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[PFRPG] Legendary V: Eastern and Exotic Weapons $4.00
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[PFRPG] Legendary V: Eastern and Exotic Weapons
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[PFRPG] Legendary V: Eastern and Exotic Weapons
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Kenneth A. C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/04/2012 02:46:00

Before reading my review, you should probably know that I've been collaborating with the great guys at Purple Duck Games on several projects and that I received a free copy of this product. However, I have nothing invested in this product and feel that I can speak freely.

Eastern and exotic weapons? Yes, we are talking about the katana, kusarigama, naginata, bo staff and my favorite, the fighting fan. I've seen just as many japanese martial art films as the next guy, and while I love the films (such as hidden dragon, crouching tiger, hero etc.), I loath playing in such a setting. However, I'll try to keep my personal preferences out of this and give a more neutral review (if possible).

So what is this all about? Basically, legendary weapons are weapons that are supposed to follow the PCs throughout their entire carrier, growing in power as the PCs grow in power. I really like this idea, although I have yet to implement it in any of the games that I run. This pdf, of course, presents weapons with an eastern feel. I guess the exotic part is due to most of the weapons being exotic.

You'll find weaponslike the sickle called Blood Flower (a weapon created specifically for a witch's familiar), Kowarenai (a katana based around honor and loyalty, allowing the wielder to protect his allies), Stormslayer (a naginata that has the awesome ability to tame lightning and send it against another), Totsuzen No Arashi (a fighting fan create to be easy to hide at court, with some cool abilities like the one that allows the wielder to call a protean lacky). There are 15 legendary weapons in this pdf and not only do you get description and powers, you also get the important information (such as weapon stats, magic weapon special abilities, a monster and spell).

The layout is simple and easy to use. Personally, I much prefer this two column layout than the one column layout that they used in their first legendary pdf. The artwork is fairly simple, but works well with the weapon descriptions. I only found a couple of typos/mistakes (nothing to really disturb my reading), but what really bothered me was, that sometimes the magic items/spells are in italics (as I think they should), but most of the times, they are not. I like the spells/magic items to be in italics, which makes them easier to discern and find should you need them.

Lastly, the weapons seems perfectly balanced, and if you like an eastern feel, these weapons are certainly for you. The pdf also presents some guidelines if you wanted to make your own legendary weapons, and of course, a small location in the Lands of the GOW.

Personally, I would probably give this pdf a 3 star verdict (because I would need to work on these a bit to make them work in my current setting), but to be fair, the writing is pretty good (with some original ideas), the mechanics work and feels balanced and you really get a lot for your money, so I'll settle on a 4 star verdict.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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[PFRPG] Legendary V: Eastern and Exotic Weapons
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Dark M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/24/2011 19:48:25

Legendary Eastern and Exotic Weapons by Purple Duck Publishing

This product is 28 pages long. It starts with a cover, ToC, intro, and credits. (2 pages)

Legendary Eastern and Exotic Weapons (21 pages) It jumps right into the first weapon. Each one levels with the character, they are from level 1-10, gaining in power at character levels 1-20. Each one has a history, requirements and full information on it's powers and abilities. Below is a list of each weapon and the types of powers it posses. Just to give a reader a general idea of what the weapons are like. It has weapon stats for any new weapons.

AKIO – magical star knife, true strike, throwing, returning, shadow powers. BLOOD FLOWER – Magical Sickle, beast shape, summon natures ally, Ally(lets some of it's + magic to be given to another allies weapon) and Blood Flower Rite, lets others deliver touch spells for you. BREATHSTEALER – magical Kusarigama, short teleport, defense bonus, knowledge and confusion. BROTHERHOOD – Magical butterfly sword, that can be used as a single sword or two, spell resistance, healing, hunting, nature powers. KOKATSUNA – Magical Rope Dart, trick shot, illusions, dazzle, enthrall. KOWARENAI – magical Katana, protection/walls vs chaos, shield/protect others, bring the user back to life sometimes. LIBERATOR – magical Nodachi, obscuring mist, prayer, provoke, demoralize, hit at a range. NIGHTBANE – magical Khopesh, water based powers, true sight, smite. RHAPSODY OF SHARDS – Scorpion whip, bleed attack, blade barrier, spell storing, pain/pleasure, color spray. SHIZUKANA – Sai, charm, mercy, disarm, spell disarm. STORMSLAYER – Naginata, storm powers (wind, cold, lightning), identify, dispel magic. TAIYO TSUJKI – Meteor Hammer, dispel law/chaos, balance (ability scores), calm emotions, remove disease. TANGLED FATE – net, hard to escape, self mending, dimensional anchor, animate to attack, energy drain. Minorly cursed. TOTSUZEN NO ARASHI – Fighting Fan, illusion powers, throw, detect poison, watery escape, protean lackey. (could have really used the return ability) – includes a new spell and a stat block for the NPC lackey. WORLD’S AUTUMN – Bo Staff, sleep, see beyond the veil, freedom of movement, ki focus.

