Meditations of the Imperial Mystics (PFRPG)

This pdf is 21 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page How-to-use AP-plug-ins, 1 page author-bios, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 14 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Pioneered in Legendary Games' "Tomes of Arcane Knowledge", this book contains new items, which, akin to grimoires, allow for the learning and access of new feats, spells and the like as well as coming with interesting forms and backgrounds. Taking from their "The Way of Ki"-book, they also offer a very interesting feat for WuXia-style campaigns: Ki Meditation allows you to gain a point of ki, even if your class usually has no access to ki. Also, you choose one skill, for which you gain a +2 insight bonus while thus having the ki-point and the option to spend said point for a bonus of +4. Ki determined by non-wis-mod sources are covered as well. This is vital for the book, since many of the items herein grant access/use ki-abilities - but onwards to the respective items!

"Body outside Body" a tome of vellum, loosely bound by sinew and twine with jade bookmark is the first of the books herein and yes. Yes. The writing of t5he fluff made me salivate a little. Let me give you a short excerpt, if I may:

" This text within is an exploratory narrative plumbing
the auras that permeate the silent twilight sea between heart and mind,
both the mystic emptiness within each individual’s spiritual space as well as
the conjoined communion that links dreamers and the dream of reality itself."(MotIM landscape version, pg 7)

If all rpg-prose was written in such an evocative, eloquent manner, I could retire from checking fluff ever again. And yes, the writing remains consistently on this level. But back to the book: In contrast to other books, this one grants access to the option to learn new ki-feats beyond the benefits that having it in one's possession entails. These ki-feats are not simple reprints of Legendary Games' "Way of Ki"-supplement, instead being completely original: Absorb Aura allows you a degree of protection versus alignment-based spells and effects and allows you to infect other with alignment-auras as well as providing a way to use ki to break curses or reverse magical alignment change. Dream-Travel allows you to enter a dream-state and take others with you on your journeys through the realm of dream in a modification of shadow walking: Better yet, upon reaching your destination, wherever that may be, your bodies fade to come out where your dream-selves have gone to. Especially awesome when also combined with dream-plane-supplements like Rite Publishing's Coliseum Morpheuon/Tarnished Souk-series. Mindlink allows you to make connections between people and keep track of them as per status and if you like that idea, take Fatelink: Expanding on the mechanics of mindlink, fatelink allows for shield other to be used, even on unwilling targets, and also allow the participants to absorb e.g. the other's ability drain, poisons etc. VERY cool and a worthy "rare" fate to make questing for this grimoire a worthwhile endeavor! Object reading, detecting thoughts, modified arcane sights - the feats in this book make it interesting, fit in a thematically concise way together and make for a great read to further expand your ki-options. There are also 2 new spells, especially the latter, Paradox, which allows you to rewind one round of your actions, should make this even more desirable for any character really to get his/her/its hands/claws/pseudopods on.

The necromantic instructions of Yin-blood allow the user to gain the option to cast certain spells via using ki - if you pay the price in permanent ki or the sacrifice of sentient life.When turned upside-down, this scroll instead becomes the Instructions of Thundering Yang, which works in an analogue version, but themed for different elements, granting access to other spells, feats and abilities. Glorious idea and nice to see duality and un-dichotomous morality being used this way.

The Prayer of Empty Flesh and Undying Ki is a banned, heretical text that not only allows you access to a variety of different, otherwise restricted class options, the stalwart defender prestige class, new uses for ki and even 4 rare clerical spells - I you can avoid succumbing to the suicidal addicton that studying this prayer wheel. Again, a gloriously uncommon grimoire.

The final item makes up the cover and represents probably the most uncommon of "tomes" herein - the 7 Ghost Needles, is a tome that requires acupuncture needles to properly benefit from its contents, enhancing your heal-skill as well as granting access to 8 special ki-feats that include the option to temporarily disable ki-abilities of foes, heal faster (or cause pain), gaining enhanced senses (deathwatch and blindsense) in a limited fashion, reduce ability scores via touch attacks, delay the onset of a couple of negative conditions, restore the blockage of ki-flow and exhibit a mastery over death and life: Finish or save, heal and restore or bleed out - the choice is yours. There also is a feat that allows you to center into 3 different ways, making you resistant and less susceptible to different classes of attacks/spells.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect. I did notice a minor typo/puctuation glitch here and there, but nothing serious and still on paizo-comparable levels. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' drop-dead-gorgeous 2-column landscape presentation and the pdf comes with extensive bookmarks. It should be noted that people who don't like the landscape-format may opt to purchase portrait instead. I happen to have both versions and they both are of an equal quality. Frank Hessefort's STELLAR artworks are on paizo-level, perhaps even beyond a couple of their offerings, so art-aficionados: Each grimoire gets a tantalizingly-awesome rendition. Two thumbs up!

