An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Prestigious Roles-series is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This pdf contains, surprise, a prestige class - the Meta Adept, who is especially adept at using meta-magic. As a generic prestige class focused on metamagic, the entry-requirements are not that steep: 3rd level spells, 5 ranks in Knowledge (Arcane) or (Religion) and 5 ranks Spellcraft as well as two metamagic feats- that very doable. The PrC gets d6, 2+Int skills per level, no new proficiencies, 1/2 BAB-progression, medium will-saves and full spellcasting progression.

But what can the class do? Well, it can have the metamagic modified spells count as the higher spell-level. Prepared spellcasters may swap metamagic feats of equal or lower spell-modifications, whereas spontaneous casters may now ignore the increased casting time of metamagic - rather powerful, that one! The Metamagic Adept may also gain some metamagic feats, of course.

The PrC may also recall spent metamagic-modified spells via concentration checks versus 10 + twice the spell level - on a failed check, the adept may suffer from the new mental fatigue condition (or the second new condition, mental exhaustion) - these two feature heavily in the other abilities of the adept - e.g. spontaneously adding a metamagic feat to a non metamagic-prepared spell is possible, but again, at the risk of mental fatigue. While limited per day, the lack of a modified benefit for spontaneous casters makes this ability imho less useful for spontaneous casters.

Where the PrC gets weird is with for example the Meta Consolidation ability - which allows you to use two of the metamagic feats at once without adding the modified levels - VERY powerful, even if it is limited to casting attribute modifier times per day. With this ability, prepared casters get a bit of a short end - they have to make their concentration checks when preparing, potentially losing spell slots and starting the adventuring day with the new negative conditions...

The capstone of the class allows the adept to convert a metamagic-powered spell into a blast that deals damage and may fatigue foes - per se neat, but spontaneous casters can potentially blast foes to massive smithereens.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are ok, I did notice some minor issues, though none that impeded my understanding of the PrC. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard with a nice piece of artwork, is printer-friendly and the pdf comes sans bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

I like the idea of this PrC - metamagic sucks and can use some update/option to make it viable. This PrC partially succeeds in the endeavor - but only partially. While reviewing this, I often found myself wondering whether this would not have been more prudent as two PrCs - one for spontaneous and one for prepared casters. As provided, some of the abilities just feel off balancing-wise with regards to one of the spellcasting types - essentially, imho, too much was crammed into one class, when two would have probably yielded the more precise results. The new conditions are actually cool - the issue, though, is that the pdf fails to specify which spells could get rid of them, if any - introducing conditions is a brute force way of designing, especially when fatigue and exhaustion already exist and a simple sentence à la "Can be treated as fatigue/exhaustion, stacks with physical fatigue/exhaustion" could make them work so much better as they'd immediately be treatable by an array of spells/abilities and thus no longer inhabit a blind spot in main-stream rules- and what about dropping unconscious from over-exertion?

All in all, the Meta Adept to me feels clunky due to trying to cover both spontaneous and prepared casters in one PrC and not particularly elegant in its design - it works, but not as smooth as I would have liked. While there's nothing UTTERLY broken about it, I'm wary about some of the abilities of this PrC and hence will settle for a final verdict of 3 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Despite some greater focus than its predecessor gave it, mounted combat is still something of an underrepresented aspect of Pathfinder. Part of this is due to simple issues of logistics, e.g. it’s hard to take your horse down a set of steps and into a dungeon. That said, little attention is also given to areas like tracking enemies over long distances, or having groups of mounted characters who fight together.

Prestigious Roles: Long Striders, from Amora Games, attempts to put some greater focus back on those latter options.

The long strider is a five-level prestige class, meant to be taken at about 7th-level, based on the skill requirements. I personally would have lowered this to about 5th, since the +5 BAB requirement assures that druids and similar characters would lag slightly behind while rewarding mount-focused martial characters (e.g. cavaliers) that wanted to become long striders.

The class requires that you already have an animal companion or mount of some sort, though it need not be one that can be ridden. This latter point is solved in the first level of the prestige class, as it says that you discard an existing animal companion if it can’t be ridden, gaining a more appropriate one.

The long strider (which refers to the character; confusingly, the mount is referred to simply as “strider”), gains a number of abilities – two per level, and three at 1st-level – that enable him and his mount to focus on, as a theme, hunting. Being able to run for hours at a time without tiring, using their Reflex saves for each other, moving at full speed with no Stealth penalty, the long strider is fairly tight in its focus, and players who want to play a sort of “mounted bounty hunter” will find this prestige class very much to their liking.

The major drawback of the class is that its narrow focus cuts both ways; several of the abilities here make very specific presumptions about the type of mount and the type of character being played. For example, one class ability gives the mount the scent ability – if it already had that ability, you gain nothing. Another ability grants a bonus to range when using thrown weapons while mounted. Don’t use thrown weapons? Too bad, you gain nothing then. Being able to do a quick (dis)mount when you and your mount are very different sizes is nice, but doesn’t help you if you and your mount are only one size category apart to begin with.

