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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 47 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 3 pages of SRD, leaving us with 42 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Without any introduction or wasted space, we are introduced to the new Medium base-class that gets d8, 4+Int skills, 3/4 BAB-progression, good will-saves, proficiency with light armor and simple weapons, as well as spell-like abilities of up to 6th level - and you'd be outrageously gasping by now since they cannot be counterspelled - but: A rather interesting balancing method is being used - a medium can only maintain one spell-like abilities at once, with a new ability immediately ending the first. These abilities also get aligned later and count as spell for item activation purposes starting level 2. The spell-like abilities can be each used 3/day and their governing spellcasting attribute is charisma. At first level, the medium also chooses an influence - but more on that later.
Mediums gain spirit guides that may use guidance on their behalf whenever s/he enters a trance and detect spirits, which include undead, fey, invisible, outsiders and also use this ability to notice and analyze haunts and even keep them from attacking - which is great since they are mostly untapped regarding class abilities. Starting at 3rd level, the medium also gets perhaps one of the most complex and well-executed abilities I've seen in quite a while - Séance. Mediums may call spirits and souls of creatures into their bodies to tap their knowledge and bargain with them planar ally style - including a max HD-table per level.
Now Influences, as I've mentioned before, are important: Mediums may choose from 11 influences that include diabolical forces, angelic hosts, restless souls, elemental forces or seelie and unseelie courts. Each Influence nets the medium a bonus language, a selection of trance covenants and spell like-abilities and a different capstone ability (yes, one for every influence) and also recommended, but not prescribed spirit boons.
I need to address Trances. Mediums may enter a trance that lasts 4+Cha-mod rounds +2 per medium level after the first. While in trance, mediums get +4 to Con and Cha as well as access to the covenants and spell-like abilities associated with her/his influence and may use his/her spell-like abilities associated with influences once per trance without counting against the daily maximum. Essentially, the trance can be considered a caster's equivalent of a barbarian's rage (and no, they are not compatible) and trances do have some restrictions to maintain balance.
Now regarding favored class options... WOW. Blues. Half-Rakshasa.Duergar. Fehr's Ethnology-races. Psionics Unleashed-races. Remarkable Races from Alluria Publishing. And even ARG-races ALL COVERED. Wow. Just wow. 2 pages CHOCK-FULL of favored class options. This goes above and beyond. Nice!
Now have I mentioned spirit boons? At 1 st level, 3rd level and every 4 levels after that, the medium may choose a spoken invocation to gain the benefits of one of (unless I miscounted) 44 (!!!) spirit boons, which include things you'd expect like reading minds and telekinesis and implanting geas, absorb wounds of others via stigmata, add essentially add what amounts to metamagic-like, yet thoroughly unique effects to your spell-like abilities, which include ignoring the miss chances of incorporeal adversaries, prolong them etc. Have I mentioned the option to put psychic shackles on spirits and chain them in your mind, turn incorporeal, possess foes (also only limbs - quite cool!), heal ability damage and raise the dead? Yes - the options are varied and damn cool.
A new spell lets you expel spirits and then, we're off to the topic of covenants - Depending on the strength of the spirit called, a covenant requires the expenditure of money, with access being also predicated on a tree of 5 progressively more expensive feats - though advice for alternate progressions are given as well if you're not sold on the approach. Finding covenants is not only an opportunity for spending character resources, but also for roleplaying and entering covenant examples are provided alongside comprehensive lists of covenants by strength. Covenants are depicted somewhat akin to feats - the power-level of the covenant being included in brackets behind the name, followed by a short fluff description and then the benefits as well as a comprehensive list of patrons that can grant the respective covenant. Dark Arcanas, Archon Wards, the option to temporarily rip someone from death's grip, turn into elemental body II, gaining living illusions as companions, tap into your patron's abilities, manifest blades from the very heavens, immunity to ageing, mitigating dazing and stunning down to being staggered, gain a gaze attack that detects thoughts and may stun those that meet your gaze, cast foes down to the very hells - all these are just the tip of the ice-berg.
The pdf also features advice on creating new covenants as well as guidelines for non-monetary tasks for entering covenants.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to PDG's printer-friendly 2-column standard and the interior artwork is far beyond what the humble cover would make you believe - we neat full-page full-color artworks, multiple of them, and I have seen none of them in other publications before. The pdf is fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks for your convenience, making navigation easy.
Damn. I'm stupefied. Seriously, honestly stupefied. This class and its material rank for me as one of the most complex examples I've seen so far and it takes a bit of effort to properly get this material and appreciate it. And then, slowly, the potential, the vast friggin' potential of this class and its covenants sink in. Harry Dresden-style deals with fey? Check. Haunted by visions of hell? Check. Scions of the Heavens? Check. Champions of the elemental forces? Ditto. We essentially get a feat-style-ability-suite-style-class COMBINED with unique spellcasting COMBINED with talent-based abilities COMBINED with domain/bloodline-like abilities COMBINED with modes à la rage. And all elements interconnect. Yes, you could just extract the covenants for any class. But oh boy would you miss out.
This may be no class for beginners, but it is G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S. Complex, mechanically innovative, customizable. Oh boy. It's been AGES since I've been this excited about a class and it marries author David Nicholas Ross' mastery of crunch with great production values and we get perhaps one of the best classes, perhaps even the best I've read so far for PFRPG. Yes. That good. Do me a favor, do yourself a favor - get this. The class and covenant magic is so modular, it practically screams to have its already impressive array of abilities further expanded. Even if you're only remotely interested in good crunch, get this. If you want a class with complex customization options that marries these with massive roleplaying potential, get this.
This is worth every cent thrice. At least. This is the new gold-standard for class-design against which all other classes will be judged.
My final verdict would be 6 stars, if I only could - hence, 5 stars + seal of approval and a high chance that this will feature on my Top Ten of 2013-list.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with two pages of content, so let's take a look!
The pdf kicks off with 4 new feats for Wayang:
-Dissolution's Chosen: Resistance 5 to negative energy, use the dissolution's child racial trait 10 rounds per day.
-Dissolution's Aspirant: +10 ft base rate and full benefits of the light and dark racial trait while using dissolution's child.
-Dissolution's Ascendant: Constantly gain the benefits of the light and dark racial trait - suppressable as an immediate action. There's a glitch here, the text calls teh racial ability "light and shadow" instead of "light and dark".
-Shadowy Sprint: +10 ft movement when starting a movement in an area of dim light.
Wayangs may now also chose from one of three new traits, Dissolution's Disciple allows you to flicker for 2x character level days after being slain, always reincarnating into a wayang when raised via reincarnation while you flicker. You may also ignore size-penalties to intimidate or get +2 when checking versus cha-based skills.
There also are tow new alternate racial traits, one allowing you to blend with shadows better for a 30% miss chance and the other allowing you to see 5 ft. even in magical darkness.
The race's archetype is for the monk class, the so-called marionette: Evoking a creepy and rather evocative style, marionettes are a creepy kind of monks that uses a style reminiscent of the eponymous dolls - getting e.g. a 5-foot step at the end of movements of at least 20 ft., slow falling even without adjacent walls, limited access to whirlwind attacks and a high level ability that dominates a creature's body as if dancing to the marionette's strings. I really, really love this iconic archetype!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice an undue amount of glitches. Layout adheres to Abandoned Art's 2-column no-frills standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
This pdf is what the series should be about in my opinion - feats and traits that develop racial abilities and add to the uniqueness of the uncommon base-race - and the monk-archetype is simply awesome - weird, uncommon and oozing flair. While the glitch I encountered could have been avoided, I thoroughly enjoyed this pdf's blending of crunch seeping style and interesting racial options - and even sans the Wayang, the monk archetype alone makes this pdf worth the low asking price. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars due to the glitch, but still rounded up to 5 and studded with the seal of approval due to the archetypes' awesomeness- anyone looking for a monk-archetype that is DIFFERENT, go check this out!
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
The latest installment in the Urban Dressing-series is 15 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/foreword, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so what do we get?
Being a kind of temple-generator, this installment kicks off with a list of general appearances and characteristics - a total of 100 entries spanning two pages cover humble stone buildings,rose-scented airs, a smell of mildew and similar basic characteristics to expand. The next table, though, is where it gets interesting - once again, with 100 entries, though this time, each entry is devoted to a domain and provides e.g. silken scarves associated with lust, banners of nations for glory, dead flowers for decay etc. as domain-appropriate-decorations - glorious and something that could use even further expansion by offering yet more dressings for the respective domains - two thumbs up for this table.
On the next page, we get 3 individual tables with 20 entries each: One for donations (good), one for tithing (neutral) and one for sacrifices. (Surprise: Evil!) Nice!
Table D, though, is imho even better, providing a short run-down of service components, fixtures and temple-areas as well as providing you a 20-entry table on celebrations/festivals that can happen, from birth to death to sacred festivities. Neat!
