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

An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised version

The revised version of Flying Pincushion Games' Tides of War-book clocks in at 6 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This pdf begins with a brief introduction to the subject matter, before presenting several feats. These are based on Group Fire, a combat/teamwork feat that, as a full-round action, allows you to make a single ranged attack while calling to allies within 15 feet that have this feat. The allies may spend an immediate action to also fire on the target you are attacking, with each participant granting +1 to atk and damage, including the initiator. However, allies that perform this attack are staggered on their next turn. Okay, this is a HUGE step up from the first iteration of the pdf, let's see whether the feats that build on this are now similarly solid!

-Arcing Fire: Reduce cover-bonus to AC by half when firing in an arc; requires suficient space, obviously. Solid.

-Call the Firing Line: When you call for a group fire, all participants get your Cha-mod as a morale bonus to attack, but you can do this only a number of times per day equal to your ranks in Profession (soldier). NICE restriction-element here for the powerful bonus!

-Clustering Volley: Add total damage of group shots together before applying DR. Solid.

-Dodge this!: Each participant targets a 5-foot-squares instead, with scaling Ref-saves to negate the attack. Now this one is genius for hitting high AC targets, but damage is calculated only via base damage die. Nice and in line with similar damaging mechanisms.

-Dynamic Duo: When only using Group Fire with two members, both get a free Intimidate-check using the higher result +5. Actually useful for small units, like adventuring groups - kudos!

-Flying Pincushion: Penalize flying creatures with scaling benefits.

-Gauging Shot: Forego any benefits, but grant +2 to atk and damage rolls for your participating fellows.

-Improved Group Fire: Call out for Group Fire as part of a full attack.

-Greater Group Fire: Allies that participate can use their lowest BAB-attack when using Group Fire - if they do, they are not staggered, but may not be part of a Group Fire attack on their next turn.

-Throw Everything: Use group fire with bombs, kinetic blasts, bloodline/domain power-based attacks, etc. and even held spells. This can thankfully not be combined with Clustering Volley.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to Flying Pincushion Games' two-column full-color standard and the pdf needs no bookmarks at this length.

Frank Gori, with help from David S. McCrae and Jeff Harris has thoroughly revised the original, subpar iteration and created a thing of beauty here - for a low price, you can make creatures (and PCs!) actually fear the power of volleys...and the pdf also expands the usefulness of the feats for purposes of the adventuring groups. With completely cleaned up material, this is pretty much the antithesis to the previous offering: Creative, powerful and sensible, this covers its niche perfectly. 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Tides of War-series clocks in at 6 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

As the first pages of introductory fluff clarifies, this pdf is intended to provide feats that facilitate a magus' means of multicassing synergy - so what do the feats do?

-Arcane Brew: The alchemist crossover feat allows you to spend arcane points as part of casting your spell or attacking to ignore penalties imposed on Intelligence or Strength by mutagens or cognatogens, respectively. Solid, functional, no complaints.

-Arcane Challenge: 1/day, spend 2 points from the arcane pool to get +1 challenge; alternatively, spend 1 point change challenge target. Cool, flexible, no complaints.

-Arcane Performance: After preparing spells, spend up to 1/2 magus level arcane points to gain +3 rounds of bardic performance or raging song for that day per point spent. Nice! Also, 1/day, expend 4 rounds of bardic performance or raging song to regain 1 point for the arcane pool.

-Arcane Rage: After preparing spells, spend up to 1/2 magus level arcane points to gain +3 rounds of rage or bloodrage for that day per point spent. Also, 1/day, expend 4 rounds of rage or bloodrage to regain 1 point for the arcane pool. Interesting - the increased potency would make this a superior trade-off when compared to the previous feat, but base class layout and multiclass-interaction isn't as strong. Comes out as balanced.

-Blood of the Magi: If the 1st level bloodline power has a limited number of uses per day, spend 1 point of the arcane pool as a swift action to regain 1 such daily use. Nice!

-Cantrip Combatant: When using spellstrike or spell combat, you may cast any cantrip with a casting time of 1 standard action in conjunction, not only those from the magus spell-list.

-Focused Smite: Also get +4 to concentration when casting defensively while adjacent to the target of the smite and to concentration-checks prompted by the target of the smite. 1/day regain 1 arcane pool point when defeating the target of the smite. Nice!

-Focused Favoritism: Gain favored enemy bonus to concentration-checks versus one chosen favored enemy. This bonus only applies when casting defensively or adjacent to the target. 1/day regain 1 point of the arcane pool when defeating a favored enemy. May be chosen multiple times, with each new choice applying to a different favored enemy.

-Link Diversion: Gain +4 to concentration while adjacent to your eidolon or phantasm and an enemy. Smooth one! Avoids exploit via melee caveat - NICE!!

-Persistent Hexing: Expend 1 point from the arcane pool as part of using a single-target hex to try to affect the target, even though it has already saved versus that hex within the last 24 hours. May be used 1/2 magus level times per day.

-Spellstrike Infusion: When you accept burn for the kinetic blade infusion to execute spell combat or spellstrike, you can expend 1 point of arcane pool to treat your HD as CL for the spell cast. Nice one!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on both formal and rules-language levels. Layout adheres to Flying Pincushion Games' two-column full-color standard and the pdf sports nice full-color stock art. The pdf has minimalist bookmarks, but more is not required at this level of brevity.

Frank Gori's Magus-multiclassing-feats are a return to form for the series after the rather problematic installment on volley archery feats. The feats in this humble pdf are smooth, balanced, lack means to easily abuse them and enhance the multiclass synergy of the magus, in particular for class-combos that would usually be more problematic...and what more can you ask of such a brief little pdf? Granted, I would have loved to see a feat or two more, but what's here works rather well. Hence, my final verdict will clock in at 5 stars - for one buck most certainly a nice array of feats.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Into the Breach-series clocks in at 29 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC,1 page SRD, leaving us with 24 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This review was moved forward in my reviewing queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreons.

It's been quite a ride since Flying Pincushion Games, then still partnered with D20pfsrd.com Publishing, released their second book (and the first one I reviewed), namely the first Into the Breach: Magus. Well...let's just say that it didn't do so well. That being said, the crew has learned quite a bit since then, but does this second trip to the magus fare better than the first one?

We begin this book, as always, with an assortment of different archetypes, the first of which would be the Arcane Engineer. These guys get a modified skill-list (with all rogue-y related skills like Stealth or Disable Device), 6+Int skills per level and a similarly modified weapon and armor proficiency list. Arcane engineers do not learn to cast in medium and heavy armor at 7th and 15th level; rules-language-wise, stating that in the proficiency section is an unnecessary deviation from standard rules formatting. They also modify their spell-list, but, more importantly, may apply the bonuses granted by their arcane pool to objects and armor, but only to one object at a given time. Starting at 5th level, these guys may spontaneously add a limited list of metamagic feats' effects to spells by using arcane pool points equal to the spell level adjustment. While this sounds feasible, the rules-language is pretty wonky and deviates in many regards from how such mechanics usually are phrased.

Starting at 2nd level, these guys may channel spells through equipment - they may, e.g. get an Acrobatics bonus equal to his class level when casting "movement enhancement spell on an item worn on his feet item slot." SIGH For how long? Does non-magical equipment qualify? What constitutes a "movement enhancement spell"? Define. What if he has no item on the feet-slot? Doesn't work as written. To make up for that, targets of their spellstrike may save, even if there is usually no save. OUCH. Wait...what's the save? Fort? Ref? Will? No idea. The archetype also has a significantly expanded arcana section, allowing them to convert spells into arcane pool points - and no, they can't be retrieved via spell recall or improved spell recall. This severely de-limits the arcane pool - and fails to specify whether multiple instances of the same spell prepared also mean that the respective spell can't be recalled. Cosmetic, sure, but still. On the cool side, counting as having the quick trapsmith rogue talent while under the effect of haste can be considered to be an interesting synergy. Regarding almost humorously bad editing glitches: "When channeling the monkey fish spell through a wrist or belt slot item, the arcane engineer may ignore the armor check of light armor when climbing or swimming and add +5 ft to his Swim or Climb speed" Spot the glitches, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, beyond there being a "penalty" missing. Btw.: The maximum ACP for light armors...is -2. Another also nets the following gem: "[the shirt through which a spell is channeled] automatically gains a Heal skill check using the arcane engineer’s Heal skill modifier +10 to attempt to stop bleed damage." So, does the item gain an action? Does this happen immediately? As an action? Things get more wonky - "+8 to the Fly skill as though the arcane engineer were a flying creature." URGH. Does this stack with Fly speed's bonus? The bonus granted by the required spell, overland flight? No idea. This whole archetype is a neat idea, but not functional - it takes a complex concept and tries to beat it into a class chassis not intended for its use...and its wording is sloppy.

