An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Advantageous Abilities-series clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look at these abilities!

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

All right, so in the beginning, we get the by now traditional explanation on how to use the abilities contained within this pdf, with detailed explanations of how to use, the save DCs if applicable, etc.

The pdf, unless I have miscounted, contains a total of 20 different abilities, all of which fall within the category of passive abilities, i.e. they do not require an active use of an action, bonus action or reaction - they're always on, if you will.

From a structure point of view, the pdf mostly covers new ground, though I have e.g. seen peg-legs before in Dire Rugrat Publishing's offerings. This time around, the advantageous abilities are actually drawbacks and thus range from CR +0 to CR -3, allowing an enterprising GM to use them to run a superior villain for a group of PCs. A notion, which, personally, I'm a big fan of, since it further emphasizes 5e's rock-paper-scissors principles; plus, as far as I'm concerned, I'm always in favor of rewarding smart players that do their homework.

Now some of these drawbacks obviously have a humorous edge if you play them accordingly, but that does not mean that this is a joke-product; quite the contrary is the case, for the disadvantages herein can often be played either way; a balance disorder (at CR -1) can make you prone to falling bouts, sure, but this can be used in a serious context...or for massive amounts of slapstick. Beer Budget (at CR -2) means that the creature in question really has a sucky armor and weaponry - and apart from the name, it can be used as an easy tool in serious contexts.

Want a creature (or even PC!) with just one eye, perhaps for a Solidus Snake build? The feature's here. Having a selective blind spot, as previously demonstrated in the "Delectable Dragonfly" can make for some really cool and fun narrative tricks. Having particularly brittle bones increases the damage incurred by bludgeoning attacks and works pretty smoothly in more than one context. Traumatic fear of a given color.

There also would be a representation of utterly being cursed by luck - super-disadvantage, if you will: Whenever you suffer disadvantage , you roll thrice and take the worst result! OUCH! Being grossly flatulent or having the chance of dropping items on fumbles can be assigned to the funnier drawbacks, while a strongly pronounced irrational fear can be found as well; here, it would pertain to blood, though it can easily be tweaked to apply to a variety of different triggers without any issues. Being particularly prone to sleep is cool, bit I particularly like the representation for being sucky caster (magic school dropout- no higher spell slot increases and auto-concentration failures!); you see, it kinda makes sense to me that charlatans and failures like this would exist in a world as steeped in magic as the defaults we assume for our game. So yeah, this alone can not only make PCs feel special, it can actually add a lot f flair to the game. This one may be worth downloading this on its own! (As an aside - I concur with the designer's note that comments on why the save DC here is static - nice look behind the curtain!)

From horrible indecisiveness to being particularly squirrely, the options herein cover quite some ground and yes, they include a propensity fo villainous monologues, which render the villain really distracted while he is elaborating his grand plan. Funny, yes...but also very usable in regular games for sufficiently narcissistic foes.

If all of these CR modifications have you a bit skeptical, rest assured that the massive tables of proficiency bonus by CR and XP by CR help you to immediately adjust the target creature to its new version. Kudos for this very GM-friendly decision!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good: Apart from one instance, where a skill-reference was not properly capitalized, I noticed no grievous glitches. Layout adheres to Dire Rugrat Publishing's two-column b/w-standard, is printer-friendly and comes with a rather funny piece of original b/w-artwork depicting a comically villainous face. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Ken & Kelly Pawlik deliver big time in this humble, little pdf. The material we receive within these pages can truly enrich the game and adds some seriously nice tools to the arsenal of 5e-Gms out there. While a few of the disadvantages herein have been featured in Dire Rugrat's oeuvre before, he majority of them are actually new and extremely usable, not just in slightly humorous contexts. In fact, there are some seriously nice gems herein...oh, and the pdf is available for PWYW!! So you can basically check it out and then leave an appropriate tip...and yes, you should do both. This little pdf is well-crafted, enhances the game and is definitely worth your support. Adding its PWYW-nature to the fray, this gets a full-blown recommendation at 5 stars + seal of approval .

Endzeitgeist out.

This is meant as a joke product, so I'll be brief.

This is both hilarious and useful. Why not give these weaknesses to strong enemies and make them manageable at lower levels? Seriously, that's value!

Also, I like that bit of art in it.

Also, I keep seeing that baby wandering all over the place. Get some clothes on it, and keep it out of my yard or I'm calling... I don't know, animal control?

5 stars!

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this product.

I have to say that this book is amazing. Almost as if they had taken my advice, the writers at Dire Rugrat outdid themselves and made a book of fascinating NPCs that absolutely steal the spotlight.

18 NPCs are offered here. Some are mean, some are not, some can be your friends, and some you would be crazy not to kill, apprehend, or otherwise dispatch. This product does a marvelous job of getting you to want to use these characters in your games. Though each NPC includes notes for ways you could include them in your game, most of them have backstories that make integration easy. They are all written so well that you will WANT to use them.

