The latest installment of Rite Publishing's Pathways e-zine is 33 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 pages SRD and 9 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 21 pages of content, so let's check this out!
After David Paul talks about changes in climate and implications on fantasy settings (can be used for similar events), we are introduced to Steven D. Russell's template of the month, this time being the Soulfire-template. The template increases CR by +2, changes alignment to good, grants gaze attacks, a breath weapon that affects neutral and evil beings and comes with one of the most beautiful artworks Pathways has featured so far - Lucilla Lischetti has done a great job illustrating Rapture's Remains, a CR 13 dragon who comes with full stats.
The grandmaster of PFRPG-crunch, SGG-legend Owen K.C. Stephens also contributes to this issue of Pathways - a simple, easy to use wealth by level system that GETS RID OF MAGIC ITEM SELLING! Yes! Thank you so much! While surely not appropriate for ALL kinds of games, it is great for low/rare magic games. Why? Because it awards vouchers, which have an equivalent of a certain value for a slot - add some fluff and we actually get a system that bases items on defeated foes. All in one page. I really like it!
Creighton Broadhurst, overlord of Raging Swan Press continues his tradition of contributions to Pathways by providing us with the "Reavers of the Bloody Tears", orcs led by an antipaladin and an evoker. A nice encounter in the vein of RSP, i.e. detailed, all the stats are there and you can practically run it from the pages.
Will Myers introduces us to a disturbing new creature as well that should be gold for anyone into old world-style beings, shadow fey or the Shadowsfall-setting: The Sigbin, or shadow drinker, which can kill you by grappling your shadow and comes with multiple neat signature abilities. Two thumbs up!
After that, Kobold Press mastermind and design-legend Wolfgang Baur answers twenty questions in this issue's interview and has made me grin: A fellow adherent of Pact Magic is always great - especially if that means that potentially the is a teeny-tiny remote chance of seeing Pact Magic in Midgard. I don't know anything, mind you - that's just my hope!
Finally, as always, we close the issue with reviews by yours truly and KTFish7.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant typos or glitches. Layout adheres to RiP's two column standard and the pdf comes not only with the easier to read new layout, but also again with bookmarks, making this e-zine easy to navigate. The file is 43 mb large, not as small as its direct predecessor, but still ok. Top-notch content - all for free. I love Pathways and in this issue, Will Myers takes the cake for me with his cool, uncommon aberration. I also loved the other contributions, but that one would be my favorite! My final verdict will thus be 5 stars + seal of approval - dl this, it's free and worth every mb of space on your HD.
Endzeitgeist out.
