Occult Archetypes

A special thanks to Legendary Games for providing a review copy for this product.

Occult Archetypes is from publisher Legendary Games, a brand that frequently produces great products. Often they are divided into different categories based on Paizo adventure paths they allude to plug into but also in-house settings and entire modes of play under Pathfinder. In this case this is an 'occult plug-in' meaning that its all about Occult Adventures and the options that it presents with new archetypes and other options. There are a little over 20 archetypes in its 40 pages (along with some reprinted rules such as spells from the Technology Guide and Wizard elemental schools).

Being rather young classes, the Occult classes definitely need some room for growth and flavor and this product brings it.

The Kineticist archetypes brings us a radiation-based kineticist that's alignment-locked into non-good. One gives us a kineticist with some psychic spells. But other than that I feel like the archetypes are mostly cosmetic in the sense that they don't change any of the basic dynamics of the class although there are some cool concepts with importing some class features like channel energy and the oracle's curse. That's not to say that they are boring. There's some concepts that are mostly a matter of flavor but are really cool, like the archetype that sources the Kineticist abilities from an item rather than the character itself producing a kind of Green Lantern feel.

Some of the Medium's archetypes are obvious. Get a druidic caster mode and a psychic caster mode with archetypes to support it and also a short archetypes that tweaks a little with a lot of impact.

Mesmerist gets just two but I wasn't terribly interested in them. They give some new flavor to Mesmerist when the class is pretty narrow but I feel represent a flavor already handled by other classes. One even sprinkles a bit of Bard in there which is just blasphemy to me.

I'm a bit biased against the Psychic so this one is pretty subjective but I really am not feeling the archetypes inside. They are most pretty much a psychic only kind of like another class, particularly gaining some items from Wizard and Monk like Wizard Schools, Wizard Elemental Schools, all good saves and evasion. One even gets prepared casting. If you already a fan of the Psychic class these are pretty aggressively interesting changes that expand expectations of how the class operates but I kind of saw the Psychic as a different casting Sorcerer so adopting class features from other classes just transfers the class's boringness to a class other than Sorcerer.

The Spiritualist is another class that feels like a New Coke version of another, in this case the Summoner, and this book doesn't help by presenting an archetypes that makes the spirit even more like an eidolon. But there's also two other archetypes that give something new are imported from the occultist which are more exciting.

There's a revision on how to deal with psychic abilities with monsters to make it more in line with how spell like abilities work in monsters along with revised entries for those abilities from the more recent psychic creatures. I do have a beef with this. Not the fact that they did it or anything but there's a table for that right in the middle of the Psychic's archetypes that takes up a full page instead of it being right after the page that explains it, which is slightly confusing. Also I'm not fond of mixing some GM information in archetype books (player information) unless its a bigger book that covers a broad amount of categories of a topic. Especially since it's about six and a half pages of stuff I may or may not use really.

On a rules and rules language front I didn't notice any problems with Occult Archetypes. There are a few archetypes that are inspirational and open up new concepts and others I feel reeks of gridfilling mechanics onto the new classes. Overall its a worthwhile buy. At it's worst about half of it contains interesting archetypes that bring you closer to new concepts that you may have had trouble with before and at it's best almost all the archetypes give you a new dynamic to it's respective class and you can easily make psy-like abilities work the same way other spells work instead of being something new and weird. Honestly most of the things that I was less than thrilled with is a victim of how expanded Pathfinder is to me. Like the very concept of a fiend hunter mesmerist gives something new to the mesmerist but between almost all the divine classes, Slayer and Ranger I think I've had my fill of the concept and I don't see what the Mesmerist brings to it. But on the other hand the Mesmerist has something new to do that's interesting. Meanwhile there's straight gems like the Poison Earth Kineticist that uses radiation. I want to give this a 4 out of 5 because there's a significant chunk that I don't really care about but I think that if I look at it objectively its a solid product that expands what the occult classes can do without being huge nerfs or being overpowered so I'm bumping it to a 5 out of 5 for what it is.

You can find this over on Paizo.com here.

Tides of War: Magus/X Feats

First of all, a big thanks to Flying Pincushion for the review copy. 

The Tides of War series from Flying Pincushion has had a huge upswing and a huge downswing making this one a bit of a gamble but with high rewards. Lets see where the pendulum swings in this installment where we get some multiclass enabling Magus feats.

