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Abandoned Arts is back with a couple of additions to their Class Acts line, this particular addition covering Witches, and their hexes. Giving us four pages, with the colored background and simple framework that is becoming their signature look, format adheres to the 2 column standard, with the notable exception of the inclusion of a block of text above the new hexes recounting the official stance on hexes, what they are, when you get them, and such on and so forth...a handy tidbit to have at hand for a Witch player, so I am ruling this a useful item.

With a total of 13 hexes and 5 major hexes, there is far more here than I am going to list, so we shall go over what stood out to me. Dance With The Dead allows for the usage of a progressive list of spells all focused upon the dead, through dance. The higher your level, the greater the spells you have access to through this hex. Design wise, I love the visuals of this, the idea that the witch has to dance as the primary means of activating this ability forces a player to rethink combat, as the usage of this ability provokes AoOs.

Evil Presence has me baffled, as, if I am understanding it right, you essentially are so infused with evil, that a casting of detect evil upon you is supposed to supply information implying that you are more than you are...the confusing thing is that it states, and I quote ...”You are treated as a cleric or a paladin with a class level...” Um, a paladin? Never met an evil paladin, at least not without referring to them as anti-paladins....

Heartstone Hex allows you to create a fail-safe against diseases, as well as gaining a bonus to saving throws. Interesting idea in that it enchants a physical item that the witch must carry, but I would have liked to have seen a steeper negative applied in case of loss or damage to said enchanted item.

Witchlights brings the idea behind dancing lights into the realm of the witch, with what I believe is a nod toward the Will-o-wisp. Bringing into existence a group of lights that bewitch and mesmerize targets, leading them where the witch wishes.

Looking into the major hexes we find Last Laugh, that one more before I go hex. On death's door, you pick a targeted foe, and curse them with one seriously annoying curse that will require one of the big three (wish, limited wish and miracle) to get rid of. Of course, no curse of that much power comes for free, so you must be willing to die to do this, and by die, I mean die...for as long as your target is alive, you can't be.

Am going to close these with Scrying Cauldron, as anything that brings this classic part of fantasy literature for the witch back into usage is good with me. Not only does this do the expected trick with scrying spells, but it allows for several potions to be cast upon targets viewed within the cauldron through those scrying spells...which is pretty slick, and certainly invokes several classic tales of witches “reaching out” to affect the world around them through their cauldrons.

Final thoughts on this product. Daron continues to impress me with his design concepts, but there were a few hexes here that were more on the blah side of things (Alteration, Pinch, Lure)...but within a collection, there are always a few that one wont dig as much as the others. The wording of evil presence comes off as extremely confusing, and a clarification would seriously help. Taking this into account, and balancing against the few that stood out, and the price, I am settling on a 4.5 star rating for this product, rounding down to a 4 for the purposes of this forum.

OK, if you aren't aware of the Bullet Point series by now, you seriously need to grab a large handful, and immerse in the ammunition goodness that is this series. Another addition for the Summer of Bullets, targeting the sin of Gluttony this time, with 7 new feats. Following the standard landscape orientation with the familiar 3 column approach, and SGG's usual top notch editing work. We get four pages this time, with two going to the new feats, and three pieces of art (one color, two B&W with the last piece reminding me so much of the pink blobby dude from the TMNT cartoon of the 80's). Now, there seems to be an embrace of the sins going on right now with a few different designers and publishers, so this just might be the first in a wave of sin inspired bullet points, only time will tell on that front. In the meantime, lets go over these, shall we?

Cool thing about these feats is they were designed for those characters who, well, eat. Gluttony can be interpreted in many ways, and I applaud the fact that these feats go straight for the jugular, and don't dance around it...nope, these feats are designed for gastronauts....and that is just plain cool. It doesn't get much more unique than that, in a game that prides itself on the uber perfection of the physical form for the hero characters, the idea of feats that are centered around one gorging on food really stands out as breaking the norm in my mind.

Opening with Big Mouth, a granted bite attack due to the strengthened jaw muscles of a world class eater, and continuing into Feast Healer, gorge for a few minutes, heal as if a day had gone by. Rumor has it this is actually the feat that started this collection, and it came about as a typo...ah, gotta love those typos that inspire, lol.

Gluttonous is our lynchpin feat, as it is a prerequisite for the remaining six feats (actually forming a few small chains). Stuffing yourself brings on no negative results, but rather allows you pick through a small selection of perks, as your feeling pretty good about yourself, and deserve a morale bonus...lol, having been at that point after a few big meals, I totally understood the concept of a morale bonus from power chowing...there is something to be said about the positive feeling that comes from a seriously full belly when there's no downsides. However, every day without eating is treated as two when it comes to the starvation rules, so be careful that there is enough to eat before adding this to a character sheet...hate to see the halfling get munched in the middle of the night....although I do have a recipe for halfling hotpie....

Gnaw allows you to work your way through material normally to tough for a bite, you just have to invest some time. Stomach Reserve gives you a six hour window within which to “activate” imbibed potions. I could go into details here on how and why, but seriously, this just might gross out a few folks...take my word, useful but odd, lol. Slurp It Down allows you to double up on potions when taking them, and still only use a standard action.

Suck It Up ends our new feats, and it is one heck of an ending feat. By willfully failing a save throw, you can use a readied action to absorb the energy of a spell/spell-like ability, or supernatural ability. You force your attacker to make a save, or lose additional spell slots or prepared spells, as well as having effects upon usage limits for abilities.

The PDF closes with a quick look at the feat type of sinful, and what these feats mean to the differing alignments as far as restrictions a GM should keep in mind.

Final thoughts...I can only hope this is the first in a series of sin inspired Bullet Points, and I highly recommend that one sits down with not only this product, but a choice collection of sin inspired products to release here recently. Another loaded chamber for me, and well worth the price of admission folks, a solid 5 star rating.

Continuing the Summer of Bullets with another addition to the Bullet Point series, Owen brings us 4 Feats for Spells that Raise the Dead. Standard Bullet format with 3 pages, 3 column landscape orientation, and top notch editing. Each of the recent Bullet Points has targeted a specific spell and or group of spells, and this particular addition is no different, aiming straight for those various spells used to return life to the dead. Obviously, there are far to many of these spells (thanks to the immense amount of 3PP sources, lol) to list here, but I imagine you all get the idea. So lets go over them, see what we're getting this time.

Ferryman allows for characters who must prepare their spells to burn a spell they have prepared to instead cast a life restoring spell from their spell list (as long as level requirements are met). Have no fears, for the spontaneous casters, Owen's got you covered also, as well as throwing in a nice perk in regards to material components. Over all, this is a seriously cool feat, and is in my opinion the type of feat any support healer character should have in their arsenal of tricks. Well done!

Lore From Beyond the Pale covers an idea I have always loved from movies and books wherein a character returns from the dead...the information gained from being on the other side. Whereas it doesnt give you an open door to go nuts for gaining information (well played Owen), it does allow for one specific question to be asked at a specific time, with the form of the answer being up to the GM. Now, although the feat does not specifically state that the being being raised can/will not lie in answering, the implication is there, so a GM feeling like being “that guy” is still free to drop misinformation, as it is only an implication.

Rebirth offers up the ultimate in Fantasy Witness Protection, lol. You don't have to just raise the dead back to their old life, you can literally allow one being raised to “reform” themselves...new age, new name (even in regards to mystic purposes), redistribution of ability and skill points, the whole works. Now, I can see some folks thinking this is too much to put in the hands of players...but really, you get to the point that a player can bring the dead back to life, we're already talking about some pretty wicked power in their hands. And this, this has potential to allow a GM to pull off some pretty wicked things...go back to my opening line if you will, a Fantasy Witness Protection Program...OK, stop laughing, seriously...the PC's just finished totally trouncing your big bad evil dude, he's dead, a half year of planning down the drain, now what? Simple, raise his butt, give him a new face, a new name, and a whole new skill/feat set...with all of that desire for revenge...that's the type of potential that makes a feat really cool for some serious story affecting ability.

Selfless Resurrection is for those moments of true selfless sacrifice, allowing you to turn the casting of spells that restore life as a standard action, with the drawback of gaining a negative level. On top of that, you can take on the negative levels the creature you are raising should be getting...see why I referred to this as sacrifice? I can see several moments of deep role-play where such a feat would be an awesome thing in the hands of the right player, and I love that to use it costs the player so much. In addition, if used in conjunction with breath of life, the length of time that the dead can be in such a state and still be raised by you is determined by your Con bonus.

Final thoughts on this one, I can only think of one thing to say in negativity, and that is in regards to the front artwork, lol. The censor boxes are amusing, and I understand why they are there, as I have seen the original...no real complaint to register in regards to the material and crunch here, the PDF itself is fantastic. I thought at first I was not going to be happy with only 4 feats, I did. But then I read them, and they each bring enough to the table that they justify there being only 4 in this Bullet Point. One of the better Bullet Points in my opinion, I am giving this a 6 star rating, rounding down to a 5 for the purposes of this forum.

Having taken advantage of a recent sale, I plumbed through the back catalog of SGG, and added a few titles to my library, so there will be a few reviews of some older material coming, this being the first.

Following the 3/5's cover with a landscape format, three column approach with embedded pieces of artwork (this time color CG from Sade's stock art choices), this PDF follows all of the typical formatting of an SGG release. Found a few editing hiccups, and no bookmarks, but, honestly, at this small a size, I don't think they're needed.

13 curses to expand upon the original set offered in the APG, as well as 4 feats to work hand in hand with curses. Now, looking at the field of products today, this did come out shortly after the APG, and I am aware that other companies have also run with the idea of Oracle curses, but this was one of the first 3PP products to do so. So, lets take a look, shall we?

The cool thing in regards to curses is that as players, not every person out there is a min/maxer looking to beat the numbers game every time they sit down to roll dice, I know my playgroup is far from that. I have a M&M in my group (min/maxer), but I also have two players who intentionally play challenged characters, those who have to overcome something at the cost of potentially better math choices on paper. They make game fun for me, as coming up with new and interesting ways to engage them keeps me on my toes, and seeing them overcome what I have planned continues to entertain me immensely. SO, it with this mindset towards players, and the choices they might make in regards to a detriment willingly taken for their character, that I looked through this PDF.

Of the 13 curses offered here, a great deal of them felt rushed, or at least truncated. There was so much potential to add to, or at least clarify entirely, what thoughts inspired the original design idea. Case in point, Convulsions. At the very least, if one suffers from a curse of convulsions, and I can only apply this to the idea of real world seizures here, should there not be a full system of mechanics for potential convulsions that have nothing to do with rolling a dice? Pretty sure both of my dogs that suffered with Epilepsy had fits at total random, other than the odd light source triggering an episode. Am thinking this curse would have greatly benefited in feeling fleshed out by being accompanied with a full table for GM rolls, outside of the control of the afflicted player, offering up a game mechanic to handle the concept of randomness, and outside influences.

Ailing, Frail, and Misshapen are all fantastic concepts in my opinion, as so few players are willing to undertake something that physically limits them right off the bat. These curses speak to the hardcore role players out there, the ones who want a true challenge.

Being an Insomniac I was amused to see this one included, and have to say it is an interesting design. Am not sure it fully covers what life is like for those of us who never sleep, perhaps something covering the odd state of quasiREM that a great deal of insomniacs seem to exist within, hovering just on the edge of conscious thought and a dream. Don't get me wrong, the adjustments to the fatigued/exhausted conditions are an obvious design choice, but there is something to be said for how the mind of a person who has been "up" for days processes thought that, in my opinion, should greatly affect their perception in regards to magical forces.

Peaceful Soul just doesn't feel like a curse to me, sorry. The idea of being a pacifist in a setting built upon violent conflict does make for an interesting character build, granted. One of my favorite characters from my own personal player history was a pacifist, I had a blast with him, but I never viewed it as a detriment, and still don't.

Provocative and Unbelievable are right there on the border as far as true curses, they have the potential to be inconvenient, but I am not sure, with how they are presented currently, that they are in fact curses. And then there's Star Crossed, an interesting curse, and one I could get one board with, very much liked the idea of adding a second critical fail number to the dice roll for those afflicted with this curse.

Feat wise, Second Curse and Suspend Curse are both non-winners for me, as I'm not a fan of stacking curses (way to easy to abuse the system doing this), and suspend, to me, goes against the very flavor of this class by allowing you to circumvent your curse. Now, on the other side, Accursed is a highly logical feat, as living day in day out with a curse hanging over your head should give you some form of resistance to other curses. Which leaves Variable Curse, for that poor sod out there who really pissed off the universe by being born. A Russian roulette of curses, randomly determined daily from a short list of chosen curses. Interesting idea to play, perhaps.

Final thoughts, there was potential in this product, not as much as I am used to in seeing releases from SGG today, but that is easily explained by growth and development. I would love to see this PDF revisited, expanded upon perhaps. As I said, there are some good thoughts here, but there are also some pedestrian concepts. Am pretty much in the middle of the road on this one, neither outstanding nor horrible, so am going with a 3 for my final rating.

The second in the series of Sins, Envy weighs in at 10 pages, with 4 of those pages going to covers, credits and the OGL. Interior artwork is handled by Aaron J Riley, and the writing credits go to Ryan Costello, Jr. following the two column format established with the first installment in this series (Avarice), with embedded artwork, most of the pages remind me of the monster manual pages of old, one page, one creature. Whereas this has always been a clean manner of handling monster entries, it has come back to bite a few folks, in that sometimes one page is not enough room to handle everything. So, let's see how this sin is handled, shall we?

Envy, jealousy, the little green monster...we all know this one, inside and out, and there have been some truly horrible things done throughout history in the name of jealousy, and in pursuit of envy. Envy at its base is irrational, and far exceeds desire to possess, typically formulating in the desire to harm or destroy the very thing one originally sought to possess in the first place. It is with that mindset that we look to these designs, and see how well they encapsulate envy for the game table.

Bone Swarm is an interesting creature, in that it is not one creature, but the collective of many creatures, some represented in whole bone, others in fragments and shards, but all there nonetheless. A collective of those who hunger for the life they no longer have to the point they have learned to totally entrap a target within their amassed frame, and move said target against its will, recreating the concept of vicarious living. Well done and a nice touch! It would be wrong to not mention the insanely cool piece of art that accompanies this creature, and so needs to find its way into a color print on a pawn on my game table, soon!

Now, anyone who follows my reviews will notice there is a severe lack of anything in regards to Psionics, and this is for a very good reason. I am not a fan of them, period. Henceforth, I barely understand them, as I have not spent much time reading relevant material, so the next creature is lost on me to a point, as the Emerald Eye is a rogue psicrystal. Regardless of my expertise on psionics, I have to say the idea of a psicrystal betraying its creator and going rogue is pretty wicked, and an intriguing concept. Artwork for the piece is of a faceted gem (as one might expect).

The Doppleganger, Re-Echo fills the role of the perfect assassin, complete with a muscle memory ability that allows it to adopt any fighting style or weapon it sees, on top of the typical doppleganger physical and audible imitations. The only thing I question, and only because I fear it may make the creature to strong in all reality (it is a CR14 though), is its ability to copy any spell it sees as a spell like ability as long as it uses the ability quick enough. Not that I am against the idea of the spells being copied as well, just thinking that's really putting this creature in the Holy Crap bin, lol. Artwork is an excellent bipedal humanoid that appears to be either in mid-transformation, or is simply one seriously ugly dude.

The embodiment up this time is a much more interesting creation than the last sin embodiment, and I am thrilled to see it. Envy's embodiment is an incorporeal outsider who possesses its targets, getting those around their target to attack out of jealousy...how's that for crapsauce with a side of screw you? Possessed and attacked by your allies...love it!!

Again we close out with a mention of how to work this sin into Midgard, with hooks a plenty spread around the setting world.

And the template this time? Once again, a small blurb, nothing more. I am hoping to see at least one installment in this series give the template some true attention, and perhaps an example creature/NPC. It would be a welcome change to the very small amount of attention the template is currently getting in this series.

Final thoughts. Huge improvement over the first installment. I noticed no grammatical missteps, the formatting and editing were both top notch. Sidestepping the psionic crystal of which I have no room to talk, this was a group of creatures that caught my attention and made me want to use them. And let's be fair here, even the emerald eye got a nod from me, as I don't have to be a fan of psionics to recognize that the design idea is a good one, and twisted. The outsider is an excellent design, and fits well into the theme for this addition to the sin series. All in all, a total improvement, and I hope evidence of where this series is going. Well worth the price of admission, and a solid 5 stars.

Open Design has brought an interesting idea to the table, a collection of PDF's designed around the deadly sins, each installment covering a different sin, with creatures, a template, and an Outsider to spice up your campaign, and add the literal embodiment of sin to your game. So, the question then becomes, did they succeed? Let us take a look at the first installment in the series, Avarice.

Weighing in at 10 pages, with 4 pages eaten by covers, OGL, and a credits page. One page goes to the intro behind the series concept, and a brief refresher on just what Avarice is, as most of us refer to it as greed, and are not entirely aware of just what falls under that scope.

The template presented here was so small in it's offering that I honestly overlooked it, and had to refer to the TOC to figure out what it was I was looking at. Not a good start, the template is a one trick pony, in that consuming gp in value will allow you to heal a set HD every day....that's it? That's the entire Rebuild for the template for an avaricious creature? Am hoping to find more within the creatures then I got from the template.

The Hoard Golem is not only an awesome idea, but is well represented with an excellent illustration that really helps sell the concept of this creature. The backstory explaining how these golems came to be created in the first place, the reasoning behind them, is a fantastic touch. Fell in love with the idea of a massive hoard pulling itself up and defending itself against intruders...now I just want to sit down and build an appropriate miniature to unleash this on my players.

The Map Mimic is another fantastic addition to a GM's arsenal of critters, with yet another fantastic piece of art to sell the idea of this creature. Love the idea behind the map engulfing the map reader's face and head, after leading the PC's back to a parent mimic....oh yeah, the map mimics? Think along the lines of tadpoles swimming home, they're the offspring of mimics, smaller, less powerful, but just as devious and dangerous. Well done!

When it comes to the Midasite, I find myself torn. Whereas a new evil fey is almost always a good thing, and one that turns folks to gold with a touch is pretty nifty for many many reasons, not the least of which would be destabilizing an entire nation's economy with just a few weeks worth of gold statue making, but I can't help but look at this particular fey and feel, I don't know, underwhelmed I guess. In comparison to the Hoard Golem and the Map Mimic, the Midasite just doesn't have the wow factor I guess. Perhaps it was the extreme one trick pony routine, the "look out, I'll turn you to gold"...well, what else does he do?

The Embodiment of Avarice is an oddity, a bipedal titanic rat faced thing armored in the finest plate mail, and carrying an immense scythe of adamantium. It's head is covered with thousands of “eyes” that double as “eggs” filled with swarms of spider/rats, that it can release and send out to steal goodies for it, that it then stores within an inter-dimensional space within its stomach. OK, lets cut to it here, this felt like someone had an idea for a bad-ass outsider type, and they shoehorned it into the slot for avarice...this outsider doesn't feel like it has anything to do with this sin, at all. The art is pretty wicked, I'll give you that much, but as far as following the theme of avarice, not so much.

The PDF finishes up with a neat little tidbit of story hook and NPC intro for those using the Midgard campaign setting, showing an example of avarice within said setting.

Final thoughts. Editing and grammar had a few minor missteps, and truth be told, I am hoping for more from this series than what was shown in the first installment. Two creatures of truly awesome inspiration and design, coupled with a dismal template, a boring fey, and an outsider who simply didn't belong here...taken at it's own, the outsider might be pretty interesting, the problem is I don't feel it lives up to the theme for this PDF, and therefore it fails to deliver in the medium it is presented. The fey, technically it does deliver on the concept for the theme, but it really brings no wow factor to the table for me, other then perhaps the art makes it look like a horse-headed bi-pedal locust. And, again, the barely there template - how I wish there had been more attention paid to the template's design.

Taking into account that the two creatures who did stand out for me were awesome designs, I am going to settle with a 2.5 star rating for this PDF, rounding up to a 3 for the purposes of this medium.

Dungeon Dressing: Pits, from Raging Swan Press weighs in at 13 pages, with the standard assortment of covers, OGL, credits and checklist eating up 6 pages total, leaving us with 7 pages to cover those often overlooked and under-designed classic dungeon difficulties, the pit trap. We've all fallen in one or two, or at least plagued a playgroup or two with them, but how many of us have actually taken the time to truly design one, beyond “trap opens, you fall in”. Continuing the series of dungeon dressings, this installment gives us random charts for pit trap characteristics, as well as interesting features (The words “Tell Adosan, I love her” are scratched into the pit's floor.). A full list of traps broken down by CR for your more basic “standard” pit traps, as well as four more complex pit traps detailed in more depth.

The entire Dungeon Dressing series can be summed up with one basic sentence in my opinion, and that is simply, Buy them! Yes, they are essentially a collection of random charts that require you to do some rolling, with a few well done examples of how easy brilliant design can be, but that is the beauty of this series, as it is the quintessential GM time saver, without overtaking your design time. No GM wants to run something that has no personal touches, but so many of us simply don't have the time to delve to deep into true design. That's where products of this nature come in handy, and save the day. Trust me, a pit, 10' to the side and height, filled with six inches of brackish water and infested with a cloud of flies swarming over the last victim's bloated corpse is so much more impact-full on your players than simply saying your in a 10'x10'pit.

A happily given 5 star for Creighton and Raging Swan Press, cant wait to see the next installment of the Dungeon Dressing series.

Yet another chambered round for the Summer of Bullets from the SGG camp, 9 Witch Hunter Feats, follows the standard 3 page, landscape orientation with the 3 column format for new material. Artwork is stock, one piece of color, one piece B&W, both fairly relevant to the the theme of this Bullet Point, as the front piece could easily be a witch hunter, and the other is most assuredly a witch, lol.

OK, witch hunters....there are so many differing concepts for what these characters are, but at their core, no matter the theme, is their knack for standing toe to toe with the wielders of hex magic, and all that is supernatural. Of the nine feats here, Owen gives us several extremely useful new tricks to bring to the table, as well as a few feat chains (albeit small chains) that allow for some fairly cool effects within game, and one that kind of let me down, just a little. So, let's take a look, shall we?

Bane of the Supernatural is that feat that addresses the fact that a seasoned witch hunter is going to get to the point they know what their adversary is going to do, simply by having studied them long enough to recognize the tell tale signs of a supernatural ability being utilized. Henceforth, they gain an AoO against a target attempting to use a supernatural ability against them..
Brand of Binding & Branding Critical cover the ability to design a brand to shut down a specific ability or spell level on a target, and the ease of which you would deliver said brand.
Hex Resistence finally gives us the Hex equivalent to spell resistance.
I Know Your Tricks Knowledge check gains you a bonus to saves...not the most exciting feat here, useful, and functional, but rather boring when compared to the collective.
Lightbearer, gain light effects depending upon what type of weapon you are currently holding.
Preempt the Supernatural ties in with the bane of the supernatural feat, essentially hit a foe so hard, they lose whatever supernatural ability they were about to do...knock the wind out of their sails kind of thing. Simple, and yet very effective, and a nice nod to what truly happens in a fight when one gets hit, well done!
Shrewd Studies would be my one true let down, as it falls back on swap one abilities mod for another for a skill check, and these types of feats bore me, and are beneath the rest of the feats presented here.
Soulguard Allowing the aid another action to be utilized for more than just AC.

All in all, out of the 9, I can see 6 being used within my campaign easily, with two more being possibles. Am going to settle on a final of 4 stars for this one, as I only come up with 2/3's of the product being stellar.

Continuing on with the Summer of Bullets, SGG hits us with 4 Feats for the Invisibility Spell, and following with the design theme of these spell enhancing feats this one hits a handful of spells all centered around invisibility. Sticking with the 3 page landscape orientated with a 3 column format this PDF visually fits right in line with the rest of the Bullet Point series, and has no outstanding grammatical errors that I can honestly say I noticed.

Of the four feats here, Focused Invisibility stands out, taking the slot as my favorite of the bunch, as it allows one to legally get around the annoyance of losing one's invisibility by executing an attack action. Not only an excellent feat in the simplicity of the mechanics, but an excellent example is given that clarifies beyond a shadow of a doubt how this would function. The Unsensed Item takes a close second, giving one the potential to literally hide items within plain sight to utilize them for any number of things, limited only by the mechanics of the setting and material available.

Perhaps shorter than the typical Bullet Points, this particular PDF still provides enough ammunition to make it worth the price of admission. An easily given 5 stars.

Dark Waters, written by Ron Lundeen, weighs in at 36 pages (with roughly 8 of those tied up in covers, OGL, Ads, credits, intros and such). Following the dual column format approach, the PDF carries the typical clean and crisp look one has come to expect from the Raging Swan camp. Cartography is reminiscent of the retro camp, with a hand drawn feel, but in all the right ways. Artwork is stock, with most of it coming from the Elmore collection and being used to support the collection of pre-generated characters at the end of the adventure (six of them total). Set in the town of Swallowfield, the adventure is written with more then enough detail to take advantage of without the source material PDF for this town also released by Raging Swan, but I would recommend a GM pick it up regardless, as it is filled with some extremely useful material in regards to this town, and will greatly help flesh out the community better for one's PC's. It should also be noted that the community of Swallowfield is within the Lonely Coast setting, also available from Raging Swan, and a setting you should seriously think about adding to your collection as it is filled with excellently written material as well. This adventure offers up a quick cheat sheet (if you will) of the specifics of the Lonely Coast in the form of a one page write up accompanied via full page cartography. The same approach to giving specifics beyond the scope of this adventure are handled for Swallowfield itself as well, a one page write up covering town info, and a full page overland cartography.

OK, we all know what's coming, right? Spoilers...so, players, BEGONE!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, time for GM's to talk, go polish your dice, or plan your next GM appreciation party or something, we'll let you know when you can come back...OK, so now that it's just us GM's, let us discuss this adventure module, shall we?

Swallowfield has an issue, and that issue falls within the realm of the player's bread and butter. The local mill has just managed to break through to an ancient crypt, falling into the hole and beginning the flooding of these previously unknown lower chambers. Now, in and of itself, that is not the issue, it is the series of ghouls and undead living within the crypts that are the issue, as they spill out and begin kidnapping folks to present them to their leader to be turned into additional undead to serve him. The local guards do what they do best, try to save the day and turn themselves into more people who need to be rescued. See, told you it was a problem suited for the players. Mr. Lundeen has written a classic dungeon crawl with all of the feel of a rushed pace thanks to not only the idea that you must get to the kidnapped townsfolk before it is to late to save them from an undead conversion, but also that the river is flooding this series of dungeon, and therefore adding to not only the difficulty of traversing the terrain, but the sheer amount of time the playgroup can function as they delve further from the only way out and back to air. Add to the environmental dangers of the flooding and collapsed building, we've got the undead who have no fear of the rising water, and are at a serious advantage when it comes to attacks within flooded areas, the original guardians and traps of the dungeon complex, and a moral issue for the players. Two of the victims are not what one might call so virtuous, being members of an evil cult. GM's are giving the opportunity to allow their PC's to explore the moral complications of being tasked to save the less then desirable within a community, and possibly leading one of them back to a more virtuous path in so doing. Well done in including such a concept, as I love to see the levels of difficulty and challenge be about more than simply smash, kill, retrieve and run. Remembering that a PC's actions affect everything around them, in a world filled with more greys than black and whites, throwing in a moral issue of “do we or don't we save the bad folks?” is a great addition,in my book.