The character on the cover, for instance, is a halfling by the name of Elba Hasselknot. She is a study in a subversion of the usual halfling stereotypes, but is done in a way that feels organic and natural, as well as interesting. Just as there are humans in our world doing things that you wouldn't expect, so too has Elba's backstory been crafted to explain why she goes around intimidating people for money. And the way it is written, you would believe that Elba is capable and apt at her job.

All in all, this product is a dream for game masters, and could even be the seed for a whole campaign by itself. Imagining a city where all of these NPCs live in tandem, interacting with your players and each other, the mind boggles at the stories that could be told in the mix of passions and personalities. Even so, they are all well enough divorced from any setting or even each other that you can certainly use them apart from one another, and in any setting you might like. They all are robust and could fit in nearly any campaign.

With that, I give this book 5 out of 5, but only because I can't give it any higher. It also gets the Royal Seal.

Disclaimer: I got a review copy of this product.

Advantageous Abilities: Savage Abilities [5e] is an excellent product that does one thing and does it well. It presents a group of alternate NPC and monster abilities that can make the enemies in your game fearsome, dangerous, and even interesting to fight.

The presentation is wonderful, with the content consisting of about 3 pages, which is great for the price! The first page explains the methodology for using these abilities, including how to calculate the CR adjustments for potent abilities. I am especially happy that they made note that even potent abilities are not substitutes for hp and ac adjustments; you should try to have your monster's hp and ac increase to match their CR AS WELL as give them neat abilities.

From there we go straight into the abilities themselves. Many of them offer neat permutations to combat, such as being able to prevent players from removing negative status effects, or gaining temporary hit points from bite attacks (which is a brilliant way to use that ability rather than to muck about with healing hit points). Some might need minor tweaking (One called "Deep Wound" could be very unfair if placed on a creature with lots of hit dice) but most abilities are fine where they are. Some, like Vorpal Swipe, are brilliantly crafted to be lethal, but also have an option for a DM that might not want to outright kill players with a lucky roll.

Overall, the abilities are great, though may require a close read to understand. This is not a judgement on the abilities, as some of their effects are interesitng and unique, and require careful writing (and reading).

What struck me the most about these abilities is that they are very thematic heavy. They aren't just bonuses to give to monsters and NPCs, but they seem to alter the mood and behavior of the creatures that they are attached to. A creature with the "Heartfeaster" ability isn't just a monster, it is a heart eating monster, and that is how the players will remember the encounter.

This product is, in my opinion, a slam dunk. It provides some clever and very effective abilities that could add a lot of excitement to a game if used correctly. For $1 this is a bargain. What can you buy for a dollar now a days?

5 stars!

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf of NPC-abilities clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This pdf was move up in my review-queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreons.

So, this pdf begins with a handy and easy to comprehend "How to Use" - basically, these abilities may increase the CR of the respective adversary to which they are added and creatures with CRs of less than 1/2 similarly halve their impact on the respective critter's modification. If in doubt, a save is based on DC = 8 + proficiency bonus + relevant Ability modifier. The abilities themselves are categorized in 3 groups - passive abilities, active abilities and reactions. Easy, right?

Well, let's look at the passive abilities, shall we? These range from CR +0 to CR +2 and a total of 10 are included. At CR 0, we have, for example, the temper tantrum, which imposes disadvantage on all Charisma checks made to reason with the creature while it's under the effects of rage. Gaining temporary hit points equal to the damage dealt with bites would be a CR +1 example. There is also an option to crit in particularly bloody manner; on a failed Con-save, allies of the victim nearby must save or be poisoned and take minor psychic damage. The combo of psychic + poisoned is slightly odd to me, but honestly, I'm nitpicking here. The CR +2 modification allows for vorpal slashes - and actually has two different mechanics: One old-school and unforgiving, one that is kinder on the players. Kudos for featuring both!

A total of 8 active abilities are included; these range in CR modification from CR +1/2 to CR +2, with some having fitting refresh conditions - e.g. the temporary hit points granting and disadvantage imposing battle cry. Minor complaint here: The battle cry should have a proper range. An ability to rip out and eat the heart of recently deceased foes is similarly nice and is prevented from being cheesed by the opponents (so why didn't he carry a bag of kittens around?) by actually having a nice caveat to prevent such a logic book. Big kudos! Somewhat weird due to its nomenclature: The legbreaker-ability allows the creature using it to force a saving throw when hitting foes with a bludgeoning weapon, reducing movement to 0 on a failed save...but this handicap can be overcome on subsequent rounds...which does not sound like breaking to me. Similarly, I think that having flying or swimming speeds should probably still allow for movement. Yes, I am nitpicking here, though these are a bit more serious. Bonus damage in exchange for suffering attacks with advantage on subsequent rounds can be an interesting boss-fight engine tweak.

The pdf also features two reactions at CR +1/2 and CR +1, with a frightened-inducing reactive stare and the option to add proficiency bonus to a non-proficient save if below 1/2 maximum hit points.

