EZG reviews the last 303 spells

Hey everybody -

first of all, excuse my silence and the lack of reviews for the last couple of days - I've spent the last week at the WGT in Leipzig and now am back full of vigor to provide some reviews for you.

Some time ago, I said that I'd do all the Rite Publishing 101-spell-books and I'm a man of my word, thus, without further ado, I present to you the missing ones I've glossed over until now.

101 2nd level spells

This pdf is 30 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 26 pages for the spells and comes with a printer-friendly extra version, so let's take a closer look at the spells, shall we?

After 4 pages of spell-lists, we are introduced to the new spells. Adhering to my usual format, I'll mention spells that caught my eye, be it positively or negatively and comment on them to hopefully give you a good overview of the content herein. The first spell that I really enjoyed is "Arboreal Archer" - you imbue a tree with limited intelligence and instruct it to e.g. fire volleys of acorns, branches etc. at enemies - that's one staple of fantasy literature I always wanted druids to be able to do - cool. On the mechanical side, we get curses that counter e.g. "Cat'S Grace", "Bull Strength" etc., finally introducing debuffs for the most common buffing spells at low levels. "Confront Outsider" is a bit problematic for me - I am one of the DMs whose campaigns are focused on research and thus, true names of outsiders are carefully kept secrets. This paladin spell grants a bonus to the paladin by forcing a confrontation with an outsider and forcing it to reveal its true name. While the spell is not bad in any way, I personally won't be able to use it due to the amount of mythology on true names I established. I just wanted to mention this in case you're like me - it won't detract from my final verdict.

"Damage Loins", a magical kick to the groin, is sure to see a lot of use in my campaign, if only for the humorous potential. "Delude Divination" is a godsend for beleaguered GMs who suffer from PCs with a lot of detect spells. "Destabilize Magic" is once again a cool spell for those chaos mages among you - detract 10 from magic DCs and add 1d20 -fun and risky! "Examine Coffin", a spell that let's you glance into a coffin MIGHT be a true time-saver, but might also deprive you of the iconic coffin-burst scene - I'm torn on this one. "Fall up" on the other hand is another spell that just screams "utilize me in creative ways". Nice! "Exploding Critical" adds some force damage to criticals - while not a bad spell, I consider it boring. The same holds true for "Force Club". "Memory Crystal" lets you deposit a memory in a crystal - story-telling gold. On a rules-side, I think conjuring and undead-devouring yellow slime as per the "Necrophage"-spell should also be accessible to druids."Ride Winds" is another iconic addition. "Righteous Armor" lets you summon your armor, which I consider quite lame, as "Rolling Boulder", which lets you conjure a ball of elemental earth to roll over your enemies. "Silent Ray" is simply a ray dealing sonic damage and "Stone burst" is also rather bland. On the other hand, there is a "Support beam"-spell my players will never leave home without - escaping from collapsing dungeons is just too cool.

"Utter Failure" is a cool one-trick pony spell against PCs. "Web shelter" is another cool idea, especially when e.g. under water and lends itself to some nice ideas by the PCs.

Conclusion:

Editing is top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Both formatting and layout adhere to the tried-and-true two-column b/w-standard and the artworks are ok. The spells were mostly great, with some truly exceptional and very iconic ones in between. However, I also felt that there are more spells that felt like filler than in other 101-installments. While still being a great book, e.g. 6th or 0-level feels better to me and subsequently my final verdict will be 4 Rudii - a good selection of new spells to add to your campaign.

101 3rd level spells

This pdf is 29 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 25 pages for the spells and comes with a printer-friendly extra version, so let's take a closer look at the spells!

After 4 pages of spell-lists, we get the spells, but before I get to them, I'll elaborate a bit - scarcely a spell level has this influence on gaming. 3rd level. Fireball and Lightning Bolt. Dispel Magic. And I haven't even delved into the curative magic. 3rd level spells have always been a milestone in my games - players suddenly can tackle larger groups, hold their own better against mages and so on. Subsequently, some of the most important and iconic spells can be found at this level and it's hard, very hard to design valid alternatives. Does this file succeed? I'll try to highlight some spells, both positive and negative, that caught my eye in order to give you a good overview of what to expect from this installment of the 101-spells-series.

