EZG reviews Ruins Perilous & some other new Rite Stuff

I know I've been posting a lot of Rite Publishing reviews - possibly becuase they crank out so much good stuff. Next week, you'll get something different once again, possibly even some of the long reviews.

30 Haunts for Houses

This pdf is 14 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages advertisements, leaving 9 pages for the 30 haunts.

The pdf kicks off with one page introduction to haunts, including some insightful designer's note.

The haunts presented herein range from CR 1 to CR 15.

Common Haunts:

-Common Door Haunt: Slams doors shut

-Common House Haunt: Minor poltergeist effects

-Common Phantom World: Strange, obscuring hallucinations

-Graverot: A spark of unlife in a corpse

-Hindering Haunts: Delay PCs in crucial moments

-Lonely House Haunt: Charm PCs into staying for the night...

-Phantom Blade: Haunted remains of a trap

-Reluctant Portal: Hard to open/close portal

-Solid Phantoms: Phantoms that block PCs

-Weedy Well: Lure PCs

Associated haunts (haunts that belong together):

-Charred Man: Potentially lethal killer

-Fire Starter: Creepy little haunt

-Unrepentant Smoker: Lets smoke billow forth

Haunts:

-Biting the Hand that feeds: Make animals rebel

-Black Bile: Cool manifestation

-Chain Haunt: Poltergeist chains

-Envious Armor: Your fighter with LOATHE this haunt. I love it.

-Faithful Phantom Hound: A faithful phantom creature; great adventure seed/ idea for deceased PC-companions

-Feel my Pain: Brutal, pain-inducing haunt

-Gurglers: Creepy, almost Pow/Lovecraftian haunt

-Heartstopper: Great nod towards one of my favorite Poe stories

-Hot Handle Haunt: Fire walk with me

-Lich's Lover: Anguish of a woman can kill you

-Mumbling Malediction: Lethal, nice focus point for a haunted house

-Open Grave: This haunt has a cool effect and works different from what you'd expect

-Rats in the Wall: Iconic take on a classic motive

-Restless Sleep Haunt: Insomnia-inducer

-Scrawl: Scribbles appear with a twist

-Shadowmaker Haunt: Undead-creating haunt

-Spinning Spiders: This haunt is really cool and includes a spinning chandelier. Go figure. :)

The pdf closes with a NPC (CR 4) for ghost-and haunt-related adventures, who was built via the excellent rules for Divine Channeling from RiP's "Secrets of Divine Channeling". All necessary information is given for you to run this character without access to the supplement, though.

Conclusion:

When first reading this, I was a bit baffled by the common haunts being...well...common. However, that is exactly the premise - the 10 haunts presented in the beginning are supposed to be very generic for ease of inserting it into your campaign. The other haunts were more creative and, in spite of the limitations in word-count, some of them managed to evoke a creepy atmosphere or were mechanically interesting. The thin line between "generic and boring" and "generic and easy to implement" - 30 Haunts for Houses walks it with ease and for the better. Editing and formatting were top-notch, I didn't notice any errors. Presentation and layout adhere to the high Rite Publishing standards. Art is ok and mostly from public domain. The NPC was a nice bonus.

So what's my final verdict? Due to the low price and extreme usability, I'll settle for a solid 4 Rudii. This is, as of yet, the best haunt-supplement out there. For a sequel, I'd like to see more complex haunts or a file containing only common/generic haunts and files containing haunts linked by a theme as well as more associated haunts - the 3 associated ones make for a whole encounter in and of themselves.

Faces of the tarnished Souk: Ahnkar-Kosh, the Unstoppable

This pdf is 13 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages of advertisements, leaving 8 pages of content.

This pdf presents Ahnkar-Kosh and acts as both a nice stand-alone product or as an add-on to Coliseum Morpheuon.

The pdf kicks off with a page containing the background of Ankhar-Kosh, including information for CM's Dreamburning mechanics and a note on how to and how not to use this bodyguard.

Ahnkar-Kosh comes in 3 vastly different incarnations for different levels:

The first one is the whopping CR 21 dreadnaught protector quickling manimal ankylosaurus armiger and his stat-block takes up 2 pages and is a beauty to behold - AC 64. 'Nuff said. He IS the ultimate bodyguard. All his skills and special abilities are aimed at keeping his charges alive and he packs a mean, mean punch. He also comes with 3 unique magic items and 2 feats reprinted from Super Genius Games products (1 page), a cooperation I'm just loving.

The second one is a CR 14 protector quickling manimal ankylosaurus fighter 5, taking up 1 page.

The third incarnation is a CR 7 manimal ankylosaurus. It takes up half a page.

The pdf closes with 3 templates, Dreadnought (CR+1 to +4, depending on the HD), Quickling (CR+1) and Manimal (great nod towards the cult-series in the name, btw.!) CR+1, including some ideas on how to implement them.

The pdf also features the new spell Create Manimal [Drd 6, Sor/Wiz 7], which makes a manimal out of an animal.

Conclusion:Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes. The b/w-artwork is great.

