This book is 36 pages long. Cover, city map of Westcrown, and ToC. Take up 3 pages.
Chapter 1 – Introduction to Cheliax and History (12 pages)
It talks about the country, the history, society, military, glossary of terms, entertainment etc. It gives a brief overview of the country, where it came from and what it is like today. It also has a section of geography of the country and talking about each area of the country.
Chapter 2 – Cities of Cheliax (4 pages)
This gives a brief overview of two of the important cities of Cheliax, the former and current capitals.
Egorian Capital of Cheliax (2 pages)
Westcrown (2 pages)
Chapter 3 – Social (2 pages)
It has a section on how most classes are seen in Cheliax and Chelish traits.
Chapter 4 – Magic (4 pages)
This chapter is about magic items and spells. There is 7 new magic items, and 7 new spells.
Chapter 5 – Religion (2 pages)
This section talks about the role religion plays, while it is mostly about Asmodeus church, it does touch on other religions.
Chapter 6 – Combat (2 pages)
11 new feats mostly combat feats and 1 new weapon.
Chapter 7 – Persona (4 pages)
5 complete NPC's with history and stat blocks. They can be used as replacement PC's, NPC's, cohorts, villians etc.
It closes with 1 page of ads with the OGL, map of Egorian and back cover.
Conclusion, I liked this one. The magic and combat sections I thought was especially well done and IMHO the best such sections for one of these books so far. The NPC's are well done, but I am meh about them. I tend to like to make my own so they are of limited use to me. The city sections give a nice vague overview of each city but I wish they had added at least one more page to each of them. The social and religion chapters are pretty much what you would expect.
The largest section is the first and I think it does a pretty good job of giving one a decent view of what Cheliax is like with enough information that you should be able to bring it to life for your players. If you are a fan of Cheliax I highly recommend this book or if you are just looking for more information about the world of Golarion. I am giving it a 4 star, I think it is a good book but could have been a bit better.
This product is pretty much exactly what it claims to be. It is paper mini's of Litorians, of course they can be used for any cat people race. If you are looking for such paper mini's I think they are a good value. With PFRPG stats for them as a race to be used with Pathfinder.
This is pretty much what it says it is. It is a map of a tribal camp site. It has a nice single page over view of the camp, the rest of the book is the camp map blown up to be used as mini's map. The quality of the map is very good, so if you are looking for a mini's map for a tribal camp then this is a good one.
I received this product for the purposes of this review. For the record while I own the Arcane Evolved I am not super familiar with it and this book is made for that game. It could be used for any D20 game with a little work though. I didn't have my book handy to check some details.
This product is 42 pages long. The first 3 pages in cover, credits and map of a tribal camp.
Chapter 1 – Introduction (3 pages)
A IC introduction.
Chapter 2 – Environment (5 pages)
This talks about where Litorians like to make tribal camps and what it means. How they see and feel about the land etc. It also has a new feat, monster stats.
Chapter 4 – Feats (3 pages)
There is 19 new feats most of them for Litorians only though a few seem open to anyone. They add in ritual feats, which are feats you can only take after having done a ritual.
Chapter 5 – Ritual (4 pages)
I loved the ritual section it really made the Litorian stand apart and feel truly different than most races.
Chapter 6 – NPCs (13 pages)
There is 5 NPC's with background and full stats. Each one is present in 3 stages of their live, low level, mid levels and high level, with information about each stage.
It finishes with 1 page for OGL, 1 page full color art and back cover.
Closing thoughts, I liked the extra detail it went into to flesh out the Litorians. If you are a fan of the race this adds a bit to them and makes them more interesting I think. The book is well written and I didn't notice many errors in the book. The art is fair to pretty good artist are Hugo Solis, Richard Biggs Jr, and Jason Rainville. This is not a stand alone product it is meant as a addition to the Litorians from Arcane Evolved. As far as I know no information is repeated here. For those that use Arcane Evolved book I rate this a 4 star product, for those that use Litorians or want to included a cat race in their games then I rate it a 3 star. Though either way you would need Arcane Evolved to get full use of this product.
d10, 2 skill, full BaB, all simple and 2 martial weapons(of choice), light armor and shields. Can cast with no spell failure in light armor.
