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The Malefactor Base Class

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The Malefactor Base Class
Publisher: Total Party Kill Games
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 07/04/2013 22:24:12

The Malefactor, a new base class, by Total Party Kill Games is built around an interesting idea, a person who is a nexus of ill-fortune and can inflict it upon others. A very cleverly designed class with almost too much mechanical complexity, as its primary abilities cause a lot of tracking of effects, but if you are up to that, it should be a fun class to play and a challenging opponent to encounter. The inclusion of HeroLab files for the Malefactor as part of this product increases its usability for those who own that handy program.

Malefactors are the fortunate unfortunate few, cursed with a malicious spirit called a Yla, the Malefactor has learned to work with it to direct its harm to others in a (mostly) controlled fashion. The Malefactor is a midrange combatant outside their powers with access to a decent range of both weapons and armor and a good selection of skills (with sufficient skill points to be competent in several) for further flexibility.

But the main strength of the Malefactor is the ability to call down minor curses (called maledictions) on their opponents, however, this usually require them to get in close (20' range until 8th level, increasing after 8th level) so their combat skills will be needed. Their options and power of the maledictions increase as the Malefactor gains levels. They also have an interesting sideline in curse breaking (which is the focus of one of the archetype presented for the class).

Five archetypes, favor class bonuses by race and nine new feats round out the class. An example Malefactor (Talitha Shadowtongue, the Tiefling on the cover) is presented at 11th level so that one can see what a powerful Malefactor can do. The only thing missing is a class oriented magic item or two to really complete the package but overall, a very solid class.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Malefactor Base Class
Publisher: Total Party Kill Games
by Erik F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/21/2013 05:54:30

First response after reading this book at the convention,

“I literally just forgot what I was going to play after reading this class.”

My local crew headed down to GaryCon V last weekend to partake in some tabletop awesomeness and of course to look around the vendor room. Little did I know that I would find one of my favorite new Pathfinder class to date, The Malefactor by TPK Games. But, let me give a little more of a break down before singing it’s cursed praise.

TPK Games (total party kill for those that wondered) has been putting out some quality print on demand products, but this was the first product I have actually had my hands on and I have to say I need to play this class.

This book contains 17 pages, 20 levels, feats, religion, archetypes, magical items and all of it based on a character class designed around being cursed. Yep, you are seriously able to play a character that focuses on using their bad luck to their advantage. If I haven’t said it, I love this idea. Here is just one power that made me go, “Yeah, this needs to happen right now.” Which was then followed by everyone at the table looking up from what they were doing with curiosity painted on their faces. But I digress. There is a point in time in this class when you get an ability called cursebound which grants you immunity to cursed items. Even better, you can use any beneficial properties of the item and receive none of the penalties. Now, lets take this one step further in the direction of greatness. If you then hand that same item to someone else the curse kicks back in, forcing them to start making saves and all that wonderful curse filled stuff. I’ll pause and let that sink in....

The Malefactor class by TPK Games is as sexy as it sounds and full of some unique swagger that fits into any campaign. Just imagine this class in the Council of Thieves adventure path where devils, contracts and tieflings play a huge roll. I’d say pick this up as a pdf or print on demand for your group and add some curses to your gaming collection. Now time for me to make my Malefactor / Witch combo!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Malefactor Base Class
Publisher: Total Party Kill Games
by Joshua G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/15/2012 12:26:22

The Malefactor....oh where does one begin. Do we open with the sheer deviousness of this class? The insanely cool artwork that will forever define for me what this class is all about? Or the equally wicked NPC presented herein to accompany that oh so awesome cover image? How about we touch on all of it, lol.

23 pages of deliciousness, with the obligatory cover/OGL/TOC page count, all centered on very interesting character class idea. The malefactor. But, what is a malefactor exactly? To strip it the basics, the class encompasses those who have taken the crap luck given them by the world and life in general, and have learned to harness it, focus it, and use it to affect those around them. Give me someone who has spent their life just ahead of the torches and pitchforks, and I shall give you a malefactor hellbent on revenge. Yeah, that kind of character. Now, that is not to say that they are instantly an evil aligned character, but they certainly lend themselves to the darker side of the tracks when it comes to their dealings with friend and foe alike.

