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Monstrous Bloodlines for Sorcerers [PFRPG] $1.50
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
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by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/13/2013 04:52:22

This pdf is 8 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let's take a look at these new bloodlines, shall we?

The cyclopean bloodline gains perception as a class skill and has its spells focused on ill omens and divination, with bonus feats reflecting the divination focus as well as the toughness associated with cyclopes. Among the bloodline powers, we get a gaze of doom as well as the interesting development that has cyclopean sorcerors turn blind on one eye, hampering depth perception. This is offset by two insanely powerful abilities, though: One allows you 1/day to EXACTLY the die-result of one of your die-rolls. While only working for you, that's an automatic critical threat at 3rd level, a 100 on a d% etc. - I don't need to tell you how broken this is, do I? Worse, the bloodline, starting at 9th level, allows these sorcerors to DOUBLE the threat range for ALL attacks - rays, natural attacks, melee, ranged etc. for 3+cha-mod rounds 1/day. Never gonna happen in my campaign.

The Inevitable bloodline has unsurprisingly diplomacy as well as law-spells in its arsenal as well as e.g. combat expertise and similar discipline-themed feats in the bonus feat selection and gains a limited regeneration (3+Cha-mod rounds per day) that improves over the levels. Nothing to complain here. Medusan sorcerors get disguise as class skill, bonus feats appropriate for her like skill focus (sculpture) or brew potion, a slowing gaze, poisonous blood (that lacks frequency, onset etc. and information on whether it can be harvested) and finally undergo an apotheosis.

Otyugh sorcerors (rather disturbing concept, but cool) gain sickening and plague-based spells and bonus feat-selections based on toughness, fortitude and become progressively a carrier for diseases, increased senses and immunity to diseases but strangely not the ability to draw sustenance/heal from waste-consumption - a wasted opportunity indeed. Puts two cents into the bad pun-jar... The full color artwork by Tamas Baranya is worth special mentioning here - a cool Otyugh, though I would have preferred an artwork of a sorceror that has undergone the capstone apotheosis into an otyugh/mortal-hybrid.

Sphinx-bloodline sorcerors get access to a Knowledge skill of their choosing, divination/language-themed spells, may utter confusing riddles and shout deafening battle-cries at higher levels. Nothing to complain here balance-wise.

The Stirge bloodline (featured as an awesome example on the cover) gets stealth as a class skills, bleed/insect-themed spells, grappling and agility/disruption-themed feats grows both wings and draining proboscis as well as act as a disease-carrier and create mirror images of yourself. thematically, the most concise and cool of the bloodlines, its solid mechanics back it up. This one is actually really, really good.

The final bloodline would be the unicorn bloodline that gains access to heal as a class skill as well as curative magic as bonus spells and feats that help with rays, self-sufficiency etc. You may manifest a horn, call nature's allies and later even later emulate the kirin, gaining flight. Though probably my players would never stop making virgin/unicorn-jokes, a solid choice.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good, though I lacked the medusa sorceror's bloodline poison-information. Layout adheres to a relatively printer-friendly two-column standard with some awesome full color artworks I wouldn't have expected at this price-point. The pdf comes fully bookmarked. Oh boy, most of these bloodlines actually have at least one good idea going for them, with especially the stirge bloodline standing out. However, for each idea that stands out, there's also one that would require some balancing imho - the Cyclopean bloodline is utterly broken in my book and e.g. the sphinx, inevitable and otyugh bloodlines all somewhat fall behind their own potential - some more courageous, more unique ideas would have gone a long way there - why can't e.g. sphinx-sorcerors not, gargoyle-style enter a kind of temporal stasis to whether the ages and await intrepid adventurers? Why can't otyugh-sorcerors eat waste to sustain/heal themselves? Why can't inevitable sorcerors swear an oath to complete a particular objective and gain bonuses when seeking to fulfill it? When all's said and done, I feel that quite a few of these bloodlines miss the essence, what makes the parent-creature iconic. Add to that the minor issues here and there and we arrive at an offering that is ok, but not much more, reflected in a final rating of 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 due to the fair price for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Monstrous Bloodlines for Sorcerers [PFRPG]
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