If you say Rite Publishing, the first thing that comes to my mind is far-out, imaginative design. And stat-blocks. Big, beautiful, bad-ass stat-blocks. Coliseum Morpheuon features a huge array of great, powerful characters and this pdf is an awesome addition to this setting/adventure and I hope we'll see more in this series.

My final verdict will be 5 Rudii - I'm just in love with this beautiful, deadly CR 21 incarnation.

Ruins Perilous Level 1, Room 1

This pdf is 24 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 20 pages of content.

To adequately review a file from the "Ruins Perilous"-line, I first have to explain the interesting and ambitious business model the series utilizes: You donate a certain amount of money to the project. If you donate at least $3.00, you get the following in addition to the pdf:

- The exterior image or side view of the room

-A monster token

-The high resolution JPEG of the map (with and without grids)

- The PDF of the Map Pack so you can print out your maps at home to scale (in full color or grey scale)

Once a level is completed (about 18 rooms), a version of the level for maptool will be provided for free to the supporters. If the goal for a room is not met within 60 days, the money will be refunded.

That being said, in the Questhaven Campaign Setting, the Ruins Perilous also work as a testing ground for the Questor's Society as well as the big, bad dungeon.

Now that this is out of the way, let's get to it!

The pdf is full-color and kicks off with a one-page map of the first room, followed by the encounter of this installment, containing a new little creature as well as two pieces of artwork.

After that, we get the map-section cover and a how-to for using the maps contained herein. (2 pages)

The map-pack contains a one-page map of the room, complete with grid, 6 pages of full-color blown-up maps of the room for use with miniatures as well as 6 pages of the same map in a printer-friendly, blown-up b/w version.

The pdf closes with 2 in-character written pages of introduction and advice to survive in the ruins.

Conclusion:

Formatting and layout are top-notch and as far as maps go, this is the full-color equivalent of the excellent maps we've come to appreciate from e.g. the ECS-series. I found one glaring editorial glitch - in the editorial, the file says "Level 1, Room 4", which should be "Level 1, Room 1" - in the beginning I thought I accidentally opened the wrong file. Prose is nice, as in most RiP-products. The encounter per se is ok, although it didn't make me gasp in excitement. For what it is trying to be, though, this file does a good job - it's a nice first encounter for the dungeon. Due to the low price if bought separately and the beautiful maps, I'll round my verdict of 3.5 Rudii up to 4. If you don't plan on using the maps, detract a Rudi.

Ruins Perilous Level 1, Room 2

This pdf is 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving 24 pages of content.

The encounter of this installment, complete with a little map, takes up 3 pages and once again features a new creature, a magical beast cat-creature that is quite simply one of the coolest CR 1 critters I've read in quite some time. The encounter also comes with an artwork of one specific feature of the dungeon that will have PCs wonder or at least pause for a second.

After the encounter, we get a 2 page-replica of the introduction to the Ruins Perilous some may already know from the first installment.

The map-part starts with the cover and a quick how-to. (2 pages) It features a one-page map of the encounter as well as a over-blown version of the map for use with miniatures that takes up 8 pages. There is also a printer-friendly b/w version of the miniature-friendly map that takes up the last 8 pages of the pdf.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes. Layout of this full-color pdf is once again beautiful and the maps are up to the high RiP-standard we know from the ECS-line. Only that around here, they are in color. The encounter presented here is more complex and intelligent than the one in this files predecessor and thus also more rewarding. While the encounter didn't absolutely blast me away, I have to consider the low price and the intention of this product - It succeeds at its intention and is very cheap and thus my verdict will be 4.5 Rudii. If you don't plan on using the maps, detract a Rudi.

All right, that's it for this week, I'll see you next week, as always, thank you for reading my ramblings,

Endzeitgeist out.

EZG reviews the Book of Monster Templates & 101 Weapon Properties

Hey everybody,

while I'm not yet doen with some of my larger upcoming reviews, I at least managed to get two done that have been quite a task to put together. I hope you'll enjoy them!

Book of Monster Templates

This book is 111 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 106 pages of content.

The book kicks off with a introduction (1 page) to the monster templates with advice on how to apply templates quick as well as mentioning some interesting facts about the format in which the templates are presented: An explanation of the unique sample creatures provided, quick tactics, the monster's point of view of itself, Lore DCs, monstrous feats (each section has some of them) as well as (thank the 7 heavens!) ecology-sections. I hate it when monsters are presented as creatures in a vacuum and thus welcome the addition of these sections.

The templates range from -50% CR to CR +3. I listed their CR-modifications, the name of the sample creature, the CR of the sample creature and the respective bonus material.

