I wanted to thank the Paizoians for getting this up.
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Good to see this up! Thanks Vic (and Co.).
Though this is in the "Other" section, its a full race/class book with information for playing Kappas as a PC race from level 1. The kappa offer the chance to play a race of small creatures who actually excel at physical combat. Besides class archetypes for the kappa, it also contains the kappa bone breaker prestige class.
Though written with the Kaidan setting in mind (Japan based horror/fantasy realm for those not following us closely) the book is presented in a way making it adaptable to any fantasy setting, but especially those with an oriental flavor.
yeah that was my bad I will ask vic to see it gets moved to Races and Classes.
Actually, its the Kappa Bone-Breaker paragon class - not prestige class, a 20 level racial paragon that best represents this goblin of Japanese folklore as it fits Pathfinder and Kaidan.
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My apologies. It came to my attention yesterday that there were problems in the manuscript which, due to problems in communication between editing and layout, were not corrected. A corrected version should be put together sometime in the next few days and we will try to do better in the future.
The following is from my unedited manuscript so please forgive any grammatical errors:
"Kappa Net: A net on two stout poles, this weapon can be used to ensnare creatures the same size as the user or smaller. The kappa net follows much the same rules as a thrown net but is used to make touch attacks against adjacent opponents and the poles are the limiting factor in the ensnared creature's movement (replacing the rope). Additionally, the net does not need to be folded in order to be used. Those not proficient in the use of the kappa net suffer a -6 penalty to attack rolls when using it. Those proficient in its use suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls when using it. "
I caught that too the day before yesterday, made the correction in layout and uploaded it to Rite Publishing, perhaps it hasn't been uploaded into the Paizo Store, but it has already been corrected.
I am pretty sure this is my error done in layout, not the editors fault.
A kappa has two arms, two legs, one head, and is bipedal - its a humanoid. Its just the type and subtype description, its still a kappa, though.
GP
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What Type is the Kappa supposed to be? "Humanoid (Kappa)"?
Humanoid (kappa, yokai) would probably be the best designation.
We are defining yokai as humanoids with animal features and the designation will include kappa, hengeyokai (shapechanging yokai) and Tengu.
The Yokai subtype has lowlight vision; and survival and stealth as class skills.
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I was thinking it was a fey type myself considering its rather river spirit kind of nature.
Fey was an option, considering the historical monster. Humanoid however, was what the 3e Oriental Adventures used, so there was precedence that way.
However, as we knew that we wanted to do Tengu, Hengeyokai and Kappa as an allied group, and as they each have animal features on a generally humanoid body, it made good sense to make them all the same subtype.
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What Type is the Kappa supposed to be? "Humanoid (Kappa)"?Humanoid (kappa, yokai) would probably be the best designation.
We are defining yokai as humanoids with animal features and the designation will include kappa, hengeyokai (shapechanging yokai) and Tengu.
The Yokai subtype has lowlight vision; and survival and stealth as class skills.
OK...thanks for the info!
I might skip 'yokai' myself since it likely wont' see use beyond this supplement in my games.
Outside of building a creature mechanically, most of the time, the subtype only matters if there's a bane weapon involved, or something like, so ignore away. :)
Part 2 of my review:
Finally, we get two new Kappa weapons. The Kappa dagger, which can be used under water with no penalty and the Kappa net. What does the Kappa net you ask? I have no idea. None. Why? Because the pdf closes mid-sentence before explaining what the FRIGGIN NET DOES.
Conclusion:
The layout of this file is beautiful and Japanese-themed, plus, it is actually full-color. The cover artwork is stunning and made me see the Kappa with whole new eyes. The IC-writing filled me with anticipation. And then the errors started to pile up. High. From typos to clunky mechanics to cut off text, this pdf has just about every kind of editing mistake you can make, spoiling what have could been an excellent, cool addition to the series. Utterly. At least for me. I HATE the central mechanic of the new class, some feat-choices are just strange and the fact that the weapon at the end is cut off just makes me want to claw at my hair. As much as I loved the other ItC-installments, as much have I been disappointed by this one. I like the beginning and the writing, but considering the huge pile-up of glaring botches, I'll settle for a 1-star rating: Keep away, at least until this pdf had a serious revision.
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Thanks End for the review.
I want to speak up in defense of the editor on this one - none of the mistakes you see there are his fault because the manuscript used for the layout was the wrong one (ie. my rough unedited manuscript). There were some serious miscommunication errors behind the scenes on this one. That being said the whole thing has already been redone and relaid out and its just waiting to be uploaded.
I'll modify my review accordingly once the updated version is up.
It won't become a 5-star-file, though, I fear.
First of all:
Drop the bone-hardness-mechanic. It's terrible and, at least in my opinion, unsalvageable.
Even with a table of sample bone-hardnesses, sooner or later the Gm will have to handwave some stuff. If you want to stick to the maneuver, it NEEDS a save. I'd suggest an expanded ki-pool and making it a ki power AND require a save, though.
Quite frankly, I think that making the class focus more explicitly on humanoid enemies and rewriting it completely would be a good idea.
To further illustrate my point: What about vermin? Spiders have legs, but no bones... If it were focused on abilities that work against humanoids/monstrous humanoids/dragons/undead/outsiders/whatever, that would at least be a start.
In the end, I'm a bit pessimistic, to be honest.
