Game: Lost Classes: Brotherhood of the Spider
Publisher:
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 27th, June 2004
Reviewer’s Rating: 5/10 [ Perfectly acceptable ]
Total Score: 5
Average Score: 5.00
The Brotherhood of the Spider is a stocking filler. It’s an impulse buy. At $0.99 the PDF is way below the minimum checkout value for RPGNow and you need to throw it into your electronic cart along with something else.
If you’re tossing The Brotherhood of the Spider into your electronic cart then it’s most likely it’s going in beside and after another d20 product. For your 99c you’re getting a bit of flavour text and a 5 level prestige class. One and a third pages of the four page PDF is taken up by the OGL legal foo. If this review goes on much longer then it’s in danger of being longer then the product.
The Brotherhood of the Spider begins with a fantasy story. It’s the sort of thing which might be found cut into pieces and placed around a larger product. When you whack this sort of RPG flavour text together and put it down as one story then it’s very easy to see just how cheesy it is! Here we get what might well be a background to the author’s favourite character or NPC. We read about an outcast Drow who makes a deal with a scary power, sets up The Brotherhood of the Spider and manages to hang on in there in one Underdark city. It’s not very original but it’s quite Drow and shouldn’t confuse the players.
We are, of course, dealing with Forgotten Realm-esq Drow. That’ll suit most people. The Forgotten Realm angle is also essential to the concept. We need to have the “Lolthian Priestesses” and the matriarchal structure for the background to the prestige class to work. You really need some excuse to make a male spider priest exclusive to justify the mechanics.
The prestige class is exclusive. It’s hard to qualify for; you need Dex and Str of 16. You’re going to then get further boosts to Dex and Str as you progress up the levels. You’ll have both at 18 after four levels in this class. In addition to this the Brother will pick up a web ability, an impressive jump and a danger sense. He gets a webbed, red and blue latex suit and battles the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. Oh, okay, I made that last bit up but the Brotherhood of the Spider certainly does remind me of Spiderman. I suppose this is to be expected though – what else would a fantasy spider powered warrior be like?
There’s no reason to go out and buy The Brotherhood of the Spider. On the other hand if you happen to be buying PDF support for an Underdark campaign then there’s no reason not to succumb to the impulse urge and toss this PDF into your basket. At 99c you’ll either be impressed at the value for money and useful prestige class or you’ll forget about it entirely.
