Studio M compilation for April 21
Introduction
So, Hall Kennette is a prolific author that has been kind of focusing on Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.
What’s inside?: 28 pages for 5 bucks, which includes:
-6 Archetypes: Daevic of Hatred use exclusively brand veils for their passion, which is odd since most passions draw veils from the Daevic’s own veil list, and 8 of the 9 veils are not there (and there is no Daevic Aspect, the one veil common to all Daevics); anyway, they get the Painful Severance feat to increase the DC of their brands, and like other passions it gets two variants: Animus some Volur-like features and Odium gets a kind of “brandstrike” like a Magus, but can later get the STRONG ability to use it more than once per round AND use the ability score used for the strike to modify their DC instead of Charisma. My spider sense for game breakingness are tingling. Daayan Rajahs get to shape veils from the Volur list, and they get the strange ability of using branded creatures as entitled allies… wait, what? Yeah, woe to the giant that fails his saves, and more woe to his friends; I’m not going to deny that this is really cool, but I would make it an NPC-only option in my games.
Herald of Spring Stormbound are electricity-version of the Herald of Winter from a previous volume, with some differences. Nice if a bit repetitive. Stormbrand Stormbound lose normal veilweaving abilities for the Volur’s brandweaving (boo for giving unique toys to other classes) AND Witch’ Hexes (boo boo). My least favorite archetype. Veiled Actor Troubadors replace standard Spheres casting for some veilweving from the Vizier list (but no rings, good). I’m not an expert on this particular class, but it seems intriguing; it also includes a Record Keeper persona for Troubadours and the Mentor for Veiled Actors specifically. The Masked Veilweaver Vigilante is what I wanted for the class; it’s like one of those archetypes in Ultimate Intrigue that change the Vigilante into a light-version of another class, this time gaining veilweaving from the eclipse class, plus the option to get an “adaptable veil” that changes a veil for another when changing personas and wider veilweaving capabilities with their unique talents. Like some other things “missing” from the base system presented in the series (NPC class, minor veils), this is exactly what I wanted.
-Veilweaving Section: This section includes an expanded veil list for the Volur. It also includes 8 new general veils, 4 new storm veils, and 10 conversions from veils found in The Stormbound and The Fisherking to add the [Enhanced] descriptor.
-Abductor’s Shadow is a cool, shadow-themed veil (strange that it has neither the darkness nor the shadow descriptors) that gives you a massive dodge bonus to AC but only when moving, lets you hide really well, and let you teleport or abduct a creature when bound; I would have added a Hex-like caveat to the teleport though. Blindman’s Fold creates a band that, when lowered, makes you blind but gives you a special version of blindsight that can’t be thwarted normally, essence increasing the range and giving you a perception bonus, and when bound lets you use arcane sight and true seeing (which by the way are not in italics) within your blindsight’s range. Duelist’s Edge is an enhanced veil that creates a rapier that gives you access to the controversial “parry” mechanic, which lets you give one or more of your attacks for the round to be able to “parry” via an opposed attack roll, and if within reach you use this attack roll to “riposte”; the wording here is weird, but if you are ok with the parry mechanic then be my guest. Essence gives you precision damage and bonus to the parry, hands bind let you parry attacks against others, and wrists bind lets you teleport close to the opponent before countering and also lets you “parry” non-weapon attacks with a penalty; while I’m not a fan of neither the Enhanced descriptor nor the parry/riposte mechanic, the veil itself is really cool.
Impulse Earrings is a powerful veil that lets you always act in a surprise round, cannot be caught flat-footed (!) or lose your Dex bonus to AC against foes you can’t detect, such as invisible, but creatures immune to divinations ignore this protection; essence gives you +2 initiative per point (!) and some bonuses against traps, and reallocating it can change your initiative order; head bind makes you immune to flanking AND lets you reallocate essence as a free action once per turn even outside your turn! This doesn’t let you “win” initiative against a creature that is acting right now, since that is reserved to the headband bind! The idea behind this veil is interesting but something like this would be a nightmare to run for the gamemaster AND gives class features reserved for other classes for just a veil and, by extension, a feat; sorry but my game’s rules bouncer won’t let this one in. Trailing Shadow is another cool, shadow-themed veil (this time with the darkness descriptor) that let’s your barely-missed attacks to have a lesser effect, courtesy of your shadow; essence increases the range of missing and the possible damage done by the shadow, and when bound to the belt lets your shadow attack on its own! Sweet Buddha isn’t this veil a winner? A great example of marriage between cool imagery and rules!