I've never made a secret out of my love for Legendary games' stellar idea of introducing grimoires to PFRPG, that is books that do something beyond teaching spells and which are characters, objects of legend of their own. This book now blends these cool concepts with their vastly expanded ki-options for an offering that should turn out to be extremely useful for any type of class, with new options, adventure- and dare I say, campaign hooks, galore. These meditations should be required and the questing goal of many an enlightened scholar and once I run Jade Regent or send my players to the lands of Heroes of the Jade Oath or Kaidan, they'll encounter at least one, probably all of these - for weal and woe.
My final verdict will be yet another at this point unsurprising final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval for the all-star-team of Legendary Games.

Endzeitgeist out.

"Meditations of the Imperial Mystics" is not only a cool named book. It is a sequel to the great "The Way of Ki". While you don't require that book to fully utilize this one, it really shines with the options from the prequel.

MotIM is a collection of 4 special "spellbooks", each made for specific types of classes in mind:

-Body Outside Body is the first tome and the one with the broadest audience, being usable by both arcane and divine spellcasters, as well as by ki users. It gives various benefits depending on your expertise, specifically 9 almost-psionically-themed feats and works as a spell book with more than a dozen spells, 2 of which are new. It feels very "yogic" to me, which is a plus if you want to make a monk who is less combat oriented.

-Instructions of Yin-Blood/Instructions of Thundering Yang is an Arcane and Ki tome, being better in the hands of arcane spellcasters and ki users. The double name refers to the fact that depending on how you read it, it has different abilities to teach/enhance. A really neat idea. It focus on the idea of yin and yang, teaching, enhancing or lending abilities that focus on opposing concepts like light/darkness, cold/heat, vitality/exhaustion. However, you can only study it one way or the other. What is very special of this book is that it doesn't include anything new. Yes, no new feats, no new spells, no nothing. But it shows a really creative way of allowing characters to be acquainted with metamagic, ki and specialization of concepts. Maybe Joe the Evoker now is going to be focused in electricity/sonic spells after reading this tome, and maybe he will even grow a beard. Or maybe he will focus on cold and darkness, change her name to Jane, and maybe grow a pair of... Well, not really but I have seen to much Swordsman II with Jet Li and that is a goldmine for ideas about how to introduce this tome in your campaign. Anyway, this is my favorite item becauce of the elegance in its design. It also works extremely well with the Qiggong Monk, or can inspire the DM to include tomes like this so the character learns his Qiggong from somewhere.

-Prayers of Empty Flesh & Undying Ki is the third tome, mixing Divine and Ki abilities in an interesting and flavorful way. Instead of a spellbook, it is a prayer wheel. It gives the feeling of transforming the user in a kind of undead, but not really. This tome includes 4 new flavorful spells, which the user can learn as clerical spells or Qiggong powers. One small caveat here... why not Oracle? An Oracle of Life or Bones would be really interested in learning some of these.

-Seven-Ghost-Needles is the final tome, specifically designed for Ki users but flavored a bit for good clerics and other healers. This one includes a collection of 8 feats that deal with the flow of energy in the body, giving several buffing/debuffing abilities to their adepts. Another small problem here is... there are some pats, apart from the title, where the text refers to the 7 abilities... but there are 8! But well, the more the merrier. If your party doesn't have a cleric and you are interested in playing a non-divine/bardic/witcher healer, this one is for you.

In conclusion, this book is worth for the flavor alone. It does thing that the authors didn't do, or didn't want to do, in the prequel. In my previous review I stated that I disliked the lack of options like spells or items in that book, but at least in those two specific cases, is covered here with elegance, panache and wire-fu. The size is again the only problem with this book, having 14 (again) pages of flavorful crunch. But 14 divided by 2 is 7 and 7 is a lucky number so you will have double the luck. OMG I'm so funny... Really... Anyway, if I had to describe this book in just one word, that would be: Enlightening.

“Meditations of the Imperial Mystics” features some great cover art on the front page (1 pg), continues with 1 page of credits, 1 page of contents (also there are pdf bookmarks), a 1 page welcome note with explanation of Legendary Games Adventure Path Plugins, 2 pages describing the approach to magical tomes / base ki mediation feat, 10 pages of content, 1 page of bios, and 1 page SRD.

