Reviews - Abandoned Arts Archetypes (druid)

Another set of Abandoned Arts archetypes products rolling through, Barbarian, Druid, Ranger and Witch

Disclaimer: This is a review of a complimentary review copy of the product.

This is the review of the druid archetypes, it follows the formatting of the previous products. Four pages, a quick blurb of what an archetype is, 2 1/2 pages of actual product, followed by 1 page of the OGL. Cost $.99. 

This is one of the best I've seen so far.  It presents 3 very good archetypes: The Earthspeaker, the Faerie Thrall, and the Greenmind. 

The Earthspeaker: I really like the feel of this archetype, it replaces wild empathy, woodland stride, trackless step and wild shape with 3 alternate abilities. 

"The stoic circle of druids known as the earthspeakers take the concept of communing with nature to an extraordinary extreme, developing supernatural means of communicating – in a very literal way – with the earth itself."

Ask the Stone allows the Earthspeaker to, well, speak to earth, stone, crystals, etc, it's a really simple ability with limitless roleplay possibilities, especially for a savvy GM that can totally get into the character of simple stone.  Walk the world gives the druid the ability to move across dangerous mountain terrain faster, and tracklessly. Finally, Move the Earth is a special Charisma based check to produce different earth based effects, from spike stones to move Earth. very interesting ability.

The Faerie Thrall is an oft overlooked archetype for druids.

"While most druids enjoy a friendly relationship with many faerie creatures, some druids pledge their efforts (or submit their wills) as much to the furthering of ancient fey agendas as to the laws of nature or the cycles of the seasons."

This archetype consists of 4 abilities, though I'm not sure if the 20th level ability is supposed to replace an existing capstone or not as it seems like it merely adds a fairly minor ability modify memory, which has unlimited uses, making it a true capstone. The first thing a Faerie thrall must do, is choose whetehr to be part of the seelie or unseelie, which grants +4 saves versus non 'selected' magics, your court can affect you easier... The classic tropes of the pixie arrow and faerie dust appear as the Magic Darts (should have been faerie dust darts...) consisting of a charm monster ability, toned down by limited useage (1/2 druid level per day). Overall its a fun variant I plan to put to use as an NPC. The 9th level ability consists of taking  the fey's attributes, gaining the Fey Creature temple....with a very limited duration.

THE GREENMIND 

An ascetic and sage kind of druid, the greenmind pursues divine illumination and spiritual balance through a meditative process that brings him ever closer to the unknowable enlightenment of all things green and growing.

Oh this is a good one, simple and satisfying, giving up scimitar and all armors, this variant druid makes a lot of sense, gaining the ability to resist many spell-like abilities as a plant, and then to clothe themselves with the armor of the forest (up to +7 to AC), so not too shabby. The final ability lets the druid to take on the form of certain types of plant life.

Great addition to the game

A Solid 19 of 20! Critical Strike confirmed. Well worth 99 cents!

Reviews - Abandoned Arts Archetypes (Barbarian)

Another set of Abandoned Arts archetypes products rolling through, Barbarian, Druid, Ranger and Witch (same classes as the non-archetype products thus far, which is a bummer because my favorite classes for Pathfinder are Alchemist, Inquisitor and Oracle, but if abandoned arts can make as high of quality add-ons for those classes as they've made for these others I look forward to reading them.)

Disclaimer: This is a review of a complimentary review copy of the product.

First up is the Barbarian, which follows the formatting of the previous products. Four pages, a quick blurb of what an archetype is, 2 1/2 pages of actual product, followed by 1 page of the OGL.

There are three Barbarian archetypes presented, The Madman, the Reaver, and the Viking Marauder.


The Madman is an great idea, that fills a space I didn't even realize was missing.

"Some barbarians are inspired not by bloodlust or simple savagery, but by madness or dire occult powers. Such madmen are less martially inclined, but no less dangerous for their insane and unpredictable rage and their strange, supernatural powers."


The barbarian swaps 1/2 the additional rage rounds for access to a domain power. At 11th in lieu of greater rage, the madman gains a wisdom damaging attack.The End is Near is a very interesting capstone power, causing the barbarian to summon allies every round as their prayers to the outer powers hear their call, culminating in gate.

The Reaver is another good archetype, combining brutal sneak attacks and intimidation.

"The reaver is a death-obsessed berserker with a keen understanding of both death and fear. Favoring intimidating weapons and guerilla-style tactics, these terrible barbarians spread terror wherever they tread."

Giving up half their  additional rage rounds and damage reduction 1,2,3, & 4, for sneak attack dice.  Finally they can sneak attack those suffering from being shaken, frightened or panicked.

