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I've still a long way to go, to catch up with you in general, Jeff.
That's a long list of credits you've got in the 3PP-sphere.
I got a free copy of your recent Heraldry book from Flaming Crab, thanks indirectly to Kalindlara gifting hers to one of the other first responders, making me lucky #10.
I don't know who wrote what in that book, but so far I'm liking the ability chains built on the heraldic beasts.
There may be a chance for me to return the free book favor later in the year, not sure when, as Alex split one proposed book into several smaller parts.
But enough of this non-Paizo distraction!
Back to the scrivening desk!
I've still a long way to go, to catch up with you in general, Jeff.
<snip>
I feel this pain, I have 5 - I must get back to writing.
On the plus side, when I complete this review, I think I should have the most number of written review words for Wayfinder issues so far! >.<
I'm actually surprised. I hadn't realized I'd written that many pieces for Wayfinder, especially since I didn't get anything into an even-numbered issue until...#6, I think? Possibly #8.Ok,
19 credits Lee, Jeff
So...close...must...type...faster...
Can we get a doping test, on Neil and Jeff?
Yeah, it was #6 - whoo hoo, my sheet can answer the question!
You also have achieved getting 3/3 submissions in issues #10 and #13 - well done indeedy!
FYI... your credits are...
001 Fiction: Short The Sweetest Fruit Lee, Jeff
003 Fiction: Short Running Rivalry Lee, Jeff
005 Setting: Pathfinder Journal Terror at Churlwood’s Edge Lee, Jeff
006 Bestiary: Creatures Bestiary Cartin, Craig; Crotty, Rich; Doss, Danielle; Feather, Robert; Fox, Guy; Herold, Nick; Lee, Jeff; Little, Robert; Murphy, Kevin Andrew; Putnam, Alex
006 Fiction: Short Champion of the People Lee, Jeff
007 Fiction: Short Just Deserts: Return to Old Korvosa Lee, Jeff
008 Bestiary: Creatures Bestiary Crotty, Rich; Filipowich, Aaron; Fox, Guy; Garrett, Jason; Gimmler, Christoph; Gruchala, Wojciech; Lee, Jeff; Welham, Mike
008 Rules: Archetypes A Crew to Defend Her Lee, Jeff; Leising, John; Zamora-Soon, Sheldon
009 Bestiary: Creatures Bestiary Boehringer, Morgan; Crowe, Chris; Floyd, Nick; Garrett, Jason; Gimmler, Christoph; Gori, Frank; Gruchala, Wojciech; Lee, Jeff; Fraser, Nelund; Welham, Mike
009 Rules: Crafting Secrets of the Lord of Change Lee, Jeff
010 Bestiary: Creatures Bestiary Barnes, Becky; Cooper, Will; Fox, Guy; Gimmler, Christoph; Medley, Joe; Lee, Jeff; Moore, Alex J.; Ortiz Jr., Ed; Rupprecht, Matt; Turner, Ian;
010 Setting: Organisations The Price of Decadence Lee, Jeff
010 Setting: Weal or Woe Shirin Kazemi and Yellowman Lee, Jeff
012 Rules: Items Servile Shabti Fischer, Dawn; Lee, Jeff
013 Encounters: Side Treks Despair in Darkwell Lee, Jeff
013 Rules: Haunts Haunts of Ustalav Moore, Alex J.; Lee, Jeff; Sheppard, Laura
013 Rules: Items Professor Nicodemus’ Emporium of Wonders Gimmler, Christoph; Keeley, Jason; Kondrak, Joe; LeBlanc, Thomas; Lee, Jeff; Umphrey, Andrew;
015 Rules: Archetypes Of Magic and Mettle: Archetypes of the River Kingdoms Lee, Jeff
015 Rules: Items Notable Items of the River Kingdoms Lee, Jeff
Actually, if we ignore the Foreword from Neil Spicer, you have written THE SAME article count as Neil and could overtake him in the forthcoming issues! Challenge made :P
Oh, and you are beating Neil on the 3/3, you have done that twice to his once in #7.
Is now wondering if Neil is going to let that stand or allow you to take the lead! :P
For those interested, Neil's were...
