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Forest Guardian Press

Direlock Base Class (PFRPG) PDF

4.80/5 (based on 5 ratings)
Direlock Base Class (PFRPG) PDF

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Dare with Dire Deeds!

Forest Guardian Press brings you this new Base Class for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game that puts the "fell" in your fellowship and the "dire" in your direction...

The Direlock functions as a foil to spellcasters or as a competent eldritch empowered combatant, taking advantage of her perilous dire zone and confounding enemies with her dire mantle, fearsome slough and fell eldritch tendrils.
If you want to crimp the casters in your game, try throwing a Direlock at them!

This PDF comes complete with four archetypes—(the martial Banelock, hex-casting Dreadmasque, horrific Fear Eater and NOW the animal companion-bonded Predator), 17 new feats, a new spell, 17 inimica, 18 incunabula and favored class bonuses for all the Core races plus Drow, Tiefling and Goblin.

Also included are two extra printable sheets to make your Direlock easier to play—one containing all the inimica abilities, the other a management sheet so you can keep track of all of your Direlock's fell capabilities.

The Direlock has been revised again, this time with ALL NEW ART, as well as some editorial changes.

Additionally, Character management sheets are now included for ALL four archetypes as well as the Base Class.

Presented as a full color, illustrated and fully bookmarked PDF for viewing on your favorite device, or as a Black & White PDF (also fully bookmarked) for low carbon footprint printing.

Product Availability

Fulfilled immediately.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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4.80/5 (based on 5 ratings)

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5/5 —

Disclaimer: I received this PDF for free as a prize from a contest.

This is a 24-page product, coming in a full-color version and a smaller black-and-white version for easier printing. Subtracting the cover, copyright page, and OGL, we have 21 pages of actual content.

Now, the description above does a good job of explaining this product - it's a new base class, compatible with Psionics Unleashed and focused on creating what's essentially a personal debuffing zone that can hamper enemies while they use their other abilities to control the battlefield. The main attributes of this class are Charisma and Intelligence, with Strength as a somewhat-important secondary for going into melee combat. This is NOT a class meant to stand back from the fight.

At its core, the class is a 3/4ths BAB, 4th-level arcane spellcasting class with a d8 hit dice and good Fort and Will saves. They are proficient with all simple weapons and one other melee weapon of their choice, as well as light armor and bucklers. They gain proficiency with medium armor and heavy armor at later levels.

Direlocks are very big on frightening their foes - indeed, one of their first-level abilities grants a scaling bonus to Intimidate while hampering Diplomacy and Handle Animal - but the real power of the class is their Dire Zone. As long as they have at least a little energy remaining in their class resource pool (the Dire Pool), they get a bonus against fear effects and inflict a penalty to foes' saves against fear effects just by being around them. Creatures immune to fear outright lose their immunity in this zone (making, say, Paladins vulnerable to them if you're playing in an evil campaign - I'm always kind of iffy on even first-level characters being able to totally shut down a foe's immunity, but fear-based powers are pretty central to the class.)

The Dire Zone can be enhanced by the use of various inimica - ability choices that either empower the user or mess with enemies inside the Dire Zone. For example, the Sluggish Movement inimica forces enemies to treat the Dire Zone as Difficult Terrain (Fort negates). The effect lasts until the end of the battle, but the Direlock can't use their Inimica very frequently - that's what all their other class abilities are for, from throwing invisible eldritch tendrils onto people to studying ancient eldritch lore.

This class is very flavorful, and not at all suited for good-focused campaigns unless you have a great backstory and way of explaining things (although they're not actually restricted from being Good). Personally, I think it would work much better in something like Way of the Wicked, or perhaps Hell's Vengeance.

Overall, this class is solidly-written, flavorful, and interesting. I found no major problems with it, although I would caution players and GMs alike to carefully review it prior to allowing it in a game. Of course, that's true for any new class, but still. This class does exactly what its sets out to do, and if playing a spooky, intimidating figure sounds like fun to you, this class is worth a look.

Flavor, glorious flavor!

5/5 —

I'm kinda picky when it comes to new classes. We've seen a grundle of gish variations, umpteen hybrids and a schmorgasboard of interesting concepts defeated by a designer terrified of being called out on creating something 'overpowered'.

So when I find a gem like this one right here I giggle with manic glee.

A magically enhanced melee type who can throw out debuffs, manipulate negative conditions and generally make a glorious horror of him/herself. The mechanics work and are easily enhanced through the use of pre-existing feats, something I very much appreciate considering the number of classes I've seen that desperately need the feats provided by the 3pp and don't really benefit from much in the core books. So we've got decent mechanics, which is nice, but it's the flavor I adore so much. An adventurer who drapes themselves in intimidating and horrific gear but isn't some heinous, evil villain-in-sheep's clothing. Kind of like what a goth might be if they decided that strapping on a chain shirt, pick up a maquahuitl and show those orcs a thing or two about how to be 'really' scary.

Two minor asides; one positive, on nitpicky. The positive. I mentioned maquahuitl because I have an absurd love of the weapon and this character class can actually USE one with their special weapon ability without worrying about the bloody thing shattering into a dozen pieces. The nitpicky. I'm a dad of a 16 year old girl, the fact that the art really leans towards the hootchi warrioress isn't my fav.

An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised edition

5/5 —

This revised Direlock by Forest Guardian Press is 21 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 18 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Full disclosure: I was asked to critique the first draft of this class and have received no compensation for it, nor have I asked for any. I have had no hand in developing this final iteration of the class and consider my verdict in no way compromised.

That out of the way, let's take a look! The Direlock is a new base-class that gets 3/4 BAB-progression, d8, 4+Int mod skills per level, proficiency with light armor, bucklers (but not other shields), all simple weapons and one melee weapon of choice, which is designated dire weapon, but more on that later. Said weapon may be exotic since the write-up per se does not prevent it - something to take note of. The direlock gets spellcasting at 4th level and up to 4th level spells they have to prepare ahead of time. They cast via Int and incur arcane spell failure when wearing medium/heavy armor, proper shields etc. They also get good fort- and will-saves. At higher levels, they may cast spells while wearing medium and heavy armors respectively.

So essentially we're looking at a gish-class? Stifle the yawns, ladies and gentlemen, this actually does some unique things. But let's break down those class abilities - first of which would be the dire pool, which is 1/2 level (min 1) + cha-mod points per day. Direlocks may expend said points as a swift action for +1 morale bonus to damage with the dire weapon for cha-mod rounds, scaling up by +1 for every 4 levels of the class to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. At 3rd level, the point may also be spent to get +2 to saves versus spells, spell-like abilities and hexes cast within the dire zone (more on that later) for cha-mod rounds. At 7th level, 2 points may be expended to penalize all saves of foes within the dire zone by -2 for cha-mod rounds as a swift action - the ability has been clarified. At 10th level, direlocks may add the spell-stealing quality temporarily to their weapon via the expenditure of dire pool points.

