Class Acts: Cavalier Archetypes (PFRPG) PDF

So this particular offering from Abandoned Arts is 2 pages (plus cover and SRD) of cavalier goodness, though maybe a little bit more situational than some of their supplements. They introduce 3 new cavalier archetypes, exploring a familiar and much-loved/hated trope with their take on the Dragonrider, the mountless and many-legged Tauric Cavalier, and the brutal Warlord, who rules by strength of arm.

The Dragonrider would more aptly be referred to as the Drake-rider, as they don't receive a true dragon mount, but rather a flight-capable drake with a fairly limited breath weapon. Outside of the early-level flight, the Dragonrider doesn't really gain anything beyond the standard capabilities of most cavaliers (although the ability that gives their drake access to all of their teamwork feats at the cost of halving the duration of their Tactician ability is pretty cool), so despite the Archetype having a name that would implicate obscene levels of power and brokenness... You actually end up with a fairly fun, flavorful, and well-balanced class. Given that there are already flying mounts available to the Druid and Ranger at low levels (the Roc animal companion from the Bestiary and Giant Wasp from Ultimate Magic) it gives the cavalier an opening into that same playing field.

The Tauric Cavalier is an archetype that seems like it'll generally see more use in the GM's hands, or a very specific type of campaign. What you've basically got here is an Archetype that gives races who are their own built-in mount (driders, centaurs, etc.) the ability to benefit from feats and combat styles that make sense thematically but aren't accounted for mechanically, like charging with a lance for the extra damage. I was actually fairly excited when I saw this archetype as it helped address an issue my friend and I had just been discussing in our current campaign, but I can definitely see this archetype being super situational. And speaking of situational....

The final archetype, the Warlord, is fairly cool if you're allowing your characters to use the Leadership feat in your campaign, the full blown x-so-many-100-followers-per-level Leadership. It lets you use Strength in place of Charisma for determining your Leadership score, apply the benefits of your challenge to your cohort and followers, and bully your underlings into accelerating the normal rates for crafting items. Super cool class Archetype for those extended Kingmaker-esque campaigns, markedly less useful in the episodic dungeon-crawl style of play (unless of course your dungeon crawl of choice is the Tomb of Horrors and you just need bodies to stack on top of the traps).

All right, you know the drill - 4 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of content, this time depicting 3 new archetypes for cavaliers, so let's take a look!

The first one would be called the Dragonrider. And if you're like me, you're groaning right now. This is a very subjective opinion, but in my game, dragons should not be the mounts of player characters - ever. They are the masterminds and engineers of vast schemes, the apex-predators of their niche, the quintessential, primal entity that is the ultimate challenge. NOT some mount. And that is before the dragon outshines the rider in combat capabilities. The Dragonrider herein thankfully only gets a drake, but I don't like the concept nevertheless. Plus: There's a whole base-class devoted to the concept by SGG. Balance-wise, I'm wary of flying mounts at low levels and the combat capabilities of drakes, but without some playtesting that's hard to say and that's not going to happen in my game. Sorry.

Another one that won't ever see use on my player's side in my home campaign, but which in contrast to the dragonrider wills see use, albeit only by me, is the Tauric Cavalier: Intended for centaurs, driders etc., players of Mor Aldenn's Centaur-race should take a look, since it is essentially a class that helps make your charges more devastating and essentially be mount and rider in one person. Cool!

The final archetype is the Warlord who may rule by strength, using their str-score instead of cha to determine their leadership-scores, cancel demoralizations and the shaken condition of allies, accelerate crafting (also that done by allies, cohorts etc.) and share challenge-benefits with cohorts and allies.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to Abandoned Art's 2-columns no-frills standard and the pdf has neither bookmarks, nor artworks, nor does it need any.

These 3 archetypes have been a very mixed bag for me - the dragonrider rubs me the wrong way in all possible ways, but the tauric cavalier is rather cool for DMs. The warlord should especially in settings like the kingmaker AP shine and be glorious. The 2 latter archetypes offset my distaste for the dragonrider and my minor concerns regarding said archetype's balance and in the end, I feel justified in rating this 4 stars - a solid, good offering of the class acts-line.

Endzeitgeist out.