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#30 Staves (PFRPG) $2.95
Average Rating:4.3 / 5
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#30 Staves (PFRPG)
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#30 Staves (PFRPG)
Publisher: Rite Publishing
by Aaron H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/31/2012 20:53:09

The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=30288.

So why stick with that plain old staff your character has been claiming is just a “walking stick” for the last ten years when you can get something more? #30 Staves, provides a new avenue of new staves that makes your characters more unique and awesome.

OVERALL

30 Staves is a part of the #30 Series that Rite Publishing has published to give players a new unique option for the staff. With books and movies like The Hobbit bringing staves back in to geek and gaming fashion, this is definitely one of the things that is worth looking at.

RATINGS:

Publication Quality: 10 out of 10 Presentation of Layout: The format of the supplement is simple, clean and consistent. The artwork is simple and lovely. I would have liked the art to be labeled so that way I could line up which one represents which stave, but it allows them to be used in different forms. The bookmarks work well, and the layout is easy to read. I personally like the note of introduction that is presented adds a little personal flavor which I always like.

Ease of Mobility: The file is small, which makes transfer to mobile quite easy enough. The pages are easy to move through and the bookmarks are quite easy to work with.

Mechanics: 10 out of 10 Mechanically, it’s sound enough. One of the things that gets me is that all the staves are of Wondrous Item price and style, which makes them impossible to purchase, unless you hijack a bank or have a GM who likes to give stuff like that away. Although I assume that it is the point, it would have been nice to see some staves that are affordable.

Value Add: 9 out of 10 As a supplemental item, it holds it’s own, and the items are unique and different. But there is nothing that makes me go “WOW! I have to buy that!”. So it dings it for me, but isn’t something that is considered a deal breaker in the value of the product.

Overall: 10 out of 10 This is an item that is definitely worth looking at. It’s priced fairly as a PDF, and could definitely make for great additional items for GMs and players who are looking to spend their hard earned loot.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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#30 Staves (PFRPG)
Publisher: Rite Publishing
by Alexander L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/11/2012 09:12:12

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/09/11/tabletop-review-30-staves/

Introduction: This twelve page supplement by Rite Publishing introduces a “slew” of staves for a GM to introduce into a fantasy RPG mainly Pathfinder but with little or no change, can be used in any fantasy RPG of any edition. My two Pathfinder gaming groups found the staves contained within this product to be very original and they will certainly add flavor to the game depending which ones are allowed to be found as treasure or whatever venue makes them available.

Contents: The contents of this supplement is concentrated on magical staves of various levels of power whether it be a wondrous magical item, a stave used as a weapon, staves of legendary status and of course, staves as artifacts. The authors of this supplement have used a diverse flavor of colorful names designated with each stave and that alone really made the supplement stick. No longer are they just staves of power or staves of fire. It is now a Staff of Banishment, the Staff of the Liberator, Staff of the Fearmonger, Staff of Feast and Famine, and many others. Artwork is spread throughout the supplement to give the staves some type of visual representation and they were done very well. A feat is contained for those players who wish to create lesser staves in the event a player desires to do so and the GM allows. There is a bit of added content concerning the creation of other types of staves that are legendary and how to destroy them if it is needed. The information contained in this supplement will give staves the true reputation they deserve.

Positive Notes: Very excellent supplement that can really add a lot of dimension to a GM’s game with the use of staves. Some of the staves contained are certainly extremely powerful but they can be utilized as an item that must be recovered before the enemy can capture it or it can be a staff where the player has no clue of its true power. The players who reviewed some of this product with me found it to be very deserving of praise and as usual I agree. They noted to me that most players of RPG’s usually do not consider staves as weapons and this product has brought that into the light that they are exceptional if used as weapons. There is no doubt in my mind that some of these items will eventually find a way into my Pathfinder games in the future. The artwork contained was well done and provided excellent visual examples of the staves presented in this supplement. After reviewing this product the past few days, it is certainly a “homerun”

Negative Notes: None at all.