Now I've already mentioned the signature dire weapon, but what is so special about it? Well, first of all, it can't be broken as long as the direlock has at least one point in his/her dire pool and repairs itself as long as the dire pool can refresh. It is also required to access the dire pool. Dire weapons net a constant +10 competence bonus to CMD versus sunder and disarm, which improves further by +10 for a total of +20 at 10th level, making the weapon hard to get rid of, but not impossible -as it ought to be, seeing how the direlock's abilities hinge on it. I really like the revised weapon, since it makes the direlock less usceptible to disamr/sunder, while still making a specialist of both tactics a problematic foe for the class. More importantly is one rather interesting signature ability that sets the direlock apart from any other gish-class: They can counterspell - without magic. Essentially, they follow the same rules as standard counterspelling, but instead of using an appropriate spell, they expend as an immediate action 1 point from their dire pool per spell level to be countered - and poof, the magic is sliced to smithereens. Of course, the spell needs to originate within the direlock's dire zone and after successfully counterspelling, all inimica (more on them later) are suspended until the direlock's next turn.

Now I've already mentioned the Dire Zone - starting at first level, direlocks radiate a zone of 10 foot that scales up to 30 at 20th level. As long as s/he still has at least 1 point in the pool, the zone nets the direlock +1 to saves versus fear-effects and penalizes foes by the same amount - said bonuses scale up to a maximum of +/-5 respectively - more important, even creatures immune to fear lose this immunity while in the zone - a nod to Dreamscarred Press' Dread-class.

Now the weapon's been covered, let's talk about the so-called "Fell Regalia" -adding these to armor and clothes, the direlock gets 1/ level to intimidate checks, but suffers the same as penalty to Diplomacy and Handle Animal. Now what were those inimica-things? Inimica can be activated by spending a swift action and affect those within the dire zone. When applicable, inimica have a save of 10+1/2 level+cha-mod. Direlocks start with cha-mod+1 inimica and learn an additional one at 2nd level and every two levels after that. Inimicas typically last until the end of the combat and can, as an additional limit, only be used 1/day, +1/day at 4th level and every 3 levels after that. Only one inimica can be in effect at any given time, though they may exchanged without additional point-expenditure of dire pool points and an incapacitated direlock only means that the effects in question are halted, not eliminated. Now let's check out some examples of the 15 inimica provided, shall we?

On the more basic side of the scale, there's an inimica that provides 1 hp bleed damage to foes hit by the direlock's dire weapon, which continues until treated even after leaving the dire zone. More peculiar and absolutely awesome concept-wise would be the Dire Magic inimica - whenever an enemy caster casts an area of effect spell or spell-like ability at the direlock and his/her allies, its effects are also extended to the casting foe's allies and potentially even the caster while within the dire zone. This inimica looks VERY powerful since its effect extends to otherwise rather hard to deal with spell-like abilities, but the limited range of the dire zone and the fact that channel energy for example, can't be repelled by it keep me from complaining - as does the fact that the original targets are still affected. If this extended to supernatural abilities, we'd be looking at one killer combo here. (Hint for sadistic DMs seeking to truly torment their players...)

Increasing their own DCs and concentration DCs of foes is also within the possibilities of inimica. On the fluff/anti-gas side, we get a solution for one hole in the rules - you may conjure forth a strong wind within the zone, essentially dispersing gases and hampering ranged weapons. Ignoring some DR based on level, penalizing attacks and will-saves, skill-checks, damage inflicted, AC and CMD, decrease threat-ranges (and even multipliers for weapons that only threaten on a 20) - you get the drill. All of these scale slowly up with the level. There also are two different abilities that deal damage when foes consciously enter or leave the dire zone respectively (i.e. no skipping to-and-fro to make foes pass the barrier again and again) - interesting for tactical combat. beyond that, there also is an inimica called woundrede - which halves the effect of magical healing and penalizes applications of the heal-skill. Here, with a slight rephrasing, what has prior been a logic bug/rules-hole when dealing with healing via negative energy, has been fixed. Two thumbs up!

Direlocks also get Dire Senses, i.e. deflect arrow (a bit weird, since they are not very dex-centric) and can later choose to get a bonus to their flatfooted AC equal to cha-mod versus a foe in her/his zone, whereas invisible opponents have to contend with int-mod bonus to the AC - which makes more sense to me than the prior, more MAD-solution via wis.

Very interesting is the fearsome slough ability - via the expenditure of a point from the dire pool, the direlock may essentially transfer a limited set (and only one per round) of detrimental conditions that required a save and are not permanent as a swift action to an adjacent enemy by succeeding a reroll of the save that prompted the condition at a +10 morale bonus. The new target must make a save at the same DC as the one the direlock incurred when s/he suffered the condition - which is really cool, Also nice: Progressing conditions are now addressed.

The next class feature is also rather unique, the Dire Mantle - which essentially allows the direlock to absorb spells targeted directly at them of up to 3rd level (or cha-mod, if lower) if they succeed a Spellcraft check versus 15 + spell level as an immediate action - important since action economy is crucial for many of the direlock's abilities. Each spell-level of the absorbed spell is essentially converted into a charge, of which no more than cha-mod can be held at any time. Additionally, spell-power thus absorbed may not exceed the dire mantle's remaining capacity to store energy. These so gained charges can be expended via 8 different ways, three of which have a limit of 1/day 2/day at8th 3/day at 14th level (formerly: Once per combat - the change makes this ability actually work and not breakable with a bag of kittens) and require the expenditure of 3 spell levels at once. On the plus-side, metamagic and psionic powers are given guidelines for the ability as well.
Starting at 3rd level and every three levels after that, the direlock gains a so-called incunabula, essentially the talents of the class. They may also exchange these for direlock-class-level requiring feats and, if applicable, the DC is 10 +1/2 level + cha-mod. A total of 17 incunabula to choose from are provided herein. Incunabula allow the direlock to e.g. chose one spell from a specific witch's patron (the choice is fixed) to add to their spell-list, learn a hex that is only usable within the direzone. These abilities are surprisingly versatile - for example, there is one that allows the direlock to reduce the amount of dire pool points his abilities cost by 1 for 1 round whenever s/he scores a critical hit or a foe fumbles while within his/her dire zone.

Beyond passive abilities like this one, we also get active ones - e.g. the option to make the dire weapon count as one size larger for one round for purposes of damage dealt. Dire spell is also interesting - 1/day, as a swift action, the direlock may cast an offensive spell that affects creatures within the dire zone. Said spell affects an additional target. Only spells gained from this class can thus be enhanced. No more complaints about the revised wording.

Another revised candidate would be the "Dread Assault" incunabula, which now can only be used for one point and as part of a full round action - by expending 1 point from the dire pool, a direlock may make an extra attack as part of a full-round action with said attack using the class level as BAB and if multiple attacks hit in one round, the direlock gets a +1 circumstance bonus to critical hit confirmation rolls.