The crypt offered up for this rescue adventure is in fact a burial chamber for the head of an order of monks, known as Odwain. When interring their leader's body to his final rest, the monk came under attack, and found themselves sealed in. Over a span of weeks, several died out from starvation, others took to the route of cannibalism, and began the transformation into ghouls. Upon opening their former master's tomb seeking food these ghouls discovered that his will had not passed on, and he had in fact returned as a crypt thing. Reclaiming his position of mastery over what remained of his order, Odwain and his followers, now an eternal threat, waited in the dark for the day that release would come.

Cartography for the crypt itself gives us a birdseye view as well as a sidecut, helping drastically in understanding the depth levels for the differing sections of the tomb in relation to each other so as to be able to properly handle the flood effect of the river pouring through the mill wheel's breach point. The cartography again carries with it a very retro feel, staying in theme with the two overland maps.

Danger starts right off the bat in this adventure, with the PC's facing starving ghouls within minutes of the initial mill accident, as some ghouls attack whilst others kidnap and retreat. Following them into the wreckage the PC's will find a group of local town's guard have already attempted to give chase, and have gotten themselves pinned within the breach point, and will surely drown if not saved. From there the PC's are set to face a trio of carytid columns within the first room they enter of the tomb, and that's after figuring out how to get in safely in the first place (it is a height of roughly thirty feet, accessed through a hole that a river is rushing through, to a floor covered in rocks and debris...not the most ideal circumstances for entry). The PC's can utilize the waterwheel as a makeshift ladder as it comes within 5' of the ground, dealing of course with the water making the climb hazardous.

From the entrance chamber the group proceeds to a training chamber, complete with pressure point floor tiles that unleash javelin traps, and an automaton in the form of a four armed training construct, albeit with one broken arm and a state of constant breakage and repair. Very cool concept for a room in a setting of this nature, would have loved to have seen any form of artwork depicting the training construct to better visualize what exactly the author had in mind with this design.

A meditation chamber occupied by our first kidnap victim and a blind ghast are on the menu next, with that blind ghast being far from at a disadvantage. An interesting room that offers a glimpse into who these monks were in life as the depictions of carvings and illustrations adorning these walls where they meditated give a great deal of information upon the teachings of Odwein in life to his disciples. An excellent form of delivering this style of information to a playgroup, subtle enough that you aren't beating them over the head with it, and yet just enough hook and catch for a craftier playgroup to snag on and start analyzing. Well done, well done indeed. Our victim, if rescued, bravely offers to join the quest, although he is a woefully under-equipped wizard, having had his components and wand taken and destroyed...leaving the group with a living possible liability to decide how to handle.

The treasure chamber preceding the main burial chamber comes complete with an old timey combination lock of large stone buttons depicting different carvings, of which the PC's need to not only figure out which keys they actually need, but what order to press them in, to gain access to the hidden treasure room. A very cool puzzle, and one that while it may slow a group and force them to think, should be solvable by all but the most puzzle resistant groups out there as long as they are paying attention to the details of the dungeon. Each stone button is detailed in illustration which is insanely helpful in my opinion, as those images can easily be extracted and printed out for a playgroup to be able to work with making the puzzle a much more hands on encounter for them, which adds a great level of interactivity and fun.

The burial chamber finally brings us to the encounter between Odwain the crypt thing and the PCs. Odwain has taken his stone sarcophagus as a throne of sorts, standing it on end, giving him a height of ten feet, putting him at quite a stretch for most PCs with melee weaponry unless they also have reach. He opens attack with his Teleporting Burst ability, scattering the PCs around his dungeon, possibly to points underwater, and releases his ghouls to attack the stronger members of the group while he focuses on the weakest. Unable to leave his own burial chamber, Odwain none the less has a fairly proficient method of assault. It is within this chamber that the remaining four kidnap victims will all be found, chained to Odwain's sarcophagus, and suffering from ghoul fever due to multiple bites.

The adventure wraps up with the returning of the victims to the town, the potential interactions with the two cultists amongst the kidnap victims, and a couple of potential hooks to continue adventuring in this locale.

All in all a well written, fast paced adventure with an emphasis on a stress filled rescue operation against an entrenched enemy with the advantage of home field in their favor. Bringing to the table all of the great things about a classic dungeon trek without bogging down to deep into unnecessary side paths, this is a focused and well handled adventure, and one that could easily give a playgroup a great night of fun. Well worth the price of admission, and an easily given 5 star rating!

A Brace of Pistols, weighing in at 15 pages, brings to the table some of that old black powder goodness. Now, the debate over whether firearms (at any point in their development) belong in your campaign is one for you and your to decide, as there are players on both sides of this particular camp. For the record, I'm willing to bet Louis Agresta is good with the flintlock being used at his table, as he is the author who put this material together. Following a dual column format, with embedded artwork of both B&W and color, the editing all appeared to be above the board, with nothing jumping out as being an issue.

The book opens with a piece of fiction, a small story opener detailing a slight marital dispute, lol. From there we go into an explanation of the series, and the fact that the SGG Presents line is more focused on the authors vision then the companies direction, a quick (and I do mean quick) bio paragraph on the author. A brief write up regarding flintlocks throughout fantasy, followed by a short history lesson on both the real world facts behind flintlocks and the machinations of said firearms. Top all that off with a full weapons table for the firearms introduced here, and we're ready to take a look at the new bang bangs...so, without further ado..

We open with the Boarding Gun, a 7 barrel monstrosity, typically used from a crow's nest upon an attacking ship. Firing all 7 barrels at once, this thing gets a separate attack roll for each barrel, but then must be completely reloaded before being able to be re-fired. Going from there to the multi-barrel Duckfoot with its 4, 6, and 8 barrel options. The Derringer, Jezail (long-barreled musket with a curved stock for ease of firing while mounted), and Muskatoon, a short barrel musket, balancing easier handling with less power.

Going straight from the new firearms into new options for modifications, Mr. Agresta introduces such intriguing crunch mechanics as the Gun Trap, or Melee Flintlock (sword/gun anyone?). Or, perhaps my favorite from this section, the Trick Coat Pistol, with the suggestion of utilizing these mechanics to craft a wooden cod piece gun.

And of course, no book of this nature is going to be complete without new equipment. The Cleaning Kit will help you keep a flintlock properly cleaned, while the Chest Holster allows you to carry two pistols across your chest, with a character being able to wear up to three holsters. Leg Holsters operate in much the same way as the chest variety, only with a single pistol limit. Mount Holsters take the concept to your mount's tack. Now, for those not aware, the entire reason to use a holster is so that one may draw their gun as a weapon as opposed to retrieving it as an item, kind of the same reason you keep your sword in a sheath. From there we go to the Shot Belt (for storing prepared powder and lead balls, a Silk Patch, for flintlock wadding, and Slow matches, alchemical matches that burn for a significant amount of time, mainly used as a great way to pull off the burning beard technique beloved by hollywood piratical types. Introduced within this section are also alternate rules for why one would want to keep their gun clean, the effects of not doing so, inclement weather, and the serious threat of fire to a character loaded down with black powder and flintlocks.

Four new feats make up the next section of this PDF, with such treasures as Get The Drop, giving you a bonus to Initiative as long as your action is to draw and fire. Pistols at Dawn gives crunch mechanics to those characters who have dueled a time or two. And last, but not least, Powder burns and the improved variety, allowing you to utilize the muzzle flash and debris as an attack all its own.
A mini game of sorts is introduced in the form of Mahga-Mahga, with full rules for playing, and the necessary crunch to manage it. The game (primarily played by pirates) consists of a lazy susan, a swinging chandelier, a prisoner, and a lot of drinking, gambling and shooting...its just the type of thing to liven up a naval game session with time to kill in between encounters.

PDF closes with a nod to the arcane, with 2 new spells, 3 new magical qualities, and 2 specific magical weapons. OK, that last is not exactly accurate, as one of the weapons is actually ammunition, Branding Bullets deliver an arcane mark upon a successful hit, whilst the Axe Musket of the Long Hunt is a nasty little toy when it comes to dealing with lycanthropes. Spell wise we're looking at imbue spell, and the greater version, which allows you to imbue an already loaded ammunition round with a spell of specific level or lower. Magical Qualities give us Auto Loading, never waste time again, Everdry negates any worries of your weapon ever getting wet, period.

And Nevermiss, looking through the game mechanics for this one, I can say out of the entire book, this one weapon quality is the only thing I find fault with. It seems, in every attempt I made to play out an encounter with it, to either go horribly wrong, or overpoweringly right.

Final thoughts, save for one weapon quality that I simply can not get behind, this is a pretty decent collection for information regarding flintlocks, their quirks, and how to incorporate then into your fantasy setting easily enough. So, if black powder is something that intrigues you, or the flash of muzzles are already a constant in your setting, this book would be a good fit for your library, and a purchase well made.

