New PF1 3PP book that covers a breathtaking number of new and creative options for akashic and sphere gameplay. A fairly thorough assessment of the game mechanics show excellent balance and careful attention to combinatorial integrity. This is terrific stuff. Studio M is at the vanguard of top-tier PF1 3PP expanded material. I bet if Endzeitgeist was still critiquing PF1 material, he'd put this at his highest echelon of ratings. MORE PLEASE, Studio M!

Thank you for the bonus content, Matt Daley and Studio M! Card Casting is one of my favorite recent SoM/SoP supplements of yours. 5 stars all around - nice price point for the material.

Season of Storms (not that Witcher book)

Introduction Hal Kennette, the most prolific author of akashic magic out there, continues to release his more personal designs under his own Studio M- brand. Many of the books have included stuff for the revised Stormbound class. He has collected it all under this book, so let’s see!

What’s inside? 38.5 pages of content, 7.5 bucks (and it also includes ANOTHER PDF for those players that had no problem with the OG Stormbound, which includes mostly the same material but for the OG class). Oh, and by the way, this book can be bought in a bundle with the Refocused Stormbound for even greater bucks for your bangs! Wait, that doesn’t sound right, does it? Anyway, this book includes:

-9 Storm Powers: So with the OG 25, the Stormbound now gets to choose from a total of 34. Some of them have level requirements. There are some utility powers like Bubble of Air and Clarified Storm (which combined with certain abilities can become a nasty debuff/buff). I really enjoyed Mote of the Storm, where you send one or more of your storm veils at range, occupying the same space that your body does, and giving it the qualities of normal veil (making it sundereable for example). AND you can take the power 2 or three times, increasing the range even to limitless! Cool! And if you want to specialize in motes, there is another power where you can see and hear through you mote! Stormblade is conceptually awesome, but the actual benefits are not that great: you can condense one of your storm veils into a blade with the Enhanced descriptor, so you can enchant it. However, it works as a normal blade, even if it can deal energy damage if the Storm veil has a matching subtype. It is enhanced with Storm Essence as normal, getting a very modest d4 to damage per point of essence. But to be frank, there are few instances where you would want to have aweapon, even if it can be enhanced, instead of an area of effect that doesn’t take your actions. This really would have worked better as an archetype, maybe with full warrior chassis. Anyway, the utility is the theme of most of the powers, which is great since that way you don’t have to break your head around one more way to spend your action economy.

-4 Stormbound Archetypes + 1 Prestige Class: The 4 archetypes are Heralds of the seasons, and they are each tied to one of the common energies (Winter/Cold, Summer/Fire, Spring/Electricity and Autumn/Acid). All of them are basically the same: Their Storm veils works with essence as normal (and they get up to 30 essence, getting an extra point at each odd level), and they can change their descriptor to their specialty, dealing their specialty damage; also, shifting storms work differently, requiring to burn 2 points of essence to make the change, but the cost is weaved if the previous and new veil have a descriptor from a small list. They lose the ability to shape 2 storm veils at the same time.

When they LEARN their storm powers, if they deal damage, they can decide to change it to their specialty, so think before choosing. They also get a special, unique ability. Winter gets a cold aura that reduces movement, Spring gets an aura of temporary hit points for allies that slowly refreshes, Summer gets a damaging aura, and Autumn gets an ability that impedes healing, be it natural (even regeneration or fast healing) or magical. These are not balanced to one another, because every season gets other abilities to compensate.

Herald of Confluence is the prestige class, and it doesn’t develop veilweaving abilities fully in favor of developing their storm and seasonal powers. Against all tradition, the class asks for at least 6 levels in Stormbound with one of the Herald archetypes, which I don’t really mind LOL. It also requires a couple of skills. The chassis is different, since it gets a lower HD/BAB than the Stormbound, but it gets all good saves. So, they continue to get chakra binds, essence and storm powers, and other class features, except for more veils. Basically, they can choose to change the Season they are tied to everyday! Later, they get an ability where they can change their ties and storm veils shaped by meditating for 10 minutes, which is reduced to a minute and then a full round. It mentions that they get to shape two storm veils, an ability that the archetypes lose. Finally, at 10th level, they get all the benefits of two seasons at the same time! A thematic, powerful class.

-8 character options: Living Storm barbarians (both standard and unchained) trade the combat bonuses they get from rage in exchange for a small number of storm veils, with one of them activated and empowered to max when they rage, interesting! They also have the option of gaining storm powers that also only work when raging. Stormsinger bards exchange some of their abilities to be able to call storm veils or counter them. Legendary Bards, the revised bard class from Legendary Games, get 3 bardic performances that basically gives the Legendary Bard some powers of the previous archetype. Bloodragers can be of the Elderstorm bloodline, which is very similar to the barbarian archetype, which suits them better. Storm Bringer druids lose some class features for storm veilweaving, great for players who want to get a taste of akasha through another class.

Legendary Magus, another Legendary Games reinterpretation, gets access to the Tome of the Stormwielder, and they get to shape stormveils but fueling them with their arcane potential. Tempest Caller skalds again trade some abilities for storm veilshaping. Sorcerers also get their version of the Elderstorm bloodline, being able to call a storm veil but getting increased areas, and the closer you get to them, the stronger the veil’s effects. I appreciate these class features, because maybe not everyone wants the complexity of playing a normal Stormbound or maybe someone simply just wants to play an exotic version of their favorite classes.

-Storm Veils section: It starts by covering the basics of storm veils. After that, we have 25 new stormveils! Each season gets 4 non-exclusive veils themed around them. After those 16, we get 9 veils, named Storms of the Obscure, which represent planar weather phenomena, which makes them really cool! The Desecration, for example, makes you radiate an aura that empowers undead and negative energy, while The Ingress lets you open dimensional rifts from where tentacles come out to grapple your foes! This is something I thought about after reading the class for the first time, and then the author surprised me with these “it would be cool if” veils. Great addition!

-3 Feats: Amateur Stormbound gives you a normal-essence empowered Storm Power available to 1st level Stormbound. Font of Light lets you focus the aligned lights of two of the new Obscure storm veils to affect an area instead of a couple of selected individuals. Malleable Shardrain also requires one of the new obscure veils, letting you shape the metal shards in your storm to become specific weapons.

-14 Confluence feats: My favorite aspect of the original book returns, presenting us not only with 12 more confluence effects, but also presenting us with 2 teamwork confluence feats, perfect for archetypes that don’t get to shape two storm veils, giving them the ability to work in tandem to make a confluence! Storytelling possibilities galore!

-Radiation rules: The book finishes by including radiation rules, used by one storm veil and one confluence, and leaving a lonely half of the page. Oh, and the legal stuff looks written in font size 1, truly a blessing after seeing tons of pages in other companies’ books LOL

Of Note: The heralds present a nice variation to the base engine of the Stormbound, but be prepared for them to start their storm veils at full power, since they work as normal veils. Also, the Mote of the Storm BEGS to be transformed into a living veil, in the same vein as the living spells from Eberron.

Anything wrong?: The copy/paste is strong in this one, specifically in the herald archetypes, mentioning the wrong season many times. There are also some editing inconsistencies, like the names of the storm veils under the confluence feats using caps in some, and not in others. Finally, the Heralds get too much essence, which makes me wonder if their storm powers use storm essence or are empowered by normal essence.

What I want: A ranger archetype that gets storm powers and abilities, but no storm veil, tied to one of the seasons. Also, an archetype that specializes in the new obscure veils, taking their alien nature to the Nth!

What cool things did this inspire?: A full fey campaign where the players get tangled in the seasonal courts machinations. Imagine a clan of satyrs who all have Living Storm barbarian levels, that’s a new monster already! Finally, Living Motes as I mentioned are begging to be monterified and thrown to players LOL! With tiers of power functioning at different essence levels, bound, or even confluences!

