|
|
 |
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 48 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 3 pages of advertisements and 1 page SRD, leaving 41 pages of content for this adventure, so let’s check it out!
This being an adventure review, the following contains SPOILERS. Players might want to jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right!
The Elves around the Hollow Mountain just aren’t what they used to be – in more than one sense. The once peaceful nomadic wood elves have started raiding and killing humans and other humanoid creatures to convert them to the true nature – something that should give druids nightmares indeed: The elves have resurrected a strange cult that has them growing plant-like mutations like deadly spores and briars. It is these strange elves that now inhabit a forest of petrified mushrooms inside a hollow mountain and that make up the major opposition of the PCs.
Their fortress is inside one gigantic petrified mushroom and thus makes for a rather creepy backdrop for the dungeon crawl. The fortress of the elves is well-defended by their tainted nature, their massive capabilities and rather deadly allies (which includes a dragon as well as an awakened tiger who thinks he is a dragon). Have I mentioned the deadly war flowers?
Hopefully, the PCs manage to free the erstwhile druid of the tribe (now utterly mad) and finally reach the hidden temple of the dread cult to reach a highly mutable plane where a deadly, aberrant nature provides terrible hindrances in the PCs final fight: The end the threat of the constant corruption of the nature, they will have to destroy a thing left behind from an aborted version of creation, an utterly disturbing tree-like monstrosity whose mere proximity mutates his foes.
The pdf closes by providing the complex reborn-template as well as a player handout.
Conclusion:
Editing is top-notch, however, I noticed a major formatting glitch on the first map, starting room 20 to 26 there seems to be a discrepancy between the map numbers and room numbers, which is a bummer. Layout adheres to the b/w-2-column standard and the pdf is extensively bookmarked. We get 3 maps and the original b/w-artworks belong to the best you can imagine – especially the one-page picture of the final adversary is just plain awesome in its creepiness.
Indeed, an almost cthulhoid sense of wrongness pervades the whole module – author Uri Kurlianchik did an awesome job creating a truly disturbing dungeon crawl with interesting locations, smart foes, social interaction thrown in and an overall feeling of being unwelcome in this dark new world order. In fact, I consider this adventure to be quite deeply-entrenched in the horror-genre – if not for its narrative structure, then for the increasingly disturbing foes the PCs face and the furios final fight that truly deserves the name. However, a warning to players participating in this adventure – you probably will come out of this…changed. And some changes are hard to reverse… My final verdict will be 4 stars, as the map/room-discrepancy makes running a section of this adventure slightly more complicated than necessary.
Check this neat module out here!
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf from Frog God Games is 89 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 83 pages of content, so let's check this one out!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion!
All right, still here? Then let's check this one out! What is the "Black Monastery"? Mechanically, it's an old-school, sandbox style dungeon/haunted house-crawl. Where enemy placement does not have to make sense etc. - you know, primal, creepy and deadly with CRs far below and also potentially quite above the PC's capabilities. But that's not the true appeal, at least for me. What made me interested in this module is its story: While the slow ascend to wealth and power of a monastic order and its subsequent descent into evil and debauchery has been done before, the consequence of the tale is what matters: When their evil became to apparent, to blatant, the king attacked and it turned out that the Hill of Mornay, where their monastery stood, wasn't chosen by chance - enveloped in green flames, the monastery vanished before it could be taken. Ever since, when the stars are right, the complex seems to return with its riches, but only for a limited time. Like an architectonic old one, its arrival is accompanied by madness, disease, lycanthropy and similar apocalyptic events. The dark edifice to corruption has once again entered our world, from gods-beware it has been. Evil looms, madness stirs and treasure waits and the PCs will enter a place that may well take them to another plane or world. If you want to change setting, the Black Monastery is definitely an awesome way to do so. As you can probably glean from this story, inserting it into a setting is also rather simple.
Of course, an old-school module like this would not be complete without random monster tables and this is among the first things you'll get to see. More importantly, we also get a d20-table for strange noises and hauntings as well as discussions on the special magical effects in the monastery - you can't e.g. buff yourself before entering, since it exists in multiple places at once. "Multiple" is a good cue - 10 sample entrances into the compound are presented.
If the PCs e.g. enter the garden first, they'll have fun with 7 (!!!) Mohrgs and the "Gate of Fear" that provide access to the place make it immediately clear that the enemies are not playing softball - in the center of the monastery-yard is for example a huge stone golem that reacts differently depending on the moon's phase. They can also e.g. be caught by a mural, battle painted duelists. Mind you, not all adversaries are that powerful - there of course also are stranded orcs, goblins etc. and that's one of things I really like about this module: While the 1st edition feeling of the module is intact, the world/plane-switching elements to the monastery's background let these jumbled together humanoids actually make sense.
What truly makes the Black Monastery shine, though, at least for me, is its gothic convolutedness and its attention to detail: The crazed cook, and inscriptions upon inscriptions that hide hints and grant insight into the demented logic of the madmen and otherworldly forces that call this place home. Cursed nobles, mutated fighters, flesh-eating treants, ghoulish alchemists, Troblins (troll-goblin hybrids) and the unholy echoes of the brotherhood, the cimota roam these halls alongside other strange creatures - and indeed, none of the beings herein feel like filler, as they all make some kind of internal sense or feature a peculiarity in their encounter/ descriptions that in the end serves to take away any sense of familiarity and further enhance the horror of the place.
And then, there are the monastery's two towers: Kran, Dungeon master of the compound, guarded by iron golems and a greater shadow in his own right and Sacavious, mad and deranged failed lich make for two of the possible "bosses" of the module. Of course, the monastery also hides the piece of rock that transports it and in the depths of its dungeon, not only do terrible creatures roam, an evil artifact also awaits discovery. While 3 purple worms await adventurers to fill their gluttonous maws.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good: I only noticed some very minor inconsistencies with the otherwise neat maps. A pity, though, that no player-friendly maps are provided as well. Layout adheres to FGG's 2-column standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked. Oh boy, the artworks. This pdf features some of the coolest, most disturbing, gothic-horror-style artworks I've seen in a long, long while - absolute awesomeness! With one exception: A demon's crotch is marred by a censor-bar and ruins the artwork for me. I'm an opponent of censorship in any form, so that somewhat jarred me. Oh well. The pdf comes with extensive, nested bookmarks. A quick glance at the price tag shows that this one belongs to the rather expensive category of modules and that's also the reason this review took me so long. I fought rather hard with myself whether I should give it a try.
Reviewing this module feels rather strange to me - almost as if it wants to defy being reviewed: Much like reading e.g. Poe, Howard or Lovecraft, reading this module shows you a lot of things that have, by now, become a staple of adventuring. But much like these classics, the Black Monastery has an eerie appeal of originality evoked by a combination of details, clever wordings and mysticism. Much like in the beginning, one's first campaign for example, the foes and things that happen herein defy our expectations in subtle ways that remove the players from their comfort zone and recapture the dread of not knowing what to expect from foes, how to handle situations and what might happen. By depicting this whole complex as a gothic mansion that is almost anthropomorphized by its vileness and ancient dread, its derivations from standard-expectations adding rather than detracting from the appeal of the module and its believability.
