The new feats are interesting, like expert siege engineer or shield wall, but they are not particularly awe-inspiring. The chapter begins with new uses for skills and a few new feats. Recognition points, another addition to D&D, allow PCs to gain battlefield renown and use it to gain promotions, rally their troops, or intimidate foes. These auras are lifted from the D&D miniatures game, so they may be familiar to some readers.Īn essay on victory points, and specific scenarios in which they could be earned, will prove useful to adapting players to the battlefield. Commanders can use their auras to help their followers be more defensive, opportunistic, or maneuverable. Strategic advantages such as planning, bardic knowledge and scouting are detailed, and there are concise rules for morale checks.Ĭommander auras are new to the battlefield, as until now, most characters will not have had troops of men behind them. Siege engines are examined in depth, as is aerial bombardment and the volley of arrows.
These are all fantasy, all the time, and include an army of centaurs and giant eagles, an army of undead lead by a necromancer, an army of goblinoids, and a human army.Ī change of venue as extreme as moving to the battlefield from the dungeon requires some custom rules. The end of the chapter details several specific units. Examples include cutting supply lines or assaulting siege engines. There are small maps with each, descriptions of events, and ideas for scaling or modifying each encounter.
#D D 3.5 HEROES OF BATTLE SERIES#
This exceptionally useful chapter is essentially a series of short encounters that could be strung together to make a whole adventure, or even campaign. Experience is the most obvious award, followed closely by treasure, but Heroes of Battle also introduces victory points, which can help a DM decide if the actions of the PCs can turn the tide of the battle.
#D D 3.5 HEROES OF BATTLE HOW TO#
A cool map key is provided so that DMs can make their own maps, as are two sample adventure flow charts that illustrate how to create a battlefield adventure. The chapter also presents a wide variety of terrain features that could make a battlefield more interesting, like hedgerows and streams, piled bodies and pools of acid. If the orc chieftain is supposed to come over the hill to battle the heroes, but the heroes never go near the hill, the DM can fudge a few things and have the chieftain appear from a different point. By outlining possible outcomes for the battle, with places where the PCs can make a difference, a DM can be much more flexible in running the game. This chapter presents a new way to construct an adventure, using a timeline and flow chart instead of graph paper and map key. A DM cannot know for certain that players will ever hit his planned encounters unless he makes sure they do. For instance, players can go just about anywhere when there are no 10 X 10 rooms. The chapter also discusses how to give characters down time to memorize spells and heal up, and a few quick guidelines on military organization.īattlefield adventures have a few similarities to dungeons, but there are some huge differences. Both involve people swinging weapons, for instance.Īn abundance of advice on running battlefield adventures can be found here, from pacing and scale to treasure and experience. This chapter helps with that, by addressing both the differences and the similarities. The first thing a DM needs to wrap his head around is the difference between a dungeon and a battlefield. This book is intended to allow the players to be key players in enormous conflicts without resorting to filling a table with miniatures and taking four hours to play a half-hour skirmish. Heroes of Battle might be just what a DM needs to play D&D on the battlefield. Not only that, but battles have a tendency to dwarf individuals, and when we spend hours making a character, we want the lime light. The combat would be ludicrous, time-consuming and deathly boring. Yes, we eventually expanded to the great outdoors, but we still never took on 200 mounted men at a time. After level ten, it's 25% each for all four skills.Since the dawn of the hobby, Dungeons & Dragons has been largely about the dungeon crawl. When leveling up below level ten, battle mages are most likely to gain attack (30%), followed by spellpower and knowledge (25% each), and least likely to gain defense (20%). Battle Mages often wear trophies, gathered from slain foes, from which they derive additional power. While they advance their ability at magic, they also study the arts of war. Its Might counterpart is the Barbarian.īattle Mages are Barbarians with limited spellcasting abilities. The Battle Mage is the Magic hero class of the Stronghold faction in Heroes of Might and Magic III.
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