Player's Option: Heroes of Shadow: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement [ハードカバー]

In a nutshell:

Heroes of Shadow is a great, flavorful supplement for 4e, with tons of options for both new and existing characters. While you will technically need the Heroes Of... books to use 100% of this book, you can still use almost all of it without them. It's full of solid mechanics, evocative fluff, and some great ways to let your character explore their darker sides. Although it contains some reprints of Dragon material, it has enough new mechanics and fluff to make it well worth its price tag for most 4e players. If you don't allow the Essentials options into your game, you won't be able to use 100% of the book, though you're still getting a lot of crunch for your money.

In more detail, let's take a quick inventory of what we have here...

We have three races, two of which are brand new. One, the Revenant, was published online quite a while ago. It's largely unchanged (other than the addition of a flexible stat), and the various past-life feats have all been condensed into one. The Shade is ... well, a bit odd. It has a Standard action racial power which lets it hide, and it loses a healing surge ... and it's otherwise not too powerful. Sadly, I think it will largely be a neglected race, because it's a bit behind the curve when compared to other 4e races. The Vryloka also has a racial penalty, though it's pretty minor - only a penalty to healing surge values when bloodied. Not a big deal; it's certainly not as bad as being a Small race like the gnome! Both of those races have a very cool list of Racial Utility powers that can be chosen instead of your normal Utility Power at any given level; it's kind of like having a Dark Sun Theme built into your race. While the concept of racial penalties seems a bit weird for 4e, I don't think it's much different from having a Small-size character, or giving them a speed of 5.

The classes are, of course, the meat of the book. What do you find here? Well, a lot of interesting stuff.

We get a Blackguard, for one - he's basically the Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms's Cavalier, only backwards. He's a striker who doesn't really hit that hard, but who keeps all the durability of his parent class. They're pretty cool - you pick a vice instead of a virtue, and much like with the Cavalier, this sets a lot of your future choices. Awesomely, PHB1 Paladins can pick some of these powers to add some striking to their repertoire. With the ability to wear plate armor right from the start and with Defender hit points (and many chances for temporary hit points), they are far and away the most resilient Strikers in the game at this point, and are probably best understood as a hybrid Striker/Defender.

The Executioner Assassin is (to all appearances) unchanged from its final DDI publication. It's still a wonderful little class, dripping with poisonous flavor. I'm as big a fan of the Executioner as I am of any class WotC's come out with in the past few years. It's a shame it's taking up some pages when it's already been published, but I figure that even DDI holdouts should get a taste of how awesome it is. For those unaware, it's largely a Basic attacking martial class, with some Shadow magic in their Utility powers. They get some situational At-Wills for tricks with various weapons (three each for the ranged and melee builds), a series of Poisons which fill the role of their Daily powers, a single hard-hitting Encounter power which is basically all their Encounter powers rolled into one, and a class feature which lets them automatically execute a creature they bring down to within 10 points of death (scaling by tier). It's just great; WotC knocked one out of the park on this class.

We get a Death domain for Warpriests, and a bevy of death-themed powers suitable for any Cleric. I'm honestly not that enamored of warpriests, but from what I can see, the new builds look solid. This section is likely more useful to PHB Clerics than it is to Sun or Storm Warpriests, because the focus is on Implement powers rather than Weapon ones. (I was hoping for a feat to ease up the burden of taking a variety of Weapon and Implement powers, but alas, it is not to be found here.)

There's the Binder, which is kind of like the Essentials-style version of the PHB ranged Warlock. It's a controller (officially; the PHB1 warlock was as much a controller as a striker already), and it lacks some features like the Warlock's Curse. Presented, we have both the Star and Gloom pacts, both of which are oozing with flavor - literally so, in the case of the Star pact. Speaking of, it's good to see that one make yet another appearance, since I think the PHB1 Star Pact warlock is rather challenging to work with, mechanically. Anyway, any Warlock can take these powers too, as normal. It further blurs the lines with the Warlock as to whether it's a strikery controller or a controllery striker, but I don't think this is a bad thing at all. With all that said, the class feels a little dry to me. I don't know; its features just don't jump out at me.

