An adaptation of Magic: The Gathering's Amonkhet setting for D&D 5th Edition. The setting itself combines Egyptian mythology with a mix of zombie apocalypse and the Hunger Games: a single bastion of life and civilization, surrounded by a desert full of undead, where the inhabitants compete for the favor of their God-Pharaoh (who has a dark, secret agenda). This product provides an overview of the setting, and guidelines for creating characters and customizing monsters for the setting.
The setting-specific character options include two new backgrounds (initiate and vizier) and one variant background (dissenter); four new races (aven, khenra, minotaur, and naga); and four new cleric domains (solidarity, strength, ambition, and zeal). The backgrounds are specific to this setting, and can't easily be ported over to others. The aven somewhat resemble the aarakocra, but with two distinguishing subraces; the khenra have an interesting concept (a twin-centric race) but only OK mechanics; the minotaur is basically a half-orc with a horn attack; and the naga's snake-like abilities are interesting, but maybe a little strong for a starting character. The new cleric domains are fine, but largely just mashups of features from core cleric domains; however, the zeal domain stands out as somewhat more distinctive.
The monster listing is mainly just guidelines for reskinning or modifying Monster Manual creatures, although a number of the new twists are neat enough. The few completely new monsters (criosphinxes, heart-piercer manticores, and serpopards) are only OK. The product concludes with an appendix on running planeswalker characters, which is largely limited to advice with only a minimum of mechanics.
All in all, this product has some interesting ideas and a cool aesthetic, but the setting feels limited (if you're not interested in the God-Pharaoh's schemes or random fights with monsters in the desert, you're on your own) and much of the material here is specialized for that setting (so that it could take work to make it fit into other campaigns, even those with Egyptian theming). Still, this is an interesting enough read, and you certainly can't beat the price! (Originally posted on Goodreads)
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |