I'm so happy to see so many individuals, and so many big names, all come together for such a great cause. Everyone did an excellent job on this project.

This is one of the single greatest purchases one can get. I purchased it quite a while ago, but lost the link this. I have the new updated version and the original release. These are much more clean.

Having new people at the table having never played thsi game, this resource is invaluable. You don't always have time to walk everyone through it, and double checking they were able to fill out everything correctly. This step by step process makes it incredibly easy for any new player to sit down and make a character, as well as level them up. If they still aren't catching on after the first few levels, no problem. This continues all the way to level 20 without making anyone feel guilty. It's especially great in that there's so many different books because each class has their own unique quirk that you might forget about. Especially if you've got a summoner or druid, and have to remember to level up your companion.

Highy, highly recommend this bundle. At the very lease, pick up the general workbook if nothing else. The convenience and peace of mind is worth it.

I'm hoping that eventually we might see this for 2e as well because I've already heard horror stories from players who are confused just from going from level 1 to level 2.

The 5e version of The Godling is written by Ken Pawlik, and runs 25 pages long, with cover, credits, OGL, and advertisements. The file I’m using for this is a reviewer’s copy.

I’ll start off by saying that the godling was my favourite concept for a class back during its inception in Pathfinder, with the mighty godling being my favourite out of them all. I loved it so much that I immediately allowed it in my home games and have even had one of my players create their first character using the class. So in writing this review, I’m coming from a fairly biased place of love and admiration. It’s also why I came down especially hard on the eldritch godling as it didn’t really hold up by comparison to the other three.

The book contains the godling base class as well as the four archetypes that were originally four separate classes in Pathfinder. It starts off with introducing that godlings come from myths and legends, who are tested in trials through adventuring and quests. This is followed by a paragraph that helps give a brief rundown on how to stat a godling, using Strength as Constitution as your primary stats, followed by the stat chosen by your lineage. It is assumed/suggested that the player take the folk hero background for their character.

Up next is the godling class and table. The first thing I noticed, and would have immediately changed, is the godling getting it’s 4th level of Path to Legend at 16th level. I would have moved that to 15th level as that would have been more in line with when the godling gets all of its preceding levels (ie. once every four levels).

A godling gets d8 HD, and Constitution as their proficient saving throw. As for its second saving throw, that is dependent on what lineage the character takes (adept, clever, eldritch, or mighty). Like other 5e classes, players are given the choice of two skills from a particular list, weapon and armor proficiency, and starting equipment. A godling gains the following abilities over the course of 20 levels: divine lineage, mythic inspiration, ascendancy, Path to Legend, and eventually become a demigod at 20th level. This is in additional to the standard ability score improvement gained at the same level intervals as most classes.

At 1st level a godling chooses a divine lineage that’ll determine what type of godling the become (adept, clever, eldritch, or mighty). This will determine your second saving throw and, if you choose adept or eldritch, you also receive access to up to 5th level spell slots. At 3rd level, you start to gain your class’s archetype based on the path you choose for them to take. There are 10 paths in total, ranging from the battle lord who locks targets into one place and helps marshal allies into dealing extra damage to targets, to the healing hand who can heal others with a touch as well as recover their own hit points quicker, to the weapon master who can will into existence a magical weapon of their choice and upgrade their weapon with different abilities each time to do so. For the weapon master, there is a chart on the following page that gives more detail on the point cost of each ability and what each one does.

The mystic inspiration is a nice addition to the class. Basically it gives your character a version of the Lucky feat, allowing you to spend a point of inspiration to gain advantage on a specific roll. At various levels, you can choose what you use this reroll for, starting with skill checks, to attack rolls, and finally to affecting an ally’s rolls. These points are regained after a long rest.

At 2nd level, the godling ascends to gain truly god-like abilities. In the original versions of the godling class, these were called Scion Talents. Over the course of 20 levels, a godling gains 8 ascendancies. Some are pretty powerful as they require you to have taken a specific lineage, but there are other abilities that mimic it, but are weaker because they don’t have a requirement. This makes it possible for different characters to have similar abilities, but really showcases who the ability is truly meant for. About the only ascendancy I would have liked to see better explained for its ability is Rolling Thunder. It requires the mighty divine lineage, 7th level, and the Thunderclap ascendancy. As-written, it sounds like when you use your thunderclap, which normally deals damage to one target within 30 feet, it instead no longer does any damage and causes all targets within 10 feet to have the deafened condition for 1 minute and knocks them prone if they fail their save. That almost sounds like that should be the reverse for requirements as knocking targets prone can be very circumstantial unless they’re surrounded by your allies. It also wouldn’t work against flying targets. Compare that to Spontaneous Resurrection where you can return to life twice up to 4 hours later after dying, but at the same location you were killed at. In exchange you have levels of exhaustion that’ll take a few days to get rid of. However, you’d have to be very careful that your character didn’t die in lava or the ability will be wasted. If you have a DM that allows for class retraining, after two uses of that ascendancy, making it useless, a character could get something else instead. Each table is different, and it’s not fair to judge it on that alone. It just shows that a player has to be very careful about what their character chooses, and to think long term about the abilities.

It’s here that it’s quite apparent that there are no optional feats. I found this to be rather unfortunate as I was hoping to see the divine traits from their original incarnation brought over. There were four levels to each of these so seeing a few combined together and becoming a feat would have been nice to see. Understandably, it could be argued that they’d be class-only feats, but some of them could have worked for clerics, paladins, and even some sorcerers. There’s also the argument that because feats are optional that it wouldn’t be worth adding in this book. Hopefully if a sequel book comes out we’ll see them become feats or even new ascendancies.

