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Riders of the Storm
Introduction
The Stormbound is a book by Cobalt Sages Creations. It includes brand new material for the Akashic Magic system. Is it any good? Read on!
What’s inside?
39 pages of content for 10 bucks (but right now it’s on sale on Drivethrough!), which include:
-The Stormbound Akashic class: After a short explanation of the genesis of the class in the credits page, we start with the creation of the Stormbound. Survivors of a magical storm connected to a place called Elderstorm where the planes of Air and Water connect (not the paraelemental place of Ice… ok), the Stormbound share a common origin, which is cool. As a chassis, they get medium BAB/d8 HD, with Fort and Will as good saves, 6 skillpoints for 15 class skills, up to medium armor, shields (with no mention of tower shields but I guess not), and all simple and martial weapons. However, like druids, wearing metal armors or shields weaken their magical abilities… a prohibition that doesn’t apply to veils. So a really strong chassis overall.
Before I mentioned the class’ unique abilities, I will mention its veilweaving. Stormbound start with 1+1 veil (one normal plus one Storm, unique to them), and finish with 10+1. They get access to ALL 10 CHAKRA BINDS! (11 really) Why the caps? Because they get the same veilweaving abilities of a Vizier, including improved essence capacity, double veils in their unique slot (analogue to the Vizier’s ring chakra), but with a much more powerful chassis. Where they differ is in their essence, which goes from 1 to 20, like a Guru, and their unique slot cannot get essence invested as normal. Instead, the Stormbound gets 1 point of temporary essence per turn in combat (that improves to 2 later) that can only power Storm Veils… so to get them working at their top, you will have to make combat last (and I say them because, like I said, you can get two veils), AND they can change the storm veil by burning that temporary essence, bound to the chakra and all. As a cap, they become immune to electric, cold and sonic damage, become outsiders, and can reshape ALL veils with an hour of meditation.
Stormbound get a very powerful ability at first level called Weatherproofing, which apart from a constant “endure elements” effect for the Stormbound, makes him basically immune to his own powers, and this can be shared to all the party, at level 1. This makes many environmental hazards a pushover.
Apart from that, a Stormbound gets a class talent, called a Storm Power, at every odd level, for a total of 10 from a list of 23. These… are way too powerful, not only because of their effects, but because they require no resources to be used. Druids must be jealous. To balance this, I would require the Storm Powers to require normal essence burn to be empowered. This would limit them somewhat to prevent spamming. Note that some powers can be further invested with essence as if they were Stormveils to make them even more powerful, but then they compete with them for the special essence. The powers themselves are cool and cover a wide range of effects, from elemental attacks like icicle shards or whips of lightning, to defenses, improved attacks, and element-derived abilities, even healing is included here… There are clear differences in power between some, though, but overall are cool. A special shout out to “Clear the Skies” and “Channel the Storm”, two must-have powers. Why? The first one because if not, apparently Storm veils are always on (standard veils can be suppressed as a free action and resumed as a move action, as seen in the updated veilweving rules found in Akashic Trinity). Without this power, you wouldn’t be able to enter a town normally when using Storm veils like The Conflagration, and let’s not talk about buildings. The second because it bypasses the crescendo of “Storm essence” by giving you half your maximum essence capacity as a special pool to empower Storm veils, and full essence capacity if taken a second time. Two must-haves in my opinion; the first one I would make a feature of the class, the second I wouldn’t allow like it is. Maybe if the Stormbound took essence burn from his normal pool, then yes.
The class includes two archetypes. The Devotee of the Storm gains access to full Hunter spellcasting, at the cost of 1 storm power… their veilweaving is kind of weaker, getting less binds (but retaining the powerful body bind) and without getting improved essence capacity. They get other abilities but IMHO they get even more things to do than a Stormbound, but in a master of magic’s hands they will be more powerful in my opinion. Wind Whisperer is the other archetype, and it is a pet one. They pay dearly for this, since this replaces the Stormweaving and eating five of the ten Storm Powers of a Stormbound and… getting only half essence, AND they have to share veils with the spirit! HOWEVER, action economy mitigates this. Another powerful archetype for an already powerful class.
-2 Prestige Classes: The Storm Warrior is what you get if you slap all the unique toys of the Stormbound on a warrior’s chassis, nothing new. Ok if you aren’t planning on using the Stormbound, and the art of the class ROCKS! The second one is the Veilshifter, a master of unshaping and reshaping veils, which basically gives one of the unique toys of Viziers to any veilweaver class… but has two major weaknesses: It doesn’t get an improved essence capacity, which makes it a weaker option overall, and it can’t bind veils quickly, which makes most reshaping weaker options; understandable, since giving the cap of the Vizier to a PrC would be too much.
-Veilweaving: This section includes the basics on veilshifting, but adds the armor and weapon descriptors. Apart from this, you get the option of enhancing your weapon and armor veils, which doesn’t stack with the veils abilities… allowing for armaments where you enchant the basic veil with plain +X bonuses, and then when investing or shaping you add non-+X abilities, giving you access to eternal, powerful but cheap magical items, that are repaired in seconds. Thanks, but no thanks. This enchanting process should be more expensive, at least 25%, if we compare it to an Amulet of Striking.
