Super Genius Guide to: Exalted Domains of Storms and Savagery

The Genius Guide to: Exalted Domains of Storms and Savagery by Super Genius Games

This product is 11 pages long. It starts with a cover, intro and explaining what exalted domains are and how to use them. (3 pages)

Next it gets into the new exalted domains. (6 pages)

Exalted Air Domain

- Cloud Domain

- Wind Domain

Exalted Animal Domain

- Feather Domain

- Fur Domain

Exalted Darkness Domain

- Loss Domain

- Night Domain

Exalted Earth Domain

- Caves Domain

- Metal Domain

Exalted Fire Domain

- Ash Domain

- Smoke Domain

Exalted Luck Domain

- Curse Domain

- Fate Domain

Exalted Plant Domain

- Decay Domain

- Growth Domain

Exalted Water Domain

- Ice Domain

- Ocean Domain

Exalted Weather Domain

- Season Domain

- Storm Domain

Exalted Domains from Super Genius products.

Exalted Cold Iron Domain

Exalted Ice Domain

Exalted Wind Domain

Next we have a few pages of optional uses for exalted domains and new feats.(1 page)

Exaltation, Greater

Exaltation, Lesser

Exalted Spell Domains

These three feats combined basically let you take another exalted domain.

If finishes with a OGL. (1 page)

Closing thoughts. This is much like the first two books in the series. The writing is good, the art I have seen before and ranges from fair to pretty good. I didn't notice any obvious spelling errors or other problems, like one has come to expect from SGG products. Yet with nothing wrong I wasn't as impressed by this product. I mean don't get me wrong it is good. But I was left going, yeah that’s good, unlike with the previous ones where I was going. Now that’s pretty cool. This one just seemed a little less … inventive? With the powers given. I am not sure, maybe the high quality of SGG has started to jade me and set such a high bar even they have trouble getting over it. Either way this is a very good product and I recommend it, but this time I am only giving it a 4.5 star review.

Endzeitgeist reviews Necromancers of the Northwest

War of the Goblin King

This adventure is 96 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and one page back cover.

 

That leaves 90 pages of adventure – not a bad bang-for-buck-ratio, so let’s dive in.

 

Ah well, one more thing you have to know: I love Goblins. In German, there is a saying that goes “Alte Liebe rostet nicht” (=literally “Old love doesn’t rust”) and this is true for me and goblins. I loved them in e.g. the classic “Axe of the Dwarvish Lords” and that was affection toward the creepy little buggers was rekindled by Paizo’s brilliant re-imagination of the critters. That being said, I may be a bit biased with regards to whether the Goblins are cool, but I try to review as neutral as possible.

 

This being an adventure review, it naturally contains A LOT of spoilers, so potential players beware – you have been warned.

 

The first 4 pages detail the background, adventure synopsis and three combinable adventure hooks to get the PCs to Springdale, the town in peril.

 

Chapter 1, the first part of the adventure, details Springdale, a nice little trade-town. The meeting with the authorities that sets up the adventure for the PCs is described in excruciating and concise details, somewhat reminiscent of the details of the modules of old. The chapter also features a (thankfully!) key-less player-friendly map of the town for the PCs. The chapter details Springdale in gazetteer-style detail and the write-ups of the temples, manors, bars and shops include several adventure hooks. The chapter also features 6 encounters (all with minor maps on the pages if you’re playing with miniatures), among them fiendish-scorpion-riding goblins and an attack by a war-chariot.

Apart from the final encounters, this section (28 pages) is very free-form and sandboxy, which I do like. While the investigation per se is not that interesting and does not really deliver complex information, the sheer level of detail of the town makes it work. Probably also because there are 23 pages of stats for all the mentioned NPCs of the city, from the café-owner to the lord-govenor. The write-ups feature roleplaying advice, often, but not always quotes and the like. A rarely seen level of detail for so many minor NPCs.

 

Chapter 2 details the second section of the adventure, an infiltration/assault on a keep that doubles as the entrance to the final dungeon crawl. It features 9 encounters, again with little maps to show the creature set-up. (19 pages) The set-up is quite free-form as far as setups like that are concerned and there is a DM’s map. I would have loved to see some alternative entries to the overall area, as I know my PCs will try to infiltrate it and no climb-DCs for the outer walls etc. are given.

 

Chapter 3 details the dungeon-crawl part of the adventure, including one page DM’s map. This final area, including one nice final battle, consists of 16 pages of areas and encounters, rounding up the adventure.