"Accelerate Decay" is a spell that damages ancient creatures like vampires usually up to 10d6 damage, 20d6 to particularly ancient creatures and suppresses their fast healing for 24 hours. While only applicable to rare creatures, I think that no 3rd level spell should deal that much damage AND suppress the enemies primary means of recovery. "Airsphere" on the other hand is a spell I sorely missed in 3.5 and sees the return of a sphere of breathable air. However, I also have a problem with this spell - it automatically counter dragon's breath (which dispels it, but still). That means that a great wyrm breath can be negated by a 3rd level spell. Not going to happen in my campaign. "Blinding Ash" is a cool twist on obscuring mist with a bit of damage added. In the "Chilling Mist"-spell, which is a cool idea, there seems to be a discrepancy between fluff and crunch, making it hard to use. "Counterattack" lets you hit back at full BAB any time an opponent makes a melee attack against you. If you use a gish-class, this spell might be gold, but DMs ought to take heed - in some encounters this can be very powerful. "Curse of Capturing" transforms all damage the target deals to non-lethal. A great way to annoy players of the Belkar-mindset. "Curse of Item Rebellion" curses an item, turning e.g. a +3 sword into a -3 one etc.. Sorry, I don't like this particular curse - I lacks the "insult TO injury"-component I look for in curses. rather, it's only an insult. "Filch" is a great trickster spell that teleports unattended items either to you or a location in range you can designate. "Force Marbles" are also a great idea for iconic escapes and cool climbing helper. "Secret Speech" conceals messages in regular speech, which makes for some really nasty ideas. "Summon Firearm" lets you conjure your personal crossbow/firearm, locked and loaded, to you. It feels a bit weak for 3rd level. I should probably note that fans of the often-neglected water magic get several nice spells that deal non-lethal damage and control the terrain.

Conclusion:

Editing is ok, I didn't notice typos or glitches, but the spell "Chilling Mist" suffers from some formatting/editing problems. Layout adheres to the tried and true rite publishing two-column standard and the b/w-artwork is ok. I get that competing with easily some of the most iconic spells is hard, but in contrast to the other 101-books, I felt that this one was rather feeling uninspired - there are several deal x damage + minor effect z-spells in here, when the space would have been better suited for some non-combative or creative spells that deal with terrain control or even other spells - after all, we already have some of the most iconic combat spells, haven't we? All in all, this one felt like the weakest installment of the 101 series, my final verdict will be 3.5 Rudii.

101 7th level spells

This pdf is 34 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 30 pages for the spells, so let's take a closer look at the spells, shall we?

7th level is traditionally the level that introduces what I like to call "High Magic", i.e. spells that only specialists, primary casters, can cast and subsequently I expect something beyond useful or cool spells, but rather magic that clearly distinguishes the caster as a master of his craft.

In accordance with my format for 101-spell-reviews, I'll once again mention select spells which I considered cool and ones I didn't like, hopefully providing a nice overview of the book.

After 3 pages of spell-lists we get the spells, so let's check them out! The first spell I found that I really liked is a debuff/buff-spell called "Calculated Anger", which grants barbarian-like rage bonuses to allies and penalizes the enemies with uncontrollable anger. "Consume Item" destroys magic items via touch and grants you temporary HP - your PCs will hate this spell and I love it! One of the coolest spells in the book, though, has to be "Copycat": You can replicate a spell of 6th level or lower cast by before by any caster in the encounter it is cast, complete with variable casting times dependant on the casting time of the original spell.

Once again, the series also features some nice curse-spells: "Bestow Greater Curse" felt rather uninspired - especially in direct contrast with the "Scourge"-curse (also in this book): While the latter comes with great sample curses, the former is only a bland set of penalties. "Curse Greater Ability" is a spell that, while not bad per se, I didn't like: It prevents a foe from using one ability. While not bad, it is dependent on meta-game-knowledge and subsequently not my cup of tea. One of the cool spells, fluff-wise, is "Dragon's Teeth Warriors", creating clay golems from dragon's teeth planted in the ground. "Earth and Fire" also rocks - it deals damage AND modifies effects in the area of the spell, adding e.g. bludgeoning damage to fire spells. Awesome idea, I would have loved to see more like that. "Explosive Dispel" is also nice - dispel and damage in one fell swoop.

