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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 4 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover (with a sketch by Wayne Reynolds!!!), 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 1/3 of a page content, so let's take a look!
The dragon has raided the village, the orc-horde has rampaged through the town, the necromancer-king is ravaging the country-side or the insane druid has conjured forth tornados and tidal waves - business as usual for adventurers: They set off, kill the bad guy and there - all well! Well, not in my game. I always considered it weird that there was no repercussion for the people - beyond a motive for closure/revenge - what help is it to a town if the PCs kill threat xyz, but they'll still starve?
Enter this cavalier order, which is not about killing baddies, but about HELPING people. You know, doing something that's actually GOOD. The merciful cousins get heal and knowledge (engineering) as bonus class skills and may use the latter untrained - and if the cavalier actually has ranks in the skill, s/he can substitute Craft (Masonry/Carpentry) and Profession (Engineer) for Knowledge (engineering). When issuing challenges, allies within 60 ft. get a +1 bonus to AC and allies with significantly less HD than you get a more substantial AC-bonus. Additionally, such cavaliers may expend one use of a healer's kit as a standard action to restore one hit point to a dying creature, thus saving it. Treating deadly wounds is still possible after benefiting from this usage of the heal-skill. As beacons of hope, they may also reroll saves versus despair, fear and similar negative emotion-inducing effects with a neat +4 bonus.
So far, so good - but where the class starts rocking VERY hard is with the Architect of Improvement-ability: It allows the cavalier to devise an improvement plan for a given settlement by succeeding at a knowledge (engineering)-check that is determined by a settlements size. Properly implementing the improvement plan can be done with or without the cavalier and takes DC minus 10 months, but every day the cavalier helps counts as two for the purpose of when the plan is ready - its aftermath netting a new settlement quality. The settlements maximum number of qualities can thus even exceed its usual limit by 1. Additionally, settlements can thus modify one of their modifiers (like crime, lore, etc.) by 1 - upwards or downwards. Settlements may only implement one such plan per year, though.
But that's not all you can do with the ability! Creating shelters etc. at half the time and improving strongholds at cost are also possible! And to provide something even cooler, we also get 5 new beneficial settlement qualities: Defensible, Good Roads, Planned Community, Therapeutic and Well-educated - awesome!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good - while I noticed a missing blank space, no glitch impeded my understanding of the pdf. Layout adheres to SGG's 3-column horizontal standard and the cover artwork is awesome. The pdf even comes with bookmarks, in spite of its short length - commendable indeed!
Well, usually, I would complain about the product's length - but this is a charity product, as all benefits are donated to the red cross relief funds to help the victims of disasters. And it actually doesn't feel like just some cheap charity product - it actually provides the coolest cavalier order I've seen so far - unique abilities, balanced crunch and an option to make a difference in the lives of the people of the campaign world as well as an option to actually do some good in real life? Hell yeah! Now don't get me wrong, I'd recommend this pdf even if it wasn't a charity product - but SGG's quality combined with the good cause? A must-buy and an easy verdict of 5 stars plus seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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Since when were the undead anything other than gruesome?
That's as maybe, but when it comes to fantasy role-playing, they are pretty standard fare... so here's a handy little resource to spice up those undead, provide extra horrific twists and generally catch out those characters who think they've seen it all before - never mind their players!
The introduction contains a wealth of advice on how to utilise these templates to best effect, both in terms of plot and through game mechanics. The concept of 'shock value' is introduced, a mechanic to model the fact that undead so treated are going to be far more disturbing on a first encounter than run-of-the-mill undead, characters who fail a save are shaken by what they have just seen. The templates are designed to confer both extra abilities and weaknesses on the undead, with an aim to making them more memorable, and knowledge checks can be made to attempt to find out more about them.
The templates themselves are indeed suitably gruesome - such as the carrier (who still carries traces of the disease that carried them off, or who may even have a disease that actually affect undead) or the flayed (who have no skin - it doesn't bear contemplating how they ended up in that condition)... and there are others too, equally unpleasant to meet.
