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This installment of the Treasures of NeoExodus-line is 4 pages long, with 1 page being taken up by SRD/editorial and 1 page devoted to item-cards, leaving two pages of content, so let's take a look!
This gladius was wielded by the fire-and-brimstone preaching religious zealots/terrorists of the Phoenix Guard when they destroyed the Rylosian Hermitage devoted to a religion that was not the Sanguine Lord. After the massacre, which is rendered in a compellingly-written piece of prose narrated by a convert/survivor, the supremacy of the Sanguine Lord was readily apparent - no small thanks to this blade.
Mechanically, the blade is a +2 heartseeker gladius that deals an additional 2 points of wisdom damage and improves the wielder's Str-score by +1 for each drain so inflicted. A critical hit resets the 1 minute duration of the buff.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column full-color drop-dead gorgeous standard and the artwork of the gladius, as we've come to expect from the line, is a beauty to behold. The pdf comes also in a second, more printer-friendly version and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
Fluff-wise, this ranks by far among the best in the whole line, delivering a cool, compelling narrative with a nice twist at the end. Mechanically, I'm honestly not completely sold on the gladius - 2 points of wis-damage sans save feel like a lot and a death-knell to clerics and druids. In the hands of a two-weapon fighter of any decent level, perhaps a hasted one for additional pain, these weapons would be EXTREMELY deadly. That being said, while I'd be wary of letting them fall into PC-hands and especially of making them a TYPE of magical weapon rather than a unique one (at 12 820 GP they are not that expensive to create...), as a unique weapon it might make for a good addition to the arsenal. Still a slight discomfort remains, somewhat similar to the one I voiced regarding silence, and that one WAS unique. Thus, I'll settle for a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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Disclaimer: I'm a contributing author to Christina Stiles' current kickstarter "Bite Me! The Gaming Guide to Lycanthropes" and was a patron of this project, though not a contributing one. If you haven't checked out her kickstarter, I urge you to do so. My verdict of this book was not in any way influenced by me contributing to "Bite Me!".
This supplement/adventure anthology is 139 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page introduction/kickstarter-backer-list, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement and 1 page back cover, leaving us 132 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This being a combined campaign supplement and adventure anthology, we delve first into a kind of hub for the explorations the PCs are sure to embark upon when utilizing the content from these pages: Barsella, the City at the end of the world in the Midgard setting is the last true fleck of civilization before the Western Ocean and as such an interesting place indeed - a combination of colonial outpost, trading town and frontier-city, Barsella's write-up includes potential for adventure galore - whether it's via the plethora of options available for explorations into the unknown or within the town - after all, Nethus, the chained god of the sea is still very much present in this place, as are the seafaring minotaurs and other thoroughly interesting components like gambling dens and brothels with interesting entertainers awaiting. And in the bedrock of the town, the tides have carved out the infamous wash, a set of smuggling tunnels and undercity that provides for an opportunity to crawl and explore other illicit affairs PCs may seek to undertake. An iconic interesting city-panorama, but not the focus of this product - for the true ambition of this supplement is to capture the spirit of frontiers, of trailblazing and wonder at strange locales in the spirit of mankind's epics like the Iliad or the Gilgamesh-myth.
As such, the following chapters detail new islands to be found and the very first one already blows me out of the water (pardon the pun): The Island of the Morphoi is weird in uncountable ways. Fully mapped in b/w (like all islands in here), this place is the base of Mnemosyne, wife of the lost god of the seas - She also happens to be the goddess of time, history and memory who suffers from an inscrutable memory-loss that drives to obsessive brinks of madness, her weird morphoi-servants and twisted lamia scouring the world for knowledge to finally fill the void ripped into her otherwise omniscient and perfect recollections. The island is also plagued by temporal rifts, unstable areas of temporal flux (including massive tables to determine weird effects on the fly) and provides 3 domains and 2 subdomains as well as potential for adventures galore.
Meshong-Lir and its atoll of savage islands also makes for a truly intriguing setting that transcends traditional backdrops - the prison/remains of a Great Old One from the Far Beyond, these islands are now haunted by Heralds of Darkness and the ghosts of Elysian Titans. Worse, the arcane bonds that hold the creature enslaved are tied to thresholds and doors and every foray into the depths of Meshong-Lir brings the dread entity closer to freedom - if the intrepid explorers manage to survive the maddening taint of the forbidden knowledge engraved in the reality-warped ruins of an empire long since passed, they may yet gain knowledge both twisted and powerful - at least if they manage to surpass the other alienists, mad cultists and things-that-should-not-be. Have I mentioned that in order to live to tell the tale, the PCs also have to brave the fact that the island rises from the waves (including tsunamis) and sinks back below the waves: And yes, rules for all of that are included in the write-up.
There are also write-ups of so-called lesser islands, which, while slightly less detailed, are also lengthy - starting at Aroa, which is the home-base of the Rimegaurd that seek to rediscover the lost technology of the crab-like K'karoan and atolls, some with spatial rifts, also feature in this section, also the crab-like humanoid K'kin. The Burning Shores with its magmins and azers and archmage's sanctum is also interesting in that it features hazards beyond regular fiery hazards - also including deadly gasses impacting local environment. The Leviathan, a living island inhabited by mongrelman, gliding through the waves (And featured in the module "To the Edge of the World") is littered with eldritch remnants ready for the picking and intriguing locales/rules to enable PCs the diving leviathan.
Terminus island is interesting especially in the context of Midgard, for the world is flat and this ancient place, with its gigantic guardians and legendary fruit is located indeed at the very edge of the flat world. Finally, there's Karn'lothra, where the last remnant of a proud race now lords as an undead empress over her realm. It is also here that a vampire philosopher has blended mind-boggling philosopher that essentially made reality reject him, rendering him quite literally beyond the grasp of even the gods.
The book also features a bestiary, where intelligent Coral Oozes (CR 6), Dragon Eels (CR 13), Lamia Mnemosynian Matriarchs (CR 12) as well as 3 Morphoi-variants, the disturbing Obanje (CR 5), Sons of Talos (CR 11 ancient siege-style golems) and CR 6 Totem-Pole Golems. The Prismwings, magical birds, are also nice, though their entry lacks the CR-value.
We also get 4 new magical items, from the modular boon-necklaces of the seas, to a cephalopod's staff, an enchanted mokomokai (a shrunken head) and one of the tears of Mnemosyne.
After that, we're off to the new modules featured herein and hence, from here on out, the SPOILERS reign. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right! Adventure number 1, "Awash in the Wash" is an uncommon module for low level characters, as it starts the adventuring career of the PCs with an unpleasant surprise for the PCs: They wake up after having been drugged/press-ganged/etc. - in the notorious Wash, Barsella's undercity. The PCs are the latest contestants in the infamous maze of the minotaurs of the city - and a famous geomancer is betting on their unlikely survival - why unlikely? Well, first of all, the maze is studded with traps and spectator-interference (also great for the DM to help/hinder PCs if required) is a constant addition to the place's challenge: The aim is to collect 8 special rings and place them upon a specific statue - while avoiding an insane fiendish minotaur stalking the corridors, hunting for the PCs as well as the complex traps/obstacles littering the maze's regular rooms. Thankfully, the minotaur (who is far beyond PC capabilities to beat) is slow and can be outrun - but not for ever...
Maze residents and multiple rooms with deadly traps make the challenge of the place more pronounced, though I do have some minor gripes with an otherwise great module: The fully detailed maps come without a player-friendly, key-less version and the text refers multiple times to letters and e.g. squares with traps that are not featured on the respective maps. This is one issue. The other one being how running the maze is handled: Essentially, the curving sections and make-up of the place make using traditional mapping hard for the PCs to do, suggesting instead handwaving all in favor of perception/survival-skill-checks - which is fine, though the insinuation that old-school handling of maze-running would bore most groups rubs me the wrong way - especially with a sub-maze of the maze that HAS to be mapped to properly run through is taken into account. A slightly more streamlined set of navigation-rules and help with keeping up dramatic tension with the minotaur-chaser as well as resolving aforementioned map-issues would have been imho nice and made a good module an excellent one.
The second adventure contained (by Dawson Kriska) in this anthology features an unpleasant assault on the docks of Barsella by a strike-force of Sahuagin - unfortunately being infected by a strange curse/disease named skinny-bones, one that defies curing. With the plague endangering Barsella (and quite possibly the PCs, since they've probably been infected in the combat), they have to cooperate with a famous captain and his druidic wife (see Pirates of the Western Ocean) and break through the naval blockade. Seeking the counsel of the archmage Allister Dorn, they arrive at his tower on the burning shores, where unfortunately the archmage is nowhere to be found. Having anticipated the PC's dire need, he has prepared a collection of documents and diagrams that allows for the research of the disease - handling Deus-Ex-Machina-style just about all pieces of information out to the PCs via rather simple arrays of skill-checks, revealing the originator of the plague as an unfettered eidolon incited by aforementioned vampire philosopher. Stepping from the arch-mage's study, the PCs find themselves stranded on the island of Malkay, where all the lost sooner or later wind up and where the eidolon masquerades as a type of savior/angel. The creature runs from the PCs, thinking them trapped on the desolate island, though they are promptly rescued by their NPC-allies - the journal harrow left behind leading them promptly towards Karn'lothra, the island of undead again where they get a chance to stop the mad eidolon's plans and gather the ingredients to end the plague. All in all, a solid adventure, though I really didn't like how the module treats the arch-mage-in-absentia and his notes as a kind of Captain Exposition - alternate means for the PCs to unravel the mystery of the disease would have been nice and feel more organic - as written, the dramaturgy is somewhat askew and suffers from the "Elminster-helps"-syndrome, i.e. the high-level-NPC helps, but can't be bothered to do the job her/himself. It's this that made me turn my back on the Forgotten Realms and I sincerely hope that future Kobold Press-adventures will refrain from creating too many of these plot-device NPCs - Midgard as a setting doesn't need them to work.