While the dungeon below the monastery can't completely hold up to the quality of the rest of the place, the love and passion that went into the crafting of this place in all its disturbing details are readily apparent- this module can easily be seen in a tradition with the two classic original Ravenloft modules and in fact make me wish Frog God Games had more of these (rather) horror-themed adventures. Mechanically, there was one thing I was missing (probably omitted due to being declared "old-school"): Haunts. Haunts rock and make places like this one even creepier. On the other hand, this module is not perfect: There are minor map inconsistencies, the dungeon doesn't live completely up to the level of awesomeness of the monastery itself and I would have loved to see some complex puzzles or more little storylines taking place in the monastery as well as more passages on the outside - perhaps a park, a glass-house, a chapel. And player-friendly maps. Seriously, these should be standard by now. That being said, my first impulse was to give this one a four stars, but frankly, it's better than that. The unity of descriptions, attention to detail and awesome artworks serve to evoke something scarcely seen in nowadays modules: Dread. If foreshadowed correctly, the players will be jumping like crazy all the time and I am absolutely positive that you'll have a great time running this. And I actually regret that this is not a 300+page monster with even larger grounds and aforementioned additions like a chapel etc. The potential is vast and I really hope to see a sequel to this one, in one form or another. Thus, in spite of the points of criticism I have, I'll settle for a final verdict of 5 stars, but no seal of approval, though I so want to award one. If you want to scare your players with a haunted house, there's no way around this one. (And if you're like me and want haunts, but Rite's #30-haunt-pdfs and cackle with glee...)
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf from Frog God Games is 89 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 83 pages of content, so let's check this one out!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion!
All right, still here? Then let's check this one out! What is the "Black Monastery"? Mechanically, it's an old-school, sandbox style dungeon/haunted house-crawl. Where enemy placement does not have to make sense etc. - you know, primal, creepy and deadly with CRs far below and also potentially quite above the PC's capabilities. But that's not the true appeal, at least for me. What made me interested in this module is its story: While the slow ascend to wealth and power of a monastic order and its subsequent descent into evil and debauchery has been done before, the consequence of the tale is what matters: When their evil became to apparent, to blatant, the king attacked and it turned out that the Hill of Mornay, where their monastery stood, wasn't chosen by chance - enveloped in green flames, the monastery vanished before it could be taken. Ever since, when the stars are right, the complex seems to return with its riches, but only for a limited time. Like an architectonic old one, its arrival is accompanied by madness, disease, lycanthropy and similar apocalyptic events. The dark edifice to corruption has once again entered our world, from gods-beware it has been. Evil looms, madness stirs and treasure waits and the PCs will enter a place that may well take them to another plane or world. If you want to change setting, the Black Monastery is definitely an awesome way to do so. As you can probably glean from this story, inserting it into a setting is also rather simple.
Of course, an old-school module like this would not be complete without random monster tables and this is among the first things you'll get to see. More importantly, we also get a d20-table for strange noises and hauntings as well as discussions on the special magical effects in the monastery - you can't e.g. buff yourself before entering, since it exists in multiple places at once. "Multiple" is a good cue - 10 sample entrances into the compound are presented.
If the PCs e.g. enter the garden first, they'll have fun with 7 (!!!) Mohrgs and the "Gate of Fear" that provide access to the place make it immediately clear that the enemies are not playing softball - in the center of the monastery-yard is for example a huge stone golem that reacts differently depending on the moon's phase. They can also e.g. be caught by a mural, battle painted duelists. Mind you, not all adversaries are that powerful - there of course also are stranded orcs, goblins etc. and that's one of things I really like about this module: While the 1st edition feeling of the module is intact, the world/plane-switching elements to the monastery's background let these jumbled together humanoids actually make sense.
What truly makes the Black Monastery shine, though, at least for me, is its gothic convolutedness and its attention to detail: The crazed cook, and inscriptions upon inscriptions that hide hints and grant insight into the demented logic of the madmen and otherworldly forces that call this place home. Cursed nobles, mutated fighters, flesh-eating treants, ghoulish alchemists, Troblins (troll-goblin hybrids) and the unholy echoes of the brotherhood, the cimota roam these halls alongside other strange creatures - and indeed, none of the beings herein feel like filler, as they all make some kind of internal sense or feature a peculiarity in their encounter/ descriptions that in the end serves to take away any sense of familiarity and further enhance the horror of the place.
And then, there are the monastery's two towers: Kran, Dungeon master of the compound, guarded by iron golems and a greater shadow in his own right and Sacavious, mad and deranged failed lich make for two of the possible "bosses" of the module. Of course, the monastery also hides the piece of rock that transports it and in the depths of its dungeon, not only do terrible creatures roam, an evil artifact also awaits discovery. While 3 purple worms await adventurers to fill their gluttonous maws.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good: I only noticed some very minor inconsistencies with the otherwise neat maps. A pity, though, that no player-friendly maps are provided as well. Layout adheres to FGG's 2-column standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked. Oh boy, the artworks. This pdf features some of the coolest, most disturbing, gothic-horror-style artworks I've seen in a long, long while - absolute awesomeness! With one exception: A demon's crotch is marred by a censor-bar and ruins the artwork for me. I'm an opponent of censorship in any form, so that somewhat jarred me. Oh well. The pdf comes with extensive, nested bookmarks. A quick glance at the price tag shows that this one belongs to the rather expensive category of modules and that's also the reason this review took me so long. I fought rather hard with myself whether I should give it a try.
Reviewing this module feels rather strange to me - almost as if it wants to defy being reviewed: Much like reading e.g. Poe, Howard or Lovecraft, reading this module shows you a lot of things that have, by now, become a staple of adventuring. But much like these classics, the Black Monastery has an eerie appeal of originality evoked by a combination of details, clever wordings and mysticism. Much like in the beginning, one's first campaign for example, the foes and things that happen herein defy our expectations in subtle ways that remove the players from their comfort zone and recapture the dread of not knowing what to expect from foes, how to handle situations and what might happen. By depicting this whole complex as a gothic mansion that is almost anthropomorphized by its vileness and ancient dread, its derivations from standard-expectations adding rather than detracting from the appeal of the module and its believability.
While the dungeon below the monastery can't completely hold up to the quality of the rest of the place, the love and passion that went into the crafting of this place in all its disturbing details are readily apparent- this module can easily be seen in a tradition with the two classic original Ravenloft modules and in fact make me wish Frog God Games had more of these (rather) horror-themed adventures. Mechanically, there was one thing I was missing (probably omitted due to being declared "old-school"): Haunts. Haunts rock and make places like this one even creepier. On the other hand, this module is not perfect: There are minor map inconsistencies, the dungeon doesn't live completely up to the level of awesomeness of the monastery itself and I would have loved to see some complex puzzles or more little storylines taking place in the monastery as well as more passages on the outside - perhaps a park, a glass-house, a chapel. And player-friendly maps. Seriously, these should be standard by now. That being said, my first impulse was to give this one a four stars, but frankly, it's better than that. The unity of descriptions, attention to detail and awesome artworks serve to evoke something scarcely seen in nowadays modules: Dread. If foreshadowed correctly, the players will be jumping like crazy all the time and I am absolutely positive that you'll have a great time running this. And I actually regret that this is not a 300+page monster with even larger grounds and aforementioned additions like a chapel etc. The potential is vast and I really hope to see a sequel to this one, in one form or another. Thus, in spite of the points of criticism I have, I'll settle for a final verdict of 5 stars, but no seal of approval, though I so want to award one. If you want to scare your players with a haunted house, there's no way around this one. (And if you're like me and want haunts, but Rite's #30-haunt-pdfs and cackle with glee...)
