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I like Purple Duck Games, I really do. I have a couple of books by them. I also love martial arts stuff in RPG games, and was really excited about this book... but I was completely dissapointed by it. Why? Because this class is completely broken, badly written and designed.

The basics of the class is that you are a monk that is based on charisma. You get all the cool stuff of the monk, plus way more. And while you don't get a ki pool, you get chi, which never depletes. You even get the ability to use monk feats with limited usage, like stunning fist or elemental fist, any number of times! Why? just because.

If being an overpowered monk wasn't enough, you get way too many special abilities that run between high powered to horribly broken!

The worst offender in my opinion is called "Strike Challenge", which made me lost all the excitement about this product and made me look really close at the power of the abilities, which made me ban this book forever in my games. What does the ability do? You kind of challenge a target next to you (no save, no touch attack, unavoidable crap) to a blow trade, making 2, 3 and finally 5 opposed rolls. If you win, you do full damage, but if the opponent wins, he inflicts only its strength modifier to the all-mighty chi warrior. Consider this situation:
"Hey mage, let's trade blows"
"Sorry but I'm not that into melee"
"Too bad... you see, you kind of have to since I'm next to you"
"DM be damned for allowing this crap... ok then"
"What? you beat me miraculously? Well, what is your Str?"
"8, why?"
"No damage for me then LOL"
"..."
"Now I win, suffer buttloads of damage"
"But I have mirror image, stone skin, displacement and other spells!"
"Nop, sorry"

While not all abilities are this broken, most of them are way more than what other martials get. It is a shame since the concepts in the book and even the abilities' fluff are cool.

I would have given this book 2 stars, but I consider the author comming and reviewing his work as auto-5 stars as very bad sport, so 1 star it is. Since this is a class book, the concepts do nothing to save the bad mechanics. This book needs a complete re-write to be of any worth to anyone. It is really a shame since all othe Purple Duck Games books I have are really good, and even the author's other works I have are not as badly written as this. A damn shame.

EDIT: The author changed his review score, and I did accordingly since I believe the fluff of the chi warrior salvages the rest of the book. The mechanics though, are in dire need of a re-write.

I remember the playtest version of the alchemist. Like with all of the Advanced Player’s Guide’s classes, at first I thought it was Paizo’s falling into the class bloat train, but oh boy wasn’t I pleasantly wrong? The alchemist in particular looked really nice, and is one of my favorite PFRPG classes. There have been many options for this class in particular, so I will try to compare with existing resources when possible. Please note that this is NOT A PLAYTEST REVIEW. However, I have played RPGs for 2 decades and I have a good gut sense for broken things.

I received a free copy of this PDF for reviewing. This takes me to the days before PDFs, when you could skim books at hobby stores to see if you wanted to buy it or not. So after this review, apart from the score, I will mention if I would buy this PDF or not. The asking price is pretty standard, 6 bucks for 34 pages, with 5 of those being cover, intro, table of contents, license etc., which leaves us with 29 pages of crunch. The book’s design looks good, and even though it has a few pictures, most of them are just decorative and don’t really wow me; but this is a crunch book, not a bestiary or an art book.

We start with 9 archetypes, the first one being the Academician. These knowledge experts add all knowledge skills to their class list and even gain Skill Focus in one of them. Instead of bombs they get access to traps, which they can place as a standard action and are difficult to detect. These are not the same as a ranger’s, since basically they are bombs in mine form. Apart from the detonation mechanic (which gives the target/s a Ref ST) traps are treated as bombs in all other ways, even bomb-modifying discoveries. Apart from this, the academician gains a variant mutagen, the insightogen, which improves the academician part giving bonus to Kn. checks and even temporary instant access to discoveries and extracts. The traps themselves give a wholly different and tactical playstyle to the alchemist; however, the Academician part feels a bit off with the traps, and two different archetypes could have been made with these two abilities. There is an alchemical trapper archetype for kobolds that has a similar ability, but the academician’s traps are much more detailed.