For the dragon-fans, there is "Flames of the Dragon's Fury", a spell that grants you a fear-aura, natural armor and the ability to use draconic breath (which shortens the spell's duration) - great and iconic spell! "Ward of Vaults" and "Haunted Grounds" are also nice spells, making locations more hostile to intruders and offering several nice ideas. When I read "Monstrous Lore", I thought I'd hate the spell: It tells the players the abilities of a monster via its parts or scat. However, it only delivers the names of the abilities, not what they do, potentially giving the DM some leeway. "Rage of the Red Dragon" is a good example for a wasted chance - it's just a combination of "Form of the Dragon I" and "Rage". Especially in contrast to the "Flames of the Dragon's Fury"-spell, this felt rather bland. For the rather sadistic guys like yours truly, there's also a great spell "Mass Unstable Form" temporarily polymorphs the victims into living, amorphous blobs. The best spell, though, has to be "Steal the Painful Memory", which removes a certain event from the collective knowledge of a large area, but also creates a piece of evidence - once the evidence is destroyed, the knowledge returns to the people. AWESOME!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I only noticed one glitch, not enough to detract from the final score. Layout adheres to the classic b/w-two-column standard and the artworks are ok. On a design note, there are almost no spells I didn't like and I gave some examples of cool spells. However, in contrast to e.g. 6th, 9th and 0-level, I didn't notice that many "OMG-HOW-COOL"-spells. Thus, my final verdict will be 4.5 Rudii, concluding my reviews of 1010 spells on a rather high note.

All right, that's it for now!

As always, thank you for reading my ramblings, Endzeitgeist out!

EZG reviews Albion Armitage and the Secrets of the Magus

Hi everybody!

Today, I'm going to take a look at

Albion Armitage's Astounding Arsenal




This adventure for 4-6 PCs levels 8-10 is 52 pages long, 1 page front cover, 3 pages editorial and ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page blank inside back cover and 1 page back cover, leaving 45 pages of content, so let's check the adventure out!

Being an adventure this review contains SPOILERS, so potential players beware and skip to the conclusion.
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Still here? All righty!

The adventure per se is very straight-forward - the PCs stumble across a map that leads to a wandering store that sells extremely powerful items and weapons, even to the point of being able to supply large warbands. The PCs are hired by a local duke and venture forth to seal the deal he struck with the owner of the shop. This wouldn't be an adventure, were it not for the complications, though: An assassin in the employ of a powerful evil priestess is hot on the PC's trail and makes the dangerous journey to the shop even more strenuous for the PCs. In contrast to what you'd expect, the adventure is actually focused on wilderness travel and does so in a laudable way: We get flavor-texts and individual tables for the random encounters for each day, thus ensuring a high replay value. There are also some fixed encounters along the way: A large scale ambush by mercenaries, the attack of aforementioned assassin, a ruined village full of undead and the final battle against the evil priestess and her retinue. While the first three encounters are deadly and cool, the latter felt strangely anticlimactic, possibly due to the climax of this adventure actually being the shopping tour in Albion Armitage's arsenal:

The shop is actually a vast, trans-planar location to shop that is kept by a demi-god-level Wizard and his (non-evil) succubus-manager/lover. The transcendent, multi-planar feeling of the location is reminiscent of the Planescape days of old and even the ability of the shop to travel to other technology-level-realms is hinted at, which is a nice touch. The location and its ideas are absolutely iconic and rock. Two new kinds of constructs are introduced, Albion's human-like drones and a terrible siege-golem. The new weapons and armor, both mundane and magical, add a nice additional touch and there even are rules for Berserk-style huge swords (Behemoth swords). The warbrand weapon felt a bit overpowered, though. It should be noted that, although the NPCs of the Arsenal get their own stats, no XP are provided. With Albion alone ranking at a whopping CR 30 and home-advantage, combat is not advisable anyways. The shopping-tour and return home constitute the end of the adventure.
On the handout-side, we get the map to the arsenal, the duke's receipt and 4 pages of full-color maps with grid to use with miniatures for the encounters.