Adding e.g. the progressing fear-themed conditions to foes works well, as do better chances of confirming crits, temporarily expanding the dire zone by 5 feet, adding spells from wizard, magus or alchemist spell-lists, turning undead or an increase in potency of ravening strike (allowing for the destruction of spells rather than the absorption) - the majority works as intended.

Ravening Strike? Yes, at 9th level, 1/round when criting with the dire weapon, a direlock may forego the additional critical hit damage in favor of leeching 1d4 available spell-levels from the target into her dire mantle - or dissipating it. As a balancing factor, lower level spells are consumed further, the target gets a save and the direlock takes minor damage when using ravening strike. Also, the may not draw spells whose level exceeds their cha-mod. A cool ability!

But I've skipped past perhaps one of the most ambitious abilities of the Direlock - Eldritch Tentacles. Essentially, direlocks of 5th level and above may establish as a move action that provokes an AoO one invisible tendril. Connecting said tendril takes a standard action (or a full round action for a set of tendrils), a successful touch attack and can only be done with a creature within the dire zone, plus one tendril for every 3 levels beyond 5th. These tendrils allow for the transference of conditions via fearsome slough. Beyond that, exiting the dire zone while such a tendril is attached causes pain to the target, dealing cha-mod x 1d4 damage. More importantly, direlocks may also take negative conditions from their allies and heal while being under the conditions, with the amount of hp regained per round depending on the severity of the condition. The ability can be used 1/day and is upgraded further at 17th level, making the attaching of tendrils faster.

At 8th level, the dire mantle is further upgraded, netting +2 to saves versus spells and effects analyzed, but not absorbed. Furthermore, somewhat akin to a rod of absorption, spell levels absorbed may be used to power the direlock's spellcasting without expending the prepared slot. The wording here is a bit hard to understand at first - as an added caveat, a direlock needs to have spell-energy equal to the spell-level they wish to absorb for purposes of casting their own spell stored. That means to absorb a 3rd level spell and use it to power a third level spell of their own casting, they'd require 3 spell levels already stored in their mantle. At least that's how I understood it. A slightly more concise wording would help this ability. Finally, direlocks may now also store a portion of a spell, exceeding their total capacity, e.g. absorbing a 3rd level spell when only having room for 1 more spell levels - this comes at a cost, though: Exceeding spell levels are lost and deal damage - though that damage still is significantly lower than what the respective spell would deal.

At 10th level, the inimica-list is expanded by 4 major inimicas: And yes, one allows for the absorption of area-spells cast in the dire zone - at a large dire pool cost, but still: Awesome! Another one allowy you to penalize enemy initiative, deal enhancement bonus damage to all foes within the dire zone when hitting foes as well as an expansion of the fearsome slough, which allows sloughed off conditions to move on to another target after a foe successfully saved against it. If all save, the condition lingers in limbo for one round and the save-game resumes the next round until either its duration expires or a foe fails his/her/its save.

At 13th level, direlocks may pay dire pool points to use cha-mod instead of wis-mod for a save (again, as an immediate action -action economy), at 14th level, spells of up to 5th level can be absorbed and as a capstone, both spell levels potentially absorbed via ravening strike and tendrils are upgraded and additionally, direlocks may now absorb spells of up to 7th level.

We also get favored class options for drow, dwarves, elves, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, half-orcs, halflings, humans and tieflings. The Half-elf bonus favored class option-bonus has been revised and now works properly.

Next up are new archetypes, first of which would be the Banelock, who gets diminished spellcasting,. Instead of dire pool/weapon, they get a bane pool, which may be used to add enhancement bonuses weapon qualities to their weapon. They may get up to 2 additional dire weapons and get the armor proficiencies 2 levels earlier. While it can be gleaned from the context easily, a special shout out that a bane pool works as a dire pool for all direlock abilities would have been nice - though since it's so obvious and all but spelled out in one explanation, I won't hold that against the pdf.

Number 2 of the archetypes would be the Dreadmasque: In place of a wizard's book and spells, they get an eldritch warmask - hard to remove from their face and netting them bonuses versus mind-affecting effects and serving as the focus for their dire zone. Said warmasque stores spells akin to a witch, instead of storing them within the familiar, utilizing the mask. As swift actions, Dreadmasques may enter masques, essentially arcane katas that make spellcasting for the masque more difficult. This ability is usable 1/day +1/day at 4th level and every three levels after that and starts the game with one known masque and gets another one at 2nd level, 4th and every 3 after that. Dreadmasque's Masque duration is now 1 min/level.

Part II of my review in the product discussion, post 14 - don't mix it up with Part II of my original review!

Dark, gritty, and awesome!

5/5 —

While I doubt I could add much to the awesome review that catmanbeck did, which addressed many of my same concerns, I feel the need to say my piece about this class. First off this class gives a very Shadowmancer/Fearomancer impression, so if that concept excites you this is well worth the buy. Heck I already have 2 players fighting over who can play one in my next campaign, and I will gladly allow it. I'd describe it's fucntion in relation to other classes thusly, take the Sandman Bard, add in a dash of witch and magus, and just a smattering of cthulhu(with the right build and archetype anyway) and it ends up a solid debuff class with good anti mage and combat capabilities. Their Dire zone downright seals the deal on a battlefield control role, Especially when combined with eldritch tendrils (see cthulhu comment).

The archetypes presented are even more exciting when they narrow down the various concepts of the direlock.
Banelock: The Combat loving aspects of the Direlock brought out more.
Dreadmasque: In my personal opinion this made the purchase worth it alone. The fact their mask has multiple forms, with a distinct feel and associated witches hex, is what makes this a wonderful and well thought out archetype.
Fear Eater:...YOU EAT FREAKIN FEAR!!! this IS the Fearomancer, hands down, and if you wanted to make a memorable villain this will definitely do the trick. I personally am going to design a cthulhu-esq Aboleth with levels in this, a BBEG my players won't be forgetting anytime soon.

All in all, a good start to Forest Guardian Press. While not perfect, it is seriously one of my favorite downloaded classes thus far. I will be looking forward to future products from this up and comer.

Complicated but extremely flavorful new base class

4/5 —

Disclaimer: I helped with review of this base class during concept stages, but this is the first time I've seen the PDF.

First thing's first: The cover art is simple but artistic, and though I made a face upon first glance, I think I appreciate it more after reading through the PDF.

This is a 20-page PDF, so there's a LOT of content for just $3.99. The overall layout of the PDF is good, though the page numbers at the bottom are too fancy to actually read in some cases.

The content of the PDF is one full base class, favored class options for several races, three archetypes, 17 new feats, a new spell, and two resource sheets.

