The final installment of the FoTS-series is 25 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages of advertisement, so let's take a look!
Following my format established for the FoTS-series, I'll first tell you about the additional content herein: Template-wise, this pdf provides us with the Worm-that-Walks-template (CR +2), the Divine Creature template (CR +1), the Hive Creature template (CR +2), the Beyondling template (CR +2) and the aquatic creature template ( CR +0). Beyond these templates, we also get the universal beastlord and mystic archetypes as well as the Blight Druid archetype for...surprise: The druid. Didn't see that one coming, now, did you?
Kidding aside, we also are introduced to the Void domain and the dark tapestry subdomain and 6 new feats: 3 of these feats allow you to create wondrous creatures and advance/augment them via the respective feats. The other feats cover the monkey style, gaining a spell from a spell-list you usually have no access to or increase your caster level. There is also a new trait that allows you to conjure forth a being from the stuff of dreams. We also get the information for the breaking and shattering magic weapon qualities.
And then there are the signature magic items of Yog'vhus'chuul - Bracers of the Monkey may seem common, but then things start getting...unique. His mask combines the benefits of 2 magical masks, his vest is a combined version of no less than 3 (!!!) magical vestments and his amulet also combines 3 item-benefits. His slippers have the combined properties of no less than 6 (!!!!!) different magic items - and that is not where everything stops, quite to the contrary: His weapon, teh rod of the veiled mastsers falls just short of being artifact-level powerful, while his robe is a major artifact: Protecting against all elements, it allows the wearer to conjure forth massive amounts of powerful elementals - and even shoggoths! And he also gets a Lokanaut-ring - a godling-relic. What are godling relics you ask?
Well, Super Genus Games has so far released two pdfs providing rules for magic items that improve in power over the levels - each and every level of your character unlocks a new ability for the item and the Lokanaut, introduced in the Genius Guide to Relics for the Godlings II, is part of Yog'vhus'chuul's arsenal. Ouch!
Beyond regular supplemental crunch, we also get a host of stats that are not different incarnations of the NPC - we get stats for the Advanced Grindylow (CR 1),Blotfly swarms ( CR 4), Advanced Froghemoths (CR 14), 6- and 10-headed Cryohydras (at CR 8 and 12), advanced stirges (CR 1) and finally, Syncs - weird humanoids that gain strength when fighting prolonged fights as they start adapting to their foe's power.
The statblocks of Yog'vhus'chuul clock in at CR 10, 15 and 21 and each comes with two variants that use other templates, adding more versatility to the stats, but as with any FoTS-installment, it's not only the stats that make this installment interesting - it's the story as well.
Here are minor SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right - we actually get dreamburning information for this character as well as a how-to-use - for the creature called Yog'vhus'chuul is not your regular villain: It considers itself rather benevolent, the influence of the dark tapestry a step forwards in evolution - for he is a druid, though one devoted to the alien nature of foreign dimensions, gleefully watching the progress of not only his minions, but the blending of dimensions itself. And all the while, he is posing as a relative harmless fishmonger with a gassy froghemoth - in plain sight.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Rite Publishing's old rune-bordered 2-column b/w-standard and the artwork of Yog'vhus'chuul by Juan Diego Dianderas is awesome. The pdf comes extensively bookmarked for your convenience.
So...this is it. The final installment of what has by now become my go-to-series for awesome NPCs with complex builds, for the one series that continuously brought us complex characters worthy of the name with advanced, extremely versatile statblocks. The series that combined more third party publications in unique ways than any I had ever seen and that has vastly enhanced the already impressive awesomeness that is Coliseum Morpheuon. It is with one teary eye I read the farewell-note included in the pdf, but I'm glad as well - glad that the series can go on a high note. While probably no NPC ever will beat my all-time favorite Nameless Nil, Yog'vhus'chuul is both an interesting build and cool character to end the series on.
What I do know is that I'm looking forward to what Justin Sluder and Matt Banach are up next - Matt is currently writing his novel - and I'm sure we'll be seeing some interesting content from both. Oh, I forgot my final verdict - this, once again, due to awesome content and fair price, is worth 5 stars + seal of approval.
The third installment of the Dungeon Denizen-series deals with EL 3 encounters and is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/foreword, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let us take a look, shall we?
By now I assume you’re familiar with the formula of the series – if not, here’s the cliffnotes: Essentially, we get 3 d12-tables, with each entry of a table not only mentioning a creature to encounter, but also a rather extensive fluff-text you can use to paraphrase encounters, act as dressing or inspire you to create living dungeon environments. While default enemies straight from the bestiaries are included in these pdfs, there usually also are some non-standard entries, which hence come with full statblocks.