The second archetype would be the Botanist. It gains some extra weapon proficiencies and a bonus to some skills, plus a small AC and Dmg bonus against opponents attacked by the alchemist and its plant companion in exchange for Brew Potion. They also gain Organic Bombs that deal piercing damage instead of fire. These don’t specify if they count as magic against Damage Reduction since bombs are treated as thrown weapons, but I would say they do. They also receive a modified Verdant Mutagen that works a bit different but more importantly can also be imbibed by the plant companion. The Botanist also gains a plant companion from a small list of dangerous plant, and they also gain intelligence of 1 and a snail’s speed if they didn’t have either. The companion advances, and stacks with, as an animal companion, and replaces most poison related abilities plus a discovery. To round up the archetype, a botanist adds quite a few druid spells as extracts, although some lack the flavor of extracts since they are a bit “external”. There are many “woody” alchemist archetypes out there, with the half-elf Bramble Brewer having a similar ability to the Verdant Mutagen, and then there is the Herbalist from Paizo Fans United which is very different in flavor. The plant companion alone gives this archetype a very different approach to most other alchemist archetypes.

Next in line would be the Humoralist, which has one of the best concepts for an alchemist archetype. It’s so obvious it isn’t even funny and I have no idea why this hasn’t been done before. The Humoralist gains access to elemental domain spells as spell-like abilities by imbibing a variant mutagen, called Elemental Temperament, that alters the balance of humors, but this imbalance has a cost depending on the element, and this cost gets stepper with every drink. Note that this archetype doesn’t mention duration, so I have no idea when it is safe to imbibe a new Elemental Temperament. This ability replaces mutagen and lowers bomb damage increases to half. Later the Humoralist gains bonus to saves against elemental damage instead of poison; they DON’T get resistance and then they later get immunity to elemental damage. I would have added resistance instead of bonus to saves, it’s way better specially against attack that offer no save. They can imbibe different, but not opposed, Elemental Temperaments, even though in the original ability there is no mention about NOT being able to do so in the first place. Finally they get a healing ability though sadly it only cures HP. A very high concept archetype that needs a bit of cleaning regarding the wording of its main ability.

The Kiln Crafter is the next archetype. It exchanges the brew potion feat for being very good potters (not Harry), including the ability to make ceramic weapons and armor that are lighter, brittle but a bit stronger, and while they can’t make bows or crossbows there is no mention of ammunition, which would be too strong because of the increased power of ceramic weaponry. Instead of Throw Anything they get Disposable Weapon. Kiln Crafters don’t get mutagens, but instead they get another way of making ceramic weaponry even stronger. Later they get an ability to add acid damage to their ceramic weapons by funneling acid into a special cavity; this is a missed opportunity, since albeit obvious there is no mention of OTHER liquids, in particular I would have added Holy Water to the options. Finally they can make Terra-Cotta Guardians at the cost of a discovery and the +6 resistance to poison. Note that they still become immune to poison later, which in my opinion makes the cost of the bonus to poisons negligible. This archetype is a tad strong for my tastes, since being able to arm a whole army with ceramic weapons and armor is overkill.

The Natural Transmuter is an alchemist that again borrows from history for its flavor, in this case able to transmute one material into another. While the concept sounds really good, some of the abilities have weird wording that may be gotten wrong by players, so be careful when reading this archetype. Instead of extracts, they prepare extractors which under the Alchemy ability sound like they completely replace extracts, which you don’t learn they don’t until later. Basically, extractors are extracts but you can leave some open to counterspell and then redirect single-target arcane spells after successfully identifying them with Spellcraft. Instead of mutagens, Natural Transmuters get access to Transmutagen, which can be used to transmute specific elements into their opposites. Overall a nice weird archetype.