I definitely feel that the author tries too hard in some cases to use intricate and complex wordplay when describing the Direlock. Simpler language makes your content easier to digest, in my experience.

As far as the Direlock's role, it's essentially a combination of the Magus and the Witch, in that it is focused almost exclusively on debuffs, but instead of having full casting and staying out of melee, the debuffs happen when the Direlock comes up and smacks you in the face. It's a good concept, and could make a devastating big-bad-evil-guy in a campaign.

The Dire Pool is very similar to the Magus's Arcane pool, and that was a good choice for this class. I like that the Direlock needs to keep a point in her Dire Pool to use most of her other abilities (this was first introduced with the Gunslinger's Grit ability, AFAIK).

The dire weapon ability is fine, though this means that the Direlock is pretty much crippled if her weapon is lost. I like that you can counterspell using the weapon, though the way the dispelling happens is a little confusing to me... do you have to prepare an action to dispel a spell, or can you do it as an immediate action any time a spell is cast within your dire zone?

I feel like the Fell Regalia ability really limits your character, meaning you NEED to have super crazy armor on, which some players won't want to do.

The Inimica mechanic is excellent, though it does lend toward a one-level dip allowing you to get your Charisma mod worth of Inimica with no other investment. This is why the Magus's Arcana and the Alchemist's Discoveries come in at 2nd level.

I don't really get why Dire Sense exists... this class to me isn't really a Dexterity-based class, so Deflect Arrows doesn't fit for me. I would've preferred something more Fort-based. I do like the prevention of flanking bonuses that you get later on, though.

Transferring negative abilities with Fearsome Slough is an excellent mechanic, though it doesn't list an action type required here... I suppose it's just "no action"?

The Dire Mantle ability includes this phrase, which perplexes me: "A direlock may not attempt to absorb a spell
greater than 3rd level, one that exceeds her Charisma
modifier or her remaining storage capacity."
Does this mean you can't absorb a spell that has a level higher than your Charisma mod? If so, that's fine, but it was worded strangely.

I feel like the Dire Mantle ability might have too many options, but that's just because this is already a pretty complex class.

Incunabula is a terrible name for a class ability. There, I said it. I really really dislike the name, it's just too complicated-sounding. However, the feature gives you the option of either a feat or a feat-like power, and I think that's excellent. We're probably running into the problem of the class being a little too complex again, but that doesn't bother me that much.

I don't really understand why the Grimoire isn't just called a spellbook... it's a spellbook, after all.

Eldritch Tendrils is a complicated mechanic that could have just been done like a Paladin's Mercies instead. I'm not a huge fan of the Tendrils as a whole.

Ravening Strike is fine, though we're still adding to the complexity of the class here....

Dire Conduit builds on the Eldritch Tendrils, which I'm still not a fan of. Transferring damage to enemies without another save seems to powerful to me, but other than that it seems okay.

Dire Presense is sort of a weaker version of Paladin's divine grace, which is fine, but might be a little weak to gain this late in the game.

Dire Inimica is VERY powerful if you choose the right Inimica, so I'm not sure I'm a fan of that either.

The spell list looks good, it's very limiting but I think it probably should be in this case.

I'm not a fan of the Half-Elf favored class bonus, because there's no mention of how to round your extra range on the dire zone... i'd assume this would have no effect at all until 10th level, when you'd gain 5 feet of zone.

The Banelock archetype is nice, though I feel like Diminished Spellcasting doesn't do much as far as weakening the power level, since we're dealing with Paladin-style casting anyway.

I'm not a fan of the Dreadmasque, because again you're limiting what your character can wear... you HAVE to wear a huge creepy mask. I wouldn't want to play it, personally.

I LOVE the Fear Eater archetype, and I think this is the one I would definitely play if I were to play a Direlock in any campaign. The idea of getting power from the fear of your enemies is just too awesome.

There are too many feats here for me to go over, but suffice it to say that everything you could think of for a feat for the Direlock has been covered here. This is a LOT of feats.

I like the accumulating error spell, but I think it should have been opened up to more classes!

I can definitely understand why the reference sheets at the end were created, because this is an EXTREMELY complicated class. That being said, I feel like it's been well-made, but it could have been pared down into just a few ability types as opposed to the five different types of interchangable abilities that are there now.

Overall, I like the Direlock, and I hope I have a chance to play one, but it'll have to be a very specific type of campaign for it to work well, in my opinion. The flavor makes the Direlock seem very evil, which means that some campaign settings just won't work for you.

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Thanks Liz!

With Kobold Press' Deep Magic in the wings, what better way to counter those pesky casters than with a Direlock!?!?! Able to counterspell with her dire weapon or subsume spell energy in her dire mantle to be used as a self-buff or to cast her own spells, and capable of stealing spell energy with her ravening strike the Direlock comes to the party with a fell ambition!!!

See for yourself -or if you are intrigued check out this review or the Direlock's four star rating over at d20PFSRD.

I've got a few more archetypes planned for the Direlock too - the imaginatively named Beastlock/Wildlock (natural weapon dire-claws trope) the equally imaginatively named Darquelock (more rogue/shadowstealeresque), the Grimoiriste (arcane bond with grimoire, greater spellcasting) and Enchiridite (wields a blade-grimoire), as well as some racial archetypes bubbling in my brain. Which ones do you want to see first?

Interesting! I'll check this out later.

It takes some time to absorb all the mechanics that intertwine in this class but I like it.

Reviewing is already in process.

threw my review up as well.
+5 Toaster wrote:
threw my review up as well.

Thanks for the review +5!!! Your summation is appreciated, and I'm really stoked to hear your players are itching to play a Direlock...

I can see that I will have to address cartmanbeck's queries here - I responded to some of them in this post, but perhaps a revised reply is in order...

I love that you found the cthulhu-esqueries in the Direlock - I must admit to being slightly under-Lovecrafted, apart from a few classics I have missed the Mythos almost completely.... Still, the eldritch tendrils really do conjure Cthulhu don't they...well, at least conjure the feeling.. ;p

And yes, well apart from making a fine PC, a Direlock can really melt your party's day as a BBEG...
Oceanshieldwolf wrote:
+5 Toaster wrote:
threw my review up as well.

Thanks for the review +5!!! Your summation is appreciated, and I'm really stoked to hear your players are itching to play a Direlock...

I can see that I will have to address cartmanbeck's queries here - I responded to some of them in this post, but perhaps a revised reply is in order...

I love that you found the cthulhu-esqueries in the Direlock - I must admit to being slightly under-Lovecrafted, apart from a few classics I have missed the Mythos almost completely.... Still, the eldritch tendrils really do conjure Cthulhu don't they...well, at least conjure the feeling.. ;p

And yes, well apart from making a fine PC, a Direlock can really melt your party's day as a BBEG...

