Midgard: Book of Drakes (PFRPG)

4.70/5 (based on 11 ratings)
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Put the dragon back into your dungeon!

Want to unleash a dragon on your players, but the PCs aren’t high-level enough yet? You don’t have to wait any longer. The Book of Drakes lets you bring the most iconic monster in fantasy into your Pathfinder Roleplaying Game today.

Strange and wondrous creatures lurk among the further branches of the dragon's family tree, ready to bring excitement to your game table. The Book of Drakes includes:

  • More than 20 ready-to-play drakes, including the crag drake, pact drake and gear drake
  • Drake familiars and improved familiars
  • Draconic feats and abilities
  • All-new Drake spells
  • A system for building your own drakes for any party of any level, in any environment

Whether you’re adventuring in Open Design’s world of Midgard or your own home setting, drakes provide unique adversaries, unusual companions, and compelling NPCs. Get The Book of Drakes today and bring on the dragons!

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4.70/5 (based on 11 ratings)

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5/5

I love dragons and I love playing in settings where dragons have an important and prominent role to play. However, this is not a book of dragons, but a book of drakes!

Let me start by saying that this book is among the most beautiful that I've seen to date, and I am talking about the print version, which is black and white! I believe the pdf is in colour. Everything in this book has the feel of an old book of drakes and that is also how most of it is written, as a treatise on drakes.

First we get a little overview of drakes (how they are classified and how they are different from dragons), then we get the meat of the book, the player's section. This chapter presents you with new feats, alternate class abilities, an alternate class (the drake tamer), a prestige class (the master of drake forms), rules on how to play either a pseudodragon or a candle drake, spells, magic items and some more general adventuring gear. There is a lot to like here, especially the rules to play a pseudodragon or candle drake.

Next up is the bestiary! This book presents a lot of drakes, 20 drakes to be precise, with some amazing artwork. Personally, I am not a big fan of the whole drake philosophy (as this book presents it), that drakes are all over the place and come in an infinite number of shapes, however, those few that the book presents are really useful and will certainly bring the wondrous drakes into the game. And not to worry, while the drakes seem cute and harmless (especially if you look at the cover), there are evil drakes lurking among the shadows, like the sewer and mist drakes. This chapter ends by presenting rules on how to build your own drakes (basically a point-buy system). I haven't tried this system out, so I don't know if they work.

I really liked this book, although I would hardly use drakes as the book suggests. The book of drakes sets out to bring drakes into the world and they succeeds beautifully in doing this! Good work!


Outstanding book on little dragons.

5/5

Book of Drakes by Open Design

This product is 62 pages long. It starts with a cover, ToC, forward, and credits. (4 pages)

Chapter 1 – Ecology of the Drake (6 pages)
It talks about the first drakes, differences between them and dragons, sample treasures, their role in the Midgard Campaign setting, a list of 40 unclassified drakes and it ends with 10 drakes of note.

Chapter 2 – Players and Drakes (18 pages)
It starts off with how to use drakes as companions, next it lists 10 feats for drakes or having them as companions. Next is alternate class abilities, some like with the alchemist(summoner and wizard) gives the PC a drake companion, others like the barbarian(fighter, monk, druid, oracle) lets them learn a special ability from drakes, while others like the bard(inquisitor, rogue, ranger, and witch) just get new class options, or the clerics new drake domain, or the new sorcerer drake bloodline, Paladin Archetype, cavalier order.

There is also a new alternate class based on the summoner with a focus on a drake instead. A PrC Master of Drake Forms which focuses on shape changing. Next we get two drake races as new PC races, the pseudo dragon and candle drake. Next we get 16 new spells. Followed by 7 new magic items, 4 drake weapons and 3 drake equipment items.

Chapter 3 – Game Masters and Drakes (31 pages)
This section starts off with stats and information about 20 new drakes, with full stat blocks and art. The range from CR1 to 14 and are fairly evenly displaced across the CR range. The next section is advice on how to build your own drakes. The section on building your own drake is very in depth and you should have no problem at all being able to quickly and easily build any drake you could imagine.

