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Into the Breach: The Rogue
Editeur: Flying Pincushion Games
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 07/18/2016 20:21:02

This supplement is 43 pages, including 39 pages of content. After a brief introduction, we are presented with a barrage of archetypes. The archetypes are divided into what the author calls “Core Archetypes” and “Unchained Archetypes,” the latter of which are meant to modify the Unchained Rogue class from Paizo. This division is somewhat of an odd choice, as it leaves the product without a clear target audience. The non-unchained rogue doesn’t really have a place at the same table as the unchained rogue, except maybe as an NPC class, and even that is a stretch given that it has to sit in the thin region between the Expert, Ninja, and Unchained Rogue. If this book had contained only “Unchained Archetypes,” then it would clearly be useful to someone looking for more support for a relatively new class. If it had had only “Core Archetypes,” then it could target an audience that wanted a low-powered game with NPC-class style classes, and complement Flying Pincusion’s previous [i]Into the Breach: Forgotten Classes[/i] as well as things like Knotty Works’ [i]It’s an NPC World.[/i] As it is, though, anyone who gets this book is going to be ignoring one chapter or the other, which is not a good situation for a book this small. The 12 “Core” archetypes are somewhat hit or miss. For example, the Booksmart Scout trades away Trapfinding and non-skill-related abilities to get Bardic Knowledge and some Alchemist toys. The Fugitive gains flat-out immunity to magic that determines their location, but doesn’t get it until 14th level and everything else the archetype gets is flat number boosts. The Haunted Skulk gets some Oracle and Occultist class features, which are well-implemented except that they are obviously superior to the unarchetyped rogue (maybe this one should have been an “Unchained Archetype?”) On the other hand, the excellent Master Hawserier gets a bunch of unique rope-related abilities which vary depending on the material of rope used. Examples are given from exotic “rope” types ranging from Assassin Vine to Siren Hair to Shark Skin.
Now, we move on to the four “Unchained Archetypes.” The Brickbat Striker has the option to reduce the number of damage dice they roll for Sneak Attack in exchange for applying one of several debuffs to their target, and the strength of the debuff depends on how much damage they give up. This is my favorite archetype in this book and the one I had the most fun playing with.
Moving on, the Bunk Mentalist archetype gets certain “mentalist powers” tied to skill unlocks, with one additional bonus listed for each skill. Unfortunately the abilities are too minor to work as a major class feature, and most of the rest of the archetype is just number boosts.
The two remaining archetypes are called the Guild Capo, which gains intelligence-to-damage with a single (finessable) weapon, and the Sharp Shooter, which gets a bunch of archery-oriented boosts. I haven’t gotten a chance to play or run either of these archetypes yet…. Next comes the Libertine, a full alternate class for the Unchained Rogue. The principle class feature it gets is called an “Intrigue,” which consists of special bonuses relating to (or fighting against) a specific NPC chosen when you first get the class feature. This sort of mechanic has all the pitfalls of the Ranger’s Favored Enemy cranked up to eleven: the class features are very potent as long as the subject of the Libertine’s Intrigue is closely tied to the current events of the campaign, but utterly useless as soon as that character leaves the action. You could probably make it more consistent by using another PC as your Intrigue, but many of the abilities relate to attacking the subject of your Intrigue, so you’d have to ignore those options unless you want to do pvp. The text seems to suggest that assigning the status of an Intrigue to an NPC is temporary, or that it can be swapped out for another Intrigue, but it gives now indication as to how long an Intrigue should last or the method for altering it. The other issue with the Intrigue ability is that many granted abilities depend on the clunkier portions of the Diplomacy skill. For example, you get bonuses depending on the “attitude” of the Intrigue in relation to the Libertine. Building a class feature around something you know a large portion of your audience is going to house rule is a risky move, as it is unclear how to implement numerous Libertine class options alongside the most common Diplomacy house rules. Starting at 2nd level, the Libertine gets “Quirks” which are mostly just Rogue Talents by another name. Advanced Quirks show up at 10th level, too. After some more number boosts and Uncanny Dodge, the Libertine gets another new class feature at 5th level, called “Shameless,” which allows you to make a skill check to negate an enemy’s action. At 11th level, you get an ability called “Hold Court,” which is one of the weirdest class abilities I have ever read. It allows you to invite numerous NPCs to a party/event. The Libertine gets skill bonuses against NPCs who attend the event, while NPCs who reject your invitation face penalties against those who did attend (it’s unclear whether that also includes you). The ability is somewhat vague in how exactly it works, but I have to give the author credit for trying to make a truly novel class feature that doesn’t require a whole new subsystem to introduce. As a capstone ability, you can make an Intrigue permanent, which might be nice except that I don’t know how long an Intrigue is supposed to last in the first place, and it brings back all the issues of the Ranger’s Favored Enemy.
The entire class is indicated as requiring “any non-lawful” alignment for no apparent reason. That’s either a wasted sentence if your group ignores it or an unfortunate limitation if your group enforces it. If you do want to adhere to the class’ alignment requirement, you’ll have to homebrew how it interacts with alignment changes, since the class does not contain an “Ex-Libertine” entry the way the Barbarian and Paladin classes do. Finally comes three pages worth of traits intended for rogues, divided into combat, social, magic, and faith traits. Like the rest of the book, they are rather hit-or-miss based on my initial reading. I haven’t gotten to actually play with any of these traits, though, (my group doesn’t use traits), so take my opinion with a pinch of salt. Short Term Use: I’ll admit, I had difficulty understanding how a few of the abilities worked the first few times I read them, which doesn’t’ happen very often. The Libertine’s Shameless ability took me a couple readings to get, as did several of the Quirks. The easiest way to use this book with minimal prep (that I can think of) might be to plop a Core-Archetype on some NPC rogues. The lack of rules clarity is the biggest impediment to short term utilization of this book. The Libertine class also has a lot of diplomacy-related abilities that don’t make sense on an NPC, so a Libertine NPC would be very difficult to run. Hence, I’ll settle on a Short Term Rating of 2/5.
Long Term Use: The most tantalizing option in this book should be the prospect of using the Libertine class either on a major NPC or a PC, but I don’t think it measures up to the competition. I could maybe envision running a low-powered campaign with mostly NPC classes, and making use of the Core Archetypes in this book (alongside Flying Pincushion’s other product for NPC class options), but several of the so-called Core Archetypes are actually quite a bit stronger and closer in power to the Unchained Rogue. There are some real gems in the Unchained Rogue archetype abilities, though. With a bit of work, some of the Libertine class features may be salvageable too. Overall, this product gets a 2.5/5 Long Term Rating, rounded up to 3 for the purpose of this platform due to the low price.