The second archetype, the Ebonheart Magus, adds several death-related spells to his spell list, namely death knell, death knell aura and bleed. Starting at 4th level, these guys may expend 1 arcane pool point as a swift action to, for one minute have all touch-range spells dealing hit point damage deal 1/2 their damage as negative energy damage, granting the magus "temporary hit points per level of the spell cast while this ability is in effect." These stack to a maximum of twice (thrice at 11th level) the magus' level and last 10 minutes. The plus-side here, is that death knell and this ability's temporary hit points are properly working in conjunction. The downside being that the magus gains these temporary hit points only once per spell cast. At 11th level, this ability extends its benefits to ranged spells - and here, things become very wonky: What about AoE-spells? Do they grant multiple temporary hitpoints? Technically, they're one "cast," as the ability calls it.

At 7th level, these guys may spend one point from the arcane pool to cast death knell upon reducing a foe to -1 hit points via a melee attack or touch-range spell as an immediate action. This ability gets an upgrade at 16th level. The archetype pays for these benefits with (improved) spell recall, the knowledge pool and counterstrike. The archetype gets 3 arcana for leeching blades. At 9th level, these guys can expend temporary hit points to properly heal or even regain prepared magus spells.

I like what this archetype tries to do: using temporary hit points as an alternate resource and tying it to the limited resources spells, hit points and arcane pool. Unfortunately, there is a reason for why this is usually not done - there are more ways to gain temporary hit points that can be exploited rather hard. Beyond the rules-language hiccups, this means this archetype will not get near my game.

The next archetype is the elemental champion - these guys lose (improved) spell recall and knowledge pool. To make up for this, these guy increase energy damage output and may expend arcane pool points up to Int-mod to change the energy types of spells prepared, with 11th level providing only the fly energy type change. Pretty much the epitome of boring elementalist.

The Fate's Edge can't spend arcane pool points to enhance his weapon, but may spend 1 point from the renamed Prescience Pool as a swift action to gain a +1 insight bonus that can either be applied to atk and damage or to AC and saves, increasing by +1 at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter. The total bonus can freely be divided up between offense and defense. 5th level provides uncanny dodge, 10th level its improved sister ability. At 7th level, while already in prescient combat, the fate's edge may, as an immediate action, spend 1 point to reroll an attack or save and at 16th level, the archetype may force a creature targeting the fate's edge or saving versus a spell or effect generated by the fate's edge to roll twice and take the lower result. Arcana-wise, rerolling damage dice , rolling twice for initiative and spellbooks expanded with some divinations are pretty much what I expected. Mechanically, this one is pretty sound, but it won't win any innovation prizes - these are literally the default tricks in that category.

The Force Bulwark is, mechanically, perhaps one of the more intriguing archetypes herein - instead of spell combat, these guys gain the ability to create barriers of solid, visible magical force. This barrier, 5' square, has hardness equal to Int mod and hit points equal to 5 + cless level x 2. Versus energy damage, hardness is instead treated as energy resistance, retaining vulnerability versus these. The barrier provides cover and may, providing circumstances are right, even grant total cover. The barrier must be anchored but doesn't have to be vertically anchored. It can hold 100 pounds per caster level and has a range of "close" - I think that should be "short (25 ft + 5 ft./2 levels). At 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the character can create + 1 5' square barrier, which must forma single continuous plane, though the barrier shares hit points.

The barrier is activated as a standard action, costs 1 arcane pool point and remains for 1 minute or until destroyed. A force bulwark may only have one such barrier in place at a given time. This replaces spell combat. At 8th level, the barrier can be formed into rough geometric forms (more precise wording would have been nice here) and the barrier may halve its hit points to extend to twice the area. At 14th level barriers need no anchor and 20th level eliminates the one-barrier at a time restriction. There are 4 exclusive types of arcana, which include AoE bull rushes versus attackers that destroy the barrier, minor retributive damage, fast healing barriers and more hardness that scales with levels. I really like the idea of this archetype, but its execution leaves a bit to be desired - the barriers generally are pretty weak and easily broken. While the complex concept generally is cool, it suffers from the limited space it has to shine - this should imho be a more detailed base class. Still my favorite so far.

The Mistblade may, as a standard action, spend 1 arcane pool point to create an illusory duplicate of himself that can move anywhere within close range of the creator. The duplicate is correctly coded as a figment and has an AC equal to your touch AC. The double is destroyed when it takes any damage. Unfortunately, the ability fails to specify the save DC to disbelief the double, which is important since non-disbelieved doubles can act as flanking partners. Duplicates can speak and changes to your appearance etc. affect the double as well. At 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, the class feature grants +1 double, all of which must be destroyed or disbelieved separately. Odd: 5th level specifies that the doubles can now be directed as a free action, when prior to that, no action is given regarding directing the doubles. This replaces the magus' ability to enhance weapons with arcane pool. 2nd level and every 3 levels thereafter provide sneak attack progression instead of spellstrike.

The higher levels allow for the disbelieved duplicates to be reset as a standard action and 10th level allows them to affect the physical world as though they had a Str-score of 10, with the mist-blade's BAB + size modifiers as atk, with damage equal to the weapon's base damage sans enchantments, feats, abilities, etc. at 13th level, the mistblade can swap positions with a duplicate as a swift action. The ability lacks the note that it is a conjuration [teleportation] effect for purposes of ability interactions. They do lose medium and heavy armor and fighter training for these tricks. The arcana allow the mistblade to see through duplicates and poach among rogue talents and ninja tricks. All in all a thematically awesome, complex archetype that almost gets its difficult subject matter right.

Primalists get diminished spellcasting and may only use spell combat in conjunction with natural attacks or unarmed strikes. He may not enhance his weapon via arcane pool and instead gains primal shift that costs 1 point from the modified pool and can be activated as a standard action (swift action at 4th level). The shift lasts for one minute; it is properly codified as a polymorph effect: Every level, the character gains a number of evolution points that can be used to gain a limited array of evolutions; the evolutions are fixed each level, but can be reassigned on a level-up. The abilities of the archetype focus on modifying spell combat et al. for natural attacks/unarmed strikes, limited natural armor and modifying expanded spell list-abilities to refer to the druid spell-list instead of the wizard's. The arcana allows for reactive shifts, for example. A slight problem here lies in the utterly deadly combo of feral combat, spells and evolutions - the combo makes you a brutal shredder and the archetype, generally, is very, very strong. It still is okay in high-powered campaigns, but any halfway decent minmaxer will make a devastating beast out of these guys. GMs concerned with balance may want to be careful regarding this one.

The Pyroclastic Mystic has a cool name...and gets more fire spells, fire resistance, uses fire-forged steel, a cloak of ash, may sculpt fire damage spells...and takes until 11th level until it finally gets a means to reduce resistance...which may be a bit later. 5th level or even as soon as 3rd would have probably been a good idea. Overall one of the more visually interesting elementalists...but still, not really that cool.