001 Setting: Pathfinder Journal The Greenhorns, Part 1 Gulliver, Trevor; McAnulty, Jonathan; Spicer, Neil
002 Rules: Bloodlines A Matter of Blood Crenshaw, Paris E.; Morton, Eric; Spicer, Neil; Wilhelm, Larry
002 Setting: Pathfinder Journal The Greenhorns, Part 2 Gulliver, Trevor; McAnulty, Jonathan; Spicer, Neil
003 Setting: Pathfinder Journal The Greenhorns, Part 3 Gulliver, Trevor; McAnulty, Jonathan; Spicer, Neil
004 Fiction: Short Rain of Redemption Spicer, Neil
004 Setting: Pathfinder Journal The Greenhorns, Part 4 Gulliver, Trevor; McAnulty, Jonathan; Spicer, Neil
005 Encounters: Side Treks The Fall After Pride Spicer, Neil
005 Setting: Weal or Woe Monstrous Pride Spicer, Neil
007 Encounters: Side Treks The Lure of Greed Spicer, Neil
007 Setting: NPCs The Lure of Greed Spicer, Neil
007 Setting: Weal or Woe Lore Seekers Spicer, Neil
009 Encounters: Side Treks The Foehammer Promise Spicer, Neil
009 Setting: Weal or Woe Dark Harvest Spicer, Neil
010 Fiction: Short The Sting of Betrayal Spicer, Neil
011 Encounters: Side Treks The Bookbound Herald Spicer, Neil
011 Setting: Weal or Woe Social Contracts Spicer, Neil
012 Fiction: Short The Wasp and the Mantis Spicer, Neil
013 Encounters: Side Treks Blood Drawn Reunion Spicer, Neil
013 Setting: Weal or Woe Wizardry and Witchcraft Spicer, Neil
015 Issue: Foreword Foreword Spicer, Neil
Seems Neil does like his Weal or Woe...
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I've still a long way to go, to catch up with you in general, Jeff.
That's a long list of credits you've got in the 3PP-sphere.I got a free copy of your recent Heraldry book from Flaming Crab, thanks indirectly to Kalindlara gifting hers to one of the other first responders, making me lucky #10.
I don't know who wrote what in that book, but so far I'm liking the ability chains built on the heraldic beasts.There may be a chance for me to return the free book favor later in the year, not sure when, as Alex split one proposed book into several smaller parts.
But enough of this non-Paizo distraction!
Back to the scrivening desk!
I don't recall exactly, except that we split the beasties evenly and developed the feats and items focused on our particular heraldic creatures. I had the allocamelus, the yale, and the murder bunnies (lepus hostili).
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Actually, if we ignore the Foreword from Neil Spicer, you have written THE SAME article count as Neil and could overtake him in the forthcoming issues! Challenge made :P
Oh, and you are beating Neil on the 3/3, you have done that twice to his once in #7.
Is now wondering if Neil is going to let that stand or allow you to take the lead! :P
I wouldn't ignore it. Being asked to do the foreword counts as a pretty big deal to me.
I'm sure Neil could blow me out of the water, if he had a mind to. I'm just going to focus on getting some new magic, tech, and magitech items finished before the deadline for #16.
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Uringen Advancements in Alchemy
Now we have an alchemist archetype with oodles of Uringen flavor, and a healing chemist vibe. It provides an interesting supportive healing to magical healing. The only power that struck me as odd was replacing poison use with avoiding attacks of opportunity when performing heal checks in combat. The reason it struck me as odd is that many medicines, and some healing techniques are based on the poisons they counter, so taking that away from the healer to simply avoid an attack felt out of place and a little out of balance.
When designing archetypes, one of the hardest things to do is swap powers at equitable level of utility and power. I think this poison swap is possibly detrimental to the aim of the archetype, but that is just my gut feel.
There is also a collection of new discoveries suitable for all alchemists, and not just the archetype presented, each making sense and giving more diversity and flavor to an alchemist character.
The artwork clearly represents the archetype in the process of ministering to a patient, almost mixing the unguents at the moment of application. I loved the dressing style of the alchemist in the art, a mix of swashbuckler and gunslinger replacing blades and guns with vials, potions and chemical pouches.
Article: 8/10, Art: 8/10
The Rats of Canboulon
This next article was quite fascinating, taking ratfolk in an interesting spin – to that of river gypsies, plying trade and mischief along the waterways of the River Kingdoms. Considering the word count limits, the article provides a surprising amount of detail including the vessels they sail in, their society and government, their culture and the antics they get up to. I enjoyed this article immensely and will definitely be introducing these creatures to my players.
The art accompanying the article took me back to my childhood Peter Rabbit books days, it felt like something I would find in those illustrated children’s books. I found this added to the article by depicting how innocent they might look to a newcomer, perhaps aiding them in their acts of mischief or trade.
Article: 9/10, Art: 9/10
Magic Items: Heirlooms of Fallen Kingdoms
And now some river kingdoms inspired magical items for treasure piles and arming up the NPCs with – hey, my NPCs use the treasures! So we have three wondrous items and a magical weapon.
The first wondrous item is a magical hat inspired by a witch’s black pointed hat. I licked this one as it was also on theme with the cackling of our legendary witches.