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 14 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC/foreword,1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Alleyways are iconic in more than one way - synonymous with illegal dealings, weird things and the crusty underbelly of a city, alleyways have always fascinated me - especially since I've been to Venice and got a glimpse at how cramped streets and alleyways can truly be. ever since that time, these places have fascinated me even more than before and Raging Swan Press has a nice little tool for DMs out there to make them stand out more - kicking off with a massive 100-entry table that features widths from 10 ft to 2 ft. as well as various types of rubble, pavement/floor, light conditions and prevalent smells.
The second table features an array of ready-made alleyway-names that include "Scabbard Passes" and the "Rat's Passage" - nice! 20 complications are part of the deal and include scribbled runes praising the demon lords, thugs demanding toll and enigmatic fortune-tellers waiting to pronounce their real or imagined insights. 12 sample fluff-only encounters are also there to spice up the experience, including hungry fogs and the obligatory drunken ruffians.
The final 3 pages are what makes this pdf truly shine, imho, and what distinguishes it from its rather ill-conceived direct predecessor - we get an array of 20 personalities, all in the trademark RSP fluff-shorthand, i.e. with mannerisms, appearance, personality and hooks. Nice!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's crisp 2-column b/w-standard and the b/w-artworks are nice indeed. The pdf comes in two versions, one optimized for the printer and one for screen-use and both are fully and extensively bookmarked.
The latest offering of Urban Dressings from the pen of Brian Liberge is a great, solid addition to the series and indeed can be seen as a great addition to a DM's toolkit - and yet. And yet it falls short at what it could easily have been. Where are the DCs to squeeze through garbage littering alleys? Where is the sewage/barf with its potentially virulent contagions? The windowsill to jump up, the steps that make acrobatics harder? I get that the dressing-line is mostly fluff, but the Dungeon Dressing-line features an extremely useful page of basic rules for the DM and similar DCs collected on one side would have made the good pdf awesome. As provided, it is a solid offering, but one that falls slightly short of what it could have been. My final verdict thus will clock in at 4 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 2 pages content, so let's take a look at new options for merfolk!
The pdf kicks off with 4 new feats for merfolk:
-Drowning Tail: Use HD in place of BAB when grappling under water and make it harder o escape from your grip.
-Improved Drowning Tail: Air-breathing creatures have their rounds to hold breath reduced by 1d4 every time they try to free themselves or reverse grappling. Neat!
-Seafoam Shaper: You are never swept away by water and your spellcasting is not hampered by flowing water or water-based precipitation.
-Sea Slayer: +2 damage versus off-balance targets in the water.
Merfolk also get two new character traits:
-Coastal raider: Climb as class skill and faster transition when climbing from water.
-Treasure-Diver: DM rolls secret Perception-check when you pass 30 ft. by a hidden treasure.
Merfolk may now also chose from two new alternate racial traits:
-Arctic swimmer: 10 ft. slower, but +5 cold resistance.
-Shimmering Scales: Illusion (pattern)-spells at + 1CL.
The second page is devoted to a new sorceror bloodline, the Sirensong Bloodline, which nets access to bardic/enchantment-themed spells and feats as well as the option to sing a bewitching tune and summon creatures from the deep.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to Abandoned Art's no-frills standard and the pdf has neither bookmarks, nor artworks, nor would I expect them at this length. These options for merfolk are solid and especially the drowning-feats make this definitely a worthwhile supplement. However, I also feel that this pdf slightly falls short of what it could have been due to two things: The first, I won't hold against it, but I would have loved to see some synergy with Alluria Publishing's acclaimed Cerulean Seas-campaign setting, depth/current-rules etc. The second one, though, is more relevant - why make the sirensong bloodline a bloodline? This screams bard to me and either access to limited bardic abilities (masterpieces?) or a whole switch around to make it distinct and bardic would have helped the bloodline - especially since its individual abilities don't build that well upon one another. In the end, this pdf didn't have as much exciting or unique ideas going for it as e.g. the goblin or gillmen-installments and hence I'll settle on a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 due to the low price.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This pdf is 27 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 25 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
As an equipment book, we kick off with the section on mundane equipment and honestly, many of them had me wonder why the items had not been covered before – take for example the two versions of ball and chain we get in here or the tracing paper. Among the items, we also get some anachronisms like razor wire, which, while personally I like the idea, will probably not fit in with every setting. The Field Medic Kit deserves special mention, as it allows for the non-magical removal of a variety of minor negative conditions – nice if you’re like me and want to keep a slightly tighter lid than usual on magical healing. That being said, there’s also an item I’d consider problematic in the Burglar’s Bane-powder. By adding water, it emits a rosy glow, denoting those that have tried stealing items treated with it. In the NeoExodus-setting, the powder and its solvent are exclusively available to the Jannissaries, which limits it, but the fact that neither perception DC to notice it, nor easy way to get rid of it (universal solvents do the trick – not helping…) are provided mean that it is VERY powerful and should be handled with care by respective DMs. Speaking of NeoExodus-specific items – Dalreans (the plant-PC-race of the setting) get a type of rope that may regrow after being cut. Nice idea and easily adaptable to one of the multitude of plant-races out there!
Among the general adventuring gear items provided, we get tinctures to get rid of parasites, garbs that help versus pollen (I’d need those irl…), crystals specifically created to torment the crystalline Cyneans, lenses made to burn paper/temporarily blind foes, fungi that consume corpses, welding grenades to destroy animate and inanimate objects (but weirdly doesn’t ignore hardness/golem DR), hand and leg-prosthetics, scent-bane, grappling hooks and waterproof tindertwigs and just a few of the items in here. Not all of them are awesome or new, though, as e.g. the oommphteenth aspergillum, barbed caltrop or items like travelling guides and five-copper novels may work as intended, but not necessarily elicit any form of excitement.
For the less scrupulous and shady characters, 23 new poisons allow them to add anticoagulants to their attacks or use a wide array of deadly poisons to wreck more direct havoc. It should be noted, that among the mixtures, there is one that has death as a secondary effect – not a fan of that. What I’m also not a fan of is the fact that every secondary effect, when applicable, suffers from a formatting glitch and has the “secondary” not in bold. There also are multiple minor glitches beyond that, with the final poison for example having its gp-value listed instead of the number of saves it takes to cure it.
The following chapter deals with alchemical items – from alchemical charges to perfume masks, healing-supplementing brandy, paste that makes blood residue glow etc. There also are pickles that help regaining psionic foci – per se cool – only: In PFRPG, gaining psionic focus no longer requires a concentration check, which renders this item a bad 3.5-anachronims bereft of its intended use. Among the better items, we get oil that bursts aflame on weapons, symbiotes for Dalreans that, while susceptible to cold, allow for bursts of speed, dire versions of coffee, gingko and ginseng extracts, haunt and undead-detecting candles, glass-spheres containing corpses/undead-eating beetles or excrements of beetles that work as a substitute for wood in e.g. desert-regions. A big issue I have with this whole chapter is the fact that we get diddly-squat information on alchemy-DCs to create these items or harvest them – something I’d btw. also consider slightly problematic regarding the alchemical items featured in the first chapter.