This is a resource that should provide hours of entertainment, for GMs at least, and is well worth adding to your collection.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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To be the class with the most skill points, Rogues are usually very one dimensional. Sneak attack hampers their creative attack prowess, forcing you to build around it one way or another. New players get the impression that all rogues must be thieves, considering the build of the character. Super Genius Games obviously sees the flaws in the current class setup and breaks down and rebuilds the Rogue house with The Genius Guide to the Talented Rogue,
Why This Book IS Iron
I wish I could just wrap up this chapter by saying, it’s Owen Stephens, but my contract requires I embellish on this. The Talented Rogue strips down all the required abilities of the rogue and allows characters to pick and choose talents to build their ideal rogue. There are also edges, a way to define your character both mechanically and through fluff. Toying around with the system, I made 4 NPCs, a traditional rogue, a foreign diplomat, a spy, a tavern owner and a thief. For the first time this one class gave me different flavors and yet all were that “rogue” character. It’s a very simple system compiled in this 27-page PDF, but it works so eloquently. The presentation is spot on, and the layout work is to notch. I love how Stephens included a table that breaks down all 165 new talents and edges into simple categories.
Why This book is NOT Iron
I would say that I wish there were more talents and edges but there are already two supplements for the book.
The Iron Word
After reading this PDF, I wanted to go to every SRD site I can find, delete the Pathfinder rogue class and replace it with this. If there’s another iteration of pathfinder, Owen Stephens needs to be on that team.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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I am never sure why people defend the Dungeons and Dragons spellslot system the way they do. Most arguments center around tradition. I find history to be a poor reason to keep anything that begs for change. Houserule Handbooks: Spellpoints is the kind of change I like. It is a different take on the spell point system by Super Genius Games.
Why This Book is Iron
Houserule Handbooks: Spell Points is a 24 page book that is trying to evolve the spell point variants that litter the landscape. Most spell point systems are the same. Usually there’s an equation of how many spell points you receive, and this equation replaces spell slots. Spell Points gives a little more in depth design work, adding a sub system to prevent players from casting the same spell. This makes for an easy to integrate system that eliminates one of the biggest complaints about spell point systems.
Why This Book is Not Iron
The biggest strength is its only weakness. I still found the system too reliant on tracking, as the sub system to prevent overusing spells requires you to track how many times you use each spell to gauge their point total. There were a couple of design ways to get around this that I wish the Dungeon Master would have explored.
The Iron Word
A little record keeping has never hurt a D&D player though, and it doesn’t outshine the creative output in Spell Points. This is one of the best (and balanced) systems out if you’re trying to escape the hold of Vancian on D&D.
Expanded Review
This bundle includes the expansion which adds rules for additional races and, most importantly, includes the formula to calculate spell points for archetypes and 3rd party classes.
| Wertung: | | [4 von 5 Sternen!] |
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I am never sure why people defend the Dungeons and Dragons spellslot system the way they do. Most arguments center around tradition. I find history to be a poor reason to keep anything that begs for change. Houserule Handbooks: Spellpoints is the kind of change I like. It is a different take on the spell point system by Super Genius Games.
Why This Book is Iron
Houserule Handbooks: Spell Points is a 24 page book that is trying to evolve the spell point variants that litter the landscape. Most spell point systems are the same. Usually there’s an equation of how many spell points you receive, and this equation replaces spell slots. Spell Points gives a little more in depth design work, adding a sub system to prevent players from casting the same spell. This makes for an easy to integrate system that eliminates one of the biggest complaints about spell point systems.
Why This Book is Not Iron
The biggest strength is its only weakness. I still found the system too reliant on tracking, as the sub system to prevent overusing spells requires you to track how many times you use each spell to gauge their point total. There were a couple of design ways to get around this that I wish the Dungeon Master would have explored.
The Iron Word
A little record keeping has never hurt a D&D player though, and it doesn’t outshine the creative output in Spell Points. This is one of the best (and balanced) systems out if you’re trying to escape the hold of Vancian on D&D.
| Wertung: | | [4 von 5 Sternen!] |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This compilation of SGG's spellpoints-pdfs is 39 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 37 pages of content, so let's take a look!
