This review was first published in GMS Magazine and written by Thilo Graf.

This pdf is 16 pages long, 1 page SRD and credits, 2/3 of a page front cover, leaving 14 1/3 pages of content for new arcane archetypes, so let’s take a look at what we get!

The pdf begins with an introduction to what archetypes are and how to use the information presented herein. Due to the nature of arcane magic and its significant prowess, some of the archetypes herein come with restrictions, which are also elaborated upon: Essentially, some can only be taken by castes and some only by non-casters. Simple, coherent and elegant in its presentation. What are the archetypes we get?

First we are introduced to quite a shock: The acolyte is an archetype that gets limited spellcasting, true, but not arcane one. Rather it represents a minor access to divine powers, enabling the character to cast up to 4th-level spells. An interesting archetype that does deal wit arcane magic and which I’ve been looking for ages, is the Hedge Wizard, a arcane caster who can cast up to 6th-level spells, but only learns a very limited amount of them and thus, self-taught and not a true specialist, seeks to work with what he’s got and improve upon these limited spells. Finally those borderland/bandit wizards get a fitting representation. The Initiate is for druidism what the acolyte is for clerical magic, so you get pretty much what you’d expect, including minor druidic abilities like animal empathy. Once again, aptly-designed, elegant and easy to implement. The minstrel uses a similar mechanic for bardic casting with the notable exception of being non-spontaneous and INT-dependant with regards to casting. Pact Scions are one of the coolest archetype-concepts imaginable, at least to me: Being available only to non-casters, the Pact Scion has a patron/outsiders/artifacts that enable her to cast deadly magic at a price of both obedience and minor, exhausting non-lethal damage. The mechanical implementation is brilliant, enabling the DM or the player to conjure up most interesting plot-lines, character concepts etc. Fans of the Sword & Sorcery genre will rejoice when reading this anyway. The next archetype, the shadow master, focuses on spells with the [shadow]-descriptor – while mechanically sound, I considered this one to be rather boring. The next archetype is anything but bland, though: The Sigil Mage carves his spells as tattoos into his flesh and thus can use some pretty nifty tricks: Preparing casters can use sigil magic of one spell-level higher to act as a potential for two lower-level spells, essentially preparing e.g. 2 3rd level spells in a 4th level slot and choosing the spell at the time of casting. Spontaneous caster can e.g. level up 2 of their linked spells, casting them as higher level spells than they usually are. This power comes at a price, though, and critical hits and erase are your foe if you’re a sigil mage…

The spellblaze can conjure up a bolt of raw force damage that scales with levels a limited amount of times per day, making for an iconic arcane artillery while avoiding making regular ranged weapons obsolete. The final archetype presented is the warder, a noncaster archetype who centers around negating hostile magic via sorcerous counterspells. These guys will see a lot of use associated with the henchmen of my NPC-inquisitors.

The pdf closes with an overview of archetypes and SGG-base-classes.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to the clear horizontal 3 column-standard and the full-color artworks range from good to average. Unfortunately, the pdf has no bookmarks but at this length that’s no reason to detract a star. In direct comparison to the archer archetypes, we get a bit more of them, but 3 of them (minstrel, acolyte and initiate) are somewhat similar in what they do for their respective associated classes. However, their design is excellent and the Pact Scion alone, at least for me, alongside the warder is worth the low and fair price. Nevertheless I found the 3 very similar archetypes somewhat bland, especially due to taking up quite a bit of space that could have been used otherwise, perhaps in a more arcane-centric way. My final verdict for this installment will thus be 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

My players love to fidget with their character classes. I am often asked can I substitute this or substitute that. My sense of maintaining logic always eclipses the need to stay mechanically “correct”.

Genius Guide to Arcane Archetypes by Otherworld Publishing is written for players and DMs who like to create within the character classes.

The system is quite elegant. Each of the base classes, including their own custom classes, is subdivided into archetypes. These archetypes are groups of abilities that make the class what it is. Essentially, each class is dissected into its basic components. This allows you to take out that component and replace it with another component without damaging the power level of that class too much.

As most Genius Guides, the PDF is short and sweet at 16 pages. Everything feels balanced. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure until your Fighter with its awesome base class starts teleporting all over the map fireballing on every turn. The writers do a decent job of trying their best to prevent these catastrophes by limiting which classes can take which of the new archetypes. A player can probably break this system but it will be hard to do. Non-spellcasters are given a special designation and receive a weaker spell slot system than their arcane counterparts. There are nine arcane archetypes, which is quite a variety for a magic users. Otherworld shows their expanded talents for diversifying abilities by making each archetype unique.

For the Player Spellblaze feels like the coziest archetype to bundle with a melee fighter. It grants the ability to deal instant damage through lightening bolts.

For the Dungeonmaster The Sigil Mage rocks if you want to add some spice to your spellcasting NPC. The writing seems to indicate this was a favorite of the writers as it feels slightly longer and notched with a little more flavor. Tattoos on the face and body act as spell and skill enhancers. She also has the ability to cast no so prepared spells.

The Iron Word This is another bundle of creativity by Otherworld Creations. Archetypes is not for everyone, but it’s innovation places it in a special category of “new” that other publishers should surely build off. If you have players who are interested in sandbox classes, this is the right step.

The Genius Guide to: Arcane Archetypes is a 16-page PDF (15 pages if you remove the credits/OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Owen K. C. Stephens and published by Super Genius Game. This is part of Super Genius Games’ Genius Guide line.

The layout is a screen-friendly landscape design, with cover art and 1-column on the first page and three columns on the rest. The art is full color throughout and vaguely supports the magic and variant spell-casting theme of this product.

Arcane Archetypes begins with a discussion about how characters in fantasy fiction often have a touch of magic even when they are not full fledged spell users. This product is designed to allow such characters to be played by trading out some of their existing class powers for different magical tinged one. This is accomplished by the use of ‘archetype packages’ to adjust class abilities in a modular way.

Two pages lay out the archetype packages for the base classes so players will know what they have to trade out for one of the nine arcane archetypes presented. Some grant minor spell casting abilities, others give other magical tricks such as defensive shields, magical music and shadow manipulation. It allows for a wide variety of options, even for spell casters and opens the magic system up in a variety of ways.

At the end of the product are the archetype packages for the various Genius Guide classes so that they can also use this product.

For those who like to tinker with the way the game is put together, as well as expanding magical option, this product is superb. Those that are more cautious about changing the basic working of the classes will probably wish to only slowly incorporate those elements that have a place in their campaign. However, in either case it is an excellent resource for understanding how classes are balanced and for some alternative ideas for magic in a campaign.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

An interesting idea on adding a touch of Arcane to any character class. I like the idea and think it could work. Rules for arcance "dabblers" that are something like multiclassing, but not fully two seperate classes, hedge wizards and the like. If you like arcane classes, then this is a very good option to add a bit of arcane to every class. I will have to get more of these.