I see Frank beat me to it, but i'm gonna post anyway.
Hello there. Last week, I got hold of a copy of Dungeonscape, last in the line of environmet books by WotC. This time, as the title say, the subject is the dungeon. Seven chapters, one painful, one filled with anguish, one crappy, one whatever, one boring, one readable and one with quality. We will begin with crappy.
Chapter One – Dungeon as the enemy AKA The Readable OneThe chapter begins kinda bland, with an Intro that's 3 pages long. This isn't the readable part. Unfortunately, bits of crap got copy/pasted into this part from chapters 5-7. That is why you can skip it without any regret. No advice, no flavor, only paper.
But after that my morale bonus went up by one because my new favorite part of the game came up – alternate class features(ACFs later on). And then immediatly it went down by two. The dredded Complete Mage(Scoundrel) type of advice serves as an intro into each class feature. But nevermind, I say. If I could read through Complete Psionic, my mind will endure this also.
• Bbn – No bad advice(gasp). ACF: Trapkiller – hit the trap to disable it and find it via Survival, lose trap sense. Not baaad, but certainly not good. You still have no reason to play a barbarian. 4/10
• Brd – No bad advice, no good either. ACF:Lore song – lose bardic knowhow, gain +4 on most rolls as an Immediate action 1/day+1/odd bard level. ACF:Mimicking Song(oxymoron, emphasis on moron) – lose counterspell, may grant untyped bonus on Move Silently. You can't counterspell, but you're a fvckin mime!!? I don't think so. Both 2/10
• Clr – They incourage you to take ranks in Heal. Does Heal do something? No? Then, no thanks. ACF: Divine restoration – lose granted domain power, spontaneously cast restoration line of spells. I guess if you took Plant domain, or Law, it could be better to sub it for something remotly usefull. 5/10
• Drd – No bad advice, but at the end of the chapter, there is a wonderful bit of designer insight. Quote ''Make sure to select Natural Spell feat so you can use your magic while in wild shape“. Ahem, no shite, Herlock Sholmes. ACF: Root walker – lose wild empathy, woodland stride and resist nature's lure; gain wild empathy with vermin, woodland stride with stone and resist nature's lure against aberrations. Since I've never seen any of these abilities in effect, I'm gonna have to conclude that i don't give a fvck about their variants. ?/10
• Ftr – Suggesting that Climb and Jumb be maxed in a game where flying is so commonly available is kinda moot. ACF: Dungeon crasher – no, you don't bring dungeons down, but you can bring stuff and critters down. Lose your 2nd and 6th level feats to gain +4 AC and saves vs traps, +10 to break stuff and +8d6 + triple your Strenght(i'm guessing bonus, tripling a strenght score might be obscene) if you Bull rush anyone into an obstacle. Considering what fighters usually gain(see Dragon Magic for undilluted pain), I'm going to have to give this ability 3/10, which is actually very good considering how i ordinarily give ftr ACFs a negative score.
• Mnk – Tripping is suggested. I've seen Goliath Bbn/Ftr/PsyWar/ExWpnMstr/Warmind, Ogre Psywar, Human Clr and wolves trip. Never a monk. I guess this is just an aprils fool day advice. ACF: Standing jump – duh, lose your speed to jump high. ACF: Wallwalker – lose your slow fall(did any one ever use this ability?) to gain a weirdass climb speed. Neither of these abilities is worth so much that you should play a monk.0/10
• Pal – Oh, man, three whole pages of Pally stuff. You can read more about it here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dn ... 09a&page=1 As far as I'm concerned it's crap, but so is the horsey. 5/10
• Rng – No advice. ACF: Trapfinding – lose Track, gain rogue stuff. So why aren't you playing as a rogue? 1/10
• Rog – Hehe, they suggest you cary 10' poles. This seriously takes me back through time. ACF: Quick fingers - lose a bit of Trap sense to Disable faster. Never have i seen a need for speedy Disable device, so i have no clue what this woud be usefull for? Maybe for Mission Impossible: The Return to the The Dungeon. ACF: Penetrating Strike – lose trap sense(yeeeeeah), gain half sneak attack dice on flanked opponents that are imune to sneak attack. Well, hoody hoo, that's what i call an ability. Later it will be shown that it matters not, but it is better than Trap sense. 10/10
• Sor – Aaaargh, the pain! The fotons leaving this page actually left little shitty smudges on my retinas, so i had to wash my eyes. First off, they suggest you take every damage dealing spell in the book, then they mock your low skill points and then as a coup-de-grace, they suggest Combat Casting as a feat option! Enough with the bloody Combat Casting! It's abominably bad. Stop suggesting it! ACF: Spellshield – lose familiar, gain a Mana Shield from Diablo. Absorbs 5x spell lvl(spent as an immediate action) points of damage. Pair it with Durable mage from Complete Mage, take a club and go beat up some fighters. I'm gonna give this one a 7/10 on account of my love for Diablo.
