An Endzeitgeist.com review

This supplement is 30 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2/3 of a page SRD, leaving us with 27 1/3 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

After a short introduction on what to expect, we immediately kick off with the first supplemental base-class found herein, the Yamabushi (which is unfortunately named just like a certain already existing class by Zombie Sky Press). Unlike ZSP's take on a transmutation-only caster, LRGG's Yamabushi is rather martially-inclined, gaining d10, 2+Int skills per level, proficiency with light and medium armor as well as simple and monk weapons and e.g. katana and naginata, full BAB-progression and good fort- and will-saves. They also learn to cast spells of up to fourth level from teh ranger-list via wis and gain a slight scaling AC-bonus when unencumbered and unarmed equal to wis-bonus plus 1, scaling up to +5 at 2oth level. Oni, chaotic outsiders and dragons are foes of the Yamabushi and thus take extra damage from their attacks: Yamabushi get their wis-mod to damage and add twice the amount to attacks versus the aforementioned creatures, though thankfully capping the maximum amount of bonus damage possible by level, thus preventing abuse. Yamabushi also get a samurai's resolve pool (nice!), may speak to an area's kami and finally capstone with true enlightenment. Overall a solid class - I like the synergy with the samurai's resolve pool - but honestly, I would have preferred the class to be a tad bit less linear - there's not much to do with regards to choices and I would have loved to see more options for players to diversify Yamabushi-experiences there. Still, nothing particularly wrong here.

The second new class would be the Shinshoku, who gets d8, 2+Int skills per level, proficiency with simple weapons and light armor, 1/2 BAB-progression, good will-saves and full spellcasting - of an unconventional nature. The Shinshoku blurs the borders between prepared and spontaneous casting : While casting via charisma, the maximum amount of spells available per day is more akin to that of the wizard and the class gets a kami companion - who has to vanish to the spirit world, retrieve the spell and impart it to the Shinshoku - including a set amount of time it takes to retrieve the spell. The Shinshoku draws his/her spells from both the cleric and sorc/wiz spell-lists, casting either as divine spells. While their limited proficiencies impede their tanking capability, that measn armored casting is only one feat away - and that's bad. What's worse is that as far as I#ve understood it, ALL SPELLS IMMEDIATELY BECOME AVAILABLE. Yes. You may postpone preparing spells, send off your Kami and retrieve ANY SPELL. That's intrinsically better than either sorc/wiz OR cle/orc. AND the Kami and its damage potential also come into play. Yes, the retrieved spell only remains class level hours in the memory of the Shinshoku, but still - the added versatility makes this less of a drawback than it should. They can't truly die as long as a focus object is intact and even that one can be repaired. I assume roleplaying with the Kami is in some way supposed to restrict what spells are available, but as written, the class is HORRIBLY BROKEN. The spells NEED desperately an additional and much more restrictive limitation - perhaps by only sticking in the mind for 10 minutes per class level or the capability to only have one spell (or only class level spell-levels) in their memory- something severe to offset the massive superiority in versatility over sorc, wiz, cle and orc as well as the companion -especially since the class gets to choose from kami-affinities that further reduce the time retrieving spells takes. This class is a great idea, but one that requires fixing - which could be easily done and make this actually work well...

After these base classes, we go on to some new archetypes: The warbound yamabushi loses spellcasting and ac-bonus, but gets d10 and heavy armor proficiency. Wait. What? They already HAVE d10!!! That's just a sloppy basic mistake that makes me question whether the Yamabushi class is actually depicted as it was envisioned...

The Kuji-Kiri-Ninja is rather cool, learning to cast a limited amount of spontaneous spells from the sorc/wiz-spell-list via Cha, thus replacing their poison use and ninja tricks - nothing to complain here. Oniwaban ninja get 1/2 class levels as bonuses to bluff, disguise and sense motive and replace ninja tricks with essentially impersonation-based powers, essentially making unmasking the ninja extremely difficult - again, neat one!

The next archetype for the ninja would be the honorable shinobi, who gets weapon damage bonuses and count as fighter-levels at the cost of sneak attack and who may enhance their weapons via imbued ki. Iga Ninja are also interesting, losing sneak attack in favor of alchemist's bombs and some discoveries - again, awesome!

Monks may now opt to take the Street Fighter archetype, who actually gets a grit pool instead of a ki pool - all focused on unarmed attacks and when fighting foes using styles, ranger combat style feats, weapon specialization etc. - which is imho an actually rather awesome idea - the overall archetype is iconic, cool and well-crafted. Two thumbs up!

The Onna-Bugeisha is a female samurai especially adept with the naginata, while Hwarang samurai get alternate weapon expertise and alternate skill lists as well as a ki pool and at higher levels, may wear bolstering, creepy make-up and gain evasion. Nice one! Korean traditions only rarely see any kind of rules-representation/coverage - so kudos for doing something distinct here!

Fighters may now opt to become Sikh warriors, who get no proficiency in heavy armors or martial weapons, instead getting their own weapon list -essentially this one is mostly fluff, though much like the Hwarang, it comes with a nice code. Barbarians may now become Khans (imho unfortunately-named - like calling a class a king or a general - Khan is a honorific!) - essentially mounted barbarians. Nothing too interesting going on there.

After that, we're off to the 3 new 10-level PrCs, first of which would be the Dervish, who gets 4+Int skills per level, d10, full BAB-progression and medium ref-saves - essentially these guys are the heirs to 3rd edition's Tempests - only for double weapons. Their abilities are focused on double weapons and they are a weapon specialist of the class, including bonus feats etc.

The second PrC is the Youxia, who gets full BAB-progression, 4+Int skills per level, d10 and medium fort- and ref-saves. They get a ki-pool (if they already don't have one) and gain several defensive powers, making them e.g. superb bodyguards (Shield other) and may expend ki-points to increase his/her damage output.

The third would be the Wukong, who gets d8, medium ref- and will-saves -and lacks information on how many skills per level they get. Sloppy. Which is a pity, for per se the class is rather cool, allowing the Wukong to make his/her staff larger or transform into various forms akin to a druid's wild-shape and make massive leaps.

