Review of the combined book here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

This bundle is designed for people that want all of the spells, but want them split up my level into seperate books.

This compiled collection covers both spells from various Pathfinder products and the 3rd Party Pathfinder products. There is no fluff. Very little art. Here is how each book breaks down. There is a cover page, and OGL statement of Open Content page, a table of contents, and two pages on what this book is. For the Pathfinder book there is three pages of OGL. For the 3rd Party book there are seven pages for the OGL. There is a hyperlinked index for both and hyperlinked table of contents.

The rest is solid text of spells.

And by spells. I mean every single witch spell ever published by the date of this book. The 3rd Party book for example has nearly 30 pages of cantrips, 50 pages of 1st level spells, 60 2nd level spells and so on.

The spells are given an editorial clean-up so that they all look similar and can flow well.

What these books lack (and were never trying to cover) is all the fluff or explanatory pieces that might go with the background of a spell. For example "Air Bubble" mentions a firearm can be loaded within an Air Bubble, but makes no attempt to explain anything more. This is perfectly within the scope of this product.

You might ask if you buy this does that get rid of the need to buy other Pathfinder spell books? I say no since there is nothing here but the spells. Other products often have the spells, explanatory notes, monsters, feats, and items that might go with them. These books are a fancy SRDs. Highly organized and very useful ones at that.

If you are like me this is a treasure trove.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Today I want to explore the amazing reference that is the Echelon Reference Series from Keith Davies. There are a bunch of these, but I am going to focus my attention on the witch.

Echelon Reference Series: Witch Spells Compiled (3pp+PRD)

2 PDFs. $33.99. 186 pages (PF) and 544 pages (3PP).

Yes. 730 pages total. This compiled collection covers both spells from various Pathfinder products and the 3rd Party Pathfinder products. There is no fluff. Very little art. Here is how each book breaks down. There is a cover page, and OGL statement of Open Content page, a table of contents, and two pages on what this book is. For the Pathfinder book there is three pages of OGL. For the 3rd Party book there are seven pages for the OGL. There is a hyperlinked index for both and hyperlinked table of contents.

The rest is solid text of spells.

And by spells. I mean every single witch spell ever published by the date of this book. The 3rd Party book for example has nearly 30 pages of cantrips, 50 pages of 1st level spells, 60 2nd level spells and so on.

The spells are given an editorial clean-up so that they all look similar and can flow well.

What these books lack (and were never trying to cover) is all the fluff or explanatory pieces that might go with the background of a spell. For example "Air Bubble" mentions a firearm can be loaded within an Air Bubble, but makes no attempt to explain anything more. This is perfectly within the scope of this product.

The number of spells break down as follows:

Witch 3pp Cantrips: 123
1st level: 200
2nd level: 251
3rd level: 221
4th level: 188
5th level: 163
6th level: 142
7th level: 131
8th level: 122
9th level: 109 Total 1,650

Witch Prd Cantrips: 15
1st level: 83
2nd level: 107
3rd level: 88
4th level: 70
5th level: 51
6th level: 39
7th level: 40
8th level: 28
9th level: 22 Total 543

That's insane really.

He also has these per level and for every spell casting class in Pathfinder.

You might ask if you buy this does that get rid of the need to buy other Pathfinder spell books? I say no since there is nothing here but the spells. Other products often have the spells, explanatory notes, monsters, feats, and items that might go with them. These books are a fancy SRDs. Highly organized and very useful ones at that.

If you are like me this is a treasure trove.

Time to get down with some OG World of Darkness. So much that has been written about Lilith in RPGs can be traced back to two sources. This is the first.

Revelations of the Dark Mother

PDF. 126 pages.

Once upon a time, White Wolf focused more on plot and background.

This is a crunch-lite, fluf-heavy book that deals with Lilith, the mother of all Vampires (so to speak), and maybe Mages as well in the original World of Darkness.

This is nice since I can drop it into any other game I like and it is a great background. If you have any interest in the subject of Lilith then this is a fun read.

This was written by Phil Brucato (with additional authors) who is pretty much the expert in everything Mage. So from the start you know this is going to be some deep WoD material.

