Path of Shadows (PFRPG) PDF

4.90/5 (based on 10 ratings)

Our Price: $6.99

Add to Cart
Facebook Twitter Email

What path will you walk?

Step into the dark with Path of Shadows, the first Pathfinder Roleplaying Game supplement by Ascension Games! Inside you’ll find several shadow- and darkness-based options for your favorite base and core classes, along with a brand-new shadow-based class, the nightblade!

Path of Shadows has several features, including:

  • The nightblade, a new 20-level base class that focuses on shadow and darkness magic. Choose from several specializations to cater the class to your liking, such as the deceptive Twilight Veil or the destructive Ravaging Void.
  • Variants and options for a dozen existing Pathfinder Roleplaying Game classes, such as the new Darkness mystery for oracles, the stygian striker magus, or the monk of the eclipsing moon.
  • Twenty-five new feats for characters of all stripes such as Terrifying Ambush and Lingering Shadows, including new racial feats for Fetchlings and Wayangs, the playable races that hail from the Plane of Shadow.
  • Nearly seventy new spells for almost every spell caster, from the lowly grasp of darkness and shadow necromancy to the terrifyingly powerful maw of the nightwave and entropic storm.
  • Several new magic items and weapon and armor properties, such as the necrotic weapon property or the mighty twilight reaver.

Path of Shadows is a full-color PDF, 81 pages in length including cover pages, designed and written by Christopher Moore of Ascension Games, LLC.

Product Availability

Fulfilled immediately.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZOPDF-ASCAG01E


See Also:

6 to 10 of 11 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | next > last >>

Average product rating:

4.90/5 (based on 10 ratings)

Sign in to create or edit a product review.

An excellent sourcebook for any sensibility


Review of Path of Shadows-

Continuing in a series of reviews, I have been offered a review copy of Path of Shadows, and found it to be most excellent! Right off the bat, we have good writing and exposition in the opening pages.

Immediately diving into the Nightblade class, I noticed that on paper (as I have not playtested the material) everything appears balanced and well rounded, but distinct enough to set the class apart from traditional classes. Initially, the class appears to be a "Rogue-esque Magus", but both versatile and defined in a way that you could have a Nightblade and a Rogue (or even a Magus for that matter) in the same party without much overlap or conflict.

What especially intrigues me about the class is the implementation of their "surge" ability, which creates an interesting action economy that seeks to balance powers used per encounter without making Nightblades susceptible to diminishing resources over numerous encounters.

So many options exist for this class, especially with the built in paths and extra archetypes in a later chapter that I could even see a party of two or more Nigthblades being a viable and interesting campaign option. Furthermore, the intentions to allow other classes to receive a taste of the Nightblade's abilities is a fascinating developmental experiment, and one that I would deem a success.

Reading through feats and archetypes was especially fun, being the showcase of the book. Many of the ideas within Path of Shadows are rendered within the context of familiar classes, making it far more digestible than a dense (but fun) 20 level base class. Moreover, it stokes the curiosity of the reader so as to implore them to read the book in its entirety; such a thing is a rare accomplishment for such an ambitious supplement.

Feats in particular were yet another ingenious way to customize characters towards a focus on shadow. They appear to do a great job of helping players to realize shadow heavy concepts without the commitment of an archetype or class levels. Many of these feats are interesting and balanced enough to be put into an official Pathfinder product, and I was very pleased with them, perhaps so much that I may very soon find use for them in a current game.

I could also tell that a lot of special care was given into the Spell section. Here I began to notice a heavy focus on actual lighting effects as a game mechanic, which is interesting given the recent blog post by Mark Seifter (FOUND HERE). The entire conceptual framework of these spells as they apply to lighting rules falls under a tricky area with me (rules that make it necessary to consider an often ignored aspect of the game, such as encumbrance). However, here it seems organic and plausible, opening up an arena for sneaking and shadow-crafting that is relatively simple and interesting, while being no more rules heavy than current rules for illusions or summoning.

Spells that play with summoning shadow as a semi-tangible thing (such as Shadow Terrain and Shadow Structure) are fantastic, and well within the wheelhouse for shadow-mages of all sorts. Some of these spells seem especially potent (such as Shadow Field) and could potentially be re-examined for balance, but such cases were rare. If I had one other quibble, it would be with the Shadow Necromancy line of spells, which while thematically interesting, is realistically just another way for Sorcerers and Wizards to bypass intentional limitations to their classes.

On the other hand, the Summon Horror line of spells was amazing, and something that the game very much needed. Shadow themes aside, I am more than happy to implement villains that choose to summon aberrations, as it goes a long way towards creating a memorable encounter that stands out from the typical summoning faire.
As a side note, the artwork for Umbral Defender is amazing.

Finally, the magic item chapter was solid, though perhaps a bit less impressive than the rest of the book, and by necessity. The armor abilities are creative and good, especially as they would apply to a shadow-themed character. The weapons and weapon abilities are equally intriguing and elicited a second glance. The miscellaneous items were quite nice as well, thematically sound and filling in the niche left by the new spells. While relatively small, this section did a fantastic job of supplementing the rest of the material, and offering a good toolbox for characters that desire shadow themed magic items.