This class functions like a wizard IE needs a spell book and memorizes spells. It gets fewer spells per level and only learns up to level 6 spells, but learns new spell levels at the same rate as wizards. It has it's own spell list. As the Archon levels they start learning to cast in better armor lowering the failure chance. It is not clear if they learn to wear the armor or still need to spend a feat on them.
It gets a few class abilities like Arcane Surge that allows the Archon to cast a spell as a swift action that normally was a standard action once per day(more times as they level)
Soul of the spellblade - this allows a Archon to cast a touch attack but not use it yet. The following round or up to 6 rounds later they can make a touch attack with their weapon. Doing the weapons attack and they spells attack if the melee attack hits. The Archon must decided when to use this and if the attack misses the spell is gone.
Rivenspell - It is a ability to sacrifice a spell to use one of the rivenspell abilities. I love the concept of this, my big compliant is that while at low levels it is great it doesn't really scale well. I don't see most using many of the abilities and fewer and fewer as they level. I wish this had been more of a major focus of the class and scaled a bit better.
Closing thoughts, taken as a whole it is a interesting take on the gish concept of a arcane casting fighter. I like a lot of the idea's and loved the Rivenspell ability. If you like Gish classes I recommend this to buy.
This product is 10 pages long with 1 page for OGL.
d6, 4 skills, low BaB, very few weapons and light armor. They can wear light armor and cast all spells with no failure chance. The Magus cast spells like a Sorc, they learn a certain number of spells. First they choose a primary spell list Cleric, Druid or Sorc/Wiz list. At least half of their spells known must be part of that list, the rest can be from any spell list.
1 page with 5 new feats and 1 page with advice on how to use a Magus in your world.
Closing thoughts, if you like combined divine/arcane casters then i think you will like this. This is one of the better and likely best balanced one I have seen. My one big worry is that it in a way kinda replaces the Sorcerer. Since one of the class options allows the Magus to get a Sorc Bloodline with most but not all the benefits of the bloodline. I would need to see it in play to be sure but after a read it is a minor worry, I don't think it would. For the price it is a good buy for those looking for a divine/arcane caster or something new and different.
This product is 10 pages long. 1 OGL the rest is about the class.
There is 1 page with how the class can fit in your campaign world with 2 new feats to make existing class abilities slightly better(more uses).
This class has a d10, 4 skills, full BaB, all weapons and light/medium armor. This class is tightly focused on killing witches and it does it extremely well. My first reaction was the class might be a bit over powered but since many of it's best abilities only work against certain things balances it out a bit. This is a class that at time will really shine and feel I think a bit OP but at other times will feel a bit weak.
The best thing I can think of as a example that it plays like a paladin in how effective of a class it is. All and all i think the class makes a great NPC and a good PC. It has a fairly broad list of what fits though some things I didn't expect was on the list and some things I did expect wasn't on the list. While Witch Hunter isn't a bad name it can be a little misleading. It is more focused on hunting evil supernatural creatures or evil spell casters.
All and all for the price it is a good pickup if the class interest you in the slightest.
This is along the same line of Genius Guide feats. It has a nice collection of feats. Most are well done and interesting. Some seem a bit strong or weak. But I think they are all workable. There is 30 new feats in this book. Like the previous works this is a good pickup for the price, if you are looking for a few more interesting inventive feats.
This product is 12 pages long, 7 pages are cover, credits OGL etc, plus a example of each page filled out.
The charts to use are.
Party Tracking Sheet - some basic info about the PC's and the party like marching order, light sources etc.
Adventure Tracking Sheet - A sheet for a GM to list information about the adventure, keep track of dates etc.
Adventure Session Sheet - A sheet for tracking what all took place during a game session etc.
Campaign Adventure Log - A sheet to list all the adventures, where they took place etc.
Initiative Tracking Sheet - For use for keeping track of who goes when.
In closing it is a collection of sheets many GM's would find handy and others less so. I will likely use a couple of sheets myself. For the price it is a good buy if for no other reason that idea's for making your own sheets even if you don't use these.
It is what it claims. It is 9 pages long with a list of common conditions listed on cards for the game. A PC gets blinded, pass the blinded card to the player so they know. Handy product and reasonably priced if you don't want to make your own products.
This book is 47 pages long, 5 pages is cover, OGL, Credits etc. The other 42 pages is monster cards with 8 monsters per page.
Each page list the name of the monster, type of monster and 4 DC's with the knowledge learned from them.