The last two pages are devoted strictly to a quick fluff-only clergy-in-a-hurry generator that works by first determining gender, then names via one of 20 d20 lists, races (common and uncommon) position (and a small box on titles) as well as 20 clothing, accessories, mannerisms and rumors about them. Again, if you use different nomenclatures for different races, this is completely useless in the name-department and takes up space I would have rather seen being devoted to more content for the temples.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked and in two versions, with one being optimized for the printer and one for screen-use.
I'm torn on this one - on the one hand, I absolutely LOVE the table that assigns features by domains, the sample sacrifices and the quick festival generator. On the other hand, I consider the clergy generator's names just as useless as those featured in the installment of Traders and Craftsmen - as soon as you use different nomenclatures for different races, these lose all usefulness. Finally, I think that the pdf could have benefited from different temple-base structures - essentially the respective temples contained herein lack distinct shapes like "tower", "cathedral", "fortified monastery" and remain relatively ill-defined in general shape. For me, this is a mayor issue that massively detracts from the overall appeal of the file.
What the pdf does right, is does gloriously right. What it doesn't do right...well, you get the idea. Depending on whether you want these features, this pdf could be a 5 stars-file for you or partially failing to live up to your expectation. So while, depending on what you're looking for, this might exactly be what you, I have to take this lack into account as well and in combination with the issues with the clergy-names consider a final verdict of 3 stars to be fair for this installment.
Endzeitgeist out.
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Publisher Reply: |
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I'm glad you liked some of the document and you can rest assured we've got the message about the random name generator. I'm pretty sure, Brian is planning something different for later instalments.
Thanks for the review! |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 26 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, ~11/2 a page blank, leaving us with 21 1/2 pages of content for this new base-class, so let's take a look!
Mechanically, Puppetmasters get d8, 6+Int skills per level, proficiency with blowgun, bolas, daggers, handaxes, nets, whips, light and heavy crossbows and light armor, not incurring any spell failure chance while wearing it. They get 1/2 BAB-progression, ggod ref and will-saves as well as access to arcane spells of up to 6th level, cast spontaneously via Cha. Puppetmaster gain a VERY interesting roleplaying ability - doublespeak allows them to speak class-level minutes per day and have different creatures hear different things, choosing between the two layers his language carries for each creature, allowing him e.g. to parlay with foes while discussing preventive-strike strategies with his allies. He also starts game with a workshop that greatly increases his prowess when creating dolls and puppets when he's in it. Puppetmasters are also excellent manipulators, gaining bonuses that improve on Bluff, Perform (Puppetry) and other puppet-related skills. The defining characteristic of the Puppetmaster, though, would be his Font of Wonder, a pool that starts off at 6 and goes up to a whopping 215 at 20th level.
These points can be used to specialize in one of three different broad areas of expertise: Animisn, Marionettes, Rod Puppets as well as into miscellaneous areas. Puppetmasters gain access to one of these basic traditions at first level and may later pay 10 wonder point to gain the base access to one of the other areas, with further abilities/specializations costing additional wonder points. Each level, they may reassign one of their powers, though unwise choices may have unpleasant consequences, prerequisites no longer met resulting in a permanent negative level, making careful planning of these points of tantamount importance.
Let's start with Animism: Upon choosing this path, the Puppetmaster gains int-mod wonder points to be spent exclusively in this category, but more importantly, they gain a doll-companion - Pinoccio gone bad if you will. And yes, that means they could create dolls that could serve as a mount. If such an animated doll is destroyed, it can 1/day be restored to half hit points via the Craft (Puppet)-skill at 5 x level HP per day, with each HP requiring 1 round of repairs. Furthermore, unlike traditional companions, they require investment of more wonder points to level up, but if you invest up to 118 wonder points at 20th level, you get attributes of 30, 18,14,10, 10 to assign as well as 30 skill points. Animated dolls have up to +5 saves and 3/4 BAB-progression. Beyond these basic ways to advance the prowess of the doll, the dolls are also different depending on the base material they're crafted from, with textiles being e.g. faster to repair, but resulting in a starting Int of 8 (and one skill point less), while Ivory puppets get more skills per HD, but actually cost 50 sp per point of repair. Bone, clay, horn, plant husks, porcelain, way and wood are also possible materials, all with benefits and flaws - kudos! A total of 45 (!!!) customization options to invest your wonder-points are provided, costing between 1 and 14 points and ranging from minor natural armor and the varying armor proficiencies to pincer, tentacle, talon etc. attacks and even sneak attack, pounce and complete magic immunity, the puppets counting as supernatural beings. Now unlike the often rather creepy summoner eidolons, puppet-customizations often are restricted to themes, making it e.g. impossible for a puppet to get both pincers and tentacles at the same type and requiring a base-form of the puppet that reflects creatures that conceivably could make use of the ability - a imho great way of blending fluff with crunch to ensure balance. By paying Puppetmaster level times 4 points, they may also bring an abandoned (due to refunding of powers etc.) doll back to life, which is a nice idea indeed, as is that the dolls remain active for a short while after the Puppetmaster has died, making room for dramatic roleplaying opportunities and interesting hooks.
The second discipline is completely different and grants dex-modifier wonder points - masters of marionettes. Holding a marionette requires one hand, manipulating it two hands - but what can they do? Essentially, they can force a creature of the type depicted by the marionette to make a will-save or be subject to his machinations: he can force the creature to do make an attack on his behalf, with d20 + Puppetmaster class level + dex-mod being rolled instead of the creature's own. While conscious actions like power attack, arcanas or vital strike cannot be applied to the attack, passive bonuses like from weapon specialization still apply. Being underwater and its penalties to manipulation are covered, but NOT whether the subjects can be manipulated into attacking themselves. That's a flaw in my book. Generally, though, these abilities can be put in two categories: Abilities that allow the beneficent manipulation of allies to grant them rerolls, usurp mind-control (or make sleeping characters act as if awake) or offensive, with iterative attacks of controlled creatures, forcing movement (for better or for worse), manipulate allies into casting spells and even make them stronger/grant them the ability to fly or breathe water via his mystic puppets. Overall, a VERY interesting take on an uncommon buff/debuff-focus.
Finally, puppet masters get the option to employ rod puppets to tell stories, some of which require two rod puppets or rod puppets of a specific type. One hand is required per puppet. When taking up this profession, the Puppetmaster gains cha-mod wonder points and the effects of the story target all creatures within 30 ft that can see or hear him. In order for them to work, the puppet master has to succeed at respective story-checks, i.e. d10 + class level + cha-mod. The high teh ten-digit of the check, the greater the respective benefits. Ranging from 4 to 15 points in required wonder points, the myths and stories are perhaps closest to bardic buffs, though e.g. the interesting 1-in-20-chance to not expend spells, spell-like abilities and X/day-abilities that even takes shadow jump and similar abilities into account and some of the others are distinct enough to make these stand out sufficiently.
Finally, there are miscellaneous ways of spending wonder points not aligned with the 3 disciplines, granting enhancements to dolls, more spells known, a backpack to stow and retrieve puppets faster, gain a synergy AoO with his puppets and carry a tiny workshop around that shrinks them - and yes, rules for falling out/being inside while the replica is shaken are covered!
The pdf also covers the Puppetmaster's spell-list as well as options for having to still learn the craft, stats for non-animated puppets, craft DCs and required materials as well as the option to create puppets that are beyond masterworks, remarkable puppets.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good - though I stumbled across a wording during my lecture of this pdf, the class is mostly concisely phrased and thankfully unambiguous in its rules, though careful reading is admittedly required due to the complex nature of the class. Layout adheres to Dreadfox Games' parchment-style background in beige with its b/w-thorn-borders and the full color artwork depicted on the cover is neat. We also get 2 b/w-pencil drawings that are original as well. The pdf comes with full bookmarks and e.g. the spells are bookmarked in a nice unobtrusive way to d20pfsrd.com.
Now granted, this class is not for everyone. The Puppetmaster can easily be considered wonky if in the wrong hand - but he could also be creepy as hell, beneficent, tragic - the concepts are wide in scope and the execution rather professional. Make no mistake, this is an advanced class if I've ever seen one, making the summoner pale in comparison, not in power, but in options. While the wonder pool could have used a slightly more concise explanation on how it works, after you got the hang of it, it indeed is a cool resource that offers a wide flexibility between pets, manipulation and buffing, making the Puppetmaster a class that will result in widely varying playing experiences. The mechanics and the concepts used by this class are complex, but also rewarding in the benefits they grant as well as in the style of the respective abilities - if you've ever played Metal Gear Solid 4 and considered Screaming Mantis creepy - well, here's the chance to play something akin to that!
