Disclaimer: I am a Patreon backer for the campaign funding these supplements, and I paid the full price for this product. I have not been - and will not be - compensated for this review.

This book is the second release in Drop Dead Studio's supplements for the Spheres of Power system. As with all of the supplements in this series, the review below won't make a lot of sense unless you're familiar with the basic magic system. Go get that book first, THEN check these out.

Now, let's see how this book shapes up, shall we?

The Telekinetic's Handbook opens with four Archetypes for existing classes:

The Electrokinetic provides a new way to play the Elementalist (a basic SoP class), and focuses on combining the Destruction and Telekinesis spheres. Instead of feats, Electrokinetics can choose to take Stunts, Supernatural powers not available to other characters. These include things like forming blades from tiny grains of sand, gaining Blindsense to detect the electricity of other living things, and adding bonus damage to certain attacks.

The Hekatonkheires is a Symbiat archetype whose telekinesis manifests as lots of glowing arms floating in the air. These can manipulate objects and/or act as tentacle attacks, with more arms at higher levels.

The Soaring Blade is an Armorist archetype, focused on summoning equipment and then manipulating it with Telekinesis. Yes, you CAN launch giant weapons at your foes.

The Unseen Horror is a Thaumaturge archetype, and is basically what happens if you specialize in an Unseen Servant spell. Creepy unseen forces, go! Like the Electrokinetic, the Unseen Horror can swap out some of its bonus feats for thematic new abilities.

The next section focuses on player options. These include a new category of feats (Protokinesis - which is basically low-level telekinesis), as well as various ways to enhance the Telekinesis Sphere. You can walk on walls and ceilings as if they were "down", create items of force instead of matter, get an extra limb of force, or even create a telekinetic exoskeleton offering various bonuses. Very fun.

The section after this is Basic Magic, the main focus of the book - new Talents for the Telekinesis sphere that players can choose from. Options here include things like tossing items at foes faster, call objects to your hand, tether objects together, or even change the gravity of the area.

As with most Spheres abilities, the powers here offer a balance of utility and flavor.

Following the main draw is a section on Advanced Magic (Spheres' higher-level powers). As usual, this is shorter, but it does offer potent abilities like dispersing damage, suffocating targets, and pinning things in place so they can't move. There are also a number of Rituals and Incantations, offering various high-level effects for those who can manage to pull them off.

To wrap up the main section of the book, we've got a few new pieces of Equipment, including new special materials, new magical item properties, and a couple of new items.

The last part of the book is more of a commentary section than anything else, clarifying how Telekinesis is meant to work and offering rules notes for your GM to reference.

Overall, this is an invaluable supplement for anyone who wants to play a Telekinetic character in the Spheres of Power system. There's enough expansion material here to let you completely specialize in that sphere, or simply dip into it for a few more creative options. Either way, if you're going to use the Telekinesis sphere in a game, you're not going to regret picking this up.

Also, this is exactly what I like to see in a supplement - it gives creative new options and offers a little bit of everything for everyone while still having enough content to make the purchase worth it. I definitely see myself making use of this product in the near future.

Disclaimer: I'm backing the Patreon project supporting these new supplements for the Spheres of Power system - so, yes, I paid for this product.

Now, if you're not familiar with Spheres of Power, you really should go check out the main product first - because the rest of this review won't make much sense unless you're familiar with the basic system. As a brief summary, though, Spheres of Power breaks down magic into a number of different "Spheres", each of which has multiple talents and abilities associated with it.

This product is focused around the Nature sphere, allowing characters greater control of the world around them. Alongside a new choice for the Nature sphere (Metal), this booklet has archetypes, plenty of new talents, feats and traits, magic items... even a couple of monsters that GMs can throw at players. XD Some of which are actually rather friendly, and would make good allies for PCs.

Now, SoP has always strongly supported flavor - and many of the abilities in this book are flavorful indeed. From blasting flying enemies when you shake the ground to attacking enemies with metal you call from the ground (right before you start doing OTHER stuff with that metal...), the ideas within this book remain interesting and worth considering. Basically, you're buying a supplement that's fun enough (and rich enough in creative new content) to actually use.

This book is especially valuable if you're planning to play a Spherecaster focused on the Nature Sphere, but even if you're just planning to dip a little, it remains an excellent supplement offering more of what made the main book so good. There's a lot of good content here for just five bucks, and I strongly recommend it.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product for the purpose of this review. I have not been paid or otherwise compensated for writing this, and have no financial stake in the success of this product.

OVERVIEW

Tangible Taverns: Trio of Taverns is a 24-page PDF (counting the front and back covers), and to my knowledge only available in this format. At the time of this review, it was priced at $2.25 (not bad for a decent-length PDF), and as the name suggests, this product focuses on three different taverns.