It’s these limitations that present the greatest hindrance to the class. If you work within the scope it already presents, there’s a lot here for you; deviate even slightly, however, and you’ll start to lose out. It’s a shame that the class didn’t present some alternate options for those characters who had slightly different abilities than the ones outlined above – saying that if your mount already had scent then the range of its scent doubled, for example, would have seriously widened the versatility of what’s here.

That said, the class is still a good one for those who want what it offers. It eschews bland bonus feat options, for example, and each level offers a comparatively great amount of abilities, something wise since few of them contribute to combat directly. As it is, the long strider sets a great pace, but only if you can follow in its footsteps.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let's take a look at this PrC!

The pdf provides us with the Centurion-PrC (The centurion just needs to have led a unit to victory, have a teamwork-feat and some moderate requirements), who gets d10, 4+Int skills per level, full BAB, medium fort and will-saves, and a teamwork-feat every odd level.

The revised centurion gets access to solo tactics and a command radius that starts at 20 ft and expands over the 10 levels to 60 ft. The allies inside this radius may benefit from his team tactician ability - granting all allies in the radius access to one of his teamwork feats for class level rounds or until he issues a new teamwork feat. This increases to 2 and 3 teamwork feats at levels 4 and 8 of the PrC respectively. At 5th level, in yet another rather cool ability, he may shape the radius of his aura to a cone or line, which is actually a rather neat idea! The capstone lets him choose an ally's initiative and allows him and allies in his aura to act normally in a surprise round.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to a relatively printer-friendly two-column standard and the pdf comes with some nice stock art. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

The Centurion is a solid, nice little PrC that should especially in the context of war-themed adventuring find its niche and makes for a solid choice - while I'd rather urge you to check out the Supporting Roles-installment that also features the Commander-base-class, this is still a good purchase on its own and thus gets a final verdict of a solid 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 10 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 age SRD, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let's take a look!

So...we get another take on the Swashbuckler. Yeah. I wasn't looking forward to that one. This particular take is a base-class that gets d8, 6+Int skills per level,3/4 BAB-progression and good ref-saves as well as proficiency in light and medium armor and with simple and martial weapons. No spells and only 3/4 BAB-progression? Yes, for the class gets an ability that is called "Flash of Steel": This is a full-attack action that allows for an additional attack as if using the two weapon fighting feat - now here's the catch: Flashes of Steel use a different BAB equal to the class level (but the usual penalty for two weapon fighting is applied). At higher levels, the swashbuckler gains more additional attacks. Among other things, the swashbuckler may use disarm and trip and uses the full str-bonus when using Flash of Steel. What's missing imho from the ability is clarification whether this ability counts as two weapon fighting for the purpose of feats and abilities and whether it can be stacked with flurry of blows and similar abilities. The ability also lacks the specification whether CMB for disarm and trip-maneuvers as part of flash of steel is calculated with the flash of steel-BAB or the regular one. They also get weapon finesse at first level.

2nd level is imho when the class gets interesting, with the extraordinary ability Parry: Whenever making an attack action, the swashbuckler may forego one or more attacks of up to dex-mod attacks. At any time before his next turn, the character may hence use the omitted attacks to parry incoming melee attacks - I assume this is not an action, but the pdf fails to specify what type of action it is. Essentially, s/he attacks and when surpassing the incoming attack, the swashbuckler may negate it. Unexpected attacks from e.g. charmed adjacent allies and larger creatures are harder to parry, incurring a -4 penalty. The class also gets bonuses to initiative, half class level to Diplomacy and Bluff-checks, increasing AC-bonuses when dual-wielding weapons, dex to melee damage when using weapon finesse, increased weapon dice for light or one-handed piercing weapons or rapiers (including a table) and another ability makes a comeback:

Due to luck's favor, the swashbuckler may decrease falling damage (by landing in the iconic haystack etc.) and at 8th level, the swashbuckler may use an AoO after a successful parry to make a counter-attack on a creature within range. At 1th level, swashbucklers may even maintain parries when moving and make attacks during a movement. S/he also gets improved uncanny dodge and may even move over difficult terrain. At the very highest levels, swashbucklers get a defensive roll, may roll death-defying skill-checks twice and as a capstone, may combine a full attack action with a move action.

We also get a new feat that decreases the penalty incurred to parry ally-attacks down to -2. Very specific and not particularly cool.

The pdf also features several new archetypes for the swashbuckler (which were added as a "thank you" to loyal customers - very nice and commendable from Amora Games!), first of which would be the Blind Swordsman - who only gets proficiency in one sword, but gain blindsense when unable to see and several sense-based abilities. The Fencer suffers from having the incorrect proficiency-listing - the one from the blind swordsmen shows up here again. 1/day, they may challenge to a duel and perform flash of steel with only a rapier, lunge and follow feints up with an AoO. Flamboyant swashbucklers work better when surrounded by foes and may influence crowds with intimidate. "Sword and Pistol" is an archetype that nets the amateur gunslinger feat and allows the archetype to use his/her firearm to supplement his flash of steel. Masked Vigilantes get a code of conduct (which must be lawful - but why? What about chaotic freedom fighters in a despotic regime?) and get bonuses to intimidate and net allies bonuses against fear. Weirdly, the class gets detect evil - which makes e.g. less sense for evil masked vigilantes and they may also grant their weapons temporarily the bane quality.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting is ok, though not perfect - aforementioned proficiency-issues, minor inconsistencies here and there and punctuation glitches can be found. Layout adheres to a relatively printer-friendly 2-column standard with full-color artworks and the pdf comes fully bookmarked - two thumbs up for that!