The spellpoint system essentially boils down to this:
The first 50% of a pool are a caster's are an open pool, the second half make up his reserve pool. Casting from the reserve pool entails first fatigue, then exhaustion and even unconsciousness when failing a will save of 10+spell points used in the casting. Divine spellcasters have to attune themselves to spells when praying and can attune themselves to a number of spells equal to their wisdom score (not the modifier) per spell level. And then there's eldritch dissonance, which is a great balancing factor: Preparation spellcasters add the spell's level to the spell point cost after having cast it once, thus preventing them from spamming a certain spell. Spontaneous spellcasters only add +1 to the spell point cost. Metamagic increases the casting time of spells enhanced by it and also the spell point cost - with quicken spell being the exception to the first clause.
The respective classes come with suggestions for renaming the spell-point variants when compared to the non-spell-point-using ones. The cleric's imbue with spell-like ability spell as well as the arcane mnemonic enhancer also gets a revision. Diminished spellcasting archetypes and PRCs are part of the deal as well, providing some guidelines for DMs to modify the respective classes. The book also provides favored class options for the classes.
A total of 26 feats are part of the deal as well - from aspects to arcana, judgment etc., there are feats to use spellpoints to enhance anything from judgments to wild shapes, master the modified metamagic, regain spellpoints via superb counterspells and regain spell points via sex - a rather cool idea!
The pearls of powers and rings of wizardry are modified by the system as well and the pdf closes with the optional, iconic rules of overcasting and conserving power via reducing casting levels.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch; I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to SGG's 2-column b/w-standard with solid b/w-artworks. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.
The original pdf was a great innovation that had its minor issues eliminated via its expansion - and now we have all the different pdf collected in one easy-to-use, more polished final offering that greatly enhances the usefulness of the whole system. As a neat little supplement, this pdf provides us with an exciting, interesting alternative to the basic vancian casting system. All in all, a superbly useful version of the cool alternate system and definitely worth a look - if you don't have the original pdfs, that is. This is a compilation and as such it imho well replaces its component predecessor pdfs, but also doesn't feature that much incentive to get beyond added comfort should you already have these. My final verdict will be 5 stars with the caveat that this might not be for those who already have the component pdfs.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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As KTFish noted, this is a product that makes sense on so many levels. Many adventurers are out to leave a mark on the world, so why not reflect a greater range of motives? Many of them look inwards and build fortunes or legends for themselves... now cavaliers, arguably the most literal of ‘crusaders’ amongst PC classes, have the tools to look outwards and build schools and hospitals, things which will make a difference arguably more important than just ‘killing things and taking their stuff’. Sometimes slaying the Big Bad is the *easy* part of ‘saving the world’; fixing what got broken in the process is where the real work lies, and the Order of Merciful Cousins exist to do the heavy lifting.
(If nothing else, I’d’ve bought this product for the cause it funds, but the chance to build a character who makes the ‘iconic’ cavalier, Alain, look like the self-obsessed ass that he is was a juicy bonus. :D)
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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Gee Mr. KTFish, do you really gotta review a CHARITY book? Yes, for a matter of fact, I do. I could tell you how cool this is what is being done by the names behind this book. I could tell you about the time dedicated to making this product a reality, the really cool art that led to this starting and what brought us to me holding a copy in my virtual hands. But that is not why we are here right now.
It would be very easy to say that for the price and the good will of others this product is well worth the price, all of which are good points, if not for one very important thing. That would be this, at the end of the day this is a gaming product, with some expectations put upon it. We expect our dollars to go to something we will use. Something new cool to make our games bring a new tool in the GM's arsenal, or perhaps that new feat we had never thought of, a spell of nature we find our selves creating an entire character around it, because the design is so cool. So, let us take a look shall we, a peek under the cover and see what the Crunch Master has share for us?
The Merciful Cousins struck me instantly as one of the most logical Orders I've come across within a fantasy setting, and found myself scratching the chin for them now not having been done before. I spent years being one of those GMs, that guy who can tell you the name of the kid who sweeps the floor at the local bakery in any town within his setting. Yeah, that guy, lol. We all know those GMs who go deep into their settings to go for immersion. So, when I say they were a local and well welcome addition, I say that not lightly. The Merciful Cousins Cavalier Order are the fantasy answer to the Red Cross. They exist to be there when they are needed, when the world goes off skew and people are left picking up the pieces, in come the Merciful Cousins.
