"Someone got paid for this?!" Terrible sourcebooks and modules thread

[littha]

In its defence CW does have some interesting PRCs.

[sirpercival]

Thread necro to nominate the Kingdoms of Kalamar Villain Design Handbook.

Highlights:

1. Antifeats.
2. The Initiative spell (you automatically have the highest initiative count, level 2)
3. The Surprise spell (the next people to encounter you are automatically surprised, level 2)
4. The Symbol of Lycanthropy spell (will save or up to 36 people are cursed with lycanthropy.  permanently. level 8)
5. The Spell Haste spell (the second spell you cast in a round is cast as a move action.  level 2)
6. The Good Luck spell (either allow creature to roll twice & take better, or force creature to roll twice & take worse. level 2)
7. One on One spell (no save, prevent anyone from entering combat with two people who are fighting. level 1)
8. The Randomize spell (when the target of this spell tries to cast a spell, they cast a random one from their repertoire instead. level 2)
9. Resistance to Acid or Resistance to Electricity (immunity to acid/electricity damage.  level 1)
10. Shuffle (swap targets prepared spells for other spells they know at random. level 2)
11. Sidestep (immune to the next physical attack. Unless you're bound and anchored to an immobile object with bonds less than two feet long. level 1)

Lowlights:

1. Electrical Form (turn someone into a cloud of electricity.  they can permanently reduce their constitution by 1 point to deal CLd6 electricity damage in the area of the cloud. level 6)
2. Bat Accident (cover someone in guano, nauseating them unless Reflex save. level 2)
3. Dwarven constitution (save vs poison, spells, and slas as if you were a dwarf.  level 2)
4. Field of caltrops (see caltrops spell, which is level 0.  level 2)
5. Meditate (casting time 2 full rounds, lasts 2 "turns" per level, meditate to regain 1 hp per 10 minutes meditating. level 2.)
6. Transfer Life (i have no idea what this spell actually does.  level 3)


More gems:
The Unchainer prc, which gives about a million domain slots.

Darklight Wizard.  I can't even begin to describe this thing.  Go read it yourself.

[nijineko]

+1 boed and bovd.

[Concerned Ninja Citizen]

Strictly speaking I'm not sure FATAL qualifies for this thread since I don't think anyone got paid for creating it (those two poor souls who reviewed it damn well shoulda got paid, though.)

Along those lines, though, the same team that reviewed FATAL also reviewed another free PDF download game that might be even more offensive, though somewhat less creatively so. In "Racial Holy War" the RPG you play the last survivors of the proud Aryan race in a post apocalyptic setting where the evil non white people have destroyed the world. Your mission: to kill evil non white people. The best part is the mechanics are so patchy it is literally not possible for a PC to attack because the rules do not provide for it. The "enemy" on the other hand have actual mechanics to their (disgustingly racist) special attacks. This is probably why they succeeded in destroying the world.

Since White Wolf's editing team (thought to be composed of a group of drunk, stoned, gibbons) has been mentioned a handful of times:

A couple of, otherwise good to excellent, Exalted books got really badly hosed this way. The 2nd edition Lunars book was one of the worst. There were at least half a dozen powers where the text essentially cut off in the middle of the mechanics section so crucial parts of the power were not published.

The western setting book (the west in Exalted is a big ocean with island chains) had perhaps the most egregious example. Naval combat rules had been long expected and awaited and there was a sidebar that said essentially: "sorry, but we couldn't fit the naval combat rules in this book. Look for them in..." and the sentence cut off without saying where they would end up.

[Libertad]

I'm glad to see this thread necroed from the grave.

Pathfinder Companion: Sargava the Lost Colony.

Home to terrible feats such as Monkey Lunge and Elephant Stomp.  Helped spawn this thread.

Perusing the Villain Design Handbook.  Oh my God, they've got a faction of evil Communists who want to overthrow monarchs.  The Blackfoot Society.  I've got no problem with using Communists as villains, but it feels weird in a D&D world.  How the hell would such an ideology come to be?

PS There's also a Communist dictatorship in the Pathfinder book Dragon Empires.  I'm surprised at how I'm able to spot these things.

Also, in the Villain Design Handbook, I just saw the Unchainer and the organization which sponsors the PrC.  Why would an organization of abolitionists be grouped in with evil organizations?!  It even says that the Brotherhood of Broken Chains does more good than bad; what's up?!

[sirpercival]

I think I have to nominate Darklight Wizard separately as the worst class ever printed.  Almost every single thing about it is either hilariously bad or hilariously broken.

Requirements:
1) 5 ranks in 2 knowledge skills.  Easy peasy.
2) Evil human or hobgoblin.
3) Give up all your previous class levels and hit dice (keeping ability scores, skill ranks, and feats you had before), and begin as a 1st level darklight wizard.  If you can't think of a hundred ways to abuse that, you're not trying.