The Viking Marauder 

"In harsh northern climes, clans of seafaring marauders often band together to form raiding parties in order to survive. Though fearsome and sometimes barbarous, these brothers-in-arms are not without a sense of honor."

Not a big fan of this archetype. It's a very specialized archetype, with a real-world name. The viking marauder is a an interesting concept, Seafaring Scourge, is a skill bonus for sailor, survival, swim skills and a bonus movement for the marauder's vessel in lieu of fast movement. Raiding Party is a teamwork based ability. Marauder's Sails is another interesting concept, causing intimidation with the vessel itself due to the the marauder's fearsome reputation. The 14th level ability is extremely under-powered, being a +4 bonus to fear based will saves. At 14th level, it should be immunity to fear.

16 of 20, mainly for the concept of the madman, this one concept can easily be taken to other classes.

Updated review - Abandoned Arts archetypes

Just finished the review of the Wizard archetypes for Abandoned Arts. I finished the rogues over the weekend...

Here's the link to the updated article.

Reviews - Abandoned Arts Class Acts Archetype series

Review finalized

Here we go with another set of stuff from Abandoned Arts. These guys are producing faster than rabbits it seems! (Again I will be returning to this thread as I complete the reviews)

This new series of supplements focuses on, one of my favorite aspects that Pathfinder introduced, archetypes. The reason I enjoy archetypes so much is that they allow tweaking of the classes without creating an entirely new class. The first four the guys sent to me for review are the core classes:

Cleric
Fighter
Rogue
Wizard

Cleric:
Four Page supplement that has 1-2/3 pages of crunch. Page 1 is the cover, first 1/3 of page 2 is the description of an archetype, the rest is the Miracle Worker. Page 3 is the Voodoo Priest, and page 4 is the OGL.
Two new archetypes, The Miracle Worker and the Voodoo Priest.

The Miracle Worker strays from traditional archetypes a bit, but that's what archetypes can be, unique. The miracle worker is complex, as it gives up channeling for the ability to add secondary spell effects when certain conditions are met. Such as adding a prepared shatter spell to a 5th level or higher spell cast with the air or sound descriptor as a swift action. Interesting, and very complex. It's complex enough that I can't really go into it without reprinting the entire description.

The Voodoo Priest is great. I think it captures the essence of the Voodoo priest very well.  The class gives up medium armor, shield and has a very limited selection of weapons. The channeling works differently as they channel loa, rather than a god's power, making it very useful for NPCs and not as useful as a character class. They gain a Loa Patron instead of a deity, which grants them two sets of domain choices, however they don't gain domain powers, just the spell slots, which makes them similar to a divine witch.

I think I would only use the Voodoo priest personally, it would make an interesting PF Goblin Spiritual Leader. I think the Miracle Worker is more player oriented, but the loss of Channeling is very painful to a small party, as a secondary healer, awesome. (Though it might have been a better Oracle). Ruinous Belief is a powerful ability, allowing the priest to add meta-magic feats to their spells which can only be cast on those previously scared by either a priests' spell (shaken, panicked or frightened), or intimidated by the priest (aka give your NPC Voodoo priests high intimidation skills.) Finally the Voodoo Priest gain Voodoo Poppet, to create Voodoo dolls, oh yeah, awesome.

Overall it's a unique, well-written supplement with two archetypes of limited use.
16 of 20


Fighter:
Three archetypes are presented, The Lasher (perfect Golarion gnoll archetype), The Sentinel and The Soldier.
The Lasher - This is a master of chain and whip, giving up heavier armor and tower shield for mastery of a brutal combat style. A Gnoll packmaster might be one of these brutal combatants, or perhaps a nasty addition to a Kyton. This is a brilliant archetype, well written, not over-powered and full of flavorful abilities. I really like punishing lash, which allows the lasher to suppress beneficial morale bonuses after a successful intimidate check.

The Sentinel - A bodyguard style archetype. It's already been done, but always nice to have a different take on it, especially for a non-dwarf. With only 3 abilities, this is a good fit as a defensive archetype, though it loses weapon mastery 1-4, but gains the Bodyguard feat in lieu of Armor Training 1. It will be a good class archtype for defending that goblin voodoo priest.

The Soldier - The soldier has an issue with its first level fighter bonus feat, I think the must take a teamwork feat was overwritten by the Trained Fighter ability which replaces the Fighter's 1st level bonus feat. Loyalty is a very weak class feature, replacing armor 1, but only granting minor bonus to Will saves versus charm/compulsion, don't get me wrong, it's good to have more will for a fighter, but its limited. Disciplined defense is nice, granting a +1 attack bonus (evolving), on AoOs.  Heroic beyond death replacing the normal fighter capstone, is better for people who knew the fighter before his death (probably caused by no Weapon Mastery).