The EL3-installment kicks off with the dungeon area-table, which already is a neat intro to what to expect – take e.g. advanced and young simple creature templates applied, but even the standard creatures come with interesting angles – for example the skulking doppelganger… Among the unique creatures, we get a minotaur skeleton as well as a witch (nice!) specialized in controlling others who lives underground with her enslaved harem of men…
If you’re like me and enjoyed paizo’s take on adherer (in the glorious Misfit Monsters Redeemed), you’ll be happy to hear that an adherer features among the encounters specially designed for cavern/underdark areas. A thievish bard and a rogue drow crossbow sniper escaped from the oppressive drow cities also are provided – but my favorite would be the Basilisk Plague Zombie. Yes. Basilisk Plague Zombie. If you’re like me, that put a sinister smile on your face.
The final table, as has become tradition by now, provides wandering monsters – and we actually get a joyfully dysfunctional goblin family, an elder darkmantle and some more interesting ones as well: Take for example a claustrophobic ogre, a mother with her children lost in hostile territory (due to the cruel machinations of a werewolf, an ancient elf looking for a specific mushroom – and even a quickling.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP’s elegant 2-column b/w-standard and the artworks are stock, but fitting. The pdf comes in two versions, one optimized for the printer and one for screen-use and both are fully bookmarked for your convenience.
Author Alex Connell is hitting his stride with this installment of the series – while I’m still not sure whether the line can stand its ground in the few pages an installment has in higher ELs, at EL3 it works exceedingly well and actually better than in EL2’s installment – the creatures and NPCs provided offer quite a variety of cool creatures to make this installment work well, hitting the perfect balance between the weird and common and I’m actually rather impressed at the amount of content this pdf has crammed into its pages – a solid, neat addition to the series and definitely a pdf that will enrich your dungeoneering experience. As such, I’ll gladly rate this 5 stars plus seal of approval.
This installment of the Amazing Races-series is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let's check this out!
The pdf kicks off with 6 new feats for Dwarves:
-Bonded Craftsman: Count as +2 class levels when adding magical abilities to your bonded object and +4 to Craft and Profession when adding abilities to your bonded object or creating/adding abilities to a bonded object of the same type.
-Dwarven Ringsmith: When only wearing rings you crafted yourself, you may wear up to 3 rings at once. Finally, if you have the Master Craftsman feat, you may count your chosen skill ranks as an effective caster level for creating rings. Awesome one!
-Dwarven Vitality: +2 to saves versus diseases.
-Golem Engineer: Repair all HP-damage to constructs in 8 hours. AWESOME!
-Improved Smith's Sight: + 4 to checks to identify magic properties of items.
-Smith's Sight: Identify magical properties via Craft skills instead of Spellcraft - Superb!
Dwarves also gain 4 new character traits: Bonuses to appraise and craft skills and appraise as a class skill, cold resistance 1, fire resistance 1 or +1 to Perform and bardic knowledge-checks.
We also get 2 new alternate racial traits - Dwarven pride being one of the coolest I've seen: You exchange greed and hatred for the ability to suppress the shaken condition while at least one ally can see them - the penalties still applying, except against further fear-effects. The second racial trait exchanges greed with +2 to Knowledge (local, history) to answer questions about or identify foes of dwarvenkind.
The pdf also provides a new archetype for dwarven rangers, the Goblinmasher, who may apply the bonus netted from the compulsory Humanoid (goblinoid) favored enemy to all goblin-related enemies like barghests, goblin dogs etc., detect goblinoids by scent and may grant his favored enemy bonus to allies instead of only his animal companion.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any 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 features some of the best feats in the series so far and has quite a bunch of cool options that help make dwarves more iconic and the dwarven pride alternate racial trait is genius. Not all is superb, though, with the Dwarven Vitality feat feeling like filler and the racial archetype being not that exciting. All in all, still a nice installment for a very fair price - and hence I'll settle for a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.
This pdf is 14 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, 1 page introduction/how-to-use, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 11 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?
Cultists, as the pdf goes on to discuss, need not be evil and may spring from oppressive governments and overtly restrictive dominant cultural streams. Of course, in fantasy gaming, cults tend to be even more problematic factor, often dabbling in the demonic and strange, being often associated with the things that hail from the Dark tapestry. As such, several of these rules tie in optionally with the neat madness rules from Legendary Games' excellent Tomes of Ancient Knowledge, which imho should by now grace the virtual shelves of DMs by now. If you opt against these madness rules, you can still adhere to the standard-rules for insanity - so either way you're covered!