Class abilities:

• Level 1 -- Spellcasting.  Wizard casting with an accelerated progression (9th-level spells over 10 levels).  Yep, you can start over and reach level 9 spells at ECL 10. Also, Mixed Blessing (get your Int mod as a bonus to all saves).
• Level 2 -- Darkness 3/day as a spell-like ability.
• Level 3 -- Area of Night (whatever that is) 2/day as a SLA.  Probably a higher-level darkness ability.
• Level 4 -- Death Touch.  SLA, deal CLd4 damage with a touch attack.  The extra-special effect?  If you deal more damage than the creature has hit points, it dies.  Whoa!  Who thought that was a good idea?
  
• Level 5 -- Animate Dead, at will as an SLA.  Good thing you can't do Darkness at will!  That would be broken!  Now, you can only control up to level + 1d6 HD of undead.  Huh?
• Level 6 -- Aura of Despair.  Besides spellcasting, this is the most powerful ability ever printed.  You radiate an aura that causes all characters (other than necromancers) to suffer a -2 penalty to all saves.  Supernatural ability, no save, no spell resistance.  No range.  No duration.   All creatures ever, forever.
• Level 7 -- Backhand of Fate. Touch attack causes a creature to suffer a -4 penalty on its next roll.
• Level 8 -- Dark Lightning.  3/day, CLd4 damage w/ a ranged touch attack, imposes a -1 penalty to every roll for 1d6 rounds.
• Level 9 -- Create Undead 2/day as SLA.
• Level 10 -- Control Undead 2/day as SLA.

Apparently, you also get Protection from Good, though I have no idea what level since it isn't on the table, and for some godforsaken reason they printed the abilities in alphabetical order.  Yes, your Weapon & Armor Proficiencies are last in the text.


EDIT: Oh yeah, and it has full BAB.

[zook1shoe]

Transfer Life allows you to give or steal 1 hp from a touched creature per round for 2 rounds/CL. Unwilling creatures can make a Will save to resist the effect and/or break contact.


and yes +1 towards Darklight Wizard

[Shinkuro]

Pathfinder Material Coming Up

Ultimate Combat; the worst pathfinder book in the core line. should be called the Big Book of Cowboys and the Orient. the gunslinger is a waste of space built around poorly thought out gun rules that are an even bigger waste of space.  the Samurai is a selfish cavalier archetype who tries to pay lip service to history poorly, and completely neglects the supernatural aspects from mythology and the ninja pays lip service to the associated supernatural mythic abilities and being an overall superior rogue. there is a series of monk archetypes, a crappy list of oriental equipment designed as fanservice, some poorly thought out seige weapon rules, some crappy called shot rules, and the only highlight was piecemeal armor

[Shinkuro]

i agree that the darklight wizard sucks. time to pull out some crappy pathfinder material.

Gunslinger: the mascot class of ultimate combat. built as complete fanservice to the steampunk fans, has only one good archetype, the damned pistolero, which requires a heavy exploitation of free actions and either a 3rd arm or a prehensile tail to pull off. is the most frequently banned class next to the summoner. in fact, the class is constantly being modified because the gun rules are so damned horrid yet so exploitable. the guns don't even have a decent range, barely farther than thrown weapons, and both firearms, and their ammunition are so expensive. so the class is provided a patch feat intended to fix price issues, and they are still too expensive. they have nowhere near enough grit to be viable. running out faster than the damned speed of light.

the UC Samurai: one of three classes in ultimate combat, it is a selfish modified cavalier that tries to encompass too many facets horribly, it tries to be a master of iaijutsu and fails, it tries to be a mounted archer and fails, unless you have a DM lenient enough to allow a flying mount. it is expected to wear the best armors in the game, which are the overpowered yet cheap oriental ones.

the UC Ninja: essentially a more selfish rogue, the 3rd class of ultimate combat people have an aversion because of the japanese flavor, even MADer than the CA ninja. unless you want to be every bard's personal charmed Geisha. gives up trapfinding for poison use and evasion for a Ki pool.

the Magus: pathfinder's duskblade equivalent from ultimate magic, restricted to 1handed slashing weapons to use any class abilities at all, and must have a free offhand.

Cavalier: guy on a horse. that's the entirety of the class. published in the APG. useless unless you have a DM that allows a flying mount.

[Shinkuro]

I'm glad to see this thread necroed from the grave.

Pathfinder Companion: Sargava the Lost Colony.

Home to terrible feats such as Monkey Lunge and Elephant Stomp.  Helped spawn this thread.

Perusing the Villain Design Handbook.  Oh my God, they've got a faction of evil Communists who want to overthrow monarchs.  The Blackfoot Society.  I've got no problem with using Communists as villains, but it feels weird in a D&D world.  How the hell would such an ideology come to be?