The second item messes with luck, something very difficult to do and get right. I think for the effect, 1 minute duration is a bit short and limits the use of the item to moments of combat – it could quite safely have been increased to a more useful and impactful duration beyond combat by making it an hour.
The third item I felt would have been more fitting for an Ustalav / Horror themed issue as it was based on carved pumpkin lanterns – especially as the effect is decidedly creepy.
The weapon is a trident that can pin targets, causing bleed every round the target is pinned. The amount of bleed is quite small and as the wielder has to maintain the pin, I am unsure if being “taken out of combat” each round is worth the bleed – I tend to use pinning for capturing opponents alive, so this just didn’t feel right for me.
The accompanying art is of the trident – beautifully rendered from the description, I particularly liked the shaft of twisted steel. I also liked the dried blood effect, almost rust like, on the trident tines.
Article: 8/10, Art: 8/10
Review running total so far: 29,978 characters, or 5,200 words. 23 articles have now been reviewed in depth. Still plenty of the issue left so more review to follow shortly.
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Hendric’s Journal: The Echo Wood Expedition
The next article falls fully into Pathfinder Journals territory, detailing a selection of entries found in a travelers diary. Set in Echo Wood, near Deadbridge, the presentation is a traditional gothic horror mystery that is very evocative of childhood fears. One of the shorter fiction pieces in the magazine, but dripping with atmosphere, I wouldn’t read it by candlelight if I were you.
The accompanying art is a greyscale rendition, not so heavy with lines as to prevent coloring it in if you enjoy such activities. The image portrays something trying to get into the inn room, but just like the story, your imagination gets to fill in the gaps.
Article: 9/10, Art: 8/10
Side Trek: Encounters at the Creek Crossing
Next we have a couple of small encounters of low CR level, helping making journeys between locations a little more planned and interesting for your players. Both encounters take place at bridge crossings, to spice it up, you can swap out the rivers or roads being spanned and instead have the bridge over a nice chasm with a nightmare drop – these offer high utility and a great ease to just drop into ongoing campaigns.
The first encounter is heavy on roleplay, dealing with problems for those living around the locale of the bridge whereas the second encounter deals with what lies below the bridge.
The accompanying art draws from the second encounter, full page and full color, it’s a nice piece that could be shown to the players while running that encounter. I tell you now, that is no ordinary hungry toll-demanding troll under that bridge… that’s down right creepy.
Article: 8/10, Art: 9/10
Weal or Woe: A Matter of Honor
Next we have a weal or woe, presenting two more NPCs for your players to interact with. These particularly fire up the latent swashbuckler in me. I love the stories of the musketeers and the legends of dueling at dawn, and these draw heavily from those. Both NPCs presented are excellent combatants, excelling in swordplay and having enough detail to present their personal ethos and beliefs very well. Running them will be fairly straightforward and easy to incorporate into an ongoing game.
Each NPC receives its own accompanying art, and everything is there that you would expect to see of the swashbuckling flamboyant sword masters. Both are full body drawings, both in full color and both of similar style and execution that I couldn’t decide which of the two I preferred. Suffice to say, I liked them both.
Article: 9/10, Art: 8/10
Songs of the River Kingdoms: New Bardic Masterpieces
Some bard love is now available for the bardists amongst us. Only those who use the PRD or have their own copy of Ultimate Magic will use Bardic Masterpieces, but that say, there is enough detail in each of the seven for GMs to be able to use them off the cuff.
I think my favorite is the Dagger River Shanty, which I can see me using with my river pirates against my players, and my least favorite was Melancholy of the Landlocked Sea. I can’t put my finger on exactly why that one didn’t inspire me so much as the rest, but one thing that contributed was that the name didn’t hint at the duality of the effect for me.
The art renders a full body, pixie like and very mischievous looking bard playing a stringed instrument. I think it might be a rendering of the Dagger River Shanty due to the goodies rendered at her feet. I wasn’t so keen on the mono color background as with the theme of the magazine, I would have preferred to see some sort of water/river based backing to the character.
Article: 8/10, Art: 8/10
Armies of the River Kingdoms
The bulk of the next article provides ready-made army stat blocks for the major regions of the river kingdoms. There are some gems in here and the occasional oddity – for example, Tymon’s entry, drawing from a pool of gladiators who have won in the arena - I personally wouldn’t have gone for a gargantuan army. The life of a gladiator is normally short and intense, so I wouldn’t expect so many to still be living.
A new army tactic is also detailed, the art of assassination of an army’s leadership, and new army resources for moving upon the waters of the river kingdoms are also presented. On the whole, the article provides enough ready-made army material for any GM to have their river kingdoms explode into war on many fronts.