Big plus: The pdf is considerate and reproduces the Proficiency bonus by CR and XP by Cr tables on its last page. Nice one.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level, good, bordering on very good on a rules-language level. Layout adheres to a two-column standard and is pretty printer-friendly, with a nice stock image in full color thrown in for good measure. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Kelly & Ken Pawlik's latest collection of advantageous abilities is a welcome, inexpensive little customization toolkit for GMs looking to add some unique tricks to their adversaries. The abilities generally are solid and can make for some nasty surprises. What more can you ask of such a little pdf? Well, there are a few hiccups in the intricate details here, but none are truly glaring. Hence, I feel completely justified in rounding up from my final verdict of 4.5 stars. For the more than fair price, this is definitely worth getting.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This collection of NPCs clocks in at 44 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC (including challenge ratings), 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 38 pages of content, so let's take a look!

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

The pdf covers a total of 18 characters, ready to be inserted into your game, which range from CR 1/2 to CR 18. Fans of the Tangible Taverns/Tavern Tales product-lines will notice some overlap regarding the NPCs, as for example Pie-Eating Pete or Tuffy Brokehaft make a reappearance herein - which can be considered to be a slight detriment for some - personally, I would have preferred an all-new cast, but considering that the vast majority of NPCs is new, I can live with that.

Speaking of which - in case you are not familiar with Dire Rugrat's 5e-character design philosophy: Instead of making just numbers and replicating pre-existing abilities, one of the charming peculiarities in their books would be that characters do actually receive special, unique abilities. Beyond these, the characters each come not only with a statblock, but also with their own artwork - these either are hand-drawn or stock. Most, but not all characters herein also feature a word of advice in a small box on how to best use them.

Now, what type of characters can we find herein? Well, for one, e.g. Pie-eating Pete or Jaiblik Nibork would represent two characters best describes as, bingo, bullies - Pete's signature ability, for example, lets him consume insane amounts of food, while Mr. Nibork is known for his incessant cursing and rambling, which can be pretty distracting for assailants.

These guys and a particularly cantankerous lady would be more on the semi-social side of things, but they are not the only characters herein - if you're looking for an instant-villain, you'll find the like herein. Take Lockjaw, the half-orc cannibal who can initiate grapples with his bite and who receives temporary hit points for biting foes. More ambiguous in use would be Butcher Bill, the dwarven headhunter, whose prickly spiked armor and expertise at shoving foes deserves mention.

Need a slaver? Hesssk Ta'Vaoren and his two worgs deliver just that -and there is more to the trio than meets the eye, for Hesssk not only is a master of the whip, he maintains also quasi-telepathic contact with them, making surprising them pretty hard. There would be a half-orc, wondering of what may have been and his fellow she-devil with a sword. There also is an enchantress-information broker with a mega-powerful way of maintaining control over dominated foes. There is also a corrupt guard captain (ironically named "shill") and a half-elven, humans hating eco-terrorist ready to shed blood.

There would be a halfling enforcer with a fear-inducing reaction stare, who may not only break legs - her cold fury is something to witness. That being said, the ability diverges a bit from how 5e usually handles the like, providing a 3/day hard cap, instead of tying it to long rests, analogue to the barbarian's rage feature. The powerful drow evoker Vreix Azztelle may pinpoint AoE spells to instead affect single targets and is pretty cool - however, if you're very picky about this kind of thing, the character is missing the drow magic feature the race usually has. Aforementioned half-orc cad also does not have the usual relentless endurance feature. Now, it is pretty evident that such features were exchanged for others that fit the characters better, but depending on your stance on NPCs and racial features, it still is worth mentioning. In dubio pro reo - I will not hold that against the pdf.

However, where things become ever so slightly annoying from a reviewer's perspective would be with the per se pretty cool Kel, the Blessed - a tiefling underboss with several nice, luck-themed abilities, whose hellish rebuke is noted as innate spellcasting, which does not include the note at what spell-level the spell is cast - a mostly cosmetic hiccup, but a blemish in one of the coolest characters herein. Seriously a nice character, though -and yes, I am nitpicking hard here.

Speaking of cool characters: Urden Shalespear, the dwarven herald of entropy, pretty much looks like the NPC-version of a class/archetype I have recently written and gets some cool tricks: Beyond an aura that brings desiccation and destruction, he is reborn in a bleak phoenix-like burst when slain---but pays a hafty price for this power. Oh, and he can tear open a devastating gate into nothingness, duplicating a new 9th-level spell featured herein. Slight complaint: The spell does not note for which classes it is appropriate. A suggestion would have been nice to see.

The final character herein, Lady Davia Belcouer, would be a powerful champion of the hells: With a sword of wounding, a powerful magical armor and the ability to behead foes with discernible heads, she also has no less than 3 legendary actions to negate crits or use Charisma-saves instead of others, making her a viable campaign-endgame adversary.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good - I noticed no significant hiccups in the rules-language and the pdf is similarly well put together in the formal department. Layout adheres to a pretty printer-friendly two-column b/w-standard and the pdf sports a solid piece of full-color artwork for each NPC - some are stock, but most are actual pieces drawn by the authors. The older pieces here do show that they have refined their crafted compared to the newer ones. Still, nice to see. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Kelly and Ken Pawlik's collection of 5e adversaries is a pdf worth getting, let's get that right out of the way. The price-point is pretty fair and the characters feel like actual characters. The lengths to which I needed to go to nitpick some aspects here should tell you something about this pdf, namely that it is a neat, well-made collection. The only truly relevant gripe I can field against this economically-priced, inexpensive collection would be the inclusion of previously-featured characters. Even if you take these away, the bang to buck ratio is still pretty neat, though - which is why my final verdict will clock in at 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This mini-adventure, intended for use in conjunction with the Delectable Dragonfly-installment of the Tangible Taverns-series, clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

...

