2/3rds Good, Handle With Care

Length: 7 pages total: 1 page front cover, credits and introduction; 5 pages of content; 1 page licensing.

Format: 2-column, easy to read. I found 17 typographical and grammatical errors total, 11 of which are contained within the introductory text on page 1. It makes for a fairly poor first impression, but the errors were not serious enough to diminish the overall quality of the book.

Art: 2 pictures, both of characters, with one in color and one in black and white. Both are of good quality.

Dhampir Feats: There are 37 feats within this book, specifically for use within the Shadows over Vathak campaign setting. One of the feats listed within has a prerequisite that references elements of that campaign setting, so you may need to adjust or outright ban it if your adventures take place in another setting. Most of these feats are thematically appropriate for the Dhampir; enhancing senses, social abilities, necromantic powers, vampiric abilities and so on. I like many of the feats in this book, but several stood out as being strangely written or balanced, with a few missing prerequisites or having conflicting purposes.

The first strange feat is Animation by Touch, which appears to grant the ability to cast animate dead as many times as you want for free, with the only limit being that you may only animate one undead creature per turn with a maximum number of undead controlled being 2HD per caster level. I do not believe this is the intent, but as-written, this is an enormously powerful feat. Strangely, it appears to be impossible to actually take the feat, as something called "Death Touch" is listed in the prerequisites, but I can find no Pathfinder source for that ability/feat/trait on any of the usual websites or in my copy of the Shadows of Vathak campaign setting. There are multiple abilities that are similar, with the closest being "Death's Touch" for Bones Oracles or Grave Touch for Necromancy Wizards, but it's also possible that the writer inadvertently used a 3.x edition ability name by mistake. Since I do not know for sure what the intent was (and the feat appears to be way too powerful as-written), I would simply ban it as an option.

One of the core feats (acting as a prerequisite for 7 of the others) in this book is Blood Drinker, which grants a series of abilities related to drinking an enemy's blood, dealing 2 points of Constitution damage to the enemy and granting temporary hitpoints and a bonus to saves based on your own Constitution. Further feats add to these bonuses or otherwise alter the ability to be less restricted. As a balancing feature, the initial feat may only be used against a single subtype of (living) humanoids, but this may be expanded to animals, the recently deceased, monstrous humanoids or other humanoid subtypes. My only concern with this ability is that the Con damage and all of the bonuses appear to be automatically successful, so long as the actual bite attack connects. If you have a bite attack from another source, the blood-drinking is automatic and doesn't appear to take any time at all or have any cost, so a GM may find themselves picking different enemies to counter the tactic if this feat gets overused.

Bone Armor is a fantastic idea for a necromancer, but falls short mechanically. The idea is that you may encase yourself in bones forcefully drawn out of any dead bodies in the surrounding area, providing an armor bonus with no arcane spell failure chance of armor check penalty. Awesome! Except… it is limited to once per day, only provides +2 armor and only lasts a number of rounds equal to your level. The feat requires that you be a wizard so you will be able to cast mage armor, which grants +4 armor and lasts for 1 hour per level. Mechanically, why would you want to spend a feat on an inferior version of a level 1 spell? There is another feat in this book that upgrades the armor bonus to +4 but the duration is left untouched, so you're now potentially spending 2 feats on something that's still inferior to a level 1 spell. If the feat at least granted an automatic demoralize effect to any enemy that saw you use it, that would be something.

Perhaps the most confusing feat in this book is "Greater, Negative Energy Blast". To my eye, this feat may be read one of two ways: Either as "upgrading" a 1d8+1 per caster level (capped at 10d8+10) attack to a 1d6+2 per two caster levels (naturally capping at 10d6+20) attack; Or as granting an all-new ranged attack using the second set of numbers, but with no limit to the number of times per day it may be used.

Replicate the Divine appears to be partially broken. In theory, it's supposed to let an arcane caster use a single divine spell chosen from the Death domain as if they were a cleric of the appropriate level, in addition to their usual method of preparing and using it. Unfortunately, one of the prerequisites is that you have the ability to cast it as a divine spell. If you could already cast a divine version of one of those spells, why would you want to take a feat to allow yourself to cast that specific spell as if you were a cleric? If the writer had wanted the feat to be useful to arcane casters, the prerequisite should have been "ability to cast a spell that appears on the Death Domain spell list" instead of being "ability to cast divine spells from the Death Domain spell list".

Spirit Dissertation is interesting, but potential trouble for an unwary GM. The only prerequisite is that the character be a Dhampir, meaning that the feat could be taken at first level. It grants the supernatural ability to speak with dead, as the spell of the same name, once per day. This is a nice ability, but if you're playing a murder-mystery adventure at low levels, you may not want your 1st level players to have access to a 3rd level spell like this. I actually like this feat quite a bit, and don't have a problem with gaining early access to such an ability, considering how it is only useful in very specific situations.

