Convergent Paths: Fey Archetypes (PFRPG) PDF

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Convergent Paths Fey Archetypes weighs in at 16 pages (2 ads, the OGL, cover and credits) with 11 presenting us with new material. Three new archetypes connected to the fey, along with a new monster and a handful of feats are introduced here. Format follows the standard dual column layout, with several pieces of artwork interspersed throughout the book, with several of them being very good pieces.

Opening this with the Faerie Knight (Cavalier), a knight in allegiance and loyalty to a fey or full court of fey. The write up for this archetype made for a great read, as it is presented in the form of a conversation between a knight named Tristan, his mount Meliodas and the writer of this journal, the interaction between the knight an his mount are hilarious. So, what makes this cavalier worth playing right? Well, to be honest, the mount. The mount adds the template for a few creature, with a series of progressive abilities, that make this far more than just a simple means of getting around. When connected the rider and mount can cast a small list of spells (dancing lights, faerie fire, etc.), with the mount being the anchor for the caster numbers and such, along with any concentration checks required, freeing the knight to keep their attention on other things. The mount also gains the ability to be sent into the realm of faerie seeking aid for its rider, bringing the aid as in a successful summon nature’s ally V. Not to mention that being a loyal subject to the faerie the knight works for offers them a level of respect when dealing with fey, as much as one can hope for those chaotic interactions to go well, lol.

Second to the party here would be the Laughing Man (Monk). This archetype presents the first editing hiccups, but they are simply text line justifications (those weird spacing blanks that happen in a justified column of text). There are only a few of them, and they truly don’t affect the product enough to be more than a minor distraction, in other words, I am mentioning them more so that when you read through this book for yourself you don’t find them and wonder what the heck, lol. So, moving on…the Laughing Man offers up an interesting archetype that has taken the concept of words hurt to a whole new level. Short story breaks down to this monk can weaponize his words through a combination of skills and abilities, choosing to do damage as per sonic attacks with their spoken words. I can see a lot of potential here for a very cool character or two, but would require a player willing to make the character worth it in combat. Well worth the effort I believe though.

It takes us to the Masquerade Reveler (Barbarian). One of the most alien thing on dealing with the fey and faerie in general are that our perceptions as humanity, or the mortal world, are constantly shifted and skewed due to their nature. They have the capacity as fey to alter their looks and hide behind various masks and forms, leaving us wondering who and what it is we are dealing with. This archetype seeks to perhaps bridge that, in the form of one who has been touched by the realm of faerie and came back not entirely whole, but far from broken either. The easiest way to shorten this is to say that the Reveler operates at their own eidolon. A rather specific eidolon, but none the less. Using this ability they gain the ability to mask themselves much as the fey can, fueling this ability with the standard rage of a barbarian…yeah, let that stew for a minute. A very cool concept of what one can do with a barbarian outside of the typical “Thunk! Kill!”.

Seven new feats are presented, with perks for the mentioned archetypes, with two feats for the Faerie Knight and the Masquerade Reveler, and three for the Laughing Man. The Gancanagh closes us out this time, as a new fey monster. Appearing as an extremely attractive individual, with all the charm required to seduce anyone who catches this fey’s attention, it tends to keep the deck stacked in its favor with an excretion from its skin that is addictive (known as Gancanagh’s Kiss presented after the monster entry). Add to this its Mindbender and Sweet Nothings ability this fey will keep a mortal entranced for hours conversing for its entertainment. Not exactly a malicious creature by intention, but the extremely different skew the fey place on the mortal world makes any interaction with a creature with the ability to force anything to entertain it for fun runs the risk of ending bad. Supplied with hooks and a sidebar detailing some of the real world mythology for this fey.

So, checking over the score sheet here, the one thing that stood out was only truly the justified lines, which I am not going to hold against this product. The archetypes all bring to the table their own flavor, with suitable dressings of that taste of fey influenced to them. Looking for some fey affected archetypes this product does a very good job, and would be a worthy purchase at five stars.

