An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 4 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover (with a sketch by Wayne Reynolds!!!), 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 1/3 of a page content, so let's take a look!

The dragon has raided the village, the orc-horde has rampaged through the town, the necromancer-king is ravaging the country-side or the insane druid has conjured forth tornados and tidal waves - business as usual for adventurers: They set off, kill the bad guy and there - all well! Well, not in my game. I always considered it weird that there was no repercussion for the people - beyond a motive for closure/revenge - what help is it to a town if the PCs kill threat xyz, but they'll still starve?

Enter this cavalier order, which is not about killing baddies, but about HELPING people. You know, doing something that's actually GOOD. The merciful cousins get heal and knowledge (engineering) as bonus class skills and may use the latter untrained - and if the cavalier actually has ranks in the skill, s/he can substitute Craft (Masonry/Carpentry) and Profession (Engineer) for Knowledge (engineering). When issuing challenges, allies within 60 ft. get a +1 bonus to AC and allies with significantly less HD than you get a more substantial AC-bonus. Additionally, such cavaliers may expend one use of a healer's kit as a standard action to restore one hit point to a dying creature, thus saving it. Treating deadly wounds is still possible after benefiting from this usage of the heal-skill. As beacons of hope, they may also reroll saves versus despair, fear and similar negative emotion-inducing effects with a neat +4 bonus.

So far, so good - but where the class starts rocking VERY hard is with the Architect of Improvement-ability: It allows the cavalier to devise an improvement plan for a given settlement by succeeding at a knowledge (engineering)-check that is determined by a settlements size. Properly implementing the improvement plan can be done with or without the cavalier and takes DC minus 10 months, but every day the cavalier helps counts as two for the purpose of when the plan is ready - its aftermath netting a new settlement quality. The settlements maximum number of qualities can thus even exceed its usual limit by 1. Additionally, settlements can thus modify one of their modifiers (like crime, lore, etc.) by 1 - upwards or downwards. Settlements may only implement one such plan per year, though.

But that's not all you can do with the ability! Creating shelters etc. at half the time and improving strongholds at cost are also possible! And to provide something even cooler, we also get 5 new beneficial settlement qualities: Defensible, Good Roads, Planned Community, Therapeutic and Well-educated - awesome!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good - while I noticed a missing blank space, no glitch impeded my understanding of the pdf. Layout adheres to SGG's 3-column horizontal standard and the cover artwork is awesome. The pdf even comes with bookmarks, in spite of its short length - commendable indeed!

Well, usually, I would complain about the product's length - but this is a charity product, as all benefits are donated to the red cross relief funds to help the victims of disasters. And it actually doesn't feel like just some cheap charity product - it actually provides the coolest cavalier order I've seen so far - unique abilities, balanced crunch and an option to make a difference in the lives of the people of the campaign world as well as an option to actually do some good in real life? Hell yeah! Now don't get me wrong, I'd recommend this pdf even if it wasn't a charity product - but SGG's quality combined with the good cause? A must-buy and an easy verdict of 5 stars plus seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

As KTFish noted, this is a product that makes sense on so many levels. Many adventurers are out to leave a mark on the world, so why not reflect a greater range of motives? Many of them look inwards and build fortunes or legends for themselves... now cavaliers, arguably the most literal of ‘crusaders’ amongst PC classes, have the tools to look outwards and build schools and hospitals, things which will make a difference arguably more important than just ‘killing things and taking their stuff’. Sometimes slaying the Big Bad is the easy part of ‘saving the world’; fixing what got broken in the process is where the real work lies, and the Order of Merciful Cousins exist to do the heavy lifting. (If nothing else, I’d’ve bought this product for the cause it funds, but the chance to build a character who makes the ‘iconic’ cavalier, Alain, look like the self-obsessed ass that he is was a juicy bonus. :D)

Gee Mr. KTFish, do you really gotta review a CHARITY book? Yes, for a matter of fact, I do. I could tell you how cool this is what is being done by the names behind this book. I could tell you about the time dedicated to making this product a reality, the really cool art that led to this starting and what brought us to me holding a copy in my virtual hands. But that is not why we are here right now.

It would be very easy to say that for the price and the good will of others this product is well worth the price, all of which are good points, if not for one very important thing. That would be this, at the end of the day this is a gaming product, with some expectations put upon it. We expect our dollars to go to something we will use. Something new cool to make our games bring a new tool in the GM's arsenal, or perhaps that new feat we had never thought of, a spell of nature we find our selves creating an entire character around it, because the design is so cool. So, let us take a look shall we, a peek under the cover and see what the Crunch Master has share for us?

The Merciful Cousins struck me instantly as one of the most logical Orders I've come across within a fantasy setting, and found myself scratching the chin for them now not having been done before. I spent years being one of those GMs, that guy who can tell you the name of the kid who sweeps the floor at the local bakery in any town within his setting. Yeah, that guy, lol. We all know those GMs who go deep into their settings to go for immersion. So, when I say they were a local and well welcome addition, I say that not lightly. The Merciful Cousins Cavalier Order are the fantasy answer to the Red Cross. They exist to be there when they are needed, when the world goes off skew and people are left picking up the pieces, in come the Merciful Cousins.

Carrying an edict of being there to rebuild and help, to heal and mend the Order operates as a Lawful or Good operation (yes, those are two separate thing). Like any good write up for a cavalier order we are given the specifics of perks from being a member, all of which tying to defending, helping, helping and rebuilding. Along with the Order's perks comes some new Settlement Qualities. Yeah, how often do you see a product offer these types of rules to add to the toolbox, right? There is a reason I call Owen the Crunch Master my friends.

I could go into specifics, but not this time. This time you are going to have to pick up the product and trust that the product is worth it. I know that is not the usually format for a review from me, but again, this time, I feel the product is solid and the reason behind it deserves to speak for itself. I will tell you this much my fellow GMs, the new settlement rules will be showing up in my next product, an the Order has already been added to my game setting, permanently. One of the easiest 5 star ratings I have ever given, well worth the price of admission, and my sincerest heartfelt Thanks to the men who made this product a reality.