This short (nine pages) supplement is part of a series providing races (“clans”) for Pathfinder based on different animals, and this particular one focuses on cats, effectively providing some variations on the catfolk from the Advanced Race Guide.

The races in the series are modular, so each supplement actually provides several closely related races who share much of their mechanics with some variation. For example, all the cat clan members here get +2 Dex, but you choose your size which affects your ability scores (medium cats get -2 Wis, small cats get -2 Str), and you choose a specific clan which also affects your ability scores (some give +2 Cha, some give +2 Int). Note that some cat clans must choose to be small. In total there are three different combinations of ability scores and size that can be chosen: medium size with +2 Dex, -2 Wis, +2 Cha (which is the same as the standard Pathfinder catfolk); medium with +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis; and small with -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int.

The modularity mentioned above extends beyond just size and ability scores, but most of the other differences in the race itself are benefits related to classes. Almost all of these allow you to take a “Clan Heritage” feat (see below) via a class feature (alchemy discovery, rogue talent, etc.), though the Cheetah Clan gets the added benefit of getting to use Cha for monk class features in place of Wis. All told, there are six different clans: Cat, Cheetah, Leopard, Lion, Lynx Academy, and Tiger. There are other differences between the races, though, than those already mentioned, in the “Clan Heritage” feats mentioned below.

All of the clans get the Catfolk subtype (which means they can benefit from the contents of the Advanced Race Guide as well), low-light vision, a natural armor bonus, a bite attack, and a limited scent ability.

In contrast to some race supplements that use racial paragon classes to provide advanced race features, the Animal Races series takes the approach of providing a series of feats for each clan instead. I say series of feats, but really it is just one feat that may be taken multiple times to provide different racial traits each time it is taken. There are only three series of these feats though, in contrast to the six races. Leopards and cheetahs get their own feats, and all the rest share the remaining one. These feats provide benefits like adding claw natural attacks, providing a climb speed of and bonus, or adding a leap ability which adds bonuses to jumping and allows you to always count as having a running start when jumping. (Some of these, like the climbing feat, provide the same benefits as alternate racial traits from the Advanced Race Guide.) The heritage feats let you take any one of the racial traits appropriate to your clan each time you take the feat, but some can be chosen only after four (or five in the case of cheetahs) basic traits have been chosen first. These advanced traits provide you, for example, with benefits like the grab ability whenever you hit with a claw attack, or the pounce special attack.

In addition to the rules content already covered, this supplement has age and height and weight tables, a deity writeup (for Ishtar, who is chaotic good), fluff about the origins of the cat clans and their relationship to the other animal clans, and also some details about how the cat clans view various creatures from the bestiaries. Finally, the supplement includes some more rules content in “heraldric symbols,” which are effectively starting traits.

I like this supplement. I’m not an expert on balance so I can’t say a whole lot about that, but I think the mechanics of these races fit their flavor well (though I might wish some of the more iconic racial feats were less expensive). Also, I think this adds some nice flavor to catfolk that Paizo left out of the Advanced Race Guide; specifically, I like the -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int small cat clan members. Incidentally, I think that’s one of the things this series addresses — whenever you’re designing a race based on some pre-existing concept (like animals that are actually people, say!) people will have different ideas about how to capture that concept such that it can be difficult for one race to really capture it. These Animal Races supplements try, I think, to give people the room to fit their characters to the concept as they have it in their own mind without getting too crazy. This one seems to strike a pretty good balance.

I should say that while I like the mechanics in this supplement a lot, I found the fluff less interesting. I usually go for that sort of thing, and I’ve like some of the other Animal Races supplements in that department, but this one felt a little flat to me. (Maybe there’s only so much you can say about overgrown, bipedal cats.)

On the whole, though, even though this is one of the earlier supplements in the series, it is one of my favorites of the ones I’ve read so far. If you like catfolk, I think this is definitely a supplement worth checking out, especially at its very reasonable price! And if the idea of animal races interests you, the other volumes in this series are definitely worth checking out as well.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Animal Races-series clock in at 15 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Much like prior installments to this series, we herein receive rules for PCs belonging to one of the tightly and concisely-presented animal clans, with bat therians this time being the focus of attention. Bat clan therians may choose either to be small or medium, but both receive +2 Dex, -2 Str. Bat therians are humanoids with the dhampir subtype, low-light vision, +1 natural armor (upgrades to +2 at 10th level), a bite attack at one dice-step below what would be usual for creatures of the size. members of clan bat are healed by negative energy and damaged by positive energy. If a member of clan bat has nothing in both hands and doesn't wear medium(heavy armor, the creature also receives an unassisted flight-speed of 30 feet with poor maneuverability. This can become an issue with some groups, since unassisted flight is usually limited to a higher level. It should be noted that the fly-rules specify that a creature can only fly when not carrying medium or more encumbrance, so that constitutes another limitation, which, alongside the negative energy affinity, somewhat offsets this powerful boon.