This is a great quick reference for GM's if you and your players like to roll for knowledges about what PC's know about monsters during a game. My only real complaint about the book is there is no indicator on each card on the type of lore/knowledge is needed. Otherwise this is a great product.
This product is 56 pages long and free. Cover, credits, intro and ToC take up 4 pages. 17 pages of adds many for Rite Publishing products but not all. Which leaves 35 pages of RPG goodness. I will list each article and how many pages it is.
Relics of Questhaven – (4 pages) It has 3 different relics, with what they do, all their powers and a nice lore section with varied DC's with more lore with each higher DC check. The Relics are basically magic items that grow in power as the PC levels. I love the idea of relics I have seen a couple of other books with items like this. But in short these are magic items you can give players at level one and they will likely hold onto them to 20th level. Written by Steven D. Russel
50 Questions: Interview of Frank Carr - ( 12 pages) This is a section of 50 questions to Frank Carr about the upcoming Heroes of the Jade Oath book and patron project. If you wanted to know anything about the inspirations behind the book or general information about the Project then this is a good read.
The Stone of Insanity – (1 page) It is a mini encounter, basically it is a stone that drives people insane. It has a small section for low, medium and high level play use for the stone. Written by Bill Collins
Raise Dead – (2 pages) A short article about alternate ways of bringing back the dead. Basically it is 5 example ways of how those being raised might come back from the dead wrong, explaining why it happened and the effects of this. A interesting idea if you want to add a little extra fear about dieing in a game where death is often merely a inconvenience. Written by Mark Gadek
Faradian of Questhaven – (2 pages) This is a monster converted from Race for the Crystal Fold, for Questhaven setting using the Pathfinder rules. Written by Steven D. Russel.
Curses - (1 page) This is 3 new cursed items for Pathfinder games. The three items are interesting I especially like the Ring of Vampiric Regeneration. Written by Mark Gedak
Leseli – (2 pages) A Advanced Elder Fiend Succubus. She works at The Rogues Gallery. I am guessing this is taken from the Rite Publishing Product The Rogues Gallery, but it doesn't say that and since I don't own that book I am unsure if this is a reprint or not. It has a IC introduction to the NPC and explains why she is there, followed by her stat block. Written by Steven Russel and Shane O'Connor.
New Monster: Carrion Wolf – (1 page) A stat block for a new type of monster. Written by Mark Gedak
New Monster: Strife Element – (1 page) A stat block for a new monster, this one is from Lorns Entrepot. Written by Steven Russel.
New Magic Items: 5 New Weapon Properties – (1 page) 5 new magic weapon properties from Rite Publishing 101 Magical Weapon Properties. Written by Steven Russel.
Undying Love – (2 pages) This has 3 things that have come back because of love, a short blurb about the 3 types and then a campaign hook for each. Written by Mark Gedak
The Honorable Order of Theurigic Master Craftsmen – (2 pages) This is about how a craftmens guild works in Questhaven. Written by Steven Russel.
Commissioning Cartography – (1 page) It is advice for publishers to give to the cartographer to get the maps they want. Written by Jonathan Roberts
Rite Reviews – (4 pages) 2 reviews, one of Luven Lightfinger's Gear and Treasure Shop and Restless Souls. Review written by Shane O'Connor.
Closing thoughts, well since this product is free I highly recommend it. Like the rest of their products of their I have, this is a very pretty book. The layout is nice with artwork that ranges from fair to good. Artist are Joe Calkins, Hugo Solis, Jason Rainville, Kurt Taylor, Claudia Burgos, Arthur Wang, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Jonathan Roberts, and Inkwell.
I rated this a 5 star product. For the simple reason it is a nice book, gives you a nice taste of Rite Publishing and it's free. It's hard to beat free stuff.
Evocative City Sites Lorn's Entrepot (Abandoned Warehouse) by Rite Publishing. I was given this product for the purposes of this review. This product is 47 pages long. Cover, Credits, two pages of maps is the first 4 pages. OGL, 1 add page and back cover is 3 more pages. 32 pages is taken up by blown up sections of the map ready to print to be used as a miniatures map with built in grid. The next two pages is a IC account of the warehouse and two of the NPC's. The final 6 pages are taken up by NPC stat blocks and information of the 3 NPC's at the location. With the last half page of the NPC section take up with a magic item and 3 new feats. (least I believe the feats are new).
