What in the Niraya is a Mysteriarch?
DISCLAIMER: This review is based on a free PDF provided by the author and the publisher, which in no way had an influence on the final score.
Introduction
Under Azoth Games, James Ray released a new entry in the Mysterious Classes line of products, which in this volume explores an akashic version of the cleric class. Before I go into the review, let me state something first: I HATE the cleric. As someone who suffered 9 years at a private school ruled by nasty, child-beating “Franciscan” nuns (who, unlike Saint Francis wear jewelry and ask the students to “donate” for the Head Nun’s birthday gift, and after the math it is like 15 grand), it is no wonder I became an atheist. Anyway, traumas aside, I will look at the class as unbiased as I can possibly can, so what can this version do in comparison? Read on!
What’s inside?
48.5 pages of content (not counting covers, ads etc.), which include:
-The Mysteriarch variant class. I will start first by checking the cleric class: They have a well-rounded chassis, having medium BAB/HD, two good saves, proficiency with simple weapons plus the favored one of their deity, light and medium armor and shields (no tower, as normal), and 2 skillpoints for 13 skills. At 1st level, they gain aura (basically, they have a supernatural aligned aura), channel energy (positive or negative, basically a healing/harming ability), 2 domains (basically, each domain has a spell per level that you can prepare in a domain slot, plus a class feature at 1st and another at normally 8th), orisons (0 level effects) and spontaneous casting of healing or harming spells… and that’s it. Yeah, one of the most powerful classes in the game has basically no class features beyond spells. IS this bad? Not exactly, but there is very little player’s agenda after first level, no meaningful choices. Well, you add abyssal, celestial and infernal to your list of bonus languages you can learn.
The mysteriarch has the same chassis (with the only difference in one class skill lost and another gained), and also gains an aura and access to planar languages. They get a variant of channel energy called lifeforce channel, a more personalized version of the ability, plus a new, stasis energy that prevents change, impeding both healing or harming of creatures or objects… wait, what? Yeah, neutral mysteriarchs get a deceptively useful ability and I can think of many situations where it can shine. Unlike the cleric, you need to invest essence in this ability for it to increase beyond +1d6.
Mysteriarchs also get access to two dominions, which like domains include an ability gained at 1st level, another at a different level, a list of dominion veils (more on this later), a list of 9 akashic symbol abilities (more on this later), and a Godblessed weapon entry (yeah, more on this later). Instead of spontaneous spellcasting of healing or harming spells, a mysteriarch gets spontaneous veilweaving, a much more powerful ability that lets them unshape a veil and change it for a good (with the good, healing or light descriptors), neutral (neutral, illusion or divination) or evil (evil, darkness or death) veil, depending on the type of energy they channel, a number of times per day equal to their Wisdom modifier.
At 2nd, 7th, 13th, 16th and 19th, the Mysteriarch can choose an ability from the Esoteries list, including a bonus feat from a thematic, flavorful list, healing token as a spell-like ability a couple of times per day, create holy/unholy/liminal water (liminal being the neutral one), improved symbol capacity (improving a special class feature mentioned below), or perform rites (as the occult ritual ceremony but including some unique ones). At 5th level, a Mysteriarch can imbue a holy symbol with essence, and investing at least one point of essence increases the symbol’s hardness and shed light as a bullseye lantern, functioning as a light effect of a level equal to essence invested. The symbol has its own, non-standard essence capacity (lower than a veil), and as long as you show your symbol, your faith protects granting a bonus on AC. At 6th, 10th, 14th and 20th levels, Mysteriarchs learn how to use their Akashic Symbol in a new way: Blessed Symbol gives them the ability to use a spell-like ability from a dominion-dependent list a couple of times per day, Godblessed Weapon lets the mysteriarch transform their symbol into their deity’s favored weapon, and it can deal different types of damage depending on the dominions selected, increasing in base damage when invested with even points of essence (remember, this ability has its own, slower essence capacity); Shroud of Faith transforms the symbol into a sacred garment, improving the mysteriarch’s social abilities with members of their faith and their deity’s sacred animals and improving one of their dominions granted abilities; Divine Halo transforms the symbol into a… uhm, halo, protecting the mysteriarch’s allies and granting them a bonus to AC, and granting them access to a domain temporarily, albeit at a reduced level.