Near the end of the book is lay out for how one can multiclass into the godling class, and what the required stats are for each lineage, as well as what proficiencies are gained based on the same lineage. Was surprised it was to enter this class compared to others.

The text format stands out, but unfortunately not in the best way. It appears to change from page to page. One page looks to be in Arial format while another is in Times New Roman, and sometimes a page has bolded text while other pages do not. This can be jarring to the reader on initial viewing, and it’s not really something you get used to. It’s minor, but it definitely stands out. Other than that, the color scheme and background is pretty standard for some of the books that Rogue Genius Games has come out with. It’s not glaring and helps make the text pop out, for better or worse, as mentioned above. Overall it’s pleasant to look at, but could have used one more pass over before release.

In conclusion, despite the text glitches, where the final Path of Legend level is placed, and a lack of optional feats, it checks off the other required boxes I had for, as well as what is expected of a standard 5e class. My bar was set pretty high on this one for me, and while it didn’t meet all of my expectations, what beats it did meet were impressive, and it’s still an all around nice class made available for the 5e system. My final rating on this is 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars. Like the original, I'd allow this in a home game.

Good concept, but needed that little bit extra.

I love the concept, and the pdf, but it feels like it needs more. I'd love to see a feat that gives more construct points. At least 4 more at a time. Right now, a living doll can't be brought to life AND have superior darkvision? A living doll isn't a construct of any kind? What's it's type? One of the feats, Masterwork, says "Living Doll or other Construct", so is it a construct too? They're "constructed", but gain no benefits of a construct. How are they healed? Is it with a variant of repair damage (3.5 spell)? How about a sewing kit that is the equivalent of the healer's kit? And if you use two uses of it, allows you to reattach missing appendages.

As good as this is, it's needs more for its price. A web enhancement that gives us monstrous dolls, or the ability to change limbs (see Toy Story and the Lego movies), would be great. More feats so you can enhance the doll, and even a conversion of the slaymate (Libris Mortis) and carrionette (Dragon Magazine 339, AD&D Monstrous Manual).

Not much else is needed, just a couple of things here and there. Overall, it's decent. It was just lacking that extra push to be spectacular.

Hopefully there's a 5e version someday that fixes a few of these minor aspects.

I'd like to someday I'm hoping that one day I can do a one-shot with these races at a convention. It'll be fun for everyone to play something different.

This is a very cool concept. Take 10 iconic villains/monsters from horror movies, and stat them up. The best part is it's not just newer villains like the aliens of Mars Attacks, but also the giant space plant from Little Shop of Horrors. There was even a monster I didn't recognize, and had to look up the original write-up. I was pretty impressed that the monsters from Pitch Black made it in. Never expected that.

The pdf is 26 pages in length with 20 pages of content, including an appendix with the movies of inspiration.

The monsters range anywhere from CR 3 to 11, and all of them are pretty diverse in their abilities. They also are done up in a way that they're not 100% the same as their original counterpart. Admittedly, I wasn't expecting that. Take for instance the Nightmare Stalker, which is based off of Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger. Instead of claws, he has a barber's razor. Each monster comes with original coloured art, and a two-page spread worth of content.

While, overall, this is very original and it's cool to see these all converted to Pathfinder, there's a lot of things lacking, and it's my reason for the lower score. Firstly, the CR is inaccurate. As per the monster creation rules from the Pathfinder bestiaries, there's a very specific formula that each monster must use in order to be properly balanced. It has to have a specific number of hit points, a particular AC, and it must be able to deal X damage each round to a PC. If it can't, then its CR is a lie, and a party will either get wiped out in milliseconds, or the encounter will be a cake walk. There's also a few editing errors, such as the Unstoppable Maniac having a machete as his primary melee weapon, martial proficiency with it, but has Weapon Focus (longsword) as a feat. The Jungle Predator has +5 armor, but is only wearing a chain shirt. Where's the extra +1 come from? Then there's the Shark Tornado which is a medium animal swarm, yet it's got a 30 foot space. The main issues is the swarm subtype specifically says that it has to be fine, diminutive, or tiny. Even the Swarm Creature Template explains this. The damage is also relative, and shouldn't be 5d6 as the HD is not high enough. It's a nitpick, but it's one of those things that really stand out.

There's talk of a sequel to this with other movie monsters, and while I'd like to see it, I'd want to this book have an errata with builds closer to their CR, the editing looked over for skill ranks equaling correctly (if there's a discretion, just add Racial Modifiers to it) and the feats being labeled correctly. That way when the sequel book comes out, it'll be that much better a product. Theoretically.

This pdf is 17 pages long with nine pages of content.

This starts off by informing the reader that there are three types of robes beyond the standard: cursed, greater, and lesser. Cursed are only found about 5% of the time, but can really mess with the character wearing it by taking longer than usual to produce an item, or giving that person a completely random item that they were looking for. Greater regenerate lost patches after 2d4 days so long as at least one patch hasn't been torn. Lesser have half the normal items and half the patches, but are half the cost.

The next page gives the reader two charts: random potions & oils, and scrolls (arcane and divine). These are for those patches that specify that a minor scroll or potion is available, but not what they are. All of these are at the lowest caster level, and the scrolls are defined A or D for arcane and divine.