The Spell-torch Savant looks, at first glance, like yet another one of these...but is interesting: These guys can spontaneously convert spells into a fixed list of divinations while wielding a torch and they attack with torches - when delivering touch spells with their torches, they add fire damage contingent on spell level and make the targets burn, scaling DC to resist and put out - which is pretty brutal. Thankfully, the fire at least can't spread. At 4th level extend this to ranged touch attack spells. Higher levels provides options regarding wind-resilient torches and instead of bonus feats, they can pose yes/no questions to their torch, brandishing it; if the answer is yes, the flame flares. I...actually love this one. The mechanics are unique and powerful, but the archetype is balanced pretty well...and makes torch-combat actually feasible and evocative - certainly an interesting class I'll use in my darker games.

The towering champion gets a reduced arcane pool...and is interesting as well: These guys may enter massive form, increasing their sizes and gaining attribute bonuses, natural armor and later even DR. The abilities are codified properly and size benefits are listed for your convenience. Giant-themed abilities like rock catching are provided and these guys get a choice - either be a protector or marauder. This choice determines whether the form features a buff for allies or debuff for foes (it can be changed each level) and the archetype can grapple foes with one hand. I like the visuals here; I also like the execution - a 11-grade distinction between massive forms means that they generally are level-appropriate regarding their balance. All in all, a good archetype, though a bit light on the player agenda - still, one of my favorites herein. I'll probably use this one sooner rather than later.

The next one would be the waystrider - no arcane pool weapon enhancement, but instead close range, arcane pool-based teleportation (properly codified - YAY!), with higher levels increasing range. The archetype also gets evasion, tagging along on teleportation and a somewhat erratic last second save teleport that staggers him for one round, but may save his life (or teleport him in a solid object, but oh well...). The arcana allows for the ignoring of line of sight, an afterimage and improved evasion. Know what? I like this. It's a solid teleporter-skirmisher archetype that does everything right. I have recently built a similar teleport-themed archetype...and have to say, I couldn't have done this one better. Credit where credit is due - this is awesome.

The whip weird gets a modified spell list and is the unpretentious whip-expert, with arcane pool powering temporary deafening strikes (later entangle and constricted), appropriate feats and proficiencies. This does not reinvent the wheel, but certainly is one of the better takes on the whip specialist I have seen, with sufficient precision in the rules language - again, kudos.

The pdf provides PrCs as well, the first of which would be the Anthropoarion, which requires the hummunculist archetype and gets d8 HD, 2+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, 1/2 Fort- and Will-save progression as well as 9/10th spellcasting progression, with each level choosing arcane casting or extract progression. Every level nets an arcana or an alchemist discovery. The PrC's levels stack with hummunculist for purposes of experimentation and he may use bombs in conjunction with spellstrike "as a full-round action". Does that mean full attack with bombs only? Or one bomb + spell? This needs a bit of clarification. AT higher levels, these guys can dimension door their homunculus, later switch locations with it. 9th level lets "the homunculus cast spells on behalf of his master as though he were his master" using the master's slots, but not actions...okay...so does it have to be commanded to do so? I assume no, but I'm not sure. As a capstone, the homunculus replaces BAB and HP with that of an animal companion and gets a huge boost to mental attributes, spellstrike and 1/2 the master's arcane pool. if the master dies, he "awakens the next day as the homunculus until returned to life" - which is cool...but what are the mechanics for this transition? Switched mental attributes? Total transposition? No idea.

The second PrC would be the erudite blade bravo, who gains d8, 2+Int skills per level, some exotic proficiencies, full spellcasting-progression, 1/2 BAB-progression, 1/2 Ref- and Fort-save progression. The PrC provides full synergy with magus levels for purposes of arcana prereqs and may power mage hand with arcane pool points to wield weapons, though that requires swift action concentration. The one thing unclear here is whether the mage hand then threatens squares - I assume so, but I'm not perfectly sure. The PrC provides scaling AC-bonuses when wielding daggers, dagger-themed spells added to the spell-list and use Int instead of Str for damage, but thankfully with anti-cheese caveat. Better thrown range for daggers and a non-stacking, arcane pool-powered flurry complement this one. Overall, a rather interesting, overall mostly well-crafted PrC.

At this point, layout changes from the 2-column standard to the 1-column standard and the pdf sports a new Metamagic feat, adding smoke to spells. The feat has a cosmetic italicization glitch. Finally, the pdf offers 5 new spells - blazing shiv conjures basically a lightsaber and erroneously refers to "casting statistic," a term that does not exist in PFRPG rules language. Burrowing Blade lets you enchant light piercing or slashing weapons to embed them in foes and have them continue to burro into said foes - NICE! Cinder Fall is textbook power creep - it ignites flammable material and clearly outlines invisible creatures - sans penalty like glitterdust, making the spell better in that regard, though it is a level below that. Storm Spike is an electricity-based light saber and suffers from the same glitch as the former one. Wall of Smoke nauseates, obfuscates and can even deal nonlethal damage - overall, a cool spell.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are still okay on a formal level; I noticed a couple of italicization glitches and the like. Rules-language is a different topic: It frankly oscillates between "This doesn't work -at all!", "this works but deviates from how it's usually worded" and "this is remarkably precise for the complex concept used." All in all, though, this pdf could have definitely used a tighter hand in development and the book shows the hands of 4 developers, some of which, reluctant though I am to state this, botched the job. Layout adheres, for the most book, to a 2-column standard, switching to a 1-column standard for the spells and feat. Artworks are gorgeous and full-color; while some stock pieces are there, I have never seen most of them and they tend to be very beautiful. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Frank Gori, Jacob W. Michaels and Taylor Hubler can do better. I've seen all of you do better and this pdf does sport some of the components I really wanted to see; there are a few gems herein, but the often problematic rules-language tarnishes some of the admittedly challenging concepts herein. That being said, while not the best work of Flying Pincushion Games or the authors, this indeed is better than the first magus-book. Still, over all, this is a frustratingly mixed bag of a book; if the rules language had received the required polish, this would have been an impressive book; as written, it is a rollercoaster ride between elation and frustration due to the grit in the gears of the finer rules. My final verdict for this one will clock in at 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 due to in dubio pro reo and the fact that the gems herein do not deserve being bashed - it's a mixed bag, but it has its gems.

Endzeitgeist out.

This PDF has 15 pages 12 of which have some gaming material on them. So value wise it is 25 cents per page.

So basically this PDF is about a single high end clothing store that also sells some magical clothing, weapons and armor. Their are a few suggetions on what they specifically sell but the details are mostly left to the GM.

The real meat of this product is the "Colorful" owners. These 2 gentlemen "handle" their customers according to how their customers treat them. So basically if you treat them well, do favors for them and basically be their flunkies they will give discounts buy at higher prices and even sell their secrets with illusionist magic. However if they don't like you if you are rude, greedy or underhanded in your dealing's then they like to substitute your purchases for cursed magic items or illusional merchandise.

So that being said. When your customers tend to be wealthy noblemen who by their very nature are rude and arrogant you are bound to garner enemies. Almost half of this pdf is about an encounter with just such a young nobleman and his friends. With presumably the PC's caught in the middle. So if you thought shopping was a dull activity think again.

Their is also a short system for patronage and another for bartering as a way to make shopping more interesting I guess.

Ok so what I liked about this product. It is a great ready made store to place in any city. So if your Players are wandering around a city and browsing through shops this is a great one to throw in to the mix.

What I would have liked to see more of. Equipment rare and exotic. I love equipment always have. I have even bought entire Tabletop RPG's just to raid the equipment lists. So I was a little disappointed that only one page featured any equipment.

So overall I am giving this a 4 which to me is a good score if you are looking for an interesting diversion for your players this might be just the thing. The shop owners could be longtime "associates" for your players to deal with between adventures.

What I liked:

-The Arcane Engineer was an interesting twist on the normal magus, although the features weren't too explosive. Still, I think the archetype needed to exist as it does a lot of things that could help make for a unique character.

-The Fate's Blade was a very fun archetype, pairs well with the Erudite Blade Bravo later in the book, and the features flow together well to give a duelist feel as well as a warrior who's just barely ahead of the curve, something I'd very much like to play some day.