I worked the "Cthuboleth" one shot last night. I wish I could share my players thanks, but the profanity filter would be overloaded. I don't see why they freaked out, everyone made it *barely* out of there in one piece. The look on the paladins face when I told him his fear immunity was negated will be cherished forever.

Music to my ears Toaster. Bleeding, horrific and dire music, but Dire music nonetheless.

To repeat the quote from the playtester GM about the eelskin fetish armor wearing adamantine naginata wielding direlock and her two festrogs on leashes: "She should have had a bite attack all of her own, because she was chewing up the scenery!"

By all means PM me a synopsis of the combat!!!

Part II of my review:

At 8th level, the dire mantle is further upgraded, netting +2 to saves versus spells and effects analyzed, but not absorbed. Furthermore, somewhat akin to a rod of absorption, spell levels absorbed may be used to power the direlock's spellcasting without expending the prepared slot. The wording here is a bit hard to understand at first - as an added caveat, a direlock needs to have spell-energy equal to the spell-level they wish to absorb for purposes of casting their own spell stored. That means to absorb a 3rd level spell and use it to power a third level spell of their own casting, they'd require 3 spell levels already stored in their mantle. At least that's how I understood it. A slightly more concise wording would help this ability. Finally, direlocks may now also store a portion of a spell, exceeding their total capacity, e.g. absorbing a 3rd level spell when only having room for 1 more spell levels - this comes at a cost, though: Exceeding spell levels are lost and deal damage - though that damage still is significantly lower than what the respective spell would deal.

At 10th level, the inimica-list is expanded by 4 major inimicas: And yes, one allows for the absorption of area-spells cast in the dire zone - at a large dire pool cost, but still: Awesome! Another one penalizes enemy initiative, deal enhancement bonus damage to all foes within the dire zone when hitting foes as well as an expansion of the fearsome slough, which allows sloughed off conditions to move on to another target after a foe successfully saved against it. If all save, the condition lingers in limbo for one round and the save-game resumes the next round until either its duration expires or a foe fails his/her/its save.

At 13th level, direlocks may pay dire pool points to use cha-mod instead of wis-mod for a save (again, as an immediate action -action economy), at 14th level, spells of up to 5th level can be absorbed and as a capstone, both spell levels potentially absorbed via ravening strike and tendrils are upgraded and additionally, direlocks may now absorb spells of up to 7th level.

We also get favored class options for drow, dwarves, elves, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, half-orcs, halflings, humans and tieflings. The Half-elf bonus makes not much sense - add 1/2 foot to dire zone is absolutely useless until level ten since 5 foot increments are the basic minimum - so essentially, it's 1/10 5-foot range for the dire zone. Also: Since the dire zone is essential for ALL significant abilities of the direlock, the expansion is much stronger than all other favored class options.

Next up are new archetypes, first of which would be the Banelock, who gets diminished spellcasing, but proficiency with an exotic weapon and shield (I thought a dire weapon could be an exotic weapon? The base-class has no restriction there...). Instead of dire pool/weapon, they get a bane pool, which may be used to add enhancement bonuses weapon qualities to their weapon. They may get up to 2 additional dire weapons and get the armor proficiencies 2 levels earlier. While it can be gleaned from the context easily, a special shout out that a bane pool works as a dire pool for all direlock abilities would have been nice - though since it's so obvious and all but spelled out in one explanation, I won't hold that against the pdf.

Number 2 of the archetypes would be the Dreadmasque: In place of a wizard's book and spells, they get an eldritch warmask - hard to remove from their face and netting them bonuses versus mind-affecting effects and serving as the focus for their dire zone. Said warmasque stores spells akin to a witch, instead of storing them within the familiar, utilizing the mask. As swift actions, Dreadmasques may enter masques, essentially arcane katas that make spellcasting for the masque more difficult. This ability is usable 1/day +1/day at 4th level and every three levels after that and starts the game with one known masque and gets another one at 2nd level, 4th and every 3 after that. As a minor pet-peeve of mine, they last until the end of combat, but thankfully, they also have a non-combat duration - 1 minute/daily use. I'd be interested in how these two durations interact, though - let's say one masque is activated and almost has run its course - 6 seconds prior to ending, combat breaks out - is the duration expanded to the duration of the newly initiated combat? And why not simply give the masques a fixed, solid time-duration? The combat-caveat seems like an unnecessary, complicating factor.

A total of 11 masques await for the taking and general confer a variety of scaling bonuses to different checks and also net access to specific witch hexes while enacting the respective masque. Analogue to regular inimica, we also get 4 greater masques that become available at 10th level. Medium armor proficiency is delayed to 10th level and dreadmasques pay for their masques (which are slightly stronger than inimicas) by losing among other thing, spellcasting in heavy armor. At 19th level, 4 masques based on major hexes also beckon.

The third and final archetype would be the Fear Eater, who may eat fear of foes to heal him/herself and/or remove fear-themed conditions (and later use absorbed fear to negate his/her own non-fear-based negative conditions). They may also assign targets within the dire zone and hit them with fear-effects and cure allies of fear-based conditions. They also get an exclusive inimica that enhances their prowess when attacking fearful foes and a new incunabula for extended durations of the fear-effects they impart.

Next up are 17 new feats, which cover the obligatory extra inimica, incunabula, pool points, tendrils, mantle capacity etc. and also provide a feat for more resilient eldritch tentacles. Speaking of tentacles - one feat allows you to share inimicas (and dire zone effects in the improved version) with a tentacled ally and another lets you transfer conditions from allies to foes via them. Nice! The most interesting ones would be those that allow for modification of the dire zone - by excluding a foe from it, you may extend the zone to include one foe within 5 foot of it and do this with 2 foes via a second feat. You may also exclude squares adjacent to you from the dire zone to expand its reach by 5-foot and increase this to 10 foot via another feat. Unfortunately, all of these feats fail to specify what kind of action the morphing of dire zones via these feats is, if any, and in a class so dependent on action economy, that's kind of a big deal.

The pdf also provides a new spell, the exclusive second-level Accumulating Error, which is a minor debuff that gets worse if the foe gets hit/fails to hit you and has it duration set depending on the amount of times s/he/it fails - per se cool, though personally, I don't like the wording "fails to defend" - why not "is hit/fails a save"? Would be more precise.

As a rather cool help, we get one-page of inimica cut-outs and a direlock management-sheet - awesome! Seriously, I wished all complex classes had one - two thumbs up for that!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, though here and there small glitches like e.g. a feat-"Benefit:" that is not bold have crept in. Layout adheres to a drop-dead gorgeous, atmospheric and very cool two-column b/w-standard with an easy to read font and is a beauty to behold - which can't be said about the original pieces of full color artwork. While I understand that at this price-point, there's no such thing as a big art budget, the artworks are very cartoony and actually imho detract from the grim, gritty, dark feeling of the direlock - especially faces look rather frightening - but perhaps that's the goal? However, the armors of the characters look presentable - so that one works for me. Still, don't expect to be blown away art-wise. The pdf comes in two versions, with the latter being more printer-friendly - but, and this is especially annoying for such a complex class, both have no bookmarks. This is a comfort-detriment and imho any pdf longer than 6 pages should have them by now.

