Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-genius-guide-to.html

Rogue Genius Games does a LOT of great stuff. Their "Talented" line for various classes was always something I wanted to look into, but since I haven't been playing Pathfinder all that much so I never bought any of them. But of course, I had to buy the Talented Witch.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews, moreover, many of the people involved with these products are people I have worked with in the past. So I am going to try be extra careful in how I review these.

The Genius Guide to the Talented Witch

PDF ($4.95) and Softcover Print Options, 57 pages. 1 cover, 1 table of contents, 1 credits, 1 OGL, rest content. Color cover and interior art.

There is a lot to like about this really. The cover art is from the late Marcum Curlee and features an interesting trio of witches. There is art from Other Side friends Jacob E. Blackmon, Brian Brinlee, and Gary Dupuis. I really love the art, but that is expected. Hell, even that Morpheus font is like they are flirting with me.

The talented witch is a little different than the base Witch class in the Pathfinder book. It gets various Edges and Talents at alternate levels. These largely replace all the powers of the witch, including the Hexes.

Edges are first and there are 40 of these. Edges are a lot like Feats in how they are presented. They include Combat, Cunning, Elemental, Hag, Patron, Spellcasting, and Spellcasting Conduits. Hag for example can give the Edges of Bite or Claws to do damage.

Talents are more like magical powers, like Hexes, and also have groupings. There are 140 of these in Blessing, Crafting, Curse, Necromancy, Personal, Spellcasting, and Utility. There are also Major and Grand Talents. Talents that are Hexes are marked with an asterisk.

The idea here is customization. Basically, if you can imagine a witch, you could build it from these options. There is a dizzying array of choices here. There is even an appendix on familiars here and another on patrons and a compiled witch spell list from various Pathfinder products.

There is an absolute ton of information here and more than I know what to do with.

One thing I didn't like about the book was the huge border around all the text. It makes the book pretty, but it is not as efficient when it comes to displaying the text.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-genius-guide-to.html

Rogue Genius Games does a LOT of great stuff. Their "Talented" line for various classes was always something I wanted to look into, but since I haven't been playing Pathfinder all that much so I never bought any of them. But of course, I had to buy the Talented Witch.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews, moreover, many of the people involved with these products are people I have worked with in the past. So I am going to try be extra careful in how I review these.

The Genius Guide to More Witch Talents

PDF. ($2.95) 25 pages. 1 cover, 1 table of contents, 1 credits page, 1 OGL page.

This adds more Edges and Talents to the witch class.

This gives us 5 new edges and 95 new witch Talents. And I thought I had options before. Talents that are Hexes are marked with an asterisk.

This one leans more into the curses which are nice.

Like the Genius Guide to the Talented Witch, this book provides a lot of options for nearly any sort of witch. Also, like that book the art here is really good.

I am not exactly sure where or when the Talented idea came about but checking the Rogue Genius Games listings there are lot of these. I am not sure how they change the game, but I do love the ideas here as a designer and player of witch classes. As a player, it would also be fantastic especially if you love character customizations. As a Game Master, keeping track of all of this would be a bit of a chore I think.

I'd have to print these both out I think to get a real feel for them.

One thing I didn't like about the book was the huge border around all the text. It makes the book pretty, but it is not as efficient when it comes to displaying the text.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-witches-brews.html

Witches' Brews & Potions

PDF. 9 pages. 1 cover, 1 title/contents page. Interestingly enough, no OGL.

The is largely a set of tables and various notes on brewing various items including potions, but nothing game-specific.

Given the randomness of the tables they work, but produce all sorts of strange results. Now sometimes this is great, but for a game like Pathfinder or d20 D&D there are very specific ingredients used. It would be good for an OSR-style game.

Since the material here is not really game-specific it would work for any sort of game really.

I could use this as a GM tool to get me started, but I tend to make potions that have very specific ingredients related to their effects.

The best use for me would be to use it to determine what any one particular witch has in her cupboards. Now that idea makes this product much more useful to me!

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 9th level spells. The Pathfinder book has 22 spells. The Third Party book has 109 spells. Total of 60 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 9th level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 8th level spells. The Pathfinder book has 28 spells. The Third Party book has 122 spells. Total of 62 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 8th level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 7th level spells. The Pathfinder book has 40 spells. The Third Party book has 131 spells. Total of 64 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 7th level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 6th level spells. The Pathfinder book has 39 spells. The Third Party book has 142 spells. Total of 74 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 6th level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 5th level spells. The Pathfinder book has 51 spells. The Third Party book has 163 spells. Total of 74 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 5th level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 4th level spells. The Pathfinder book has 70 spells. The Third Party book has 188 spells. Total of 76 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 4th level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 3rd level spells. The Pathfinder book has 88 spells. The Third Party book has 221 spells. Total of 86 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 3rd level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 2nd level spells. The Pathfinder book has 107 spells. The Third Party book has 251 spells. Total of 90 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 2nd level Witch Spells.