Authors Kevin Bond and Ryan Cramer have created a neat base-class with some cool mechanics that actually works. While the editing could be tighter, overall, the crunch is solid and features several rather nice abilities. While Parry is not a particularly ingenious ability and could slow down play, it works and overall, I'm actually a fan of the class and consider it one of the better takes on the swashbuckling-trope, even though some minor ambiguities remain.

In fact, I'd probably rate this higher, were it not for the immensely high standard Dreadfox Games' superbly complex Swordmaster-class has set. While said class is HARD to learn and nothing for beginners, the Swashbuckler has one flaw that prevents it from reaching the highest rating-echelons - it's linear. Very, very linear. Talents? Paths? Any choices on the side of the player? NOPE. None. This severely impedes the replay value of the class and makes swashbucklers feel imho too similar to one another. Combined with aforementioned glitches, this drops the final rating down to 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the purpose of this platform - at least until the glitches have been purged, after which this should be considered rounded up.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so what do we get?

If you do have the Supporting Roles: Tinker-pdf by Amora Games, you'll know the Breaker already - this PrC is essentially an excerpt of said parent-pdf

The Breaker gets d10, 2+Int skills per level, full BAB-progression and 1/2 fort and ref-saves. The class's idea is that of a more melee-focused tinker and its design shows, providing a controlled form of rage similar to the one of the barbarian, netting +4 to Str, Dex or Con, splitting them as he deems fit for 4+Con-mod rounds.

They may also use intimidating boasts and single out opponents, which they may charge dealing additional damage. As a cool synergy of abilities, foes targeted by their intimidating boasts cannot execute AoOs versus the Breaker. The breaker may 1/day charge a foe within sight as a swift action, dealing additional damage.

The Backswing Push-ability, which allows the breaker to make an additional attack at his/her highest BAB to push foes 5 ft. (10 on a crit) without said movement enforcing AoOs. The Hit and Run-feature is also interesting, allowing the breaker as a full round action to move up to his movement rate and make a full attack action for a -2 AC. That one is rather powerful.

When missing foes with their attacks, breakers may also make a sunder-attempt as an AoO 1/round and follow up with a 5-foot step towards or around the opponents. Finally, at 10th level, the Breaker may divide weapon damage and edifice recognition damage between the sundered weapon and the foe wielding it.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres toa 2-column full-color standard that is relatively printer-friendly and the pdf comes without bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

While you obviously don't need this pdf if you already own the parent-pdf, the Breaker remains an interesting sunder-focused PrC with some powerful, unique non-magical abilities to supplement the class. The PrC is solid and there's nothing particularly wrong with it - hence, I'll settle on a final verdict of a solid 4 star-rating.

Endzeitgeist out.

This pdf is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving 8 pages of content for new class and a PrC, so let's check out the Commander!

The Commander class gets d10, 4+Int skills per level, full BAB, good will- and fort-saves, proficiency with simple and martial weapons as well as all armors and shields except tower shields. Beyond that, the class is all about commanding troops in battle and enhancing allies.

Commanders have a commanding presence aura of 30 ft around them, which expands by yet another 30 ft. every five levels and works only if the commander is not paralyzed, petrified etc. and when allies can see or hear him. Allies within the aura also gain a +1 morale bonus to initiative an fear-based saves, which scales by +1 whenever the aura-size increases, which it does by30 ft. every 5 levels.

Now tactical strike is interesting - as a standard melee or ranged attack action, the commander can perform an attack that also acts as an aid another to an ally adjacent to the foe the commander attacked. Now that the ability has been stream-lined, its wording is much clearer and more precise.

Commanders may now also give Speeches - 1 + Cha-mod times and an additional 2 times per level beyond the first. Speeches are a subset of direct orders and their benefits last for one round, which allow the commander to use aid another at range and via Perform (Oratory) versus DC 10 as a standard action. Overall, these speeches are vastly superior in their presentation to the commander's first iteration - their intended benefits are clear and unambiguous. A total of 10 different speeches are provided, with the latter ones requiring a preset number of ranks in Perform (Oratory). My only gripe is that Words of Courage grants the Diehard-feat as well as +2 to Str and Con, but does not specify whether the hit points gained from the con-increase behave like the temporary hitpoints of the barbarian rage or not- here minor clarification would be in order.