Do I recommend it?: If you are reading this, you are probably interested (or already have) the Stormbound book. If that is the case, I can remorselessly recommend it! This is 5 star material, but with all the editing mistakes and the storm powers essence or storm essence incognita, I have to deduct 1 star, but will gladly return it if it gets another round of editing. So, 4 seasonal stars from this reviewer! (at least for now)

Refocused Riders of the Storm Introduction The original Stormbound appeared in a book by Cobalt Sages Creations. It included brand new material for the Akashic Magic system, with Stormbound class at the forefront. However, that book cannot be purchased anymore, to the author and possible buyer’s dismay. This newer, more polished version of the book by the original author, Hal Kennette, but this time under his Studio M- company, is presented as the ultimate version of the book. I read and critiqued the original book, which left me with mixed feelings. Will this revamped version change my opinion of the Stormbound? Read on!

What’s inside? 49 pages of content, 10 more than the original one, for the same 10 bucks! (and you can get it in a bundle for greater bang for your bucks) which include:

-The Stormbound Akashic class: After a short explanation of the genesis of the class, we start with the creation of the Stormbound. Survivors of a magical storm connected to a place called Elderstorm where the planes of Air and Water connect (not the paraelemental place of Ice… ok, interesting), the Stormbound share a common origin, which is cool. As a chassis, they get medium BAB/d8 HD, with Fort and Will as good saves, 6 skillpoints for 15 class skills, up to medium armor, shields, and all simple and martial weapons. However, like druids, wearing metal armors or shields weaken their magical abilities… And this time the prohibition DOES affect veils. A really strong chassis overall.

Before I mention the class’ unique abilities, I will mention its veilweaving. Stormbound start with 2 veils (one normal plus one Storm, unique to them), and finish with 11. They get access to all 10 binds plus their unique storm veil bind. So, they get the same veilweaving abilities of a Vizier, including improved essence capacity (without the DC increase), double veils in their unique slot (analogue to the Vizier’s ring chakra), but with a much more powerful chassis. Where they differ is in their essence, which goes from 1 to 20, like a Guru, and their unique slot cannot get essence invested as normal. So, to summarize, they get up to 20 essence solely for their veils and maybe feats, since their storm veil and storm powers use a different, special “storm essence”.

Instead, the Stormbound gets 1 point of temporary essence per turn in combat (that improves to 2 later) that can only power Storm Veils and storm powers… so to get them working at their top, you will have to make combat last (and I say them because, like I said, you can get two veils). They can change the storm veil by burning a lot of that temporary essence, which is an important decision but one that can let you change a useless veil for one that can lead you to victory. As a cap, they become immune to electric, cold and sonic damage plus poison, become outsiders, and can become an elemental-like living storm by fusing with one of their storm veils. Much better than the previous capstone.

Stormbound get a very powerful ability at first level called Weatherproofing, which apart from a constant “endure elements” effect for the Stormbound, makes him basically immune to his own powers, and this can be shared to many, at level 1. This makes many environmental hazards a pushover, and I still think it is too much, too soon.

Apart from that, a Stormbound gets a class talent, called a Storm Power, at every odd level, for a total of 10 from a list of 25. Some of them have level requirements. These… are very powerful, not only because of their effects, but because they require no resources to be used. Druids must be jealous. To balance this, I would require the Storm Powers to require normal essence burn to be empowered. This would limit them somewhat to prevent spamming. Note that some powers can be further invested with storm essence as if they were Stormveils to make them even more powerful, but then they compete with them for the special essence.

The powers themselves are cool and cover a wide range of effects, from elemental attacks like icicle splinter or whips of lightning, to defenses, improved attacks, and element-derived abilities, even healing is included here… There are clear differences in power between some, though, but overall are cool. They have been polished and rebalanced, and in my original review I mentioned how strong some were. Now, while I still think some of them are strong, there aren’t any “must haves” like before.

We finish the class with favored class bonuses for core races plus the elemental planetouched, and some of them are interesting, like increasing the maximum essence capacity of specific veils or increasing the damage they inflict. Why Sylphs don’t get their bonus with air and electricity stormveils, while Undine do with water and ice and oreads with earth and poison is beyond me, and is one thing I’m going to pester the author with LOL.

-6 Stormbound Archetypes: The Devotee of the Storm gains access to full Hunter spellcasting, at the cost of 1 storm power… their veilweaving is kind of weaker, getting less binds and without getting improved essence capacity. They get other abilities but overall, while they have a lot of abilities, the polish in the design shows. Primal Storm gets diminished veilweaving and essence. In exchange for martial maneuvers of up to 6th level, and their maneuvers compete with their stormveils, since both are empowered by animus. This archetype feels like it gives the Stormbound too much to do, with veils, maneuvers and storm powers, but giving the fell of jack of all trades, master of none. Oh, and thankfully, the book includes a table for the reduced veilweaving, binding, and the martial maneuvers.

Stormbrand is a volur-hybrid, giving the Stormbound brandweaving like the volur’s and doesn’t have normal veilweaving. They don’t even gain normal essence! What they do get is a couple of hexes like a witch. This makes the Stormbound much easier to play but also way less versatile (a fair trade considering what is gained). The Stormlord is a rajah-hybrid, giving title veils and even letting the Stormbound to give storm veils the title descriptor, which of course means that they can shroud an ally with the power of a storm!

Wielder of the Storm loses a couple of storm veil related things, but instead use an engine similar to the Striker from the Spheres of Might book, and I will say that it works wonders if you don’t dig the base Stormbound’s engine. Wind Whisperer is the last archetype, and it is a pet one. They pay dearly for this, eating five of the ten Storm Powers of a Stormbound. The original version of this archetype was really powerful, but this one uses a modified version with the pet being an airy version of the volur’s akashic spirit, and leaving their storm veils and essence alone. Speaking of which, they can channel their storm veils through their spirit (cool).

-4 Spheres of Might Archetypes: Sphere Stormbound use the Veilweaving sphere engine from the Spheres of Akasha book, partially written by the author. The Stormclast sacrifices half of their storm powers for Might abilities, and can also sacrifice some veilweaving for greater Might abilities, with special interactions with the Berserker Sphere. The Stormfury is a Might warrior version of the Stormbound, losing all normal veilweaving and essence. Finally, the Stormshroud would be the Champion version, which again lose all veilweaving and essence. All of these versions are great for people that, like me, really enjoy the Spheres system, and really change the dynamics of the class.

-Feats: This section include 7 feats. Extra Storm Power… gives you an extra storm power! Surprise! Stormscoured is a new, akashic feat, which gives you the cool ability to reduce the effects of natural and magical weather, of course improving by investing essence, and affecting storm veils used on you. The interesting ones are called Confluence feats, which all require you to be able to use two storm veils at the same time and combine two storm veils into a more powerful effect. I can stomach the power and effects of these feats by the time you can take them, and they are really cool. Burning Ash, for example, combines The Conflagration and The Devastation to create toxic ash that lowers the constitution of those affected and increases the damage! My favorite part of the original class returns!

-Veilweaving: This section includes the controversial Enhanced descriptor: you get the option of enhancing your weapon and armor veils as if they were normal items of their type, giving you access to eternal, powerful magical items. At least now the veils are suppressed if sundered, which was one of my major complaints. I still think the enchanting process should be more expensive, at least 25%, if we compare it to an Amulet of Striking. A weird thing of this section is that it has a smaller font than the rest of the book (with the exception of the legal section).

