The Secrets of the Masquerade Reveler (PFRPG) PDF

Now available!

Hmm...gnot a gninja.

Thanks Crystal!

Huzzah!!

*gibbers madly with glee at the prospect of reviewing this one*

*gibbers madly with glee at the prospect of reviewing this one*

So very seconded

This needs a dot. I'm so hopeful though scared at seeing eidolon and barbarian in the same description...

*gibbers madly with glee at the prospect of reviewing this one*

Surrender to the madness! The more of yourself you lose, the more power you will gain.

This needs a dot. I'm so hopeful though scared at seeing eidolon and barbarian in the same description...

I hope you'll give it a look and maybe write a review for others out there who are hopeful and scared to see these descriptions together.

If you want to see some comments about the archetype itself (before she had all this new love with tons of brand new masks and evolutions), here's a few quotes that helped this new book come to be:

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 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...

The Reveler on the other hand - just wow! Two thumbs up for imho the best barbarian archetype out there.

I'm glad that this has finally seen the light of day!

So Is there anything missing or drastically changed about the Archetype since it was published in Convergence Paths: Fey Archetypes?

I must know if I'm missing out on anything by only purchasing The Reveler.

There are a few reveler-specific feats in CP: FA that are not in here (plus the Faerie Knight and the Laughing Man, and the new fey the Gancanagh, which receives a mask in this one), but this one has a full reprint of the archetype as well as tons of new goodies. The archetype is completely playable out of the box in CP: FA, but now that I wrote all these new evolutions and masks, I'd definitely want to have Secrets as a reference (fortunately, I wrote it, so I get it for free!)

I just posted a review, beating Endzeitgeist to it.

I just posted a review, beating Endzeitgeist to it.

But I'm really looking forward to what he has to say...

@thefortier - your review gives no star rating? I see you give it 4.5 in the text...

@thefortier - your review gives no star rating? I see you give it 4.5 in the text...

Sorry. Corrected.

Thanks for the review thefortier!--I particularly like how it was thorough while also leaving a bit of mystery for the readers to discover some of the material themselves.

Huh, this is actually pretty close to the old Warshaper PrC from 3.5.

So I bought this, because I'm looking for appropriately-themed goodies for my Kingmaker campaign, and yes. Yes, yes, yes. I'll definitely be throwing a Reveler or three at my players... Perhaps at the "Spring Feast" event created by user pennywit on these forums...

I'm not a good enough writer to give this a good review, but damn. An enthusiastic thumbs-up from me (some random user not a lot of people pay attention to)!

So I bought this, because I'm looking for appropriately-themed goodies for my Kingmaker campaign, and yes. Yes, yes, yes. I'll definitely be throwing a Reveler or three at my players... Perhaps at the "Spring Feast" event created by user pennywit on these forums...

I'm not a good enough writer to give this a good review, but damn. An enthusiastic thumbs-up from me (some random user not a lot of people pay attention to)!

Well, I definitely remember you from some of your other posts.

While it's true that thorough reviews like thefortier's for Reveler and Endzeitgeist's in general are certainly amazing, something shorter and expressive, even a review like what you posted there is absolutely appreciated as well (we just like reviews in general!).

El Ronza wrote:

So I bought this, because I'm looking for appropriately-themed goodies for my Kingmaker campaign, and yes. Yes, yes, yes. I'll definitely be throwing a Reveler or three at my players... Perhaps at the "Spring Feast" event created by user pennywit on these forums...

I'm not a good enough writer to give this a good review, but damn. An enthusiastic thumbs-up from me (some random user not a lot of people pay attention to)!

Well, I definitely remember you from some of your other posts.

While it's true that thorough reviews like thefortier's for Reveler and Endzeitgeist's in general are certainly amazing, something shorter and expressive, even a review like what you posted there is absolutely appreciated as well (we just like reviews in general!).

Yep, even just 4 sentence reviews are nice, since people don't always read the discussion pages :)

Crossposted from In the Company of Fey thread:

Rogue Eidolon wrote:

Skill monkey was definitely one of the builds I intended for the reveler (and there's some interesting support for that build in Secrets of the Masquerade Reveler too!)

One of these days, I bet someone will make an all-Rite fey campaign with all PCs from the classes from In the Company of Fey and Convergent Paths: Fey Archetypes, and maybe a Taskshaper too for good measure (though whether or not that would step on toes would depend on the Reveler's build).

