Sign in to create or edit a product review. Disclaimer: I did receive a free copy in exchange for a review. Into the breach: the rogue contains about 38 pages of content. Inside there are 12 archetypes for the vanilla rogue and 4 for its unchained counterpart, the Libertine alternate class, as well as 3 pages of rogue-friendly traits. Overall the archetypes were fairly good. Most of them took a fun, and sometimes silly, spin on the rogue which will be refreshing for those who have played rogues to death. Since another review has already gone over the contents of the book, I shall provide some further detail on what stuck out to me. First, the Master Hawserier is a master of crafting and using rope. By crafting rope I mean they create ropes out of a large variety of materials. These include assassin vine fibers, troll guts, dragonskin, mummy wrappings and more. At 8th level, they gain the ability to cast snare and animate rope, which provide some nice tricks and mitigate the need for wands of such spells. These spells are listed as supernatural abilities rather than spell-like, which came off as confusing. Regrettably, the language used is very inconsistent; in some cases bringing functionality into question. For example a rope crafted from cloaker hide “has the ability to cast upon itself the blur spell…” without a mention of caster level. Thankfully this isn’t vital to the archetype’s functionality, but this would need some additions to account for corner case scenarios where someone tries to dispel the blur effect on the rope. Other magical rope types provide less fragile rope options to help avoid needing to replace slashed ropes after every encounter. Overall a very cool concept I very much liked, but struggles with rules language. The second archetype that deserves specific mention is the trickster chef. The signature ability of trickster chefs is snack attack. Yes, snack attack. Snack attack victims are rendered hungry, requiring them to make a Will save or else give into compulsory hunger. While this may seem useless, the trickster chef also gains the ability to create various recipes to present hungry creatures or eat themselves to receive or bestow alchemical bonuses or penalties. Some recipes may even function as items. For example, the Tangle taffy can be used as a tanglefoot bag or used as part of a dirty trick (entangle) combat maneuver to trigger further snack attacks and even force the victim to eat its way out of entanglement. Hilarious. If that wasn’t enough, trickster chefs can even add secret ingredients to bolster the alchemical bonuses or durations of their trickster recipes. This archetype is among the most unique rogue options I have read. It should be noted that the unchained rogue archetypes specifically replace class features exclusive to the unchained rogue and therefore not compatible with the vanilla rogue. Personally I don’t see this as an issue since the unchained rogue is much than the base rogue. However if your group does not use pathfinder unchained, you will not find much use from the four archetypes presented. My personal favorite of the unchained archetypes is the brickbat striker. The signature ability of the archetype revolves around foregoing various numbers of sneak attack damage dice to impose other effects on victims. As your level increases so do the options; allowing for different combinations of abilities to create a sneak attack effects that ultimately feel more rouge-like than simple extra damage. Next up is the the libertine alternate class. In a nutshell, libertines are socialites that excel at manipulating others. Their signature ability, intrigue, allows libertines to form relationships with other NPCs and gain specific advantages depending on the attitude of the target. Beyond that most of the libertine’s other abilities allow them to black mail npcs, act out in public, and even betray allies (yikes). The class is very cool. The only thing I can see keeping this off of tables, is the amount of GM work it requires to produce NPC secrets and the constant arbitration of social situations. Specifically the hold court ability allows the libertine to gain advantages over npcs that they invite to a large social event, placing a lot on the GM's plate in the process. In terms of rules language, the libertine could be more precise. The intrigue ability doesn’t specify any criteria for allowing an intrigue to be formed, leaving how or when a relationship to be considered an intrigue completely ambiguous. Overall this installment of Into the Breach presents some fine concepts for rogue characters. I noticed instances of language inconsistencies beyond the ones I mentioned. While some of these are harmless to the functionality of the content, another pass at editing would have helped the readability of the content. In light of these issues I shall give this installment of Into the Breach 3 out of 5 stars. First off, I have to say the book is gorgeous. I love the non-glossy pages and the art is great. I was skeptical of whether or not this would stack up to a main-line pathfinder book in terms of physical quality (as I had no experience buying from a 3pp before), and it certainly does. Diving into the content I was overwhelmed with the number of spells available in the book; there are a lot of them. No