..

.

All right, only GMs around? GREAT!

Edwin Scrumple has turned his life around - gone are his days of gambling and overindulgence in alcohol...but this does not change the fact that he has lost his mother's ring while gambling. Said ring now graces the ring of the draconian wife of his erstwhile drinking buddy, one Eva Lurancree, who not only constantly complains, but also has an uncanny ability to hit others with her barbed, snide comments where it hurts most. In short: She is a wholly unpleasant woman.

Unfortunately for the PCs, she also does not entertain much, is pretty keen-eyed and rarely leaves her mansion - which means that their best chance to actually get the ring would be infiltrating the delectable dragonfly, which Mme Lurancree visits twice a week - once for a massage and once per pedicure. Entering the place, though, is not that simple: Prim, the place's mistress, is keen-eyed and hard to fool and she runs a tight ship - oh, and since her build is radically different from PFRPG, even her racial references have been retooled...and her lair actions similarly have been reproduced. for your convenience. Unfortunately, the inspiration-wording glitch I noticed in the Tangible Tavern-pdf has also been reproduced in her statblock.

Similarly, Eva Lurancree's build can sap the will of those it is directed against - once again noting points of inspiration, when it probably should be dice.

That being said, the free-form infiltration does allow for various avenues for success. Both Eva and Prim come with stats, though it should be noted that this very much requires the Dragonfly-pdf to pull off: Not only for the dressing, but also for some avenues like impersonating other staff-members. The benefits of actually going the whole way with the charade and coming up with a good plan is more pronounced in 5e, which renders the task slightly less difficult.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches apart from the inspiration wording guffaws. Layout adheres to the no-frills printer-friendly b/w-standard of the series and the pdf comes sans bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The map of the place is provided for your convenience.

Kelly Pawlik's tea house caper is an enjoyable little heist scenario for character levels 2nd - 3rd, though it can be used for higher or lower levels by modifying the alertness of the characters featured herein. It is an unpretentious, fun little module, though one that suffers slightly from wording hiccups in the unique abilities of the characters. As a PWYW-companion piece to the delectable dragonfly, this most certainly is worth leaving a tip for. While it is a bit free-form for my tastes and could use a bit more guidance for novice GMs, I ultimately am stretching here. In the end, this is well worth getting. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars - and I'll round up due to this being PWYW and my policy of in dubio pro reo.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This mini-adventure, intended for use in conjunction with the Delectable Dragonfly-installment of the Tangible Taverns-series, clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

...

..

.

All right, only GMs around? GREAT!

Edwin Scrumple has turned his life around - gone are his days of gambling and overindulgence in alcohol...but this does not change the fact that he has lost his mother's ring while gambling. Said ring now graces the ring of the draconian wife of his erstwhile drinking buddy, one Eva Lurancree, who not only constantly complains, but also has an uncanny ability to hit others with her barbed, snide comments where it hurts most. In short: She is a wholly unpleasant woman.

Unfortunately for the PCs, she also does not entertain much, is pretty keen-eyed and rarely leaves her mansion - which means that their best chance to actually get the ring would be infiltrating the delectable dragonfly, which Mme Lurancree visits twice a week - once for a massage and once per pedicure. Entering the place, though, is not that simple: Prim, the place's mistress, is keen-eyed and hard to fool and she runs a tight ship.

That being said, the free-form infiltration does allow for various avenues for success. Both Eva and Prim come with stats, though it should be noted that this very much requires the Dragonfly-pdf to pull off: Not only for the dressing, but also for some avenues like impersonating other staff-members.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to the no-frills printer-friendly b/w-standard of the series and the pdf comes sans bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The map of the place is provided for your convenience.

Kelly Pawlik's tea house caper is an enjoyable little heist scenario for characters level 3 - 4, though it can be used for higher or lower levels by modifying the alertness of the characters featured herein. It is an unpretentious, fun little module. As a PWYW-companion piece to the delectable dragonfly, this most certainly is worth leaving a tip for. While it is a bit free-form for my tastes and could use a bit more guidance for novice GMs, I ultimately am stretching here. In the end, this is well worth getting. My final verdict, due to quality, concept and PWYW-status, will clock in at 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Originally posted on the Paizo store.

I've received this book for free as part of Taig's Third Partymas, which is over now. Thanks to both taig and Dire Rugrat!

The first tavern described is the Angelic Imp. The Angelic Imp is a fancy establishment, unlike most taverns. Its mostly visited by couples on a date, or people looking for a place to conduct discrete dealings. The events and rumors tables provide several hooks for side quests as well as social encounters.

