Faces of The Tarnished Souk (FoTTS): Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller is a rules supplement for the Pathfinder fantasy system that focuses on Nix Ra Bael, Dream Killer. FoTTS: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller contains the statistics for Nix Ra Bael a Male, Blind, Oracle, Siphon, Drow Noble gunslinger (arbalester) at 3 different Challenge Ratings, covers 2 templates an Archetype and has weapons data for the Bladed Tonfa and the Wrist Crossbow and includes 4 magic Items.

OVERALL

Nix Ra Bael, is a powerful foe that I would rather not upset unless my character was above about 15th level, and even then I might think twice. This supplement is a slight departure from Rite Publishing’s normally balanced and utilitarian products. Some of the information in Faces of The Tarnished Souk: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller is overpowered and unbalanced.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 9 out of 10 Rite Publishing has done well sticking with black and white pictures for this supplement. Their font choice is easy to read, while still remaining interesting. The faux leather cover contains an outstanding full body shot of Nix Ra Bael resplendent in his theatrical striped pants brandishing his wrist crossbows and wearing the Mask of Sightless Dreaming. All of the entries follow the same format found in the Pathfinder core rulebook. This supplement includes useful sections that include a good history of Nix Ra Bael and how to use him in a Campaign.

Mechanics: 7 out of 10 Most of the mechanics in this supplement and in Rite Publishing’s products are balanced and easy to introduce into most campaigns, but the two templates Blind Oracle and the Siphon are unbalanced, totally cool but completely unbalanced. The Blind Oracle template increases a creatures Challenge rating by 1 but includes blindsight with a range of 10ft per hit dice, immunity to gaze attacks even if the Oracle is using a magic device that grants sight, spell like abilities, ability score increases bonuses to perception checks, grants a feat and gives a bonus to Armor class. But don’t worry, the character who takes this template can no longer read, not a bad trade off if you ask me! At his highest level, Nix Ra Bael is a CR 21 which makes him nigh untouchable by most adventuring parties out there. At CR 10 and 15 he is a much more realistic foe, but just barely.

Value Add: 8 out of 10 If not for the ridiculously high CR of Nix Ra Bael (designed for use with the high-level Coliseum Morpheuon adventure) and the overall overpowered-ness of the two templates, this is a wonderful product as far as adding value to most games. The concept of pre-fleshing out adversaries and allies and including their normal tactics and attitudes is a huge time saver for GMs. This is nothing new, but many products like to spit out interesting NPCs without giving them soul. Rite Publishing has given Nix Ra Bael soul in spades. The outstanding artistic depiction of him combined with the write-ups make him come alive for me. While most of the magical items are powerful, they are solid builds and could add all sorts of fun if put in the hands of the right friend or foe of any adventuring party.

Overall: 8 out of 10 Nix Ra Bael is a well thought-out adversary that I would run away from quickly if encountered anywhere. There are some aspects of this product that are just too overpowered and unbalanced to overlook. This is a solid product that could be integrated (for the most part) into most adventures. These products have a solid layout and the descriptions of the weapons and of Nix Ra Bael are excellent. This product is an 8 out of 10 for being overpowered at places. Some might say that docking Rite Publishing 2 points for producing an overpowered is harsh, but when this product goes OP it goes all the way! This is a good product that with some very cautious tweaking will be highly useful to GMs. I would love to see the addition of Nix Ra Bael at a few lower levels as well. This would give the GM to let him grow in power as the PCs do.

Faces of the Tarnished Souk: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller by Rite Publishing

This product is 12 pages long. It starts with a cover and credits. (2 pages)

Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller (7 pages) It starts off with a bit of history about him, followed by some lore checks and advice on how to use him. After a page of this we get to the three stat blocks, with advice on tactics. The stat blocks are. CR21 - blind oracle siphon drow noble gunslinger (arbalester) 17 CR15 - blind oracle drow noble gunslinger (arbalester) 14 CR10 - drow noble gunslinger* (arbalester) 10

The extra's include the Arbalester archetype (crossbow version of the gunslinger), 3 new weapons, 4 new magic items, and 2 new templates. Blind Oracle and Siphon.

It ends with a OGL and ads. (3 pages)

Closing thoughts. The art work is black and white and pretty good as a whole. Editing and format are ok, I noticed a few minor mistakes. He is a pretty interesting character with a good history and better personality. I am not completely sold on the Blind Oracle template though, neat idea though. Other than that and the editing/format errors it is a very well done product. If you are a fan of the series you will enough this one. So what's my rating? I am giving this one a 4 star review.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.

This installment of the FoTS-series is 12 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages advertisement, leaving 7 pages of content for the Dreamkiller, so let's check him out, shall we?

Following the format of the FoTS-series, we first get one page of fluff complete with dreamburning information and lore-section- character-wise, I can say that Nix Ra Bael is so incredibly cool, it almost hurts - a nihilist albino drow assassin, he is essentially an owner of his own, depressing theater, complete with a never-complete Beckett-like play in the making with a nice nod towards Lovecraft. A killer of not only entities, but also dreams, he makes for a formidable, intelligent foe:

His low-level incarnation is a CR 10 level 10 gunslinger, his CR 15 incarnation adds to that 4 levels as well as the blind oracle template and the final incarnation is CR 21 and adds the siphon creature template as well as more levels. We get additional content, of course - the blind oracle template (CR +1) that lets you dabble in divination and the siphon creature template that lets you absorb energy, even kinetic one, to turn it against your foes. It is especially the latter template that is plain genius and makes Nix the cool, aloof killer he is. Additionally, we get two new weapons, the wrist-crossbow and the bladed tonfa, a new weapon quality specifically designed for siphoning creatures and 4 new magic items: The arsenal gloves (better gloves of storing) , the mask of sightless dreams (which improves its boons when worn by blind people) and the two legendary wrist crossbows bullseye and sniper that guarantee that Nix is a terribly deadly adversary indeed. Additionally, we get a new archetype that lets you salvage the gunslinger base-class even if you hate black powder, the arbalester, a specialist of all kinds of crossbows, adding yet another option to utilize the gunslinger in black powder-less campaigns and ensuring that Nix has a place in just about every setting.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good, though not stellar: The upper-case "B"s behind some feats should be superscript. Layout adheres to the old, classic b/w-two-column RiP-standard and the b/w-artworks rock, especially for the low price. I love Nix Ra Bael - he is a sophisticated, sinister, nihilist with a twisted sense of humor and mechanically VERY smart - the siphon template, his battle-tactics and items all complement each other to create a devious, deadly foe with a unique fighting style. Character-wise, he is my favorite f the FoTS-characters yet. However, the editing glitches serve as a minor blemish to what would otherwise be the coolest of the series, on par with Belladonna, Gozutozawa and Arhanot - my final verdict will thus be 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.