Hej everybody!
You all know I'm all about dark settings and desolate landscapes and today, I'll take a look at the
Shadowsfall - Shadow Plane Player's Companion
This pdf is
34 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1
page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 30 pages
of content, so let's check this out!
After a
nice parchment-like page of fluff, we are introduced to the plane of shadow, respectively
its characteristics. After a short description of the planar qualities of the
shadow plane, we delve right into the section on playable races. Not only the
standard races, but also the drow and duergar, dhampirs, fetchlings,
hobgoblins, orcs, ratfolk, tiefling and wayang are covered - all with a new
racial trait to reflect the hardening effects of the plane of shadows. There
also are two alternate racial traits, one granting halflings darkvision and one
granting wayang negative energy affinity and after that, we get even more
racial options with new races, first of which would be the umbral kobolds:
Umbral
Kobolds get -2 to Str, +2 to Dex and Int, darkvision, +1 natural AC, +2 to
Perception, Profession (Miner) and Craft (Trapmaking) with the latter and
stealth always being class-skills, are light sensitive and small. The second
new race are wanderers, mortals spawned from angels who abandoned their duties
to become mortals looking slightly like humans, but being shrouded by an
intangible aura of loss and sadness. They get +2 to Con and Int, -2 to Cha, darkvision, are
ageless, treat any weapon as good-aligned, get resistance 5 against acid,
electricity and cold as well as a +2 bonus to saves against emotion effects
they can also extend to allies within 10 ft. The two new races rock hard, can
be considered iconic and balanced and are neat, but unfortuantely lack age,
height and weight tables, which is a major bummer in my book.
The second
chapter talks about the respective classes and their roles in the eternal
twilight of the shadow plane. We also get new archetypes, starting with the
Dusk Stalker. Presentation-wise, the Player's Guide does something awesome
here: Each entry features a short list of associated class, races (i.e. these
are exclusive to the respective races), modified abilities and skills before
going into the rather major modifications of the base-abilities of the
respective classes. The Dusk Stalker is
a variant of the magus that gains stealth-based abilities like silent spells,
the option to use arcane feints, can expend arcane pool points to potentially
silence foes and also get sneak attack. Neat! The radiant knight, especially
suitable for wanderers: These fighters may harness their lost angelic heritage,
gaining a vestige of divinity. This vestige can be used in a neat variety of
ways and a dazzling burst of holy glory, ignore miss chances and aid allies
with a bonus to AC and against fear. Also, the radiant knight's light is not
dimmed by the darkness of the plane. We also get new class abilities: Cavaliers
now can join the order of the blackened heart, an order seeking to cut away any
weakness and inflict pain to purge weakness from the cavalier. Interesting,
especially since the order is not necessarily exclusive open to evil members,
allowing you to play a flagellant-style fanatic just as well as a
kyton-worshipper. Sorcerors of the draconic bloodline may now benefit from
umbral and quake dragon breath weapons, while summoners get 2 new 4-point
evolutions, allowing their eidolon to create deep shadows that block even
darkvision or add a touch that deals str-damage that can be used a limited
amount of times per day. Witches gain the new blinding light hey, inverting the
usual dark connotations of the class, while wizards now can also take the
shadow elemental wizard school.
Speaking of
arcanists: There are 4 new familiars (rabbit, opossum, pale fox and shadow
terrier) as well as 8 new improved familiar option (but sans stats) that
actually include the flumph! Neat! Neater, though, are the new 4 animal
companion stats included: From a giant
nightcrawler to an umbral vulture, we also get 2 stellar ones: Riding Dodos and
shade ferrets (which can stand on their hind legs). Awesome!