The second tavern is Blackberry Bill's. It's a tavern owned by a former adventurer, who makes delicious deserts. Like the Angelic Imp, the events and rumors provide some hooks, as well as social encounters and one combat encounter.

The third tavern is the Plattering Platypus. It serves stuff like fried chicken, burgers, steak, etc, and serves different meals depending on what day of the week it is. The events have a small bit of humor injected into them, which I enjoy.

The NPCs for all three of the taverns were exceptionally well crafted. The ones with stats have interesting abilities that reflect their background well.

The formatting for this book is well done, with no mistakes I noticed. Overall, I rate this a 5/5.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment f the Tangible Taverns-series clocks in at 16 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page foreword, 1 page advertisement/SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 11 pages of content, so let's take a look!

A gorgeous white mansion caters to the ladies of good taste; it is frankly a fact that whomever has two X-chromosomes alongside a certain standing and pedigree should most certainly not be seen slumming in rowdy taverns. Instead, it would indeed be significantly more rewarding for such privileged ladies to visit the Delectable Dragonfly, a tea house of exquisitely good taste, where the gossip of the local elite and rich and powerful coalesces.

And yes, dear ladies - there are delectable additions to add to the menu, which include massages...and everything else a discerning lady might wish for...particularly if her lord has certain...ahem...shortcomings. Prudes around there: You can put away the pitchforks, anything sexual herein is conveyed via innuendo and is absolutely PG. That being said, personally, I applaud this often neglected and stigmatized aspect of the facts of life. Run by Prim, a most charming hostess who was reimagined as a human in 5e and comes with full stats, this place is indeed a veritable oasis of delights - and information: The detailed rumors and events provided further emphasize this. Prim's 5e-iteration is cool in that her luck-based tricks have been redesigned as several cool lair actions, which I most certainly loved. At the same time, her stats feature a glitch: She can lend a "point of inspiration" - which should probably be a die...and said die is not defined in her statblock either, making said ability not work as intended.

The ruggedly handsome staff comes with well-drawn b/w-mugshots as well that could have been taken straight from a fantastic romance-novel, further underlining this theme. The fluffy write-ups themselves are flavorful: What about a halfling masseur with meticulously clean feet who can feel knots with them? Then, there would be the ruggedly handsome Vadim (with full stats) as well as his devotee/friend Sonia (similarly, with stats) and several regulars provided for a rich array of NPCs to interact with - including the local inquisitor (whose 5e-abilities explain with a unique weakness how she failed to put the pieces together), convinced that a brilliant serial killer is stalking the town. Well, guess what? She is right. She is also pretty much unwilling and incapable of believing the truth...unless it stares her right in the eye.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant hiccups apart from Prim's guffaw. Layout adheres to a no-frills two-column b/w-standard. The b/w-artworks featured herein are all originals and well-made indeed. The cartography featured is rudimentary, but serves its purpose and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for our convenience.

I really enjoyed Kelly & Ken Pawlik's delectable dragonfly - and the 5e-version's NPC-builds, with copious of unique abilities, rock in a similar manner as those featured among the PFRPG-iteration. While the glitch in Prim's build is somewhat unpleasant, we do actually get the cool lair abilities, which somewhat mitigates this minor guffaw. In the end, I will hence settle on a final verdict of 5 stars, just short of my seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment f the Tangible Taverns-series clocks in at 18 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page foreword, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 11 pages of content, so let's take a look!

A gorgeous white mansion caters to the ladies of good taste; it is frankly a fact that whomever has two X-chromosomes alongside a certain standing and pedigree should most certainly not be seen slumming in rowdy taverns. Instead, it would indeed be significantly more rewarding for such privileged ladies to visit the Delectable Dragonfly, a tea house of exquisitely good taste, where the gossip of the local elite and rich and powerful coalesces.

And yes, dear ladies - there are delectable additions to add to the menu, which include massages...and everything else a discerning lady might wish for...particularly if her lord has certain...ahem...shortcomings. Prudes around there: You can put away the pitchforks, anything sexual herein is conveyed via innuendo and is absolutely PG. That being said, personally, I applaud this often neglected and stigmatized aspect of the facts of life. Run by Prim, a fetchling expert/luckbringer and most charming hostess, who comes with full stats, this place is indeed a veritable oasis of delights - and information: The detailed rumors and events provided further emphasize this.

The ruggedly handsome staff comes with well-drawn b/w-mugshots as well that could have been taken straight from a fantastic romance-novel, further underlining this theme. The fluffy write-ups themselves are flavorful: What about a halfling masseur with meticulously clean feet who can feel knots with them? Then, there would be the ruggedly handsome investigator Vadim (with full stats) as well as his multiclassed devotee/friend Sonia (similarly, with stats) and several regulars provided for a rich array of NPCs to interact with - including the local inquisitor (again, with full stats and the truth-seeker archetype), convinced that a brilliant serial killer is stalking the town. Well, guess what? She is right.

If some of the classes and classes features mentioned before just generated question marks above your head, rest assured that the pdf's appendix will cover all relevant components - from the Sensuous Charm and Love' Devotion feats to the complex truth inquisition and the relevant class features for the mistress' luckbringer tricks.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant hiccups. Layout adheres to a no-frills two-column b/w-standard. The b/w-artworks featured herein are all originals and well-made indeed. The cartography featured is rudimentary, but serves its purpose and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for our convenience.