With opening words from both Brian Berg (the man behind TPK games) and Gary McBride (Writer/Creator of Way of the Wicked...quite possibly the only successful evil story arc...ever), the theme is set for this book right off the bat. This class is not for flower loving, let's all sit around the fire and hug kind of players. The malefactor is not for those seeking shiny acknowledgment and accolades...this class is for those wishing to twist the fate of all those around them, whilst escaping their own. A darker class for a darker player, without breaking the boundaries and going truly evil. It's a balancing act, to be sure, but one that is accomplished very well here.

PDF follows the standard dual column approach, with one embedded table for level progression. Background texture is marbled grey with a stylized border that can be challenging to read through in a few spots, but overall is light enough that most people should not have a problem with it. I can't help but think perhaps in editing setting the margins just back from the framework on the page would have helped immensely in the visibility of the text, but again, this is me being extremely nit-picky, and most will not have an issue with it. There were a few instances of spaces between words left out however, but there were only a few, and they truly didn't interfere with the understanding of the text.

As with many classes, the malefactor has its own set of cool goodies that reward the PC for continuing through the level progressions. Malediction (various “curses” that the malefactor can choose from as she progresses), Harrowing Strike (A maximized attack that only gets better as the levels get higher), Strife Points (a pool of points that the PC can spend to activate several different abilities. Very similar in nature to Psi points, or Time motes...any player familiar with either of these concepts will recognize this idea instantly)...and then we have the Aura of Misfortune. As long as the malefactor is conscious, every one around her (within range of course) suffers a negative to their saving throws. Now, here's the kicker folks, that negative...that everyone...yes, that means the fellow players standing around the Malefactor PC, and quite possibly her herself if she runs out of strife points. That born with crap luck sucks, lol.

So, why in the world would anyone want to play a character living under the weight of curses and bad luck you might be asking by now.....well, simply put...Those who understand an evil, are better equipped to deal with it. The malefactor class puts a character in an interesting position to deal with curses amongst others, as they can literally draw these curses to themselves, relieving others of them. They can ignore the effects of curse items, using them as if they carried no curses upon them, or even steal the victory right out of the grasp of their enemies by simply changing their luck from good, to bad.

So, how do they do these awesome things? The Yla. The Yla are the spirits of luck and chaos, for lack of better explanation, and they are that which the malefactor deals with when it comes to making a great many things happen.

Grand total we are presented with 18 Maledictions in this guide, 5 Archetypes and 12 Feats designed specifically for this class. We're also presented with the favored class options for 11 races. That's a rather impressive amount of information to get a class up and running, by any standard. Do I want more? Of course I do, and I have no doubt that eventually we will see more maledictions at the least...they are flat out to interesting not to have more designed.

Ending with an example, a fully fleshed out NPC to accompany that insanely excellent cover image, this PDF, intended to deliver a new class to us, gives us an amazing new character to drop into our worlds. And that cover image? Included inside without the text, just in case you have a spot on the wall needing some cool art.

Wrapping it up, I can say no more than what I have said many times now, buy this PDF!!!! The class design far outweighs the very few editing issues, this is one of those cases where design outweighs everything, period. This class brings some really cool ideas to the table, as well as inspires even more. Ignoring the one heading with spacing issues, this book is a solid 5 star. Yes, I just admitted there is an editing issue in the same line that I stated the book gets a perfect rating. That is how much I like the design work for this class, and how much I want to see more done with it. Oh, and since I failed to mention it earlier....full Hero Lab support files. Yeah, just keeps getting better.

Pick this one up folks, it is Well worth the price of admission!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Malefactor Base Class
Publisher: Total Party Kill Games
by Carl A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/21/2012 08:22:47

The Malefactor base class is a two edged sword. It lacks enough power to be really effective on its own and its debuffs benefit other classes quite a bit (wizards, sorcerers and witches especially) but in a group they will always be apart because they are too dangerous to the group when they are close by (benefiting enemy spellcasters).

The idea of a character that has been cursed in some way, and who uses that curse to their advantage (most of the time) is certainly different from most and I think this class has a lot to offer a group that other classes typically either can't do or can't do very easily. In the right party I think they could make a big difference by making it easier for the party's spellcasters to affect the enemies, but care must be taken to not affect the Malefactor as well, so I think this class would work better in an experienced group who works to maximize the advantage vs a group that doesn't understand the ramifications of battlefield placement. They don't get evasion or improved evasion, so they will need some protection of some sort if the sorcerer wants to drop a fireball on top of them if they get surrounded for example. And the Cleric will not want to spend much time next to them when they need healing since their save penalty (the core ability of the class) affects everyone in 10 feet.