Next we have the Pyrotician (or Pyrotechnician according to the product description), who instead of bombs can enhance fireworks with extra properties. This can be too strong or too weak depending on how you spend money, since as it stands, you DON’T get free fireworks per day; instead you must buy them or make them yourself but you don’t get a daily limit and you ADD the bomb damage to the firework’s. Firework Mastery replaces both Poison Use and Resistance, and gives you more options when using fireworks. Instead of Swift Poisoning they get Big Finish, which reads as VERY powerful. According to Fireworks Mastery, Pyroticians can tie a number of fireworks equal to half their level, and with Big Finish they can aim all of them as a move action. The ability doesn’t forbid the aiming of all the bundled fireworks to a single target, so at high levels you could nova like nobody else. At 6th level when this ability comes on line, we are talking about a potential of 15d6+ 3 times Int bonus! The most powerful firework does 2d6, add the extra 3d6 from the Firework Display ability and then the Int bonus, getting more insane with every level increase. Sure it will cost you a lot of money but well.

The Supplementum may have a weird name, but they are the meta-alchemists. At the cost of the mutagen ability, they can create additives called Enhancers that can improve Alchemical Items, Bombs, Extracts and both Potions and Oils. They can also use two poisons at the same time in exchange of the poison resistance ability. Unlike other archetypes that give up this ability, you still get poison immunity, so the cost is negligible at high levels.

The penultimate archetype is the Venom Bomber which takes up two and a half pages! They get a Venom Bomb that deals POISON damage instead of the normal bomb’s fire damage. This type of damage doesn’t exist in PFRPG AFAIK, I think I saw it in 4ed D&D but that is another game. Since these bombs work like poison, they sicken their target and continue to deal damage for a number of rounds equal to Int modifier. Instead of the normal extra damage bombs get (and the mutagen ability), the Venom Bomber gets a modification point to, well, modify their bombs. These can be used to increase damage or duration, ignoring specific monster type’s immunity to poison, changing the sickened condition for others, deal ability damage and other nice (for you, not your targets) effects. They can also convert their venom bombs into a more standard poison that can even be used by others, but the dose becomes inert after 24 hours, preventing the Venom Bomber to get amazingly rich by selling crazy good poisons. They COULD be sold as temporary poisons, though. A very thematic if powerful take on the poisoner.

The final archetype would be the Viscuous Arcanist, who can create programmed ooze-like gels that carry the effects of their extracts, which are drawn from the alchemist list as normal but also from 2 schools of wizardly magic. The Viscuous Arcanist can either drink or DIRECT the gels! The tiny ooze gets its own stat-block. Their bombs are also Volatile Oozes. They also get resistance to acid instead of poison (up to 20). This is one of the strongest archetypes, not because of the oozes, but because of the expanded formula list. I think they get too much for too little.
After the archetypes we get two “theurge” classes that combine the alchemist with the ranger and the summoner. Both prestige classes look good if a bit bland in concept. I really dislike “theurge” classes, but at least these two combine different class features and stay away from ye olde “+1casterlevel/+1caster level”. Good for very specific concept but not characters I would play.

After the prestige classes we have a veritable selection of new Discoveries. Some of this are specially made for the new archetypes (specially the Viscuous Arcanist). Among them we have some that improve the alchemist’s mastery of alchemical items and potions or let him become a better healer or poisoner. Of note is the Contaminant line of discoveries, which add specific, offensive spells to the formula available to the alchemist. They have very concise rules regarding their use: they can be imbibed by victims or applied to weapons as poisons. If a weapon leaves the alchemist possession, the contaminant becomes inert, so forget adding one to your Barbie companion’s axe. The Contaminant list includes some enchantment, necromancy and transmutation effects, but all of them are in line with what someone would expect and alchemist to perform. I liked these so much that I would have loved a Contaminator archetype who got access to ALL of the contaminants in exchange for mutagens and/or bombs.

To round up the PDF we get two pages and a half of plant companions, designed specifically for the Botanist but available to others who get a similar ability, at the GMs discretion.