If you've read the description, you know that the robes in this supplement include: the Robe of Battle, Robe of Delving, Robe of Exploration, Robe of Faith, Robe of the Sea, and the Robe of Thievery. These are in addition to the core Robe of Useful Items. Each of these have their own specific items that come with it, and even changes the staple items that they start with. For example, the Robe of Battle has two heavy mace and potions of stabilize, and you can randomly pull a riding horse or a ballista with 10 bolts. The Robe of Delving has the normal standard items, but you could randomly pull out 400 gold & 1000 silver or a mule with saddle bags. The Robe of Exploration has a bedroll and an explorer's outfit amongst its standard items, and you could pull out a cart and pony or massive tree (40 ft high).

Probably the least impressive, which unfortunately was also the one I was hoping to blow me away, was the Robe of Faith. It gives you a sunrod AND a bullseye latern. Seems unnecessary. For random items on the patches, you could get 4 vials of holy water or only 2 vials of holy water. Why? Couldn't they both have 4 vials? The vial of ink with parchment and ink pen seems out of place too. Maybe specifically to write spell scrolls on the fly? I'll admit that I was expecting silver holy symbols for its price. About 1/3 of it would have worked great for a wizard though. A Robe of Arcana maybe? I don't know. Just seemed extremely "meh" to me. Especially when you compare it to the Robe of Thievery. That had influences of classic 80's Total Recall on it. Loved it.

About the only thing that I felt was really missing was a tutorial on how to make your own, and help you balance it. I'd love to be able to take that and design a specific one for each of the playable classes, like the cavalier, inquisitor, ranger, and maybe even the bard. Come on, a different masterwork instrument in like four of the patches would be great.

Overall, it's good for its price. I would recommend it.

I will start off by saying that I took time away to methodically consider my review for this, and am giving it a higher rating than I had initially wanted to. And that is because of miscommunication and misinterpretation of the item specifically stating "Note: This product contains compiled information from Bags of Tricks, Figurines of Wondrous Power, Horns of Valhalla, Robes of Summoning, Robes of Useful Items and Rods of Wonder. If you own some or all of these products, Wondrous Treasures may not be for you!" This not the case. I have Robes and Figurines. What's in there is not in here. So, go ahead and by those too if you'd like to. I bought this expecting this to a compendium of all the above books. This is not the case at all. I wish that had been made more apparent.

With that out of the way, lets do the actual review.

The pdf is 29 pages in length with 20 pages of content. It's main goal appears to make note how many times an item has been random chosen and how many times a specific ability has been used on each item. As well, it lists the identify DC, magic aura, how to activate and use, specific construction prereqs, and how to destroy it. Finally, it gives the reader the stats of each creature that you can pull from each item (cat, bat, boar, giant owl, etc) so that it's not necessary to search through the bestiaries, or do up the stats with the template (ie. for the Robe of Bones and the skeleton undead template). In some cases, there's even a blip on the item's lore. With regards to animals, a chart is also listed for how Handle Animal can be made use of during combat with these creatures.

Overall, if you're looking for a supplement for the specific wondrous items listed in this pdf, and need a quick and easy reference so you're not forced to do all the homework yourself, this is the book for you. All the research and box charts have already been done for you. As a GM, I can appreciate the convenience.

An Incredible Resource, and a Must Have for GMs

Full Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for review purposes. I will review it fairly.

This book is amazing. It is 339 pages long, with a few pages dedicated to fluff, cover pages, and multiple elaborate Table of Contents for various content. When I first read this, I'll admit that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This book was everything I was expecting, and so much more. When I saw the number of pages I figured that there'd be more pages dedicated to fluff, OGL layouts, etc and only a moderate portion of content. I was very wrong. It's so much more than that. This is book is something every homebrew GM needs to have in their collection. Not only does it give you varied details on how to design a dungeon, it gives you subcategories on each of the designs. You don't just get dungeon layouts, you get the characteristics, the secrets within, the features, varied traps besides what you'd see in the core books, riddles, legends that go with the dungeons, smells, magical premises, extra dimensional portals, treasure hoards for all player levels, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. If nothing else, if your players are the overly questioning type of what the walls look like, how high the ceiling is, what's on the ceiling, what direction is the wind coming from and what odors come with it, this book can definitely help out with that.

Being a relatively seasoned GM and having read a number of "dungeon crawls" over the years, as well as adventure paths and scenarios run with groups, I have to say that this book is a love letter to all the old school dungeons of yesteryear that I wish had come out a decade earlier. I can't help but think that if this had been released sooner that I would have gotten so much more out of the other dungeon crawls I'd read. While reading this I had nothing but ideas of my own design, and how I could change or improve on the upcoming games I'll be running with my players. For me that really means something as I'm not very good at coming up with anything of my own. I usually borrow maps and just replace the encounters, but keep the write-ups. With this, I can come up with something much more original.

This book will help you design practically any dungeon your mind can think up. From the very simple to the overly elaborate. For me, the real selling point is the riddles. I suck at coming up with those, and personally hate them when I come across them as I'm not one to think outside the box that well. That said, I know a lot of players who feel that it's not a true dungeon crawl until they meet a sphinx with three riddles loaded. For them, this book will satisfy their need to answer the unanswerable.