Brian W. Suskind provides with a murder mystery in the most traditional way - the PCs are hired by Lord Arvid Olhouser through his aide Delgrade Agador to guard the expedition of his household to the fabled Leviathan-island. Unfortunately, soon after the arrival, the beast dives and thus, the PCs will have to make a frantic sprint to the fabled bubble-tower that contains air and allows people to survive the dives of the living island. Squeezing through the shutting Iris-doors, a group of precious few survivors is stranded in an isolated, claustrophobic locale - the classic set-up for a murder mystery. And said murder doesn't happen too late - Lord Arvid Olhouser is murdered and the people locked in have motives galore: His wife, Lady Olhouser considers him a bumbling idiot and has an affair with his aide Delgrade. His spoilt son Hagen is a thoroughly unpleasant, cruel racist. Bertram Bodkin and his recently betrothed wife Alyce suffer from Bertram's gambling addiction and accumulated debt which the lord declined to help with. Professor Myra Dolynn once had an affair with the lord, local veteran Lucas Cabral has an attachment to the unpleasant local mongrelman populace and Fynn, the 12-year old son of one of the Olhouser's ship's fist mates just had to see his father perish in the dive of the Leviathan. The mongrelmen hiding in the fleshy tunnels of the leviathan are essentially set up as culprits and the PC's short excursion proves an exercise in the slaughter of innocent creatures - unless Lucas Cabral stops them in time. Worse for the PCs - after initial investigations, the deceased rises as a wight accusing them as killers, undermining their believability. Worse, Hakon, the scion of the house is the second victim and lady Margrat is next on the killer's list - who actually acts smart, utilizing dust of illusions to throw the PCs off their guard and sow discord. The cast of dramatis personae allows for a vast array of motivations and the situation is actually more complex than one would believe: Alyce is actually quite a powerful sorceress and bastard-daughter of the late Lord Olhouser, but not the culprit for his murder: Lady Margrat and Hagen killed the lord and Alyce, bereft of her revenge, seeks to end them for it. At the climax of the investigation, she sabotages the tower's mechanics and has the tower flood while the leviathan surfaces, making for a truly memorable climax. All in all a great murder mystery with multiple tables that makes running the complex motivations more easy for the DM. A minor gripe would be that one read-aloud-text mentions "The NPCs", a slip in narrative level DMs should be aware of.
The next module, by Ted Reed, is hands down imho the best in the whole anthology, ranking as a pinnacle of awesomeness that lives up to the best of Open Design/Kobold Press modules out there: The basic plot is the following: The PCs are in the savage islands and have their ship sunk by the rise of Meshong-Lir, after rescuing a dashing old salt rake. Surviving the tsunami wave will be hard - to be captured/separated and beset by the dread pygmies and totem pole golems, the PCs will have to steal rafts to reach Meschong-Lir, for a legendary treasure awaits - the fabled ship Last Vagabond was dragged down by a statue jutting from the dread island and now could be claimed - for it requires a living being to serve as captain, though it is manned by a crew of ghosts. Unbeknownst to the PCs, their new ally is actually a servant of the trapped Great Old One of Meshong-Lir who is partly responsible for the ship's current predicament. The PCs will have to scale the mile-high cliffs, negotiate with the ghost of a titan and impress the ghostly crew enough to become captains and owners of the legendary vessel as well as unmask the wolf in sheep's clothing (no, not the monster) in their midst. And, they of course will have to drive the ship out of the maelstrom of the sinking Meshong-Lir! (and yes, it uses the vehicle-rules from UC -AMEN!) This module is so great it had me salivate, its locales standing out and its execution, especially how the captain is portrayed ranking among the finest I've seen in this type of scenario, the climax being sufficiently epic as well. Two thumbs up for this extremely well-crafted module that works even better thanks to the trouble-shooting interjected here and there.
The final module of the anthology centers on a character that is somewhat of a local landmark in Barsella, the Brine Pauper. The PCs are hired by Barsellan nobility to investigate the fate of the village of Kammae's Landing, more commonly known as Hell's Hole. On their ship is the weird, semi-coherent oracle and if the PCs manage to deal with the difficult anchoring, exploring the haunted remains of the coastal town should prove interesting indeed - for the brine pauper deposited a tear of mnemosyne somewhere in the haunted island, one that might contain vital memories. Unfortunately for the PCs, the Brine Pauper was not here alone - the last survivor of his group, they battled a witch that also perished and now roams the island as a witchfire on the hunt for the madman. Worse, the undead has taken control of a coven of hags and their allies and a disgruntled sea hag may prove to be a vital warning or deadly detriment. Guarded by dread Kech summoners and deep inside the island lies an ancient Ankeshelian prison that contains a dreaded nightwave of Nethus and the seal if breaking - only in the pauper's memories lies the key to finding the hidden vril lock to reseal the dark terror, but only if the PCs can get it before the witchfire. Reaching the nightwave's prison, the PCs will have to face a fraction of its power and solve an easy, nevertheless interesting riddle to escape. On their way home, though, a powerful Mnemosynian Lamia Matriarch tries to take their memories, which might bode disaster for the future...
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect: I noticed e.g. flavor-texts with "NPCs" being mentioned and the first module's maps lacking some information from the text is also unpleasant. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard and is beautiful indeed - in the pdf in full-color, in the print in b/w. Artworks is a mix of full-color and b/w and ranges from good to serviceable. The cartography of the islands is completely in b/ and beautiful indeed - but I have one mayor gripe: Why don't we get player-friendly maps? Seriously, a project of this size/scope should have key-less maps of its locales. What good is the STELLAR map of the cliff-side of Meshong-Lir to me when I can't show it to my players since one of the ledges spells out what kind of creature is waiting there and how to get on the ship? Or another island, that features the name of the threats to be found as well as the location of a certain prison? I can live with Barsella's map being keyed (though I'd prefer a key-less version there as well to hand out to my players), but in adventures, it's a no-go for me by now. The maps of the modules are great, but I can't use them. The pdf is extensively bookmarked for your convenience.
"Journey to the West" is the latest in a series of sourcebooks/anthologies by Open Design/Kobold press and lead designer Christina Stiles has succeeded with accolades in her endeavor of bringing us a supplement that brings the weird, the thrill of exploring, back to the game, with islands both wondrous and terrifying. The campaign-setting information, the island-write-ups, they provide information galore to run whole campaigns, clocking in as some of the most legendary locales I've seen in a supplement in quite a while, breathing their owns myths. I also applaud the decision to not contribute overtly to the feat/trait/spell-bloat and, unlike the otherwise excellent "Streets of Zobeck", focusing on the topic at hand. Mind you, my criticism is at the highest level, but still: The adventures in this module left me partially disappointed at the very highest level of quality possible. They still stand out and are great experiences, but with the notable exception of Ted Reed's contribution, they all suffer here and there from minor issues that keep them from rising to the insane brilliance of e.g. the offerings in "Tales of the Old Margreve": The labyrinth-module suffers from its maps and slightly incongruent take on navigating the maze, the plague -adventure from the captain-exposition-flaw, the murder-mystery from e.g. mentioning a magical aura, but not the nature of it and the final one from feeling cut down - the desolate village would have made for a great place to build up tension via a continuing assault of haunts and instead makes the exploration a rather short stop in the module, with the same holding true for the prison. At first, this didn't stand out to me that much, but Ted Reed's module, with its perfect pacing and detail, its extremely iconic challenges and its vivid primary antagonist makes these minor flaws that wouldn't stand out in other publications much more than they should. Though this module's map suffers most in all the modules of this book from not coming with a player-friendly version.
I get that page-count is an issue, but honestly - I wish this book had been split (even further) - one book for all the setting-information and one for the expanded adventures, to allow them slightly more page-count to shine. As written, they are still great modules, but ones with minor blemishes.
But is that enough to rate this book down? I've been wrestling with myself for quite some time and have to conclude: Yes. Yes, it is. By now, player-friendly maps are a staple in most publications and at least for me, not getting any, especially if the cartography is this good, is kind of a big deal.
Don't get me wrong - I still maintain this is a great book that belongs into the library of any Pathfinder-DM, but I still can't give it my full 5 stars + seal of approval, instead opting for a final verdict of 4.5 stars plus seal of approval, rounded won to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 21 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page How-to-use AP-plug-ins, 1 page author-bios, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 14 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Pioneered in Legendary Games' "Tomes of Arcane Knowledge", this book contains new items, which, akin to grimoires, allow for the learning and access of new feats, spells and the like as well as coming with interesting forms and backgrounds. Taking from their "The Way of Ki"-book, they also offer a very interesting feat for WuXia-style campaigns: Ki Meditation allows you to gain a point of ki, even if your class usually has no access to ki. Also, you choose one skill, for which you gain a +2 insight bonus while thus having the ki-point and the option to spend said point for a bonus of +4. Ki determined by non-wis-mod sources are covered as well. This is vital for the book, since many of the items herein grant access/use ki-abilities - but onwards to the respective items!
"Body outside Body" a tome of vellum, loosely bound by sinew and twine with jade bookmark is the first of the books herein and yes. Yes. The writing of t5he fluff made me salivate a little. Let me give you a short excerpt, if I may:
" This text within is an exploratory narrative plumbing
the auras that permeate the silent twilight sea between heart and mind,
both the mystic emptiness within each individual’s spiritual space as well as
the conjoined communion that links dreamers and the dream of reality itself."(MotIM landscape version, pg 7)
If all rpg-prose was written in such an evocative, eloquent manner, I could retire from checking fluff ever again. And yes, the writing remains consistently on this level. But back to the book: In contrast to other books, this one grants access to the option to learn new ki-feats beyond the benefits that having it in one's possession entails. These ki-feats are not simple reprints of Legendary Games' "Way of Ki"-supplement, instead being completely original: Absorb Aura allows you a degree of protection versus alignment-based spells and effects and allows you to infect other with alignment-auras as well as providing a way to use ki to break curses or reverse magical alignment change. Dream-Travel allows you to enter a dream-state and take others with you on your journeys through the realm of dream in a modification of shadow walking: Better yet, upon reaching your destination, wherever that may be, your bodies fade to come out where your dream-selves have gone to. Especially awesome when also combined with dream-plane-supplements like Rite Publishing's Coliseum Morpheuon/Tarnished Souk-series. Mindlink allows you to make connections between people and keep track of them as per status and if you like that idea, take Fatelink: Expanding on the mechanics of mindlink, fatelink allows for shield other to be used, even on unwilling targets, and also allow the participants to absorb e.g. the other's ability drain, poisons etc. VERY cool and a worthy "rare" fate to make questing for this grimoire a worthwhile endeavor! Object reading, detecting thoughts, modified arcane sights - the feats in this book make it interesting, fit in a thematically concise way together and make for a great read to further expand your ki-options. There are also 2 new spells, especially the latter, Paradox, which allows you to rewind one round of your actions, should make this even more desirable for any character really to get his/her/its hands/claws/pseudopods on.