Thanks, D_M. Though this one depressed the hell out of me. Both the ItC-series and Jonathan's writing is usually top-notch but this one just missed the mark. :(
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Thanks, D_M. Though this one depressed the hell out of me. Both the ItC-series and Jonathan's writing is usually top-notch but this one just missed the mark. :(
yeah i read it today, my views are pretty similar to yours. I didn't start on a review for it yet though. Hopefully they will have a updated on in the near future.
i want to thank End for taking the time to do a review of our product. I know the heartache you go through when you want to like soemthing and can't, a reviewers life is a tough one.
We do not expect every review to be 5-star when we make an error like this we work to correct it, the Ironborn of Questhaven started out very poorly and it took 5 versions before we got to a version we were happy with.
Thanks for your kind words, Steve and even more so for the possibility of an overhaul of this one. I only know the final version of Ironborn and I liked it, so a gestation period might improve this one, too.
Cheers,
Endzeitgeist
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I did also want to address one of the feats End commented on: Practiced Swimmer.
Swim speed is not a prerequisite of this feat, nor does "kappa" stand there. Can character without a swim speed take this? What does "by 1" mean? I gather 1 ft? 1 square? And what does the second sentence mean? Do we get a second set of swim-movement-stats for combat if we don't have enough ranks?
The wording of the feat is correct and is mirrored after the wording in the APG Elf barbarian favored class option, among others. It is available to any race and class, so long as the person has the Skill Focus (Swim) feat. It is included in this book because Kappa's are swimmers and I thought it a good feat for them to have.
It intentionally does not require a swim speed because it seems self evident to me that some land creatures can still practice their swimming and grow faster as a result. It is the sort of feat you would expect to be possessed by olympic swimmers.
The incremental increase is an increase of 1 ft. per skill rank and it would perhaps be clearer to say so, but again, I was mirroring Paizo's wording. When we look at the mechanics, I'll ask Dave, the editor whether he thinks it would be better to alter the wording.
Once I had the time to go through the updated file, I'll modify my review accordingly.
Thanks for elaborating, but even if this is Paizo's wording, (and I mentioned that I thought it was 1 ft.) I still don't get the second sentence.
"You must
possess 5 ranks (or a multiple thereof) to increase
your speed in combat."
Increase to what? 1ft.? The whole bonus speed we got from the feat? What about the "multiple of 5"-reference? I'm not trying to be nagging, I honestly don't get the sentence or how this feat is supposed to work. And I've got a CPE, so I shouldn't have trouble understanding what they are going for. o.o
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Once I had the time to go through the updated file, I'll modify my review accordingly.
Thanks for elaborating, but even if this is Paizo's wording, (and I mentioned that I thought it was 1 ft.) I still don't get the second sentence.
"You must
possess 5 ranks (or a multiple thereof) to increase
your speed in combat."Increase to what? 1ft.? The whole bonus speed we got from the feat? What about the "multiple of 5"-reference? I'm not trying to be nagging, I honestly don't get the sentence or how this feat is supposed to work. And I've got a CPE, so I shouldn't have trouble understanding what they are going for. o.o
In combat, all speed must be in multiple of 5s (15 ft, 20 ft, 30 ft, etc.) and all fractional speeds (36 ft.) are rounded down (35 ft.)
In a race, a guy with a 33 speed will probably beat a 31 speed but both will have a speed of 30 in combat.
The APG reads, "A speed of 34 feet is effectively the same as a speed of 30 feet, for example."
Thus, only when you have five ranks does your combat speed go up 30 -> 35 -> 40.
It evidently wouldn't hurt to make it clearer. I'll endeavor to put in an example when we redo the manuscript.
Ah... now I see! Thank you very much for the clarification! I was aware of the 5-foot rule for combat but the wording of the feat just had me utterly stupefied. Oo
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I want to thank Endzeitgeist again for his review. I have just finished making changes to the bone-breaker paragon class and sent the file back to Michael for layout again. End's insightful comments helped greatly to know what to fix and what not to - and he did actually catch a couple of things the editor had missed. (Quick Notice - I did not replace "out of doors," as I actually like the phrase; though it is perhaps slightly archaic.)
I also want to thank Steve Russell, publisher extraordinaire, for his suggestions in fixing the bone-breaking maneuvers. He's much better with that sort of rule-crafting than I am.
I'm glad I could be of assistance and that you didn't take my criticism too harsh - I enjoy your writing. :) I rewrote my review here and on Enworld to reflect the new V.3.0 of the file and upgraded my verdict to 3 stars.
All the best,
Endzeitgeist
End could you submit a new review to drivehthru? I know you can't edit your original review but you can add a new one.
Can do, Steve! I submitted my new review and hope it worked - I think it's a pity I can't modify my first review, though.
Let me know if my DTRPG-update didn't work, as for me it looks as if it did.
All the best,
Endzeitgeist
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Can do, Steve! I submitted my new review and hope it worked - I think it's a pity I can't modify my first review, though.
Let me know if my DTRPG-update didn't work, as for me it looks as if it did.
All the best,
Endzeitgeist
Can't you just delete your old review? I was able to delete one not to long ago. Granted I did it with in mins of my putting it up. Put it up for the wrong product was doing two at once and got them switched. Anyways i was able to delete it then and post the right one up.
They seem to have auto-replaced my old review. Oo Nice, I guess. :)