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Star Log.EM-059: Kasatha Options
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/26/2019 06:15:38

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

After we receive a brief piece of fluff that contextualizes the Kasatha within the Xa-Osoro system, we begin this supplement with the kasatha paragon archetype – obviously, this one requires that you’re a kasatha. At 2nd level, the alternate class feature nets you a feat that requires being a kasatha or having “Kasatha” in its name. This may be taken as a replacement class feature at 4th, 6th, 12th and 18th level as well.

The pdf then proceeds to provide 9 new feats:

-Adaptive Stride: Requires Nimble Moves and makes you choose a terrain type from a list; in that terrain, you may thereafter move unimpeded through nonmagical terrain at normal speed.

-Archaic Weapon Proficiency: Attacks made with weapons, including unarmed ones, never count as archaic. This can be somewhat problematic, as the archaic property can usually be used as a means to balance some items. While this is not something SFRPG has been doing extensively, it is clearly the design intent behind how the archaic property is structured, so this could become broken rather fast.

-Armorless Adept: When unarmored, gain class level as insight bonus to EAC and KAC. You lose this bonus when unconscious or asleep, and your flat-footed penalty to AC increases to -4. The latter should only apply when unarmored, imho. RAW it also applies when such a character wears armor. Nice: Effects that provide immunity to this effect are accounted for and instead reduce the penalty. Strong, but cool option. Like it.

-Efficient Fusillade: Builds on Fusillade and halves your ammo-consumption for Fusillades. Solid.

-Honorable Edicts: +2 to saves vs. charm or compulsion – the bonus is untyped and should probably be insight. When affected, you get a second save, depending on the interval by which the duration is measured, and codifies this properly. Nice. Interacts with Personal Customs for a synergy boost.

-Personal Customs: Really cool premise – describe a custom in three categories: Combat, social and wellness. This can be something you do, or refrain from doing. As long as you maintain them, you gain a bonus: Combat lets you spend 1 Resolve Point as an “immediate action” (that should be reaction…) to reroll an attack roll or saving throw and use the higher result. Social shares the same action snafu and lets you reroll skill checks, and Wellness nets you a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws vs. nonmagical afflictions. I like the notion of this feat, but the action-snafu is a bit annoying. I also have balance-concerns when seeing its benefits in contrast to e.g. the Watch your step envoy improvisation. The combat reroll imho should not use the better result, or have some other limitation. As written, this is a VERY strong feat.

-Multi-Handed Drive-By: Really cool: Drive a vehicle AND use two hands to fight during vehicle chases.

-Multi-Handed Fighting: Builds on Multi-Weapon Fighting. Nets its benefits when you make a full attack with two or more weapons, regardless of type or number of hands required to wield them. I look at this one with some worry when considering the big guns out there. I’d at least have gone with a stricter prerequisite and relegated this to higher levels.

-Multi-Handed Reload: With two or more hands free, you treat any weapon wielded as a quick reload weapon – here, we have a catch that prevents abuse: Weapons only qualify if their ammo’s Bulk doesn’t exceed 1 or more. It also prevents automatic abuse. Solid!

The pdf also contains a new soldier fighting style, the battle dancer. At 1st level, we get Improved Unarmed Strike or a combat feat, and don’t need a free hand to make unarmed strikes. At 5th level we choose whether damage inflicted with unarmed attacks is lethal or nonlethal and gain a unique weapon specialization – bingo, 1.5 times character level is added to damage. Natural weapon specialization instead benefits from a further +2 to damage bonus. We also get a +1 insight bonus to all combat maneuvers; on a success, this bonus is increased by a further +1 for every 5 class levels to determine effects. Interesting. 9th level lets you spend 1 Resolve Point to impose a variety of different conditions on foes you strike with unarmed attacks, with a Fort-save to negate the effect and duration determined by half your choice of Strength or Dexterity modifier, whichever is higher. 13th level lets you add an attack as a reaction after a full attack of unarmed strikes has hit a foe – I assume all attacks, if more than one, have to hit. The reaction-based attack ignores DR and hardness, if any. Alternatively, you can use your reaction to make a combat maneuver attempt selected with Improved Combat maneuver. The verbiage is somewhat unfortunate here, with references like “second attack” being something that may easily be misunderstood. The ability uses the attack bonus of the attack(s) used to set it up – verbiage here could be slightly clearer as well. The 17th level ability, finally, provides immunity to being dazzled, flat-footed, off-kilter and off-target. Additionally, you may spend 1 Resolve Point as a reaction to ignore a wide variety of conditions for 3 rounds.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard and the artwork featured is nice. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

This is John Laffan’s first supplement I’ve reviewed, and it shows ample promise. There are quite a few genuinely nice concepts herein, and while I am concerned regarding the long-term viability and balance of a couple of the options, this nonetheless offers a couple of gems I consider definitely worth taking on board. While I would usually round down, the author benefits from the freshman bonus, which makes me round up from my final verdict of 3.5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Star Log.EM-059: Kasatha Options
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Starfarer Adversaries: Djinn Plant
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/24/2019 06:07:53

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

So, first of all: The sample artwork, as always reproduced as a 1-page handout within, rocks this time around. I have a soft spot for plant monsters, and it managed to creep me out, so that’s a good thing. The pdf contains not one, not two, but 4 different statblocks for different stages in the eponymous djinn plant’s life cycle: CR 1/3, CR 3, CR 12 and CR 19. It’s a plant, no surprises there, and the graft has been properly applied. The plants use the expert array as a basis.

So, the djinn plant, conceptually, comes quite a bit more explanation than other critters in the series, and there’s a reason for that – the budding, Tiny CR 1/3 version actually feels like a good decoration for most sentient species: It’s basically a venus flytrap-like plant that can’t move and subsist on annoying vermin, parasites, etc. Oh, and they smell nice. Really nice. As in calm emotions (Starfarer’s Companion)-levels of nice. Here’s the problem – while they can’t speak as a Tiny plant, they do learn to speak.

Once they’ve grown to adulthood, they get the signature ability that nets them their name “Aid Benefector” – sounds nice, right? Well, they reveal that they are sentient then, and communicate with their benefactors. You see, the plant can actually, once per week, grant you a wish. It just needs you to do this one teeny-tiny thing. Feed it a member of your species with a CR equal to or greater than the plant. DAYUM; that’s dark and would really screw up our entire planet, considering how humans can be!