The second installment of Rite Publishing's Convergent Paths-series is 16 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 11 pages of content - so let's take a look, shall we?

Following the direction established in the first issue, we once again have the class options provided herein framed by a well-written narrative - and honestly, I do really enjoy these. If you read as many crunch-heavy supplements as I do, you're welcoming supplements that don't read like an EULA. Just wanted to for once acknowledge this, as the narrative also roots the content in a thematic context and, from experience, I know that my players prefer it like this - fluff accompanying their crunch. That out of the way, let's take a look at the Faerie Knight, a cavalier archetype.

The challenge of these cavaliers is less reliable that the base challenge - the damage to challenged targets only scales up to +10, but depending on the level of the faerie knight, bonus damage equal to +1d3 (up to +6d3) is added to damage - nice way to represent a more chaotic version of the class feature. Faerie Knights also add the fey creature template to their mount, but thankfully not at once, instead improving over the levels. The mount is intelligent and requires gold to be replaced once it dies. The faerie knight does lose banner, greater banner and tactician for all this gained power via the mount though, and while it doesn't require Handle Animal, it has its own mind - which can be quite interesting. Not needing expert trainer, the knight also gets a bonus to social interactions with fey. At higher levels, the faerie knight may send his mount to the realm of the fey to procure assistance from the fey - though frivolous use will have repercussions...

Monks may now opt to become so-called Laughing Men - who get Bluff, Diplomacy and Knowledge (nature) as additional class skills. Laughing Men get a new array of feats to sue with bonus feats in lieu of their regular ones and also replace flurry of blows with the option to make feints, intimidates and wild empathy checks at -5 as part of a full-attack action, allowing the archetype to later even make a second check with an additional -3 penalty and at 15th level, even a third one at -7. Furthermore, he can use ki to roll social skill checks twice, taking the better result. When using this ability, the laughing man doesn't even have to speak the language of those s/he taunts and may use said options versus plants, animals and vermin, treating them as if they were not mindless. He also becomes harder to demoralize/influence, gets the wild empathy class feature of the druid. By the way - the words of the Laughing Man are just as efficient as sticks and stones and may break your bones! As part of the flurry of words, the laughing man may use words as ranged unarmored strikes with a 5 foot range increment.

Instead of purity of body, at fifth level laughing men may use wis-mod for bluff, diplomacy, intimidate and wild empathy, but need to expend their swift action to do so - which becomes relevant when learning to feint/demoralize etc. - 3 foes at once. Plus, laughing men may divide this ability between feints and demoralization attempts Starting at 15th level, he may make three of these skill checks versus one foe - when succeeding in 3 bluffs/intimidates/wild empathy, laughing men may opt to negate the effects of all successes for one unique effect depending on the skill employed.

The third archetype herein would be the masquerade reveler - for the barbarian! And be forewarned - these revelers are nothing for players shying from the task of additional book-keeping. But oh boy is it worth it - instead of regular rage, revelers create so-called masks, which consist of 4 evolution points. For the purpose of which evolutions qualify, the reveler counts as biped humanoid with arms and legs. At each barbarian level, the reveler gets another masque, providing quite some versatility. Type of ability, effective levels - all of the complex questions such a system will perpetuate, are addressed - kudos! I did try to find an instance of less than precise rules-language and found none.

The abilities the reveler gets at later levels further enhance the awesome concept of masks.

After these archetypes, we are introduced to feats of the fey,7 to be more precise: Faerie Knights may improve their whimsical challenge by expending a second use of it to maximize the d3s involved. And if you really want to get nasty, you can take another feat, that allows all allies to also get these maximized d3s when you utilize the former feat. OUCH! Three of the feats make up for a feat-tree of the Sidhe style, which adds additional benefits to those feinting or intimidating successfully at a base level. The two follow-up feats allow you to make demoralized opponents provoke AoOs from your allies or further penalize foes you feinted. Revelers may spend 3 rounds of masquerade to change masks in combat. With the second feat, you can get a bonus after using the change of masks for the second time in combat.