It ends with a OGL, back cover and ads. (3 pages)

Closing thoughts. The art work is color and ranges from good to pretty good. Editing and layout is top notch, I didn't notice any errors at all. While the book is mostly focused on drakes there is some useful information on class options, spells and magic items as well. There is just not a lot I can say about this product, or really there is to much and if I start listing all I liked about it this will turn into a 10 page review. So instead I will list everything I didn't like about it. Which was nothing, so I will skip to a couple of things I wish they had added but didn't. I think it would have been nice to have a witch drake patron and option to replace their familiar. Also I think it would have been neat to have seen a monk fighting style based on drakes, thought the styles for PFRPG came out after this book so that's understandable.

Basicly other than a few nitpicks like the couple I just listed I have nothing at all negative to say about the book. If drakes interest you in the slights this book is well worth the price and you won't be disappointed picking this up. So what's my rating? Well with how well done it is, I have no choice but to give it a 5 star review.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.


We welcome our drake overlords

5/5

The Book of Drakes had me nodding my head in agreement in the Welcome page. I rarely use dragons in a game because they're so powerful and alien, and I cringe whenever a dragon fanboy player wants to have a draconic bloodline or, worse, become a Dragon Disciple. But games like Pathfinder lose something deeply fantastic if draconic elements are entirely excluded. The drakes in this book have a charming, whimsical, yet dangerous quality that is more accessible and somehow more human than a full-blown dragon. Midgard specifics take up very little of the space in this book, and help non-Midgard GM's see how drakes can be used in other settings.

Other reviews go into detail about the structure and organization of the book, so I'll simply add my impressions to what others have said. Overall, the elements presented in this book are flavorful and well-balanced and designed. I have not seen anything yet that I would not allow a player to use at my table. However, I would be careful of using drake companions too heavily. These are not simple animal companions which can be run by the PC. Each is a full-fledged character. Drake companions will need thought and care on the part of the GM to give them their due. I would run them as GMPC's, which can be a lot of work.

Different drakes are lovingly and clearly detailed and usable right off the page. There is a nice variety for different situations and alignments. This is one of the books I'd keep handy as a GM in case I needed an interesting ad hoc NPC.

And if detailed ecology and player information and a whole cornucopia of fun drakes isn't enough, the section about building drakes lets a GM expand the book to suit their own campaign. The rules are easy and clear and the examples useful.

The Book of Drakes is a wonderful addition to any gaming library. It's beautifully designed and written, full of substance as well as fun fluff, and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, perfectly reflecting the character of the drakes they illustrate. I give it five stars. Maybe now Wolfgang Baur will return the authors' pets?


The Book of Drakes belongs on your bookshelf.

5/5

I confess to being enamored of pseudodragons for a long time, and this book is exactly the kind of book that almost seems designed to appeal to me.

Daigle and Welham have hit a home run. The descriptive text is evocative and the rules are well-considered. All of the drakes would make interesting NPCs and/or player companions- and I do love that there are options for playing a drake PC yourself, if you're inclined. There's lots of good information for players and GMs both. One of my favorite parts of the book is the section covering rules for designing your own drakes- I'm already planning to create my own drake familiar in a game I've just begun playing in, and I'll be using the book to develop the drake as the character progresses.

The art is definitely worth mentioning. The print version of the book is in black and white, and the color version of the book is in color. Both work, but the color is definitely something that everyone should see. I'm very much hoping that the people at Open Design will be able to some day release the special edition that Hugo Solis brought to Paizocon, which from pictures (and raves from those who saw it) seems pretty incredible in its own right.


Dragony Goodness – Everything from Whimsy to Blood, Guts, and Gore

5/5

The Book of Drakes is big! Sixty-two pages packed into an eighteen megabyte pdf file. It is also lavishly illustrated (this is the first game supplement which has ever prompted me to use that phrase) with a multitude of high quality full-color pictures. Cover artist Kieran Yanner and interior artist Hugo Solis have done truly magnificent work.