-32 veils, 2 of which are reprints and the rest are new. All veils are available to the Stormbound, plus at least one of the original three Akashic classes. The first veil, Aura of the Adaptable, gives you the possibility of emulating veils from other chakras, even if you already have a veil in that slot; with the option of changing the emulated veil by reducing its essence capacity (nice). There are other nice options, with an elemental, weather, and travelling themes… however, there are some veils that are weaker/stronger when compared with veils in Akashic Magic and Akashic Trinity. Diplomat’s Clip bind, for example, is too little, too late of an effect IMHO, while Treantplate repeats one of the infinite healing of the old Incarnum system (healing with electricity). Just get an electrokineticist or another Stormbound, or any character that can make electric attacks at will and you will forget about Cure spells; a more viable ability would be to give the wearer temporary hit points that refresh on your turn and increase with essence, which would prevent any cheating, and if healing with electricity is desired, getting a cap on the times or hit point cured would alleviate the infinite healing. Going with a magnifying glass would tell you if these veils are ok for your campaign. Also, there are some veils that don’t follow the norm about each slot function… which doesn’t necessarily means they are bad.
-12 storm veils: (sigh) here we go. The iconic ability of the Stormbound is, in my opinion, too much too soon. Having a class that creates an area of specific weather is cool, but at first level? The reason I hate this ability is that it has implications not covered by the designer. Imagine a 1st level Stormbound, in a desert community during a draught, using The Deluge… bam, the Stormbound becomes A GOD to the locals! He could become rich by creating rain, all day, every day. There is a reason for spell slots, and even spells like Create Water have limits. And that is a side effect of ONE VEIL! Now let’s see The Conflagration… for a typical commoner, you are making EFFIN METEORITES TO FALL FROM THE SKY! Doesn’t matter if you deal just a little damage, the visual effects, while cool, are too much in comparison to what a neophyte low level caster can seem to do.
The veils themselves vary a lot in power, but no matter if you are in outer space or in a weird demiplane, you can create the weather you want, when you want. They ARE cool, but I wouldn’t allow them before 5th level, or even higher.
-Feats: This section include 11 feats. Some of these follow the idea of letting you change the veils you chose for the day which, believe it or not, is one of the balancing factor of veilweavers. Another is an Extra Storm Power… guess what it does LOL! The interesting ones are called Confluence feats, which all require you to be able to use two storm veils at the same time, combine two related veils into a more powerful effect. I can stomach the power and effects of these feats by the time you can take them, and they are really cool. And then there is Shape Storm, a feat that gives you access to one storm veil, with little requirement (two 13’s). Sorry but no thanks. Imagine a commoner with one of these… or allowing all veilweavers to get it.
-3 magical items: Imbuement Gems are a neat idea, but clashes with the rules of Weapon/Armor descriptors introduced before. I don’t think the price is fair, though; I would at least double the price considering its versatility. The Crook of the Stormbinder is a powerful staff, and the price is this time fair IMHO. Totem of the Storm is a really cool object, if costly.
Of Note: The general ideas of the class are good. It can be argued that the mage, paladin, and monk roles were covered in Akashic Mysteries, and the rogue, cleric and… kineticist? roles in Akashic Trinity, so a druid/geomancer veilweaver is a really cool concept. The Confluence feats are really cool too!
Anything wrong?: The core of the class is too strong even if you took away all Storm veil-related stuff, with only the Vizier and the Nexus having access to all slots and binds plus enough veils to fill them all, and the Nexus has to juggle a Guru’s essence between those 10 veils and his blast; the Stormbound doesn’t, and also sports 6 skillpoints! There is also the versatility of the class, with the Stormbinder’s actions having to compete between normal attacks, veil activation, and Storm Power activation. The balancing of the abilities is like a rollercoaster, and there is no mention of the side effects of the Storm veils. Also, the iconic role of the Vizier as the master of veils and his unique toy of changing veils shouldn’t be easily copied by a bunch of feats.
What I want: The Stormbound would work better as a Prestige Class IMHO, something along the lines of the Storm Warrior. The way I would “fix it” is to reduce the veils and binds received (there is a little PDF out there by Sayre himself called Akashic Design, with notes on how to balance a lot of things), and modify Storm veils to work with the weather surrounding the Stormbound, with the ability to completely change the weather at higher levels, eliminating most of the secondary effects, and getting access to more esoteric veils like The Conflagration later, or better yet, making the veils needing more essence to look that awesome, having the essence restrict the side effects. PLUS another round or two of balancing.
What cool things did this inspire?: A Stormbound as a powerful, high level opponent for a party that includes another “nature class” like a Druid, would be interesting. A scroll-like item that conjured Storm veils’ effects for some time would also be cool. Maybe even a race of fey or outsiders (Kami maybe?) that have Stormveils always active would be nice.
Do I recommend it?: As it is now, no. Unless you have the patience and system knowledge to fix it yourself. The themes covered and abilities are a cool addition to Akashic magic, but the execution? Not so much. I wouldn’t rate this with 1 or 2 stars, since I really liked the themes, but the execution is so sloppy that I wouldn’t settle for anything higher than 3 stars. I would keep an eye for a revised version though.
RANT about perceived power. I remember one of my players wanted to play as Yoshimitsu from Tekken fame, and I said OK. My player wanted regeneration, which we put a cap on. Then he wanted “useless lighting, just for show”, and I said no. Why? Because effects don’t exist in a vacuum, and doing that would scare the sh¡t out of a commoner, something Wizards then (in AD&D 2nd ed.) could do by spending spell slots. When I explained, my friend offered to pay with hit points, and THEN I acceded. Imagine if a player said “I want my magic missiles to look like meteors that fall from the sky and then become minuscule and do their thing”, no way Jose! (my name is Jose too by the way LOL) Something like that would APPEAR way more powerful than it really is, and character level should mean something. Plus, the act of casting a spell shouldn’t automatically have side effects like scaring people or creating something. I do have a homebrew Awesome Spell metamagic feat (no spell level modification but increasing the casting time) that lets you make a free intimidation attempt when casting a spell, getting a +1 bonus per spell level. You paid with action economy and feat investment.