This has got to be one of the longest class-reviews I've ever done (and I don't plan on doing any of these length in the future) mainly because of two factors: The complexity of the class and because I wanted to give you a fair impression of the class. I expected yet another gish and what I got was a caster's worst nightmare/controller-type class that succeeds very well at the complex things it tries to do - the basic mechanics (with the notable exception of the mantle) work well - but, once again, the devil's in the details:

At first glance, this class is absolutely and complete awesomeness if you're looking for a "creepy" antihero-style warrior or a representation of a character who uses supernatural abilities to foil spellcasters, but closer analysis unfortunately unearths quite a few issues, most of which aren't by any means game-breakers, but still should be fixed. The Direlock is, concept-wise, perhaps one of my favorite 3pp-classes out there right now and almost has the execution to match the awesome concepts. With a little more polish, this could even jump into my Top Ten-list for 2013 - its ideas are that good. Since it shows some first-time product-style errors, though, I can't go as high as I'd like to. In fact, were it not for the majority of the class features working in spite of rather complex mechanics, I'd probably rate this down further. As written, as much as it pains me to, I can't rate this higher than 3 stars. - here's to hoping for a revision that this awesome class definitely deserves. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Morgan Boehringer and Forest Guardian Press!

Endzeitgeist out.

Reviewed first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

Absolutely first class and solid review Endzeitgeist! Thanks for the enthusiasm, I'm pleased you were impressed by the concept. I'm just glad you weren't of the opinion that he class didn't have too many powers that didn't responsibly synergise or were jarringly outrageous. Or that it wasn't gonzo enough. :)

***I will respond to each and every one of your critiques, mechanical concerns or glitches as and when I have time. And update the PDF accordingly. I'm positive the edits needed are mostly minor. ***

I am now more sorry for you and those you just made read your reviews. Like the class isn't bad enough (over 12 pages for just the base!?) the review will confuse you, send you to sleep or leave you shaken that's how bad the direlock is AND she'll just eat it all up to heal or get stronger. Well, heal kinda, but not really get stronger. unless tou cast spells a her. ;) Is Base Class always capitalized?

* By the way, the dire pool recharge on a critical or foe fumble is totally lifted from TPK's Malefactor - many thanks to the OGL. And these classes are closely aligned - the parallel design mania I had when working in the direlock hit fever pitch when first Malefactor jumped up and then SGG's "damned" Hellion rocked the show (I think that's how it went).
Ack. Bail water! Those two classes absolutely rock conceptually and mechanically - not just the mechanical concepts but the mechanical delivery or application of the ability. The Hellion's more martial witchlock concept is a favourite of mine (My Gauntlet Witch archetype (famously for me, somewhat panned on Know Direction as being derivative of Witchblade) from KQ#23 a case in point) and the Malefactor's save penalty aura just oozes dread. I love it. Next to that a dire zone and some flash tentacles just seems kinda outre. And I never even thought of Cthulhu. Mustn't be enough of a Lovecraftaku. Still, the direlock might intrigue the old wight - I'd hope to think he'd be at least bemused by the serendipity and fulfilled seeing his images reflected by the naive. Did I really just put parentheses in parentheses?

My challenge was to make sure the direlock:
a: stayed true to its roots and
b: that it didn't move into design areas of these, just released Base Classes.
I think the class abilities (and the archetypes) reflect those objectives. Hopefully. :)

Yes, yes. The art IS mine. My humble apologies for my lack of art. Sniff. And so public a forum. Alas, the writer has put himself up for ridicule... Quick folks! Pick it up. Actually, no wait. Wait until I update the file. The errors! The errors! (Thanks again end.) Hey do i get extra marks if I take all my artwork out? I hereby endeavour to embark on a quest to get the Direlock the WAR cover it deserves. Heck, he can do the whole PDF. Or Ben Wootten. Hugo Solis. After Open Design's Book of Drakes, definitely. Now I'm going to have to move that Falconer/Draconer/Draker Drake-Familiar concept out of PrC Drake Tamer/Gauntlet Witch, naah, leave it. The direlock has plenty going on without a drake. Hmm.

@ Bookmarking - my fault, though there should be extensive links within the color/pic PDF - my file making skills let me down and hyperlinking to the d20PFSRD is almost criminal to have absent. For this class especially. I sincerely apologise.
I consciously did not consider any linking in the bw/print. My apologies, if the art is that bad that you'd rather read the b/w! ;). Still thanks for the shoutout for layout in the PDF End. It
will get better too.

Okay - ONLY 21 critiques to respond to. :)

Thankfully most of these are minor edits. I hope to update the PDF in the next few days...definitely by the end of the week.

From the top:

* Regarding the Dire Pool:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
At 7th level, 2 points may be expended to penalize all saves of foes within the dire zone by -2 for cha-mod rounds. I assume the ability is an instantaneous effect and does not apply to foes that enter the zone after its initial activation, but I'm not 100% sure

I'll try to clear this up. Should be for the duration - it effects foes that enter the dire zone after activation.

* Regarding disarming the Dire weapon:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
Dire weapons net a constant +2 competence bonus to CMD versus sunder and disarm, which improves further by +2 for every 4 levels, making the weapon hard to get rid of, but not impossible -as it ought to be, seeing how the direlock's abilities hinge on it.

Well. Ok. I'll make it impossible to disarm. I was trying to leave at least some vulnerability, but I guess it is integral to the Direlock. I'll specify that as long as she has at least one point in her Dire Pool she cannot be disarmed.

* Regarding inimica generally:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
On the more basic side of the scale, there's an inimica that provides 1 hp bleed damage to foes hit by the direlock's dire weapon for as long as they remain in the dire zone - but here is a minor wording issue that needs to be addressed - the ability does not specify whether the effect ends when reentering the dire zone after leaving it - a question, by the way, not addressed in any of the ongoing effects herein, though I do assume the effect resumes

Good point. The bleeding would be ongoing - I'll check through the others to see if there need to be a blanket statement on ongoing effects otherwise I'll specify for each.

* Regarding the Dire Magic inimica:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
More peculiar and absolutely awesome concept-wise would be the Dire Magic inimica - whenever an enemy caster casts an area of effect spell or spell-like ability within the dire zone at the direlock and his/her allies, its effects are also extended to the casting foe's allies. But what about the caster? Why not the caster?

If the caster is in the dire zone they can also be affected.