Finally at 20th level, they become their deity’s avatar. If you were expecting something lame like “they become an outsider, yay”, you are wrong. Max level mysteriarchs intuitively know if their deities would agree with their course of action, can be called upon as if they were their deity’s herald, can cast the gate spell once per day to summon a herald or another servant of their deity, and gain access to a third dominion! Holy capstones, Bat Man! (laugh, please)
I haven’t talked about their veilshaping, which unsurprisingly is Wisdom-based. Mysteriarchs draw their veils from the radiant veil list, and start with one veil and go up to 8. They have the same chakra binds as a radiant too. They, however, get a special veil slot, the dominion slot, through their dominion-weaving ability, where they can shape one veil from their dominion list. Being that these represent their most iconic ability, they can bind them to other chakras they normally don’t have access to, making them very good at this veil. Like clerics, they are granted access to these dominion veils only through this slot. Finally, they get 1 point of essence per level, which will make this guys micro-manage their essence way more than other akashic classes.
-2 mysteriarch archetypes: Joyful become Cha-based veilweavers, get access only to the hedonism dominion, and lose all armor proficiencies but add their Cha to their AC. They also only get 5 veils through their careers. However, they become “archetype” initiators, getting access to maneuvers up to 6th level from 4 disciplines. They also can enter a holy frenzy, similar to a barbarian’s rage but holy-powered, even getting some rage powers (including unique ones) that replace esoteries. They also get a cool, Holy Bodyguard ability that let’s them protect an ally and can be improved with essence. A more martial, cool archetype.
Vidvan are the opposite, being a much more scholarly, cloistered priest. They get lower HD/BAB, only light armor and very basic weapon proficiencies. In exchange for sucking at melee, they get the Knowledge dominion as a bonus, regardless of their deity. They also get 2 more skill points (for a total of 4), all Knowledge skills as class skills, and half their level as a bonus on Kn. checks, as well as the ability to make them untrained. Instead of the Godblessed Weapon option, they get an Exalted Manuscript one, which transforms their holy symbol into a scroll; when closed, the scroll protects the vidvan from attacks (represented as a miss chance), as well as from divinations (grantind divination spell resistance). When open, it can store any number of pages of info, as well as being able to hold Mehndi (see below) for a 10th of the price! At 3rd level, they get their choice of the Divine Mandate or Interdiction voice veils, which they can shape (and bind at 9th) in their dominion slot. A very unusual archetype but great for scholarly-minded players.
-30 dominions: The second biggest part of the book, containing all dominion versions of core domains plus a couple more. If a deity grants a domain or subdomain, they also grant their dominion version. There are 8 dominion veils that any mysteriarch can shape. Each dominion starts with the name, some lines of fluff, two granted powers (one at 1st, the other later), 5 dominion veils, plus the list of Blessed Symbol spell-like abilities and the Godblessed Weapon damage type, which goes from normal, physical damage, energy damage, force, akashic and even some esoteric ones like darkness (half bludgeoning/half cold). Let’s check the Sun dominion as an example: You get the Sun’s Blessing granted power, increasing damage when channeling positive energy to damage undead and negating their channel resistance bonus on saves. At 8th level, you get the Nimbus of Light granted power, letting you generate light, dispelling darkness and damaging undead. The dominion veils are Aphora’s Belt of Fire, Heart of the Efreet, Red’s Cloak, Sun’s Fiddle and Trishula of the Sun. The Blessed Symbol spell-like abilities are endure elements, 3rd heat metal, 5th searing light, 7th fire shield, 9th flame strike, 11th fire seeds, 13th sunbeam, 15th sunburst, 17th prismatic sphere, and the Godblessed Weapon damage is Fire.