17 of 20

Rogue:
Four Archetypes: Hoodwink, Lookout, Urban Stalker, and The Wormtongue.
(I think sometime I'll create a rogue's Guild that contains at least 1 of every archetype, it would make for a unique, albeit, complicated guild-crawl...heh)

Hoodwink -  The hoodwink is a slippery sneak with an uncanny ability to stay one step ahead of stronger or more powerful opponents. This tricky scoundrel excels at frustrating and harrying opponents with assorted tricks and traps. It consists of 2 class abilities, Bag of Tricks (ex), and Addling attack (ex). Bag of Tricks is about bonuses to bluff, craft(traps) and disguise as well as caltrop attacks, giving up trapfinding. Addling attack switches out sneak attack damage for rounds of confusion, with a Will save. Great archetype.

Lookout - Lookouts are wary rogues with an emphasis on scouting, keeping watch, identifying danger, and taking point positions. Truly an asset to any team of adventurers or dungeon-delvers, the lookout’s job is simple: to keep his allies alive in the field. This archetype also swaps out 2 abilities, gaining Eye for Danger and Nose for Trouble for 4th and 8th level rogue talents. Good archetype for possibly thwarting enemy rogues.

Urban Stalker - Urban predators and serial murderers, these deranged and deadly rogues earn a deservedly-fearsome reputation. A gruesome breed of sadistic killers, the urban stalker takes perverse pleasure in the fear he inspires and the pain he inflicts.  This is the archeytpe you want if you're wanting to create a brutal antagonist, Infamous Deeds, Urban Predator, Bloody Senak Attack, and Heartless capture the feeling of the homocidal serial killer.

Wormtongue - Truly a master of deception, the wormtongue is a consummate liar and a manipulator without peer. Blending subtle magic with expert skills and slippery social graces, the wormtongue is a dangerously skilled schemer. This archetype is the polar opposite of the Urban Stalker, the silvertongued manipulator. Five abilities make this a very different feel. Web of Lies (ex) makes them amazing liars. Betrayer (ex) grants a feat in place of evasion, minor enchantments (ex) is nice because it lets the rogue select minor and major magic multiple times with enchantment spells, while Talented Enchanter (ex) makes those same enchantments harder to resist. The final ability, Sow Dissent (su) lets the wormtongue influence enemies with great effectiveness. My favorite archetype in this supplement.

17 of 20...+1 for GMs looking for some great archetypes to throw their players off-balance.

Wizard:
Again, Two archetypes: The Animist, and the Guild Scholar.
Saved the best for last in this series of reviews...

The Animist studies an arcane art long since lost to most wizardly schools and practices – the strange and wondrous ability to bestow the inanimate with a semblance of life! I think perhaps should be called the Animator, however that's the only issue I have with this product. (Animist is more about all objects having souls than about animating said objects, which is what this archetype is about.) These are the transmuters which are masters of animating objects, even their own weaponry, gaining Hand of the Animist, at first level which is identical to Hand of the apprentice, replacing telekinetic fist. Object Familiar (su) replaces Arcane Bond, and provides an animated object as a familiar, which is built using 1 Construction Point utilizing the Animate object rules in ultimate magic. Replacing the Shape Change ability is the Empower Familiar class ability, which allows an increasing of the animated object (including additional Construction Pts.)  The Final ability replaces the 10th and 20th level bonus feats, but grants animate object and the ability to swap construction points for special attacks with the objects. This ONE archetype is worth the price of admission.  However...an amazing NPC diviner is also added.

The Guild Scholar - Promising arcane academics sometimes pursue a unique training program that emphasizes research and study, both mundane and divinatory, and delves deep into the arcane sciences of glyphs, symbols, and other runic spells.
It fills an oft overlooked archetypical gap, that of a guild trained wizard researcher. While it's not a great PC archetype, I love the flavor of it, from the Bonded spellbook, to erase (simple but very flavorful to the class), Guild Runic (granting special powers when modifying scrolls and symbols. Guild researcher is perfect for representing the NPC Sage that you go to to look for answers to the hardest questions at breakfast, and then come back at tea time for your answer. Finally, the Capstone, the Guild scholar becomes an intelligent magic item book...a VERY intelligent one. Amazing way to pass down your old character's legacy to a new one, or as a piece of crucial treasure. Great for an NPC, decent for a player.