Thirst For Blood is the last feat I take issue with on a technical level. It improves your bite attack by transferring a portion of their life force to you through the blood, effectively healing you a small amount. The only problem is that it does not grant you a bite attack or require that you already have one before taking the feat. It's a simple oversight, and I would hope that nobody would take a feat that they can't actually use, but better safe than sorry.

Thankfully, the list of feats I unequivocally like is much longer than the list I took issue with. In the interest of time, I'll briefly skim over them below. • Augment Undead - Improves hp and Str of created undead • Charming Gaze - Requires Shadows of Vathak, grants charm monster once per day • Claws - Retractable claws that ignore some hardness. • Crypt Lord - Increases the maximum size of your undead army. • Energy Purge - Temporarily make yourself immune to positive and negative energies. • Evil, Sense - Oddly formatted name aside, allows you to vaguely sense evil nearby. • Forgettable - Allows you to bluff someone into forgetting what you were doing. • Haunted Touch - Int mod per day spectral hand. • Hypnotic Voice - Once per day hypnotism. • Natural Charmer - Allows you to take 20 when using Charisma-based skills, within limits. • Penitent of the Light - Increased morale while suffering the effects of light sensitivity. • Sense Alignment - Full-round action to observe someone's alignment. • Sense Invisibility - Full-round action to pinpoint an invisible creature. • Shadow Servant - Split yourself from your shadow and send them out like an unseen servant. • Shadow Stalker - Increased stealth effectiveness in dim light. • True Seeing - Once per day, use a full-round action to grant 1 round of true seeing. • Vampiric Senses - +2 Perception and gain the Scent ability.

Verdict: If you like Dhampirs already, you will almost definitely find a lot to like here, and if you don't like Dhampirs, there are some pretty great new feats that might change your mind. There are some issues I'd like to see cleaned up, but this book is mostly good.

Solid Idea, Mind-Boggling Execution

Length: 14 pages total: 1 page front cover and credits; 11 pages of content; 1 page advertising; 1 page licensing.

Format: 2-column, with a couple information tables spreading from side to side. Laid out well for the most part, but the font is a little thin, so I zoomed in to 100% to make it more comfortable to read. There are multiple times where an ability makes reference to another part of the book without clearly saying where that information is, and a table of information was awkwardly inserted into a column of unrelated rules. I found several typographical and grammatical errors—neither numerous nor serious enough to cause confusion—but after spotting several large mechanical flaws with the class, I stopped keeping track.

Art: 1 cover image showing the Eldritch Conjuror and a conjured creature. 8 pieces of interior art, representing various aspects you'd expect: 4 sigils related to Old Gods, 2 creatures, a character and a tome. Some of the art is black and white while others are in color. All of the art is of good quality.

The Eldritch Conjuror: This book tries to present a new class, modeled partially after the Summoner, sans-eidolon, and I am sad to say that it utterly fails on a mechanical level. The premise is sound, and reasonably appealing: Drawing power from Old Ones, the Eldritch Summoner has access to strange powers and the ability to apply 'Pseudonatural'—a new template presented herein—to any creature summoned via the summon monster line of spells. In terms of flavor and mechanics, this template is actually pretty nice, and I will certainly use it on monsters elsewhere. Unfortunately, the Eldritch Summoner class says that it can use this ability on all of it summons starting at level 1. The pseudonatural template adds SR, DR 5/—, immunity to crits and sneak attacks, +4 Str and Con, and changes the Type to Outsider. This is very powerful for a level 1 combatant, and that's only the beginning.

The main problem with the Eldritch Summoner is its spell-list. This book does not have a spell-list, opting instead to use fuzzy language implying that they can pick any spells they want from the summoner list, the wizard/sorcerer list, or even make up their own spells via research. They are a 6-level spell-casting class, with the usual early-access issues you might imagine, but exacerbated by a terrible class abilities table. The default summoner gains access to 2nd level spells at level 4, 3rd at 7, 4th at 10, 5th at 13, and 6th at 16, so even though it has access to high-level wizard/sorcerer spells, its early-access isn't ridiculous. The balance issues were only when you combined it with potion-making, elixirs and Limited Wishes. The Eldritch Summoner takes that much further by granting 2nd level spells at level 4, 3rd at 6, 4th at 8, 5th at 10, and 6th at 12. So imagine, if you will, a 6th level character casting Black Tentacles or Dimension Door, an 8th level character with Baleful Polymorph or Magic Jar, a 10th level character with Plane Shift or Simulacrum, and a 12th level character with Dominate Monster or Greater Planar Binding, PLUS Summon Monster VIII. To add insult to injury, this book lists the Eldritch Summoner as being able to cast all of their spells multiple times per day a full level before knowing them. They are also described as being spontaneous casters that never need to prepare spells (despite being automatically granted all of the summon monster spells as known spells), and then described as being able to swap out their nonexistent prepared spells for a summon monster spell of equivalent level… spontaneously. 4 different class abilities are listed with the text conflicting with the table (one of them is a full 4 levels off!), and 3 other class abilities don't specify when they are gained, leaving us at the mercy of said table for guidance.