Overall Review: This product is a must have at a GM’s table. If a GM allows the use of such magical items, then this is the product to own. It will provide many an item that can be used for the benefit of the party or as a tool by the enemy to defeat them. The supplement is well written and the art contained very worthy. Well done job and certainly gets a thumbs up from me and my two pathfinder groups I host at my residence.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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#30 Staves (PFRPG)
Publisher: Rite Publishing
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/28/2012 14:41:15

This pdf is 15 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 11 pages of content for 30 staves, so let's check this out!

As has become the tradition with supplements by Rite Publishing, this pdf once again kciks off with an awesome piece of prose to supplement the crunch, this time by Pers Veilbron to his friend, the by now rather well-known Owain Northway - journalist, sleuth and our guide to the upcoming and highly anticipated Questhaven magical renaissance city-setting.

After the well-written piece of lore, we are introduced to two staves, the twistroot staff that lest you manipulate and communicate with plants and the Planetripper's Staff which enables you to banish and contact outsiders as well as plane shift and create lesser demin-planes. Ok, that's nice and all - but relatively tame and not too exciting. And hence also my excitement about there "only" being two of these regular staves in this pdf: After these two, we are immediately introduced to wondrous staves - a total of 19 of these staves are presented. But what do they do? Well, essentially they are regular staves that offer an additional benefit to the wielder, ranging from doubling the duration of any cast basic detect-spell to the option to destroy a staff and thus add a symbol of force to the object against which it is smashed onwards to the option to get 2 to certain skills, 2 to hex DCs and even the option to plant a staff and thus enhance a garden (and cast heroes feast...) the wondrous staves are well-designed and provide some nice additional bonuses that help enhance their flair.

3 of the new staves belong to another cool category, the one that treats staves as weapons and comes with full rules on how to create such sturdy staves. Rather cool is that some of the abilities of these staves work differently when in weapon- or staff (casting)-mode, adding options and versatility to the PC's arsenal. I just wished that more of such dual effects had been included. The third category of staves are the legendary staves: Here, the option and feats to create lesser staves, first introduced in Marc Radle's excellent "Krazy Kragnar's Magic Staff Emporium" by SGG (which you SHOULD own, seriously - it made one of my top-ten lists...) is expanded: A total of 5 legendary staves are presented, all of which come in three versions: A lesser, a standard and a greater version, as in Krazy Kragnar's pdf. However, not content with just utlizing these rules, the staves are supplemented in multiple ways: First, we get advice on how to use them alternatively as minor artifacts. Secondly, DMs are not only aided in their integration into a game, but also get a history for each staff, a suggested means of destruction and even a suggestion for a ritual to upgrade the staff e.g. from its standard to its greater variant help to further enhance these staves if chosen to be used as minor artifacts. Better yet, these bits of fluff can also be used with the non-artifact versions, enhancing the staves greatly and making sure that they are not yet another boomstick.

Thos of you who own "#30 Traps for Tombs", also by T.H. Gulliver and imho one of the best trap-books written for PFRPG might recall the tantalizing bits of history on the land of tombs and the major artifact that completes this little pdf adds another such bit of trivia as well as a rather nice option: If you happen to want to run Gary Gygax's Necropolis - this staff fits right in.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect: I noticed glitches like "de*mon" and similar minor flaws. Layout adheres to RiP's 2-column full-color standard and while I had seen the full-color staves herein before, I did enjoy that illustrations for some were provided. Generally, I love the idea of weaponized staves and having them in "modes" with multiple options to use the respective charges. I also liked the wondrous staves, though the true stars of this pdf for me are the staves of legend, those nifty pieces of equipment with their histories, nice fluff and adding more content in the style of one of my favorite equipment books ever.

However, not all per se is awesome: Call me spoiled, but since T.H. Gulliver's "#30 intelligent magic items" awesome histories and stories, I expected to see some similar treatments for the staves. Yes, I'm aware that this might be unfair. And yes, I realize that this cool, humble pdf did not have such a design-goal. Nevertheless, I caught myself wondering why not the whole pdf deals with awesome staves of legend or the mechanically interesting weapon-staves. Or why the weapon staves and wondrous staves don't get their own stories/pieces of fluff. Why per se not a truly significant flaw, the combination with the minor editing glitches means that the pdf is not up to the stellar standard set by its immediate predecessor. And that's why I will settle for a final verdict of 4 stars - I hope to see a sequel with more staves of legend.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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