Reviewing this PDF took me the whole afternoon, and I wrote a way more thorough review than I normally do, since I felt compelled by the fact that I received this for free for reviewing purposes. Despite some of the archetypes being very powerful, I really would recommend this book for anyone that enjoys the alchemist class or the concept itself. I would BUY it myself to make npc’s, since I rarely have the chance to sit on the other side of the GM screen. For a score, I would give this PDF a 4.5 (rounded down sadly), since the balance of some of the archetypes is a bit off and the prestige classes don’t do anything for me, but the Venom Bomber and the Viscuous Arcanist, plus the Contaminant discoveries are honestly very cool to give this PDF a lower score. A very special thanks to The Flying Pincushion Games for giving me the opportunity to review this book for you, I hope I didn’t disappoint.

If you are reading this, it is because A) you already own Covenant Magic, or B) you got here by accident. For the later, this is a follow-up product that needs the original Covenant Magic, and for the former, read on...

Covenant Magic was one of the first 3rd party product I got for Pathfinder, with the premise that it was one of the best designed classes out there. Awesome flavor, interesting mechanics and NO VANCIAN MAGIC!!! You have a magical class unlike any other! After buying this product and passing the exceptisism phase, I bought the second as soon as it was out. I wrote some questions and suggestions in the product page and after a couple of weeks, THIS was out, and to my surprise, my ideas were used, but in a polished and more focused way!

After the intro, what do you get for 3 bucks? After some FAQs, we get into the meat of the product. Dark Hedonism, Elysian Blessings, Faith Slayer, Kyton Enlightment, Qlippothic Redeemer and Sacred Duty influences.

Dark Hedonism is an influence given by Rakshasa and Oni, and also by an intriguing, cool new outsider type called the Yaksha (which sadly has not been fully released). I would have added some Fey (like satyrs) but well, I can do that on my own. Ths is the influence to go if you want to charm and dominate opponents. I think this influence is cool for a player but it's way better for villians, just go and read caligula's article on wikipedia and you will see.

Elysian Blessing is Azata-based. One of the complaints I got from my players about the first book is that it only included very general influences when talking about good and evil, so having a chaotic good feyish one is a must. This is an amazing influence for those who want a paladin-like character but of chaotic good alignment, and if you play in Golarion for anti-Cheliax Halflings. Most of its power help you fight tyranny (lawful evil) and break free from magic (freedom of movement, break enchantment etc.)

Faith Slayer is a very thematic influence that gives you the tools to fight religion. Since religion is very big part of many campaigns, care must be taken from both players and game masters when including this for a player character, but it can bring awesome roleplaying between a Faith Slayer Medium and a Cleric, Paladin or other religious characters. These mediums make also great villians for the same characters.

Kyton Enlightment is another thematic influence. Kytons themselves are one of the great additions of Paizo to the Outsider categories. At the barest kytons are S&M LE outsiders that live in the plane of shadows. The influence gets many pain and resilience-related powers. This is a great option for tragic PCs or for players who like Kytons but don't want to play a cleric or other not-thematically-perfect class.

And talking about tragic, dark heroes, Qlippothic Redeemer is one of the craziest out there. This is NOT an evil influence per se. If you want to play a character that uses fire to fight fire, this is the influence for you. You oddly but fittingly get powers related to fiends (Qlippoths specifically), calming evil or disabling it.

Finally we have the Sacred Duty influence, whic is perfect for Osirian or Pharasmite characters if you play in Golarion, or in undead-filled adventures like The Mummy's Mask. The most important thing here is that you DON'T HAVE TO BE GOOD! The outsiders related to this influence are psychopomps, which are neutral. All of the influence's powers let you fight better against the undead.

Apart from the influences, we get the Technophobe archetype, which gets powers against technology. I don't really know why this isn't a new influence instead of an archetype but well, it is cool if you fight against technology or play a tech heavy campaign like Iron Gods.