Mechanically and balance-wise, this definitely is one of the most interesting classes I've seen come out of PFRPG and one that strays quite a bit from established class designs - and is better off for it. The one thing I'd criticize is the lack of true capstone abilities for the respective sub-crafts, but in the end, that is a minor flaw. So, apart from minor complaints about more concise wording all's great? Yes. Yes, indeed. The Dreadfox lead-designer Reid Stewart has learned to take environmental factors into account (though I would have loved to see these influencing puppets based on material) and as a pdf that introduces the base-class, this works very well. So much so, in fact, that I'm not even missing archetypes or supplemental feats. The class is varied enough to work for now without them and provide a plethora of different gaming experiences. The price point, when compared to e.g. the Ritualist, is also more in line, offering about twice as many options as that one. While still not cheap at 5 bucks, the class is one that should be considered worth the investment if the idea remotely intrigues you. I'll even go so far as to ignore the minor hick-up that fails to specify whether manipulated creatures may attack themselves and use the default "reroll save at +4-solution" established by enchantments. My final verdict - due to the minor hick-ups here and there and the price-point 4.5 stars, but still gladly rounded up to 5 this time.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This module is 35 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1/2 page ToC, leaving us with 32 1/2 pages of content - and a missing SRD that needs to be included in the pdf. EDIT: SRD has been added.
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS, so potential players may want to skip to the conclusion.
Still here? All right! The PCs are recruited by a weird gnomish bard called Terrence Threncewell on behalf of a weird little gnomish settlement called Brandlehill, which is well-known for its weird clockwork contraptions. It should be noted that DM's who have an issue with fluff get a LOT of very detailed exposition - almost 3 pages are devoted to the recruitment of the PCs before they meet the Dwarven trademaster of the town, one Orin Hardtack who wants a grippli-town removed. Grippli-town? Yes, for Brandlehill's clockwork wonders are reliant on rare swamp herbs from the Zeranoth swamp and aforementioned grippli-tribe has mostly become hostile due to as of yet undetermined reasons.
The grippli waste not much time an attack soon - in numbers and the PCs will have to slug through quite a massive bunch of these froggy fighters -including the fact that the humanoids will try to flank the PCs en masse. The fluff also mentions a healing-impeding paste, though that one does not feature in the stats - an unfortunate disjoint between fluff and crunch here. After the attack, the PCs may follow the frog-people into the swamp to meet a grippli ranger called Ralka tells teh PCs about the sickness of the grippli's leader and the fact that the apprentice has ordered the attack - there is something wrong with the tribe...
Ralka escorts the PCs to the village (where btw. a section italicized as a flavor-text is none - a mayor layout/formatting glitch there) - where they will realize that the water-supply of the grippli has been tainted - probably by the ambitious former apprentice. The grippli are rather unhelpful and seek to drive the PCs out of town. Weirdly, on the following two pages, layout changes to a superior 2-column standard only to revert to the one-column standard before. They can find the remains of a fallen half-orc ranger, who not only returns as a ghost, but also suffered from a demonic disease. With the proof, they can expose the apprentice upon a return to the grippli-village - after killing more grippli. Alternate solutions like diplomacy etc. should have been included here - not to speak of stealth...
The corrupt apprentice, though, has fled to the Harhoa Cave, where he makes a final stand with a demonic frog, guarded by grisly trophies and traps. Upon dealing with the evil-doers, the PCs may return to Brandlehill to choose one of 3 clockwork wonders. The first, a grapple launcher, is a ranged weapon that hits foes with grab and damage as well as having the potential to halt falls - unfortunately rather overpowered. The second, a triple-shot crossbow makes up for that by being too weak, whereas the third, which provides bardic performances in a box, actually is interesting - though ALL items lack crafting-information and proper item-statblocks.
The magic item, Cyrkssi's Mirror Spear unfathomably follows the proper formatting, as does the magical Troll Wig-net. The pdf also features all the stats for the characters featured herein - but the statblocks lack italicized spells. The final three pages are devoted to neat 3 maps of beautiful full-color maps with grids.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are ok, though not perfect - especially formatting is problematic, with DCs and rules-relevant information having to searched for in the text due to a lack of proper highlighting. Layout mostly adheres to a one-column standard, which bloats the page-count of the module and is not particularly comfortable to read - with the inexplicable exception of two pages. The pdf is not bookmarked, which is a massive comfort-detriment. The pdf does come with two versions, one being more printer-friendly. The artworks, while original, are with the exception of the cover ugly - the artist can draw inanimate objects well, but fails with regard to characters/monsters. The battle-maps provided are beautiful, but the lack of keyed maps to place traps and adversaries makes running the respective combats rather difficult. It is also unfortunate that we don't get a map of Brandlehill.
This module has quite some potential for being weird, funny and grotesque - and squanders it as it suffers from a myriad of beginner's mistakes: From the weird layout to the rather abstract battle situations, we have quite an array of potential problems. Environmental factors in battle? Mostly underdeveloped. As are the respective locations. It's weird really, how a module with such a massive array of fluff text can remain so abstract in combats and environments, failing to give measurements, exact dimensions etc., which render properly running the module much harder than it should be. Beyond that, the massive array of fluff often is not properly separated from non-fluff text, which is faultily italicized, whereas many formatting peculiarities like a lack of italicized spells render the statblocks less polished than they ought to be.
And then there is the railroad factor - there is zero possibility to jump off the rails on this one - the fluff text assumes actions on part of the PCs, which is a grand no-go and essentially the module not only lacks skill-DCs for navigation and non-violent resolutions, but is very stringent in its linearity. Since the origin of the problems the PCs face turns out to be rather obscure and esoteric, the ONE Chance to analyze the problem may be easily lost on the PCs - whereas they are railroaded to the source of the problem without any chances of doing research/information gathering. The alternate resolution including a full-blown annihilation of a settlement is introduced and never followed up on and the clockwork wonders are all over the place regarding balance. One substance is never given stats though the players should by all means also be afflicted by it. Alternate means of succeeding like stealth are touched upon, but sans DCs, guidance etc., rendering this module unfortunately an unfulfilling railroad.
This module has potential - its locales and characters are colorful, its ideas are not bad - but the overall execution is deeply flawed - as much as I love the battle-maps, they are abstract and the DM is left with figuring out where what is. Lack of environmental factors, alternate means of resolution, no bookmarks, sloppy formatting and the overtly railroady structure when combined with minor issues here and there unfortunately means I can't rate this even as mediocre - in fact, were it not for the interesting magic items, well-crafted maps and nice local color, I'd bash on this module even more. As written, my final verdict for this module will clock in at 1.5 stars, narrowly rounded up to 2.
Endzeitgeist out.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Endzeitgeist, thank you for pointing out the dearth of mistakes we made here on our first publication! After talking with my designers we've agreed to implement a plethora of changes. Customers who have purchased this item should look forward to an improved, revised version that expands on the original content (in both story and game master direction) that will bring a previously lacking professionalism to our first product. Thank you for your honest critique! We truly appreciate your feedback. Sincerely, Mike Myler |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with two pages of content for new hexes for the witch-class, so let's take a look!
The pdf kicks off with a hex that is very specific, but in line with mythology - it allows the witch to become a living bridge across a given gulf. Teh second hex is rather cool, allowing a witch to animate her broomstick as a scaling animated object. Also rather cool: Witches can attune themselves to the echoes of souls perished and be assaulted by their unfinished business (think Blackwell Games), helping her dealing with sinners. Witches may also gain a minor DR, shroud creatures against divinations by making the casters of divinations suffer from unpleasant visions or curse adversaries to need twice the amount of sleep.
Witches that dabble in herbalism may enhance their prowess when using the heal-skill and heal additional hp - but foraging/tools are required, making this especially useful for settled characters/NPCs. Witches may now also properly paint pentagrams to increase her caster level checks - for a price. Pyretechnics is a hex I'm not comfortable with: Rendering a witch at first immune to natural sources of fire and later gains even resistance to the element. The issue is: What constitutes natural fire? A forest fire? A chimney's fire that engulfed a whole mansion? The rather ill-defined term means that I won't consider this one for my campaign, though per se I like the fluff. Also: Not sure whether the intended pyre-resistance and cosmetic "burns" the witch gets are enough - what about the threat of suffocation from the rising fumes? At least in my game, pyres and burning areas have a real risk of suffocation...