Conclusion:
Layout adheres to the printer-friendly, two-column standard, the artwork is b/w and we get high-quality artworks for all the NPCs. The artwork for the siege-golem (also seen on the cover), at least in my humble opinion, is the one bad piece of artwork in the book, which makes it a strange cover-choice.

Editing is top-notch: I didn't notice a single typo or glitch - Congratulations!
The encounters per se are cool, but the elaborate back-story of the villains plans is mostly lost on the PCs, with the adventure amounting for them to a string of wilderness encounters culminating in a final fight with a villain the PCs/players don't have a stake in defeating. I have the biggest problem with the climax/villain-encounter in the end - it's a) too easy in contrast to the other lethal encounters and b) the siege golem would have made a MUCH cooler final encounter. Or have the villain with the siege golem attack the starting city and have them tipped off about that attack by Albion. The shop ROCKS and the items etc. are iconic and great, but adventure-wise, there is not too much to write home about: The wilderness-encounters are cool, but I can't help but feel that the adventure somewhat falls short of its own potential. If you as a DM want to use the arsenal, it absolutely rocks and can change the political landscape of your campaign and redefine warfare. The siege-weapons and mundane weapons are cool, as are the characters of the arsenal. I'm hard-pressed to rate this adventure: On the one hand, we get a great location, on the other hand, we get a rather run-of-the-mill, yet detailed wilderness track with maps, handouts etc. Separately, I'd rate the shop 5 Rudii and the adventure 2.5 Rudii. In the end, I'll settle for 3.5 Rudii, depending on what you're looking for - if you want to build cool follow-ups/want an iconic shop, go ahead - you'll love this. If you however want to GM an adventure that is story-heavy and moves towards a stunning climax and are not interested in the location, this might not be for you.

Want more? Rite Publishing has some new tools for your Magus!

The Secrets of the Magus

This pdf is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and two pages advertisements, leaving 8 pages of new content for the Magus base-class.

I've long liked Gish and once I get finally reviewing some of my SGG-products, I'll also look at how their takes on the Gish-trope work - for now, though, Paizo has released the lauded arcane knight base class called the Magus in Ultimate Magic, which chances are if you read this review, you'll possess. To cut a long debate short - whether you like it or not, the Magus-class gets some new toys to play with in this supplement: 34 new magus arcana are contained herein, so let's take a look at them for now: To come out with it right away - I didn't have significant problems with any of the new arcana options and liked the additional options they provide for the magus-class. My favorites were "Damage Shield", which gives you a kind of buffer for any damage for one round and "Nigh Irresistible Strike", which can reduce spell and energy resistances as well as damage reductions. Of course, some of the abilities also feature some iconic abilities, like the "Energy Web" that throws a web of deadly energy at opponents and "Charge of the Magi", which propels you with force towards enemies. "Slice through Wardings" had me experience a knee-jerk "no way"-reaction when I first read it: The ability lets you ignore all magical defenses of the foe. However, it takes both 1 point of arcane pool and it only works for a single attack. I guess I can live with this limit. There are also 4 special song-arcanas associated with the elven/half-elven bladesinger-trope and they ROCK. Oh yeah, "Wave of Mutilation" lets you hit enemies in cones, Sauron-style. Nice!

Furthermore, we get the new "Singer of Blades"-archetype, a cool take on the bladesinger with some rather iconic abilities: The capstone creates replicas of the magus' weapon and attacks all foes in 30 ft. and the focus rests on mobility and rapiers/longswords. The 7 new feats are nice, I especially liked the "Deny the Afflicted"-feat, which disables the last attack (lowest BAB) of enemies afflicted by your hex/curses - a great feat not only for the magus, but also for the as of yet somehow underpowered Witch.