Now, obviously, this is a GM-focused product, so you might be asking "why do I need a tavern in the first place?". That's a fair question - and going by the description of the product, this is a product designed to make stops at taverns interesting for the players. Rather than just saying "you stop for a drink and move on", you can actually use the taverns as a chance to legitimately relax, have people roleplay... maybe even distract the players while you work on what's coming up next.

Basically, this product isn't an absolute must for every GM - but it's not hard to imagine it being useful, and that makes it worth taking a look at. Let's see how good it is at accomplishing this goal.

THE ANGELIC IMP

This is the first tavern. The visual aspects of the tavern are introduced on the left-side column, while further details - food, rumors, and events - are on the right. This is an area where I think future products could be improved a bit - the introduction of the tavern is clearly meant to be read aloud, but some of the other material isn't. If you're in a hurry, you might read something aloud you weren't intending to. A little bit of a formatting change to improve the separation between "read to players" and "just you, GM" would be good here.

The description itself is quite nice, though, going into enough detail to help players get a good sense of what the tavern is like. Basically, this tavern is an upscale location, the kind people go for romantic dinners or respectable business meetings, and everything inside was designed accordingly.

The next page contains two tables - rumors and events, both involving dice rolls for randomness. Both are mainly used for jump-starting sidequests - the rumors explain what's going on, while the events leave it up to you and require either decent improvisation skills or writing out the adventures yourself.

Finally, there are two pages of NPCs - mostly description, though statblocks are provided for several of them.

The other two taverns follow in this fashion - introduction, rumors and events, and finally the people inside. Blackberry Bill's - the second tavern - is a simple stone building that works quite well for anywhere your characters might visit on the road (assuming you're not, y'know, in the middle of the desert or something), while the Pattering Platypus seems like it would work best as an inner-city location (or at least be on a trade route with lots of supplies).

FORMATTING

As mentioned above, I think the main thing to fix with formatting is the separation between GM material and what players should be told. Another proofreading run wouldn't hurt, either - the Rumors section for the Pattering Platypus tells us "Taverns are both an excellent source of rumors.", and I'd like to know what else they're a good source of. Besides drunk NPCs, that is.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite my concerns with the formatting, Trio of Taverns is a fairly solid product for the price, and I think it does do what it set out to - provide you with some pre-generated buildings, complete with maps, that you can let your players have some fun with. The rumors and events are the true focus of the product - ways of livening up an otherwise forgettable evening the characters would be having - and with more than 30 of those spread across the taverns, you'll have enough sidequest ideas for quite some time. If you enjoy running your games this way, Trio of Taverns is worth considering.

Overall, I rate it about 4/5 - it's a good product with room for improvement.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this product for the purpose of writing a review. I have not been compensated in any other way for writing this.

This book is essentially a condensed version of the full Bite Me guide, and it focuses entirely on Werewolves as player characters - specifically, as a race (13 RP), with full rules and options for playing them as a variety of classes. Racial Archetypes are limited to Rangers and Oracles, but it does include a section on equipment, a number of feats, and several magical items to further expand your thematic options.

If you're waffling between this or the full Gaming Guide to Lycanthropes, though, I recommend getting the full guide instead - it's more comprehensive, has more options, and in general might help you have even more fun. Despite that, this bite-sized book remains a solid product in its own right, still worth getting if you really want to play a werewolf and aren't too concerned about other options.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this product by the publisher - Misfit Studios - for the purpose of writing this review. I have not been compensated in any other way for this review.

Overview:

As you're probably guessed by the title, the [i]Bite Me[/i] series is about playing Lycanthropes - and this review covers two products. The first is "The Gaming Guide to Lycanthropes", while the second is simply "Werewolves", focused entirely on the most iconic class. Both products came with printer-friendly versions.

The Gaming Guide to Lycanthropes (hereafter "Gaming Guide", or simply "Guide") comes in at 126 pages total in the PDF, almost all of which is content.

This is an IN-DEPTH review, so if all you want is the conclusion and whether or not it's worth buying, feel free to jump to the end.

The Guide:

The Gaming Guide opens with a brief forward, explaining the history and ideas that went into the creation of this book.

Chapter One: Playing Lycanthropes

This chapter focuses on how to actually play a shapeshifting character in a game. The first major issue that comes up is the difference between Natural and Afflicted lycanthropes. Now, for those who don't already know, Pathfinder does feature two types of lycanthropes - Afflicted Lycanthropes follow the traditional "You're cursed and lose control" style (and is what player characters are most threatened with), while Natural Lycanthropes generally have full control of their powers (these are the type you might meet as, oh, the leader of a pack of werewolves out in the woods). The Gaming Guide promptly defines a number of terms as used in the book to help clarify all differences, and gives both rules and ideas for playing either type.

Following this bit is one of the most important sections for players - dealing with Lycanthropy, and more specifically, what happens when you get it (either as an affliction or as something you start the game with). The advice here is quite solid (and focuses on making sure everyone is still having fun, always an important consideration). If you really want to play a lycanthrope, then read this section in full - it'll help.