 

Conclusion:

 

With the low price, we don’t get any artwork apart from the maps, but due to the length of the adventure, it’s ok. Editing is top-notch, I didn’t notice any relics or typos, formatting could be slightly better, though: Some of the encounters are spread over 3 pages and feature some blank-spcae on the third page. While the parchment-like layout is nice, a printer-friendly version would have improved the file. The plan of the antagonists is ok, however, the final seemed a bit anticlimactic. The best part of the adventure is the town – it’s detailed, lovingly crafted, features interesting interactions with the NPCs and is alone worth the very low price. One word of warning, though: The word “War” in the title might evoke a false expectation – there is not much warfare going on in this adventure. While there is an armed assault and the first part of the adventure could be considered a minor skirmish, the word “war” doesn’t really seem too appropriate. That being said, the adventure IS fun and, while I would have loved more player maps and the like, I still recommend this adventure, e.g. as a tie-in after the third Rise of the Rune Lords Adventure.

My final verdict, due to the lack of artwork and the fact that the two later chapters didn’t live up to the excellent town write-up, I’ll give this file 3.5 Rudii, rounded up to 4 for the people who'd rather focus on the low price and the excellent town, which would have made a nice product on its own. 

Advanced Arcana Volume I

This pdf is 59 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page credits, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover.

 

That leaves 53 pages of new arcane, not a bad bang-to-buck-ratio, so let’s dive in.

The pdf starts with one page of in-character introduction to the book in the form of a letter as well as 3 pages of introduction that explain the new concepts introduced in this book. The explanation is an awesome read, using foot-notes and a nice pseudo-academic tone I always associate with mages.

After that, we get 2 pages that explain the new concepts of segmented spells (spells that take up more than one spell-slot, but are more powerful), which is one of the most elegant solutions for e.g. cooperative ritualistic casting I’ve seen so far and quite frankly, I’m astonished why no one has had the idea to do so until now. There are also quick spells, spells that can either be cast fast or as a regular spell. We also get spells that refresh spell-slots for the casters. Another side-bar on the page has some optional rules to handle spells from non-core books like this – the ideas are nice and work fine: I’ll be using them for all 3pp products in the future!

 

After that, we get 5 pages of spell-lists and after that, we get the 65 new spells.

I’m going to list the number of spells that are added to each class:

-Alchemist: 2 spells

-Bard: 19 spells

-Cleric: 25 spells

-Druid: 18 spells

-Inquisitor: 4 spells

-Paladin: 2 spells

-Ranger: 3 spells

- Sorceror/Wizard: 57 spells

-Summoner: 4 spells

-Witch:  10 spells

The description of the spells take up 24 pages and are quite interesting. Apart from one orison, none of the spells felt boring, unimaginative etc. – They are quite frankly almost all killer, no filler. I’m usually  not a friend of spell-sourcebooks, but these spells, especially the segmented ones, fill a niche that has went unattended for too long. None of the spells felt too powerful or useless and none duplicate lame effects and have their niche.

The first Appendix is 8 pages long and depicts a cool in-character description on how the book was compiled – being an enjoyable read, this section also doubles as a nice set of adventure hooks for further research of the spell-concepts packed into this book.

 

Appendix 2 features 8 new cleric domains. (3 pages)

 

Appendix 3 details 4 Djinni-related Sorceror Bloodlines: Dao, Efreet, Djinn and Marid. (3 pages)

 

Appendix 4 introduces 8 focused schools for wizard specialists.

 

Appendix 5 features 8 new familiars, the animated object, the hedhehog, the newt, the poisonous frog, the rabbit, the skeleton, the turtle and the bonsai tree! Yep, the bonsai tree familiar. Awesome idea!

 

Conclusion:

 

The editing, layout and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any typos or glitches. The book is full-color and parchment-style and features artwork that ranges from fair to beautiful. I haven’t seen the artwork before and really liked most of it.

 

I did not expect much of this book, to be honest. I was expecting another moderately-inspired compilation of spells. What I got was something completely different: The writing, both fluff and crunch are inspired, segmented spells are an elegant, easy way to implement rituals, quickened spells are useful and I like the concept of spells that let you regenerate minor spell-slots. The appendices add to the overall appeal and feature some nice ideas. For 5 bucks you get an EXCELLENT book on the arcane that is truly “advanced”. The only true gripe I have with this book is, that there is no printer-friendly version included. Advanced Arcana I gets the Endzeitgeist-seal-of-approval nevertheless – I rate it 5 Rudii. Detract one if you want a printer-friendly version. If you want some cool, fresh edges for your casters, check this out.