-The Primalist is cool, no doubt. My only issue is balance concerns here, as the amount of evolutions points feels like it could scale far too quickly, and getting quick change so early makes you basically ready to pop into your most dangerous form of combat in every battle. Add that to feral spell combat, and you have a combat beast. It's very cool, but it also feels imbalanced.

-The Waystrider might be my favorite from this book, as the mobility and synergy from the archetype makes for a hell of a fun archetype. Everything about it makes you feel like you're zoned into darting around the battlefield, and it combos well with this kind of playstyle, making it aces on all fronts.

-The Whip Weird is very understated, which I think is probably my favorite thing about it. It makes whips viable, gives a few neat tricks, but not a ton of class features. It's nice for combining with other archetypes, which I think is a strength.

-The Erudite Blade Bravo is the other prestige class, and you can enter this one smoothly through magus which is a huge feather in its cap. The class features help you feel like a duelist and are nicely grouped, making for no dead levels and a very nice capstone. Definitely the MVP prestige class.

-The art as a whole was very nice. It was very well used, and only felt slightly obtrusive at its worst of moments, adding a lot to the value of the book at its best.

What I was indifferent about:

-The Ebonheart Magus feels somewhat bland, and while it does have some fun features, everything blends together too much to me to make a more interesting archetype, which is a shame with the ideas that could have come from this. It's not bad, it's just okay.

-The Mistblade is a very rogue like archetype, probably better than Eldritch Scoundrel for someone trying to blend magic and metal, and the features worked well towards this goal, although it felt like it wanted to specialize more than I would have liked.

-The Towering Champion's mechanics are somewhat difficult to understand on a first reading, and the differences between the two styles presented feel more cosmetic than mechanical. The incremental stat boost are nice, and it does feel like you could have a lot of fun with this, but it can feel bland at times.

-The metamagic feat and spells are really what I'd expect. They're solid inclusions if you're using the material in this book, which you should. Nothing really stood out as amazing, but nothing was broken ore poorly written either.

What I disliked:

-The Elemental Champion just feels like it does too little. Needing to prep your spells as alternative elements and spending arcane points to do so is just such a large cost for such a small reward that it feels unlikely that you'd bother with it.

-The Force Bulwark's mechanics felt like too much of a departure from the base class, and nothing in its features felt like something that I would want from a magus. And somehow the capstone feels both too strong and too weak at the same time, leaving me unimpressed.

-The Pyroclastic Blade has done what we've seen done before, but doesn't really innovate on the 'fire mage' design we've seen before. If Piercing Flames came earlier and was more of a scaling feature, I could probably bump this up more, but we're going through 1/2 the game with no way to deal with fire resistance, and that's just no good for me.

-The Spell Torch Savant really feels like it wants to make fighting with a torch cool, and I've been burned by that before (PUN!). The features here don't feel like they match the fluff enough, and the archetype as a whole just doesn't have enough to motivate using such a bad weapon.

-The Anthroparion is the first prestige class that requires a specific archetype to enter and also loses 1st level casting. That already was a strike against it, but the class features aren't anything that I'm too interested, making this less than stellar on all fronts.

Final Thoughts: It's funny, the things I did like, I REALLY liked. But what I didn't like really popped out at me, making it a polarizing book. Overall, I did like it, and the art was nice. The formatting was fine, few typos or such, making for an enjoyable inclusion. I'd probably give it a 3.75 as a whole, obv rounding to a 4 for this, but I think the things that I liked outweighed any issues I had with the content of this solid book.

[b]What I liked[/b]

-Another top notch description of the shop this time, it's nice enough to the point where the players can get a general vibe for it.

-While I'm still not in love with it, the barter system is back and feels better implemented this time, upgrading it to something I like, although in the future I'd like to see more items listed for it, even if the given ones are just suggestions. That and higher value ones, as the shop itself has very pricey wares, and the highest value of the barter items doesn't even get you halfway to one.

-The returning patronage system is always aces,and if I'm being honest, it's one of the major draws of the book. I feel like now that it's established, it could be expanded upon, but that's not a fault of the book, more something I would just like to see in future instalments.

-Integrating the shop keeps more into the shop helped over Brass Dragon, making them feel more fleshed out and less 'needlessly mysterious', giving us a better feel for them.

-Speaking of integration, the special services was another nice touch, helping us feel like the shop was worth our time over others.

-Another fun set of quest and shop request here. While I'd like more, that's just me wanting more content, and not a fault of the book.

-While at odds with something below, the encounter provided actually allows you to deal with it without needing a map. It's a more tepid encounter, so it's nothing amazing, but it does give a very nice feel for the location, so the flavorful environment of the encounter makes up for it being mechanically weak. It almost feels like actually fighting in the shop is the 'wrong' way to do things, but that's not really a problem.

[b]What I didn't like[/b]

-Unlike the last store, there's no fantastical way to return to this one, which with it wares is a damn shame. Not a huge drawback, but this means you'll only get great use of this in a city locked game.

-The standard magic item list is prohibitively small. I understand it's most likely a spacing concern, but for the lush and lavish setting as well as the fact that the book has shown that it's willing to include (1) UC item, I would have liked around 20 items included here.

-The lack of a map; I know it was talked about before, I've had the reasons explained to me why there wasn't a map, but that doesn't change the fact that if you're going to include an encounter, you need a map. I will give kudos that the need for a map is greatly minimized this time around, so it doesn't hurt the overall product nearly as much as Brass Dragon, who's encounter was always going to be combat.

[b]Final Thoughts[/b] Really the only problems I'd say I have were listed above, the rest of this book is very solid. The atmosphere is correct for what it's shooting for here. While having both shopkeepers have the same statline was a tad lazy, it's forgivable since unique stat lines wouldn't have added much at all.

While the map was going to be my make or break for this, the intelligent way the need for it was sidestepped was enough to bolster my opinion of the product. I could honestly see using this shop in just about any game which was city locked, making it a regular establishment in my game world. 5/5 product to me, and if you use it for a city game, you'll probably get a LOT of use out of it.

Another new product from Flying Pincushion covers a new subject for them; shops. The ole' Magic Mart is a strange place. Usually players just roll into town and roll some dice to see if what they want to buy is in the town. This series seems to want to make a store front that the players will want to come back to and interact with more than just picking up their supplies.

The marketplace in question has some crunch for the purchase limit and what they generally sell but also puts in a few other mechanics in there as well. You can barter unusual items, making for interesting quest material. You can also gain discounts and better sell prices for being a regular customer giving players incentive to come back. There are even a few quests to go on and an encounter that can kick off some events. It also includes a new magic item.

There are some points of this product that do throw me off despite liking the concepts as a whole. The owner of the Brass Dragon takes bartering and gives goofy quests that have odd implications that to me make me assume that he's a Time Lord but stats-wise is just a terrible rogue . As a source of boons or unique items the whole thing is a little lackluster. One thing about the Player Companion Magical Marketplace was that you could get a number of exclusive items and class features. Here the main resource is discounts and quests. Although, to be fair, my criticisms mostly stem from this product having the potential to be more impactful from an equipment perspective when in reality it's more of a fluff piece but even on the fluff front I get a lot of flavor out of the owner of the shop that doesn't feel like it pays out in regards to the quests he has lined up. I just have the feeling that it could have done or been more. It's there to give a bit more description to a shop and give reasons to come back and excuses to go on quests, although that leads to my biggest criticism that the quests feel like they describe mini enclosed events rather than things that lead into adventures your own adventures. There are typos here and there but nothing terrible or anything that ruins the whole product.

All that aside the product succeeds in a lot of ways. It does present a item shop with a reason to return and means to extend into quests that make the place more of an adventurer hub than something that isn't even role played out. My sense that it could probably need more fluff or more crunch is easily dismissed as irrational because it is a very similar to another product I love, Dire Rugrat's Tangible Taverns line. It does it's job and I can see myself using it as a jumping point for adventures.