The art is by Rebecca Guay, Eric Hotz, and Vince Locke with the covers designed by art director Aileen E. Miles. I call this out because the art in the book is really quite good. Even given that this is 20+ year old book. Every portrait or portrayal of Lilith is evocative. You captured in Lilith's tale in these and makes this more than just another game book. This book feels like a coffee table book (in the best possible way) that happens to be connected to a game world.

It is stunning and still a work of art all these years later.

Interesting looking witch. I can think of a couple of good uses for this art. Rather love the green hair.

Cool looking warlock. I think I even have the perfect spot for him.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-character-options.html

Character Options: Witches

PDF. $1.49. 7 pages. 1 page cover. ½ page OGL. 5½ pages of content.

This PDF gives us what I consider the "usual bag" of options for the Pathfinder Witch class. NOTE that is not a slight on this book or even a bad thing. It is very, very often exactly what people want.

There are 10 new Patrons with their bonus spells. There are 10 new hexes as well.

There are three (3) new archetypes as well. These include the Devoted Witch (I might call this a Divine Witch or Witch Priestess), Green Witch (largely the same as mine in feel), and the Storyteller Witch which is a lot of fun.

So for just under $1.50 you can get all of this. Not at all bad really. If you need some new witch options then this is a good choice.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-incantations-from.html

Incantations from the Other Side: Spirit Magic

PDF. $9.99. 38 pages. 1-page cover. 1 credits page. 1-page table of contents. 1 page for OGL and index. 34 pages of content. Landscape page orientation (sometimes this cuts off art).

This book is divided into four major sections, each with a different author from the cover. Each covers a different type of magic.

The Spirit World by Scott Gable introduces us to the book and the three types of spirit magic we will cover here.

Vodou by Scott Gable. This is our first and is familiar by name. It involves working with various spirits, the Loa, many listed later in this section. There seems to be some campaign setting specifics here. This is not a surprise because in our world Vodou, Vodun, and Voodoo are very location specific. This is mentioned in a sidebar here.

There are some new spells, but beyond that there is plenty of information on how these spells are supposed to be used. This section will not replace any of the works of say C.J. Carella on the subject, but it works great for Pathfinder.

The Middle World by Uri Kurlianchik. Covers the magic found in the tales from Russia and the Slavs. This includes a number of "House spirits." Again we are treated to some familiar names; the Leshy, the Domovoi, but here they are spirits and not fae creatures exactly. Here we also have a few spells associated with the various creatures.

The Arcanum by Clinton Boomer. Lastly we have the Arcanum. This one covers "Starry Patrons" but there is a solid "from beyond the stars" feel to these. You can read these as Lovecraftian horrors, but they seem more aloof and alien even than that.

This book succeeds in giving us a very different felling magic system that still works with the rules of Pathfinder. Since the publication of this book there have been more book on magic for Pathfinder, so it would be interesting to see how this works with these new works.

The art is full color and quite good.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-into-breach-witch.html

Into The Breach: The Witch

PDF. 32 pages. 1 cover, 1 title, 1 credits page, 1 table of contents, 1 OGL, for 27 pages of content. $5.99.

This book has quite a bit of good content.

There are new archetypes: Bailiwick Hermit, Bog Builder, Bulwark Theurgist, Dweomer Weaver, Foul Temptress, Gluttonous Crone, Marjara Bound, the Scorned Heart, and Voodoo Crafter.

Each archetype has a number of new associated powers.

There is a new Base Class related to the witch, the Sèvitè which is the worshiper of a lost creator god. Essentially this is a Voodoo practitioner in Pathfinder terms. The interesting thing for me is their ability to Syncretize various gods. Very interesting to be sure.

There are a couple of very interesting Prestige Classes presented as well. The Heathen and The Scarred Shaman.

Like all good witch books for Pathfinder, this one has a number of Hexes, Major Hexes, and Grand Hexes. There are also four new Patrons and quite a few new feats.

I rather like it to be honest. Lots of fun options here. The Voodoo-themed elements are nice and I would love to explore more with the syncretism of the gods.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-witch-options.html

Witch Options (PFRPG)

PDF. 10 pages, 1 cover, 2.4 pages for OGL. 6.6 pages of content. $2.00

I like Purple Duck Games. They produce a lot of material so it is a good chance there is something out there that you will enjoy. This book has a lot of different options for the witch class as the title says.

There is a little bit of everything in this book too.

There are five new hexes. Five new Major hexes and four Grand hexes. Six New Patron Themes. Ten new feats. I am rather fond of the Triple Moon Tattoo feat to be honest.

