“That is why I decline the title of Iron Cook, and accept only the lesser title of Zinc Saucier, which I just made up.” – Bender, Futurama

Little Red Goblin Games brings the world of gourmet chefs to a fantasy setting with the Battle Chef class. This is a full class, and it has some pretty interesting mechanics. Like fighters, the battle chef is a d10 HP class, but has a ¾ BAB, more akin to rangers. Battle chefs also gain recipes which work like spells, and can have a cuisine specialty, which is similar to focusing on a school of spells. What I really like about this system, is that preparing a 3-5 course meal works like a video game; by consuming the meal (spells) in order, they give bonus effects. The effects of each recipe is determined by flavor profile (a minty recipe for example adds ice damage to you attacks.)

While the battle chef class, and accompanying recipe system, is the meat and potatoes of this release, there’s an appetizer-size portion of feats, and chef-based weapons and magic items make up the dessert.

Personally, I’d have liked seeing a selection of armor and shields (who doesn’t want to use a big wok as a shield, and wear an Apron of Protection +1?) I would like to see a few more feats in there, and maybe an archetype or two based on different kinds of cooks. Additionally, I think a d8 HP per level might be more appropriate here, but I don’t think it breaks the class in any way. That’s just me, and it doesn’t take away from the unique flavor of this class.

Well worth the money spent. Please tip your servers.

THE GOOD: The class makes for a semi-magical melee combatant, using "recipes" as boosters to attacks with various effects like elemental damage, condition infliction, and even a bit of healing or self-buffing. Chaining meals together sacrifices flexibility for enhanced effects as the chain progresses. The class also gains quite a few little side benefits like fire resistance, resistance to poisons (and the ability to ID them with a small sample), a bite attack, silvered weapons, a swallow whole attack, the ability to prepare Heroes' Feast, and resistance to slashing weapons (from knicking yourself so much). This is great for friends of mine who get bored from constant seriousness in games and want things a bit silly, but still playable. It looks to have a good mix of clever, usable mechanics and enough novelty over the levels to keep them from being bored with it.

THE BAD: It has a lot of editing mistakes. Abilities and items are referenced by names that are just slightly off, sentences are incomplete, capitalization is inconsistent on the class table, and the occasional word substitution creeps in. The PDF is understandable and useable, but the mistakes are distracting. The class also breaks Pathfinder convention by having a D10 hit dice and a 3/4 base attack bonus; it might have been better to have a d8 and a hit point bonus ability if having more hit points was a priority. I'm sure they could have made the ability hilarious.

OVERALL: A class I'm happy to have, and a purchase I'm quite satisfied with. A pass through an editor would probably make this the shining example of how to do a Pathfinder parody class with flair.