It's a Solid 19 of 20, almost as good as it gets.

Epic Meepo's Pathfinder Stuff

So Epic Meepo, one of the RPG Superstar's Top32 this year and previous Top16, has been making some sweet archetypes and previously he wrote over 100 Monsters.

Check em out:

Archetypes 

Monsters Galore

Obviously these are all subject to the OGL, Pathfinder's Licensing, and Epic Meepo, I post the links with Epic Meepo's permission. I do not own any of those ideas, I merely bring them to you!

Epic Review - Ultimate Combat part 2.5

What started as a simple review of Ultimate Combat turned into a monster of a review...because I wanted to review it a bit more in depth, but the sheer amount of crunch in that one book is quite insane. So here's...


The  fifth and final coverage of the new archetypes!


Rogue 
New Rogue Talents:  Plenty of new talents with 16 new rogue talents and 8 new advanced talents.
Black Market Connections, Convincing Lie, Deft Palm, Esoteric Scholar, Firearm Training, Getaway Artist, Grit, Hold Breath, Iron Guts, Ki Pool, Ninja Trick, Rope Master, Strong Stroke, Terrain Mastery, Underhanded, Wall Scramble. Advanced: Confounding Blades, Familiar, Getaway Master, Hard to Fool, Hide In Plain Sight, Rumormonger, Unwitting Ally, and Weapon Snatcher. I really like that they added Ki Pool/Ninja trick to the rogue tricks. It allows for plain old Asian-themed rogues without pigeon-holing the characters into being a ninja. Strong Stroke and Wall Scramble fill niche tricks for swimming and of course climb, while Black Market Connections is a good role-play oriented talent for getting a little extra on items, and for finding extra items for sale in larger cities. Firearm training and Grit talents give the rogue some of the gunslinger's blackpowder fun, but I was saddened that there was no dedicated blackpowder rogue, so I will be working on a Highwayman archetype. (already posted!)


Bandit
I'm actually surprised the Bandit didn't make an appearance in the Advanced Player's Guide. So, rogue archetypes usually either replace Uncanny Dodge/Imp. Uncanny Dodge or Trapfinding/Trapsense. This one replaces Uncanny Dodges. They gain Ambush (4th) and Fearsome Strike (8th), allowing the bandit to act in the surprise round and causing fear on confirmed criticals. Typo in the Fearsome Strike ability, it should read replaces Improved Uncanny Dodge instead of Uncanny Dodge.

Chameleon
Replacing the trapsense and trapfinding abilities, this archetype is a master of misdirection and stealth. Misdirection grants a pool of stealth points based upon their bluff ranks each day, Effortless Sneak at 3rd gives the rogue the ability to take 10 on a stealth check in a favored terrain, gaining one terrain at 3rd and every 3 levels. This is a pretty cool archetype if you don't mind losing the trap abilities.

Charlatan
The silver tongued scoundrel, with Natural Born Liar is a bluff modifier, granting a -2 against bluff checks for those affected by the Charlatan's bluff for 24 hours. Grand hoax grants the rumormonger advanced talent at 3rd level. (traps)

Driver
This is more of an archetype for a pulp game, getaway drivers aren't a big thing in fantasy games typically. It does work with the vehicle rules presented in Ultimate Combat however. This is a pretty limited archetype, taking away the trap abilities for bonuses to driving, I actually think this archetype would have been better as a ranger or fighter Teamster...perhaps even an expert archetype. (traps)

Knife Master
This archetype is a knife specialist. Replacing traps, the 1st level Hidden Blade gives 1/2 level to sleight of hand rolls to conceal a blade weapon. Sneak Stab replaces Sneak Attack, focuses on a list of small bladed weapons, increasing the sneak attack damage for them to d8s, while decreasing the sneak damage of all other weapons to d4s. Blade Sense at 3rd gives dodge bonuses against light blades. This is a nice archetype to give extra flavor for the lesser damage weapons. Kukri is included, so criticals can be fun with nice d8 sneak attacks. I like it, and Ian is actually going to run one for our next PFS group, we're going to run a Sczarni family...Varisian knife master.