Now I'm not stranger to multiclassing feats. Rogue Genius Games did a book a while back with a bunch of them, some poaching class features while others actually required you multiclass. Here out of the six pages of the pdf, as with the previous Tides of War, we get only a few pages of content. For this one it's two, or more two and a half.

Some of the feats let you use your arcane pool in new ways that interact with class features from another class. You can use your arcane pool to reduce the penalty of mutagens, issue extra challenges, get more rounds of Bardic Performance/Raging Song, or get more Rage.

You can also spellstrike from outside your spell list. get benefits from killing targets of your smite or favored enemy, re-target Hex targets,

One of the more interesting ones is one that lets you spend arcane points when using a Kinetic Blade to use your hit die as your caster level for the spell.

For the most part these feats definitely do some enabling. They are simple and to the point but actually do quite a bit to make multiclassing with a Magus viable. Best of all they are written very clearly and there's a variety of ways that they help. For feats you get some hefty bonuses but really you'd have to because in all honesty some of the class combinations aren't that great and multiclassing in Pathfinder can be kind of a bust in the first place. I'd give this a full 5 out of 5 stars. It does its job and does it well and in a short amount of time. Besides that you also get some actual incentive to mix the classes more without a single trap option in the mix. Bravo.

You can find this over on Paizo.com Here.

You can find this over on DriverthruRPG.com Here.

Into the Breach: The Magus (2nd Wave)

 Big thanks to Flying Pincushion for the review copy.

Previously Flying Pincushion was publishing under d20pfsrd.com Publishing and while there they put  out two Into the Breach series books covering the Magus and the Summoner. The Summoner was the first and while its original iteration was kind of lackluster but imaginative the revision and eratta made things much better. Unfortunately the Magus book did not get the same treatment and that was too bad because I really didn't like that book. Fortunately under their own banner Flying Pincushion released a new Magus book following their current styles and format.

At the beginning I'm immediately met with a bit of disappointment. Going through the archetypes I notice a lot of rules language that is either missing information that's needed to fully function, is drastically non-standard to the point  archetypes with similar changes don't have the same rules language or don't seem like they would work in the context of what the game actually does.

 For example; I really like the Mistblade, an archetype that makes illusionary doubles, despite missing crucial information on what save or skill check is required to disbelieve it, since whether or not it provides a flanking bonus depends on whether or not the opponent is aware that it is an illusion. It also implies that the doubles can be destroyed but no way to destroy them. One ability that makes them capable of dealing damage probably solves this problem and it can go away with a slight bit of houseruling but I hate having to do eratta work when it comes to player information.

There's also a habit of pricing abilities that use the arcane pool or arcane pool equivalent after the whole thing is described which isn't erroneous just a bit irritating.

Then there's minor things like "[Magus Archetype] gains one or more evolution points" where the 'or more' part throws me for a loop. Also minor is one archetype with abilities that function on a per combat basis which really irks me.

But it's not all bad news. Plenty of the archetypes function fine

I like the Fate's Edge. Its pretty precise when it comes to rules language and it has some neat abilities. It loses the enhancement bonus and gets a sort of future vision state that buffs it and allows it to use some other abilities. I absolutely love the Force Bulwark, an archetype that specializes in making force barriers. I even like the archetypes that have some kind of rules language that I don't like. You get a magus that can turn into a giant, teleport, create clones and so on, and really not that many are affected by undesirable rules language. The archetypes are imaginative and have strong ties to their themes. Not just that but they are actual themes not just ways to push a boring old magus that has a slight tweak.

The only ones that I really frown on are the elemental ones. There are two fire-themed archetypes here and while they do some cool stuff one. Then there is the Elemental Champion. The Elemental Champion is stable but relatively boring. It doesn't really solve the problem I have with elemental themed magi, in that its hard to find good touch spells for all the elements. But i could be suffering from being spoiled by other options. With other third party classes I have more than a mouthful of elemental themed gishes and even when just accounting for Paizo options there's plenty of ways to go elemental. This one just isn't doing it for me.