Some final thoughts on the book overall: A printer friendly file would be nice, but I have been spoiled by other companies that provide this. It's not a deal breaker by any means, and the quality of this pdf is excellent. I'd also like to extend kudos for crediting artists so thoroughly. I love that kind of gratitude and moreover, it helps me recognize favored artists in the future.

I summation, I give this book a 5/5, as it has exceeded all of my expectations, even after reading many other similarly positive reviews!


A versatile and flavorful sourcebook on the magic of the night

5/5

I already wrote a full review elsewhere. This is the full entry. Here I examine what the book has to offer with an in-depth, chapter-by-chapter analysis.

For an abridged review, this product is well worth your money. It has a little something for every character concept, except perhaps for non-casting martial classes save the Barbarian. The nightblade class is a cool mage-thief type who utilizes a path system for a variety of character concepts based on whether they manipulate shadow for illusion, damaging elements, illusion, the cold powers of death, or the manipulation of shadow energy to create pseudo-physical objects.

Many of the class features, spells, and magic items have good synergy with each other, and the author does a good job at taking care of potential infinite combo cheese. There is shadow magic of many different schools other than just illusion, and evocation-lovers will be pleasantly surprised to find their brand of magic highly represented.

Finally, the artwork is downright beautiful. Path of Shadows is a solid first entry for Ascension Games, and provides a lot of material suitable for many kinds of Pathfinder games.


5/5

Okay, I was gifted this product as a review so I really want to dig in get deep, but before I get to actually reading it I’d like to take a look at the description again re-evaluate my relationship with the subject.

So Path of Shadows is about, er, shadows. It promises to give all kinds of new options for characters including a new base class all revolving around shadows, darkness, and other emo nouns. But really, why would I need this? I know it’s often difficult to stick to your gimmick with Pathfinder’s casting system but how hard can it be to make a character based on shadows and exactly how worthwhile is it to do that? Say I want to make Dhampir emomancer named… Drake. I want him to have cool and broody powers based on shadows and darkness because vampires. Its a common enough cliche concept that you expect to be supported so Drake will be my measuring stick.

I guess I’m a magic user, and I have charisma so I’ll go to the basic charisma casters first, Sorcerer and Oracle. And BOOM I already have a Shadow bloodline and I guess a Dark Tapestry mystery. Don’t need the book already. Although I can’t find all that many spells with the darkness descriptor. Maybe Black Tentacles counts, but not too much shadow going on. I guess there’s not much shadows can do. The shadow bloodline gives some cool powers but I’m a bit disappointed by the spells to support it. Maybe I do need this book. Its looking like Drake does if he wants his concept to be vivid. Well as of this sentence I have yet to read it so let me take a look inside to see what Drake can do.

After introductions, including a blurb about the low amount of shadow magic in the game, we get to chapter 1 and the new base class, The Nightblade. Its a general half-caster chassis. ¾ BAB, 6 skill ranks, 6/9 casting from it’s own list using charisma, good will and reflex saves. The class features are interesting and have some flavor to them. A lot of things are fueled by a ‘shadow surge’. Shadow surges are unlimited but you can only have one at a time and it takes a standard action to make one. You can spend the shadow surge on various other class features. It reminds me of psionic focus or maneuvers. There's a bit of teleportation through shadows and some extra surges among other abilities. Honestly there’s a lot here that I didn’t realise that I wanted to do. Its either a martial debuffer, illusionist or evoker depending on how you play your cards, and the shadow surge mechanic makes sure that you’ll never run out of interesting things to do. I’m surprised similar action economy resources aren’t in Pathfinder’s core rules. Nothing is overpowered but Drake is pretty happy. there’s enough shadowy things to do although you have to creatively describe some of the spells you cast. It is more than just an oogity boogity class but it looks like I can pump Drake full of cool abilities he’d like.

Chapter two gives us some new options for Nightblades and other classes, including a dew Advanced Class Guide classes. Alchemist, Antipaladin and Rogue win out on the cool factor here, other than that there's nothing to get too excited about unless you really want to run your darkness themes. The Nightblade archetypes are really nice though.

Chapter three’s feat list is short but to my surprise there isn’t one feat that I wouldn’t consider taking. There’s even some Wayang and Fetchling feats in there for you.

Of course there are a bunch of new spells all for shadow themes. and again I’m surprised as to how many I considered taking. This is really a book that doesn’t give much filler or trap options in terms of spells and feats.

The magic items are standard things. cool abilities but nothing people will pick up because they rely on specific things to maintain their builds but they look like cool abilities.

I would have expected the Nightblade to be pretty okay but its a pretty diverse class while keeping to it’s theme. The options for other classes are mostly take or leave but the spells and feat sections are really superb. I can also do way more with a shadow theme with it than I could without it. A lot more. I was skeptical about this product because I was not interested in such a narrow focus but it expands your options to a good degree and I don’t think Drake would be as cool as a character without it. I’ll give it 5 stars. It gives a lot of care for a subject that is neglected and does it in a pretty concise and well written way. I cannot wait to see what else Ascension Games pulls up next because this is a pretty dynamite first product.