Starting at second level and every even level thereafter, the commander now gets access to tactics - these are essentially talents for the class and a total of 23 are provided. Mechanically, most of them allow the commander to add his aid another bonuses to uncommon checks - From helping with the handling of siege engines to concentration of allies to granting an ally an AoO and enhancing an ally's CMB and CMD, they are actually interesting now. Some deviate from the assist-mechanic and two in particular are interesting: One allows the commander the addition of int-mod to all saves, which is a bit powerful for my tastes. Most interesting, at least imho, is Cunning Response, which grants the commander int-mod additional immediate actions per round - which is relevant for battle cries.

Starting at 4th level and every 4 levels after that an additional time per day, the commander may activate the ability as a swift action. Once activated "Battle-Cry mode" lasts until the end of combat. When activated thus, the commander may, as an immediate action, react to himself or an ally in sight being hit by attacks, spells or spell-like abilities with issuing a battle cry - 6 are provided and allow for e.g. a 5-foot movement after killing a foe and delivering an AoO to adjacent foes, withdraw as an immediate action and move towards downed foes.

Starting at 5th level, Commanders may now grant allies access to teamwork feats they possess by either substituting the tactical strike or direct order benefits.

At 8th level, the class starts to become interesting and complex: Press the advantage allows the commander to issue multiple orders, tactics or teamwork orders to their allies with a single application of their abilities - up to 4 at once at 18th level. And yes, they may spread the benefits between allies if they so choose. perhaps the mechanically most interesting ability of the class.

At 10th level, the speeches last longer and at 14th level, he may designate an ally as field officer and lend one of his direct orders, speeches or tactics to an ally. Very cool!

We also get 5 new feats: -At them, Men (Teamwork): Charge with an ally simultaneously at the lower initiative. + 10 ft when charging, -Band of Brothers (Teamwork): +1 to AC and attacks when adjacent to an ally, up to + 3, stacks with shield wall. -Extra Speeches: +2 speeches per day. -Extra Tactics: +1 tactics. -Hold the Line: When you or your ally are being charged by a foe, your weapons gain the brace quality and the enemy takes a -4 penalty to AC instead of -2. -With your shield or on it (Teamwork): When holding a shield adjacent to an ally holding a shield as well, gain + 2 to saves vs. spells and fear-effects.

The pdf also provides us the Centurion-PrC (not only for commanders - the centurion just needs to have led a unit to victory, have a teamwork-feat and some moderate requirements), who gets d10, 4+Int skills per level, full BAB, medium fort and will-saves, and a teamwork-feat every odd level.

The revised centurion gets access to solo tactics and a command radius that starts at 20 ft and expands over the 10 levels to 60 ft. The allies inside this radius may benefit from his team tactician ability - granting all allies in the radius access to one of his teamwork feats for class level rounds or until he issues a new teamwork feat. This increases to 2 and 3 teamwork feats at levels 4 and 8 of the PrC respectively. At 5th level, in yet another rather cool ability, he may shape the radius of his aura to a cone or line, which is actually a rather neat idea! The capstone lets him choose an ally's initiative and allows him and allies in his aura to act normally in a surprise round.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting in this revised version of the pdf are vastly improved - I noticed no significant glitches that would have hampered my understanding of the book. Layout adheres to a relatively printer-friendly two-column standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, which is nice. Artworks are full color, ok stock - nothing to complain about at this price-point.

All right, the first iteration of this pdf was a train-wreck. to cut a long ramble short: This one isn't. While there are already two classes out there dealing with the concept of the commander, SGG's War Master and DSP's Tactician, both are different: The War Master is slightly dated, having been created before the advent of teamwork-feats and the tactician is focused on psionics. Thus, the commander as a mundane battlefield leader has his place - especially since this iteration of the class has managed to make the expansion of the aid another action and the benefits granted both sufficiently significant and balanced to make this class a viable option. While here and there the wording could be slightly more concise, for the first time Amora Games' pdf manages to get the terminology and rules-language right in a way that is not ambiguous and as precise as the complex rules-adjustments and options that classes like these require. In fact, this revised edition not only feels much more concise, it actually brings some interesting design-ideas to the table in the way how the respective abilities are handled.

Much like Rocks Fall Games recently revised "Dark Totem Part I", this revision has just about nothing in common with its abysmal first version, getting the concepts they tried to get across RIGHT. So much so, in fact, that I'm sincerely hoping that this reflects Amora Games' new quality standard, for if it does, the announced idea of a war-campaign may actually be a very fulfilling experience. Whereas before neither class nor PrC has any reason to exist, this revision made both stand out and me actually consider playing one of the classes herein - I believe they can now be quite some fun, especially if you ever wanted to play concept-wise in the equivalent of a Bridgeburner-like elite unit.

While not yet perfect, this pdf comes at a very low price and delivers in the revised edition interesting mechanics you might wish to scavenge - at the very latest when En World's War of the Burning Sky is converted to PFRPG (they met the KS-stretch-goal, after all!) and as a DM you want to add some oomph to the Ragessian commanders. If the idea of a non-magical commander and expanding the aid another action to make strategist-style warriors work even remotely interests you, then I whole-heartedly suggest you check out this revised pdf - my final verdict will be 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

This pdf is the freshman offering of Amora Games and 17 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 12 pages of content, so let's check this out!

