Wednesday Review - Ultimate Magic Part 1 of 2

In keeping with the GenCon month. I'm going to review Ultimate Magic this week rather than a boardgame. The Weekend review will be Ultimate Combat.

Product Description from Paizo.com:

Unlock the magical mysteries of the Pathfinder RPG with this exhaustive guide to the art of magic, an invaluable resource for players and Game Masters alike!

This comprehensive 256-page hardcover reference unveils the magical secrets of the Pathfinder rules like never before. Tons of new tricks and techniques for every spellcasting class in the game fill the book, ranging from arcane secrets uncovered by studious wizards to dazzling ki-tricks performed by canny monks to new mutagens for alchemists, new oracle mysteries, specialized channel energy options for clerics, and more.

Ultimate Magic also introduces the latest Pathfinder RPG base class: the magus. Combining arcane spells with practiced martial skill, the magus incorporates elements of the warrior and wizard to walk a path balanced between two deadly efficient extremes. All this plus more than 100 new spells for all spellcasting classes, an innovative new “words of power” spellcasting system, a complete system for 1-on-1 spell duels, and more.

Ultimate Magic includes:
• New player character options for all 14 spellcasting Pathfinder RPG base classes, including alchemist discoveries and bombs, specific bard performances, specialized uses for channel energy, expanded druid domains and rules for vermin companions, new inquisitor archetypes, ki tricks, alternative oracle curses and revelations, new sorcerer bloodlines, additional summoner eidolon abilities and eidolon templates, new witch hexes and patrons, wizardly arcane discoveries, and more!
• The Magus, a brand-new 20-level base class that mixes wizardry with martial skill
• Extensive overviews of new and existing magic subsystems such as condition-based magic, cooperative casting, magical organizations, unpredictable primal magic, counterspelling, binding outsiders, crafting golems, etc.
• Lots of new familiars
• Premade spellbooks suitable for use at all levels of play
• Tons of new feats specifically designed for magic-using characters
• Brand new “words of power” alternative magic system
• More than 100 brand new spells!
• …and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-299-9

Pathfinder Ultimate Magic Review

This is a review of the Ultimate Magic for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, as published by Paizo, under the OGL.

irst Glance: Paging through the book, the first thing you come across is the Magus, the new Fighter/Mage hybrid class. The next thing you come across is the magic based archetypes. One of the most enticing new things I ran across in the book is the Construct modifications rules; rules that have been sorely needed. They brought in special spellbooks, similar to the old pages from the mages articles from Dragon magazine. Then you run across the Words of Power rules, spells.

Main Review:

Chapter 1: Spellcasters

Let’s start with the Magus, I was leery of this class during beta testing of it, it’s a hard thing to make a combat mage balanced without stripping it of its appeal. I feel the magus does that. For the record, I hate the name Magus for this class and I feel that feedback in regards to the name was ignored. The magus is limited to level 6 spells, which is on par with the other caster heavy hybrids. (Combat heavy hybrids being limited to 4^th level spells.) Unfortunately the magus is still a prepared spell class; perhaps an alternate spontaneous class will be added later. Magus are able to fight with a one handed weapon and cast a spell with the other. Their real power comes with the Magus Arcana they can learn, like rogue talents, yet giving them a broad range of abilities. Eventually they gain heavy armor proficiency, thus the ability to cast spells and wear heavy armor, when out of spells, the ability to use martial weapons, keeps them in the fight.

Alchemists:

25 new discoveries, many are bomb discoveries, from blinding bombs to sunlight and tanglefoot bombs.Healing touch can transform the alchemist into an assistant healer. Several others give aberrant additions such as tentacles, vestigial wings, or the ultra creepy tumor familiar. 8 new archetypes, the Chirurgeon, lets the alchemist become a true healer. Others include Clone Master, Internal Alchemist, Mindchemist, Preservationist, Psychonaut, Reanimator, and the Vivisectionist.

Bards:

Bards gain a entirely new feat-like mechanic called Masterpieces; though they can be acquired by sacrificing a spell slot in lieu of a feat. Everquest™ fans will enjoy Triple Time the most, as it is a group speed increase, 10ft land speed increased for 1 hour, for a cost or 1 bardic performance rd. Now all you need is a drum that doubles the speed. Ever wanted to be a celebrity in the game? Well you can choose the celebrity archetype and be just that. Other Bard Archetypes include, the Animal Speaker, Demagogue, Dirge bard, the Asian inspired Geisha, Songhealer, and the Sound Striker.