Pirate
The pirate is what everyone wants, unfortunately this isn't the one we really want. Sea Legs at 1st grants the Sea Legs feat, at 2nd they get a pirate only rogue talent, granting a special rogue talent. Now, the talent itself sets a new precedent, it allows an acrobatics roll to make a swinging charge or bull rush, and a 5 foot move afterwards. Unflinching at 3rd, grants a save bonus to mind-affecting/fear effects. So while it has some interesting bits, this isn't the pirate I wanted to see. I was disappointed when I read it the first time, and I haven't changed my mind. (traps)

Roof Runner
Playing an Urban campaign? This is a great rogue archetype for certain concepts. Roof Running at 1st gives them the ability to move at full speed even on unsteady rooftops, say, a tile roof with tiles coming loose for example. Tumbling Descent is cool since it allows a rogue to drop from great heights of a rooftop to street level without injury, as long as they make their acrobatics roll. (traps)

Sanctified Rogue
A Holy Rogue....This is the most interesting of all the rogue archetypes, but it falls short in that you lose uncanny dodge and improved uncanny dodge for a +1 sacred bonus to Will/Fort that doesn't improve as you level, then you get a once a day use of augury, which is still an open ended divination spell. Great concept, poor execution. (dodges)

Survivalist
If you're playing in an adventure where the elements are against you, perhaps in the desert or arctic type conditions, this is a good archetype, providing double the number of days without water and triple without food, then at 3rd gaining endure elements as a spell-like ability. (traps)

Wizard
No warmage type archetypes in this book, as the magus is the new combat mage in town, and they don't want to ruffle his feathers for fear of a dervish dancing magus visiting them.


Arcane Bomber
This archetype mixes alchemy with magery, with great power (real or imagined) comes with great sacrifice in this case. School of the Bomb...FOUR, count them....FOUR (4), opposition schools (That's pretty painful).
In place of the normal arcane bond, the Arcane Bomber gets bombs, no discoveries, but basic bombs (Though no mention of how many...). Instead of Cantrips, the bomber can empower his bombs with a spell...+SL to hit and +2xSL damage as a Swift action. All in all this archetype seems to give up way more than it gains.

Siege Mage
This is an interesting variant, but only if you're allowing siege engines in normal play, this archetype is not allowed in PFS play. The Siege Mage forms a bond with a siege engine that's nearby, has 3 prohibited schools, can channel energy into the engine similar to the Arcane Bomber, but gets 3x damage instead of 2x (in place of cantrips again). They also get Siege Engineer in place of Scribe Scroll. At 10th the archetype really comes into power as he no longer needs a crew to reload, aim or fire the engine. Would be fun to have an NPC Siege Mage manning his Wizard's tower...

Spellslinger
The final arcehtype of the book. The Spellslinger is a blackpowder wizard. The Spellslinger forms his arcane bond with his weapon. He gains exotic prof (firearms). Gunsmith and a battered firearm replace the scribe scroll bonus feat. The Spellslinger like the other two wizard archetype give up additional prohibited schools, four, though the spellslinger gets far more than the arcane bomber. Mage Bullets replaces cantrips, but it far and away better than empower bombs. Of the three Wizard archetypes, this is the only one I'd play as a PC.

Part 3 will be coverage of the feats I hope to have that review up by Wednesday, then I'll cover the rest of the Book in Part 4. After that, back to regular reviews! Especially as it's OCTOBER!! Realms of Cthulhu and Munchkin Zombies will be getting a review.

Highwayman (Rogue Archetype)

After reading through Ultimate Combat, I realized there was no blackpowder rogue, the Highwayman is the perfect archetype to create for this concept. While the Firearms and Grit Talents give access to the use of firearms, there's no way to start a rogue as a blackpowder user. Thus is born the Highwayman.

The lone figure on the road, the robber at the end of the barrel, the highwayman uses his glib tongue to relieve his victims of their valuables.

Skills:  Ride (Dex) is a class skill for Highwaymen. 

Pistols: At 1^st level, The Highwayman is proficient in one-handed firearms. And begins play with a battered pistol similar to a gunslinger’s. This replaces trapfinding and counts as the required Firearms talent for the grit rogue talent.  

Grit: A highwayman must choose the Grit rogue talent at 2^nd level. A Highwayman's grit is determined by Charisma.

Stand and Deliver: At 3^rd, the Highwayman gains the following deed. This replaces trapsense.

Stand and Deliver (ex): While the Highwayman has at least 1 grit point, he gains the following benefits. First, he gains a +2 bonus on intimidate and diplomacy checks.  Second, he may as though he possessed the Snap Shot rogue talent.

Rogue Talents:  The following rogue talents complement the highwayman archetype: Camouflage^APG, Canny Observer^APG, Coax Information^APG, Surprise Attack, Strong Impression^APG, Terrain Mastery^UC, Underhanded^UC.

Advanced Rogue Talents: The following advanced rogue talents complement the highwayman archetype: Another Day^APG, Hide in Plain Sight^UC, Skill Mastery.


Edit: removed loss of Disable Device.