Lord Mhoram's page

Note - this review is based on reading the material, and in some cases trying builds with it - it is not based on gameplay.

The purpose of this product is to take ideas in the point based Psionics system from Dreamscarred press, and adapt it to work with standard Pathfinder Psychic Magic. Whether the initial idea is one that works for the reader is up to individual tastes. Personally I like more options, so I am completely for it.

Taking things out of order - This gives a nice boost of the amount of new Psychic Magic spells. Many of them utilize undercasting, supporting the new mechanic. Any time we support a new official mechanical widget like that from 3PP is a good thing. The spells are well thought out, and very flavorful.

The classes are well thought out - Mentalist being an arcanist style caster, the Psion and Psychic Warrior being the Psychic version of the Dreamscarred classes. Archtypes cover Vitalist, Wilder and Dread, as well as some new ones. I found them very well done, but I am a fan of Psychic magic, as well as the point based Psionic system. Psychic Energy works as a nice adaption of the flexibility of the point system. Psychic Focus for Psion works, and also borrows a bit from charging burn.

Included are variant multiclass and favored class bonuses.

Layout and art are up to RGG and Everyman standards.

Overall Rated a 4.5 rounded down. There seemed to be some ineffable "needs something" that I can't but my finger on. Overall if you like Psychic Magic you should buy this. If you are neutral, you should buy this. If you are a big fan of the point based system, and think Psychic Magic and Occult Adventures was a bad idea, steer clear.

Snap Judgement Review: This review is based on multiple read throughs not actual gameplay.
Disclaimer: This copy was obtained as a free review copy.

This small PDF purports to help Magus multiclass. I love mixing classes or finding the exact way for character conception, without "tactical dipping". So I was very excited when I got this.

After reading it, the excitement stood. The book does exactly what is says on the tin. Great collection of feats to help multiclassing for the Magus. If the rest of the "X-feats" books are of this quality I am sold for the series.

The two worries with multiclassing enhancement is that they are too weak, in which case why bother, or too strong, where you can't use them. In reading this a few times, I didn't see any that really jumped out at me as unusable.

The book may not be a huge book, but it sets out for a modest achievement, and fulfills that perfectly. 5 Stars.

Snap Judgement Review: This review is based on multiple readhthrough not actual gameplay.
Disclaimer: This copy was obtained as a free review copy.

Bevy of Blades is a 21 page PDF detailed 4 new classes, with similar effects – a magic blade they can create and wield. Of course there is the immediate impulse to compare to the Soulknife class from DSP, but I will refrain from that, other than to say this is a different kind of beast. All Classes are full BAB classes.

The Aether Blade is a magical fighting class, that manipulates magical energy; can “absorb” the bonuses of magic items found to give his blade those bonuses- a rather unique “made the summoned blade magical” mechanic. Can utilize abilities from Rod, Staves and Wands in a unique way, and has some spell ability – gaining a very few spells as a spell like ability. The class also has the ability to generate aura's to help the rest of the group.

Shadow Blade is sneakier, has precision type damage, and shadow manipulation powers.

Verdant Blades are nature types. They have actual spellcasting – 4th level, druid list. He can also implant seeds to cause status effects.

Vital Blade focus swords they shape from their own blood; the also have a lot of body control abilities.

Archetypes for the classes, feats and favored class bonuses are all included. There are 5 pages of cover, ToC Author's notes and OGL. 16 pages of content.

The overall impression is good – a lot of very flavorful classes that work very well for magical fighter types; I plan to allow them in my games. Definitely worth looking at. Nothing that jumps out as extremely strong or weak on read-through. I'd give it a strong 3, kicking up to 4 stars for the flavor contained.

This is a review based on reading it, and analysis rather than in play.

What is it - just what it says on the tin - an occult Mythic Path. It has the things you would expect; path abilities that are the psychic equivalents of things we saw for Archmage and Heirophant. But that is just the start.
Every Occult class has path abilities that work with it, either in general or specifically (such as a couple that interact with the Burn mechanic). Nothing seems overpowered (compared to other mythic paths). Also included is a spirit boon for Mediums based on the transcendentalist.

All in all a very good book, flavorful and in keeping with the core mythic rules. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer this review is based on reading the material, not in specifically playtesting it.

Golden Legionnaire is the next offering in the Purple Duck Games Prestige Warrior Archetype line. They previously had a similar group of general prestige, while this one focuses on fighter types.

These classes are a 20 level base class that incorporates elements of the classes going into the prestige class as well as the prestige class itself. This allows a player to play something that feels like the prestige class from level one; something I think as a great idea.

Golden Legionnaire is based on Fighter and Ranger going into the title prestige class.

At first level the Golden Legionnaire gains Defy Danger, one of the main abilities of the prestige class. 2nd level gets intercept. This really sets the tone for what the class is right away. As the class progresses more of the prestige class abilities come into play, as well as armor training from the fighter. Other abilities include being able to target an enemy that attacks an ally and gain bonus to hit and damage, giving AoO to those that use a 5 foot step, and improved aid another.

As a comparison to the Edition-which-shall-not-be-named – if you were looking for something that feels like one of the Defender classes, this is a great Pathfinder approach to similar feel.

Overall the class is well balanced to provide a very defensive fighter class, with quite a number of interesting abilities so it doesn't get samey to play.

It includes a sample golden legionnaire at 1st, 5th and 10th. A 7 page PDF and has bookmarks. Layout is easy to read and follow.

Overall a very solid class, but nothing reaches out to say "PLAY ME NOW!" 4/5.