The writing is good, and the concept is pretty solid, so I'm trying this class out in the next game my group is playing, where we are starting out as zero level dwarves, and in the first session my character was cursed and blinded (this was just before this class came out and I was trying to decide what class he could still be effective as with that drawback, so this seemed like a pretty obvious fit).



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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The Malefactor Base Class
Publisher: Total Party Kill Games
by Paul P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/19/2012 13:28:33

Really cool class and concept. I've been reading it over the last couple of days and used the hero lab file to place it into my software. Everything seems to be working smoothly and from what I can tell the class is fairly well balanced. I'll have to actually play one to find out for sure. Our GM is probably going to allow one in our game to use as a cohort when one of our party members takes the leadership feat. The only problem (minor) that I'm having is with the portfolio of the pre-generated character Talitha being opened. It looks like whoever created the file used some SGG materials along with an older playtest version of the ARG, which I don't have on my machine. It gives me an error message when I open it up, but seems to be working fine when I click "ok" and look at the actual character in the portfolio, it may be something very small that isn't working from the materials that are missing or nothing at all, I have no idea of knowing at this time.

Anyhow, great job to TPK games for creating an awesome new class that has tons of role playing potential! 5 Stars!!!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Malefactor Base Class
Publisher: Total Party Kill Games
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/15/2012 17:39:09

The first original class by TPK Games comes as a 21-page pdf, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of advertisement and 1 page of SRD, leaving a total of 16 pages of content for this new base-class, so let's check it out!

After a second version of the GORGEOUS cover by Anna Rigby (which would make for a nice Dark_Mistress-avatar...), we are introduced to a new piece of short fiction, an extract from Talitha Shadowtongue's memoirs, herself a tiefling doom herald and malefactor - and, as I've come to expect from TPK Games, the fiction is well-written, sets a gritty mood and makes me once again curse not being in the US - otherwise I'd invite the guys from TPK to join my game or try to score at least a con-game: We seem to have similar styles. Oh well. But what is this new malefactor-class?

Fluff-wise, the malefactor represents a kind of people who are, from their earliest childhood, afflicted with a so-called Yla, amoral, intangible chaos-spirits that wreck havoc, misfortune and destruction without being interested in the consequences. Some rare children learn that while these spirits cannot be driven out, the misfortune not averted, they can be channeled and commanded - these persons become malefactors. Malefactors get 3/4 BAB, good ref-and will-saves, no spells, d8, 6+Int skills per level, proficiency with shields, medium and light armor, simple weapons, light crossbows, rapier, longsword, short sword and shortbow and much like other "trick"-classes like the Time Thief, the Luckbringer etc., they are rather dependant on their abilities to make them count, but what exactly are these? Well, first of all, they start off with an aura that gradually increases and imposes a profane penalty on saving throws - to everything around her, without a save. Yes, that includes allies and the malefactor herself - interesting and somewhat reminiscent of 4WFG's Jinxs-PrC, but not where the class stops. The penalty is also slightly offset by later gaining the wis-bonus to fort-and ref-saves.

The Malefactor also gains a so-called pool of strife, that can hold a maximum of 1/2x her level WIs-mod strife points. They also gain access to so-called maledictions, one at 1st level and every two levels afterwards an additional one, but more on them later. In melee, she can use a standard action and a point of strife to execute a so-called harrowing strike at a target that is under the effect of a curse or one of her curse-like powers (including hexes, you witch-aficionados out there!). The ability improves to add wis-mod to atk and later damage, inflict bleeding damage, add a second attack and at the highest levels is even considered a touch attack and gets a wicked DC to stop the bleeding. And then there is strife surge - perhaps the coolest ability I've seen in quite a time for a class: Every time a being within the malefactor's aura rolls a natural "1" on a save or attack, the malefactor is energized, reducing the amount of strife her powers consume for one round by 1 to a minimum of 0. Yes. This class actually makes having bad rolls at the table something that can be honestly cheered! And if you're like me, you have this one player with the most miserable of luck, who is glad to only roll one fumble per session... Among the other abilities the class gets is the one to draw curses unto herself, trying to break them, but suffering potentially from the effects of the curse, whether successful or not. The malefactors can also force opponents to use the lower of two d20-results for a point of strife, wear cursed items without any adverse effects (YEAH!), displace attacks to hit other creatures, reroll natural "1"s for points of strife and finally, a cool capstone ability that renders her immune to curses and makes all "2"s in her aura count as "1"s - unlucky for her foes indeed!