-Accursed Creature Template (CR -50%, Broken Beast, CR 12, Monstrous feat: Stomp)

-Aware Arcana Creature Template (CR=double highest effective caster level, Aware Arcana Fireball, CR 6, Aware Arcana Merged Cup of Dust and Feast of Ashes, CR 10, 3 new feats to create the living spells, 1 new associated item)

-Betrayer Creature Template (CR+1, Iudas, CR 6, Monstrous Feats: Improved Feign Death and Improved Hidden Healing)

-Bloody Maw Creature Template (CR+1, Jaws of Winter, CR 6, Monstrous Feats: Greater Belly of the Beast, Vorpal Bite)

-Body Jumper Creature Template (CR+3, Bisiir "Discord's Essence", CR 21, Monstrous Feat: Hidden Possession)

-Boundfury Creature Template (CR+2, Guilded Guard of Gone, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Greater Pain, Greater Penalize)

-Civilized Creature Template (CR+1, Genteel Spines, CR 14, Monstrous Feats: Telekinetic Flight, Telekinetic Shield)

-Darkseed Creature Templates (CR+2, Bloody Blades, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Dark Endurance, Dark Strength, Faster Healing)

-Distortion Creature Template (CR+3, Mutilating Beast, CR 4, Monstrous Feats: Improved Scare, Greater Scare)

-Drachenchor Creature Template (CR+3, Gellid Dirge Lich, CR 12, Monstrous Feat: Spell Leech Storehouse)

-Dreaded Creature Template (CR+2, Kah the dark Captain, CR 14, Monstrous Feats: Painful Scars, Inflict Terror)

-Earthbound Creature Template (CR+2, Fettered Giant, CR 10, Monstrous Feats: Towering Assailant, Quick Fling)

-Eldritch Spawn Template (CR+3, Eldritch Glutton, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Dream Sleeper, Insane Insight)

-Entropy Infused Creature Template (CR+1, Wasteling, CR 9, Monstrous Feats: Sinkhole, Cave-In; actually several templates in one, negative-energy quasi-elemental nod towards Planescape)

-Eternal Creature Template (CR+1, Eonian the Incessant, CR 3, Monstrous Feats: Improved Breaching, Greater Breaching)

-Exemplar Creature Template (CR+3, Atelier's Vengeance, CR 19, Monstrous Feats: Improved Perfect Health, Improved Magic Reduction)

-Hatemonger Creature Template (CR+2, Hatelarren, CR 4, Monstrous Feat: Compelling Oratory; additional disease, variant template Strifemonger parasite)

-Havenfury Creature Template (CR+1-3 depending on base creatures CR, Black Ghont, CR 18, Ritual: Asylum of Wrath, Mosntrous Feat: Improved Corrupt Language)

-Irresistible Creature Template (CR+1, Sir Horace of the White Bull, CR 12, Monstrous Feat: Quicken Devastating Blast)

-Jagannath Creature Template (CR+3, Restless One, CR 13, Monstrous Feats: Spit Victim, Improved Spit Victim)

-Jaunting Creature Template (CR+2, Abhorrent Wink, CR 5, Monstrous Spells: Dimension Hop[Brd 2,Sor/Wiz 2], Teleport Attack [Sor/Wiz 7])

-Mythic Creature Template (CR+2, The Undying Storm, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Dying Curse, Improved Self Resurrection)

-Phalanx Creature Template (CR+1 or +2, Apellon & Aptemis, CR 12, Monstrous Feats: Power Throw, Crushing Volley)

-Phlogiston Construct Creature Template (CR+0, 4 different Phlogiston batteries, Dynamo, CR 7)

-Positive Energy Creature Template (CR+2, Lifetrap, CR 8, Monstrous Feats: Improved Animate Objects, Improved Energy Instill)

-Protector Creature Template (CR+1, Heaven's Guard, CR 14, Monstrous Feats: Improved Shield of Destiny, Improved Protective Aura)

-Ritefury Creature Template (CR+2, Wrath-wake, CR 7, Monstrous Feat: Improved Animate Object)

-Rune-Carved Creature Template (CR+2, Carcera of the Ruins Perilous, CR 9, Monstrous Feat: Masked Shapechanger)

-Tax Collector Creature Template (CR+2, Fishwife of Fees, CR 6, Monstrous Feats: Tax Hike, Expanded Domain)

-Trickster Creature Template (CR+1, Eshu the Deceiver, CR 5, Monstrous Feat: Greater Shapechange)

-Unsighted Creature Template (CR+2, Bloody Beggar, CR 15, Monstrous Feat: Greater Gaze of Unlight)

-Weapon Construct Creature Template (CR=+1 for every two enhancement bonuses of the weapon, Bloodhex, CR 8)

The book closes with tables for templates by challenge rating as well as sample creatures by challenge rating as well as a short glossary. ( 1 page)

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any major flaws. Layout is clear and concise, the b/w artworks range from "meh" to "awesome".

I loved the classic Advanced Bestiary by Green Ronin and that's why I preordered thsi book as soon as it was announced. Just let me say: I didn't regret it for even a second. This is perhaps the best monster book out there for Pathfinder right now - each and every template is either mechanically extremely cool, does something that hasn't yet been done, features captivating prose and some very interesting sample creatures, often all of them. The sheer amount of "bonus" feats provided also helps variability in encounters. I'm going so far as to say that even if you as a DM are too lazy to use templates yourself, the sample creatures themselves are worth the price. Most of them are written in a way that makes the average DM come with at least one adventure. Just take a look at the sample creatures in the above list as well as the list of monstrous feats - you get an awesome amount of content for your bucks and most feature the unique, imaginative style I've come to appreciate in the best of Rite Publishing books. Should you have passed on this book until now, go get it. My final rating is 5 out of 5 possible Rudii - possibly one of the best monster resources out there.

