doc the grey's page

Now I know for others this may not be the scenario that really ramps them up but for me and my usual party we had an absolute blast. The river ride was a ton of fun with out resident fighter turned captain driving the boat with one hand while trying to fire crossbow bolts and pulling dirty tricks with various chunks of rigging. The fact that we spent most of our time on the same boat allowed us to better coordinate our efforts and prepare for the various encounters that came down the river and considering we had a lvl 1 in our party and were playing up that little fact was a godsend. The final fight was an absolute blast with our party and watching as our samurai nearly got obliterated by a shocking grasp longsword crit and having to struggle as my cleric and the cad fighter had to fend off the boss & his goons while our samurai tried to not bleed out and our gunslinger fought off goons prone as he tried to reload is an encounter that I will not soon forget. In the end the scenario was a great flip on some old concepts and the boat and aquatic travel really helped liven up what would have been just another item quest-athon.

So I picked up this book after learning that a friend of mine wanted to gm pathfinder for the first time and start with running Carrion Crown and invited me to game. Now considering that I have basically gm'd solely for the better part of 5 years now getting the chance to play an rp heavy gothic horror game with ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and Cthulhlian horror all thrown into the mix I couldn't do anything but say yes and getting a chance to finally run my dhampir witch that had been rolling around in the back of my head for the better part of a year was just too good to be true. So looking for more sources to add give me ideas after Blood of the Night didn't meet my expectations I picked up Scions of the night hoping to find some compelling and balanced options built around the idea of playing a vampires bastard spawn and I have to say this book hits the nail on the head.

To start with Raging Swan builds an absolutely excellent list of viable and balanced replacement for every single racial trait the Dhampir has. Want to build that Nosferatu born who always suffers from that wasting malady but feel like the undead resistances sort of work against the whole "is easily sickened" idea? Flip the bonuses to something new like channel resistance and mind-effecting affects. Want to play a Jiang-shi born dhampir fighter who's a little crazy for portents and isn't really interested in the skill bonuses the manipulative trait gives? Give him paranoid for bonuses in sense motive and perception or take the undead skin option and get some DR/silver for your trouble with your gm maybe even altering the dr to make it more in line with that of the jiang-shi. Want to build a Svetocher (moroi/vanilla vamp) dhampir bard who's obsessed with the stage and beguiling but think that the light sensitivity or postive energy weakness BotN gives really give you something cool to play with? Give them a water weakness that makes them treat it like holy water, now you have an excuse to only drink the finest wines let alone why they choose to bath in it (or how hard they are since when they bathe like normal people it could really kill them). Now the list goes on in on giving you option after option to create a really interesting and unique variant all your own. I mean in this example alone I haven't even gone over what I've changed to fit my with lol. Special mention should also go to the random tables to help give backstory to the events of your characters birth, I know for myself I had always had trouble thinking of many options for the vampire parent being female but the idea that your character is literally the result of a miracle spell cast by an unholy priest of undeath just gives me too many ideas to not want to use it for something (let alone reevaluate what one might want to do with that spell).

Next we get some new class options including some new things for the cleric, oracle, rogue, sorcerer, and witch. The Cleric gets 2 new subdomains, one for the death domain called Graveborn and another for the Luminous Subdomain for Sun. Now the Graveborn one is kind of like a white necromancer or becoming more human option with the domain granting positive energy healing and some more powers based on controlling people and undead (dominate person, control undead, etc.). Now I will say I really like this subdomain but felt like it fit more with the repose domain then the death domain and would allow someone to take both this and the undeath domain on one character which seems to be what they intended in the writing with some special interplay for being healed by both positive and negative energy. The Luminous Subdomain is okay with a focus on the aspect of light rather then fire. It's pretty interesting even if it doesn't call out to me. The oracle gets a few new revelations for the bone mystery including the ability to channel negative energy and drain blood. The rogue really gets some fun options with rogue talents letting them play dead after taking damage or sap life from a target and gain temp hp a few times a day. The sorcerer gets a few replace options for the undead domain to make it more vampire like including gaseous form and the ability to dominate others. Finally we get hex options for the witch including the ability to cut off targets from cure spells as well as an option called soul drinker which lets you slap negative levels on enemies.