12 tools and kits that include poisoned smokesticks, code books, larger bear traps, drillspikes, spring saws and tine wind-up tools to set off traps and an extracting 20 ft. measuring rod provide some interesting items – the poisoned smokestick btw. features the craft alchemy DC absent from the whole alchemy-chapter.
We also get 4 new mounts/cargo-transporters that feature walking trees domesticated by the Dalreans, cargo scorpions and also the new war wagon vehicle, rules for cithin shields and a variety of new materials that include petrified wood. Two new traps, both very generic and 19 new spells complete the offering. Among the spells, the clean-cantrip, which gets rid of dirt in a room, is problematic, since it fails to specify what is considered dirt – viscera? Other forms of incriminating evidence? On the cool side, there’s a spell to blind tremorsense, make finely-crafted texts fireproof, call weapons to you or conjure up walls of mithral. Unfortunately, the pdf also reprints the broken 0-level tripwire cantrip from RiP’s 101 0-level spells.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are quite flawed in this offering – I noticed a significant amount of formatting glitches, editing glitches etc., some of which actually impeded the usability of the content. Layout per se is beautiful and adheres to LPJr Design’s 2-column full-color NeoExodus-standard and the pdf also comes with the slightly more printer-friendly, no less beautiful version. The artworks per se are drop-dead-gorgeous and two have not yet been featured in another NeoExodus-publication…but. But NONE of the artworks has ANY connection whatsoever to the content herein. There’s not a single artwork of a featured item or creature and the artworks, no matter how beautiful they may be, feel disjointed from the content. The pdfs are bookmarked, but don’t feature nested bookmarks, which make the bookmarks very unhandy to use. Additionally, the final 1/3 of them are suddenly in all-caps. Weird.
Damn. I’ve said it on multiple occasions and I’ll say it again – LPJr Design products often feature stellar ideas and these genius ideas can be found within these pages as well. Especially when the magical and uncommon nature of NeoExodus is evoked, the entries drip flavor and offer fascinating windows into this compelling setting, offering insights on cultures and customs heretofore unrealized. And then there are the issues. The missing DCs, the glitches – and worst of all, another major issue: For every brilliant item, there is at least one that has been done before. For every great fluff-description of a poison, we get yet another lame attribute-damage/1-save-way out. Honestly, this pdf feels almost like the authors lost interest halfway through it. After having gathered together a variety of cool ideas, they ran out of steam and just kept adding filler upon filler. On the one hand, several pieces of content are great and ooze iconicity and a sense of wonder – on the other hand, there is MUCH content herein that is almost insultingly unimaginative, bland or has not been thought through regarding its logical conclusions/limits. Add to that content (especially among the poisons) that feels like it has been taken from 3.X and 3.Xism like the psionic focus-glitch and we have a pdf, that in spite of its sparks of brilliance shining through here and there, I can’t unanimously recommend. In the end, this pdf feels like it was rushed, in spite of its long gestation period, and like it has simply lost its way halfway through. Another pass at editing and less filler material would have definitely helped this book in my opinion.
I constantly felt myself thinking “but this one idea there is so good…” when writing this review, but I’ve been comparing this pdf to other equipment books I’ve reviewed and the standard I applied then and, as much as it hurts me, can’t rate this higher than 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 for the purpose of this platform – I have to maintain fairness to comparable books, after all. If you’re going for NeoExodus-fluff or simply are willing to ignore the filler material, then this still might be worth a look for you.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
The final chapter in the evil AP Way of the Wicked is 102 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, 2 pages maps of Talingarde, leaving us with 94 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This being a review of the final part of this AP, the following contains SPOILERS - not only for this module, but for the whole AP. Potential players are strongly advised to jump to the conclusion.
All right, still here? Cardinal Adrastus Thorn lies slain, Asmodeus has proclaimed his support of the PCs and they have risen to be High Cardinals of the lord of the ninth - but they still need to clean p their house - the knots are in place, but depending on the actions of the PCs, the remaining knots may prove to be problematic. Take for example Barnabus Thrane (who is called Thrain in text once - unfortunately but one of numerous, accumulating editing glitches throughout the module) - the spymaster and Asmodean sleeper that has infiltrated the clergy - he most definitely will become a mayor problem if the PCs have not secured his cooperation. The man knows much, but can just as well be a worthwhile asset to the PCs claiming Talingarde and changing the clergy of Mitra from within. General Barca, on the other hand, is not a valuable asset - indeed, if the PCs have not killed him and opt to put him on the throne, they'll see their grip weakened by his growing paranoia. The Devils are unproblematic allies as long as the PCs serve the Dark Lord, but what if they falter? For falter they might:
After having slain Chargammon, princess Belinda, the paragon sorceress has been granted a solar and an artifact by Mitra - a veil to hide her from the eyes of all evil-doers and from all mortal magic. A powerful tool indeed to conceal her from the prying eyes of the PCs and plot with her draconic mother Antharia Regina the downfall of the tyrants to be - but more on that later.
If you recall the Hadean Signet in Book V, well the ring awakens and starts beckoning its master to sacrifice an angel, a fiend and a creature of titan-blood to unlock its vast powers - upon the third sacrifice, though, the thanatotic titan bound to the ring is released, seeking to enslave (or kill) all. Wise villains know when to stop and may use the properties of the ring's first two phases - though honestly, I would have expected a way for the ultimate tyrants of Asmodeus' reach in Talingarde to have some way of enslaving the vastly powerful titan - perhaps by besting him in combat thrice (he respawns after 66 days as long as the ring is not destroyed...) or by torture? After all, all spirits can be broken... A bit of a pity here, but oh well. It's not that they need the titan for now, for one of the knots has actually done his job well - Cedrick malthus has gathered a vast army of deadly mercenaries and cutthroats under the command of Volker Eisenmark - provided they can pay the ships to get them to Talingarde, the PCs have a vast army of cutthroats, murderers and people eager for a fresh start - at least 20 thousand strong.
These will be the saviors of Talingarde, for another army waltzes south - Sakkarot's Horde has done its job admirably. But in order to rule a proper land and not some heaps, in order to have a capital, the betrayal must be sprung - and while Sakkarot may falter, he will not fail. Following the plan, if the PCs can show that they are the favored of the Dark Lord, he leads his army to the slaughter in fields where the PCs have a chance to shine in a grand narrative battle where they have pivotal roles in ensuring that no elite humanoids escape the slaughter to hamper the first weeks of their reign. If the PCs have hired the elite mercenary general Eisenmark and brokered a deal with the Frost Giant Queen, they may even have more benefits from this battle - chief of which would be rekindling the hope for a place to be for the Fire-Axe himself - universally loathed and sans home, the PCs could tie him up - or make him one of their fiercest allies.
