I got hooked on the Arunues world last week. I've been waiting for the orcs to arrive so I could start a campaign in the world with my group of five players, one of them is planning on playing an orc.
I'm not at all disappoint in this addition! The Orcs are great - slightly more powerful than a half orc as far as character generation goes, which is as it should be.
What really makes this shine is the background on the orcs. I have a motivation for my Orc PC now and the whole orcish culture to fall back on. I love the image of orcs as sort of Mongols of the northern reaches.
The Prestige class included in this is subtly powerful. There isn't any overt magic or overpowering abilities. What you do get is a role playing opportunity to have an orc player character who is also a leader of men. Well, leader of orcs. I like this - it's different enough from the included core prestige classes to make it worth playing.
The npcs are a nice touch. Easy to use, pre-packaged orcs. I wish more expansions would do this.
The Hram horse is okay - nothing special as far as beasts go but necessary to the back story of the orcs.
The Penumbral Atavus is one of my favourite parts of this whole expansion. I'm certainly going to use this in my campaign!
The magical items are okay - again nothing special, perhaps added as an afterthought?
I've given this four out of five stars for two reasons. The magical items are okay but not great. The artwork is again, okay but not great.
The price is good for getting a lot of information you can plonk right into your game and run with. A new race, a new prestige class, npcs, beasts, and pages of background and culture. Certainly a useful addition to my Pathfinder game.
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