-44 subdominions. The other big part of the book. Like subdomains, subdominions change some aspects of their parent. Let’s follow the Sun example: The Light subdominion gives you the Blinding Flash replaces the Sun’s Blessing granted power, which blinds opponents of lower HD than you. You also lose access to the Aphora’s Belt of Fire and the Heart of Efreet dominion veils but gain access to The Piercing Light and Robes of Splintered Light ones. Finally, you get faerie fire and daylight as your 1st and 3rd options for spell-like abilities, instead of endure elements and heat metal.
- 1 Feat, 1 Spell and 3 Veils: The Extra Esotery feat is just that, giving you another one. The Sanction Water spell lets you consecrate water, and the 3 veils are unique to the Mysteriarch (although Volur get access to one of them). These ones are cool, religion-inspired veils: Alabaster Jar’s Perfume is a shoulders good aroma veil that numbs the senses of opponents and when bound suppresses an affliction from a small list when within radius; Consign to Wander is a head/headband brand veil that grants fast healing 1 but forces the target to move at least 5 feet, with essence increasing the DC and inflicting some penalties, and when bound it forces the target to move even more and the higher bind even makes the target to become a petitioner if they die! His Red Right Hand is the last veil, granting an interesting fire touch attack that inflicts fear, with essence increasing the damage slightly and the fear’s duration. The hands bind let’s you Kamehameha the fire attack, the wrist bind increasing the fear effect and the damage, and the body bind makes those damaged by the veil recently cower to your might! Talk about badass divine power!
-Mehndi, what I call “veil scrolls”, are exactly that, a new type of magical items that grants you temporary access to a veil. Like scrolls, they go through all power levels, from 1 to 20. An interesting, intriguing new item.
-Akashic Deities: Akashic Pantheon (8 deities). Great Moths Pseudo-pantheon (3 deities). These include all the details required to follow the deity, plus some traits. Enough information to make followers of these deities. It is worth noting that these book compiles all deities from the akashic pantheon released to this date, and span several books (at least 4 IIRC), which are nice to have in one single place. The pseudopantheon include the Kaijus.
-Appendix, aligned damage types. This section includes the 2 energy types used by Path of War (Sacred and Profane), and 3 new for lawful, chaotic and true neutral (Axiomatic, Protean and Counterpoised).
-Reprints (1 feat and 1 trait): This includes the Elevated Sight akashic feat, and the Urban Acolyte religion trait.
Of Note: I am not the only one who digs the akashic magic system more than ol’vancian, but if someone told me to make an “akashic cleric” I would have said “thanks, but no thanks”. Making a variant of one of three OG classes, the iconic cleric, is a very bold move, and the results are great! And the class has way more player agenda than the cleric.
Anything wrong?: There are many, many domains out there and some will be difficult to translate into dominions, so maybe some guidelines would have been nice. The book also has some editing inconsistencies (like un-italized text, some comas here and there and the like).
What I want: After 30 years of roleplaying and more than a hundred of characters played, I have only used the cleric class twice. But these guys, I would play more! So, N/PCs! Lots of them! Also, the spontaneous shaping could work with the dominion slot, since spells are not the same as veils. But that I can do on my own (maybe a feat?).
What cool things did this inspire?: I was working on an akashic version of the Hindu pantheon, and adding more mysteriarch support will be on the “to do” list.
Do I recommend it?: As a fellow designer, I don’t envy the author in the least, things like the dominion and subdominion lists are some of the most difficult, rote work for a designer, and the results are a thing to applaud. I will say this: the mysteriarch is what every vainilla cleric aspires to be: a great, flavorful class with an interesting playstyle and tons of options. This book deserves no less than 5 star-shaped holy symbols!
You can find the book Here