Next time, I'm going to take a look at...monsters! As always, thank you for reading my ramblings,

Endzeitgeist out.

Endzeitgeist reviews A Fistful of Denarii and Darkness without Form

Hello everybody, it's Endzeitgeist again and this time, I'm going to take a look at two very cheap almost classic files for PFRPG. The first one is Adventuring Classes: A Fistful of Denarii

This pdf consists of 52 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover. This leaves 47 pages of material.

 

The pdf kicks off with one page of Introduction and a how-to of using the rules.

 

The pdf introduces 11 new non-spellcasting base classes for PFRPG. The classes are presented with their respective tables on a separate page, bear that in mind with regards to the page numbers.

Without further ado, here are the classes:

-Beastmaster (d12, 4+INT-mod skills, good-BAB, good fort and ref saves): A light-armored barbarian-like class without rage but with animal companions and DR.  Basically lets you play the savage warrior that e.g. was raised by animals. (4 pages)

-Bounty Hunter (d10, 6+INT-mod skills, good BAB, good fort and ref saves): Basically a ranger/rogueish tracker of convicts, can capture people alive, has sneak attack etc. However, one of the signature abilities, Dangerous Game, is the 10^th level ability. I would have liked to see that ability earlier. (3 pages)  

-Corbie (d10, 4+INT-mod skills, good BAB, good fort save): Professional, grim soldiers, survivor-mercenaries, they are get some dirty tricks (rogue fighting tricks) and some luck-based survivor-abilities. I love this class – it made me want to play it or design NPCs with the base class. (3 pages)

-Corsair (d10, 4+INT-mod skills, good BAB, good fort save): a rather unusual take on the pirate base-class, this one does not go the swashbuckling route, but rather for the brute force approach. I wouldn’t play one, but I’d use the class to design NPCs. (3 pages)

-Gladiator (d12, 2+INT-mod skills, good BAB, good fort save): This class is a rather mobile fighter with gladiatorial fighting styles à la ranger as well as some “Shrug-it-off” abilities. The class also features some information on Gladiator types and matches. Nice bonus information. I wouldn’t play it, though: 2 skills per level are not enough. (4 pages)

-Hunter (d10, 4+INT-mod skills, good BAB, good fort and ref saves): Basically the Sniperclass of the bunch – Ranger-abilities à la favored enemy, sneak attack, tracking, terrain, etc.  Basically what all the elven snipers always do in literature. I like the class and I’d use it for NPCs.

-Knight (d10, 4+INT-mod skills, good BAB, good fort save): Actually a nice take on the mounted warrior, gaining some nice psychological powers and having a big selection of tricks, among others a DR against dishonorable attacks. Cool class if you want to drive the concept of the knight home. I can see myself using this class.

-Martial Artist (d10, 2+INT-mod skills, good BAB, good fort and ref saves): The Martial Artist is a mobile, but fragile heavy hitter with some monk-like ki-abilities and a ki-pool. While it’s an ok class, it didn’t excite me.

-Scholar (d8, 6+INT-mod skills, medium BAB, good ref and will saves): Easily the most versatile class in the bunch, I doubt that you’ll see two scholars that are exactly alike soon after you’ve implemented them into your campaign. You can basically pick bits and pieces of other classes like sneak attack, minor magic, proficiencies etc. and stitch them together. I really like this jack-of-all-trades class. Don’t expect a hyper-intelligent book-worm-skill-monkey, though. (5 pages)

-Scout (d8, 8+INT-mod skills, medium BAB, good ref save): The one scout behind enemy-lines character class, this one is different from the hunter in its more hit-and-run/scout approach and made me think of Rambo – probably because of the overpowered targeted strike-ability that gives you +1d6 bonus damage per 2 levels of the class whenever the scout uses the attack action. (4 pages)

-Spy (d8, 8+INT-mod skills, medium BAB, good ref and will saves): Another very versatile class, this is what you’d expect of a spy in a fantasy setting – rogue talents, nondetection, several tricks of the trade to choose from. Nice class to play. I’d also use it to design NPCs in an intrigue-heavy campaign. (4 pages)

After that, we get 34 new feats (4 pages), most of which are nothing to write home about. One kind, though, really got my attention: Minor/Major medical miracle lets you save a comrade that has just been dropped to below -10 HP with the heal-skill, which is awesome for people like me who disallow raise/resurrection spells in their home game without an epic quest to resurrect the fallen character.