After those points, I must confess that I stopped paying close attention to what was going on in this book. There is an archetype for the class, as well as 6 spells, 3 magic items and some short write-ups for Old Ones, but the heart of the book is completely broken, and the flavor is not enough to redeem it.

Verdict: Unless there is a major revision, I cannot recommend this book to anyone, despite its solid premise. If an update is released, I'm certainly willing to revisit this.

Pincers Down, My Favorite Insectoids

Length: 14 pages total: 2 pages front and back covers; 1.5 pages credits and licensing; 10 pages of content; .5 pages of GM advice.

Format: 2-column, with a single information table spreading from side to side. Overall, laid out well and easy to read. I noticed 15 typographical and grammatical errors while reading, but they were mostly unimportant and did not cause confusion or diminish the quality of the book.

Art: The front cover art is cropped from an interior piece, and the back cover has what appears to be a cropped photograph of a moth. 7 pieces of interior art, 6 of which represent various Entobians and 1 half-page scene featuring 2 Entobians in a forest. All of these interior pieces are in color and of very high quality; they make a strong impression and immediately made me want to play a character of this race. Many insectoid creatures from bestiaries are hard to relate to but the artists for this book (Dean Spencer and Eugene Jaworski) did a great job humanizing the Entobians and making them look like real adventurers and characters rather than monsters.

The Entobian: This book presents a new race of six-limbed "insect people" to be used for making player characters or NPC's. They are very interesting creatures in the sense that they begin play in a larval form, but may take special Metamorphosis feats to drastically change their form, both physical and mental. Before getting into the mechanics, there is a page and a half dedicated to describing the Entobians' physical features, ecology, society, relations to other races, alignments and reasons for adventuring. This is all quite flavorful and definitely worth reading. At the end of the descriptive section, there is a chart listing the vital statistics for generating random starting ages, heights and weights.

Larvite, the basic Entobian, has these racial traits: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Wis; Small size with the appropriate adjustments; Fast speed of 30ft.; Familiar Foe, granting a +1 to attack versus vermin; Insect Mind, granting +2 bonus to saving throws against charm spells and effects; Natural Weapons in the form of their 2 mid-legs dealing 1d4 damage; Skilled, granting +2 to Acrobatics and Climb, lost after metamorphosing; Spin Silk, the ability to create 30ft. lengths of silk rope that biodegrades after a day, lost after metamorphosing. It is possible to play with these abilities all the way to level 20, but if you choose to take the Prepare for Metamorphosis feat, you can take a further feat to metamorphose in several different ways, described below. These special feats are irreversible and mutually exclusive. Before applying a metamorphosis feat, the Entobians are genderless, but their new forms are strictly divided with only one female form—the Matron. The Larvite's body resembles a caterpillar.

• Coleophite, available at level 7, changes the basic racial traits, trading the ability scores for increased Con and Str at the expense of Dex, adding natural armor, situational DR and able to fly at a speed of 25ft. with poor maneuverability for a number of minutes per day equal to their level. Coleophites resemble beetles.

• Eulite, available at level 9, changes the basic racial traits, trading the ability scores for increased Str and Wis at the expense of Con, adding darkvision, adding shocking grasp as a spell-like ability usable once per day and flight with a speed of 30ft. with good maneuverability a number of minutes per day equal to their level. Eulites resemble moths.

• Farfalite, available at level 8, changes the basic racial traits, trading the ability scores for increased Dex and Int at the expense of Con, adding displacement once per day as a spell-like ability and the ability to fly with a speed of 40ft. with good maneuverability for a number of minutes per day equal to their level. Farfalites resemble butterflies.

• Larvite Lifer, available at level 6, gives up your chance for metamorphosis and increases your size to medium, your natural attack damage die to 1d6, and also increases your height and weight, as shown on the aforementioned chart. This form is the only one that does not require Prepare for Metamorphosis.

• Matron, available at level 15, is unique in that you choose two of the other forms and blend their mechanics together, as well as increasing in size, as the Lifer. The Matrons resemble a cross between the chosen forms.