Closing thoughts, this is basically just a location one can drop into your existing game as a diversion for the PC's. The NPC's are well done, the IC intro was a nice touch and like all Rite publishing stuff the lay out and quality is top notch. But... it just felt like something was missing. There really isn't much in the way of GM advice on how to use it, beyond the goals of the NPC's detailed in it. I would have liked something more, maybe a few more NPC's. Some more details about the warehouse like a short history maybe. Who now uses it, what the locals think. Don't get me wrong the product is nice but I really felt it could have used a bit more. In short if you are looking for something to drop into your existing game in a city for a little side trek for the PC's this works for that. I just feel it could have been more. So it does the job it set out to do, but since I think it could have used more to make it more useful I am giving it 3 stars. At 1.99 it is a nice pick up if you are looking for a short side trek.
Feats 101 by Rite Publishing. I was given this product for the purposes of this review. I have not yet played using these feats my review is based on reading the feats and checking a few against existing PFRPG feats.
This product is 30 pages long. Cover, credits and ToC take up 3 pages. While OGL and back cover take up 2 pages.
It introduces 4 new types of feats. The first page is a intro and explaining this 4 new types of feats.
Combat Maneuver feats - These are feats designed to work with the new pathfinder mechanic in the combat maneuvers.
Bonded Feats – These are feats for those with animal companions, familiars, etc.
Talent Feats – These are special inborn feats that can only be taken at level one.
Spell-Touched Feats – These are feats one can take after having been exposed to a certain spell.
It of course has plenty of feats for the current types of feats in PFRPG. Needless to say there is 101 new feats.
The next 5 pages is a very nicely laid out chart that list each feat, what the prerequisites are, and up to two sentences of what it does. Making at a glance very easy to see what feats do and what you need to take them. They are also broken up by feat type, which further helps. The other 19 pages of the book contain the full descriptions of the feats. Below I will list a few example feats from the book.
Cloaked Fighting Style – When a enemy misses you can then attempt to disarm them.
Companion Cache – Familiar may store a equal number of spells as the casters level. So at 5th level you could store 1 3rd and 1 2nd, or 5 1st level etc. Otherwise works like a ring of spell storing.
Freezing Spell – Added to any damage spell, if the target fails the save must make a new Fort save or be slowed for one round.
Unborn Sorcery – Change the energy type of a spell to negative.
Monstrous Physique – Increase by one size category, apply the AC, attack and reach for the new class but not the stats.
Ok that is a few example feats. So here's my closing thoughts. First a few of the feats seemed familiar to me. I don't know if they was taken from OGL sources or not. Most look new or at least I have never seen them before. I found the feats as a whole to be well thought out and often very interesting. Some feats do seem a bit strong and some a bit weak but most fall within the same range as the ones in Pathfinder RPG. I did notice that a couple of the spells got left off the list. Companion Cache is not on the Bonded Feat list.
The book is very pretty, Rite Publishing has the nicest best laid out books of any 3pp currently IMHO. The artwork is nice as well, not something I typically care about. I see nice artwork as a bonus. My one major critic for the book is this. I really wish the feat tables had, had the name of the feats hyperlinked to the feat text. It is easy to find them as it does have alphabetical links, but it would have been nice. So taken as a whole since I did see a couple of minor errors I am giving this a 4.5 star.
First I would like to say I got the PDF free for purposes of this review.
This product is 25 pages long. 1 page for cover, 1 for credits, 1 OGL at the end and 1 page of weapon table of special abilities(which also has a random chart for rolling for creating random magic items). The other 20 pages are taken up by the 101 new magical weapon abilities descriptions and such. The art work is good with good borders making for a very pretty product, though it is not very print friendly. A B&W copy with no borders sent along with it would have been nice for printing purposes.
Since this is a product for just a 101 new magical abilities I am just going to list a few examples from the book to give you a idea what to expect.
Ambush – adds 1d6 to sneak attacks, does nothing if you don't have sneak attack. Equal to a +1 enchantment.
Blood Bonded – When someone not of the family bloodline attempts to use the weapon they take dmg equal to the equal to the weapons enhancement bonus. If the family is all dead then the next person picking it up takes 1 round of damage but can then claim it for his or her family. Minor magic bonus.