I really enjoyed Kelly & Ken Pawlik's delectable dragonfly - it is a unique and flavorful establishment that represents a nice change of pace- a sanctuary of women, a place to enjoy gossip and the finer things in life, the tea house is evocative and flavorful. The NPC-builds are creative and varied and then adventuring potential conveyed via the rumors and events as well as the serial killer subplot, is extensive. There isn't much more one can ask of such a nice humble pdf. 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzietgeist out.

You know, I forget if I paid for this product, so just assume that I got a review copy.

So the Gripply is an amazing little product that does a good job of bringing us a 5e version of a creature that has not yet been seen in 5th edition. Not counting the cover and backmatter, this book clocks in at 4 pages of actual usable material, and is handy for the price! If you like frog men as players, this is your book.

The grippli are frog people, and this product make them available as a player race with a robust set of sub-races. While I would have liked to see more material (some racial feats, etc) that kind of gripe is a welcome one, as I always want to see more from Dire Rugrat Publishing. It is also a little bit harder to get into racial options in 5th edition, as some of them are less handy than in Pathfinder (magic items, for instance).

The book overall does a good job of presenting the race with ample backstory and flavor text that establishes not only the Grippli, but the way that they are viewed by some other races. The material does well to expound on the grippli as a people, as well as why they would be adventurers, helping potential players with ideas that would fill out a Grippli's backstory, personality, and even sample names.

That having been said, lets dig into the race itself. The gripply are great at what they do, which is being amphibians. These creatures would do well in a campaign that took place in and around bodies of water, as well as being extremely talented at jumping, as one might imagine.

The bog born are the first of the sub-races, being nocturnal and having darkvision, while also having a handy pre-hensile tongue. The tongue ability does not allow for extra attacks, and seems more for flavor (awful pun not intended), but does well to make the sub-race very interesting and distinct.

The lake strider is an interesting alternate sub-race that makes for a better swimmer, while having plenty of abilities that are thematically useful while not being mechnaically overpowered, such as always knowing the direction of North.

The patternback sub-race is the most interesting, boasting a climb speed as well as a natural poison. I had received an earlier version of this product that made the poison ability very unbalanced, but I have since gotten the revision which has made it extremely well balanced as a racial ability, making this sub-race perhaps one of my favorites.

For my final thoughts, this is not only a tight product with an excellent player race, it is also a very good model for what a balanced player race should be. Understandibly, this perfection happened after constructive feedback and revisions, but for it to have come out so well after the first revision has impressed me. This product does not disappoint, and is a standard for a design ethic based on player race in the 5th edition.

This book received 5 stars, and my royal approval.

An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised edition

This racial book clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 4 pages of content, so let's take a look!

The grippli for 5e, heh? Now I'm all for that! I'm a big fan of the small, friendly, froggy, folk, so how is the race represented here? Well, we actually employ the same level of depth for the race's fluff and playing them that we have seen in the PHB - thus, the grippli are introduced as colorful, hard-working and fun-loving individuals, including notes on how they perceive halflings, gnomes and humans. Notes on their culture and nomenclature complement the grippli race provided here.

From a rules-perspective, Grippli increase their Dexterity by 2, have a 30 ft. speed (and a 20 ft. swimming speed, which is, in a nitpick, called swim speed -which is only used in statblocks, not in ability rules), base proficiency in Perception checks as well as proficiency in Survival. They can also long jump double their Strength score feet from standing still and better high jumps as well and may breathe freely on land and under water.

We also get 3 subraces: Bog Born increase Cha by 1, gain darkvision and may use their prehensile tongues as a bonus action to manipulate objects of up to 25 ft. away, but not magic or attack with the tongue.

Lake strider gripplis increase Wisdom by 1, have a swimming speed of 30 ft., know instinctively where North is and gain advantage on Dex-checks and saves to maintain footing in adverse conditions. Okay...does this include abilities and attacks that render you prone? I assume it does, but I'm still not 100% sure.

The third of the subraces would be the patternback, who increases Constitution by 1, gains climbing speed 30 feet and 3/day curare sweat now, in the revison, actually has an awesome, cool and powerful, but balanced mechanic - kudos for improving that one significantly!!

Conclusion: Editing and formatting, on a formal level, is very good; on a rules-level, the pdf has a minor deviation in the rules-wording or two, but nothing serious. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly, minimalistic two-column b/w-standard and the pdf sports numerous gorgeous full-color artworks of grippli, though ardent fans of 3pp-material may recognize them from other publications. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Ken Pawlik's revised grippli are smooth and streamlined, with all the nasty bits taken care of - you may have noted the lack of complaints and there is a reason for that: The revision makes for an awesome, inexpensive deal and what we get race-wise, is pretty much neatly balanced with the core races. Barring any complaints of a serious manner and considering the low price and how much I like the curare sweat's new mechanic, I will settle on a final verdict of 5 stars just short of my seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Tangible Taverns-series clocks in at 22 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page foreword, 1/2 page advertisement, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 15 1/2 pages of content, so let's take a look!