The necromantic instructions of Yin-blood allow the user to gain the option to cast certain spells via using ki - if you pay the price in permanent ki or the sacrifice of sentient life.When turned upside-down, this scroll instead becomes the Instructions of Thundering Yang, which works in an analogue version, but themed for different elements, granting access to other spells, feats and abilities. Glorious idea and nice to see duality and un-dichotomous morality being used this way.
The Prayer of Empty Flesh and Undying Ki is a banned, heretical text that not only allows you access to a variety of different, otherwise restricted class options, the stalwart defender prestige class, new uses for ki and even 4 rare clerical spells - I you can avoid succumbing to the suicidal addicton that studying this prayer wheel. Again, a gloriously uncommon grimoire.
The final item makes up the cover and represents probably the most uncommon of "tomes" herein - the 7 Ghost Needles, is a tome that requires acupuncture needles to properly benefit from its contents, enhancing your heal-skill as well as granting access to 8 special ki-feats that include the option to temporarily disable ki-abilities of foes, heal faster (or cause pain), gaining enhanced senses (deathwatch and blindsense) in a limited fashion, reduce ability scores via touch attacks, delay the onset of a couple of negative conditions, restore the blockage of ki-flow and exhibit a mastery over death and life: Finish or save, heal and restore or bleed out - the choice is yours. There also is a feat that allows you to center into 3 different ways, making you resistant and less susceptible to different classes of attacks/spells.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect. I did notice a minor typo/puctuation glitch here and there, but nothing serious and still on paizo-comparable levels. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' drop-dead-gorgeous 2-column landscape presentation and the pdf comes with extensive bookmarks. It should be noted that people who don't like the landscape-format may opt to purchase portrait instead. I happen to have both versions and they both are of an equal quality. Frank Hessefort's STELLAR artworks are on paizo-level, perhaps even beyond a couple of their offerings, so art-aficionados: Each grimoire gets a tantalizingly-awesome rendition. Two thumbs up!
I've never made a secret out of my love for Legendary games' stellar idea of introducing grimoires to PFRPG, that is books that do something beyond teaching spells and which are characters, objects of legend of their own. This book now blends these cool concepts with their vastly expanded ki-options for an offering that should turn out to be extremely useful for any type of class, with new options, adventure- and dare I say, campaign hooks, galore. These meditations should be required and the questing goal of many an enlightened scholar and once I run Jade Regent or send my players to the lands of Heroes of the Jade Oath or Kaidan, they'll encounter at least one, probably all of these - for weal and woe.
My final verdict will be yet another at this point unsurprising final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval for the all-star-team of Legendary Games.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 21 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page How-to-use AP-plug-ins, 1 page author-bios, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 14 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Pioneered in Legendary Games' "Tomes of Arcane Knowledge", this book contains new items, which, akin to grimoires, allow for the learning and access of new feats, spells and the like as well as coming with interesting forms and backgrounds. Taking from their "The Way of Ki"-book, they also offer a very interesting feat for WuXia-style campaigns: Ki Meditation allows you to gain a point of ki, even if your class usually has no access to ki. Also, you choose one skill, for which you gain a +2 insight bonus while thus having the ki-point and the option to spend said point for a bonus of +4. Ki determined by non-wis-mod sources are covered as well. This is vital for the book, since many of the items herein grant access/use ki-abilities - but onwards to the respective items!
"Body outside Body" a tome of vellum, loosely bound by sinew and twine with jade bookmark is the first of the books herein and yes. Yes. The writing of t5he fluff made me salivate a little. Let me give you a short excerpt, if I may:
" This text within is an exploratory narrative plumbing
the auras that permeate the silent twilight sea between heart and mind,
both the mystic emptiness within each individual’s spiritual space as well as
the conjoined communion that links dreamers and the dream of reality itself."(MotIM landscape version, pg 7)
If all rpg-prose was written in such an evocative, eloquent manner, I could retire from checking fluff ever again. And yes, the writing remains consistently on this level. But back to the book: In contrast to other books, this one grants access to the option to learn new ki-feats beyond the benefits that having it in one's possession entails. These ki-feats are not simple reprints of Legendary Games' "Way of Ki"-supplement, instead being completely original: Absorb Aura allows you a degree of protection versus alignment-based spells and effects and allows you to infect other with alignment-auras as well as providing a way to use ki to break curses or reverse magical alignment change. Dream-Travel allows you to enter a dream-state and take others with you on your journeys through the realm of dream in a modification of shadow walking: Better yet, upon reaching your destination, wherever that may be, your bodies fade to come out where your dream-selves have gone to. Especially awesome when also combined with dream-plane-supplements like Rite Publishing's Coliseum Morpheuon/Tarnished Souk-series. Mindlink allows you to make connections between people and keep track of them as per status and if you like that idea, take Fatelink: Expanding on the mechanics of mindlink, fatelink allows for shield other to be used, even on unwilling targets, and also allow the participants to absorb e.g. the other's ability drain, poisons etc. VERY cool and a worthy "rare" fate to make questing for this grimoire a worthwhile endeavor! Object reading, detecting thoughts, modified arcane sights - the feats in this book make it interesting, fit in a thematically concise way together and make for a great read to further expand your ki-options. There are also 2 new spells, especially the latter, Paradox, which allows you to rewind one round of your actions, should make this even more desirable for any character really to get his/her/its hands/claws/pseudopods on.
The necromantic instructions of Yin-blood allow the user to gain the option to cast certain spells via using ki - if you pay the price in permanent ki or the sacrifice of sentient life.When turned upside-down, this scroll instead becomes the Instructions of Thundering Yang, which works in an analogue version, but themed for different elements, granting access to other spells, feats and abilities. Glorious idea and nice to see duality and un-dichotomous morality being used this way.
The Prayer of Empty Flesh and Undying Ki is a banned, heretical text that not only allows you access to a variety of different, otherwise restricted class options, the stalwart defender prestige class, new uses for ki and even 4 rare clerical spells - I you can avoid succumbing to the suicidal addiction that studying this prayer wheel. Again, a gloriously uncommon grimoire.
The final item makes up the cover and represents probably the most uncommon of "tomes" herein - the 7 Ghost Needles, is a tome that requires acupuncture needles to properly benefit from its contents, enhancing your heal-skill as well as granting access to 8 special ki-feats that include the option to temporarily disable ki-abilities of foes, heal faster (or cause pain), gaining enhanced senses (deathwatch and blindsense) in a limited fashion, reduce ability scores via touch attacks, delay the onset of a couple of negative conditions, restore the blockage of ki-flow and exhibit a mastery over death and life: Finish or save, heal and restore or bleed out - the choice is yours. There also is a feat that allows you to center into 3 different ways, making you resistant and less susceptible to different classes of attacks/spells.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect. I did notice a minor typo/punctuation glitch here and there, but nothing serious and still on paizo-comparable levels. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' drop-dead-gorgeous 2-column landscape presentation and the pdf comes with extensive bookmarks. It should be noted that people who don't like the landscape-format may opt to purchase portrait instead. I happen to have both versions and they both are of an equal quality. Frank Hessefort's STELLAR artworks are on paizo-level, perhaps even beyond a couple of their offerings, so art-aficionados: Each grimoire gets a tantalizingly-awesome rendition. Two thumbs up!
I've never made a secret out of my love for Legendary games' stellar idea of introducing grimoires to PFRPG, that is books that do something beyond teaching spells and which are characters, objects of legend of their own. This book now blends these cool concepts with their vastly expanded ki-options for an offering that should turn out to be extremely useful for any type of class, with new options, adventure- and dare I say, campaign hooks, galore. These meditations should be required and the questing goal of many an enlightened scholar and once I run Jade Regent or send my players to the lands of Heroes of the Jade Oath or Kaidan, they'll encounter at least one, probably all of these - for weal and woe.
My final verdict will be yet another at this point unsurprising final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval for the all-star-team of Legendary Games.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 26 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/introduction, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 21 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Kicking off with in-character journal entries that depict the life of one of the race of seedlings, thois book introduces us to the new race called Seedling: These beings get +2 to Con, +2 to Wis, -2 to Dex, low-light vision, +1 natural AC, +2 to con to avoid suffocation, drowning and starvation as they can draw sustenance from photosynthesis, can as a standard-action treeshape (and gain tremorsense 30 ft.), +2 to saves versus mind-affecting effects and paralysis, and 1/ day speak with plants. As you may notcie, seedlings get the distinct fluff of being plant-like creatures and appropriate benefits wthout succumbing to gaining the subtype and its associated benefits, going thus a similar route as RiP's Ironborn did for constructs. If you want more alien plant-beings, I'd point you to Purple Duck Games' Fehr's Ethnology: Xhesa.
The race is extremely detailed and up to current rules-developments: From favored class options, alternate racial traits (which include resistance to fire and electricity, having thorns, hailing from the underdark with darkvision and burrow speed and resistance to disease and poison) to favored class options, all niches are covered. Better yte, I don't have anything to complain about!
In stark contrast to many race-supplements, we get quite extensive pieces of information on seedling-culture-lore and land and of course, also on their takes regarding other races and classes - two thumbs up for these avidly and well-written pieces that make the race stand out and feel integrated into a campaign world, not just some addition. The race also gets two racial archetypes, with the first being the Switcher, a fighter that uses the new weapon of the seedlings, the signature switch whip (which is essentially their hair) and allows it to be used to inflict bleeding damage, ooze a poison that makes its victims flat-footed, grow razor-sharp leaves on the head etc. VERY COOL! The second archetype, the tree spirit druid, is extremely adapt at scrying via trees by focusing senses into trees - again, very cool!