I want to give this a 4.5 star rating, as I would have liked to have seen more done with an actual fantasy firearm, as opposed to all historically accurate firearms with tack on spells and qualities. Still a solid piece of design, but if one is going to offer firearms for a fantasy setting, I want to see fantasy firearms. It does in fact give some truly cool options and rules, with plenty of room to create some neat toys though, i guess I just wanted my cake with extra icing, lol...OK, I'll give it the 5 star it deserves, but I'm still gonna be grumpy till this gets support in the form of a Bullet Point.

Continuing the Summer of Bullets this addition to the line gets all tangled up with some tendril spells, giving us 7 new feats designed to enhance and alter those spells that entangle and or grapple. Following the landscape orientation with the three column standard that has become the signature of this series, this particular issue is four, not three, pages, with 2 going to OGL and cover sheet. Art is stock (although I happily can state I have not seen the front piece before), and both pieces are good. Editing appears to be good, nothing jumped out and bit me.

So, we all know the drill right? Bullet Points are a quick and cheap method of delivering a few choice ideas, all centered around one concept per PDF. If you aren't familiar with this series yet, I suggest you take advantage of the current sale and catch up, seriously, I'll wait........

OK, now that that's out of the way, let's look this one over, shall we? Now, for me, this is one of those collections of feats that I feel should have been written a long time ago, as the multitude of tendril spells out there all lack some pretty basic ideas, which Owen tackled here very well. From using tendrils as additional sets of prehensile limbs to do basic tasks, to targeting specific people to choke, or defend rather than attack. The capacity to determine that certain people are to be ignored by the spell (although crossing the area the spell inhabits is still difficult terrain, as it should be). The last three together just scream schoolyard bully to me, and that's hilarious folks, truly. Disturbing Tendrils allows you to have a tendril threaten and antagonize a target, while Forceful Tendril is going to push the guy around, and Harassing Tendril is going to slide in for the dirty trick or trip...remind anyone else of a pack of bullies? The idea of filling an area with tendril spells, and then getting them to work in tandem with a collection fo feats like this is one of the reasons I have learned to love the Bullet Point series, there's always something here to inspire GM wickedness, lol.

Yet another collection of truly useful and well designed feats that bring a breath of new life into a collection of spells that far to many players have lost their fear of. Well done Owen, and another easy 5 star rating.

With the addition of the SGG Presents line, we now have that line of various material, that may or may not fit into another imprint under the SGG banner, but is focused more upon one author's vision for the material. Interestingly enough, one would assume this particular imprint would be where we wouldn't see Owen's name, as he handles practically all of the design work for the remaining SGG lines, and yet, this is his baby none the less. And what a baby, an interesting to say the least re-imagining of the kobold race, their evolution and origin, and an entire new sub-race (in the same vein that a drow or duergar are sub-races).

Weighing in at 20 pages (front cover, OGL, and paper minis eat three of those pages), we are given an immense amount of new material to digest here, all pertaining to what are known as the koldemar, those kobold who still retain enough of their draconic connection to be a race worth playing or utilizing. Far from the sniveling craven kobolds that so many GM's have thrown en mass at their players, the koldemar are an interesting, advanced species, on par with any of the races available for play currently.

Editing and format follow the dual column approach, with embedded B&W line art (some really good, at least one piece odd in its perspective). There are a few typos, both in punctuation and spelling, but nothing so garbled that you can't make out the meaning.

PDF is fully bookmarked, with a full introduction to not only the series, but the concept of what this addition to the line hopes to accomplish, as well as how a GM can easily incorporate this new sub-race into their campaign, either as a stand alone option, or as the rare oddity born to normal kobolds. In short, before you have even started reading the crunch, this book will have sold you on the concept of bring the dragonfolk into your campaign, and finding the koldemar a home.

Included is a handy listing of common naming elements (numbered for those wishing to let their dice decide), with meanings behind the prefixes and suffixes. Very cool, and extremely useful in helping to distinguish these particular kobold kin from their simpler cousins. One thing that should be noted, in regards to the simpler kobold species, is that racially speaking, the koldemar are still kobold, and therefore the variant traits and rules presented here are equally available to kobold characters as well, opening up many new options for a crafty GM to take advantage of.

Offered up in the new variant traits are such options as dragon scaled – various color schemes all having their own energy type resistances, dragonfolk – greater strength and charisma in place of the normal racial adjustments, gliding wings – pretty self explanatory, beast bond – bonuses to handle and ride checks, and water adaptation – showing a lineage to an aquatic dragon within one's bloodline, gains several aquatic physical traits, a swim speed and the capacity to hold one's breath for minutes equal to one's Con score.

Now, with the idea of favored classes, and the variant bonuses one can get from taking said class, the next section of this book covers 41 possible variant bonuses...yes, I said 41 possible variant bonuses. Owen left nothing out, for convenience sake, the potential bonuses available to this race from the APG are reprinted here (totaling 11 of the options), as well as 16 SGG classes. There are multiple options for several classes, as well as options that are exclusive to this race. Basically, long story short, lots and lots of favored class options...all collected together to make life easier on you. Well done.

Introducing two new archetypes designed for the koldemar (but still available to kobold or half-dragons), the next section gives us the Apocalypse and the Harasser. The apocalypse being a fighter archetype with a focus on the physical power and might of the dragon, learning to harness and utilize an armored hide, better claw attacks, a portion of a true dragon's spell resistance vs. certain spell like abilities, as well as gaining the ability to consume precious metals and gems to fuel an effect similar to the Rune Scales feat (covered later within this work). The harrasser is the quintessential trap building nightmare for a playgroup, and an interesting archetype for a rogue styled koldemar. Thirteen trap concepts are presented here for usage by this archetype, and its quick traps ability.

Thirteen new feats are presented, varying from Draconic Aspect – colored scales with appropriate energy resistance, Draconic Breath – ties right back into aspect, as your scale colors determine what type of breath weapon you have, Tail Terror – utilize your tail in combat, Rune Scales – bind magical enchantments directly into your body, by turning your scales into living magical items. There are some pretty specific limitations on this, no doubt in the hopes of keeping this balanced, but it looks to be the type of thing that could be a lot of fun to explore as an option, and lends itself to a seriously memorable high level NPC.

What would a racial guide be without new equipment, both magical and mundane, combat and ordinary, right? How about a buckler for your tail, or clawed gauntlets, pouches designed to be worn upon the tail, or Woodstalker Armor ( a +1 shadow elfhide studded leather (yeah, you read that right, elfhide leather, lol). Last new item would be the propitious pouch, a variant on the handy haversack, just designed to be a little more friendly to those hanging pouches off of their tails.

Now, in regards to the elfhide leather, that's brilliant. Presented in full write up as a new material, with table for cost modifiers to armor types and all. After all, if elves can wear dragon scale armor, why can't the dragonfolk make a leather of their hides? Owen, this I love, and it will be introduced as of my very next game session, totally dark and twisted, and yet so obviously practical, yet another Genius moment.

The whole thing wraps up with full color paper mini options for a variety of koldemar characters (6 total). Whereas I don't personally use them, I thought it was a nice touch to include them, and wouldn't be opposed to seeing more publishers follow this example *cough* - pawns - *cough*...oh, sorry, allergies...

OK, so final thoughts...for far to long have I looked upon the kobolds as a race of cannon fodder, and I mean honestly, who hasn't? Owen has managed to give a viable option to this race of cravenly cowards, an option to explore a different side of this race that could easily prove to be an interesting and entertaining player race, as well as make for some encounters that would keep a playgroup guessing, as the koldemar are so not our father's kobolds, lol. So, design wise, solid, formatting, excellent, only one piece of art not up to par with the rest (and to be honest it still looks alright), which leaves me with the 4 typos, all clustered together, like there for a moment there was a distraction at the keyboard while the book was being written. I can not, in good faith, subtract a half star for four typos of this small of a nature, nor can I overlook them, so I am going with 4.75 star, and yeah, that rounds up to a 5, so good job Owen, way to make me rethink the kobold menace.

Weighing in at 4 pages, the fourth installment in the Class Acts series from freshman publisher Abandoned Arts covers Rogue Talents, those abilities that help define the rogue class via their talents. Following the standard dual column format, with text over a lightly colored page with a colored frame, the editing appears to be in good form, as nothing truly jumped out at me. Again, there is a noticeable lack of artwork to break the text, but given that all four PDF's were released at the same time, at this point I was assuming this much. As far as page breakdown, 1 each to cover and OGL, with 2 for the new material.

With 25 Talents, and 7 Advanced Talents, this PDF offers up a wide range of new options. Forgoing a list and diving straight into the descriptive entries, I found myself missing the standard list, as Abandoned Arts has a standard look to their lists that is fairly visually pleasing color-wise, ah well. OK, just in case we have anyone reading along who is not familiar with the idea of the advanced talents, after 10th level they become available to rogue characters, and are essentially just cooler rogue talents.

