I helped kickstart both this and the original 'Touch of Class' document when they were revealed. The classes within her certainly interesting and fun, but are lacking in some key places that makes this hard to recomend. I wouldn't call any of them outright bad, but there's some small hiccups one might need to wrap their head around.

My personaly favorite class of the bunch, the Bloodweaver, has some fascinating choices. The classes uses 'Resevoir Points', points a replacement for spell slots. Instead of using spells, it uses its own thing called disciplines, which are the Bloodweaver's form of spells. They're very, very powerful. I wouldn't say the power level is all over the place, but I would say the level of a discipline is probably about +2 levels stronger than a spell of the same 'level' (the available blood disciplines go from 1-5). These powers are, at higher levels, total nukes that can obliterate battlefields and towns. The way they balance this is by making the class have few resevoir points. If a wizard used spell points instead instead of spell slots (if you're aware of that optional rule), they'd have around 120 points at level 20; a bloodweaver would have 27 resevoir. It's a valiant attempt, but I find this exasperates a problem DMs already have to face with wizards, being that this encourages the Bloodweaver to save all their points until the boss fight or else risk having little to do against the boss, meaning they aren't doing the fun things they picked the class to do until the end of the dungeon. In a game with the normal amount of fights a day, a low level Bloodweaver will run out of power fast, and some of the higher level abilities are all or nothing endeavors. If the target succeeds their saving throw, a lot of disciplines just don't do anything and your resevoir is drained anyway, vs most damage dealing spells at least doing half damage on a failed save. Lower level disciplines don't suffer this problem so much, but at around 10th level you naturally want to use the cool abilities, of which you'll be able to use twice, at best.

Aside from that, the class can gain regain a resevoir point by spending a hit dice. They get 1 resevoir for this, but can only do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus before needing to do a long rest to do it agains (of which you'll only get half your class's level in hit dice back). This is an incredibly low amount that would narely be enough to cast 3rd level disciplines in the best case scenario of having a proficiency bonus of +6. Resevoir is regained to your maximum as well, of course, when you finish a long rest, but I find the hit-dice based system so small it's hardly worth bothering.

On that note, a weird quirk of the class is that you can only spend a certain amount of resevoir to activate a discipline. You can only spend resevoir up to half your class level, rounded up. At level 10, then, you can spend 5 points. Despite all being 3rd level disciplines, though, 4 of them are completely unusable to you because you can only spend 5 points when certain 3rd level discimplines require 6. I find this restriction incredibly odd given most of these powers don't seem that much strong than the others, again due to that 'all or nothing' nature of most of them. Don't get me wrong; they are powerful, in theory. But if they fail, they fail hard. This is made stranger by a lot of discimplines having the cost of being able to target a second creature with many discimplines locked behind the activation of spending most than half the intial cost. But you can't spend those points because you're not high enough level, and by the time you are you could spend those points to turn into a cloud of acid that takes half damage and melts a whole battlefield, or some other amazing thing. Why would you bother? Each level of discimpline blows the last out of the water spectacularly, with the cheapness of 1st level discimplines being their big saving grace. Everything else is a bit wishy washy in terms of cost and what happens if you fail to cast some potent blood magic. I also feel some costs are strange, as the healing spell costs 1 resevoir to heal 1d10+your constitution modifier and then 1 point for an additional 1d10. Meanwhile, another ability of the same level ends a condition (blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned) for 2 points, but can end another condition as well for 10 points. A later ability can end all those conditions at once for 5 points. Maybe I'm just not usiong the monster manual correctly, but I've never had a player have more than 2 of those conditions on them at once, and the randomness of dice usually ends the conditions quickly.

Finally, perhaps most frustrating, is the class has a limited about of disciplines they can know, almost no qay to change them. It seems a strange oversight, but you have to change a whole cantrip level ability in order to be able to swap around disciplines as these cantrips are prerequisites to what disciplines you can pick. Fairly, perhaps, you're locked out of certain paths if you don't pick the right one. But the utter lack of a way to change otherwise, not even on a level up, seems strange given just how few the class learns. By the time you've picked you've likely settled on your paths if you go RAW. I persoanlly allow players to just change out which ones they know (except for the cantrip ones) on a long rest. I prefer versatility, and one flavor of nuke doesn't change too much of another when they need to have it prepared in advance anyway and can only do it so many times.

Expect to deal with weirdness like that for every class. Do I think this is worth 10 bucks? I think so. But you might have to change a lot of things, or prepare to scratch your head a few times.