Clerics:

Variant Channeling, this introduces a new mechanic, domain based alternate effects, for the cost of half the healing channel. Only four new archetypes, the Cloistered Cleric, the Separatist, Theologian, and the Undead Lord. The Undead Lord lets you play the divine based Necromancer….complete with a Corpse Companion.

Druids:

Druids get a slew of Animal and terrain based domains, which helps differentiate them from clerics more, whether it’s a Mountain Domain druid or an Eagle druid. Vermin companions, are introduced in this book. A bunch of new archetypes are introduced, including the Menhir Savant, Pack Lord, Mooncaller, Reincarnated druid, and the Storm Druid. The new shaman types are the Dragon Shaman, and the Saurian Shaman, one of my favorites, Tyrannosaur at level 1, advances to large at level 7….nice.

Inquisitosr:

A new type of domain is introduced for inquisitors, inquisitions, which replace some of the worthless domains. New archetypes include the Exorcist, Heretic, Infiltrator, Preacher and Sin Eater. Of these archetypes, I feel the Sin Eater is the most creative, the character must eat the sins of their enemy, kind of like counting coup of certain Native American tribes. By ‘eating’ their sins, you deny their soul to their god.

Magus:

So even though the class is new, there are four archetypes, The Black Blade’s bonded weapon is an intelligent weapon that grows with the magus and has an arcane pool of its own. The Hexcrafter borrows a little from the witch. Spellblades use force magic and have three of their own arcane. Finally the Staff Magus is a master of the quarterstaff, actually gaining the Quarterstaff Master at first level as a bonus feat. Which is pretty big, it allows taking weapon specialization, even with no fighter levels, and ignores the pre-req of weapon focus. There is a broken build currently, the Dervish Dance feat build (Inner Sea World Guide), I only say it’s broken because its almost a no brainer, because the dex becomes the to hit, damage, and ac modifier. In addition, the 18-20 crit threat of the scimitar works especially well to deliver extra spell critical damage during a spell strike. Watch out for Kobold wielding scimitars…

Monk:

What’s the monk doing in Complete Magic? Well they’re working on their Ki powers. Namely through the use of Monk Vows, but also with the Qinggong monk, which allows the monk to swap out powers similar to an archetype but much more freeform, even allowing you to select a swapped power from a lower level and get it later. This is something I pushed for during Beta, and I’m very glad to see it in print now.

Oracle:

Several new mysteries are Ancestor, Dark Tapestry, Metal, Time and Wood. Brining Wood and Metal in completes the five eastern elements for oracles as well. I would like to see a unified Five elements mystery as well. The Dual Cursed archetype allows the oracle to have two mysteries, at a price. Other archetypes include the Enlightened Philosopher, Planar Oracle, Possessed Oracle, Seer, and the Stargazer.

Paladin

Paladins have a new archetype which opens up lots of new options, the Oathbound Paladin. Once the oathbound archtype is chosen, multiple non conflicting oaths may also be taken, this gives the oathbound more restrictions role-playing wise as they must abide by their oaths and their deities code of conduct. The big thing that comes with the oaths is access to oath spells, like domain spells.Oath against Corruption adds true strike to the paladin’s list of spells, in addition to acute sense, touch of idiocy and spell immunity, for example. Other oaths against x, include Fiends, Savagery, Undeath and Wyrms. To round out the list of Oaths, are Charity, Chastity, Loyalty and Vengeance.

Rangers:

Rangers only have one Archetype in Ultimate Magic, The Trapper. The Trapper grants access to new Ranger traps in lieu of spellcasting, which is good to have another option for those who don’t want spellcasting rangers. The interesting thing about ranger traps, they aren’t just normal mechanical traps, they can be magical or mechanical, and can even be set “cast” by an arrow. This is especially insidious with the Swarm Trap…

Sorcerers

In addition to new Bloodlines, 2 new archetypes make their appearance, the Crossblooded, which is very similar to the Dual Cursed Oracle. And the mutated Wildblooded archetype which uses the subdomain mechanics reskinned for sorcerers, of which the Bedrock wild bloodline works off of the Deep Earth bloodline, and is defense oriented, which is a nice one for summoner type sorcerers as the arcana grants your summoned creatures DR (1/2 sorc level)/adamantine. The Bloodline power is Iron Hide at 9^th level, which grants sorclevel rounds per day of DR10/adamantine. The new bloodlines are Accursed, Djinni, Efretti, Maestro, Marid, Rakshasa and Shaitan. While the Rakshasa line isn’t ultra powerful, it is one of my favorite, I might run a Tiefling (rakshasa heritage) Sorceror with the Rakshasa bloodline after the Advanced Races Guide hits the shelves.