101 Magic Weapon Properties

This pdf is 25 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of advertisements, leaving 20 pages of content.

The pdf begins with an old-school table of the weapon qualities for use with your trusty d%.

After that, we get the qualities:

-Adaptable: Can be used with weapon-specific feats

-Afflicting: Crit = Bestow Affliction, DC scales

-Ambush: Self-explanatory

-Anchoring: Deny Teleport

-Awoved Death: Vow to slay an enemy

-Bane Burst: Even more damage against banes

-Bane, lesser: Minor bonus against bane

-Blastback: Bullrush hit enemies

-Blood bonded: Bound to a bloodline

-Boomeranging: Hit the enemy from behind with your returning weapon

-Breaker: Item-destroyer

-Burst,Chosen: Works like Burst for chosen enrgy type

-Bushwhacking: Attack from hiding

-Ceremonial: 4 abilities in one, choose at the beginning of an encounter

-Clinging: Magical net enchantment

-Contemplative: Add Wis-mod to attack a number of times per day

-Consecrated: Extra-strong on holy ground

-Counteracting: Better CMD

-Counterstrike: Riposte after a missed attack by an opponent

-Crippling: Crits do Str-damage

-Dark: negative energy damage

-Deflecting: CMD to deflect rays

-Dessicated: Kill Oozes, Water, etc., can destroy liquids

-Dislocating: Teleport attack

-Disorienting: Penalize hit enemies

-Disorienting Burst: Burst of above, more penalties

-Dispelling: Guess what?

-Dispelling Burst: Guess what? in Burst form. Jep, I'm Captain Obvious.

-Equalizing: Negative levels for stronger opponents

-Energy, Chosen: Change energy-type via standard action

-Energy Ray: 1/day blast a foe, scales with your level

-Energy, Seething: Upgraded Version of a normal energy weapon.

-Enhancing: enhances the DC of one of your abilities

-Fast Bracing: Set against charge as immediate action

-Fast Returning: Make full-round attacks with your returning weapon

-Featherlight: Weapon can be used as one category lighter

-Fiendfang: Chose energy and ability damage - this weapon does both, plus bonus to deals with evil outsiders

-Force: Adds [Force]-descriptor to attacks, additional damage, hard to break

-Fortunate: Reroll an attack 3/day (typo here)

-Friend: Weapon is better for a specific race, skill-set etc.

-Foesight: Identify most powerful foe in 60 ft.

-Girded: Hard to break

-Gripping: Better against disarm

-Good Fortune: Use stored luck bonuses. Unfortunately doesn't mention how to recharge them

-Guided: negate 20% miss chance

-Hardened: Harder weapon.

-Heartseeking: Iconic e.g. vampire-slaying weapon

-Hexing: Penalize hit enemies

-Hexing Burst: More penalties, Hexburst

-Hindering: Potentially cancel out an ability of an enemy

-Homing: Ignore cover less than total concealment

-Ill Fortune: Stores Ill-luck, can dispense it one enemies

-Infectious: Transmit diseases

-Interfering: Hamper spell-casting

-Ioun: Weapons floats around you like an Ioun stone

-Leviathan's Foe: Extra damage against bigger creatures

-Loyal: Attuned to a specific wielder

-Maiming: Instead of killing your enemy, blind, maim, etc. him/her

-Mage Tuned: Only good for 1/4BAB-chars, for them +4 luck to attacks

-Maneuverable: Second Combat maneuver with half BAB as part of a combat maneuver

-Maneuverable Burst: Bonus to CMB and higher Crit-mod

-Necrofeed: Channel necromancy via weapon

-Paired: Two weapons that help their wielders help their respective comrade

-Parrying: Negate a hit on you or an ally with chance to get hit yourself

-Perilous: Cascading Critical

-Poisonous: Poison spell, scaling DC

-Potent: More damage and higher crit-mods

-Precision: Grants Critical Focus feat

-Preferential: Rangers do more damage against favored enemies

-Preferential Burst: Big brother of the last ability

-Preserving: Do damage to undead or heal allies

-Providence: +1 on saving throws, + 1/day reroll

-Psychic Burst: Dazed on a Crit, scaling DC

-Rapid Reloading: Reload one step faster than normal, Bows and slings get an additional attack at highest BAB 5/day

-Rapid Striking: Additional strike at half BAB

-Retribution: If hit by enemies, the weapon gets better against that foe

-Revitalizing: Use enhancement bonus to heal wounds

-Selective: Choose from two rolls on a critical fumble chart/ card deck if such is used

-Serpent: Transform weapon into snake

-Shatterblast: Ranged sunder with thrown weapon

-Spell Echoing: Duplicate past spells 3/day

-Spellreaving: Unravel spells/spell-like abilities

-Slayer: Attuned to a creature, slays it.

-Smiting: Improves any kind of smite

-Spellbane: Extra damage against spellcasters

-Spellcarrier: Thrown weapon hold touchspell for a time

-Spellstealing: Dispelling weapon that can steal a spell on the enemy.

