Overall I rate this in the 3 star range.. . worth owning the pdf. Some elements are Very worthwhile, others. . . best left forgotten.
Magus: Casting is once per day, so I'll never touch it. It does have a spellpoint'esque system for recalling/spontaneously casting spells, which redeems it somewhat.
Masterpieces (Bard): Systemically wonderful. Exchange a Feat OR a Spell in exchange for a new performance ability (or half a feat as Expanded Arcana goes). Creating an illusionary wall through mime is something for the record books, and I've already grabbed the Planar Ally effect for my own bard.
Never built an Inquisitor myself, on my to-do list after reading the SinEater Archetype.
The Monk Vows are neat, but the Qinggong Monk is the real star. Rather then keeping you along a predetermined track, this Archetype allows the player to essentially design their own path. This is how class design should be. As far as I'm concerned this is the Core Monk. . . If only the more Archetypes were like this.
The Paladin got some fun additions with Vows, non-permanent (can be switched up or out based on campaign events) mini-archetypes which add fun flavor. The Fiend one is a good example, where the Paladin has an aura of Dimensional Anchor versus evil outsiders. Made me smile.
When building a Summoner recently I had wished for some spell-like abilities. . . now that they've been introduced I have learned to be more specific in how I worded things. . . I should have wished for SLAs worth taking. 1/day abilities should be excised from the design lexicon to begin with, 1/day 0 level spells? After redacting that goofiness the undead evolution looked neat.
Archetype wise they did a fun job. The BroodMaster allows for multiple small eidolons rather than one big one. Fun. The Master Summoner focuses on the Summon Monster ability of the class rather than the eidolon. Should be fun at later levels especially.
Witches got some fun Hexes. . . unfortunately no fix to their 1/day spellcasting. I enjoy flavor. . . but Some effort at making abilities useful would be appreciated. I'm speaking of "Child-Scent," the ability to smell children. As is, I wouldn't even use it with an NPC. Scent versus a creature type (like the favored enemy of the ranger), or even just handing them Scent. . . either way. The Cook People ability however, perfect as is :). . . Now if only you would correct that 1/day nonsense this class can come out of the NPC box and get used.
After Classes we get some fun'ish rules. Such as the friendly sport "Spell Duel", and the not so friendly SpellBlights (magical curse effects). Additional fluff and crunch on binding outsiders to your megalomaniacal whim. :)
Then comes Construct rules, enhancing those lovely constructs. Now that scarecrow really can get a brain, and the Tin-Man can get the heart. . . bit more gruesome then ol'Baum envisioned though.
Feats range from the good to the not. Most are good. Some aren’t.
Good feats like Antagonize, the fighter character can force the opponent to him/herself rather than the squishy mage. . . or the Eldritch Heritage chain of feats which grant the benefits of a Sorcerer bloodline to anyone who has the Charisma. An example of Bad is Skeleton Summoner. . . put aside the fact that personalizing your summon list should be default (sans feat) to begin with. . . two feats (Spell Focus: Necromancy and this one) so you can add the skeleton template to the options along with celestial and fiendish. . . a template which generally weakens more then it strengthens: 1/day. . . *blink*. . . so If I want to add some fluff that weakens a spell which is only marginally worthwhile to begin with. . . I spend two feats to do it . . and can only do this 1/day? Consider this feat Redacted.
Then: Words of Power.
For decades, the game has been bogged down by a poor design choice turned entrenched tradition. 1/day casting. Here was an opportunity to provide options for players more concerned with fun then metagaming how many encounters did the day have in store, thus when would be most min/max appropriate time to use that once per day ability of . . . whatever. Instead they created this. Still reliant on the 1/day or x/day systems currently in play, this system breaks down the various spells elements into a modular bits. The latter being a decent idea. They never got a system for combining words to be smooth, so how much can be combined at any one spell level is a bit nebulous. Benefits of the system are two that I can see. Multiple buff spells in one cast, and lack of expensive material components.
Some odd things: Why reduce the power of the cure spells. Instead of xd8+CL, it's xd6, with x/day boostable up to the original xd8. Odd.
Then comes Evocation style Words. Damage is the same, but the target words severely trim down the ranges. Replicating a fireball requires boosting (limited x/day meta word) the spell into a level 5 spell, this to a class of spell which is only marginally worth while to begin with.
Final problem is that it takes out the flavor of the spellcasters. The various versions of this game have all had some of the best spells flavor-wise. . . worst access to those spells, but awesome spells regardless. This system doesn't fix the access problem (1/day or x/day) and takes Away the one true bright spot of the casting system. . . the top-notch written spells. (I still flip through 2nd ed. stuff to read spell descriptions, happily Paizo continues this tradition) . . . Perhaps rules on how to convert the spells we have into words of power. . .
Final Thoughts:
Quit with the 1/day crap. Especially if I spend a feat, there should be no 1/day caveats in it.
If the player already has access to something, either through common sense, skills, or basic rules. . . Don't take it away and put a feat tax on it. If something needs to be clarified or constrained clarify it, don't feat tax it. The system, when originally written, was intended for the DM to be able to say "yes" to player ideas and requests. Want to hide that casting? DC 20 + spell level Sleight of Hand. . . Want to jump over rough terrain as part of a charge. . . Acrobatics. Those are rulings I have done over the years, I stand by them, and they stand today regardless of feat taxes or class abilities that either shouldn't exist. . . or enhance what the player's should be able to do by default.
There is a lot of material in this book. . . my commentary may seem harsh, but keep in mind I only mentioned a few feats out of a list that spans 4 pages. Likewise, there is a lot of good material worth getting. I recommend buying it, but I also recommend some parts be either redacted or undergo significant revision/rewrite.