Carrying an edict of being there to rebuild and help, to heal and mend the Order operates as a Lawful or Good operation (yes, those are two separate thing). Like any good write up for a cavalier order we are given the specifics of perks from being a member, all of which tying to defending, helping, helping and rebuilding. Along with the Order's perks comes some new Settlement Qualities. Yeah, how often do you see a product offer these types of rules to add to the toolbox, right? There is a reason I call Owen the Crunch Master my friends.
I could go into specifics, but not this time. This time you are going to have to pick up the product and trust that the product is worth it.
I know that is not the usually format for a review from me, but again, this time, I feel the product is solid and the reason behind it deserves to speak for itself. I will tell you this much my fellow GMs, the new settlement rules will be showing up in my next product, an the Order has already been added to my game setting, permanently. One of the easiest 5 star ratings I have ever given, well worth the price of admission, and my sincerest heartfelt Thanks to the men who made this product a reality.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 6 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 4 1/3 of a page content, so let's check this out!
The SGG-take on the Fighter with talents is justifiable popular and this pdf essentially offers NEW fighter talents (versus those based on archetype-abilities) for the talented fighter - talents, which, btw. you could relatively easily convert into feats.
Unless I've miscounted, we get 23 new basic talents for the fighter, which include several talents that come only into play on a critical hit: Much like 3.5 Sword & Sorcery Advanced Player's Guide's extensive critical hit tables (oh, how I love them!), these talents allow you to reduce the critical hit multiplier by 1 (e.g. from double damage to only regular damage or from triple damage down to double) and apply a secondary effect to your attack, with e.g. Fat Lip providing a hefty fort-save or a chance to lose any verbal component featuring spell following the hit, dealing damage to both foe and armor, temporarily exhaust foes, forgo a crit to net +4 to crit-confirmations for a minute (high crit-builds will like this) or make the target provoke an AoO from all creatures threatening it.
Gaining access to a cleric/oracle orison (and as a follow-up, 1st level spell), +2 to atk for AoOs and number of AoOs per round, using dirty tricks 1/round in place of a regular melee attack, getting a better aid another, gain nice bonuses to CMB when using Stand Still or a physis that keep the fighter in shape at advanced age categories as well as increased healing and stowing items more efficiently.
13 advanced talents allow you to gain evasion, punch foes into the throat or disable limbs(on crits - no speaking for 1 round/penalties depending on the limb), answer grapple, disarm and sunder attempts with AoOs, demoralize foes when using a firearm for the first time in combat, may use a melee weapon attack in lieu of an acrobatics-check to move through threatened squares or get improved accuracy when handling siege engines.
Finally, we get 3 new grand talents: An advanced rogue talent, regular damage in addition to combat maneuver-effects and the chance to sever limbs on crits make for three interesting potential capstones.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch; I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to SGG's 3-column full-color standard and the artworks featured are nice. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks by page - nice to have, even at this relatively short length.
There's a reason why I dubbed Owen K.C. Stephens "Grandmaster Crunch" - and this pdf is a great example why. The man delivers. Where my one gripe with the talented fighter essentially was that I would have loved more unique talents, this delivers. While organization of the respective talents is still a matter of tastes, these talents are glorious additions to the talented fighter, at a price that is more than fair. Combine that with the fact that none of the talents feel unbalanced or too weak and we have a straight recommendation at 5 stars plus seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
All right, you know the drill – 4 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages content, this time detailing 6 feats for Jesters, so let’s check them out!
-Combat Juggling: Allows you to juggle multiple objects to treat them as if you have them ready in your hands – Alchemists will love that one indeed!
-Distract: Use Bluff or Perform to allow other creatures to use stealth versus the target, even if circumstances would normally forbid that. Seen that concept done before several times, not too impressed.
-Hideous Humor: Use Perform (Comedy) to demoralize foes and allows you to ignore the +4 save bonus creatures would get against Hideous Laughter that are not of your type. Also allows you to stack durations of Hideous Laughter-spells. Neat – though the spell is not italicized in the prerequisites.
-Play the Fool: Allows you to disguise your actions as incompetence/clumsiness/bumbling and allows you to thus get away with some nasty stuff without necessarily antagonizing opponents. Neat!
-Quick Ready: Ready up to 2+Dex mundane items per round as if via quick draw. EXTREMELY useful, cool feat.