OK, so it’s big and beautiful, but is it useful? Happily, it is!

Before I tell you why I think this book about little dragons is useful, let me take a moment to talk about big dragons: Dragons have been centerpieces of legend since the dawn of history. People have been telling stories and even composing operas about them for centuries. Whether in a story or in a game, they make great Boss Monsters for heroes to strive against. However, being so big and powerful, they have to be applied sparingly. When used as opponents they can quickly wear out a group of PC’s; as allies they can overshadow the players and take away all the excitement. Wanting to inject more dragony goodness into the game, lots of efforts have been made to create lesser draconic races. Sadly, attempts to scale back the power of dragons while still keeping them interesting have met with limited success. Mostly what we’ve gotten has been a confusing medley of half-dragons, which were not only less powerful than true dragons, but also less interesting.

This is why the Book of Drakes is useful: It presents a group of pure draconic beasties which are every bit as interesting and exotic as regular dragons, while being small enough (in both power and size) to fit more frequently into your game. There are drakes for every niche that you might care to fill: Sinewy and mysterious drakes to be the familiars of spellcasters, foul-tempered drakes who would rather fight than talk, mysterious drakes that spy from the shadows and may be much closer than your group thinks they are…

Chapter 1, “Ecology of the Drake”, is an in-depth introduction to drakes. We get a lot of good information on what drakes are like, how they fit with their surroundings, and how they are likely to interact with characters. It also lays out a classification system which is quite broad, yet flexible enough to fit into any campaign. Drakes, it turns out, are far more varied than dragons. Some drakes are very much creatures of this world, living in gritty urban environments, while others are almost like patron spirits of various philosophies. This chapter is also jam-packed with inspirational examples, several of which I plan to lift whole-cloth into my game world. Players and GM’s alike will find plenty to interest them in this chapter.

True to the note on the cover, there is also a section in this chapter describing how drakes fit into the Midgard campaign setting. If you are not familiar with Midgard, don’t let that put you off. This is a well-designed supplement, meaning pretty much everything is portable to other settings. To use this information in your own world, the worst you’ll have to do is change a few place-names.

Chapter 2, “Players and Drakes”, provides just what it promises: Ways for players to have their characters interact with and benefit from drakes (usually, but not always, on friendly terms), and even guidelines for using drakes as characters. There is a list of alternate class abilities which shows some love for every one of the base classes - or, in the case of the Inquisitor, shows a new way to display some inquisitorial disdain. There are new feats, new spells, new magic items, new class abilities, and even two new classes: Drake Tamer (base class) and Master of Drake Forms (prestige class).

Chapter 3, “Game Masters and Drakes”, starts out with a bestiary presenting stats for twenty different kinds of drake, spanning the Challenge Ratings from 1 through 14. Every one of these creatures is novel and unique. A staggering amount of imagination has gone into the attributes and features presented here! Also in Chapter 3 is a section titled “Building Drakes”, which details how to create completely new kinds of drake for your campaign. Unlike other “how to build a monster” articles I’ve seen in the past, many of which were not really all that useful, this section has good, solid, practical guidelines and suggestions.

In addition to the twenty sets of monster stats in Chapter 3, in Chapter 1 we are given suggestions for twenty more types of drake plus descriptions for ten additional special NPC drakes. Fifty kinds of drake are lurking in this book! Count them – fifty! You can find everything from the inoffensive little Candle Drake all the way to drakes that are genuine forces of nature.

My favorite (so far) is Wheshadulen, a unique NPC drake who claims an entire river as his lair. He has spent centuries sculpting his river’s course through the countryside, bestowing benevolence or visiting malevolence along its shores as he sees fit. The next time you need to cross a river remember to throw in a nice fat goat first. It may be Wheshadulen’s river, and he may grant you a safe crossing in return for your tasty gift.

Don’t wait – fill your games with dragony goodness now!


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This could be super useful and just what I need but there's a couple things I can't tell from the write up/cover art and would like to know before I buy. So can anyone tell me if

1) Drakes get big enough to ride or if they're all as small (and admitedly cute) as those on the cover?