Finally, there are 2 new items dealing with enchanting weapons and transferring touch spells into arcane pool and even better, we get a cool legacy weapon sword, Mournsky. I've said it multiple times and I'll say it again - I love well-crafted legacy weapons and this one is no exception.

Conclusion:

Layout adheres to the full-color-two-column standard set by the Pathways e-zine and subsequently is beautiful. Editing is good - while the first version still suffered from some glitches, this review is for V.2.0 of the book which has cleared all the typos I noticed in the first version. (Also the reason it took me so long to review this - I've rewritten my review.) The pdf is also extensively bookmarked and offers a nice value and additional fodder for the Magus. Balance-wise, I didn't notice any ability/feat or other piece of equipment. I'm not a big fan of the cover-art, but that's personal opinion. Usually, a set-up like this would lead to a 5-star-rating, but somehow, I'm loathe to give this one 5 stars - while the book does everything right, I still feel like there's something missing - not rules-wise, but rather with regards to the abilities. You can do awesome things like walking on vertical surfaces etc., but I didn't get the "this blew me away"-vibe from this book, thus, my final verdict for this book will be a good 4.5 Rudii.

All right, that's it for now, thank you for reading my ramblings! Next time, I'll have another classic adventure or some magic for you, until then:

Endzeitgeist out.

EZG reviews two new TRIBES and a FREE critter

Hi everybody,

today I've gottwo new installments of the TRIBES-line for you:

Centaurs of the Bleak Moor

This pdf is 26 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page blank inside the front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page explaining how to read stat-blocks to novice DMs, 1 page back cover and 2 pages advertisement, leaving 18 pages for the centaurs, so let's have a look at them!

The TRIBES-line of Raging Swan has provided us with some great sets of monstrous tribes to set upon our PCs and this latest installment is a take on the roaming tribe of centaur. In tradition with the recent Raging Swan files, we get a cool rhyming verse on the ToC-page that serves as a nice bardic verse to introduce and sum up the tribe. After that, we get an introduction to the peculiarities of the tribe, including appearance - we get a little table to customize the individuals, which I consider a nice touch. Raging Swan products have a tradition of nice b/w-artwork and this one is no different - in fact, it goes further and features some beautiful, evocative pictures of the bleak moor, home to the centaurs and new setting beyond the tangled forest. Even better, we get a map of the new region. The write-up of the moor also includes extensive information on the terrain, serving as another proof that Creighton Broadhurst keeps in touch with his fan-base and continuously improves his products. The battle-feats to customize the individual tribes of the line have become a staple of the series, and this pdf is no exception - we get 5 new battle feats focusing on the centaur's giant eagles and devastating sling combat style. Fans of halflings might want to check this file out just for the sling-feats - from manystone to stunning hits and rapid sling loading, these new feats rocks. In contrast to other installments, though, we also get alternate class features for both the druid and the rangers of the centaurs and the full stats for their giant eagle companions. Furthermore, we get 4 new spells focusing on terrain control in the bog and a new magical sling as well as two kinds of enchanted sling ammunition and a new exotic double weapon (the double morningstar) for their berserkers. The sling and ammo get their own artworks.

The crunchy part of the pdf is separated into different section: Minor encounters, major encounters and characters.

Minor encounters feature the rank-in-file warriors, berserkers, druids and scouts as well as two sample groups. Major encounters include ready stat-blocks of both experienced berserkers, sling-specialists, veteran warriors and greater druids. They also come with two sample groups. Finally, we get the warleader of the centaurs, Corafel Ferareen (Advanced centaur barbarian 4/Moorland Ranger 3, CR 11) and Solavel Verynn (Advanced centaur druid of the bleak Moor 7, CR 11). Both get the raging swan NPC-treatment with mannerisms, distinguishing features, hooks, etc. However, Corafel, due to space-reasons, doesn't get much text. Solavel makes up for this by a cool adventure hook involving a debased fey. It also doesn't hurt that both get their own pieces of artwork.