After that one, we're off to new style feats, kicking off with ninpo - which allows you to move yourself into an adjacent square still in range of an enemy missing you and later reposition foes as a result of being missed by said foe - as an immediate action as a kind of limit, though I would have preferred it also using up an AoO-attempt, but that's just personal preference. Rather cool would be the option to, as a move action, move 5 foot from a designated enemy and vanish from their sight for one round. Rather iconic, though honestly, I would have required additional information on whether the enemy may retry a perception check upon his/her/its next turn to see you again. The other feats of the style allow you to gain non-stacking precision damage and gain some further bonuses for being missed.

The Southern Scorpion style nets you +10 ft movement rate as well as +2 to AC and for every enemy missing you, you get +2 to atk against them since the start of that foe's turn. The other two feats of the style are even more powerful - one netting you an AoO every time a foe misses you (I assume still adhering to the limit per round, though the feat doesn't specify) - but it fails to add in the caveat that only melee attacks provoke these AoOs. Otherwise, ranged attacks could also provoke AoOs. Beyond that, the third feat in the tree allows you to forego regular attacks for one attack at -4 to atk that auto-threatens a crit and deals double damage as well as imposing a -minus 1/2 dex-mod penalty to saves versus death effects and poisons. If you actually manage to confirm the crit, you deal 3x the damage. Something about this feat rubs me the wrong way - while not per se ridiculously overpowered, it feels like it falls on the strong side and is a tad bit too strong for my tastes - getting rid of the x3 modifier might remedy that, but still - a slightly sour taste remains.

Jyoti Kun Do is an interesting style in that it negates the benefits of weapon focus and weapon specialization (I also assume the greater versions, but the feat fails to specify them) and penalizes users of style feats using them against you. You may also later choose a feat a foe uses against you to not net your foe any benefits 1/combat per creature. Per se an awesome feat - but the rules-text is lacking - does e.g. the maximize spell metamagic feat count as a feat for the purpose of this feat? If so, is regular damage rolled instead of the maximum amount or is the user immune to the spell thus modified? A more tight wording can easily salvage this feat, though - so I'm hoping for a revision here. Oh, and yeah, we get an adept version of the One-Inch Punch, if you haven't by now guessed the inspiration for the style...

We also get 6 new exotic weapons before diving into the magical item-section. Rather awesome is a Guan Dao of legendary weight that requires Str 18 and weighs a whopping 100 pounds, hearkening back to mythology - neat. We also get neat twin blades and bloodthirsty blades here - nice section.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting per se are very good on the formal basis, though there are multiple instances of basic rules-language editing having gone wrong. Layout adheres to a 2-column parchment-background standard with multiple original, nice full color artworks. The pdf is fully bookmarked for your convenience.

I really want to love this pdf - overall, its ideas and the respective executions work well and touch upon some genuinely neat concepts. In fact, while editing is better than in other LRGG-publications, I did encounter some glitches that are easily avoidable/corrected and they actually go so far as to impede my enjoyment of the pdf, featuring several instances of rules-language that needs to be more precise and the e.g. lacking skill-information is a massive detriment, as is the fact that one of the two base-classes is horribly broken and needs fixing. Which makes me angry -for I want to give this pdf the 4-5 stars the content would deserve, were it executed sans flaws. I really hope this pdf will be revised - as written, in spite of the great ideas, I can't rate this higher than 3.5 stars - if you do not mind the issues I mentioned, I still encourage you to check this out.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 23 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2/3 of a page SRD, leaving us with 20 1/3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

After one page that explains the design-rationale behind the book, a dissatisfaction with the existing ranger, we are introduced to a new variant of the ranger base-class, the Strider.

Striders gain d8, 6+Int skills per level, proficiency with light and medium armors, simple and martial weapons and shields (but not tower shields), 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort and ref-saves and no spellcasting progression. Representing a master of guerilla warfare, the strider starts the game with access to the shot on the run-feat, but only with bows and at 6th level, the strider may use full attacks with his bows when using shot on the run. Striders also get what is called "Focus", which translates to a precision-based +1d6 damage (+1d6 on every odd level to a maximum of +10d6 at 19th level) and allows each damage-dice to potentially be exchanged for a +2 bonus to atk. Unfortunately, the ability is not particularly precise in its wording, failing to specify the type of bonus this ability grants, which is relevant for stacking purposes. Also, I assume that multi-class striders/rogues can't exchange sneak attack dice this way, but I'm not 100% sure.

The strider also gets adaptability, which requires 1 round of observation (later the actions are shorter, decreasing the required time down to a swift action at 15th level) and a check of d20+class level+wis vs. the opponent's CMD. On a successful check, striders get +3 to AC vs the foe. If they have weapon focus, weapon specialization or a style feat, the bonus is +5 instead. The bonus can't be gained versus raging opponents, which is a nice caveat. The ability per se is grounded in a good idea, but suffers from some minor issues: First of all, it can be used 1/combat (later twice and thrice), a disjointed, inorganic mechanic that is more 4th edition in philosophy than PFRPG: The issue is the following - long combats, prolonged multiphase battles allow for one use, whereas short skirmishes also only allow for one use. Bad design that rips me out of the game and is contradictory to my sense of immersion. There are better ways to restrict this mechanic.

Speaking of disjointed: I have a MASSIVE issue with all other uses of adaptability: They essentially allow the strider to create pit traps and striking/falling traps on the fly. I assume as the action mentioned in adaptability, though I'm not sure from the text of the traps. Worse, the abilities have no specified range (does the strider need to be adjacent?) and WILL result in ludicrous amounts of pits, falling objects etc. One in every battle will get tired FAST and again, collide with suspension of disbelief.

All in all, an even worse take on ranger traps than the already bad standard take on ranger traps. I much prefer the Craft-based alternative from Drop Dead Studios' Rogue Glory-book.