What do I mean by that? It gets better! At CR 12, when they mature, they become ambulatory, have tendrils (with grab) and may swallow targets whole. Oh, and they start emitting those spores. Which will mutate plant-life into more djinn plants. WTF. That’s nightmare fuel. And all the while, everyone remains oh so calm, thanks to their aroma…OUCH. Once they reach their greater stage, they can trample targets and inflict, treant-style, double damage against objects. And yes, I genuinely consider them to be damn scary. Minor complaint: The swallow whole damage listed for the greater djinn plant is incorrect – it should be 6d10 + 25 A.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level; apart from the one minor snafu, I noticed nothing serious that would impede your enjoyment. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork is really nice this time around. The pdf has a single bookmark to the credits, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon’s djinn plants bring a little touch of a certain shop of horrors to space, and makes them a potentially civilizations-ending nightmare. I love them! How could I not! My one complaint here is that it’d have been nice to see a corruption, Occult Skill Guide style, or a disease-like representation for the “I mutate other plant-life”-angle, since chances aren’t that bad that sooner or later, there’ll be quite a few plant-based PC-races. Oh well, this still comes highly recommended at a final verdict of 5 stars!

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Starfarer Adversaries: Djinn Plant
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Star Log.EM-058: Kami
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/19/2019 11:34:35

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This Star Log.EM-installment clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

On the introductory page, we get a pretty massive subtype graft that grants kami immunity to bleed, polymorph and mind-affecting effects, resistance 10 to three energy types, as well as CR-based telepathy. Additionally, they designate a ward, which may be a creature, location or object. The kami may merge with the ward and share senses as a standard action, and emerge just the same way. Nice: This takes mounting wards into account regarding size category implications. While within 120 feet of the ward, the kami gets its CR as fast healing. If merged with the ward and the ward dies, so does the kami (no save!); if the ward dies while the kami is not merged with it, the kami instead becomes permanently sickened until establishing a new ward, which takes a full year! They also get ward empathy, making its starting attitude to respectively qualifying beings or those that inhabit the ward very positive. Nice framework!

Beyond a pretty massive and well-written piece of fluff, this supplement contains three different kami statblocks: At CR 1, we have the kokugami, a diminutive kami based on the expert array, capable of firing beams of sonic energy. The ray has no range noted, which is a bit annoying. That being said, I do like that the kami has unique abilities that reward merging with the host, allowing the kami to accept Constitution damage to reduce damage incurred by the host to nonlethal. And no, it can’t be cheesed. They also enhance the host’s healing while resting. Nice, can I have one? Minor nitpick: The statblock is missing its fast healing 1 defensive ability line.

At CR 10, the torijigami uses the combatant array, and treats its weapons as though they had the holy fusion – erroneously referred to as “infusion” here and not italicized. This fellow has no unique ward-twists. KAC isn’t properly bolded.

Finally, the CR 25 hozonsugami kami would be a bit odd, in that its CR is incorrect – it is clearly a CR 15 creature regarding EAC and KAC, Hit Points, etc., not, as noted, a CR 25 critter. It can fire rays of cosmic radiation that also cause radiation (severity rating would have been nice…), and it has a couple of cool tweaks –like the ability to attract meteorites to bombard nearby targets. They can also use their SPs while merged with the ward. On a nitpicky side, the save-names of this one aren’t properly bolded.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting can still be considered to be good on a formal and rules-language level, but e.g. the CR glitch is nasty, and the formatting oversights for the statblocks are uncommon to see in Everyman Gaming/Everybody Games’ offerings. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard, and the artwork included is nice. If it made you expect a starship-sized kami, you’ll be disappointed, though. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ kami are inspired in their concepts and ideas, but also, alas, slightly rushed regarding their formal criteria. While certainly not bad, a few of the formal glitches could confuse less experienced GMs. All in all, a cool, but also somewhat rushed-feeling supplement, resulting in a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Star Log.EM-058: Kami
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Star Log.EM-057: Space Goblin Options
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/19/2019 11:32:47

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

After a brief, flavorful introduction to space goblins within the context of the Xa-Osoro system, we kick off this pdf with the Best-Gob paragon archetype, which requires, obviously, that the character in question is a space goblin. This archetype nets the best-gob Skill Focus with Engineering at 2nd level as an alternate class feature. At 11th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the insight bonus increases by 1. Additionally, at 4th, 6th, 12th and 19th level, you may take any feat with the goblinoid subtype as a prerequisite as a replacement class feature bonus feat.

The pdf also presents 12 new feats (which will probably bring a smile to plenty of PFRPG-veterans):

-Burn! Burn! Burn!: +1 insight bonus to attack with fire damage dealing attacks; additionally, when attacking with a non-fire damage dealing spell or attack, you can convert half damage into fire damage. Depending on your campaign’s power-level, this may warrant scrutiny, as this can render regular weaponry better than dual damage type equivalents. I’d ban this in my game.

-Everything is UBPS: This is cool: It lets you expend items when using Engineering to craft or repair as if they were UBPs worth 90% base price; broken items still yield 50% UBPs. Cool!

-Expanded Tinkering: Use a move action to affect an ally’s weapon in reach; the weapon may not eb broken, which nets +4d6 damage for single-target weapons, +2d6 for AoE weaponry (which, I assume, includes automatic weapons); this only applies to the next attack, and at the start of your next round, the weapon becomes broken. Not a big fan of this conversion.

-Explosive Resistance: +2 to AC and to saves vs. blast and explode weapons and AoE effect spells. This doubles against “attacks and spells that you use.” Not sure what that means – proficiency? Ability to cast them? Effects that originate from the character? This could be a bit smoother.

-Get Into Everything: +2 to Strength checks to break stuff; also adds a racial bonus to Improved Combat Maneuver (sunder), if you have it. The feat also allows you to make Engineering checks to pinpoint weak points in a construction, with DC scaling based on item level. Nice one!

-Goblin Song: Language-based swift action demoralize versus a target, potentially affecting allies of the target within 30 ft., though the Intimidate check is harder for these secondary targets. Nice: Has proper menacing gaze expertise talent synergy.

-Improved Tinker: When using the tinker racial trait, ignore broken condition for 1d4 rounds, after which an object ceases to work for 10 minutes. Nice one, and kudos for the anti-abuse caveat!

-Junkomancer Adept: Technomancer feat that increases CL for spells with “junk” or “bot” in the name by +2 for the purpose of duration, and fabricate scrap becomes more potent. The spell-reference is not italicized properly, though.

-Junkomancer Expert: This one builds on the previous one, and modifies the cache capacitor. The spells list can be cast at will, but their effects end after 24 hours. Interesting!

-Jury Rigging: Lets you create a fragile repaired version of an item. Fragile? Yep, this may make your weapons break rather easily – the property is noted here. That being said, this lacks e.g. the precision and differentiation of the excellent jury-rigging rules presented in this very series. I strongly suggest using Star Log.EM: Jury-Rigging Rules instead.

-Master Junker: Move 10 ft. through difficult terrain as if it were normal terrain, but only for non-natural difficult terrain. Also nets you a +1 untyped bonus to Engineering checks to identify creatures, recall knowledge and craft or repair technological items.