Conclusion:

Editing is top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes. Formatting adheres to the 2-column standard. Layout is clear, concise and printer-friendly and the deal includes an e-reader-friendly version of the pdf. The pdf is also extensively bookmarked for ease of reference. As has almost become tradition with Raging Swan publications, this pdf is extremely easy to use and endeavors to take as much weight as possible from the shoulders of the GM and easily succeeds in this. The sling-feats are cool, the spells rock, the fluff of the tribe is cool and rife with some nice ideas and the b/w-artworks of the moor are stunningly beautiful. Moreover, while it's a pity that the fluff of one of the NPCs fell a bit on the short side, the other one makes up for this and we get the quality statblocks we've come to expect of the series. The map and the potential connection to the upcoming minotaur-book is another factor in favor of this pdf. What else can I say? Raging Swan Press has once again surpassed its own by now ridiculously high standard, delivering an installment of the TRIBES-line that even surpasses the more than excellent Half-Goblins of the Tangled Forest. Ladies & Gentlemen, my final verdict is, as it should be, 5 Rudii - highly recommended, not only to people who want a tribe of centaurs.

And here are the dread rivals of the centaurs, the

Minotaurs of the Black Hills

This pdf is 26 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page blank inside front cover, 1 page sub-header, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC (including once again a great rhyme), 1 page back cover, 1 page advertisement and 1 page SRD, leaving 18 pages for the tribe of minotaurs. It should be noted that the pdf comes (as all Raging Swan books that are part of the dual format initiative) with an additional version optimized for e-readers.

Without further ado, let's check them out!

After the obligatory page explaining how to read stat-blocks to novice DMs, we get 2 pages of fluff text on the minotaurs. The question you all want answered, of course, is whether this installment of the TRIBES-series once again manages to add a different twist to a classic monster trope. To be frank: Yes, it does - the scarlet axe minotaurs are made unique via several ideas: First of all, they are rather civilized, eschewing the barbarism and rage usually associated with the horned beasts. Another distinguishing mark would be the minotaur's special breeding. Serving an elder race on the decline, the scarlet axes have an aptitude for sorcerous power due to the mingling with their dread Yith masters. Suffice to say, we also get lore sections on the tribe, their masters and even some information on the black hills, their home.

Following the tradition of the TRIBES-line, we also get a huge box detailing the environment in which the minotaurs might be encountered and several locations that might serve as nice adventure locales/hooks for further adventures. We also get a one-page map of the black hills & the bleak moor, the haunt of the minotaur's archenemies. I should also note that the hills get stunning original pieces of b/w-artworks, as do the minotaurs.

On the crunch-side, we get the new Yith-bloodline for sorcerors, a new ranger-variant and 4 battle-feats that help displaying the unique fighting style of the tribe. I liked the bloodline and had no problems with any of the feats. We also get 4 new sorceror spells focusing on maneuverability and taking on aspects of the Yith as well as two new magic items (boots and a quiver), complete with their own artworks and lore-sections.

After that, we get to the stats:

We get normal and elite warriors (CR 5 & 7), Scouts (CR 7), Sorcerors (CR 7) and 3 sample encounters. In addition to the sample ideas for minotaurs given in the fluff section, we also get 2 fully detailed NPCs that get the Raging Swan NPC-treatment, i.e. we get distinguishing features, mannerisms, hooks etc. In addition, the two NPCs get their own artworks. The final two pages are devoted to the bat-like humanoid masters of the minotaurs, the Yith, which get 3 variant spell-lists, full stats and e.g. ecology & society sections as well as their own artwork.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice a single mistake. Layout adheres to the clear and elegant standard established by Raging Swan Press. The quality of both writing, stat-blocks etc. is superb. If I had to nit-pick, I'd say that I didn't particularly care for the battle-feats or the variant ranger and that the Yith-artwork is "only" good. That's it. The b/w-artworks are STUNNING and belong to the best I've seen in quite a while and the tribe per se, once again, is almost perfect. For the lack of flaws and the excellent writing as well as the overall supreme quality, I practically have to rate this installment of the TRIBES-series 5 Rudii and add the Endzeitgeist seal of approval - once again, Raging Swan delivers an excellent quality product for a very affordable price.

P.S.: The Kobold-tribe has been updated with additional information on terrain.