The artwork is one of my favorite pieces of the issue, a shark riding sahuagin/lizardfolk. It just oozes fun and nasty at the same time, full color and just cool, really cool.
Article: 8/10, Art: 10/10
Review running total so far: 34,595 characters, or 6,002 words. 28 articles have now been reviewed in depth. There are just 13 articles remaining to be reviewed. These will follow along shortly.
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Sound of a Thousand Whispers
I wasn’t quite sure how to categorize this next piece. It comprises three linked parts consisting of a background short, a new haunt and a magic items section. The whole article centers on a nymph who defended the wilderness of the Thousand Voices. I think here that too much was being attempted in one single article as the background felt too short, I wanted more of the history of the nymph and maybe some of the things she did to protect the wilderness. The haunts and magical items dovetail nicely into what background there is.
I think if the magic items had been separated out into a separate, we could have had a good background for a nice haunt and separately, a supporting article of items (with maybe a couple more items added for good measure). This would have needed prior agreement with the editors though, so I suspect the single submission word wall hit this article hard.
The art is very dark and moody, and so very fitting for the background of the article. My only concern with it is that there are two competing light focuses in the composition. This drew my eyes alternately between the hand and the moon and was quite distracting – I think had the moonlight been more subdued, the desired effect would have been achieved.
Article: 7/10, Art: 8/10
The Hut: A Tavern by the Sellen River
Next we have a very nicely detailed riverside stop-over. The Hut of the article is unusual for most taverns as there is more focus on providing good food and a family like company to visitors. In addition to detailing the proprietress in detail (albeit without a stat block), the thing I found to be missing was a map of the hut. I desperately wanted to see the layout, how many tables and chairs, how big the kitchen, how many berths and rooms available for overnight stay, and so on. With the rich tapestry painted with the words, the lack of map feels like a missed opportunity.
The article ends with a goodly selection of rumors, a collection of tiny plot seeds for the GM to pick up and run with. They all seamlessly integrate into the lore and legend of the Hut of the article.
The art piece is a rendition of what you would see as you are welcomed in through the main entrance. Looking through the doors and windows of the art, the expected volumes of trinkets and decorations seemed to have been missed – this is a shame as the description of the inner decorations was really flavorful in the article itself. Man, why wasn’t there a map…
Article: 9/10, Art: 8/10
“Steady As You Sail”: A Song of the Sellen
Next up we have a song/poem about travelling the river Sellen. I really liked the consistent metre of the stanzas, and the short but catch chorus between stanzas. What was also impressive was that by following the song, you can with map follow the journey of the song along the river. Very nicely done indeed. As is usual with a well-constructed piece, you are left wanting more, and with only the one song of the article, I felt like I needed another one or two at least.
The accompanying art is a wonderful water color style piece of life rafting along the Sellen. It represents the beauty and peace of life on the water and none of the hazards. I liked it, it may not be to everyone’s taste in style, but for me, it fit the article perfectly.
Article: 9/10, Art: 9/10
Review running total so far: 37,946 characters, or 6,606 words. 31 articles have now been reviewed in depth. There are just 10 articles remaining to be reviewed. These will follow in shortly.
Personal Scrivener’s Guild
Next we have a new organization for Golarion. The services provided allow the game master to provide yet another avenue for PCs wishing to hide identities, hide from their hunters or enemies, and so on. The provision of false identity, not always reliant on magical transformation it seems is a booming business in the River Kingdoms, and this organization is one of those where you do think “why isn’t this in the core setting for this region?”
The article presents all the relevant sections needed to detail an organization and the 3 npc’s detailed provide a wonderful look into the hierarchy and internal workings of the organization. I also love one of the names – but beware, I am king of making bad names, I really loved the name Quickfinger – so stealing that for my next rogue.
The artwork is a nice color panel that really conveys the “legitimate and innocent” cover portrayed by the organization. I particularly liked all the settings around the central image, the pots of varying hues, the wall shelves festooned with different materials. This piece is a great accompaniment for the article.
Article: 9/10, Art: 9/10
Matters of Faith
A quite grisly story greets us now, full of the darker side of life in the River Kingdoms. I really liked the pacing of this one, that you come to care about the main character and understand and feel what they feel, that the creeping horror is revealed layer by layer. There is a real slow burn leading up to a wonderful twisted ending that is quite enthralling.
This is a very good example of telling a horror themed story and is wonderfully entwined with the setting of the River Kingdoms. I can’t say much more without revealing the plot, so go read this one, you will enjoy it immensely if you like dark and sinister tales.
The art is quite surreal, another almost water color piece with very dark tones and grisly scene. It fits the story absolutely perfectly, evoking the imagery of the tail of the tale. I liked this one because it has so aptly been designed to illicit the feelings and imagery of the story itself. Very well done.