• Moscanite, available at level 7, changes the basic racial traits, trading the ability scores for increased Con and Dex at the expense of Cha, adding low-light vision, acid resistance, the use of acid arrow once per day as a spell-like ability and the ability to fly with a speed of 30ft. with average maneuverability a number of minutes per day equal to their level. Moscanites resemble flies or mosquitoes.

Apart from these feats, there are several others that an Entobian has access to, starting with Prepare for Metamorphosis, which basically acts as the feat Toughness until you actually metamorphose, at which point the extra hitpoints are lost and it becomes a feat-tax. The other feats include one that improves a Larvite's ability to make silk rope, even allowing its use in a limited capacity after metamorphosis. There is a feat called Glowworm that allows the Larvite to shed light from their abdomen as a free action that sounds neat at first, but as-written, the ability is lost after metamorphosing, which seems a shame for an Entobian planning on becoming a Lightseeker.

After the section on feats, the book details an Entobian-only prestige class called The Lightseeker, who are designed as fast, roguish spelunkers who double as front-line fighters. They have several good abilities, and I'd definitely be tempted to play one for mechanical and flavor reasons.

The final section consists of example stat-blocks for the Larvite, Coleophite, Eulite, Farfalite and Moscanite, all with class levels. This is a helpful section for seeing the possibilities, but it is unfortunate that there was not room for an example Matron or Lightseeker and I did notice a few mechanical errors in these stat-blocks. In the example Larvite's, the melee section says that it only has 1 natural attack instead 2. The example Coleophite has acid resistance, with no corresponding feat, special ability or class feature to explain how. The example Farfalite was missing the section pertaining to melee attacks entirely. I did not pore over them for very long, so it is possible that there are some errors I missed, but these examples are not that important to the book as a whole. I count the Larvite's as a typographical error in the Format portion of my review, but the other two are harder to categorize without speaking to the writers.

Verdict: I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. The metamorphosis feats add a lot of versatility to this race and all of the flavor text and great artwork drew me in, immediately making me want to introduce this race to my campaigns.

Excellent Underwater-Only Race

Length: 15 pages total: 2 pages front and back covers; 1.5 pages credits and licensing; 1.5 pages of story; 9.5 pages of content; .5 pages of GM advice.

Format: Mostly 2-column, with information tables occasionally spreading from side to side. Overall, well laid out and easy to read. I found 14 typographical and grammatical errors, but they were not serious enough or prevalent enough to mar the experience.

Art: Art on the front and back covers are duplicates of interior art. 5 pieces of interior art, 4 of which represent Relluks of varying types and 1 representing special gems. All art is in color and of high quality.

The Sunken Relluk: This book presents a new race of living constructs as a playable race for use specifically in the Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting, but is usable in any aquatic setting. The Sunken Relluk has no movement speed on land, and cannot survive above water for very long without magic, so it may be hard to integrate in more traditional campaigns.

The Sunken Relluks have quite a bit of written material describing their physical bodies, ecology, relationships to other Cerulean Seas races, etc. and most of it is quite interesting and well-written. They are essentially stone heads with living wooden masks formed into a covering shell, from which two arms extend but no legs. Instead, they have 3 pipes jutting out which they jet water and steam from to propel themselves through the water. At the top of their face-like body is a receptacle for a soul crystal which houses their essence. A Sunken Relluk does not age but if their bodies are destroyed, this soul crystal may be removed and installed in a new body. This is in some ways similar to reincarnation, with certain proclivities and predilections being retained, but all memories and abilities being lost. Essentially, the new one is a level 1 version of the old, free to make their own life decisions going forward. With a finite number of soul crystals in existence and no way to make more, some Sunken Relluks calling themselves Kahikua have taken it upon themselves to build new bodies, recover old crystals and act as guardians to their history and way of life.

The racial write-up has a list of immunities and vulnerabilities related to being a living construct, as well as a few special abilities. First of the special abilities is their use of Power Gems, which may be implanted into their bodies in special sockets for decorative purposes. If you get a matching set of 11 stones, they confer a boost similar to Ioun Stones, with each type having its own bonus and price, listed in a handy table. Their second special ability is the use of Boiling Spray, which acts as a very short-range breath attack, as the name suggests. Thirdly, their soul crystal constantly provides the luminescence of a torch. After the racial write-up is a selection of several racial feats that may be taken, ranging from granting a gore attack to the ability to jet quickly out of combat or have a single mismatched gem in your set.

Also included are rules for the Kahikua Prestige Class, race-restricted and with a focus on knowledge and avoiding or disabling traps.

Lastly, we are given 2 stat-blocks for: A variant Sunken Relluk and; An example NPC Sunken Relluk with class levels.

Verdict: I like this race a lot, and would readily choose it for use in an aquatic campaign. Just make sure to note that this race cannot survive on land. It may not be the strongest race around, but the flavor makes up for it, in my opinion.