Summoner:

The main focus of the summoner additions is templates for easy eidolon creations. Very nice resource if your trying to get a specific look for your eidolon. Also nice for new players and for the GM on the go. New evolutions of note are the magic evolutions. Four new archetypes are introduced, The Broodmaster, Evolutionist, Synthesist and the Master Summoner, which gives up significant power for their eidolon for greater summon monster ability, and the ability to have their eidolon and summoned monsters up at the same time.

Witch

New Hexes, lots of them, and creepy NPC oriented ones to boot, such as Child Scent (ala Hansel and Gretl) ,Poison Steep (perfect for those poisoned apples), the cannibalistic Cook People, and Witch Hut, perfect for those Baba Yaga witch. Alternative patron themes are given. In addition four archetypes, Beast Bonded, Gravewalker, Hedge Witch and the Sea Witch; the Hedge witch is a good adventuring healer based witch.

Wizard:

Arcane Discoveries are the first new rules for wizards, which may be taken in place of the bonus feats. The two missing Oriental schools, wood and metal are introduced, making way for the Asian themed characters. The only archetype is a very cool concept, the Scrollmaster which can use scrolls as either shield or weapons, and of course, they received improved scroll casting at level 10, letting them cast scrolls as normal spells.

Due to the amount of text in this post, I'm going to split the review into two parts.

Ultimate Magic Part 2

Weekend Review - Advanced Player's Guide

Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide Review

This is a review of the Advanced Player’s Guide for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, as published by Paizo, under the OGL.

First Glance: When you page through the book you’ll first run across race options, from the pyromaniac gnome to the chain fighting half-orc. Next you come across the new classes, The Alchemist, Summoner, Oracle, Inquisitor, Witch and Cavalier; filing in some missing spaces in the class line-up. Next you come across the Core class options, the introduction of archetypes, and pretty much that’s where my personal first glance stopped, as I became fully engrossed in the options.

Main Review:

Chapter 1: Races

This chapter deals with races, each racial entry is broken into adventurers, alternate racial traits and favored class options. The adventurer’s section describes how each race fits into the different classes. Alternate Racial traits, give more options, by allowing a player to swap out different abilities.

Chapter 2: Class Options

This is pure perfection, to me anyway; of course it’s based on some of the work in the complete guides from 3.5, as they were the original options that swapped out class abilities for new focused class abilities. But, somehow Paizo does it so much better, fully capturing the essence of the different classes. Effectively an archetype works in such a way as to replace certain class abilities, for example, a fighter archetype, The Crossbowman, gives up the standard armor and weapon training lines to gain abilities which make him deadly with a crossbow, eventually getting the ability to make trip or bulrush attacks with the crossbow, or shooting through a target on a critical. One of the things archetypes have allowed is for classes such as the paladin and ranger to drop spell-use; the skirmisher ranger archetype replaces spell use with ranger tricks, which are similar to rogue talents.

This book provides so many options that you can easily play a multitude of ideas. The additional classes are some of my personal favorites, I have a Battle Oracle that’s a monster in combat, and an inquisitor that is one of my all time favorite classes, especially as I’m working on making her a dazzling display master. I have a dwarven monk, using both the Hungry Ghost and Monk of the Sacred Mountain archetype, which replaces most of the standard monk abilities, for a very fun alternate monk.

Aside from archetypes, lots of new options are presented. Barbarians get almost 50 new rage powers to choose from. For clerics, 66 subdomains have been introduced; for example the rage subdomain can be chosen instead of the destruction domain, allowing the cleric to rage at level 8 and even get rage powers at 12 and 16. Rangers have five new combat styles introduced, crossbow, mounted, natural weapon, two-handed, and weapon & shield, a much desired array of combat styles that were asked for during Beta testing. Rogues gain 20 new talent choices plus 12 new advanced talents. Sorcerers get 10 new bloodlines to choose from, including serpentine and shadow. Wizards get some love with the elemental schools, earth, air, fire and water. They also receive the new ‘focused arcane’ schools, the teleportation focused school allows the shift ability in lieu of the acid dart power. The Antipaladin makes its triumphant return to the game with the new Antipaladin alternate class.