Of what we have presented here, some personal choices that jumped out were; Dramatic Entrance: allows for the utilization of a dramatic flair to penalize your opponent's initiative checks. Ear to the Streets plays to that character who is in the know about all things happening within their locale, giving the rogue a better chance to keep tabs on a group, and what they are after. River Rat: lets you Swim in light armor with no penalty, as well as giving a bonus to Stealth checks for hiding in murky water. Takes One To Know One: lets you use your Bluff skill to discern lies in place of the Sense Motive skill.

Thieves' Honor: gives us the classic rogue with rules, in that one must follow a code, which will benefit the rogue with a blanket numerical bonus to their skill checks in the form of a morale bonus. And of course, if one doesn't follow said code, all benefits are lost for a period of time.

Moving into the advanced offerings, we open with Artful Dodger: which is a standard AC bonus, that stacks...I love when they stack...I do I do. Daring Acrobatics: allows one to get all fancy with some acrobatics when fighting an opponent of at least one size category larger than yourself. Essentially, they miss, and you get to pull off some seriously wicked looking parkour using them (and/or their weapon) as a jumping off point, to relocate to within a different spot within reach ..I can see this being fantastic for a highly dexterous gnome or halfling thief as a way to constantly stay just a step ahead, and frustrate an opponent.

Out of the four PDF's Abandoned Arts has out currently, this has easily got to be my favorite. The talents seem to be designed with a thought toward balancing the two conflicting styles of play, granting dice rollers enough to work with while keeping role-players content as well with more than enough talents designed to launch story ideas and interaction. Will be settling on a 4.5 star rating for this one, as it is not quite a 5 with its current layout and overall look. I will however round this one UP, as the talents are that good, ending this PDF with 5 stars in regards to this forum.

Weighing in at five pages, with 1 each going to the cover and OGL, leaving 1 page for a Domain/Subdomain list and a quick explanation of how the APG defines the term subdomain, and 2 pages for the actual descriptive text for the 18 new subdomains. Subdomains, for those not in the know, are a great way to allow a player to further customize and personalize their character by refining their domain into a tighter more specific area.

With a layout that matches the remaining three PDF's in this series from freshman 3PP company Abandoned Arts, the material is presented in a dual column format, on a colored background, with a simple frame. The domain/subdomain list is colored in a muted color that achieves its desired effect of making the chart easy to read without overwhelming the page. Editing is top notch, and I found no mishaps to report, always a good thing.

Whereas I have avoided listing the contents of previous PDFs I have reviewed for this company, it seems fitting to give a list of what is being offered here. I will list them as Subdomain (Domain):so without further ado:[/b]

Armor (War): with 4 replacement spells
Beggar (Trickery): 2 replacement spells
Chance (Luck): 2 replacement spells
Enlightenment (Knowledge): 2 replacement spells
Fellowship (Community): 2 replacement spells
Harvest (Plant): 4 replacement spells
Magma (Fire): 3 replacement spells
Might (Strength): 2 replacement spells
Mist (Water): 3 replacement spells
Mortality (Death): 3 replacement spells
Quest (Travel): 3 replacement spells
Ruin (Destruction): 3 replacement spells
Spell (Magic): 2 replacement spells
Starlight (Darkness): 4 replacement spells
Stone (Earth): 2 replacement spells
Warmth (Sun): 2 replacement spells
Winter (Weather): 2 replacement spells
Zephyr (Air): 2 replacement spells

Now, each of the above subdomains also has one replacement power to be plugged in at various levels depending upon the subdomain. What none of these subdomains has is any fluff, of any nature, period. I'm good with a crunch heavy presentation, I am. But when it comes to the idea of tightening the focus of a domain into a subdomain, I kind of want to know why this instead of that. Even a simple sentence or two, tie a specific subdomain to a region, or a culture, give it life and a reason, anything. Now, having said that, looking through the APG's list of subdomains this PDF follows the Paizo standard identically...so I think this may be more a personal thing. To me these need more explanation than here's the power, here's the spells, moving on...they would greatly benefit from the inclusion of a brief writeup pertaining to each...a reason for why a GM might want to include them within their campaign world, or at least an idea of how, or where.

Those replacement powers? A few choice examples would be Mistcloak: continue the concealing qualities of an obscuring mist or fog effect around yourself as you leave the affected area. Heat Stone: with a standard action you may heat stone surfaces to the point that it will harm those who come into contact with it. Curse of Mortality: wins hands down in regards to a cool new domain power. Cause an undead creature within range to, for one round, lose their immunities and be forced to endure a trip down memory lane, being forced to face what has been taken from them in unlife. Obviously this is the type of thing that would play better in a role play heavy group as opposed to a roll play style gathering.

Now, I can see looking through all the available options presented here that there will be subdomains folks will look at as not worth it, or much “weaker” than others presented here, I counted at least 5-6 that struck me as really on the lower end of combat worthiness myself. But, these options are still viable in that some players want a challenge, and want to play something that hasn't been done to death. I still, really really would have liked to have seen some fluff added to these subdomains though, as I think it would have helped immensely in conveying why some of the “weaker” subdomains (beggar, I'm looking at you) are included in this collection.

I am torn in regards to this product. Taking it at face value, it has accomplished all that it is required to do, at least in so far as what Paizo themselves have established as a standard. But there in lies the problem, for here in the 3PP realm, design is everything, for there isn't a large company standing behind your product pumping massive artwork and promotion into it, so we, the customers, expect those extra touches. And the first of those extra touches would be fluff...a reason to pick one design over another. The second of which would be something visually pleasing to break up the text. Look into stock art options my friends, as we all know budgeting art can make or break a new company, and stock art is a fantastic alternative to the high costs of quality art.

I am going to go with a 3 star on this, as it does accomplish what it set out to do, and obeys Paizo format in doing so, and there are a few replacement powers I really liked...I just feel like there could have been so much more here...perhaps, later on down the road, after one's feet are wet, this can be revisited, or even expanded upon in a second volume.

Weighing in at 4 pages, with 1 each going to front cover and OGL, this addition to the Abandoned Arts Presents: Class Acts line covers 32 new arcane discoveries for the Wizard. Following the dual column format for new material, on a colored page background that is muted enough to not detract from reading, this PDF would be one of the four that Abandoned Arts introduced themselves to us with.

A new company on the scene, with Daron Woodson handling the design chops, they've released their first offerings at an extremely affordable rate to give folks a chance to get to know them. So, let us take a look through this PDF, and see if it is worth the price of admission, shall we?

OK, for those few out there not in the know, arcane discoveries are a glorious little gem available to the Wizard class that can replace the bonus feats one usually gets through normal level progression. So, this PDF's purpose is essentially to offer additional options to that list of discoveries to further torment your players with when it comes time to decide upon a discovery to choose....ah, I love choices.

With 32 total, I am not going to build you a shopping list, preferring to focus on a few that stand out and grab my attention instead. Dedicated Familiar allows you to use your character level, instead of your class level, in regards to your familiar. Forceful Counterspell delivers nonlethal damage in the amount of a spell countered upon a successful countering. Ioun Bond allows you to bond the stones to an object instead of allowing them to float around your head...which pleases me immensely, as I personally have never been a fan of the floating halo effect. Living Spellbook, oh there are so many different directions a GM could go with this, lol...both good and bad...LOVE IT!!!!!!!

None Dare Speak His Name is the type of discovery that helps really set a theme for a truly powerful character within a setting. Must be a 20th level Wizard to even think about this one, but if you take it, none may be able to speak your name upon the same plane as you without you being aware of it. The little mental needle goes off and points like a compass to the offending knave whom has spat your name, and the distance to their beating heart is known like the back of your hand. Ahhhhh, terrorizing the locals has never been more fun.

Now, after reading through several discoveries that ranged from standard fare to really good, there were a few that made me stop and wonder why they were included...so we shall address those as well...
Voice of Reason, gain diplomacy as a class skill, utilizing Int mod. Really? Sharing the same page as None may Dare Speak His Name nonetheless. Or, Wizened, gains a straight numerical bonus to your Wis score...boring. Sorry. Wizard's Tricks and Wizard's Whispers really didn't do anything for me either, not when I'm thinking on the level of discoveries.

So, final thoughts here...still within the freshman offerings, and each of the four appear to visually all have the same basic concept going on, text on a colored page with no artwork. Design wise there are moments of true quality here, and this from a new company still cutting their teeth, it will be interesting to see what direction they go in next. With the handful of out of place discoveries really pulling down the status quo, and the visually unappealing look, I can not go higher then a 3.5 for this one, rounding down to a 3 for the purposes of this rating system. Still worth the price of admission, as you are still getting 32 discoveries for a dollar, with some true gems included.

Weighing in at 5 pages, with 1 page to cover, 1 to a feat list, 2 for description and 1 to the OGL, we have here one fourth of the freshman offering from new 3PP Abandoned Arts. With 22 feats offered in this volume, the focus is on the combat feat, more specifically the fighter class, and what can be added to the pool of bonus feat options for said class.

Format and editing follow the dual column approach for the descriptive entries, with the feat list adhering to the standard table format, with alternating colors for ease of reading and grouping. Excellent choices ont eh colors for this, as they are muted enough to not get in the way, but pronounced enough to do the job. Only oddity that stuck out was the apparent changing of font setting for the term BAB in a few spots. Not sure why, but in a few spots it simply looks off, perhaps slightly smaller (Improved Clobbering Feint)...if this is merely my eyes, ten ignore me on this one, it doesn't impede understanding regardless.