Article: 10/10, Art: 9/10
Reformer: A Religious Prestige Class
A religious prestige class – one which doesn’t tie you down to being one of the divine classes – any class could take this prestige class once the requirements are met. This has universal appeal for that reason and is a strong selling point for the prestige class. It made me want to look deeper, so I did.
Reformed Obedience has one little thing that scares me a little, no cap on the increasing bonus., starting at +3 for 1st level, then +1 for every two levels from second, so another +10 by level 20 netting a bonus of +13 – I probably would have restricted this to a maximum of some sort, maybe +10, most likely +5 as by the time you get to level 20, you don’t really need +13 skill bonuses as your skills will already be pretty good. A simple fix would be to increase every 4 levels, giving us a maximum of +8.
A lot of the powers are very heavy on the role play rather than the roll play – so depending on how immersive your role play is at your table, this prestige class could provide many moments of role play fun. Three npc’s are detailed towards the end of the article, providing a good insight into how this class can be applied to both divine and non-divine characters, the third being rogue based.
The art is a full body piece showing an elven variant of the prestige class. It didn’t grab me as much as the other art pieces, quite angular and almost manga like – I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about this art piece that is wrong because there isn’t anything obviously wrong, it just feels off and not quite “Golarion”. Sorry, but that’s my gut reaction to it. It is a nice piece, it just didn’t feel right.
Article: 9/10, Art: 7/10
Review running total so far: 41,807 characters, or 7,296 words. 34 articles have now been reviewed in depth. There are just 7 articles remaining to be reviewed. These will follow in shortly.
Woodlands and Waterways
Next up, new regional spells, from the Wilds we are presented with 1 illusion, 1 divination, 1 abjuration, and 3 transmutation spells, and from the Outsea region, 2 conjuration spells. Cherry picking from these, I liked False Trail – the diametric opposite of Pass Without Trace – my bad guys will be using this one when leading the PCs on a merry chase. Water Sprint is a variant of Lily Pad Stride, and I imagined my PCs fleeing water boatmen style running across lakes and rivers in haphazard fashion. All in all, I liked the mixed bag of spells and what they each offer in variety to adventures in watery wilderness.
The art depicts an adventurer utilising Water Sprint to escape a beastie rather reminiscent of an Otyugh. A full page width color illustration that fits the spell pretty well, my only concern was that it looks like the adventurers feet are submersed rather than running across the water surface as I would have expected.
Article: 8/10, Art: 8/10
The Hundred Cuisines of the Hundred Kingdoms
An unusual gazetteer type of article now, dealing with the regional foods and delicacies found through the river kingdoms. These sorts of article, so often found in Wayfinder, really add depth to a region in so many interesting and diverse ways. Being a bit of a foodie, I really liked the article and wished that some of the things described had been provided as actual recipes – man they sound so tasty. There are so many ways you can use this article – stuck when the PCs ask the barman what foods are on offer – problem solved.
The art shows an almost harvest festival table display of many of the foodstuffs described. I loved the variety of texture and color the artist managed to exhibit through this diverse display of subject matter. This is certainly another favorite piece for me.
Article: 9/10, Art: 9/10
Wardrobe of the River Kings
Next up is an interesting collection of magical items leaning towards regal dress and appearance. There are some 14 items in total, ranging from crowns, gloves, rings, mantles, maces, sashes to braziers, and weapons, providing us with a whole assortment of useful dressings for PC and NPC alike. The very last item, a crown, fell into a common trap when dealing with curses. It states that the crown can only be removed by the use of miracles and wishes but intimating that the spell remove curse wouldn’t work, however that spell is specifically designed to deal with curses and cursed item removal. A minor thing, but worth mentioning.
There are three pieces of art accompanying the article, one scene and two item renditions. The scene is line art, allowing those with creativity to color it themselves – it depicts a man paying obeisance to a religious dignitary. The second is a very ornate rendition of the goblet item in the collection – including unicorn motif. And the third is a very nice representation of the tome of the collection – what I like here is that there is no label or title on the tome allowing me to reuse the illustration to my heart’s content!
Article: 8/10, Art: 9/10
Weal or Woe: The Misfits of Wilkesmont
The last of this issues weal or woe articles introduces us to a female tiefling and a female aasimar. The writer plays off of how a tiefling may be feared unjustly by those around them, the worry about smiling at children at play proving a poignant point. The sensitivity shown by the author and promoted through this description is very well done indeed.
Counterpointing this sensitivity is a quite vindictive when provoked aasimar. This one counterpoints the separatism of the tiefling description with an all-inclusive smothering of a child during their formative years and the effect that may have on that child. This counterpoint between the two protagonists of the article I think is the essence of a weal or woe article and this one is a good example of when it is done right.