Finally, we get 2 pages containing 3 new armors and 6 new weapons as well as a table of starting wealth by class. The warbow seems to be overpowered and too strong for my tastes, dealing a whopping 2d6 damage and using composite bow-rules.

The editing is ok, I didn’t notice glaring typos or the like, formatting could be more efficient, though – while one page for the character’s table makes it easy to read, it also means a lot of blank space, which is not perfectly economical and leads to a lot of blank space. We also have a lot of white space on the first and final page. The b/w artwork ranges from ok to fair and quite, frankly, I didn’t expect one picture per class for the price.

Conclusion:

You get A LOT of new material for the price of not even a bus fare. Unfortunately, not all of the classes are equally appealing – some of them just scream “cool concept, I’d go for that” like the Corbie, while others like e.g. Gladiator and Corsair left me rather unimpressed. If you are a DM and are just plain sick of building standard fighters, this file is perfect for you. If you want more versatility for your non-casting NPCs, this is a great resource for a bang-to-buck-ratio that is almost impossible to beat. If you are a player and contemplate a “different” fighter, go check it out. However, there were some rules that seemed a bit powerful and most of the feats didn’t grip me at all. The weapons seemed to be a bit more powerful than what I like to see in my campaigns.

My final verdict is 4 Rudii. I’m looking forward to seeing the next book by Tripod Machine.

The second book I want to recommend to you fine folks is Sean K. Reynold Games' Darkness without Form: Secrets of the Mimic. 

This pdf is 24 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page ToC and editorial, half a page SRD, 1 page biographies and 1 page back cover. That leaves 19.5 pages of content – not a bad ratio for the price, so let’s dive in!

 

The pdf kicks off with an Introduction and History (4 pages) on the origin of the mimic. While I have to admit I didn’t expect more than “magic gone haywire”, this chapter already made a good impression by crafting a cool and elaborate backstory and even providing a goody for aboleths, the mimic-suit. The prose in this chapter is gripping and cool and made me want to read on immediately.

 

The next chapter deals with two kinds of mimic symbiotes (6 pages!), living battle garments with a will and an agenda not wholly of their own – I’d use both immediately and one of them was enough to prompt me to spawn several adventure ideas on the fly.

After that, we get a evolved form of the mimic, the CR 8 lair tyrant. (4 pages) The lait tyrant is a scheming creature that might be the perfect grey eminence and is so utterly cool in both concept and execution, that I considered the two sidebars delivering both awesome adventure (or even campaign) hooks as well as a minor upgrade to the tyrant to be just…well extraordinary.

The next mimic variation is not a schemer, but the CR5-mimicling swarm (2 pages) succeeds in one very rare endeavor – it creeped me out. I’m a jaded guy, but I really read such a vivid description.

Finally, we get a chapter on conventional mimics (3.5 pages), presenting 17 new abilities for mimics as well as 4 ideas to use mimics as traps.

 

Conclusion:

The artwork ranges from fair to a cartoonish “meh”, but the full-color pdf per se, with its slime-splotched layout is a beauty to behold – Hugo Solis did an awesome job. Unfortunately, that means that there is no printer-friendly alternative. Editing and formatting is top-notch, the pdf is easy to read and I didn’t notice any typos or glitches.

I have to confess something: I have this file for about a year now, resting in my pile, waiting to be read. I wish I had done so earlier. I’m usually hard to sell on monster books, but the ecology of these critters, the sheer astounding wealth of cool ideas blew my mind. I always considered the mimic to be a lame one-trick-pony, but this file actually manages to make an iconic, interesting and potentially complex creature out of them. “Darkness without Form” manages to breathe the spark of creativity and even the notion of fear into one of the blandest creatures with its captivating prose. I’d usually detract a Rudi for the artwork and the lack of a printer-friendly version, but this file features something a reviewer doesn’t see too often – the spark of genius in a brilliant, captivating prose that is matched by cool mechanics and a well-spring of ideas. For $2.00! Not only do you get quality, but a LOT of it. Frankly, if all ecologies and critters were like this, I’d be reading monster books all day long.

What else can I say but: If you haven’t checked it out yet, buy this! I’m quite sure you won’t regret it, especially if you’re inclined towards the creepier aspects of fantasy or enjoy a scary critter.