-34 veils: All veils are available to the Stormbound, and most of them to other classes too, including newer classes like the Huay or the Soulforge. The veils present nice options, with an elemental, weather, and travelling themes. A couple of veils improve other elemental attacks you have, similar to the Circlet of Brass, but also lowering resistances by 5 plus 5 per point of essence… Wait, how much? I think this is too strong, and will reduce it for my games by improving damage per odd point of essence and reducing the resistance per even point of essence. Treantplate STILL repeats one of the infinite healing of the old Incarnum system (healing with electricity). Just get an Electrokineticist or another Stormbound, or any character that can make electric attacks at will and you will forget about Cure spells; a more viable ability would be to give the wearer temporary hit points that refresh on your turn and increase with essence, which would prevent any cheating, and if healing with electricity is desired, getting a cap on the times or hit point cured would alleviate the infinite healing. Apart from this one, the author shows his improved game designing abilities, since I couldn’t find any other exploits in the veils (not 100% there aren’t more).

-12 storm veils: The Storm Veil section starts by mentioning the qualities that all of them share, like area (a spread cylinder), obvious effects, ongoing, sunder immunity and unforgiving. They don’t have any effect unless you invest them with storm essence, which erases one of my main complaints. The other one, however, is still here: it has implications not covered by the designer. Imagine a 1st level Stormbound, in a desert community during a draught, using The Deluge… bam, the Stormbound becomes A GOD to the locals! He could become rich by creating rain every day. There is a reason for spell slots, and even spells like Create Water have limits. And that is a side effect of ONE VEIL! Now let’s see The Conflagration… for a typical commoner, you are making EFFIN METEORITES TO FALL FROM THE SKY! Doesn’t matter if you deal just a little damage, the visual effects, while cool, are too much in comparison to what a neophyte low level caster can seem to do. The veils themselves vary a lot in power, but no matter if you are in outer space or in a weird demiplane, you can create the weather you want, when you want. They ARE cool, but I still wouldn’t allow them before 5th level, or even higher, unless they have some increased restrictions like all the matter they create disappears after one round and can’t be collected.

-3 magical items: Imbuement Gems are a neat idea, and they don’t clash with enhanced veils like before. I still don’t think the price is fair, though; I would increase it a bit at least. The Crook of the Stormbinder is a powerful staff, and I still think the price is fair IMHO. Totem of the Storm is a really cool, pricey object, full of storytelling potential.

Of Note: The general ideas of the class are good. It can be argued that the mage, paladin, and monk roles were covered in Akashic Mysteries, and the rogue, cleric and… kineticist? roles in Akashic Trinity, so a druid/geomancer veilweaver is a really cool concept. The Confluence feats are really cool too! Also, most of my complaints of the class have been fixed, which is a plus in my eyes. Finally, the extra content found in this version, specially the ties with the Spheres system, is a welcome addition!

Anything wrong?: The core of the class is STILL too strong even if you took away all Storm veil-related stuff, with only the Vizier and the Nexus having access to all slots and binds plus enough veils to fill them all, and the Nexus has to juggle a Guru’s essence between those 10 veils and his blast; the Stormbound doesn’t, and also sports 6 skillpoints! There is also the versatility of the class, with the Stormbinder’s actions having to compete between normal attacks, veil activation, and Storm Power activation. There is STILL no mention of the side effects of the Storm veils, which is one of my remaining complaints. Finally, the “elemental enhancer” veils are too strong in my opinion. Oh, and while not really a bad thing, there is no art in the book.

What I want: I still think the Stormbound would work better as a Prestige Class IMHO. The way I would find it comfortable as a base class is to reduce the essence, veils and binds received (maybe changeable from day to day like the Keshig), and modify Storm veils to work with the weather surrounding the Stormbound (so no Deluge or Permafrost in the Desert for example, at least not at level 1), with the ability to completely change the weather at higher levels, eliminating most of the secondary effects, and getting access to more esoteric veils like The Conflagration later, or better yet, making the veils needing more essence to look that awesome, having the maximum essence capacity restrict the side effects.

What cool things did this inspire?: A Stormbound as a powerful, high level opponent for a party that includes another “nature class” like a Druid, would be interesting. A scroll-like item that conjured Storm veils’ effects for some time would also be cool. Maybe even a race of fey or outsiders (Kami maybe?) that can shroud themselves in a storm veil.

Do I recommend it?: In my original review I mentioned that I would keep an eye for a revised version, and here it is! I gave the original a 3 for the flavor alone, and this time the crunch is more polished. This class is now nowhere near as broken as the Keshig or the previous Stormbound, and is easier to fix for games that have a more reserved power level. This time? I frankly think it deserves 4 stars, because of the things I mentioned before. However, the extra content and price are worth at least half a star more, rounded down for the sole reason that the class has still room for improvement, but I’m willing to round up and change my review if the infinite healing exploit is fixed and the side effects of the weather are marked as magical and thus everything they create disappear.

You can turn your spells into cards then throw those cards at people.

The Soulforge: Spirit of a Hero and Expanded Akasha: Pantheon of Souls is a terrific combo of akashic mechanics. Sheer genius content. Perfect balance and flavorful imagery. Love all of this. MORE PLEASE!

If you've followed along with a lot of the "new wave" of third party for Akashic, Mairn has been a persistent force. While his stuff isn't always my cup of tea, the Sphereshaper veils have been a very cool, interesting design space and this expands on those found in the Spheres of Akasha book from Lost Spheres nicely.

There is a wide variety of new Sphereshaper veils, as well as archetypes for sphere compatibility for the major akashic classes and sphere-akashic archetypes for sphere classes. Most of the Veilweaving-sphere archetypes for sphere classes are, frankly, a little underdone or lukewarm. Third party raises the bar a lot for what is good, and when something tries to lowball an archetype and "feels" nominally worse, there's not a great reason to take it. They do offer some interesting ideas, but I'm really here for the sphere archetypes for the akashic classes (like the daevic and radiant classes).

If you don't have access to the various wikis (the spheres of power wiki, and the library of metzofitz) a lot of the information from this book will be worthless to you. You will need both access to spheres of power (namely Ultimate Spheres of Power) and the Veilweaving sphere (Spheres of Akasha from Lost Spheres). This makes for a nice, tertiary expansion that mainly provides a lot of good support for the Sphereweaver class, and a lot of other miscellany.

I give this 4/5 stars because of my lack of enthusiasm with the Veilweaving sphere class archetypes (such as the ones for armiger, mageknight, etc.), but its otherwise a great addition to someone's collection and for tables which use large amounts of mixed Pathfinder 1e 3rd party content.

as a long time fan of studio-m's work this is a dabbling of several systems not in his wheel house with path of war, but holds the same style and balance the author used for his own games, it holds many tools for creating an akashic necromancer.

Studio M compilation for June 21

Introduction So, Hall Kennette is a prolific author that has been kind of focusing on Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.

What’s inside?: 29 pages for 5 bucks, which include:

-5 Archetypes: The Dragon Weaver Druid gets to shape some draconic veils and some essence, in exchange for nature's bond and wild shape, cool for druids who aren't that excited on changing shapes! Construct Shaper Helmsmen get to shape an akashic construct! This cool ability replaces bonded vessel, and most helmsman ability now apply to their construct, which is basically a mech. Yeah, an effin mech! Great one! Dragonshifter huay are charisma-based veilweacer who are adept at turning themselves into dragons, and even become half-dragons at the highest level! Another great, focused archetype. We end this section with two Rajah archetypes, the arcane Abhyasi and the divine Acharya, both replacing their initiating by magus and warpriest spellcasting, plus a couple of options. Both are GREAT for people who don't use Path of War in their games.

-Akashic Construct: This section includes all the stuff relevant to this special veil, mainly used by the new Helmsman archetype but available to other characters via a feat. At the highest levels, the construct can become colossal for some ghetto-kaiju action LOL. I don't know about the balance, but It doesn't look outrageous.

-2 Feats: Extra Akashic Upgrade increases the power of akashic constructs, and can be taken up to three times. Shape Akashic Construct gives you the ability to shape one, at a lower level than the archetype.