There are two full body renditions of the two protagonists, both of which tap into this underlying theme of the article. The tiefling seems almost shy and vulnerable, whereas the aasimar cries out worship me, don’t cross me. The art, coupled with the article provides one of the best weal or woes seen in Wayfinder so far and sets the bar very high for forthcoming issues.
Article: 10/10, Art: 10/10
Review running total so far: 46,150 characters, or 8,038 words. 38 articles have now been reviewed in depth. There are just 3 articles remaining to be reviewed. These will follow shortly.
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The Shadow of Freedom
Now we have the last of the short stories for this issue, set in the mist enshrouded, cobbled streets of Maashinelle. The location, a tavern, closed, after hours, a meeting, and a betrayal. This story clearly sets out to illustrate the seedy undertones and machinations of the less than savory residents of the river kingdoms. It is dark, moody and atmospheric. There is some good character interaction in this story, and the ending left me wondering what happens next.
The art work, a top third page wide panel, depicts the three main protagonists of the story in the inn at the moment of betrayal and treachery. Although accurately representing a pivotal point of the story, it felt to me a little unfinished...
– the bartenders apron, flat and monotone with no shading to depict the flexibility and undulation of such a garment, it looks like a flat cardboard panel hanging from the trouser belt
– the blue cape on the lady, the inside should have deeper shades the closer the cape is to her body to give that sense of depth
– uniform lighting from a single candle, there should have been deeper shadows and shades the farther out from the candle
– maybe some shadows being cast on the floor by the individual nearest to the light source.
These niggling things gave the impression that time was running out for submitting the piece and that final shading and detailing pass of art didn’t get completed. A shame, it showed real potential to be a magnificent piece.
Article: 8/10, Art: 6/10
The Witch-Tree Sacrifices: A Side Trek Adventure
And now a side trek adventure by one of the magazine’s editors no less! Rolls up sleeves :P
Actually, there is a very great deal to interest players and GMs in this offering – I love the idea of a town clock causing a town to fade in and out of existence, that really grabbed me from paragraph one.
It is very fey based, so those with a love of all things fey will truly get a kick out of this adventure. Time has also been considered in the design, a race against a time limit is a great way to add tension to the party as they race to save the day.
This is a fine example of a well constructed adventure, it has a reason why the adventures would get involved, it has time and elements built into the encounter areas and the adventure as a whole. It introduces some commonly used fey along with those not used so often and uses them in surprising ways.
My only concern, minor though it is, was with the selection of creatures on the ritual sacrifices tables – now, it did use Bestiaries 2, 3, 4 and the Game Mastery Guide and NPC Codex – all of these entries readily available via the on line PRD
But...
One of the creatures was from an Adventure Path – which may not yet have made the PRD bestiary lists. I would expect that most people taking the free magazine might not have access to all the bestiaries, adventure paths, modules, setting supplements etc., so do please try to ensure any creature you use is easily found on the PRD online or detail them enough to run them as part of the adventure.
In this case, the table is more an order of sacrifice / scene setting list, so isn’t quite so important, but do consider your selections and try to satisfy the broadest audience you can.
So we have an excellently constructed adventure, did the art meet the challenge laid down by the words – oh my yes. The maps are gorgeous, beautiful renditions of clearings in wild places, the trees marvellously rendered and all subtly different – no cut and repeat paste on these trees. The attention to detail is quite breathtaking.
I am not going to spoil the adventure for players reading this article, but suffice to say, next time someone asks me how to construct an adventure for Wayfinder, I know which one I shall point to.
Article: 10/10, Art: 10/10
Wow, another 10 out of 10 for words and art – this issue is rocking it!
Review running total so far: 49,997 characters, or 8,721 words. 40 articles have now been reviewed in depth. There is just 1 article remaining to be reviewed – the bestiary selection.
For this last article I intend to review each creature in turn rather than as a whole article thus providing some feedback directly to all of the authors whose creatures got selected. I will score the bestiary as a whole as well, purely for my index sheet ;)
There are 8 creatures in this issues bestiary. These reviews will follow shortly.
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Sorry it's been a while, but I am now getting back to finishing the bestiary review. I will start posting those up on Saturday 3rd December.
Once that is done, I am going to gather up all my reviews and reformat them to a single page on my blog site which I will link when they are all up and done - there will be a Reviews section on there, with Wayfinder being the first subsection.
This is to allow you the comfort of reading the whole review without needing to jump around and scroll to different pages/forum posts.
Thanks for your patience.
Bestiary
The final part of the issue is a collection of creatures. I will review each creature independently so that each author receives their own review of their work rather than being part of an overall summary...
