Iron Kingdoms: Unleashed Quick Impressions
The Iron Kingdoms: Unleashed Core Rulebook was released to the public earlier this week. I live-tweeted the things that jumped out at me if you are looking for some takeaways.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590973317932167168
We all, at some point, have wanted to see a Pygmy Troll Warlock commanding Dire Trolls into battle that are so much relatively larger that looking at them side-by-side can only be humorous. Alas.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590973640407060480
The Intellectual Archetype from Full Metal Fantasy has been replaced by the Cunning Archetype. Their base bonus is effectively the same (+1 bonus to attack and damage rolls to friendly characters in their command range). It is worth noting that throughout the Archetype section there are several benefits available to Unleashed characters that are not available to Full Metal Fantasy characters and vice versa.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590974727952281600
You can be just like Morvahna, the Dawn Shadow!
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590975298742562816
The Death Mastery ability allows Gatorman Bokors to spend a feat point to reanimate a destroyed living character in its control range as a Swamp Shambler. They can have a maximum of three at a time. The requirement of having ARC 5 will likely deny a player from having this ability until around their 5th game session at the earliest, which should not take very long!
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590978225708273664
The Dual Fighter ability allows a character to attack with a Great Weapon in each hand, albeit with a -2 penalty on attack roll with the second weapon. Consequently, this is probably best taken with a Skilled character with the Ambidextrous archetype benefit and a healthy dose of PRW boosting.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590979747426865152
Tharn Ravagers have the Heart Eater rule as expected. Additionally, they can gain the Consume Essence ability, which allows them to ingest a heart to gain a bonus to PHY, SPD, or STR for an hour. Gross.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590981363311857664
Warlocks start with warbeasts automatically, which seems natural given the nature of the the Harnesser trait. Additionally, warlocks do not need to bond with their weapons to boost with them, so they are incredibly strong right out the gate compared to warcasters. However, they are a bit slower to become more powerful since having additional warbeasts requires spending more ability slots, so they will rise in power level a bit slower than warcasters.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590983081214889985
One of the things I lamented from the Full Metal Fantasy rulebook (and all of its expansions) was a generic melee fighter that was more geared towards swinging a sword than holding up a shield. The Warrior career can be built either way. They also have the Specialization (Any) ability that they can use to remove the attack penalty on a specific weapon, allowing you to use your weapon of choice (like a two-handed flail, bloodtracker fighting claw, or a battle hammer) without accompanying attack penalties. Rejoice!
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590985011785924609
The Bone Grinder Hunting Party is pretty much about collecting bodies and turning them into other things, giving you an actual mechanical reason to kill everything in sight.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590985652151328768
The Slaughterhouser career has just about every offensive melee ability you could want: Cleave, Finisher, Gang, Hack (additional damage die against knocked-down enemies), Precision Strike, and Broad Stroke (spend a feat point to make a Thresher attack). When you absolutely need everything forever to die, look no further than the Farrow Slaughterhouser!
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590987127795556352
With a modest requirement of ARC 5, the Devourer Wurm Shaman gains either Beat Back, Bounding Leap, Counter Charge, or Tough for the duration of the encounter, giving them some Mighty archetype benefits to complement their magic-slinging primary focus.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590989521241526272
Not only do they have some gloriously-cool art, the Priest of Nyssor is a really neat class. Their Nyss claymores can benefit from a few really useful weapon-related abilities including Magical Weapon and the ability to make the target of a melee attack become stationary. Additionally, their spell list has loads of great support spells like Hand of Fate, Occultation, Lamentation, True Path, and Hunter’s Mark.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590990561726705664
When a warbeast’s controling warlock dies, you roll on the Backlash table to determine what it does in response, which can result in it dashing to and devouring its dead master or going into a rage and attacking whatever is nearest, so be wary.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590993141940924416
I think that Steampunk Batman sums it up quite nicely.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590993492572119040
Because, steampunk! Also, the goggles don’t really grant any benefit in-game. They literally do nothing.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590994153607069698
Nothing to add to that…
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590994515508350976
I will note that Matt Goetz on the IKRPG design team did respond to this saying that it “Sounds like I have a mission”.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590995252296622080
Ever want to drop an anvil or a harpsichord on someone’s head? Well, there are rules for that. You’re welcome.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/590997160230948864
For some reason, troll warbeasts, particularly dire trolls, have enourmous damage spirals compared to their cards in Hordes, which is odd as most other warbeasts and all warjacks have spirals and damage columns that are pretty close, if not identical, to their miniatures game sources. I cannot really explain why.
https://twitter.com/relasine/status/591088194231275520
Tharn characters must transform during lunar conjunctions when Calder and another of the moons are full. You do not need to really track all three moons, as it only happens twice a year according to the explanation on page 15, but it is probably something the GM should track that they can use as a narrative tool. I will admit that I was griping about this a little until I actually looked up the moon rules, which are not at all complicated.
Closing Thoughts –
I’m generally pretty happy with this book at first glance. I have only now begun really digging into the text, but I have to say that I cannot wait to get a proper group together so that I can start making a mess of things. Expect a full review of Iron Kingdoms: Unleashed within the next few weeks or so.
Stay tuned to Bell of Lost Souls for more Iron Kingdoms coverage.
