Oriental Adventures A Dungeons and Dragons supplement from Wizards of the Coast Rating: (5 out of 5 hearts) by Jean-Michel

"Oriental Adventures" is Wizards of the Coast's publication providing information on running adventures with a medieval-oriental fantasy flavour. It is also d20 version of the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) RPG. Although some material from the 1st edition oriental adventures is included, this book has nothing to do with Kara-Tur, the original Oriental Adventures world setting.

This rule book provides many new PC classes, races, prestige classes, feats, weapons and spells. A large section details the world setting of Rokugan, the world of Legend of the Five Rings, and a poster map of the realm is included. A little logo indicates what parts of the book are specific to the L5R setting.

Considerations on the nature of the L5R setting are discussed throughout the book, such as the notions of caste and clans that permeate the world. The last chapters detail the world of Rokugan and the Shadowlands where evil resides. Each of the clans (Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion and Unicorn) are given two and a half pages detailing their recent history, a clan-specific prestige class, and some adventure hooks. The pre-eminent enemy is a fallen god residing in the Shadowlands exerting a corrupting influence, theTaint, on all living beings.

The new races include a variation on dwarves called Korobokuru, a shapechanging human/animal race called the Hengeyokai, the Nezumi that are a sort of ratman, the Spirit Folk that are similar to elves, and the Vanara, the monkeymen. There are also guidelines suggesting how the other traditional D&D races should be handled in the lands of Oriental Adventures.

The chapter detailing the new classes indicates how the D&D classes should be modified in an Oriental Adventure or L5R context; for example, Monks can multiclass like any other class, and some new feats are added to what Fighters can take as bonus feats. The new classes themselves are interesting and well balanced. The Samurai is a fighter that gets a set of magical weapons that improve as he gains levels. The Shaman worships the Spirits and casts divine spells, turns undead, gets the Improved Unarmed Strike feat at first level and has an animal companion. The Shugenja is a divine spellcaster that specialises in a type of elemental magic specific to the clan school from which she originates. The Sohei is a warrior monk, a religious soldier that can go berserk, gains some damage reduction and some special monk-like talents like Deflect Arrows. The Wu Jen is the oriental equivalent of the wizard. They specialise in one type of elemental magic and gain Spell Secret powers that let them choose a single spell and always cast it as if it was under the effect of a metamagic feat. Some of these classes are specific to the L5R setting and issues regarding Clans are addressed when relevant.

The chapter describing the new prestige classes begins with some numerological gymnastics regarding armed and unarmed attack bonuses for multiclassing monks and monk prestige classes. The rest of the chapter is devoted to seventeen new prestige classes. The majority of them would fit most campaign worlds with a few minor modifications like a simple name change, unless they are very specific to the L5R setting.

A new skill, Iaijutsu Focus, is used for Iaijutsu duels. The art of Iaijutsu can also be used to deal additional damage to flat-footed opponents. Iaijutsu is the art of striking very quickly with a sword in the same movement as it is drawn.

Because the new Acrobatics supernatural power available to certain prestige classes eventually confers a +20 bonus to Balance, Jump and Tumble checks, rules for extreme tumbling are provided to describe the type of action that can be accomplished with results of 30 to 60 on a tumbling check. This supplements the martial arts elements developed in the combat rules and feats.

Sixty-eight feats are provided. Most of them are Ancestor Feats associated with specific clans in the L5R setting, one of which can be chosen at the moment of character creation. A lot of these feats are multi-tasking bonus feats similar to regional feats in Forgotten Realms or double Skill Focus feats. Of course, you can still use those feats outside of the L5R context. Most of the other feats are martial arts oriented, like Flying Kick (doubles damage on unarmed charge attacks), Grappling Block (an unarmed disarm) and Roudabout Kick (an extra unarmed strike in the event of a critical hit). Many feats are copied from "Sword and Fist". The missing Great Throw feat is provided at the end of this review.

A section describes the effect of honor in an oriental setting and discusses the possibility of substituting honor for alignment.

Many oriental weapons and armor are extensively described, as is some equipment and some special items like flashpowder eggshell grenades for your Ninjas.

The chapter on combat details five martial arts styles. These styles are broken down to a series specific feats. When a character masters each of those feats he gets a minor bonus for being a master of the style.

Chapter seven gives the spell lists for the new PC classes, the Shaman domains and the Shugenja schools. Elemental magic is divided in the five elements of traditional Chinese philosophy (wood, metal, stone, fire and water). More than a hundred and twenty new spells are provided. On the spell list of each class are also spells that come from the Player's Handbook, of course.

There is a chapter on magic items, including random generation tables and some new special abilities for armor and weapons.

The new monsters fill a big chapter, introduced by notes about using monsters from the MM in Oriental Adventures. It contains nearly seventy monsters.

This book will most likely be used as a regular rulebook rather than for the Legend of the Five Rings material. Most DMs and players will choose material that they like and include it in their games, maybe creating an "Oriental setting" in their own campaign world. Alot of the material can be useful outside of any specific setting, oriental or not. With the wealth of information in the form of new classes, feats and spells, this book is an excellent and useful addition to the d20 line.

New Rules: Because there are so many of them, I have only chosen a few evocatively-named new feats, spells and monsters to give the reader a general idea of what to expect from "Oriental Adventures".

New Feats: Craft Crystal Weapon, Blood Sorcerer, Born Duelist, Freezing the Lifeblood, Great Ki Shout, Karmic Strike, etc…

New Spells: Animate Fire, Animate Water, Animate Wood, Bo of Water, Decapitating Scarf, Detect Taint, Fire Shuriken, Master of the Rolling River, Terra Cotta Warrior, Tetsubo of Earth, Water to Poison, Yari of Air, etc…

New Monsters (or new to the third edition): Bog Hag, Lung Dragons, Hopping Vampire, Ki-Rin, Naga races, Oni, Tengu, Yeti, etc.

Here is the Great Throw Feat missing from the book.

Great Throw [General]
You can throw your opponents to the ground, choosing where they land and dealing damage in the process.

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Dexterity 13+, Dodge, Improved Trip, Combat Reflexes

Benefit: When you make a successful unarmed trip attack against a creature no larger than your own size, you can choose where the creature lands, within the area you threaten. In addition, you deal your normal unarmed strike damage to the opponent. When you use this option, however, you may not make a followup melee attack using the Improved Trip feat.


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