Thursday, February 20, 2020

Review: SWAT: Special Wizards and Tactics - 5e Encounter from Oz Mills

Howdy all, today I am taking a look at SWAT: Special Wizards and Tactics - 5e Encounter from Oz Mills. The author sent me a review copy, and the product is available right now on DriveThru.



So, this is basically what is says on the tin, a combat encounter for 5e. Well, actually a single encounter presented in numerous ways. The encounters center around an elite city watch team that for whatever reason has been sent after the PCs. Several maps are provided, along with the titular "SWAT" team and some suggestions on various ways to flavor the encounters to fit your campaign. There are three possible encounter locations: an apartment, a street scene, and a tavern.

So, the first thing I will say is that I am all for short adventures and encounter ideas that are easy to drop into a game. My prep time is nil, so over the years I have increasingly relied on published products even for the simplest of scenarios.

I would say that the most valuable pieces of this are the maps, which are quite clean and easy to understand, and the enemy combatant design. Mills does an especially good job in planning for the enemies to work together as a unit, thus the "SWAT" moniker. The author has clearly run their fair share of 5e, and the enemy design shows it.

If I had to complain about something, some of the read-aloud text seemed superfluous and unnecessary. That is maybe more of a personal preference, as I just don't like read-aloud text in general. I also would have liked to have seen "player" maps for all of the locations, but these are all simple enough to sketch without too much trouble.

At only two bucks, you definitely get your money's worth out of this. If I was to use it, I would just model an entire city's law enforcement on the "SWAT" team and treat it as a mini-adventure, with the PCs having to escape town without being captured.

If you want to check out more of what Oz Mills is working on, I recommend checking out their Patreon HERE! I look forward to more from them!


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