The pdf also provides us a new sample creature, the CR 7 Gancanagh. that secretes a new drug (provided as well!) and may exude an aura of selective silence while plying his socially based, mindbending abilities. The fey also comes with cool signature weaknesses and a bond with one of its possessions that makes for good adventure hooks/smart fighting-rewards. Speaking of adventure hooks - 3 sample ones are provided.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RiP's 2-column full color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. Special mention deserves the gorgeous cover by Kevin Ksottam as well as the neat artworks herein - two pieces in particular I haven't seen before and apart from one classic stock art image (which fits in nicely, though), they are rather impressive.

This is, at least to my knowledge, author Mark Seifter's first PFRPG-product and it is promising indeed - the whimsical challenge class feature and its feat-expansions rock - though honestly, the fey mount feels bland. Yet another pet-archetype? Come on! There's nothing wrong here, but think about it - getting a horse that can change into equipment /buffs (yes, can be found in mythology!) would have imho been so much cooler than getting a strong, slightly more useful mount.

The laughing man suffers most from these archetypes:

On a concept-level, it lacks a loosening of the lawful alignment restriction and honestly, basing it wholly on demoralize and feinting has been done before as well - not in this combination, granted, but still. Beyond that, the archetype is even more MAD (multiple attribute dependant) than a regular monk - who already has it worse than any other class: Requiring cha for the signature skills and Int for skill ranks, this archetype imho requires a realignment of cha-based skills to wis or wis-based powers to cha as well as increased skills per level. Furthermore, I'm not sold on the massive skill-based usage - 3 rolls to get a unique effect at high levels? Ok, that is MUCH leeway to roll bad once and waste a lot of other potential benefits. Additionally, the unlimited use of unarmed strikes at range is VERY powerful and should have some kind of cap. Also: The fluff concept of paradoxes/words are weapons is simply not that well integrated mechanics-wise. At this point, I was rather disappointed.

And then - BAM! The Reveler. O.M.G. This one is so GLORIOUS. Seriously, this archetype ranks among my favorite for the barbarian - in ANY publication. The supplemental feats range from cool to a tad bit on the weak side and the new creature once again can be considered a winner.

Author Mark Seifter definitely has potential - there is nothing terribly wrong with the first archetype and while the laughing man fails rather miserably at what it sets out to do, the reveler makes more than up for this by its pure unadulterated awesomeness. The supplemental content and prose suffusing the pdf also do their share in making this pdf a well-worth purchase for you, if not a perfect one. The Reveler alone is worth the fair asking price and hence, I'll settle for a final verdict of 4 stars and remain in anticipation of the author's next offering.

Endzeitgeist out.

The archetypes in this book are flavored highly toward campaigns revolving heavily around fey influence - perfect for a Kingmaker campaign or similar storyline with heavy fey involvement.

The Faery Knight is a Cavalier archetype that bolsters the mount with an array of new fey-themed abilities, sacrificing some of the rider's options to make the mount a stronger and more versatile companion, with the minor addition of a bit of variance in the Cavalier's challenge and related abilities that sadly doesn't get much focus compared to the improvements to the mount. Though interesting and certainly a far cry from most available Cavalier archetypes, I lament that this is yet another variant of the Cavalier that is heavily focused on the mount, missing an opportunity to fill the void of much-needed mountless Cavalier options. Nevertheless, it it certainly an interesting design, and the varied abilities of the Fey Mount are strong enough that, if the player so desired, they could treat the mount more like a Druid's Animal Companion than a mount, having it fight alongside the Cavalier with its unique abilities rather than be resigned to only being ridden or being left outside in dungeons and other places not amenable to mounted combat.