* Regarding the Woundrede inimica:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
...halves the effect of magical healing and penalizes applications of the heal-skill. Now where this otherwise awesome ability stumbles a bit with regards to in-game logic is when it comes to channeling negative energy (it specifically addresses that it affects channel energy - ANY way of healing really) and undead. Let's say an undead spellcaster channels energy to deal damage - the inimica does not kick in. If he does the same to heal his/her undead allies, the inimica kicks in. That does not make sense to me. Perhaps a limitation by energy type would be more prudent here.

Hmm. Good point, though I'm not actually sure I'm worried about the in-game logic. I'll think about it but I may just leave it - it makes sense to me that it would work this way - its about stopping healing at the site regardless of the source - that's the "dire" part.

* Regarding Dire Sense:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
Dire Senses, i.e. deflect arrow (a bit weird, since they are not very dex-centric)...

I've received this critique elsewhere too, and I guess I just don't always agree. Regardless of the feat's flavor text, Deflect Arrow isn't necessarily always a physical agility/reflex thing - for the direlock it's more a supernaturally informed ability of the dire zone she isn't even that aware of - it just happens - she cuts the arrows out of the air like blinking. :)

and

Endzeitgeist wrote:
...invisible opponents have to contend with wis-mod bonus to the AC - again, a slightly weird choice to split the attribute-dependant AC-bonuses

Hmm. Likely a copypasta error, though perhaps I was thinking about intuition as modelled by wisdom. There was some conscious, balance-inspired MAD in earlier versions, but this could now simply be ported to Intelligence.

* Regarding the Fearsome Slough:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
It should be noted that this +10 is untyped and thus does stack with ALL bonuses the direlock may have. I seriously would have preferred a typed bonus here.

I was kinda trying to make it an "auto-succeed by another name", but I'll make this a circumstance or morale bonus.

and

Endzeitgeist wrote:
What about "progressing" conditions? Let's say a direlock is shaken and then becomes frightened. Now the direlock sloughs off frightened to a foe - is the direlock now shaken again or is the condition completely gone?

The condition is completely gone. I'll clarify that.

* Regarding the Dire Mantle:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
I think the recharge should go or get a daily limit.

Your argument is compelling. I will reconsider this and go with one of your options. Likely a daily limit.

* Regarding the Dire Affray (IIRC) incunabula:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
... the option to make the dire weapon count as one size larger for one round. Unfortunately, the wording runs afoul of a minor issue here: RAI, the increased size probably should only apply to damage, but RAW, the ability specifies the weapon is "one size category larger for all of her attacks until the end of her next turn." - which potentially means penalties to attack due to the increased size.

Ah. Yep. I'll add something along the lines of "for the purposes of damage" to clear it up.

* Regarding the Dire Spell incunabula:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
1/day, as a swift action, the direlock may cast an offensive spell that affects creatures within the dire zone. Said spell affects an additional target. Only spells gained from this class can thus be enhanced.Now the thing is - can said target be beyond the dire zone or not? If e.g. a fireball damages a foe within the dire zone, could the additional target be beyond the dire zone? If yes, does the maximum range of the spell still apply? I wager the additional target would have to be within the dire zone, but I'm not sure.

Yes, the intention is within the dire zone. The range stays the same but the effect only applies within the dire zone. Probably not a good idea for fireballs. ;)

* Regarding the Dread Assault incunabula:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
...prohibit using multiple dire pool points this way, the ability can be munchkin'd rather easily - though clearly (I hope) that was not the intention of the ability.

Ooops! Definitely not the intention. I'll put in a caveat against multiple dire pool point expenditure.

* Regarding Ravening Strike:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
Apart from the incongruity with the incunabula a cool ability.

Ahh. Yes - there is a slight overlap/disconnect - I'll remove the offending double-up from either the void strike or the Ravening strike.

* Regarding upgrade to Dire Mantle at 8th level:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
A slightly more concise wording would help this ability.

I'll endeavour to reword this ability!

* Regarding Half-elf favored bonus:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
The Half-elf bonus makes not much sense - add 1/2 foot to dire zone is absolutely useless until level ten since 5 foot increments are the basic minimum - so essentially, it's 1/10 5-foot range for the dire zone. Also: Since the dire zone is essential for ALL significant abilities of the direlock, the expansion is much stronger than all other favored class options.

Well it is supposed to be kinda useless until it takes effect at 10th level because of the power of the expansion. Perhaps asking a lot of half-elves. I'll give them something else...

* Regarding the Banelock archetype:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
the Banelock, who gets diminished spellcasing, but proficiency with an exotic weapon

Yes, this is a carry over from previous edits. As the base class gets exotic anyway I'll remove it.

and

Endzeitgeist wrote:
a special shout out that a bane pool works as a dire pool for all direlock abilities would have been nice

Good catch! Will do.

* Regarding the Dreadmasque archetype's Masques:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
let's say one masque is activated and almost has run its course - 6 seconds prior to ending, combat breaks out - is the duration expanded to the duration of the newly initiated combat? And why not simply give the masques a fixed, solid time-duration? The combat-caveat seems like an unnecessary, complicating factor.

On the first portion of the question - I would say no, you would need to start/expend a new combat masque.

Other than that I agree on the unnecessary complicatoria. Perhaps I'll make it one minute/level... might be gameable if your combats are following on after each other quickly, otherwise it should be okay.

* Regarding Dire Zone feats:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
Unfortunately, all of these feats fail to specify what kind of action the morphing of dire zones via these feats is, if any, and in a class so dependent on action economy, that's kind of a big deal.

Good point. These are inherent changes to the dire zone available to the direlock at all times - though a change in the dire zone should possibly be a move action - they will necessarily interact with ongoing conditions if the new dire zone shape removes or creates an effect. Might be gameable with the more tactical inimica - but then you do need to get the feat to use it...

* Regarding the spell Accumulating Error:

Endzeitgeist wrote:
I don't like the wording "fails to defend" - why not "is hit/fails a save"? Would be more precise.

Totally! Consider it done!

Ok, so I'm almost a week late...

Based on reviews from both Thilo “endzeitgeist” Graf and Tyler Beck, the following components have been modified, added or removed. The last item is that a NEW ARCHETYPE has been added for free!!!

I'm not sure if the Paizo update has gone through yet but you can pick up the updated Direlock at DrivethruRPG now!!!

Just waiting now to see how the amended review goes for endzeitgeist or if I can convince Tyler Beck to take another look... :)

Here's the change log:

Spoiler:

* Added extensive Bookmarks to both color AND print PDFs.

* Clarified Dire Pool 7th level ability.

* Changed the Dire Weapon’s bonus vs. disarming to +10, +20 at level 10 .

*Clarified inimica abilities where needed.

*Clarified Blood Zone inimica contingencies.

*Added caster to available effect of Dire Magic inimical.

*Clarified Woundrede inimica re: negative channeling.

*Changed Dire Sense bonus against invisible foes from Wisdom to Intelligence.

*Clarified Fearsome Slough with regard to progressing conditions and made bonus typed (morale).

