From: Big Finger Games
Reviewed by:Ron McClung
Dragon’s Hoard Volume One: Lost Treasure is a new d20 PDF e-book from Big Finger Games.
D20 and the advent of e-publishing are wonderful things. They give opportunities to many people to show off what they can do for the game they love, while at the same time keep a lot of the ‘crap’ off the gaming shop shelves. Many of the PDFs I have seen are primarily labors of love. Some I am not sure why they are even put into PDFs.
From the page #3:“ This e-book presents the ultimate adversary any group of adventurers may face…” ”
Dragon’s Hoard Volume One: Lost Treasure is a simple and short PDF that presents a ready-made dragon and his hoard for any D&D 3.5 party to encounter. The dragon’s name is Demrellkull and is a Challenge Rating 20 red dragon. Not only is the dragon completely‘statted’out, but so are his standard tactics and hoard. Tactics covers a variety of things from what Demrellkull can do if he has warning of the characters to what he will do when he is reduced to less than half hit points. The hoard includes a mound of gold pieces and seven chests and is kept below a trapped iron gate. The chests contain many valuable gems as well as several magic items.
From the page #3:“ … and the hoarded treasures those adventurers seek. ”
Several special magic items are then described with statistics including The Sorrow of Endless Winter(magical bastard sword) and the Slaver’s Brand(magical branding iron). A few aspects of these are items are reasonably imaginative and probably cool to have in a D&D campaign. There are 6 major magic items and 7 minor. One new spell is also described called Martyr’s Immolation.
Included at the end is a handy reference sheet with a hit point and spell tracker that makes it easy for the DM to track the dragon’s progress and spent magic in combat. All of the dragon’s attacks, resistance scores and other defenses are well laid out for the DM.
In conclusion, this small supplement is not bad. It is well-laid out and well-written and seems to be reasonably balanced. It is stated up front that the Demrellkull is a dragon that has been hiding for a long time and his spells and skills reflect that. This is a dragon that can be dropped into any campaign with little trouble if the DM feels like doing a classic dragon slaying. I like the philosophy behind this PDF – simple, clear and concise with an easy-to-use quick reference page. I would love to see a larger printed sourcebook with this type of philosophy behind it.
For more details on Big Finger Games and their new d20 PDF e-book “Dragon’s Hoard Volume One: Lost Treasure” check them out at their website http://www.rpgnow.com and at all of your local game stores.
Dragon’s Hoard Volume One: Lost Treasure
From:Big Finger Games
Type of Game:d20 PDF e-book
Written by:Michael Todd
Contributing Authors:Jeremy Forbing, David Phillips
Game Design by:Michael Todd
Developed by:Michael Todd
Number of Pages:13
Game Components Included:One PDF File
Game Components Not Included: D&D 3.5 Core Rulebooks
Website:http://home.att.net/~michael.todd/
Reviewed by: Ron McClung