Members of Clan Bat may select one of 3 racial heritages - regular bats receive +2 to Cha and may select the racial heritage feat as a rogue talent. Jiang-Shi receive +2 to Wis and may select the racial heritage feat instead of a monk bonus feat. Finally, Nosferatu receive +2 to Cha and may select the feat instead of an oracle revelation and use the Curse of the Vampire feat as if it were an oracle curse.

Aforementioned racial heritage feat allows you to gain claw attacks, a climb speed, faster flight and a damage-upgrade to the bite. If you have all of these, you may also learn 40 ft. blindsense, inflict +1d6 bleed damage with claws and improved maneuverability. All in all, the racial heritage bonus feat feels too strong this time around - the default design assumption being that one begins with gliding wings and upgrades them towards flight at higher levels. Fly speed, climb speed, blindsense - all not per se too strong, but in the combination and relative ease with which they can be obtained, this one feel a bit over the top. And yes, I am aware that the minimum level required to get these scales up, still, this one feels a tad bit too good for my tastes...

The Curse of the Vampire feat can also grant progressive benefits, though it provides no means of selection - it constitutes essentially a list of progressive immunities, from emotion-based effects to death effects. While this is paid for by not being able to receive morale bonuses, this feat in particular constitutes a mayor design-blunder in my book - the amount of immunities gained is significant and can be gained very fast. Edit: In a previous iteration of this pdf, the feat could be used as an oracle-curse, which was ridiculous. At least this component has been nerfed. Still, too strong - at level 6, these guys can have immunity to fear- and emotion-based effects, morale, the exhausted and the fatigued condition, sleep effects, nonlethal damage, paralysis and the stunned condition. If your game is condition-light, that may not show as much, but in quite a few games I know, this is ridiculously strong.

Now the fluff of this installment is pretty glorious and the deity write-up of Camazotz is neat as well and a total of 6 heraldic crests as replacements for traits can be found, once again for bonus feats at the cost of will-save penalties. One is particularly interesting, granting Imp Ini, but at the same time this one prevents the stacking of trait-bonuses to initiative.

The pdf also introduces the so-called nectar of life, a certain type of honey of a now eradicated plant that doubles as vampire-repellant and as potion of cure light wounds. There are also different kinds of batfolk - escapees from the lands of the vampires, disowned by their clans and purged of the darkness by consumption of aforementioned nectar of life. These are known as batfolk.

Batfolk therians may choose either to be small or medium, but both receive +2 Dex, -2 Str. Bat therians are humanoids with the ratfolk (that should probably be BaTfolk...) subtype, low-light vision, +1 natural armor (upgrades to +2 at 10th level), scent and positive energy affinity, meaning that they can't be raised as undead. If a batfolk has nothing in both hands and doesn't wear medium(heavy armor, the creature also receives an unassisted flight-speed of 30 feet with poor maneuverability. This can become an issue with some groups, since unassisted flight is usually limited to a higher level. It should be noted that the fly-rules specify that a creature can only fly when not carrying medium or more encumbrance, so that constitutes another limitation, which, alongside the negative energy affinity, somewhat offsets this powerful boon. They also may select one of two racial heritages - regular batfolk receive +2 Cha and may take heritage feats instead of paladin mercies, whereas Flying foxes receive +2 to Cha and may select the racial heritage feats instead of rogue talents. The heritage they receive is more conservative - it only allows for a selection of claws, climb-speed and fast flight, with nimble flight as a kind of capstone.