-Unexpected Critical (Combat): When you attack with a broken weapon you used tinker racial trait on, and your attack roll’s result is a 19, you may spend 1 Resolve Point to treat the attack as a critical hit, but only if you’d hit the target with the 19. On a hit, you deal double damage and trigger any critical effects of the weapon, but at the end of the turn, the weapon is destroyed.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good on a rules-language and formal level, and the pdf comes with a nice artwork. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob McKiernan’s space goblin options are interesting, ranging from the very clever to the slightly less exciting – the material basically takes old PFRPG material and re-contextualizes it. All in all, I consider this to be a nice expansion for space goblin fans, but wasn’t too impressed with quite a few of the feats within. My final verdict will be 3.5 stars, rounded down for the purpose of this platform – recommended if you were a fan of PFRPG’s goblins, but otherwise, not the strongest offering in the product line.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Star Log.EM-057: Space Goblin Options
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Starfarer Adversaries: Bounty Hunter
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/19/2019 11:31:21

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The bounty hunter herein comes in three iterations, all of which are human soldiers – the rookie (CR 4), the regular one (CR 8) and the veteran (CR 12). The builds make use of the Spell Bane feat and the bounty hunter theme; the latter being a welcome, if unusual deviation from the straight application of class grafts here, as far as I’m concerned.

The builds seem to be missing the -2 adjustment to Reflex save mandated by the class graft, though. As far as fighting styles are concerned, we have the bombard here, and grenade expert noted separately. As an early offering, there are some deviations in the notation of statblocks here – damage, for example, is not abbreviated, but instead lists e.g. “piercing” fully, and the formatting of grenades does differ from the one used in e.g. the Alien Archives. Interesting, if not correctly formatted – the builds use entangling weapon fusions for grenades. Similarly, the fly speed the two more potent builds receive should note that it’s derived from a jetpack.

Conclusion: Editing is very good on a formal, and good on a rules-language level; as far as formatting is concerned, we have quite a few deviations from the standard. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork provided is rather charmingly reminiscent of silver age comic book books. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon nets a couple of solid and usable, if not perfect soldier statblocks here. Very much an NPC Codex-style offering, they provide some rank-and-file fodder for your PCs to struggle against. All in all, a decent, if not mind-blowing offering. The installment covering Thugs was much better and offered more. My final verdict will clock in at 2.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Starfarer Adversaries: Bounty Hunter
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Starfarer Adversaries: Saline Horror
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/13/2019 08:13:59

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clocks in at 6 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Fans of Dark Sun (and/or its Ravenloft spinoff domain) will know what to expect here – an slimy, slick creature with no visible eyes or ears, but a lamprey-like mouth – and the hands of these horrors similarly contain such maws. Build-wise, the saline horror in SFRPG is a CR 6 creature using the expert array. The monstrous humanoid graft has been properly applied, attack and damage-values check out, SPs list their proper DCs, and the creature has a signature attack, which it can use to drain immobilized or grabbed targets of their saline, inflicting Constitution damage. Even its scent-based tracking and blindsense have been properly noted. And yes, we get a one-page handout-style version of the artwork.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no formal or rules-language-related glitches. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork provided is nice and icky. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon delivers a nice critter here – nothing to really complain about, save that it’d have been nice to get a second statblock or some other form of supplemental material. Still, all in all, a worthwhile addition to the SFRPG-roster, which, at $1.95, is certainly worth its fair asking price. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Starfarer Adversaries: Saline Horror
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Occult Skill Guide: Actual Cannibal Corruption
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/12/2019 11:36:15

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the so far absolutely amazing Occult Skill Guide-series clocks in at 9 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters.

So, on the introductory page, we already have something I genuinely enjoyed seeing, namely a more diversified take on addiction. As you all know, Starfinder treats drug addiction as a disease that progresses each time a drug is taken. Which, come to think of it, doesn’t always make sense – addictions certainly develop when a drug is consumed, but withdrawal effects occur from abstinence, and not indulgence. As such, the pdf presents a variant for addiction as a disease (drug use). Save and track are specified by the respective drug, while the effect is as follows: Every 1d6 days, the victim must attempt a saving throw against the disease, with the DC equal to the drug the victim is addicted to, +2 for every time the victim consumed the drug within the last 7 days. On a failed save the victim progresses from the latent to to impaired, to a maximum of weakened. Each hour, the victim attempts a new save progressing to the next step on a failed save. This continues until the victim uses the specified drug or succeeds on 3 consecutive saving throws, after which the addiction reverts to the latent stage for 1d6 days.

Each addiction starts as a minor addiction, and on 3 failed consecutive saving throws, progresses to moderate,, and after that, we reach severe. These have new maximum steps to progress to. Cure is noted as well. This is pretty elegant, in that it presents a frame-work that is easy to tweak – the cooldown in days, the penalty to the DC – all components that can be tackled on their own. Plus, for gritty games, this allows you to portray the effects of addiction decoupled from individual drugs, or in conjunction with individual drugs. Speaking of which: This framework does work smoothly in conjunction with the awesome item-level scaling drug-rules presented in the phenomenal Pop Culture Catalog: Vice Dens.

Now, as before, this is a stand-alone book: All the rules required to introduce corruptions into your game have been provided in this pdf, and since I’ve explained them already, I will refrain from doing so again – suffice to say, they are damn cool, one could call them…addictive. See what I did there? ;)

The Cannibal corruption is associated with Will as save and Wisdom as the relevant ability score modifier, and the source is obvious here: The target has partaken in sapient flesh of their own race, either willingly or unwillingly due to wendigo psychosis or sadistic compulsions. As far as save DCs are concerned, they scale with the corruption’s victim’s level and start at DC 13 and progress to 19, with each stage tracking its save DC increases separately, making the progression per se less burst-like and more steady.

Wait. You don’t have rules for wendigo psychosis? Well, guess what! We have a unique simple template graft to create wendigo creatures, including howl, properly codified airwalking (based on a supernatural equivalent of force soles) and the psychosis codified as a proper curse! But let us get back to the corruption: You progress through it whenever you consume sapient (properly-codified, fyi!) meat – 1d6 corruption points; if the target consumed is of your own race, it’s 1d20 corruption points for you! The latent stage also nets an addiction to consuming the flesh of creatures of their own race, and latent stage nets Cannibalistic Euphoria – which provides a bonus to an ability score of your choice for 10 minutes, which doesn’t stack with augmentations whenever you consume flesh of your own species. Higher corruption stages increase this bonus. At this point, simply abstaining from meat-consumption for long enough (provided the addiction lets you!) suffices to cure this. At Stage 1, consuming flesh of your species also heals you with a scaling mystic cure, with higher levels and corruption stages also adding remove condition/affliction to the roster of benefits. Sure you want to get rid of this?

