Heroes of Shadow has finally arrived – the D&D 4e sourcebook for creating heroes and antiheroes with all the grit and horror that embodies dark fantasy. My review of this highly anticipated sourcebook follows.
One thing that’s always been critically important to me in D&D is a fine balance of game and roleplay or story. From that perspective, Heroes of Shadow scores very high marks. Like the recent 4e tradition of including more atmospheric lore, history and description in books like Monster Vault and Monster Manual 3, Heroes of Shadows continues and even improves on this vital mix of immersive fantasy and engaging game.
Heroes of Shadows’ flavor and fluff is excellent. From the very first chapter discussing the foundations and core aspects of shadow magic, to the “bonus fluff” for each power or even mundane gear description throughout the remaining chapters, there is an excellent effort to elicit the dark fantasy mood of shadow magic and dark characters. This makes it a compelling and entertaining read throughout to go along with the matching mechanical presentation of powers, class features and other rules. You get a real feel for the Shadowfell’s influence on characters and the world, and all its many manifestations. You get a true sense of the gloom and fear that surrounds or is even controlled by – to some tenuous, dangerous degree – these dark heroes and antiheroes.
While the mechanical presentation of the shadow classes and subclasses or builds is easy to follow throughout their full thirty levels of play, they are presented in Essentials format for the most part. That means high organization and readability all in one place for your class, yet slightly more limited choices than original PHB class presentation. The level-by-level organization and highly focused character theme makes it easy to create and update your character. The mix of relevant fluff within these mechanics throughout every facet of a class is also perfect – in fact, every class and build mentions the importance of considering your character’s backstory and motivations, including suggesting you check with your DM for some personalities you may already know, what situation you’re in right now and working out some relationship points with your party members.
Beyond the Essentials-style classes, there are also significant parts useful to any wizard, such as the new necromantic and nethermantic spells. Still, if you disliked some of the “we’ve made a lot of choices for you already” feel from Essentials class builds, you might feel the same way about the Blackguard or Binder, for example.
That said, there’s still plenty of choices. You’ll find several new classes, subclasses or builds, such as the executioner (assassin), blackguard (paladin), binder (warlock) and of course the highly anticipated vampire class. The shadow races section is my favorite in the book – the lore, history and personality of each shadow race is presented with memorable and excellent storytelling detail. Of all featured races – the tragic revenant, the ambitious shade and noble vryloka – the revenant’s now-extended racial details are my favorite. (The revenant has been around for a while for D&D Insiders). The unique story of revenants as literally being given a second chance at life in a shell of unlife by the Raven Queen is simply fantastic. Again, the dark fantasy feel of the classes and races comes through very well, and many powers are fitting – with the additional lore and fluff being welcome.
Like usual, some powers – whether found within the class builds or in separate sections such as the new freely available wizard spells or cleric domain prayers – are clearly better than others tactically, and some class features are more flavorful or useful than others. Powers, to me, are also a personal choice to some extent – some players value certain mechanics and advantages more than others, so I encourage you to discover and weigh them for yourself. I will say I am more than pleased to see that some spectacular classics have returned, such as the wizard spells Circle of Death and Finger of Death, both maintaining much of their original dark allure and terrible power.
Finally, the Shadow Options chapter includes ten shadow paragon paths and four epic destinies. Though a healthy amount of captioned and uncaptioned art adorns most of the book’s pages, it is surprisingly sparse here, where normally plenty of artistic depictions of such paragons or legendary heroes abound. I personally enjoy such art for inspiration – they help clarify the heroic vision of your characters where text alone for a paragon path or epic destiny might not.
A smattering of feats rounds out the chapter, including some mundane or ritual-magic infused gear, all with some appropriate dark fantasy flavor, ripe for improving character visualization, mechanical effectiveness in combat, or simply adding some flavor to the gear your tragic heroes carry. One surprising and disappointing omission is magic items following the mundane gear – while magic items are specifically mentioned at the chapter start in the summary, there are none. With the overhaul of the magic item rarity system upon us, perhaps that was intentional? Even so, the chapter summary remains misleading in regards to true shadow magic-themed items.
Overall, Heroes of Shadow is an excellent sourcebook. Its presentation is highly organized and clear from the mechanical perspective, and yet includes heavy amounts of dark fantasy flavor to keep the book from being anything like a dry read. It contains both Essentials-style and non-Essentials-style presentation of material, making it useful for any D&D player or DM, though I would have preferred a bit more open-ended non-Essentials presentation. That is a minor or major issue depending on who you are and how much you like or hate the Essentials class format, I’ve learned. And aside from that, my only major disappointment is the lack of shadow-themed magic items. Perhaps next month’s The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond will remedy this?
So how does Heroes of Shadow rate? Four out of five stars – less Essentials and more magic items would have made it five. An outstanding sourcebook for dark fantasy inspiration and characters either way. What are you waiting for? Get your own, grab your friends and go start up your own dark fantasy D&D campaign today!
Kilsek
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I was planning on ordering this book, and could not find a good review of it anywhere. However, your page here is fantastic; it definitely helped me puzzle a few things out. I have been trying to create a PC template for vampires, and it always ended up over-powered. By this vryloka could be just what I’m looking for. Also, these new Wizard builds: are they easily distinguishable from other wizards? Or will it just be like taking normal Wizard At-Wills, and then have a smattering of necrotic-style encounter and daily powers? Also, and I know this is a dumb question, but is this a 4e book? Because I haven’t even taken the time to check that out yet.
Thanks in advance for any forthcoming answers!
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