Although I really appreciate the explanation for the Adventure Path Plugins, this review will focus briefly on the introduction to the magical tomes approach Legendary Games has established and then dive into the content.

For readers familiar with Legendary Games’ “Tomes of Arcane Knowledge” the approach for this supplement will most likely be familiar. Basically, the items described in this supplement function similarly to the magic books introduced in Ultimate Magic, but are not books in the traditional sense. As will be described, the items relay their knowledge through parchments, scrolls, and other unique ways. In addition to describing how tomes can function, a copy of the base ki mediation feat is provided, which also appears in “The Way of Ki.”

There are four unique tomes introduced in the supplement: Body Outside Body, Instructions of Yin-Blood and Thundering Yang, Prayers of Empty Flesh and Undying Ki, and Seven-Ghost-Needles. Each item description provides a flavorful item description, outstanding artwork (1/4 page in color), ritual for using the item, and a description of benefits / feats associated with the item. The benefits for each item include minor trait style benefits for performing the ritual for the item, several feats, and spells.

Let’s take a quick look at each item.

- Body Outside Body
Features nine Ki feats and two spells. The feats include Aura Absolution, Dream Travel, Fate Link, Mindlink, Mindworm, Object Reading, Radial Navigation, Rapport, and Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions. As the titles of the feats evoke, many of these feats have a psionic feel to them - though all depend on the use of ki points. The two spells are Aura Alteration and Paradox.

- The Instructions of Yin-Blood and Thundering Yang
This item is divided into two parts through reading its scroll forwards and then backwards. Each part includes its own benefits and risks.

Yin-Blood is associated with the element of cold through use of the Elemental Fist feat and metamagic feat. The scroll grants access for ki users to several cold focused spells (frostbite or icicle dagger, draconic reservoir (cold) or frigid touch as just a few examples) through qinggong monk style mechanics. Similarly, as a spell book the scroll includes the spells darkness, deeper darkness, freezing sphere, frigid touch, frostbike, ice body, icicle dagger, icy prison (individual & mass), and polar midnight.

Thundering Yang is associated with the element of electricity through use of the Elemental Fist feat and metamagic feat. The scroll grants access for ki users to several fire focused spells (burning gaze or snapdragon fireworks, draconic reservoir (electricity of fire) or fire breath as just a few examples) through qinggong monk style mechanics. Similarly, as a spell book the scroll includes the spells burning gaze, daylight, draconic reservoir, fire breath, snapdragon fireworks, and sunburst.

- Prayers of Empty Flesh & Undying Ki
This item can be represented by fragments, notes, or in its original form a prayer wheel, which is depicted in the illustration. Its benefits reflect the cyclical nature of the wheel’s unspooling. As each associated benefit is obtained, further benefits are unlocked - as are associated risks.

The first benefit is a time limited version of the feat Endurance. Users that already have the Endurance feat (and other feats associated with the prayer wheel) gain more advance temporary versions of feats like Diehard and feats in the Deathless Initiate feat tree. Similarly, ki users gain access to several spells (steal dying breath, false life, and rage against death as just a few examples) through qinggong monk style mechanics. Functioning as a spell book the prayer wheel includes four new spells including: Doom Harvester, Empty Flesh, Rage against death, and Steal Dying Breath.

- Seven-Ghost-Needles
This item is a carefully hand crafted book that contains notes, illustrations, and woodcut and brush painted diagrams. In addition to the benefits of reading the item, time limited versions of the 8 ki feats included are available to characters. Users may also select the feats as bonus per normal selection rules once they have reviewed the book for at least a week.

The feats include Block Flow, Cell Adjustment, Ebbing Flow, Invert Flow, Lengthen Flow, Recenter Flow, Restore Flow, and Switch Flow.

Conclusion:
Other than one minor typo (“creates” instead of “creatures” in the Rapport feat) the editing and formatting are very good. I found the portrait format easy to read and navigate and would assume the landscape format would be similar. The items descriptions, artwork, associated mechanics, new feats, and new spells evoke clear themes that I found exciting and interesting as a player. I cannot speak to how all GMs might use these items, but had I read this before starting the game I’m running on the boards I would have included it for sure. I’m even now trying to think of how to work some of the items in. Though the price point is on the high end as far as I’m concerned, I can’t say that I was disappointed. You pay for a 5 star product and that is exactly what you get.