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Into the Breach: The Rogue
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101 Not So Random Encounters: Urban (PFRPG)
Editeur: Rite Publishing
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 01/30/2016 23:40:24

This supplement clocks in at 51 pages, including 47 pages of content. After a brief introduction, we dive into 101 detailed encounters. A few general notes about these encounters: all of them assume you are using the Questhaven Campaign Setting. If you aren’t familiar with it, that’s okay, because this book gives you enough to understand it. In fact, this book could work as an introduction to Questhaven. Also, these encounters are not just brief collections of generic monsters. Rather, each encounter gets about a half a page of fluff describing the creature(s) motivations and place in the world. All the creatures in this book belong to a faction called the Fold of Mother’s Pride, which is a criminal cartel in Questhaven. Strung together, these descriptions can give you ideas for campaign plots even if you don’t use the stat-blocks.
The creatures in this book show the full range of the CR gamut. At the low end, we have a pair of CR 1/2 creatures: “Nightblood”, a CR 1/2 stirge, and “Kuruk Starshade”, a fetchling. At the high end, there are three CR 20 creatures, including the nominal leader of the Fold, the “Reverend Mother Panthia”. All are provided with fully detailed stat-blocks and a sizeable backstory. There is also one CR 23 creature, a dragon who secretly controls the organization. This one does NOT come with a stat-block, but instead refers you to a stat-block in Pathways (which is Rite Publishings series of free supplements). Short Term Use: The editing is very good, though there are a few more glitches than usual for a Rite Publishing product. The stat-blocks are all clearly laid out and easy to use, which is particularly impressive for the high CR creatures. It may take some planning to work the fluff of the organization into your campaign’s plot, but if you are just looking for a quick encounter, you can use the stat-blocks without the full treatment of the Fold of Mother’s Pride. Even if you do want to use the fluff, it shouldn’t be too hard to at least work some of it in to your urban adventure. Hence, this book gets a Short Term Rating of 4.5/5. Long Term Use: Aside from functioning as an introduction to one chunk of Questhaven, this supplement contains enough information on the Fold of Mother’s Pride organization to base an entire urban campaign around the contents of this supplement. You could even adapt it to work in a big city in your campaign world, not just Questhaven. On the other hand, the specificity of some of the descriptions, combined with the dependency on some information being secret from the players, has the potential to limit the reusability of a lot of this content. All in all, it gets a Long Term Rating of 3/5.



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101 Not So Random Encounters: Urban (PFRPG)
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101 Urban Spells (PFRPG)
Editeur: Rite Publishing
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 01/30/2016 23:39:02

DISCLAIMER: I received a free copy of this product in exchange for my review. I received no other form of compensation, nor am I affiliated with Rite Publishing, Steven Russell, or Dave Paul.
OTHER DISCLAIMER: At the time of this writing, this product was released less than one year ago. Hence, all opinions expressed in this review, and in particular the Long Term Rating, should be considered TENTATIVE. This supplement clocks in at 50 pages, including 47 pages of content. First comes a one page introduction, which reminds the reader of the Settlement Size Modifier mechanic from Paizo’s Gamemastery Guide (which was itself copied from WotC’s 3.5 DMG). Some of the spells in this book have their effects modified by the size modifier of the settlement they are cast in. There are also a handful of spells which depend on the other settlement modifiers described in the GMG.
Next comes the conventional tables of spells by class and level, with their abbreviated descriptions, following the same format as the PHB and most d20 supplements. There are spell lists provided for all of Paizo’s spellcasting base classes (no guidance for use with non-Paizo classes is provided). One thing of note is that this book is sparse on very high level spells: the sorcerer/wizard, witch, and cleric lists all top out at 8th level spells, while the druid is not given any spells above 5th level. If you mainly play at low levels, that shouldn’t be a problem for you. Even at higher levels, of course, there are plenty of lower level utility spells here you may want to use. Let’s start with the weakest: this supplement contains a handful of 0th level spells. Boot Pebble creates a pebble in an enemy’s shoe, giving them a speed and dexterity penalty until it is removed. Other cantrips allow you to give someone else a penalty on knowledge checks, conjure an illusory sound of footsteps (with advantages making it non-redundant with Ghost Sound), keep clothes dry for a duration which depends on the settlement’s climate, or telekinetically lift and throw a stone for a single point of damage without the possibility of missing.
On the other extreme, there are a couple of eighth level spells. Can’t Leave Town, as the name suggests, prevents everyone in a small settlement who fails their save from leaving, or prevents everyone in a larger settlement from leaving through a specific exit. Wake the Dead, another eight level spell, can (among other effects) grant a Raise Dead to all dead humanoids in an area, but they die again after the spell’s brief duration ends.
Short Term Use: The editing and formatting are top notch. The effects of the spells are varied and interesting enough to use. Moreover, as no new subsystems are presented, you know exactly what you are getting and how it works. On the other hand, some of the rules language is needlessly ambiguous, bringing the Short Term Rating down to 4/5. Long Term Use: One question you might have is “can these spells be used in a non-urban environment?” The answer differs for different spells in this supplement. Almost all of these spells are most useful in or near a settlement, but most can still technically be used in the wilderness (though with varying degrees of usefulness). Overall, however, David Paul has managed to deliver an incredible array of varied and unique spells-- an impressive feat given how many have already been published in the last sixteen years. The occasional interactions with the Settlement Rules, which are often under-utilized in Pathfinder supplements, is an excellent touch. Thus, this supplement earns a Long Term Rating of 4.5/5, rounded up to 5 for the purposes of this platform.