Ten new spells, including "Summon Hag." Four new pieces of equipment.

There is the hagborn template to add to any monster for creatures born to hags.

There is not a lot of any one thing here, but a lot of different things. For $2.00 how could I say no?

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-witchology-101.html

PDF. 60 pages, $2.99. 1 page cover, 1 title page, 1 page introduction, 3 pages table of contents. 3 pages Creative Common license, 1 page OGL. Rest content.

This book is punching way above its weight class, to be honest. The organization is a bit odd, but nothing I can't navigate.

We get a Glossary at the start, which I guess works to help people unfamiliar with some of these terms. An introduction to a Who's Who of magical people and places. This includes the various school of magic as if they were actual schools. Each school gets its Latin motto, its center of studies, and titles. It is a pretty cool idea really. Spells by school are listed with their appropriate colleges.

There is a whole implicit setting here that can be used in conjunction with any Modern d20 game that also has magic, say like Urban Arcana. It can also be used with other modern games that are built on a d20 system. I am not 100% sure, but I bet it would work with Mutants and Masterminds for example.

This is a d20-based rule book so there are some features of that. What am I saying? There are Feats! Quite a few in fact. There are spells, some new, some we have seen before (this is fine). Also to my pleasure, there are new creatures or some reskinned ones. This is a must I think.

It has a Creative Commons License and the OGL. I am not really sure if you can mix the two. But that does not detract from my enjoyment of it.

So for just under $3 you get 50 pages of solid content. There is no art to speak of, but that is fine really.

Solid work.

Originally Posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/monstrous-mondays-monster-manual-ii-30.html

The Monster Manual II for the 3.0 version of 3rd Edition appeared in 2002, just before the big transition to 3.5. Like its namesake from 1st Edition, this MMII brings us some new monsters, but it also gives us a number of updated old favorites.

Monster Manual II (3.0)

For this review, I am considering both the PDF from DriveThruRPG and the hardcover version I bought back in the early 2000s.

In the the 2 years since the Monster Manual was printed the designers of the 3rd Edition game had gotten a lot of feedback from players and also have seen the designs that other monster books have been able to do. They knew what the players and the DMs were saying about monsters. So the MMII has two overt purposes. The first, and the obvious one, is give us more monsters to use in out games. The second, and likely more helpful one, is to help clarify how the monster stat blocks are used and can be altered. I want to discuss the second one first.

The first section of the book covers the monster stat blocks. How to read them and what sorts of details you are likely to find in them. This is largely similar to the list to the MMI but there are a lot of additions, like the table of typic creature damage types by type and size. Each creature type is broken down into what makes that type different than the other types with much more detail than in the MMI.

There are new guidelines on advancing monsters. This really is the reason to get this book. It expands greatly on the rules and lets you know how to do it with an example.

On the back side of the book, there are also new templates to apply to monsters to make other monsters.

In the middle, we have the reason that most people pick up the book, the monsters. There are over 130 monsters listed here and some are new, others are old favorites.

We get some 1st Ed. MM1 favorites like the banshee, the catoblepas, the sylphs, the water weird (though now expanded into elemental weirds), and ixitxachitls. There are a good number of Fiend Folio monsters too in the hook horror, grell, death knight (as a template), meenlock, dune stalker, Son of Kyuss, and needleman er needlefolk.

The Daemons return, but this time they keep their 2nd Edition name of Yugoloths. Actually, I am good with that. Yugoloth always was cooler sounding than daemon anyway. There are more demons and devils too and even some weird Lovecraftian beasts like the Moon Beast and more.

This addition to the Monster Manual line feels like it was more completing the MMI than it was a second book. I consider it a must-have book for any 3.x DM with even a slight interest in monsters.

The art is great throughout and you can see the design is leaning into what will become known as "dungeon punk" later on.

Is this one of my favorite monster books? No. But it is a great work-horse book that has great designer information and a few really great monsters on top of that.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/monstrous-mondays-d-3rd-edition-monster.html

It is the year 2000. We don't have flying cars, but I have a brand new baby, and Wizards of the Coast, the brand new owners of Dungeons & Dragons are putting out their new 3rd Edition material. The Monster Manual was the last of the three core rule books.

