When looking at D&D through a telescope, the overall goal is for the PC to become a god by the end of a level 1 to 20 campaign. Super Genius Games, Genius Guide to the Godling Class, strays from that logic, instead giving the PC’s the power to become god’s from the get go.

Godling Class, from a flavor point of view, will allow your character to be a demigod by the end of the progression. But mechanically, it is a class that allows players to build a sandbox class with a handful of restrictions. The Battle Godling class allows players to combine abilities seen with combat style classes like the monk, fighter, barbarian and paladin. The Clever Godling class allows players to combine abilities commonly associated with bards, rogues and other support classes. The abilities of classes are mimicked by Scion Talents, which the PCs receive every few levels. Outside of the two base classes, there is an included prestige class that allows players to tack on Godling abilities to an existing character.

Each of the classes instills a bit of divine prowess to the character by providing them a clerical domain, of which they can use both powers from the beginning. They also receive divine traits that give them a specialty ability that hints at what god they may become.

The PDF is short, at about 12 pages, and feels as if it needed about 5 more pages to flesh out the classes. Both the scions and talents need about 3 or 4 more choices to really make the PCs feel like they have a choice

For the Player The Godling lets players escape the limits of a traditional class. I am running a Godling only campaign, and my players overwhelming leaned towards the more meaty Battle Godling as opposed to the Mystic Godling.

For the Dungeon Master This is a great option for NPCs whom mentor PCs. It allows for a lot of leeway as a DM to create a useful NPC that does not lean too close to one class.

The Iron Word I love the concept of the Godling class, and it works in a campaign geared around the class. The drawbacks are what kills the widespread use of the class. That is, that there is not enough material in the book to mimic every class. At the very least, there should be a book in the works by Super Genius that has more options for the class.

The Genius Guide to: the Godling is a 12-page PDF (10 pages if you remove the credits/OGL page and advertisement) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Owen K. C. Stephens and published by Super Genius Games. This is part of the Super Genius Games’ Genius Guide line.

The layout is a screen-friendly landscape design, with cover art and 1-column on the first page and three columns on the rest. The four charts are easy to read. All of the art is full color and mostly appropriately themed to the quasi-divinty of the godling.

The Godling is presented as a full 20-level base class and as a 10-level prestige class, so as to provide a variety of options for including it in a champaign world.

The base class diverges into two forms, the physical/combat oriented Mighty Godling and the more skill-based clever Godling. Both types gain abilities (loosely) tied to the divine path that they follow, there are a wide variety of options so many types of Godling are possible. A few of the upper abilities of the divine traits are restricted to one type of Godling or the other, only Mighty Godlings can take the third and forth parts of the battle master power for example. There are seven divine trait paths surprisingly none of them are social or tied to leadership, which would seem to be a natural fit for this class, nor is there a path for directly crafting or making things.

The prestige class is not divided along a mighty/clever split and is to some extent more focused and more limited in it options, being compressed into ten levels. It is a compromise in designed between the two version of the base class but may be easier to include, especially in an ongoing campaign.

Extensive notes on how to incorporate the Godling into a campaign are included as well as a single Godling feat.

While such a character class may not have a place in all campaigns, though the ‘Godlings in your Campaign’ notes make a good argument that they can be easily added to most world, it is a well build and interesting class. If the idea intrigues you, give this product a look.

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