This was the adventure that made me stop running this campaign. After the previous adventures, which ranged from fair to excellent, this one was a real letdown. The beginning is incredibly linear, offering little opportunities for the players to make decisions. It begins with an exposition dump and an on-rails trip to the village of Eresh, where there's nothing to do. Once they arrive they discover the monastery is also off-limits and the players are essentially just waiting for one event (ommiting it here because it's a spoiler) to happen so the action begins. And once it begins it doesn't stop, the adventure becomes a series of fights until the PCs finally confront the villain. There's no mystery, no interesting things to do besides following the trail of breadcrumbs, the adventure is exceedingly short and it doesn't even play to its themes of peace or "balance" (the solution to the problems presented is just killing all enemies). The most laughable part is how one of the main NPCs just shows up out of nowhere, all enigmatic, and doesn't say anything relevant. They go away immediately and the adventure says that they don't provide any more information, not for any personal reason, but because it's "better for the narrative". This was such a bad scene and was mocked by all my players and myself for how childish it is with its desire to be "mysterious" while at the same time not making any sense. It's being enigmatic for the sake of it, and worst of all, it even works against the adventure as it reveals the NPC as the cause of the strange events surrounding the town. If you're running this campaign, seriously consider skipping this adventure.

Almost 20 years later I decided to look over this "relic."

Behold, the humor still holds up. As does some of the oddities which may actually see game time.

The production values are a little dated (Landscape, trash borders, clunky art and formatting), though the text makes up for that.

Solid and fun high fantasy campaign, wonky balancing on encounters (but one-size will rarely fit all for a 4th Ed party so this is easy to forgive). The reason this is 3 stars instead of 5 however are the subpar or simply MISSING maps you'll throw out and replace by hunting around online.

Ridiculous price for 4 or 5 pages pdf. no maps included so if you want to buy this to save preparation time...forget that. it is not even a good or full scenario but a short encounter. not what i expected....total waste of money. 5 bucks for just an idea of a scene? a stat block steals at least half a page. google for old judge dredd adventures and buy the old white dwarf issues with jd scenarios. for 2 bucks you get a complete adventure with a damn good story (maps included). you have to imporovise stats from games workshop jd to woin...but that is no problem with the npcs in the rule book.

Ridiculous price for 4 or 5 pages pdf. no maps included so if you want to buy this to save preparation time...forget that. it is not even a good or full scenario but a short encounter. not what i expected....total waste of money. 5 bucks for just an idea of a scene? a stat block steals at least half a page. google for old judge dredd adventures and buy the old white dwarf issues with jd scenarios. for 2 bucks you get a complete adventure with a damn good story (maps included). you have to imporovise stats from games workshop jd to woin...but that is no problem with the npcs in the rule book.

(Full disclosure: I was a Kickstarter backer for this. I also support EN5ider on Patreon.)

A Touch of Class is a collection of classes (and related articles) presented in ENWorld's EN5ider series. There are seven in all:

• Alchemist: A spellcasting class with a focus on bombs and potions. While I liked the class overall, they failed to clearly describe just what their spellcasting looks like, as distinguished from other classes like the wizard. (It's implied they use chemistry to generate spell effects, but I didn't see that spelled out.) They do, however, also include some cool alchemical items.
• Cardcaster: A spellcasting class that uses tarot cards. I loved the concept, but was disappointed with the execution - instead of a distinct class with flavorful powers based on each card, we get an upgraded diviner wizard with some thematic limitations. Some of the mechanics are also a bit odd, especially the King of Pentacles and its money powers. They also included a Jack of Beasts subclass, which is essentially a Pokémon trainer - fun, but it feels like it was thrown in, and doesn't feel particularly D&D.
• Diabolist: A class with fiend-related powers, clearly meant for evil characters. Honestly, it seems unnecessary when we have the warlock. They also include a section of "Conjured Horrors", but I only liked one, the tiny cacodaemon.
• Feywalker: A class with fey-related powers. Despite some neat abilities, like the "feystrike", I don't see why we need this when we have the archfey warlock. It also has the same Hit Die as the fighter, for some reason, which makes it feel like someone building a class just for their personal tastes.
• Morph: A dedicated shapeshifting class. It's OK, I suppose, but very specialized, and takes away one of the chief appeals of the druid. I also predict balance issues from the menu of shapeshifting options.
• Noble: A thinly veiled 5th Edition version of 4E's warlord. As such, it runs into the same problems 4E's warlord would have in 5E (explaining non-magical healing; the effects on combat from granting player characters extra actions; and the fact that most of the warlord's flavor and other features have been given to existing 5E options, like the battle master fighter). That all said, they do a good job of designing the class; I particularly like the Path of the Heart subclass, which reflavors them as a non-violent Disney-style princess. (Though giving them disadvantage in combat seems excessive and harsh.) I'm not sure I'd use this class, but I would understand if others did.
• Occultist: False advertising. This is built as a class, but it's not any sort of occultist - it's a way for players to be a constructed creature, a vampire, or a werebeast. These should have been presented as character race options instead.