Consecrated - When used on holy ground of of it's attuned god it does + 2d6 dmg. Equal to a +1 enchantment.
Energy Ray – range 30ft, 1d6 per two character levels of the wielder, once per day.
Fortunate – 3/day you can reroll any failed attack roll. Equal to a +2 enchantment.
Serpent – When cast on the ground the weapon becomes a serpent of the same size category as the weapon with max hp. It last until the wielder makes it turn back into a weapon, it is slain or at 1 minute per enchantment bonus of the weapon.
Soul Stealing – Any creature killed by this weapon has it soul sucked up into the weapon.(the final killing blow). Those slain can not be brought back to life by any means up to a including a wish fail, nor can speak with dead contact them. Once per day the wielding can ask two questions from one slain by the weapon just as if they was under Speak with Dead.
The final page is taken up with two new spells.
Bestow Affliction – a type of curse that causes a permanent physical or mental disability. Remove curse etc can cure it.
Teleport Attack – You can teleport another into a solid object as a form of a attack.
Closing thoughts, I liked this product more than I thought I would. Many of the weapon abilities are interesting and/or clever. I think a lot of players will enjoy these and it is always nice as a GM to throw out something new and unexpected to the PC's. The PDF is 4.99, while at 10.99 you get a print copy and PDF(when the option is available which it currently is not.) I am giving this a 4 star for the price and the lack of a B&W print friendly version***. If you are looking for some new magical abilities to add to weapons this is a good pickup.
***Note - there is now a B&W no border copy as well for printing.
First I would like to say a few things about this product. One I got the PDF free for purposes of this review. Second I will honestly say I had no intention of buying this product at first.
This product is 22 pages long. Cover, credits(with a nice dedication to Gray Gygax for Against the Giants) and introduction, each 1 page long. There isn't any chapters but I am breaking it up by chapters so it is easier to review.
Chapter 1 – Jotunnar as a race (4 pages)
This deals with description, society, relations to others, religion, alignment, racial traits, height, weight, etc. There is a nice viking feel here and the society is well written and interesting. They have a choice between 2 sets of stat bonuses. Both are balanced with other races in PFRPG.
Chapter 2 – Racial Paragon Class (9 pages)
It starts off with a page that explain what a racial paragon class is and how they work. One of the things I think will disappoint some people is that. As a Jotunnar you have to choose at 1st level if you want to take a normal class or this racial class. Once you pick you are locked into the racial class forever or if you pick a class, then you can never take the Paragon class. It is done for balance reason but I still think that will disappoint some.
For those that opt not to take the paragon class they avg about 7ft tall and play like any other race. Those that take the paragon class slowly get larger as they level up. Some class information.
HD d8, 4 skills, All simple weapons(no armor or shields), Medium BaB.
At first level you have to choose a elemental power, Air (electricity), Earth(Acid), Fire(Fire), Water(Cold). This will effect what elemental powers you can pick as you level up, since you can only pick the general ones or the ones from your element. They get a power at 1st, 3rd and then ever 3rd level.(there are 40 to choose from). They also start with a natural armor of +4 which goes up every other level and finally Slam Attack which is a natural attack that goes up in damage as they level.
At 2nd level they gain a +2 to str and con stats and every 3rd level after that they can choose one of them to raise by +2 and every 6th level they raise them both again. They gain a few other powers like rock throwing as they level as well. As they increase in size they do not get stat bonuses those are already built in, but you do get mods to AC, CMB/CMD, fly, stealth and move. To allow them to fit in dungeons and such they can take a full round action to shrink down one size.
Chapter 3 – Feats (3 pages)
There are 18 new feats in this chapter. The feats are all for Jotunnar or giants, they seem well thought out and they fit.
Final pages OGL (1 page), ads (2 pages)
Closing thoughts. I mentioned this is not a product I would have normally bought, which is why I am even more glad Rite Publishing sent this to me, cause otherwise I would have missed out on this product. The artwork is very nice in this book and it is layout well, making for a very pretty book. I might not use this book a lot but it is still nice and something that I will use occasionally. If you have always wanted to play a giant or allow giants in your games and be balanced. Then this is the book for you.
I honestly only have one knock on this book, no ability to multi-class cause I know some people are going to want to do that. I wish they had been able to come up with a way to do and keep the balance. The best suggestion I have been able to come up with is, feats that replicate some of the class abilities open to those that opt to take regular classes.
