Portents and Visions

Game: Portents and Visions
Publisher: Malhavoc Press  
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 10th, November 2004
Reviewer’s Rating: 6/10   [ On the ball ]
Total Score: 6
Average Score: 6.00

Portents and Visions is the Book of Hallowed Might II.

The first Book of Hallowed Might was good! It drew on Monte Cook’s strength and gave as a wider, rules friendly, scope for our divine spellcasters. It was all about options and game balance. We don’t get the same with Portents and Visions. There is less of Monte Cook’s natural talent here as there is much less in the way of alternative, balanced and mechanically clever rules. Portents and Visions is closer to a “traditional” d20 supplement; we’ve new spells, domains, feats, locations, prestige classes and a fresh pantheon of gods to bind them together. These sorts of supplements are ten a penny though.

I’d go as far as raising a hand here. I’ve come to expect certain things from Monte Cook and the various product lines from Malhavoc Press. I’m slightly annoyed that Portents and Visions breaks this trend, I feel slightly mislead. That said, I’m not that put out, The Book of Eldritch Might III: The Nexus sits between the two formats, between the traditional “The Book of” from Malhavoc and the traditional d20 splat. I can live with this but I wouldn’t want to see the “drift” continue into any “Book of Hallowed Might III”. Let’s watch the franchise.

It’s worth noting that the prolific Mike Mearls co-wrote the book. Let’s share credit where credit is due. There’s plenty of credit due here.

Portents and Visions is wrapped up in the twists and turns of the Celestial River. This is some divine-spirit-concept-cosmic-current. There’s a non-traditional Pantheon of gods associated with the river and it is from these gods that we get the new spells, domains and prestige classes. What’s a non-traditional Pantheon? One that doesn’t have all the D&D stereotypes. There’s no god of death, war or even evil as such. The gods are tied, loosely, to the aspects of a river. The closest we get to the baddie here is the god who represents the treachery of a river; seeming to be calm and gentle at first but then a dangerous riptide, rapids or even flash flood.

The problem with wrapping so much of the book around this Pantheon, their quirks and their followers is that you’ll have to adjust your current game quite a bit to accommodate them. Some gamers won’t mind that. Some gamers will be starting a new campaign and have a DM looking for ideas. I always find it incredibly awkward telling players that, oh by the way, there’s actually this established pantheon with temples and clerics, but, um, which, somehow, you’ve managed not to notice or hear about before.

Supplements should threaten the suspension of disbelief. Hmm, yeah, I know, that smacks a bit of wishful thinking.

Here’s an idea, I wonder if I can sum up the contents of the PDF (the print version of BOHM II is also available) by listing the new domains the supplement introduces. Our new domains are; Civilization, The Future, Vengeance, Temptation and Forge.

At last! As a domain Civilization is interesting. It’s ambitious. I hold domain over all Civilization! That sly god’s just grabbed a whole host of other aspects; surely with civilization we see the like of Forge or Roads or even the emotions of advanced, civilised creatures and thus vengeance, temptation, pride, justice, romance, etc. On a less theoretical and more practical point the domain brings a bunch of city friendly skills. Cities are the wasteland of D&D. It’s no surprise the groups flee the useless cities, often places where the heroes most powerful abilities don’t even work, and escape to the rich countryside with treasure rich caverns, battlefields to excel on and wilderness to take power from. It just takes a few interesting and useful (not to mention powerful) city/civilisation spells and you’ll hold the attention of your wizards, sorcerers and bards.

Druids also benefit. There’s a handy (Forge domain inspired) feat which lets druids wield metal weapons if they’ve made themselves through the use of their own craft skill. Wow. Who would have thought it? Could metals be naturally occurring elements in D&D now? (Rather than falling through dimensional holes which appear when too many houses are built in proximity) Druids may have to stop waving bits of dead animal and dead tree around while they say it’s wrong to chop down trees and kill animals.

Other feats aren’t quite so universally handy – quite a few are tied to the new gods and their followers. Dorana, the goddess of vengeance, likes her lightening icon. Her followers like it too and make heavy use of a special lightening blade weapon (a double ended device, non magical but lightening shaped weapon). Many of the new feats introduced in Dorana’s section are all about wielding the lightening blade.

The prestige classes are entirely wrapped up with the new gods. This isn’t quite as limiting as the feats though. Monte Cook’s been one of the few voices to remind us that prestige classes are supposed to be prestigious. (The d20 Modern model of basic, advanced and then prestige class seems to work better in some respects) and I agree entirely. “City Beggar” is not a prestige class. Here in the Book of Hallowed Might II we have prestige classes which hold prestigious positions within religions. The Lightning Bearer uses Dorana’s lightning blade (and for them all those feats are handy), we’ve the Hammer of Urgan and the Speaker of the Divine too. If I was using these gods in my game then I’d certainly use these balanced, 10 level, interesting prestige classes.

Oh. I’ve kinda missed out the core of the book – locations important to each god. It just goes to show how un-interested I am in them. If I wanted to have an Oracle, underground chamber, dangerous forge, dark city or testing mountain in my game then I’d enjoy creating them myself – and would have tried to be less cliché too. I certainly don’t care for NPCs in these locations nor the space they take up in the 66-paged PDF.

That said there is some good stuff tucked in here – nothing to do with the locations themselves, just game intelligence inspired by the themes associated with each. There’s some interesting discussion on the nature of prophecy and future-telling in the oracle bit. This is a real pain in D&D. Characters who peek into the future. Arg! I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t have real life seer powers and so as DM I can’t tell you what you’re going to do next (I see an angry DM throwing his dice at you if you cast that spell again…). This problem is discussed. DMs can make sure that any visions come true, of course, and that’s one way to go – as is the concept of a malleable future. Seeing the future gives you the power to change it.

I like the phantasmagoria of visions and omens. The character might see an overflowing cup, a chest full of gold or a silver sphere and this could translate as some sort of reward (due in the future). And face it; the chances of D&D characters finding a chest full of gold are pretty good! Sections like this inspire me – okay, the examples in the PDF are all pretty obvious, but they get the creative river of the mind flowing again.

I also liked the Keyed Spell Items (and there are sundry other magic items in Hallowed Might II which didn’t catch my attention). These are special magic items which give clerics different access to spells and sometimes spell enhancements. Clerics (alignment depending) can spontaneously cast healing magic – if the Cleric is carrying an item keyed to another spell then they can spontaneously cast that too. For example, a cleric carrying a bracelet keyed to searing light can use a 3rd-level spell slot to spontaneously cast the spell. Other spell casters can use keyed items (typically letting them cast the spell as one of their own but at an extra cost) but its cleric effect which grabs my attention.

The last section of the PDF is rather useful. It offers conversion rules and assistance for taking the non-standard d20 (but very good) Arcana Unearthed.

The Book of Hallowed Might II enjoys being a Malhavoc Press PDF. Its thoroughly professional, bookmarks, easy to print, easy to read, nicely formatted. This is an important plus.

Portents and Visions just misses out on the A grade. There’s just slightly too much in the supplement which falls under the “Nah. Pass” response category. There are gems here and collectors of the series won’t be disappointed. If you’re looking for a pantheon of gods to put in your new campaign then Portents and Visions steps up a notch and is definitely worth looking at.