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Into The Breach: The Forgotten Classes
Editeur: Flying Pincushion Games
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 01/10/2016 12:48:37

This supplement comes in at 37 pages, including 32 pages of content. As a forewarning, the PDF version of this product contains a few “interactive” forms, which prevents lite PDF rendering applications from loading it. It does not load for me in Evince PDF reader, but does load in the free versions of Adobe Acrobat and Foxit Reader. After a brief introduction we get a bunch of archetypes for each of the five NPC classes in the DMG. As a general note about these archetypes, they are almost entirely power ups compared to the base NPC classes. If you are looking for archetypes which keep close in power to the original class, this book won’t satisfy you. All the adept archetypes trade away their familiar, but each gains several class features in return, many of which are better than a familiar, and none of them reduce spellcasting. The expert archetypes have some restrictions on which skills can be chosen as class skills, which is barely a trade with Pathfinder’s skill system, and each gets numerous new class features. Some of the warrior archetypes sacrifice heavy armor proficiency or tower shield proficiency, but get a bunch of class features in return, and the commoner archetypes don’t give anything up at all. We start with four Adept archetypes: the Caller, which gains elemental powers including the ability to create a construct of either fire, water, air, or earth; the Deep Forest Shaman, which gains bonuses while in a jungle; the Nun, which gains cleric domains; and the Vicar, which gains minor thematic non-spell boosts related to cleric domains. Next comes three Aristocrat archetypes: the Coven Sworn gets hag- and witch- related abilities, the Noble Wastrel gets drug-related abilities, and the Tax Assessor gets features which improve their wealth as well as cavalier orders. The three Commoner archetypes are the Forester, who gets some ranger goodies, the Hostler, whose class features all revolve around Handle Animal, and the Urchin, an urban-focused archetype. Then there are three Expert archetypes (the Boxer, the Master Craftsman, and the Minstrel), and four Warrior archetypes (the Deep Jungle Flesh-Hunter, the Farm Soldier, the Siege Sapper, and the Yeoman).
We also get a bit of non-archetype content. There is a chart of “100 random objects” for a peasant to carry, which can add a bit of variety to your descriptions. For some reason this chart is hidden between two warrior archetypes instead of being in its own section. There are a few new mundane weapons and armor. There is also the Way Trader, a new “alternate class” for the Expert. I’m not sure what makes this “alternate class” different from another expert archetype, aside from the fact that it is in a different section of the book. This “alternate class” isn’t any more expansive than the expert “archetypes” earlier in the supplement, it just uses yet another word to describe the game subsystem of Alternate Class Features/Kits/Variant Classes/Sub-Classes/Archetypes.
Short Term Use: The editing is good, but not perfect. The rules language is fairly ambiguous in a handful of places, so you might need to iron things out before using them. The obvious use for this product is to quickly make NPCs for your campaign. While each archetype has several class features, they give few build choices beyond what every class requires (like feat and skill selection), making it fairly easy to churn out a statblock when you need it quickly. The stuff that isn’t archetypes is also fairly easy to use. The actual quality of the class features, though, is a mix of mildly interesting features, copies of existing classes’ features, and basic number boosts. Thus, this supplement gets a Short Term Rating of 3.5/5. Long Term Use: Since each archetype is more powerful than the base class, one question you might be thinking of is whether these modified NPC classes are appropriate for PCs. The answer, for most campaigns, anyways, is no. While they do get additional class features, most of those features are limited in where they can be used in ways that make them a poor match for adventuring. These archetypes are meant for NPCs that fill specific non-adventurer roles, and in most campaigns a PC with one of these archetypes won’t be substantially better than one with a normal NPC class. You can probably continue using this book to make NPCs for a long time, but the lack of originality in many of the class features is a disappointment. Still, there are a few good new mechanics for future mining. Overall, it gets a Long Term Rating of 3.5/5, rounded up to 4 due to the low price.



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Into The Breach: The Forgotten Classes
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The Abstract Thief
Editeur: Quasar Knight Enterprises
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 01/02/2016 19:07:47

This supplement clocks in at 21 pages, including 14 pages of content. The first thing of note is that the PDF comes with no bookmarks, nor is there a table of contents. At this size, it probably isn’t necessary, but it is a minor drawback. The primary feature of this supplement, as the name suggests, is the Abstract Thief base class. This class is a 3/4 BAB class with six levels of Int-based prepared casting. It has its own custom spell list (all the Abstract Thief spells are drawn from Paizo’s Core Rulebook, Advanced Player’s Guide, and Ultimate Magic). The spell list is quite a bit narrower than that of the Bard. The class has a variety of minor class features, including trapfinding and sneak attack (though with a delayed progression compared to the rogue class), and a variety of small number boosts.
The principle class feature of the Abstract Thief is its Abstractions. Starting at level one, they can steal “essential elements” of enemies, which replenishes a pool of abstraction points. The abstraction points do very little before level three. At 3rd level and every three levels after that, the Abstract Thief learns one of a variety of Abstractions (in a similar manner as rogue talents, witch hexes, and similar types of class feature choices). Each Abstraction allows the user to steal some idea from a target, applying a temporary debuff to the target and a temporary benefit to the Abstract Thief. The effects of the different Abstractions are varied: one allows you to temporarily steal skill ranks from the target. Another allows you to steal the effects of beneficial divination. One Abstraction allows you to steal the targets emotions, giving you the benefits of Moral bonuses, rage, etc. Other abstractions let you steal things like the targets memories, youth, senses, and health. One of my favorite Abstractions is called Steal Shadow: it temporarily removes the target’s shadow…and replaces it with a Shadow (as the monster from the Bestiary) that aids the thief. I have mixed feelings about this class overall. Power-wise, it falls right in the middle of the range of Paizo classes, so balance is not a concern. The Abstraction class feature is one of my favorite class features I have read in quite a while. On the other hand, the Abstractions are the only unique or interesting thing this class brings to the table. I would have preferred if it got another major unique class feature (or an expanded version of Abstractions), and lost either the plethora of dull/minor class features or had its spellcasting scaled back or removed.
After the base class, we get a small handful of thief-friendly feats, including the expected Extra Abstraction feat. Finally, there are a few pages of fluff describing backstories of sample Abstract Thieves. There is a small amount of color artwork scattered throughout this supplement. Short Term Use: The editing is good, though not perfect. The rules are presented clearly enough to be used easily, so you shouldn’t have trouble dropping an Abstract Thief into your campaign, making for a short term rating of 4.5/5. Long Term Use: As I said above, the Abstraction class feature is one of the best class features I have seen in a long time. The class has a niche as a skillmonkey class that is more “thief” oriented than the bard and alchemist, and doesn’t suffer from a lack of out-of-combat utility the way the rogue class does. On the other hand, the choice of Abstractions are the only meaningful decisions an abstract thief gets to make when leveling, which really leaves a narrow range of possible Abstract Thief builds, at least unless an expansion is released. Overall, it earns a long term rating of 3.5/5, rounded up to four due to the low price.



