM
I recently came across a neat little sourcebook from a 3rd party publisher, called Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra by Green Ronin Press.
While I know what most D&D players think of 3rd party sourcebooks (Green Ronin being especially guilty of unbalanced material), and I am no exception, I started skimming through this book out of boredom, and...lo and behold...I liked what I saw.
The author has obviously done a LOT of research regarding Ancient Egypt.
It's basically a sourcebook for a completely different game, using the 3.5e OGL. They have new names for all the PHB races (except half-orcs, those are not present) and classes. A few of the classes have been modified, like the sorcerer and bard, but little to no change to the monk or fighter (sadly). Paladins, however, have an alignment restriction of Lawful, and depending on whether they are Good, neutral, or Evil, their powers change.
The way the system handles the pantheon, and creating a history that meshes Egyptian mythology with D&D mechanics is quite brilliant.
One of my favorite things, though, is what they did with the races. Each of the races was created by one of the members of the pantheon. Osiris for halflings, Set for gnomes, and...my personal favorite, Anubis for gnolls. The non-human races have slightly different stat modifiers (elves get -2 STR, +2 DEX, -2 CON, +2 CHA, for example), but it seems balanced. The gnolls presented in this are not savage and evil (although their cultural peculiarities lead many to believe they are brutish and aggressive). Their stats are: +2 STR and WIS, -2 INT and CHA. They almost all worship Anubis, and they tend towards lawful alignments. Best of all, they treat flails as simple weapons, may wield a heavy flail in one hand, and treat the dire flail as martial, rather than exotic.
Sorry, maybe that's just me, but I love flails. I also love gnolls. To have both in one serving is amazing.
I know that it's technically a separate game from regular D&D, and most people may not be interested. However, I highly recommend this sourcebook as a great source of inspiration for anyone looking to add some Egyptian flavor to their game. Hell, anyone who wants a LA +0 gnoll race could use it. And the best thing about this book is the price.
Anyone interested or intrigued by this can PM me. I keep odd hours, but I still usually get online once a day. I'm totally willing to help people find this book ;). Or at least locate the excerpts. No charge.
Oh, and if you are interested, post in the thread, too, so it doesn't get lost in the back pages of the forum.
While I know what most D&D players think of 3rd party sourcebooks (Green Ronin being especially guilty of unbalanced material), and I am no exception, I started skimming through this book out of boredom, and...lo and behold...I liked what I saw.
The author has obviously done a LOT of research regarding Ancient Egypt.
It's basically a sourcebook for a completely different game, using the 3.5e OGL. They have new names for all the PHB races (except half-orcs, those are not present) and classes. A few of the classes have been modified, like the sorcerer and bard, but little to no change to the monk or fighter (sadly). Paladins, however, have an alignment restriction of Lawful, and depending on whether they are Good, neutral, or Evil, their powers change.
The way the system handles the pantheon, and creating a history that meshes Egyptian mythology with D&D mechanics is quite brilliant.
One of my favorite things, though, is what they did with the races. Each of the races was created by one of the members of the pantheon. Osiris for halflings, Set for gnomes, and...my personal favorite, Anubis for gnolls. The non-human races have slightly different stat modifiers (elves get -2 STR, +2 DEX, -2 CON, +2 CHA, for example), but it seems balanced. The gnolls presented in this are not savage and evil (although their cultural peculiarities lead many to believe they are brutish and aggressive). Their stats are: +2 STR and WIS, -2 INT and CHA. They almost all worship Anubis, and they tend towards lawful alignments. Best of all, they treat flails as simple weapons, may wield a heavy flail in one hand, and treat the dire flail as martial, rather than exotic.
Sorry, maybe that's just me, but I love flails. I also love gnolls. To have both in one serving is amazing.
I know that it's technically a separate game from regular D&D, and most people may not be interested. However, I highly recommend this sourcebook as a great source of inspiration for anyone looking to add some Egyptian flavor to their game. Hell, anyone who wants a LA +0 gnoll race could use it. And the best thing about this book is the price.
Anyone interested or intrigued by this can PM me. I keep odd hours, but I still usually get online once a day. I'm totally willing to help people find this book ;). Or at least locate the excerpts. No charge.
Oh, and if you are interested, post in the thread, too, so it doesn't get lost in the back pages of the forum.