Grimhorn

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Goblin Squad Member. ***** Pathfinder Society GM. 2,339 posts (59,677 including aliases). 4 reviews. 1 list. No wishlists. 37 Organized Play characters. 28 aliases.



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A refreshing take on a classic formula

4/5

At it's core, this is a classic adventure - a dungeon crawl in an area populated by savage humanoids (in this case, hobgoblins). Where Fangwood stands apart from adventures like it is in how well the fortress is detailed and how much information the writer has given the DM to allow PCs the ability to infiltrate it. That's right - for once, PCs can use stealth without a metric ton of improvisation from the DM.

The first half of the dungeon follows this vein but as the PCs clear the first couple floors (either by guile and stealth or brute force), eventually they make their way to the lower floor where the author setup some extremely rare but challenging encounters - my PCs will forever fear gnarled old men with colored hats. The adventure ultimately ends with a staple of Pathfinder RPG villainy (you'll know it when you see it).

A few additional notes:

*To make this adventure properly challenging, play this with no more than four PCs and keep them from resting.
*Make sure you read up the author's subsection on 'rasing the alarm'.
*If the PCs are proving to be especially effective at the whole stealth/murder thing, throw in some missives or other written communication between the bad guys. There's no reason the party should miss out on important story elements just because they're too sneaky.


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Solid Product

4/5

I should start this review by saying that this product impressed me by offering content that touches on unfilled design space that I've never thought of before. This is very rare and great to see. I definitely want to see more books in this vein in the future.

Onto specifics...

Animal Companion/Familiar Magic Item Slot Allotments by Body Type

This is awesome and something that the system has needed for long time. I'm not going to say that the whole thing is balanced (because it's not) but the fact that this is broken down in an easy to use simple format is a great resource for a standardized format like PFS.

Archetypes - Carnivalist (Rogue), Huntermaster (Cavalier), and Mad Dog (Barbarian)

These are all great thematically and mechanically.

One major nitpick is the Mad Dog's Ferocious Fetch ability which allows him to command his animal companion to use the Drag manuever as a Swift action. Commanding an animal companion is already a Free action. Pay attention to these things editors.

Animal Tricks

The expanded options here are great and some really surprised and impressed me. Bombard, Aid, and Flank I'm looking at you. Never again will hard-nosed DMs be able to claim that your wolf/bear/koala isn't clever enough to step into a flank for you.

Feats

There's nothing really inspiring here but I love the precedent set here. There are feats in this chapter designed for familiars and animal companions to take - with their feat slots. I'm especially impressed that the text makes mention of the fact that familiars can pick up these feats by trading out feats they come with by default (very smart).

Animal Archetypes

Again, I love the prescedent set with this section and it's something I've never considered myself.

Again, a nitpick.

One archetype gives an animal companion ridden by a cavalier a bonus when charging. This replaces Share Spells.

Designers/Editors, Please Read

New Companions

Panda, Llama, Walrus, Moose.

NO LARGE BEAR


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A lot of wasted potential.

2/5

I really like the format for this product, 30+ rage powers packed into less than two pages. If you're looking for barbarian crunch with very little fluff this is the sort of thing you're looking for.

Unfortunately, the crunch fails to deliver in a lot of cases.

Issue #1

Too much improper syntax. Toss Aside is a clear redesign of Knockdown but the line about ignoring attacks of opportunity. Was this intended or forgotten? I assume the latter.

1/minute isn't a cooldown period used in Pathfinder.

Issue #2

Poor game balance. I'll be the first person to shoot down overpowered/broken content but the slider works both ways. A large portion of the 30+ rage powers in this PDF are simply too bad to even consider using.

Pulverize comes to mind when I bring up this point. Pulverize causes a barbarian to do extra damage to an enemy that they've reduced to -1 or fewer HP. This is supposed to represent the barbarian's blows being so devastating that nobody survives them.

This is awesome flavor but is it worth a rage power?

Issue #3

Poor feat/rage power equivalency. Rage powers that emulate feats should do so in an interesting way.

1/day immediate action to double the will bonus from rage against one spell. Keeping in mind that a rage power is worth ~1 feat why not just make this Iron Will?

For 1 round you gain Cleave. If you already have Cleave, gain Great Cleave. Why is this only one round? Why does it require a level 16 barbarian?!


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A lot of potential, simply falls short

2/5

This book is a series of feats designed to allow a multiclassed character the option to advance certain elements of both classes. This is something I loved in 3.5 and was hoping to see someone pick up and run with, but Duplex Feats isn't quite there.

Some of the feats are great, like the Beastmaster Adept viewable in the discussion thread. Most are nearly useless such as the barbarian/ranger one that advances Track and Trap Sense. Good game design should be modular and adaptable. Why not word the feat to also work with archetype class features that replace trap sense and advance at the same progression?

Lastly, the options in this book only cover core classes. No support for the magus, summoner, cavalier, etc.


Mediocre

2/5

This PDF features 8 barbarian-themed feats of varying quality. The feats are usable, but as with most content of this sort it suffers from designers that don't do enough research.

Five of the feats are interesting - not particularly optimized but they do things that are appropriate for a barbarian.

Two of them are mechanically poor and more appropriate as traits.

One of them is just horrible and strictly worse than a core feat that already exists.

Designers: Do. Your. Research.

Third party content is not going to shake the stigma it suffers from until freelance writers stop making these sorts of errors.

Update [9/26/2011]

The poorly designed feat in question has been updated to something mechanically powerful and unique. I'd rate this product a 2.5 stars now. I would move it all the way up to 3 if the other mediocre feats were made more interesting and relevant.