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

The PCs are traveling along a path through the forest, when they suddenly encounter a weather-beaten sign next to a small, but well-used path - the sign points towards "The Hidden Oak", and after a quarter mile through sunlit, light forest, the PCs arrive at a clearing, where colorful mushrooms and gorgeous flowers provide a carpet that leads straight up to a ginormous tree, which sports double doors, secured to the tree with bronze. Upon entering the place, they'll see an impressive badger snuffling around the place, as a halfling cheerfully ventures forth to greet them - they obviously have found sanctuary...but they'll only realize that if they can take their eyes of the oak tree growing from the ceiling of the inside of this place, sending sparkling, warm magical light down upon the common area.

The respective rooms are no less enchanting and the tavern comes with information regarding the cost of staying there. As always, we receive exceedingly detailed rumors to kick off encounters or even adventures, with read-aloud text for each rumor - nice! Similarly, the events that take place here, 8 of which are provided, sport a sense of the relaxed and benign, if weird: When gripplis challenge for a friendly wrestling bout, remarkably good-natured quicklings enter the tavern or visions are to be had, you know that adventure and a nice diversions are right here. The pdf, just fyi, also goes into mouth-watering details regarding the food served here.

Beyond Beatrice the hafling who acts usually as greeter (and is a hunter 11 - don't mess with her or her badger Lola!), this fantastic place's owner, at least one of them, mind you, would be Shadril, a dryad druid, whose stats (including an owl companion) are provided. And there would be Crescenzo, an old man smoking a pipe. Yep...and much like Elminster, Gandalf, Veranthus and similar icons, it is a damn BAD idea to cause any trouble around this fellow. He is peaceful, yes...but...well...I could spoil what he's really capable of, but that would be no fun, now, would it? cough CR 21 /coughYep, stats provided. No, he's not the ole' cliché archmage. No, he's not a fey lord in disguise either. Yes, I have seen the trope before, but the execution is pretty fresh.

The tavern also includes Kaapo, a grippli martial artist and Thestrel, an elven unchained rogue wandering swindler, who are both engaging in various arm wrestling contests...and a non-statted mockingfey causes mischief with all but the dourest patrons. Speaking of which: There would be Kachina. She has a pumpkin head and walks on vines and is covered with gray shrooms that made her face...well, somewhat disturbing. She is a fungal gourd leshy with a temper (and horribly ineffective in combat, as you can see by her stats)...and she is not the only plant-being here: A treant named Burtsch (stats provided) who has lived through several bouts of deadly fungal diseases, which left him quite sociable and only barely larger than an elf, also frequents this place. He's been modified with the accursed template, in case you were wondering. There is also a fluff-only atomie called Tat to be found in the Hidden Oak. Padraig O'Bunley the leprechaun would be the final character featured here.

Now, in a piece of 3rd party camaraderie I enjoy, the pdf gives credit where credit is due and instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, features 2 of the culinary magic recipes originally debuted in the amazing "Letters from the Flaming Crab: Culinary Magic" by Flaming Crab Games. Better yet: There are two new ones! One for Mushroom Flowers and one for Fairy Rings - nice, btw.: I tried the recipes and the results were pretty tasty, though I did add some additional spices, since I'm pretty big on those. As a minor nitpick, one provides an untyped bonus, which I'd rather have seen codified.

Moreover, the appendix also features templates and material taking from Rogue Genius Games' "The Genius Guide to Gruesome Undead Templates" and Rite Publishing's superb "The Book of Monster Templates." Nice means of making the builds herein more diverse!

Oh, one more thing: The player-friendly one-page map is by far the most beautiful and creative I have seen so far in the series! Neat work there!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top notch, I noticed no significant hiccups. Layout adheres to Dire Rugrat Publishing's two-column b/w-standard and is printer-friendly. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The artwork featured herein is a blending of original pieces of b/w-artworks and some stock pieces: Ken Pawlik's drawing of the mug of Crescenzo, just fyi, is pretty much the best drawing I have seen by his hand...it's pretty neat. The cartography is less barebones and more creative than that featured in earlier installments of the series as well.

Kelly & Ken Pawlik's "The Hidden Oak" is the best tavern they put out that I've reviewed so far; it takes the trope of the enchanted woodland sanctuary, perfect for PCs during prolonged wilderness trips and weaves a wholesome, light-hearted atmosphere that an enterprising GM can turn really grim, if s/he desires to. As written, this is a shelter, a sanctuary, a place for the misfits and the magical, the lone and the lost to find their way and enjoy a positively magical meal. The shout-outs to fellow 3pps are nice to see, and the use of rules provided in these supplements to enhance the tavern and its denizens adds a level of complexity and care to the builds featured herein. It's frankly nice to see designers do their homework and going one step further. You may have noted a distinct lack of complaints - that would be simply because I don't have any grievous claims beyond what would be unfair nitpickery. This is an excellent offering, well worth the low asking price - my final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This 5e-iteration of the installment of the Tangible Taverns-series clocks in at 20 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page foreword, 1/2 page advertisement, 1 page of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 14 1/2 pages of content, so let's take a look!