-Spell Well: Hold touchspell for a time

-Soul Stealing: Can steal the soul of slain enemies, preventing resurrection, clones and the like

-Starshine: Pathfinderized version of one of my favorite weapon qualities. :)

-Summoner's Foe: Dismiss hit summoned creatures

-Sworn: Swear to slay an opponent and gain bonuses

-Tentacle Rope: Use disarm or trip with a net like it was a whip

-Terror: Make enemies shaken, DCs scale

-Toxifying: Improves poisons on the weapon

-Transmutable: Change material of the weapon/damage type

-Twin: When within 10 ft. of another, these weapons improve.

-Voidwrought: Pathfinderized version of another one of my favorite weapon qualities.

-Weaken Resistance: Each successful hit makes SR of the creature deteriorate

-Wrathful: Works when raging, +1d8 damage

-Wrathful Burst: Big brother of the last quality

The pdf closes with 2 new spells, Bestow Affliction(Clr 4) and Teleport Attack (??? 7), the latter of which unfortunately does not say whether it is arcane or divine, though I suspect arcane.

Conclusion:

I am dead tired of the commodity-magic-items and weapons that seem to have taken hold of so many games and this is a step in the right direction - these are qualities your PCs won't necessarily expect in a weapon and there, at least in my opinion, should be more books like this out there. The abilities never felt overpowered or useless to me. The artworks of the weapons (this is a full-color pdf, btw.!) are beautiful and while I usually don't like obviously computer-generated art, for this file, they work excellent. However, there are also some downsides to report, namely some editorial glitches, a typo in the "fortunate" weapon description as well as the missing class-descriptor in one of the spells. Additionally, while not required, I would have loved to see some IC-introduction or some more far-out abilities. While some qualities really rocked and I loved seeing an updated version of material from "When the Sky falls", I nevertheless felt that this book could have been even better. My final verdict, for what the book is and due to the fact that it comes with a 22 pages B/w printer-friendly version, will be a solid 4 Rudii, a good buy if you want to add some options to your magic weapons.

Ok, that's it from me for now, expect to see more soon! As always, thank you for reading my ramblings,

Endzeitgeist out.

EZG reviews Cavalier's Creed & Incantations

Hey everybody, it Endzeitgeist again and this time, I'm taking a look at one of ODs advanced feat books (the only one I own to this date) as well as at Zombie Sky Press's Incantations! I hope you'll enjoy the reviews.

Advanced Feats: The Cavalier's Creed

This pdf is 16 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial + ToC, 1 page advertisement and 1 page SRD.

That leaves 12 pages of content and starts with 1.5 pages of analysis of the cavalier class, detailing potential strengths and giving a nice overview.

After that, we get 30 new feats, including Teamworkfeats.

-Back to back: Fight with ally, deny flanks

-Barreling Overrun: Overrun more enemies

-Bloody Banner: Inspires allies

-Bravery: Fear and panic are treated as shaken

-Buckler Master: better at using Bucklers

-Campaigner: Sleep anywhere

-Clever Critter: Smarter than other animals

-Defensive Sunder: Sunder incoming attacks

-Extra Cohort: self-explanatory

-Fortune: 1 reroll per day

-Great leader: Leadershipbonus

-Intimidating Gaze: Demoralize foes

-Moral Chameleon: Change orders, retain some abilities

-Move as one: Move when rider does

-Near and far: Reach weapons to attack adjacent foes

-Nimble Mount: Keep rider out of harm's way

-Pack Attack: Flank when allies flank

-Pierce Armor: Bonus to hit armored enemies

-Provoke: self-explanatory

-Pull Blow: Reduce damage after rolling

-Rampage: Continue charge after dropping foe

-Rank Fighting: Cuts penalties for attacking through allies

-Reflexive Brace: Brace faster

-Shaft and Shield: Wield two-handed spears in one hand

-Shielded Move: No AoO from chosen opponent

-Shield Evasion: limited evasion when using a shield

-Size doesn't matter: Ignore size penalties to intimidate

-Strength in Numbers: Better resist are effects when with allies

-Tag Team Flanking: Allies gain bonuses against enemies you hurt

-Team Initiative: you and your allies share the best initiative roll

All of the feats were either interesting, good ideas and more importantly, none seemed too weak or too strong. They also come with commentaries on the design decision as well as some nice bits of historical trivia, which provide an additional insight in both the design process and a like the frosting on the cake. In the rare cases (e.g. provoke), where I would have disliked a given feat, it's mechanics are specifically worded so the DM can prevent abuse.

After that, we get 3 sample builds for cavaliers: The green knight, the tawny knight and the black knight. I liked the builds and their explanations.

Conclusion:

Formatting and editing are top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes. The feats were often imaginative, cool, fit their niche and felt neither under- nor overpowered. This is quite simply a great feat book (and my standards for them are very high!) and worth the few bucks it costs. Due to the high quality and the low price, I'll settle for a 5 Rudii-rating.

Incantations in Theory and Practice

This pdf is 9 pages, 1 page front cover /including a piece of b/w artwork and text, 1/3 page SRD and 1/3 page editorial, leaving approximately 7 and 1/3 pages of content.