Stage 2 nets you proficiency with entangle, grapple., gravitational, mire, throttle and trip weapons, or +1 to atk or save DCs/skill check DCs related to them, if you already are proficient…gotta hunt your meat, Hills Have Eyes IN SPACE!!!-style. At stage 3, only death and a proper cleansing ritual before resurrection may revert the horrific corruption the character has underwent. This also provides some serious benefits – including skill ranks, bonus feats, and means to stay in the fight – basically, at this point, you’re almost Jason. And before you ask, yes, the rules of the corruption are presented in a way that lets you apply it to NPCs without much hassle.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch on a formal and rules-language level. I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to the series elegant two-column full-color standard, and the artwork featured is neat, and an original full-color piece. Kudos: The pdf is fully bookmarked in spite of its brevity.

Alexander Augunas’ cannibal corruption kicks behind and takes names; the entire Occult Skill Guide series so far has been nothing but a joy to review, and this is is no different. Corruptions are an amazing concept, and how the author manages to portray the lure that their powers offer, while contrasting them with nasty detriments, is awesome. This is role-playing gold, and I seriously recommend getting all of them, particularly if you’re as excited as I am for e.g. Grimmerspace, for which these pdfs imho make a natural fit. All in all, a great offering, well worth 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Occult Skill Guide: Actual Cannibal Corruption
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5e Classes: The Godling
by Derek B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/09/2019 00:28:34

The 5e version of The Godling is written by Ken Pawlik, and runs 25 pages long, with cover, credits, OGL, and advertisements. The file I’m using for this is a reviewer’s copy.

I’ll start off by saying that the godling was my favourite concept for a class back during its inception in Pathfinder, with the mighty godling being my favourite out of them all. I loved it so much that I immediately allowed it in my home games and have even had one of my players create their first character using the class. So in writing this review, I’m coming from a fairly biased place of love and admiration. It’s also why I came down especially hard on the eldritch godling as it didn’t really hold up by comparison to the other three.

The book contains the godling base class as well as the four archetypes that were originally four separate classes in Pathfinder. It starts off with introducing that godlings come from myths and legends, who are tested in trials through adventuring and quests. This is followed by a paragraph that helps give a brief rundown on how to stat a godling, using Strength as Constitution as your primary stats, followed by the stat chosen by your lineage. It is assumed/suggested that the player take the folk hero background for their character.

Up next is the godling class and table. The first thing I noticed, and would have immediately changed, is the godling getting it’s 4th level of Path to Legend at 16th level. I would have moved that to 15th level as that would have been more in line with when the godling gets all of its preceding levels (ie. once every four levels).

A godling gets d8 HD, and Constitution as their proficient saving throw. As for its second saving throw, that is dependent on what lineage the character takes (adept, clever, eldritch, or mighty). Like other 5e classes, players are given the choice of two skills from a particular list, weapon and armor proficiency, and starting equipment. A godling gains the following abilities over the course of 20 levels: divine lineage, mythic inspiration, ascendancy, Path to Legend, and eventually become a demigod at 20th level. This is in additional to the standard ability score improvement gained at the same level intervals as most classes.

At 1st level a godling chooses a divine lineage that’ll determine what type of godling the become (adept, clever, eldritch, or mighty). This will determine your second saving throw and, if you choose adept or eldritch, you also receive access to up to 5th level spell slots. At 3rd level, you start to gain your class’s archetype based on the path you choose for them to take. There are 10 paths in total, ranging from the battle lord who locks targets into one place and helps marshal allies into dealing extra damage to targets, to the healing hand who can heal others with a touch as well as recover their own hit points quicker, to the weapon master who can will into existence a magical weapon of their choice and upgrade their weapon with different abilities each time to do so. For the weapon master, there is a chart on the following page that gives more detail on the point cost of each ability and what each one does.

The mystic inspiration is a nice addition to the class. Basically it gives your character a version of the Lucky feat, allowing you to spend a point of inspiration to gain advantage on a specific roll. At various levels, you can choose what you use this reroll for, starting with skill checks, to attack rolls, and finally to affecting an ally’s rolls. These points are regained after a long rest.

At 2nd level, the godling ascends to gain truly god-like abilities. In the original versions of the godling class, these were called Scion Talents. Over the course of 20 levels, a godling gains 8 ascendancies. Some are pretty powerful as they require you to have taken a specific lineage, but there are other abilities that mimic it, but are weaker because they don’t have a requirement. This makes it possible for different characters to have similar abilities, but really showcases who the ability is truly meant for. About the only ascendancy I would have liked to see better explained for its ability is Rolling Thunder. It requires the mighty divine lineage, 7th level, and the Thunderclap ascendancy. As-written, it sounds like when you use your thunderclap, which normally deals damage to one target within 30 feet, it instead no longer does any damage and causes all targets within 10 feet to have the deafened condition for 1 minute and knocks them prone if they fail their save. That almost sounds like that should be the reverse for requirements as knocking targets prone can be very circumstantial unless they’re surrounded by your allies. It also wouldn’t work against flying targets. Compare that to Spontaneous Resurrection where you can return to life twice up to 4 hours later after dying, but at the same location you were killed at. In exchange you have levels of exhaustion that’ll take a few days to get rid of. However, you’d have to be very careful that your character didn’t die in lava or the ability will be wasted. If you have a DM that allows for class retraining, after two uses of that ascendancy, making it useless, a character could get something else instead. Each table is different, and it’s not fair to judge it on that alone. It just shows that a player has to be very careful about what their character chooses, and to think long term about the abilities.

It’s here that it’s quite apparent that there are no optional feats. I found this to be rather unfortunate as I was hoping to see the divine traits from their original incarnation brought over. There were four levels to each of these so seeing a few combined together and becoming a feat would have been nice to see. Understandably, it could be argued that they’d be class-only feats, but some of them could have worked for clerics, paladins, and even some sorcerers. There’s also the argument that because feats are optional that it wouldn’t be worth adding in this book. Hopefully if a sequel book comes out we’ll see them become feats or even new ascendancies.

Near the end of the book is lay out for how one can multiclass into the godling class, and what the required stats are for each lineage, as well as what proficiencies are gained based on the same lineage. Was surprised it was to enter this class compared to others.

The text format stands out, but unfortunately not in the best way. It appears to change from page to page. One page looks to be in Arial format while another is in Times New Roman, and sometimes a page has bolded text while other pages do not. This can be jarring to the reader on initial viewing, and it’s not really something you get used to. It’s minor, but it definitely stands out. Other than that, the color scheme and background is pretty standard for some of the books that Rogue Genius Games has come out with. It’s not glaring and helps make the text pop out, for better or worse, as mentioned above. Overall it’s pleasant to look at, but could have used one more pass over before release.

