YMMV / Red Hand of Doom

• Broken Base:
  • The practice of improving Red Hand soldiers rather than using their stats and equipment as listed in the book. Some don't like the rank-and-file Red Hand soldiers, the elites and the commanders as included and will strengthen them by changing their classes, equipment, feats, tactics and abilities. Players and Dungeon Masters are split on this practice. Some like doing this as it makes the enemies tougher and the campaign more interesting. Others don't as it can lead to the whole campaign being too difficult or to an arms race where the players will make their characters tougher, smarter, etc. to match the improved Red Hand soldiers.
  • Using Tome of Battle material like the martial adept classes, maneuvers and stances. Some players will use them to make powerful characters to fight the Red Hand while DMs use the book to make tougher enemies to fight the players. As Tome of Battle is sometimes considered a Game-Breaker, this leads to the book being restricted if not banned for use in Red Hand games.
• Cult Classic: Red Hand of Doom has a lot of fans, who use it in their games, even in non-Dungeons & Dragons game systems. Some will customize the game by making enemies tougher, adding sidequests to the game, introducing more NPCs, placing the Red Hand in other settings and so on.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Tome of Battle can be this as mentioned above for both players and dungeon masters.
  • By the time player spellcasters get to the Battle of Brindol, they'll have access to more powerful magic spells that can at the very least summon or conjure creatures to aid against the Red Hand. If they have teleportation magic, they may be able to summon or even directly bring in mercenaries to tip the battle in their favor. And that is assuming the campaign sticks to core rulebooks, not bringing in additional spells from supplements.