The final pages of this installment are devoted to the portrayal of vampires and the CR +0/+1 lesser vampiric creatures, which once again can be considered a pretty awesome bonus chapter.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, there is not much to complain about here. Layout adheres to a very crisp and concise two-column b/w-standard with cool heraldic crests and stock art mixed. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Eric Morton's bat clan ranks among my favorites in the series, even more so with the added, non-vampiric batfolk, but it is also perhaps the one installment in the series that I consider not particularly well-balanced - from the exceedingly strong vampire-progression via feats to the unassisted flight and senses, the bats, especially the members of the clan, feel like they got too good a deal. They are not broken, mind you -in high powered games, they work pretty well. But lower powered games may consider them problematic - and the same holds true for games where the DM is not prepared to deal with level 1 flight and climb speed. This does not render this pdf bad, but it makes it less refined that its brethren. Oh, and the curse-synergy needs to die a fiery death. My final verdict will hence clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 due to this pdf not deserving a mediocre rating and due to the non-vampiric batfolk providing a slightly less powerful alternative (though one that also sports 1st level unassisted flight...).

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised edition

This installment of the Animal Races-series clock in at 13 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Much like prior installments to this series, we herein receive rules for PCs belonging to one of the tightly and concisely-presented animal clans, with bear therians this time being the focus of attention.

Bear Clan therians are humanoids with the adlet subtype, have a base speed of 30 ft., scent, natural armor +1 (increasing to +2 at 10th level) and begin play with a natural primary bite attack one step in damage below what would be considered normal for a creature of the size, with the option for upgrade..but more on that later. Members of the bear clan may select one of 5 basic attribute arrays.

Regular members of the bear clan receive +2 to Str and Wis, -2 to Cha and may take the clan's heritage feat instead of a rage power. Dancing bears receive +2 to Cha and may take the clan's heritage feat instead of a versatile performance class feature. Grizzly bear clan members receive +2 to Str and Cha, -2 to Dex and may take the clan's heritage feat instead of a fighter bonus feat, Honey Bear-members receive +2 to Str and Int, - 2 to Cha and may take the clan's heritage feat instead of a rogue talent. Finally, there is the Panda Clan who receives +2 to Str and Wis, -2 to Dex and receives its own racial clan heritage feat as well as the lethargic quality - this translates bonuses to movement-rate enhancement to a bonus to CMD. Which per se is a cool idea that has now been stripped of a prior ambiguity. Kudos!

Now I already mentioned the clan heritage feats - the base bear clan heritage feat allows for the gaining of claws, faster movement, loner survival sans food or water (and overheating, allowing you to go some days sans food and water), better bites, claw attacks and additional damage while grappling. Upon taking the feat 6 times, you may elect to become large instead - and yes, after careful consideration and some math, the entry barrier, prescribed by both feat-taking and level-restrictions, feels right to prevent low-level reach abuse. The panda does not gain this capstone.

A cool, thematically-fitting feat makes members of the bear clan less susceptible to swarm attacks (with DR and immunity to distraction) and another feat for limited daily shapechanging into human form. A new feat allows bears to gain stonecunning and polar bears may select the cold resistance racial trait.

In the cool tradition of the series, we receive both information on the genealogy of the clan as well as the clan's folklore, providing information on some of the fantasy monsters and how they pertain to the myths of the clan. A racial deity can also be found herein and, like in other installments of the race, racial traits may be exchanged for a heraldic symbol, with each granting a bonus feat, but also imposing a penalty on either a save or initiative.

Now the pdf's revised edition has received probably the coolest update in any of the revised animal races so far - we receive two massive games enjoyed by the Clan of the Bear - which can be used as awesome encounters, competitions or skill-challenge-style challenges - Tooth and Claw Fishing and Twig Racing. I absolutely ADORE these - they do an incrdible job at further fleshing out the race and provide inspiring dieas for DMs - absolutely awesome! The pdf now also sports a new bloodrager bloodline, the boreal bloodline, which allows you to add ice damage to your attacks, nets you the racial clan heritage bonus feat and is generally a nice, fun, ice-themed bloodline.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good, there is not much to complain about here. Layout adheres to a very crisp and concise two-column b/w-standard with cool heraldic crests and stock art mixed. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Eric Morton's take on clan bear is absolutely awesome - and better yet, whereas before, the supplement was neat, but not perfect, he has updated the supplement to sport absolutely stunning, awesome new content while also fixing all issues I pointed out in my first review - this is absolutely great and deserves to be acknowledged. My final verdict for the revised version clocks in at 5 stars + seal of approval - now can we have more of these damn cool racial games/challenges?.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Animal Races-series clock in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Much like prior installments to this series, we herein receive rules for PCs belonging to one of the tightly and concisely-presented animal clans, with deer therians this time being the focus of attention. The first choice this highly modular therian race offers would be the size - medium or small. Medium deer receive +2 Wis, -2 Int. Small deer receive +2 Wis, -2 Str. medium deer have a base speed of 30 ft, small ones only 20 ft. They are humanoids with the faun subtype - which is a bit odd, since the other installments of the series used the adlet subtype - why introduce another subtype? The members of clan deer also receive low-light vision, natural armor +1 (scales up to +2 at 10th level), scent, a gore attack at one step below what would be standard for the creature-size and selection from 4 different clans.