For today I am going to consider the 3.0 and the 3.5 versions of the Monster Manuals. I am also considering the Print and PDF versions from DriveThruRPG.

Monster Manual 3rd Edition

3.5 324 pages. 425 monsters.

More so than the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendiums or Manual this book felt like the Monster Manual of old.

It was the start of the new millennium (almost) and we all survived Y2K. I had been moving away from D&D for some time by this point and this was the edition that brought me back. I do sometimes still get the urge to play 3.x and this book is one of those reasons.

The art budget for D&D (no more "Advanced") was heavily increased. Art that would have been chosen for cover art for products in the 1990s now joins several more just like for interior art. Every monster in illustrated in full color now and the book itself is a work of art.

Inside are all the favorites and many new ones to boot. Demons and Devils are back AS Demons and Devils, although they also retain their bowdlerized names of Tanar'ri and Baatezu respectively. This works out to Wizards of the Coast's advantage since now those names can be considered Product Identity under the newly formed OGL. Sure other publishers can, and do (and boy do they!), talk about demons, but Tanar'i are off-limits.

What is special about this book, and 3.x in general, is now monsters are built using the same rules as characters. They have the same abilities, a great wyrm blue dragon has a strength of 39, and built like characters are with the same skills and the new feat system. So that same ancient blue dragon can have a fly-by attack feat. I can't say everything is perfect, but it is certainly better than the catch as catch can abilities of AD&D where a Will-O-the-wisp can has ridiculous stats.

The implication is here is that some monsters could even be characters. For a crazy example take the Skum (p.229). It has 2d8+2 HD. At the bottom of the stat block is a "Level Adjustment" of +3. Skum start out at 3rd level but still 0 XP. Once they gain enough to get to 4th level they can advance. Usually, there is a preferred class listed, but almost everything can advance as a fighter.

Creatures also get a different hit die based on their type. Faeries get a d6 while undead gets a d12. Type is very important here.

There are also templates which is a great idea. Have a 14th-level fighter who is changed into a vampire? Well in older forms of D&D he would have gone down to the HD of a vampire. In 3.x he is now 14th level (yeah level drain is gone, more or less) and you add vampire abilities on top. It was something hinted at with Ravenloft, now it is part of the rules.

I mentioned the art, it is great though there are some changes between the 3.0 and 3.5 versions.

In fact, there are some monsters not illustrated in the 3.0 version that do get illustrations in the 3.5.

It is really a great resource. My one complaint is that the one monster per page layout is gone. This does conserve space and makes the book smaller, I just had gotten used to the format with 2nd Ed. 4th Ed would bring it back.

I have very fond memories of this book. My oldest son as a small child would spend hours flipping through it, just like I had done with the original Monster Manual.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-witches-and-bats.html

Halloween is coming...in a couple of months, but you are going to need to be ready and here is something to help with that.

Witches and Bats

These papercraft minis to print and cut out. You get 6 wicked witches, 4 giant bats and 1 small bat swarm. There is a preview on the DriveThruRPG page.

I do not own a Silhouette/Craftrobo cutter, I just printed them out on a laser printer and made little stands for them. I use them as part of a village of witches. My kids have learned that "paper minis" are NPCs that don't interact much while "plastic minis" are main NPCs. So of course they want to talk to all the paper minis! At least these ones are interesting.

Do I use these with my War of the Witch Queens? Absolutely. I need a lot of witches to populate the Tredicim (the gathering of Witches) and these are great to fill out the ranks.

I mix them with Ghostly Spirits, Demons, Devils and Imps, Scarecrows and Jack-O-Lanterns (a favorite), Evil Cultists, and Gothic Statues for a full-on Halloween Village feel.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-1000000-witches.html

10,000 Witches

PDF, 1 page, no art. $1.50.

Another one of Lee's Lists products. This one features two d100 tables, one of names and the other of titles or honorifics. So a roll of 23 and 85 produces "Isadora the Bald."

What it lacks in length it makes up for in versatility. You can in fact create 10,000 different witches here.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-1000000-witches.html

100 Witches

PDF. 19 pages. Color cover and pages. Black & white art. $1.99.

This book has 100 different witches with names and a paragraph for their background. Need a quick NPC witch? Roll a d100 and you will have one. There are no stat blocks, just the names and backgrounds. But that is exactly what they adveritse, so we are in great shape really.