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Ultimate Herbalism (PFRPG Edition) $14.99
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Ultimate Herbalism (PFRPG Edition)
Publisher: Interjection Games
by Vladimir C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/06/2017 23:20:30

DISCLAIMER: This review is based on a free PDF provided by the author and the publisher, which in no way had an influence on the final score.

Ultimate Herbalism for both Pathfinder and D&D5e is the first part of Interjection Games third Kickstarter project, Strange Magic 2. It is the complete overhaul of another, older project, called simply The Herbalist, and even if you have it (like I do), you get a much more improved version of the herbalism magic system. Unlike many class books or tomes, Interjection Games creates most of their new classes from scratch and, while some systems are inspired in others (antipodism in shadow magic, aether magic in the 3.5 warlock etc.), most are brand new. Interjection games are perfect for people who are bored of the same Vancian magic and spell lists, the same 3.5 sub-systems. This review tackles the Pathfinder version.

What’s inside? 158 pages of content (for 15 bucks!), which include:

-The herbalism magic system, which is used by the three new base classes. Basically, each day the herbalism-user rolls on a terrain-dependent table (called a Biome) to see what herbs he finds, each herb being a kind of “spell”. To reduce the randomness and let players continue use of their favorite herbs, they get an ability called earthenware jars, which let them cultivate herbs or preserve them and other plant products. These herbs are different depending on the Biome, which gives the herbalist unrivaled variety. No matter where you are, each roll gives you access to 10 points worth of herbs (6 in the case of naturalists), with plants having a point value of 1, 2 or 4, which also determine their power. There are no high level abilities here, since all effects increase with the level of the user. The herbs can also be used to prepare recipes and other plant products, depending on certain class or archetype abilities.

-The Gourmend base class, a flavorful (hehe) class who specializes on using the herbs found to prepare recipes. They are the least combat able of the classes, but get many weird abilities related to food. They get a culinary pool to power some of their abilities. While this is the only class that doesn’t get archetypes, a sidebar mentions how you can adapt herbalist archetypes for the gourmend; however, they are not really needed, since at first level you get to choose a kind of specialization, culinary skillsets: Baking, Candymaking, Cheesemaking, MEAT! and Brewing. Apart from recipes and skillsets, gourmends get culinary talents, with some restricted to certain skillsets. Finally, they get Culinary Bond, which nets them a familiar made of food.

-The Herbalist base class, the original that started it all. An herbalist is a bit better at combat than a gourmand and can also learn some recipes, but they also get the compress ability that mixes herbs in a single usage. They get a green thumb pool to power some class abilities. They also get 9 archetypes, designed for taking more than one.

Aromatologists exchange the ability to make compresses to create incense blocks, which basically give personal effects at range.

Compounders are healers, who can use poisons to heal ability damage they would otherwise inflict with a chance for failure, and placebo sugar pills that give the eater an extra save against ongoing poison or disease effects, both as a replacement for the compress ability.

Entomologists are bug collectors. Bugs are similar to herbs in that they can be found and are terrain-dependent, but need to be fed to be preserved; some bugs have special dietary considerations, and some get more powerful when fed certain herbs. Bugs have a special ability usable once per day, but can be preserved indefinitely. Entomologists loose recipes in exchange for bugs.

Flowerchildren give a lot (earthenware jars, recipes and focused foraging) to gain the companionship of a special familiar. This familiar works a bit different from a wizard’s, growing a specific biome’s plants on its back, for example.

Gardener are the meta-herbalists. They lose a couple of preservation vessels during their career and the potent poison ability to get the green thumb ability to give infuse the soil of their earthenware jars with a so-called “rare earth”, specific meta-effects that enhance plants.

Geologists rock hard! (hehe). In exchange either preservation vessels or cultivation pots for the ability to collect special kinds of rocks which, unlike herbs or bugs, don’t spoil until used, with a hard limit on the number of in possession. Rocks come in three varieties, sharing 3 biomes where they can be found. They are basically triggered area-of-effect mines.

Mycologists exchange their first find herbs roll of the day for a special roll in a unique biome, the fungal forest. They can also exchange none or all recipes gained for special combinatory formulae that, like gardener’s rare earth, modify the effect of herbs.