-24 veils: Half of the new veils are general, and include standouts like the Bandolier of Warping (gives you some nifty iaijutsu-like drawing, and when bound you can even hurl mauls and great axes!), Chain of Binding Commandments (command your opponents or make contracts with willing subjects, fiends will love it), Gloves of Repulsion (force damage plus auto bullrush, and when bound repelled foes damage others more; Monks will love it!), Maw of the Starving Beast (gives you a nasty bite attack) and Shifting Moon Glaive (awesome glaive that changes from round to round, I LOVE IT). The rest of the veils are not bland or anything, they just didn't wow me as much as these.

Dragon's Raiment veil set is a... set with a draconic theme LOL. Both the Druid and Huay archetypes make reference to it, so I don't know why the author didn't just write "get access to all veil in the set". Anyway, the set includes 7 veils, 2 of which are from Akashic Mysteries and 5 are new, and the whole set can be accessed by the Stormbound (each veil can be used by other classes, but not the full set). My favorites from this set are Draconic Ferocity (giving you the ability to become a dragon), Eyes of Terror (improves your sight and intimidate your opponents), and I have a love/hate opinion on Goldhoard Vestments (not a fan of autoselling stuff, but a fan of "buying" powers with gold).

The last 8 veils are title ones, which is understandable given the support of the class via two new archetypes. Each of the 8 veils represents a school of magic, and they vary a lot in power. The Abjurer, for example, gives you a protection from evil-like effect that impedes entrance or exit (cool), while The Diviner gives you the ability to true strike or true dodge (+20 insight to atk or AC for 1 attack) moreless at will... W00T?!?! Yeah, not a fan of this one. The Necromancer is another too powerful for my taste, since it gives the subject a "doom mark" for one round that inflicts +1d6 of positive/negative energy damage whenever the subject takes damage... archers and shurikeners will laugh when they read this one.

Of Note: The new archetypes are great, as are most of the veils. If you are into mechs, the akashic construct alone will sell you the book.

Anything wrong?: The power of some veils, specially the title ones, seems too much in the right (or wrong) hands.

What I want: Since there titles for each of the standard schools of magic, I would like to see titles for other non-standard schools of magic, like the elemental ones.

What cool things did this inspire?: The propulsion gloves ROCK. I would love to create a character that readies his touch and ruin the full attacks of foes LOL!

Do I recommend it?: Yes! While the power level of some options is too high IMHO, there is enough good stuff to dive into. 4 1/2 draconic stars from this reviewer (rounded up for the platform), substract one half if you are not too much into dragons or mechs, and add one half if you are.

Introduction So, Hall Kennette is the most prolific author of Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.

What’s inside?: 30 pages for 5 bucks, which include:

-29 Archetypes! Yeah, 29, all of them for Spheres and Akashic classes. This book is like a companion volume to the Spheres of Akasha book, so if you liked that book you will love this one. It is not mandatory to have that volume, since you can use plenty of the material in this book without the other, though.

Basically, the Spheres classes get to use veilweaving, normally by focusing on a specific veil (or veils), while Akashic classes present most of the classes missing from Spheres of Akasha; that is, they have a sphere-using archetype that trades veilweaving, and a veilshaping sphere-user using the normal sphere rules.

Some of these are clear winners. For example, the Veil Tinker Armiger makes more sense when explained with its ties with Akashic Records and veils than the base class! The Veilsmith Blacksmith too, which changes the class by giving the [title] descriptor to weapon and armor veils! That way you can shape the same equipment for multiple characters. But not all archetypes are small hacks to their parent classes. The Twilight Ingressor Eclipse changes the class’ most iconic ability and gives it a similar, cool incorporeality ability that makes up for the lost ability. The Daeva Binder is the most intriguing archetype IMHO, making for a class that can exist completely outside of the Spheres system but can ALSO regain some of their lost magical power to become a powerful, custom veilweaver.

-3 New and Altered Feats: Elemental Essence is a cool “meta-akashic” feat that let you change elemental effects of a veil. It is kind of costly though, having to bind essence to power it, but a great “ace up the sleeve” for specialists. Essence Admixture lets you add an essence talent as a rider to a damaging spell. Flow of Battle gives you the ability to reallocate essence as part of another, combat-y swift action like entering a stance.

-Veilweaving Section: This small section includes additions to the two “Legendary Akashic classes”, Volur and Kheshig, and optional rules for steady/unsteady veils (changing the way you calculate a veil’s DC).

-Basic Magic: This section dives into the more intricate parts of the Spheres system, having additions to the Destruction, Veilweaving and Weather spheres, and some Essence talents.

-Advanced Magic: This section includes ways to give the newer, post Akashic Mysteries akashic classes’ toys to the Veilweaving Sphere, amping up the already immense possibilities of character building, plus Sphere-specific drawbacks to both the Veilweaving and Weather spheres.

Of Note: I really, really liked the “Archer” flavor (from the Fate/Stay series) of the Armorist archetype! Plus some of the archetypes change classes a lot, and that is a good thing specially if you weren’t sure about a class to begin with (stares at the Eclipse).

Anything wrong?: You need a LOT of books to make use of everything here, but that is the only downside.

What cool things did this inspire?: An “Archer” type character that makes cool, oral invocations for the weapons.

Do I recommend it?: If you have the required books and like them, this is a must! 5 sphere-studded stars!

Studio M compilation for April 21

Introduction So, Hall Kennette is a prolific author that has been kind of focusing on Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.

What’s inside?: 28 pages for 5 bucks, which includes:

-6 Archetypes: Daevic of Hatred use exclusively brand veils for their passion, which is odd since most passions draw veils from the Daevic’s own veil list, and 8 of the 9 veils are not there (and there is no Daevic Aspect, the one veil common to all Daevics); anyway, they get the Painful Severance feat to increase the DC of their brands, and like other passions it gets two variants: Animus some Volur-like features and Odium gets a kind of “brandstrike” like a Magus, but can later get the STRONG ability to use it more than once per round AND use the ability score used for the strike to modify their DC instead of Charisma. My spider sense for game breakingness are tingling. Daayan Rajahs get to shape veils from the Volur list, and they get the strange ability of using branded creatures as entitled allies… wait, what? Yeah, woe to the giant that fails his saves, and more woe to his friends; I’m not going to deny that this is really cool, but I would make it an NPC-only option in my games.

Herald of Spring Stormbound are electricity-version of the Herald of Winter from a previous volume, with some differences. Nice if a bit repetitive. Stormbrand Stormbound lose normal veilweaving abilities for the Volur’s brandweaving (boo for giving unique toys to other classes) AND Witch’ Hexes (boo boo). My least favorite archetype. Veiled Actor Troubadors replace standard Spheres casting for some veilweving from the Vizier list (but no rings, good). I’m not an expert on this particular class, but it seems intriguing; it also includes a Record Keeper persona for Troubadours and the Mentor for Veiled Actors specifically. The Masked Veilweaver Vigilante is what I wanted for the class; it’s like one of those archetypes in Ultimate Intrigue that change the Vigilante into a light-version of another class, this time gaining veilweaving from the eclipse class, plus the option to get an “adaptable veil” that changes a veil for another when changing personas and wider veilweaving capabilities with their unique talents. Like some other things “missing” from the base system presented in the series (NPC class, minor veils), this is exactly what I wanted.

-Veilweaving Section: This section includes an expanded veil list for the Volur. It also includes 8 new general veils, 4 new storm veils, and 10 conversions from veils found in The Stormbound and The Fisherking to add the [Enhanced] descriptor.