Then we get into the new covenants related to the influences introduced in this book, and some sample NPCs which use Covenant Magic. These are not only basic NPCs, but there are also monsters with class levels!

In conclusion, if you have the original Covenant Magic and it's follow-up, shell those three bucks and you will have access to these new, flavorful influences for your PCs/NPCs. This material really pushes the envelope of what the Medium is!

As I said in my review of “The Way of Ki” by Legendary Games, martial arts and the ones who practice them, especially in rpgs, are a passion of mine. I’m the proud owner of “The Way of Ki” and its follow-up, as well as “The Talented Monk” and its follow-up, so when I heard there was going to be an update of the monk in the “Pathfinder Unchained” book I was excited. Then, since I don’t have a subscription, I was reading comments in the boards about the good the bad and the ugly of the unchained monk, and then I read a comment by the author of “The Monk Unfettered”. I normally don’t buy products on a whim, but I liked the comment, and the name of the book resounded with the unfettered class from Arcana Evolved, and I said to myself “Why the effing not?” So well, I ended shelling 6 bucks for a 38-page pdf; I think I once paid double for half that, so it isn’t a bad deal.

I normally don’t talk about the art, since I’m normally only interested in the crunch and fluff in a product, but the cover and the interior art is simple but really good. It has a cartoonish feel that reminds me of Samurai Jack.

The Unfettered Monk (UM from now on) class chassis is the same, same weapon and armor proficiencies and restrictions, same skill list and skill points, medium BAB, all 3 good saves, and a d8 HD. But when things get different is in the class features. The most important difference is the flurry mechanic. Instead of gaining virtual full-BAB and virtual two-weapon fighting feats, the UM gains extra attacks at its highest bonus. At first I thought this was nuts but after reading the explanation and comparing the number of attacks with the ones from the Core Monk, I got the designer’s intention. Basically, the UM gets LESS attacks but at a higher bonus, which the author guarantees translates into the same damage. I particularly like this change.

After all of that, how’s the UM like? Well, before talking about the new stuff, let’s talk about what they have lost. First, while they don’t gain any bonus feat, they can get some feats with their Insights (more on this later), and they don’t get Maneuver Training, High Jump, Wholeness of Body, Improved Evasion, Diamond Body, Abundant Step, Diamond Soul and Empty Body (which can also be gained with insights). So in total, the UM loses 14 class features.

On the plus side, they get unarmed damage two levels faster than Core Monk, but really the most important aspect of the UM are their insights, of which they get one at first level and every even level thereafter for a total of 11. Insights are selectable class features akin to rogue talents, revelations and so on. There are quite a few of these, and a lot of them are similar to archetypes abilities, if not in effect in theme. That is why the UM is not compatible with most of the Core Monk’s archetypes, with the sole exception of the Qiggong Monk, which can still trade the remaining monk features or insights for Ki powers. The insights are really what makes the UM interesting. You want a trickster monk that controls the fight? What about a swift warrior that is difficult to hit, and with Dex to damage? A sagacious teacher that can share Ki powers with the party, and even some ninja tricks if multiclass? A master of the pressure points? A ghost eater who grapples spirits? A drunken master? An element bender? Or how does a demon hunter who can dismiss fiends sound? All of these and more can be done with careful selection of insights. Also worth mentioning is that some of these insights alleviate the MADness of the monk.

Apart from the Insights, we get some new feats. Some of these are not intended for the UM but for other characters to dabble in insights, or for multiclass the UM. The rest include Extra Insight, a cool but feat intensive Style Shift and one of the best feats ever that IMHO really captures the Ki “magic” of the monk, Ki Craft. There is an option to take a feat which lets you be a non-lawful monk, but only for a couple of levels; with a total of 4 feats to be able to reach 20th level, which is too costly for my taste. After this comes a section of New Favored Class Options, which is interesting since it is not race specific but unlike all other FCB I have seen some of these have prerequisites. There is a clear difference in power in some of these though.