Now
Shadowsfall is anything but a safe haven, yet the intelligent races still prosper in their
enclaves - thus, like points of civilization in the dark lands, we get not only
a nice, one-page spanning b/w-map, but also 8 regional entries on the grand
city states and boy: From the bullwark against the ever-present undead,
Bastion, to the arcanocracy of Gear's Gate to the Kyton-stronghold of
Bloodchain, the golem-patrolled Kingsgrave that provides shelter for those who
manage to evade the constructed guards to even the outlands between the city,
we get a nice overview-primer of Shadowsfall. Between 2 and 3 regional traits
are provided for each area to customize your characters with backgrounds tied
to the setting. Better yet, the traits actually are interesting, providing a
minor edge against negative energy or even a DR against non-lethal damage.
Nice!
We also get
a selection of 13 new feats that allow you t enhance the undead your create,
granting you better servants, increase your caster level checks when casting
darkness and shadow-spells, a teamwork feat to channel cooperatively, increased
accuracy with shadow walk, improved guerilla-sniping, improved dirty tricks
etc. The truly interesting feats herein, though, would, at least in my opinion,
be the feat-tree for shadow style that increases the movement of the user as
well as adding your wis-bonus to fly and stealth. The subsequent feats of the
tree allow you to ignore up to your wis-bonus of armor and shield bonuses or
use a standard action to deal str-damage to opponents, thankfully with a
respective scaling save to prevent attribute damage. Nice, well-designed, no
balance-concerns. The final feat I really consider interesting is the Blind
Targeted Spell metamagic-feat. You can hit foes with your spells even if you
don't have line of effect anymore, as long as the target is still in your
spell's range and has been in your line of effect no longer than int-bonus
before you cast the spell. At +1 spell-level and the restriction of not
allowing the feat to work with touch attack-spells to give away enemy locations,
I can only consider this feat to be an excellent piece of design I'll continue
to playtest in my home-game - from my vantage point, it looks like a rather
cool option and actually one of the rare metamagic feats that doesn't suck.
Of course,
adventurers in the Shadow Plane also have their unique, distinct tools of the
trade and thus the item section comes with a wartrident as wella s some
interesting alchemical items: Cover your undead minions in deathburn to convey
the damage of their natural attacks to acid or throw the vials at your foes or
pepper your foes with glass orbs filled with holy water. Now, if you cover your
body with a paste that contains Kyton-blood, you may convey 1 point of damage
per attack to non-lethal damage (can we have more of those?) and another salve
allows you to better resist the cold of the plane. Speaking of cold-resistance:
Feyschroons (not sure whether that should read "-shrooms") also
protect you against cold ina limited
manner, but are an addictive, two-edged sword. I'd love to see more drugs in
PFRPG and I'm glad the item was included in the section. And now, oh boy, did I
grin from ear to ear when I read about the two new vehicles included herein:
Reapers, vehicles designed to mow down legions of zombies, propelled by
muscle-force would be the first, while the Scout Guardians of Gear Gate's
arcanocracy would be the second: Propelled by an eldritch receiver within a
certain area (and beyond, at lesser capacity with an alchemical battery), these
vehicles are one-man arcane walkers with a ballista strapped to the side. These
vehicles are PLAIN FRICKIN' AWESOME! Seriously, can you see Pcs escaping
through the woods, running from the city's elite and their walkers, hoping to
outrun the arcane warmachines? I can and boy - excellent!
A total of
14 short, primer-entries of the gods of Shadowsfall introduce us to the umbral
pantheon (including domains and subdomains) of Shadowsfall as well as new
philosophy to adhere to. Speaking of subdomains: We get a new shadow subdomain
(though we already have a couple of these, this one is rather neat) and the
kyton subdomain as well. The old Ravenloft-truism that the darkest worlds are
most in need of heroes holds true in Shadowsfall as well and the joy-mystery
for the oracle makes you a beacon of hope and light in this dark lands,
including the ability to inflict foes with crippling sorrow and gaining access
to limited bardic performances as well as gaining enhanced euphoria-induced
healing and the ability to make instant friends. Awesome mystery!