-Abductor’s Shadow is a cool, shadow-themed veil (strange that it has neither the darkness nor the shadow descriptors) that gives you a massive dodge bonus to AC but only when moving, lets you hide really well, and let you teleport or abduct a creature when bound; I would have added a Hex-like caveat to the teleport though. Blindman’s Fold creates a band that, when lowered, makes you blind but gives you a special version of blindsight that can’t be thwarted normally, essence increasing the range and giving you a perception bonus, and when bound lets you use arcane sight and true seeing (which by the way are not in italics) within your blindsight’s range. Duelist’s Edge is an enhanced veil that creates a rapier that gives you access to the controversial “parry” mechanic, which lets you give one or more of your attacks for the round to be able to “parry” via an opposed attack roll, and if within reach you use this attack roll to “riposte”; the wording here is weird, but if you are ok with the parry mechanic then be my guest. Essence gives you precision damage and bonus to the parry, hands bind let you parry attacks against others, and wrists bind lets you teleport close to the opponent before countering and also lets you “parry” non-weapon attacks with a penalty; while I’m not a fan of neither the Enhanced descriptor nor the parry/riposte mechanic, the veil itself is really cool.

Impulse Earrings is a powerful veil that lets you always act in a surprise round, cannot be caught flat-footed (!) or lose your Dex bonus to AC against foes you can’t detect, such as invisible, but creatures immune to divinations ignore this protection; essence gives you +2 initiative per point (!) and some bonuses against traps, and reallocating it can change your initiative order; head bind makes you immune to flanking AND lets you reallocate essence as a free action once per turn even outside your turn! This doesn’t let you “win” initiative against a creature that is acting right now, since that is reserved to the headband bind! The idea behind this veil is interesting but something like this would be a nightmare to run for the gamemaster AND gives class features reserved for other classes for just a veil and, by extension, a feat; sorry but my game’s rules bouncer won’t let this one in. Trailing Shadow is another cool, shadow-themed veil (this time with the darkness descriptor) that let’s your barely-missed attacks to have a lesser effect, courtesy of your shadow; essence increases the range of missing and the possible damage done by the shadow, and when bound to the belt lets your shadow attack on its own! Sweet Buddha isn’t this veil a winner? A great example of marriage between cool imagery and rules!

The next 3 veils are part of a new set, the Witches Ensemble, which include 3 more veils from Akashic Mysteries and the Witch’s Broom veil from The Fisherking. Black Hat of the Witch gives you a black cat familiar that understandably can’t get an archetype; the head bind lets you use your veils through the cat, and the headband bind lets you share senses as the spell with the option to change the sense shared. Disquieting Gaze gives you a cursing gaze attack as a standard action that gives a penalty to one of a variety of attributes, and essence increases the duration and penalty; the head bind makes it impossible for opponents to see your gaze, getting some fitting penalties, and also lets you inflict two penalties at once with a save, all of these increased when binding to the headband. Awesome! However, this should have a HD limitation, since I would find it difficult to believe for a titan or dragon to have to avert their eyes. Hag’s Shawl gives you access to one Hex, chosen when shaped, and essence increases only the DC; you also count as having the Hex class feature for prerequisites, which makes me twist my mouth. You can bind 2 essence into this veil to get more Hexes; the shoulder binds gives you the Coven Hex plus another, and if you are of sufficient level, you can choose major ones, while the body bind makes you count as a hag and gives you one more Hex which can be grand. A powerful veil that requires a lot of investment.

The First Bloom causes vegetation in the area to create difficult terrain by those not under your protection and you can entangle some opponents in the area, with essence increasing the area, and with enough essence it can damage and even nauseate those entangled; when bound you can create plants anywhere and can even summon a wall of thorns. The Fulguration lets you call a lightning storm and make a bolt to fall on foes, ignoring most cover. The bolt deals 1d6, but for each odd essence ads 1 die and for each even you add 2 dice. The damage can be too much at higher levels for an at-will ability, but remember that storm veils are empowered differently. The Energization is a cool one that increases the speed of your allies and lowers that of your enemies. It is an electricity effect that requires a Fort save so you can affect for good or ill undead, constructs or beings immune to electricity, but I would have added that those immune to paralysis are not affected too. Essene increases the bonus and penalty and when bound you can affect one ally or foe so they are affected by a haste/slow-like effect. The Cleansing Rain is a healing one that helps against disease and poison, plus fear and emotion effects, and when bound you can burn essence to give a creature in the area a second chance at saving to one of the mentioned effects.

The rest of this section includes [enhanced] versions of veils from The Stormbound and The Fisherking, which is ok if you like that descriptor (I don’t like how it works right now). The section is alphabetically per book.

-3 Magic Items: All of these are [enhanced] versions of items from said books.

-Bestiary: The best part of the book, this one includes essence capacity for high HD creatures plus a lot of templates, with both quick and rebuilt versions. We start with the Akashic simple template and it is strong, being able to shape any veil from any list or chakra, but once chosen, those veils can’t be changed. The class’ templates all give veilshaping plus a bonus to the veilweaving ability. The Daevic creature gets some veilshaping from a passion list, the Eclipse creature get occultation, Guru creatures get gentle touch and a philosophy. Nexus creatures get planar detonation and convergences if strong enough, Radiant creatures get akashic bond and vivifications, Stormbound creatures get weatherproofing and only stormweaving, and Vizier creatures get mystic attunement.

-The Weaver NPC Class: The second best part of the book and a must when Akashic magic replaces standard magic in a campaign. As an NPC class, it is very barebones and has limited veilshaping abilities.

Of Note: The bestiary was sorely needed, and most of the new veils and the NPC class are GREAT additions to the game!

Anything wrong?: There are many copy/paste errors, specially under the bestiary. Apart from this, I wasn’t really excited with the archetypes section, except for the Vigilante one.

What I want: A Volur creature template! While I could also ask for a Zodiac creature, I won’t, since it’s one of those cases where it

What cool things did this inspire?: I have a thread at Paizo’s board where I post character ideas. I’m going to use the archetypes here to make some creature examples.

Do I recommend it?: I would recommend this book if it only had the bestiary, Weaver class and Masked Veilweaver archetype, all 5-star material. The rest is 2.5-star gravy. So rounding up, 4 stars!

Studio M compilation for March 21

Introduction So, Hall Kennette is a prolific author that has been kind of focusing on Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.

What’s inside?: 20 pages for 5 buck, which includes:

-8 archetypes: The Mycomancer Druid loses a lot of class-defining features to focus on a kind of fungal necromancy, using the new monster in this book, the corpsemold, which basically mimics the real-world zombie fungus; among its other abilities, the Mycomancer can become an undead-like creature, resist decay, animate dead and the like. A really cool take on an not-that-uncommon variant for the druid. Another common trope is the Dirge Bard, for the Legendary Bard class, which again has a necromancy-motif and includes two new bardic performances: Symphony of Souls and Panicked Allegro.

Continuing with the Legendary classes, we have the Tome of the Puppetmaster for Legendary Magus; these morbid Magi animate corpses but not with necromancy (more like animated objects), which is a great way to scare undead hunters. They can even “spellstrike” through them! Another awesome archetype! Speaking of awesome, they have an ability called Master of Puppets, so it automatically gets the horns and a headband from this metalhead. Pale Mages is the archetype for Legendary Wizards; they bond with a force called “The Pale”, being healed by both positive and negative energy and affected by it as if they were a living and undeath creature. They also add A LOT of cleric spells to their spell list, mostly healing/harm spells and spells that restore life and create undead; they don’t know them automatically, but can add them to their spellbooks by copying them from other Pale Mage spellbooks and scrolls, or by leveling up. They get other cool abilities like being treated as undead by the unliving, able to turn/command undead more times per day, and get some iconic uses of Kn. Religion that should be available to other characters and finally gaining some of the unliving’s immunities. Good one too even if standing on the necrocleric’s toes!