Striders also get combat feats as a fighter of their level -3 and may select one gift of nature on every even level, chosen from a selection of 32 of them. There are NO surprises here - uncanny dodge, evasion, darkvision, blindsense and at the highest levels blindsight and true seeing, stealth sans concealment in natural environments, wild empathy, no AoOs when using bows in melee, improved tracking, needing less sleep, moving faster, delay poisons etc. all fall in the been there, done that-category. One ability, though, is actually interesting: Overwatch. As a standard action, you go into overwatch mode - until the start of your next turn ALL ENEMIES within your first range increment that move provoke AoOs from your ranged weapon. With the improved version, you can CMB them to prevent them from moving to add insult to injury. Pardon me saying this, but come again? This is broken on so many levels, it's not even funny. Ranged AoOs are already rather sick, but tying them to movement in a huge area that will most of the time make up the whole battleground is insane. Especially as soon as 6th level. Never gonna happen in my game.

The class also provides some interesting lore and archetypes that feature the concept of going "grey" that limits the strider's focus to a group that blighted his grove. You may also exchange adaptability for an animal companion, a rather weak bonus on home ground, apply his focus to a weapon different than the bow and a desert-themed ranger than can burrow into sand and essentially shadow jump through desert sand. Why not make this a strider instead? The class also gets a new cloak, which unfortunately falls in the completely uninspiring category.

The class also comes with favored class options for the base races and the LRGG-races.

The pdf also features the Geomancer, who gets d6, 3/4 BAB-progression, 4+Int skills, proficiency with simple weapons, short bows and long bows, light and medium armor and shields and spontaneously casts divine spells of up to 9th level via charisma. Geomancers communicate with the spirits of the land, Genius Loci, and gets an aspect of these spirits as a familiar, allowing him always access to this locus' powers. Wait, what? Yes, for spellcasting here has an interesting design-decision: The base-list of spells available is VERY restrictive, with most of the available spells being determined by the genius locus in whose territory the geomancer threads. An actually rather neat idea, especially due to the familiar spirit learning to change loci at higher levels and the ability to use a rather bland ability to tap into a place's power to cast through the spirit and even have it cast spells.

A total of 9 such loci as well as advice on improvising new ones are given, though honestly, creating a list of spells on the fly is annoying enough - having to balance nature's blessing and world bound (the capstone), two more abilities of the geomancer that depend in their bonuses on the locus make doing this on the fly even harder. All in all, though, an interesting class - somewhat like a cross between a shaman and a witch's familiar-focus. Unlike the strider, the geomancer does not get favored class options.

The pdf closes with 10 different feats, granting extra gifts of nature, change energy type of your spells according to your locus. And then there is Skyborn Shot. Per se an iconic image: The archer shoots the sky, one round later the arrows hit a square within his first range increment. You may shoot up to the amount of arrow this way as your maximum attacks - and this is where the feat comes apart. What constitutes maximum attacks? Enhanced by magic? Rapid Shot? Manyshot? Do the penalties of rapid shot apply? Worse, the attack is resolved AS A TOUCH ATTACK. Yes. Full round attack touch attack that hits EVERY creature in the square with ALL arrows. If the creature was already in the square, you receive a -4 penalty to the touch attack, but not if it only has entered the square. That makes no sense whatsoever - moving targets should not be easier to hit. Furthermore: What happens in a dungeon? Can the feat be used in caverns or do arrows hit the ceiling? The mechanics are downright broken in power-level and in execution. The other feats are ok, with especially the option to crit through a foe with your arrows and hitting the next foe in line sounding nice, though the feat lacks information whether the -4 penalty on subsequent attacks is cumulative, i.e. if an archer manages to crit two foes in a row, whether the 3rd hit is at -8 or remains at -4.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are ok, though e.g. the "special"-sections of the feat are not in bold and I've noticed some minor glitches here and there. Layout is rather beautiful, with a parchment background and adheres to a 2-column standard, though admittedly e.g. the traps could have sued some better formatting, their entries feel a bit jumbled. The pdf features several pieces of original full color artwork, though apart from the cover and the geomancer none I'd get excited about. The pdf comes fully bookmarked, which is always a plus, though I would have enjoyed a slightly more printer-friendly version as well.

Oh boy. On the one side, the alternate classes herein are based on good ideas and the execution is not that bad - especially the geomancer works as intended, though the restricted spell-list and their dependence on environments mean that this class most definitely is not for everyone. The strider, in contrast suffers from multiple mechanics that are a disjunction of rules from the in-game logic of the respective settings, which imho is rather problematic.

Add to that options here and there that are many things, but not balanced and we arrive at an ok take of the ranger. Were it not for Marc Radle's Spell-less ranger by Kobold Press. And the Shaman. Both classes cover the territory - a spell-less ranger and a spontaneous, nature-themed caster and unfortunately, both do a vastly superior job when compared to the content herein. While the Geomancer is mechanically interesting, as a player I'd rather play a shaman since the class is less restricted in its usefulness and the spell-less ranger mops the floor with the strider - in all regards. Production quality, amount of content, wording, the rules don't feature broken aspects like overpowered talents and feats and disjointed rules... I could go on, but won't.

In the end, the tome of leaf and thorn is an ok addition to the game, but one that falls flat of its own potential, having good ideas, but executing them in a sup-optimal way. Due to the issues here and there and the fact that the territory has been covered, in better supplements, I'll settle for a final verdict of 2 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 27 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 24 pages of content, so let's check this out!

The pdf kicks off with a new base-class, the Dimensional Knight, who gets d8, 4+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, good will-saves, proficiency with simple and martial weapons as well as light armors. Dimensional knights also cast arcane spells of up to 6th level and cast them spontaneously, but use intelligence as a casting attribute - a deviation from established cha/int-casting-style dichotomies you should be aware of. They also get arcane pool points equal to 1/2 class level + Int-mod that partially stacks with e.g. the magus-class. The dimensional knights may also move 5 ft. per class level as a swift action as if using dimensional door and as a touch attack that costs 1 arcane pool point to forcefully move targets the same distance.