My final verdict is 5 Rudii.

That's it for now from me, next time, I'm going to take a look at some books by Necromancers of the Northwest. As always, thank you for reading my ramblings, good gaming to you and yours,

Endzeitgeist out.

A Trail of Poison

A Trail of Poison by Headless Hydra

This product is 29 pages long. It starts with a cover, dedication and credits. (3 pages)

Chapter 0 – Intro to the adventure. (3 pages)
This is a adventure for 2nd level characters investigating animals being poisoned. This adventure is suppose to take place in Mor Alden: City of Mages campaign setting but could with little trouble be used in any setting with a small city near a large dark forest.

Chapter 1 – Entering the Spindlewood (6 pages)
Spindlewood is the name of the forest in the adventure. This part is where the PC's get contacted to help try and find out what is poisoning the local animals. There is 3 encounters in this section, with a neat reward that the PC's may or may not find at this time.

Chapter 2 – The Tower by the Shadow Lake (14 pages)
This is the bulk of the adventure. In this section is when the PC's learn what is really going on, why and who is behind it. Which of course like any good PC's will go off to put a end to their evil ways. There is 8 total encounters in a mini dungeon crawl of sorts. Two of them could prove very dangerous to a low level party.

It finished with a OGL, ad and back cover. (3 pages)

Closing thoughts. This is a simple pretty straight forward low level adventure. It has a solid pretty easy to use plot hook. The adventure has a little investigation in the wilderness followed by a pretty standard dungeon crawl. The artwork is all black and white and I have never seen it before, so I believe it is all original. The artwork all and all is pretty good.

Now the book does have a few flaws. Two fairly minor and one kinda annoying one. The two minor ones are. No bookmarks and no ToC. For a book this size not a big deal but they would have been nice. The bigger flaw is no stats for the monsters anywhere in the book. It list hp and what each one is but that’s about it. So to run the adventure you need the bestiary or Monster Manual. The reason it was done I believe is so the adventure could be use with either 3.5 OGL or Pathfinder as is. Still would have been nice to have two stat block sections or even as free DL's one for each.

While the flaw is annoying it doesn't kill by any means the value of the adventure. So if you are looking for a simple easy to run low level adventure this is worth the money. With a little work you could fairly easily adjust the level up a couple if need be. So whats my rating? For the price* and taking the flaws into account I am giving it a 4 star review.

*Note: I am not sure why but the adventure is listed as 3.50 on Drivethru but only 2.00 on Paizo. My review is based on the Paizo price.

Endzeitgeist reviews Conflict

Conflict

 This product is something different from my usual fare, as it is a player vs. player-driven combat system – Just imagine a balanced battle between teams with the GM as the referee. 

I got the boxed set, containing the Keeper’s Keep map, 5 pages of Conflict tokens, passcards, map counters, 4 pages of effect templates for spells and the like as well as the rule book. 

The rule book is 122 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page dedication, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover and a two page index, 1 page advertisement, 1 page thanks and acknowledgements, leaving 112 pages of content.

That being said, let’s dive in! 

Conflict kicks off by presenting us the central theme of Conflict – Respect for the opponent. After all, PvP should remain fun for everybody. The first 4 pages make a great introduction to the game and explain the concepts that are different from standard PFRPG games like battlepoints, mappoints, etc. The concepts are explained in greater detail later in their respective chapters, but it’s nice to have an overview including a short glossary in the beginning.

Chapter 2 details the point-buy system for character creation in Conflict called battlepoints. (4 pages)

 

After character creation, we get three pages on how to start a match and different match types (22 pages) – they include scenarios like Regicide, King of the Hill, Ambushes, etc. Each scenario comes with a short set of complications, alternatives etc. which make the matches more diverse. Plus: Each match type gets its very own 1 page-illustration, which itself could be the banner of a unit of mercenaries, which brings me to a major plus of the book:

It’s beautiful, the b/w-artwork is great and layout and formatting as well as the way in which the rules of the concepts are portrayed makes this file very easy to read and actually made me chuckle once in a while. Given the nature of a good-humored competitive game between players, this is a good thing.

 

After this plethora of tactical options, we are presented with even more options in the concept of map elements the competing teams may buy to influence the outcome of the battle. (16 pages) They range from healing statues to bursting pods, teleportation squares and the like. The individual elements have modifications (e.g. a healing statue that damages the opposing team instead of healing them) that may lead to bursts of schadenfreude and interesting gambits.