We then find a section of sample monks, with 7 npcs with levels from 1 to 19, and I really liked these because each represent a very different type of monk and show several types of “builds”, like the strong, the wise, the dexterous, the drunkard etc.

Then we have a section with a couple of magical items with some imaginative ones, nothing too outrageous but also nothing lame. Then we have a section of how the UM works with existing archetypes. After this we have a “combo” section with some interesting interactions between insights. And finally 3 pages of design notes, which help understand the intention behind some decisions. I particularly enjoyed this section since it can help you make similar decisions for your own games. The pdf ends with an insight reference table.

There were few things I didn’t enjoy, like the cost of being a non-lawful monk or some redundant insights (not many, mind you, which is a difficult task when you take into account that there are more than 100). Also there is one thing I don’t like about the monk (be it core, unchained, unfettered or talented), and that is the number of skill points. Most of the ¾ BAB classes have 4 or more skill points, which irks me because the monk is not a spell caster, and the Bard, Inquisitor, Alchemist and Investigator can be as good in combat as a monk, they have 6 skill points ON TOP, and even the Ranger, a full BAB/d10 HD has 6! The full BAB may or may not be necessary for the monk, but in my ideal world they do have 6 skill points.

After all is said and done, the UM is a very nice option for the Core Monk and I would dare to say is the best variant monk I have seen even with the things I didn’t enjoy. If it had 6 skill points per level, instead of being Unfettered, it would be the Perfect monk.

It’s been a while since I played, or even read, a Gothic-themed supplement for any kind of system. I began playing D&D with a friend in the Dragonlance campaign setting during high school, which at the time included literature classes. In them I started reading Poe, which made me wonder if there were any horror themed RPGs. To my surprise there was a complete line as part of D&D! The name is something I still remember fondly: Ravenloft.

All the games I ran were in Ravenloft, which was a cool, Gothic D&D setting with a lot of rules to better represent the genre. Even after 2nd edition died and my group started playing 3rd edition, I still had some influence from my Ravenloft days. Then D&D died for me (with the advent of 4th edition) and years later it was reborn (again, for me) as Pathfinder. The first book I got a look at was about Ustalav, which had a slightly Ravenloft-esque flavor. Later I heard that there was an adventure path with Ustalav as the background and a Gothic theme. And then I read there was a company who made sourcebooks for these, well, sourcebooks, and I was intrigued. Alas, I couldn’t afford them at the time, but I was an avid reader of each and every book’s review. Finally one of my friends wanted to play an invisible man and bought an invisibility-themed sourcebook, which I read… And man, was I impressed!
The flavorful names of the grimoires were only the beginning, with a lot of flavor and a great deal of crunch (for the size), I was really impressed and wished I had the money for the others. And then I read there was going to be a compilation!

I bought it as soon as I had the cash (well, before that but who cares), and let me say that every single part of the book is amazing! The fluff specially is wonderful, as should be from a Gothic sourcebook. However, what I liked the most were the topics. No vampire y or werebeast x, I already read the Van Richten Guides for that (which are mostly fluff anyway and easily adaptabl to Pathfinder), so I was amazed to read about niche horror themes like cannibalism, madness, invisibility, mutations and Lovecraftian mythos. All of the fluff is accompanied by expertly crafted crunch, with lots of spells, archetypes, feats, items and monsters!

However, after reading all the compendium, I am very sorry to say that not everything was to my liking. I know I just said that everything in the book was amazing, and I still do… but the way it is presented in my opinion detracts from the experience. First of all, I’m the proud owner (and reviewer) of most of the Far East sourcebook by Legendary Games, and I think they are the best electronic books I have the pleasure to own (and I have a lot), since apart from the content, the direct electronic links the e-books have are beyond awesome and, more importantly, extremely useful and time-saving. However, while the Gothic Campaign Compendium has them, it doesn’t have something a bit more simple: an e-index. While there is a very nice table of contents, it is not as useful as a fully functional sidebar index. I really hope Legendary Games adds one in the future.