The pdf begins with two short narratives displaying different types of tinkers, before we are introduced to the new class, which gets d8, 4+Int skills, proficiency with simple weapons, hammers and picks, light armors and shields and when the emulate spells in light armor, they do not incur a spell failure chance. They get 3/4 BAB as well as good fort-saves and the ability to coat magic weapons and armor with substances to temporarily enchant them with a scaling bonus and later emulate weapon and armor special qualities for a limited amount of time: Neat! Being masters of demolition and able to recognize the structural weaknesses of objects, the tinkers get improved sunder as a feat at first level as well as access to edifice recognition, which deals +1d6 damage on sunder attempts and improves every odd level by +1d6 to a maximum of +10d6, making sunder attempts by the tinker truly fearsome to behold. At 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter, the Tinker may also choose a so-called design, which could be likened to rouge talents. Where the first iteration of the class had half-baked spell-casting implementation that followed weird and (to me) unfathomable rules, the latest version of the tinker not only got rid of this feature, but it also had added new designs. Another nice piece of comfort when using the class is an inclusion of a table of all the designs, which provides a nice overview of what the tinker can do. A total of 34 designs are provided and grant the tinker access to e.g. the Disruptive or Skill Focus-feats without meeting the prerequisites. More interesting designs include "Chink in the Armor", which, after a successful sunder attack against an opponent's armor, enables a tinker to follow up with a called shot at -2 as a standard melee action instead of a full action. Generally I applaud this decision to change the ability, but the design unfortunately fails to specify whether this -2 penalty replaces the usual called shot penalty (which might be up to -20) or is in addition to it. Also, called shots have different effects depending on where they are aimed and the design nowhere specifies to which region this called shot is aimed. Can a tinker freely chose the region of his called shot? This change is definitely preferable to how the design worked earlier, but it still can use some minor clarification. Formerly, 8 of the designs were devoted to enhance the tinker's crafting of respective item-classes and now all of these have been changed and roped in into one design. Some parts of the space so saved has been devoted to something utterly awesome: The demolitions-expert tinker-class can now go full-blown sapper on their enemies by gaining access to alchemist's bombs and even some bomb discoveries if you choose to take the respective design - kudos and two thumbs up for these new designs. On the cool side of abilities, tinkers may now also ruin scrolls to deliver a burst of deadly energy - neat! On the iconic side of abilities is "Scrap it", a power that allows a tinker to use a shield to absorb the fullness of an incoming blow, but at the cost of netting the item the broken condition and breaking it on a second such attempt. The shield can't be repaired via "make whole"-spells when ruined thusly. Nice! Since they are masters of demolitions, tinkers may also stun constructs by imparting the new stalled condition (i.e. stun for constructs) when specializing in the dismantling of constructs and damaging them via their edifice recognition.

The Tinker also is a master of using his crafting prowess in the field, starting at 6th level counting as always having his/her workshop ready. As capstone abilities, tinkers may either choose to take 20 when creating magic items or gain a special attack that destroys items rather easily.

The pdf also provides additional material in the form of 5 new feats (granting extra designs, extra emulates and the capability to cleave and greater cleave items when sundering and the option to sunder with ranged weapons). There is also a new PrC for the Tinker, which has been revised as well: The Breaker gets d10, 2+Int skills per level, full BAB-progression and 1/2 fort and ref-saves. The class's idea is that of a more melee-focused tinker and its deign shows, providing a controlled form of rage similar to the one of the barbarian. They may also use intimidating boasts and single out opponents, which they may charge dealing additional damage. As a cool synergy of abilities, foes targeted by their intimidating boasts cannot execute AoOs versus the Breaker. The Backswing Push-ability, which allows the breaker to make an additional attack at his/her highest BAB to push foes 5 ft. (10 on a crit) without said movement enforcing AoOs. The Hit and Run-feature is also interesting, allowing the breaker as a full round action to move up to his speed and make "a number of melee attacks that is determined by his base attack bonus without provoking attacks of opportunity from the targets of his attack", even being allowed to move both before and after the attacks. While a cool ability, the wording could be slightly clearer. I gather the ability handles iterative attacks the usual way (-5,-10 etc.), but as worded I first thought the ability granted attacks = to BAB, which would have been utterly broken. Where in the first iteration of the PrC the bonus feats granted made no sense, the revision of the PrC actually makes sense.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting have massively improved, exhibiting now the (mostly)properly-used vocabulary of PFRPG. While there are still some instances of slightly ambiguous wordings, the respective offenders can be solved by an application of common sense, which, while still constituting a minor blemish, is a vast improvement over the first version. Layout per se is nice to look at and comes in a 2-column standard that includes full-color as well as b/w-stock art. The lack of bookmarks is another detrimental factor for this pdf, as it makes navigation harder than it ought to be and something Amora Games should consider implementing in future releases.