OK, so 22 feats pretty much lets you know upfront that I am not going to list them all for you, but I will show off a few personal choices, and through them give you a feel for the flavor of what we have here.

Right off the bat, Die By The Sword is the type of feat I love to see utilized by a player in an epic storyline. Working in concert in Diehard (or ferocity), this feat allows the player the opportunity to convert incoming damage (other than melee) into nonlethal whilst they continue to act through their impending death, thereby extending their characters (possibly) final legendary acts on the battlefield. An excellent feat in the hands of proper roleplayers. Hurling Disarm reminds me of every great choreographed epic fight scene we've ever seen where we have a large group on one or two masters. The feat allows you, after successfully disarming an opponent, to use said taken weapon as a projectile for a ranged attack at another opponent within range, thereby using one opponent's weaponry against the next and so forth.

Pit Fighter gets two mentions here, as the feat taps on my personal love of gladiatorial combat in allowing a player to forgo sneak attack damage to attempt a dirty trick, but it also was the first real spot grammatically to catch my eye with a potential misstep. The feat opens with the description of A life blood sport has made you an unsporting combatant...I can't help but think that reads clumsy, perhaps A life OF blood sport.... Again, not a huge thing, but with only three actual pages of text, errors stand out.

I'll end with War-Torn, that feat for the most battle grizzled veteran, the one who has seen it all, and is unfazed and unwavering in the face of overwhelming odds.

This collection of feats, as I stated 1/4th of the freshman offering from Abandoned Arts, shows a great deal of potential and promise. There are some decent feats here, and for the price you can't go wrong. On the flip-side of the coin however, if you are a visual shopper, the layout is extremely basic, with no artwork to enhance the product. The layout is extremely basic, but that I think goes to the Abandoned Art crew is still getting their feet wet and learning the ropes. I would love to see a more professional looking layout and perhaps a piece of artwork or two in the second wave of releases.

Final thoughts...the cons come down to visually unappealing to look over as it is all text, and the one odd hiccup in flow of text. The pros, a fairly decent collection of feats. I am hoping this is not a flash in the pan concept however, and am eager to see where you go next.

Giving this a 4 star, as the feats are of good design, but there is room for improvement. Can't wait to see you guys grow, and what you'll bring to the table next!

The latest addition to the Summer of Bullets takes on that old iconic, the Antimagic Field. Going with four pages for this one, with color pieces of art (and pretty decent art at that), this Bullet Point follows all of the standard formats we've come to associate with this series (cover/intro page, 3 column format for new material, OGL).

Right of the bat, anything that turns the antimagic field into more than the one trick pony that it is makes me smile, but of course Owen does not stop there, making it very clear throughout this Bullet Point that these feats will work with many other spells that center on a caster, and have durations greater than instantaneous, or that work against magic effects. And yes, with every feat he gives a list of several of these additional spells beyond the antimagic field.

So, 6 new tricks for an old spell, what do we get out of this, well...how about the ability to cast antimagic field, and walk away, leaving it anchored in space. Nice thing here is if you use Anchored Feat on an information gathering spell (such as detect scrying), the info is still relayed back to you. The ability to set up your field to target one specific school, which could seriously screw with a specialist if you take down his magics, but leave your functioning, no? How about setting a field to automatically turn off, or suspend, when a certain set of conditions are met; i.e. Hero X crosses the field, Mage Z falls asleep, etc. Or, better yet, the capacity to simply suspend the field as a swift action?

Best of the bunch, as my personal pick, is going to have to be Wall Emanation. The capacity to reshape field spells into the classic 10' wall inspires so many evil additions to traps its not even funny.

Continuing with the theme of teaching old dogs new tricks by giving us new feats to help re-imagine iconic spells into new and interesting things to use once again, this addition to the Bullet Point line succeeds in its goal perfectly. Am very much liking the idea of enhancing spells through feats to gain differing effects, rather than changing the spell itself, as this allows the players a greater deal of customization, and personalization. Found only one editing hiccup (the word "one" instead of "on"), and am looking the other way on this one. Yet another loaded chamber guys, 5 out of 5!

At 49 pages, with 7 pages going to the front/back covers, OGL, credits..etc. etc. We have here a collection of 30 pirates, ready to be dropped into an adventure for an evening, or added to a long running campaign as a crucial persona. Presented as either Pirates of Note (moderately famous scallywags), or of Renown (true legends of the waves who captain their own vessels, leading crews through the storm wracked waves), the assortment of personalities here will leave any GM with plenty to sate their appetite. Designed as support material for So What's The Pirate Ship Like, Anyway?, this addition to the line easily pulls double duty for those GM's running the current Skull & Shackles AP from Paizo, as you can never have enough piratical goodness in an adventure.

The PDF comes with a full contingent of bookmarks, and a linked Table of Contents as well (always a plus), in addition to the TOC, the pirates are listed by CR (which oddly the chart shows a full column for page number as well, but has no such information). Sadly the CR list is not linked, but that is a minor detail given the bookmarks. Immediately following each section (of Note or Renown) is a listing of each pirate by alignment as well. Format follows a dual column approach, with the occasional piece of B&W artwork, ranging from good to average.

Now, with 38 personalities I am not going to get into a listing exercise, but I do want to touch on a concern I could see people having, and that is that the race card has very much been played, in the best way possible folks. We have (in alphabetical order) at least one of each of the following races: angel (cassian), barghest, brownie, cloaker (evil laugh), dwarf, elf, ettercap, girallon, goblin, grindylow, half-celestial, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, hobgoblin, human, kapoacinth, lizardfolk, mercane, minotaur, poltergeist, quasit, sahuagin, sandman, serpentfolk, siren, tiefling, treant, undine, xill. As I said, there are plenty of races to work with here, so this will not be a collection of plain old human pirates with a few pointy ears thrown in for good measure...there's a healthy selection here folks.

After a quick bio page for the three designers behind this work (congratulations guys!) and a “How to use this book in your game” page, it is time to get down to meeting the pirates. The NPC's are presented with a few lines of backstory and physical description, as well as a hook or two apiece to integrate them easier. The statblocks themselves are not entirely Paizo Standard, but they are easily enough read that it is not an issue. The layout is slightly disconcerting, in that several times throughout the NPC statblocks a section of descriptive text will be broken by the next statblock, or not even be near its appropriate statblock. All of this, while not a huge issue, did make for a slightly odder than usual read.

Now, I know I said I wasn't going to get into particulars, but I must share a few that really stood out to demonstrate the uniqueness of some of these characters. Hacamabavan, a brownie witch, had his home used for a mast (pine tree), so he followed, becoming a secret member of the crew essentially. While they sleep he tends to the crews wounds, taking care of the “big folk” and traveling the world. How about a shaved headed female dwarven antipaladin? Hmmm? Even better, she still thinks she's doing good work, balancing the scales, punishing the wicked and such.

Qulerac, hands down, one of the coolest usages of a common run of the mill creature I have ever seen. A cloaker, a giant cloaker to be specific, who impersonates a sail on whatever vessel he hires on to. Talk about hiding in plain sight, that's genius! Following along the same vein, how about a kapoacinth impersonating a figurehead upon the front bow of a ship? Either of these creatures would seriously shift the tide of a battle quickly, and make any playgroup rethink their entire approach to a vessel, which is exactly what I, as a GM, am looking for in my NPC designs. Well done!

-edit
No one likes to see errors in a PDF, but I love to see a publisher step up and fix them when they are there. With the recent update (that took all of about a day, nice turn around), I am raising my final rating on this book to where it should have been in the first place, a 5. Well done!

Continuing the Summer of Bullets with 6 Feats for the Spell-Less Ranger, this addition to the Bullet Point series follows the standard 3 page, 3 column (for new material) approach. Two pieces of artwork, both color, and both really nice pieces. Editing/Grammar wise I found only one typo (halkf instead of the word half).

So, the Spell-Less Ranger (from Open Design) is our target this time, although as is pointed out these feats work well with Skirmishers from the Advanced Player's Guide as well. First off, lets just get this out of the way, I love the fact that Owen is not afraid to write to add to and enhance/support another 3PP's material. That is flat out awesome, and helps make sure that a great idea will continue to grow. Well done Owen!

As Owen has taken to listing the contents of each of these Bullet Points himself these days, it seems a little silly to take up space within this review rehashing that, so let's discuss instead my favorite of the bunch, shall we? Woodland Juggernaut. For far to long has the ranger been at the mercy of his armor, with the idea of ever wearing heavier armors denied him by the threat of lost abilities...when in fact the animals around him show without a doubt that nature comprehends armor. Emulating animals such as the Armadillo and Rhino, with this feat your ranger can utilize heavier armors without losing access to class features typically dependent upon lighter armors alone. A fantastic feat that opens the door fully for the ranger to step up into a front-line combatant.

