Complete Scoundrel

The “rogue” version of these “Complete” sourcebooks. They chose the word “scoundrel” for a reason, in that this book was apparently designed for roguish characters as opposed to the rogue class.

The introduction tries to make that clear, presenting the scope of the rest of the source book. What's rather interesting is that they pointed out historical figures and fictional characters from other media as examples of the just what exactly are the sort of scoundrels they had in mind.

Chapter one basically expands on that idea, where scoundrel types are basically expanded on - personality, strengths and weaknesses, and character building recommendations. There's quite a lot of good exposition written here on just how to play scoundrels, although the categorisation is a bit predictable. I also find it a bit unconvincing that lawful characters can be considered as “scoundrels”, particularly the attempt to apply that label to paladins. But I suppose I can understand the motivation to make this sourcebook usable by all alignments and all characters classes.

Prestige classes follow in chapter 2. This is a weak chapter. Most of the prestige classes are really generic and don't stand out. Several have flavour problems - i.e. where the flavour description of the prestige class is completely at odds with their mechanics. And then there's the Gray Guard - which is basically the paladin version of trying to playing a good-aligned assassin. I can accept the motivations of the Gray Guard, I just can't accept forcing that role onto the paladin class.

Chapter three has some interesting options. Skill tricks are added as an option - basically, special moves for roguish characters -as a variant use of skill points. They're completely optional as I feel that creative players are already doing them using normal attribute and skill checks, but it does help give some structure to just what roguish characters can do. Note that these are not just physical moves, but also mental tricks.

The new feats are a mixed bag. There's a whole bunch of luck feats (i.e. reroll feats) which don't seem like they're worth picking up. And then there's a number of ambush feats, where you can give up some sneak attack die rolls for different effects, providing interesting options.

Chapter 4 contains the next set of expected stuff - new spells. Nothing particularly stands out to me, so it's just additional tools for scoundrels that rely on magic. It's a fairly short chapter.

Chapter 5 contains new physical tools. This part is surprisingly interesting. It has a section on hidden spaces, and an interesting selection of new alchemical (i.e. non-magical) tools, including “biological weapons” - that is, using actual living things (mostly insects) as tools. That's rather ingenious.

And finally chapter 6 introduces some adventure ideas (which are fine), a couple of new organisations (which I find to be either bad or silly), some NPC contact examples (which are ok), and a clone of the “magical sites” idea from other sourcebooks - mundane sites (which are bad). I don't think the bonuses these sites grant “work” when you have no magic involved. For those where the bonuses make sense, they still fail because the location is not the key - it's the deed or accomplishment. Trying to wrap it up as a location-specific effect is just awkward.

Overall, there are some bits and pieces here that can be fun options, especially for people who prefer to focus on actual role-playing. But I feel that it's held back by some rather major flaws.