• Wiz – Again with the Combat Casting! Are the people at WotC Combat Casting worshipers? Is that feat a dark god of yours? Stop printing that crap. And NO, Magic Missile is NOT a combat spell. ACF: Wizzo of Sun and Moon – lose your critter, may memorise a Sun spell and a Moon spell in the same slot. Cast one and you can't cast the other. Guess when you cast which spell? Bollocks, complete and utter. How about memorising quality stuff regardless of daytime? 0/10
The next part of this chapter is the new class – Factotum. A quick rundown follows: bab full, ref good, 6 skills per level, all skills class skills, d8hp, all weapons, light armors and all shields, may cast in armors(not only light), trapfinding. And now a new mechanic(not) – inspiration points. You gain a pool of them at the beggining of the encounter(2 at lvl 1, 10 at lvl 20), and they may be spent on the following: Int bonus to rolls or AC, level on a skill roll, +d6 sneak attack, a modest ammount of healing, an extra standard action, ignore SR and DR, defensive roll, mimic Ex ability of a base class and cast a spell from wiz/sor list(max level – 7th).
Clustered together, these abilities might look like something, but actually you don't have anything to add to the party. If you can skill it, the rogue can skill it better. If you can spell it, the wizzo is better. If you can fight it, a druid is better. In fact, this class is so tasteless, that wet cardboard tastes better. Skip (Williams) it. Also, the sample factotum doesn't have prereqs for his feats. Sad, really sad.
Last bit of this chapter is(again) from another part of this book. It is all about walls and floors and doors of a dungeon. There also some bridges, chasms and chimneys. Why is it bundled with player stuff? The only interesting bits are the special terrains – magical floors that buff you. Blood floor grant Improved Critical, Deadwood grants +2 turn resistance and a morale(???) bonus to undead(cmon designers, at least pretend to know the rules), Elementum lets you stab people with elemental energy that hurts you also and finaly a material that all liches stand on – Magestone gives you a +1CLVL and a +1 to all spell DCs.
Chapter Two – Tools of the trade AKA Quality OneWell, to an average rogue this chapter looks like Christmass morning. First of is some mundane equipment, the designers knew we were depresed because of the last chapter so they wrote some hillarious gear down to make us laugh. My favorite is mithral grappling hook. You can throw it further for a mere 1000gp. Funny, isn't it? I guess adamantine manacles could be of use, and so could the wang bracers(draw one of 5 stored wangs as a swift action), the rest is crap.
The next subchapter is pure gold – weapon modifications. There is only one out of four that deserves mention, twice – The Almighty Wang Chamber. Every rogue should have two. Must be in a hilt or shield and must be bought along with the weaponor shield(kinda like masterwork). What does it do? It lets you treat any wang attached to it as a held and ready wang. So, Wang of Golemstrike in one dagger, Gravestrike in another and fear no unsneakable critter. Sub wangs for better ones, with regards to DM and adventure.
The rest of the chapter is composed of irelevant alchemical crap and bullshit magical items that noone will use. Special mention goes to Swarmbane weapon enhancement that lets you stab swarms really good.
Chapter three – Character Options AKA The Anguishy OneNine feats – five general(two reprinted), two tactical, two weapon style. All bad.
Combat tinkering lets you pick locks and disable devices better during combat. When the fvck are you going to use this feat? Gnome tunnel acrobatics(tactical) lets you....what-fvcking-ever, one of the abilities is that you deal additional damage equal to the damage you get when you fall on a critter. Hammer and piton(style) literally does nothing – you deal d4+str dmg to a large critter with a standard action. Trap engineer and Trap sensitivity do trapcrap. Undermountain tactics works if you have stairs, doors or two walls handy. Weapon and torch(style) lets you look like Aragorn.
Prestige classes are so impossibly bad, that I had to wonder, what kind of a game are the designers running? There are luckily only two of them. The first one is Beast Heart Adept, a class that gets aberrations or magical beasts as animal companions. Over 10 levels, you gain three such beasts, ending with CR8-9, CR6-7 and CR4-5. Since by that time you play in a 15th level campaign, everybody has to ask them selves one single question. Why is the party wizzard and the DM covering your ass so much, since you suck at everything you do?
The other is The Trapsmith. You do stuff with traps. Whole five levels of doing stuff with traps. I guess if i were playing a ''Speed'' or ''SWAT'' scenario, i might consider playing this class. Or not.
Three guilds are also described in this chapter. Some entry prereqs are written down and three handy tables for determining your status within each guild. Only thing is, some of those numbers are impossible to reach. Again, designers, hello? Also, one of the guilds increases your affiliation score if your BAB is +10 or higher. I guess that nobody told the people at WotC that wizzos kill dragons, not fighters. Last time i heard, fighters didn't cast maxed Shivering Touch.
So overall, in the first three chapters the Good are: rogue losing trapsense to kill stuff more easily and wang weapons for rogues to kill stuf more easily. Spellshield Sor ACF gets an honorable mention. So does the swarmkilling weapon. Oh, and that ''special'' terrain.
The Bad is: most other ACFs, crappy gear and lousy feats, terrain and dungeon features nobody cares about.
The Ugly: both prestige classes, new base class, the ''morale bonus to the undead'' terrain. I can picture it right now – the uplifted zombie bulette, its brow shining with hope, its morale bolstered, it's eyes looking upward.
I would post more but i gotta go to work.