The Laughing Man Monk archetype is probably the weakest option of the three. Though the flavor is strong - a maddened vagabond who wields words and perplexes the mind more than delivering powerful punches and martial maneuvers - the mechanics fail to add up, for several reasons. First and foremost, though the flavor paints the Laughing Man as the capricious wanderer and speaker of perplexing paradoxes, the Lawful alignment restriction of the normal Monk class is never mentioned as being removed, thus forcing the character into a behavioral pattern that fails to mesh with the fey demeanor of the example Laughing Man character. Secondly, the vast majority of the Laughing Man's abilities rely on Charisma-based skills and effects - Bluff, Intimidate, and Wild Empathy - thus providing yet another statistic for the already-statistically-strained Monk class, and no mention of relocating the Wisdom basis of the Monk's usual abilities to Charisma is provided, thus leading to the understanding that a Laughing Man must not only provide the usual difficult-to-fulfill statistics requirements for a Monk - acceptable scores in all three physical stats plus Wisdom - but that the Laughing Man also cannot afford to lose Charisma as well. This, I fear, is a major design oversight that renders the archetype nearly unusable to most games, save those with extremely high point-buy or massively generous roll-stat generation methods.

Where the Laughing Man fails, however, the Masquerade Reveler Barbarian Archetype triumphs. This archetype exchanges the normal Rage benefits - AND most of its penalties, such as limitations on available action options! - for a small selection of Eidolon Evolutions, grouped together in "Masks" that the Barbarian activates while raging in Masquerade. These Masks evolve, gaining more and more abilities, and the Barbarian acquires more and more Masks to add to their collection as they gain levels, eventually subsuming the Masks on a more and more permanent basis into themselves as they become less mortal and more fey with time, culminating in an apotheosis that changes their type and instills them with yet more versatility with their Masquerade. The archetype is flavorful, interesting, and most importantly covers the necessities of pointing out the changes in the standard Barbarian necessary for the Masquerade Reveler to operate as intended, AND at long last takes the logical leap of providing a class option to give Eidolon Evolutions to the character themselves rather than a summoned companion.

A small selection of feats follows - two or three for each of the archetypes, though sadly no general feats for fey characters overall, and the booklet wraps up by providing a new fey creature, the Gancanagh, a CR 7 opponent that mixes social interaction, mind-affecting magic, and seduction with a monk-like evasive combat style, complete with a touch attack delivering an addictive poison.

This would have been a solid five star product, a definite must-have, if not for the sad failings of the Laughing Man's design. Thankfully the rest of the book provides more than enough to make up for the failures... so long as you didn't come with the original intent of playing a Monk. A definite recommend for players and GMs interested in turning fey activity in their campaigns up a few notches. Four stars.

Herein are presented three archetypes - the Faery Knight, the Laughing Man and the Masquerade Reveller - which can be taken by characters of the appropriate class. (That's cavaliers for the Faery Knight, monks for the Laughing Man and barbarians for the Masquerade Reveller, should you be wondering). Now the interesting thing about them is this: they are NOT for fey characters, but instead are a representation of what can happen to mortal beings who stray close to the fey and gain beneficial influences from that contact!

Each archetype is introduced with flavour text and some awesome illustrations that capture the meld of mortal with faerie influence well. This is followed by a detailed exposition of the game mechanics of the archetype. Each, as you might imagine, walks a knife-edge balancing the dangers of such close association with the fey with the advantages they obtain.

The Laughing Man, in particular, is fascinating and bizarre - strange indeed is the monk who walks such a path, yet a potent option for a strong role-player. The barbarian who takes on the Masquerade Reveller archetype is even stranger, taking on aspects of an eidolon as he gains the ability to change appearance even as the fey themselves do...

There are several new feats, suitable for one or more of these archetypes, and a new monster here as well.

If the fey feature large in your world, and interact with mortals on a regular basis, this is well worth a look.