Overall, the book is mechanically sound, but many of the class concepts seem too specialized or redundant to be used in the typical D&D game. The alchemist and noble are the best of lot, and the main reason to seek this work out; the others are just OK. Unless you're looking to create a very different campaign using a number of these classes, I would recommend signing up with EN5ider and seeking out the specific class articles you prefer, rather than buying the entire work. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

(Full disclosure: I was a Kickstarter backer for this. I also support EN5ider on Patreon.)

This book compiles together two other ENWorld collections, A Touch of Class: 7 New Classes For Your 5th Edition Game and A Touch More Class: 9 More Character Classes For Your 5th Edition Game. (I previously reviewed A Touch of Class individually, but I'm including parts of that review here for convenience's sake.)

The Masterclass Codex includes new character classes for D&D 5th edition, along with some related articles, all originating in ENWorld's EN5ider series. There are sixteen in all.

From A Touch of Class:

• Alchemist: A spellcasting class with a focus on bombs and potions. While I liked the class overall, they failed to clearly describe just what their spellcasting looks like, as distinguished from other classes like the wizard. (It's implied they use chemistry to generate spell effects, but I didn't see that spelled out.) They do, however, also include some cool alchemical items.
• Cardcaster: A spellcasting class that uses tarot cards. I loved the concept, but was disappointed with the execution - instead of a distinct class with flavorful powers based on each card, we get an upgraded diviner wizard with some thematic limitations. Some of the mechanics are also a bit odd, especially the King of Pentacles and its money powers. They also included a Jack of Beasts subclass, which is essentially a Pokémon trainer - fun, but it feels like it was thrown in, and doesn't feel particularly D&D. (Also, considering they added the Monster Tamer in A Touch More Class, it seems redundant to have both in this compilation.) I do admit I liked the Cardcaster better on a reread, but the above criticisms still stand.
• Diabolist: A class with fiend-related powers, clearly meant for evil characters. Honestly, it seems unnecessary when we have the warlock. They also include a section of "Conjured Horrors", but I only liked one, the tiny cacodaemon.
• Feywalker: A class with fey-related powers. Despite some neat abilities, like the "feystrike", I don't see why we need this when we have the archfey warlock. It also has the same Hit Die as the fighter, for some reason, which makes it feel like someone building a class just for their personal tastes.
• Morph: A dedicated shapeshifting class. It's OK, I suppose, but very specialized, and takes away one of the chief appeals of the druid. I also predict balance issues from the menu of shapeshifting options.
• Noble: A thinly veiled 5th Edition version of 4E's warlord. As such, it runs into the same problems 4E's warlord would have in 5E (explaining non-magical healing; the effects on combat from granting player characters extra actions; and the fact that most of the warlord's flavor and other features have been given to existing 5E options, like the battle master fighter). That all said, they do a good job of designing the class; I particularly like the Path of the Heart subclass, which reflavors them as a non-violent Disney-style princess. (Though giving them disadvantage in combat seems excessive and harsh.) I'm not sure I'd use this class, but I would understand if others did.
• Occultist: False advertising. This is built as a class, but it's not any sort of occultist - it's a way for players to be a constructed creature, a vampire, or a werebeast. These should have been presented as character race options instead.

From A Touch More Class:

• Bloodweaver: A class with powers based on the manipulation of blood. Many of said powers ("disciplines") are close to existing spells, which makes one wonder why they didn't just give them spells. However, some of the strongest disciplines are rather interesting (such as "amalgamate"). The class has an unusual structure, with a skill-tree approach to disciples, plus the requirement to damage yourself (though that also feels kind of edgelord-y). Overall, the class seems too specialized for many campaigns, but I imagine there are some that will embrace it.
• Fatebender: A class that gives you luck-manipulation powers, similar to superhero characters like Domino. Mechanically, it feels like a hybrid between a bard and the wild magic sorcerer. Looks like a lot of fun to play. The only issue is that it doesn't feel like much of a fantasy archetype.
• Gemini: A very odd class concept, based around creating duplicates to aid you, with a duality theme (young-old, etc.). It honestly feels like someone really wanted a character with duplication powers, and built a class just for that specific character; I can't see it fitting into most campaigns. (As written, it also sounds like it might be meant for a more modern-day setting.)
• Geomancer: Kind of a druid-monk hybrid, loosely themed around the five Chinese elements (earth, fire, metal, water, wood). The lore is pretty vague and doesn't seem to quite connect with the class's features. I was pretty disappointed, as the concept had promise, but never quite seems to gel.
• Gunfighter: A pretty good class, as long as you're fine with firearms in your fantasy. However, there's one big problem... they don't include rules for firearms! So it's unusable as written. (They apparently did include the firearms rules as bonus content with the PDF release... but not having them in the actual hardcover is inexcusable.)
• Lodestar: Another odd class, this one focuses on orbiting stones that can be used to strike enemies and for other effects. It feels like a gimmick you'd see in a video game, not particularly archetypal in any way. Another I can't see much use for in most campaigns.
• Monster Tamer: Basically lets you create a Pokémon trainer, but with D&D monsters. (There also seems to be a touch of Beastmaster in there.) This could be fun to play, and the pet rules seem solid, but teaming a tough PC (they even have a d12 Hit Die) with tough monsters could make this a little strong for many campaigns.
• Savant: An Intelligence-based class, which reminds me the most of Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes. Love the concept, though a few of the "tricks" seem very powerful. I would have also appreciated subclasses that weren't so reminiscent of other classes. This does seem like one of the more broadly useful options, however.
• Tinkerer: An ideal class for a world that mashes together magic and steampunk tech. Certain elements are clearly inspired by the comic Girl Genius. One interesting design feature - all the level 20 features are part of the subclass, rather than the main class. This could be a lot of fun in the right kind of campaign.

The classes in the first half (A Touch of Class) are more mechanically sound than the ones in the second half (A Touch More Class), though both function. Both halves share a problem that many class concepts are too specialized for many D&D campaigns, or redundant with other classes; specialization is especially a problem in the second half (again, I just can't see the gemini or lodestar being in many campaigns). I also wonder if some would have worked better as subclasses of existing classes, rather than classes unto themselves.

The alchemist and noble from the first half are definite highlights, and would work well in most campaigns. But even though I like some of the classes in the second half, I can't recommend any of them without some caveats. Most of the classes in both halves (but especially in the second) require you to change some fundamental D&D assumptions to fit them in. If you're up for doing that on a large scale, it may be worth buying the entire compilation. Otherwise, I'd probably sign up for EN5ider and get the classes' information individually. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

This was the first ever D&D campaign I ran, and the group made it through the first 3 adventures before scheduling broke us apart. The story, characters, and adventures all captured my imagination and that of my players. Honestly, I'd buy this just to read it, and I recently pulled it out to reread, and promptly decided I want to run it again, so that's the next campaign I'll be running with my current group in the new year! This is a campaign that requires high levels of trust and communication between players and DM, but if you have that, it's a campaign that leads PCs through an oddysey to remember and talk about for years to come, even from the very 1st level.

Please check out my YouTube review to see what Mr. Mean thinks of W.O.I.N. system: https://youtu.be/a2_IYeHDMGA

Got my book sooner then expected but, the front and back covers seem to have been bent up. This looks like it was done before or during packaging. Don't see how the corners could get folded while in the box. Other then that I am extremely excited to start reading so I can run this. Does seem like a little extra care in packaging could be taken. Would have given 5 stars if it were not for the condition the book was received in

I have recently pruchased Simply6 to play solo with the Mythic Deck and the GMA Deck. Simply6 Spaceships tweaks the Simply6 rules nicely and also works well with theTitan Gate setting. Very much worth the low price!

I have recently pruchased Simply6 to play solo with the Mythic Deck and the GMA Deck. Titan Gate is a nice little scifi supplement with a enough detail to get you thinking about possibilities but with lots of room to build it your own way. I am combining it with Zozer Games Hostile setting. If you are buyinng this I recomend you also buy Simply6 Spacesships.

I don't usually comment on products I buy. However, Simply6 howeve deserves one! It is fast, fun and simple and works well with different genres. I have been playing it solo using the Mythic deck and also the GMA Deck. Simply6 compliments them both nicely.

So many years after I first purchased this product, this is still one of the best supplements I've ever incorporated into my games. My players really love using this magic system - it's completely spoiled them for the old Vancian ways of doing things. When I've got a new idea for a fantasy game I want to run, I'll often give my players a choice of systems, but I don't know why I bother. They always choose the same thing: our bastard mix of D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 2, with Elements of Magic. They just want a chance to play with EoM again.

From what I've read about the new edition of Pathfinder, it sounds like EoM won't work with it very well. This makes me sad. Because this is a really fun and wonderful product, and it will be sad if later generations of gamers never encounter it because the systems can't support it anymore. As for us, we'll probably always keep our old system books around, just so we can run an adventure with Elements of Magic once in awhile.