Speaking of allies - if the PCs have managed to corrupt Sir Richard, he returns from the shackles of hell as an anti-paladin, presented by Dessiter as a candidate for the throne of the puppet-king - and, unbeknownst to the PCs, walking scrying focus for Dessiter. Sir Berithor is his new title and yet another piece falls into place. With the Fire-Axe defeated, the PCs can walk into the city and, after meeting a delegation (including a relative of Barca) that welcomes the unlikely saviors, present their claim to the throne. Meanwhile, the princess is off to a quest on the mainland, gathering her forces - protected, unfortunately, by a plot-fiat device. Honestly, I would have expected some clever rules, ways to bypass the artifact, at least kill her allies - instead, the artifact essentially binds the PC's hands in that regard until the final battle.
Till then, though, the tyrants run free - and the best part of the module happens. The Tyranny-sandbox. Establishing a court of people with varying degrees of usefulness (and ambitions), the PCs have 3 years to enjoy their reign and manage their kingdom. While in the background, the might-score of the kingdom represents the overall power of Talingarde - and almost all decisions have consequences. And oh boy, are there things to do: From the court's machinations to the religious question of whether/how to legalize Asmodeus/ treat the Mitran church, coronation ceremonies etc., the PCs will have to make decisions fast: Whether to worm their way into the hearts of the Mitran believers or usher in brutal pogroms, it's all up to the PCs. Speaking of purging opposition - exterminating the blood of house Darius is an option, though taking them hostage might be wiser and aid them in the long run. Speaking of aid: If they are smart, they may find records of the remaining Knights of Alerion as well, netting them a chance to surgically remove the best remaining soldiers of the Talingarde resistance. Speaking of resistance - if the PCs take heed of their traitor's court, they may get the necessary information to take down one superbly stealthy leader of the resistance.
But there are also tasks that require the PCs to deal with: Take the problem of the Irean barbarians of the Caer Bryr: These clans may be unified - a free bonus army for the PCs - but only if they manage to exploit a prophecy of the people and kill a primal bandersnatch, the legendary Caothach Ool to show that they are the chosen ones. In the Caer Bryr, the PCs may by the way also revive the noble tradition of unicorn hunting to fill the coffers of their nation... Of course, cracking down on the resistance, razing a village to the ground that openly defies their rule, gaining the service of the Barcan nobles and their griffon knights, redecorating the palace, legalizing prostitution and/or slavery - the latter serving as a prerequisite to legalize bloodsports (and gladiator veterans), rebuilding Balantyne and fortifying and finally conquering the North, rebuilding Daveryn etc. are a lot of interesting things to occupy the PC's time. Finding a way to ensure their army remains happy is yet another issue to handle, as are the battle-nuns and the fact that the duergar are problematic allies at best, prime candidates to be betrayed to the regular dwarves to gain their loyalty as a vassal state. Allying with the reclusive Yutak, killing an elder kraken plaguing the trade-routes, side-quests in the Agathium, Grumblejack having prophetic dreams, dealing with a duke that could spell trouble, surviving an assassination-attempt by 2 mariliths and their demonic servants, rooting out the last outbreak of the Tears of Achlys, children praying for salvation and an angelic host(a great way to really screw up public relations),marrying a beautiful, wicked lady and make her queen - there is a lot going on. While darkness stirs in the North - a seeping shadow of invulnerable antilife seeps from a cavern where ancient tables lie, guarded by shoggoths: Stopping the all-consuming shadows and claiming the tables may add yet another dread weapon to the PC's arsenal. The Minions the PCs may still have also have up to 23 different tasks waiting for them - and then, after 3 all too short years....she returns.
The Pcs will reap what they have sown, with each of the different decisions resulting in modifications to Belinda's army or their own. And the saviors waste no time - the final stretch of the AP kicks off with 2 angels showing up above the city, preaching hope and seeking to wreck the palace. An aerial battle thus kicks off the final battle for Talingarde's soul -soon to be followed by an assassination attempt by Solomon Tyrath, high inquisitor of Mitra - hopefully they can make Naburus join their cause - and hopefully, they did not make Berithor king. For the ghost of his mother shows up - and he repents. Kills Dessiter. Becomes a paladin again. And delivers a final stand - to die and be claimed by the heavenly host, his contract voided by repentance.
And then, the final battle is upon them. They may even study the battle of the Victor fought in the same locale. And then lead their army into the final battle. Versus the last hope of Talingarde, Princess Belinda, Antharia Regina, the elysian titan God-hammer and a solar of Mitra. And then, there are two ways to end the campaign - win the insanely difficult final fight. Or suffer the fate of villains - abandoned by allies, more Mitran angels join the fray, ensuring the fate of the PCs. And thus, in which way you choose, ends the Way of the Wicked.
The supplemental material of this issue has Jason Bulmahn contribute 6 additional Asmodean spells, 8 magic items to insert into the campaign if you choose to. And finally, the last 3 pages contain a timeline for the whole campaign.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are the weak spots of this pdf - much like almost all issues of the AP, several easily avoidable typos, glitches and minor issues mar the AP and show that a second set of eyes editing this would have helped. Layout adheres to FMG's drop-dead gorgeous 2-column full color standard and the book is BEAUTIFUL. Michael Clarke's renditions of key enemies, almost all of them spanning full pages, rank among the best in the whole AP. On a formal level, the scarce bookmarks feel a bit unpleasant, much like in the predecessors - nested bookmarks would especially in the tyrant-section been appropriate. The pdf comes in two versions, one slightly more printer-friendly and, rather cool, the AP comes with an 9-page pdf of player-friendly maps and handouts - awesome!
Oh boy. Usually the editing glitches would mean that I rate this module down. And e.g. a certain archmage's plot-thread has not been addressed. But the sheer amount of loose ends being tied in this module is AWESOME. The Tyrant-sandbox is glorious and something only all too rarely seen. The final battle is brilliant. This module is epic and ranks among the finest final installments of any AP I've ever read. The power of the foes arrayed, the amount of consequences the PCs face - all these made me grin and want more - and look forward to Throne of Night. Since part 2 of the AP, not a single installment has had me that excited, that euphoric, that delighted by offering something truly different - at levels not usually supported by APs. Cool, deadly and truly a book centering on being villainous, I only wished more space in the overall AP would have been devoted to doing such things. Running Talingarde - for better or for worse for the villains is a sufficiently epic change of pace before a final confrontation of insane difficulty. If I had one complaint regarding the narrative, it would be the magical gizmo-stealth of Belinda. At least offering a chance to take down the solar or the dragon would have been more prudent in my mind - but then again, this is not about being fair. This is about reaping what was sown - and Fire Mountain Games, in spite of the scarce bookmarks and editing glitches, for this stellar module, reaps 5 stars + seal of approval for being innovative, cool and providing a joyous read that will have you cackle with glee - just remember that the fires of hell are waiting to claim you and that failure is not an option in the eyes of the dark lord...
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This installment of Raging Swan's Village Backdrop-series is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/foreword,1 page advice on reading statblocks for novice DMs, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?
White Moon Cove is essentially a moderately wealthy coastal town governed by a council and features a list of 9 notable NPCs, settlement stats and a list of 8 notable locations as well as a "So what's for sale, anyways"-style entry of the items available in the marketplace. The town features an ex-paladin drunkard knowledgeable about Sahuagin, a brothel hidden behind a fishmonger (imagine the smell - ew!) and information on general villager-dress and mannerisms. The whispers and rumors-section this time around is a bit on the short side, with only 4 entries.