2) Drakes are as smart as normal dragons or if they're a more animalistic alternative?

Thanks in advance

Torger

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

1) Drakes range from Tiny to Large.

2) Drakes are typically less intelligent than true dragons. Some are more animalistic, while others are clever, but not geniuses.


I'm super psyched the book is getting all this attention, couldn't bang the drum harder myself!

Thanks Mike and Adam for spreading the scaly love!


Adam Daigle wrote:

1) Drakes range from Tiny to Large.

2) Drakes are typically less intelligent than true dragons. Some are more animalistic, while others are clever, but not geniuses.

Thank you kindly, that's pretty well exactly what I hoped to hear. excuse me while I go spend some money.

Torger

Dark Archive

I'm a great lover of pseudodragons since my first character, a Ranger in 2nd Ed, had a pseudodragon as henchman. I always wanted more of them. There was this article in the Dragon that detailed several more pseudodragons, but they were to environment-specific for my taste, such as geyser pseudodragon. I got to get this book!

The Exchange Kobold Press

Nightflier, I think that old Dragon article was part of the inspiration for this book. Certainly there are options for scaly familiars and companions.

And yeah, my AD&D mage had a pseudodragon familiar. Hell, a whole society of dragon-centric mages seems plausible to me, but that's another story.


I had an inspired game master who introduced me to a notion that I have repeated in a few of my campaigns.

I often have a secret society of dragon worshiping priests lurking about in my world. The cute part is that instead of being powerful bad asses who ride dragons or command them, they are basically a bunch of really geeky fanboys and fan girls who run a super secret club where they can ooh and aah about how cool dragons are and how cool their super secret dragon club is.

The pay off is when the players, who are always intrigued, get to see behind the curtain and find out how superficial the whole operation is. Of course many of them want to join anyway... cause dragons are awesome yo!

Anyhow, dragon disciples from now on in my games will covet the legendary book of drakes and will work hard to get one of the drakes as their mascot. :)


Reviewed.

Nice work gents and ladies.

Now all I have to do is finish my campaign so I can make a PC Drake Tamer.

Hmm.... Rocks fall and everyone dies? Or is that tooo contrary Deus Ex Machina?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Nice review Sasha.


Thanks D_M! Where's yours?
(Turn about is fair play.)

:D

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

Thank you for that review, Sasha. It made my day!

RPG Superstar 2012

Oh my goodness! Thanks for the awesome review, Dark Sasha. It's great to hear that you found something you liked in all the different sections.

RPG Superstar 2012

Adam Daigle wrote:
Thank you for that review, Sasha. It made my day!

Despite appearances to the contrary, Adam and I coincidentally showed up at the same time. :)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Purchased.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
taig wrote:
Adam Daigle wrote:
Thank you for that review, Sasha. It made my day!

Despite appearances to the contrary, Adam and I coincidentally showed up at the same time. :)

But Mike, everyone knows the Praying Mantis is quicker than a Badger. It is one of nature's immutable laws.


Justin Franklin wrote:
Purchased.

Me as well. There are three reviewers I find very informative; Dark_Mistress, Dark Sasha and Endzeitgeist. If it was Dark Zeitgeist I'd begin to wonder :) Thank you Dark Sasha and thanks to Dark_Mistress and Endzeitgeist for their reviews of other products as well.

I must admit that anything from Open Design gets a good look from me as well. Nice job gentlemen.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Dark Sasha wrote:

Thanks D_M! Where's yours?

(Turn about is fair play.)

:D

It's in my never shrinking pile of books to review. Currently there is 28 books in that folder as of right now. I got 5 SGG ones I am hoping to knock out at least a few tomorrow. They are short and tend to be easy to write up a review for, not to mention read. Then a tricky owlbear one, granted this one hasn't been released yet so it can wait a bit. :) Then there is 4 Rite Publishing, 3 Open design including this one. Then three more 0one adventures and 6 FGG adventures. Yeah I keep putting the adventures off. :)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
R_Chance wrote:
Justin Franklin wrote:
Purchased.