An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5

This freshman offering of Ascension Games clocks in at 81 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with a massive 75 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

Disclaimer: This book went up in my review-queue do to me receiving a dead tree copy and not having to print everything out. My review's verdict was in no way influenced by receiving this copy.

Ah, shadow magic - scarcely a concept in 3.X has been so prominent and yet so utterly ill-defined and mechanically sucky. Thankfully, 3pps have a knack for singling out such systems and then developing them -take a look at Radiance House's Pact Magic, Interjection Games' Truenaming or Dreamscarred Press' Akashic Mysteries, for examples. In the meanwhile, Interjection Games has provided us with two classes, which, in theme, oscillate between light and darkness, the edgewalker and the antipodist, but that's it, to my knowledge. One massive issue of the original shadowmagic was its exceedingly restrictive nature and the balancing just...well. Not working, at all.

So can this pdf remedy this much maligned, but utterly stylish power-source? The pdf kicks off with a massive introduction, including explanations for the reference abbreviations used and then dives into the Nightblade base class - the nightblade receives d8, 6+Int skills, proficiency with simple weapons, longsword, scythe, rapier, short sword, shortbow and spiked chain and light armors, but not shields. Shields and armor heavier than light incurs arcane spell failure chances. Nightblades also receive spontaneous spellcasting via Charisma of up to 6th level, drawn from their own spell-list. The class also receives 3/4 BAB-progression and good ref- and will-saves. Evasion is gained at second level and this level also provides access to the so-called shadow surge - this is an expendable resource that can be gained as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Several nightblade abilities require the expenditure of a shadow surge - think of it as the class's analog of the psionic focus. with the additional caveat that a nightblade may expend shadow surges to reroll Stealth checks - for actually competent sneaking. At 8th and 17th level, the nightblade can store +1 surge, so that's a deviation from psionic focus. Abilities like increasing darkvision (with worthwhile alternate benefits if you already have it!), hide in plain sight at 8th level (where I can stomach it!) and yes, dimension door hopping - with caveats for feat-qualification etc. High level nightblades may see perfectly in the dark and when they cast shadow conjurations etc., they increase the real component of their shadows.

At 3rd level, the nightblade receives a nightblade art, +1 every three levels thereafter - think of these as the nightblade's talents; when applicable, the save scales via the plus half level + cha-mod-formula. Now while you can get combat and metamagic feats via these talents, they actually provide very unique benefits for the discerning gamer -benefits that significantly deviate from rogue talents etc. and help enforce a unique identity - while effects like full speed stealth plus miss chance upgrade for concealment gained from darkness to total concealment-levels, increases to touch attack AC and higher level options to expend shadow surges to attack against touch AC would pretty much all be options I'd somewhat expect a shadow-themed character to be able to pull off. On paper, attacking versus touch attack by expending shadow surges may look pretty nasty, but the 1/round limit imposed by action economy and the need to regain shadow surges means that this option is powerful, but thanks to the level-prereq and the requirement for set-up, in game actually worked rather well. It should be noted that tank-y creatures, dragons and similar creatures with bad touch ACs should take heed around nightblades, but that is something that is just as true for magi and similar characters, so no balance complaints there.

However, beyond these more conservative ones, there are some talents that can be considered ambitious from a mechanical point of view: Take force teleporting foes or shifting shadow/darkness-related spells from target to target - these are not simply concepts to translate into crunch, much less crunch that is concise enough to withstand my nitpicking of terminology and looking for loop-holes. Kudos where kudos are due - I consider tackling such complex options in a freshman offering, with this level of competence, nonetheless, an impressive feat!

Obviously, now, the defining feature of shadow magic back in the day was the structure of paths, which required some planning, yes, but also provided a feeling of organic development. Nightblades must select a path at 1st level - but within each path techniques loom: One is gained at first level, one at 5th and every 5 levels thereafter -these can be likened to the linear gain of order or bloodline abilities. They are also more than just the addition of techniques - each path comes with a path power, modifies the shadow surge to sport additional options AND modifies the list of available nightblade arts by adding exclusive arts to the list available, providing an element of player agenda that is absent from the linear ability progressions of cavaliers, sorcerors etc.. So yes, the choice of one of the 5 paths is the most important one for the nightblade and radically changes the way in which the given classes play - this extends to the point where the paths offer a more distinct variety in playing experience than most archetypes offer over the base classes they modify. It should also be noted that e.g. path powers scale in their potency and the paths also determine the capstone ability gained.