I was especially fond of the advice for roleplaying a lycanthrope - the most heavily-personalized characters tend to be the most interesting, and there's more than a few words on how to make a character you'll remember for a long time to come.

Following this is a section for GMs - how to run lycanthropes in games, make sure the players are all having fun, and generally keep things moving along. And let's face it, Lycanthropy IS one of the weirder things that can happen to a game (especially if it's Afflicted, and there are times when the players aren't in control of their own character). It's not just advice for the players, either - there's world-building advice, too, to make sure the rest of your game can react in a believable way.

Somewhat amusingly, this chapter even has a section on what to do if a player brings the book to you, asking to play a natural lycanthrope.

After this, we have a section on the different aspects of lycanthropes (animal type, spellcasting ability, speech, the scent power, and so on) and how they might affect the game. Advice is also given for the appearance of silver weapons and dealing with other things that might affect the character in different ways at different times. This is excellent material to be familiar with, and all of it is presented in a straightforward format for easy reference.

The section continues with a discussion of the differences in power between natural lycanthropes and afflicted ones. At this point, it's probably worth noting that there are three functional ways of becoming a lycanthrope: templates, racial classes, and race. As the book points out, nobody wants to use racial classes, and the templates aren't necessarily a good way of playing a lycanthrope. That leaves them as a racial option - for natural lycanthropes, at least, as afflicted generally remains a template - and the Gaming Guide strongly supports this method of balancing things.

Moving on, we have an in-depth section on playing natural lycanthropes as a race, complete with a broad selection of base animals (with varying statistic choices), background on community and social life, and a number of alternate racial traits, standard traits, favored class options, and even equipment that natural lycanthropes are likely to use. Supporting feats are also available, as are magical items (including an evil one that [i]looks[/i] like a valuable Ring of Protection until the night of the full moon... muwahahahaha). This chapter closes out with some spells and a few samples of natural lycanthropes.

Chapter Two: Archetypes

It's exactly what it sounds like. People don't want racial classes, but archetypes for existing classes may be seen as far more favorable, and options exist for Alchemists, Barbarians, Bards, Cavaliers, Clerics, Druids, Fighters, Gunslingers (named, for some reason, 'Gunfighter' - typo?), Inquisitors, Magus, Monks, Oracles, Paladins, Rangers, Rogues, Sorcerers, Summoners, Witches, and Wizards.

So, basically, most of the classes in the game (except the newest). XD An Occult Adventures supplement might not be a bad idea. I'm not going to go into great detail on the overall balance or value of each option - if you're playing a Lycanthrope, you're probably doing it for flavor anyway, and all of these archetypes are about enhancing your ability to do that. It's an EXCELLENT addition to the book, and in my mind, one of the biggest points of value. You're not just "a Barbarian that happens to be a Werebear". Now you can actually integrate your class into your race properly, and I'd recommend doing so if you're going to play a lycanthrope at all. ...For your first time doing it, at least.

Chapter Three: Wereblooded

This chapter presents another racial choice - Wereblooded, a 6 RP race (that's below humans, for those who aren't familiar with the system) based around the theme of being descended from lycanthropes. The guide notes that they're a lot like half-orcs, aasimar, and tieflings in that they're the scion of different ancestries, and the low RP cost means they should be easily balanced enough for any game you're running. An alternate option is available for monstrous Wereblooded, who act as a 12 RP race.

Basically, this section is for getting some of the flavor and power of lycanthropy without going full-on furry - lycanthropy lite, as it were. If you're not sure about whether or not to allow lycanthropes in your game, this can be a good compromise point that allows both the player and the GM to see how these characters feel. Sample Wereblooded are included.

Chapter Four: Minor Wereblooded

This part is an expansion to the previous chapter, covering a number of less-common racial options. (The main Wereblooded are Cats, Wolves, and Bears - this chapter goes for things like Bats, Rats, Sharks, Mantises... stuff like that.)

Numerous examples - quite usable as NPCs, complete with plot ideas - are given.

Chapter Five: Skindancers

This chapter presents a 12 RP race that lives alongside lycanthropic society, albeit in a somewhat horrifying fashion given their racial history. As with the other races in this book, enough information is presented for both players and GMs to figure out how the character should be played and how they'd fit into the world. Racial subtypes with alternate options, favored class options, and even race-specific archetypes are all included.

Chapter Six: The Duke's Tramp

The book ends with a short story, and I don't think you'll have much trouble guessing what type of character it's about. XD

Conclusion

Together, the Bite Me books are [i]extremely[/i] solid - if focused - additions for Pathfinder. Great thought was put into these books, with an emphasis on fairness, fun, and expanding player opportunities to play shapeshifting characters instead of limiting them to narrow concepts. If you really want to play lycanthropes - or introduce them as a significant part of your world - these books are worth picking up.

Lycanthropes aren't for every game, but if you're going to play them at all, then Bite Me will help you play them well.