Poisoners can’t make compresses. Instead, they learn to combine poisonous plants into increasingly deadly cocktails that are applied to weapons. A short but powerful evil archetype.

Zen Cultivators are, you guessed right, monkish herbalists. They replace their green thumb pool with a special ki pool they fill while meditating with the help of a miniature zen garden. This ki pool can be spent on a few abilities and any other class or feat that depends on ki. They also gain some bonus feats.

-The Naturalist base class. They have the least powerful herbalism abilities, but make up for it with a giant carnivorous plant! They get bonus feats and their plant gets access to many talents. They can even get the plant time for a short time! They also have access to three archetypes.

Creationists don’t get earthenware jars (!) and their plant companions don’t get talents, all in exchange for some druidic spellcasting (0 to 4th level). Overall the weakest archetype in the whole book.

Mycologists not only share the name of an herbalist’s archetype, they have their own mini-fungus forest table. Their plant companions can in fact be a man-eating mushroom, which loses access to some talents while gaining some exclusive ones. This archetype doesn’t replace anything, so you can com-vine (hehe) it with the others.

Sporekeepers apparently lose their plant companion, I say apparently because apart from the introductory “facts”, it is not mentioned anywhere else in the text. Instead, they get fungal swarms that are planted in terracotta pots. They can be worn in the back or left on the ground, active or inactive. They get many talents that makes this ability very different from plant companions.

-Feats: All of this section include your typical feats that enhance your class abilities, including very niche feat available only to specific archetypes. The only one that doesn’t follow this theme is the Verdant Protector feat, which inherited the unique, almost-extinct plants available to an archetype of the old herbalist.

-Herbs: after almost 30 pages of tables (9 biomes for the herbalist/gourmand, 9 for the naturalist, and 9 plant summary tables), we get to the meat (hehe) of the herbal magic system. Herbs are formatted with name, followed by the type in parenthesis (be them herbs, fungus or fruit), with some fruits having a descriptor in brackets (similar to spells). They are followed by the biome(s) they are found in, their point value (1, 2 or 4), Duration of the effect, and which recipes can they be used for, if any.

-Recipes: these again have an easy to grasp format, with the craft DC being the most important here. Some of this are the most powerful effects an herbalist can create! A poison that damages all ability scores, the ability to shot spines that do more damage than a kineticist blast, a wine that gives you an alchemical bonus to any ability score, things like that. These are balanced not only by its ingredients, but by their craft DC.

-Microcosms: Not content with 9 (10 really) biomes, this is an optional ruleset that include special mini-biomes each with new, exotic plants! These include aberrant, anger, arcane, evil, good, graveyard, irradiated, legend and sylvan. Imagine your character visits a jungle where there is an ancient temple of a demon prince. Simple slap the “evil” microcosm to the jungle biome and you are covered.

Of Note: The herbalism magic system is advertised as druidic chaos magic, and it shows. Instead of rolling every single time you cast a spell to see if butterflies appear instead of fire, or that your strength spell drains the fighter’s instead of making him stronger, the chaos here happens at the beginning of the day, leaving it to the ability of the player to do with what Mother Nature (and his luck) offers.

If the original system wasn’t enough, Ultimate Herbalism includes food magic, bugs, rocks, soil, fungus… so many new things it can make your head spin! It may be hard to believe but, it is very difficult to point at something that is better when everything is top quality. In no particular order, my favorite are the gourmand, the gardener and the entomologist which, when put on top of the herbalism magic system, bring a lot of variety to the game table.

Anything wrong?: While the book by no means looks bad, it features little art and to be frank, I don’t mind the little art in the book, it’s the repetition of it. However, when the author can pump layer upon layer of awesomeness not only in his rulesets, but in the flavorful descriptions, art becomes secondary. The class and archetype art, while B&W only and a bit on the simple side, goes well with the tone of the author’s writing: Serious with a dash of cheesy and a sprinkle of humor. I also didn’t particularly like the organization, I would have preferred all “spellbooks” at the end instead of in the archetype entries. Also, a section on how to include a new magic system would have been nice, as well as a section on how herbalism interacts with traditional magic.