So what are the paths about? The path of the Bloodied Chain offers the option to conjure forth umbral shackles that entangle creatures, while also adding fear-based effects at higher levels - i.e. you receive some rather powerful and unique terrain-control options. The theme of fear-based debuffs also is represented in the shadow surge ability, which allows you to extend the fear-based conditions on your adversaries. This and the fear-themed techniques gained render this path a good friend to Dreamscarred Press's Dread-class; in my playtests, the two worked together as a nasty double-team that could actually offset the lack of a primary melee class. And no, I do not consider this one to be broken, though combining the dread's immunity-breaker with the nightblade proved to be very efficient. It should also be noted that intimidate can cause full-blown "frightened" as a condition for this path. The exclusive arts here provide for some awesome visuals - beyond detecting fear, adding bleed damage to the umbral chains at 9th level or centering the chains on the nightblade, rendering the effect mobile at 15th level.

The second path, the path of the darkened fortress, can be likened to shadow magic's kind-of-but-not-really magus, blended with duelist-tricks: For example, weapons can be conjured forth and enhanced with special abilities, but they remain shadowy. The shadow surge can be used as an immediate action for a significant self-buff that starts as being applied only to a single attack (GOOD!) and then scales up to lasting a turn at 10th level. The path abilities net you arcane bond, but with a variant - both object and familiar-choices can be blended with your form - which can be rather significant in the context of infiltrations. The path also helps with the crafting of magic items, allowing the nightblade to ignore progressing amounts of spell prerequisites. Fortification-style effects are also part of the deal and high level nightblades with this path receive their own pocket dimension in the plane of shadows. The arts available allow for the extension of weapon qualities and also sport e.g. the option to enhance the bonded object/familiar with unique benefits. Extending the ability to create shadow armament to ranged and dual weapons should also be considered pretty interesting, especially since the latter (one playtest candidate, btw.) sport a balancing mechanic that is simple, yet efficient.

The path of eternal night provides you with a means of creating a short-range energy vortex of negative energy that may not heal, but frighten undead. The shadow surge use here requires a standard action to enforce a reroll of a d20, but can only target a creature once per 24 hours. The path abilities of this rather sinister path allows the nightblade to destroy creatures that are dying and use them to power himself - think of it as a powerful, death knell like effect. This ability would be very strong, especially since the action economy scales and goes down from standard action to swift action - however, the smart choice of a daily limite rendered this a viable ability in game. Interesting would be an immunity not gained by most classes - the path renders immune to negative energy damage, which renders these folks exceedingly effective at killing hostile clerics - interesting! The path also sports an option to make a foe's shadow rise up against the adversary. The arts allow for additional means of enhancing corruption, with e.g. damage upon leaving the aura etc. All in all, an interesting path as well.

The path of the ravaging void gets a very interesting path power, which allows you to change the energy type of energy spells - which is pretty much an awesome trick and though it extends to supernatural abilities, the wording covers those. So far, this has been pretty much a homerun, but alas, the shadow surge herein imho can require a more distinct scaling mechanism - the shadow surge is a ranged touch attack with a range of 30 ft. that deals 1d6 cold damage, +1d6 per 2 levels +cha-mod. While the damage itself is not impressive when thinking about the fact how shadow surges etc. eat actions, the scaling feels a bit off still - perhaps I'm spoiled by Interjection Games' ethermagic, but as far as warlock-y blasts go, this, while not bad or broken due to the limited range, could have imho used some more versatility. The path techniques provide elemental resistances and allow you to suffuse your elemental spells with shadow energy, adding debuff effect insults to the elemental injury - I really like this idea-wise! Now where things become very interesting would be the option to expend spell-slots to duplicate elemental energy damage dealing spells, which, however, only remain partially real. A handy table spares you making calculations or the like, so kudos. All in all, this can be considered the battle mage among the paths, with severe distortion effects that play well with damage-casters and psionics.

The final path would be the path of the twilight veil and I LOVE the path power - based on HD of the target, the spatial distortions caused by the shadows can provide devastating debuffs to the target creatures and 2nd level nightblades of this path can additionally turn invisible via shadow surges. Where the ravaging void is the sledgehammer, the twilight veil would be the scalpel - several illusion-themed techniques and arts allow for serious customization of illusion tricks. Furthermore, the power-enhancing arts are pretty cool here, allowing you to affect creatures usually immune to your distortions. This is kind of the oddball, the one among the paths that imho requires the most investment, but in the hands of a capable player, it may very well be the most rewarding - the exceedingly nasty distortion power can cover somewhat the terrain control and the almost unlimited invisibility are powerful indeed when handled correctly. Why am I not shrieking for the nerfbat? Easy - the invisibility can't be stacked/prolonged, keeping the character from staying out of sight ALL the time. Still, this enables a nasty guerilla style gameplay that has found its fans at my table. The class also sports FCOs for aasimar, dhampir, drow, fetchling, tiefling, wayang and core races.