Cheapy laughed out loud when I said "Barbarian skill monkey", but frankly I think that d12 hit die, full BAB, and connections with the fey court are pretty much the standard by which we judge all future applicants for the skill monkey position in our group :P

There's nothing quite like a guy disarming a trap, picking a lock, and then swapping his masque out Bleach style to bust through the door with claws and fangs bared and eviscerate the enemy.

Skill monkey was actually the very first thing my group thought of when we saw the archetype. Natural attack options were like a distant second consideration when we started running out of ideas for masques to provide skills and abilities like flight and/or water-breathing.

I'm surprised he laughed out loud. We knew from the start that the concept was for a really McGyveresque character who can do the sort of thing you describe (with several analyses of the uses for utility and some sample skillish masks). Maybe you said it in a funny way :p Of course he's a solid dev, so his first concern was whether it could become some natural attack monstrosity, so I ran all the numbers in comparison.

I think that on an intellectual level Cheapy got the idea of the Macgyver with masques, but I think the words "barbarian" and "skill monkey" may not have actually been put side-by-side for him before :P

Regardless, full BAB skill monkey was literally the first thing I thought of when I saw this archetype, and it was the first thing the other members of my group leapt to as well.

Definitely one of the best executed archetypes I've seen.

I think that on an intellectual level Cheapy got the idea of the Macgyver with masques, but I think the words "barbarian" and "skill monkey" may not have actually been put side-by-side for him before :P

Regardless, full BAB skill monkey was literally the first thing I thought of when I saw this archetype, and it was the first thing the other members of my group leapt to as well.

Definitely one of the best executed archetypes I've seen.

Heh, I think most people might not expect a barbarian skill monkey to be an oxymoron! What I like about the final design in terms of being a skill monkey is that you can totally do that by building for it (take at least 1 rank in the trained-only skills, be mindful of skill points, get masks for it, etc), but it also doesn't overload you with baggage if that isn't what you want to do. It is what you want it to be. I have toyed with a few "barbarian face character" builds too, with high Charisma. While theoretically possible with the original CPFA, the ones I'm playing with now rely on some of the new evolutions in Secrets.

I'm still working on some ideas for reveler archers. One of my favorites thus far involves using Animated Hair to harry foes who decide they want to get in your face and mess with your archery. While the entangled condition isn't the most dangerous condition out there, the Dexterity-based DC is going to be hard to resist against an archer.

Heh, I think most people might not expect a barbarian skill monkey to be an oxymoron! What I like about the final design in terms of being a skill monkey is that you can totally do that by building for it (take at least 1 rank in the trained-only skills, be mindful of skill points, get masks for it, etc), but it also doesn't overload you with baggage if that isn't what you want to do. It is what you want it to be. I have toyed with a few "barbarian face character" builds too, with high Charisma. While theoretically possible with the original CPFA, the ones I'm playing with now rely on some of the new evolutions in Secrets.

I'm still working on some ideas for reveler archers. One of my favorites thus far involves using Animated Hair to harry foes who decide they want to get in your face and mess with your archery. While the entangled condition isn't the most dangerous condition out there, the Dexterity-based DC is going to be hard to resist against an archer.

Ooh, I like that! Also happy to hear that you'll be introducing new evolutions, I was wondering how you were going to support a stand-alone document for an archetype that already pulls its moving parts from a robust subsystem.

Are you going to introduce them as eidolon evolutions, or as options specifically available to the Masquerade Reveler that he can choose instead of evolutions?

Rogue Eidolon wrote:

Heh, I think most people might not expect a barbarian skill monkey to be an oxymoron! What I like about the final design in terms of being a skill monkey is that you can totally do that by building for it (take at least 1 rank in the trained-only skills, be mindful of skill points, get masks for it, etc), but it also doesn't overload you with baggage if that isn't what you want to do. It is what you want it to be. I have toyed with a few "barbarian face character" builds too, with high Charisma. While theoretically possible with the original CPFA, the ones I'm playing with now rely on some of the new evolutions in Secrets.

I'm still working on some ideas for reveler archers. One of my favorites thus far involves using Animated Hair to harry foes who decide they want to get in your face and mess with your archery. While the entangled condition isn't the most dangerous condition out there, the Dexterity-based DC is going to be hard to resist against an archer.

Ooh, I like that! Also happy to hear that you'll be introducing new evolutions, I was wondering how you were going to support a stand-alone document for an archetype that already pulls its moving parts from a robust subsystem.

Are you going to introduce them as eidolon evolutions, or as options specifically available to the Masquerade Reveler that he can choose instead of evolutions?

Excitingly, no need for the future tense even!--it's all in the product at the top of the page, with over 101 new evolutions, enough to design a mask for a whole lot of fey (pretty much all the Bestiaries and other Paizo products with fey are listed in the OGL section 15, since I generated masks for all of them).