The bookmarks take you to every possible location you need to go, as well as the Table of Contents is linked to each subject. This alone is a major selling point for someone like me as I do not always have to go back and forth as I'm not one for memorizing where I wanted to go. While a couple of them are somewhat broken, I've talked with the author, and this is getting rectified.

Along with the different Table of Contents on varied subjects, there are also random tables for encounters, smells, sounds, chest contents, dressings and features, characteristics and appearance, and statues. Not only that, but there's subtables for things like portcullises, statues, entrances, chests, and other things you didn't know you needed. The wealth of information is in overabundance, and as a GM you will never know how grateful you will be of such things.

Finally, the treasure hoards. The thing your players entered the dungeon for in the first place. Not only is there a hoard for each CR level a PC might face, but it's also got 12 variations of what they could find in the treasure pile. It can be anything from a mixture of gold and jewels and no magical items in sight to only magic items with a small amount of gold to round it out.

Conclusion: Get this book! This handy guide is an absolute must for any GM. Whether you've done is a million times, or you're not that great at it, this book can always give you something that you didn't think you needed to add in.

Blood of a Fighter

This book was done by the people of d20pfsrd.com Publishing, and wow can they make a book. This 31 page pdf has 24 pages full of new fighter archetypes, additional feats, equipment, and magic items. There's even a couple of pages dedicated to a few weapon properties and armor properties from the 101 Magical Armor and Shield Properties pdf and 101 Magical Weapon Properties pdf.

For archetypes you've got the beast hunter, gun fighter, harpooner, highborn fighter, iaidoka master, navaja, siege engineer, thrower, and wicked wrecker. Each archetype has their own strengths, and a couple of them have a weakness or two considering what they swap out for what they end up getting. It's arguable whether or not what you give up is worth it or not. All depends on the story you're in.

Going through the different archetypes, the only one that confused me at first was the gun fighter. Thankfully there was a disclaimer near the beginning of the write-up that specified that this fighter archetype was in no way trying to compete with the Paizo base class. This version is a possible replacement for campaigns that don't want to let the standard version in, but would be considered a minimalized version. Or, this version could represent the Old West gunslinger that duels at high noon. Probably the most disappointing of all of them would be the navaja. It has two abilities which replace armor training 1 and weapon training 1, and that's it. I honestly thought that there was a page missing when I was first going through it. I still believe that a page is missing. Another archetype that I kind of question is the thrower. It seems like it should lose medium and heavy armor proficiency so it'd have more maneuverability, but instead you can get to keep it and lose armor training so you can throw stuff better. Bit of a head scratcher.

The feat table adds 2 new general feats, and 17 new combat feats for your player character, of which two are also teamwork feats. The ones that seem the most fun are the bola feats. This book makes having a set of bolas actually worth it. What's interesting if I couldn't help but think of Tackleberry from Police Academy 6 while reading these. It's like the writers had just watched it and thought "we have to make feats out of that." A couple of the feats, like Agile Charger and Magebane, give you abilities that are reminiscent of the 3.5 days. Agile Charger allows you to make a direction change while charging, and Magebane gives you bonuses to saves against spells and spell-like abilities. Rally the Troops seems like the 'must have' feat for cavaliers and bards, and Second Wind gives you the healing surges of 4th edition. And who needs adamantine weapons when you've got the Find the Crack feat? For my money, the best thing about these is the fact that despite this being a "Fighter" book nowhere does it say that you need to be a specific Fighter level as a requirement for any of them.

The weapon and armor list was a good read. The battle parasol made me immediately think of the different anime I watched in my youth where the main character would basically beat on their opponents with a wooden umbrella. Its write up is exactly what a player needs to know exactly how it works and can be enchanted as well. The harpoon has a modified version in this book. Moby Dick's Ahab would never have used the original version for his quest. The lantern shield is exactly the kind of item the majority of my players have been looking for since we started playing Pathfinder, and the explanation on how it can used in different modes makes it all the better. It's writing like this that readers were looking for when the Ultimate Equipment came out. Kudos to the writers here for giving us exactly what we wanted for. My favorite of all of them is the heavy crossbow magic weapon Caster's Foe. If you're building a crossbowman who's going to be a mage slayer of some kind, this weapon is almost mandatory to have. It's perfect for player and GM alike. Just add in a few more weapon properties to make it the ultimate mage slayer weapon.

For my money, this pdf is worth the price tag for the magic items alone. The archetypes available in here are good as well if you can make proper use of them, but as I said above a few of them are going to be very campaign specific. That can be a good thing, however, as it also means that they'll make for good NPCs for the GMs as well.

The Collector's Dark Oak

Firstly, I will admit to having not read the original Dark Oak pdf so this will be a first timer's review of the adventure as opposed to a comparison. That being said, the Foreword tells you exactly what's been added to the original version. This is a fusion of the original Dark Oak product as well as the Village Backdrop: Thornhill product, with a few tweaks here and there so it's not just a cut and paste job. For that, I thank Raging Swan for showing their customer that they really do care, and aren't just out to make a quick dollar. And as always, there's web enhancements available on their site for this specific product. Again, not just forwarding you to the previous two pdfs for theirs.