After that we get the feats. Some of them are pretty standard fair like blending in with humans, getting some more race traits, and more alternate spell-like abilities but amongst them we also get some real gems a feat that gives your familiar or animal companion undead traits or the ability to substitute your hp in place of black onyx gems when creating undead.

Finally we get some sample Dhampir in the back. All in all we get about 6 different stat blocks for various characters ranging from antipaladins to rogues running the alignment gamut form LG to CE. One of the really cool things is that even though there are only about 6 or 7 stat blocks we get 11 unique characters out of all the stats with Raging swan giving us 2 completely different characters with write ups motivations, and goals and only having to really change the name and alignment on the stat block. I know I loved this since it gives me a wide range of interesting and compelling npc's to use in my home games while finding a way to compress the stat blocks so that they fit into this slim folio which I have to applaud them for.

So in closing this book is excellent, an absolutely wonderful supplement for any group looking for more options for their dhampir characters or just more options to add onto those given to us by blood of the night and if you can believe it there is still even more stuff for players to look into.

Unfortunately the internet ate my first writing of this so I'm going to try and keep this one a little bit shorter.

To sum it up this book (and those in the tribes line) is meant to turn your random encounters battles into something like a mini campaign/vacation game for whatever big adventure you may be running allowing you to do everything from spice up your random encounters during a long trek in between dungeons to create an interesting jump off point for a gm looking for an interesting antagonist to kick off a homebrew campaign.

Now with that being said Raging Swan really brings it with the Bleached Skull tribe, giving us an ecology, stats for gnolls from various positions and rolls within the group, a whole new creature, encounter tables ranging from ambushes to shaman's and their vile retinues, and whole new magical items to really give the tribe its own distinct style. By the time your parties done they will know what it means when they find those terrible glyph carved skulls amidst the forests and learn to fear a gnoll brandishing a shriveled chicken leg. That being said the fact that those magical items that can be used as weapons count as masterwork for the purposes of attack and damage rolls seems odd to me and makes me wonder if they were meant to be treated as +1 items. Luckily that is but a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent book with this being able to be dropped into near any session in a forested area from the darkened forests of Ustalav to the gnarled jungles of your home campaign. I know for me I'm already looking for ways to bring the bleached skulls against my own party at some point in the future, maybe using them as a nasty horror to waylay them on their way home through primeval forests or see my own gm drop them in when we begin to roll out of civilization and our first time players begin to get their first exposure to what horrors the wilds of the world can hide. In the end if you whether you're looking for a way to give some organization to your random encounters or just give you a jump off point for your home game the Bleached Skulls are a great choice if your looking for an interesting take on the dark cult in the ancient woods.

Just got my hands on this and it have so far been really impressed with what I've been finding. Forewarned this review is still in progress and I will add info on the other sections as I manage to get through them.

The Art:
The art as always has been an absolute treat with everything from the awesome picture of our new cavalier arch to the spiked full-plate triceratops every piece has just been on the money.

Archetypes:
With this book we get archetypes for both player characters, familiars, and companions. On the class front every one of them has been incredibly cool. The rogue archetype (carnivalist) can be described as get monkey familiar, teach sneak attack, profit with your rogue gaining some bardic abilities to complement his familiar's abilities and distract opponents as well as allow it to sleight of hand and disable device. The barbarian mad dog gives you an animal companion from the start but with the loss of quite a few rage powers. Luckily this is counteracted by both you animal companion gaining quite a few of your abilities including rage and DR and some awesomely terrifying unique abilities including the ability to run out and FETCH AN ENEMY FOR YOU, I mean I'm really at a loss to describe how much I want to see a T-Rex rush out, grab an owlbear off my parties wizard, and drag it back to me for a savage rage fueled beating. The sleeper hit though has to be the cavalier archetype the Huntsmaster. With this archetype we finally gain a way to play a cavalier and not have to worry about a mount, instead gaining a literal pack of dogs and falcons to hunt down your enemies with your companions even benefiting from your challenge, teamwork feats, and gaining the ability to provide you free flank regardless of positoin. Also we get an awesome picture of the Iconic cavalier with a new white wippet hound to match his archetype.