In the end I want to give it 4 out of 5 stars. Its a good and functional product but I think that if it had more crunch or more fluff I would be way more satisfied with it, but for now I'll use it but I won't be jumping to use it.

Into the Breach: The Witch is a simple idea; provide new options for the Witch class in the form of archetypes, hexes, patrons, feats and even some prestige classes and an alternate base class. This is a pretty dense pdf with a ton of content.

despite having some inconsistancies with ‘game language’ (for example: Bailiwick hermit has an intelligent construct that functions as the witch’s spellbook, which function differently from familiars that store spells) most criticisms on this front are superficial at best and basically function as written without much clarification. As for how powerful and cool they are, nothing impresses me but nothing infuriates me. This sounds like the archetypes are only so-so but my opinion of the Witch class is that it is very bland so the amount of modularity and flavor given by these archetypes are a huge boon despite them not exactly clicking with me.

The alternate class, the Sevite, casts witch spells using Wisdom, gains a domain, gets a daily divination, the ability to get posessed by Loa thus gaining some abilities. Unfortunately I own both Pact Magic books so I’d never play this but if you don’t this is an alternate class that has a more defined flavor than the normal Witch.

There are two prestige classes. The Heathen, which probably should have an alignment restriction, I don’t like. Not because its too powerful, weak or unwieldy but seems to combine Magus and Witch in a way that feels like neither and just adds more complications. Then there’s the Scarred Shaman, a Witch-Barbarian. I like this one more (despite BAB not matching HD which is a pet peeve)

The Hexes and Major Hexes are mostly ‘meh’ but I can say that about most hexes in general. There are a few gems that either allow for new possibilities or new flavors so for the most part they’re a hit. The Grand Hexes are a more definite hit for me.

The four patrons take up all of half a page which sucks but what are you going to do, Patrons just aren’t as meaningful and flavorful as bloodlines or domains.

The feats are okay, nothing too interesting aside from the feat that allows you to swift action hexes against weapon targets, which I’ve seen so many times but not in feat form. There are plenty of archetypes that let you mix attacks and hexes so its not terribly thrilling.

So would I play with it? Probably. Overall I’m not a fan of how linear the witch is so I’d likely pick an archetype out of here to better represent the flavor I want to play, especially the Sevite. I feel that the Into the Breach series feels the strongest when it fills in holes in classes and I think that this succeeds in adding some good flavor options to a very ill defined class.

So Would I allow it at my table? As far as I can tell there is nothing unbalancing or annoying going on and everything functions as written or with minor clarification. I’d allow it. Overall I’d give it a 4 out of 5. I like it enough but nothing blows my mind.

The latest entry in Flying Pincushion's Into the Breach series covers the Inquisitor. Like the rest of the series it features several archetypes, an alternate class, Prestige classes and some options and items to round out the class in question.

The archetypes are imaginative and each one gives new and interesting options. Some of them however pick at a few peeves of mine when it comes to crunch. Some of it includes niggling details like inconsistent wording on replacing spellcasting or the Circuit Judge having an ability that calls out that it works for one round before calling out that it works for a number of rounds equal to it's level. Some of it includes personal opinions like some archetypes being too powerful, too weak or redundant for what they replace or Duplicating Accessor being, to me, a book keeping nightmare due to shifting ability scores as a payment for abilities. Nothing I've seen is outright wrong or anything that can't be solved with some clarification but the amount of instances where things like that happen make the product a bit awkward. The archetypes themselves may be worth the headache but tat would be chalked up to individual opinion based on whether or not what annoys me is the same thing that annoys you as none of them are objectively bad, or at the very least need more playtesting than number crunching to get a clear idea of how well or bad it goes.

The alternate class, The Vengeant, seems like a soup of classes. One part Paladin, one part Inquisitor, a splash of Monk and a slight hint of Cavalier. It's a full BAB, 4 level caster. Instead of armor it gets wisdom to AC. It gets an ability that functions a bit like Cavalier's Challenge ability and works with a Judgement-ish ability and makes the target susceptible to an Oath Strike, an attack rolls twice and takes the better number. Overall I like the class.

In the Prestige Class section is hard to judge for me because I generally don't like prestige classes. All I can say is that they didn't have any glitches I noticed and one is way better than the other in the sense that its incredibly more interesting mechanically.

The new Inquisitions are probably some of the most thematic inquisitions I've ever seen. There are some that are specific to a creature type, like Undead Slayer. They aren't too specific so you can make some actual use out of them. There are also racial inqusitions. A lot of them have some of the niggling problems I meantioned earlier, specifically that when an ability functions as a spell that spell isn't always italicized isn't always referenced as being spells or having a reference of what book it is.

Lastly there are new mundane items. Like any mundane item they aren't entirely impressive but hats off to them for having them. Its always magic item this and magic item that. Nothing happens unless it's magic. The all star of this one is probably The Bolt Feed, which along with Rapid Reload (I assume this works) lets you fire crossbows at the rate of a bow.

So as a whole? I like about half the archetypes which made me think this book was going to be a disappointment but the book gets much better further in. Like in a lot of the Into the Breach series I can feel the difference between authors of the material based on different wording and inconsistent levels of clarification. This bugs the crap out of me and if you can get past that or give some GM oversight the classes I didn't like can be saved, and they probably should be because they do present a new play experience and an interesting take on what an inquisitor is. So it's a product with a lot of potential but kind of flawed on entry. I'd give it a high 3 out of 5 stars as a rating for myself but for the taste of others I'm rounding it up to 4 stars.

The subject matter in this one appeals to me a lot. This entry into the Into the Breach series from Flying Pincushion is a bit different from the rest. It is about NPC classes, something that I feel is underused throughout the game. NPC classes represent an easy way to generate some stat blocks to do a purpose and become thrown away because honestly NPCs will either die too quickly or their stats rarely come up enough to warrant going through the process of building them as a complex base class. Its too much work for their lifespan so anything that helps on that front is very welcome. Also they represent some GM only territory to help smooth things along, present unique challenges and make a character unique. So lets take a look at what Flying Pincushion does with them.

Starting with the Adept the first archetype grants more complex class features than what I'd care for on an NPC. Basically it can summon incrementally stronger construct out of a chosen elements. You're basically making two NPCs at that point but once they're statted out they aren't too complex. I do feel like just conjuring elemental from existing bestiary stat blocks would have been simpler so points off for that but those points come back because you can actually make an interesting encounter with this archetype. One thing that has to be said is that this archetype is way too powerful for the abilities it replaces, but I'm not counting this against it. Mainly because this is GM only territory so that kind of stuff doesn't matter. I don't even think that the summon construct thing even has a per day limit which is overpowered in the hands of a PC but with an NPC it is allowed to have these kinds of things.

The next Adept archetype is a cannibal that gets benefits from eating hearts and brains. It's simple and concise and is probably the best example of things that I want to do as a GM that I don't want players doing, or at least not with that specific ability. Its the kind of unlimited overpowered thing that is hidden behind an inept class so that players don't do it. After that is the Nun which is a support cure-y Adept, and a Vicor, a more Inquisitor-ish Adept that is way more varied based on it's domains. It also get some extra abilities based on what domains it has. The Aristocrat gets archetypes making it a nature cultist, junkie or tax collector. About the only one that I feel is less interesting is the first one but the other two have something about them that make them interesting to interact with or fight. The Commoner gets a woodsman archetype, an animal handler and a bum. The expert gets a locksmith, a crafter and a minstrel. The Warrior gets a savage, a peasant, a siege engineer, and an archer.

Following the archetypes is a new Alternate Class that is basically a merchant. I don't know what it's an alternate class for but it fills it's role basically enough as a new NPC class.

After that is an entire slew of new mundane items including weapons and armor which is basically inferior to normal weapons and armor and would be used by peasants and savages.