Continuing with the Warlock love, we also get new shadow-themed pacts for Hexblades. Because Hexblades are my favorite new subclass from the Heroes books, this was good to see. (Of course, this also means that Warlocks of all stripes have more build options than all the PHB3 classes put together.) While many of these powers are kind of Hexblade-focused, I think several will see widespread use. Mirror Darkly, a Level 6 Utility, is particularly great.

Oh, and did I mention Necromancers? Yeah, necromancers. (And nethermancers - a nice call-back for those who used to play Earthdawn, here presented as shadowy kinds of mages.) There are two new School options for the Heroes of the Fallen Lands Mage, and a ton of necromantic and nethermantic spells for use by any Wizard. Can I get some Evard love, here? Most of the new spells at least look respectable, and I think Wizards of all stripes will welcome these long-awaited classics. Mechanically, I think the necromancer has the edge, but I really expect most Mages to take both Apprentice features if they take one. At the At-Will level, I expect the new Unraveling Dart will make its way into several wizards' spellbooks.

Finally, we have the Vampire. The Vampire is by far the oddest 4e class released yet. They've got two attack stats, regeneration, only two healing surges, and sunlight vulnerability. And they have a variety of just plain bizarre powers which let them polymorph, drink blood, and charm their enemies. They also have the fewest choices of any class so far - basically they pick feats, one of two paragon paths, and two selectable utility powers; the rest are fixed. So it's almost more of a template or a playable monster than a class, really. I'll be interested to hear how they are in play... They look to be a lot more durable than you'd expect, even with only two healing surges, because their ability to heal themselves is surprisingly strong. They don't look to be that great at damage-dealing, however, which might just be the nail in the coffin (ha?) for this striker. Countering that, though, they have a lot of nice Control effects, including several ways to Dominate. I think they will mostly suffer from a lack of feat support.

(And yeah, the idea of Vampires as a class is pretty odd, but think about it... If you're wanting to play a Vampire for some reason, you want most of the stuff you do to be Vampire stuff. You don't necessarily want to be a Wizard or a Fighter who happens to drink blood and burn in sunlight. You want to be a guy who charms enemies, turns into a bat, *and* drinks blood - the whole Dracula suite, if you will. For those who want to be a Vampire Wizard, there's still the Vryloka race. And the Dhampyr bloodline. Heck; you can be a Vampire three or four ways, at this point, including a Vryloka Vampire Dhampyr.)

Next up, there are some ho-hum paragon paths and epic destinies, but none of these are amazing so far. The epic destinies in particular are kind of remarkably weak. And, finally, we have a few pages of feats. About the only two feats here I really care about are Holy Symbol Expertise and Ki Focus Expertise, which help plug up two of the remaining Expertise gaps still left open. (Still missing: Flail, Pick, and something for people who use their weapons as implements.) The rest look great for an undead-themed or shadow-centric campaign, but they're rather specific, sadly. I think they'd be great if you're running through the HPE series, or running from the upcoming Shadowfell box, but most won't see much use.

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Finally, I need to address something real quick. IS THIS AN ESSENTIALS BOOK?

...Kinda, but not really.

I'll be honest. I think the distinction between an "Essentials" book and otherwise is a flimsy one without much merit; outside the actual 10-product Essentials line, it's kind of meaningless. 4e is about as modular as you can get, so I don't think the concept of an "Essentials" book makes much sense beyond the marketing on the cover.

You see, because 4e is so modular, each item can be evaluated and allowed or banned on its own merit. There's no such thing as an Essentials feat. There's no such thing as an Essentials power. There's no such thing as an Essentials race. Because that is the meat of this book, as far as I'm concerned, that's about where it rests.

