An alternate magic system for Pathfinder games with an Eastern influence, Sutra Magic involves prayers written on paper and used for protection against infernal creatures.

This book contains a new feat (Sutra Caster) that is available to any class (but spellcasting classes gain a feat bonus), and 17 sutras. As with all other products I have seen from Rite Publishing, the layout and art are excellent, and the writing clear and concise. This is a great product for anyone interested in bringing some Eastern flavor to their campaign.

Sutra Magic adds an additional level of complexity, and resources to be tracked, for those characters using them and it does provide a considerable amount of additional power for such characters as well. That being said, Sutra Magic is very thematic to certain campaign settings and looks quite fun to use. But games master should be careful that it does not tip the power balance too much toward users of Sutra Magic.

Sutra Magic is a 17-page PDF (13-pages if you remove the covers and OGL pages) for Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved/Jade Oath and Pathfinder written by Frank Carr and published by Rite Publishing. This is part of Rite Publishing’s Jade Oath support.

The layout is a standard 2-column design. The art is confined to a full color cover with a couple of other pieces that support the theme of this product. The charts are color enhanced to make them easily readable.

Sutras are a sort of magic unlocked by faith and activated by inscribing them (and mechanically by taking a feat) onto ofuda. The ofudas come in various forms: protective, warding and a few offensive ones. They are especially effective against creatures classified as infernals. Ofuda can even be formed into temporary magic items. The ofuda scale up with the effective level of the caster making some of them quite potent at the highest levels.

The use of the sutras is interesting as anyone who meets the requirements and takes the feat can use them, but classes that are aligned with the faith behind the sutras are, naturally, better at them. This allows for the creation of characters such as the Taoist warrior-mystics who can call upon very limited magics to supplement their combat skills when combating evil.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.