But this wouldn’t really be that bad if it were not for the fact that this is a compilation… The main feature of the book is its greatest flaw: every single feat, spell, archetype and magic item has been torn from the original and put under a less elegant category, like character options, spells, monsters etc. I really think it would have been better to organize different chapters by topic instead of by category. While I’m reading the feats I jump from chirurgy to mummies to cults to metamagic. The same with the archetypes, we start with an alienist summoner, then go to an apostate inquisitor and then to aqua-alchemist (the bathynaut). The flavor is all over the place! If this was a dinner, it would be as if they gathered all the main dishes (minus dessert), blended them, and served them in different plates. This doesn’t happen with the characters or the adventures, which thankfully have their own chapters.

Another flaw, and believe me the last, is that there are some things that are repeated, specifically the mythos descriptor/subtype information. I think it is repeated more than twice! I find that unacceptable, maybe once under spells and once under monsters.

I know I may sound harsh but believe me, it is a pain to be reading the exquisite fluff of the Omnia Mutandis grimoire only to have to jump through a lot of hoops to see the accompanying archetypes, spells etc.
But after all, the Compendium includes genuinely fabulous material and superb fluff of a quality not found anywhere else in Pathfinder, not even the official material itself! I will try to get a physical copy, it will have a place of honor next to the Van Richten’s guides themselves.

In conclusion, while Legendary Games material cannot really be scored with a 5 system, this particular volume, with its flawed organization, which is made worse with lack of an alleviating index, loses a normally more than well-deserved star. So 4 stars for me.

"Meditations of the Imperial Mystics" is not only a cool named book. It is a sequel to the great "The Way of Ki". While you don't require that book to fully utilize this one, it really shines with the options from the prequel.

MotIM is a collection of 4 special "spellbooks", each made for specific types of classes in mind:

-Body Outside Body is the first tome and the one with the broadest audience, being usable by both arcane and divine spellcasters, as well as by ki users. It gives various benefits depending on your expertise, specifically 9 almost-psionically-themed feats and works as a spell book with more than a dozen spells, 2 of which are new. It feels very "yogic" to me, which is a plus if you want to make a monk who is less combat oriented.

-Instructions of Yin-Blood/Instructions of Thundering Yang is an Arcane and Ki tome, being better in the hands of arcane spellcasters and ki users. The double name refers to the fact that depending on how you read it, it has different abilities to teach/enhance. A really neat idea. It focus on the idea of yin and yang, teaching, enhancing or lending abilities that focus on opposing concepts like light/darkness, cold/heat, vitality/exhaustion. However, you can only study it one way or the other. What is very special of this book is that it doesn't include anything new. Yes, no new feats, no new spells, no nothing. But it shows a really creative way of allowing characters to be acquainted with metamagic, ki and specialization of concepts. Maybe Joe the Evoker now is going to be focused in electricity/sonic spells after reading this tome, and maybe he will even grow a beard. Or maybe he will focus on cold and darkness, change her name to Jane, and maybe grow a pair of... Well, not really but I have seen to much Swordsman II with Jet Li and that is a goldmine for ideas about how to introduce this tome in your campaign. Anyway, this is my favorite item becauce of the elegance in its design. It also works extremely well with the Qiggong Monk, or can inspire the DM to include tomes like this so the character learns his Qiggong from somewhere.

-Prayers of Empty Flesh & Undying Ki is the third tome, mixing Divine and Ki abilities in an interesting and flavorful way. Instead of a spellbook, it is a prayer wheel. It gives the feeling of transforming the user in a kind of undead, but not really. This tome includes 4 new flavorful spells, which the user can learn as clerical spells or Qiggong powers. One small caveat here... why not Oracle? An Oracle of Life or Bones would be really interested in learning some of these.