-Tools of the Trade: When using sneezing powder, alchemist’s fire, brewed reek etc., you can make the DC 8 + 1/HD + dex-mod – great feat to keep these tools relevant over the levels - I wholeheartedly approve!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to SGG’s 3-column landscape standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. I really like the nature of these high-concept feats, especially since I consider the trickster to be underrepresented.
While juggling has been done in the Gallivant archetype for the bard (in Class Acts: Bard Archetypes) by Abandoned Arts, both approached complement one another and fit their respective niches. Overall, these feats felt interesting enough to warrant a buying-recommendation, though I’m not blown away by all of the feats – distract feels a bit like filler to me. Nevertheless, the other feats are extremely useful and often downright genius and hence I feel justified in rating this Bullet Point 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [4 von 5 Sternen!] |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 14 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover,1 page editorial/SRD, leaving 12 1/3 pages of content, so let's take a look!
I'll come right out and say it: I don't like the fighter-class. There. I get the appeal of many feats/the master-of-arms angle, but the base-class, since 2nd edition really, bored me terribly. Armor Training, weapon training, weapon specialization - I get their appeal and their mechanical raison d`être but personally, I always considered the class oh so boring. PrCs, archetypes and e.g. the revision of barbarian, ranger, paladin and monk classes, as well as the addition of inquisitors and cavaliers have made vanilla fighters all but non-existent in my game.
Now an issue, as the pdf acknowledges, is that fighters, to expand their options unlike other classes are often locked down to archetypes, which deprive the class to some extent of the flexibility at which they are supposed to excel at - enter the talented fighter as a proposed solution to this conundrum. The talented fighter gets full BAB, good fort-saves, d10, 2+Int-skills per level, proficiencies of simple and martial weapons as well as all armors and shields. The talented fighter gets a talent at every level, may select advanced talents at 10th level and grand talents at 20th level. Now if you do want to take bonus feats, rest assured that the pdf offers a talent that grants a bonus combat feat and armor training/weapon training, bravery etc. I.e., if you want the abilities associated with the base fighter, you can still go that way - only that now, you actually have much more options.
All in all, the pdf thus provides a vast array of talents and going through them would bloat this review to unpleasant lengths, so let me give you a run-down of what to expect: First of all, we have a lot of talents that essentially are scavenged from archetypes, breaking them down and allowing you to essentially cherry-pick e.g. abilities from the mobile fighter archetype, the tower shield specialist, the crossbowman or the roughrider - just to name a few. Feel free to look them up and think about whether picking a few of the archetype abilities wouldn't make for a valid decision. Essentially, the talent-based approach allows the talented fighter more versatility in that it makes these exclusive abilities generally available. Now not all of the talents in here are based on archetypes and grand talents/advanced talents e.g. include capstone abilities of archetypes or talents that have multiple prerequisites.
The pdf also offers advice on how to utilize talents from e.g. the witch hunter or armiger-classes and alternate class features of SGG-classes as talents and increase the usability of this alternate fighter even further.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting of this latest revision are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to SGG’s 3-column full color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks that group the talents by letters. Whether you prefer the alphabetical array of talents or whether you would have enjoyed a grouping by styles/archetypes they’re derived from is ultimately a matter of taste, though I maintain that bookmarks would have served very well as an alternate means of grouping the talents – e.g. with a bookmark for crossbow-related talents and nested bookmarks beyond that one for the respective talents associated with that combat style.
How do you rate a pdf that is comparatively unimaginative in the bits and pieces it provides? Turns out, in this case, quite well – for the Talented Fighter is smart in that it does not aim to reinvent the wheel – it doesn’t have to. Instead, it takes existing concepts and streamlines them into a presentation that is thoroughly different from what you had associated with them into a form that is ultimately bigger than the sum of its parts.