There's also a hex to curse the witch's adversaries with increased surcharge and social penalties and a hex to tell fortune's granting a 50-50-chance to grant the target creature a bonus or penalty to its rolls. Taking on established witch-lore, witches may now also survive longer when submerged and even breathe water and walk across it at higher levels. Iconic and cool - I really like it! Finally, there's a hex to create zombies.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant typos or the like. Layout adheres to Interjection Games' black-bordered, printer-friendly 2-column standard and the 1 piece of stock-art seal feels like it belongs to the pdf - nothing to complain. It should be noted that the pdf is excessively hyperlinked to d20pfsrd.com for your convenience. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
The hexes herein vary in quality, but only slightly - generally, the concepts covered are solid and achieve with a solid grasp of the rules what they set out to do - even when it comes to more complex topics, which is a definite plus. While personally, I handle herbalism as per Necromancers of the Northwest's stellar pdf, I can't complain about this hex. Munchkins will have to look elsewhere, btw. - generally, the hexes are well-balanced and if in doubt, are rather on the lower end of the power-scale. While not all of the respective hexes are great or awesome, there are some herein that definitely make shelling out the fair asking-price well worth, though aforementioned pyretechnics-hex, while cool in concept, imho needs some clarification and thus costs the pdf some of its star-potential. In the end, I feel justified in rating this offering 4 stars - a solid buy for witches and especially if you want to represent some heretofore uncovered tropes in witch-lore, then this pdf will have you covered.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This installment of the 100%-Crunch-line is 23 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/foreword, 1 page advice for reading statblocks for novice DMs, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 15 pages of content, so let's take a look!
The pdf kicks off with a nice table that allows you to get an impression of the statblcoks at one glance before we get a short run-down of the orc race (and the racial modifiers) before we get into the statblocks, kicking off with non-combatants like orc young, females etc., starting at CR 1/4 before providing basic combatants. Archers, berserkers (superstitious barbarians), blood priests, warriors, hurler barbarians etc.
Following RSP's tradition, we also get adepts and experts (torture-specialists) as well as progressions of the hurlers as well as polearm specialists, battle oracles and thankfully, also statblocks that utilize multiclassing: At CR 2, we for example get the barbarian (breaker)/ fighter (two-handed fighter) or thug rogue-builds. We even get a fighter (tactician) and battle scout/snipers as well as an orc wizard with the advanced template focused on blowing the opposition to smithereens.
At the highest CR in this book, we get 2 CR 7 orcs, one being a rogue (thug)/fighter/assassin and the other being the polearm master/thug.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf provides two versions - one optimized for screen-use and one optimized to be printed out. The pdfs come fully bookmarked for your convenience.
This installment of the 100%-Crunch-line is a solid, very "orcish" installment of the series, with many barbarian-builds (including rage-stats) and multiple archetypes that make for cool builds as well as an antipaladin. However, I consider some of the builds to be slightly less interesting than they could have been - the absence of a witch and sorceror are slightly baffling to me, when a wizard is included. Honestly, I would have expected one of them, as they feel more in line with what is "orcish" than the bookish wizard-class, but perhaps that's me. I should probably also mention that there's no druid-build in these pages, but due to the presence of the battle-oracle and the adept, I'm willing to let that one slip.
So is this worth the low asking price? Yes, ultimately it is - it is not a perfect collection of statblocks, missing imho two classes that would make for a very orcish feel, but the builds per se are interesting. While I would have enjoyed slightly less direct progressions, at this fair price point, I can still recommend this pdf - especially if you combine it with the stellar "Orcs of the Eternal Zenith"-TRIBES-supplement. My final verdict will hence be 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks very much, Thilo. I enjoyed this review very much ;-) |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
All right, you know the drill – 4 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages content, this time detailing 6 feats for Jesters, so let’s check them out!
-Combat Juggling: Allows you to juggle multiple objects to treat them as if you have them ready in your hands – Alchemists will love that one indeed!
-Distract: Use Bluff or Perform to allow other creatures to use stealth versus the target, even if circumstances would normally forbid that. Seen that concept done before several times, not too impressed.
-Hideous Humor: Use Perform (Comedy) to demoralize foes and allows you to ignore the +4 save bonus creatures would get against Hideous Laughter that are not of your type. Also allows you to stack durations of Hideous Laughter-spells. Neat – though the spell is not italicized in the prerequisites.
-Play the Fool: Allows you to disguise your actions as incompetence/clumsiness/bumbling and allows you to thus get away with some nasty stuff without necessarily antagonizing opponents. Neat!
-Quick Ready: Ready up to 2+Dex mundane items per round as if via quick draw. EXTREMELY useful, cool feat.
-Tools of the Trade: When using sneezing powder, alchemist’s fire, brewed reek etc., you can make the DC 8 + 1/HD + dex-mod – great feat to keep these tools relevant over the levels - I wholeheartedly approve!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to SGG’s 3-column landscape standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. I really like the nature of these high-concept feats, especially since I consider the trickster to be underrepresented.
While juggling has been done in the Gallivant archetype for the bard (in Class Acts: Bard Archetypes) by Abandoned Arts, both approached complement one another and fit their respective niches. Overall, these feats felt interesting enough to warrant a buying-recommendation, though I’m not blown away by all of the feats – distract feels a bit like filler to me. Nevertheless, the other feats are extremely useful and often downright genius and hence I feel justified in rating this Bullet Point 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This module is 28 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of SRD, 2 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 21 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This being an adventure-module, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.
All right, still here?
This module, as the introduction tells us, is loosely based on Gen Con IX Dungeons by Bob Blake and thus can be considered a blast from the past - story-wise, the PCs are coerced into venturing into the eponymous dungeon by an old grumpy wizard named Framnagle to retrieve a family heirloom staff stolen from him by a former apprentice whom the wizard transformed into a dragon in a night of drunken escapades, only to have the apprentice turn to his arch-nemesis, Grwn Gruenwald.
The first two levels of the dungeon are not detailed in the module and it kicks off in the third and relevant level of the dungeon of Castle Baldemar after a short basic glossary on the town of Corvusrook. The dungeon per se is a relatively straight-forward dungeon-crawl, opening with minotaurs and going on to feature multiple undead, an enslaved stone giant, a rakshasa etc. The strength of the dungeon, though, would be its design-philosophy and emphasis on deadly traps which often require more than just a simple roll to get the gist of and which oftentimes feature a way to bypass them altogether.
That being said, e.g. a tiled room would require that the two pages of maps be printed out to the players - problematic since the maps come only with all DM-info included - no player-friendly maps here.
When run for people familiar with the original module, the overall complex will have some nice variation and include, among others, classic tropes like demonic urgings to sacrifice comrades. That being said, the climax versus the final boss, the apprentice turned dragon, allows for smart PCs to bluff the menace, which is a nice touch and an interesting end to a straight-forward crawl.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are not bad per se, but have some mayor issues - there e.g. is a room that lacks a means of ingress on the map and try as I might with my none too bad command of the English language, I honestly didn't get, either from map or text, how a particular room's trap is supposed to work, which I ascribe to simply bad writing - A trap's description shouldn't be more obscure than the references in a Joyce-novel. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly two-column standard, the pdf comes fully bookmarked and the b/w-artworks are nice, though nothing to write home about.
Which is exactly what sums up my thoughts about this dungeon. It has nothing truly going for it beyond nostalgia. The rooms are disjointed and make not that much sense in their array. The inhabitants are mostly not that smart and the fact that a CL 20 alarm-style spell makes stealth not an option when dealing with the final adversary feels like an attempt of shoehorning the party into a particular way of dealing with the module's challenges. The fact that XP are awarded for not exploring rooms can be considered either positive or negative, but personally, I'm not keen on them. And then there are the issues with the map, the lack of player-friendly maps and one fact:
This module, to me, might be nostalgic. But not only in a good way. Whereas Rappan Athuk, the Hollow Mountain or many other Frog God/Necro-products scratch that old-school itch, this module feels like an uninspired pandering that does not update a classic, but just modifies it without adjusting its content and providing a face-lift.
In this day and age, where we have modules like Rappan Athuk, it should be clear that atmosphere and tension are not anathema to old-school-style crawls.
This dungeon, in contrast, feels woefully sterile, generic and jumbled together - uninspired even, for there was not a single idea in here that I haven't see done better somewhere else. Unless you specifically want to play this as an homage to its inspiration, I wouldn't recommend you checking it out and even then, it falls a bit on the short side and could have used at least a slight narrative face-lift and a more unified and concise dungeon. For me, this module represents 5 bucks burnt, spent on a module that panders in an uncomfortable degree to my nostalgia and makes me recall what, pardon my words, sucked in the good ol' days of modules, hence deconstructing the one component it has going for itself. I can't for the life of me recommend this and instead urge you to get any other offering by FGG (or 4 Dollar Dungeon) instead.
Failing on a content-level, at least for me, harder than any other module I've read in quite a while combined with the map-glitch and writing-issues, I will make a controversial decision here that some of you are bound to not share- in this day and age, even with nostalgia-goggles, this, to me, is a 1.5 star-module, rounded down to 1 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
All right, you know the drill by now - 4 pages pdf, 1page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of content for new racial information, this time dealing with changelings, so let's take a look!
First, we get 6 new feats:
-Green Gift: Mimic sounds of animals and natural creatures via bluff.
-Hidden Gifts: +10 to disguise as human, no penalties to pose as human, quick disguise of clawed nails.
-Iron-skinned: When SR is lowered, you gain DR 1/bludgeoning.
-Monstrous Visage: Demoralize any number of foes within 30 ft. as a standard action.
