This 7-page Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatible supplement introduces a new Ranger archetype, The Scourger. The scourger exchanges the ranger's favored enemy for a favored weapon. In so doing, he becomes a class that controls the battlefield by using one or more whip-based weapons with impressive reach, disarm and trip capabilities.
Inside this fully linked, ink friendly PDF you'll find all the crunchy goodness you'll need to run a whip wielding hero including:
6 New Features – Deadly Lash, Whip Combat Style, Brachiating Whip, Silencing Grapple, Sonic Stun and Master Scourger.
3 New Feats – Alpha Dominance, Threats of Torture and Slave Driver.
7 New Profession Skills – Animal Trainer, Charioteer, Livestock Drover, Slaver, Taskmaster, Thresher and Torturer.
2 New Magic Items – Fettering Cat (whip) and Lash of the Adder (whip).
3 New Whips - Bullock Whip, Cat 'o Nine Tails and Blacksnake Whip.
So if you ever wanted to play a character that uses a whip, but found the existing rules just didn't allow you to do so effectively, then get this supplement and bring a unique new archetype to your gaming table.
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This pdf is 7 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a total of 4 pages of content, so let's check this out!
After a short ToC and an introduction, we get right to the Scourger VARIANT CLASS. Much like the Antipaladin, the Scourger is a modification of an existing class, this time the Ranger, thus it irritates the hell out of me that the pdf continuously refers to it as an archetype, which it clearly is not. Essentially, the scourger exchanges the favored enemy class features for improved whipping capabilities - starting the game with the whip mastery feat, the whip damage of the scourger increases over the levels of up to 1d12 at 20th level. The scourger also gets a new whip combat style, the option to enhance their climbing and acrobatics by using their whips to lash on to objects, can use their greater whip mastery to silence foes grappled via their whips, stun or deafen a foe 1/day via the crack of their whips and a cool capstone ability that makes the scourger a fearful opponent, able to threaten any foe in reach and dealing even more damage.
The pdf also comes with 3 scourger feats, from improving handling animals, get pain effect words as an inquisitor to your spell-list or becoming an excellent slave driver. A short section also covers scourger-based profession skills and we also get two nice new magical whips.
The final stage of the pdf contains a list of whips, including reprints of 3 whips from the Core and UC as well as stats for the improved Bullock Whip, the Cat o' nine tails and the Blacksnake Whip double weapon.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though the insistence of calling this ALTERNATE CLASS an archetype annoys me. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes with several hyperlinks linked to d20pfsrd for your convenience. The pdf also comes with multiple nested bookmarks - kudos, as most publishers don't add them to small pdfs!
The Scourger is a cool new alternate class that not only makes whips finally a valid option for PFRPG, but also comes with some nice little additional bits and pieces of crunch. The scourger is not overtly innovative or brilliant, but it does its job well. And then there's the extremely low price point - usually, I'd settle for a 4.5 rating and round down, but since we get all this content for less than a buck, I'll instead settle for a final verdict of 5 stars.
Just a point of minor correction to your review Endzeitgeist. Technically, the author is correct to call an alternate class an archetype, as Jason explains in this post. Still, good review Endzeitgeist.
Yes, it's technically correct, though the de facto standard in PFRPG is to call the summary of changes presented à la "This is an archetype for the ranger, ability x replaces y, z replaces w etc." an archetype, while fully detailed classes like this one are called Variant or Alternate Classes.
It may not be official, but it's the established convention. And since some archetypes can be applied to multiple classes (via e.g. SGG's ability suites), calling this an archetype might lead to people expecting something different. The same holds true for people looking for a variant class who may actually overlook this pdf due to a potentially misleading title.
I know it's nitpicky and that's also why I didn't rate the pdf down for it. :) Still, thanks for the kind words, Caedwyr! ^^
To be honest, we wrestled with describing this as an "Alternate Class" rather than an "Archetype", as it falls somewhere in the middle. In the end we went with archetype since an alternate class requires the class to stand on it's own. But, with the scourger, you still need to look up some of the base ranger abilities as you level up.
This was a classic case of, "err on the side of caution". The last thing we wanted was someone to print this out and realize too late that they needed to bring along the PFRPG Core Book with them too.
Hopefully this discussion makes it clear to potential scourgers that they have something fun and usable, regardless of what we/they choose to call it.