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Death to Alignment!
Editeur: Quasar Knight Enterprises
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 01/02/2016 19:05:11

This supplement clocks in at 44 pages, including 37 pages of content. The interactions between alignment and the rules of Pathfinder are quite possibly the most criticized portion of the rules. Still, removing it is a nontrivial process. It’s easy enough to just say that everyone counts as True Neutral for rules purposes, and to remove the things that no longer have a function (like Detect Evil and aligned weapons). But removing elements of the core rules is tricky, because those rules are referenced in supplements. For example, many monsters get Detect Good as a spell-like ability, and alignment-based damage reduction is common. Making ad-hoc revisions to half the monsters in every monster manual ever written for the system is not something most end users want to do. Hence, this supplement aims to give a comprehensive set of adjustments to the core rules which make it easy to remove alignment-related rules from future supplements. After a brief introduction, the first major section of this book summarizes the ways in which alignment interacts with the core game rules. It is a whopping nine page list of things that need to be addressed later in the book if the supplement is to achieve its stated mission. This section is largely stuff you already know, so it seems a bit like a waste of space. However, as a digital-only product, space is not exactly at a premium. The next section is the heart of the book. Every game element in the core rules and some in the Advanced Player’s Guide which depends on alignment is modified. Some are simply tweaked, while others are given replacements (e.g., Magic Circle of Protection from <alignment> is replaced by a new spell called Magic Circle of Protection, so any class/monster/item which uses or gets Magic Circle of Protection from Evil by the core rules is instead modified to use Magic Circle of Protection). Base classes, prestige classes, spells, damage reduction, and items are all modified. The author also gives four new cleric domains to replace the alignment domains if you want each of the gods to keep the same number of domains. The entire process is quite succinct and easy to generalize to supplementary content not covered in this book. Once you have separated alignment from the rules, you have three options. Firstly, you can continue to use alignment, just without it getting bogged down in the rules. Secondly, you can stop using alignment and just focus on roleplaying. Finally, you can introduce an alternate “alignment” system of in-game morality without having to worry about how it interacts with the game rules.
The final section of the book presents three alternate systems of alignment, which are all easy to implement because alignment has been removed from the game rules. None of them are particularly original, but they are there. There are color illustrations scattered throughout this supplement. Short Term Use: Editing and rules language are very clear. The formatting is somewhat jumbled, possibly to reduce the page count at the expense of readability (reduced page count shouldn’t be a high priority goal for a PDF-only product). There is no table of contents, nor does the PDF come with bookmarks. For a 44 page PDF, that’s a real hindrance in learning the system. Once you’ve been using these rules for a while, they fit naturally enough into the rest of the game that you likely won’t need to reference this PDF at the table very often, but when you are first learning it the lack of bookmarks can be a problem. The fact that every rule in this book is meant to apply for entire campaigns also means that it is less likely you will implement it immediately after getting the book. Thus, its Short Term Rating is a 2/5. Long Term Use: This supplement makes short and elegant changes to the core Pathfinder rules, and does so in a way which continues to fit with almost all future and current supplements. You can expect to be using this product for as long as you are playing Pathfinder, and with very little to complain about it. Death to Alignment therefore earns a perfect 5/5 Long Term Rating.



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Nice Things for Fighters
Editeur: Quasar Knight Enterprises
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 01/02/2016 19:04:39

This supplement clocks in at 32 pages, including 25 pages of content. The first thing of note is that the PDF comes with no bookmarks, nor is there a table of contents, which is a somewhat annoying but not a complete deal-breaker at this size.
After a brief introduction, we get many pages worth of combat feats. These feats are designed with the knowledge that combat feats are the main class features of fighters, and, thus, should have a range of versatility and power comparable to other classes’ major features. The feats allow for a range of different abilities, from blocking spells to damaging an area instead of a single enemy, to moving enemies you hit. There is one crucial flaw in this section: the feats which are supposed to be class features have long chains of incongruous feats as prerequisites. Barbarian rage powers don’t require taking numerous weaker rage powers as prerequisites. Witch hexes don’t require taking lots of non-synergistic weaker hexes as prerequisites. And, of course, learning or casting Summon Monster VI doesn’t require first learning Summon Monster I through V. The fact that fighters’ main class features are locked behind chains of prerequisites, while at the same time are no better (and often weaker) than other classes’ class features is one of the most commonly cited reasons for the fighter’s deficiencies. If the goal of this section was to provide Nice Things for Fighters, it didn’t meet its goal. Next comes a string of archetypes for fighters. The Bombardier gets a version of alchemist’s bombs. The Everyman Hero archetype gets a bunch of minor miscellaneous boosts. The Grappling Cord Acrobat gets a bunch of grappling-themed abilities, the Scrapper archetype eliminates armor-related bonuses, and the Warrior-Poet gets a bunch of bard class features. The archetypes range from weak to moderately strong, but there is a dearth of originality in their abilities, with a lot being drawn from existing class features. The Grappling Cord Acrobat was the only archetype that really impressed me.
There are a handful of color illustrations scattered throughout this supplement. Short Term Use: The editing and formatting are very good, and the rules language is fairly clear. The lack of a table of contents or bookmarks hurts is usability as a PDF. If you are reading this review, there is a decent chance you are considering whether to use this product or Path of War (or both). This supplement consists almost entirely of feats and simple archetypes, so it may seem easier to introduce than an entire subsystem like Path of War. However, when taken straight out of the box, Nice Things for Fighters does not actually accomplish what it promises. There is very little in this supplement that allows a fighter to affect things outside of its immediate vicinity or affect the narrative out of combat, so this supplement does nothing to bring it closer to the level of spellcasters. It sort-of helps by almost bringing the fighter up to the level of other martial base classes, but doesn’t quite make it because the feats are locked behind long prerequisite feat chains and the archetypes suffer from an overemphasis on number boosts. Overall, this product gets a Short Term Rating of 2/5. Long Term Use: Despite my earlier criticism, many of the feats in this book do have interesting effects. If one were to go through the book and tweak, remove, or reduce the prerequisites for all of the feats, you’d get a fairly good collection. That, combined with the fact that I really do like the Grappling Cord archetype, nets this supplement a Long Term rating of 3/5.