The next 3 veils are part of a new set, the Witches Ensemble, which include 3 more veils from Akashic Mysteries and the Witch’s Broom veil from The Fisherking. Black Hat of the Witch gives you a black cat familiar that understandably can’t get an archetype; the head bind lets you use your veils through the cat, and the headband bind lets you share senses as the spell with the option to change the sense shared. Disquieting Gaze gives you a cursing gaze attack as a standard action that gives a penalty to one of a variety of attributes, and essence increases the duration and penalty; the head bind makes it impossible for opponents to see your gaze, getting some fitting penalties, and also lets you inflict two penalties at once with a save, all of these increased when binding to the headband. Awesome! However, this should have a HD limitation, since I would find it difficult to believe for a titan or dragon to have to avert their eyes. Hag’s Shawl gives you access to one Hex, chosen when shaped, and essence increases only the DC; you also count as having the Hex class feature for prerequisites, which makes me twist my mouth. You can bind 2 essence into this veil to get more Hexes; the shoulder binds gives you the Coven Hex plus another, and if you are of sufficient level, you can choose major ones, while the body bind makes you count as a hag and gives you one more Hex which can be grand. A powerful veil that requires a lot of investment.
The First Bloom causes vegetation in the area to create difficult terrain by those not under your protection and you can entangle some opponents in the area, with essence increasing the area, and with enough essence it can damage and even nauseate those entangled; when bound you can create plants anywhere and can even summon a wall of thorns. The Fulguration lets you call a lightning storm and make a bolt to fall on foes, ignoring most cover. The bolt deals 1d6, but for each odd essence ads 1 die and for each even you add 2 dice. The damage can be too much at higher levels for an at-will ability, but remember that storm veils are empowered differently. The Energization is a cool one that increases the speed of your allies and lowers that of your enemies. It is an electricity effect that requires a Fort save so you can affect for good or ill undead, constructs or beings immune to electricity, but I would have added that those immune to paralysis are not affected too. Essene increases the bonus and penalty and when bound you can affect one ally or foe so they are affected by a haste/slow-like effect. The Cleansing Rain is a healing one that helps against disease and poison, plus fear and emotion effects, and when bound you can burn essence to give a creature in the area a second chance at saving to one of the mentioned effects.
The rest of this section includes [enhanced] versions of veils from The Stormbound and The Fisherking, which is ok if you like that descriptor (I don’t like how it works right now). The section is alphabetically per book.
-3 Magic Items: All of these are [enhanced] versions of items from said books.
-Bestiary: The best part of the book, this one includes essence capacity for high HD creatures plus a lot of templates, with both quick and rebuilt versions. We start with the Akashic simple template and it is strong, being able to shape any veil from any list or chakra, but once chosen, those veils can’t be changed. The class’ templates all give veilshaping plus a bonus to the veilweaving ability. The Daevic creature gets some veilshaping from a passion list, the Eclipse creature get occultation, Guru creatures get gentle touch and a philosophy. Nexus creatures get planar detonation and convergences if strong enough, Radiant creatures get akashic bond and vivifications, Stormbound creatures get weatherproofing and only stormweaving, and Vizier creatures get mystic attunement.
-The Weaver NPC Class: The second best part of the book and a must when Akashic magic replaces standard magic in a campaign. As an NPC class, it is very barebones and has limited veilshaping abilities.
Of Note: The bestiary was sorely needed, and most of the new veils and the NPC class are GREAT additions to the game!
Anything wrong?: There are many copy/paste errors, specially under the bestiary. Apart from this, I wasn’t really excited with the archetypes section, except for the Vigilante one.
What I want: A Volur creature template! While I could also ask for a Zodiac creature, I won’t, since it’s one of those cases where it
What cool things did this inspire?: I have a thread at Paizo’s board where I post character ideas. I’m going to use the archetypes here to make some creature examples.
Do I recommend it?: I would recommend this book if it only had the bestiary, Weaver class and Masked Veilweaver archetype, all 5-star material. The rest is 2.5-star gravy. So rounding up, 4 stars!
Sweet Jesús I forgot to add "The Xiao reviews" to the title sorry