-Prodigal Daughter: Count as a hag for purpose of joining a coven. Does not require you to be female, in spite of the feat's name.
-Sow Discord: As long as tress like combat does not divert your target's attention, the target gains now save versus your sow thought spell. Also provides +2 to overcome SR with the spell. Not a fan of this feat - it feels like a plot-device more than a viable feat and getting rid of saves for spells is not a good idea unless the means to do so are very specific - like a certain hex's kiss of death. Not in combat is not specific enough for my tastes.
We also get 4 new character traits:
-Hag's Blessing: Immunity to the nightmare spell.
-Inhuman Sire: Choose one humanoid subtype - you count as that humanoid for purposes of prerequisites regarding races.
-Resentful Daughter: +2 to conjuration (healing) spells to overcome SR.
-White Lies: Gain Bluff as a class skills and +2 to lie to friendly/helpful creatures.
Changelings may now also choose from 2 new alternate racial traits:
-Nightshadow: +4 to intimidate when in areas of dim light in exchange for the hulking trait.
-Seasight: See perfectly through frothing, murky or opaque water. Problematic, since e.g. Gillmen need feats to get powers that are somewhat like it - with low-light vision, granted, but still. Not a fan of this.
The pdf also provides the Sibyl-archetype for the oracle. The Sibyl gets Perform (oratory), replace some of the spells from their mystery bonus spells with others and gain Voice of the Sibyl at first level and drive helpless opponents mad with revelations. A solid archetype, I guess, but none that blew me away.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to Abandoned Art's no-frills 2-column standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
This pdf is a solid addition to the Amazing Races-line, but not a too impressive one - I can see minor issues with a feat, consider an alternate racial trait to be problematic and the archetype didn't elicit that much excitement from me either. There's nothing massively wrong with this pdf, but neither is there any content herein I'd consider truly innovative or particularly gripping. Hence, a solid buy for fans of changelings - I'll settle for a final verdict of a solid 3 stars - an ok purchase, but definitely not required.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!
I'm a fan of low-magic, gritty settings and my players tend to find magic items on a basis where the items actually matter - hence my personal love for Legendary Items (that level with characters) and alchemical items that offer quasi-magical benefits. But standard-rules have a discrepancy there -between masterwork items and even +1 weapons, there's empty space, treasure-wise, and this pdf tries to remedy that.
The item-qualities cost 500 GP and a total of 20 are provided and range from weapons with retractable hooks to acidic weapons - that only deal regular damage upon critical hits, but splash the foe as a flask of acid would upon crits. There are some of these minor enchantments that trade in the bonus damage on critical hits for alternate detrimental effects, which personally, I like.
The Dense quality is also interesting - the quality offers -2 to CMD, but also +1 to sundering attempts, whereas the jittery quality provides its enhancement bonus not to damage, but to initiative, making this particular enchantment rather useful at higher levels. Another quality allows you to heal enhancement bonus Hp on a critical hit instead of bonus damage and then there is the least spellstoring weapon - which makes it possible for the weapon to discharge a spell of up to 1st level upon striking the target creature in exchange for the regular additional critical hit damage.
As a further balancing mechanism, the quality also halves the weapon HP and adds the broken condition upon releasing a spell thus. Really like this one! Another weapon is simply awesome - lighthurling. While requiring multiple rounds of concentration to properly use, the wielder can once per day throw force-damage dealing stars at adversaries.
"Vengeful" is also a great quality - within one round of being critically hit, 1/day, the wielder can declare an attack a smite that deals an additional 2d6 damage to the wielder as well as the target.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to Interjection Games' elegant 2-column b/w-standard ad the stock-art sigils complement the pdf nicely. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
I didn't expect to like this pdf - at all. All the more surprised was I upon reading it and finding the presentation completely professional, the mechanics interesting and the balancing sound. At low levels, this pdf provides a significant boost in variety, one that is not necessarily lost in high levels and the design decisions are rather cool and uncommon. Add to that the low price and I can gladly rate this 5 stars + seal of approval. Author Bradley Crouch has delivered a nice offering indeed.
Endzeitgeist out.
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The latest installment in DSP's Psionic Items of Legend-series is 6 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1/2 page editorial, 1 page introduction to the legendary item-rules and 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 1/2 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This ring was born from a betrayal that saw one soulknife highway-man killing his kind-hearted brother and thus, this ring allows the wearer to create a potentially non-lethal mind blade, enhance it and knock out foes 3/day if they fail a scaling save. The other abilities include dispel psionics, hamper movement (and especially alternate modes of movement) and finally, render a foe helpless 1/day on a successful touch attack.
As many non-weapon items of legend, the ring only gets 5 levels of power-progression and the final page, which contains the knockout weapon quality, is almost empty. Also, the knockout weapon quality introduced by the pdf has not been properly revised to the updated pdf, featuring still a fixed save DC that should have been replaced with a scaling one.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column b/w-standard and the full-color artwork of the ring is awesome. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
The revised take on the ring is vastly superior to its first iteration, with 3 issues that rendered the item problematic at best resolved – unfortunately, though, without revising the new weapon quality. Furthermore, what somehow irks me is the fact that no support for soulknives using the ring is given – the abilities duplicate a serious amount of soulknife-powers, but the item does not sport unique benefits for soulknives – a wasted chance, at least in my opinion. Hence, I’ll settle for a final verdict of 4 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
The blade Infinite Fury was crafted by the legendary Cynean arcanist Kal-Dor upon mastering (at least in his perception) the arcane arts and turning to physical combat. The Cynean saw the end of his lifespan approaching and tasked the entity within the blade, one Sana-Dol he created, to continue to track the progress of wielders in order to one day accomplish mastery of the martial arts. The blade has since, guided by the intelligence, changed hands multiple times and is an intelligent item.
Rules-wise, the blade can cast 1/day Tactical Acumen. While the write-up features a minor glitch (“insight” has slipped one word ahead of where it’s supposed to stand), the blade can bestow a +2 insight bonus upon identifying creatures. As a full round action, the wielder can even focus on a creature within 60 ft. to gain a +10 bonus to identify the creature and the weapon gains the appropriate bane quality for the type/subtype for the respective creature. You can also use Transformation at will – rather powerful – and lacking the italicization in the text. The blade is a +2 defending transformative mithral longsword, btw.
The final page of the pdf is devoted to beautiful weapon-cards of the sword.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are not up to the recent standard of the line – two (minor) glitches in such a short pdf could have easily been avoided. Layout adheres to LPJr Design’s drop-dead-gorgeous 2-column full color standard and the blade’s artwork is awesome. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none and the pdf comes with an additional, more printer-friendly version.
I really like this blade- not only does it allow mages to stand in the front-lines, should they choose to do so, it also makes for great roleplaying/questing goals – perhaps the PCs need the knowledge of the blade. And what if it deems its task complete? That’s narrative potential there. The glitches still somewhat weigh this pdf down, unfortunately, and make it impossible for me to rate this the full 5 stars. Instead, I’ll settle for a final verdict of 4 stars – author Loren Peterson has done a neat job.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?
No filler seems to be the motto here, as we directly, sans introduction or the like, jump into the first bloodline, the Artificial Bloodline. Now don't fret - the bloodline is thankfully not yet another construct-themed bloodline, but rather offers a touch attack versus manufactured objects as well as a DR-granting skin-coating and is otherwise very focused on crafting. A solid bloodline.
The second bloodline is the Fatespun, which is interesting in that it nets you an oracle curse as well as oracle favored class bonus in lieu of sorceror options. Furthermore, the class may a very limited amount of times per day reroll d20-rolls that are not natural 1s or 20s. Luck's Equilibrium is interesting - for every natural 1, you gain a +1 luck bonus that stacks with itself and for every 20, you incur analogous a -1 luck penalty, to a respective maximum of 5. Interesting mechanical choice! You may also use your first ability to decrease to potential penalty you might incur and even spread the bonus/penalty to allies and creatures. However, the ability is not 100% clear in one of its caveats - the selection of which allies to include in the bonus requires a +1 bonus, but choosing reduces the net-bonus granted by -1. Does that mean the sorceror needs a netto-bonus of +2? A minor rephrasing is in order here, though overall I really like the bloodline and its base equilibrium-based mechanics.
