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Dare with Dire Deeds!
Forest Guardian Press brings you the Direlock 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 GM's casters in your game, or confound a PC party in your next adventure, try throwing a Direlock at them.
Complete with three archetypes - the Banelock, Dreadmasque and Fear Eater, 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.
Presented as a full color PDF for viewing on your favorite device, or as a b+w PDF for low-carbon footprint printing.
Now available at the d20PFSRDstore!
Hope to have the Direlock up on the Paizo store soon, but perhaps not before Paizocon...
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Here's my review of the Direlock!
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.
Thanks for the review cartmanbeck! Maybe when I get this up on the Paizo store you could repost that as a review?!?
For the record:
*Yep, I love the big words - playing DnD from an early age gave me an appreciation for the odd, archaic, difficult and obscure esoterica and incunabula of both the English language and the world generally. I'm just doing my bit to give the bug to a new generation!!! (Or frustrate more people desiring something a bit easier on the mouth!!!) Point taken.
* I'm not sure the direlock is completely crippled if the dire weapon is lost - certainly she loses some of her effectiveness, but I felt there were still options left available to her and gave her some defences to delimit loss in the first place...
* Fearsome Slough actually designates a swift action at the beginning of the second sentence.
* Yeah I can see the wording of "A direlock may not attempt to absorb a spell
greater than 3rd level, one that exceeds her Charisma modifier or her remaining storage capacity." is a little clunky. Yes it means what you are thinking! ;)
* I like to think the Eldritch tendrils are way different to mercies, at least in their execution and visual-cinematic flavor, and the fact that they later tie-in with fearsome slough. Still, each to their own!!!
* A dreadmasque's eldritch warmask needn't be huge, or creepy. One or both certainly help though!!! Just pointing out the text only mentions that the visual effect presented is entirely up to the Player/GM in a shared compact.
* Glad you like the fear eater! That one was definitely one of my favorites - there are at least three more archetypes and possibly a racial archetypes in the works for an accompanying PDF...
* Yep, I tried to leave Direlock's as open to good alignments, but with all the fell, dread and dire it's a bit hard. Way of the Wicked perhaps?
(or as the playtesting GM said 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!")
Thanks again Cartmanbeck!!!
I better grab this, next time i am at a wifi spot.
Thanks +5! I'd love to hear your thoughts!!!
Now available at Paizo!!!
Hey thanks cartmanbeck!!!
oh holy crap do I want to play a Dreadmasque.
@+5 Toaster: Glad you liked the Dreadmasque archetype! That one was definitely my favorite both in terms of theme and mechanics. Plus I was very happy with the illustration for it too!
Now available at DrivethruRPG!, and check out this five star review on Paizo!.
The revised and updated Direlock now has a 5 star review and seal-of-approval form endzeitgeist!!!
Following endzeigeist's initial review the Direlock Base Class has been updated, revised, errata'd, scrutinized reformatted and now comes with even MORE content - an extra Archetype - the Predator - that forgoes spellcasting to bond with an animal companion that shares the Predator's dire zone!!!!!!
Endzeitgeist has updated his review and the Direlock scored 5 stars!!!
Endzeigeist (5 star review + seal of approval) said "The Direlock is, concept-wise, perhaps one of my favorite 3pp-classes out there right now...this could even jump into my Top Ten-list for 2013 - its ideas are that good"
"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...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."
Toastwolf ( 5 star review) said "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...it is seriously one of my favorite downloaded classes thus far."
Currently updated and available at
and
Will advise when it is updated on d20PFSRDstore
The updated and revised Direlock is now also available at the d20PFSRDStore.
Congrats, Morgan! I've still not had a chance to read the pdf!