What's truly interesting about the class, though, would be the ability to create portals - yes, just like in the games - two-way portals that make it possible to attack through them blast through them etc. - with cover, bursts etc. being covered by the rules as well as line of sights and effects. It should be noted that some DMs might want to impose a limit on this per se unlimited ability - I suggest 3+Int-mod times per day, since this power is imho a bit too powerful to have no limits, especially with the action required getting less and less significant over the levels. Dimensional Knights may also sheathe themselves in minor dodge-bonuses granting fields. At 3rd level and every 3 levels after that, the dimensional knight also get access to a new dimensional knight talents, of which a total of 16 are provided.

These talents allow the dimensional knights to create e.g. one-way portals, create portals that work only for one particular being, portals that disorient those passing through etc. - among the coolest abilities is one that mirror images you after you pass through it - a massive amount of potential annoyance for the knight's foes indeed! Multiple of these talents require the expenditure of arcane pool points and include e.g. the creating of deadly interdimensional bombs and evade all types of instantaneous effects by using an immediate action and dismissing the spatial anomaly-field.

Dimensional knights also get the ability to create permanent nexus gateways ( very useful for dungeon crawling!) and comes with a cool capstone ability. All in all, a cool class in the vein of "thinking with portals", but one that imho needs a limit on how often portals can be opened. All in all, this class is worth the asking-price of the pdf - an uncommon, interesting take on a gish-class with a very versatile gimmick.

Next up is the Spellslinger-PrC, who gets 4+Int skills, d8, full BAB, medium fort and will-save progression and 7 levels of spell-advancement out of 10. Essentially, this is a combination-class between arcanist and gunslinger, allowing you to imbue spells into your bullets and deliver them via bullets, foregoing ref-saves. Thankfully, only a limited amount of such bullets can remain in existence at a given time, balancing the class. They may also shoot rays with their gun and sacrifice spells to increase the damage their bullets do or sacrifice spells to shoot elemental blasts - unfortunately, the class does not specify how these blasts work - do they require touch attacks or regular attacks? Offer saves? Hit automatically? We don't know. The class also comes with 7 new deeds and may sacrifice attacks to blast other projectiles out of the air and counter spells via their bullets. It should also be noted that the PrC's table lacks the plusses in front of the saves and BAB.

The next base-class is the Thunder Chief, who gets d10, 4+Int skills, full BAB, good ref- and will-saves, divine prepared spellcasting via wisdom of up to 4th level. As an interesting mechanic, thunder chiefs get storm token - they can carry up to wis-mod ones at any given time and start combat with 1/2 wis-mod storm tokens. Being in an area with a storm or being subject to cold, electricity or sonic damage nets the chief one token. outside of combat, they relatively fast are discharged. He may also lower his resistances (which he continuously gains) temporarily to gain storm tokens - the wording of this ability feels a bit jumbled, though. The signature weapon of the class is a blade of pure electricity and over the levels, the chief gets access to a variety of different talent-like abilities that center on new uses for storm tokens, allowing you to e.g. form two storm blades, make foes temporarily lightning rods or create a blade from cold instead - per se rather cool abilities, though unfortunately a couple of them fail to specify how the save against their abilities is calculated - I assume 10 + 1/2 level + wis-mod, but I'm not sure, it could also be net-damage...

Beyond these martial capabilities, they also learn to add storm-related powers to their spellcasting. These abilities are rather on the defensive side, but turn out to be interesting and the several other abilities of the class complement its theme nicely. I'll come out and say it - I don't like the base mechanic - I passionately dislike per-encounter-abilities since they imho violate PFRPG-design philosophy and the storm tokens unfortunately fit that bill. I get the idea behind the class and actually like the idea, even though its ability-suite is slightly too linear for my tastes, but the basic mechanic means I probably won't use it in my game - even though such a class bringing a dead guy back from life via thunder and lightning has some iconic imagery going for it.

Next up are 25 new feats. I won't go into the details for them, but mention only some things I noticed - a feat that allows you to deal additional fire damage in melee after casting a spell instead deals cold damage: A cut-copy-paste error. Furthermore, there are Master (insert school)-feats and their balancing is all over the place - especially the one for conjuration, which offers three very powerful options depending on the subtype of conjuration used for one feat. Additionally, the wording is not particularly precise, stating e.g.

"After casting a conjuration: healing spell you may act as

though affected by break enchantment, remove curse,

remove disease, or delay poison for any 1 effect currently

affecting you. Using this ability takes a spell slot of the appropriate

level."

I reread this multiple times and have no idea whatsoever how this ability is supposed to work, even beyond the fact that the paragraph features 4 formatting errors. Oh, and yes, this free spell is just ONE of three benefits of the feat - which btw. also states that it is available to evokers, when it should be available to conjurers. The whole feat-section feels like it lacked a proper editing job, for there are a lot of these issues in here. Which is a pity, for mostly the feats that enhance portals or add effects to your melee attacks after casting spells of specific schools are rather neat.

There also are 9 new spells, some of which feature the new [spatial field]-descriptor - this subtype of magic essentially makes it possible to modify a certain area of magic as if it were on another plane, allowing for e.g. modifications in gravity. The spells per se have good ideas like dealing more damage to burning foes, exuding electromagnetic blasts, modify gravity and extend and compress spaces - these spells in particular should be useful not only to players, but also to DMs crafting unusual terrain and usually, you'd see me singing praises here...BUT. Unfortunately, these spells are also haunted by the glitches that have crept into the feat-descriptions - from multiple typos to formatting issues, quite a bunch of errors have found their way into this section as well.

The pdf closes with 10 different qualities for magical weapons and armor. Unfortunately, the editing also detracts from this chapter, with lacking punctuation making several abilities harder to understand than necessary.

Conclusion:

If this pdf has one issue, it's editing and formatting - there are A LOT glitches in here. From lacking italicization of spells to lacking bold print, brackets, punctuation and so on, we run the gamut of glitch upon glitch - and while most don't impede the overall usability of the pdf, there unfortunately are several glitches in here that do so - beyond obvious ones, one can also find one particular issue that galls me: The writing is often simply less concise than it should be - due to punctuation-glitches sentences tend to blur together and unnecessarily obscure the rules-content - in parts of the pdf, that is - in other parts everything is all hunky-dory.