Bestiary - Blood Sapling, CR 1
The Bestiary of this issue starts with something very reminiscent of the old school variants of the yellow musk zombies created by a yellow musk creeper. It’s a CR 1 creature, one of the hardest CR creatures to design for without introducing power creep, so how does this design fare?
Everything hangs together really well, and sticks to the plant based theme nicely.
One thing that did seem out of context to me was the Melee entry referring to claws. I loved the Branches extraordinary ability, but this too mentions claws. I think I would have preferred leaving things as whip like branch attacks that tear at the skin creating slashing wounds and thorns that attribute the piercing type as well. Then I would have replaced the wording of claws with branches, tightening the whole design much closer to the plant theme.
The art represents the creature very well, possibly a little cartoon like for my tastes but that’s just my personal preference… speaking of which, I particularly liked the brain flower contained within a bramble like cage – nice and creepy.
Article: 9/10, Art: 8/10
Bestiary - Dragonfly, Giant Knifewing, CR 3
Next up, a low-level airborne threat to player character safety. This is a good choice because at level 3, PCs don’t yet have great access to flight, so this creature does have retreat and harry potential to really vex your players with. One of its abilities is to apply a bleed to the target of its attacks. Bleed effects at CR 3 are particularly deadly, not every party member can easily make a DC15 heal check, and the extra damage applied per round can mount up very quickly. I think my biggest problem with this bleed though is that there is no duration specified. This could be that the intent is to bleed until treated, but I personally would have preferred a quoted duration.
For the organization, I try to avoid the use of the word swarm as a collective as this has in game meaning, so the writer could have gone with plague (like a plague of locusts) or even flight and thus avoiding the swarm inference. It might be the writer intended to have swarm as a swarm, but I suspect not as swarms are usually thousands of smaller / tiny creatures forming the whole and not thousands of wolf sized creatures!
Overall, the creature has definite low level use potential, the artwork representing an all green dragonfly, but without easy reference to the size – a missed opportunity. Maybe instead of having it over a branch emerging from water, it could have been portrayed as clinging to the rib cage of a humanoid skeleton and thus indicating it’s larger than normal size.
Article: 8/10, Art: 7/10
Bestiary - Ferrywight, CR 6
Next up, some undead in that sweet spot of game play levels. There are definite parallels to Charon, the boatman of the river Styx, and being a bit of a sucker for those stories and legends, it struck a good chord with me.
I really loved the image of attacking the pcs with an oar as a main attack option. The imagery is fun and ouch, a meaty amount of damage too. Yeah, this appeals a lot.
The expected spawning ability was present and I love the enervating waters ability, something unique and wonderful to this creature. The players will hate it!
The artwork supports the whole design, my only real concern is it felt more skeletal than wight in representation. That aside, show this picture to your players and they will know it’s rumble time.
Article: 10/10, Art: 9/10
Bestiary - Hearth Wraith, CR 6
The next creature appeals to me in that it so obviously targets the times when the party are at camp. That said, at CR 6, it has a +10 touch attack that deals on average 9 fire damage per hit AND 1d6 Con drain – yes, drain, the permanent one.
Now there is a save involved, a Fortitude save, which benefits from higher Con bonuses. Fail that save and things become very deadly as your Con bonus disappears and your Fortitude save gets lower and lower. Couple that with the physical damage and with just a couple of good rolls, and the cumulative effect of the attack damage, reduced save, and reduced health pool and you can find that in just 2-3 attacks, a PC is well and truly dead. And as they are touch attacks, they will almost invariably hit every time at this point in the game.
For me, 2-3 rounds to dead is too deadly at this game point. I would probably change the drain to damage, allowing natural healing to restore the lost Con over time, and reduce it to 1d3 per hit – the pc is taking damage and reductions in maximum health at the same time, so I think this would be a reasonable fix. Also, I think you need to consider when designing camp monsters that the PCs are en-route away from civilization, so you shouldn’t make things permanently bad for them with camping encounters – if you do, your game might end up ending sooner than you would like.
Alternatively, you could leave things as they are consider raising the CR of this creature to 8 or even 9, so that when encountered, the party has more resources to both deal with the threat and deal with the aftermath.
Love the art, one of my favorite pieces. The shading, the imagery, it’s just so cool and I know if I showed this to my players, they would be quite scared and worried for their characters.
Article: 7/10, Art: 10/10
Bestiary - Kraken, River, CR 12
Now we step up to higher level play with a CR 12 river beast based on the krakens of legend. Unfortunately, I struggled to really like this creature because the description / ecology entry was in the main simply reiterating the special abilities. As designers, we have to credit the players and game masters with the ability to work out tactics and reasoning behind the skills and abilities of the creatures we create. So, for example, in the description, when we describe how humanoids in the vicinity of the creature are dominated, we don’t need to refer to its abilities which have only just been stated above the description.