The 2 pages of notable locations offset that, though, going into exquisite details on e.g. the amorous advances of a local trader to a notorious female captain - who might make for a good candidate for a lesbian relationship, which is implied in the subtext via her first mate. Tavenr, chapel and fishmonger/brothel make for more places to check out, as does the local lighthouse.
The final page covers trade, law & order, 4 sample events, stats for fishermen and more information on another interesting local character.
It should be noted that high-res jpegs of the map can be downloaded on Raging Swan's HP, which I suggest you do when using this village.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's 2-column b/w-standard and the cartography is excellent. The pdf is fully and extensively bookmarked and the pdf comes in two versions, one optimized for screen-use and one optimized for the printer.
This village is interesting - in contrast to other installments, White Moon Cove is not interesting due to some cultural peculiarities, but due to something different: Author Marc Radle has crafted a village that is interesting and captivating not via its location or culture - for there's honestly not that much here - but via its inhabitants, via its set-up- and the fact that there's a long-anticipated adventure coming that will perfectly link with this one - Marc Radle's Sunken Pyramid. White Moon Cove may not be the most captivating of villages, but its characters offer a nice web of interactions and potential hooks that will make setting up the village even before Sunken Pyramid. As a fisher village with some nice potential for adventures and further support coming up, I can easily recommend this pdf for its low price at a final verdict of 5 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This pdf is 23 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1/2 empty page, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 19 1/2 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Dex-based combatants have always been popular in style, but it is a fact that in d20, the fencing/duelist/swashbuckling characters often felt a bit off. Dervish Dance might be powerful, but it is limited in both fluff and execution and does not manage to offset the investment when compared to a similar str-based build. The Swordmaster seeks to remedy that by providing a dex-based front-line fighter. Does it succeed?
Mechanically, the class comes with d8, 2+Int skills per level, proficiency with all simple and martial swords and the quarterstaff as well as light armors, but not shields, full BAB, good fort- and ref-saves and two values - the intelligent value and the magic value, with the former beginning at 500 GP at second level and going up to 42K GP and the latter starting at 2000 GP at third level and going up to 200K GP at 20th level. These values are crucial, since swordmasters use a partnered blade. They start play with a masterwork sword of their choosing that gains sentience. While usually in line with the swordmaster, it may up to 3 rounds subvert actions of the swordmaster (and vice versa). Changing partnered blades results in 2 negative levels that cannot be cured (but also don't kill the swordmaster). As soon as it becomes intelligent, the blade also gains enhancements to mental attributes whenever its magical "plus X bonus" is enhanced. The blade also gets an ability akin to rite publishing's enhancement of the bladebound archetype, to have the blade devour magic from items it destroys- the second value I mentioned before reflects the blade's capacity to store this power and translate it into enchantments. Also rather interesting is the fact that the swordmaster may, starting at 5th level, treat all swords as intelligent items (There's a hidden darkness in this blade...).
If d8 and the minimalist list of proficiencies were not ample clue for you, swordmasters also start the game with two abilities that are designed to keep them viable on the frontlines, both tied to wearing light or no armor and no shields and only a single sword (sorry, no two-weapon fighting). Tactful Deflections allow the swordmaster to add +1 to AC per swordmaster level as a deflection bonus, up to a maximum of his Int-modifier. This bonus does not work when flatfooted or stack with the duelist's canny defense, though. Tactful strikes allow the swordmaster to use his dex-modifier instead of his str-modifier on attack rolls with swords. Instead, the class may not add their str-modifier to weapon damage, though if they incur a str-penalty, half of that is applied to attack rolls. It's an interesting choice to not have dex apply to damage as well - at least to regular attacks. Sword Arts deal additional damage equal to dex-mod or in the case of a 2-handed sword, 1 1/2 times dex-mod and may not apply str-mod/power attack bonuses to their sword arts damage.
The true meat of the swordmaster-class, though, would be his sword arts. At first level, they start with three of these special attacks and every level after that, they learn a new sword art (or advanced sword art starting level 8). Sword Arts require different actions, from none to a full round and some, though not all, require a trigger to be set off and/or a performance on your part, i.e. for example a 5-foot step, an attack with a -2 penalty etc. Many of these sword arts also have a window, that is upon meeting the performance criteria, they have to be used in a specific window of time. Now the sword arts per se are interesting - they are grouped in three different categories: Openers, Sequiturs and Finishers. Unless otherwise noted, to perform a sequitur, the character must have successfully hit the opponent to be targeted with an opener, and to perform a finisher, he has to follow up on a sequitur. To give you an example, let's take a look at the initial three sword arts every swordmaster starts with: The opener allows as a move action to feint a creature within reach that can see you. This opens a window for you until the end of your next turn to follow up with a sequitur that is an attack versus the feinted opponent and deals the sword art's damage (i.e. with the dex-modifier). Succeeding at the sequitur allows the swordmaster to have another window until the end of his next turn and follow up with a finisher as a full-round action that is resolved as an attack that deals double the sword art's regular damage. Attentive readers may glean where this is headed - openers are usually weaker than regular attacks, sequiturs are usually on par with them and finishers are more powerful than regular attacks to offset the requirement of setting them up via two attacks.
Design-wise rather interesting, especially due to the fact that the 10 openers provided include ways to get the opener out of the way faster: Opportunist's Feint, for example, allows the swordmaster to feint a creature hit by an ally that flanks it with the swordmaster as an immediate action. Cunning Swordplay allow you to make an opposed intelligence check versus a foe - if the target attacks you or provokes an AoO from you, you may execute a readied sequitur against the foe before the attack is resolved. Another interesting one is "Press in" - as a reaction to being hit by a creature within 10 foot, you may opt to make the hit a critical hit against you to move 5 foot towards the target. It also counts as a opener as a free action, allowing you to perform a sequitur versus the enemy. Also interesting: If you manage to use move actions for 2 rounds to talk with a foe and bait a foe, you may on the third round execute an immediate sequitur, while still allowing you to perform other sword arts while talking to the foe. Also interesting: "Whirling Defense", while not stacking with combat expertise or total defense, allows you to use a standard action to gain +4 deflection bonuses to AC and an additional +4 AC against the creature that missed you. Have I mentioned the option to throw swords?
Among the 10 sequiturs, we have the option to move half your speed through threatened squares of a target with a bonus of 1/2 class level to acrobatics, allowing for quick repositioning that does not provoke AoOs. Measured Strike also features an interesting tactical choice - attack foes at +2 and increase the critical modifier by +1, but only inflict half sword art damage. Another sequitur allows you to react to killing a creature to make 3 5-foot steps toward another opponent. Shallow Cut is yet another intriguing sequitur - upon a successful hit, the target may opt to take a 5-foot step to avoid the damage, but if he/she/it does so, you gain +4 to atk and AC against the target until the end of your next turn. A thus dodged attack can still counts as successful, meaning it can be followed up by finishers...