Layout adheres to a parchment-background 2-column standard with original pieces of full color artwork and the pdf comes fully bookmarked.

Oh boy. When I started reading the dimensional knight, I was grinning from ear to ear - this class rocks hard and its execution is solid - with the caveat that DMs definitely should limit the portal abilities of the class - unlimited uses are going to break your game if not handed VERY carefully. The spellslinger is also a rather neat PrC and by this time, I was actually really into this pdf. Then the thunder chief came and while I like it's idea, I already elaborated on why the class feels more like an afterthought and not nearly on par with the first two to me. Still, a good pdf so far.

And then the rest came alongside a sudden and perceivable drop in editing, wording and conciseness regarding the rules - almost as if a completely different person wrote it, with completely different (read: none) Q&A-standards. As awesome as the first part of the pdf was, as utterly disappointing and at times even broken the second part was to me - not unsalvageably so, mind you, for a lot of the issues stem from a lack of editing of these rules-sections , but still as if it was the product of a whole different company.

Where the first two classes exhibit a consciousness for moderately complex ideas and cool implementations, the second half falls rather flat of both the first half's quality and production values. Were I only to judge the first half, we'd be looking at a verdict in the higher echelons of my rating system, but due to the deeply flawed editing that serves to actually obfuscate how some pieces of crunch are supposed to work, especially in the second half of the product, I can't rate this higher than 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. If you're picky about precisely formulated rules, then wait and hope for a revision, but if the first two classes sounded intriguing to you, then you still might want to check this out - it is definitely worth a try if you can see past its flaws. One consolation for me is that having read other pdfs by LRGG, I know they can do better editing-wise and I hope this pdf's second half remains an isolated incident. Still, as mentioned before, if you like the idea of the Dimensional Knight, I encourage you to take a look.

Endzeitgeist out.

Sometimes there’s an idea so awesome in its simplicity, you find yourself saying “now why didn’t I think of that?” That was the reaction I had to Little Red Goblin Games’s Grey Alien Racial Guide, a free mini-supplement for adding the “classic” grey alien to your Pathfinder game.

While the idea might initially seem like an odd one – after all, the Greys are usually thought of as the province of science fiction, travelling in technological spaceships and performing scientific experiments – it’s not that hard to see them in a fantasy setting. Leaving aside the issues that come with spaceships in a fantasy game, your average Pathfinder world has so many sentient species, many of them with origins in other planes of existence, that it’s not really disruptive to add the Greys into the mix.

The book is only four pages long (with one page for the OGL, though there’s no declaration of OGC or PI), it does a fairly good job of explaining why there might be Greys on your world. For example, many of them are colonists there to explore and study the world for several generations. Likewise, they’ve visited enough world and gathered enough data to know about the existence of gods and magic, so there’s no real issue with Grey clerics or wizards.

The Grey racial write-up is nicely balanced, giving them no greater or worse penalties than other standard races while still preserving a unique flavor for them, such as denoting how they’re used to fighting space-born monstrosities, and so gain a bonus to damaging aberrations. As a bonus, this notes their Race Point total (from the Advanced Race Guide).

Several favored class bonuses are presented, and while most of them were quite good (e.g. fractional bonuses to alchemist discoveries known) others were odd. For example, why gain fractional bonuses to conjuration (teleportation) spells for the wizard class? Given how few of those spells there are, I’m not sure that’s the best choice for a favored class bonus. Or how the fighter gains a bonus to damage with firearms…and yet there’s no favored class listing for gunslingers.

Two new class archetypes round out the book. The first is the cleric of the Supreme Ideal. This is mentioned in the flavor text as being the Grey version of the standard cleric; since they can’t quite bring themselves to worship deities, the closest they can come is to worship an idea, which is what this archetype represents. However, there’s little actual text regarding what this means in a practical context – as it is, the major changes are a restriction on their domains, and that their channeling grants a short-lived untyped bonus (or penalty) to an ability score(!). I’m not sure if that’s too powerful or not, though I suspect that the severe limit on its duration, and that it has to be the same score for everyone, will help out there.

The Star Explorer ranger archetype doesn’t have quite as much exposition, sadly. In fact, it’s little more than its mechanical changes, which require taking the planes as a favored terrain, and switching medium armor proficiency for firearms proficiency. Needless to say, much more could have been done here.

Overall, the central idea of this product, bringing the Greys into your high fantasy Pathfinder campaign, is one that’s handled surprisingly well. The exposition stumbles a little, and the mechanics could use some tightening, but overall this is an excellent starting point for bringing a well-known but rarely-used race into your game. Given that it’s free, there’s really no reason not to pick this up and add these bug-eyed little guys to your game world.

Ok, well, I don't have to tell you this but Primal Host is absolutely going in the direction Pathfinder should go.

Reinventing things and making new things to make everything exciting an fresh. That is the Primal Host in a nutshell. From the many hooks a GM can use to motivate a Primal Host to the sheer fact of having the host roleplay your symbiote instead of the player to add that added sugar, this class will make things more exciting around your game table for sure and the relationship you have with your symbiote ACTUALLY affecting play is magnificent.

If you haven't already picked up this wonderful third party book I strongly suggest it. I am not graceful with words but it is quite a breath of fresh air. 5/5 stars for your LRGG.

This book is 27 page book with three different classes and a prestige class. It is a nice size for a good quality product.

The Dimensional Knight was by far the most ingenious ideas that LRGG has created right next to the Primal Host, which I will be discussing in my next review.

The way that they set the class up is it is basically a reworking of the Magus with a more limited spell list but gains the ability to cast portals for awesome effects. Think Portal Ray gun except you can eventually have multiple portals, then add a guy with a short sword who can attack through those portals. That is the Dimensional Knight.