As a whole although only one archetype really became complex handling NPC classes via archetypes is more complex that I would liked. The archetypes themselves make the NPCs more powerful, which is okay with them as a GM tool but one thing that is actually sad about it though is that having them as hirelings or cohorts in the control of the player is a bad idea for some of these. This does not apply to all of them but they do basically make the balance different so they cant' be handed over without some forethought. I am also disappointed that NPC boons were not covered at all as that is design space for NPCs that rarely gets explored. That said The archetypes are more about flavor than anything else and certainly add abilities that increase their flavor and can make interesting fights or interactions with player characters. They are interesting and I will certainly use them when their concepts come up, I'm just not jumping up and down over what they bring to the table. Another bit of criticism is that there are typos here an there. They don't really ruin rules or anything and I'm overall dismissive of them because of the GM-centric nature of the product. Bottom line is that this gets 4 out of five stars from me.

I think this is the third ‘Into the Breach’ by Flying Pincushion. Into the Breach is a series of books expanding on paizo’s base classes with new Archetypes, Class options, Alternate Classes and Prestige Classes, This one focusing on the Gunslinger. The 34 page document kicks in with the crunch on page 5 and the last page is legal information leaving 29 pages of content.

First lets look at the Archetypes…

The Black Powder knight comes out as kind of a merger between Gunslinger and Paladin. It gets Lay on Hands and a gun variant on Divine Bond. I wish the Divine Bond thing was rewritten because there are a few ambiguities, like what effective Paladin level the BP Knight has or whether or not he can take a steed. The other abilities are general protection things although one ability seems weird. Essentially you purposely misfire to deal damage to all enemies in 30 ft and stabilize all allies in 30 ft. Why it does both of these things I don’t understand, I guess because of Paladin powers. Overall I’m not excited. As an archetype of a mundane weapon-based class it seems to be dipping too far into a class with magical abilities. Not to mention that Paladin has a Gun-wielding archetype.

The Boltslinger seems to be a Crossbow Gunslinger. It does mostly what it’s supposed to do, although I’m not sure if it makes crossbows viable. (probably not) The odd abilities out of the bunch: Bolt Ladder lets you ignore hardness to walls when making footholds for climbing. Seems as oddly specific and compares to the Monk’s Slow Fall ability in usefulness. Poison use is also Weird but not really bad in any way.

Bombard Blades get a free melee weapon that is also a gun. Well not a real gun. Its more that it uses ammunition to explode on whatever you struck. The wording explaining it feels very clunky with some redundant language but seems to function once you read everything. In the end it looks like a fun class and comes with a new weapon for everyone else.

Cunning Scoundrel is funny and looks fun. Basically a Gunslinger with Sneak attack and some tricks involving weapons that are hybrid gun/melee weapons like Axe Muskets.

Frogman is an Underwater Gunslinger slinging spear guns. It mostly does what it says on the tin but it has a few oddballs. One ability adds to the Frogman’s Swim Speed when it should probably grant a swim speed if the creature doesn’t already have one. The frogman has two abilities that are weirdly specific. One works if the enemy could fall off of something and into water and apparently summons predatory aquatic creatures. As a class ability this is just nonsensical.

Powderman is pretty much Bomberman. It has one ability that is very unclear about how it works but otherwise functions as one would expect. Gains the Alchemist Bomb Class feature at a lvl 4.

The Wyrd Hunter is some sort of anti-supernatural serial killer I guess. Honestly it looks pretty weak despite looking like it functions properly

The Trickshot is a bit more exciting. It can make ranged Dirty Tricks with guns and gets bonuses to it. In some ways this may be too strong because it gets sort-of called shots per attack. Looks good and fun.

Now onto the Alternate Class: The Gungineer.

The Gungineer has some different deeds and grit (they are named differently) and really they seem very Gunslinger-ish. Nothing terribly off beat or anything. It does get a special named weapon that cannot be enchanted (no word on what to do if it gets lost) This named gun can get abilities based on a pool of modification points much like an Eidolon’s Evolution points. Its about as cool as it sounds but at such a short book it leaves you feeling like the concept alone could have been a 100 page book.

Now the Prestige Classes:

Theres the Grey Eye, a necromancer Gunslinger. Basically the Gunslinger has to get his eye popped out and replaced by some kind of necromancer eye, capable of storing grit and giving some some necromancy themed abilities and spells. I like it well enough, although BAB and HD aren’t tied.

The Hex gunner is a Witch x Gunslinger prestige class and really does what you’d expect. Shoot hexes. Honestly nothing is going to make me like this. Its written well enough but I’ve seen three archetypes for Gunslinger that shoot Hexes and I think there’s a Witch archetype as well. Witchslinging as a prestige class does not appeal to me.

The Qiang Seng is a Monk x Gunslinger. Like the Witch based PC its an idea I’ve seen a lot but this one has Ki-Grit so I like it a lot more. It gets ‘katas’ which are sort of Gun-fu talents as well as deeds/ki powers that use ki or grit interchangeably. This looks very fun.

After that are three new grit feats which aren’t very exciting save for Cleaving Shot which does what it sounds like it does.

Then there are new gun/weapons which look fun.

Overall there are some bumps in the road. A few abilities from some classes are ambiguous or goofy but nothing came out to me as being pure garbage and a few options are pure gold. I only noticed one actual typo.

I think I’ll give this 4.5 out of 5 stars. niggling problems aside some of the concepts or and mechanics feel like they really NEED to be there so I’ll float it to a low 5 star when partial stars aren’t available.

Another Into the Breach, another slew of archetypes. This one covers the alchemist.

Starting off is The Academian. It gets set trap bombs instead of thrown bombs and also a different kind of mutagen that grants a massive skill bonus, a spontaneous discovery and a spontaneous extract. The last one feels like I’d need to see it played out to a huge extent before I can determine if that’s too good. There aren’t that many magic bullet effects like the wizard’s spell list and it’s beyond useless in combat but some combinations with later level extracts may get wacky.

Then there’s the botanist which gets a new kind of damage for it’s bombs, some plant related bonuses including one against AC against plants, a plant mutagen and plant companion. The companion is the biggest draw getting a lot of spontaneous tricks with the new plant mutagen. The alchemist gets some new spells for his extract list. I’m sorely disappointed that this archetype didn’t go into full-on Swamp Thing mode but I think the ‘subject’ alchemist is valid.

There’s the Humorist that can cast elemental domain spells by drinking a new kind of drink based on the four humors that gives you a specific nerf. Doing the math this looks scary particularly since you can maintain six or more of these things at a time.. It does basically give you a bunch of free spells per mutagen. They’re elemental spells so not worth that much but at 20th level you can easily turn this into 46 extra spells throughout the day maybe more. You can’t really nova them because it severely nerfs you but still I’m not 100% on trusting an optimizer on this.

The Kiln Crafter can make cheap fragile weapons and armor with better crit ranges and DR. These can be modified with different glazes and additives and later make it seep acid. Eventually they can make terra cotta constructs. I’m not a fan of the primary ability being more capable crafting than having actual abilities but your mileage may vary on that one.

The Natural Transmuter makes Extractors and Transmutagens. What are those things? Extractors are spell vacuums that hold an arcane spell that targets them specifically. They can then throw the spells around after that. There’s no difference between extract slots used for this ability so my reaction is mixed. Its an ability I see a lot in third party products and while it’s a flavorful effect I’ve never found it to be useful. Luckily I think the language implies that you can still make extracts so its not going to be dead weight when you’re in a situation where there is no one casting arcane spells at you. Transmutagens suffer from the condition “I don’t know what’s going on”. You make Transmutagen much like Mutagen but you pour it, I guess, on things to turn them into armor, weapons or a structure. You can do this to creatures but they get a will save to negate. Same goes for attended materials. (..ok…) There’s a chart determining what you can turn into what else. This chart includes “substances” like Cold, Fire, Electricity, Sonic, Light, and Darkness, all of which I have a hard time imagining being turned into other things being non-things. For example; You can turn Electricity into Sonic. What as a standard action? How does that work? can I turn power lines into music? How much “Sonic” do I need to make armor? What do I do with the Sonic?