The next chapter is devoted to a plethora of archetypes and new class options with shadow magic, obviously, as a unifying theme. Alchemists can e.g. modify their body to benefit from the nightblade's enhanced concealment efficiency or craft bombs that duplicate effects of darkness and better sight etc. are part of the deal. There is also an antipaladin who receives a potent, scaling aura of darkness that allows himself and his allies to see through the, later damaging blackness. Barbarians can choose from two totem power trees (and an unaligned one), wherein an already existing bite is enhanced or add str-damage to her attacks while also receiving defenses versus certain conditions. Both have in common that they require certain build types and enhance them and both, to me, feel a bit on the strong end - dice increase + crit x3 for a bite via one rage power is a tad bit too nasty in my book, especially seeing how this also nets full Str-bonus when using bites in conjunction with other natural attacks...And yes, I do have such a claw/bite-barbarian in my game and if they do not need one thing, then it's a way to deal even more damage...

Shadow priests channeling darkness instead of regular energy, bloodragers with a new custom bloodline, anti-disease lunar guardian druids - all pretty solid. The stygian striker magus can be envisioned as the nightblade crossover - less frontlines, for skirmishing (with evasion etc. and modified saves to back this up) and the monk archetype provided is also one that should be considered relatively solid, with ki allowing for more flurry attacks. Oracles can suffer from a curse that makes people forget them and choose a new mystery, while paladins can opt to channel light to dispel and suppress all those nasty effects. Rogues may wilder in nightblade arts and shamans may choose the new darkness spirit.

Nightblades, thankfully, also can join the archetype-fun: Caster/summon-themed Dark Conjurors, a more martially-inclined one (thankfully with path restriction to avoid warlock-y abuse),a rogue-crossover with sneak attack et. al and an infiltration-specialist can also be found. Finally, there is an archetype that pays for the access to two paths at once with a crippled progression of the shadow surges, paying for an increased array of options with less on-the-fly-flexibility and spells.

Fans of shadow-themed races like fetchlings and wayangs may enjoy the feat-section particularly - there are quite a few racial feats for them to set them apart, with generally a fitting theme of shadows, darkness-enhancing, etc. - modifying a summon-list's half-celestial/fiendish creatures to instead be shadow creatures would be an example here. Overall, these feats felt solid, but didn't blow me away per se. Good craftsmanship.

Part II of my review is in the product discussion. See you there!


Very Good Foray Into the Depths of Shadow Magic

4/5

I was very pleased with the content of Path of Shadows , and I would buy it again after having read through the material.

One of the things about many 3rd party material that makes me cringe is that it is often seemingly too powerful to integrate with base PF stuff. There are a lot of great ideas, but independent developers just go over the top with their implementation.

Well, that is not true at all in this case. The Nightblade class, shadow themed archetypes, feats, spells, & weapons all are nicely developed and would seemingly easily integrated into a standard pathfinder adventure with core/base classes. I wouldn't hesitate to allow this material in games that I ran.

The spells alone are extremely well developed and should be part of any shadow mage's arsenal, and the Nightblade class looks very fun to play.


6 to 10 of 11 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | next > last >>
Webstore Gninja Minion

Now available—and welcome Ascension Games!

Grand Lodge

Welcome.

Now the questions:

Who is the designer(s) of the book. What is the page count?


Hello to you too, Garnath! The designer would be me. My name's Christopher Moore, founder and sole designer for Ascension Games, LLC. While I am the only "designer" of the material within, I had feedback and review from several experienced Pathfinder players, many of whom are professional game designers and writers themselves.

Path of Shadows comes out to 81 pages when including cover pages, OGL, and such, making 75 pages of full-color content within. I've contacted the webmaster to update the description with this information.

I hope you find Path of Shadows to your liking! If you have any questions you can also post to the announcement thread here.

Sovereign Court

I don't know if this is a good place in which to ask, but do you have other products in development that you are willing to discuss? I am eager to see more of your work.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Hmm...


Seginus,

Sent a question over to ya on the announcement thread.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Lorathorn wrote:
I don't know if this is a good place in which to ask, but do you have other products in development that you are willing to discuss? I am eager to see more of your work.

Sure thing, it's no secret. I've got at least three more themes that I want to tackle in the "Path" series, which should be similar in scope to Path of Shadows, if not larger than it: Iron, Elements, and Blood.

The next one I'm currently working on Path of Iron. So far I've planned out three base classes and probably a few prestige classes. I don't want to give out too much info since it's in the early stages, but at least one of the base classes will focus on the creation and control of a construct companion. I plan on adding several new metal-based spells, along with a new "metal" descriptor which will be added to spells such as molten orb, chill metal, and iron body.

I also want to include more martial options than there were in Path of Shadows, such as archetypes around firearms or creating traps. One of my definite goals is to give new wielding styles to the Magus class, letting it use ranged weapons, two-weapon fighting, or a two-handed weapon.

And much like Path of Shadows, I don't plan on releasing it in several bite-sized chunks. The book will be released in one piece when it's done; no earlier.


My friend was really happy with this though it is still on my list to pick up so far.

I do have to ask, who did the cover art? It's gorgeous! Do they take commissions? Probably some of the nicest art I've seen in a third party supplement.


Aleron wrote:

My friend was really happy with this though it is still on my list to pick up so far.

I do have to ask, who did the cover art? It's gorgeous! Do they take commissions? Probably some of the nicest art I've seen in a third party supplement.