Me as well. There are three reviewers I find very informative; Dark_Mistress, Dark Sasha and Endzeitgeist. If it was Dark Zeitgeist I'd begin to wonder :) Thank you Dark Sasha and thanks to Dark_Mistress and Endzeitgeist for their reviews of other products as well.

I must admit that anything from Open Design gets a good look from me as well. Nice job gentlemen.

*checks to be sure R_Chances name is on the crazy list.*


Dark_Mistress wrote:
R_Chance wrote:
Justin Franklin wrote:
Purchased.

Me as well. There are three reviewers I find very informative; Dark_Mistress, Dark Sasha and Endzeitgeist. If it was Dark Zeitgeist I'd begin to wonder :) Thank you Dark Sasha and thanks to Dark_Mistress and Endzeitgeist for their reviews of other products as well.

I must admit that anything from Open Design gets a good look from me as well. Nice job gentlemen.

*checks to be sure R_Chances name is on the crazy list.*

He might be. He could even be related to me in some far-removed way.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I was hoping to see a side bar with some discussion on how the 4 drakes from Bestiary 2, the pseudodragons, faire dragons, and possibly wyverns fit in with Midgard and the drakes presented in this book. Could we get a web article over at the KQ website with this info?


The third chapter is the meat gamemasters have been clamoring for - we get 20 new drakes ranging from CR 1 to CR 14. From the drunken-revelry inducing mischievous alehouse drakes (that had me chuckle and which focus one of the cutest artworks ever), the malevolent ash darkes, the benevolent candle drakes, the dwarf-stalking rather hunter-themed crag drake and the mist drake to the others - we get a lot of cool ideas. Want to know more? Well, there are the rather impish, breath-weapon using crimson drake, the deadly stalker of the depths called deep drake or the ephemeral dream drakes. Steam and Gear drakes are also provided for the steam-punk/clockwork-aficionados out there to the lycanthrope-allied moon drakes and their strange powers over lycanthropes to the drake-incarnations of law, the pact drakes and their negotiation skills, we are in for cool creatures. But what about the paper drake? Paper drake? Yep, you read it right - drakes that can fold themselves and look like living, drake-formed origami. AWESOME! Ok, that's enough to give you an impression, if you want to know more, you'll have to get the file. Have I mentioned that guidelines to create more drakes are also provided to the beleaguered DM over 10 pages? The set comes with 4 sets of base-stats, as well as a very comprehensive and cool point buy system in accordance with the universal monster rules. There's also a nice list of cosmetic features to add to your very own drake and a fully stated-out example of a drake created with these rules.

Conclusion:
Editing is top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Formatting suffers from some VERY minor text-alignment issues, but the content does not suffer, so I'll let this one pass. The full-color pdf is also extensively bookmarked. Let me comment on the layout: It adheres to the two-column standard and is beautiful, elegant and just a pleasure to the eyes. Speaking of which: Both cover artist Kieran Yanner and interior artist Hugo "Butterfrog" Solis went out of their respective ways to create some of the best, iconic artworks I've seen in quite a while: Each drake gets an iconic, cool artwork and the ones that are spread throughout the book all adhere to the highest quality. Some of the drakes might elicit a squee from the female demographic out there - my non-gamer lady got all gooey-eyed over the alehouse drake. Even better, the drakes all have their unique, cool abilities that make you actually want to use them - signature abilities rock. The alternate Drake Tamer-class is awesome and most of the alternate class features rock, as do the "Create-your-own-drake"-rules. Where the book does not adhere to its otherwise almost stunningly high quality is in the one broken rogue talent and the, at least in my opinion, rather not too special new feats and spells, that left me rather cold, especially when compared to the other crunch. So, what's my final verdict, then? While my review might be considered harsh in spaces, it's mainly because the rest of this product is STELLAR - were it not for the gripes I mentioned, I'd gladly give this one my seal of approval. I'd rate it 4.5, but it's quite frankly too good to be thus downgraded, resulting in a final verdict of 5 stars, in spite of the bits I abhorred. If you're only remotely interested in things draconic and willing to ignore some rather problematic component parts, you have to own this.