There is a sidebar indicating that GMs should be careful before allowing these options wholesale for summoners, including some guidelines for conversion, since they were designed with revelers in mind, who get them for only rounds per day, not all day long (barring Become the Mask for an extremely limited number of points, which were part of my design paradigm; if something was too strong to have all day, I made sure you could never take it with Become the Mask by including prereqs or the like). In particular, in my opinion, no GM should allow any of the new evolutions that are Charisma-based close enough for a synthesist to even touch with a 10-foot-pole.

(then again, this archetype was sort of my version of synthesist in some ways from before synthesist ever existed, so it's no surprise that mixing and matching against the book's advice might lead to something too synergistic to the point of being OP)

If anyone is interested in seeing what the newest Paizo designer is capable of, this book is a great chance :)

Has anyone tried sending this PDF to the Kindle? Because I got a conversion error when trying that with the version I bought from another site, and I wonder if Paizo's version fares any better.

Anyone know if this has or will be getting the Hero Lab treatment?

I love the class, but it seems a lot to keep track of on just paper.

Anyone know if this has or will be getting the Hero Lab treatment?

I love the class, but it seems a lot to keep track of on just paper.

If I recall, the usual Rite Herolab coder asked about coding this class in Herolab on the Herolab forums, and they basically told him he was out of luck. If you use prebuilt masks, I imagine it shouldn't take up too much space on your character sheet. One piece of advice is to write your masks on your character sheet, just the mask names (even if they're your own inventions) and then have a notecard for each mask with a quick rundown of the evolutions. It seems like it would make it a lot less messy on the sheet itself.

Hope that helps!

I have a player proposing this class for an upcoming Jade Regent campaign I'm GMing. We're in the early planning stages, and I feel very hesitant for both mechanical and RP/Flavor reasons to permit the class in the campaign, despite how delicious it looks (so yummy). I've asked my player to submit a more robust outline of how he sees this PC evolving, and also what his in/out of combat roles would be, for both party balance and "do you actually know what you're getting into?" type of reasons. As a GM, I tend to be cautious about when I allow someone to play "Probable Psychopath" in the context of an AP (as opposed to a homebrew). So far, I'm not seeing too many connections in the Jade Regent AP for fey involvement

If anyone has run/played Jade Regent and looked at the Masquerade Reveler in detail, please hit me up with your thoughts?
Perpetually Grateful!
Rabbit

TheCSpider wrote:

Anyone know if this has or will be getting the Hero Lab treatment?

I love the class, but it seems a lot to keep track of on just paper.

If I recall, the usual Rite Herolab coder asked about coding this class in Herolab on the Herolab forums, and they basically told him he was out of luck. If you use prebuilt masks, I imagine it shouldn't take up too much space on your character sheet. One piece of advice is to write your masks on your character sheet, just the mask names (even if they're your own inventions) and then have a notecard for each mask with a quick rundown of the evolutions. It seems like it would make it a lot less messy on the sheet itself.

Hope that helps!

The note cards are an excellent suggestion!

I have a player proposing this class for an upcoming Jade Regent campaign I'm GMing. We're in the early planning stages, and I feel very hesitant for both mechanical and RP/Flavor reasons to permit the class in the campaign, despite how delicious it looks (so yummy). I've asked my player to submit a more robust outline of how he sees this PC evolving, and also what his in/out of combat roles would be, for both party balance and "do you actually know what you're getting into?" type of reasons. As a GM, I tend to be cautious about when I allow someone to play "Probable Psychopath" in the context of an AP (as opposed to a homebrew). So far, I'm not seeing too many connections in the Jade Regent AP for fey involvement

If anyone has run/played Jade Regent and looked at the Masquerade Reveler in detail, please hit me up with your thoughts?
Perpetually Grateful!
Rabbit

I am running Jade Regent, and I put a masquerade reveler NPC into the game who has worked nicely so far. I admit that there isn't really any good reason for a reveler to be involved with the initial hook of a goblin hunt, but this NPC joined the caravan in between part 1 and part 2 (in a settlement in Grungnir Forest, she joined the caravan to escape a witch hunt). I also added some ice fey to Part 3 as additional potential encounters, and a reveler could easily see eye to eye with the mysterious kami (and Miyaro--I gave her the Realistic Likeness feat, so she also wears many masks) in Part 4.