Following the archetypes are two new prestige classes.  One is a magus/alchemist mix that specifically requires the Hummunculist Alchemist archetype. I'm not esactly a fan as it suffers from a bit of rules language I don't like for it's bomb-spellstrike and it was not exciting to me but it's otherwise functional for what it is.   The other is a more nimbly magus. Rules language is still an obstacle. There's an obvious shortcut to what it does that the class doesn't take which makes the whole thing a little more difficult to understand. Its not one hundred percent functional but rules as intended is very clear.

We get one new feat that is a metamagic feat that interacts with fire spells.  (Again with the fire)

Before OGL credits we have five new spells. All of them are pretty nice. There's a duo of, for lack of better terms, lightsaber spells that create a beam of energy that I really like. I especially like the one that causes weapons to burrow into a target's body.

This one I'm conflicted about. In most of the options the rules as intended is very easy to get and I really like the archetype options, the writers did an excellent job thinking outside the box and bringing to the table archetypes that matter and grant a new play experience. It is miles ahead of it's predecessor in every way. But on the other hand there are plenty of niggling rules weirdness making some abilities difficult to fully grasp without GM oversight, and some rules language that makes an ability non-functional as its written. I'll probably have to give this three out of five stars. It may creep up to a 4 star if you're perfectly fine with making additional clarifications but I personally feel like it's at 3 stars.

You can find this over on Paizo.com here.

New Paths Compendium

I have a lot of love for Kobold Press' products and it starts with New Paths Compendium, my first Kobold Press purchase. This book fills in a lot of mechanical gaps and adds a lot of flavorful options that I use constantly. If you want to add meaningful options to your game from new classes that just 'fit' and options that expand your Gunslinger, Monk and others you need this book. Five stars for being such a huge boost to my games.

You can find this over on Paizo.com here.

Retrospective:

My old review doesn't convey how good this product is because other reviews on Paizo.com already go into a lot of details so I just wanted to add my stars to the mix. I mentioned this a few times on this blog before and usually use the term 'gridfilling' and in the most satisfying of ways. If you want Pathfinder as a game to feel a step more 'complete' then this is a good book to start. Solid new classes, new archetypes, new feats and even some new alternate rules, this book has so much to give.

I've seen a lot of third party classes and what I take from the New Path classes is that they stand out by not exactly standing out. They feel more 'classic' as if they were a natural part of the game than being bogged with new expectations, paradigms and alternate resolution systems. They feel like they're supposed to be a part a Pathfinder from day one.

From new classes you have the Battle Scion, a full BAB arcane caster that feels very much like a Paladin with blaster capabilities than divine might. It's signiture move is shooting magic missile-like laser beams. It actually seems a bit wimpy at first level but by 6th level it's all kinds of tanky as the numbers catch up.

The Elven Archer is kind of an odd duck, basically a Ranger's chassis that got turned into a Arcane Archer base class, but it's specific to elves. It comes with a Dwarven Crossboyer and a Halfling Slinger that are specific to the races they're named after but curiously it also comes with the Mystic Archer which is the same thing but not race specific. Why the Mystic Archer doesn't headline the class I have no idea but hey, a full BAB 'arcane' archer is pretty great.

If you were around enough to be a fan of the Factotum from 3.5 the Savant is kind of a spiritual successor. An grand skill monkey and the ability to suddenly grab abilities to be a skill monkey, warrior or caster. It can even pull off mimicking a race and a few racial abilities.

The Shaman is a spontaneous Druid. Not much to say beyond that. It has more to it than that of course. It selects from a list of supernatural abilities, it heals instead of summon animals and a few other things, but it wild shapes, has an animal spirit guide (works differently from animal companion) and casts druid spells. It's the Druid's Oracle.

One thing awkward and cool is the Spell-less Ranger. which is exactly like it sounds. A pure martial Ranger that I actually think is kind of better. At the very least is more awesome since it has a variant where it's a wildshape without spells class.

The Theurge is a 20 level Mystic Theurge. It does basically nothing but cast spells and have class features that make casting spells better. But it has the most broken spell list in existence so there's that.

Then there's the White Necromancer, conjurer of the elusive good zombies in case you want to be a necromancer without being evil.

Past that you get some support for the classes already talked about but also some AMAZING support for the Monk, Ninja and Gunslinger, which seems like a random selection but comes with ninja clone jujitsu so I'm not going to complain.