The next two are archetypes for the Monk (not the unchained one). Astral Selves are Akashic Monks that master the new Astral Pugilism veil and the Forcestrike Knuckles veil. This complex veil takes a page, and gives you unarmed abilities that count as magic, lets you “throw” unarmed attacks and even create a clone of astral energy that explodes when bound to the body. The rest of the abilities basically are just renames and can also affect your copies. The Guided Soul Monk is the second one and this time is a Charisma-based, ancestral spirit-flavored hack of the base class. It uses light armor but loses AC bonuses, doesn’t deal extra damage when leveling up (apparently dealing 1d3 damage), but their flurry’s extra attacks are physically damaging touch attacks that deal “aging” damage that bypasses all form of damage reduction but doesn’t affect creatures that are immune to magical aging… and deals 1d6 for every odd level. Thanks god it’s not multiplied on crits, but man this is too strong. I would reduce the damage to 1d6 plus 1d6 for every 4 levels. There are other abilities that are equally cool but pale in power to the flurry of unresistable damage. The archetype is damn cool to be sure, but the flurry is just to stronk IMHO.

The Specter is the archetype for both Rogues, chained or not, and converts the class into a supernatural one. They lose evasion and master strike in exchange for the ability to become kind of ethereal for a couple of rounds per day. They can improve this form with 7 archetype-exclusive Rogue Talents, which make me think that it would have been better as an alternate class or even a new one. To finish the class options section, we get the Machinist Sorcerer bloodline. This one uses the two other new veils, Machinist’s Pile Bunker and Machinist’s Powered Armor. At first you can only shape one but gain essence (up to 10) to empower it, and later you treat them as bound and also increase their essence capacity, and you also get special synergy when both are shaped. Another cool one!

-The Akashic version of the Vitalist: As you probably may know, the Vitalist is a Psionic class, but here we find an Akashic version. Their veilweaving is great, getting up to 10 veils (using the Radiant veil list) and 6 binds, with the same essence progressions of Viziers/Radiants. They can still gain Psionic Focus even when they lose all psionic manifesting. There is a problem with using the Radiant’s veil list and giving them 10 veils, and that is that they only get 6 slots in their list. There are a few veils that can be shaped in other slots, and Twin Veil is a thing, but I don’t think they get veils for all slots. There are Akashic variants for all Vitalist methods. While I like the Radiant and the Vitalist, I think they are too similar already to need this variant. All in all an interesting hack that maybe would have worked better as a hybrid class.

-1 Feat: Precision Veil Breaking is a powerful anti-veil feat that adds all the damage from one round of your attacks together, to see if you successfully sunder a veil. Very nice especially with all those Enhanced-veil-clad warriors out there.

-2 Prestige Classes: Machine Scion is a class that uses the Machinist bloodline, and synergizes with it but otherwise doesn’t require it. It works like the Evangelist PrC, even mentioning it in a copy/paste error. It… is not really that interesting, giving you ability bonuses, natural armor and blindsense, but nothing exclusive. The Veilbreaker is good for anti-Akashic characters and requires Essence Rejection. It only has 5 levels, has a warrior chassis with all good saves, gets the new feat as a bonus, increased power for the Essence Rejection feat, get even more powerful saves against veils and even evasion/mettle against them, and can even sunder essence, becoming a nightmare for veilweavers.

-Optional Ruling: This one works with the popular Enhanced descriptor. It’s basically just a modification of some favored class bonuses for the Eclipse class and some extra options for Fisherkings, Nexus and Viziers.

-4 Veils: Ablation Field is reprinted from Arcforge since one of the classes uses it, and I already talked about Astral Pugilism, that leaves us with two more, Machinist’s veil. Pile Bunker is a hands/wrists veil that gives you a pair of weapons that kind of work like punching daggers; each one can store up to your maximum essence capacity times 3, and generate one charge per point of essence invested. The base veil’s effect let you spend charges after hitting your foe, and give you 1d6 damage per charge! At top level, a fully charged attack could basically do 24d6 guaranteed bonus damage! And make that double since each hand stores energy separately. AND you get to improve the die when you crit to d12! Thanks but no thanks. The binds of the veil let you spend charges to do other effects. Cool veil but the damage is too much IMHO. Powered Armor is a shoulders veil that creates a retractable full plate armor basically made of mithral; with essence, you can reduce the armor check penalty and increase the maximum dexterity bonus per point of essence, and even increases your speed with enough essence! The shoulders bind lets you fly with it. Normally, armor veils occupy chest slots though. I don’t know, but I imagine all agile warriors shaping this veil via the Shape Veil feat.

-1 Monster and Template: The Corpse Mold is an intelligent plant that can animate corpses, with an accompanying template, Mold Zombie. This is not only here to complement the Mycomancer, it is a cool monster that can be the focus of a campaign!

Of Note: The archetypes are really cool! Nice takes on old tropes, specially the corpse puppeteer. And the monster is awesome!

Anything wrong?: “Aging” damage, while cool, is too powerful to give in those quantities. The power level of the veils and some archetypes is too much in my opinion. All veils have to take into account that anyone can shape them, and most probably bind, with but a feat or two.

What I want: I think the Machinist’s veils and bloodline would have worked better for a Bloodrager, so a version of the bloodline would have been great.

What cool things did this inspire?: Mold from Out of Space (TM). An adventure for undead hunters that have no clue on how to deal with these bizarre zombies (insert devil emoji).

Do I recommend it?: The strongest section is the archetypes one, so if you have access to those books from Legendary Games, then yeah. If not, the other archetypes and monster make up for it. However, the bloodline, Vitalist and veils are not my cup of tea. This is volume has some of my favorite and least favorite options in the line, so I think I will give this one a 4, but subtract 1 star if you don’t have access to all the books supplemented.

Studio M compilation for February 21

Introduction So, Hall Kennette is a prolific author that has been kind of focusing on Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.

What’s inside?: 16 pages for 5 bucks, which includes:

-5 Archetypes: The Kshatriya is an archetype for the Rajah, the only akashic book I haven’t reviewed, (I haven’t had the opportunity to play Path of War, let alone support books) that instead of the powerful Path of War system, uses the flexible and more down-to-earth Spheres of Might! I remember it has a low BAB, but the Kshatriya gets the adept maneuver progression, meaning 15 talents, and when performing maneuvers through vassals, use their veilweaver level. A great hack of the base class and NOW I will be able to use it, so I might for once read that book! Nice one!

The Record Keeper Scholar loses all medical training and flashbangs for modest veilweaving (Int mod veils from the vizier list +1/lvl, up to 4 veils and 10 essence) and can increase their essence and gain bind with some knacks. The Stormfury Stormbound gets a warrior HD/BAB and Expert talent progression in exchange for all normal veilweaving. Here I would have preferred a champion with access to the Weather sphere, but ok. The Veiled Combatant Striker becomes just a proficient combatant (losing half their talents) for modest, constitution-based veilweaving abilities (up to 5 veils, 10 essence, 7 binds), and a lot of small and big hacks to the base Tension engine to create a truly different beast! Another winner here!

Araneanen Vigilante are one of those veil specialists, mastering Lashing Spinnerets and Spiderweb Wrappings AND learning some special tricks with them, replacing their specialization and half their vigilante talents but counting as stalkers for talents… So yeah! This is the closest you will get to playing Spidey!

-11 feats and 1 trait: Akashic Aura lets you increase your pally/antipally’s aura by investing essence in them. Akashic Fury damages creatures near you when you are (blood)raging, using again “akashic” damage and the Fort DC to half it is ridiculous (10+½lvl+Con mod… +essence invested!), this one is too strong IMHO. Duelist’s Bind makes the Weapon Training class feature an essence receptacle that increases damage (good) AND attack (not so good) by point of essence invested (should be bound). Chakra Focus increases the DC to the ability of a veil that can be shaped to that chakra. Essence-Bound Channel increases the healing/harm done by channel energy by investing essence in it (should be bound IMHO). Essence Forged Armaments increases your effective monk or warpriest level (or a class with a similar upgradable weapon damage) to determine the damage dice (not a fan, since from one level to another, the essence needed to benefit from this ability changes drastically). Focused Veil doubles the hardness of a specific veil AND increases the DC by 2. Registered Foe lets you bind essence into this feat for a temporary change in favored enemies (why does a temporary ability requires essence binding while the others, while other feats in this section have greater repercussions? Who knows). Set Focus is yet another feat that increases the DC and hardness of veils, but this time focusing in a veil set; this one increases the hardness by 3 for each other veil from the set, and all the set veils’ DC by 1. Studied Veilweaving increases your effective veilweaver level, useful for multiclassers. Veil-bound Detection lets you disable magical traps and serves as an essence receptacle, increasing perception for spotting hidden foes and traps, disable device checks, and saves and AC against traps; in this particular instance I won’t complain about it being an essence receptacle, but sounds more like a veil though. The Apprentice Veilweaver magic trait is like the light version of the Studied Veilweaving feat.