The Pyrotician makes Fireworks instead of bombs. I’m not exactly sure what the difference is other than Bombs being a splash weapon. What they do in terms of damage is noted but not much else about how they work, like how long before they go off when you light them. I presume that they go off on impact. But only that but it talks about listed ranges, so are we using the fireworks from Ultimate Equipment?

The Supplementum enhances alchemical items that already exist and class features. It is less problematic although for what it does the enhancement thing being a ‘maintain one at a time’ feels kind of limiting.

The Venom Bomber is probably the all star of the book. It builds complex poisons that are modified much like eidolon evolutions. It has very few glitches (although I don’t know what poison damage is. This isn’t 5th edition.)

The Viscous Arcanist’s theme can be replicated with discoveries all while being less confusing. But the ooze spell deliveries is a nice touch and its a functioning archetype so it works out okay.

The prestige classes fall into Alchemist/Ranger with emphasis on Favored enemy, and a Summoner/Alchemist which feels like it has less of a point.

The discoveries inside are numerous and some are genius and flavorful while some are problematic and terrible and the rest are kind of everywhere in between. You have some hardcore gems in there and some definite turds.

There is a nice list of Plant companions that will probably prove useful for more than the verdant alchemist.

As a whole I really wanted to like this one. Witch, Cavalier and Gunslinger all felt like they were going in the right direction for this series, particularly Gunslinger and it’s higher concepts without functionality problems, but this one seems like half of it doesn’t really work. It also seems incredibly obvious that a good chunk of the book relies heavily on replacing Bombs, or Mutagen with something with similar language despite differing value of effects. That one isn’t an actual complaint but it felt very cookie cutter in design. There’s quite a few gold nuggets to mine but I can’t say that with certainty that I’ll use any of this simply because I like to be able to hand a player option-based supplement to my players and they can build something that functions without hassle or house rules to fix it or having to worry about dubious balance issues. I’m riding on two stars for this one.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf clocks in at 13 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This review was moved up my review-queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patrons.

So, what is the Brass Drake? Well, the simple response would be that it's an adventurer's shop/tavern crossover. The more accurate sentiment would point out the owner Maurice's unique position - you see, the Brass Drake does not exist in a stable timeline - while visitors do not need to fear falling by the wayside of the time-stream - thus, you can benefit from some rather unique options in the Brass Drake. Similarly, Maurice has his own gold limit, which means that if you're taking careful tabs on the like, this is something to be aware of. As a collector of memorabilia related to time, sample items and their gold value to Maurice is provided.

However, the pdf also introduces two particular subsystems: Number one would be the patronage system. Unless otherwise noted by the shop in question, buying or selling an item nets you 1 point of patronage per visit and the more you have, the better the prices and perks you receive will be: Selling/Buying bargain tables based on percentile values. Additionally, unique benefits can be gained for patrons with a high patronage - like free meals or the option to get a magic item now that you'd find later, capitalizing on the unique nature of the Brass Drake's time-distortion. The pdf also provides a bartering system based on Appraise and Knowledge (local) - these items can be used as currency, but with a limit of one item per transaction. The systems both work relatively well and are not too complicated - which is particularly important for the bartering system. the patronage system imho should have a shop-based minimum-value caveat for patronage point gain, to avoid PCs selling paltry items all the time and then expecting patronage gains - which RAW works. Still, the pdf at least acknowledges that some shops have limits, minimum values.

Now back to the Brass Drake itself - conveniently, we get a short selection of magical goods for sale (though no menus or lists of beverages) and the place also unlocks a unique magic item for its most faithful patrons - a doorknob-like amulet that allows you to create a door to the Brass Drake in any alley or teleport to the original door. The most compelling aspects of this shop, though, lie in the small details - there are some basic shop-tasks that specialized adventurers can fulfill to gain further patronage points and additionally, no less than 5 sample quests provide for interesting hooks - Maurice, for example, asks the PCs to check in with his supplier of ogre moonshine...

Finally, the pdf also features a more detailed encounter, basically either the end of the Brass Drake's storyline or the beginning of a larger quest - in this encounter/adventure, the shop's unique nature draws the attention of dread hounds of Tindalos - defending Maurice from them can also earn patronage, 1 - 5, depending on how hurt Maurice is during teh fight. Still, more precise guidelines here would have been nice, though the encounter, on the plus-side, comes with scaling advice to increase the CR to 12, 17 or decrease it to 7. The pdf also provides the stats of Maurice - capable, yet old and fragile, he is a Knife Master/Scout 10.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are rather good, I noticed no glaring mistakes, though organization could have been smarter - putting the rules for the new systems at the end of the pdf creates some initial confusion and makes the content seem a bit opaque in the beginning. Similarly, the wording of them could be a tad bit more nuanced and precise. Layout adheres to a full-color 1-column standard with a nice selection of fitting stock art. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Taylor Hubler's and Dylan Brooks' Brass Drake is a nifty place to shop and hang out with: The patronage system and its unique perks have potential galore and the Brass Drake's unique concept is captivating and evocative -fluff-wise, this is great, though it perhaps could have used a bit more descriptive text to shine...particularly since the place sports no map. This is perhaps my biggest gripe with this book - while interesting and concept-wise awesome, the lack of description on what the store truly looks like, its layout etc. made it more opaque to me than it should have been. Granted, this may be by design, but at least a general array of features and/or dressing would have catapulted this up in the rating scale. My second gripe with this book is that I really would have liked to see a sample menu, a more detailed list of goods available...or at least goods pertaining more to the topic of time.

If that sounds overly negative, then rest assured, it shouldn't be - the Brass Drake offers an evocative place for a fair price-point. It can be considered an interesting first offering in the series, one that I hope will spawn future installments. My final verdict for it will clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The latest installment of the Into the Breach-series clocks in at 37 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 32 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This review was moved forward in my review-queue as a prioritized review at the behest of my patreons.

But wait - what exactly is this? Well, know those NPCs classes? Well, they actually get some modifications in this little book. "But why would I care?" Simple: Either you're a GM and look for some enhancers and novel tricks for them...or perhaps, you're looking for a change of pace and want to run a low-fantasy campaign, a horror campaign -whatever. There are plentiful reasons to champion the less powerful classes and the gameplay can indeed be exhilarating. However, at the same time, there's a design-aesthetic issue with NPC classes - they frankly are not that versatile, so let's see whether the content herein can render them more intriguing!

We begin our survey with the adept-class, whose first archetype would be the caller. These guys choose a resonant aspect from amid the classic elements, gaining a "+1 circumstance bonus on all saving throws against effects from her chosen element" - which is, alas, very flawed rules-language. You see, I think this is supposed to mean the associated elemental damage types...but I'm not sure. There are water effects that deal bludgeoning damage...do they count? What about boulders falling on the PCs? Does the bonus only apply to spells and effects with the descriptor of the respective elemental damage? See, I feel like a bastard when I do this since the ability looks like "you know what the designer meant." Thing is, you don't, because the language simply isn't precise enough. sigh

Unfortunately, things become even more opaque at 2nd level, when a caller may breathe life into the element as a full-round action, which then behave as animated objects, with levels determining size and construction pool. The problem here is that elements are not constructs - they have different traits and the ability uses both interchangeably - so which save-progression do they have? What is the base frame upon which those crafted elements are made? I have no idea. On a nitpicky side, the ability also sports some it's/its-errors, but that remains cosmetic. At higher levels, proper elemental damage codification with new construction pool tricks in one case, while another retains untyped damage, when that should obviously be the associated elemental damage.

Another ability allows for the hijacking of constructs, elements or animated objects to deal untyped damage (problem, considering the prevalence of DR and similar defenses among constructs) - the ability, alas, is missing the information about its range: Touch? Ranged? No idea. This is particularly galling since concept-wise, e.g. construct-possession at higher levels and granting sentience are pretty neat concepts and similarly, the capstone for a permanent element creation evokes some nice images. Additionally, the construction points rules, collated and provided for your convenience, make for a considerate, nice addition here. I really wanted to like this one and it's pretty close to actually working, but the imperfections in the base abilities of the archetype severely hamper it. It can easily be fixed, all right - but still.