The race also gets an exclusive PrC, the negotiator. The PrC gets d8, 6+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB and medium will-saves as well as a gamut of abilities that allow them to form binding agreements and make them superb "face"-style negotiators. Nice! The 9 new feats allow seedlings to further expand their switch whip powers and also do some interesting things via their rooting-ability, allowing them to better weather assaults and also increase their healing/photosynthesis.
Beyond aforementioned switch whips, we also get a new armor, glow moss and a serum the seedlings use for ritual scarring and healing. Beyond these crunchy bíts, we also get a massive genesis-story told in captivating prose, a write-up of their 4 deities (with appropriate domains, subdomains and mysteries - nice indeed!) and 4 cool new spells, themed for plants and seedling flavor and anatomy. Among the new magic items we get explosive seeds, the dread aurora pendant, heartwood, two iconic artifacts (one of which can grow a forest - over night!) and even more:
5 fluff-only community-write-ups (I.e. no settlement-blocks, but ideas galore) provide further ideas for GMS and players alike to capitalize on and the write-up also features extensive advice for DMs to fit this race into a campaign.
Finally, the pdf includes 4 sample seedling characters, using the content herein, all ready to be dropped into your game and spanning CR 1/2 to Cr 14.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are impressive, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly b/w-no-frills 2-column standard and the pdf comes with extensive nested bookmarks. The pdf also features gorgeous b/w-artworks, all of which are original and up to the cover's excellent quality - two thumbs up! Finally, we also get herolab-files for the seedlings.
If you're following my reviews on a regular basis, the you know that races are a hard sell on me: I require interesting cultures, solid, well-balanced rules and a place and reason to exist in a given world for a race to be even considered for making an appearance in my game. Seedlings did it. This race is interesting and feels alive, with their unique cultural items, the great prose and the balanced, well-crafted rules, we have an excellent supplement for a great new race that is perhaps one of the best takes of a floral playable race I've seen so far. Iconic, full of details and cultural tidbits, this supplement misses nothing and is a joy to read as well. Congratulations to author Marie Small for a thoroughly enjoyable, well-made race. My final verdict is rarely seen upon race-pdfs, but here it is justified - with every little component feeling balanced and like it brings something to the table, I feel justified in giving this 5 stars + my seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This installment of the Dungeon Dressing-line is 15 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/introduction, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let's take a look!
What's in a name? A lot. "The Dungeon of Graves", "The Tomb of Horrors", "The House on Gryphon Hill", the "Desert of Desolation" - all of these have become household names in most gamer's library. An iconic name goes a long way to make a location interesting and thus, in contrast to most dungeon dressing-offerings, this one deals with the NAMES of dungeons you create.
As a name-generator, the pdf first analyses name components, looking at name complexity, descriptors, subjects and proper names before introducing us to a d8-table that allows us to set basic structures à la The [descriptor] [complex] of the [descriptor] [subject]. Devising legends and taking into account the option that the tables may generate unsuitable examples and how to deal with this is covered as well before we delve into the first table, which features 100 different types of names for the locations - from A like abbey to donjons, cysts and ziggurats, we get a nice variety that is complemented by 20 ready-made dungeon-names to choose from.
The second table deserves special mentioning, since it offers on the surface 100 entries for descriptors, but these don't mean that there only are 100 descriptors to choose from. In fact, each and every of the entries has AT LEAST 2 words associated - with e.g. entry 6 sporting "Evil, bad, destructive, harmful, vicious, malignant, wicked, pernicious, baleful, cruel, baneful, maleficent, depraved, infamous, vile, degenerate, diabolical, detestable and malevolent" - that's 19 words for one entry! You get the idea - the table offers much more than its 100 entries would lead you to believe at first sight.
The subject-table uses a similar approach in its 50 entries, though it does not get that detailed, offering for example an entry for a body part or one for material and sample sublevels included. 20 different sample tribal names are also included.
Where the Sword & Sorcery-heart in my chest skipped a beat was with the proper-name-table of 100 entries, which features 100 entries like Carthe or Zshoth and comes with 50 prefixes to further modify these names. Finally, we get a 100-entry table of names of parts of dungeon (like Banquet chamber, Pantry etc.) as well as 20 pregenerated dungeon names.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's crisp, printer-friendly two-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes in two versions, one optimized for screen-use and one to be printed out. Both pdfs are extensively bookmarked and the b/w-artworks I haven't seen in any other product so far deserve special mentioning due to their high quality.
This generator could have easily been half as useful as it is - just make one entry per word and this could have been spread to an array of up to 5 different installments of the series, all considerably less useful than this turned out to be. Raging Swan Press instead opted for the high road and Creighton Broadhurst's name-generator in the end stands as one of the finest examples for such a supplement I've seen so far. Useful and user-friendly, quick and concise, this is a great little dungeon-name generator. My final verdict will thus be 5 stars for a great generator. If you're looking for one/a resource to create iconic names, then take a look at this - you won't regret it.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 12 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 10 1/3 pages of content, so let's take a look at what the new Hellion-class is all about!
Mechanically, the hellion-class gets 3/4 BAB-progression, d8 4+Int skills per level, good fort and will-saves, can cast spells drawn from the witch's spell-list of up to 6th level via cha (thus, as a spontaneous caster) and gain proficiency with simple weapons and whips, saps, handaxes, flails, scimitar, short-swords and tridents. They also get proficiency with light armors and don't incur arcane spell failure while casting in light armor.
Hellions also get access to hexes (but cast them in contrast to their spells, via int) which they can choose from the witch's list, but in contrast to many other classes, the Hellion can't only wilder in the territory, but adds something new to the fray, i.e. a selection of 5 hexes that work differently: In contrast to witches hexes, hellions are more limited in the acquisition of hexes (since they have no familiars and can't form covens) and thus the new ones have a distinct feel: Where cursing others feels fairly straight-forward, as does a breath that is laced with disease and both scale with levels, it is the other three, more martially-inclined hexes that stand out: Where Pyre-blade allows Hellions to enhance weapons temporarily with fire is nice, the other two are what I'd consider interesting: Venomcall allows hellions to use poison in their possession as ranged touch attacks versus foes (regardless of usual manner of poison-type - even ingested poisons can be used that way) and Mark of Pain is perhaps the most interesting of the hexes: For a limited amount of rounds, the target of this curse-effect treats any damage as ongoing damage with regards to concentration checks etc., making this a great way of dealing with spellcasters.
Beyond hexes, hellions, like their witch-brethren, gain their powers from patrons, but in addition to the regular witch-patrons, they may also choose from one of 5 different new patrons: Bloodshed, Curses, Lycanthropy, Rage and Toxins. Combining these with SGG's latest Advanced Options-pdfs of Patron-exclusive hexes, the book also provides 5 new hexes exclusive to these new patrons, though if you don't like the idea of patron-exclusive hexes, you could still make them freely available. Let it be said that these 5 hexes are interesting: The Blood Shield e.g. grants temporary hit points when the hellion damages targets, while Fangs of the Wolf grant the Hellion the option to gain a bite attack and they may now also inflict the downsides of a barbarian's rage on targets, Hellions of the curse-patron may spitefully curse creatures as a reaction to dropping below 0 Hp, being turned to stone etc. - thankfully with the caveat of helplessness being at the GM's discretion, otherwise I could see groups constantly healing the hellion back up and spamming curse upon curse. The coolest hex, imho, though would be the one granted from the Toxin-patron: By swilling poison in your cheeks and spitting/blowing it back into the bottle, you may change the attribute the poison targets. Thankfully, the hex only works on a limited amount of poisons at a given time, thus limiting the flexibility of the hex in just the right way.
Hellions also get bonded objects tied to the patrons and require them to cast their patron-spells and even their other spells are greatly hampered sans this object, though it also allows the hellion 1/day to cast any one spell he knows, while sans metamagic/modifications, still a great last resort once the hellion runs out of spells. Now these items may be broken (though they do repair themselves when not completely destroyed) and enhanced with the appropriate crafting-feats as well as changed every couple of levels. Now bonded object modify what to expect from a hellion depending on the item-class: Amulets e.g. allow hellions to blast foes with ranged touch attacks of magic damage. Rings grant shield bonuses, staves allow for a bonus spell from either wizard or witch-list, wands allow the stored extra spell t be cast twice and weapons grant straight-forward bonuses to attack and damage.
Beyond even bonded objects and hexes, hellions may also choose from a list of 11 different hellion talents: If you want to enhance your hexes, you can improve your afflictions, choose a second patron (for patron hexes, second patron's spells are added to the list you choose spells from - you don't get a second array of patron spells) or do something really cool: If a foe saves versus your hex, you can use a swift action to change the target of the hex to a second creature. Now this sounds unblanaced, but the issue is: If the second foe also saves versus the hex, it then targets you instead! You can also enlarge and prolong hexes, cast them faster a limited amount of times etc. If you rather concentrate on the more martial aspects of the class, poison use, enhanced damage, atk and DCs for your hexes against foes currently suffering from an affliction and turn medium armors into fetishes, making your allegiance obvious, but also allowing you to ignore arcane spell failure chance while wearing it.
While Hellions don't get access to grand hexes, they do get access to a selection of major hexes as well, with 4 new ones thrown into the fray as well: One allows for access to a second bonded object, two increase the DC of saves versus his afflictions, and one allows the hellion to make afflictions spread to others. The hellion's capstone is deadly, adding a hex-effect of the hellion's choice to each of his spells.
The pdf closes with 5 new, neat curses hellions may use instead of the old ones and which should prove to be useful for other classes/purposes as well. It should be noted that if you use the variant spellpoint-rules by SGG, all information to use the hellion with these rules are also included.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to SGG's 3-column landscape presentation and the pdf comes with extended nested bookmarks. The b/w-artworks do their job and as with any SGG-products, the file is sufficiently printer-friendly.