-Veilweaving Section: this includes the Enhanced descriptor, which I’m not a fan of as is it now, since it basically make magical armor and weapons and sunder obsolete, but that’s my opinion. It includes all the aspects of the descriptor, which is great since the book includes variants for all 15 Akashic Trinity and the first volume of Akashic Realms’ weapon and armor veils.

Apart from the variant veils, there is a new set, Gravelord’s Regalia, a 7 veil set (which only the vizier can shape them all) that includes 3 veils from Akashic Mysteries, and gives us 4 new veils: Coronet of the Gravelord is a headband veil that lets you detect and gain the favor of the undead, and even command them when bound! KEWL! Grasp of Undeath is a wrists veil is like a chill touch in veil form minus the Strength damage, but nauseating the living and panicking the undead and those living healed by negative energy, and paralyzing when bound. Cryptbreaker’s Greatcloak is a shoulders veil that lets you lesser animate dead and giving you a desecrating aura that empowers undead in the radius, increasing the range and the bonus to undead by investing essence, and functioning as animate dead when bound. Finally, Soul of the Unliving is a belt and body veil that makes you one of the undead minus the immunities, treating you as an undead creature for effects that make the distinction, giving you resistance to cold and electricity and a bit of natural armor, and changing your polarity, being healed by negative and damaged by positive energies. You can also heal yourself a couple of times per day, useful since you can’t be healed by more standard means; essence increases the resistance and natural armor, and binding it to a veil gives you a lich-like akashic phylactery, and the body bind makes this effect even stronger. Cool! I would have added full undead immunities for the body bind, since it is a capstone ability.

Of Note: The Kshatriya makes me give the Rajah a second look, and the rest of the archetypes are intriguing. The Gravelord’s Regalia is really cool too!

Anything wrong?: I am still not convinced about Enhanced veils, and make me realize that some weapons, and specially some armor veils are very powerful, including those made by the original author of Akashic Mysteries. Also, the fact that most feats don’t follow the standard and work with essence investment instead of binding makes me uneasy, and most are very powerful.

What I want: There are some things that need standardization, like “akashic” damage, and maybe an optional version of the Enhanced descriptor.

What cool things did this inspire?: I want to give the Rajah a second look, as well as make at least one Veiled Combatant. And I got some evil ideas for the Gravelord’s Regalia mwahahaha!

Do I recommend it?: If you play with Spheres content and you like the Enhanced descriptor, completely. If not, the feats, Araneanen and the veil set are cool, so if you are willing to skip on a McDonuts meal, then go for it. 4 Sphere-shaped stars from this reviewer.

Studio M compilation for January 21

Introduction So, Hall Kennette is a prolific author that has been kind of focusing on Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.

What’s inside?: In this expansion-themed supplement, we get 25 pages for x buck, which includes:

-15 racial traits: These include all the core races, orcs, and the seven “common” planetouched races. All of the races gain the akashic subtype (which gives low-light vision and immunity to magical sleep), a point of essence, and a special veil that doesn’t interfere with veils shaped or slots. Each race gets access to a specific veil, except for half-orcs and half-elves, who can choose between their parents’ choices, aasimars, who can choose from ANY veil from the Angelic Arments veil set, and tieflings, who can choose from two 10-veil sets! There has always been a power difference between races, but the core races pay dearly for their veils, while the elemental races pay just with their affinity and spell-like ability, and aasies and tieffies pay with their resistances and spell-like ability. In my opinion, I would have preffered a unique akashic ability that functioned as an essence receptacle, and there is the situation where aasimars and tieflings can shape 2 veil weapons, which can be problematic especially if you use the Enhanced weapon descriptor as is.

-4 archetypes: Abyss Wielder Antipaladin gets a weird alignment option (Lawful Neutral… ok? I thought it was called Abyss wielder), get a different code of conduct, and loose smite good, channel energy, fiendish boon, aura of vengeance and unholy champion. In return, they get up to 15 essence, and they get to shape specific veils (Balor’s Whip, Iron Crown, Pit Fiend’s Shroud, Demon Lord’s Hunger) at certain levels and also bind them (but not other veils shaped in that slot), AND . I really liked this archetype in all but the name (which suggest chaos and evil instead of only evil… unholy perhaps?), but I would have gotten rid of spells instead of some other abilities.

Unicorn Rider Cavalier lose mount, expert trainer, banner, and greater banner, and their charge abilities are modified, all in exchange for up to 10 essence and the ability to shape the Sparkling Alicorn and the Unicorn Barding. Like all veil-specialist classes, they get some unique tricks with them. They get to bind the Unicorn’s Barding to the body slot at 12th level… no other class can do that except for the Daevic, who must pay HP to use it that early. AND I checked the ability and it is strong, so I would just let them bind it later at least 15th. A great archetype that just needs a balance check IMHO.

Lightwielder Paladin seems at first a mirror of their Antipaladin brethren, but while they get similar exchanges, they instead get really good with the Banelight Vortices veil. They also get to shape White Rider’s Sash and Luminosity of the Lurker in Light, but their main ability is still the vortices. A great veil specialist option!

Shadow Shaper rogues (normal or unchained) lose some rogue talents, sneak attack dice and trap/danger sense for up to 15 essence and the ability to shape souped-up Darkwalker Hood, Darkholds, Cloak of Darkness and Voidwalkers. I don’t know about this one, since it kind of steps in the Eclipse’s shoes more that I would like, but it is cool though.

-2 Prestige Classes: Ringbearers are ring veil specialists. The requirements are few and easy to get even for non-veilweavers. During their 10 levels, these guys get up to 15 essence, 6 ring veils shaped, and a couple of abilities to really bust the ring veils, with one having up to 10 essence if my math is correct. A cool, focused class perfect for viziers but open to other classes.

The Bloodfuser would be the blood veil specialist. It has a stronger chassis but a bit weaker bloodweaving, or was it bloodshaping? This ability has different names in the class table and description. Apart from their blood veil abilities, they are also masters of the Blood Infusion magic item, being able to craft up to 5 free doses per day. A nice class but not as iconic as the previous one, although its cap, being able to “share” a blood veil, is really cool.

-2 magic items: Catalized Rings are ring veils made physical and infused with up to 10 essence and either bound or unbound. They occupy your ring magic item AND veil slot, even if you can normally shape ring veils. They are powerful and costly.

Infused Blood are potions that give you blood veil effects for 1 hour plus another one for each effective essence, again up to 10 and either bound or not. The greater the essence, the greater the cost, and full powered potion costs 14,000! Great for foes to have already imbibed LOL! Anyway, another cool item.

-3 feats: Binding of the Bands lets core races plus orcs the ability to bind their racial veil gotten from the alternate traits at the beginning of the book. Shape Minor Veil and Minor Veil Mastery deal with the cantrip-like abilities found later in the book.

-16 veils: We start with 5 ring veils, then 5 blood veils, then a set of six race-themed ones.

The ring veils presented are powerful and include teleportation, a Lifechannel Ring that works exactly like its dark counterpart from Akashic Mysteries but with healing energy, mirror image/simulacrum-like illusions, crowd-controlling via tentacles of force, and a shield-spell like veil that compliments another one from the original book.