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Lands of Porphyra Campaign Setting (PFRPG)
Editeur: Purple Duck Games
par A customer [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 12/26/2015 23:43:23

Disclaimer of compensation: I received a complimentary copy of this product in exchange for my review. I received no other compensation, nor do I have any ties to Purple Duck Games. Disclaimer of Tentativity: At the time I posted this review, this product is less than one year old. Thus, all opinions expressed in this review, and especially the long term rating, must be considered tentative. This supplement clocks in a whopping 214 pages, including 209 page of content. After a brief introduction, we get 110 pages presenting overview of each of the 52 major region in the world of Porphyra. Yes, [i]52[/i] major regions. While each is given only a few pages, they are incredibly diverse and well written. Some of the regions are given more detail in separate, dedicated supplements. Purple Duck Games has taken a unique route with Porphyra. Most RPG companies, even those who regularly use the Open Gaming Licesnse, have been very protective in keeping their fluff closed-content. Purple Duck Games has gone the opposite route and made the entirety of Porphyra open gaming content, including the gods, nations, and the extensive fictional history. The declaration of Open Gaming Content in this book says simply “All Text”. Much of the information in this book can be viewed for free on PDG’s Porphyra wiki. Following the extensive descriptions of regions, we get a 15 page chapter briefly describing the places of different fantasy races in the world of Porphyra. Each of 87 races gets about a paragraph of description, and a list of regions in which they can be found. No stat-blocks are provided: most of the given races have been statted in one of Paizo’s bestiaries, whilst the others have been statted in other PDG products. All in all, this section is nice and convenient but rather skimpy on details. Next we get details on the gods of Porphyra, separated into four major pantheons: the New Gods, the Risen Gods, the Elemental Lords and the Protean Lords. These pantheons are all described in more detail in their own, separate supplements. Great care has been taken to make the gods of Porphyra distinct from the generic clones many other campaign settings use. Better yet, all information in this chapter can be viewed for free on the Porphyra wiki.
After a few short miscellaneous sections, we get a long chunk of crunch. The section starts with various magic options, including tie-ins to other PDG supplements, and altered versions of several domains. Next comes a trio of prestige classes. The first, the Impervious, is a full BAB partial divine spellcasting class. The second is a 3/4 BAB partial spellcasting class which requires gunslinger’s grit. The third prestige is an anti-divine-magic 3/4 BAB class associated with the Sandmen organization described earlier in the book. Overall, the quality of the prestige classes is decent, but a step down from the earlier portions of the book, with a lot of bog-standard abilities. Following the prestige classes we get a bunch of regional traits tied to different regions of Porphyra, and campaign traits tied to other aspects of the world. The traits are the biggest disappointment of the book, with lots of bland number boosts and very little ingenuity.
Finally, we get the Ruins of Greencastle, a short adventure for first level PCs which is meant to introduce the setting. The adventure itself is a simple dungeon crawl. It is well constructed and comes with fully detailed maps and statblocks, but is on the whole unmemorable and mainly functions as a way to introduce pieces of the setting. Short Term Use: The editing and presentation is top notch. The rules that are present are easy enough to understand that they can be dropped into a campaign quickly, but the crunch is overall subpar for Purple Duck Games. The campaign world’s elaborate fictional history and enormous scope makes getting in to it somewhat daunting, even with the introductory adventure. Hence, this supplement earns a short term rating of 2/5. Long Term Rating: As you have probably deduced from my review thus far, the world of Porphyra is really big. The strong writing and diverse lands make it an excellent place to run a long-running campaign. The fact that many of the regions are sparse on details allows you plenty of room to fill things in during your campaign over many years of playing. Thus, this book gets a well-deserved long term rating of 5/5.



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Lands of Porphyra Campaign Setting (PFRPG)
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Fehr's Ethnology Complete
Editeur: Purple Duck Games
par Ben B. [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 10/20/2015 08:48:53

This PDF clocks in at a 130 pages, including a whopping 129 pages of content. After a brief introduction, we dive straight in to the descriptions and supporting content for 12 player-character races. In brief, the twelve races in this book are: Avoodim: native good-aligned outsiders who failed a test in the process of becoming celestials Dhosari: monstrous humanoids with four arms and two legs Dragonblood: humans with a tiny amount of dragon blood in their heritage Erkunai: an offshoot of humans (they have the human subtype) that became a distinct race by making sorcerous pacts, giving them some built-in scaling summoning abilities Eventual: the lawful counterpart to tieflings and aasimar Ith’n ya’roo: monstrous humanoids with horns adapted to very cold environments Kripar: a subterranean race of solitary hunters Polkan: a centaur variant at a power level appropriate for first level PCs Qit’ar: psionic catfolk Urik: a mountain-based hooved race of fey creatures Xesa: Jungle-native Plant-humanoid hybrids that count as both types Zendiqui: destert-dwelling humanoids who continue to revere the elemental lords (the “old” gods of Porphyra)