Now, for the review of the pdf itself. The adventure comes with the standard edition pdf as well as a printable copy. It has the same setup as other Raging Swan Press pdfs with lots of bookmarks and a section where it explains how to use this adventure, and an explanation section for how to read the encounters, traps, figure out treasure, etc. While most of this is available in the core rulebook, it's nice to have a quick reference guide available to the more novice of GMs. The town of Thornhill has a few really good notable NPCs for the PCs to interact with, and whom seem as if they'd either bring something to the table in both hindrance and assistance. What's interesting is that a couple of are actually of NE alignment. I've found that to be pretty rare for just the average NPC that's not looking to immediately get in the party's way. There's also multiple locations that are explained to the GM so that the PCs can get a better feel for the different locations. There's also random encounters to involve the PCs if they're not immediately looking to get involved with the main plot, or if the GM wants to add a few more items into the mix.

On page 21 and 25 are fairly detailed numbered hex maps of the Dark Oak itself. Raging Swan Press has also been kind enough to have four alternate versions put up online as web enhancements, and they make note of this near the beginning of the pdf under "Bonus Material". The PCs are going to be trekking through the mire for quite some time, depending on how quick they are, not to mention how much of a survivalist they are. Your average party should have someone with a high Wisdom score, or at least a ranger amongst the ranks. If not, the party could end up lost in the marsh for an entire day, fighting off disease and multiple random swamp encounters. This makes for a much more realistic adventure. An adventure that states can be made into a module that could take four standard sessions.

With regards to the encounters, it's refreshing to see that they're not all hack and slash. The author has given the GM alternatives that can be given to a group who decides that diplomacy is the better course of action. Most of the encounters can be made into friendly allies who are willing to give up information to help PCs that are possibly lost, or even to call a truce. The PCs should be given the same amount of experience regardless of how the situation ended. Each encounter also has a section on how to scale it in comparison to what the average party level is. The majority of the work is already done for the GM as well, with new AC, hp, and sometimes damage changes. This saves the GM a few minutes of work, especially if this adventure was chosen on the fly. During certain battles, there's a table for the GM to make quick reference to should a PC end up doing battle in or under water. Again, this is in the core rulebook, but it makes the GM's job easier.

If the GM is running this as a one-shot, and the players either aren't going to be making their characters, or don't know how, the back of the pdf has six pre-generated characters for them to choose from. Each one has their own specific talent, and the cleric has a detailed background on his clerical order.

Overall, this looks to be a fun adventure, and has lots of room for advancement should one of the main NPCs manage to get away, or the party was too low of level to take on both BBEG resulting in a later revenge plot. However, I must point out something that everyone should make note on. What the gaming party will likely find the most annoying, because so many PCs wear heavier armor and shields, is falling into the river rapids and failing their Swim DC checks to not be swept 10-40 ft. downstream, or worse yet, trying to climb the shoreline. Unless the group has been involved with multiple encounters that involved swimming before, there's a good chance that little to no one will have any actual ranks in the skill. That could make for a very frustrating time. It might be beneficial to everyone if some swimming items were added to the local shops, or GM makes sure that the PCs have at least 1-2 ranks in the Swim skill before going into this adventure. That should hopefully cause less headaches for everyone. That being said, a group should still have lots of fun with this adventure, overall.

I definitely recommend this adventure, and I hope that someday I can run it for my group, or at least as a one-shot at a convention.

Spells That Signify Your Seasonal Mark

To start off, let me say that my fire elementalist wizard LOVES this book. Honestly, he thought the book was made specifically for his character. If that doesn't get you wanting to buy this pdf, hopefully my review will.

The first thing that came to my attention is the immediate difference in editing and style of this book compared to the Signature Spells 1 book. It's like night and day, but unfortunately not in the good way. At least not for me. While the Signature Spells book looked very neat, well spaced, and was easy on the eyes, both the print and the tablet editions of this pdf are heavily bolded to the point that they tend to almost bleed together, and it makes it harder on the eyes. It doesn't look nearly as clean. The print version's much worse than the tablet version. The tablet version at least is passable, but it still suffers from the having too much text too close to each other. I'd have preferred things to have been spaced out more. A different text layout probably would have helped it go a long way as well.

Now that the negative aspects have been touched on, let's look at all of the positive. This product comes in a .rar file with three items contained within: a tablet copy of the pdf, a printer friendly copy of the pdf, and a Hero Lab add-on. With more people using Hero Lab these days, this is slowly becoming a standard necessity for distributors to have with each release. While I don't use the program, I know lots of people who do, and they welcome these very much. Anything to make a GM's life easier is fine by me.

Despite the faults of the text, the pdf itself is filled with wonderful additions for the Pathfinder game. The Table of Contents list everything that you can find in the product, including spells, new animal companions, a bard masterpiece, more subdomains for clerics and inquisitors, additional witch patrons, familiars, and a new magic item.

Much like the Signature Spells books, there's a listing section for all the spells, what classes they belong to, and a brief description of what each one does. The nice thing about this is you can look over each spell quickly and see exactly which ones peak your interest first so you can search it out later for a more elaborate description. One thing the reader will pick up right away is that this pdf is heavy on the fire spells, hence why my fire specialist wizard enjoyed it so much. There's definitely no shortage here. That's not all that's here though. There's a neat summoning spell for your summoner, or heavy summoning classes, to bring about a group of flying battle trained eagles to act as mounts for the party. They don't stick around for a long time so don't expect them to fly you from Point A to Point B, unless you've got the feats that'll extend it for that long. They're more meant for tactical advantage in a fight. Hopefully you don't have that large of a party though as you can only summon 1d4+1 of them per casting.

