Tim Bannock

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Elemental Evil Player's Companion
Elemental Evil Player's Companion

Elemental Evil Player’s Companion Review

12/26/2018 / / 0 Comments

This review originally appeared on neuronphaser.com, and has been moved here for archival purposes.

It’s simple, it’s focused, and it packs a mean punch! The Elemental Evil Player’s Companion is a free PDF (and cheap print-on-demand product via Dungeon Masters Guild) that covers 4 vaguely elementally-inclined races and 43 new elementally-infused spells, providing players in just about any D&D campaign with some fun, well-balanced new options to play with.

Rating: Content 4/5 and Form 5/5.

Get the PDF for free or buy the Print-On-Demand versions at Dungeon Masters Guild.

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Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Starter Set Review

12/25/2018 / / 0 Comments

This review originally appeared on neuronphaser.com, and has been moved here for archival purposes.

When “lacks character creation” is your only argument against a starter set for a game that features free online Basic Rules (with character creation, no less!) in multiple formats and happens to be the premiere RPG on the market since the ’70s, all you can really do is say, “yeah, okay: this thing is perfect!” I’m a notoriously nitpicky critic, but I found the D&D Starter Set to be the perfect gateway not only for Dungeons & Dragon’s 5th edition, but also for D&D as a whole. Featuring a stellar, streamlined rule booklet perfect for referencing even after you’ve moved on to the full game, a beautifully executed introductory adventure that doubles as a mini-campaign, well-developed pregenerated characters that can advance up to level 5, and a set of nice-looking dice, this boxed set is a real treasure for new and experienced gamers alike.

Rating: Content 5/5 and Form 5/5.

Buy the box set on Amazon or pick up the adventure Lost Mine of Phandelver digitally on D&D Beyond.

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Monster Manual
Monster Manual

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual Review

12/24/2018 / / 0 Comments

This review originally appeared on neuronphaser.com, and has been moved here for archival purposes.

The D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual is not 100% perfect, but it’s one-thousand percent totally f%$^ing gorgeous! Wizards really did bring the art budget to bear on this book, providing more than just snazzy profile pix of all the monsters, but also neat pre-finalized artwork and concept sketches that often show the creatures in cool stances or doing interesting (sometimes downright silly) things, which helps make them come alive. Honestly, it’s so very, very close to 100% perfect. There’s a couple things missing — better indexing of the monsters by various things (Challenge, Terrain), ecology “stat blocks” like previous editions (organization, morale) — but some of these exist in the Dungeon Master’s Guide or in electronic form, so at worse we’re looking at a couple small missteps.

Rating: Content 4/5 and Form 5/5.

Buy the hardcover on Amazon or pick it up digitally at D&D Beyond.

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Dungeon Master's Guide
Dungeon Master's Guide

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide Review

12/23/2018 / / 0 Comments

This review originally appeared on neuronphaser.com, and has been moved here for archival purposes.

Dungeon Master’s Guides have to serve so many masters and cover so many topics that it’s almost a failing venture even before you’ve written the first word in regards to making it successful at every facet. That makes them hard to review, too, but in the case of 5th Edition’s entry onto the DMG scene, it’s actually been a pleasure! Taking the shortest path to cover every topic imaginable, this edition’s guide for running the game is chock full of functional advice, sleek mechanics, and an unreal number of random tables, optional rules, and variants that can inspire, inform, or redefine how you run a D&D game. It’s dead sexy to look at, too!

Rating: Content 5/5 and Form 4/5.

Buy the hardcover at Amazon or pick it up digitally at D&D Beyond.

Read on for the full review!

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Minsc Character Sheet from the Baldur's Gate comic series by Jim Zub
Minsc Character Sheet from the Baldur's Gate comic series by Jim Zub

Pregenerated Characters for Dungeons & Dragons

12/22/2018 / / 0 Comments

Here’s an entire folder on Google Drive with pre-generated characters of various levels from all different sources.

  • Most of the folders contain level 1-10 pregens as well as the D&D Starter Set pregens by Wizards of the Coast. These are originally available from their site as well as on DMsGuild (click this link to search all pregens on DMsGuild!).
  • One Thousand Pre-Generated Basic Characters and One Thousand Pre-Generated Commoners by Roger Carbol. (Original source – you might find updated files there!)
  • The Baldur’s Gate characters appear in Jim Zub’s Baldur’s Gate series of comics; character sheet layout redesign by 9bit.
  • Homebrew Level 1 characters by Tim Bannock (that’s me!).

UPDATE! NPC Creatures as Pregens uses the NPC monster stat blocks from Monster Manual and various official WOTC books, plus the DMsGuild releases Adversaries & Allies by Dan Layman-Kennedy and The Complete Book of Allies & Enemies by Scott Holden and adds random art I found through Pinterest to act as pregens in low-level campaigns. The NPCs are generally Challenge 1/8 or 1/4 with 2-3 Hit Dice, making them ideal candidates for a simplified starting character in a level 1-3 adventure. Included are both Google Slides and PDF versions in case you want to fiddle around with the format and make them look prettier or add your own pictures.

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