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Slumbering Tsar The Desolation, Part 2: The Ghosts of Victory by Frog God Games
This product is 75 pages long. The cover, credits take up 2 pages.
Introduction – (1 page)
This is only one page, it is a picture and then one paragraph of text about the Army of Light.
Chapter 4 – The Ashen Waste (26 pages)
This section has starts with a few paragraphs what this are is like and then random encounter tables. There is one random encounter table for day and one for night, there is a total of 21 different random encounters. Following that is write up's and stat blocks if needed for each of the random encounters.
Next it lists 8 encounter locations, though not all of them result into fights. Including 3 multi encounter locations. One of the encounters can prove to be very hard if the PC's are not on their toes. There is also 2 NPC's that could in theory be replacement PC's or Cohorts if the GM wanted to use them that way.
Chapter 5 – The Chaos Rift (26 pages)
It starts off with a page and half of text about the region. This is followed by two encounter tables, one for day and one for night. There is 19 different encounters, some of them are the same as those in Chapter 4 and reference that section instead of reprinting the information.
Next there is 10 fixed encounter locations with 4 of them being multi encounter locations. Once more the PC will not always have to fight everything they encounter. Also in this section is one new spell the Sunspear, as well as information about Muir the Goddess of Virtue and Paladins.
Monster Appendix – (4 pages)
There is 4 new monsters in this section.
Magic Item Appendix – (1 page)
There is 1 new magic item in this section, the Chain of Beguiling. Which is a interesting magic item I thought.
Prestige Class Appendix – (4 pages)
This section introduces a new PrC, Justicar of Muir. This is a 10 level PrC. To become one a PC must have 3 paladin levels as well as other stuff. They also have a list of limitations or vows they can not break.
Vows
No followers
Reject property – can't own any property
Reject Wealth – no more than 100 gold
Reject Material Property and Magic – Can not own more than what they can carry nor may it be ornate in design. They also can not use any magic items beyond weapons, armor, scrolls and potions.
Reject Disguise – Will never wear a disguise or allow for magical concealment.
Reject Falsehood – May never lie.
D10, 2 skills, 2 good saves, full BaB, gets exotic weapon proficiency Bastard Sword for free. +1 spell level per level.
Class Abilities
Resist Illusions - +4 save vs illusions
Zone of Truth – 1 per day per 3 level can cast the spell Zone of Truth.
Enemy of Evil - +2 divine bonus to hit and dmg rolls.
Celestial Companion – Gains a Celestial Falcon (functions like a druids animal companion, except with it's own base stats.)
Discern Lies – 1 per day per 3 levels can cast the spell Discern Lies.
Shield of Truth – once per day can create a shield of truth. This either gives a +2 to their existing shield or creates one. Either both both shields counter as a shield of blindness, except it only works against evil creatures.
Mark of Justice – 1 per day can cast Mark of Justice
Immunity to Illusions
Sword of Courage – Either enchants their sword with a +2 divine bonus or creates a bastard sword. Either way both swords function like a Holy Weapon, in addition it has a remove fear effect 30ft radius.
Scourge Evil - +1 divine attack and dmg bonus against all evil creatures, and crit threat range is doubled.
True Seeing – 1 per day can cast True Seeing
Armor of Honor – This gives their armor a +2 divine bonus or creates a set of chain mail if they have no armor. The armor also has the qualities of moderate fortification, invulnerability, and spell resistance (15)
Holy Word – 1 per day can cast Holy Word.
Avatar – 1 per week can activate Shield of Truth, Sword of Courage and Armor of Honor all at once. They are also under the effects of Greater Heroism.
Demon Bane – crit threat is double against evil undead and outsiders. This stacks with Scourge of Evil.
It finishes with 9 pages of maps and 2 pages of legal index and OGL.
Closing thoughts, For those of you that read my first review of the the PDF of the 3.5 Slumber Tsar book earlier this year this will look familiar. Since this is the middle third of that same book, only updated to Pathfinder rules and a few other changes. This time around it is much cleaner and easier to read. This time there is a lot more art and the art is from fair to good, a improvement over last time and a vast improvement over the 3.5 book. I didn't notice any errors this time, so the editing is much better this time around.
The stats blocks are now in the relevant section instead of at the end of the book. Which I consider a plus. Also each monster is described so you know exactly what they look like, which is also a plus. This is half of the land around the Slumbering Tsar City.
This part gets into the actually adventure. The encounters are laid out in a very sandboxy style, meaning that a low CR might be right next to a high CR encounter. PC's will need to be on their toes and know when to run to avoid TPK. The encounters are well done and interesting. So if you like sandboxy style adventures then I strongly recommend this product.
So whats my rating? For this section of the updated book I am giving it a 5 star. No it is not a complete adventure but for what it is. I honestly couldn't find a single flaw. The use of white space is even better this time than last. My biggest concern this time around is actually the PrC. For the sheer amount of flaws it gets, I actually think this PrC is a bit weak. I personally think Avatar should be once per day and the other powers once per day plus Chr mod or something.
***Note for those that bought the 3.5 edition you can email Bill Webb over at Frog God Games and if you buy the first three parts or pay for the whole series up front, that you will get a refund for the price of the 3.5 edition price.
***Note 2: I would also like to point out if you buy all the sections or buy it all up front you will get a hard back book at the end as well as all the PDF's.
I am in partial agreement with Dark Mistress with regard to the Justicar of Muir Prestige class. I am no expert on what is too weak or not, but it seems pretty powerful and appropriately restrictive as well. Changing the Avatar ability gained at level 10 to once per day rather than once per week seems appropriate, with perhaps an increasingly difficult caster level check required for each subsequent day of use after the first of the week. I do love the flavor of the class limitations, they seem perfect for a champion of truth such as this Justicar should be. I like it so much that despite my desire to tightly control Prestige classes in my own home campaign, I would allow this one, once the appropriate PC makes the appropriate choices after a certain encounter, of course.
Thank you for posting DM!