The artist is Danielle Sands, and yes she does commissions. Here's a link to her website. She did a number of great pieces in the book, including the "iconic" nightblade (which is the same woman on the cover).


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Started a thread on this a while back...link

Nice to see it's here on the store now!


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Dunno why he didn't link it here, but here's Endzeitgeist's review:
Linky


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Part II of my review:

The spell-chapter does provide a cool rules-clarification for spells utilizing the shadow of the caster and provide, obviously, a significant means of providing shadow/light-control. Interesting for other classes - there are spells herein which interact with e.g. shadow surges, making the latter not just an isolated class feature. Interesting would be terrain control spells to confine targets in e.g. areas of darkness, while shadowy wings that can also be used to attack foes and furthermore, allows for channeling 1/cast - nasty and versatile, but I like it. From the ageing capstone, there are other interesting effects - for example, a complex spell which alters an illusion to allow for the execution of quasi-real attacks via the infusion of shadow stuff - as such area attacks, attacks, energy etc. are covered with unique benefits. There are also lunar prophecies or the option to conjure forth the all-consuming maw of the nightwave. Ways to suppress extraordinary senses would also be an interesting move for spells. However, there also are minor modifications/improved versions, like e.g. a darkness/cold-based variant of flaming sphere. Shadow-based necromancy spell-duplication is also covered, as are chaotic overlaps between planes. I also like the concise definition of shadow length for attacks on a shadow, which reflects its damage to the origin of the caster. A new spell-class to summon evil, horrific creatures also can be found herein. There is also a highly complex class of spells that allows for the conjuration of umbral servants for the nightblades, which essentially act on their own after a nightblade's turn -these are fun, allowing e.g. a called magician to freely apply metamagic to certain spells cast close to it, etc.

The final chapter provides ample new magical weapon/armor qualities and specific items - with artworks depicting them that are downright inspired and rank among the best such I have ever seen in any given supplement - WOW. The twilight reaver scythe looks so badass, I just NEED to show this picture to my players, even without knowing that it's a +2 cold iron keen greater umbral scythe that allows for surge storage on crits...

The pdf also sports a handy two-page index and artist-credits.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are excellent - I noticed no significant issues while reading this - none. The 2-column full-color layout used in this book is GORGEOUS. I mean it. This is one of the most beautiful roleplaying book I've seen any 3pp produce, an impression also underlined by the GLORIOUS original full-color artwork by Jasmine Mackey, Bryon Oshihiro, Danielle Sands, Al Savell, Nicoleta Stavarache and Trevor Verges - the artworks, from vistas to spells to characters adhere to a glorious style that is uniform and concise. I am not engaging in hyperbole when I'm saying that this book, in visual, aesthetic quality, could have been a Paizo-book. It's that beautiful. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, but I'd sincerely advise you to get this in print - unlike quite a few PODs, there is no big chance of an errata invalidating this book. This book looks better than quite a few kickstarted books I could name. Yes, THAT beautiful.

What a furious first offering! This is quite frankly the best first offering of crunch I've seen a novice designer produce in ages. Last year saw plenty of adventures of newcomers providing an extremely high quality, but new crunch tends to require most designers some time to get right. Well, this is Ascension Games' first product and it does NOT require any leniency on my part. Author (and layout/editor!) Christopher Moore seems to not only be able to edit his own texts, quite a feat, imho, he also provides a level of professionalism with regards to rules-language one sees scarcely, almost never among novices. The language is so precise, it can be considered on par with the errata'd, good Paizo-books. Beyond that, this pdf offered a level of system-mastery and a level of awareness of obscurer rules I quite frankly almost never get to see. While I have some personal gripes against one component or another herein, none really hold up on a professional level and boil down to personal preferences; number-wise, including extensive playtests, this book held up admiringly well. Few books can claim to withstand this level of deep scrutiny to such an extent, especially considering the level of interaction with obscure and complex elements among the design elements. I was positively surprised to see all of this - but where the book shines most is with the material that takes chances and provides things to do that no other spell or system can achieve - it is the unique effects, which stand out and while I absolutely adore the coverage of just about anything one could ask for in sucha context, I still would have loved to see even more of the inspired, unique effects that can be found herein.

Remember, this is just me being an utterly spoiled bastard of a reviewer - this book is, without engaging in hyperbole, up to the level of crunch-mastery exhibited usually only by established, experienced crunch-masters and blends this with production-values out of this world, visually more on par with Paizo than what you'd expect from a 3pp, much less a new one sans a KS providing the funds. This is a hugely impressive book that catapulted Ascension Games to the landscape of my table and to my radar; I can't help but be excited about the things to come and more such supplements and I certainly hope we'll see more material for the Nightblade - the class is inspired and fun and clearly, its potential is not yet tapped. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval, given without the slightest hesitation, falling short of becoming a candidate for my top ten of 2015 only by a tiny margin. Still, this is thoroughly, exceedingly, impressive. Congratulations to the Ascension Games-team - you have impressed a jaded reviewer.

Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted on Lou Agresta's RPGaggression, here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

@Kryzbyn: My reviews ALWAYS hit endzeitgeist.com before any other site - after all, I have to provide an incentive for people to take a look at my site, right? And personally, I loathe: "Here's a blurb, click here to check my review"-reviews, so that felt fairest to me - no hassle if one doesn't want to wait, quickest access to reviews if you check my site. :)

Also: Thanks for the linkage!

Endzeitgeist out.


Wow. That's some positive review End!


Ever since Direlock V.2 I haven't seen this good a crunch-offering as first product, so yeah. I am impressed. If Ascension Games becomes a teeny bit more experimental, I'll truly be out of things to complain about.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

This week the Nightblade gets a character sheet! Please download a copy at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jvk3mhtqhzizej7/nightblade_sheet.zip?dl=0

Included a roomier version of the spell sheet, since my players always complain about the original one being way too tiny.

Remember to check my profile for all my other third-party sheets, now neatly organized!


Love your work, The Ragi! You're doing the community a great service!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

WOW! I don't really know how to respond to your review. I'm ecstatic, to say the least, to receive such a glowing recommendation. I'm glad that all that effort came through in the final product, and I definitely need to let my artists know about your love for their work. Now that the bar has been set for my next books, I have to make the next one even better!

Endzeitgeist wrote:
Ever since Direlock V.2 I haven't seen this good a crunch-offering as first product, so yeah. I am impressed. If Ascension Games becomes a teeny bit more experimental, I'll truly be out of things to complain about.

Well, let's hope I can get to that point somewhere in the next few books. One of my classes in the next book has its own magic system involving runes, so that should be interesting. Now to make sure the other two classes have equally interesting designs!

Also, that character sheet is pretty sweet. If my group didn't already have a character sheet we use frequently I'd definitely recommend it to our nightblade player.


All the praise is well-deserved - this is definitely impressive! Consider me stoked for the follow-ups! I am definitely looking forward to seeing a custom magic system - at this point, I'm pretty adept at analyzing them. :)


Received a review copy and will be posting a review in the next couple of weeks, but initial reaction is...wow!

Just comparing it to my 28th level shadowcaster from Tome of Magic, which is my favorite character ever in several decades of gaming, and still...wow!


I have to agree. This book was on my 'maybe' pile because regardless of how good a product is, it doesn't go on my priority list unless I need it for something and the theme of 'shadows' wasn't on my list of campaign making themes. But really this goes a long way. It looks good, reading and understanding the crunch was painless and really brings the concepts to life. I cant wait for Path of Iron, particularly since a construct-based base class is always interesting.


Sethvir & Malwing - from what I can glean, you folks know your crunch. So yeah, I'm not surprised you like this book. PoS is very impressive as far as freshman offerings are concerned.

I've been homebrewing ToM-shadow magic for a long time and this book really made me wish for more content in that vein.


I absolutely love the spells offered in PoS. I specifically picked up PoS to acquire a larger selection of Illusion (Shadow) spells for the Wizards I play ... and I was not disappointed. From both a game mechanics and balance perspective, the spells were pretty much faultless in execution. But the real clincher for me was how creative, non-formulaic & outside-the-box these spells turned out to be. You can actually build some really intriguing and different spellcaster characters completely around some of these spell sub-categories. All while avoiding broken mechanics and power creep. Just great, great spells across the board.

Rest assured, these arcane spells will get significant game play in my gaming group amongst both the player contingent and DM NPCs.

Sovereign Court

I've posted a review. Well done.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Oh...true! Sorry if I messed up a time table or anything.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I'd be interested in more path options...


Reviewed and Kryzbyn that was what I was left with. Wanting more path options and I am looking forward to what he comes up with next, which I think is constructs, which I am not a big fan of, but to each his own. If he upholds this level of design, I think he has a fantastic career as a designer/publisher ahead of him.


how would a dhampir work with the path of eternal darkness? they first become immune to negative energy and then they are healed like undead... but they are already healed like undead!


the xiao wrote:
how would a dhampir work with the path of eternal darkness? they first become immune to negative energy and then they are healed like undead... but they are already healed like undead!

The 10th level ability Death Attunement makes you immune to negative energy damage, so you would still be healed by it. However, if some ability effect would cause you to be harmed by negative energy and healed by positive energy like a typical human, then the damage immunity would apply.

The capstone of being healed by negative energy like an undead provides no benefit to a dhampir unless in the aforementioned circumstance. You would not receive additional healing from the ability.


thought so but I like to have an expert's opinion


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I'd like to see an animated shadow herder-like path.


Kryzbyn wrote:

I'd like to see an animated shadow herder-like path.

Can you clarify? If you mean something that summons creatures, that was the intent of the Dark Conjuror archetype.

Dark Archive

Hi, Seginus.

Is there anywhere a complete list of Shadow sub-school spells, including those published by you and those published by Paizo?


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
nightflier wrote:

Hi, Seginus.

Is there anywhere a complete list of Shadow sub-school spells, including those published by you and those published by Paizo?