But back to those maledictions - a total of 18 are provided and they have a save of 10 1/2 class level Wis-mod and an increasing range (starting at 20 ft, going up to 60) and last wis-mod rounds. What makes them even more interesting is the fact that each of the maledictions has an option to use a dread escalation as soon as the malefactor has reached 10th level - essentially, an additional cost in strife points increases the effect. Take for example the first one, Apt Curse - on a failed will-save, the victim has a 50% chance to take no action on his/her/its turn. Dread escalate the malediction and we add not only 2 to the DC, but also make the curse permanent. OUCH! Or let your misfortune cling to a weapon that hits you, making it count as a size smaller than it actually is via Benign Weapon. Have I mentioned that Malefactors are essentially the black cats among characters? If they cross your path, you'll count as flanked until next turn. On the defensive side, the malefactors may also reduce the amount of damage area-spells deal with "Eye of the Storm" and even dread escalate the type of dice down (e.g. d8 -_ d6). Among my personal favorites, though, ranks "Feats of Fate" - while it can be used only once in 24 hours on a given enemy, it prevents said foe gaining any kind of natural or magical healing, while curing the malefactor. Neat, neat, neat. I know one sadistic bastard of a DM who will have his players on the business-end of that one soon... Of course, there are also maledictions to impose skill penalties, make concentration harder, foes slower to react etc., but it is abilities like lightning rod that truly rock: Essentially the Malefactor draws all types of lightning, forcing foes to attack her with the respective spells/effects, while gaining evasion against these attacks - dodging lightning has never been that much fun. (take heed, FF 10-designers, if you happen to read this!). Of coursing stumbling, losing items, losing AoOs are all nice, but e.g. declaring a creature taboo and have foes stunned, or even blinded and deafened for ignoring your sanction is also neat. It should be noted that the dread escalations could have easily been called advanced maledictions and thus space artificially created, but instead this more elegant solution was take. I really like the mechanics and hope to see support for it in future supplements.

5 archetypes are provided as well, though at least for me they don't necessarily qualify as such and should rather be considered alternate class features - the Moirae can declare an action fated to succeed and treat the ally as having rolled 20 at the task a number of times equal to wis-mod per day. They don't get the misfortune aura and the save-boost. The Doom Herald gains additional languages, a bonus against mind-affecting abilities and exchange the aura of misfortune for the ability to utter words of doom that force all in hearing distance to save or take the worst of 2 results from saving against hexes and curses. Reavers gain heavy armor proficiency and deal additional damage against foes they have cursed. Kismets don't get the aura and harrowing strike, but rather can grant their cha-mod as a luck bonus to rolls of allies. Finally, the curse-breaker draws health and spell resistance from breaking curses and can transfer them to other beings.

Before we get to the new feats for the malefactor, we first get a nice little lore-section on information on malefactors. A total of 12 feats are provided, ranging from the ability to use strife to increase your aura, the ability to manifest maledictions as part of melee attacks to further capitalizing on the unluck of other characters in your aura by also gaining str-bonuses to the inevitable extra points of strife, extra malediction to the ability to exclude allies from your aura of misfortune (but also from your potential benefits) and improved surges, we essentially get the basic feat-catalogue to improve the abilities of the class. No feats for the archetypes are provided, though.

The odf also provides favored class options for all basic races, aasimar, tieflings, dhampirs, fetchlings, goblins, changelings and drow - neat!