The talented fighter takes my least favorite base-class and takes quite a bunch of archetypes/abilities to make the overall class simply more in line what I’d consider compelling class design, opening quite an array of formerly exclusive archetype abilities to the class and thus giving the fighter some exclusive toys to play with – a much overdue decision, at least in my opinion. Now is this the apex of originality? No. But is this a great way of breathing life and fun into the fighter class? To this question, my answer is a resounding “Yes!” Hence also the reason why I’ll gladly give this pdf a final verdict of 5 stars, omitting my seal of approval only since the alternate means of organizing the talents would have made for the superb icing on the cake. I strongly encourage you to check this out and make the fighter more singular and up to date.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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Very, very cool idea! Well worth a buck for anyone running a modern day, high-tech military or agent Savage Worlds game.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
The final installment of the anachronistic adventurers-line is 19 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving 17 1/3 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Rules-wise, the Sensitive gets d8, 7+Int skills, proficiency with simple weapons, good will-saves, 3/4 BAB-progression. Over the course of the 20 levels, they may choose from 6 sensitive talents and from 4 limited talents - these are also sensitive talents, but the selection is more restrictive. At first level, the Sensitive gets the Intuition ability, which allows the class to class-level + wis-mod times per day substitute a intuition check (d20+ class level+wis-mod+3) for the skill-check they'd usually make, making the class potentially quite formidable in the skill-area. The aforementioned talents span a range of 22 different ones that allow a sensitive to have an animal companion, a reverence of an object that translates to favored enemy-style bonuses, gain improved defensive fighting capabilities, may act in surprise rounds, may take 10 in chosen skills even while under duress, add wis-mods to a variety of rolls, have an augury-style gut feeling, gain improved uncanny dodge and better aid another, be a pacifist (which translates to a penalty to lethal attacks, but bonus damage when dealing non-lethal damage at higher levels), realize when afflicted by negative conditions, spells etc.
Among the more interesting talents, we get trivia for the learned jack-of-all-trades, which allows the sensitive to know obscure and helpful pieces of information, coming with a fitting short table of sample DCs and pieces of information to allow the DM to properly judge the difficulty of information gleaned thusly. My favorite ability, though, would be Body Language: By succeeding at a sense motive check versus 10 + target's HD + Cha-mod or 10+bluff bonus, the sensitive knows what the respective target will do this action and may use a readied action to preemptively take a standard, move, swift or free action, acting before the target. VERY cool, that one!
As with other Anachronistic Adventurers-pdfs, we also get a selection of anachronistic archetypes that can be applied not only to the sensitive, but to all classes in the line. These are chosen at first level. We get first the Esper, who is particularly adept at using the new psychic powers (more on those later). The second is the Profiler, who may take the measure of his foes, thus gaining bonuses to social interaction. 7 talents provide exclusive additional benefits that include being able to read animals, assess creatures by deeds and not by interacting with them, expertly fool creatures into believing he has strange powers, glean the true desires of those subject to his reading. The archetype unfortunately also features an alternate version to read body language, duplicating detect thoughts - unfortunate because it is called like the same ability of the base sensitive class - different names would have helped keep the abilities apart.
Finally, the Volur archetype gains penalties to BAB, but also access to spells of up to 6th level and may choose a spell-list at first level: Bard, cleric/oracle, inquisitor, druid, magus, sorceror/wizard or witch can be chosen. They cast these spells spontaneously via charisma and depending on the class, their spell-selection is restricted by e.g. not being able to learn hex-modifying spells etc and thankfully also specifies which type of spellcaster the respective Volur counts as.
It should be noted that adapting classes not from the base-rules and using SGG-archetypes is covered as well.
Beyond these, we are introduced to psychic abilities - available to both base class and especially to e.g. espers. Psychic abilities take standard actions unless otherwise noted, provoke AoOs, and when interrupted, require a DC 20 concentration check to properly activate. Characters that otherwise would not have a concentration check use 1d20+HD+wis-mod. Psychic abilities put a strain on the user and each time the user fails a check, he incurs stacking penalties and may fatigue the user. The abilities per se, 7 to be precise are interesting in their mechanics - they are based on respective skills. Distant Viewing requires e.g. a Perception-check and can be used to see far away creatures and objects - with a complex barrier making spying into secluded areas still complex. Dowsing for materials, mesmerizing others, seeing creatures in the ethereal plane or otherwise concealed, a very limited psychokinesis - the options are neat. Gleaning knowledge from objects via psychometry (gold for investigations) deserves special mentioning, in no small part due to the synergy with distant viewing and a limited telepathy is also among the cool powers. The pdf also features a feat to gain access to a psychic ability and provides information on making the supernatural psychic abilities extraordinary to e.g. properly set them apart from psionics.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to SGG's 3-column landscape presentation and the b/w-artworks, while stock are very well-fitting. The pdf comes with no bookmarks, which is a detrimental factor for me.