There are many ways to augment your portals with your Arcane Pool like making them bigger or hitting someone against their internal AC, which mind you is basically saying, "I'm going to cut you from the inside ok bye." That is by far an amazing and unique idea for a class ability.

As you level up you can make a whole nexus of exit portals with one entry portal and attack, AoO, and manuever wherever you like as if you were in the square of the other portal and with a 30 + 5 ft per level that eventually makes you ALL over the field without even moving. Take that mobile fighter.

All in all I think that class is the shining feature of the book. The rest are a bit bland in comparison.

Creating the Spellslinger Prestige was kind of dull for me because they already have one of those in a core Paizo book but I can say that they at least spiced it up and gave it a new twist. Otherwise though nothing of true merit since the Spellslinger Wizard Archetype already comes pretty close to the same.

Finally we have the Thunder Chief, a class that gains the ability to harness the storms fury. It is a pretty cool concept but as I read through I noticed that it seems to have a couple downsides. The downsides are, you really don't gain much, as far as I know, until you are third level. At first level you can gain a +1 to damage by expending a storm point but that really isn't all that spectacular since by gaining a single feat. The class really pays off later though once you hit level 3.

At level three you can pick cool stuff like Lashing Winds, which increases your threatened range by 5 ft per 4 levels or something like that, very Anime feeling with that one and it is pretty cool. Frigid Cold is also good with it's ability to give cold resistance and deal cold damage and on top of that you can even have the enemy make a save or slow to 10 ft movement for a round, how cool is that? Pun kind of intended.

Over all the Thunder Chief definitely gets better as levels go on but it sure as hell doesn't suck me in at first or even second level. It is definitely one of my picks for dying first at those levels honestly even with its 1d10 hit dice.

Overall I give this book 4/5 points because I know that they have done better. Good Job LRGG, here's hoping you guys make something as ingenious and moving as The Primal Host again, which is my next review coming soon.

It's called swords AND sorcery after all, so why should you have to choose between chucking spells and swinging a sword when creating your character? If a mix of both takes your fancy, this product holds some interesting suggestions.

First up is the Dimensional Knight base class, fully developed up to 20th level. His aim is to be omnipresent on the battlefield, using mastery of spatial manipulation to dart around, open portals and the like to mount attacks in the most unexpected places. Spell-casting is sorcerer-style, without need for preparing the day's spells in advance, but subject to the usual level-based limits as to the number and level of spells that can be cast. The range of spells available is quite specialised and limited, but caters to the particular needs of the class well.

Next a prestige class, the Spellslinger. This is appropriate for games in which firearms are permitted, and caters for both magic-using characters who want to carry a gun for protection or a gunman who wants to harness arcane power: for the spellslinger uses a handgun to launch his spells and can even develop the ability to spit arcane energies rather than bullets from its muzzle!

This is followed by another new base class, the Thunder Chief who is a front-line fighter capable of calling down weather, specifically storms, to aid him on the battlefield. He is gifted in manipulating the weather and in particular harnessing the power of lightning, and is also capable of limited divine casting using a special spell list, which is provided, and also creates and wields a special 'stormblade' weapon embued with mystical power.

You may find these all fairly niche classes, and it is probably wise to consider the campaign style carefully before choosing any of them. If, however, epic largescale battles feature, both the Dimensional Knight and the Thunder Chief could be quite potent on the battlefield, although it's hard to imagine a Thunder Chief being very happy with extended dungeon delving. Innovative players will soon develop ways of using their powers off the battlefield as well.

The product rounds off with a good range of new feats, spells and magic items. Most are aimed at the new classes, but at least some might find favour with other characters as well. An interesting and thought-provoking work.

This 28 page (27 + cover) pdf features 6 dragon crossbreads including the oft stated Orange and Yellow Dragons. But you also get the Blade, Steel, Rust and Gray Dragons. These dragons are pretty interesting and for the game I have coming up I need a lot of interesting dragons. The book also includes the Dragon Blooded "class" though it is also sort of a race. They are humanoid dragons. Plenty of things you can do with this class as well as alternate versions depending one where the blood came from. In a neat little feature you also get the art from the book in a seperate file. So now you can show your players exactly what a Yellow Dragon looks like. All in all a fun book. I only wish it had some more.

This is an interesting look at the concept of symbiosis, by creating a character class defined by the presence of a symbiote. In this interpretation, the symbiote confers combat advantage to its host through possibilities of morphing the host's body to generate, for example, claws or fangs (or for that matter, armour).

The development of this concept is good if marred by sloppy grammar, particularly abuse of apostrophes, and by calling the symbiote itself the 'urge' when that term would appear to be better applied to whatever it is that the symbiote wants out of the relationship. This idea, that the symbiote wants something specific, is well handled as a concept, with a rule mechanic to measure if it is getting enough of whatever it wants - neat!

There is plenty of scope to take symbiosis as an idea further - there are many different kinds of advantages that having a symbiote could confer, and it is not something that necessitates a complete character class - a wizard, say, with a symbiote that boosts his intelligence could be a formidable character... no matter that his symbiote is so curious that the poor wizard starts each day tired and red-eyed, because the symbiote was using the wizard's body to read magic tomes all night! The upside is that the wizard can access the knowledge, the downside is that he has not had sufficient rest to function well physically.

As a start in looking at this fascinating and unexplored area in fantasy gaming, this is a good one! Food for thought indeed.

Iron Nugget

War Journal, by Little Red Goblin Games, is a beneficial supplement for DMs who are aiming to get a little more cohesion out of their gaming group. I have had issues with team feats in the past, in that they require every player to take a team feat slot. Asking a player to give up a team slot to be apart of the team seems to sprout the opposite of what you’re aiming to do. War Journal fixes that by creating a party feat in the name of a Party Tactical Archetype. The ability allows a special action for specific tactical formations by the PCs. To balance things out, each party receives a weakness. Neither the action is ever too powerful nor the weakness to harsh.

War Journal also continues two other additions to the game. Heralds allow players to use Heraldry to boost their character and their allies. These symbols that the PCs can create can be placed on armor, flags or shields. There are two classes associated with it. One of which, the Veteran adventure is a pretty neat idea when building a jack of all trades kind of character.