PS There's also a Communist dictatorship in the Pathfinder book Dragon Empires.  I'm surprised at how I'm able to spot these things.

Also, in the Villain Design Handbook, I just saw the Unchainer and the organization which sponsors the PrC.  Why would an organization of abolitionists be grouped in with evil organizations?!  It even says that the Brotherhood of Broken Chains does more good than bad; what's up?!

Quadira: Gateway to the east. essentially spends multiple pages of contradictory info about genie enslavement, a crappy prestige class built around genie binding that works better for sorcerers than wizards, a race of avatars (as in the Aang and Korra kind) descended from mass genie crossbreeding, that same race got reprinted in the advanced race guide and bestiary 3, although nerfed, and a feat that every magus has to take to be effective, which also got reprinted in the inner sea world guide,

Cheliax: Empire of Devils. a few key NPC retcons to satisfy complaints. such as aging the chelexian queen by a whole 4 years. originally, she was a hot-headed, spoiled, selfish, brat of 12 years who inherited her title from her thrice damned grandmother. which added to her appeal as an NPC. now she is a hot headed, spoiled, selfish female dog of 16 years.  same personality, they just aged her 4 years to get past a few complaints.  the hamatulasu combat style is all about squick factor as it is commonly used by FATALites who play monks.  the other devil flavored feats are typical stuff you could find in a hardcover by another company, and the abrogalian corset is +3 studded leather with the ability to absorb some extra damage per day.

[veekie]

the UC Ninja: essentially a more selfish rogue, the 3rd class of ultimate combat people have an aversion because of the japanese flavor, even MADer than the CA ninja. unless you want to be every bard's personal charmed Geisha. gives up trapfinding for poison use and evasion for a Ki pool.

I'd agree on the others, but the Ninja is a straight out improvement over the rogue and one of the few useful things to come out of that book.

[Shinkuro]

the UC Ninja: essentially a more selfish rogue, the 3rd class of ultimate combat people have an aversion because of the japanese flavor, even MADer than the CA ninja. unless you want to be every bard's personal charmed Geisha. gives up trapfinding for poison use and evasion for a Ki pool.

I'd agree on the others, but the Ninja is a straight out improvement over the rogue and one of the few useful things to come out of that book.

it is better than the rogue on paper, but only when you don't have to worry about tracking Ki, such as the 15 minute adventure day, or post 10th level play when you get the invisible blade talent. before then, you are literally bleeding Ki points. and you are more MAD than a rogue, or Even a CA ninja, unless you don't mind either dealing poor damage, being some random bard's charmed geisha, or being an anemic weakling. i played one, a fetchling 2WF build with a pair of agile Wakazashi and pirahna strike, the lack of of evasion hurt, magical traps were more lethal, and i was bleeding Ki faster than a hemophiliac. got from levels 4-9 before death. i tried flanking to conserve Ki, double slice for full dex to both hands,  i felt more like a charmed geisha most of the time.

[veekie]

Might be something to how you were spending it I guess, it certainly has plenty of traps in play to burn ki more faster. I found it works pretty good when you supplement it with traditional rogue classics like the use of flanking, etc.

[Shinkuro]

Might be something to how you were spending it I guess, it certainly has plenty of traps in play to burn ki more faster. I found it works pretty good when you supplement it with traditional rogue classics like the use of flanking, etc.

the problem with the Ki, is you have the same issues as a monk. the Ki makes up a huge portion of your DPR, and i had to kill a foe as soon as possible to not be dropped in one round. so i fell for the trap of the extra attack.

[veekie]

I more often use it to get into a flank without being exposed to a full attack, then fight normally from there, saving it for a pull-out.

[Shinkuro]

I more often use it to get into a flank without being exposed to a full attack, then fight normally from there, saving it for a pull-out.

try fighting monsters that have the ability to autodetect you, can take a huge chunk out of your health with an AoO, and have more reach and a ridiculous CMD.

[veekie]

Dragons? I think that's mostly it. Though there are certainly DMs out there who treat every attempt at concealment as a personal affront.

[Shinkuro]

Dragons? I think that's mostly it. Though there are certainly DMs out there who treat every attempt at concealment as a personal affront.

try having a DM who doesn't feel he has done his job unless he downs 20% of the party every fight.

[sreservoir]

not sure how that has anything to do with the ninja, then.

[littha]

I more often use it to get into a flank without being exposed to a full attack, then fight normally from there, saving it for a pull-out.

try fighting monsters that have the ability to autodetect you, can take a huge chunk out of your health with an AoO, and have more reach and a ridiculous CMD.

I like dragons, they make certain players with rings of darkhidden cry.