What cool things did this inspire?: Where do I start? I want a fat she-ratfolk gourmand, cheese maker extraordinaire, from the village of Ash (get it? I AM FROM ASH). An oread geologists who is looking for the philosopher’s stone. A dromite entomologist who wants to create a new race of insect folk. A goran naturalist infected by spores, using both fungi-flavored archetypes. I could go on forever!

Do I recommend it?: If you are tired of casting magic missile, flame blade or cure light wounds, and are up to the challenge of learning a whole new magic system, do yourself a favor and get this book. It is also a blast for people like me who used to collect bugs! I kowtow to the author and offer five flaming blossom stars!

Trivia: I teach at an agronomy university where you can major in soil, insects, plants or products. I was planning to open a role playing workshop, so I think my students will surely enjoy it more with this book!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Ultimate Herbalism (PFRPG Edition)
Publisher: Interjection Games
by Adam S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/04/2017 17:13:40

First of all, I was given a copy to review.

First class, the Gourmend. Poor attack bonus, proficiency with simple weapons and no armor, so these guys aren't meant to be front line combatants without help. If they were armor they suffer the arcane spell failure chance as a chance of their preservation vessels spoiling overnight.

Stuff they can do includes building a familiar out of foodstuffs. So a lot of options here, from gummy monkey to a cat made out of bacon.

Gourmends choose two cooking methods to specialize in ala sorcerer bloodlines. Bakers can throw dough balls and make gingerbread golems for example. Candy makers can make weapons, etc.

1 minor issue there seems to be a mistake in the chart, in that +4 impact or keen weapon don't have a level requirement listed. I assume level 20 though, from context.

This class has plenty of flavor (pun intended), but they might be too over the top for some games, and the meat specialization seems to encourage combat a bit more than is healthy for someone who has the combat skills of a wizard. But since I haven't playtested it, my fears might be unfounded.

A mistake at the end, it says that the Gourmend lose class features if they gain a prohibited alignment, since Gourmends have no prohibited alignments that's superflous.

Next up is the Herbalist. Like the gourmend they have options for capstone, which I like. One of them makes their plants sapient enough that they'll stuff themselves in someone's mouth to give them their benefit, or druid spells.

Lots of archetypes here. Like the Compounder who heals through poison or Entomologists, who have a capstone that turns them into the amazing bugman.

Naturalists- Weird weapon proficiencies, they are proficient with weapons with no metal in them. If that means that weapons normally made out of metal that aren't in this instance are kosher is unclear. So the base of this class is having your very own plant companion, naming it Audrey 2 is optional.

Breaks the standard of having multiple possible capstones in this product, at 20th level when killed the plant companion turns the character into a plant zombie. Creationist archetype gains druidic spells in return for a less awesome plant companion and the ability to store their herbs. The mycologist archetype is for those who would rather sic a man eating mushroom on their opponents. Another fungus based option is the Sporekeeper whose companion shoots spores instead of biting.

It provides rules for multiple climates to pick your herbs from and optional rules for microcosms such as evil, aberrant, or arcane, and rules to make your own, which is quite useful.

The material is fun and interesting, and I can see people wanting even more, despite how much material is included here.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Ultimate Herbalism (PFRPG Edition)
Publisher: Interjection Games
by James E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/14/2017 12:27:44

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this product as one of the rewards for backing the Strange Magic 2 kickstarter. I did not pay the price you'd be paying here, but I did pay for this product.

Ultimate Herbalism is part of a new series of systems by Interjection Games, following on the fun of systems like Ethermagic, Composition Magic, and Truenaming. Now, those who have bought from Interjection Games in the past will know that Bradley Crouch is a systems guy - and being honest, I love new systems. These are the sorts of things that truly change the feel of a character, helping to make them distinct and memorable.

Now, this product itself is a 162-page PDF, with a full-color cover page and numerous pieces of colored artwork sprinkled throughout. At the time of writing, only a PDF version is available, but it's my understanding that physical copies are likely to be available at a future point. Aside from the generous amount of art, this product is essentially solid content - it jumps right into the table of contents and continues on right to the OGL on the last page.