It ends with a OGL, contact info, advice on how to make your own weapons, and ads. (5 pages) Closing thoughts. The art work is black and white and good. Editing and format are good I didn't notice any errors. The weapons have interesting history, some unique powers and abilities. It has a nice Asian flavor to the weapons. While they are well done it is not perfect. I think the fighting fan needed the return ability and the save DC's on some powers might not scale very well. It would be easy to fix though. So what's my rating? I am giving this a 4 star, it is good with some rough edges.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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[PFRPG] Legendary V: Eastern and Exotic Weapons
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/21/2011 06:10:34

This pdf is 28 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1/2 a page editorial, 4 pages SRD, leaving 22 1/2 pages for the new legendary weapons, so let's check them out, shall we?

Legendary items have become a staple of my home-brew games and the concept is cool and iconic - the items improve with the level of their wielder, gaining new powers, have their own background story and requirements. I love how the iconic weapons at once offer plot hooks and combat magic item inflation. The series has come a long way from rather standard abilities to far-out, well-designed and most importantly, unique weapons and that being said, this installment of Purple Duck Games' Legendary series focuses on uncommon, exotic weapons.

The exotic weapons herein range over kusari-gama, sickles, nodachis, katanas, war-fans, starknives, rope-darts to a net and even a meteor hammer - the coolest array of basic weapons yet to feature in an installment of the legendary series. Even better than the base weapons is the fact that EACH of the weapons has some sort of cool, unique ability that goes beyond adding quality xyz to a weapon: From the ability to use half the ability drain/damage suffered to enhance another score by half that value to the scorpion whip's ability to inflict pain or pleasure in the foes hit by it, the weapons come with unique, cool abilities as well as aptly-written background stories. HOWEVER, unfortunately not all is well: While the abilities of the legendary weapons are based on the wielder's highest mental ability score, this results in rather low save-DCs. On a whole, I had the impression that scaling DCs would have been much more appropriate, especially due to the fact that several abilities are not based on spells and rather unique. While this is easily remedied by setting a fixed DC of 10 + 1/2 character level + mental attribute modifier, I still would have loved for the pdf to include this information - the unique abilities deserve as much.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good, I only noticed minor punctuation errors. Layout adheres to the printer-friendly two-column standard and the b/w-artworks for the weapons rock, especially for the very fair price. The pdf also comes with extensive bookmarks. Content-wise, I enjoyed the background stories, the signature abilities, the weapon-choices - just about everything. Were it not for the aforementioned DC-problem, I'd rate this immediately 5 stars and slap my seal of approval on it. Due to the non-scaling DCs that make some abilities rather weak, I'll settle for a final verdict of 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 and encourage you to buy this. If you're also feeling that the DCs are too low, feel free to try out my proposed solution and post about it.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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[PFRPG] Legendary V: Eastern and Exotic Weapons
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/12/2011 02:22:11

Legendary weapons can be really FUN! Not just for the character lucky enough to wield one, but for the GM as well. Did you know that they can get jealous...? I for one would find it perturbing if the tools of my trade were getting miffed with me.

So here we have a selection of legendary weapons, the sort that young heroes acquire early in their careers and which grow with them, all of an unusual nature to Western eyes. Legendary indeed, perhaps something that nobody else uses, never mind the special powers that acrue... potential for some interesting quests to strange and exotic parts of the campaign world just to find out how to use the weapon to full effect, seeking tutelage from some ancient guru. (I like that, not just another weapons catalogue, but one which starts to spawn adventure ideas as I flick through it!)

Each weapon comes complete with backstory that gives not merely a rationale to the powers it confers on its owner, but ideas about what it might want from the relationship: particular actions or styles it might require, or quests that must be fulfilled. An assassin's weapon that coerces each successive owner into becoming the ultimate assassin himself... a fighting iron that once belonged to a warrior who made battlefield control an art form, and confers similar cunning on new wielders - or moves on to someone else forthwith.... a rope dart used by a geisha to right wrongs and said to appear in the hands of those who would defend those who cannot defend themselves... each weapon comes with a wealth of detail that builds plot ideas, whole campaigns even, as you read about them. And there's a nice illustration too, useful if you don't happen to be an expert in unusual Oriental weaponry.

Whether you are running an Oriental-flavour campaign or want to introduce a really unusual weapon into your standard cod-mediaeval European-style world, there are ideas here that could readily grow into... well, legend. Can't ask for more than that!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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