In conclusion, despite the text glitches, where the final Path of Legend level is placed, and a lack of optional feats, it checks off the other required boxes I had for, as well as what is expected of a standard 5e class. My bar was set pretty high on this one for me, and while it didn’t meet all of my expectations, what beats it did meet were impressive, and it’s still an all around nice class made available for the 5e system. My final rating on this is 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars. Like the original, I'd allow this in a home game.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
5e Classes: The Godling
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Starfarer's Codex: Legacy Dragonrider
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/03/2019 05:26:35

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Starfarer’s Codex-series clocks in at 25 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 21 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreons.

All right, the dragonrider class gets proficiency with basic melee weapons, light armor, small arms, and elemental arms – these basically would be weapons depending on the type of the dragon: Black and copper. For example, net access to disintegrator advanced melee weapons and longarms as well as acid dart rifle longarms, while red and gold get access to flame advanced melee weapons, to give you two examples. There is a nice bit of future-proofing with the solar dragon going on as well – it’d usually provide proficiency with laser advanced melee weapons, but in absence of them, plasma is used. The class gets to choose its key-ability modifier: Either Strength or Charisma are eligible candidates. The class nets 7 + Constitution modifier Stamina Points and 7 Hit Points, and has 4 + Intelligence modifier skills per level. The dragonrider has full BAB-progression and only good saves, which is pretty potent.

Of course, the signature ability here would be the bonded dragon steed – at 1st level, the dragonrider already has a bonded dragon, and multiclassing into the class results in an eligible dragon approaching the PC within 30 days. A bonded dragon may carry its rider if it is of the same size category or greater, provided, its Strength suffices. Bonded dragons can fly at full speed even if heavily encumbered. Carrying of smaller creatures is accounted for. If a dragon dies, we are looking at a -1 penalty to atk and damage rolls.

So, let’s take a look at the steed, shall we? Hit Point-wise, we have a fixed progression, with a starting Hit Point array of 15, increasing to up to 295 at 20th level. Odd: While generally, the Hit Points are much less than e.g. those of a comparable combat array creature, 2nd level sports 25 Hit Points, which makes this level on par with the combat array default values. The bonded dragon has ¾ BAB-progression, and saves that start at +2 and increase up to +9. At 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the dragon gets a +1 ability score increase, with the ability scores available depending on the dragon type. The dragon begins play with a feat, and gains another at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, though feats requiring a BAB of +1 are locked until 3rd level, and the Armor and Weapon Proficiency feats are explicitly prohibited. Ranged weapons they are proficient with may be mounted on their shoulders at no expense. The dragon gets to choose a single skill chosen from a list, gaining the dragonrider’s class levels in it. Acrobatics and another skill, as determined by the dragon type, is also gained thus. At 4th level and 8th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the dragon gets an additional skill from the list to which these benefits are applied.

The base breath weapon is obviously dependent on the dragon steed type, with the Reflex save DC equal to DC 10 + ½ the dragon steed’s level + the dragon steed’s Constitution modifier. The breath weapon may be used 3 + the dragon steed’s Constitution modifier times per day, with a 4-round cooldown to prevent spamming between uses. At 10th level, the dragon gets ½ its level as Resolve, and may then spend 1 Resolve Point to regain a daily breath weapon use as a 10-minute rest. As the dragon progresses, its breath weapon increases in potency to 15 times the dice and 5 times the range. On the nitpicky side, while the universal rules for breath weapons establish that Reflex saves halves, it’d be convenient to have the action to activate and the caveat noted here – not complaining, mind you – just stating that this takes a bit more system mastery than it needs.

The core concept here, beyond these, would be the mystic focus: Without the dragonrider establishing mystic focus, the dragon only takes a move actions each round and reactions and things that don’t require an action. Each dragon steed requires a different action to establish the focus that lets the dragon and its rider bypass this – more potent dragons require more investment regarding action economy. Mystic focus must be established each round anew. True dragons generally require more valuable actions; when “free action” (not a term in SF – as the pdf knows and thankfully specifies!) is listed, the focus may be established as part of taking a standard, move, swift or full action. The focus may only be established during the dragonrider’s turn. While the focus is in effect, no verbal communication is required between steed and rider, and the dragon takes its turn on the dragonrider’s initiative count. The pdf specifies what happens when the dragonrider is incapacitated or unconscious. The two share a link and always know each others’ direction and distance while on the same plane, as well as any conditions suffered. 3rd level nets evasion (erroneously called “Evation”[sic!] in the table), and it, as well as 16th level’s improved evasion, only works while the dragon is unarmored and unencumbered, and obviously, the benefit is lost when the dragon is helpless or unable to move.

Third level nets the standard weapon specialization benefit of e.g. the vesk, and 5th level nets share spells. 6th level provides a +4 insight bonus to Will saves against enchantment spells and effects, 11th level nets Multiattack – three attacks at -6 to atk. Each category of dragon steed advances in two steps – we get starting stats, and at 8th and 16th level, we get growth and advancement stats for them. Beyond the chromatic and metallic classics, we have lunar and solar dragons, time, void and vortex dragons. The respective steeds do btw. gain signature abilities beyond the hard numbers of these stats – acid pools, striking through space, etc – these do, however, cost breath weapon uses. Minor nitpick: Not all of them properly list their activation action – the black dragon’s acid pool, the bronze dragon’s repulsion gas lack either a reference to “instead” of their usual breath weapon, or a listed action to activate these abilities. Not a game-breaker, but slightly inconvenient.

On another note: I do like that the respective steeds do differentiate between fly speed types as yet another balancing component. On the down side, I noticed two utterly unnecessary comfort detriments in the presentation of these steeds: We get the base ability scores listed, but the ability score modifiers are not listed. Sure, at this point we all can recite them by hard, but still. More grievous would be that natural attacks like bite and claws fail to list their proper damage-types, which flew back in PFRPG due to how sloppy that game handled them, but dragons in Starfinder very much codify these – to spare you the hassle of double-checking: Bites cause piercing damage, claws slashing damage.

But let us return to the dragonrider: 2nd level nets low-light vision, or darkvision 60 ft. if he already has it; otherwise, darkvision range doubles. 3rd level nets resist energy to the bonded dragon’s breath weapon,, starting at 5, and increasing to 10 at 8th level, and by another +10 at 13th and 18th level. This stacks with other resistance sources, and changes with the change of steeds. 2nd level nets spell-like abilities, with the spell-list determined by the dragon type, and DC equal to 10 + spell’s level and key ability score modifier. PRETTY sure that should be Charisma instead! Otherwise, choosing Charisma over Strength doesn’t make much sense regarding key ability modifier choice. This begins with 2 0-level at-will spells, and 6th level provides 2 1st-level spells, usable 3/day; 10th level, 14th and 18th level provide 2 spells from the respective higher spell levels, with lower spell levels gaining more uses and up to 2nd level spells becoming at-will. The at-will casting is not something that should be available for PCs – it begs to be abused to smithereens. This needs a nerf. Additionally, the verbiage on its own made it impossible for me to determine whether the limited uses of these SPs are tracked by SP, or by level of the spell of the SPs – granted, a swift check of the defaults of how SPs are tracked for critters does make that clear (it’s tracked per SP, just fyi), but I couldn’t help but feel like a slight verbiage tweak could have prevented the requirement for less experienced players to look that up.