Amora Games have taken a class that was completely broken in its first iteration and, much like a tinker after sundering his foe's equipment, taken up the scrap to build them into something useful. While the result, much like a jury-rigged weapon, still has flaws and might not necessarily be beautiful, the result yet works and may grow to one's heart. Another 3pp has recently released a craft-based class, Drop Dead Studio's Artisan. Crafting-wise, the Artisan is the superior of the two classes, but the tinker does have a niche with this revision, making for a superb representation of a type of soldier that as of yet had no good representation via classes: The sapper, the (surprise) tinker. The guy that takes things first apart, bombs through structures and objects and takes apart foes by destroying their tools and later making something new from them. In its own humble way, the new tinker-class actually feels like it does belong and has a reason to exist in a campaign, even one that already has the Artisan-class. While still suffering from some minor glitches, the class still makes for a valid purchase in the latest iteration, especially for the low price and people who want to include some Malazan Book of The Fallen-style sappers in their military. My final verdict will thus clock in slightly below the Artisan for a respectable 3 stars and a "Kudos" to the guys and gals of Amora Games for salvaging the class. If they manage to include bookmarks and get rid of the rare ambiguities in future releases, all the better! The tendency and learning curve is there!

Endzeitgeist out.

This pdf is 6 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving 3 pages of content, so let's check this out!

This pdf provides us with a total of 17 new feats that represent different styles of combat. The first mini-feat tree does something interesting: Via two combat-feats, it allows characters to deal 1d6 (1d4 if small, 1 d8 if large) damage and apply full str-bonus to your unarmed attacks and increase the damage further to 1d8 (or 1d6/1d10 for larger sizes, respectively), allowing you to create a non-monk boxer with a respectable damage output. Nothing to complain here!

The second mini-feat-tree is the Bear Style, which grants you 2 to CMD vs. grapples and 2 to break grapples as well as a primary natural slam attack that deals 1d6 damage at crit x2. Bear Hug, the second feat, lets you initiate a grapple when hitting foes via one of these slams, but has a problematic critical effect that grapples an enemy without you gaining the grapple condition. Bear Maul, the final feat of the chain, lets you deal 2d6 bleed damage to foes you grapple if you hit them with unarmed attacks. Again, a good feat-tree. Feat tree number three is all about bull rushes and overruns - while in this stance, you get 2 to CMD vs. bull rush and overrun and count as if your unarmed strikes had the brace and blocking special qualities. If you have the bull charge feat, you may charge when only moving 5ft. and deal piercing damage with your unarmed strikes. That's when the feat unfortunately stops working as intended: You may make an attack with both hands at the end of a charge, forcing the hit foe to make a ref-save vs. the damage you dealt or be pushed back 5 ft. Does this mean the second hand gets off-hand penalties? The feat also mentions "They are also knocked prone." No CMD? and "This movement does not provoke an attack." An AoO? The movement of the initiating character or of the knocked back victim? You may also trip enemies charged via horns toss, throwing them in an adjacent field or even further. Again, the feat fails to specify whether the enemy's or your own movement does not provoke AoOs. The final feat in the tree allows you to add 10 ft. of the maximum movement to the distance you charge and may charge through rough terrain. (Should read difficult terrain.) You also stop provoking AoOs when charging and moving through squares of allies and opponents. Here's a problem: "If you do move through an opponents[sic!] square, you may make an overrun attempt against them, before continuing on to finish your charge." Does the charge attempt end if the overrun fails? Does it go through nevertheless?

Combat Style is one of the very interesting feats herein and dare I say, actually rather brilliant: If you hit you two or more unarmed attacks, at the end of your attack you may use a combat maneuver against foes at your highest CMB as an AoO gained from combat reflexes. Cool to reflect a rough-and-tumble alley-style martial artist and mechanically rather smart. Two thumbs up! The improved gain 2 to CMD and CMB, even when you're flat-footed and stacking with the 2 from the improved version feats. Two cool, nice little feats.

The next feat-tree is the mongoose-tree, with the basic style feat granting you the option to deal slashing damage with your unarmed attacks and a 2 escape artist check. More importantly, it lets you lose an AoO to make an escape artist-check vs. an incoming attack: If successful, you treat the skill-check's result as your new AC or touch AC against that attack. While not too powerful on the paper, experience has show that players will find a way to massively escalate skill-checks like this. The AoO-requirement the need to be aware of the attack do somewhat offset the usefulness of the feat, but personally, being as conservative with balance as I am, I wouldn't allow this feat. Also, the prerequisites are missing the word "ranks" behind one of the skills. With Mongoose Trick, you may make a dirty trick maneuver at the end of your turn once per round: If successful, you provoke an AoO. If the opponent fails to hit you, he provokes an AoO himself. Ok, I guess, though I'm not sure whether e.g. taking Improved Dirty Trick does not eliminate the AoO (and the potential AoO against the mongoose stylist's foe), thus making the feat less useful. Now Mongoose Advantage is flat-out broken, "[...] on all attacks of opportunity you successfully hit with an unarmed strike, you deal double your strength damage." What does that mean? Double the str-modifier? double the str-score? It probably doesn't refer to strength damage, as the feat-chain offers no way to deal strength damage. Also, the option to confirm a crit via an escape artist roll, again, is broken in my book. Skills can and will escalate beyond belief if made primary combat resources.