There also
are 6 new spells included in the guide, which let you create black, clinging
snow, get a miss chance via blinding
shadows, grant darkvision to multiple allies, a greater version of disrupt
undead, a lesser invisibility effect and a shadow-based enhancement to speed.
Finally, we come to the topic of magic items: 6 new ones are included,
including a rope that rings its funeral bell when crossed by an undead, a cloak
that enhances stealth vs. undead foes, a cowl to better intimidate undead, a
kyton's slaver whip and a salve that grants darkvision. Cloaks of darkness in
shadowsfall work differently, merging you with the plane and making you
invisible to darkvision, but not to regular sight - interesting indeed!
Speaking of "working differently" - the final two pages of the pdf
are devoted to a selection of 11 magic items that work differently on the plane
of shadows, having been changed by the latent energies that suffuse the plane.
Rapiers of blood drinking allow the wielder to make a touch attack to drain con
from foes, but suffer half the drain themselves. Belts of mighty constitution
+4 may now also impart a -2 penalty to Str and result in physical deformities,
while necklaces of fireballs can end up as necklaces of exploding beads that immediately
go off when removed from the string, necessitating the wielder taking the
damage him/herself. I wish this section was longer, I really do - the idea of
tainted items and inherent drawbacks as well as their design is excellent.
Conclusion:
Editing and
formatting can still be considered very good, though not perfect: While I did
notice some minor glitches, they did not impede my understanding of the content
herein and were few enough and far between. Layout adheres to a parchment-style
look, 2-column standard and comes with a plethora of neat b/w-artworks as well
as a neat piece of cartography. The wanderer-race and one of the AWESOME new
vehicles even get their own neat full-color artworks. The pdf is fully
bookmarked with extensive nested bookmarks, comes with a plethora of hyperlinks
to d20pfsrd (which are not highlighted in the text) and comes with an alternate printer-friendly
version that omits the parchment-background. Neat! Hero Lab users should also
know that the pdf comes with herolab-files as an additional comfort!
This
player's guide is a comprehensive, smart and well-written introduction to the
plane of shadows that will whet your taste for the darkness of Shadowsfall.
From nice racial options (with full ARG-support, if you like that book) to
expertly-written, evocative primers on locales, this book has more to offer
than the usual player's guides - While not all feats or spells are
drop-dead-brilliant, there is at least one piece of crunch, more often than not
multiple ones in each chapter that I'd not only consider innovative, but rather
cool or even downright genius. My personal highlights of the book, though,
would be the items and cities: Where the cities and areas drip with flavor and
coolness and make you want to explore them, the items not only display a grasp
of balance, but provide ample rules-representations for the taint of the plane
and the resulting double-edged nature of magic items, a trope near and dear to
my heart. Add to that the new vehicles and I'm all gushy about this product!
After reading the entry on the walkers (which remain deeply entrenched in
fantasy and don't become scifi-ish) and reapers, I so hope we'll see more
vehicles and perhaps even vehicular combat supplements (adventures, all-out
warfare anybody?) for the setting in future supplements.
This pdf
would be a prime candidate for the full 5 stars + endzeitgeist seal of
approval, were it not for one crucial oversight: Neither the umbral kobolds,
nor the wanderers get an age, height and weight table and while one could just
orient one at the human or kobold entries, I still feel that by making umbral
kobolds e.g. especially light or wanderers significantly heavier than humans
(weight of sin, anyone?), the two races could have been further improved. This remains
my only gripe in an otherwise excellent offering, though, and thus my final
verdict will clock in at 4.5 Rudii. This is not only a great purchase if you're into the plane of
shadows, but e.g. also to scavenge ideas for Carrion Crown APs or any rather
dark setting really.
As always, thank you for reading my ramblings and if you feel like buying something from OBs, please lcik on the banner or use my link- it doesn't cost you anything and if I get some minor affiliate credit, I can use that to get more pdfs to review. :)
Endzeitgeist
out.
Posts