Everybody who knows me from the boards I attend and the posts that I post, knows one thing: While I love the modularity of D&D's 3rd edition and its children like Pathfinder, I hate the way they usually treat magic items and I'm somewhat baffled by all the rules-crunching people do to build killer spell-casters. While I don't judge any of you, I was always wondering: Where is the MAGIC, where has the wonder of magic abilities and with it, the reason for the in-game perceived arrogance of the mighty wizards gone? Has magic, one of the most significant, defining factors of any given campaign, deteriorated into a predictable, boring force that just makes it easier for casters to dominate non-casters at higher levels?

Nope. This is where this pdf comes in. Ever wondered how non-castes use those nifty little curses, rituals and other tools to utterly screw the lives of other people? How and why their rituals entail a sacrifice they are loathe to pay and try to avoid? What the potential consequences of their failure might be?

For an almost ridiculously low price, you can have all these questions answered, at least crunch-wise, for you campaign. I'm not kidding. If you, as a D_M, EVER wanted to bring the sheer aspect of wonder of magic back to your campaign this is the way to do it.

On a crunch note: What are Incantations? They are essentially skill-based, potentially co-operate rituals, complete with backlash, guidelines to use minor rituals and duplicate major magical effects. They ROCK! Your expert-mayor wants to curse the lvl 14 Wizard? There you go!

You'll get all the DCs, modifier and the rest to make your own incantations. You even get 3 samples, previously unreleased incantations to both be examples of what could be done with the mechanics and help you design more.

Conclusion:

I love the concept. I love the execution. I love the price. Zombie Sky Press has done it. This file has the potential to change your approach to PFRPG, hell it has the potential to change your approach to roleplaying and the aspect of magic in d20-based systems. Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes. The one piece of b/w-artwork is kind of cool. How do you rate a file that brought ritualistic magic, complex curses and all-out-non-spell-casting-class adventure seeds as well as an as of yet unperceived variety of hooks to your campaign?

Simple: With the best possible score: 5 out of 5 and the Endzeitgeist-seal of approval. These mechanics should be standard rules, are made of (*internet slang*) awesome and win (/*internet slang*) and quite frankly should be part of just about any DM's campaign if (s)he wishes to give either his/her players an extra edge or the possibility to marvel at the potential usages of magic.

Incantations from the Other Side: Spirit Magic

This pdf is 39 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page containing both SRD and Index. That leaves 35 pages of content.

Incantations kicks off with an introduction to the spirit world, explaining how spirit magic and incantations are neither truly divine nor arcane, how they represent a primal power that can be tapped via rituals by anyone who knows how to do so, but may exact a price. (2 pages)

The first chapter describes Incantations from the general area of Vodou. It introduces the concepts of rado, petro and guede Loa which are not bluntly described as the traditional alignments but rather differences in the temperament of the more or less amoral Loa. We get 7 Rada Loa, 5 Petro Loa and 8 Guede Loa in this chapter. Apart from several nice incantations we also get a new disease in this chapter. My favorite incantation makes it possible to literally shed ones skin and temporarily become a incorporeal form, including attacks etc. (12 pages)

The second chapter details the so-called Middle World, inspired by Slavic mythology. We get 6 spirits and a sidebox with two great ideas spawned from mythology about spirits and 8 incantations. They have a completely different feeling from the first chapter and make EXCELLENT additions to e.g. a "Tales of the Old Margreve" or otherwise Slavic-inspired setting.(12 pages)

The final chapter details the Arcanum and its utterly alien, slightly Lovecraftian patrons from beyond the stars and contains 4 quite complex incantations as well as a sample lodge and 5 sample patrons.(9 pages)

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, the pdf comes in full color and is a beauty to behold, complete with nice artwork and its own distinct style. However, it will test the mettle of your printer and a printer-friendly version would have been very much appreciated. With regards to the content, I can only say: WOW. I've always somehow disliked the fact that magic has become a more or less predictable commodity in RPGs and, while I always understood the necessity of predictable systems, this little file adds one stable of fantasy literature and mythology I always missed: The powerful, cool rituals and negotiations with other entities, the underdog non-caster somehow cursing his opponent. The wise woman beseeching the spirits of nature etc. - without being druids, mages etc., has too long been absent from our favorite systems and these incantations are not only expertly written, make great hooks for adventures and put the awe and unpredictability back into magic, they are also plain fun, creepy and/or cool to read. If this pdf does not inspire you to write an adventure, I don't know what will. The system is elegant, concise and should be included in the standard PFRPG-canon. My only two gripes are: I want a sequel, a whole book of incantations and I want a printer-friendly version. Content-wise, this is a straight 5-Rudii-file, but be aware of the lack of a printer-friendly version. If that's a problem for you, subtract a Rudi. My final verdict will thus be 4.5 Rudii.

That's it for now, folks. Thanks for reading my ramblings,

Endzeitgeist out.

Psionics Unleashed

Psionics Unleashed by Dreamscarred Press

This product is 231 pages long. It starts with a cover, credits, and ToC. (5 pages)

*Note – (I wanted to point out, I was never a huge fan of Psionics, I was given this product for the purpose of this review. I have nothing against Psioncis they was just never my thing. So I am writing this review from the point of view of someone who is coming in that is new to psionics.)