Deer Clan members receive +2 to Dex and may choose to select the deer clan racial heritage feat as a ranger combat style feat. Members of the Elk clan receive +2 Str and may choose to select the deer clan racial heritage feat as a ranger combat style feat. Musk Deer Clan members receive +2 to Dex and may choose to select the racial heritage feat instead of a rage power. Reindeer receive +2 to Con and may choose to select the racial heritage feat as a ranger combat style feat. The clan heritage feat may be chosen 5 times, with increased gore damage output and movement, hooves and finally, after the 5th time, the ability Hard to Catch of the liberation domain, with additional uses equal to the character level. As a pretty cool idea, a feat allows members of clan deer to use the antlers as an unholy symbol and be treated as cold iron, evil and lawful for the purposes of DR - ouch and quite frankly, slightly overpowered, but also pretty iconic!

Much like the other clan-pdfs, we also receive excessive information on the genealogy of the clan, the folklore and receive a small write-up of the racial deity Cerunnos and once again, traits may be exchanged for bonus feats at the cost of penalties to saves or initiative.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, there is not much to complain about here. Layout adheres to a very crisp and concise two-column b/w-standard with cool heraldic crests and stock art mixed. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Eric Morton's Clan of the Deer is one of the coolest, most iconic animal race-pdfs so far - from the smart ideas to the excellent execution, the deer herein are stunning indeed - and somewhat frightening. This review is admittedly rather scarce on the fluff, but rest assured that this is intentional - this pdf manages to make deer-humanoids inspiring and I simply don't want to spoil the means by which it does that. A truly unique rendition of the concept, even my own skepticism regarding the new subtype does not mar this pdf, being cosmetic at best. My final verdict will hence clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Animal Races-series clock in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Much like prior installments to this series, we herein receive rules for PCs belonging to one of the tightly and concisely-presented animal clans, with raccoons, badgers, skunks and wolverines, unique though they may be, being grouped into this installment.

Racial trait-wise, members of this clan can opt for medium size (and +2 Wis, -2 Cha) or small size (+2 Wis, -2 Str) and 30/20 ft. movement rate, conversely. They also receive low-light vision, scent, +1 natural armor that scales up to +2 at 10th level. The race also receives a primary natural weapon for 1d4/1d3, respectively. On a slightly nitpicky side, usually, bit attacks for medium creatures are 1d6, those of small creatures 1d4, which would denote a minor glitch, were it not for the option to upgrade the attack to the proper damage dice. On the plus-side, the pdf does properly denote bites as primary natural weapons. Now depending on the precise clan you choose, you also receive additional benefits: +2 Con for badgers and wolverines, +2 Dex for raccoons and skunks. badgers may choose the badger clan heritage bonus feat as a fighter combat feat, while raccoons may select their clan heritage as a ranger combat style feat and wolverines may choose the badger clan heritage in lieu of a rage power. Skunks may select their clan heritage feat as an alchemist discovery or the new skunk bomb feat - on the nitpicky side, there is an "or" missing between the two feats.

If you're not yet familiar with the clan heritage feats - each feat can be taken multiple times and upon choosing the feat, you may select special racial traits from a list specific to each feat. If you have received all available choices or fulfilled a condition specific to the feat, the selection diversifies, allowing for more powerful options, but also slightly less versatility. Still, seeing how burrow speeds, climb speeds, claw attacks (these with the right damage dice), ferocity are part of this deal, the design decision definitely makes sense. Both the badger and raccoon clan heritages allow the characters to gain rage, by the way - or increase the rage rounds by a massive +6. If this looks powerful, well, taking the feat 3 times before somewhat offsets that. That being said, I do consider making rage as the defining ability of the barbarian class freely available potentially problematic - while not broken on its own, rage does double as a prerequisite for some combos, so in that regard, one should be careful.