The new companions aren't terrible. It's a fire ant, and a giant bee. I like the idea of having vermin as companions that grow and get stronger as you do. The nice thing about these is you're not forced to be the very specific druid archetype. Anyone can take these. The improved familiars aren't too shabby either. Like the companions, one is fire based. They are the phoenix and the mechanical owl. It's nice to see access to a clockwork familiar without requiring a second feat on top of the Improved Familiar feat.

The new bardic masterpiece is pretty fun to read for its abilities, but other than that it seems pretty limited and circumstantial. Great for when you're fighting trolls though. If you've got a fire wizard in the party too, he's going to love the bard. It's just too bad it's not available to you until 7th level. Almost seems too little too late at that point.

The new subdomains are decent, but again the Rainbow Subdomain is a little troublesome. The Beltane Subdomain power is a nice swap-out for Nimbus of Light if you're not in a heavy undead campaign, and less limited in comparison to the Day Subdomain. At the very least, your party will appreciate the bonus during combat. The spells you gain are pretty decent too, and make some sense. The Summer Subdomain is probably favourite of the three. Swap out fire resistance for cold resistance, and eventually immunity? Yes please. Fire resistance is probably the easiest thing to obtain for any PC. Cold is a close second, and this helps make it even closer. Now the Rainbow Subdomain does give you arcane spells for the swap-out at levels 7-9, but the power you get in exchange for Storm Burst, is questionable. Don't get me wrong, Storm Burst sucks. It does nonlethal damage without the standard -4 penalty, and it's at range. Rainbow Light, however, is less circumstantial. It's melee touch instead of ranged touch, and it dazzles you for 1d4 rounds. Few things are immune to that. The only problem is finding creatures to affect with it. If at any time the character is not facing off against mooks, meaning they have more HD than the cleric, the ability is useless. It can't affect anyone who has the PC's HD+1. As long as their HD is equal or less, the cleric's power still functions. About the only reason you'd take it is because you gain the prismatic spells at 7th and on.

The witch gains two new patons, which are Blood and Summer. Both are quite nice, and great additions. Your players are going to hard up to figure out which one they want for their character. Personally I like Blood. Considering what it consists of, I honestly have to wonder if the 10th level ability is actually a typo. The 2nd level is inflict light wounds, but the 10th is cure critical? I guess that fits though as the 14th level one is regenerate.

And now finally, the new magic item. The Holocaust Cloak. Given the name you'd think it was something epic and expensive. Something almost apocalyptic in power and nature. Well, you'd be right in that it's expensive. It's a cloak that gives you either cold or fire resistance 10, makes you glow as if you were the light spell, an aura of fire that activates if hit by a natural weapon or unarmed strike for 10 rounds/day. However, you can sacrifice two of those rounds to do the equivalent to a mid-level fireball centered on you, for DC 16 Reflex. At 50,000 gold that seems way too limited.

Overall, the pdf is good. It's not something for everyone, but if you've got players who love fire spells, or you're a GM who wants to add a few more fire evocation spells to your spell book, or want to add a few more options to the clerics or witches in your group, you'll find something in here to satisfy. You won't be disappointed for what you paid for it. My player liked it, and another player is looking at it for a future witch character she'd like to do up. Chances are she'll go Blood, depending on the campaign we're doing.

I give this a 3.5 out of 5. It's got a little something for everyone, but it might not be enough for some people.

No Tears Shed For These Bugbears

First, I want to put this out there before anything else. Raging Swan Press has their pdfs set up in a way that's always kind of annoyed me. It's both pages on your screen. This makes things rather difficult to read. However, I've learned that if you use Adobe, in the View section, you can make it a single page scroll down by changing it to "Page Display - Single Page View". That helps immensely, and makes it far easier to read on a computer monitor, or certain tablets. The newer tablets seem to be okay with the format though. So kudos to them on having a way to change the layout, it just needs to be better advertised.

Secondly, when I read "Alternate Class and Race Features", my mind immediately thought that this book was going to have their take on the race as a Advanced Player's Guide breakdown. It does not. So if you're thinking of buying the book specifically for that, it doesn't have that there. Incidentally, it's over 20 points for all of the bugbear's abilities, minus the hit dice. I took the time to do it because it was bothering me. Would I have liked to have seen that? Absolutely. Especially with more races coming out all the time, and everyone's growing desire to play a monstrous race. Is it necessary to have had it in the book? No. This book has enough merits on its own.

Now that, that's out of the way, we can do the actual review. Neither of the above will get in the way of my final score.

The pdf opens with description of where this particular tribe of bugbears is located, and describes their home, and a bit of their personality. Called "sadists" and "chasing their prey", only to behead them at the end. This act is what places them in their pecking order.

The next page tells of how Raging Swan deals with errors and where you can find errata if you need any. It also tells us on the designer, John Bennett. It's very reminiscent of the old Dungeon Magazines where they'd describe the author as living in the jungle trees of suburbia, and compile them of skills and stats as if they were a d20 character themself. It was a nice trip down memory lane.

The first thing that really stands out to me about this pdf is the Table of Contents of the screen and print editions. Is it ever detailed. It tells you where exactly you should go, what stat blocks you can find, the new magic items, a brief description of the new spells, the alternate features, the feats, and the new monster. All this given to you on that one page.

This book comes in a pack of three. The package includes a print edition, a screen edition, and a stated pdf. The print and screen editions are exactly as they read. They're the books in question, just in different formats. The stated pdf is all of the NPCs and monsters in one small space so you can drop them in at any time for random encounters, or just because.