The pdf closes with advice on how they work in your campaign as well as the fully stated and hyperlinked statblock of the succubus-descendant Tiefling Malefactor Talitha Shadowtongue.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting is very good - while I noticed some minor glitches, none jarred my reading experience or enjoyment of the class. The pdf adheres to TPK Games 2-column grey layout, utilizes cool fonts and features a gorgeous full-color artwork of the highest caliber. The pdf is also extensively bookmarked and the sample NPC's statblock linked to d20pfsrd. The printer-friendly, artless b/w-version has no bookmarks, but since it's intended to be printed - who cares? The deal also comes with herolab files of the class and the sample character, so great if you use the software. I honestly didn't expect much from this class, seeing how much I enjoy RiP's Luckbringer and well - I should have. This is a completely different take on (un)luck and the design decisions that went into the creation of the Malefactor are concise, well-thought out and the overall class makes not only for a great team-player, but a fun addition to any table and a godsend for unlucky players. The ability to customize the class and its unique feel and tactics make the base-class a definite winner. However: The archetypes. They have good concepts behind them, but couldn't they have changed more than, oh let's say 1 -3 abilities? Personally, I enjoy them when they are more complex, but rules-wise, I see nothing wrong with them.

The feats do a basic job of what is expected and I seriously hope for e.g. a witch/malefactor PrC/archetype/whatever and more complex feats in a future supplement. The favored class options and the inclusion of uncommon races was a nice addition. The pdf is rather pricey for the amount of content provided, but seeing we get herolab support, an original, beautiful full color artwork and due to the fact I can't discern any truly major flaws, I won't hold the price-point against this class, especially since the way the class is designed is actually rather innovative. All right, let's sum it up: Class: GLORIOUS. Gorgeous. Fun. No balance concerns or options that felt bland. The class per se is a total winne. The supplemental material, though, can be considered to fall a bit behind that stellar quality - were I to rate them separately, I'd give the base class 5 stars seal of approval and the additional material 4 stars. Since I tend to meet in the middle if in doubt, I debated whether to go 4.5 (and round down) or 5 and in the end will settle for a final verdict of 5 stars - innovative design, cool concept and professional execution need and should be rewarded. Well-played, TPK Games! Can we now have a luckbringer/malefactor comboclass? Please?

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Malefactor Base Class
Publisher: Total Party Kill Games
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 07/07/2012 18:57:39

Bad luck is part and parcel of RPGs, particularly dice-based ones like Pathfinder. Whether it’s your fiendishly-clever plan suddenly going belly-up, or rolling the dreaded natural 1, sometimes things just turn against you. But what if that wasn’t just an uncontrollable aspect of the game, but rather a character theme? What if your PC was somehow who had a measure of control over ill luck, and could actually use it to their advantage? What sort of character build is like that?

The answer is the Malefactor Base Class, from Total Party Kill Games.

Right off the bat, I have to give TPK Games credit for their files – not only does the PDF come with a printer-friendly version (though said version lacked PDF bookmarks, but that’s a minor nitpick), but it also came with two Hero Lab files; one for the class itself, and another for the sample NPC made with it. A helpful readme text file on how to install the Hero Lab files is a nice little extra. I was going to note little things that weren’t here like a mac-compatible or epublishing version, but that seems nitpicky in light of just how much is here already.

The main PDF is also to be commended for hitting the highlights of its format. Copy-and-paste is enabled, and full nested bookmarks are included. The artwork featured two full-page full-color interior pieces. The first is a clean version of the cover image, and is truly excellent – I can see why they used it as the basis for their sample character. The second image was of similar quality, but there was a slightly “blurred” look about it; not much, just slightly enough that I wasn’t sure if the picture was drawn that way, or if the resolution needed to be tightened up a little.

I had mixed feelings about the page backgrounds. Each page is set against a sort of slate-gray background, reminiscent of a tombstone. This included an ornate black border near the edge of each page. Ironically (or perhaps on purpose) this formed a sort of natural border for the text, but whenever the text got close enough that the black lettering hit the border, I felt like it was being obscured slightly. Certainly that didn’t happen too much, but enough to be worth mentioning.

The Malefactor Base Class opens with a short bit of fiction told from the perspective of the sample character, after which we’re taken to the class itself. The Malefactor is fairly strong, having medium BAB and the corresponding d8 Hit Dice, along with only one bad save (Fortitude). It’s also pretty good skill monkey, having a dozen class skills and 6 Int bonus skill points per level. I was also pleased to see that the TPK guys remembered to add in the malefactor’s level 1 starting gold.

In regards to the design of the class’s special abilities, I was pleasantly surprised at just how strong the design was. This manages to perfectly capture the innovation that a new class should have with the design philosophy of a Pathfinder base class.