 

7 pages are devoted to Conflict-laws, rules that the teams agree upon prior to starting a match. They range from “only classes xyz” to “no side-kicks” and even the possibilities to steal die roles or evoke a 60-second time-out to announce what a player will do with his/her character.

 

6 pages explain when or when not to use passcards to communicate the movements of the characters to the DM without warning the other team. A sample system for PC-moves with suggested abbreviations is also given.

The next chapter deals with team feats that make the individual players of a team work better together. (4 pages)

 

Chapter 10 deals with “Player’s Tips & Tactics” (7 pages) and offers both a chart of friendly taunts, advice on character optimization, what would be considered wise feat-choices etc.

The GM gets also a chapter (16 pages) on the particular challenges of being the neutral judge in a Conflict game, complete with condition summaries, a table on armor class and attack roll modifiers , common item hardness and hit points etc. – Neat!

For all the people who want to dive into the action, three teams of pregens are presented, each character also featuring a blank version of his/her sheet to modify. (19 pages)

Finally, we get a sheet and a page with a match type summary.

 

Conclusion:

I already mentioned that the books is beautiful and well- and concisely presented. However, there were some minor typos, which albeit they did not impair my ability to grasp the rules, did keep the book from getting an A in editing. Apart from that, I can honestly attest that this book makes you WANT to try out Conflict.

The tactical options are manifold and can easily be expanded upon, the rules as presented are fun and the system fills a definite niche: Sometimes a player pivotal to your session doesn’t show  up, so what do you do? Just whip out Conflict. I also think that this system should be a great way to throw parties, game at conventions etc. With Conflict being a completely different experience from standard role-playing, I have to admit I was quite skeptical at first, but that skepticism has somewhat evaporated.

The matches I had were fun and while I as of yet cannot profess to have crunched the numbers or assured that the system is perfectly balanced, I can attest to the fact that really does count here: 

Conflict makes Pen & Paper/Miniature-driven PvP on basis of the PFRPG fun!

Thus, due to the minor editing glitches, I’ll give this a 4.5-Rudii rating – check it out if you ever wondered how a team you built would fare against one of your fellow players or whether you and your friends would take on another group of adventurers in a tactically-driven brawl.

That's it for now, next time I'm going to look at some classes and (almost) lovecraftian fare.

As always, thank you for reading my ramblings,

Endzeitgeist out.

Endzeitgeist reviews Spes Magna Games Files

It's been quite some time since I first started reviewing books from Spes Magna Games and today, you'll get the rest of the bunch. So, without further ado:  Enjoy the reviews!

In One’s Blood

The pdf is 25 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial and 1 page SRD. That leaves 22 pages of content.

In contrast to the other pdfs by Spes Magna Games I’ve reviewed so far, this one actually features some flavor-text for each bloodline.

The presented bloodlines are:

-Aquatic: Water-based abilities, anti-fire abilities, blur

-Divine:  Has access to a domain, smite and the like.

-Giant: What you’d expect – Rock-throwing, powerful build, Runes, Ancestors

-Ooze: Hard to kill, becomes slightly amorphous, nice cthulhoid fluff in the flavor-text

-Plant: Pun-power in the description made me laugh very hard, plant-focused spells, alluring scent, one with nature

-Psychic: Precognition and interrogation abilities, very suitable for an investigation-heavy campaign

-Vermin: Movement bonus, web casting, chitin armor

 

After that, we get new spells:

-Acid Touch (lvl 4) – self-explanatory

-Cloud of Stingers (lvl 6) – Cloud of nauseating stingers

-Conqueror Worm (lvl 9 – awesome nod for people like me) – devastating entropyblasts

-Dehydration (lvl 6) – self-explanatory

-Jotunblood Form (lvl 9 – actually has 9 different choices available) – become a Giant of your choice

-Ocean’s Depth (lvl 8) – Crushing pressure and icy chill

-Ooze Shape I (lvl 5) –self-explanatory

-Ooze Shape II (lvl 6) –self-explanatory

-Ooze Shape III (lvl 7) –self-explanatory

-Phantasmal Wasps (lvl 8) - Damage and Poison

-Pseudopod (lvl 1)- grow a tentacle

-Pudding Mob (lvl 9) – summon 1d4+1 Behemoth puddings

-Release the Kraken (lvl 9) – Field of powerful barbed tentacles crushes all enemies

-Wall of Water (lvl 5) –self-explanatory

-Whirlpool (lvl 8) – summons a crushing whirlpool

The pdf closes with a new Cr 9 creature, the Behemoth pudding (1 page) and 1 page of Ooze Shape traits that can be chosen via the respective spells.