The final new bloodline is the radiant bloodline, which nets the sorceror access to a limited array of neat divine healing-spells and adds the [light]-descriptor to spells with the[fire]-descriptor. What's slightly weird is that the bloodline modifies spells thusly and adds light damage - an heretofore unspecified type of damage. Sunbeam for example deals untyped damage, so I guess this light-based damage should be untyped as well. Apart from this admittedly cosmetic gripe with the touch attack of the bloodline, the bloodline also offers fast healing-granting flames, add wis-mod times wis-mod to your spell-DC or concentration-check (munchkinism-potential) and at high levels, deal spell level light damage the round after damaging foes.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. The pdf's layout adheres to a printer-friendly two-column standard and the pdf sports some thematically fitting stock-art pieces and an elegant black border. Nice. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
The three bloodlines herein are rather solid - though minor glitches where the wording could simply be a tad bit tighter detract slightly from the overall appeal - while no game-breakers are included, minor issues like the descriptor-problem can be off-putting. On the other hand, the bloodlines have in common that they actually endeavor to do something different and not just be yet another formula x-collection of bloodlines. Mechanically, they offer some interesting options and I feel that offsets some of the minor issues, resulting in a final verdict of a solid 3.5 stars for this pdf.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This massive book is 175 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 3 pages ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 168 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
First of all, let me tell you about the genesis of the project – HotJO has been in the making for what seemed like forever and was originally the first BIG project of Rite Publishing, intended to be released as a supplement to Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved. When the Beta-version of the book was released, the content was fresh and interesting in style and flavor. Now, with the advent and influx in popularity of PFRPG, people on the RiP-boards, yours truly included, started to ask about a conversion and the pdfs released so far in the line were used to get more artwork and even better production values for the Omega-version and the book this review is all about, the very first iteration of Heroes of the Jade Oath for PFRPG. Why is this important? well, because it explains some of the design-decisions made as well as all the races introduced – AE doesn’t feature the standard races as prominently and thus, this book has a LOT of ground to cover in a scarce few pages, even at its length.
Now that doesn’t mean that this book is all crunch and indeed, it begins by introducing us to the very concepts that define social structure in the setting of the Jade Oath: Favors, Family and Face. The importance of (extended) family structures, clans and the value of face are all concisely and easily understandable to western audiences as relayed herein. Thankfully, the done-to-death cliché of Seppuku is also addressed and put into a valid cultural perspective that shows that author Frank Carr has a firm grasp on social strata and cultural concepts. If you’re looking for an almost historical level of detail regarding customs like in the release of the German old-school setting Midgard’s (NOT the one by KP) KanThaiPan, though, you won’t find that level of detail here, with e.g. the making of appropriate presents, food and medicine not covered, but chances are you probably are not reading this review to know about the likes anyway. That being said, the map of the lands of the Jade Oath should be commented on – made by cartography-legend Jonathan Roberts (now of “A Song of Fire and Ice”-fame), the 2-page spread is eye-watering in its gorgeousness – and it is my pleasure to report that the locales featured in the gazetteer-style gloss-over of the lands provides places that stand in no way behind the quality of the map:
The respective regions not only include massive amounts of write-ups for covenants, societies and clans (all with their respective symbols and tokens), but also contains areas like the undead-hampering “Fallen Pillar of Heaven”, the gorgeously-illustrated city of Xinmar in the Heaven’s Reach Mountains, the floating garden or the crawling dragon mountain, which is in fact the world’s oldest dragon, slowly winding its ways through mountainous ranges. Now if the extensive gazetteer-section with all its pieces of information on culture, produce, locations etc. has not sparked some sort of great idea for an adventure, I’m not sure your imagination can be helped. The Lands of the Jade Oath feel very distinct and there is no way they could be mistaken for any other Asian-themed setting. That out of the way, let’s take a look at the chapter on races and their mechanics, shall we?
Now first we get pronunciation-guidelines for races and an entry on the breeds of human (the discovery of the eight will usher in a great doom, by the way!) before delving into the Bakemono. A metal-eating, goblinoid race, their males are small, horned almost goblinoid looking beings that get +2 to Con and Int as well as -2 to Cha, slow landspeed, darkvision 60 ft., light blindness, a bite that is devastating vs. objects and undead, +2 to saves vs. poison and +2 to craft-check relating to metal. They also have slow speed and count as evil goblinoids and get full spell-progression. Their females instead get +2 to Wis and Cha and -2 to Str. They also can take levels in the Bakemono-Paragon-class, which spans 6 levels and gets d8, 4+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression and good ref-saves. The class also improves bites by granting improved sunder to the bite and allowing bakemono to eat magical items as well as continuously detecting magic. The class also allows them to gain the shapeshifter-subtype as well as turning into large size, the form corresponding to their chosen totem or even into a swarm. And also minor attribute enhancements depending on the gender of the bakemono as well as attribute bonuses over the levels, something that almost each of the paragon-classes grants.
The towering, ponderous Dahren can either gain +2 to Str or +2 to Con and Wis, low-light vision, +2 to intimidate and sense motive and craft as well as the giant subtype, in spite of their medium size. The race also gets its paragon-class, spanning 20 levels and having them grow to up to colossal size (the additional sizes also being covered in the height & weight-table, btw.!) – the class is essentially a revised variant of the Jotun Paragon-class featured in RiP’s “In the Company of Monsters“, but allows the character now to multiclass as soon as they have passed 6th level. The class offers d8, 4+Int skills, 3/4-BAB-progression, good fort-saves, up to +13 natural AC and improving slam-attacks (up to 4d6) as well as rock catching skills and a selection from a wide variety of elemental-themed talents. Now, it would have been easy to just cut-copy-paste the class, but there actually are new talents in here and since the original class is elemental in its theme and HotJO uses the eastern system of elements, the respective abilities have been modified, which is nice to see.
Next up are the agile Faen, who get +2 to Dex and one mental attribute of your choice, are small, gain their own fey-related subtype, slow speed, low-light vision, +2 to perception, stealth and proficiency with bows and faen-weapons as well as a reroll 1/day. They may replace latter luck with minor spell-like abilities or the run-feat and +1 to initiative. Their paragon-class gets d8 HP per level, spans 6 levels, 4+Int skills per level, 34 BAB-progression, good ref-saves, 3 levels of spell-progression and an interesting idea: Depending on the racial trait chosen, the paragon-class expands the options, gaining either more spell-like abilities, more luck-based options or more quickness-based options. Cool! The most important thing, though, is already known to people familiar with Arcana Evolved: Faen may undergo a metamorphoses at 3rd level of the paragon-class, going into chrysalis and emerging as a full-blown fey, a so-called sprite. These sprites threaten regular 5-foot squares, gain +2 to Dex and -2 to Str and also wings, which allow them to fly at 30 ft. It’s also nice to see that the conversion adds fly to the list of class skills upon the transformation.
The Garuda should make for an interesting class you almost assuredly haven’t seen before: Partially scaled and feathered, this race resembles a badass-version of a humanoid archeopteryx with a stronger lean towards colored feathers. Story-wise, they are the hunters of the tainted, created by the dragons to stem the tide of the infernal dragon’s taint. They gain +2 to Dex and Wis, -2 to Cha, +1 natural armor, low-light vision, may glide up to 100 ft. with their wings, gain +2 to perception and may cast detect evil 1/day as a spell-like ability. Their racial class grants d8, 2+Int skills, 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort-saves, up to +3 dodge-bonus to AC and also increasing flight capabilities as well as bites, claws, spell-like abilities and finally even pounce.
Now if you’re more a fan of canines, the goushen-race has you covered. The race is descended from the foo dogs of legend and get +2 Con and Wis, -2 to Int, low-light vision, +2 to survival, scent and their 6-level paragon-class gets d8, 2+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort and ref-saves and up to +2 natural armor. Their paragon-class provides them with bite attacks, grab with their bites and also massively improving grapple-capabilities.
For more feline-affine people, the Hushen-race would be what you’re looking for – essentially a tiger-faced class of proud feline humanoids, they gain +2 to Str and Cha, -2 Int, low-light vision, +2 to intimidate, stealth and perception and suffer from blood frenzy, requiring a save to break from combat once blood has been spilled. Their 6-level paragon-class comes with 3/4-BAB-progression, d8 HP, 2+Int skills per level, good ref and fort-saves, +2 natural AC, scent, bite, claw and even rake and pounce as well as the option to run while using stealth, making them rather lethal with their natural attacks.
Now, the Kirin Shen-race is interesting in that it essentially is an acquired template that can be taken by taking a single-level as a Kirin Shen racial paragon. Kirin Shen are the chosen of the Kirin, gain +1 to BAB, ref and will, 6+Int skills and d10. The template they gain requires them to be of at least 6th level and is provided for the DM’s convenience with all the tools necessary to add it to respective creatures (it’s Cr +1 if you don’t take levels in the racial class, btw.) and allows it to use a healing touch that improves with HD as well as overland flight, ethereal jaunt and finally immortality at the highest HD.
Perhaps the most far-out and interesting race of the setting, at least for me, would be the Mandragorans: Mandragorans are essentially humanoid plants with alluring bodies that feature long vines instead of hair. They may manipulate objects and taste via these vines and they gain +2 to Wis and Cha, -2 to Str, low-light vision, +4 to stealth in forested and marshland areas, 1/day roll a will-save twice and take the better result, full spell-progression, + HD on saves vs. poison and their spores grant them +1 to diplomacy, handle animal and bluff, but also make hiding harder. Mandragorans may also heal a limited amount of damage via spending time in the sunlight and resting at night as well as communicate basic emotions via spores. They also get 5 alternate racial traits that feature magic abilities, desert and water-dwelling mandragorans, mandragorans with a mild poison and those with thorns. Their racial paragon-class gets 3/4 BAB-progression, d8 HP, 2+Int modifier skills per level, more spell-like abilities, woodland stride, the option to regrow from being torn to shreds and plant-like immunities. The racial paragons may also change gender in a week-long ceremony, which emphasizes their alluring strangeness as well as providing for interesting roleplaying options.