The second archetype would be the Deep Jungle Shaman of the Flesh, who may track even the trackless in jungles and may consume the dead of her own kind to gain temporary casting enhancements, including, at high levels, the option to cast spell-like abilities of creatures consumed. The ability replaces "summon samiliar" in an unnecessary typo. While the wording could be a tad bit more refined, this one does not sport any glaring issues.

Next up would be the Nun, who obviously needs to be female and receives access to a domain as well as channel energy at 2nd level. Nuns also provide Wis bonus when aiding another instead of the fixed bonus and may grant nearby allies immediate action rerolls 1+Wis-mod times per day. High-level nuns are particularly potent healers and at 15th level, may 1/day use un/holy word...with one problem: There is no unholy word - the proper name of the spell is blasphemy. Other than that a nice archetype.

The Vicar receives a modified list of class skills as well as the knowledge domain and a so-called flexible domain from among his deity's portfolio - which is a pretty strong option. Additionally, he receives Wisdom modifier in addition to Charisma to perform (Oratory) and Diplomacy and may duplicate a limited list of bardic performances at his level -2, starting at 3rd level. Additionally, 5th level nets one of a huge list of domain-related abilities, including the perfect feigning of death, the compression ability and similar tricks - which, over all, are exceedingly fun and unique...and they make sense. Nice one!

The Aristocrat-class also receives several archetypes herein, the first of which would be the Coven Sworn, who receives a limited array of bonus feats, wild empathy at 4th level (with Greater Wild Empathy-feat-progression) and even an animal/vermin companion at -3 levels. As a capstone, this one gets a patron - all in all, a solid one! The Noble Wastrel is an archetype that pretty much represents the trope of the Dorian-esque dandy, with negated downsides of drugs, an inscrutable will as well as the means to use honeyed tongue and good looks to end emotion-based effects or instill hostilities - though the latter should probably be classified as an emotion based effect. Still, a damn cool archetype that makes the capstone (which grants immunity to mind-affecting effects while drugged) fit in perfectly. Love this one! Two things are inevitable in life...yes, we all know the immortal words of Big Ben and the tax assessor, with 6+Int skills, knows them better than most. These guys get cavalier order benefits (at 1/2 level), but do not have to adhere t the order's tenets and the order's members dislike the tax assessor - surprise. Gaining a Judge Dee-style bade dazzle and antagonizing adversaries as well as a peacebond hex-duplicate and a second order round up a compelling archetype.

Now, we already have a big book on commoners, but here we get archetypes for the most maligned class by design: The Forester, for example, gains sensible tracking and favored terrain as well as a suit that enhances his camouflage - and makes so much sense. I always hated how regular folks were just lost in the woods, with only super-rangers out there - this is the representation of the regular hunter, the everyday joe living from the woods. Love it! The Hostler specializes in one sort of common animal and becomes a superb trainer for this animal type and even command animals of other targets, including the bucking off of riders and some serious healing prowess - once again, a great little archetype that makes sense indeed and adds a bit of realism to a game world's demographic.

The trope of the adept urchin, the urban survivalist, is similarly wide-spread and very limited sneak attack as well as social skill-bonuses and a sanctuary-duplicating wide-eyed pity-based effect alongside a network of informants make sense and are fun indeed.

The expert class may now elect for the boxman specialization - obviously an expert of all things lock-related and a good base for escort missions or heist-based games, an in-game reason why adventurers would even bother with these guys - nice!!! Master Craftsmen are pretty much defined by their trade secrets, basically talents the class begins with at 1st level, +1 every 3rd level, including the option to make magic items faster as well as the substitution of alchemy for energy-damage-dealing spells when crafting, while the minstrel is basically a toned down bard with limited performances as well as an ability that makes foes target him with nonlethal means, representing well the trope of the minstrel bluffing foes to leave him alive.

The Warrior-class may also choose from new archetypes, the first of which would be the Deep Jungle Flesh Hunter, a poison using warrior with facepaint that enhances AC. Nice jungle-stalker-type/poison specialist. The Farm Soldier is particularly adept at using farm implements and an urban barbarian's rage (at -2 class levels) when nearby allies fall (and later, when he himself is damaged) - here, we btw. also get 100 sample items to be found in the possession of a peasant. Once again, not much to complain about. The pen-ultimate archetype herein would be the Siege Sapper, who codifies e.g. siege weapon barrage shots in rules-language, which is obviously contingent on sufficient siege engines. While this makes the archetype rather circumstantial, I can see e.g. PCs trying to take this guy out in sieges etc. The rules-language is not always perfect here, but it's precise enough, in spite of the relatively complex subject matter. So yes, I like that one. The final archetype would be the Yeoman, who may use bonus feats from Tides of War: Volley Shots (which I do not have) and the archetype receives e.g. melee use of bows and better bow use - the archetype is, as far as I can tell, relatively sound.

The pdf also does sport a new base class, the way trader, who receives d8, 6+Int skills, 3/4 BAB-progression and good Will-Saves. The class gains bonuses to business-related skills and begin play with a free vehicle with which they can ply their trade. Additionally, wanderlust and the laws of supply and demand allow the trader to receive more gold as well as easy access to any black market at higher levels. In the end, the class becomes extremely adept at blending in and excellent selling margins as well as at-will know direction.

The pdf concludes with 3 pages of fitting weapons and items - from reinforced hoes and pitch forks to 4 different light armors, which, while solid, annoyingly lack the "+" in front of the respective Max Dex Bonus entries in the table.

Conclusion:

Formatting is VERY good this time around, at least for the most part. However, the editing on both a formal and a rules-level is pretty flawed, sometimes extending to the information required to correctly determine how an ability is supposed to work. An additional editing pass would have very much been appreciated here. Layout adheres to a nice two-column full-color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The pdf sports beautiful, thematically fitting full-color art.

Frank Gori, Jeffrey Harris, Richard Litzkow, Taylor Hubler - the team here has crafted a book I most definitely will use. The archetypes herein are diverse and varied and cover a significant array of concepts that imho were in dire need of a representation, with quite a few of them making sense and inspiring adventures as well as a more concise demographic for the villages, cities, etc. out there. In fact, I really want to love this book, I really do - the content herein, with the notable exception of some of the adept archetypes, makes sense and works pretty much with no or next to no streamlining required.

The book, per se, is solid...though I wished it did one thing, and that would be to balance the archetypes among themselves. While all generally are somewhere between standard NPC-class impotence and PC classes, there is quite a significant difference between the archetypes of the adept and expert in power-levels, which means the pdf is less useful as potential PC-material for truly low-powered games. In such a context, this does require some tweaking by the GM to work on the same level - granted, this is not their intent per se, but if they had managed this feat, I'd be singing praises for this book and recommend this unanimously and sans "but"s.

I still am, in a way - you see, having played my own share of low powered games with classes and options like this, I can attest that the options herein provide meaningful choices without blowing the potency of the NPC-classes up too much. Beyond the potential of it, this book does achieve what it sets out to do - and that is something not to be underestimated. How many times did you ask yourself how those NPCs survive in a world of orcs and demons? Well, the archetypes herein make this more believable. While still a long shot away from PC competence, it makes sense that the forester can hunt and not die; that the nun can heal, that you need a boxman for the heist of the archmage's tomb...etc.

How to rate this, then? Well, in spite of the glitches, I pretty much love what this brings to the table and while I should probably penalize this more for its glitches, I can't bring myself to do it - for better and worse, this does allow for the telling of several compelling narratives and allows a capable GM to enhance the immersion of the campaign world by providing at least semi-capable NPCs that do not belong to PC-classes. In short: I like this book and though I wish it was more refined, I still adore what it does and sincerely hope there'll be a sequel or a streamlining down the road. My final verdict will clock in at 4 stars. If the concepts even remotely interest you, then get it - while not perfect, this is well worth the asking price.

Endzeitgeist out.