Each race’s chapter starts with a brief in-character narrative before presenting the stats, and an overview of that race’s ecology, physical description, and society. The fluff is very strongly tied to Purple Duck Games’ [i]Lands of Porphyra[/i] campaign setting. If you don’t have at least basic familiarity with the setting, much of the descriptions in this book may not make sense to you on a first reading. That said, however, the fluff in this book is really compelling and detailed, and some chunks of it can be extracted for your own campaign setting. Purple Duck Games has taken a unique route with Porphyra. Most RPG companies, even those who regularly use the Open Gaming Licesnse, have been very protective in keeping their fluff closed-content. Purple Duck Games has gone the opposite route and made the entirety of Porphyra open gaming content, including the gods, nations, and the extensive fictional history. The declaration of Open Gaming Content in this book says simply “All Text”. After the general descriptions of each race, we get a big pile of supporting crunch. Each race gets a bunch of traits, feats, alternate racial traits, magic items, spells, and at least one full racial archetype. Also included are racial Favored Class Bonuses for many Paizo and Purple Duck Games classes. Finally, each race gets a fully-statted first level NPC. But while the fluff was fantastic, the pile of crunch in this book is of comparatively lackluster quality. There are some hidden gems, but a huge chunk of the traits, feats, and even the archetype class features are dull, simple number boosts. The races themselves are much better, for the most part, though a few of them could probably be modeled just as easily by refluffing existing races. There are small, full-color illustrations of all the species described scattered throughout this supplement. Short Term Use: If you are using the Lands of Porphyra campaign setting, this book fits perfectly into the gaps left open by the main campaign setting book. If you aren’t using Porphyra, but are at least familiar with it, you’ll probably still be able to get some use out of the wonderful fluff in this book. The editing is very good, though I did seem to notice a slightly higher glitch rate than usual for Purple Duck Games. The races themselves are well-designed and clearly explained, so you should be able to start using them right away. A couple archetypes have clunky or highly ambiguous rules explanations, but otherwise you should be able to use the rules in this book fairly easily. If you are planning on playing in Porphyra, this supplement earns an easy Short Term Rating of 5/5. Outside of Porphyra, though, it’s closer to a 4/5.

Long Term Use: If you are playing in Porphyra, the fluff alone earns a 5/5 Long Term Rating easily. Otherwise, though, the consistently mediocre crunch really drags this product down. Some of the fluff may be adaptable to other worlds with a bit of work, though, which combined with the base racial traits and a few interesting archetypes brings the non-Porphyra Long Term Rating up to 3.5. Overall, I’ll settle for a 4.5/5 Long Term Rating, rounded down to 4 for the purposes of this platform.



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101 Magus Feats (PFRPG)
Editeur: Rite Publishing
par Ben B. [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 08/13/2015 15:54:53

This supplement comes it at 31 pages, including 27 pages of content.
With no introduction, we start with a table of short descriptions and prerequisites for 101 feats, all meant to work with the Magus base class from Ultimate Magic. Many of the feats are intended for magi with specific class archetypes, and the table is sorted by archetype, including feats for Bladebound, Hexcrafter, Kensai, Myrmidarch, Skirnir, Soul Forger, Spellblade, Spire Defender, and Staff Magus. Also included are feats for four magus archetypes from Owen Stephens’ Ultimate Options: New Magus Arcana. Finally, we get 48 feats intended for ‘standard’ magi.
For the most part, these feats avoid the trap of overly long chains of feat prerequisites. However, many of them still have non-feat prerequisites which make them unavailable until high levels. Lich Assault, for example, requires 11 ranks in spellcraft and a base attack bonus of +8. More affordable feats include Arcane Rejuvenation, which lets you use arcane pool points to recover spell-like abilities and limited-use class features. Other feats give abilities like inflicting ability drain with a special-arcane-pool-powered attack, dispelling magic effects from the target of an attack, and regaining arcane pool points when you disrupt other spellcasters.
There was a significant feature that I expected but did not find in this supplement. Namely, I expected to see some feats which would be useful to gish characters, even those who didn’t necessarily have levels in the magus class. However, every feat in this supplement depends directly on specific magus class features, making them useless to non-magi gishes (unless you have an alternate class feature which gives one or more magus class features to another class). Obviously, the title specifically says [i]101 Magus Feats[/i], not [i]101 Battle-Mage Feats[/i], but I was still a bit disappointed that there was nothing for eldritch knights and duskblades. There are numerous full-color illustrations spread throughout this supplement.

Short Term Use: The editing in this supplement is….not good. It’s the kind of editing quality I’d expect from Paizo, not Rite Publishing. Several of the feats have ambiguous effects, requiring you to decide what they do before you can really use them. However, other feats are more clearly described, and the organization of the feat table and PDF makes it easy to find feats appropriate to the next magus character you are making. Unfortunately, even the most interesting feats can’t be used unless you know what they do, and so the editing really hurts the potential for immediate use. Hence, this supplement gets a Short Term Rating of 2/5. Long Term Use: I admit I had low expectations for this supplement, largely due to my dislike for the magus class. Judged on its own merits, however, there is an excellent variety of feat effects in this supplement. There are almost no page-wasting “number-boost” feats. Once you get past the lack of clarity in some places, I am impressed by the range of special abilities the author managed to squeeze out based on just the a few class features. The inclusion of feats for a wide range of magus alternate class features is also a nice touch. Hence, this supplement earns a Long Term Rating of 4.5/5, rounded up to 5/5 due to the low price.

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Shadows of the Dusk Queen (Pathfinder RPG)
Editeur: Kobold Press
par Ben B. [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 08/05/2015 17:36:44

Disclaimer 1: I believe RPG supplements can only be properly evaluated in hindsight. Hence, I normally only review supplements which are at least one year old. As of this writing, this adventure is more recent, so my rating is tentative. Disclaimer 2: I received a free copy of this adventure in exchange for a review. I was not involved in its development, nor did I receive any other compensation. This PDF comes in at 36 pages, including 31 pages of content. Being an adventure review, this review [b]will contain spoilers[/b]. The adventure background is fairly generic: long ago, the eponymous queen got a magic mirror which turned her evil. Her husband defeated her, sealed her away, and broke the mirror. She just recently broke her seal, but is weakened. The fragments of the mirror are powerful magic items in their own right, and if all are brought to the proper location the Dusk Queen will return to full power.

Next we are introduced to the Shadow Forest, the area in which the entire adventure takes place. There are eight locations identified and detailed in the Forest, and the PCs can essentially move between them as desired. Some of the locations, such the Shadow Nymph’s Pool, contain NPCs sympathetic to the PCs who provide useful information and a piece of the Mirror.
A random encounter table for the space between the detailed locations of the Forest is also provided. Eventually, the PCs collect all the pieces of the Mirror, and head to the Dusk Queen’s Tower. The Dusk Queen informs the PCs that they have been misled about her true nature, that she is actually good, and that she is eternally grateful to the PCs for collecting her shards. She instructs the PCs to place the shards on her throne in exchange for a reward. At this point, we get the most inexplicable part of this book: “The Dusk Queen focuses all of her charisma and powers of persuasion to cajole the shards from the PCs. If unsuccessful….” If the PCs (correctly) believe the Dusk Queen to be the villain of this adventure, she will likely be unable to convince them to give her the shards. In that case, the Dusk Queen summons her dread knight guardian and attacks.
But what if the PCs are persuaded of her honesty? Some of the Dusk Queen’s enemies in the adventure so far have been less than friendly to the PCs, so that is a distinct possibility. What happens if they give her the mirror shards? There is no indication of what happens in the book. Once the Dusk Queen is killed, the tower collapses, and the PCs have to enact a daring escape.