The Hellion is yet another gish-class and I didn't look forward to reading it - I figured we didn't need one. However, the focus and expansion on hex-mechanics makes the class feel rather fresh and creates a nice ability for the "sinister champion" type of hero with a burdened past. Hellions feel distinct, have interesting options and make viable and different supplemental fighters/casters who build nicely on afflictions and interesting options - all in all, a very well-crafted class that should enrich your game. If I had to complain about one thing, then that the major hexes are very tightly focused on afflictions and that I would have liked more of the martially-inclined hexes at this power-level. Also, be aware that this is NOT the magus and instead is perhaps a more subtle class by virtue of its hexes and spell-selection, so while you won't be as good a blaster, when handled right I think the hellion will allow for a nice variety of play-styles. All in all, an excellent class and easily worth my final verdict of 5 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
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The latest installment of the Treasures of NeoExodus-line is 4 pages long, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Peace and Tranquility are a pair of two butterfly-swords originally wielded by the legendary Final Arbiter Shani Bakradze of the order of Janissaries in the final battle of the twilight war that resulted in the order of Janissaries shaping the political landscape of NeoExodus and creating the unification. The twin swords, on a crunch level, are a +2 ki focus butterfly sword and a +1 ki intensifying butterfly sword. When fighting defensively with both weapons, the wielder gets a +2 shield bonus to AC.
Additionally, the enchantments of the weapons (i.e. the ki-focus/intensifying qualities) allow the wielder to use ki-dependant abilities through the blades and may add two option for ki: Peace may, for one extra ki-point when channeling a stunning fist mute spellcasters for 12 rounds if they fail to save. Tranquility may instead paralyze via the same mechanic, though the +1 DC of the ki intensifying quality of course raises the DC.
The pdf, as always, contains item-cards for the weapon, though only one that contains both swords - I would have preferred one for peace and one for tranquility.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting this time around are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to LPJr Design's beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the original piece of art of the blades is beautiful to behold. The pdf comes with a second more printer-friendly version and both have no bookmarks, but need none at this length.
Peace and Tranquility rank as my favorite installment of the series so far - the weapons are interesting regarding their mechanics, have a cool background, are a too-rarely supported weapon-class and their crunch is concise and worded with precision - the only reason I refrain from adding my seal of approval would be that getting two item cards, one for each sword, would have been the icing on the cake. My final verdict: 5 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This module is 14 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.
All right, still here? When a distraught, whimpering man bursts into the "Blind Basilisk", the barkeep and PCs can console the poor man, whose stuttering speech-impediment made the guards not take him serious: He is a gravedigger and saw somebody/something dig up graves. The trail leads the PCs to "THE SPOOKY HOUSE BY THE HUGE OAK TREE"[sic! - layout is in all-caps] and yes, it remains as ill-defined as its generic name suggests. Taking a ladder down, the PCs can trigger an arrow trap before they meet their first adversary - a minotaur-woman with a bloody meat-claver! Now kudos where kudos are due - I didn't see that one coming! The dungeon, packed earth lined with planks, also evokes a rustic and quite claustrophobic atmosphere and the books and other traps, while nothing to write home about (a burning hands-variation of "I prepared explosive runes today", for example), are ok as well, though a tad bit mediocre. Finally, once they have braved a skeletal champion, ghouls etc., the PCs may find a dark priest and his co-conspirators and end the threat.
Conclusion:
Editing is quite good, I didn't notice any glaring mistakes. Formatting is sometimes non-standard, which e.g. bloats the priest's statblock to over one page in spite of the precious few options he has. Layout...well, I'm not going to repeat myself. This layout has to DIE. It's horrible and I hope Rocks Fall Games will soon get a substitute that doesn't suck that much. If you want a longer ramble on what is wrong with it, read one of my first Rocks Fall Games-reviews. The module is also not bookmarked, which is a further no-go. The cartography serves its purpose, though anything but beautiful and the fact that each combat encounter gets a miniature map is nice. Though, much like other Rocks Fall-modules, the NPCs are painfully passive, the dungeon serving only as a backdrop without any real rules-repercussions.
Which is doubly painful since the first (VERY DEADLY) encounter of the module and the dungeon's look per se create a feeling of claustrophobia after the generic intro that could have easily been developed into a VERY creepy horror-module, with parts of the dungeon collapsing, foes bursting from the walls etc. Instead, the opposition remains static as always, waiting to be slaughtered. It also is problematic that apart from the first encounter and ghouls (all waiting conveniently in one room so the fighter can tank the door) remain the worst threats, with the "bosses" falling way behind. Also: Motivations for the impetus of the module are hinted at, but not developed.
In the end, this is a sketchy module that had a great idea for a dungeon and one flash of coolness before sinking into the murk of generalness once again. However, what this module shows unlike the other Rocks Fall Games modules I've read so far, is that there is potential buried here. Once this abomination of a layout has been killed and once generic names and locales have been dealt, if they can make their villains believable (Why did the construct this dungeon? Stuff it with a library? Where do the undead come from? Why do they work together? How did they get a minotaur unobserved into the house, which I presume is next to or not that far from the village?), then we could actually get good modules. While not a total trainwreck, this unfortunately remains close to one - my final verdict thus clocking in at 1.5 stars, rounded up to 2 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzetgeist out.
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The second expansion-supplement for Alluria Publishing's critically acclaimed, stellar underseas-campaign-setting Cerulean Seas is 114 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial/Kickstarter-thanks, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page list of KS-contributors, 1 page back cover, leaving us with107 pages of content, so let's check this out!
The introduction makes one thing clear: You have not read a book like this before. Ever. This sourcebook is about the arctic clime, yes, but not on humano-centric cultures, though it lends somewhat from Icelandic, Norse, Inuit etc. traditions), but on recent realizations of how much the world beneath the waves shapes the polar regions. Combine that with the fact that in Cerulean Seas, there is not much dry land and we have an interesting base assumption. More interesting yet, at least imho, would be the fact that logical assumptions have been taken: In order for any culture to thrive in a land of few resources and extremes, the resulting culture developing from it would require a sense of progressive-mindedness and war-like aspirations. Against this backdrop merging progress and tradition, arcane and technological and the struggle for survival, we are introduced to this book's core concepts.
A special mention deserve here the artworks - the "City that never thaws" and most of the other artworks herein follow a cohesive, extremely high quality style that is not only consistent in itself, but also with the high quality artworks Alluria Publishing has featured in their other Cerulean Seas-products. In fact, some of them may even surpass them due to feeling more iconic, but more on that later in the conclusion. The pdfs begins with environmental undersea environments, glaciers and slush swamps as well as hazards for the respective areas, which include e.g. acidic slushes, catabatic winds, wind chills and cohesive rules for breaking through ice. All in all, a cool chapter that is useful for any cold climate, not just those in the Cerulean Seas-setting.
The second chapter is all about races and kicks off with a revisit to the classic races of the Cerulean Seas setting as well as Waves of Thought before including new races - which, of course, all come with the trademark pieces of information on buoyancy, types etc. The first new race would be the Aglooik, small feykith (only two and a half page) and they get +2 to Dex, Int, -2 to Con, 30 ft. speed, get +1 to ref saves versus electricity, steam and acid, +2 to Knowledge (engineering), Profession (engineering), Craft or disable device as well as proficiency with any aglootech-weapon, but more on that later. The second new race would be the arctic, cold, charming and professional Crystolix, who get +2 Int and Cha, -2 Str, must take skill focus (diplomacy), +2 to appraisal, cold resistance 10 as well as +2 to saves against spells and effects that would result in negative conditions. Interesting race that can be played as creepily friendly. The transparent Ice Elves get +2 to Dex and Wis, immunity to cold and fire vulnerability, +1 to AC when touching water and at a depth of 300 ft. or less as well as a spell-like ability to use ice water-jet and +1 DC to saving throws against cold spells they can cast.
The Talilajuk Ningen are special fishfolk: Based on Belugawhales, they can breathe air and get +4 Str, -2 Str, are fast, must take Skill Focus (Stealth) as their merfolk-bonus-feat and gain blindsense while in water. The coolest new race, perhaps would be the Squawk - mechanically, these beings get +2 to Str and Con, -2 to Int, are small at a fast movement rate of 30 ft., get +1 dodge bonus to AC and CMD, +2 to saves versus poisons, spells and spell-like abilities and always count as wearing cold weather outfits and proficiency with skiths. What are they? They are a race of deadly warriors living in a martial society of penguin-like humanoids. And yes, the artworks actually manage to make that work - squawks are bad@ss! The Thanor are a race of walrus-like humanoids who get +4 to Con + 2 to Str, -2 to Dex, -2 to Wis, are large and have lungs, +1 natural AC, only a speed of 30 ft., always count as wearing cold weather outfits and natural attacks with their tusks.
Pinniparian and Seafolk-crossbreeds are also covered and the vital statistics like age, height and weight tables are part of the deal as well. In chapter 3, the roles of the different classes (including psionic ones) in the cold waters of Isinblare are covered. The chapter also features new classes, the first one being the Angakkuq base-class, who get 3/4 BAB-progression, d8, 4+Int skills per level, proficiency with light and medium armor, prepared divine spellcasting of up to 6th level via Cha as key attribute and get the option to create a Tupilaq: Somewhat similar to eidolons, these creatures are created from either flora, fauna or frost and can share spells with their masters and be enhanced etc, learn tricks à la animal companions etc. - a great alternative to the druid base-class with its fetishistic creature.
The chapter also includes new PrCs: The Conulair is singular among PrCs in that is requires a cool oath as well as is based on an interesting concept - mechanically, the class gets d10, 2+Int skills, full BAB, medium fort-saves and several cold-adaption powers. The cool thing about the PRC, though, is that entry actually bonds the applicant with a semi-conscious symbiote that grants the creature the respective powers and allows them not only to create deadly rimefire powers and may also choose frostboons. An excellent, iconic PrC! The second class is just as awesome and is imho the best rules-take I've seen on the concept: The Cyrokineticist, a psionic class who gets d8, 2+Int skills, 3/4 BAB-progression, medium fort-and ref-saves as well as a variety of abilities that include rimefire weaponry, flash-freezing etc. - analogue to the pyrokinetist a warrior-style class. Nice to see some psionic support beyond the Waves of Thought supplement. There is also the Cryomancer-PrC (d6, 2+Int skills, 9/10th spell-casting progression, 1/2 BAB-progression, medium will-saves),a nm arcane specialist of cold-based magic.