I am running Jade Regent, and I put a masquerade reveler NPC into the game who has worked nicely so far. I admit that there isn't really any good reason for a reveler to be involved with the initial hook of a goblin hunt, but this NPC joined the caravan in between part 1 and part 2 (in a settlement in Grungnir Forest, she joined the caravan to escape a witch hunt). I also added some ice fey to Part 3 as additional potential encounters, and a reveler could easily see eye to eye with the mysterious kami (and Miyaro--I gave her the Realistic Likeness feat, so she also wears many masks) in Part 4.

That's all good news. I have a few other players pretending to be things they're not/pretending not to be things they are, which I dig in terms of the context of the AP. I think a lot of my big concerns are player-based: Does this person have the rules mastery, organizational skills, and RP chops to play the class effectively and not like, torpedo the party with OMGCRAZYPANTSTIME. Writing in some fey seems like a great idea if I get the impression that my player has a good grasp on his concept, and I love the idea of playing the party off of each other given that they've all got secrets like Laura Palmer up in this biz.

The archetype looks delightful, but for whatever reason I keep thinking it's more suited (PC wise) for a campaign like Kingmaker.

Ultimately, I hate telling players "No," unless I have really overwhelming reason to do. I will see what my player has to offer in terms of long-term vision and plan for his Reveler and go from there.

Any additional weigh-ins are, obviously welcome. But Rogue Eidolon's response helped a great deal.

<3
Rabbit

Even as the author, I agree that this archetype is not correct for every player. It's easy to say "Yeah, this is great for everyone!" but it isn't, and this book is part of my way of opening the archetype up to more players than before (since before you had to make all your masks on your own, which cuts off another section of players). I think that knowing your players and deciding from there is a wise idea--just the fact that you're thinking about that is a good sign that things will go well for your game.

Even as the author, I agree that this archetype is not correct for every player. It's easy to say "Yeah, this is great for everyone!" but it isn't, and this book is part of my way of opening the archetype up to more players than before (since before you had to make all your masks on your own, which cuts off another section of players). I think that knowing your players and deciding from there is a wise idea--just the fact that you're thinking about that is a good sign that things will go well for your game.

As a new GM, that means a lot. Thanks so much. (:3

Funny this got bumped.

I actually just purchased it a couple days ago and have since suggested it to the others in my group. While I admit I was worried, what is presented is very cool and from my theory-crafting thus far, something very decent balance-wise. If there is worry of that, it's easy to just put limitations on custom masks or taking the more powerful ones...though even they seem fine (the Tane ones taking a feat and 3 rounds of rage per round seems excellent to me).

In summary, I'm a big fan of this one. Good balance, awesome themes, and just fantastic execution. Myself and several others in my group are excited to try one, hopefully soon.

Thanks for making this!

Funny this got bumped.

I actually just purchased it a couple days ago and have since suggested it to the others in my group. While I admit I was worried, what is presented is very cool and from my theory-crafting thus far, something very decent balance-wise. If there is worry of that, it's easy to just put limitations on custom masks or taking the more powerful ones...though even they seem fine (the Tane ones taking a feat and 3 rounds of rage per round seems excellent to me).

In summary, I'm a big fan of this one. Good balance, awesome themes, and just fantastic execution. Myself and several others in my group are excited to try one, hopefully soon.

Thanks for making this!

You're welcome! Consider putting your thoughts over on the other tab there as a review (really no more than what you've posted is necessary, and people tend to notice reviews more than posts in the product thread).

I think it isn't coincidence that this was bumped recently--Steve actually put it on sale for a bit now because of my new position at Paizo, so we'll likely see even more people picking this up!

Recently dowloaded the PDF and LOVE the flavor of the archetype (kudos btw for the creativity) I had some mechanical questions that I had difficulty understanding. Maybe someone can help me out.

Every level the reveler gets a new "mask" is this a physical mask? Or is this more of a new face reminiscent of increasing fey influence? If it is a physical mask is the reveler the one making it (in a mundane crafting sort of way) or is it more like a wizard who is understood to be developing spells and THAT is why (s)he gets a new one at level up?

Also, and this is the real question: I am a little confused as to how the mask wearing works (which may feed into the above question). Reading some of Melusine's vinettes it seems like she commands different masks to switch out while she is in combat? What type of action is that? (the only thing I could see was at 20th level you could switch masks as a standard 1/day?)
My current understanding is that: The mask is physical mask that must be secured to the face of the Reveler (which takes actions as per donning a mask) and that once the Masquerade has begun there is no changing of the mask you wear?

Thank you for your help :)

The mask is, as far as I can tell, not a physical object but rather a metaphor for the collection of evolutions associated with it. It is "worn" as part of activating your rage/masquerade, and takes effect in that same action, and can be dismissed by dismissing the rage/masquerade; forcing someone to spend an action on top of activating rage isn't something included nor intended in the writeup of the archetype.