The supplement closes with 13 pages of full-color maps and illustrations of characters and locations in the adventure.

Short Term Use: While the plot of this adventure is simple, it is presented clearly enough to run with minimal preparation. The setting is also sufficiently generic to work into the flow of your existing campaign. The NPCs are given full, detailed stat-blocks with top-notch editing, making them easy to use right away. The maps also make setting up encounters quick. Aside from the one glaring omission noted earlier, Marc Radle has written a fun, solid adventure at a level range with a dearth of published adventures, making for a Short Term Rating of 4.5/5. Long Term Rating: Almost everything in the Forest revolves around the Dusk Queen and the Mirror fragments. Unfortunately, that fact means you are unlikely to get much use out of the locations after the adventure is completed. Some of the NPCs are interesting in their own right, but as they are almost all tied to the forest, you likely won’t use any of them again. The unoriginality of the plot means it is unlikely to inspire stories of your own. The only part I can imagine using after the adventure is done are the encounter maps. Hence, this supplement clocks in at a Long Term Rating of 2.5/5, rounded up to 3 for the purpose of this platform.



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101 Barbarian Feats (PFRPG)
Editeur: Rite Publishing
par Ben B. [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 06/25/2015 20:47:39

This supplement clocks in at 27 pages, including 23 pages of content. With no introduction at all, we start with a standard table of feats, with prerequisites and short descriptions. After the table comes the full description of 101 feats, all intended for barbarians. Most feats have as a prerequisite either Rage class feature, a specific rage power, or class features specific to certain barbarian archetypes.
A few feats, such as Improved Body Bludgeon, fall into the unfortunate trap of overly long feat chain prerequisites. Feats are a rare commodity in Pathfinder, so a feat which isn’t all that powerful to begin with shouldn’t require five other non-synergized feats as prerequisites. Fortunately, only a few feats in this supplement fall into this trap. Many archetype class features have ‘improved [alternate class feature]’ feats. Those which already had such feats get ‘greater [alternate class feature]. The benefits of feats are quite varied, from inflicting curses using rage power, to an immediate-action charge which costs three uses of rage, to feats like Demonic Rage, which grants both the benefits and drawbacks of having a demon live inside the barbarian. There are feats which can allow a barbarian to transfer afflictions from themselves to enemies. Some feats are essentially ‘bane’ feats, giving extra bonuses when attacking creatures of a specific type or subtype. Mindless Rage allows you to become immune to mind-affecting effects while raging, at the cost of having to follow pre-set tactics. Some feats are tied to races. For example, halflings and blinklingsget Maul Joint, which allows the user to damage enemies’ joints. There doesn’t seem to be much reason the racial feats are tied to a specific race, though, except possibly to make the reader aware of races from other Rite Publishing products. Then again, the same can be said of most feats with racial requirements in Pathfinder. There are small, full-color illustrations spread throughout this PDF. Short Term Use: The editing and formatting are top notch, and the effects of each feat are clear. Hence, it is easy to add these feats onto your NPCs with little preparation. Of course, for PCs, more planning is typically required, given the nature of feat chains. Still, the variety of interesting effects earns a strong short term rating of 4/5. Long Term Use: The nice part about these feats is that due to the variety of effects, they can be reused endlessly. You can combine them in a lot of different ways, or you could put them on monsters. These are all well-written and mostly interesting feats. If you are reading this review, you probably know what to do with a bunch of feats. The long term rating is 4.5/5, rounded up to 5 due to the low price.



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Réponse de l’éditeur :
Ben, thank you for taking the time to do a review of so many of our products recently. Steve. I would like to send you a copy of something more recent, if you have the time please reach out to me via Steve at RitePublishing dot Com, thank you again Steven D. Russell Rite Publishing
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101 Pirates and Privateer Traits (PFRPG)
Editeur: Rite Publishing
par Ben B. [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 06/25/2015 20:46:37

This supplement clocks in at 18 pages, including 13 pages of content. I should start by saying that I dislike traits as they are presented in Paizo products. But this supplement isn’t full of Paizo traits, so I will try to assess it on its own merits, rather than on my dislike for the subsystem it is based on. After a brief introduction, we dive right into 101 traits. There is no table of contents or bookmarks, though they are not strictly necessary for a PDF of this size. One thing that makes these traits different from those in Ultimate Campaign is that these traits do not have categories (they are not combat traits, magic traits, etc.), meaning they can be taken alongside each other or any other traits.
The effects of the traits are diverse. For example, False Flag allows you to disguise the flag (and hence allegiance and purpose) of a ship using the disguise skill. Hung From the Yardarn makes it easier for allies to raise you from the dead. Keep to the Code gives you a daily-use bonus against others who have broken codes of conduct.
Many of these traits are much more powerful than standard traits, but come with extra restriction. For example, Hornswaggled Davy Jones allows you to negate a character death, but it only works once. One of my favorites is Parrot-Voice, which grants you a free Parrot familiar (with the same stats as a raven), [b]but[/b] makes you permanently mute. Several traits have abilities that work once per week rather than once per day, which may contribute to ‘nova’ play, but they do allow those traits to do more. Small color illustrations are sprinkled throughout this PDF. Short Term Use: If you are running a pirate-heavy game, you will most likely want to add some of these traits to NPCs, and your players will likely want to take some of them as well. The use-per-week effects, however, make many of them harder to use on short-term NPCs. A lot of the traits have somewhat ambiguous effects, and the editing is worse than Rite Publishing’s usual standard, so you may need to consider what a trait does or should do before adding it to your campaign. Even with those problems, though, there are enough interesting effects to warrant a short term rating of 3/5 stars. Long Term Use: If you plan on running a campaign with a lot of pirates or privateers, you can get a lot of milage out of these traits. While they do require more work to utilize fully than other traits, they are a lot more interesting, and there is little to complain about for such a low price. Hence, it gets a long term rating of 4/5.