Introduction (2 pages)
This gets into what Psionics are, about their powers, over all chapter breakdown, changes made and why, it ends with a message from the two main authors of the book, talking about the project.

Chapter 1 – Races (12 pages)
This section has 8 new races, who are all psionicly adept. It lists full information about them. From game mechanics, society, description, relations to other races and Psionic Aptitude.(special things they get when taking their favored class) Below is a list of the new races and brief overview.
Blue – a goblin race.
Dromite – Halfling sized insect people.
Duergar – you know what they are, dwarves.
Elan – created race, chosen from other races and transformed.
Half-giant – They sound more like a new race of giants though they are supposed half fire giant but it doesn't really say or imply what other half they are, I suppose human.
Maenad – More or less a new ethnic group of humans.
Ophiduan – a reptilian based race.
Xeph – a new race that looks fairly human.

Chapter 2 – Classes (18 pages)
This section has 4 new base classes. It has a section about how to update your old classes to the new versions, a section on multi-classing, and power points. After this it gets into each of the new classes. I copied a bit of the book below to give a bit about each class.
Psion: A master of the mind, a seeker of knowledge of psionics. - More or less the equal of a full caster class. Low BaB, hp etc. They have six disciplines to choose from, sorta like magic schools in a way.
Psychic Warrior: A soldier who combines psionic power with physical prowess. - To me it seemed to be more like a self buffing bard that fights. They gain warriors paths, abilities to do special things based on the theme of the path.
Soulknife: A warrior who creates a unique weapon out of mental energy. - This one is a bit hard to explain, it is a light armored fighter that uses their mind to create weapons to attack with. Other than just giving their mental energy weapon bonuses they can also give them special abilities, such as shocking, holy, keen etc.
Wilder: A natural talent with psionics who channels emotion to wield uncontrolled power. - There is really no class or roll they are really like. They have great power but limited control.

Chapter 3 – Skills and Feats (18 pages)
This talks about any skill that works different, or in the case of spellcraft how it is used for psionic power checks etc. The choose to condense the skill list to fit pathfinder and mesh psionics and magic more. Use magic device is used for magic and psionic devices for example. Some might not like these changes, me I do. That was always one of my issues with psionics before. It does the same thing with feats, such as magic item creation feats, what types of psionic items can be created with the feat. There is also 69 new psionic based feats, to many to list honestly but all of them seemed on par with existing feats.

Chapter 4 – Psionics (14 pages)
This section gets into how powers work, saves, costs, adding powers, resistance(which like other stuff is now the same as Spell Resistance, a monster with one has the same for both), how to use psionics in your games, variant rules so psionics and magic don't overlap. Basically a overview of how the powers work and how to use them in your campaign.

Chapter 5 – Powers (86 pages)
This has the power lists for the classes. Followed by the write up of each of the powers. There is about 290 powers in the book. Some copy the effects of existing spells(to a point), while others are totally new.

Chapter 6 - Prestige Classes (20 pages)
This section deals with new prestige classes for the psionic base classes or non-psionic base classes to take. There is 9 new PrC's in this section.
Cerebremancer: A practitioner of both arcane magic and psionic power, wielding both efficiently. - Combines psionic powers with arcane spells.
Elocater: A master of altering gravity and space, performing seemingly impossible maneuvers. - any martial class and psionic class could work.
Metamind: A manifester who sacrifices his expertise with higher level abilities to expand his reservoir of power.
Phrenic Slayer: A hunter of a type of psionic creature who gains abilities to aid in the chase. - Can work with any melee class and psionic class, but ranger seems to fit best.
Psion Uncarnate: A manifester who has left the need for a physical body behind.
Psychic Fist: A monk who uses his innate psionic ability to augment his martial prowess. - Seems like a good soul knife/monk combo.
Pyrokineticist: A wielder of flame, sending bolts of fire at enemies and using their body heat to heal.
Thrallherd: A manifester who puts out a psionic call for thralls and believers. - a PrC that focuses on controlling the minds of others.
Warmind: A devastating warrior who learns many secret combat techniques.

Chapter 7 – Psionic Items (28 pages)
How to use psionic items. More or less they are similar to how magic items already exist in the game. It does have some psionic effects of their own and a good list of psionic premade items.

Chapter 8 – Psionic Monsters (25 pages)
There is 20 monsters in this section, with a couple having more than one variation like the construct.

Glossary (2 pages)
This explains all the terms used in the book and what they mean.

It ends with a OGL and ad. (2 pages)

Closing thoughts. As I mentioned at the start I was never a fan of psionics, I had nothing against them. I just felt they never added enough, for the work required to add a new total system to the game. With this book combining a lot of the aspects like use of skills, resistances etc that in my honest opinion makes psionics a lot easier to adapt into more traditional games. The writing was good and I didn't notice any major errors, it was fairly easy to understand for a newbie just get into it. The layout was decent but there was a few spots where there was some wasted space, end of the feats chapter was a big one. A single feat on a otherwise blank page.