The reptilian Nagaraja, genderless asexually-reproducing humanoids are the stewards vs. the infernal taint introduced by the dragons, but many think they are shirking their racial duties. They gain +2 to Int and Dex, -2 to Con, 60 ft. darkvision, +1 natural armor, gain a limited array of spellcasting abilities, +2 to acrobatics and swim as well as linguistics and may opt to chose from two alternate racial traits, one granting a hood and a charming gaze attack, while the other replaces legs with a tail they may use as a natural weapon vs. foes. Their 6-level racial paragon-class offers them 3/ BAB-progression, good will-saves, 5 levels of spell-progression, d8 HP, 2+Int skills per level, blind fight an improved detect magic per will and up to +2 natural armor as well as increased casting prowess.
The Qahngol, a variant half-orc-race, once conquered the empire, only to ally with their subjugated race to vanquish an undead dragon. They gain +2 to one ability score of their choosing, count as orcs, gain low-light vision, +2 to ride and handle animal and an interesting racial curse: The Qahngol get a name mask upon their coming of age and upon removing/losing it, they run the risk of being targeted by their ancestral curse, which turns them into infernal cannibals – the simple template is provided as well as rules for the creation of name-masks and the simple-template. Their 6-level racial paragon-class gets d8, 2+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort and will-saves, 2 levels of spellcasting progression, rather massive attribute bonuses, a limited synergy with the fighter and barbarian classes when determining bonuses for feats, rounds of rage etc. as well as keen scent and wild empathy.
Ruishishen are essentially the HotJO setting’s Litorians, i.e. Lion-like humanoids, this time descendant from the celestial lions and massively decimated by traitorous groups. They gain +2 to Dex and Int, -2 to Wis, low-light vision,+2 to perception, intimidate and survival, count as one size larger for effects based on size and their 6-level racial paragon-class gets d8, 2+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort- and ref-saves, up to +2 natural AC-bonus, bite and claw attacks (the latter counting later on as ghost touch weapons!), scent, faster movement, a fear-inducing roar and may as a capstone temporarily turn incorporeal.
The variant dwarven race, the Sanesaram, get +2 to Con and Wis, -2 to Cha, slow speed (and no encumbrance speed modifiers), +4 dodge bonus to AC vs. gainst, +2 to appraise, +2 to saves vs. spells and spell-like abilities, + 1 to atk vs. goblinoids, +4 to CMD vs. bull rush and trip as well as clan-dependant bonuses, 8 of which are provided. Their racial paragon-class spans 6 levels, grants d8, 2+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort and will-saves, 3 levels of spellcasting progression , stonecunning, may add their class-level to craft-checks, further increase their resiliency to detrimental effects and improve their distinctiveness by gaining more abilities depending on the clan they belong to. At highest levels, they also get minor bonuses to atk and damage whenever someone hurts them – a Sanesaram’s grudge is a force indeed.
The Shenxue are the descendants of spirits and mortals, being thus native outsiders that can be influenced more with their truenames. Since the term shenxue thus applies to a vast variety of combinations of races and spirits, they come with information on racial traits for all the core and HotJO-races as well as a rather large array of different aspects that offer access to snow, panda or mountain spirits, to name just a few. Each aspect has its own penalties as well as different penalties to balance their benefits. Since they are born from such a cosmic union, the shenxue are required to adhere to a certain obeisance chosen at character creation, prohibiting them from for example sealing them from private dwellings, crossing rivers and cool, unique ones: Wandering Eyes for example, makes it only possible for the shenxue to see through the eyes of a chosen host. The shenxue paragon-class develops these further by modifying the class-skill-list according to aspects and providing highly versatile spell-like abilities and unique options depending on the aspect you’ve chosen. Like most paragon-classes, they span 6 levels and also gain d8 HP, 2+Int skills per level, 5 levels of spellcasting progression, 3/4 BAB-progression and also an ability that lets them see the presence or absence of all the spirits inhabiting everything, making for an interesting story-telling device. The racial paragon class suffers from non-standard save-progression for all 3 saves: They cap at +3 at 6th level instead of +2.
The penultimate new race we get would be the Verrik, another familiar face from Arcana Evolved, who gets +2 to Str and Wis, -2 to Cha, blindsense, the option to shut down senses (making them temporarily immune to gaze attacks, language-dependant effects etc.), minor spell-like abilities and may opt to be born with a magic-discerning third eye. Their 6 level paragon-class nets them 3/4 BAB-progression, good ref-and will-saves, d8 HP, 2+Int skills per level, 5 levels of spellcasting progression, improved sell-like abilities and as a capstone even get blindsight. All in all…I honestly consider the Verrik overpowered. Blindsense alone is powerful Combined with all the sense-turning of-options, the race becomes a bit too strong for my tastes.
The final new race would be the Yueyangren and Yueyinren, the moonfolk, which are essentially variant elves. Regular elves, moonlight elves are the Yueyangren and get +2 to Dex and Int, -2 to Con, low-light vision, +2 to perception, elven immunities and bursts of speed for 3 rounds. The dark-skinned moonshadow elves, are closer to high elves in mentality than to drow, in spite of their appearance. They get +2 to Dex, Int and Cha, but -2 to Str and Con, count as elves, gain darkvision 60 ft., elven immunities, +2 to perception, +4 to CMD vs. trip and bull rush, light blindness and both types of moonfolk may take the Yueren paragon-class, which gets d8, 2+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, good ref-saves, 5 levels of spell-progression, improved spell-like abilities, may walk on walls and ceilings 1/2 character level rounds cha-modifier times per day (cool!), gain superior vision with different effects depending on sub-breed, and gain movement-bonus-feats as well as the option to charge through difficult terrain.
Now that we’ve covered all those new races and their respective classes, let’s take a look at the new base-classes in the pdf, starting with the Demon Hunter. But before I get on to that, let’s quick classify that “Demon” does not mean only chaotic evil outsiders in the context of the lands of the Jade Oath – it means undead, goblinoids, fey and aberrations just as much as demons and similar outsiders – they essentially hunt the supernatural. The class gets d10, 2+Int skills per level, full BAB, good fort-saves, spellcasting of up to 4th level. They gain the ability to detect infernals via their powers, gain ranger-like specialization versus foes and may at higher levels even delay taking damage (including attribute damage) for 1 round cha-mod times per day. They may later also craft iron flasks and gain a cool capstone that allows them to change creatures into their servants, elevating them from their tainted being to celestial heights. There are also 6 different suites of abilities available to the Demon Hunter-class, including one that grants infernal companions that improve over the levels, improved ofudas and boons for wooden swords, the signature weapons of the immaculate exorcism-tradition.
The enlightened scholar gains 3/4 BAB-progression, good will-saves, up to +4 AC bonus, up to 2d6 unarmed damage (better damage when ch’i-focused), d6 HP, 6+Int skills per level and may also chose from a variety of talents from varying paths, that set them upon track for becoming immortal, allow them to create strange contraptions etc. The Folk Magic-table (which allows minor spellcasting) is now also included, as is the immortal knowledge-table (though that mentions “monk” when “scholar” is meant). The class per se is truly unique with its wide array of options and the complexity of rules for contraption-creation etc.
Similarly, the Kusa-class predates the Ninja-class from UC, getting unarmed strikes and sneak attacks as well as 3/4 BAB-progression, d8 HP, 6+Int skills per level, up to +7 insight bonus to AC, good ref-saves. The Kusa also gets a Ki-pool as well as multiple talents, grouped in three general level-classes, providing access to new talents at higher levels. Again, the class feels like it should have been converted to options for the Ninja-class, especially since the Kusa is not half as complex as the abilities of the enlightened scholar.
Speaking of archetypes: The other classes also get a variety of options – Barbarians may now for example take totem rage powers that correspond to specific animals like centipedes and mantises. There are multiple powers assigned to each totem and for barbarians wholly committed, there’s an archetype to gain a totem-related animal companion. cavaliers may now chose from 2 new Xia-orders, which are also available to samurai, btw., one devoted to the ancestors and one to protecting the chosen organization’s land and people. We also get an array of different monk-archetypes, which range from the kensai with their living weapons to the grapple-focused Thaskalos, the armored sohei to the spellcasting, lawful good yamabushi. Witches get perhaps one of the coolest option in the book – 4 new patron-spell-lists and a bunch of hexes. What’s cool about these hexes is the factor that the hexes come with descriptors that mark them as particularly appropriate for the respective patron. At least in my opinion, as long as the choice of other hexes is not penalized, this is a great idea to enhance flavor.
