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The Genius Guide to Arcane Archetypes $3.99
Publisher: Rogue Genius Games
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by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/01/2010 20:53:26

The Genius Guide to: Arcane Archetypes is a 16-page PDF (15 pages if you remove the credits/OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Owen K. C. Stephens and published by Super Genius Game. This is part of Super Genius Games’ Genius Guide line.

The layout is a screen-friendly landscape design, with cover art and 1-column on the first page and three columns on the rest. The art is full color throughout and vaguely supports the magic and variant spell-casting theme of this product.

Arcane Archetypes begins with a discussion about how characters in fantasy fiction often have a touch of magic even when they are not full fledged spell users. This product is designed to allow such characters to be played by trading out some of their existing class powers for different magical tinged one. This is accomplished by the use of ‘archetype packages’ to adjust class abilities in a modular way.

Two pages lay out the archetype packages for the base classes so players will know what they have to trade out for one of the nine arcane archetypes presented. Some grant minor spell casting abilities, others give other magical tricks such as defensive shields, magical music and shadow manipulation. It allows for a wide variety of options, even for spell casters and opens the magic system up in a variety of ways.

At the end of the product are the archetype packages for the various Genius Guide classes so that they can also use this product.

For those who like to tinker with the way the game is put together, as well as expanding magical option, this product is superb. Those that are more cautious about changing the basic working of the classes will probably wish to only slowly incorporate those elements that have a place in their campaign. However, in either case it is an excellent resource for understanding how classes are balanced and for some alternative ideas for magic in a campaign.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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The Genius Guide to Arcane Archetypes
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