There are also 3 style feats that stand alone: Scorpion Stinger enhances the scorpion style by allowing you to make attacks against staggered opponents that deal 2 points of Con damage on a failed save. Powerful, but specific enough to make it a viable option. Soft-Paw Monkey allows you to use your acrobatics-ranks in place of your CMD as well as a 4 bonus to AC against attacks after provoking an AoO with a movement. Rattlesnake Ruse is a problematic feat since it builds on Snake Style, an utterly broken feat in my book. The new feat by Amora allows you to use Sense Motive to feint once per round to render an opponent flat-footed for your next attack. Now, I do consider the Snake Style feat from UC broken, but Rattlesnake Ruse feels specific enough for my tastes to make it into my "non-broken" book - though it probably won't see any use.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting have improved since Amora Games' last offering - while there are still minor glitches herein, the vocabulary of PFRPG is much more closely adhered to and there are not that many glitches that detract from the rules. Layout adheres to a no-frills, 2-column, artless b/w-standard. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The feat-table is on the second page - it would probably have been better off on the first page. All in all, this pdf constitutes the first offering of Amora Games that has really something going for it mechanically - there actually are some rather nice feats herein that allow e.g. a fighter to also work as an unarmed brawler and not leave all the fun to the monks. The styles differ in quality and some of the feats have problems with how their respective rules are supposed to work and need some clarification to work as intended. However, there also are some feats that are rather nice and can be considered winners. Now is that enough to warrant a recommendation? No, not unanimously so, even at the low price. That being said, the good parts of the content, as mentioned in my review, might actually mean that you enjoy this supplement. As a reviewer, though, I feel that, at least until the ambiguous wordings have been ironed out, I can't go higher than 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars due to the low price and neat ideas herein. As soon as the minor issues have been ironed out, this might be considered even a 4 star or 4.5 star file.

Endzeitgeist out.

This pdf is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial,1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content detailing the new adventurer base-class, so let's check this out!

The adventurer gets d8, 6+Int skills per level (but only a rather limited class skill array), proficiency with light and medium armor and shields as well as all simple and martial weapons, get 3/4 BAB-progression and can choose freely for two saves to be good saves and one to be the bad save of the class.

The adventurer-class is lucky and hence gets a luck pool of 4 Cha-mod. As a free action, they may use said luck to get a luck bonus of 1 to atk, saves and skills for one round. Furthermore, they may spend a luck point as a swift action to roll 2 d20s and take the more favorable result. This is a VERY powerful ability at first level - too powerful for my tastes. Depending on the trained saves adventurers have, they may also choose from a very limited list of bonus feats (3 per save) and gain access to uncanny dodge. The class starts to become interesting at 5th level, when guild cross training is unlocked - it is also unfortunately there that the concept somewhat unravels: Essentially the idea is that the adventurer gains access to a smattering of another class's abilities: Arcane training e.g. grants him a spellbook, 3 cantrips and one 1st level spell he can cast as a wizard. Unfortunately, the entry does not specify whether the adventurer can write new spells into his spellbook, nor how often the respective spells can be cast - I assume the class counts as a first level wizard, but I'm not sure.

The class could alternatively get access to the fleet feat, favored enemy and rage, but it does not specify whether rage and favored enemy improve with the levels. Alternative choices would be gaining a paltry 2 mounted combat feats or sneak attack 1d6 and trapfinding or lay on hands as a 2nd level paladin and flurry of blows as a monk of the same level or track, wild empathy and an animal companion at -4 levels or bardic performance, or combat-related proficiencies or two craft feats or access to 3 orisons and one 1t level cleric spell as if a cleric (does that mean he can choose the spells anew every day? Not specified...) or access to the 1st level abilities of a sorceror bloodline and a cleric domain. It is interesting to note that most of the sites DO mention as what class the adventurer counts, though unfortunately some retain ambiguity.

"Now that's teamwork" is an interesting ability, granting the adventurer not only the option to work better via teamwork feats, but also temporarily granting all allies in 30 ft. radius access to said teamwork feats 1+Cha-mod times per day. Nice ability! Or it would be if the adventurer could change teamwork feats like an inquisitor. As written, it's weak and very specific in its use. "Best guess" is also a nice one, using Knowledge (geography) to depict the adventurer as a globe-trotter that can identify local fauna, threats etc. Or it would be if got ANY SAMPLE INDICATION OF DCs and what could be learned from making them. DMs are left guessing, rendering this a prime example of sloppy design.

At 10th level, the adventurer gets access to advanced cross training, which is exactly what you'd expect - the big brother of cross training. From access to more arcane spells ( 2 1st level spells, 3 2nd level spells and 2 3rd level spells) to better armor and weapon training, more bardic effects etc., the respective advanced cross training choices feel like logical conclusions to their little brothers. It should be noted that it is not mentioned whether the additional 3d6 sneak attack of the rogue training stacks with the 1d6 gained from the regular cross training or not. I'm also puzzled whether the arcane cross training makes any sense, since a wizard's spellbook means that the paltry few low level spells gained could be gotten much easier. A clarification on how arcane spell training works would be in order. The same holds true for divine spell training's advanced cousin. The temple guardian choice is also ridiculously weak, granting access to smite evil 2/day as a 4th level paladin (non-scaling) and a ki pool, not to mention the bland feats some of the other cross training options provide.