The other system is a new crafting system that allows mundane weapons to be more finally tuned. There are a number of additional modifications you can place on it, and it feels far easier than the normal crafting system.

The Iron Word The War Journal is a great buy for any DM trying to add some teamwork to a party.

This interesting little supplement feels as if it had been rushed out the door, I'm almost checking the ink to see if it's still wet! You see, there is no introduction, no sense of direction. Just a brief bit of 'flavour' fiction that doesn't seem to connect and straight in to the first of three oriental-style classes.

The first is possibly the most fascinating and unusual one. The Tao is a spontaneous divine caster with a novel take on maintaining balance: TWO spell lists. The Ying spells are offensive, the Yang more gentle, tending towards curative and similar effects... and each time one is cast, the Tao's internal balance shifts in that direction. As the class is required to be neutral in alignment, it is quite important not to lose your balance! There's a neat chart provided to keep track.

The street samurai reads like he's been ripped straight out of a Shadowrun book and reskinned for Pathfinder. Somehow he doesn't fit in a mediaeval fantasy world, never mind the quasi-Japanese setting predicated by the rest of this book.

The third class is the Warrior-Poet. Fundamentally, he's a bard with attitude and suitable for those who want to play a more robust role than that of a minstrel. He'd fit well in standard fantasy as well as the oriental style and is worth a look if you find bards a bit wimpy for your taste.

An interesting addition is some martial arts styles: real-world martial arts forms written up as a series of feats that you can take if your character wants to develop in that particular direction. Whilst you are probably thinking 'monk' at this point, with care any character who wants focussed unarmed combat skills could make use of them. Aikido, Boxing, Tai Chi, JuJutsu, and Muay Thai are given this treatment and if the ones I do know are any example, these are about as good a table-top abstraction of each style as you're going to get.

I'm torn. This is a four-and-a-half-star book. The lack of coherence at the outset and the street samurai stop it being a five-star product, everything else is well up there!

If your campaign ever involves the odd brush with the law, you may find this product of use...

Basically, it presents three character classes that have some connection with law and order, as well as a framework for conducting a formal trial. There are quite a few ways in which you might wish to incorporate this material into your game.

First up, the Judge base class. It's a rather 'Judge Dredd' inspired character, who has the capability of both detecting a crime and delivering judgement on the perpetrator once caught. He's probably as potentially uncomfortable a party member as a paladin, but could provide a strong lead if you have decided to run a campaign where your characters are champions of justice within the setting. Alternatively, it could make for a powerful featured NPC irrespective of whichever side of the law your characters choose to operate: a mighty ally or a long-standing adversary. The Judge has both combat and spell-casting abilities, as well as skills honed towards detection and information gathering.

This is followed by a section on trials. Whilst the Judge can pronounce his own judgements, playing out a trial can prove entertaining. Here is presented a system for Divine Trials, where the opinion of whichever deity you have called upon is paramount, even if it flies in the face of local manmade laws. Two judges (it is beneficial if they are actually members of the Judge character class, but they don't have to be) present the case, one acting as prosecutor and one as defender... but the deity decides on both the outcome and, if a conviction results, the penalty - which has to be appropriate to the crime, with the reminder that gods tend to be on the cruel side. It's a nice change from the quasi-mediaeval style legal systems presented in most game literature, and would be particularly appropriate in an area of your campaign world that's governed by a theocracy!

The next class presented might come into play as the result of an unfavourable judgement... it's the Convict. This is designed as a 'substitution' class, in which the character loses levels of his original base class replacing them with levels of Convict as a result of incarceration. Some people relish playing out time spent behind bars, but unless the whole party has been banged up for their misdeeds (or the adventure revolves around the rest of the party working to engineer a gaol-break), this could prove a good mechanical substitute, with the incarcerated character being replaced with a temporary character until his release. Or you may choose to handwave over a few years in which the rest of the party undertake 'downtime' pursuits - studying, trading, farming and so on - then reassemble as adventurers later on.

Whichever way you choose to play it, use of the Convict class depends on the character in question being a dyed-in-the-wool villain. If that doesn't fit your party, even if one or more of them has ended up in prison, don't use it... at least, not as a player-character. It could still make for an interesting villainous NPC. The class confers a wealth of dirty tricks and attitudes that a character can pick up behind bars.

Finally, there is a retooled Kinslayer class. It's a prestige class that can reflect anything from a revolutionary activist approach to challenging injustice all the way to a cold and calculating serial killer... it's all in the underlying motivations and the way in which you choose to play it. Best suited to a character-driven and introspective game, at least if player-characters are involved; again it could make an interesting NPC, be he a terrorist (er, freedom fighter) or a serial killer, an ally or adversary. Take a look and decide how it will work for you.

An interesting collection with quite a lot of potential to add depth to your game.

Champions of Magic and its description was misleading. The book seems to promise customization of some sort that would make a spellcaster stand out....but simply presents one base class and two prestige classes. The presentation and artwork was excellent, but the content was a miss for me. If one is a collector of the d20/3E system, these classes are not unique and can already be found in various books already. There are literally thousands of base classes and prestige classes out there, so there is gonna be some similarity. I was glad that I got this when it was on sale, because it was not worth the full price.

Three new magic themed classes for the Pathfinder (or 3.x) game.

The Wytchblade is something like a spell-sword or magus only related to witches. It is a full 20th level class, but I think I would have enjoyed it more as a prestige class.
The Maven is a prestige class that warps and changes the spells it casts. They trade off total number of spells they can cast for flexibility on their remaining spells. I like the idea, but I'll have to see how it plays. In game terms they are metamagic masters.

The Time Traveler is another Prestige Class. This one manipulates time and it's assorted effects.

There are no new spells or feats, just the classes.
The layout is good. Nice and clear, easy to read so the product looks great.