I am giving this book a 4.5 star for what it is. It seems well done and balanced as far as I can tell with out play testing it. What keeps it from being a 5 star to me is no ability to multi-class honestly cause I know some people would have wanted that. I do hope they do more race books along this line honestly especially if they can do multi-class option for other small monster races. I will certainly be keeping a eye out from now on for such books. At 3.75 it is a good buy.
The review below pretty much hit on the problems with this product. Some of the feats are very well done and some are kinda clunky. Taken as a whole for the price I give this a solid 3 star, maybe as high as 3.5 but since I can't go by half stars I rated it a 3 star and change.
While this might seem to be a product for rogues and it is. Other classes can use several of the feats as well. there is two or three dozen feats. Most of them seem pretty well done, they are all about hiding or deflecting what you are really doing. For the price it is a good buy if these type of feats would interest you.
It adds 13 new spells, 1 new Sorc bloodline, 1 new Wiz speciality and Ice Domain. Along with a new feat Cold Focus (add +2 to DC of cold spells) and a new monster template, Arctic.
The spells are mostly interesting and seem balanced. Several of them are based losselly on existing spells. I would have liked to have seen a few more inventive new spells, that really fit the concept*. If it had, had more spells like that i would have given it 5 stars likely. I do hope they do a follow up book to this. Perhaps a elements book that adds in more spells for all 4 elements including a lot more ice spells.
*Example of what I mean. they have create ice a cantrip that makes a 5 ft sheet of ice. But I would have liked to have seen this expanded and the level increased.
I want to be fair to this product. So I am just going to lay out my feelings and why. Since this was not what i was really expecting I felt disappointed with it. It is a list of magic abilities that are weaker than normal and adds in fraction powers(since magic items are built on +1 typically)
The product is well written and if that type of thing appeals to you then you might like the product. I just found I doubt I would ever use this product personally and knowing what I know now I wouldn't have bought it. In fact it has keep me from buying the rest of the line. I know they are popular so it is possible i am just not the target audience for this product.
d8, 4 skills, low BaB, simple weapons(some martial weapons)/Light armor. In light armor they ignore the arcane failure chance.
Death mages are wizards that focus on death. They choose a pale road(type of speciality), With special abilities.
Corpse mage - more like a traditional Necromancer. Including undead cohorts just like the mage had leadership but as a skeleton or Zombies instead.
Ghoul mage - can eat the dead and regain hp, has a sicken touch and ghouls touch.
Tomb Mage - master the pain and fear undead cause in the living.
Reaper Mage - Those who hunt down and destroy undead.
Shadow Mage - those with a connection to the plane of shadow.
All of the traditions get access to a few class abilities that deal with death and the undead.
They have their own spell list, one that fits the concept of the class. Their is 11 new spells, the new spells are ok. None of them I thought was great but none seemed bad either. Dance Macabre I was expecting something different with, perhaps a curse or debuff. Instead if summons natures ally but the animals have no need to breath.
There is also info about how to use this class in a campaign and advice for adding new spells to the spell list.
Closing thoughts, one of the more interesting takes on a "Necromancer" class I have seen. I would have liked to seen the traditions expanded and fewer general class abilities personally. I also wish the spells had been more inventive. That artwork ranges from very good to subpar in one case.
All and all I thought this was a good buy, i am giving it a solid 4 stars. With a bit more effort this could have been a solid 5 star product.
d8, 6 skills, medium BaB, weapons and armor like a rogue.
Class abilities mostly deal with using and mastering shadows. They also get a few talents similar to rogues and a choice of fighting styles. With Daggers, bolas and shuriken they add a bonus to hit/dmg as they level (up to a +4), also deadly focus add wis mod to hit/dmg(if the assassin kills them they can reuse the power after a 15 min break, otherwise they can not use it till the next day), they can learn to by pass DR. Those are a few example abilities they get.
Closing thoughts, If you want a assassin with a mystic/supernatural bent with shadow powers then this is a very interesting class. All and all i liked the class but felt it makes a more interesting challenging NPC class than PC class. I am revisiting some of my older reviews and fix my rating system to match. With that said I am giving this a 3.5 star review.
This class is a more social type fighter with class abilities that allow it to give bonuses to others. The abilities seem well done and mostly interesting. There is also a small section on other types of master work items and 3 new feats.