You can easily turn up all the Paizo shadow subschool spells (not to be confused with spells with the shadow descriptor) using Nethy's Custom Spell Search.

For this book...

Spoiler:
Shadow Subschool: dark confinement, illusory edge, illusory strike, illusory vestment, night armor, night shield, shadow ammunition, shadow binding, shadow binding (mass), shadow conjuration (lesser), shadow courier, shadow evocation (lesser), shadow gate, shadow necromancy, shadow necromancy (greater), shadow necromancy (lesser), shadow space, shadow structure, shadow terrain, spectres, umbral assistant, umbral berserker, umbral defender, umbral informant, umbral magician, and umbral nightblade.


Sorry for the Necro...

Shadow surge:

Shadow Surge (Su): ... The shadow surge is an expendable resource that the nightblade can use to fuel her various abilities. She cannot have more than one surge at a time, but there is otherwise no limitation on how many times a day the nightblade can create or use shadow surges. The nightblade has these surges indefnitely until she expends them, though she loses her surges if she is ever unconscious, asleep, or killed. ...

and yet

Dark Resurgence (Su): The nightblade can quickly recover her shadow powers. Once per day as a free action, the nightblade can gain all of her shadow surges back, up to her maximum amount. The nightblade must be at least 6th level before selecting this art.

^ it sounds kinda contradicting.


Guy St-Amant wrote:

Sorry for the Necro...

** spoiler omitted **

Normally, regaining a single shadow surge is a standard action, whereas gaining back more than 1 point takes a full-round action. The Dark Resurgence art allows you to, once per day, gain back surges as a free action instead.


Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:

Sorry for the Necro...

** spoiler omitted **

Normally, regaining a single shadow surge is a standard action, whereas gaining back more than 1 point takes a full-round action. The Dark Resurgence art allows you to, once per day, gain back surges as a free action instead.

Shouldn't it be level 9 then? since Twin Surges come into play at level 8.


Guy St-Amant wrote:
Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:

Sorry for the Necro...

** spoiler omitted **

Normally, regaining a single shadow surge is a standard action, whereas gaining back more than 1 point takes a full-round action. The Dark Resurgence art allows you to, once per day, gain back surges as a free action instead.
Shouldn't it be level 9 then? since Twin Surges come into play at level 8.

A free action is still faster than the Standard Action for 1 point, so it is still useful when you only have 1 surge (though it obviously becomes better the more you can have at once).


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Seginus wrote:
Kryzbyn wrote:

I'd like to see an animated shadow herder-like path.

Can you clarify? If you mean something that summons creatures, that was the intent of the Dark Conjuror archetype.

Sorry it took so long...but I don't even remember what I was talking about. I could've meant the undead shadow...maybe(?)


Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:
Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:

Sorry for the Necro...

** spoiler omitted **

Normally, regaining a single shadow surge is a standard action, whereas gaining back more than 1 point takes a full-round action. The Dark Resurgence art allows you to, once per day, gain back surges as a free action instead.
Shouldn't it be level 9 then? since Twin Surges come into play at level 8.
A free action is still faster than the Standard Action for 1 point, so it is still useful when you only have 1 surge (though it obviously becomes better the more you can have at once).

But you still need a surge to activate the ability to start with.


Guy St-Amant wrote:
Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:
Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:

Sorry for the Necro...

** spoiler omitted **

Normally, regaining a single shadow surge is a standard action, whereas gaining back more than 1 point takes a full-round action. The Dark Resurgence art allows you to, once per day, gain back surges as a free action instead.
Shouldn't it be level 9 then? since Twin Surges come into play at level 8.
A free action is still faster than the Standard Action for 1 point, so it is still useful when you only have 1 surge (though it obviously becomes better the more you can have at once).
But you still need a surge to activate the ability to start with.

Dark Resurgence does not require a shadow surge to use; you can use it when totally empty.

If a nightblade art does not explicitly state that it takes a shadow surge in its description, then it does not require having one to use. There's actually quite a few nightblade arts that do not require the use of a shadow surge (Combat/Casting/Flexible art, Disguising Veil, Void Sight, etc.).


Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:
Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:
Seginus wrote:
Guy St-Amant wrote:

Sorry for the Necro...

** spoiler omitted **

Normally, regaining a single shadow surge is a standard action, whereas gaining back more than 1 point takes a full-round action. The Dark Resurgence art allows you to, once per day, gain back surges as a free action instead.
Shouldn't it be level 9 then? since Twin Surges come into play at level 8.
A free action is still faster than the Standard Action for 1 point, so it is still useful when you only have 1 surge (though it obviously becomes better the more you can have at once).
But you still need a surge to activate the ability to start with.

Dark Resurgence does not require a shadow surge to use; you can use it when totally empty.

If a nightblade art does not explicitly state that it takes a shadow surge in its description, then it does not require having one to use. There's actually quite a few nightblade arts that do not require the use of a shadow surge (Combat/Casting/Flexible art, Disguising Veil, Void Sight, etc.).

Ha, OK then.

Community / Forums / Paizo / Product Discussion / Path of Shadows (PFRPG) PDF All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.