In chapter 4, we are introduced to the art of Frostcraft, but what is that? Well, first of all it's about arctic materials, bartering and how economies work in the polar context, including compressed air, ice rubber etc., which make a whole new class of item possible: So-called Aglootech. Unsurprisingly pioneered by said race, the class of items includes new weapons (by the way, all of which are rendered in gorgeous full color) that use this fizzling to create rifles, pistols etc. that propel nail-like projectiles through the waves, pneumatic blades and spears can be found in this chapter alongside the skitch-battle-scythes of the Squawk, ice blades. Also rather extremely cool regarding artworks: How exactly such rifles work is shown in a neat schematic that also provides enlarged and named components for the respective weapons. When harpoon-like rifles are possible, it should come as no surprise that there also are massive harpoon-cannons based on this technology to be found.
We also get a table for the 24 new feats herein, some of which allow angakkuqs to enhance their tupilaqs, grant squawks natural attacks and improved combat prowess with their signature skith, expand ningen blindsight, allow ice-elves to coat weapons in damaging ice and even pierce cold resistance with your cold resistance. The new class also gets an extensive spell-list and we also get an aquatic magus spell-list, which is neat to have indeed. I applaud one decision by Alluria: Instead of contributing to spell-bloat, we get 10 spells that adhere to the maxim of class instead of mass. From a spell that allows you to partially take on aquatic animal characteristics, one to encapsulate foes in ice or one to use the new entombed quality. Of course, you may also create a rancid murk that carries a plethora of debilitating diseases and unleash it into the waves.
The arctic "lands" of Isinblare are also rich in a material called Ancient Crystal, which can provide an array of interesting qualities to benefit from or be hindered by. 3 new magical items, also with gorgeous, perhaps even above-paizo-level artworks, complete the package of the chapter.
Chapter 5 is where the setting-specific pieces of information for the region of Isinblare in the context of the Cerulean Seas-setting can be found. (And yes, that means until now, the book was all about material just about any campaign could use). In tradition with the Cerulean Seas-setting, we get what amounts to essentially short racial histories of the respective races, each of which comes with a fluff-only write-up of a famous personality of the respective race. Beyond the main playable races, though, we also get pieces of information on the civilization of races from the bestiary. Languages and their speakers are part of what is provided, as are 6 deities and write-ups of the nations and big cities to be found in the realms of indigo ice, though the latter lack city statblocks. The maps provided do their job, though they admittedly fall far behind the quality of the artworks and feel slightly out of place.
In tradition with other Alluria Publishing-releases, the final chapter provides us with a bestiary-section, which includes fiskheim akhluts, domesticated huge versions of the regular akhluts, aquatic bears, the fish-humanoid Brothers of Frost , a new song dragon, the riding penguins called Kairaku, two new types of ningen, a wicked fey of frozen glaciers, seal variants (both mundane and partially represented as the sunhunter as a deadly glacier-predator and more: Take e.g. living ice-float constructs, ice-breaker whales, AWESOME-looking ice leviathans, ice kraken, orcoths and tizheruks and even ice liches. Alluria books are usually beautiful. These monster-illustrations, though, transcend even some of the offerings I've seen by WotC and paizo - mind-boggling and awesome. Also, each of the creatures gets some kind of interesting (sometimes even multiple) signature abilities. Arctic/Aquatic mounts and war-beasts are also covered, with e.g. animal companion stats.
Beyond even this content, we get an index of aquatic polar monsters by CR(including up to Bestiary 3, Creepy Creatures and all Cerulean Sea-books), pronunciation guidelines, a table that lists all tables, an art-index, 8 card-stock minis and a small poem on the last page.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches - quite a feat at this length. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks and its layout adheres to Cerulean Seas' two-column full-color standard and is, still, among the most dazzling out there. The artworks deserve special mentioning: Where Waves of Thought and even Cerulean Seas had an odd one out here and there, Indigo Ice goes above and beyond: These artworks are so beautiful, I honestly can't recall having EVER seen such a beautiful book by any 3pp - this ranks, presentation-wise, among the very best and in fact, at least imho, surpasses even multiple paizo-books. The supplement unfortunately comes sans printer-friendly version and if you can, I suggest you get the full-color print. If the print is half as beautiful as the pdf, you'll still have a drop-dead gorgeous book.
When I read the premise of the book, I was honestly doubting whether this would interest me: Cerulean Seas is a peculiar set of rules/setting and combining them with the frozen north seemed problematic to me at best: Especially with Kobold Press' Northlands already doing a great of Norse-themed fantasy, albeit above the waves. Indigo Ice thankfully takes a different approach: Blending Norse themes with a large dose of Inuit-myth (something seen all too rarely) the setting is something different altogether from the sum of its component parts: Flavor-wise, the vibe that best describes the indigo Ice is imho a pulpy underlying theme of a harsh land of harsh people coated with more than a fair share of original ideas (Spartan penguins actually are much more badass than you'd think!) and mixed up with technology that creates a combination of themes both in line with traditionalist mythologies and a sense of ancientness as well as with the throes of progress and a feeling of being on the dawning of a new age.
The weapons with their details (and especially the extremely detailed schematic that depicts it) make what would otherwise be a ridiculous concept feel believable. In fact, that's pretty much the crowning achievement of Indigo Ice: Many concepts may sound ridiculous when paraphrased in a review such as this, but the unity of stellar artwork, superb rules and excellent writing combine to make them work: To the extent where even usually gun-less campaigns can probably use these weapons sans breaking the suspension of disbelief. Now the fact that neither class, nor feats or any other component of the pdf can be considered broken or unbalanced further serves to boost the overall impression of excellence that withstands even closer scrutiny.
Beyond the usefulness of the book as a whole, I feel obliged to mention that the races, items and ideas herein can enrich campaigns in any northern setting, not necessarily only ones beneath the waves: If your PCs only plan sojourns into the frozen depths, then this pdf will still provide extremely fine critters, feats and intriguing civilizations for you to scavenge and add.
To cut a long ramble that gushes about artworks, monsters and weapons, the potential usability for underwater-steampunk-adventures (if you emphasize Aglootech further) and the quality of the writing short: This book is a truly excellent addition to Alluria's oeuvre and its quality stand up to the highest standards you could demand, the one shortcoming being the maps in the campaign setting-section and the lack of city statblocks, but which in no way would justify rating this superb, surprisingly consistent book down: My final verdict will be 5 stars + seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This module is 49 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 44 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This being a review of an adventure, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right!
Nine Generations ago, Vykter West founded a place called Weston - right in the middle of nowhere, a desolate land. Nine Generations ago, the progenitor of the West family entered a deal with the lower planes and lo! and behold, the rich river Meere changed its course and Weston prospered - all for a ridiculous price. Viktor would only need to put a tiny white worm into his field? Where's the harm in that? What goes around, comes around, though - it was the worm that changed the river's course, grown to monstrous proportions and ever since, worm-slayer upon worm-slayer, adventuring group upon adventuring group, has fed the ravenous appetite of the worm, which return to consume the West family. Unaware of the curse their ancestor wrought, the family has lived under the shadow of the titanic beasts eventual awakening from its hibernation. Fast forward to the recent heir of the West name, one Errod West, forced to watch the worm devour his parents at a young age and subsequently driven by an obsession of slaying the beast, finally unearthed hints of Weston's dark past. The PCs are contacted by distant relatives via a letter and made aware of the sizable bounty - 50K in gold are nothing to scoff at - a fortune even! When a man dies on the road to Weston, trying to warn them away, it will become clear that the PCs have not a mean feat ahead of them...
Weston itself, as a town, is firmly in the grip of fear and panic at the worm's proximity and first rumors of the cursed West family surface. After visiting the mayor to confirm the bounty, the PCs may have a talk with the only known survivor among the wannabe worm-hunters - a dwarf named Hamlin Hammerhalder currently resting at the Happy Fool tavern and while he is a tough nut to crack, capable PCs may get him to talk about the dread combat that led to the death of his companions. Tracking the vast traces of the worm's wake, the Pcs get a chance to save a dwarven couple from a bulette and rescue an adventuring group from an unpleasant fate by falling into the churning waters of the river Meere and the waiting jaws of the local crocodile and ankheg population. In far over their heads, these adventurers proceed to leave the hunt of the worm to PCs, though they may help later in the module. The Worm is CR 21, has regeneration 30, DR 15/-, SR 45 and Immunity to spells and energy types. This is a fight the PCs cannot win. If your players are stubborn and refuse to retreat, though, then you'll still have a good recourse - as a Deus Ex Machina to prevent TPK, as a means of escape or to acknowledge that they did the impossible and damaged the beast, Errod shows up and leads them to his mansion.
There, Errod offers to resurrect the fallen via his scroll(s) of true resurrection and proceeds to prepare a meal - the PCs in the meanwhile have ample leisure time to sniff around the house and stumble over the variety of clues and from Errod's reaction, make deductions about his conflicted personality and gathering clues that he is not telling them everything. It is notable that clue-wise and regarding descriptions, the mansion is VERY well-detailed and offers a great change of pace that can, thanks to taxidermy-trophies, be easily played up to 11 on the tension-scale if you so chose. Together, they may piece together the clues from Errod's documents and notes, but in the night, their endeavors are put to a hard test - a hit-squad of 8 babau demons infiltrates the house and starts a fire - the PCs, rousing from their sleep, will have to contend with the deadly demons and try to save the journal from the library while the house burns down around them -heat dangers, smoke inhalation, catching fire - all covered in a delightfully suspenseful action that consumes the house in only 20 rounds - a battle against the clock and the relentless assault of the flames.