At higher levels, adventurers may share their luck with their allies, granting them also the double d20 rolls, making this ability even stronger. Worse, at 13th level, they can negate attacks completely by spending a luck point. They also get to make a five foot step, but it is not specialized whether this also works against AoOs, when the adventurer can't make 5-foot-steps due to paralysis etc. As if the double d20-roll wasn't powerful enough, we actually get a third dice added to the mix at 15th level, meaning they can roll THRICE and take the most favorable result. The adventurer also gets a timeless body at 19th level and to choose from 3 capstone abilities: Guild Leader grants the leadership feat and a separate luck pool for the cohorts. They can also opt to constantly emit a 4 morale bonus aura. Or they could choose to spend a point of luck for an ability or feat, the effect is also granted to all allies within 20 feet of her.

Wait, what you say? Well, there are also some luck-based feats, 9 to be precise. One grants you access to a luck pool if you don't have one and thus access to the feats. Another lets you penalize your opponent with -2 to "attack roles[sic!]" (type of penalty also not specified) and saving throws, while other grant 4 to concentration, initiative, AC or 4 to confirm critical hits. Other feats grant you 2 to CMB, 2 luck pool and a feat that completely baffles me:

Lucky Magic Reservoir. This feat has the following benefits: "You may cast an extra spell per day by spending a number of luck points equal to the spell level you wish to cast." Come again? Do I need to spend luck points to cast spells gained from the cross training abilities? Is the respective spell in addition to those the adventurer knows? Can they cast ANY spell? The feat doesn't say, is confusing and in dire need of clarification.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting cannot be considered tolerable - the amount of editing glitches alone is bad and from plural errors, typos to punctuation errors and unclear wording, everything can be found. But if you add the amount of confusion and the fact that several abilities are not written adhering to PFRPG-standard forms like "2/day", instead using " two times per day" etc. and we get a clusterf****. Layout adheres to a relatively printer-friendly 2-column standard and the artworks are stock, but fit the theme. The pdf has no bookmarks, which is detrimental to the comfort with which one could read this.

OH BOY. The adventurer wants to be a jack-of-all-trades character with a theme of just being lucky. These are two design goals that REQUIRE a mastery of the rules completely absent from this pdf - especially when there's already two AWESOME luck-based classes: Rite Publishing's Luckbringer and TPK Games' Malefactor are superior in their implementations of (un)luck in each and every way and can be considered winners. The amount of double rolls (which are worse than rerolls) and later even triple rolls make the adventurer class feel unbalanced from the get go.

Now jack-of-all-trades characters are a colossal, vast pain to make and every DM who has ever endeavored to create such a class knows what I'm talking about. There already is a stellar, shapeshifting jack-of-all-trades that can borrow and emulate just about anything: Rite Publishing's simply brilliant Taskshaper. How does the adventurer hold up in comparison? The answer should be short and obvious at this point: It doesn't. It is evident that an idea was there, but the pdf tries to be versatile without any grasp for the power of the respective cross training suites it offers: Two lame feats available to just about anyone are not equivalent to several class-specific abilities. Worse, many of the descriptions show an evident lack of grasp on how the rules of the respective abilities work - they lack crucial clarifications and precise wordings. The result is that trying to use them is a drinking guessing game (Take a shot if you don't get how this is supposed to work/you find some ambiguity...) at best, an anger-inducing exercise in frustration at worst. And yes, this is very cynical, but when I playtested this class with my players, it's what they came up with and what we ended doing. Try as I might, I never, with no amount of rereading, managed to glean how for Pete's sake the spellcasting cross trainings were supposed to work.

The feats, while (mostly) not broken, are unfortunately bland at best. Another thing that jars me is the fact that this class endeavors to be a jack-of-all-trades - and it isn't. It only provides options for the core classes and when compared to e.g. the luckbringer or the inquisitor, it just makes for the worse choice. The class also ignores the APG, UM and UC-classes - if you're looking for any options to access the class-abilities of these by now permanent additions to the rules-roster, you'll be sorely disappointed.

The concept of this class is ambitious and the idea is behind it has some potential, but ambition has to be backed by aptitude. This pdf not only sorely needs another pass at editing, the class needs to be broken down and rebuilt from scratch up in order to have any chance of being considered even remotely balanced and worse, playable.

This class is not in any way up to the standard set by 3pps for PFRPG - it lacks crucial information on the rules, bookmarks, is studded with editing glitches and ultimately fails to make the luck-based adventurer class work. To compete in this environment, Amora Games will have to step up their game - massively. SGG, RiP, etc. have established a high standard and this class not even remotely can stand up to them. My final verdict, reflecting all the flaws and facts and that this does not work will be 1 star. Endzeitgeist out.

an interesting new class. I can imagine a youg town living person or a person raised in farming community seeking adventure starting out this way. Balanced and very playable.