The skunk bomb-feat is cool in concept, but not particularly impressive - bombs modified by the feat deal no damage, instead causing nausea/sickened with a scaling DC...but only 2/day. No scaling. I really think this feat should be usable more often, especially since the nausea on a failed save does not last that long. Why not adhere to how alchemist bombs are handled?

Much like the previous installments in the series, we receive extensive and well-written introductions to the raccoon clan's folklore, including the interaction with several mythical beings and adversaries from the bestiaries as well as the feud with the dread kytons. Azeban, the great fool and patron deity of the clan is featured alongside neat notes on genealogy and heraldry, which is tied in a genius way with the trait-system - and this time around, instead of one trait, choosing a heraldic symbol nets you a bonus feat - but also a permanent penalty to one save. A total of 6 such heraldic crests are provided.

The pdf also provides a mini-gunslinger archetype that nets a modified class skill list as well as the option to choose select rogue talents instead of certain deeds. Solid, but nothing to write home about.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, there is not much to complain about here. Layout adheres to a very crisp and concise two-column b/w-standard with cool heraldic crests and stock art mixed. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

I've made no secret about my love for the first couple of installments of this series and this has not changed - I still consider these pdfs to be smart, well-written and concise. That being said, this time around, I'm slightly less swept away than before. This has various reasons: First, gaining rage without multiclassing can be potentially games - it's hard and thus will not influence my final verdict, but it still remains something that leaves me with a slight ache in my stomach. The Skunk Bomb-feat, while high in concept, is weaker than it imho should be - the bombs have a powerful debuff, but they use the alchemist's bomb-resource and deal no damage. Scaling uses or a tie-in to the alchemist's bomb class feature would have been appropriate. Finally, the archetype...is solid, but just that. Not rest assured, this is me complaining at a pretty high level - this still is a good pdf...but one that feels slightly rough around the edges. I also wished wolverines had received a crest...or their own clan heritage feat, but that may just be me.

I will hence settle for a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded down by a tiny margin to 4.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Animal Races-series clocks in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

We kick off this pdf with a superbly-written piece of in-character prose, provided by a feline therian, extolling the virtues and peculiarities of cats and their experience - for example the custom to measure time in 12-hour-cycles. The level of detail provided for the feline therians is up to all expectations - age, height and weight-table, relationships, adventuring - all covered.

Rules-wise, we receive two different attribute arrays - medium catfolk receive +2 Dex, -2 Wis, while small catfolk receive +2 Dex, -2 Str. Small catfolk receive a base speed of 20 ft., medium catfolk the normal 30 ft. Members of the clan of the cat also receive low-light vision, scent, natural armor +1 (increase to +2 at 10th level), a primary natural bite attack of 1d4/1d3 (M/S) and have these base traits modified by the chosen clan:

Cats receive +2 to Int and may choose Cat Clan Heritage as a rogue talent, cheetahs receive +2 Cha and may use Cha as governing attribute for monk class features and receive the Cat Clan Sprinter-feat as a monk bonus feat. Leopards also receive +2 to Cha, which somewhat conflicts with the fluff, which asserts their toughness and athleticism - was Con intended here? Anyway, they may choose Cat Clan Lurker as a rogue talent. Lion Clan members also receive +2 Cha and may select Cat Clan Heritage as a rage power. Lynx Academy members who left their clan receive +2 to Int and may opt for Cat Clan Heritage as an alchemist discovery. Tiger clan members receive +2 Int and can select Cat Clan Heritage as a witch's hex.

Now the modularity of the race goes beyond that - the three aforementioned feats (Cat Clan Heritage, Cat Clan Lurker and Cat Clan Sprinter) can be taken multiple times and allow for the progressive accumulation of additional racial traits, which include claws, climb speeds, faster movement etc. - the interesting component here would be the fact that e.g. adding the grab quality to bites, increasing bite damage etc. - the available options scale within the feats: Upon taking a feat a certain amount of times, your selection is broadened to include advanced tricks and options Pounce, rake etc. - all possible, but only at the investment of a significant amount of resources -as they should be. I tried hard to break these three feats and balance-wise, they withstood my endeavors -kudos!

Now, as with the Clan of the Dog, proper heraldry is provided for the clan, and we receive a deity-write-up, this time Ishtar, and the folkloristic take on somewhat feline monsters - from the borrowed pugwampis to shiras and silvanshees, we receive a lot of rather damn cool pieces of information that help ground and root the Clan of the Cat within the framework of a campaign. Now, if you haven't read my review of Clan of the Dog, you should be aware that aforementioned heraldic symbols also double as traits to choose from. Relationships among sub-species and with other clans are also covered.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly, easy to read and elegant two-column b/w-standard well complemented by the fitting b/w-artworks. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks for your convenience.