Endzeitgeist out.

Reviewed here, on RPGaggression and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!


Forgot to add: Nice review, Dark Sasha!

Dark Archive

Wolfgang Baur wrote:

Nightflier, I think that old Dragon article was part of the inspiration for this book. Certainly there are options for scaly familiars and companions.

And yeah, my AD&D mage had a pseudodragon familiar. Hell, a whole society of dragon-centric mages seems plausible to me, but that's another story.

Since I am from Serbia and more than half of my ancestors (and cousins) are Vlachs (Wallachians), I am quite familiar with the history of the Order of the (Conquered) Dragon. Do you refer to that little piece of history?

Given the prominence of Slavic dragons in our mythology, and that they are completely different than those of Western myths, it would be great to have the Order of the Dragon done for Midgard. In fact, how do the submissions for KQ work? Can I write an article about the Societas Draconis and submit it to you?

Liberty's Edge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012

Thank you for the great, and thorough, reviews, Megan and Endzeitgeist. I tried to think of all the ways to abuse the new player features, but I completely missed the points you brought up for Crush Windpipe. :)

RPG Superstar 2012

Brinebeast wrote:
I was hoping to see a side bar with some discussion on how the 4 drakes from Bestiary 2, the pseudodragons, faire dragons, and possibly wyverns fit in with Midgard and the drakes presented in this book. Could we get a web article over at the KQ website with this info?

That's certainly a possibility.

Adam and I decided it was important to make the drakes in this book distinct from the Bestiary 2 drakes. As you point out, we didn't discuss the differences in the book, though.

The Exchange Kobold Press

nightflier wrote:
Since I am from Serbia and more than half of my ancestors (and cousins) are Vlachs (Wallachians), I am quite familiar with the history of the Order of the (Conquered) Dragon. Do you refer to that little piece of history?

Well, no, the dragon mages are more fantasy than historical. But the Vlachs and others have inspired part of the Midgard camapign setting.

Quote:
Given the prominence of Slavic dragons in our mythology, and that they are completely different than those of Western myths, it would be great to have the Order of the Dragon done for Midgard. In fact, how do the submissions for KQ work? Can I write an article about the Societas Draconis and submit it to you?

The Zmey is covered in Tales of the Old Margreve, so yes, I would say Open Design is interested in topics like this. See the writer's guidelines, and please submit something for the KQ blog or magazine!


taig wrote:
Thank you for the great, and thorough, reviews, Megan and Endzeitgeist. I tried to think of all the ways to abuse the new player features, but I completely missed the points you brought up for Crush Windpipe. :)

You're welcome! The Book of Drakes is an awesome, almost perfect resource I really enjoyed reading! ANd hey, it's an extremely minor blemish and the quality of the book made me still give 5 stars - great job, everyone involved!

Dark Archive

Wolfgang, this may be of interest to you.

The Exchange Kobold Press

That is extremely cool, thank you for the link!


These reviews are VERY educative from the designer point of view. Excellent feedback!

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Nice if very long review End. :)

The Exchange Kobold Press

I love the reviews that go into what people hate or love; the reaction to the text is sometimes really surprising but always helpful to figure out what worked, what didn't, what Open Design could do better next time.

So, thank you for a detailed and passionate review, Endzeitgeist!


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
taig wrote:
Brinebeast wrote:
I was hoping to see a side bar with some discussion on how the 4 drakes from Bestiary 2, the pseudodragons, faire dragons, and possibly wyverns fit in with Midgard and the drakes presented in this book. Could we get a web article over at the KQ website with this info?

That's certainly a possibility.

Adam and I decided it was important to make the drakes in this book distinct from the Bestiary 2 drakes. As you point out, we didn't discuss the differences in the book, though.

Forgot to include the Coral Drake from Sunken Empires in my list above, as well as the Quick Drake and Swamp Drake from Monday Monsters. That should cover all the PRPG and Open Design drakes, should you do a side bar article over at KQ.