First, roles particularly likely to interact with cults like exorcist and infiltrator inquisitors are discussed, as are ideas like Master Spies etc. and how existing class options may interact, for wela or woe with the cults. But what are cultic options? For the purpose of this book, the poor cultists that investigators and PCs mow down get finally new options, first of which would be an array of archetypes:
First of which would be the Apostate inquisitor, a heretic among heretics who is not limited to the domains and inquisitions of his deity. He gets an array of spells that help misleading his adversaries and maintaining his cover. Against adversaries of his former faith, the efficiency of his judgments is increased even further and may even use the bane ability /the Bane Magic-feat against members of his former faith.
The Sublime Bard is particularly suited for bards that already have the demagogue archetype and may circumvent language barriers with their bardic performances, cast dream and nightmare and compel others to bring him tributes and even grants his servants/cronies bonuses and keep them fighting even when he has been knocked unconscious - a prime candidate for the role of cultist leader.
The Oracle may now take the Eldritch Mystery, which comes with 13 new revelations that include the option to join/create covens, wilder in witch hexes and major hexes, convince mobs to do your bidding, sacrifice minions to take hits or use veil to create uniform cultist appearances to protect the identities of your allies/minions. Have I mentioned that the oracle may create wooden golems to serve as his/her personal wicker men? Hell yeah!
A total of 8 feats are also part of this supplement, allowing you to enhance your spells via certain creature types and subtypes you have researched via metamagic, increasing your damage output against them, gain additional benefits from the consumption of an opiate or sexual release - the latter being especially efficient when having intercourse with something alien. Disturbing - I like it! By inflicting damage upon yourself, you may grant yourself DR, providing teh first viable mystic masochism-feat with solid rules for PFRPG - good to see, also that neither of these feats require evil alignments - I whole heartedly approve! And then there's a badass feat for monks that allows you to make your unarmed attacks more lethal and rip the hearts from the chests of your adversaries, thus preventing resurrection. Of course, sacrificing foes to power your spell focus, spell penetration and greater versions as well as directly powering your calling and summoning spells via sacrifices like that. Finally, you may benefit longer from successful intimidations.
13 new spells are also included - from 3 spells to take on an aberrant form to creating shadow magic-based angry mobs (and a version with torches...) as well as spells to drain blood and impede the cartilages, these new spells are literally all killer, no filler. Especially the greater exsanguinating spell is neat, as its mechanics potentially can tie in with The Mad Doctor's Formulary's surgery rules. Enchant fires, obscure grimoires, incite allies into a rapture that your enemies will dread and conjure up primal lusts that result in orgiastic rites - spells that are terribly cool and terrible in their results - but not their execution.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the pieces of full color artworks by Colby Stevenson and Tim Kings-Lynne are gorgeous and on Paizo-levels of beauty. The pdf comes extensively bookmarked with nested bookmarks, hyperlinks and an additional printer-friendly version.
Sooo....this is essentially the grand cultist's crunch-box - great class options, awesome feats, evocative spells, nothing to complain content-wise, as crunch and fluff meet in the best possible of ways. But is everything perfect? No - at least not for me - while content and production value-wise, there's nothing to complain, this pdf falls on the very short side for the asking price and the final page essentially only features a couple of lines of text.
Also, perhaps that's me, but I would have loved for at least one type of incantation or some items- they feel so culty to me. In the end, this feels like a great first part of a book and can definitely use a sequel - cultists have been woefully neglected so far and this book is an excellent addition for both players and DMs to add options to their arsenal. The only reason I'm not awarding my seal of approval is due to this one remaining the relative brevity of the offering for the asking price. Thus, I remain with a final verdict of 5 stars.
This installment of the Class Expansions-line is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look at what we get, shall we?
Illusions and sorcerers don’t mix well. That’s been the status-quo so far Want a crafty deceiver? Go wizard or witch. Which has always stricken me as odd, seeing as sorcerers with their cha-dependant casting would make for perfect con-men and due to the versatility of illusion-spells, they somewhat could offset their limited spell array. In here, we get 3 new bloodlines focused on Illusion-spells for subtle, charming sorcerers -so how do they hold up?
First would be the Artist and taking one popular trope, the bloodline kicks off with a cool ability – scribe scroll, phantasm-spell-scrolls at 1/3rd price. I see you yawn. Don’t deny it. What’s cool is HOW this is explained/works – instead of writing a usual scroll, the Artist may create a drawing, whether via colors or charcoal and essentially hide spells in these drawings. A great idea that made art exhibits in-game much more exciting, but at the same time, it also misses a chance – Why are there no skill-DCs included to make the paintings seem mundane/perception-DCs to realize that something’s off? Yes, the usual detect-routine exists, I know – but still: That would have been a modification to make a nice ability mind-blowing.