I like the Sensitive and its ideas - the talents are complex and intriguing, the archetypes interesting and well-crafted and especially the psychic powers are smart: Without invalidating psionics, they deliver a more down-to-earth take on extra-sensory perception and abilities that fits very well with not only "gifted" characters, but also could conceivably work well in a modern/post-apocalyptic context or even a CoC-based game. Kudos for not dividing the market and instead doing something that feels mechanically distinct. That being said, this is also perhaps the Anachronistic Adventurers-pdf that feels like it's slightly less involved than it could have been - essentially, the mechanic foundation of the class is very similar to e.g. the Daredevil, which per se is nothing bad. But e.g. the doubled talent-names hurt it slightly.
Furthermore, I couldn't help but feel that a slightly tighter focus on the psychic powers, with more of them and a more pronounced access for e.g. Profilers etc. to them might have made this even better. Now don't get me wrong - I still very much enjoyed this pdf and consider it a good buy indeed - the psychic powers alone are glorious and can be scavenged to grant interesting abilities to characters. It's just that this nagging feeling wouldn't stop, this distinct impression that more interesting talents (like the first body language...)instead of the more straight ones would have made the class more distinct. On the Presentation-side, I also felt that some highlighted base concepts (perhaps in bold print) among the psychic power-rules could have made them slightly easier to comprehend - while complaining at a high-level, I can't help but feel that e.g. the psychic frequency-topic could have used some further elaboration - in the powers-description it is briefly touched upon as a concept with regards to the psychic powers, but a concise definition of it, whether it can be blocked, modified etc. - is not there. A pity since per se the concept could have imho carried several interesting abilities to find out peculiarities about the missing person x etc. -Especially relevant since the write-up does not specify a degradation of this imprint over time, making it possible to read ancient artifacts, but also hard to hide from - after all, who'd expect something like that?
In the end, I consider this installment both great and slightly below what it could have been - a tighter focus on psychic powers, with perhaps more mundane options for not-necessarily-psychic sensitives like the Profiler, could have improved this further. As it stands, it is still a very good buy, clocking in at 4.5 stars, rounded down due to aforementioned minor issues and the lack of bookmarks to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [4 von 5 Sternen!] |
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All right, by now you know the drill: 3 pages of pdf, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, 1 page content, this time for 8 feats for animals, so let’s take a look!
The feats are:
-Bloodhound: When tracking by scent, you get +4 to survival. When tracking creatures with hp damage or a bleeding wound, you get +1 to melee attacks versus that foe. Weird, though, that bleed is specifically mentioned – does incurring any form of bleed damage, even if it’s to attributes, not require hp damage?
-Empathic Beast: Animal/familiar gets the alignment of the owner.
-Great White: You are a white animal (-2 to stealth in any environment but snow and ice), but +1 to all saves and +1 hp/3HD. Nice one!
-Homing Sense: Use survival to find, tortoise-style, your way home. You return home to your master’s abode when left unattended for 24 hours and may even take your unconscious master with you. VERY iconic feat!
-Mighty Beast: When adjacent to one who trained you for one trick, that being gets +4 to intimidate.
-Sly: +6 tricks when trained, +3 when untrained. Neat!
-Soothing Companion: When within 15 ft. of you, your master gets +2 to will-saves versus emotion or fear-descriptor spells and +2 to fort-saves versus environmental damage and disease.
-Timmy is down a well!: Learn to distinguish multiple names and learn to convey special meanings via bluff-checks. Awesome!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not as extraordinarily crisp as I’m used to by SGG. Layout adheres to a 3-column landscape standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. Yes! This pdf offers feat for our favorite companions to make them more distinct, matter more and even play pivotal roles in e.g. investigations – just leave e.g. an animal with the Timmy-feat at an inconspicuous location to find out whether those guys over there are talking about killing you. Full of cool ideas, these feats are all killer, balanced and fun and should come as a godsend to each player that wants more customization and options for their favorite pets. Final verdict? Easily given and glad five stars, omitting the seal of approval only because not all of the feats are up to the mind-blown category.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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The fourth genius guide detailing spell variants is 14 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 12 1/3 pages of content, so let's take a look!