There’s a particular aspect with post-twentieth-level gaming that doesn’t get discussed very much: that the outliers tend to get screwed. What that means is that, for the usual reasons that level 20+ material doesn’t get supported, what support is given is usually to the baseline classes of the game. If you’re playing some sort of exotic class, you had better hope that you can find some generic options that fit your character, otherwise you’re just out of luck.

It’s that sort of problem that Legendary Levels II, from Little Red Goblin Games, seeks to address.

Before going any further, there’s one thing that should be made absolutely clear regarding this book. You need to have the first Legendary Levels book in order to use this one. While the legendary classes and feats are fairly self-explanatory in what they offer, there are some fairly important aspects of this book, such as legendary damage or divinity scores, that are introduced in the first book that aren’t explained herein; you’ll need the first Legendary Levels book for that.

With that said, let’s move on to the book’s technical presentation. This book was rather awkward in that it included a separate JPG file for each of the book’s interior illustrations (with one being presented twice), and a composite work of all of those illustrations together and in color. Why do I call this awkward? Well, beyond having almost twenty additional files included with the book, these pictures are large. The file size on most of them is around five megabytes, but that composite I mentioned before? That one weighs in at over sixty-five megabytes! The PDF of the book itself is just over a dozen megabytes in size.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that LRGG decided to include separate files for the pictures, but the size of these is somewhat prohibitive; maybe my computer is showing its age, but opening these files seemed to strain my CPU. Moreover, it seemed to me that it called attention to this book not having a printer-friendly version, something I still think all PDF products should offer. The book itself is presented against a light tan “parchment” background. It does what a PDF should in that it allows for copy-and-paste, and has full nested bookmarks.

Moving away from the technical presentation, let’s take a look at what’s in Legendary Levels II. As with its predecessor, this book offers a series of legendary classes designed to take your game from 21st to 30th level. Whereas the first book covered the core classes, this one covers all of the base and alternate classes from the APG, UM, and UC, along with one of Little Red Goblin Games’s own original classes from their book Tome of the Bizarre.

These classes aren’t presented as “extensions” of the original class so much as they are as special prestige classes; I say “special” here because they have no prerequisites – obviously you can take the corresponding legendary class if you’ve hit 20th level in the base class (e.g. if you’re a 20th level witch your next class level would be 1st-level legendary witch), and that these levels stack with the base class’s level for numerical purposes (e.g. most class abilities). The book also notes that you can allow for these classes to be taken by a character that’s thematically near the legendary class (giving an example of a rogue 15/assassin 5 could still take levels in legendary rogue).

The classes themselves are all ten levels in length, and for the most part offer a parcel of original powers and abilities, though a few (such as the oracle) are based around expanding lower-level class abilities; e.g. more mysteries and revelations. It’s worth noting that quite a few of these powers are based around dealing or protecting yourself from legendary damage (e.g. being reduced instantly to 0 hit points), though there are still plenty that do not.

The new mechanics themselves are something of a mixed bag. While I generally liked what was here, minor errors cropped up with disappointing regularity. Some of these were issues of formatting, such as something that should have been indented or emboldened but wasn’t. Still others were small errors that were easily fixed (e.g. an ability that says it works on a 3-in-6 chance, and then says it works if you get a 3, 4, 5, or 6 on a d6 roll).

Still, if you can get past the fact that this book should have been through editorial polishing a bit more, there’s a lot to like here. Many of the class abilities are quite fun; I particularly loved the gunslinger’s Russian Roulette deed – blindly loading your revolver, or other firearm, you point it at yourself or your enemy, and have a 50% chance of firing or not, with a special result each way; or the legendary summoner evolutions, such as being able to get a gargantuan eidolon. There’s a lot to like here if you want to take your character beyond what 20th level can give you.

Two prestige classes are also offered, with the designers flat-out telling you that these are for multiclass characters who can’t otherwise take a legendary class, something which I consider to be a big plus. The first is the artificer, which is a spellcaster that deals primarily with magical technology – in this case, the class is based around having a pool of “spark of life” points, as this is the spark within both living things and magic, and being able to choose discoveries (e.g. class abilities) to spend spark points on. I’ll confess I’m not entirely sure what multiclass mix this is supposed to support, particularly as it offers full spellcasting progression. That said, it is quite cool, particularly since it supports “super heavy armor” which is essentially a suit of mecha.

The other prestige class is the dragonlord, which is meant for characters with some sort of animal companion; you basically give up the animal companion in order to get a dragon instead. It’s pretty badass, and the class is a mixture of set class abilities and getting to pick from a suite of abilities (a la rogue talents).

The book closes out with a section of new legendary feats, which means that they can only be taken by 21st-level and above characters. The feats are, rather interestingly, divided into two groups. The first group is roughly what you’d expect of new feats, offering (again, a very mixed bag) of new abilities. Some of these are what you’d expect at this stage of play, such as being able to make a full attack action during a spring attack, while others (particularly the metamagic feats) don’t seem to quite keep pace – I suspect that in the case of the magic-focused feats, this lack of greater ability is by design (as I recall it being in the first book), since legendary spellcasting is already such an advantage, it’s appropriate that feats should play more towards the martial-oriented characters.

The second set of feats are called scion feats, and these are another love letter to multiclass characters. In this case, the feats are designed to allow access to the less powerful abilities of the base legendary classes for characters that, due to multiclassing, wouldn’t otherwise ever be able to reach them. For example, so long as you’re a 21st-level character, with at least 10 levels in samurai, you can take the Bushi of Susanoo scion feat, which gives you the legendary samurai’s death before dishonor class ability. It’s a very elegant way to make sure that the multiclassed characters aren’t left behind.

Ultimately, this book is the necessary follow-up to the first Legendary Levels, covering those classes that were excluded. In that sense, it’s a very apropos sequel, as it has both the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessor. The flaws are primarily based around some necessary editing (Legendary Mounted Combat is printed twice, for instance), and some options seem, at least on their face, better than some others, but none of this ever drastically undercuts the value of what’s here. If you desire to return to the realm of gaming beyond 20th level, and you’ve long since left the core classes behind, lok to Legendary Levels II to dial your character all the way up to 30.