The other thing I thought might be problematical was the ability to “beach” any ship it attacks without any regard to the size or laden weight of said ship. It’s only a small observation though, just something to bear in mind for the future.
That said, the idea of a smaller river based kraken is a very good idea. It has potential for a unique and interesting encounter, e.g. the players are fleeing by boat from river pirates chasing them along the river. The pirates are of course under control of this creature and are leading the players to a trap. The players find themselves caught between the pirates and this creature in an epic confrontation at this level of play.
The artwork represents the kraken, almost filling the river depicted. Again, the actual size is not well represented by this image – the width of the river is not easily determined, with those few bulrushes, it looks like it may be not more than 15-20 feet wide. Adding a humanoid coiled in a tentacle and part or all of a ship broken across a rock midstream could have provided size context to the imagery.
Article: 7/10, Art: 7/10
Bestiary - Predatory Sandbar, CR 12
Another CR12 follows. Now this one, I like. I like the fact that it takes something non-threatening and common place and breathes into it monstrous life and potential. This creature abounds with natural camouflage and the ability to truly shock and surprise the unwary.
The abilities give that feel of fighting the tide itself and so I found this creature very in theme for the River Kingdoms and would happily use it in the river deltas and slower and deeper running rivers.
The resistances I felt were a bit high at 30, 20 should have been enough at this level of play. I also wondered about having resistance to both fire and cold, usually in creature designs, those diametrically opposed elements result in having one being resisted and the other being vulnerable. I would be tempted to make some sort of cold vulnerability – as the water within the creatures body starts to freeze, it should become sluggish and slow maybe as the small particles of its make-up become less able to freely move around.
I loved the picture – a couple of times I mentioned in this review about size context, this art has done it right. We can all picture a row boat size, so by including that in the creature depiction, we immediately sense the size of the creature and the weight of all that sand about to crash down on that poor boat.
Article: 9/10, Art: 9/10
Bestiary - River Wraith, CR 4
The sample creature provided is of a boar converted into a river wraith – the river wraith of the bestiary entry is a template rather than a creature of its own right, so although the example we have been provided is a CR 4, by applying the template to different beasts, then varying CR levels can be created and encountered.
The template provides some quite unique abilities to a creature so templated, and I loved how the a river wraith is more adept in the river than on dry land. This is a limitation for the creature, but it is a limitation that both makes sense and fits the theme and background history.
I can see many applications of this template being used to surprise, delight and horrify your players. I particularly liked how the sample creature is represented by the artist. Everything fits so well together here, the sample creature, the art, the template. I think this is my favorite of the bestiary section for this issue. The idea of a menagerie of water based creatures bearing downstream like a rolling, broiling, tidal wave stampede is most compelling.
Article: 10/10, Art: 10/10
Bestiary - Tsemaus, CR 6
And the last beast of this issue, a CR 6. Now, I have heard of this creature before, it is found in Canadian folklore, being a creature that entraps the unwary by appearing to be nothing more than floating detritus, or even a fallen tree floating downriver.
The application of the rule set to this legend has provided a very good in game representation of this creature, following very closely to the folklore history.
The art represents the creature equally well, reflecting many of the images you can find by searching for the folklore of this creature.
I love how everything makes sense and it is very well placed for CR. It is the perfect choice for a creature designed for the setting of this issue and I can only applaud the developer for giving us this variant.
Article: 9/10, Art: 9/10
So, that’s this issues Bestiary. I think one of the best themed collection of creatures designed for a specific region so far in this magazines history. So, for the bestiary as a whole…
Articles: 9/10, Artwork: 9/10
Issue Summary
Well, at the time of writing, this issue has scored the most 10 point submissions in a single issue thus far in any review I have written. The editing is top notch as usual and the articles clearly illustrate the diversity found throughout the River Kingdoms region - everything from traditional fantasy fare through to dark and sinister can be found herein. This issue is one of my favorite issues so far, and is also a best in breed example of truly supporting the exploration and adventures of this region. Good job everyone.
Overall: 9.5/10 - Articles: 10/10, Art: 9/10
FYI – This completes the review: 51,184 characters excluding spaces, or 10,818 words over 41 articles making this my largest and most detailed review to date.
I hope you found something useful and interesting during your read of my ramblings.
Oh, and if you find reading the review difficult due to it being split over a number of forum posts, I now host these on my blog site, one review per page. This one can be found in full here. Feel free to look around, it’s a site in progress and might be something you will find useful as I populate it over time. Enjoy.