All right, finally, I have a nice FREE critter by Spes magna Games for you!

The Baykok

This pdf is 3 pages, 1 page SRD, leaving 2 pages for the free critter, so let's give it a closer look.

Tha baykok is an undead hunter suitable for mid-to medium level parties that has a tremendous potential to be both creepy and memorable. Why? It has 2 cool signature abilities I haven't seen before: It uses invisible arrows and is invisible, even while attacking, to all but the target of its attacks. Now this makes for very cool predator-like encounters and awesome horror-potential. What about PCs trying to protect a target from a whole group of them? Awesome work. And it's free.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch and while there is no artwork, the fluff-text makes sure to adequately convey the coolness of the creature. Layout adheres to the printer-friendly two-column standard. Plus: This is FREE. You get a critter that is cooler than a lot of creatures you usually have to pay for and for the price diddly-squat. You have NO reason not to check this out. If there ever will be a Spes Magna monster book with foes of that quality, I'll be sure to pick it up. My verdict will be 5 Rudii.

All right, that's it for now from yours truly, next time, I'll have an adventure and a sourcebook for you!

As always, thank you for reading my ramblings,

Endzeitgeist out.

EZG reviews Luven Lightfinger's Gear & Treasure Shop

Hi everybody!

I told you I'd have some equipment for your PCs this time and I'll deliver by finally reviewing

Luven Lightfinger's Gear & Treasure Shop

This pdf is 102 pages long, 1 page front cover, 3 pages editorial and ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page blank inside back cover and 1 page back cover, leaving 94 pages of content, so let's check it out!

So. A gear book. I'm actually taking a look at an equipment book. The last equipment book I bought was the "Arms & Equipment Guide" that actually disappointed me. Those of you who have been following my reviews, can easily guess why - I just hate the tendency to make magic items exchangeable commodities. Thus, even though there has been considerable hype about this book, I hesitated a long time. Also due to the fact that I wanted mundane & alchemical equipment from the "Arms & Equipment Guide" and didn't get a lot (or useful) content from it, I was rather hesitant to put this book in my cart.

The extensively book-marked pdf begins with martial gear, i.e. new weapons that range from variations of swords to suitably awesome and exotic weapons like the meteor hammer (Iron ball on a chain) or the wind and fire wheels, ring-like bladed melee weapons. The chapter provides more than just new weapons, but also new armors. More importantly, though, there is a nice innovation in this chapter: Armor components - you can actually customize armors and even combine and design your own armors, e.g. consisting of sabatons, gorgets and a bascinet. It should be noted that almost all items get their b/w-artwork representation, which is absolutely neat.

Chapter 2 contains all the new adventuring gear you always wanted, but never got from the core books - From aspergils, drinking horns, wigs, special silver henna up to different alchemical incenses and even a very cool siege weapon this chapter contains all the useful things your PCs have asked for and more. My very favorite item, though, is the chirurgeon's kit - the item enables one to revive fallen characters with mundane means/operations (within limits, of course) and the mechanics are so simple, so elegant, that I was impressed. This item, while not a substitute for resurrection-magic, it is GOLD for campaigns like mine (I've banned resurrection/raise dead in favor of e.g. RiP's Restless Souls) and just about any gritty low-magic campaign.

Chapter 3 has "Items of Home and Hearth", which sounds boring, but actually isn't. From several clothing materials over food (with a plethora of spices, flours etc.), drink (also containing drunkeness-rules), jewelry up to art and toys, this chapter contains just about anything your adventurers might need. Ever wanted to know what average towels cost? Diverse hats made from exotic fabrics? There you go. While this might at first seem like detail-overkill, it's not - How many times has it happened to you that PCs wanted to trade e.g. goods from exotic locales? I had to improvise saffron-prices and their availability in different countries in my campaign due to one of my PCs wanting to professionally trade in spices - this book, had I had it then, would greatly improved my efforts. The same goes for all the detail-crazy people among you who actually enjoy changing the appearance of characters, expensive shopping etc.