There are feats and spells that do a lot more than support the classes inside. There are some nice style feats. There are also some condensed feat chains to make scaling combat feats and instructions on how to make more, which is pretty sweet. I like to use those.

There are new alchemical arrows that I use a lot. Rules for Scaling Magic Items. Then the best thing about the entire book. Tracking sheets for arrows, favored enemies, wild shape and prepared spells.

Seriously this book has so much and since it all plays so nicely with the base game it became a very frequent mainstay and full of popular choices. I especially recommend this for people who want 'more Pathfinder' as opposed to adding weirder elements from third parties, like psionics or something that shifts paradigms that the game sets up. 

Class Acts Compendium.

There are a lot of bad things in this book. There are also a lot of good things in this book. Its pretty tight and concise making it a pretty dense book in terms of content. It opens up about as much class content as Ultimate Magic or Ultimate Combat. Its a fairly generic and unnecessary book bringing only a few inspired options along with a ton of option bloat. Overall for the price it expands potential list of choices without breaking the game and I see myself selecting quite a few of them so it rounds out at about four stars. Nothing special but nothing to sneeze at either and brings a lot to the table for a decent price.

You can find this over on Paizo.com here.

Retrospective: 

I agree with my previous short words on this. All the classes (Up to Ultimate Combat) get some love and a lot of territory gets opened up. Some of the archetypes are just plain bad and there's nothing groundbreaking that shifts balances or offer incredible new ways to play but it offers heavy amounts of crunch for a lower price than one of Paizo's hardcovers. Each class gets at least two archetypes and each class gets a slew of suboptions. 

However this product does suffer when you have your hands on other third party options. As I have leaned more on third party classes and options that do shift balances and offer new ways to play these options have seen less and less light until the point where its basically gathering dust now. There are just a lot of exciting things going on in Pathfinder for players to go gold digging through ignorable to 'pretty okay' options to get their build just right. 

I can't say that this is bad because really its not. If you have games that focus on Paizo classes and want to open them up as much as Ultimate Magic or Ultimate Combat does then here is your product and for a decent price tag. If you're more into expanding into psionics, spherecasting, martial maneuvers and new ways to resolve magic an fighting abilities then this might be a pass. If you do like the idea then I would recommend that you print this out and bind it at your local print shop and that you get this product rather than the multiple parts that make it up. The stress on printing is very low and isn't broken up by multiple OGL statements. Also even the ones with bad options have material that is very desirable so you'd want to get them all in one shot rather than pick and choose. 

Deep Magic

I like this book a lot. If I had my guess as to what Ultimate Magic 2 would look like, this would be it. More than just a book of spells Deep Magic supports magic in a lot of different ways.

The first chapter essentially gives spell lists by theme, discussing each with some flavor and providing some spell books that can be found containing the spells. There's also some smackling of rules such as new wizard schools, Ioun Stones, and leylines. This does mean that you wind up having to read the theme before you can find some rules, for example; there isn't a list of arcane discoveries unless you find a sidebar somewhere. This organization may be jarring but it has been a breath of fresh air for me as I tend to pick my spells and options by theme as opposed to sort out and optimize.
The new spells vary in usefulness and brokeness but nothing truly past the Core Rulebook in power per spell level. The spells also support other Kobold Press classes such as the Elven Archer and White Necromancer, which is a pretty big plus if you have those and ignorable if you don't There are also little side bars that give a bit more fluff to the spell themes.

Chapter 3 is a huge pluss for me. Ink magic seems out of place as it looks like it should have been in

Chapter 1, as it doesn't give new rules to the extent of the Glyphs and Runes. The Glyphs and Runes are winners for me by being means for even non-casters to get a touch of magic. Basically you take a feat or two and you get a static bonus and some scaling access to magical effects. Some of these are lifesavers and add quite a bit of fluff if you're running anything involving Norse gods or aboleth.

Chapter 4 introduces Incantations from Zombie Sky Press so if you don't have that its a fun bonus.

Chapter 5 and 6 give bloodlines, archetypes and mysteries. Nothing that special but they support a lot of themes introduced in chapter 1 and look like a lot of fun if you're working a theme.

Chapter 7 has some fluff and rules for undead crafting, familiar stuff and homuculi. I didn't look too deep into this chapter as I felt it didn't add too much that wasn't already achievable in the game. Plus it's a short chapter with just a few bits of crunch to look at.