*Changed Dire Mantle so it can be recharged once per day rather than once per combat, 2/day at 8th lvl and 3/day at 14th.

*Specified duration for skill bonus ability of Dire Mantle.

*Clarified Dire Affray incunabula to indicate damage dice, not size.

*Clarified Dire Spell incunabula re: where effect takes affect.

*Added 9th level as prerequisite to Dire Familiar incunabula.

*Errata on Dread Assault to limit it to one expenditure of one dire pool point.

*Removed double up of Void Strike incunabula and Ravening Strike ability.

*Added hardness and hp, cost and weight info to Grimoire.

*Changed Half Elf favored class bonus to Perception within Dire Zone.

*Removed reference to exotic weapon in Banelock weapon and armor proficiencies.

*Clarified that Bane Pool otherwise acts as Dire Pool.

*Changed Dreadmasque’s Masque duration to 1 min/level.

*Added action type to dire zone shape-alteration feats.

*Clarified wording on Accumulating Error spell.

*Changed Fear Eater’s dire pool to Terror Pool, and indicated that it otherwise acts as Dire Pool.

*Added Fear Eater’s inimica to inimica resources sheet.

*Added all changes to inimica to inimica resources sheet.

*Added changes to Base Class to the Character sheet

****ADDED NEW PREDATOR ARCHETYPE!!! Your fell companion shares your dire zone!****

Part II of my review of the revised edition:

A total of 11 masques await for the taking and general confer a variety of scaling bonuses to different checks and also net access to specific witch hexes while enacting the respective masque. Analogue to regular inimica, we also get 4 greater masques that become available at 10th level. Medium armor proficiency is delayed to 10th level and dreadmasques pay for their masques (which are slightly stronger than inimicas) by losing among other thing, spellcasting in heavy armor. At 19th level, 4 masques based on major hexes also beckon.

The third and formerly final archetype would be the Fear Eater, who may eat fear of foes to heal him/herself and/or remove fear-themed conditions (and later use absorbed fear to negate his/her own non-fear-based negative conditions). They may also assign targets within the dire zone and hit them with fear-effects and cure allies of fear-based conditions. They also get an exclusive inimica that enhances their prowess when attacking fearful foes and a new incunabula for extended durations of the fear-effects they impart.

As a bonus piece of content, the revised edition now features the Predator as a fourth archetype (which is erroneously called banelock in the proficiency-section) that does not incur the regailia's penalty on handle animal checks since it represents a more primal hunter. As such, the predator gains an animal companion (as per the druid) at effective levels -3 that may share in the benefits of the dire zone while inside, partake in the using of fearsome slough etc. - all this at the price of an incunabula, spellcasting and heavy armor proficiency.

Next up are 17 new feats, which cover the obligatory extra inimica, incunabula, pool points, tendrils, mantle capacity etc. and also provide a feat for more resilient eldritch tentacles. Speaking of tentacles - one feat allows you to share inimicas (and dire zone effects in the improved version) with a tentacled ally and another lets you transfer conditions from allies to foes via them. Nice! The most interesting ones would be those that allow for modification of the dire zone - by excluding a foe from it, you may extend the zone to include one foe within 5 foot of it and do this with 2 foes via a second feat. You may also exclude squares adjacent to you from the dire zone to expand its reach by 5-foot and increase this to 10 foot via another feat. Dire zone modification is now a move action.

The pdf also provides a new spell, the exclusive second-level Accumulating Error, which is a minor debuff that gets worse if the foe gets hit/fails to hit you and has it duration set depending on the amount of times s/he/it is hit/fails to save.

As a rather cool help, we get one-page of inimica cut-outs and a direlock management-sheet - awesome! Seriously, I wished all complex classes had one - two thumbs up for that, especially since the reference sheet has been further improved!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good. Layout adheres to a drop-dead gorgeous, atmospheric and very cool two-column b/w-standard with an easy to read font and is a beauty to behold - which can't be said about the original pieces of full color artwork. While I understand that at this price-point, there's no such thing as a big art budget (or any such budget, really), the artworks are very cartoony and actually imho detract from the grim, gritty, dark feeling of the direlock - especially faces look rather frightening - but perhaps that's the goal? However, the armors of the characters look presentable - so that one works for me. Still, don't expect to be blown away art-wise. The pdf comes in two versions, with the latter being more printer-friendly - both of which now come fully bookmarked. As an added benefit, the pdfs seem to now be working much smoother on my notepad.

Just when I thought I had finished the longest class-review I've ever done, lead-designer Morgan Boehringer cranks out a revision of the pdf that not only offers new content, but proceeds to systematically address all my gripes. So yeah, I cranked out that review and the pdf and started reading - and yep - there go all my painfully researched flaws, all those delicious nitpicks and issues I found. All gone. *sniff*Kidding aside: I LOVE it when publishers and designers clear up glitches and polish their pdfs and the direlock definitely deserves the revised edition that vastly improves the class, gets rid of minor issues and greatly streamlines it into a vastly superior class. Not a class for beginners, mind you - this is complex, but oh so rewarding: Finally, a fighting-class that can truly make those casters quake in their boots, studded with various unique mechanics. Two thumbs up and 5 stars + seal of approval for the revised version!

Updated my review here, on my site, Nerdtrek, GMS magazine, OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.
Endzeitgeist out.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Nice! Glad to hear the revised version has fixed all of the issues and manages to become such a highly rated class.
Caedwyr wrote:
Nice! Glad to hear the revised version has fixed all of the issues and manages to become such a highly rated class.

My thoughts exactly! Great revised review end! Now i need to revise the various product descriptions to indicate the addition ofthe Predator archetype!!!

Also, a special shout out to my collaborator on the Direlock - Jim Wettstein - these great reviews are a testament to his hard work, experience and our collaboration!

Check this post detailing the 40% sale on the Direlock at d20PFSRDStore and DrivethruRPG.
I hope to have a similar sale on at Paizo soon...

The Direlock has been revised and given a makevoer with all new full-color art including an awesome cover by Jacob Blackmon!!!

You can read more about it, and see some of the new art HERE!

Now on sale - 30% off as part of GM's Day Sale until 11th March!!!
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Get your eldritch tendrils on the direlock's character sheet now! Available for free at this very link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8rm9x9axr1nt6bs/direlock_sheet.zip?dl=0
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Wow, only just saw that - thanks Ragi!!!

The Grimoire mentions zero level spells but there aren't any on thelist.

Yep. That is an error. Been meaning ot correct that one for quite a while. ;)

The Direlock gets no cantrips/0 level spells.

Thanks for the review Craig Bonham 141! Glad you liked the flavor as well as the mechanics!!!

Sending you a PM re: the nitpick.
Forest Guardian Press wrote:

Thanks for the review Craig Bonham 141! Glad you liked the flavor as well as the mechanics!!!

Sending you a PM re: the nitpick.

Not "like", LOVE.

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