The Sentinel is one of the core classes for the Primal Legends campaign setting, combining elements of the Ranger and Paladin with mechanics that support Primal Legends' fundamental division between 'clean' and 'unclean' creatures and magic.

From a core of ranger-like statistics (there is a suggested set of changes to bring the core abilities closer to a paladin concept), most of the Sentinel's class abilities are picks from a large selection of Ranger-like, Paladin-like and unique abilities called Endowments, with prerequisites that, for practical purposes, restrict Endowments to a similar class level to when they would be received by the PHB equivalent, and group them into trees (not explicitly listed). It strikes me that it would be very easy to read the Endowments as feats and make them available to anyone.

The concept of clean and unclean creatures extends some Cleric-like abilities to large groups of creature types and a DM would need to consider the balance implications of this carefully: for example, a Sentinel may gain the ability to turn or destroy dragons, constructs or orcs, to rebuke or command elves, oozes or animals, or a Holy Aura that does a small amount of damage to all unclean creatures in range (six creature types). Another general concern is that Endowments are stated to be extraordinary abilities unless otherwise noted, but I can't see any Endowment noted as a supernatural or spell-like ability, even ones like turning that probably should be. Maybe I'm missing a table, but this should be in the text.

It's not as much a universal game-mechanic revision as the blurb tends to suggest - this is a setting-specific class, though mostly easy to adapt, with due attention to possible balance concerns. It's innovative and technically well developed.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Some good thinking has gone into treatment of favoured terrain and non-GP-based trapmaking.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Dragon magazine did a Sentinel core class (a neutral good paladin variant) shortly after 3.5 hit the stores. I thought it was a neat paladin/ranger hybrid, until I picked up PRimal Heroes: The Sentinel.

This is essentially a good-aligned wilderness warrior with a variety of talent trees available. As the product description states, you don't have to spend your entire adventuring career trying to qualify for a silly prestige class. The talent/ability progressions allow you to craft many different types of sentinel; you can choose favored enemies, turning abilities, combat style (just to name a few) and different combinations of different abilities allow a high degree of customization.

The pdf has a printer-friendly version, which I read first ... then I realized that this is part of a campaign world (Axiom?) which is Bronze Age (hence the name, Primal Heroes). The world itself is intriguing. For example, one ability is Rebuke Clean Creature (like an evil cleric rebukes undead); clean creatures tend to be non-evil aligned creatures and PC races; then theree is Turn Unclean Creature (undead, evil outsiders, etc) ... Clean/Unclean suggests a campaign world designation, and left me wondering if there was a worldbook for Axiom. Some very intriguing stuff in here. Bronze Age trappings notwithstanding, this class could easily be dropped into any campaign; put this together with the Knave and Savage classes (also from Bloodstone), and you have the beginnings of a very flexible class system.

After a pretty thorough reading, I'd have to say that the classes and abilities seem balanced, although I haven't had the chance to do much playtesting yet. I'd recommend this product to anyone who has been there, done that in the d20 system and is looking for a customizable class.

An interesting mixture of the paladin and ranger, this book allows the creation of fairly unique PCs. Like the others in the series, it gives a class table that indicates how many special abilities are gained by the class. It is up to the player to select which ability (or feat).

Some of the abilities or straight from the paladin or ranger, but most are new or are enhanced versions of existing powers (with the proper prereqs of course). It is balanced but DMs will have to keep an eye on the PC and make sure the player's choices are not going to negatively affect the PC. Being able to forage better doesn't work well in a urban setting.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>