Disclaimer – this review is based on read through and not actual playtesting.

Prestige classes have always had problems. In the olden days before Pathfinder, they were easy to abuse, dipping a level here and a level there to get something really super optimized. Then there was the fact that a lot of classes got boring at later levels, and prestige classes generally were a better choice than staying in your base class. Pathfinder changed that; the rule gave reward to those staying in a base class – lots of abilities based on class level, and new abilities gained, as well as capstone abilities. You take even 1 level outside your base class you lose your capstone ability. Not many campaigns get that far, but it does weigh on the mind.

Most prestige classes in Pathfinder are just not worth the effort. And some combinations of multiclassing don't work. The Exalted in Inner Sea Gods is an example of a different approach to prestige classes that weren't quite so problematic.

Really Simple Prestige Classes does this well.

Each class in the book is a 3 level prestige class, and aside from Runner, you cannot get into before 6th or 7th level. Runner, if you are human you could get into at 2nd level.

A lot of these classes seem unbalanced at first look – they seem too powerful – but that is a design point of the book; the classes presented make it a tough choice to take the class or take a level in your base class. Something most prestige classes don't do. Normally you are making a character to get a specific prestige class to get a character built around it. These classes are only 3 levels and give you character something really special to call their own, without requiring building from the ground up for that class. It lets you “dip” into the class for 3 levels and maintain balance with characters who stayed in base class.

I'm not going to go into the details of the classes, but this is a quick description of each posted in a thread by the publisher.

Acrobat: A three level class based around increases to acrobatics, evasion, and uncanny dodge.
Arcane Dabbler: Pick up a few useful spells and metamagic feats without impacting your BAB or HD too much.
Beastlord: Need an animal companion? Gain one that will be useful for the remainder of your levels as well as some nice abilities that focus on defeating/detecting beasts and magical beasts.
Enchanter: Is magical crafting your thing? Enchanter cuts down on crafting time and grants you some of the much-needed feats, allowing you to bypass a lot of red tape.
Magic User: Expand your spell list, boost your casting stats, and overall make your spellcasting more versatile.
Metamagister: Metamagic feats getting you down? Offset them with this class without sacrificing your caster level.
Runner: Need to get somewhere quicker? Runner boost your movement speed, deal with terrain challenges with ease, all while still offering attracting options for skirmishing characters.
Weapon Master: Why be good at one weapon when you can be good at all of them? (As a designer put it, “This one is a golf-bag fighter”.)
Weapon Specialist: Why be good at all the weapons when you can be an undisputed master of one? Gives early access to some weapon specific feats

Things I'd love to see in an update:
Bookmarks – while it is only an 18 page PDF, 16 pages of content, bookmarks to take the reader to each class would be nice. They are presented in alphabetical order and it's small so scrolling to the class is easy.

There were a few editing mistakes.

These little drawbacks don't impact the worth of this book, nor it's amazing content. This is one of the best player centric books of the year – both in content, and taking the idea of prestige classes in new directions and making them very useful. Hope more books follow, and it inspires other publishers to do similar things.
5/5

Disclaimer: This review is based on initial read through and impressions. Balanced concerns are touched on lightly.

Chapter One presents the Technician, a new 20 level base class designed around using the tech in this book. It is a 6 level “casting” class. The Technician uses Gadgets, which give bonuses using a point pool and 6 levels of Tinkers, effectively spells. Tinkers and Gadgets draw from the same pool. These choices are made at the start of the day. It feels like a cross between Incarna (or Essence if you follow Dreamscarred Press Akashic material) and a prepared Psionic – where you allocate your points at the start of the day. To be honest it would be pretty easy to reflavor this with magic for a more traditional settings – Gadgets are magic items, and Tinkers are spells, or maybe one time use magic items – to have a D&D 3.5 Artificer like class in your game.

This class has mechanical depth, flexibility and great flavor. There are numerous archetypes, and the class itself has Trades, or paths the Electrotech follows, for greater flavor and role definition. Note that one of the archetypes is a class that deals with symbiotes instead of gadgets.
This is one of the most flavorful classes I have seen in quite a while. Looks very fun to play.

The next 2 chapters deal with tech, and then the Gadgets that an Technician uses. It is a good collection to get you started. Personally I'd like to see more in an expansion, but I'm greedy.

The last chapter deals with game mechanics outside of the class: 2 new races, skill use, advice on how to work the systems into your game. Here we have Favored Class for every class before the Advanced Class guide; and the Technician has favored class bonuses for every race in the Advanced Race Guide. Also included is a history generator for use in the class section of Character History from the Ultimate Campaign Guide; there is support for buildings, towns and kingdom building from the same book, utilizing Electrotech. This level of support for the more “fringe” books is something you don't see very much from Third Party support, and it really should be done more often. Kudos to Radiance House for doing this – here is hoping more publishes take this approach. I would have loved to see Mythic content too, but as I said, I'm greedy.

Included is advice on how to include electrotech in your games, and at what level in impacts the world. The default nomenclature creates a feel for a pulp style approach, I'm using it for a steampunk feel, but change the names to real world names and it is perfect for modern settings – thus allowing for a broader use of the material.

I saw two or three minor editing mistakes.

The layout is easy to read, the art evokes the material.

Overall an excellent book and highly recommended.

5/5 stars.

P.S. If you use Interjection Game's Tinker class, the work Tinker gets multiple definition, I would humbly suggest the word “Widget” for the one time use effect items that a Technician uses.