Just thought I should point something out: One of the reviews mentions that “Crush Windpipe” (a Rogue talent from page 15) is overpowered because it takes away the victim’s ability to speak or use breath weapons until the victim is healed.

Fortunately, that reviewer missed part of a sentence: The effect lasts for two rounds OR until the victim receives healing, whichever comes first. I certainly agree that having no time limit would make this a badly broken rule, but with a two round limit it becomes quite acceptable.

RPG Superstar 2012

Thanks for the fantastic review, Charles!

I think it would be reasonable to add a time limit to Crush Windpipe, even though it's not explicitly stated in that talent's description.

One other thing regarding some wording--Greater to Lesser states that the target has to have fewer than 15 HD, so it won't be a game-killer for those epic dragon battles. However, after reading the spell's description again, I definitely see how it could be read differently.

This has all been a great lesson on how to precisely word descriptions to minimize confusion.

The Exchange Kobold Press

Actually, as Charles points out, there is a 2-round time limit on Crush Windpipe.

We've talked a lot about the art on this project because it's big and colorful and frankly cool, but the mechanics are actually very tight as well. The playtest, review, and development on Book of Drakes were all top-notch.

Liberty's Edge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012

Xellos, thank you for your kind review!

I can't really speak for Mr. Baur (or Hugo Solis, the book's superb interior artist who put the special edition together by hand), but I believe if enough people express interest (here or at Kobold Quarterly), he would consider a special edition release. For the record regarding the special edition--me gusta!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Well, thanks for the cool book.

I've expressed interest here and 'round those parts as well- I'll encourage folks I've heard talk about it to post about it publicly somewhere as well. ^_^

RPG Superstar 2012

Thank you for the wonderful review, Treppa!

My cat thanks you too.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

Thanks for all the great reviews! It makes me very happy knowing folks are enjoying this book.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

Holy crap! Top non-Paizo download (and third top-selling non-Paizo product; behind minis) this week! Thanks to everyone who checked our book out!


Wolfgang Baur wrote:

Actually, as Charles points out, there is a 2-round time limit on Crush Windpipe.

We've talked a lot about the art on this project because it's big and colorful and frankly cool, but the mechanics are actually very tight as well. The playtest, review, and development on Book of Drakes were all top-notch.

Wolfgang,

In the print version of the book the two round limit sentence is missing from the Crush Windpipe Talent on page 15. The two round limit is mentioned in the Close Windpipe talent, but not Crush Windpipe.

It seems that with the two round limit missing, Crush Windpipe is very powerful.

Still, love the book...adding an alehouse drake to my Kingmaker campaign tonight!

The Exchange Kobold Press

h2ofowler, thanks for that. I believe we may have our first and only errata on the book.

Also, this is the #1 bestselling download in the Paizo Store this week. I'm delighted that it is showing up in Kingmaker campaigns and elsewhere!


I apologize for missing this part of the sentence. I unfortunately can't verify the wording right now due to not having access to my desktop PC, but when time permits, I might correct my review. I still don't like the rogue talent, though. ;) On the other hand, it still scored 5 stars...so there should be no dire need for correction.

The Exchange Kobold Press

Oh, I definitely won't complain about the rating!

Plus, the print run is almost gone, and I'm seeing a lot of actual play reports from the book, so I'd say it's quite a success. Heck, I'm currently getting some mileage out of the Drakes clerical domain...

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

reviewed.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

Dark_Mistress wrote:
reviewed.

Rock! Thanks, Dark Mistress! Glad you liked it.

RPG Superstar 2012

Dark_Mistress wrote:
reviewed.

Thank you for the great review, Dark_Mistress!

I *might* be working on something to address one of your concerns, and you've given me fodder for some additional work <shakes fist, but not very convincingly>. :D

RPG Superstar 2012

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Dark_Mistress, hopefully this article will address one of your concerns.

I believe the other matter will be covered forthwith. :)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Now all you need is the feat that lets a witch take a drake as a familiar and the monk fighting style. Plus they wasn't really concerns more observations. :)

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