- Hardcover: 157 pages
- Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (Jun 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 078693686X
- ISBN-13: 978-0786936861
- Product Dimensions: 27.9 x 21.3 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
789,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #97 in Books > Fiction > Science Fiction > Gaming > Dungeons & Dragons
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The essential handbook integrating war and battlefield action into D&D® play.
Heros of Battle™ provides everything one needs to know to play a battle-oriented D&D campaign. Players can build military characters with new
feats, spells, uses for traditional spells, and prestige classes. Information is
given on tools specific to the battlefield, including siege engines, weapons,
magic items, steeds, and other exotic mounts. Battlefield terrain aspects are
discussed with plenty of illustrative maps and new rules. Specific types of
battlefield encounters are discussed in detail, and the book provides specific
detail on designing battlefields.
DAVID NOONAN is an RPG designer/developer at Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Recent credits include authoring Complete Divine™ and co-authoring
Races of Stone™ and Unearthed Arcana™.
WILL McDERMOTT, former editor-inchief of Duelist and TopDeck magazines,
has written a number of articles for Dragon® Magazine, but is known
primarily for his fiction in the Magic: The Gathering™ universe, including
the novels Judgment and The Moons of Mirrodin.
STEPHEN SCHUBERT is a freelance writer whose previous credits include
articles in Dragon Magazine.
Heros of Battle™ provides everything one needs to know to play a battle-oriented D&D campaign. Players can build military characters with new
feats, spells, uses for traditional spells, and prestige classes. Information is
given on tools specific to the battlefield, including siege engines, weapons,
magic items, steeds, and other exotic mounts. Battlefield terrain aspects are
discussed with plenty of illustrative maps and new rules. Specific types of
battlefield encounters are discussed in detail, and the book provides specific
detail on designing battlefields.
DAVID NOONAN is an RPG designer/developer at Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Recent credits include authoring Complete Divine™ and co-authoring
Races of Stone™ and Unearthed Arcana™.
WILL McDERMOTT, former editor-inchief of Duelist and TopDeck magazines,
has written a number of articles for Dragon® Magazine, but is known
primarily for his fiction in the Magic: The Gathering™ universe, including
the novels Judgment and The Moons of Mirrodin.
STEPHEN SCHUBERT is a freelance writer whose previous credits include
articles in Dragon Magazine.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seriously crunchy,
By Alex Fell (Rugby, Warwickshire, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Heroes of Battle: The Battlefield Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Supplement) (Hardcover)
This book is so crunchy it should have a crisp, honeycomb centre and be sold by Cadburys. If you are looking for flavour or colour on how elves tie up their hair while going to war, forget it. This book is a DMs manual on how to design a campaign (or parts thereof) around a militaristic setting. And what's wrong with that?Chapter 1 introduces the ideas of what the shape of a "war" campaign might be like, and how normal aspects of a campaign (like handing out treasure) might need to be changed. Chapter 2 is about how to design "war" adventures using a flow chart system, how to quickly design an army, battlefields and their associated hazards. It also introduces the victory point system, whereby the characters can influence the outcome of the battle (as much as the DM allows, anyway) through their own actions. These two chapters are the best, setting out the most thoughful and novel parts of the book. Chapter 3 digs a bit deeper, setting out possible battlefield encounters and possible units that could be met. Chapter 4 contains a large number of specific rules for the battlefield, where the might differ from standard rules. For example, it has stuff on siege engines, massed archery (a la Agincourt), leader "auras" which allow leaders to give allies bonuses in certain circumstances, and rules for decorations and rewards. The fifth and sixth chapters have rules for characters, setting out new uses for skills, new feats and prestige classes, "teamwork" benefits which allow a practiced team to carry out specific manoeuvres that may give then certain bonuses or abilities (like Evasion, for example), new spells and magic items. Finally, it also has an appendix, detailing different armies and their organisation. As stated above, this is a fairly rules heavy book. It's also not very "in character", as it deals explicity with the nitty-gritty of designing and balancing encounters, adventures and campaigns and as such addresses the DM directly. It is entirely generic, so its not world-specific. Personally, I think its very good. There is lots in here that a DM can take away even if warfare is not going to be a big deal in the campaign. And if you do want to set a campaign around characters fighting a war, I would say its invaluable.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty decent,
This review is from: Heroes of Battle: The Battlefield Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Supplement) (Hardcover)
This is a very good book for large open battles, it also triggered ideas for my own campaign.
It contains in my opinion the coolest prestige class ever, the Dread Commando ;) Alot of nice guidelines for war-campaigns. It's by all means not a very necessary book at all, but i like it.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews) 45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally have a name for it...,
By Wilder "nizkateth" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Heroes of Battle: The Battlefield Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Supplement) (Hardcover)
I have been running adventures for D&D for years that follow more the style of game represented herein, not delving into dungeons on a regular basis but rather encounters in the world. A battlefield campaign is a great idea and Wizards did an excellent job of giving guildlines and rules for running these. The section on victory and recognition points, as well as promotion and decorations is by far my favorite out of this book. While not terribly large for a hard-back this book is packed with information ranging from the 60-minute army to a few new prestige classes (all five-level and very useful) and some new magical items and weapon/armor properties.
If you want to run a game of D&D that doesn't focus on crawling around in ancient ruins or goblin-holes all the time, but instead focuses on the glory and frightfulnes of war and surface skirmshes then this will be an excellent adition to your gaming books. 18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A worthwhile investment,
By Anglobotomy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Heroes of Battle: The Battlefield Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Supplement) (Hardcover)
I give this 5 stars because its one of very few DnD books by Wizards of the Coast that's come out in the past two years that I read from cover to cover. It interested me. A lot of the other titles they've released lately have been the sort of material you pick and choose; sometimes avoiding large sections of altogether, like the race books they released earlier this year. So I guess I'm rating in comparison to other DnD books.
It's not the most amazing or ground-breaking stuff, but it's a different take on the game than most of us choose to use. I guess it was inspiring to me. I've been DMing now for about 20 years, and though I've done a lot of what's in this book on my own at times, I really enjoyed reading it, and I think this book needed to be produced for those who want to run a battle based campaign and didn't know where to start. A warning, though. If you're looking for feats, races, classes, prestige classes, etc.... this is not that type of book. That being said, I'm glad. Most other DnD books of late have been only those things with a little fluff to make it all part of a theme. This book is good for any DM. 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A creative and insightful resource for D&D,
By B. Allen-Trick "Meatrace" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Heroes of Battle: The Battlefield Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons Supplement) (Hardcover)
I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks there's nothing more epic and exciting in a RPG than war. Well this book does a pretty good job of laying the groundwork for a campaign based around battles. It's not all straightforward battlefield stuff either, a lot has to do with different tactics during war.
Things like cutting the enemy's supply lines, battlefield espionage, siege weapons, arrow volleys, etc. It also has what is definitely the best and simplest system for battlefield morale that I've seen (and it's compatable with the D&D miniatures rules) and explains how Leadership and one's rank in the military play into things. Most of the feats and prestige classes are boring (though the combat medic is excellent) and some of the spells are very interesting. Overall it is an excellent resource. The only reason I am giving it 4 stars is that it's all very situational, and in a standard campaign none of this will get used. For a campaign that involves medieval warfare and big battles, it earns its pricetag, which I can say for less and less of WoTC's product line of late. |
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