Full review of all the products in this series can be found here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Two books. One straight from the Pathfinder SRD and the other from all other 3rd Party spells. Both books cover 1st level spells. The Pathfinder book has 83 spells. The Third Party book has 200 spells. Total of 70 pages. Fully hyperlinked index and full OGL. Very useful for every Pathfinder GM and for witch characters.

All of these represents a lot of hard work on the part of the author to collate all of these spells and get them into proper shape.

Choose this product if all you need are 1st level Witch Spells.

Review of the combined book here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

This bundle is designed for people that want all of the spells, but want them split up my level into seperate books.

This compiled collection covers both spells from various Pathfinder products and the 3rd Party Pathfinder products. There is no fluff. Very little art. Here is how each book breaks down. There is a cover page, and OGL statement of Open Content page, a table of contents, and two pages on what this book is. For the Pathfinder book there is three pages of OGL. For the 3rd Party book there are seven pages for the OGL. There is a hyperlinked index for both and hyperlinked table of contents.

The rest is solid text of spells.

And by spells. I mean every single witch spell ever published by the date of this book. The 3rd Party book for example has nearly 30 pages of cantrips, 50 pages of 1st level spells, 60 2nd level spells and so on.

The spells are given an editorial clean-up so that they all look similar and can flow well.

What these books lack (and were never trying to cover) is all the fluff or explanatory pieces that might go with the background of a spell. For example "Air Bubble" mentions a firearm can be loaded within an Air Bubble, but makes no attempt to explain anything more. This is perfectly within the scope of this product.

You might ask if you buy this does that get rid of the need to buy other Pathfinder spell books? I say no since there is nothing here but the spells. Other products often have the spells, explanatory notes, monsters, feats, and items that might go with them. These books are a fancy SRDs. Highly organized and very useful ones at that.

If you are like me this is a treasure trove.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-echelon-reference.html

Today I want to explore the amazing reference that is the Echelon Reference Series from Keith Davies. There are a bunch of these, but I am going to focus my attention on the witch.

Echelon Reference Series: Witch Spells Compiled (3pp+PRD)

2 PDFs. $33.99. 186 pages (PF) and 544 pages (3PP).

Yes. 730 pages total. This compiled collection covers both spells from various Pathfinder products and the 3rd Party Pathfinder products. There is no fluff. Very little art. Here is how each book breaks down. There is a cover page, and OGL statement of Open Content page, a table of contents, and two pages on what this book is. For the Pathfinder book there is three pages of OGL. For the 3rd Party book there are seven pages for the OGL. There is a hyperlinked index for both and hyperlinked table of contents.

The rest is solid text of spells.

And by spells. I mean every single witch spell ever published by the date of this book. The 3rd Party book for example has nearly 30 pages of cantrips, 50 pages of 1st level spells, 60 2nd level spells and so on.

The spells are given an editorial clean-up so that they all look similar and can flow well.

What these books lack (and were never trying to cover) is all the fluff or explanatory pieces that might go with the background of a spell. For example "Air Bubble" mentions a firearm can be loaded within an Air Bubble, but makes no attempt to explain anything more. This is perfectly within the scope of this product.

The number of spells break down as follows:

Witch 3pp Cantrips: 123
1st level: 200
2nd level: 251
3rd level: 221
4th level: 188
5th level: 163
6th level: 142
7th level: 131
8th level: 122
9th level: 109 Total 1,650

Witch Prd Cantrips: 15
1st level: 83
2nd level: 107
3rd level: 88
4th level: 70
5th level: 51
6th level: 39
7th level: 40
8th level: 28
9th level: 22 Total 543

That's insane really.

He also has these per level and for every spell casting class in Pathfinder.

You might ask if you buy this does that get rid of the need to buy other Pathfinder spell books? I say no since there is nothing here but the spells. Other products often have the spells, explanatory notes, monsters, feats, and items that might go with them. These books are a fancy SRDs. Highly organized and very useful ones at that.

If you are like me this is a treasure trove.

Time to get down with some OG World of Darkness. So much that has been written about Lilith in RPGs can be traced back to two sources. This is the first.

Revelations of the Dark Mother

PDF. 126 pages.

Once upon a time, White Wolf focused more on plot and background.

This is a crunch-lite, fluf-heavy book that deals with Lilith, the mother of all Vampires (so to speak), and maybe Mages as well in the original World of Darkness.

This is nice since I can drop it into any other game I like and it is a great background. If you have any interest in the subject of Lilith then this is a fun read.

This was written by Phil Brucato (with additional authors) who is pretty much the expert in everything Mage. So from the start you know this is going to be some deep WoD material.

The art is by Rebecca Guay, Eric Hotz, and Vince Locke with the covers designed by art director Aileen E. Miles. I call this out because the art in the book is really quite good. Even given that this is 20+ year old book. Every portrait or portrayal of Lilith is evocative. You captured in Lilith's tale in these and makes this more than just another game book. This book feels like a coffee table book (in the best possible way) that happens to be connected to a game world.

It is stunning and still a work of art all these years later.