matter who you are, you will find something to love in Deep Magic. For me, it's the clockwork magic: its not overpowered (yes there are a few balance concerns I will address later), its flavorful, and its fun. The spells make up the bulk of the book, however there are several sidebars for new content outside of spell in just about every chapter. Chapter 1 goes into new types of magic that are represented within deep magic going from clockwork magic, to ioun stone magic, and several others. Chapter 1 has many sidebars that add bits and pieces of flavor to the content itself but comes off as sporadic. Many of these sections are short and create sort of a 'thrown together' feel. The organization of chapter 1, and the placement of sidebar content in general, will leave the reader flipping back and fourth to find that one cool new ioun stone, or that awesome vril feat time and time again. Balance wise most of the spells are just fine. But I always seem to find a few that are pushing the limit for what a spell of a giving level can do. Chronal Lance staggers creatures for a number of rounds per caster level without a save, and simply requires a ranged touch attack to stick. It's a bit much for a first level spell. Granted, for every spell I had an issue with there are a few more that I absolutely love. So don't let a few questionable spells ruin the trove of goodies this book contains. There are several spells that disregard spell resistance, and several that don't allow for saving throws, not to say these are inherently bad things to see on spells. It simply makes them more potent, and in some cases, too potent. I would advise GM's to look over the content carefully before allowing it in games. Deep Magic has several options for players outside of spell selection. There are a handful of archetypes (mostly wizard archetypes), sorcerer bloodlines, and oracle mysteries, as well as a few subsystems that are tacked on. The sorcerer bloodlines are very strong compared to the Paizo bloodlines (especially when you bring eldritch heritage into the picture), but are flavorful non the less. The oracle mysteries are well done, and the archetypes are nice ways to make use of the new magic types. The biggest issue that sticks out in Deep Magic is the editing. There are a areas where clarity is not provided, and important details on how a spell functions are glanced over. Some spells contradict each other on whether or not a saving throw is allowed, or when the saving throw is to be made.
Overall, I am happy with my purchase, happy but not amazed. There were more issues than I would like to have had come up during game play, but Deep Magic has certainly enhanced my Pathfinder experience more than it has hurt it, once I had a chance to sort through everything. I give this book 3.5 stars rounding down to 3 for the purposes of this review, due to the number of corrections that could have been made in a second pass of editing. Got my single in the mail today, and I am very very satisfied with the sculpt and paint job. Superb. The only issue I have, which will probably lead me to getting this rebased is the base being warped to the point where it wobbles with even the slightest shake of a table. Other than that, it's a fantastic mini.
Pathfinder Battles—Legends of Golarion: Sajan, Iconic MonkWizKids/NECAOur Price: $10.00 Unavailable Much better than LiniThe past couple sets have disappointed me in terms of iconics. But Sajan actually is head and shoulders above Lini (the other iconic in the set),in size and quality. I don't think the Pathfinder Battles line has many monks so this helps round out my collection.
Fantastically painted and scary as ever. The only gripe I have is the staff is not glued to the base and tends to bend. Other than that, The Gorilla King is a fantastic mini!
Pathfinder Battles—Legends of Golarion: Lini, Iconic DruidWizKids/NECAOur Price: $10.00 Unavailable Nice sculpt, some great detail...but the eyes...I opened this from a booster I bought on a whim and at first I found it to be a decent mini: the sculpt was good the colors were good choices. After I examined further I realized that one of her arms didn't receive any paint and was simply left black, and one of her eyes is all the way down on her cheek, making for a very goofy looking face.
Pathfinder Battles—Legends of Golarion: Gargantuan Green DragonWizKids/NECAOur Price: $39.99 Unavailable Broken WingsI happily picked up the dragon this morning to find one of the wings broken off, and the other wing not completely glued into place with the white glue barely holding the wing into place is visible. Normally I would attempt to fix this myself but the end of the wing that is to be inserted into the body is broken off, so superglue isn't an option. Like the other review says, this one is supposed to come in all one piece, which I believe to be a plus, as I didn't like having to disassemble and reassemble the other dragons when transporting them to game sessions.
Overall It is certainly a fine looking miniature. The details were well painted except for two instances on my figure. The mace has red paint from its hands on the handle, and the golden paint used on the horns bled on back of its head. Both of these errors don't detract from the appearance too much so I will only take off one star. |