10 finishers are provided and allow e.g. to do an attack that deals half sword art damage as a free action, add half class level bleed damage to your hits and if you manage to drop 10 feet on your target (Up the walls-psionic warriors will love this) ad incur an AoO from all except the target, you may deal triple damage, but also become staggered for one round. Other finishers allow you to make a bull rushing finisher that doubles as a sequitur for yet another finisher. There are also full attack-based finishers that allow the swordmaster to stack +2 damage bonuses, CMD & CMB, AC and initiative-increase, with the latter potentially allowing you to act twice, by coming in at the bottom of the initiative-ladder.
Among the advanced sword arts, we get 11 openers, 11 sequiturs and 11 finishers - and they are interesting and advanced for a reason. The arcing draw opener for example allows the character in question to draw the partnered blade from a sheathed position to make an attack roll and apply the results to up to 3 creatures, then make a 5-foot step. And just as I get ready to yell "unbalanced", I read that the opener only does half damage. Also damn cool: The opener deathless resolve lets you stand up and arm yourself with a slashing/piercing object in range, allowing you to ignore the disabled, unconscious and even DEAD conditions until you fail to hit and deal damage to the target. Again - the potential for abuse is offset via clever balancing - during this time, you cannot regain hitpoints! Have I mentioned the option to impale foes with a sequitur (potentially abducting them via shadow walk etc.) and allowing them to inflict con-damage to themselves to break free from the impaling? Where I'm honestly not 100% comfortable is with Keen Strike - the sequitur must follow a critical threat or hit and increases your weapon's threat-range by your int-mod. This is slightly too much for my conservative tastes when combined with wide threat-range builds, at least for a sequitur. The more powerful advanced finisher Dance of Storms feels more appropriate for this benefit - it grants the same crit-range enhancement as well as the bonuses from the non-advanced Dance-finishers, provided you have them.
The pdf also offers advice on choosing sword arts, has an expansive two-page table of the sword arts and a sample page to show how to organize sword arts.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Dreadfox Games' 2-column standard with its thorn-covered borders and the pdf comes extensively bookmarked. The original full cover artwork and two 2 b/w-line drawings are nice.
This pdf is not a cheap supplement for a new class, but the Dreadfoxes have learned - we get more content than in e.g. the Gypsy and Ritualist-supplements - though comparatively still not that much. I didn't expect to like this class - I bought the Tome of 9 Swords back in the day and loved the idea, but hated the execution. The Swordmaster is not as mystical, being in fact rather down to earth and potentially fitting for low-magic settings (just get rid of the blade's intelligence) and honestly impressed me: The building on attacks, the sequence of openers, sequiturs and finishers should make the swordmaster not only immensely fun to play, it also brings added tactics to melee you wouldn't expect, making it closer to how actual sword fighting works - and I happen to have some experience in that regard, so kudos indeed!
Better yet, the sword arts lend themselves to further expansions that should make adding more to the fray to represent different schools easy. I could e.g. see more magical schools as their very own book beyond the upcoming supplement for this class and the puppetmaster. And then there's the fact that only one of the numerous arts rubs me the wrong way, meaning that I actually not only consider this class a rewarding and intriguing gaming experience, but in fact also consider it balanced. This is, hands down, my favorite Dreadfox Games-product so far, offering a long overdue, smart and complex melee class that should fit the tastes of many players out there. My final verdict will reflect that I consider this class not only smart, but in fact brilliant and clock in at a well-deserved 5 stars + seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 17 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1/2 a page advertisement, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 13 1/2 pages of content, so let's check it out!
The pdf kicks off with an introduction by Hugo "Butterfrog" Solis before we are introduced to Celurian Iz'zer, the trader of strange magical items contained in this book and we actually get his full statblock (he's a half-elf rook 6 from PDG's Legendary Classes: Rook) as well as a gorgeous full color artwork for him and his cart - the cart, a magical item in its own right, comes with a whopping one-page full color artwork and after that we're in the category of new magical weapons:
And the first one is already interesting - a little figure that can transform into an adamantine hammer for a limited amount of rounds per day makes for an interesting weapon/crowbar-style lockbreaker to carry around. There is also a figurine that can be transformed into a dagger coated with greenblood oil for a limited amount of rounds per day. We also get two new weapon special qualities, one of which may ignore up to 4 points of cover-AC-bonus granted by concealment, while the true metal-enchantment ignores 5 points of any type of DR. The latter feels slightly too strong for its paltry +1 price bonus in my opinion.
Celurian has 3 rings in his cart as well - the Archer's Luck Ring is very powerful for ranged combatants: Ignore 5/day all but total cover, 3/day use true strike and 1/day reroll one missed shot. Perhaps a tad bit underpriced for its massive benefits. Chain Link Rings come paired and allow the wearers to transfer up to 10 points of damage to the wearer of the linked ring, but not offensively - killing others this way is not possible. Slightly problematic is the fact that the rings don't specify whether damage-type is retained - if it is, this can be somewhat abused - one character with immunity to e.g. fire, linked to someone then subjected to fire damage could essentially not get any damage thus transmitted - or could he? A slightly more concise wording would help here. Shared fortune rings allow the wearer to 3/day one of their base saving throw bonuses as an immediate action for 1 round.
The pdf also features 2 new rods - one that can be struck in the ground to emit antimagic fields and a rod that is especially good at breaking things like doors etc. and may be used as a +2 mace. Among the wondrous items, we get a scarf that protects you from inhaled poisons and airborne diseases, a sphere you can throw at outsiders to banish them, a vest of magical wood that helps with swimming as well as serving as armor, a cloak to let you beast shape, a belt of ropes that helps climbing and may be animated, paired rocks that attract each other (Awesome for SO MANY occurrences and an item that encourages smart usage of resources), a seed that spawns a tree that offers healing fruits, a scroll-case that can produce a scroll of a given level and school once per day, gloves that allow the gloved arm to become incorporeal to e.g. reach through doors 3/day. There also is a rope that can be awakened, a morale-bonus-granting everburning torch, an headband that alerts you visually to scriers and two new types of prayer beads.
These can be attached to weapons to add effects to your weapons - one granting the power to deal half damage as positive energy damage and bless weapon on their weapons. The second prayer-bead converts half damage to fire and emits light. 2 more tokens can be added to weapons, one increasing harness, one adding minor sonic damage and finally, we have a pen to write limited wishes before we go to the pdf's final item, a minor artifact - the Vessel of Linium, which is a complex clockwork wonder that transforms regular water into increasingly powerful healing effects, depending on how long you let the water rest. Great idea and actually an artifact that is not overpowered for once. Neat!
The pdf closes with a list of items by GP-value and category.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to PDG's crisp, printer-friendly two-column standard and the pdf is fully bookmarked for your convenience. Special mentioning deserves the beautiful artwork - each and every item herein comes with a gorgeous full-color artwork - author/artist Carlos Torreblanca has not only crafted some neat magical items with uncommon benefits, he has also created a great array of truly beautiful artworks that help the items come to life.