The art ranged wildly, some was color, some was black and white. Some was cartoony and other more traditional. The quality also wildly ranged as well. I honestly found the art to be a let down. It wasn't the quality but the clashing styles was more of a problem for me. This book basically takes the existing psionic rules and updates them to Pathfinder rules and meshes them much better with the game in my opinion. I think these rules as someone who was not a fan of psionics before to be a vast improvement over the old rules. Enough so that I for the first time in a very long time, will experiment with using them in my games again. To see how it goes. I am not ready to let them fully in, but the book did a good enough job that I will sprinkle them in and see how it goes.

The feats, powers, classes etc. They all seem well written and well balanced against the existing Pathfinder core rules. I didn't find anything overly powerful or overly weak. I am unsure how it stacks up with the previous books as I only have passing knowledge with the 3.5 psionic rules. My main issues with the book was clashing art styles and I thought the layout could have been done better. So whats my rating? I find this one hard to rate since I think it depends if you was already a fan of psionics or not. Personally I am giving it a 4 star review from my point of view. For fans of psionics that want something for their Pathfinder game I think you will be very pleased. For those that thought psionics had issues before but was not dead seat against them, you might want to check the book out, it might just change your mind. If you was one of those that just hate the idea of psionics in fantasy, well I don't think this book will change your mind.

EZG reviews Evocative City Sites

Hey everybody, happy new year! I hope you had a great time and look forward to 2011!

I know I'm late, but to make up for it, I'll review some Evocative City Sites. Without further ado: Let's go!

Voell's Garden

This pdf is 27 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages advertisements, 1 page SRD, leaving 22 pages of content.

The pdf starts with 1 page containing the whole map of Voell's Graden and then dives into the in-character introduction to Voell's Garden, interspread with 5 detailed maps of the respective parts of Voell's Graden. The chapter also details secrests, a table for strange flora, notes on how to use the garden as a maze and secrets for the characters and garden. We also get a new poison and 5 adventure hooks. This passage is 8 pages long.

The next chapter details 6 pages of statblocks of the inhabitants, once again at the top-level of complexity, one of which is a potentially legendary and extremely cool and disturbing...thing that clocks in at a whopping CR 24.

The pdf closes with 7 pages of reprints of the maps as well as 7 separate maps of the garden in A4 format for Europeans like yours truly.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes/glitches.

I don't know why, but sometimes, if presented right, plants can creep the hell out of me, and I consider myself to be quite a jaded guy. Voell's Garden features some of the most enticing writing I've read in an rpg-book, especially in such a small one and really had me on the edge of my seat. For fans of the series it also features a slight nod towards Bedlam Asylum.

The statblocks rock, as almost always in the ECS-series and the final critter presented is cool as hell. However, as much as I want to, I can't bring myself to rate this 5 Rudii. This is due to two facts: The file does not have the usual blown-up versions for use with miniatures the other ECS-files always featured and, once again, the bane of my existence is back - the maps feature letters and a legend, detracting for me from the player's suspension of disbelief and preventing me from printing it out for my players. I don't get why the combined map e.g. has to feature the letters. That being said, the writing somewhat made up for this and my final verdict will be 4 Rudii - if you don't mind letters in your maps or need the miniature-friendly huge maps, add a Rudii.

Clock Tower

This pdf is 41 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 2 pages advertisement. That leaves 37 pages of content.

The makeup of the clock tower containing separate, beautiful maps for each of the 4 floors takes up 7 pages and starts with a nice in-character introduction that runs, intermixed with some mechanics, throughout the whole chapter, making this a very enjoyable read, especially if you're into the central topic of this installment of ECS: Time and a clock tower moving backwards through it.

There are also several cool ideas to set the mood of the clock tower, including tables for random time events in RP and in combat. The description also includes a whopping 5 boxes of secrets and 6 adventure hooks.

We also get 3 new NPCs, a new magic item as well as a new kind of monster. (5 pages) While the statblocks are complex, they are not as extremely complex as some others from the ECS series - the characters are still extremely cool and I liked them all.

The pdf closes with 26 pages of blown-up maps for use with miniatures. It should be noted, that map keys, the bane of my existence as a DM, have mercifully been both left out and are not necessary due to the high quality and nice drawings of the maps.

The pdf also comes with 4 files à 6 pages containing the maps in scale for miniatures in A4 format for Europeans like yours truly.

Conclusion:

I'm a sucker for time travel, time paradox, chronomancy etc. - problem is, most publication, be them novels, games or movies are doing it wrong, big time. This one does it Rite. (Hitting myself for the bad pun right now...Ouch!) Both the fluff and the crunch are cool, the maps are up to RiP's high quality standards and editing and formating are quite good - the only glitch I noticed was that in the bookmarks you can see question marks instead of hyphens. I also liked the NPCs, albeit I would have loved to see something more complex done with the final one. So, what's my final verdict? For the very low price, you get an excellent installment of the series. Personally, the chronomancy-aspect weighs up with my minor points of criticism, resulting in a five Rudii file. If you're not that into time travel and its concepts, detract half a Rudi.

Next time, I'm going to take a look at some stuff by Open Design and Zombie Sky Press, see you then! (And yes, still writing two monstrously large reviews...)
As always, thank you for reading my ramblings,
Endzeitgeist out.