With four of the remaining feats all focusing on the Favored class abilities and expanding or enhancing them, they are all solid feats well worth having, it is the first feat offered that I had to reread a few times to decide what I thought of. Bestial Surge, allows for a bonus to a skill, pretty simple right? Well, it does this via letting you tap into your spiritual connection to the animal kingdom....now, the first time I read this it felt kind of against the vein of a non arcane/mystical ranger to me, I won't lie. But as I let it mull over in my thoughts, I realize, we hear the term ranger and always think along the lines of Aragorn, what of Tarzan folks? Is he not the quintessential Spell-Less Ranger? And does he not perform amazing tests of physical skill that seems to be superhuman as if the very animals had infused their aura into him? No, the more I thought on this feat, the more I realize it is a perfect feat for this type of class, as one without spells of any nature, living amongst nature, is going to pay far more attention to the lessons that are there to learn, and would find themselves able to do things the rest of us could only marvel at.

In the end, another set of solid additions to the ever growing Bullets from the chambers of the SGG crew, yes, there was a typo, but I am not going to penalize even half a star for that, even if this is technically only a one page write up. Going with the full 5 star rating for another excellent addition, and looking forward to the next!

With a weight of 17 pages (two going to the cover and OGL/Credits pages), this PDF introduces us to the SGG answer for the Death Knight, an alternate class option, as opposed to an entirely new class. Essentially what we have here is a new skin for the anti-paladin, and an interesting skin to say the least.

Death Knights fall to two camps, those who respect the natural order of things, and those who want to watch it all crumble to ash, no matter how we get there. Alignments range from the neutral range through evil, with no good aligned death knights walking the planet anywhere (and seriously, who would want to cripple such a great idea with a good alignment anyway?). Presented with a small assortment of new feats, this was one of the areas I would have loved to see expanded upon, and expect to eventually see addressed in a future Bullet Point (hint hint). We are also given an assortment of new spells (the death knight casts from the anti-paladin spell list), with the majority of the spells focusing on Grave Summoning (in all nine of its levels) which allows for one to summon an undead to aid you. Grave Summoning easily dominates the entire spell section, both with the individual entries, and the chart detailing all of the available undead at the varying levels, as well as rules for customizing the lists by adding more undead for a more personal flair.

Amusingly one of the most interesting things covered within this PDF is not in regards to the death knight themselves, but to what is known as The Low Road, an extra-planar region wherein the souls of the dead travel to their final rest, a "highway" of the dead if you will, completely cut off from the living and organic, accessible only in the concept of summoning from, and even then only by those who would know it exists, as no mortals have ever truly witnessed it to be able to tell of it, as it can only be witnessed by the dead themselves. An interesting concept, and a great addition to the fluff of a campaign world in explaining why the other ethereal realms aren't choked full of the souls of the departed. Presented in such a way that a GM can easily leave it out if it isn't right for their campaign world though, as it is all fluff, with no crunch to have to work around, which was an excellent move on the part of Owen.

The class, if you can call it that as it blatantly states it is an alternative to the anti-paladin, using a great many of the anti-paladin class frameworks, has great flavor to it, and brings to the table an interesting build...but it also feels very much like there is more to be done here. Perhaps later down the road a revisit to the Death Knight will see it developed more through either new feats, spells, or class abilities...perhaps even all three. What is presented here is solid and good material, and it very much leaves you wanting more for this concept though, and that is exactly what a good design should do, leave you wanting more.

Found only one editing/grammar hiccup, a reference to death knights when it should have been death knight (I know, tiny mistakes right? lol), but was sad to see no bookmarks. Artwork is fairly decent, and spread throughout the PDF, far more than I expected to see actually.

Finalizing with a 4.5 star, that I shall round down to 4, as the no bookmarks, and potential to do so much more with this one kept it from a 5 for me. Now, having said that, this is still an excellent product, and a great base work for a character of this nature, and well worth the price of admission.

Another addition to the Bullet Point series following the 3 page standard, with a landscape orientation and a few pieces of B&W artwork (the pieces being of different dagger styled weapons). This time up we're looking at a few new Athames, the ceremonial dagger of the Witch, used mainly within their ritual hexing. Each Athame is presented as a magical item with a full statblock write up giving Aura, CL, Slot, Price, Weight and Construction Requirements as well as a full description. What I felt was missing though was the fact that all five of these items are in fact daggers, and therefore should have been presented with weapon statistics as well. Yes, anyone can assume they all do the standard dagger damage, but that may not be entirely true, as one may be larger, or perhaps designed oddly (the Hawksclaw) and therefore might do a damage that is different than the average dagger. Is an Athame typically wielded as a weapon? Probably not, but at the end of the day, that is what it is.

Each of the Athames presented here add an interesting flavor to this basic tool within a Witch's possession, and for that alone this PDF is worth the price, but the fact that each Athame also brings with it enhancements for the Witch to utilize makes it all the better.

An overall decent product, I would love to say great product, but the fact that the very idea of this PDF is to present Athames that are not the standard boring dagger, only to completely overlook damage ratings for them, that keeps this from being what it could have been for me. Settling for a 4 star rating, as I do like the hex enhancements, and the Athames are interesting in their variations.

Following the standard Bullet Point format with three pages, landscape orientation with new material presented with a three column format and a few pieces of stock art (one of which is truly creepy and cool), this addition to the Bullet Points series gives us three new abilities for monsters.

Beguiling Voice grants a monster that silver tongued ability to befriend and ingratiate themselves to any target, making it difficult for foes to follow through with hostile actions towards them.
Camouflage allows for a color changing ability within the outer hide/skin of the creature, allowing for a stealth check that can leave the monster with total concealment against those who do not make a high enough perception check.
Doubling Regeneration might be better known as the Hydra complex, as it allows for two limbs to grow back to replace any one that is severed, as long as there is no acid or fire damage done to the severed limb's stump before the growth can occur.

Perhaps shorter than many of the Bullet Points, the three abilities presented here are still all solid options, and are all presented with CR rules for their addition to a monster. Design wise the collection falls well within the range of still being a good value for the price, and more than worthy of the rating of 5 stars.

Following the standard Bullet Point layout of three pages in landscape mode, with the material being presented in a three column format, with a few pieces of B&W artwork (that cover piece being an excellent choice of stock art by the way), this addition to the Bullet Point series focuses on those not quite dead critters we GM's love to throw in wave after wave at our players.

Disturbing Movements is the feat for all of you fans of the Oriental ghost story movies, and will give you translated game mechanics to add the bizarre stop motion jerkiness to your undead.
Fulminate takes us further into Hollywood hilarity....when reduced low enough in hit points, the undead simply goes Ka-Boom! Dealing fire damage to a radius around their location. Best part, if the pieces aren't all found and dealt with, the undead reforms, lol
Mist Walk answers that question of how does that slow moving shuffling body always manage to get ahead of the people its chasing? Well, we'll suffice to say it's taking a shortcut, lol.
Putrid Spray will have your players rethinking their tactics in attacking your undead, as any hp damage can be answered with a spraying of putrid disease ridden puss.
Shadow Minion allows for the ultimate dark Peter Pan moment, as it allows you to detach your shadow, using it as a loyal agent....ohhh, the wrongness that creeps through my brain in pondering the many many usages for this.
Staggering Consequences is an interesting concept in that it allows an undead to “hold on” to the energy of an energy attack used against them a few rounds, creating an “aura” of this energy around them that can damage those within surrounding areas. i.e. acid attacks would hang on their outer skin and drip off as caustic fluids, ice forms a frozen mist, burst into flames, etc.
Weapon Bind I can see a crafty GM using as a great way to remind a group that there is more to surviving then simply owning the biggest weapon. With this feat an undead has a higher percentage of catching an attacker's weapon within their body, forcing an opponent to free their weapon before being able to use it again.

Editing as usual falls within the top notch category, and the feats are all well thought out in that they all bring an interesting new twist to the table for a GM to make an encounter with undead something the players won't soon forget. Well worth the price, and an easy 5 stars.

Following the three page, landscape with three pieces of B&W artwork (all weaponry this time), with material presented in a three column approach, this Bullet Point stays within the format we've all come to know as the Bullet Point look.

Six new flavorful feats to turn spiritual weapon into a spell with more creativity behind it, we are presented such options as:

Large Spiritual Weapon OK, this was almost the prerequisite, knew it was going to be on the list, type of thing, as no list of this nature is complete until we get this one out of the way.
Spiritual Arcana trades on the attack bonus points from your Wisdom bonus for a list of different weapon special abilities. Massive potential in this one for the player willing to experiment with it, could easily see this being one of those feats that becomes a go to for always having the right means of attack at hand.
Spiritual Arsenal gives the player a greater flexibility in what manner of weapon forms from the spell, allowing them to choose weapon forms from any melee weapon they are proficient with.
Spiritual Sheath allows you to push “pause” on the duration of a summoned weapon, allowing the weapon to dissipate, recalling the weapon when ready without losing any time remaining within its duration.
Spiritual Specializationlets you combine the weapon focus feat to add additional damage based upon your ability scores.
Two-Spirit Fighting allows you summon two weapons instead of one, with a specific set of damage and attack penalties coming along with the two weapon attack concept.

Overall, an excellent set of feats, fantastic editing, and pretty much everything I expect from a Bullet Point addition. Well worth the price of admission folks, another 5 star to the SGG crew.