Chapter 3: New feats.

With dozens and dozens of new feats, I’m only going to say, that some of the new feats close gaps in what you could normally do in combat. In addition, race feats are introduced; feats such as Razor Tusk or Racial Heritage.

Chapter 4: Equipment

New weapons, armor, alchemical creations are always nice.

Chapter 5: Spells

Almost 50 pages of news spells.

Chapter 6: Prestige Classes

Adds the following prestige classes: Battle Herald, Holy Vindicator, Horizon Walker, Master Chymist, Master Spy, Nature Warden, Rage Prophet, and the Stalwart Defender.

Chapter 7: Magic Items

Always fun in a book.

Chapter 8: New Rules

Combat maneuvers; 4 new combat maneuvers are introduced which are definitely gap fills. The age old Dirty Trick maneuver, such as sand in the face, is introduced, it was missing and needed. Drag, which was most assuredly over looked. Reposition, grab your opponent and move him against the wall. And the steal maneuver, snatch something off your opponent, oops, were you looking for that heal potion. Pathfinder introduces its own Hero Point system. Including hero point related feats and spells, and magic items. Traits are given their Pathfinder update in this volume, including updating the campaign traits from Rise of the Runelords AP.

Artwork: Epic! The artwork as always is littered with the iconics, making the entire book feel cohesive to the system. The artwork at the beginning of each chapter is dynamic, typical of Wayne Reynolds artwork. Each of the new classes receives its own WAR artwork.

Replay Value: The archetype options alone in the Advanced Player’s Guide provide so many combinations, that you could play hundreds of games and never play the exact same character. Even if you’re someone who enjoys a particular concept, reusing the name and vision of your character, you could play a dozen or more times, with slight modifications, using the same character.

Comprehension Level: There’s a lot of variation in this book, a good comprehension of the core rules is required before venturing into APG territory.

Game Mastering: This supplement adds a lot of complexity to an already complex game, make sure you review the material before allowing players to take options from this book. However, it’s fun to have more options as a game master as well.

Price Tag: The Advanced Player’s Guide will cost you $39.99, however, Paizo has a nice price point for their PDFs and that is only $9.99.

Value: For me, it’s well worth the money. I love complex characters and not necessarily optimized characters, this lets me have more and more options.

Overall Rating: EPIC! The amount of freedom you gain as a player is amazing, and generally it’s all very well balanced, not a case of any particular class becoming the flavor of the month.

Note: family rating is based upon the Core rules.

Wednesday Review: Save Doctor Lucky

This is a review of the Save Doctor Lucky Board game produced by Paizo Publishing, LLC. http://www.paizo.com

First Glance: High quality heavy duty box game. You get 8 stand-up counters representing The 7 players and Doctor Lucky. You get 4 nice thick boards, with nice quality artwork. You also get a nice Deck of cards.

Main Review: Save Doctor Lucky is the prequel to Kill Doctor Lucky.

In Save Doctor Lucky, you must conspicuously save the Doctor from the sinking cruise liner. The first difference between this game and the original is the boards, you lay each of the decks of the ship out with ¼ of the cards (after dealing cards out). The Doctor wanders on his standard pathway around the ship, but as the cards run out, boards sections disappear. Another difference is that when you attempt to save him, others must be able to draw line of sight to you, as you’re not saving him for no reason, you’re trying to get ahead in the world. No spite tokens are awarded in this version, the game length manager is the sinking ship. As the sections disappear, the game play speeds up quite a lot.

Artwork: Excellent, The artwork is stylized and the boards are gorgeous.

Replay Value: Excellent, this game is never the same, and while you might have some winning strategies, you’re not going to win every time. This is a family favorite, everyone can win.

Comprehension Level: Excellent, The rules for Save Doctor Lucky are very simple. Publisher’s suggested Age Range is 10+

Humor: Decent, While Save Doctor Lucky tries to maintain the same level of humor as it predecessor, it does not quite succeed, the jokes on the failure cards just aren’t as funny as the jokes on the failure cards for Kill Doctor Lucky.

Family Rating: 8+, rules are easy enough to learn, and there’s no moral ambiguity of murder in this version of Doctor Lucky.

Price Tag: $29.99 retail. Well below the price point of similar games, for something of this quality, you can usually expect to pay $40.

Value: For us, it’s still worth the money. Not as good as the original, but it’s a nice alternative.

Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars

You can purchase Save Doctor Lucky from from Paizo.com or your FLGS!