This installment of Rite Publishing's Pathways clocks in at 41 pages, 1 page front cover, 12 pages advertisement, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 26 pages of content, so let's take a look!
I usually don't do free books anymore, but since a patreon asked me to cover the current Pathways, here we go.
After Dave Paul's well-written editorial, we begin with Rite Publishing's mastermind Steven D. Russell providing a new template, this time around the CR+2 dread phantom armor template, which is, in the tradition of templates with the "dread" prefix, an actually badass, properly deadly version of the concept featured, including a dread curse to negate armor and equipment-based bonuses...OUCH!
One of the most prolific and constantly high-quality-delivering freelancers out there, Mike Welham, has a collection of truly unique items up his sleeve: magical snow-globes. Whether strange snowmen or avalanches, the copious array of unique effects that always transcend being paltry spells in cans render this item category interesting indeed: A well-crafted and truly fun article.
Dave Paul's subterranean spells receive a second showcase in this pdf, but this time around, Creighton Broadhurst's table does warrant special and more in-depth mention: There is a massive potion-generator allowing a GM to create a huge array of different means for GMs to create all kinds of odd and diverse alchemical potions, including mechanically relevant options alongside those that are...cosmetic, but interesting. An inspired collection of tables here and one followed up with 20 things to loot from a wizard's body.
Andrew Marlowe also has some new material for us with Winter's Chosen - an article containing 9 new feats for the chosen of winter - including a cool-down, short-range breath weapon. While the former is a bit OP in some campaigns, this chapter still is inspired...why? Well, there are, for example, feats which utilize a specific weapon enchantment, which allow you to perform additional attacks with unique effects, but at the cost of suspending the item's enchantment for some time - I haven't seen that one before and actually enjoyed it! Oh, and the flavor was great...so yes, I'm using these for my NPCs... Oh, and the chapter also sports new equipment tricks and 3 wondrous item tricks - cool! (...get it?...Sorry, will punch myself later...)
Next up would be none other than Adam Meyers, the man behind Drop Dead Studios, the man who crafted the legendary Spheres of Power-system with a cool interview that you should read...and then, we close the issue, as always, with a best-of of my own reviews and the Path Less Traveled-comic by Jacob Blackmon.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good - while I noticed some minor hiccups, none were too serious. Layout adheres to Rite Publishing's two-column full-color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The pdf's cover art is awesome.
This installment of Pathways, while briefer than its predecessor, does have some truly neat features - whether the template, Creighton's potion-generator, Mike's snowglobes or Andrew's feats - each of the components warrants downloading this one...after all, know what? This one is FREE. It costs zilch, nothing - and it is damn well worth each MB on your HD. Seeing that there's literally nothing to lose in checking this out, my final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