The blood veils include a lycanthropic one (which strangely enough give you two primary claw attacks and 1 primary bite attack, with no damage mentioned), a haste-like one (a bit powerful at base effect), a very cool one that lets you sense your own blood, another that transforms your blood into shadowstuff weapons/monsters (cool and usable by top-level eclipses too) and one that lets you create lances made by your own blood to attack at range and becomes more powerful if you are bleeding.

The Gifts of the Bearer is a 6 veil set that kind of gives a Lord of the Rings vibe. The human one lets you survive easily and when bound even in another plane or planet, the dwarven one makes you a crafting extraordinaire that can repair even veils and also dabble in item creation. The orc one makes you a destruction extraordinaire and can sunder even spells! The elven one lets you counter and even rebound spells and veil effects a very few times per day (I would increase the uses when bound since as it is you will only be able to do it two times per day and three or four at most at very high levels). The Halfling one makes you, and your fellows when bound, incredibly lucky (AKA rerolls), and finally the gnome one lets you teleport and leave an illusory double behind.

All in all cool, welcome additions to the daevic and vizier classes, since to my knowledge they haven’t received any blood or ring veils since the original book.

-12 minor veils: Minor veils is a small, cantrip-like expansion to the abilities of true veilweavers (those getting veilweaving abilities from their original classes and not via feats or archetypes). Basically you get to shape two minor veils from among all twelve (no minor veil is class specific), and their effects kind of mirror cantrips. They aren’t shaped in slots and so can’t be bound to chakras, but they can be invested with essence and some of them can become powerful with a lot of essence invested. I really liked this expansion to base veilweavers, since most of them get to shape only one veil at first level, and giving them two cantrip veils will prepare their essence reallocation skills for what comes at higher levels.

Of Note: The racial abilities are arguably ok, since having a racial ability that can become more powerful at higher levels is very uncommon, but again, why have them if they are not useful at all levels? The archetypes are really cool, but I would have preferred them to maintain more of their class features and lose vancian spellcasting. The prestige classes are cool, focused and powerful. And the veils, normal and minor, are more than welcome additions to the options of veilweavers.

Anything wrong?: I noticed some editing mistakes, many more than in the previous book, but nothing that prevents the enjoyment or utility of it. The base abilities of some the veils are kind of strong, especially the blood ones, but then they don’t scale that well with essence. The aasimar and tiefling become even more busted with some creative racial veil selection.

What I want: some more veilweaving archetypes for cool classes like the inquisitor and investigator, exchanging their magic for veilweaving.

What cool things did this inspire?: a vampire baddie daevic or bloodfuser with some of the cool blood veils is a must, and an orc warchief that uses the optional racial ability to sunder spells would rock!

Do I recommend it?: Yeah! Unlike the previous one, this compilation is directed to expand two of the original akashic classes and the core races, and while I have my doubts on the power level of some of the veils, I can fully recommend this one, giving it the full five star-shaped rings.

Studio M compilation for December 20

Introduction So, Hall Kennette is a prolific author that has been kind of focusing on Akashic magic supplements. He has a Patreon where he publishes his designs, and he compiles this material monthly normally with a thematic motif. This is the result.

What’s inside?: In this Stormbound-focused supplement, we get 23 pages for 5 buck, which includes:

-Class Section: This includes 6 archetypes, 3 bardic performances for the legendary bard, 1 bloodline with both sorcerer and bloodrager versions, and 2 tomes for the legendary magus.

Living Storm barbarians don’t get bonus to combat, instead their rage emulates Storm veils, and in the same vein they can gain storm powers as rage powers that only work while raging. They also resist energy instead of getting trap/danger sense. Too mystical for my tastes but still a cool, high-fantasy archetype, if a bit on the strong side. The Stormsinger bard shapes a Storm veil too, and while they lose a lot of bardic performances, I think it fits a bard better than a barbarian.

The 3 bardic performances for the legendary bard also deal with weather, but 2 of them calm it and the last one stirs it in the form of a Storm veil. The Elderstorm bloodline for sorcerers and bloodragers let those classes dabble into Akasha, although I would have preferred a more plain option for both and not only one specific for Storm veilweaving, but it’s nice. The Storm Bringer druid bonds with the elderstorm, getting again the benefits of stormweaving, being able to veilweave Storm Veils and also getting some Storm Powers.

The Tome of the Cannonade gives the Legendary Magus the crazy ability to deliver spells through siege engines! While the Tome of the Stormwielder let the Legendary Magus dabble in stormweaving. The Momentum Mage Legendary Magus archetype is really interesting. It lets the Magus generate some kind of momentum when they move, which he can spend in cool techniques. They get an ability called “Momentum Combat” that seems to work like spring attack with a spell, but doesn’t mention spellcasting, only a melee attack; however, you can use the Rapid Spell momentum technique to cast a spell as a swift action, so you could move, cast and hit in the same turn.

The Tempest Caller is another stormweaver-dabbling archetype. To finalize the class section, we finish with the cold-focused Herald of Winter. I really liked this one, since it is a more focused Stormbound and can inspire the creation of other, similar focused archetypes. Among its abilities, it includes the powerful trick of reducing cold resistance and even immunity.

-4 feats: these four feats are confluence feats, which enhance the combination of two stormveils. They mostly use the new stormveils contained herein, but sadly all are closed to the Herald of Winter, since he loses the twin stormveil class feature.

-1 magic item: The Endless Ammo Hoard is a costly but powerful chest that can create siege engine ammo indefinitely, with some caveats.

-Veilweaving and Veils: This section includes an expansion to the Stormbound veil list, with products that appeared after its publication. Apart from this, there are a couple of new veils:

6 veils: Bands of Binding Ice lets you create walls of ice, and if bound lets you encase others and later yourself in ice. Breeches of the Pale Rider gives you a horse that can run on water by freezing it, and while bound creates difficult terrain and later even flies! Halo of Polaris is another “cool” one (hehe), giving you the ability to navigate by the stars, and create shurikens made of ice to attack your foes, even without using the hands when binding it to the headband chakra. Mai’yr’s Icy Glare lets you see better through frigid weather, snow and ice, and when bound gives you two gaze attacks. Voice of Winter gives you the ability to animate snow into a companion (where have I seen these? Should I… let it go?); you can invest essence both in the veil and the companion (cool), and when bound gives the companion intelligence. Finally, Winter’s Coat protects you against cold and also lets you transform into a cloud of snowflakes, and improves the cloud’s movement when bound. This last one’s base abilities are a bit strong for my tastes, but nothing horribly broken.

4 storm veils: These one follow a frigid thematic. The Crystalline, for example, hampers movement and damage foes by creating icy crystals, while The Quelling, the only non-cold storm veil, reduces the target’s will save by making them feel the isolation and ennui of frigid zones.

Of Note: I really enjoyed the Momentum Mage archetype, since moving around the battle is something few magi do, or melee-ers. Also, some of the veils are just plain cool! (hehe… or should I say ho ho ho?). Also, I’m a fan of the Confluence feats, and these ones are cool (ok I will stop) additions to the Stormbound repertoire.

Anything wrong?: Not taking into account my opinion on the power, real or perceived, of storm veils, letting everyone into the party and giving so many classes access to their class-defining feature can be controversial. Druids are cool, as are sorcerers, but skalds and barbarians?

What I want: I want a sub-zero-inspired frosty ninja archetype that throw snoflakes shurikens.

What cool things did this inspire?: A frost giant veilweaver with some of the veils here sound like a memorable villain in the making, as are winter wolves lackeys. Another akashic dragon would have been a fresh (sorry, I couldn’t help it) addition to the few akashic monsters out there.

Do I recommend it?: If you like and enjoy the Stormbound, then by all means yes. If you didn’t enjoy it, or don’t have it, then the icy veils and legendary magus stuff are enough to warrant a purchase IMHO. I will give it 4 polar stars.