 

The editing and formatting are ok, I only found one instance of a missing “and”, the prose is concise and to the point, the artwork is b/w and public domain, the small boxes of fluff-text are well-written.

Mechanically, I don’t have much to complain, but the bloodlines themselves were hit-and-miss for me: While the Aquatic, Ooze and Psychic are really cool and feature nice abilities (with the Psychic bloodline being my favorite…), the Giant and Plant bloodlines didn’t impress me that much and the Divine and Vermin bloodlines seemed rather uninspired in contrast to the other bloodlines.

The new spells, though, are AWESOME. They are cool, ooze flavor (pardon the pun with regards to Ooze Shape I – III) and are VERY iconic.

The Behemoth Pudding is a nice bonus.

Conclusion:

The spells alone are worth the VERY fair price, however, I felt as if the product has fallen somewhat short of its potential. Some of the bloodlines are really cool, but, as mentioned above, some seemed rather uninspired. Due to the supremely cool spells, I’ll give this one 4 Rudii, add one Rudi if the idea of an Ooze bloodline or spells like “Release the Kraken” or “Conqueror Worm” make you cackle with glee. If you don’t particularly care for the spells, subtract one Rudi. 

Barbaric Traits

This pdf is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/table of contents and one page of SRD.

That leaves 8 pages of content for you.

Barbaric traits consists of…well. Traits, one of the most popular innovations for PFRPG. But they are not any kind of traits, but rather barbaric ones, i.e. traits inspired by e.g. Robert E. Howards grim barbarian and antediluvian sword & sorcery-style play. Consequently, the traits are not exclusively for barbarians, but rather for all classes and feature some nice prose. They are divided in for categories for your convenience and I’ll include two abbreviated examples so you’ll know what to expect:

Combat (9 traits):

-“Battle-Born” grants a bonus when outnumbered

-“Blood-Mad” gives you a damage-bonus when injured

Faith (9 traits):

-“Heathen Oath” gives you a bonus when swearing to accomplish a specific task

 

-“Ophidian Cultist” grants you a bonus with reptilian creatures

 

Magic (9 traits):

 

-“Lambent Gaze” gives you hypnotic powers with certain spells

 

-“Voice of Pain” gives you a bonus with damaging verbal spells

 

Social (9 traits):

 

-“Black Corsair” gives you a bonus with certain pirate skills

 

-“To the Conqueror” grants a wealth and equipment bonus

 

That makes 36 traits for a very cheap price, all with the distinct “old” feeling you know and love from Howard. The editing and formatting is good, the writing is concise and while not brilliant, good and atmospheric and none of the traits seemed over-or under-powered.

Conclusion:

I’m a sucker for pulp-fantasy, Sword & Sorcery and the like. Conan was my childhood-hero. I love these traits. But even if you’re not that into Howardesk fantasy, you still get a cheap, high-quality assortment of traits. For the price, you’ll get a definite recommendation for this file from me, especially if you plan to participate/run in Paizo’s “Serpent’s Skull AP”, Necromancer Games’ “Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia”, the Conan RPG  or Xoth Publishing’s “Bride of the Spider God” with PFRPG-rules or the like. 5 Rudii. 

5 Adventures, 25 Rooms

This pdf is 19 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/table of contents, 1 page SRD. This leaves 16 pages for 5 adventures – a tight space, so let’s give it a look.

First of all, if you haven’t figured it out yet: This is pure adventure-fluff, id est, no maps, almost no stats, DCs and the like. The adventures are free-form ideas. They are adventures, but you’ll have to do the mechanics yourself.  I think adventures in 5 steps would have been a better moniker, especially due to the distinct lack of 5-room dungeons within this file.

 

Adventure 1: “Guard Duty” is a rather straight bodyguard adventure with a twist. Nothing too special.

 

Adventure 2: “Shelter from the Storm” is a nice sidetrek for the final of one of your murder-mysteries. The PCs screwed up and lost a killer? They want to hunt him on his escape? Awesome, set this one up. Simple, but nice.

 

Adventure 3: “Bird-flu of the Damned” is the goofy over-the-top adventure of the bunch. Your PCs can fight …*dundundunhhhhh* UNDEAD EMUS in this adventure. Do I have to say more?