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101 Npc Grudges (PFRPG)
Editeur: Rite Publishing
par Ben B. [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 06/25/2015 20:45:28

This supplement clocks in at 17 pages, including 12 pages of content. An NPC Grudge is the opposite of a boon: it is something an NPC can do to make things more difficult for the PCs other than just attacking them. After a brief introduction, we dive straight into a list of Grudges, sorted by the kind of NPC that gives them. They are organized first into regions (Urban grudges from NPCs in a generic city, followed by Rural, Frontier, Nautical, and Wilderness). Within each region, the grudges are sorted by the social standing or occupation of the NPC who grants them. For example, the urban grudges are sorted into lower, middle, and upper class NPCs, along with guard NPCs and other generic occupations.
The effects of the grudges are quite varied. The simplest grudges involve the NPC using their influence to give the PCs circumstance penalties on some kinds of skill checks while they are in the area. Others involve providing information to enemies of the PCs, or providing false information to others to create new enemies for the NPCs. Many grudges work via deception, such as giving the PCs an item which supposedly indicates favor with one faction (that the PCs will deal with shortly), but which actually indicates favor with an opposing faction. Wilderness NPCs can destroy or conceal bridges or shortcuts, or guide predators to the PC. Many NPCs can influence others to apply their grudges as well. For example, one NPC can blackmail others into causing trouble for the PCs, but if the PCs end up helping the one being blackmailed, that NPC can switch from a grudge to a boon. A few NPCs have stat-blocks, though most don’t. It might actually have been better without the statblocks, as they aren’t particularly remarkable and won’t be as helpful to the user as more grudges with the same word count would have been. Small color illustrations of generic NPCs are sprinkled throughout this PDF. Short Term Use: Since the NPCs are all fairly generic, it is relatively easy to work several grudge into your campaign, either by introducing an insignificant/generic character, or, more likely, by attaching grudges to appropriate existing NPCs in your campaign. Also, if the PCs earn the ire of an NPC, you can look for a generic NPC in this supplement which matches and use that grudge. However, they do take more planning to utilize fully than a typical combat encounter. Hence, this supplement earns a short term rating of 4/5. Long Term Use: If you have time to plan grudges, you can cause far more trouble for the PCs than with a simple combat. Due to the way grudges can trigger each other, and the fact that the PCs may earn new grudges in their attempts to bypass or undo existing grudges, you can spin entire adventures out of a relatively simple objective blocked by a barrage of grudges. They work best at low and lower-mid levels, though, as higher level PCs are more likely to be able to negate the effects of most of the grudges. There is a fair amount of repetition in the later sections of the supplement. Even ignoring the repetitive grudges removed, though, you can get a lot of use out of this supplement without too much difficulty. Hence, it earns a long term rating of 4.5/5, rounded up to 5 due to the low price.



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101 Malevolent Magic Items
Editeur: Rite Publishing
par Ben B. [Acheteur vérifié]
Date Ajoutée: 06/25/2015 20:43:36

This supplement clocks in at 35 pages, including 31 pages of content. There is no table of contents, although the bookmarks fulfill much the same function. We start with an introduction, and advice on how best to use cursed items. There are two kinds of items in this supplement: cursed items and malevolent items. Cursed items are much as described in the core rules: poorly constructed magic items which do something harmful to the user. Malevolent items, on the other hand, are built like normal magic items, but are intentionally crafted to be harmful to the user. In essence, cursed magic items are like a fantasy analogue of software containing a critical bug, whilst malevolent magic items are analogous to purposely-constructed malware.
After the introduction, we get eleven cursed/malevolent armors. Also introduced is a +2-equivalent armor property, Fearlessness, which makes the wearer immune to fear. It is introduced alongside a cursed variant, which still makes the wearer immune to fear, but forces them to make will saves to avoid taunting others in situations where it could cause trouble for the wearer.
Next we get eleven malevolent weapons. These include things like the Deafening Weapon, which is a thundering weapon that has the side-effect of deafening the user, and the Narcoleptic Weapon, which has the benefits of a Shock Weapon, but also buts the user to sleep on a ‘successful’ hit. After that comes seven potions and oils, such as the Potion of Blindness, which carries the normal (beneficial) effects of a potion but also blinds the user. Subsequently we get 11 rings, five rods, five scrolls, six staves, six wands, and 29 wondrous items. Finally, we get 10 malevolent Legendary Items. Legendary items, unlike normal d20 magic items, are items with long, detailed, and unique histories. They don’t have the same game-shaking power levels of major artifacts, but they are comparable in power to high-end non-legendary items. They cannot be destroyed by simply attacking them—each legendary item has a unique method of destruction, such as being struck by the weapon of an efreeti noble on the plane of fire, submersing the item in holy water for a full year, or appeasing the spirit of a deceased dragon. All the legendary items in this supplement have backstories written for the Questhaven campaign setting, though a few name changes would allow them to fit into other fantasy settings. There are black-and-white illustrations woven throughout this supplement. Short Term Use: Usually the short term test for a book of magic items is how easily you can plop them into a treasure hoard and have the PCs (or an NPC villain) start using them. Cursed items, though, need to be used sparingly and carefully. The GM should carefully consider why a cursed/malevolent item is where it is. The nature of the supplement does not lend itself to short term use. The items in this supplement are well-edited and easy to understand, though, so I’ll settle on a Short Term Rating of 2/5. Long Term Use: My primary complaint about cursed magic items in the d20 core rules is that they are essentially simple traps. You roll a check to identify their cursed nature. If you fail, you are cursed, and if you succeed, the item is discarded. This supplement gets around that issue entirely. While a few items here are like those in the core rules, most of the items in this supplement [i]do[/i] provide benefits to the user, along with a drawback. Hence, even if the PCs correctly identify that the item is malevolent, the players still have to make a difficult decision as to whether or not to keep it. The final section gives a glimpse into what has become a stunning campaign setting, Questhaven. This installment of the 101 series easily earns a Long Term Rating of 5/5.



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