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

The PCs are traveling along a path through the forest, when they suddenly encounter a weather-beaten sign next to a small, but well-used path - the sign points towards "The Hidden oak", and after a quarter mile through sunlit, light forest, the PCs arrive at a clearing, where colorful mushrooms and gorgeous flowers provide a carpet that leads straight up to a ginormous tree, which sports double doors, secured to the tree with bronze. Upon entering the place, they'll see an impressive badger snuffling around the place, as a halfling cheerfully ventures forth to greet them - they obviously have found sanctuary...but they'll only realize that if they can take their eyes of the oak tree growing from the ceiling of the inside of this place, sending sparkling, warm magical light down upon the common area.

The respective rooms are no less enchanting and the tavern comes with information regarding the cost of staying there. As always, we receive exceedingly detailed rumors to kick off encounters or even adventures, with read-aloud text for each rumor - nice! It should be noted that the 5e-iteration changed e.g. the disease mentioned in one rumor and the critter mentioned in another one - neat level of care here. Similarly, the events that take place here, 8 of which are provided, sport a sense of the relaxed and benign, if weird: When gripplis challenge for a friendly wrestling bout, remarkably good-natured quicklings enter the tavern or visions are to be had, you know that adventure and a nice diversions are right here. The pdf, just fyi, also goes into mouth-watering details regarding the food served here.

Beyond Beatrice the hafling who acts usually as greeter (and clocks in at challenge 7 - don't mess with her or her badger Lola - as has become the tradition, she has some nice abilities...though one ability which lets her reassign damage between her and her companion should imho be a reaction, not an always on option that does not require any sort of activation), this fantastic place's owner, at least one of them, mind you, would be Shadril, a dryad, whose stats are provided. Her owl companion, however, has not made the transition to 5e and this would be as good a place as any to complain about the lack of italicization of spells in all statblocks.

And there would be Crescenzo, an old man smoking a pipe. Yep...and much like Elminster, Gandalf, Veranthus and similar icons, it is a damn BAD idea to cause any trouble around this fellow. He is peaceful, yes...but...well...I could spoil what he's really capable of, but that would be no fun, now, would it? cough challenge 25 /coughYep, stats provided. No, he's not the ole' cliché archmage. No, he's not a fey lord in disguise either. Yes, I have seen the trope before, but the execution is pretty fresh.

The tavern also includes Kaapo, a grippli and Thestrel, an elf, who are both engaging in various arm wrestling contests. Their 5e stats are pretty creative as well - with the grippli having the potential to deliver knock-outs and Thestrel having several neat rogue-y abilities...though, as a nitpick, sneak attack lacks the 1/turn restriction that monsters/NPCs usually sport.

The pdf also sports a non-statted fairy that causes mischief with all but the dourest patrons. Speaking of which: There would be Kachina. She has a pumpkin head and walks on vines and is covered with grey shrooms that made her face...well, somewhat disturbing. She is a plant creature with a temper (and slightly more potent in combat than in PFRPG's iteration)...and she is not the only plant-being here: A treant named Burtsch (stats provided) who has lived through several bouts of deadly fungal diseases, which left him quite sociable and only barely larger than an elf, also frequents this place. He's been modified with the accursed template, in case you were wondering. There is also a sprite called Tat in the Hidden Oak. Padraig O'Bunley the leprechaun would be the final character featured here - alas, I don't have 5e-stats for leprechauns, so getting those would have been nice.

Now, in a piece of 3rd party camaraderie I enjoy, the pdf gives credit where credit is due and instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, features 4 of the culinary magic recipes originally debuted in the amazing "Letters from the Flaming Crab: Culinary Magic" by Flaming Crab Games. Nice: Tow of these have been converted from aforementioned book, while two other ones are NEW ones; though, obviously, 5e-players and GMs have not seen these before: Caramelized mushrooms to fortify versus poison, friendship-inducing herbs, better disguising and easier movement can be found here. Much to my chagrin, alas, the recipes that allow you to actually cook these recipes have gotten the axe. If you're like me and enjoy cooking/baking and making non-fast-food for gaming, that may be a bit of a bummer.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, though there are a couple of minor glitches. Layout adheres to Dire Rugrat Publishing's two-column b/w-standard and is printer-friendly. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The artwork featured herein is a blending of original pieces of b/w-artworks and some stock pieces: Ken Pawlik's drawing of the mug of Crescenzo, just fyi, is pretty much the best drawing I have seen by his hand...it's pretty neat. The cartography is less barebones and more creative than that featured in earlier installments of the series as well.

Kelly & Ken Pawlik's "The Hidden Oak" is an amazing tavern, but the 5e-iteration does fall a bit behind the PFRPG-iteration in its details. Some builds are cool and I love the conversion of culinary magic. There are a couple more aesthetic glitches here, though and the lack of the recipes made me pretty sad. All in all, this is a very good, evocative tavern, but it feels like it falls slightly short of the PFRPG version's excellence. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4.

Endzeitgeist out.