Artwork-wise there is nothing to complain in this supplement and rules-wise, the vast majority of items feels interesting indeed - while not all items hit the nail on the head, with especially the archer-ring feeling quite powerful to me, we still get a neat selection of great magic items that can enrich your games beyond boring +X bonuses. Hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 due to the ridiculously low price. I'm hoping for sequels by this talented artist/author.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An Endzeitgeist.com review
This installment of Rite Publishing’s free e-zine is 41 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page ToC,11 pages of advertisement and 1 page SRD, leaving us with 27 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
Dave Paul’s editorial this time around is all about tricksters and Steven D. Russell’s creature also complements well this April’s fool’s theme – at CR +3 we get the deadly prankster who can make floors slick, create deadly, obscure booby traps, curse beings to suffer when kicked throw burning hot pie at foes, curse foes with diarrhea (players will HATE creatures that do that to their characters!), curse inappropriate beings to fall in love and finally, make people run into damaging walls. The template is deadly and will be LOATHED by players – nice job! The sample faerie dragon creature also fits in nicely with this template.
Thomas LeBlanc has a short, but oh so sweet article for us that features 11 non-magical weapon qualities master blacksmiths may add to your weapons, including an easily navigated, comprehensive table of prerequisites, cost and DC-increases as well as a feat to become a master weaponsmith. A glorious article, especially for people like yours truly who prefer the grittier side of fantasy and don’t use that many magical items. Two thumbs up – I hope to see more!
Creighton Broadhurst, mastermind of Raging Swan Press has something different from the usual go-play encounters this time around and features an article based on camping in the wilderness. A total of two tables with 50 entries per table provides dressings and minor complications around campfires and sites and makes for a nice little mini-dressing installment. My one gripe here being that the first table, due to some weird reason, is really pixelated and not exactly crisp – no idea what happened there, but printing it out resulted in quite a smudgy end-result as well for me.
Now Rite Publishing’s lord protector Steven D. Russell has more up his sleeve and provides DMs with a list of new abilities for zombies, each of which increases the CR of the base creature by one. Unless I’ve miscounted, a total of 23 of these await us – from leaving a bloody trail that makes combat slippery, but the undead also easy to track to limited energy drain, channel resistance,turning channel energy back upon the foe and faster spawn generation – there are some nasty surprises here and if you want some quick modifications to e.g. Raging Swan Press’ “100% Crunch: Zombies/Zombie Lords”-pdfs, then this article is a great way to fix one of the weaker spots of the two books. Nice to have indeed!
After that, we’re off to this issue’s interview, with perhaps the man who provides one of the most useful services I ever encountered – John Reyst, the owner of d20pfsrd.com. If you ever used this extremely useful site, do yourself a favor and read this interview as a minor means of thanking the man.
Finally, we have a rather big array of reviews by yours truly, featuring the highest rated pdfs of the last month.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn’t notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to RiP’s 2-column standard and the cover artwork is rather appropriate for the issue – I’m quite a fan of the gimmicky way the faerie-dragon has messed up the logo. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.
This issue was a surprise to me – I didn’t expect the template to be this maliciously deadly. I didn’t expect to like yet more mini-adjustments for zombies. And most of all, I didn’t expect to like the article on weapon qualities – but that one is my favorite for this issue – elegant, simple and yet so damn cool. Two thumbs up for Thomas Leblanc! Creighton Broadhurst’s article comes in as a close second – though I hope the table gets fixed with a crisper version. All in all, an enjoyable, nice issue for a price of…diddly-squat! It’s hard to beat this content as a non-existent price-point and hence, I’ll settle for a final verdict of 5 stars, omitting my seal only due to the strange pixelated page.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let's take a look!
First, we kick off with 4 Gillmen-feats:
-Arcane Inheritor: Cast a 1st level sorc/wiz spell 1/day at 11+cha-mod DC.
-Deep Sight: Low-light vision as long as underwater and the ability to see through murky and opaque water. Nice!
-Improved Deep Sight: Darkvision 60 ft and see invisible creatures while under water. (They don't get the usual concealment.)
-Sunken Legacy: For Hybrids, count as both gillman and human, choose an attribute that then gains +1 on related attribute & skill-checks.
There also are 2 new Character Traits:
-Eldritch Obsession: Gain UMD as class skills and +5 to blindly activate items.
-Terrestrial Curiosity: Survive twice as long snas water immersion. Nice for player characters.
Gillmen may also choose from 3 new alternate racial traits:
-Deep Thrall + to fort saves, but be susceptible to enchantment.
-Muckdweller: Slower swim-and land-speed, but you're not water-dependant.
-Pass for Human: Be more easily disguised as human (bonus feat), but have your aboleth-ties weakened, for better and worse.
We also get a new archetype, the Deep Dreamer, which is a summoner archetype that has the summoner seeking to recreate the shape glimpsed in dreams via their eidolon and thus are resistant to dream-related spells. At higher levels, they may take evolution-points from their eidolon to increases their own physis and become potentially rather frightening. A cool and imaginative archetype!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are excellent, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Abandoned Art's 2-column standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
This is so far my favorite installment of the Amazing Race-series, offering cool options in line with the Innsmouth-flair and cthulhoid connotations associated with gillmen. Add the excellent summoner-archetype and we get a great addition that makes the race work better as an adventuring race - my final verdict thus clocks in at 5 stars + seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This installment of the wilderness dressing-line is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/introduction, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Following the tradition of the wilderness dressing-line, we kick off with an extensive array of events to spice up your travelling experiences - 100 different minor events are featured in a massive table and range from squeaking cart-wheels accompanied by shouts to wild grapes that are the home of an aggressive bee swarm, abandoned camp sites (though the text reads "abandon[sic!] camp site" - a rare Raging Swan editing glitch) to frolicking grey squirrels and orc bodies. A nice table!
The second massive table provides us with 100 different dressings for hills - small grottos with adjacent miner's cabins, wild strawberry patches, red silk caught in thorny bushes, strangely left alone dishes, monuments that denote burial grounds, earthen amphitheaters and sinkholes. All in all, rather cool dressings, though slightly less imaginative than in the installment on plains and there are less dressing-entries with crunchy tidbits.
After that, we get a page of 12 different sample random encounters for hilly regions that feature an EL as well as a tightly-written fluffy section of notes, in line with e.g. Dungeon Denizens EL 1 - e.g. hobgoblins guarding a rope bridge or swooping wyverns. The final page of the product contains all relevant pieces of information for the DM to run hilly areas: From random hill heights to miscellaneous terrain features and 3 different types of slopes, this page will definitely come in handy.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not up to the usually flawless track-record of Raging Swan Press. Layout adheres to RSP's crisp two-column b/w-standard and the pieces of artwork included are beautiful indeed. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks and in 2 versions, one optimized for screen use and one for the printer.
The wilderness dressing line is a joy and extremely useful for DMs - and this installment is no exception. Providing ample details to bring your world to life, the dressings will definitely enhance your game. That being said, when compared to the first two installments, this one feels slightly less brilliant - I wasn't that blown away by events or dressings and missed the far-out entries and would have enjoyed slightly more crunch. I can't really put my finger on it, but this one felt slightly, not by much, but slightly less evocative to me and didn't make me eureka as much as the first two did. That being said, it still is a great addition to any DM's toolkit and thus justifiably can be rated 4.5 stars - though I'm inclined to round down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Log In 
![Class Expansions: Achievement Unlocked! [PFRPG]](images/3827/115758-thumb80.jpg)
![Celurian's Magical Miscellany [PFRPG]](images/3367/112441-thumb100.jpg)