One thing I love about print editions is that they don't take up as much toner when I'm in need of having the stats out in front of me my tablet or laptop aren't working all the time. At first look they don't seem all that different, but once you start printing, you immediately recognize the error you've made.

I liked the fact that each NPC had a side bar that described them, and how you could put them into your game, or the type of encounter you'd find them in, and what kind of combat tactics they'd use. Groego stuck out the most to me though because of his personality, mannerisms, and especially his appearance. The guy has mad respect for his gear. It all shines and glows. Seriously, he should have a level or wizard or sorcerer so he can use Prestidigitation at-will. He's doing it the old fashioned way.

I used them for a pre-made evil adventure path that had the party dealing with a lot of bugbears, and a few of them are even going to be key NPCs for later. The PCs like a few of these guys, and are leery of others. Exactly how you want them to be when presenting evil NPCs.

Now, what do you get with the main pdf? Well, you get the location of the White Cliffs, where the bugbears are from, each of the four specific spots within the area, such as The Demon Pit and The Frozen Tears, and descriptions of each locale, and the lore behind the White Cliffs themselves. It's detailed, yet vague enough, that this location can be put into any campaign. The terrain features are wonderful to read, and the players are going to hate it as their character trek along the rockfalls, icy slopes, across the frozen rivers, and even have to go through blizzards.

Some of the things that the players can take from this are the new sorcerer bloodline, Yem's Bloodline (good for witch bugbear descendents), the Fear domain, a snow toad familiar, a few new feats, a couple of spells that are not only for the standard spellcasters, but also for the NPC adept. Who does that? Raging Swan Press, that's who. There's also a few new magic items to add to a character's arsenal. The creepiest of them all for me has to be the shrieking head. It's a disembodied head that's been placed on a pike, and screams if a password isn't given before walking by it. The art is probably what really creeps me out about it though. And while not really for the players, a new monster, the vhen nhar spawn, a frozen corpse undead creature that hungers for warmth. Needless to say, you'll be very surprised as to how these things are created. I won't spoil it. You'll have to buy this pdf in order to find out. I know I sure didn't see it coming.

Now, are there any cons to this? Yes, but it's a mild one, and it's something that I've come to notice with all of Raging Swam Press pdfs, aside from what I've listed above, and that is everything being black, white, or grey. It's hard to really immerse yourself into something when there's nothing to really grab your attention. The only colour in the whole pdf is that of the Pathfinder logo. While it's sort of this company's staple to be seen as it is, I'd like to see a little colour here or there to spice things up a bit. Make it a little more dynamic, and give it more of a sense of difference between the screen version and the print version. It's nothing big, just something that could possibly help emphasize things a little bit. A little more art every so often to help break up the bricks of text would be nice to see as well.

Overall, I liked receiving the three pdfs in the bundle. Even if you aren't running this specifically for its own side-trek, which you could very easily do, especially with Reign of Winter coming out, you could put this in any campaign that's going to have the PCs going North into the frozen wastelands.

I give this pdf a 4.5 out of 5. I recommend getting this product.

Play a Faerie and a Dragon at the Same Time

Ever wanted to play a fairy or a dragon? Well, Jon Brazer Enterprises has come up with a way you can play both. Sort of. Don't think about it too much, but they're actually a half-breed of each race. The book explains how it's possible, and that it's actually based off of the actual faerie dragon itself, and another humanoid, such as humans or elves.

I'll admit that I was originally incredibly skeptical of this book simply because I wasn't sure that this would be a viable race. And to be honest, while I still don't, it'd be a fun ride if I was given this at a convention, or playing a high fantasy campaign. That is of course if my GM allowed the race in their campaign. This is specified at the beginning in the disclaimer that GMs might not use everything, but I'd certainly hope they would. The pdf is apparently Hero Lab compatible with a free download available for those that get this pdf. This is a great benefit to GMs and players alike.

The one thing that immediately grabbed my attention when I was first skimming through it was that layout. It's got a great set of bookmarks and a very easy to follow Table of Contents. Lately, 3rd party products have been either skipping this altogether, or it's incredibly vague about what details you'll be seeing. It was nice to see that these guys took their time with this product to make everyone happy.

As you read through, you're invited to visit the world of the half-faerie dragon, and gain an insight as to how their personality might work. There's a brief short story that introduces you to a captured half-faerie dragon, and he goes on about how it was a big mistake, only to reveal later that it really was his own fault for what ended up happening, but to please rescue him. I found this rather cute, and actually compelled to want to see how this played out in an actual scenario with my own PC meeting this NPC half-dragon. That's a sign of a good writer.

The art, while infrequent, is wonderful to look at. Kudos to the artist and colorist. I actually found the line art in the pdf itself to be more of a visual grab than the cover itself. It's probably because there's more tendency to show off the different looks and styles a half-faerie dragon might have, and that not all of them look the same, just like standard half-dragons. This is complimented by the very extensive descriptions of how they look, standard ways of parentage, variances of appearance, etc. It also includes the typical hair clothing styles.