3rd level nets Weapon Specialization for each weapon the class is proficient in, and 4th level provides arms training, choosing heavy weapons of the same type as elemental arms, all longarms, all advanced melee weapons, or all sniper weapons. Specialization is these is gained with a 4-level delay, and at 8th level, a new category is chosen, which then gets the Weapon Specialization benefits 4 levels later, etc. 4th level allows for the summoning of the steed as a “full-round action” 1/day, +1/day for every 3 levels thereafter. This ability is treated as a SP, with a spell-level equal to ¼ the dragonrider’s level.

5th, 9th, 12th and 17th level net a bonus feat chosen from a list; 6th level nets darkvision or limited telepathy, 10th level blindsense (scent), 14th level blindsight (vibration), all with notes on how they interact with senses granted other sources. 16th level nets +5 level SR, which is shared with the steed, and the capstone allows the dragonrider to 1/day use a 6th-level polymorph to take the bonded steed’s shape, though oddly, the fly speed type and the like are fixed, not based on the steed.

The pdf features notes for how the class interacts with altered/replaced class features.

The pdf features two new items – at item level 1, the dragon envirocollar wyrmling nets the Large or smaller dragon environmental protection, and the second is level 8, and helps for larger dragons.

This is not where the pdf ends, though: The pdf introduces a new starship combat role, the Draconic Harasser, which allows the dragon capable of spaceflight to play their part. (A magic item for dragons with extraordinary flight would have been nice), Draconic Harasser actions occur in Phase 4, after gunnery, and you can have as many of them as you have dragonriders + steeds. They have a range of 8 hexes. The actions available include using Survival to impose basically disadvantage on the next attack roll; alternatively, you can intercept TL-targeting weapons, grant +2 bonuses to Gunner or Science Officers courtesy to scouting, or provide a minor buff to AC and TL. Opposing gunners or pilots may take AntiDragon actions, which can checkmate you for the round and cause damage – so yeah, starship combat for dragons is nothing for wusses!

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are okay on a formal level, and good rules language level – I noticed a few inconveniences, a PFRPG-remnant, a missing “a” here and there – cosmetic stuff that doesn’t impede functionality per se, but that accumulates in its collective inconveniences. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and interior art is solid, but doesn’t reach the unadulterated level of awesome that Jacob Blackmon’s cover evoked for me. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks for your convenience.

Joshua Hennington’s conversion of the dragonrider class to Starfinder is a well-crafted supplement per se – while potent, the dragon is a valid and solid option, and I love the starship combat option. That being said, I do have several complaints that do extend to the rules: For one, the class doesn’t offer much differentiation beyond the steed-selection. Dragonriders with the same type of dragon are pretty similar. Secondly, the unlimited SPs need to die a fiery death. Thirdly, the pdf feels like it could have used a final editing pass to make it slightly more newbie-friendly.

These in and of themselves don’t make this a bad pdf by a long shot – this is, themewise, a great little booklet – one that could have reached the apex of greatness, but as a whole, these small gripes do add up. My final verdict thus can’t exceed 3.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo. Just watch out regarding those SPs and be ready to do some very close reading.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Starfarer's Codex: Legacy Dragonrider
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Star Log.EM-067: Terragaru
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/03/2019 05:23:17

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This Star Log.EM clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

On the first page, we have a new size-category –Supercolossal. All creatures of this size are even larger than Colossal critters, and receive the Massive extraordinary ability. Creatures with this ability ignore difficult terrain and environment-based movement-impairing effects of up to 1/4th of a height or depth of the creature’s space. These creatures may not be flanked by critters that are Large or smaller, and receive +2 to AC against attacks from such targets. They also only take half damage from effects from such targets. These critters also get an untyped +2 bonus to all saving throws against effects with sources Large or smaller, and obviously, supercolossal creatures can’t be grappled by Large or smaller targets, and supercolossal creatures don’t gain the grappled condition when grappling or pinning Large or smaller targets.

This pdf contains two different statblocks – the first (and lower-powered one!) would be the Colossal Joey of Terragaru, a mighty CR 20 magical beast that has an extraordinary fly speed of 100 ft. via mighty leaps, a bulk that can hold literally more than a ton – 10, or 2K bulk, to be precise! Objects may be transferred to and fro as a swift action, and as a full action, the joey can attack all creatures in a 15-foot cone with the tail, using an ammo-less version of the automatic property to provide a properly contextualized AoE attacks with their tails…which btw. also can be used to grapple multiple targets, depending on target size-category. The joey doesn’t have space and reach noted, which may be a glitch or a conscious design decision, considering how it interacts with the adult terragaru. Odd: The joey has two subtypes noted that the adult Terragaru doesn’t have. This is probably a glitch. On the plus-side: I love that senses like blindsight (scent) have their ranges extended to a range that actually makes them sensible for creatures of this size.

The big terragaru is Supercolossal CR 25 monster that further improves upon the massive defensive qualities of the joey; the mighty leap has a whopping 500 ft.-range, and the big buddy’s kicks actually cause massive bleeding and even Constitution drain! Nice: While it also has mighty leap, it does not have the joey’s stipulation of needing to end on a solid surface, and thus has maneuverability noted. Easy to overlook – kudos for catching that! Oh, and while speaking of small details I enjoyed: Being inside a joey’s pouch is a hassle, being inside the Terragaru’s pouch is deadly – if the joey is inside the pouch, that is! Kudos: Damage here is based on the joey’s presence, and as such uses the joey’s stats – it’s a small touch, easy to overlook, but I loved seeing it!

Their sweeping strikes can attack targets in a massive 250-foot cone, and these guys can even grapple multiple Gargantuan targets! The massive being can attempt rerolls on failed saves vs. paralysis, petrification, polymorph, mind-affecting effects, etc. sans action, and 1/year, when they’d be reduced to 0 Hit Points, the terragaru can enter a lethargic state as a reaction, becoming nauseated, but also regaining a massive array of Hit Points, retreating into a kind of hibernation…but any attacks will end this state’s effects and retreat, and make the terragaru hit back for round #2! As a creature of massive size, every step of the vast creature is accompanied by a massive earthquake, and as a full action, they can not only leave a localized quake in their wake, but cause a massive 1-mile radius quake!