The pdf kicks off with a list of spell variants by classes that also gives us the necessary pieces of information to run these variants and properly use them and from the get-go one has to notice two great innovations I wholeheartedly applaud: Number 1 would be that the respective spell variants are numbered so reviewers like yours truly don't have to do all the counting. ;) More relevant for you, though, would be the fact that there are quite a few spell variants that are exclusive to certain classes - whether to witches, summoners, alchemists or inquisitors -only sorcerors and wizards and clerics and oracles share the same spell variants. Why is this a good thing? Because it serves to distinguish the different classes more from one another, making them vastly more distinct and resulting in a less exchangeable gaming experience - so kudos for that! I hope to see this trend continue in future releases!
That out of the way, the spell variants often as a consequence feature a more restrictive availability than their base spells that has to be fractured into balance concerns and which I'd wholeheartedly recommend you to adhere to. Better yet, the tighter focus on classes allows for the spell variants to work in unusual ways - take for example adapt: As a ranger's variant of the jump-spell - it applies to acrobatics, swim and climb-checks, but only in favored terrains. I really, really love this interaction between magic and class abilities and it adds a whole level of coolness to this pdf-collection. But not only are some of the spells directly referring class abilities for cool snyergy-effects, we also get spells that are modified towards specific abilities: Take e.g. the Antijuju Field, which works like a basic antimagic field, but only for hexes and hag magic - accessible exclusively to the witch and inquisitor classes.
Beyond that, there also are spells in here that may be considered much more interesting in their imagery than their base spells - take Brass flask, which allows you to counter spells as per dispel magic and bottle them up for a limited time in a brass flask to unleash the countered spell on your foes. There are also some interesting modifications like Celestial Hunter, a variant of sanctify armor that works exclusively while in wildshape and even a spell that lets you highjack control over artificially-created demiplanes. On the funny side, there's a gender-swapping spell in here and gaining evolution points in addition to the rage-spell's benefits is something the arcane casters will surely appreciate.
That being said, not all of the spell variants hit the nail on the head and suffer from the format/their implications. Take the Youth-spell, which is a variant of raise dead and removes 1d6 years, allowing the recipient to cheat death- indefinitely, in theory. For a total of 7K gold once every few years, you can now stay young forever! WHAT? Introducing this spell would mean that just about ANY good adventurer of a significant level could postpone death, never mind the mayors/nobles of empires and cities - introducing this spell to a campaign would result in a vast array of godkings walking the earth. NEVER gonna happen in my game. A second variant with which I have a bone to pick would be detect murder - a variant of detect magic that shows whether a target has been killed with malign intent. The thing is - what qualifies as "malign intent"? Is loosening a brick in an archway that subsequently kills Lord British malign intent or just an accident? Where does the term begin, where does it end? What if you bake a bread from rat poison and put it somewhere where anybody could eat it - and someone dies, though you intended to use it to kill those pesky pugwampis plaguing the kitchen? Does that qualify as malign intent?
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though I noticed a couple of instances of minor glitches, like "Scorching ray" not being italicized on page 9 or non-core-rulebook spells sometimes mentioning their origin books and sometimes not. Nothing gamebreaking or truly hindering, though. Layout adheres to SGG's 3-column full color landscape standard and the artworks are neat indeed. The pdf comes without bookmarks, which is a major bummer comfort-wise and makes finding the respective variants a tad bit harder than usual. While navigating this pdf, I also found a recent trend in pdfs would have vastly added to this pdf's comfort - if the spell variants were hyperlinked to their respective d20pfsrd-basics, this pdf would be infinitely more accessible and require less book swapping.
That being said, this is still complaining at a high level, for many of the spells herein actually do very interesting things and the class-specifics/mechanics-interactions make these variants more intriguing than many full-blown spells I've read over the years. While not all of the spellls rock, the majority of them do and while some base spells don't rank among my favorites, I won't hold that against the rather neatly crafted majority of variants herein. In the end, I would have swallowed the two problematic variants and still granted this my full-blown recommendation, were it not for the combination of slightly-above SGG-level glitches and the lack of bookmarks and hyperlinks. Thus, I'll omit my seal of approval and settle for a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
| Wertung: | | [5 von 5 Sternen!] |
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