The next chapter introduces us to the new Feng Shui-skill, which allows you to improve the regenerative boons of resting by properly aligning the area and even the time required to rest. It should be noted that a bunch of the mechanics to come make use of the arcane focus and ki-focus (interchangeable as term with Ch’i, btw.). Gaining focus in either, much like gaining psionic focus, is a full-round action that provokes AoOs. Arcane Focus requires an arcane pool to be used (problematic, since the magus’ arcane pool and this one’s is different -I’ll get to that in a second), while ki-focus needs at least 1 point of ki in your reservoir. You may expend either focus to take 15 on a concentration check.
Among the different feats included in the chapter, we are introduced to a variety of feats with the new (Arcane)-descriptor. In order to make use of them, you have to take a feat that grants two points of arcane points, which do NOT stack with the magus’ arcana pool. Substituting “Arcane” with “Eldritch” or a similar word would have GREATLY helped to avoid confusion here. A botch, in my opinion, since while the non-stacking is mentioned, I consider two pools with the same name problematic. (Arcane)-feats usually grant you additional points of arcane pool and allow you to do uncommon things by expending your focus: Arcane Dodge, for example, grants you a stacking dodge-bonus of +1 to AC and allows you to expend focus as an immediate action for an increase to +4 to AC versus one attack as an immediate action.
Ki-focus works much the same way and feats from other sources now retroactively get the ki-descriptor. It gets more complex, though: There is a subset of Ch’i-feats (or Ki-feats, whichever spelling you prefer) called chakra-feats. These feats require the character to be ki-focused to work. Characters may invest ki-points into chakras when ki-focused and there’s a limit depending on level on how many points can be invested into a given chakra. Much like other points, these allocated points on the chakra allow the character to do uncommon things while focused and grant additional options via expending them. Moreover, each chakra has 3 different sets of potential ways to invest ki: Ki can be invested in Balanced Ki, Yang Ki or Yin Ki, granting different benefits for being focused or expending the aligned ki. A total of 7 chakra are provided – and that’s before the additional options via chakra-feats come in!
Speaking of complex options: Want a lesser version of the gestalt idea that is not as unbalancing and allows you to play essentially two characters in one body? The Ancestral Possession-feat allows you to do just that, giving you a second set of mental ability scores and actually a second class – problem is: The change of personality in command is disorienting and happens EVERY time you roll a 1 on a d20. Yes, that can lead to some VERY awkward roleplaying situations and while it may save you, it may also doom you. Especially for a group low on players unable to cover all fields a great feat.
Regarding enhanced options – several of the feats deal with yet another concept integral and iconic in lore: Sutras. While some brackets still point towards the single-pdf-release, rest assured that Sutra Magic is also within the pages of this book, allowing e.g. divine casters, demon hunters etc. to gain access to the iconic ofudas and providing guidelines on creating new sutras as well as a bunch of them for your immediate perusal.
Beyond the vast array of feats that use these new and complex mechanics, we also get short suggestions for cinematic houserules à la damage-based knockback, improvised weapons for everyone, the option to throw foes in grapple, a new use for hero points and (Chinese) Zodiac Signs: These work essentially as traits, but come as a double-edged sword: While being stronger than your average trait, they also come with drawbacks, which might make for truly intriguing roleplaying opportunities. I really like the approach to traits, though you should be aware that they make HEAVY use of hero points, thus, if you don’t play with them, you will get less of this chapter. (But when playing a WuXia-style setting, why not use hero points? Oo)
It should also be noted that we get an array of new exotic weapons (that are not that exotic in the HotJO-setting), most of which actually come with neat artworks, as well as new alchemical gear. Thankfully, the rather complex ch’i-mechanics come with a cheat-sheet in the section on magic that also details aforementioned sutra magic and closes the book.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting. Well. If you take a look at the credits, you’ll see that beyond being a patron, I also helped proof this book. But just a couple of pages. Without wanting to harp on my fellow proofers (after all, it was a non-paying gig) – some glitches slipped past us. Some that shouldn’t have. The Enlightened Scholar is still violating PFRPGF-design with its +9 ref-save progression and lacks its capstone ability. The Kusa should have been upgraded with regards to the Ninja-class. There are still multiple references to Arcana Evolved classes like the Magister (full-blown arcane caster) and the Mage Blade (Gish-class) and similar classes in here: Not in any rules-context, mind you, but they still are there.
While MOST (about 90%) of the conversions are successful and awesome, the rest could have been caught with more proofing and more care. I noticed multiple instances of non-italicized spells, a lack of uniform italicization regarding the terms “ki” and “ch’i” etc. And we also get some pages that clearly show that different people have been at work here – while many pages are free of glaring glitches, there also are some pages in this pdf that feature several.
Layout…is GORGEOUS. Paizo-level and beyond beautiful. Two-column standard, green highlights, golden kanji-borders, Wayne Reynolds-cover and interior artwork that more often than not is on the level of the cover. That is: Up to the very most beautiful you’ll ever see in any publication. The pdf also comes with extensive, nested bookmarks. As per the writing of this review, no printer-friendly version is included.
This is a crunch-monster and perhaps the one pdf that took me longest to review so far. So much math to do. More, in fact, than in just about any product I’ve reviewed so far. The races with their racial paragon-classes should definitely prove to be a boon for fans of the Diamond Throne-setting that have since the Arcana Evolved-days switched to PFRPG and concept-wise, the Mandragoran is perhaps one of the coolest plant race I’ve seen in ages.
I really like the Arcane Pool-idea – but why not rename it? Why make it ambiguous and easy to confuse with the pool of the Magus?
Mechanically, Sutra Magic, Chakras etc. are bold, exciting and cool and speak of a solid grasp on rules by author Frank Carr (for AE) and Timothy Wallace (for the PFRPG-conversion) as well as something only seldom seen: Boldness in design. these options marry cultural fluff with solid rules and uncommon design-choices, making them a joy to behold, at least for me.
The cultural fluff of the book of the book speaks not only of a knowledge, but of an understanding of cultures and myth and offers fresh and exciting vistas on eastern roleplaying that could work together with established setting like Rokugan or Kaidan, but still brings its extremely distinct flavor to the table and can easily stand on its own. Distinctiveness and modularity are well-mixed in the options provided herein. The writing per se ranges from extremely evocative…to. Well. Not so evocative. When proofing my chapters, I continuously stumbled upon instances when multiple sentences started the same way in a quick succession. There were paragraphs containing what I call “no conjunction-disease” – something that ruins the reading experience of any given text by providing essentially a quick succession of basic subject-verb-object-sentences sans prepositions, conjunctions and subordinate clauses. I tried to correct that, but overall, when the book is concerned, I have to say that generally, HotJO cannot be considered a universally great reading experience. When the writing works, it works well, but these sometimes cropping up accumulations of bland, boring sentences, while conveying information, still tug at what would otherwise be a universal sense of wonder and awe at these intriguing lands.
As much as I’m loathe to say it, since I really, really like the book. It feels like it has been pushed out slightly too fast.
Yeah. I know. Get the pitchforks and torches ready.
The book’s been in the making for very long, postponed etc. – but after such a long wait, I think that a flawless quality should have been of tantamount importance. Perhaps giving each of the chapters to two proofers minimum would have been the prudent thing to do. I don’t know. What I do know is that with just one or two more months of proofing and editing, this pdf could have been a new benchmark for crunchy-setting books, a hallmark, a legend.
Now, with all the glitches still here and there in the pdf, some of which actually impede the rules, this pdf feels like it falls flat of its own potential. Not all of it, mind you, and the glitches are nothing that can’t be potentially fixed/errata’d.
This book could have been my number 1 of 2012 or 2013- it had all the potential, all the right ideas. And, again, generally, they do work. But those that don’t combined with an amount of editing glitches/conversion relics make it impossible for me to unanimously recommend. I can’t rate this 5 stars, though I so want to – for the sutras, the demon hunter, the ideas herein, for the imaginative pieces of crunch and fluff. For the well-done conversions of spellcasting, which is hard to do indeed. But the quality of the writing fluctuates hard and there are quite a few relics here. This conversion had the chance to set right all the small (and large) glitches from the HotJO-pdfs and let the chance slip. The thing is: I really, really liked this project. I put $60 down for the patronage, tried to help with the conversions as much as my schedule allowed. I proofed as much as I got, chapter-wise, and as much as my time allowed. I’m dedicated to this project and it could have been one of the best Pathfinder-releases ever.
It could have.
But as a reviewer, I have never let the likes of such problems slip and won’t start now, no matter how I’d want to. As much as it pains me, in spite of the glorious ideas, in spite of all crunch that teems and bristles with ideas, I can’t rate this higher than 4 stars – with seal of approval, though.
Endzeitgeist out.
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