-Seven-Ghost-Needles is the final tome, specifically designed for Ki users but flavored a bit for good clerics and other healers. This one includes a collection of 8 feats that deal with the flow of energy in the body, giving several buffing/debuffing abilities to their adepts. Another small problem here is... there are some pats, apart from the title, where the text refers to the 7 abilities... but there are 8! But well, the more the merrier. If your party doesn't have a cleric and you are interested in playing a non-divine/bardic/witcher healer, this one is for you.

In conclusion, this book is worth for the flavor alone. It does thing that the authors didn't do, or didn't want to do, in the prequel. In my previous review I stated that I disliked the lack of options like spells or items in that book, but at least in those two specific cases, is covered here with elegance, panache and wire-fu. The size is again the only problem with this book, having 14 (again) pages of flavorful crunch. But 14 divided by 2 is 7 and 7 is a lucky number so you will have double the luck. OMG I'm so funny... Really... Anyway, if I had to describe this book in just one word, that would be: Enlightening.

Let me introduce myself. I'm known as The Xiao here at Paizo forums, but I have been an abid player since 2nd Ed. D&D and a passionate advocate of all things Eastern. I really enjoyed the old (1ed) Oriental Adventures and The Complete Ninja's Handbook, plus Dragon Fist and all 3rd and 3.5 Ed. Monk stuff. I was really eager to see the then new (3.5) Ninja class with it's ki powers, but was dismayed at the execution.

Since the 1ed OA there have been Ki powers (and martial arts), but their implementation were really rudimentary. The closest things to a GOOD Ki implementation in 3/3.5 Ed., or D&D for that matter, was a book called Beyond Monks, which used the amount of Stunning Fists as your Ki gauge, and made a chain of feats to use that reserve.

Fast forward to Pathfinder... The new Monk has a Ki pool! It may be old news by now, but well, it is a vast improvement from all the old versions. The core rules have very limited ways to use that reserve, and only the Monk could have it... Until "The Way of the Ki".

Not taking into account expansions to the Core Rules, TWoK is, as the authors put it, an addition to what is already there. Ways to acquire Ki with all characters, ways to use ki as a kind of mystical power that helps in non-combative ways, ways to help it destroy your foes, and even ways to use it to improve your spellcasting! The full numbers are:

-22 General Ki feats for all characters.
-21 Combat Ki feats, tailored to the warrior classes
-16 Magic Kifeats, excellent for all kind of spellcasters

The General Ki feats run the gamut from the meta-ki feats (feats that interact with ki, like sensing, sharing, improving, draining etc.) to the yogi/wu-xia tropes you would expect from the cultivation of internal energy, like resist extreme weather or levitate.

The Combat Ki feats cover all type of combat buffs and debuffs you would expect from ki users inspired by wu-xia, fighting games, comics, manga/anime and "historic" records, like being immovable, heal yourself, focus your mind on an attack, reading your opponent or breaking stuff. There are also some like the Kiai feat tree, which is a fundamental part in some real-world martial arts (the Kiai, not the feats, which is basically shouting with all your... guts). Being able to shout in combat with mechanical benefits is just so cool. Speaking of cool, the best feat ever in any incarnation of D&D: THE FREAKING HADOUKEN! If you ever wanted to impersonate a character from any fighting game, this is your best chance!

The last part, Magic Ki feats, let you focus your spell to be more precise, damaging, effective etc. Exactly what the old ki powers from 1Ed did, or should have done. Also, some of them give you some legendary martial arts abilities, like using your powers unconsciously or speaking with any creature.

My only caveat with this product, and its follow-up, is the size. It is really short (not counting covers, bios, aknowledgments, tables, index blah blah, only just 14 pages of cold, hard mechanics) and includes only feats. I think including archetypes, spells, items or even a new yogi/inkyo like class would have made this product force me to hack Paizo's website to add 6 stars! It is THAT good!

All in all, if you are interested in anything ki related for your eastern-flavoured (not necessarily themed) campaign, this is worth its megabytes in gold pieces.