Now for the animal arch's they have so far been pretty appealing with an archetype to match just about whatever you want to build with options like bodyguard, charger, and racer. Particular notes though go out to the Valet and Totem guide with the former allowing you to create that servant cohort many have always wanted with a familiar that gains craft, perform, and profession as class skills as well as the ability to run around the battle field using aid another and slinging buff spells with ease. In short he's the monkey butler, he does your crafting, buffs your party, and draws enemy attention so your fighter can hit the troll. The totem guide works as a connection to your totem spirit with your animal companion losing evasion and devotion but gaining the ability to cast spells to help lead you towards your goals, the ability to talk to you, eldritch claws, and the ability to fight ethereal targets. I personally loved Totem guide but am a little annoyed that some of the spellcasting that it allows requires you to burn spell slot, leaving a chunk of it's abilities locked off from classes that have animal companions but not spells (like the barbarian) and could have been easily solved by including a cap of something like 1-3/day for these classes.

Gear:

The gear is interesting with prices for animal feeds, ways to poison you creatures bite attacks, and alchemical drops that give your animal a minor rage. On the magic side we get things like collars that allow your animal to speak, new rods to take advantage of the new metamagic introduced, and a set of silver holy horseshoes to allow you mount to hoof stomp your current evil outsider of choice. Finally we get prices for just about every single animal that's come out for pf as well as information on what kinds of hoops one might have to jump through in order to buy one, including some truly outlandish creatures like the blue whale, mongoose, and glyptodons.

So after getting this, doomsday door, and the mythic playtest all within 3 hours of each other I'm still reeling as I process it all, but of all of them this has been the true gem of them all by far. This book is absolutely packed with creatures of all cr, type, and need from giant magical beasts meant to wipe out continents to playable robots that have nanites that can activate and fuel their abilities just to start.

The art in this one is also amazing, I will admit that I was not a fan of the cover and was worried about whether this would be the artistic tone we would be getting through the rest of the book but I can say I was happily mistaken with beautiful art for each creature that really sells nearly every one of these creatures as compelling creatures that beg to be used against the next unsuspecting party of heroes from the new Kyton(thank you paizo) mother who lives in an iron maiden and transforms others into it's perfect art children to the sadistically cute monkey goblin that looks like a cross between a iguana, goblin, and chimp the art in this has been stellar and makes me wish they artists had their credit on the side of the page like those in the normal bestiary's.

Another amazing part of this is how much love many of the little used types and subtypes get. If you have ever wanted to do something with plants, sentient constructs, kytons, or psychopomps but felt like you don't have enough variety to make a whole campaign around them or even a decent sized dungeon look no farther. In this we get everything from kytons to a whole section on psychopomps ala the standard bestiary including an aside on psychopomp ushers (their equivalent of demon lords and infernal dukes). Even basic creature types like the vermin type get some love with a giant preying mantis big enough to eat wyverns and treated as sacred by the red mantis assassins with a stat block that makes it so much more compelling and dangerous then just a giant preying mantis.

For those of you who play exclusively in golarion the bios really help sell you on the connection each of these creatures has to the world from the aforementioned mantis and it revered position to the red mantis to the orocni, a new monstrosity from the fleshwarping vats of the drow. Each just feels like it fits perfectly in the little niche it was designed for and for that I thank Paizo.

Finally we get 4 new "playable" races listed in here that I wanted to give special note to. For those who had wondered about them they are all awesome each compelling in their own way from the nanite infused android to the race of plants that literally evolved from a batch of magically created plants meant to feed a nation. Each one has a wonderful amount of detail giving you plenty as a player to build off of and as a gm to integrate them into your own world be it golarion or home brew. The new racial abilities they have are wonderfully flavorful (literally one of them has delicious as a racial ability) and unique that I wish we could get an expansion for the race builder with more ability options like these. Speaking of the race builder each one has a point break down of each races point spread and the rp each ability is worth, perfect for the gm who may want to snag one of their abilities to use for that race that's been rattling around in your head and wanted to know how paizo balances it out.

So in short if you are a fan of bestiary's and your annual catalog of monsters to destroy your friends and PC's with you need this the work is just amazing and you won't be disappointed.