Secret Societies of NeoExodus: Sanguine Covenant (PFRPG) PDF

This pdf is 27 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD & editorial, 2 pages mini-sheets for monsters, 2 pages char-sheet and 1 page combat & initiative tracker, leaving 20 pages for the sanguine covenant.

Second in the series on (secret) organizations of NeoExodus, this supplement details a not-so-secret organization, which actually is one (if not the!) most dominant religion of the world. The pdf kicks off with an introduction to the history of the faith, the basics of the faith and the so-called venerates. Let me elaborate: The faith is, as per the name, linked to blood, although not in the negative connotation you might expect of blood-magic. Instead, the believers worship a kind of over-god that constitutes the life-blood of the universe, a kind of animus universalis. This overgod is not worshipped directly, but rather through venerates, transcended mortals somewhat akin in theme and practice to the worship of real-life saints in e.g. Catholic belief. 7 venerates are provided, all with their own symbols, favored weapons, domains and, of course, alignment, which, interestingly enough, span from LG to LN with evil tendencies, providing a nice basis for power struggles within the church. Much to my delight, a hierarchy for the church, including titles for the servants as well as several so-called "rites" are provided, somewhat similar to the Vatican councils and papal decrees. These rites denote changes and clarifications of the decrees of the sanguine lord and govern the church as a whole.

We also get information on their view on cosmology, their relationship with other fractions of NeoExodus, 4 holy sites and 8 important NPCs, one of which (the archprelate and supreme leader of the church) gets his own statblock and stunning artwork.

After that, we get to the crunchy parts, i.e. the church PrCs. First, we get the Covenant Daemonslayer, which is a 5-level fairly straight slyer-class that gains favored enemy and smite as well as a medium will save, good BAB-progression, d10 hitpoints and 2+Int skills per level. While a nice class to take in the setting due to the fluff, I considered it not too impressive, especially when compared to the classes in Section Omega.

The second PrC spans 10 levels and is called the Covenant Purifier. They get: d8 HP, 6+Int skills per level, medium BAB, medium will save, more sneak attack and on 4 levels +1 level with regards to their former spellcasting class. I considered this class to be well-written and cool, as it is the first take on the divine (and not necessarily evil) assassin I've read so far that I considered cool.

After that, we get 15 new feats:

-Armor of Faith: Use channel energy to gain dodge bonuses

-Attached Soul: Gain an additional -5 to the threshold that denotes when you die in negative HP.

-Blood Healing (Metamagic): For every 3 points you cut yourself when casting heal-spells, you raise the CL by 1. If this were not limited to cure-spells, I'd consider it op, but as written, I let it stand.

-Blood Healing, Greater (Metamagic): As blood healing, but works for remove curse, disease, poison. Nice one.

-Devoted Covenanter: +3 against mind-affecting abilities from other faiths and daemons

-Divine Awe: Spend channel to get an aura that may make your enemies shaken when they melee-attack you.

-Divine Flame: Spend channel energy to wreathe your weapon in flames, dealing additional damage once per round.

-Divine Weapon: Spend a channel attempt as a swift action to get + Cha-mod on your next attack.

-Fanatical Covenanter: If you know an enemy to be a heretic, you can as a swift action grant yourself +1 to damage and atk.

-Full Thrust: Use power attack with light weapons. Still can't wear them 2-handed, though.

-Heretic: +2 to knowledge with regards to heresies and bluff.

-Sanguine Channeling: An advanced form of selective channeling, this automatically excludes anything that is considered daemon by the faith.

-Sanguine Fury: +2 Caster level against opponents with the opposite alignment of your church.

-Undead Slayer: Spend a channel attempt to ignore any undead DR for a number of rounds equal to your Cha-mod. LOL, WUT? No way this is ever finding a way in my campaign. This feat is sorely overpowered.

-Weapon Finesse, Greater: Add Dex instead of Str to damage with finesse weapon. This damage is considered precision damage and is negated by concealment, not multiplied on a crit and does not work on creatures immune to crits. Nice feat. While offering an alternative option, it retains balance.

After that, we get new magic items:
We get the regalia of the Archprelate, i.e. his armor, his headdress and his pick, a rod that forces enemies to relive their sins and a new mask for the purifiers. The pdf closes with 4 ideas on how to use the covenant and 7 adventure ideas.

Conclusion:

Layout and artwork are stunning and beautiful and there is more artwork than in e.g. Section Omega. The pdf is extensively book-marked. In contrast to Section Omega, I liked almost all of the feats and they seem to avoid power-creep, which is a plus for me. The idea and presentation of the church is quite cool and detailed. While the Daemon-slayer-PrC didn't wow me, it's an ok class. The Covenant Purifier is cool.

The second release of this file has been cleaned up: While there is still an awkward sentence structure once in a while, almost all editing errors have been cleared (especially the ones regarding mechanics) and I was pleasantly surprised that the file now is a much better reading experience. Thus I subsequently upgrade my review to 4 stars - not perfect, but a very good buy. If you're looking for an organized religion, think about checking this out. It's rife with possibilities and ideas.