Infamous Adversaries–Slogar the Uncaring

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92860[1]By Thilo Graf

This pdf from Total Party Kill Games is 12 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 7 pages for Slogar the Uncaring, so, what is he about?

After a full-color, one-page artwork of Slogar the half-orc and his zombie-steed daisy-pusher, we get Slogar’s statblock (half-orc cleric 8, btw.) as well as an elaboration of his motives and appearance as well as his background story. He is a prophet of the endtimes (no, that does not necessarily grant him leeway from my wrath ;D ) and seeks to hasten the inevitable final showdown between good and evil by vile deeds. The sample stories given center around gruesomely killing innocents and feeding them to his zombie horse. Slogar, as a rather straight-forward loner does not offer much in regards to network, resources or allies. A sample quote is given, which I definitely like, and the lore-section as well as the plot hooks are what you’d expect of them. Daisy-pusher, his fast zombie horse also gets its stats.

Conclusion:

Editing is ok, but I noticed some rather awkward phrases that could have been written more compelling. Formatting is ok. Layout adheres to the two-column standard and the statblocks feature some hyperlinks to d20pfsrd, which is nice. However, on the layout-side, there’s a particular decision that irked me to no end: The statblocks have an unnecessary blue background that unnecessarily drains the ink/toner and the special qualities and headers of the respective sections are either not printed in bold or just not bold enough; they look like regular letters, making it harder than necessary to make out where one special quality begins and the other ends. There are only two bookmarks and more extensive ones would be appreciated and the same goes for a printer-friendly version. While not too taxing, it could be better.

My biggest gripe, though, is with Slogar himself. This villain is just bland, bland, bland. Oooooh, I’m an evil half-orc cleric who feeds children to his zombie-steed, I’m so vile… Reasons? None. Motivations? Murky at best. His Zombie horse? Dead meat as soon as it meets an able fighter. Slogar sans zombie-horse? More than bland. This is the type of “Book of Vile Darkness”-villain that is plain boring, without the vile materials, special spells etc. from said publication. Vileness and horror should be accentuated by some unique quality, a plague, special gear, a unique feat, anything, really. Perhaps I’m just utterly spoiled by Raging Swan’s “Villains I + II” and “Antipaladins” or RiP’s “Faces of the Tarnished Souk”-series, but while the extensive information on Slogar is commendable, said series trump this pdf in each and every way. Slogar is just evil in the most unimaginative, in-your-face way you can imagine and subsequently falls short of what I consider a compelling NPC or villain, even if you’re going for a clean-cut b/w good/evil approach. On the other hand, this pdf is free, which is always a significant plus.

Nevertheless, my final verdict for this pdf will be 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 for the purpose of this platform: The bad layout decision, sparse bookmarks and most of all, bland villain just don’t make a higher verdict possible, which is a pity, as I think complex tactics and a better story/character could easily have been woven around an insane prophet of the endtimes and his zombie-horse.

Endzeitgeist out.

Infamous Adversaries–Slogar the Uncaring is available from:

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