Now, with that in mind, what do we actually have 160 pages of? Well, plants, and the people who use them. (That was pretty obvious from the name, though.) Herbalism is a system focused around gathering plants, then mixing them together in specific combinations to produce various effects - poisons, healing items, debuffs, and so on. Characters using Herbalism essentially prepare for the day by going out and collecting plants, rolling a dice for their current biome (forest, mountains, etc.) to see what they can actually collect. This is made a little easier by the way characters can learn to cultivate plants and get a more reliable supply of those they use the most often. The classes have ways to mix plants together, but many plants can also be consumed individually for specific effects. Essentially, this gives classes at least two different ways to use the herbs they gather (assuming they know recipes for them), which is a nice touch.

Anchoring this system are three new classes.

The Gourmend is a low-BAB class specializing in cooking, and quickly gains the services of an animal companion created out of food (yes, really). They're also defined by their skillsets - for example, a Gourmend who works with baking can learn to create Gingerbread Cookie Golems (yes, really), while a Gourmend who works with MEAT! (yes, it's spelled that way in the book) can butcher fallen foes and cook meals that provide morale bonuses to physical scores. There is a bit of a limit on the class - they need to revere nature somehow (it's how they get their stuff, after all), and it is possible to 'fall' like a Paladin. Honestly, though, that's probably not going to be much of a problem for anyone who wants to play this class.

The 'main' class in this system is unsurprisingly named the Herbalist, a mid-BAB class which uses plants in a more raw form. They learn recipes for using plants at first level, second level, and every even level thereafter, allowing them to create poisons, provide insight rolls to knowledge checks, or negate many weather effects.

The Herbalist also comes with a number of distinct archetypes, from the Aromatologist (who creates therapeutic incense) to the Gardener (who emphasizes their cultivation pots). Like all good archetypes, these represent distinct changes in the way the class plays, and they're definitely worth taking a look at before you start to build your character.

The last of the three new classes is the Naturalist, who collects fewer plants than the other classes but, at the same time, is noticeably better on the front lines thanks to their ability to raise, and I quote, "enormous, autonomous carnivorous plants" (yes, really). That alone is probably enough to tell you whether or not you want to play that class.

The rest of the book - starting on Page 90, actually, so a little less than half the content - is focused on supporting the classes. It opens with a selection of Herbalism-focused feats (grow things faster, learning how to cook more, etc.), then moves into the herb finding tables for the classes (at 6 and 10 points per-roll - which one is used depends on which class you're playing). Following this is an extremely nice touch on Interjection Games' part - biome summary tables that briefly explain the effects AND, more importantly, have a blank space for people to write down their current quantity. These are definitely meant to be printed out for use at the table, and I thoroughly approve of anything that makes it easier to track the many resources these classes have access to. (Seriously, other companies? Take note of this if you have a resource-heavy class.)

The book wraps up with three final sections. The Herb Log provides the basic rules for using herbs (attacks of opportunity, administering them to people who can't act, etc.), as well as a detailed list of each herb and its normal effects when used. The Recipe Book holds the various mixes than can be created for more powerful effects, and finally, the optional Microcosm rules deal with plants that might be found in rare areas (fey territory, battlefields, places of extreme good or evil, and so on). I would definitely recommend implementing these rules, since players in general tend to enjoy finding rare things and it really drives home the variety of things that Herbalism classes can find.

Overall, this PDF is a very solid product, and it compares quite favorably to previous releases by Interjection Games. It's definitely different, but you know what? Different is often fun, and I didn't see anything that looked horribly game-breaking. (Like I said, the author is a systems guy. He gets this stuff - not just how to come up with ideas, but how to make them fair, reasonably balanced, and fun. Many kudos are deserved.)

Now, I feel that ratings are a bit superfluous for this product - I mean, either you're interested in playing one of these classes or you aren't. This is by no means a general product that everyone ought to have, but if it sounds fun to you, know that you'll be picking up a creative, well-done system that adds a genuinely unique twist to the way characters get and use their powers. It gets a well-deserved five stars, and I'm looking forward to my chance to pick up a physical copy when the rest of Strange Magic 2 is done.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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