If you are looking for a replacement Marshall class this seems like the class. I like the class and thought it was well done.
This product has 13 pages. Including Cover and OGL.
The class is a divine caster. d8, 4 skills, medium BaB, light armor/Simple weapons. Most of their powers deal with spirits with a few bonus feats.
Communicate with Spirits - lets a shaman speak to spirits.
See Spirits - lets a shaman see spirits. Can also be used to see if someone/thing is possessed by a spirit.
Spirit Companion - Like the druid animal companion but a spirit instead.
Summon Spirit - The Shaman can summon a spirit to either ask questions or try and control.
Control Spirit - A ability that lets a shaman attempt to take control over a spirit.
there is more powers but they all follow this line, plus a spirit heal. A shaman can bind spirits to themselves and get benefits or spell like abilities. A shaman can control his charisma score in spirit power. (the spirit power is their charisma score) Spirits can mimic spells, the higher level spell the higher the spirits charisma(17 for a level 9 spell)
It is a interesting new take on shamans that fit the myth and lore of them and makes them stand apart from other spell casters since they don't get spells, but supernatural abilities from spirits. My big complaint about the book is it really need a lot more sample spirits, with other none spell like abilities a Shaman can use. I think the heal ability should have been at 1st level. Since it makes it hard to use this a replacement healer class otherwise.
I liked the idea but would have liked it taken further and relied on mimicing existing spells less. So a solid 3 star from me.
5 pages of new feats, these are on par with the undefeatable feats from the Sorc and Wizard PDF's.
3 pages of new magic items. I thought several of them was very clever.
35 pages of 78 new spells. The spells range from good and interesting to meh. There was one big error and thats prismatic arrow the spell is on page 23 but the chart is on page 18. This was supposed to be fixed with a new version of the PDF uploaded but I don't know if it ever was fixed. I have not redownloaded it again yet.
Closing thoughts. If you are a fan of the undefeatable Sorc and Wiz PDF's this feels like a direct expansion off of them. The quality is about the same as them as a whole. For those looking for a few more feats and a bunch of spells it is worth checking out. I felt this was a solid 3 star product for the price.
This product has 9 pages. (cover, 6 pages of bloodlines, 1 page of feats, OGL, back cover)
There is 10 new bloodlines. Nature, Seer, Words and the 7 deadly sins.
Nature - Focuses on plant/animal based spells and abilities.
Seer - as expected it is a divination focused.
Words - The concept in words are power. The spells seem to fit. Some of the powers seem a little powerful and others weak.
The Name of Things (9th level), allows you to change the enchantment of any weapon or armor to a equal number of enchantments, within 30 ft. For a number of rounds equal to your charisma bonus. If used on a enemies weapon/armor they get a save.
Words are Magic (15th) - Allows a Sorc to cast a number of spells equal to half their charisma mod as still spell with no increase in levels. Once selected can not change them except when able to change out a spell.
True Speaker (20th) - All spells with verbal components no longer need any other and all save DC's are +2 higher.
The Seven deadly sins are seem to fit well with what they are.
The feats seem decent and none seem to have balance issues.
Closing thoughts. There is some interesting new bloodlines and for the most part they seem well done. There is a few with powers that seem strong for their level or weak, but thats true of the ones in the main book.
I would recommend this to anyone that is looking to add some more bloodlines options. I feel the deadly sins especially fit in Golarian as remanents of the Thassilon sin magic.
ARG! I had a review written but the *bleeping* site ate it.
I will just redo my closing thoughts.
In closing for the price it is a nice book if you want your paladins to have optional abilities or if you feel each god's paladins should be slightly different. I wanted to give the book a 3.5 stars and I am tempted to give it a 4 star, but I tend to redown in reviews.
I have not yet played with the book only read it, so this is my impression of it with out play test.
This book is 70 pages long.
Cover, ToC etc (5 pages)
Chapter 1 - Spells (28 pages)
Spell lists for Bards, Sorc/Wizard for the new spells.(5 pages)
Spells there is just over 100 new spells. (23 pages) There is a few very interesting ones to a couple silly/odd ones. All and all they seem pretty well done and balanced.