Supernatural forces are moving in and the players may wish to recover Vyktor's journal from his body - only the crypt is also well-guarded by forces infernal -a vrock and even a glabrezu (who offers a wish if spared - but is it worth it?). Vanquishing these foes with Errod's help, the PCs can unearth the journal, where a riddle (that should stump no one) conceals the name of the demon with whom Vyktor made the pact that resulted in the White Worm's rampages. Armed with this name, the PCs may summon the demon, who has an offer for the worm's end, but one that would cost the lives of Errod and all of Weston. A more likely outcome is that the PCs vanquish the demon, temporarily making the worm vulnerable - if they can manage to perform three rituals of atonement, each of which, while not cancelling, weakens the superb defenses of the worm. The rituals are no mean feat either - someone who has lost all will to fight must give away all earthly possessions until they are naked while holding a piece of the creature they seek to destroy. Hopefully the PCs managed to save that scale of the worm from the burning Weston manor... For teh second ritual, one must consume a draught of pure elven blood, essence of a fire creature and one's own blood at the witching hour and bear the pain. The final ritual requires the tears of the cursed to be used to polish a diamond of 5K GP value or more with a brush made from halfling's foot-hair, transforming the gem into a lump of coal. If the PCs saved the adventurers, they may now have at least a couple of the more esoteric ingredients ready.
The rituals completed, the final hunt is on - with its demonic master gone, the worm retreats to its primal shrine, leaving a wake of destruction in its wake, while fleeing from encounters that damage it too much. Catching the worm and finishing the beast, even with the help of the level 15 ranger Errod West, will require guile, luck and preparation. Thankfully, a timeline features the epic wake of the worm as well as weather etc. and should make for an interesting hunt of a prey most dangerous.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch this time around - I noticed no editing glitches. Layout adheres to the status of AaW's 2-column full-color layout of A16, i.e. we get nice boxes, separated statblock sections for 3.5 and PFRPG-stats and I have nothing to complain - tidy, functional, nice. The pdf also comes with extensive bookmarks, beautiful cartography (though only of the manor, but that in both a DM- and Player's map version) and a gorgeous letter-hand-out.
Drawing inspiration from literature, obviously Moby Dick and folklore (The legend of the Lambton Worm), this module has an ancient, gothic sense of foreboding only scarcely seen when handling unsubtle brutes like the titular force of nature of a monster. While personally, I would have preferred the extraplanar influence to be cut/not explained and instead making the events in the mansion/crypt and origin of the worm ambiguous, that's a personal preference and will not impede my verdict of this pdf - if you do, though, you'll have a closer analogue to Moby Dick's fundamental question of whether revenge against an animal is possible at all as well as a great conduct to develop Errod's growing obsession. I maintain that the module would have been better off that way and even more unique, but that may be me. That being said, this still is nagging at an extremely high level: Author Lance Kepner has created an awesome module with a unique atmosphere, an epic objective and details that is not only smart, but also fun to read. I also urge any DMs who run this to at least read the respective synopsizes of the inspirations it is base on - they are awesome pieces of fiction and will definitely enrich your experience and that of your group while running this module.
This, if my praise was not ample clue, is one of the best modules that came out of Adventureaweek.com's B-series so far, on par with B3 and B6 and perhaps even transcending them. A great module full of style, fluff and unique ideas, dripping a sense of wonder and occultism, this is well worth 5 stars plus seal of approval - congratulations to everyone involved.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This first pdf of TPK Games' monster supplements is 18 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 14 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This bestiary is different, as Richard A. Hunt's introduction makes clear from the beginning - this pdf is all about Fear and Dread and thus, we first get some interesting pieces of advice: People fear the unknown and thus, the pdf kicks off with advice on avoiding the sense of boredom that comes with e.g. the oomphteenth's ogre - from etymological research, avoiding monster names and reskins, we get a treasure trove of interesting ideas that also contain sample names, interesting features, descriptive combat and awarding ranks put into skills to research monsters/gathering information. If you're familiar with how the Ravenloft-books of old introduced great ways of making the game more immersive, then you'll get what approximately to expect from these pages. The pieces of advice are helpful, especially for relatively new DMs and especially the "never call a monster by its bestiary-name"/research-angle is great - I've been using that one for 2 campaigns now and it changed my game for the better.
The book also contains 6 new feats: One to enhance your blood-draining, one that makes you faster when you inflict a bleeding wound or inflict said bleeding wounds. You may also command your undead to form unliving shieldwalls around you, emit a despair-inducing cry, get an additional web ability use and a feat that enhances your webs to entrap, grab, trip or pull foes via your webs, each time you take the feat, get access to another of the web-uses.
The 6 new traits should drive the fear back into your players via their disturbing nature: Whether it's eating eyeballs, emitting weird keening, having a smelling, rotten limb, a creepy hide-out and the option to locate bodies of potential victims, these are dark with a capital "D" and offer some very specific and iconic options. Impressive!
The pdf, of course, also features new monsters, first of which would be the CR 21 Gravebane Colossus. Remember the Tombstone Elemental of Ravenloft? Yeah, this one's worse: Massive, deadly, the creature is an undead construct, immune to magic, healing fast, absorbing foes, can create elementally-infused fast zombies, disguise itself as a cemetery, throw deadly clutches of corrupted elemental earth and tombstone fragments and is surrounded by an aura of maddening whispers of the damned. A deadly pinnacle of necromantic arts, this creature has more signature abilities than many monster-pdfs! Stellar!
The second creature herein is no less sadistic: The Sundered One is the result of stitched together bodies of small creatures (yes, that means halflings qualify, as do children and other innocents...) and yes, the deadly undead is surrounded by an aura of madness, a master of using its mutiple limbs and is additionally covered in nasty, deadly slime.
There are also 2 new magic items - a magical girdle that inflicts you with lycanthropy and an infernal trident that is particularly deadly versus good foes.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to a two-column standard with a parchment-style background. The pdf is fully bookmarked, but in contrast to other TPK-Games-releases, not hyperlinked to d20pfsrd.com The artwork is mostly stock, though we get two original, extremely cool artworks for the new creatures herein - at this price-point: Two thumbs up!
This is a great advice-book for DMs and the monster-feats are cool and balanced as well. What steals the show for me, would be the very specific (and cruel) traits! Traits mostly suck/are boring or overpowered. These are neither and should help prospective DMs drive home the fear of their psycho-killer humanoids. The two monsters are gloriously disturbing to behold and will see use in my campaigns. Two thumbs up again!
While personally, I didn't learn anything new from the DM-aid sections, the validity of the tips is undoubted and should enhance many a game. With the rest of the content being top-notch and available at the fair asking price, I practically have to settle on a final verdict of 5 stars + endzeitgeist seal of approval. Just don't be squeamish, this content is not for the faint of heart!
The runelord of evaluation has spoken,
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 36 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 31 pages of content - quite a bunch, so let's check this out!
I hate curses in Pathfinder, at least the standard ones. Why? Because they SUCK. I come from the Ravenloft-camp, where curses have MASSIVE consequences, are next to impossible to break and fit the crime, not just impose some debuff on your player. They are what the gypsy that is lynched by the xenophobic inquisitor shouts at the top of her lungs at the torch-wielding mob as the pyre's flames engulf her. They are a mother's solemn cry for vengeance after having see her children slaughtered in a pogrom. They are the essence of love betrayed, of divine taboos broken, of suffering worse than death, of a chance for redemption - and NOT just some lame spell that can easily be removed by moderately capable clerics. PFRPG handles curses slightly better than 3.X, but imho not by much - as part of the core-rules, they still suck and got the shortest end of the affliction-stick.
Curses, to me, also should have either the component of malevolence or karmic justice - with poetic justice and hereditary sins making for EXCELLENT PC-motivations to go out adventuring. In my current campaign, we have a Godefroy-telepath. For those not familiar with the setting: Godefroys are a stinking rich family cursed with the ability to see ghosts and in danger of becoming one themselves upon death, damning them to an eternity of unlife. This character joined the church to escape the fate of eternal damnation, while using his gifts - his pisonic powers being explained as manifestations of the remains of souls e.g. throwing foes around, spirits that died in fire making up his elemental blasts, spectral hands carrying him when he's flying etc. The character's whole development is about coming to grips with his curse (or gift, as the family calls it) and his divided loyalties. THAT is what curses CAN be. Not just penalties, but motors of plot-, campaign- and character-development.
"But wait", you say. "I have Rite's 1001 Spells and there are better curse-spells in there." You would be correct, but for me, that still doesn't go far enough. Back to the file after this tangent: What are Legendary Curses? They are not balanced. They are not fair. Their DCs are ridiculously high. And they, for once, DESERVE to be called CURSE. The curses herein are not just penalties or deadly, they are versatile to the extreme: The first one, "Accomplishment's Malediction" being a good example for one of the less high-concept curses herein - This curse, appropriate for e.g. grave-robbers or blasphemers/enemies of the hells prevents the bonus gained from any feat.
Yes. Any feat. It is here I'd like to comment on one component of these curses - they are not easily broken, but all come with a background (that can be used for an adventure in and of itself or just remain lore - knowledge DCs, rules for creating legendary curses etc. are btw. also provided in the pdf) and, also importantly, with a CURE. This cure, much like curses in literature, allowing for relatively easy breaking of what otherwise would be deity-level curses with a +20 bonus to the check. Reflecting concepts like "only those pure of heart", "only the scions of bloodline xyz", "only the seventh son of a seventh son" etc. add a layer of depth and uniqueness to the respective curses and also serve to make removing them well within the capabilities of adventurers - if they chose to embark on adventures/actions that allow them to do so. Thus we have an adventure-motor, flair and more rolled up in one neat bundle.
But, granted, the sample curse I chose ranks among the less exciting ones herein: "Accursed Settlement" for example, curses a whole town to go berserk killers each sundown, resurrecting on the following day until the dark secret, being a lynching or some other buried secret that lies on the collective consciousness of the complicit townsfolk has been revealed. Any DM can make an adventure from this, where the kind, neat settlement suddenly turns all ugly - now it's up to th players to find out why - and live to see another day! Or take a curse that lets you lose any valuables, let's you drop weapons that could be used as weapons. Or take a curse that slowly kills you for the sin of slaying dragons and also transforms the cursed into a colossal avatar of draconic power, essentially making him/her into a disaster-level force of destruction. There is also a curse that lets a dark personality, a kind of Mr. Hyde-like being emerge from your psyche and take control for short intervals (1 round per HD) on failed saves, while another has you transformed into swarms of vermin, marks you as an escaped sacrifice of a dark ceremony or turn everyone against the party.