 

Adventure 4: “Lost Love” is a nod to one of my favorite poets, W.B. Yeats and thus has some plus points. Of all the adventures, this one would need the most DM-work to successfully pull off. I’d recommend some ideas on fey and their courts, e.g. from Open Design for this one.

 

Adventure 5:”I’m so cold” is a rather tragic murder mystery for low-level characters and is best set in an urban environment in the winter after some harsh, cold nights. Of all the adventures, this one is probably the one with the most potential for a gothic-horror-style investigation.

 

The pdf closes with 3 pages of stats, the only stats you’ll get, by the way. The first is an NPC, the second is the emu and the second is the undead Emu. If you’re not intrigued now…I just don’t know.

The quality of the pdf is okay, editing and formatting are very good, it’s easy to read, art is public domain, as usual.

 

Conclusion:

Is this worth your bucks? Well, if you’ve hit a little creative flat-line as a DM, then yes. If you are an experienced DM that improvises complex investigation scenarios on the spot, this compilation might bore you a little. If you buy adventures due to mechanics and because that has been taken of your chest or to scavenge them, you probably won’t enjoy this pdf. For the price, it’s a good buy.

If you’re stuck for ideas and want some quick and dirty scenarios, add a Rudi, for you, this is a 5-Rudii file.

If you’re an experienced investigation/detective-DM, subtract a Rudi.

If you want to scavenge mechanics, subtract a Rudi.

If UNDEAD EMUS got you, buy this now.

On average, though, I’ll give it 3.5 Rudii. Mainly, because there is another book on DM-ideas that has spoiled me beyond belief…and I’ll review it soon.

P.S.: My mighty Dire Beavers could kick any undead Emu’s behind. ;D

Ars Metamagica

This pdf is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD.

That leaves 10 pages of gaming material which are, as I’ve come to expect of Spes Magna Games, well-edited and printer-friendly.

 

The idea of Ars Metamagica is, that one abolishes metamagic feats and replaces them with a new system that actually gives metamagic some game time and makes players use it:

Modifying spells is now done via a kind of caster level check that depends on the metamagic art you apply to a certain spell. If you fail the check, you have might experience some repercussions, depending on how bad you failed:  4 or lesser means that the spell works without metamagic, 5-9 gives you temporary ability damage and a failure of more than 10 fatigues/exhausts you and might even deal subdual damage, if repeated.

Every Caster gets a selection of slots every day called “Metamagic palette”. If e.g. you have a palette of 5, you could choose a metamagic art with a value of +3 and +2. Or 5 arts with a value of +1.

You can also leave slots on your palette open and meditate 1 minute per +1 to fill them semi-spontaneously.

Both preparing and spontaneous casters are addressed and the pdf also takes the metamagic feats from the APG into account. The pdf takes several factors into account and offers revised version of the bard spell Arcane Concordance, a new universal Metamagic rod, Healing Domain’s Healer’s Blessing, Loremaster feat requirements, Magician’s Metamagic Mastery, the feats for Heightened Spell, Reach Spell, Spell perfection and Preferred Spell,  the Sorceror’s Arcane Bloodline and the Wizard’s Universalist School.

We also get 5 new feats to be used with this system as well as two new traits.

 

Conclusion:

This file has been exceedingly hard for me to rate due to several reasons. First of all, I don’t like the standard metamagic system, as it rarely gets used by players and is rather cumbersome. I’m also a fan of magic that may take a toll on one’s body, as reflected in years of house-ruling battlemagic and the like. However, somehow this pdf did not make me jump up and scream “Yes, that’s it!” I was thinking quite hard why that was the case and found the answers: The first one being that, while taking many special metamagic-using abilities into account, it does not provide guidelines for future additions. The second would be that, while comprehensive and well-written, it is not as comprehensive and well-written as some other releases by Spes Magna Games: It took me 3 pages to get the general idea of the system and while the presentation is concise, I think showing the table with all the modifiers before explaining the basic premise of the system is a needlessly complicated way to lead one into the new system.

That being said, you do get a, at least in my opinion, better metamagic system than the one in the standard rules for less than a bus fare. 

Another major plus is the excessive support of the APG.

In the end, I’ll settle for a solid 4 Rudii for anyone who is interested. For all the people who abhor the current metamagic spellcasting system, but want to keep most of the rules intact, check this out – for you, this is a 5 Rudii-file.