Lastly there's some NPCs to throw at your players.

Overall I think this massive book is well worth the price. It brings life to a lot of themes that have been neglected and gives a lot to do with the flavor to match. Its more than just a list of options which I appreciate but will be difficult to sort out if you're just looking for those options. I'm giving it five stars despite that and some minor editing mistakes because as a whole this is almost mandatory for cool options for making magic.

You can find this over on Paizo.com here.

Retrospective:

I've seen a lot of comments about a number of the spells in Deep Magic being broken. Which is probably true. There are a number of spells that aren't exactly more troublesome than Core Rulebook spells but they're just as bad which is pretty bad. In using this book I've never noticed. Partially this is because I don't let my players touch the spells unless they come from archetypes or other class options. adding hundreds of new spells is inherently troublesome if the spells are at all exciting, and there are lot of exciting spells, because of the cherry picking they allow. What I usually do with third party spells is leave them for PCs to find in a library or dungeon so that they have a reason to discover things. While martials get some power creep too due to the runes this is still a book of magic and magic is pretty pervasive. This can get extra bad if you allow players to cherry pick spells from this book without offering some kind of martial power creep as well.

For me, this book has been has proven to be as exciting as I thought it would be but lately the use of it has been dwindling. When the Spheres of Power train arrived a lot of people jumped on board and this lead to sharp dislike of spells and spellcasters so sadly I don't really use it anymore. Then I started planning a scifi campaign and it just felt like there was no space for it without arbitrarily overloading players.

Blood and Steel: The Fighter

Blood and Steel: The Fighter is an archetype focused pdf based on the fighter core class plus a few extra goodies.

The archetypes themselves ranges from enabling a specific flavor to enabling a specific tactic. I'll give my impression of each of them. Some of them have the potential for abuse, but really I think that's something the fighter class could use.

Beast Hunter: This archetype has less to do with beasts and more to do with entangling enemies with disabling weapons. It looks fun but less lethal than standard Fighter.

Gun Fighter: Its a fighter with a gun. Imagine a Gunslinger without grit and a bunch of bonus feats. That's pretty much it. Not particularly exciting but as far as I know there is no other non 3pp gun archetypes for fighters so it seems to have a place.

Harpooner: This looks less useful if you're not playing a water campaign, so seems more like an NPC archetype.

Highborn fighter: The main difference that jumps out with this archetype is that you gain 4+int skill ranks, Charisma can replace Dex for AC,CMD and Reflex saves and a butteload of Charisma can potentially boost your damage really high thus enabling Charisma as a potential primary stat.
Iaidoka Master: If you've seen Rurouni Kenshin, you're effectively battousai the manslayer. Its awesome but has on ability that may be too powerful.

Navaja: The highlight of this archetype is the ability to leave weapons inside the enemy to impose penalties. I'd rather see a rogue with this ability but it is a fun and funny ability although I can see how TWF and quickdraw can make this goofy.

Siege Engineer: another NPC archetype by virtue of not getting a free siege engine.
Thrower: A chucking Fighter. It is what it says on the box. Looks fun.

Wicked Wrecker: If you were to play a rugby character who decided to put on spiked armor and go adventuring this is the archetype to use.

Following the archetypes are new combat feats. None of them are really impressive or are gamechangers but they do their job within their niche and none of them feel truly useless.
After that are two new pieces of equipment, the Battle Parasol (?!) and the Harpoon (different from normal harpoon.), then a new mundane shield that sheds light (sadly throwing it does not deal fire damage).

Then there are new magic weapons/wonderous items. Nothing exciting but nothing bad. Mostly enabling the archetypes.

Past this is bonus content; Select entries from Rite Publishing's 101 Magical Armor and Shield Properties and 101 Magical Weapon Properties. (I have one but not the other so it was good advertising on the other.)

Overall I'd recommend Blood and Steel. The archetypes seem fun even though a few seem more at home as NPCs. I definitely see myself using a good chunk of these as a player and a GM. My only real criticism is that for an entire pdf on fighter this seemed rather mundane as opposed to something so gamechanging that you NEED to buy it for all your fighters. I'd give it a 4.5 rounded up to 5 for being a solid product in general.