The second ability is also interesting: As a standard action, artists may, a limited amount of times per day, alter perceptions of foes within a close range, e.g. omitting a door from their perception, cloaking a pit etc. This selective illusion is limited in range and duration, making abuse hardly possible.
You may also detect magical traps if they feature illusion spells and reappropriate illusion spells with the phantasm descriptor to other targets if your primary target succeeded his/her/its save a limited amount of times per day. At the highest levels, you may make your illusions harder to resist by doing research on your foe and as a capstone, you permanently shroud yourself in concealing illusions.
The second bloodline we get is the bloodline of facets, which is gem-themed and allows for the substitution of gems as alternate material components for your pattern-spells that increase their power at the cost of the gem, throw dazzling gem flashbangs and become a true master of all things earthen, gaining bonuses to knowledge checks and even stonecunning to reflect your obsession with the multifaceted treasures of the earth. The most interesting ability in my eyes, though, would be unlocked at level 9, when after a failed save versus one of your patterns, but before the effects kick in, the foes actually receive 1d3 fire-damage per spell-level, adding quite some injury to insult.
In contrast to this pdf's first iteration, the ability has been nerfed to deal less damage, which is also why I'm ok with it - usually I'd demand a limit of x times per day for free additional damage added to spells, but in this case, the reduced amount is all right in my book.
At 15th level, we get an ability that lets you emit single-target color spray-style rays that treat the target as having a lower HD – they count as your cha-mod lower HD - great to get out of melee-scuffles and thankfully, a slightly ambiguous wording has been eliminated. The capstone nets you a DR and punishes any melee attacker with reflexive color spray effects. Ouch!
The third and final new bloodline would be the Restless, who specializes in figments – when a figment initiates a touch, for example, the DC versus the illusion is increased by +2. As a signature ability, the Restless sorcerer may call forth a shimmering spirit, a silhouette who may at later levels even interact with physical objects and at higher levels, deal wis-damage with touches. (While the latter is a violation of what figments can usually do, I don’t consider that problematic.) Unlike regular figments, the spirit does not require concentration, making it for a great way to lead adversaries into trouble, create confusion etc. Better yet, at higher levels, the sorcerer may now speak through the figment, allowing for negotiations via the spirit – though the interaction could be deemed problematic, seeing the amount of time e.g. diplomacy skill-checks tend to require as well as the rather restricted amount of rounds the spirit can remain manifested - sorc level + cha-mod rounds. As written, e.g. diplomacy-checks to influence attitudes already take 1 minute - while requesting things would still be possible, I feel the ability could be so much more useful with more rounds per day...
At 9th level, though, the bloodline gains perhaps one of the potentially funniest abilities ever to get into the hands of player characters and one that foes like fey in my game will scavenge the hell out of: 1/day, as a swift action, you can cause a figment spell to become real for a limited time, even if it’s been disbelieved. Hole in the vault’s wall? Yep. Rock slide? Yep? Loony Tunes-style vanishing floors etc.? Yes. Watch your foes charge at your illusions and go Willie E. Coyote on them. If that does not make you smile, I don’t know what will. (And yes damage, saves etc. are addressed.) If I had one thing to complain about, it would be that the ability does not scale upwards – you’ll always be restricted to 1/day. This ace in the hole is just cool. *puts 2 bucks in the bad pun jar*
At 15th level, you may link two figment spells, concentrating on both as one action and as a capstone and as a capstone, your spirit gets a massive upgrade to cohort-level – as well as a cool story-reasoning for its existence. Whether your spirit becomes a warrior or a fighter depends on whether you have the leadership feat and additionally, you get a significant update of rounds per day to have your spirit active. Rather cool, actually - this ability has been salvaged from broken to awesome - two thumbs up!
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 and the pdf sports thematically fitting stock art. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
I LOVE the concepts behind each and every bloodline. Each one at least has one ability that makes me grin and cackle with glee, that makes me want to use them – the Artist in particular will see use in my game and for Throne of Night or Rise of the Drow, Facet sorcerers will make for nice additions indeed. These bloodlines, especially when you have read as many as I have, feel refreshingly different, smart and just high in concept.
The revised edition has eliminated almost all my major gripes, though not all minor ones: With the Artist, the missed chance to include forging/disguise options is a minor detriment. The Facet has been significantly improved. The final bloodline now actually works as intended and is glorious, though personally, I'd make the spirit last longer, but that's easily houseruled.
I really appreciate it when glitches, especially those that are easily rectified, are addressed - as is the case here. Interjection Games' mastermind Bradley Crouch has taken these high-concept class options and painted a canvas of interesting ideas, that much like the facet's gems now gleam thanks to their due polish and I assure you - they will haunt your imagination. The revised edition is vastly superior to its predecessor and thus worth 5 stars.