How does that work in SFRPG? Well, fret not, for pdf does come with a new 6th-level mystic spell, earthquake, which btw. may not affect e.g. environments like starships that sport no seismic activity. The spell does miss one thing in the conversion to SFRPG – the damage it causes should probably be typed as bludgeoning.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level, almost as good on a rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork is neat. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ depiction of a massive kaiju kangaroo for SFRPG rocks – the massive monster is deadly, and I certainly can see it decimating whole invading fleets, as noted in the flavor text; similarly, I can see the besieged local populace of yroometji venerating the massive being as a destructive protector. The flavor puts a nice spin on this force of nature. While not perfect, this is a delightful and interesting critter-pdf, with some cool angles hard-coded into these creatures. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Star Log.EM-067: Terragaru
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Star Log.EM-056: InsaneCorp's Delightfully Destructive Disintegrators
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/03/2019 05:22:05

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Why do I have such a strange feeling of unease? As though something odd that I’ve forgotten has… THWUMP tap tap Is this reviewer-dude on? Great! Hoomanz of Planet Earth, this is Doctor Malifaord Hudson Insano speaking once more to you from beyond the boundaries of your backwater galaxy, directly transmitting my brainwaves into this mortal vessel to tell you about my delightful disintegrators and how they can solve your problems!

What problems? I’m glad you asked! You see, if you consult the introduction-page of this pdf, you’ll notice my explanation! In your local parlance for tl;dr, here’s the gist of it: What couldn’t you solve with them? Trash? Disintegrated. Boss nagging? One zap and you’re rid of all those annoying deadlines! Redecorating? Steel won’t withstand our handy tools! Really dislike that one city block? Well, whip out your trusty atomizer bazooka!

But I’m getting ahead of myself! Let’s go through all those wonderful weapons, shall we? All of these items come in 4 different versions for different levels of expertise, with different prices. Are you handy? As in: Do you like your advanced melee weaponry? Well, then I have two options – the dissolvatron katar, if you prefer one-handed weapons, and the fission katana for two-handed slice and dice! Both are obviously powered weapons, with all but the most basic models of each kind offering corrode on critical hits. The katana slashes foes and deals acid damage as well, while the dissolvatron katar uses sonic and acid to pulverize foes. These two come for levels 2, 7, 12 and 17, but…oh. Damn. The dissolvatron katar…is kinda missing its damage values in the table. Damn. I need to contact my hooman guy to fix this.

Anyhow, the katana! You wanted to look at that one, right? Right! Well, it obviously has the deflect and operative special property, but it also comes with my patented single grip. This allows you to wield a two-handed weapon in one hand – though at the drawback of it becoming unwieldy.

Didn’t get any formal combat training with the big slice-and-dicers? Fret not, dear hooman! Your friend has you covered! Available in levels 1, 6, 11 and 16 versions, we have the atomizer chakram that may be thrown and is an operative weapon. Its high level versions have the wound and severe wound critical effects, respectively. It’s obviously acid-based, but you knew that already. For two-handed foe pulverizing, I do heartily recommend the ion smasher – with acidic effects, corroding crits and a blend of acid and bludgeoning damage, there are few things as satisfying as squishing targets with it.

For levels 4, 9, 14 and 19, I do recommend the discombobulation pistols – with neat acid, 20 charges, a light bulk and the blast special property, they are easily concealed and rather fun to use, though their range is only 15 ft. For those who value their privacy, I always recommend my bondbreaker sniper rifles, which are currently available for levels 3, 8, 13 and 18. Like the pistol, it has a usage of 5 and a capacity of 20 charges, but it also has a range of 40 ft., the sniper (250 ft.) and unwieldy property, but it does come with handy corrode critical effects for all models!

What’s that? I saw you eyeing that big one. Yep, that’s the atomizer bazooka I mentioned before! It’s available in 4 versions, for level 5, 10, 15 and 20, has a range of 30 ft. capacity of 20 charges, usage 4…and bulk 3. Okay, I know – it’s still two bulk less than the sniper rifle, okay? It does make up for that with corrode in all models, d20-based damage, and the explosive special property. While the lower two models have 10 ft. there, the higher-level iterations increase explode’s radius by +5 ft. each!

Oi…the signal’s got some issues…guess I’ll hand the rest over to the reviewer guy…

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level. On a rules-language level, the absence of damage values for one of the weapons is slightly jarring and hampers and otherwise very precise book. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork presented is nice. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ transcriptions of these weapons rock – I enjoy them all, and there are some seriously cool concepts here. Apart from aforementioned glitch, there is nothing to complain about here, making this a nice book of weaponry. My final verdict will clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Star Log.EM-056: InsaneCorp's Delightfully Destructive Disintegrators
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Starfaring Species: Otyughs
by Randy S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/31/2019 23:06:39

Let me say prefice this by saying I LOVE classic D&D/Pathfinder monsters, and I get a kick when they're updated to other genres.

This does a smashing job of updating perhaps one of the goofier monsters and allowing to find motivation to explore the stars in various stages of its life. It does a great job of providing an ecology and giving some very fun player options. Should I ever get a chance to play Starfinder again, I may just have to make use of this.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Starfaring Species: Otyughs
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Starfarer Adversaries: Thugs
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/31/2019 05:50:22

An Endzietgeist.com review

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clock in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

As always with these pdfs, we do get a neat one-page full-color rendition of the cover artwork, which makes for a nice handout. Beyond that, we also receive not one, not two, but 6 different statblocks in this pdf – CR 1, CR 2 and CR 4 are based on regular orcs, while CR 3, CR 6 and CR 9 are heavy thug statblocks, based on ogres.

Let’s start with the orc-builds, shall we? They use the soldier class graft and have the adjustments applied properly, and use the blitz fighting style – yes, rapid response has been properly implemented, and, as a courtesy to the GM, even been listed. Much to my pleasant surprise, the CR 1 version has a small and neat, but not overbearing ability that nets a bonus to attacks when attacking in conjunction with allies within 5 ft. Similarly, the CR 2 thug has a reduced base speed due to armor, but lists base speed as well – it’s a small thing and technically not required by SFRPG, but I enjoyed seeing that. Melee striker has been properly implemented for the CR 2 version. CR 4 is similarly built in a solid manner.

The ogre-based heavy thug builds don’t use a class graft, and instead elect to provide an ability that makes their slams count as non-archaic and armed, in line with tradition. The CR 6 and 9 builds add wyrmling glands to their arsenal. It should be noted that the DCs for these don’t use the standard ability DC here, and instead use the gland’s default calculation, which makes them come up, DC-wise, at +2 higher than when based on the default values. Checking the overall damage output versus Starfinder conventions, this still has them in line with everything. No complaints on my part, save that there are a few VERY minor formatting deviations, like a slash as a break before critical effects of weapons. These are cosmetic, though.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The handout-style rendition of the cover artwork is appreciated.

