This full-color pdf clocks in at 26 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page credits, 2 pages ads and 1 page OGL, leaving a whopping 21 pages of crunch and fluff for this class, and rest assured, the space has been put to good use.
What is the enlightened scholar? Well, remember "Kang the Mad" from Bioware’s Jade Empire? The Uncle in Jackie Chan movies? The Enlightened Scholar is all of this and even more. Mechanically, it's a D6, 6+Int, 1 good save class that has a monk-like improving unarmed attack that gets better as he progresses as well as a progressing bonus to AC.
The major abilities of the ES, however, are abilities selected from diverse fields of knowledge, so called "enlightened knowledge"-abilities he may select from several fields.
The fields are:
Academia (Knowledge + Languages), Feng Shui (alter the flow of of fate, exorcise with a broom), Folk Magic (makes the ES a minor preparing spellcaster), I Ching (Divination and prediction abilities), Invention (trapfinding and creating strange devices and the like), Medicine (gives helping healing abilities), Nei Tan (internal alchemy), Warfare (Help allies with strategy), Wei Tan (external alchemy).
Each of the fields has several different abilities to choose from and you may switch freely from field to field, however, some of the abilities with a given field have additional prerequisites (skills, feats and other enlightened knowledge abilities).
An Enlightened Scholar may also dispel enemy spells via Brandish Magical Might, gained at 4th level. The respective check is d20+ES class levels + his WIS-mod.
He can also use this check 0.5 x Class level to overcome SR.
This ability seems to be quite powerful to me, granting essentially unlimited, improved dispel magics (albeit only to counter spells), freeing resources of the other characters. If it only had limited uses, it wouldn't be so powerful.
The whole class takes up 15 pages and is advanced in every sense of the word: Interesting, complex and many options to consider. The ES is certainly not a class to pick-up-and-play, but rather a versatile and complex class that is definitely rewarding to play.
We also get 1 page with a new skill, the Feng Shui skill. Pathfinder purists might dislike the synergy bonus the skill grants to heal and survival, which is not really Pathfinder, imho.
After that, we get 4 pages of Ch'i- and Chakra-feats. I liked them. As written in the pdf, it's a bit hard and counter-intuitive how many Ch'i points a character has. My tip: Read the feat "Ch'i awakened" first, it answers the question. I still think that separately pointing towards this feat in the list would have helped to avoid the (possible) confusion.
Unfortunately, the pdf has some editing mistakes and leaves me with the impression of being a bit rushed. These are the errors/problems I found:
Page 3: Masterful Linguist […]"need"(lack an "s") make a linguistics check… Against what DC?
Page 23: "ch4'i" in Footsteps of the Dragon should read ch'i
The Feng Shui table on page 17:
DC 20:
Reduce the amount of rest needed per day by 2 hours. (The recovery of spell slots still requires 8 hours of rest.)
Reduce the amount of rest needed per day by 3 hours. (The recovery of spell slots still requires 8 hours of rest.)
Both are DC 20, so which one is correct? Or can he choose whether to shorten his rest by 2 or 3 hours?
Diet of Jade has Knowledge (Magic) as a prerequisite skill. Shouldn't that be Knowledge (arcane) is PF? What difference is there between Knowledge (Magic) and Knowledge (Arcane), if any? (P.7+13)
The prerequisite for Bone Setting is Knowledge (Anatomy). While I have played with this skill as complimentary to Heal for years, I don't think its standard for PCs to have it. A short description on this particular knowledge skill would have helped there.
As a final bit of constructive criticism, I think it would benefit the pdf to include a bracketed "See feat Ch'i Awakened" behind the Ch'i-related abilities of the ES as well as in the beginning of the explanation on what Ch'i and Chakra feats are.
Conclusion:
I have to say that this one is not easy for me. At all. I'm a latecomer patron to the "Heroes of the Jade Oath" patronage project and really like it. I really like the Enlightened Scholar and also the possibility that, sales being high enough, we might see a full conversion of the Arcana Evolved setting to PF.
HotJO would definitely deserve an even broader audience, being innovative and far from the Rokugan/Japanese-Oriental standard and wholly unique.
I do think that Rite Publishing did a good job converting the ES. However, the pdf also struck me as very unpolished, to the degree that I noticed all of the above problems while reading the pdf for the first time. On the plus side, though, this is an extremely iconic, versatile and cool class with but one balancing concern I have: Unlimited dispels will never, ever get into my campaign. Period.
I'll start with 5 stars for the beautiful pdf, nice artworks and awesome idea. Minus 1 star for the editing glitches, -1 star for the strange Knowledge variations that should be either explained or corrected as well as the 3.5.-synergy-remnants that have crept into both the "Gain Ch'i focus" and "Replenish Ch'i Reservoir" descriptions as well as the new Feng Shui skill. Then there is the strange double entry in the Feng Shui table. My final criticism is, that the class is quite complex and versatile and thus should be presented in the most concise way possible: Putting the feat that explains how many Ch'i points a character has and how to get them in the very end of the pdf, after both the class-features that mention the mechanic and the explanations of Ch'i feats and Chakra feats failed to mention where to find the basis for the mechanic they use: That is not good formatting. It's confusing at best, at worst it could dissuade potential players from playing the class. A simple "See page x, feat y" would suffice. I love the class to death, I really do, but as of now, with all the problems and the unlimited-counter-spell-ability, I can only give 2 stars. I really hope for it to be corrected soon. The awesome class that is the Enlightened Scholar deserves better.
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