Now, let's get into the actual race itself. Is it that great? Well, to be honest, I wasn't a fan of the stat bonus and penalties. It's... interesting, but there's too many. You gain +2 to A, B, and C, but have -2 to X and Y. What, no Z too? I guess I can understand why they are what they are, but still. Having that many stat bonuses and penalties to remember makes it overly complicated. It's also very limiting for what classes you're going to take. Being small size, and having a penalty to both Constitution and Wisdom, you're not going to be the front line fighter, and you're not going to be the divine caster unless you're an oracle. And because of their incredibly random personality (i.e. they basically personify chaos), the chances of you being a paladin are going to be even less. This is essentially confirmed by the description of their society and personality. Now, does this mean you can't be one? Absolutely not, you'd just be the black sheep of the race for doing so. However, the write-up on religion makes one wonder how often one would be a divine class anyways. Which is ironic considering they have both cleric and paladin as favored classes for gaining bonuses.

One thing that stands out about the race though is their breath weapon. It's a gas that while titled "euphoric" actually causes you to be staggered, sickened, and feared. Given the name you'd think it'd be the equivalent to something like Hideous Laughter, but apparently not. While they have butterfly wings, they can't fly with them. At least not without a feat and 7 HD. They also have Prestidigitation as a spell-like to add to help aid them when pulling pranks. It's not hard to see why so many races don't really care for these guys.

This book is fairly extensive in what options it gives you. It's almost standard to have it added in nowadays, and these don't disappoint. They have their own bonus traits to choose from, alternate racial traits that you can swap out if you're not a fan of what's in the original write-up, favored class options, racial feats, clerical subdomains, new spells, base class archetypes, and prestige classes.

When you get this pdf, you're immediately introduced to the fact that these little guys love apples. Like, LOVE apples. If your GM allows flaws in their game, take Addicted: Apples. It's like showing a crackle something shiny and sparkly. It probably helps that the legend of their deity ate a golden apple and became a god. I'd probably be inclined to do the same thing. You never know. It also gives you full details on their society, religion, arts, courting rituals, what technology they might have access to, their hippy style love over war (never a bad thing), aging, their grand history, languages, deities, and economy, just to list a few things. There's even a way to implement them into your particular campaign, various locations that you can meet them, and even pre-written NPCs that you can introduce your party to. The guys at Jon Brazer Enterprises spared no detail in making sure you, the reader, are fully involved in their conception, and this race has been around for a very long time, and will not be going away any time soon. To everyone's delight, I'm sure.

Before I continue, I just want to say that I love, love, LOVE the Dappled Theurge prestige class. While it saddens me that it's so hard to gain access to, it's quite worth it. At least to me personally. It pays tribute to one of my all-time favorite arcane prestige classes from 3.5, the Ultimate Magus, from Complete Mage. This allows you to have both a prepared arcane caster and a spontaneous caster go up the same as the Mystic Theurge does for the arcane/divine casters.

The archetypes aren't half bad either. The sorcerer bloodline that you're given is one of the better ones that have been presented to us in both 3pp and official Paizo books. If you're anything other than the half-faerie dragon or a regular faerie dragon, you need this in order to gain access to the prestige class I mentioned above. Thankfully the bloodline itself is worth taking even if you're not taking it specifically for the Dappled Theurge.

The feats presented in the book compliment the race nicely, regardless of how you're building the character. There seems to be more options if you're playing the original race, and don't take alternate racial traits, but there's still something for every version of the race. It's nice to know that you're not penalized.

It's a little light on the equipment, but again there's still a little something for everyone. There's one particular weapon, the laughing blade, that I'm a little confused on. It's not explained why it's called that. Maybe because it counts as cold iron so you laugh at fey who think they're immune to it? Or maybe because it's a martial weapon to the half-faerie dragon, but an exotic weapon to everyone else? No idea. A little insight into this would have been nice. The magic items aren't half bad. I liked the descriptions of the artifacts that were presented. If the GM wanted, they could make entire campaigns around locating them, or protecting them from the outside world.

While there were a few snags here and there, overall, I was much more impressed by this product that I ever thought I'd be. This just goes to show that you can never truly judge a book by its cover. If you can use this in your campaign, whether current or future ones, I recommend getting this.

Admittedly I skipped through most of the write-up about the spartan past, but that doesn't mean I didn't read it. Truthfully I would have preferred that the meat of it was AFTER the class, but that's mostly hearsay.

I liked reading about the hoplite. It's built like a fighter, like a lot of melee classes are, but its got its own special little specialties that put it above the rest, and works well without the necessity of making everyone in the party also be hoplites. However, as great as the class is before it reaches 20th level, once it hits the final level of class and earns its final ability, this class looks very broken to a lot of people. Spartan Unity allows the entire party to do melee attacks as an immediate action, should the hoplite strike his opponent, and should they be adjacent to him. If you have a well rounded team with only a couple of melee people, and the rest ranged, and there's a lot of flanking, this ability isn't that bad. Especially against a medium size creature. Once they're larger to colossal sized, however, you've got at least two people who are getting free attacks. It should be noted that RAW, it allows everyone adjacent to you to hit up to four times around. RAI, I would think it would only be one free action. This ability should be broken down a little better, and explained in greater detail. It'll likely be up to the DM of the game to do the limitations if the class isn't changed in the final release.

What I really enjoyed about this was the archetypes. I love archetypes so much more than the classes themselves. My favourites were the Fighter and the Sorcerer's new bloodline, Warrior's Blood. I see absolute no drawbacks to taking that bloodline. You gain d8 HD, and have 3/4 BAB, and you don't seem to lose any of your spells. It's like previous battle sorcerers from other sources, but way better.

All-in-all, it's a product, but don't expect your DM to allow it into your game any time soon. Especially the Warrior's Blood sorcerer bloodline.