Now, I think you can see a difference between pre-Essentials and post-Essentials *classes*, so that concept, at least, has some traction - and here you do, indeed, have new classes which show the new design philosophy.... But the powers, feats, etc. published here are separate and independent of those new classes and builds. Are they Essentials powers just because they were published in the same book as Essentials-style classes? Naah.

In the end, however, it's undeniable that you won't get quite as much out of this book if you aren't including the Heroes Of... books as options in your game and if you aren't allowing new-style classes. Nevertheless, most of the book will still be perfectly usable at your table; it should have as much meat for most players as any of the Powers books did.

Basically...
* If you use only the Essentials books, OR if you allow free choice between Essentials and PHB classes, you will be able to use 100% of this book. My home game is the latter; I like the Essentials books, but I like them mixed in with the rest of 4e.
* If you haven't incorporated the options from the Essentials books, but aren't opposed to "Essentials-style" classes, you can probably use around 90% of it. While build options are presented for Warpriests, Hexblades, and Mages; the Executioner, Blackguard, Binder, and Vampire are all self-contained.
* If you don't allow any Essentials-style classes, the usable content drops to somewhere around 70% or so. You still have a big selection of races, paragon paths, (iffy) epic destinies, feats, and a ton of powers. It's still about as good as a Divine Power 2 for Clerics and Paladins, and an Arcane Power 2 for Wizards and Warlocks, but you won't get as much for your money - especially if you already have the Executioner and Revenant from DDI. Binder and Hexblade powers are just Warlock powers. Death Domain powers are just Cleric powers. Necro- and Nethermancy spells are just Wizard powers. Blackguard prayers? Fully usable by Paladins. The formatting is kind of jarring, but trust me - with scant exceptions, which are easy to find, your PHB characters can take them.

Anyways, I kinda love this book.

As a shadow-focused book in the Essentials line, HoS is a quality supplement. I DMed the Dark Legacy of Evard official D&D Encounters events for a full season, so I got to see all of the classes in action. The classes generally have interesting flavor, and are offensively focused. They are well-designed enough to fit into existing parties.

There are also new options for existing classes and builds, including original 4th edition classes (Wizard, Cleric, and Warlock options), so that is a nice bonus. You can see that WotC's investment to delay the book and change it to hardcover paid off in additional content and a more well-rounded supplement.

However, I have to question many of the thematic choices made by the writers. This book often talks about the disadvantages of trading/binding your soul or giving up some of your humanity in exchange for power. But other than those cursory references, there are no substantial downsides or limitations to, for example, the Blackguard ("Anti-Paladin") or Gloom Pact Hexblade classes. It's a quirk I've noticed with 4th Edition - in the name of balance, classes have become a little too homogenized and similar in their abilities for my taste.

Still, anyone who has actually played using this supplement rather than arguing about it on the internet will tell you that it gets the job done well enough. The whole 4th edition "Everyone is friends now, deal with it" thematic issue is more of a matter of one's personal taste.

I've been waiting for this book for a long time now, and now that I have it I'm slightly disappointed. My number one highlight? The Assassin class looks fantastic, rich with it's own unique character (I feared it would be too similar to the Rogue class, but I am pleasantly surprised). It gets the use of it's own arsenal of weapons, and having a variety of weapons and poisons is core to the class. My number one disappointment? I was hoping for more necromancy. I like (and was expecting) necromancy to be added to the Mage class. I was just hoping for more. The choices for necromancy powers is severely limited. Instead of having a smattering of a few new powers covering two new schools of magic (nethermancy and necromancy) I feel it would have been a more "finished" book to have included just one new, highly developed school (necromancy). Overall I think the book is worth getting, the shadowy bits included will add depth to any campaign or character, whether they are dark or not. It would also be great fun with this book to have a totally dark, gloomy campaign with a party full of vampires, necromancers, blackguards, etc.