Eric Morton's Animal Races-series ranks among the most impressive discoveries that has landed on my virtual desk in quite a while, at least as far as race-pdfs are concerned - so far, I have read two and both provided superb content, extremely modular, balanced races - and much like the pdf on dogs, the feline therians just brim with imagination, style and wonder. Studded to an almost unprecedented brim with grand ideas, this pdf offers a varied and distinct take on catfolk - to the point where, for the very first time, I consider catfolk more than just elves with fur and will allow them in my game. Not only thanks to the rock-solid rules, but mainly due to this pdf generating a distinct, viable identity for these feline fellows. If my gushing wasn't indication enough - this pdf is a true steal and well worth the low asking price - final verdict: 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The first installment in Eric Morton's Animal Races-series clocks in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let's take a look!

The Clan of the Dog essentially encapsulates an array of therian humanoids of the adlet subtype that exhibit canine traits - race-trait wise, they receive either +2 Wis, -2 Int or +2 Wis, -2 Str - depending on whether size small or size medium is chosen, for both variants exist. Base speed clocks in at 0 feet for medium, 20 feet fr small member of the Clan of the Dog and these fellows also receive low light vision, scent, +1 natural armor (which later scales up by +1), a primary bite attack at 1d4 (or 1d3 for small ones) and a racial heritage:

A total of such heritages are provided, each netting either +2 to Dex or Con and allowing you to select Dog Clan Trickster or Dog Clan Heritage as a fighter feat, rogue talent etc., depending on the clan you've chosen. As a minor complaint here - the benefits of coyote, tanuki and fox are identical, which feels like a lost chance to add further diversity. Interesting would be the option for members of the wolf-clan to become a wis-based witch.

Now the interesting thing here would be the decision to utilize the aforementioned two feats, which can be gained via class features, as a catch-all gateway for a plethora of abilities to be chosen upon selecting the feat - faster movement, better bite and yes, even pounce and the iconic tripping bite. Oddly, fast movement is featured twice in the list. EDIT: I botched here - while the list of traits does include a couple of abilities like pounce or tripping bites, the feats themselves have a caveat that poses a level-limit for the traits themselves. I honestly have no idea how that could slip past me. I apologize.

Generally, though, I have to say that I am positively surprised by one of the most modular race-builds I've seen in quite a while. More than that surprised me the scope of this little pdf. I've read quite a few anthro-races so far and none really captured me. They mostly felt like race xyz with vaguely canine abilities slapped on. I never got the appeal of the concept, so I shrugged and moved on. What this book hints at and what sets it apart would be the cear of intelligent detail and proper research obviously put into it. What do I mean by that? well, beginning with proper age, height and weight tables, we move on to the conflict between law and chaos as basis for the clan's theology and central moral conundrum and go on to a short deity write-up of a moon-deity, extensive information on folklore of the clan on related monsters and humanoids like agathions and kitsune and delve further into heraldry (!!!) and its symbols, which also double as traits. This latter combination is a sheer stroke of genius. Regalia and resources, up to customs like usually assuming a higher status for those that walk before others - this pdf manages to cram more awesome fluff into its scant few pages than many books of thrice the size- to the point where I am honestly stoked to read more installments of the series.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column b/w-standard, is printer-friendly, elegant and nice. The b/w-artworks throughout the book are thematically fitting and the pdf comes excessively bookmarked with nested bookmarks.

"Urgh. Another anthro-race-pdf. How great is that. sigh" - that was in a nutshell my initial reaction. Boy was I WRONG. In spite of its brevity, this book manages to be better balanced and narrated, more captivating - simply a more intelligent book than many that sported much more pages. The implication that all Clan-pdfs will have links via genealogy etc. just adds further oomph to perhaps the very first truly compelling take on anthropomorphized animal-races I've seen. Full of detail and joyfully entwined fluff and crunch, this is actually not only a good supplement, it's fun to read as well. This is serious business in all the right ways - smart, intelligent, full of flavor and mechanically highly modular to boot. EDIT: My one gripe with this one was me botching big time - hence, the final verdict is upgraded to 5 stars + seal of approval!

Endzeitgeist out.