The malefactor’s main abilities revolve around a pool of strife points, and its malediction powers. There are certainly more powers than these, of course, but these two help to form the core identity of the class. Maledictions are somewhat like a witch’s hex powers, in that the player selects one every so often as they level up, and can be used at will. Unlike witch hexes, which have a hierarchy of the normal ones, the stronger ones, and the strongest, all maledictions are equal. However, roughly midway through the malefactor’s progression, it gains the ability to spend strife points on its maledictions to increase their power. Each malediction has an expanded paragraph describing what it does when used in this manner.

Strife points have other uses, of course. So long as the malefactor has at least one, it’s protected from its own aura of unluck, which penalizes saving throws for everyone around it. It also has a great deal of curse-related powers (a helpful sidebar describes what game effects constitute a “curse” for this purpose), such as spending strife points to cause greater damage to those operating under a curse, detecting curses, being able to remove them or even ignore them, and quite a bit more. The class is incredibly versatile within its theme.

In regards to its flavor, the malefactor is based around the idea that some children, when they’re born, are the permanent host of chaos-spirits known as “yla” who attract bad luck to them. The malefactor has learned how to channel this bad luck into its powers. I was somewhat unimpressed with the flavor text, if only because it gave a fairly concrete flavor to a class that allowed for a greater range of in-game interpretations of how its powers worked. Having said that, I do have to give the writers props for keeping the flavor firmly married to the mechanics – it mentions how various powers, for example, are because of the yla’s spiritual attacks or influence.

That alone would have been enough, but in another move that shows that they know what Pathfinder players want, the book continues on with a set of expanded options for malefactors. We’re initially given five class archetypes, such as the moirae (who pronounce fate to make their allies succeed on tasks) or the kismet (who try and focus their powers on good luck, rather than bad).

I was slightly less impressed with the archetypes, as the fluff often felt thinnest here. Does a kismet still have an yla spirit, for example? Moreover, more than one of these archetypes just traded in a single class feature – I’m personally of the opinion that archetypes should always have at least two or more to be worthwhile, otherwise the difference between them and the normal class is, to me, too small. Worst, however, were the instances where the replacement power didn’t say what class feature that it was replacing (I’m looking at you, Curse-Eater archetype).

A short, surprising section on what you know about malefactors at various DCs leads us into a dozen malefactor-specific feats. While these did have the ubiquitous single line of flavor text before giving us their mechanics, most of these felt utilitarian in nature – you had the requisite feat for increasing a specific malediction’s save DC, or use one as a move action (rather than a standard), or gain further points of strife, etc. These were good, but felt obligatory.

Pleasantly, this wasn’t the case for malefactor favored class bonuses. A whopping fourteen races have entries here, including (naturally) a number of races from later monster/race books, such as the dhampir, drow, and fetchlings. Each has a short bit of flavor text describing how malefactor members of that race look at their powers. My only complaint here is that some entries note that their possibilities include a 1 skill point or 1 hit point, which goes without saying since those are the default favored class bonuses, and so didn’t need to be reiterated here.

There’s a short but insightful section on malefactors in your game (they make great debuffers) before we’re given the sample NPC from the cover. I wasn’t quite sure if I missed something when it noted that not only was she a demon-spawn tiefling, but that she was of the succubus bloodline – I know there are rules for tieflings from different kinds of evil outsiders, but I’m unaware of any sort of rules for making them be from a specific kind of monster (and since the character is a single-classed malefactor, the “bloodline” thing isn’t of the sorcerer ability of the same name).

The character stat block is fairly straightforward, but could have used some minor touch-ups (you don’t need to list an attack’s critical multiplier if it’s x2) and had a number of things set as hyperlinks to the d20PFSRD. What was fairly ugly, however, was after the stat block it listed out, in alphabetical order, expanded text on everything the character had. Literally everything; her class abilities, racial abilities, magic items, traits, etc. are all summarized there. It was more than a bit overwhelming, and certainly unnecessary. If something in her stat block is from a different book, a hyperlink (or at least a parenthetical note of which book) is sufficient.

Overall, these little flaws are easily ignored in favor of just how much is here. The malefactor base class is incredibly well-constructed both in terms of its theme and its mechanical execution. While there are a few places, mostly in the expanded material, where one or the other falls a little flat, as a whole this book offers an incredibly innovative new class for your Pathfinder game. It’s deserving of each and every one of its five stars. The malefactor may be a class that deals with bad luck, but you’ll feel anything but unlucky if you pick this up.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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