Or what about Auberyon's Curse that disfigures those hit by slashing or piercing weapons with disfiguring scars to show clearly the character as one who lashed out versus the hopeless and helpless. On the relatively mild side of curses, uttering a ruler's name sans permission may inflict you with a relatively easily redeemable weakness that shows itself as you being susceptible to massive damage death when hit, incurring a penalty on fort-saves and objects breaking. From curses prohibiting evasion, rage powers etc. to polymorphs into all kinds of shapes and forms, a curse that attracts unwanted lovers that do destructive and obsessive things to have the curse's recipient all for themselves and one that transforms any alcohol near the character into clean water - the variety is interesting indeed. Oh, and just think what the dwarves will say if their kegs now contain only water? How the character will be run out of any tavern? Or what about a curse that kills any creature a character becomes romantically attached to? Exile from one's home-soil? Inability to perceive a creature type or to hide from it? Being unable to heal critical hit damage? Expanding the critical failure range to 1-5? A curse that erases a whole town from collective memory? Eating a harm-spell every time you defeat a foe, resulting in all your victories being pyrrhic victories?
Other curses sicken you every time you are healed via positive energy, regressing to a savage Int 2-state, suffering from colonial hubris etc. Some curses may even seem like boons at first, like the "Plague of Good Fortune" which lets you roll 2 d20 whenever you or your actions might be mistaken and take the better result. One day, though, all the accumulated benefits come crashing down: Hard. Speaking of hard: There's also a curse that prevents any healing but natural one.Also rather evil: Every time you suffer damage, you turn to FRAGILE glass for one round when suffering from "Shattering Sacrilege": Worse for you: Upon shattering, you do not die, but can be put back together - now where did that piece of the face go again? Among the more disturbing curses, there's is a curse uttered by slaves that may take the eyes, nose, mouth and ears of a creature away - disturbing (and if no-one can cut a breathing hole, also potentially deadly!) and another one creates two duplicates of the character, one's alignment being in complete opposition, while the other's is one step away on each axis of alignment - Great storytelling mechanic - what if the kind paladin is in truth just a curse-created duplicate of a neutral man with a troubled past? I love conundrums like this!
Or what if the character gets a terrible, wis-damaging beauty, Helen-of-troy-style that may incite even wars? There is yet another curse that erases knowledge about the existence of a group from all but them, alienating them from everyone, one that prevents you from lying, forces you to spend all time counting your wealth and even become incapable of dealing ANY kind of damage.
The pdf also features a feat to allow players to pronounce legendary curses (though still, of course, subject to DM-approval) with her/his curse-spells.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to RiP'S 2-column full-color standard and the artworks are stock, but fitting to the theme. The pdf is bookmarked by alphabetical order and can be considered relatively printer-friendly.
Steven D. Russell has spent more than 3 months creating these legendary curses and it shows - once in a while, the 101-series provides us with an installment that is innovative, extremely usable and could spark whole modules. I'm happy to report, that at least for me, 101 Legendary Curses falls in line with the best of installments of the series - by succeeding in making curses a) matter mechanically, b) matter in the flow of a narrative and c) spawn ideas and options galore. Now if there would be anything to nitpick, then it would be that there are quite a few curses that transform the recipient, slightly more than I would have liked. It should also be noted that DMs should take care of not spamming these left and right, but if handled with proper foresight and care, these can rock hard and change your gaming experience for the better.
The fact that each curse comes with a short utterance (often in poem-form: Great callback, since in Ravenloft, rhyming curses had a higher chance to succeed) that evokes the curse (and often hints at the way with which to lift it!) is only the icing on a cake that is great and which I hope will be expanded in future publications - whether by Rite Publishing or some other company. Finally, lifting curses is not necessarily just a trip to the local clergy away and closer to the mythological realms from which we know them.
If you always felt that curses are lacking and fall short of what they were supposed to be, then this pdf is a godsend for you and if you don't -there still are MANY great ideas for adventures contained in these curses, so even as a form of inspiration, this should provide ample fodder. Better yet, the majority of the curses, while hampering, crippling even, don't take control away from the player, which makes these options that can be used sans excluding afflicted character. This is not true for all of them, but I can see turning into a venomous, large scorpion when trying to cheat others as a great roleplaying opportunity - whether for PCs or NPCs. My final verdict will thus clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 8 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, 1 page how-to use and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 4 pages of content, so let's check this out!
This installment of the Gothic Grimoire-series of disturbing tomes details the ruminations of living mummies, bound to their bodies by a proximity to an elder evil, an insane twist of pharaonic burial rites transcribed by those inflicted with the contagious madness of Tanoth-Gha's presence.
Transcribed in pictograms and tribal symbols on threadbare cloth and establishing a contact with the inscrutable Tanoth-Gha, studying this tome has a disturbing effect on the mind and may result in dangerously sleepless night - but also allow access to get Tanoth-Gha as an eldritch patron if a witch.
Beyond this option, studying the tome also allows you access to 5 new feats: They allow you to apply the mummified zombie or fossil skeleton templates to your summoned creatures and more complex ones: By taking a feat, you can modify your elemental servants to work versus the incorporeal undead and gain the engulf special quality that also dimensionally anchors those subject to it. Furthermore, those slain by your servant's engulf-attacks turn to stone. Neat! Even better, if you have learned this art, you may grant your summoned elemental (if you call just one), the ability to add chill touch to its attacks and the final elemental-enhancing feat also adds death ward and death knell to the repertoire of your elemental servitors.
The pdf also included the mummified zombie and fossil skeleton-templates that make your undead rather harder to kill - both at CR +1 and both featuring unique, interesting mechanics.
The grimoire also allows those that brave its swaths access to 6 different new spells: Eldritch monolith creates a solid illusory double of an ancient structure, resized to fit into the spell's area, but only its outside - detailed information on interior structures is not part of the deal. Though it indeed allows you to create your own composite monolith from maddened, half-remembered visions. Another spell allows you to create cursed versions of the monolith (combine with Rite Publishing's 101 Legendary Curses for extra fun...) and there also are two different powerslave-spells - variations of lesser geas and geas that provide the caster with the options to grant enhancements to his/her respective slaves, but also strains the mind of those enslaved this way. The coolest spell, though, would at least for me be "Primeval Interdiction", which allows the caster to prevent divine powers to be used in an area, greater dispel divine spells AND spell-like effects (and be better at it, the more insane you are...) or even bar a creature from casting divine spells for 24 hours upon succeeding a caster level check, again, enhanced by your madness. Finally, "Wasted Years" prevents gaining morale bonuses and combines that with inflicting the curse of the ages.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' 2-column standard with a printer-friendly white background. The artwork of the sepulchral-swaths is glorious indeed. The pdf is extensively bookmarked in spite of the shortness - very commendable since it makes using the book simpler.
I'm slowly feeling like a broken record with regards to Legendary Games' Gothic Grimoire-series: Each entry so far has brought an exquisitely iconic tome to the table and features well-crafted, interesting new options and the sepulchral swaths are no different. What is different is that we get some nice templates that fit in well thematically. All in all, yet another excellent addition to the great line - final verdict, unsurprisingly, clocking in at 5 stars plus seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This installment of the Dungeon Dressing-line is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/introduction, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let's check these out!
By now a staple for the series, we kick off with a summary of characteristics and appearances, defining first several types of sarcophagi, ranging from caskets to cenotaphs and ossuaries as well as detailing the terrain effects they have on the room, complete with DCs etc. Beyond the standard, we also get construction-rules/sample stats (hardness, hit points and thickness) for sarcophagi of materials ranging from glass to wood as well as a short paragraph on opening cairns. Of course, we also get a table on characteristics, this time featuring 50 different characteristics sans roll-twice/thrice entries. These range from sarcophagi aligned in cardinal directions (craft a puzzle from that), embedded gemstones and even the idea of an empty sarcophagus - the body is actually embedded in the sarcophagus, courtesy of a flesh to stone-effect. Have I mentioned the sarcophagus that is surrounded by strange eerie footsteps?
The second table (which spans two pages) is 50 entries long and...well. Rocks. Sarcophagi studded with gears that can be opened via disable device, cenotaphs forged from wailing souls of the damned, alien ring-like sarcophagi that contain people whose brains have been removed or even a sarcophagus that resembles a pulsing muscle and is covered in acidic mucus. Even in the Dungeon Dressing-line, this kind of innovative, cool ideas with their rules-consequences stand out distinctively and make this offering stand out quite a bit.
Dungeon Dressings also feature tricks and traps and Raging Swan Press has thankfully started creating mostly complex traps with multiple different effects spanning rounds. The traps herein (3, to be precise) are SMART. Cool and sadistic, e.g. pressurized water, a "respawning" sarcophagus and similar nasty tricks should challenge your players indeed. Have I mentioned the sarcophagus that actually is a petrified gelatinous cube? A first for the series, we also get a page that contains...HAUNTS! 4 of them, ranging from CR 1 to 19 and running the gamut from actually beneficent to one to end champions of light with the haunted remains of a dread demi-god.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's no-frills, 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes in two fully bookmarked versions, one optimized for the printer and one intended for screen-use.
David Posener's contribution to the Dungeon Dressing-line with his issue on corpses was one of my favorites in the line so far and this one also lives up to the lofty expectations I had for this product: Going beyond standard sarcophagi, this supplement also allows for the truly weird and can be used for just about any final resting place and takes crunchy consequences and peculiarities up to eleven, inciting the imagination with great ideas. the amount of coolness crammed in these few pages is astounding and when taking into account that the haunts and traps also live up to this standard. At the very fair price, I can't find anything at all to complain about here and in fact pronounce this one of the Dungeon Dressing-installments that should be considered must-buys and thus my final verdict will clock in at well-deserved 5 stars + seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
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