The Amazing Races PDFs introduce new archetypes, feats, character traits, racial traits, and archetypes for the core, featured, and uncommon races described in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide. Every PDF contains two full pages of high quality content (no fluff or filler)!
Amazing Races: Merfolk! includes new racial feats, merfolk character traits, and alternate racial traits for merfolk. In addition, this product features a new bloodline for merfolk sorcerers: the Sirensong Bloodline!
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Sorry guys. I can't avoid the lame pun .... TIME TO DIVE ON INTO AMAZING RACES! MERFOLK! Hyuck, hyuck, hyuck.
Crunch
Wowzers. I really went off on a rant in the Amazing Races! Humans product about how bland it was and the lack of synergy between the human crunch and its flavor, and the lack of limited options that make sense. This product ... is the EXACT opposite. Every single feat, every single character trait, and every single racial trait is absolutely PERFECT for Merfolk. And doesn't really make sense for any other race. What's better is that almost all of the feats in this product play off of the merfolk's racial traits, so nothing feels wrong or out of place here. There is this terrifyingly cool chain of feats that allows you to basically squeeze the air out of your foes lungs while grappling them under water. So. Freaking. Cool. There's one feat that I personally think is sort of silly; it grants the merfolk a climb speed under rather specific circumstances, but I'm personally not sold on the whole, "Merfolk crawling onto your ship" idea.
The product makes up for that one feat with one of the coolest sorcerer bloodlines I have ever seen. It basically turns the merfolk into a siren, and it even has some great multiclassing potential with the bard, which is a somewhat rare combination. The bloodline is actually a pretty good one, too, and most of the abilities are well-suited to the theme of being a merfolk. I really like this product's crunch. 5 / 5 Stars.
Flavour
There's a bit of flavor in this product, but most of it is in the feat and bloodline descriptions. Abandoned Arts isn't a very flavorful company, but AR!Merfolk is definitely on the better end of their fluff scale. I found the flavor of the crawling feat to be a little bit silly for my tastes, but otherwise its not bad. Not bad at all. 5 / 5 Stars.
Texture
Abandoned Arts uses the same set up for most of their products, and while it is very minimalist, it looks very good. If you want to see my full thoughts on their texture, check out my Amazing Races! Humans review. Otherwise, trust me when I say it is very aesthetically pleasing and I highly recommend it. 5 /5 Stars
This product is really, really good. I enjoyed this product a LOT better more than Amazing Races! Humans. The crunch is in the right place; all of the options are very good and very viable, but none of them make you think to yourself, "Man, why can't my human fighter take this feat?" They all play off of the powers and abilities of the merfolk and its environment. Most of the feats possess powers the other races can't get, but when you're talking about using your giant, fishy tail to suffocate a land dweller, I'm willing to let that one slide.
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages content, so let's take a look at new options for merfolk!
The pdf kicks off with 4 new feats for merfolk:
-Drowning Tail: Use HD in place of BAB when grappling under water and make it harder o escape from your grip.
-Improved Drowning Tail: Air-breathing creatures have their rounds to hold breath reduced by 1d4 every time they try to free themselves or reverse grappling. Neat!
-Seafoam Shaper: You are never swept away by water and your spellcasting is not hampered by flowing water or water-based precipitation.
-Sea Slayer: +2 damage versus off-balance targets in the water.
Merfolk also get two new character traits:
-Coastal raider: Climb as class skill and faster transition when climbing from water.
-Treasure-Diver: DM rolls secret Perception-check when you pass 30 ft. by a hidden treasure.
Merfolk may now also chose from two new alternate racial traits:
-Arctic swimmer: 10 ft. slower, but +5 cold resistance.
-Shimmering Scales: Illusion (pattern)-spells at + 1CL.
The second page is devoted to a new sorceror bloodline, the Sirensong Bloodline, which nets access to bardic/enchantment-themed spells and feats as well as the option to sing a bewitching tune and summon creatures from the deep.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to Abandoned Art's no-frills standard and the pdf has neither bookmarks, nor artworks, nor would I expect them at this length. These options for merfolk are solid and especially the drowning-feats make this definitely a worthwhile supplement. However, I also feel that this pdf slightly falls short of what it could have been due to two things: The first, I won't hold against it, but I would have loved to see some synergy with Alluria Publishing's acclaimed Cerulean Seas-campaign setting, depth/current-rules etc. The second one, though, is more relevant - why make the sirensong bloodline a bloodline? This screams bard to me and either access to limited bardic abilities (masterpieces?) or a whole switch around to make it distinct and bardic would have helped the bloodline - especially since its individual abilities don't build that well upon one another. In the end, this pdf didn't have as much exciting or unique ideas going for it as e.g. the goblin or gillmen-installments and hence I'll settle on a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 due to the low price.
Endzeitgeist out.
Put simply, the sirensong bloodline is a bloodline (and not a bard archetype) because "charming, enchanting, and summoning things with music" really doesn't describe a bardic archetype so much as it describes the bard. This bloodline gave a seductive, musical theme to sorcerers where none really existed before. Written as a bard archetype, this bloodline would've been just another day at the races. As a sorcerer option, it's something new.
In any case: thanks, as ever, for your kind review, Endzeitgeist!
MY point was that the either as a bardic archetype or as a bloodline with more bard-specific powers, the bloodline would have imho bin cooler, but thanks for your reasoning behind the design-decisions! Cheers!