Jacob Blackmon’s cadre of unpretentious thugs made me expect a rather boring cast of NPCs, but I’ve been pleasantly-surprised by this one. Within the limited frame available, this has delivered a rather nice array of adversaries for a more than fair price-point. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up for the purpose of this platform. Recommended if you need some rank-and-file goons and don’t want to waste your time statting those!

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Starfarer Adversaries: Thugs
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Star Log.EM-055: Zephyrians
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/30/2019 10:40:46

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The first thing you’ll notice when checking this pdf out – we actually get roleplaying advice for the zephyrian race! Nice! The race may, at first glance, be mistaken for human, though their skin pigmentation does differ, and their increased hair growth means they have mighty manes – but this resemblance with humans that are into hair metal is only skin deep: The zephyrian physiology allows them to absorb radiation from sunlight to defy gravity, and a nine-chambered stomach allows them to digest A LOT. Adolescence sees hair hardens to facilitate a chrysallization process, as they dissolve and reform in this strange cocoon, with adult organs and all. Zephyrian tongues can also read the muscle memory of mouths they come in contact with, which can result in some interesting behavior patterns, to say the least – yep, they can learn languages by kissing. Their homeworld etc. is discussed, as is their strange society, which, while nominally sporting a king or queen, is an ochlocracy – ruled by the masses. Their “rulers” can quickly and unceremoniously be disposed of, and elections thus happen whenever enough people think it’s time for them, in what most folks would consider a chaotic mess. Proud and emotional, we get information on their changing nomenclature, and a proper subtype graft is included.

Racial stat-wise, zephyrians get +2 Strength and Charisma, -2 Wisdom, 6 Hit Points and are Medium humanoids with a base speed of 30 feet. Zephyrians have supernatural flight of 30 ft., with average maneuverability, but until 5th level, must end their movement on the ground or fall. Directly tied to their ability to feel unbridled joy, this also has cool roleplaying repercussions baked into the rules. Zephyrians can go 1 hour without breathing and exist in vacuum without suffering environmental effects, which can, depending on how you handle SFRPG-races, be a bit of a bummer – I wouldn’t allow them in Grimmerspace, for example, as this ability eliminates pretty much the threat of open space.

As a standard action, they can assimilate a language of a willing creature with a kiss, though only one language may be retained thus at a given time. New ones supersede old ones. They also are capable of absorbing ultraviolet light and transform it into photon bolts. As long as a zephyrian has at least 1 Resolve Point, they can unleash an energy blast that is treated as a small arms weapon attack with the bright and reload special properties. These bolts begin at 1d3 fire damage, and increase the damage output to 1d6 at 4th level. At 8th and 12th level, the base damage increases by +1d6 each, and at 15th and 20th level by +2d6 each. This ability, once more, is tied to an emotion – the ability to experience righteous anger. Emotion effects, just fyi, prevent zephyrians from using their two potent signature abilities. Problematic: Guess what’s missing. Yep, a range.

The race comes with two racial feats: Improved Star Flying requires 10th level and improves their fly speed to 60 feet and maneuverability to perfect. When not in immediate danger, zephyrians with this feat can accelerate to starship speed, at standard engine speed for quick interplanetary/stellar travel. It’d have been pretty cool to get rules for how they then interact with suddenly erupting star ship combat, but that’d probably have been its own supplement…still, this one may require some GM-calls. Stellar Zephyrian, a combat feat, requires the solar weapon class feature and makes the photon bolts use the higher between solar weapon or photon bolt damage.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf comes with a nice artwork. The file has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ zephyrian race was a pleasant surprise to me: First of all, their strong emphasis on abilities that blend mechanics with roleplaying is awesome – though they do require mature gamers to handle properly. If unlimited, the race most assuredly will be much stronger than many comparable SFRPG-races, and imho overshoots the power-level somewhat. Perhaps that’s only me, but the second surprise here was that they feel like a love-letter to classic scifi and silver-age comic books. They reminded me of the New Gods or the Shi’ar – replace the shi’ar’s feathers with a mane…anyhow, for interplanetary romance, for games embracing these aesthetics, the zephyrians represent a great addition to the game. More low-key settings, particularly when space is supposed to be dangerous, will probably with to skip this one, though – such groups should round down instead. If, on the other hand, kissing folks to learn their language, if emotion-powered super-powers strike a chord with you and fit your game, then these come highly and warmly recommended. I really like the race, even if its appeal is less universal than usual for the new Star Log.EM-races. My final verdict will thus clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Star Log.EM-055: Zephyrians
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Starfarer Adversaries: Glabrezu
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/29/2019 07:23:34

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clock in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, ½ a page empty space, leaving us with 2.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

All right, so there are three glabrezu statblocks in this supplement – the lesser glabrezu clocks in at CR 9, the regular one at CR 13, and the glabrezu demon lord at CR 17. The lesser one may be called forth with a 4th-level summon monster, the regular one with the 5th-level version, just fyi. The neat artwork we can see on the cover is reproduced as a one-page spread within this pdf.

The builds employ the combatant array and present pretty deadly foes, with the glabrezu’s multiattack being capable of dishing out really nasty amounts of damage – which, considering the tradition of the creature being an upper-echelon damage-dealer, suits me just fine. Being a relatively early release for Starfinder, there are a few cosmetic hiccups to call out regarding the notation of spells that exist in various spell levels – Roman numerals have been employed instead of Starfinder’s usual notation. Similarly, damage types inflicted are written fully instead of using the one/two-letter abbreviation, but that is cosmetic at best. A +2 boost to Fort-saves from the outsider graft has been properly implemented, and the builds list spaces and reach correctly. Somewhat to my chagrin, the lesser and regular glabrezu lack ranged attack options – which, however, may well be an intentional design decision, considering their melee-shredder build.

Slightly more relevant and annoying would be that not all spells that should have it, do note their DCs – e.g. force blast is missing it. It should be noted that the builds makes use of spells from the Starfarer’s Companion, which is relevant information if you’re like me and have banned parts of that book. The lord-version of the glabrezu comes with a called dispelling unholy artillery laser that has its formatting somewhat odd – it lists “unholy” as part of the damage – and there still is no unholy damage in SFRPG. sigh On the plus-side, we have the cybernetic template graft added to the fellow, which here means that the fellow also has a zero-cannon! Cool! (I’ll punch myself for that one later…)

Conclusion: Editing is generally precise on a rules-language and formal level, but there are a few minor snafus among the formatting conventions to be noted. Not to the extent where they impede functionality, but they’re here. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork provided for the CR 17 critter is cool. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon delivers some solid glabrezus to tear into your PCs here – the damage-output of the demons is pretty solid, and as a whole, I enjoy how he went the extra mile with the highest-CR-iteration. At the same time, the melee focus and minor hiccups in statblock formatting conventions might upset some, which is why I’ll settle on a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Starfarer Adversaries: Glabrezu
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