dragon_lord's review
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Self harm, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Animal cruelty, Xenophobia, Animal death, War, Cannibalism, and Grief
drew1013's review
4.0
I love the idea of Theros: an Ancient Greek-inspired setting where the collective unconscious of its people create gods and magic. The people’s belief and worship literally created the gods. In Theros, there are lots of new character options, creatures, and gods to play with, but this is almost exclusively a sourcebook, and that bummed me out a bit.
If you’re looking for an adventure you can run for months, you’ll need to use the materials here to make something up (or visit the DM’s guild). The introductory adventure will last a few sessions and then it’ll be up to you.
Some new things here that are fun:
- Supernatural gifts from the gods. These bonuses can be great for RP, and stack on top of everything else characters get
- 5 New Races: centaur, leonin, minotaur, satyr, and triton. These are all great in their own ways
- 2 New subclasses for bard and paladin, as well as a couple new background options
- A large section on the gods of Theros, complete with tables describing what you might gain for winning a god’s favor. Speaking of which...
- A new piety mechanic: your piety score with your god increases as you do things that align with your god’s ideals. As your piety increases, you gain access to better perks. Again, this is on top of everything else your character gets
Theros is a very high-powered setting, given all of the things you can stack on top of a character’s regular progression. There are certainly lots of challenging new monsters in the book, but I wonder how these additions will effect balance.
Also, the gods, the supernatural gifts, and the piety mechanic seem to be trying to inject some of that built-in Warlock RP goodness into all other classes. This is great, and I’m all for it. Honestly, I wish the Warlock class worked a little more based on piety to give it more RP weight. But that’s the kind of DM I am—give me story stuff to facilitate depth of characters and connection to the world.
All in all, Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a sourcebook that doesn’t offer any mythic odysseys, just a short introductory adventure. There’s a ton packed into the book, so in a way that’s fine, but as a DM, it’s hard to get excited about running a Theros campaign if I know I’ll need to create (essentially) all of the story. This was my same issue with Eberron: Rising from the Last War, another extensive sourcebook that was light on adventure but heavy on worldbuilding and character options.
Mostly, I buy these to keep up with the options being added to the game, but I get much more excited for the full-fledged campaigns. Still, I really wish there was a long adventure included, because the setting sounds amazing and I’d love to take advantage of all the worldbuilding that’s been done.
If you’re looking for an adventure you can run for months, you’ll need to use the materials here to make something up (or visit the DM’s guild). The introductory adventure will last a few sessions and then it’ll be up to you.
Some new things here that are fun:
- Supernatural gifts from the gods. These bonuses can be great for RP, and stack on top of everything else characters get
- 5 New Races: centaur, leonin, minotaur, satyr, and triton. These are all great in their own ways
- 2 New subclasses for bard and paladin, as well as a couple new background options
- A large section on the gods of Theros, complete with tables describing what you might gain for winning a god’s favor. Speaking of which...
- A new piety mechanic: your piety score with your god increases as you do things that align with your god’s ideals. As your piety increases, you gain access to better perks. Again, this is on top of everything else your character gets
Theros is a very high-powered setting, given all of the things you can stack on top of a character’s regular progression. There are certainly lots of challenging new monsters in the book, but I wonder how these additions will effect balance.
Also, the gods, the supernatural gifts, and the piety mechanic seem to be trying to inject some of that built-in Warlock RP goodness into all other classes. This is great, and I’m all for it. Honestly, I wish the Warlock class worked a little more based on piety to give it more RP weight. But that’s the kind of DM I am—give me story stuff to facilitate depth of characters and connection to the world.
All in all, Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a sourcebook that doesn’t offer any mythic odysseys, just a short introductory adventure. There’s a ton packed into the book, so in a way that’s fine, but as a DM, it’s hard to get excited about running a Theros campaign if I know I’ll need to create (essentially) all of the story. This was my same issue with Eberron: Rising from the Last War, another extensive sourcebook that was light on adventure but heavy on worldbuilding and character options.
Mostly, I buy these to keep up with the options being added to the game, but I get much more excited for the full-fledged campaigns. Still, I really wish there was a long adventure included, because the setting sounds amazing and I’d love to take advantage of all the worldbuilding that’s been done.
paladinboy's review
4.0
It's a roleplaying book +1 star
It's a 5e Dungeons and Dragons book (my current attuned system) +1 star
It's got a cool piety system that I'm stealing for my homebrew +1 star
Beautiful book illustrations and some fun background to mine for future ideas + 1/2 star
Iconoclasts +1/2 star
It's a 5e Dungeons and Dragons book (my current attuned system) +1 star
It's got a cool piety system that I'm stealing for my homebrew +1 star
Beautiful book illustrations and some fun background to mine for future ideas + 1/2 star
Iconoclasts +1/2 star
puddlejumper's review
5.0
This is a really well thought out campaign setting. It has several new elements to it that make it different to other D&D settings, it isn‘t overwhelming and all the information you need is contained in one book.
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