Chapter 2 - Collages of Magic. (11 pages)
8 Wizard collages and 3 bardic schools. There is a couple of paragraphs about each one and then a couple of feats for each collage and a few general feats. It finishes with a few pages of examples NPC's graduates (with stat blocks and backgrounds)
Chapter 3 - Sorcerer Bloodlines. (9 pages)
There is ten new bloodlines. Bestial(magical beast), Divine(deity), Feline, Fiendish(evil outsider), Genie, Lycanthropic, Mixed, Monstrous, Nightmarish, and Scaly. It finishes with a couple of complete NPC's. For the most part they are interesting and seem on par with the existing bloodlines.
Chapter 4 - Familiars (6 pages)
Introduces 9 more traditional familiars as well as several example clockwork familiars. Some nice additions as options to familiars.
Chapter 5 - Magic Items. (5 pages)
Several new interesting magic items. Some from the new spells, others to support new thing(like clockwork familiars) and a few clever items.
The final 5 pages are. 1 page for which spells to add to divine casters. OGL, ad for future products, blank page and back cover.
Closing thoughts. I liked this book, I thought the PDF price was high for the page count and print cost though. If you are looking for some new arcane spells or Sorc bloodlines this book is worth checking out. I would normally give a 3.5 star to this product if I could. I dropped it to a 3 because of the price of the PDF.
Ok I have only done a couple of reviews ever. First I will make a few general comments then a list of each chapter and my general feeling about them.
I rate this as one of the 3 best such books so far published that I own. The other two is ...and a 10ft Pole by Iron Crown Enterprise
Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue by WotC
This book is more like the second than the first.
The Artwork in this book is passable, not great but good enough to give you a solid idea what the items look like, which is all you need. Better artwork would have been nice but the artwork in the book gets the job done.
The book is narrated by a NPC named Luven, it is a nice touch that makes the book just a bit more interesting. There is a few sidebars in the book. Either comments by Luven or GM suggestions.
Introduction (2 pages)
A short bit of info about the book and then a IC welcome by Luven.
Chapter 1 - Martial Gear (18 pages)
This chapter is mostly about new weapons and armor. I liked the new weapons and especially some of the new armor which was very nice. Nice supporting text for the gear as well. The chapter also has a section on add on armor pieces such as helms, shoulder guards and the like and 3 optional ways to handle them in game. Next are some more substances to make weapons and armor from and what they do and how much they cost etc. Bronze, Ice and Tytanite(new stuff). Final the chapter finishes with a small section on Ceremonial and non-combat weapons and armor.
Chapter 2 - Adventuring Gear. (12 pages)
This section has general gear, what any adventurer might typical take along with them. To Tool kits, Alchemy items, musical instruments and Trade goods.
Chapter 3 - Home and Hearth (32 pages)
This section has a next wide range of clothing with different types. From outerwear, to underwear, to overwear like jackets, hats and boots. Next there is a section on different kinds of material clothes can be made out of. My only complaint about this chapter is, I wish they had had a little section on how to figure up costs for existing items made with some of the martial they have listed. You could do it yourself with a bit of math but having a side bar to help you out would have been very nice and helpful. This follows with sections on sewing items to make your own clothes, spices, foods, drinks, baking supplies, jewelry, art/writing and supplies, toys/games, and finally Misc stuff such as candles, camp ovens, pipes, pots, boxes etc.
Chapter 4 - Prosthetics (7 pages)
This chapter is about replacement limbs. This has a wide range of types from basic crude ones, to cosmetic, clockwork, weapon types, to magical ones. With a nice variety of each replacement limb of each type above.
Chapter 5 - The Back Room. (6 pages)
This is a section on a handful of magic items in the book. There is a few magic items all seem to be well done. While it is nice, I would have honestly rather seen this section removed and some more mundane items added or the above sections expanded. I think there own magic item book done later would have been better personally, but that is just more a matter of taste and a opinion.
Appendix (17 pages)
The final section of the book has map of the shop along with room descriptions and NPC information about Luven ans his family. There is also a Inn(including a nice menu and drink list) as well that his family owns that is likewise detailed including the people that work the Inn for them.
Next is the OGL and page for upcoming products. All told there is 102 pages including the front and back covers, Title, copyright, Table of Contents and one blank page just before the back page of the book.
All and all I am very happy with my purchase, the few problems I have with the book are all honestly little nitpicks and/or more to do with playstyle than anything. I am honestly considering getting the print book for this as well now. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a nice wide range of equipment to add to their D20 fantasy games.
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