Chapter 4 features prosthetics for poor adventurers that e.g. don't have access to regeneration-spells (another one I banned in my campaign...) or want clockwork legs, iron limbs etc. From mundane/alchemical prosthetics to enchanted ones, this new class of items is pure gold for everyone, who, like me, thinks that the loss of a limb can both be iconic and dramatic and need not be the end, but rather a cool station in the ongoing narrative of one adventurer. This chapter alone, at least for me, was worth the price.

I dreaded chapter 5, I seriously did. The back room of the shop contains magic items. I steeled myself and got ready to yawn and while I was not impressed by the armors, I liked all the magic weapons and wondrous items (which of course, also mostly come with their own artworks - nice). My absolute favorite item is "Fletcher' Finkleberry's Fabulous Flying Feather" - a tongue-twister-powered feather that enables you to fly. Pure awesomeness.

This book is called "shop/inn & tavern" and while the book is interspread by Luven's IC-comments on the items, it is here where we actually get the stats for the staff of both Inn and shop. 4 completely detailed, beautiful maps are provided for shop and inn and all the characters get their own artwork to show to the players. I want to emphasize the stunning amount of detail of both locations, from DCs for individual locks to detailed descriptions, this rather large chapter actually contains enough information and a page of hooks to make the place a valid, awesome hub/starting point for adventures. Just to give you an impression on the amount of detail provided - even Luven's children get their individual statblocks, the bouncer/barkeep's mace has a name and, what impressed me beyond all expectations was that there are even menus for all courses. Wow.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, in spite of the length of the book I didn't encounter even A SINGLE glitch. Wow. Just wow. Layout adheres to the 2-column standard and is easy on the printer. Usually, equipment books are a complete bore to read, but the wealth of both the ideas and the associated rules and the aptly and concisely-written prose of Luven's numerous comments serve to deter from that convention and subsequently the book is a great read. With the stunning attention to detail, rules-information, numerous artworks and innovations, the book leaves nothing to be desired. Actually, the extensive appendix goes the extra mile for the DM to add another dimension to the whole book - granting you a great adventure locale in addition to all the equipment. Soooo...was there anything I didn't like? Ahem...well...I didn't like the artwork of the cover (I know it's old-school, I still don't like it.) but the interior artwork rocks.

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That's about it. All the criticism I can muster. Yep. Nitpicky, equipment-book hating Endzeitgeist is stunned and just blown away. My final verdict will be 5 Rudii with the Endzeitgeist seal of approval - people, if you haven't picked this up yet, do it as soon as possible. You won't regret it.

Here's a little bonus-review:

Monsters of NeoExodus: The Chanting Queen

This pdf is 10 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page counters, 2 pages of mini-sheets and 1 page combat & initiative tracker, leaving 4 pages for the Queen, so let's have a look at her!

All right. The Monsters of NeoExodus -line has provided us with some truly far-out creatures, but this one takes the "Wicked cool"-idea-cake: The chanting queen is the embodiment of a sentient spell that seeks to prolong and propagate its own existence by subverting the collective wills of people sent into a surreal paradise that solely exists in their minds by usage of said spell. The queen is a CR 19 foe, an incorporeal construct that is focused on utterly dominating her enemies and subverting them into the blissful utopia of her own addictive pseudo-reality. Once, her spell might have been designed to provide succor for the deranged and traumatized. Now, however, the chant may very well spread like an infectious wildfire of bliss and stupor and her mostly enchanting/dominating abilities reflect her non-lethal and yet deeply disturbing nature.

The Chant-scroll containing the rite of the old spell is also detailed and offers enough incentives for hard-pressed PCs to use the addictive scroll in spite of its risks. We also get information on DCs of Bardic knowledge etc.

Conclusion:

Layout adheres to the beautiful two-column full-color standard set by LPJr Design, formatting is top-notch, I noticed one minor punctuation error, but apart from that I didn't notice any glitches or problems with the abilities of the queen. Due to the low price, the cool concept and the additional information provided, I'll settle for a final score of 5 Rudii.

All right, that's it for now! Next time, I'll either do some free stuff or have a look at the recent TRIBES by Raging Swan Press!

As always, thank you for reading my ramblings,

Endzeitgeist out.