There's a class ability that allows you to change masks mid-masquerade, but I forget where it's gained and don't have the book in front of me.

The mask is, as far as I can tell, not a physical object but rather a metaphor for the collection of evolutions associated with it. It is "worn" as part of activating your rage/masquerade, and takes effect in that same action, and can be dismissed by dismissing the rage/masquerade; forcing someone to spend an action on top of activating rage isn't something included nor intended in the writeup of the archetype.

There's a class ability that allows you to change masks mid-masquerade, but I forget where it's gained and don't have the book in front of me.

Orthos is right about the masks being metaphorical. As to Melusine, I'm impressed by your attention to detail What's In the Box. Thefortier asked me the same question, and the answer is: Melusine is using one of the feats from Convergent Paths: Fey Archetypes. In order to provide maximum value in this new book, I wrote all new feats and didn't just reprint any of the old ones, but since Melusine appeared in CP:FA and was concepted with them, she has feats from there too.

The level 20 ability actually lets you literally switch an old mask for a brand new mask you didn't even have 1/day. It's a crazy awesome power!

Hmm, I have the sneaking suspicion that Endzeitgeist likes this one.

Hmm, I have the sneaking suspicion that Endzeitgeist likes this one.

I have no idea why you would say something like that. None at all.

And yes, I do like this one Caedwyr and Will! :D
As always, posted first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

Can't argue with that review. This is one of the coolest archetypes I've seen to date.

I'm putting one of these bad boys (well, bad girl in my case) together this weekend, and should have a thorough review to add once I'm done.

And yes, I do like this one Caedwyr and Will! :D

As always, posted first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

I really like paragraph #3 of the review. It gets at what it truly means to be a masquerade reveler and meshes perfectly with my own view of what the masks "are". Maybe Endzeitgeist himself has a little masquerade reveler in him?

I'm putting one of these bad boys (well, bad girl in my case) together this weekend, and should have a thorough review to add once I'm done.

Well, the iconic, Melusine, is female, so I guess that makes it 'girl' by default even!

Thanks for the kind words, Mark et al. - the Reveler indeed is awesome: When gaming unobtrusively manages to say something profound about the condicio humana while providing superb, imaginative crunch and combines that with great prose - well, then you have me hooked.

And yes, I think that the class is just that - a look in the mirror not only for me, but for everyone who uses it - whether consciously or subconsciously. Especially true in our digital age.

So yeah, we all have the potential to be revelers - the question simply is whether we are fey-touched enough to unleash it. ;)

Thanks for the kind words, Mark et al. - the Reveler indeed is awesome: When gaming unobtrusively manages to say something profound about the condicio humana while providing superb, imaginative crunch and combines that with great prose - well, then you have me hooked.

And yes, I think that the class is just that - a look in the mirror not only for me, but for everyone who uses it - whether consciously or subconsciously. Especially true in our digital age.

So yeah, we all have the potential to be revelers - the question simply is whether we are fey-touched enough to unleash it. ;)

Thanks, that's quite a compliment! I think we do too. The revelers are just expressing a subtle part of our daily experience, but writ large, as fey are wont to do.

It's not often that I get to write something that's just, pure and simple, exactly what I wanted to write. Ever since I've been sitting on the reveler after I built a wordcount-shortened version for the first RPG superstar that had an archetype round in it if I made that round, I've wanted to put out the reveler. When Will offered me the Convergent Paths gig and said to pick a theme, I knew what it would be. And when youse guys loved the reveler and the reviews generally pointed out that building masks i hard, I asked him, "Think I should write an expansion for it? Lots of new masks and evolutions?" He said "May be too specific a product, ask Steve." And Steve immediately said "Definitely!" and set a date right then. At that point, I got to work on just the reveler and expand it out to include everything I wanted it to include, with nothing I wasn't completely excited to add (Steve and Savannah had a few ideas for sidebars and subsections, but they were always awesome additions—I mean, at least I thought the sidebar of reskinnings was pretty cool, for instance). I was kind of worried about the fiction because I'm more experienced in poetry and playwriting but not vignettes, short stories, and the like, but people seemed to have liked those. I think I did a better job on these stories than in, for instance, the opening story for Alistair in Reapers. Melusine's voice was just easier to reach.

I'm putting one of these bad boys (well, bad girl in my case) together this weekend, and should have a thorough review to add once I'm done.

So, how did it go last weekend? Don't leave us hanging!