Thank you, Ray! Maybe one day I can afford your work :-)

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial (Containing some rules-relevant material), 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreon supporters.

Okay, so, on the editorial page introduces the synergy trait for feats; a skill action with this trait combines two skills as complimentary and taking a skill feat with it requires training in both; for classifying, they are assigned to the skill that is more important. If, for example, you have a Medicine feat supplemented by Arcana, and it requires being an expert in Medicine, but only being trained in Arcana, it’d be classified as a Medicine skill feat. Simple, right?

Okay, so let’s take a look at the 12 feats herein; we start with two feats available at 1st level, both of which require expert in Stealth. The first is Conceal Efforts, which is interesting in design; it lets you attempt an Interact or skill action while observed and compare a Stealth check with the Perception of all creatures present, allowing you to theoretically perform the action without it being noticed. I do like this as a concept; I also appreciate the fact that the feat sports a caveat that states that the GM might require higher proficiency ranks for some actions. In many ways, this feat aims to fill a blank space between Thievery and Deception; the most common applications would be those related to the Thievery skill, and Deception’s Create a Diversion delivers what this feat offers. As such, the question is whether you’d prefer covert Interact to be feasible via Stealth. Personally, I’d consider this to be closer in the providence of Thievery, or simply require a diversion, which intrinsically draws attention away, but I can see some groups preferring the approach presented here.

Ambient Cover is interesting, in that it conceals you in crowds and makes you treat crowds as regular terrain; it also lets you treat crowds as cover when you begin and end Sneak in one. This is a pretty nifty tool, and reminded me of the origin story of Garrett in the Thief franchise, you know, back when those games were good.

4 feats are available at 2nd level: Snipe requires that you are concealed or behind cover or greater cover, and lets you, as one action, Strike with a ranged weapon, then Hide AND also Interact once or draw a thrown weapon or reload a ranged weapon. If you have Legendary Sneak, you can use the feat even without (greater) cover. I like the concept of this feat; I am not sure it’s situated well at second level; the action economy provided seems VERY good. My suggestion would be to make Interact as a substitute for the attack, also for the purpose of potential weapons that require more than one action to reload. Quick Conceal is triggered by a reaction and is triggered when you pick up a small object, or use it as part of another action, including wand-based Casting a Spell. Essentially, this one lets you make that Conceal an Object as a reaction. This is interesting, and it is kept somewhat in check by a cooldown: Subsequent uses within 1 hour yield diminishing returns, with increasing circumstance penalties. I’d allow this one. Cautious Prowler is another reaction-based one, and nets you a second chance of sorts: When you become observed as part of Seek or Interact, you treat the trigger as a failure, and then resolve Stealth vs. Perception. This one is GOLD for infiltration-heavier scenarios. Conceal Trap does pretty much what it says on the tin, save that it also applies for hazards, using the crafting DC for traps, the disable DC for hazards. It’s also only one action, which struck me as interesting; since Pick a Lock and Disable Device require two actions to perform, I’m pretty sure that this one should fall into that category as well.

For level 7 and up, we have 5 new feats: Misleading Snipe builds on Snipe, and requires two actions to perform, and adds a critical success effect that makes you undetected if the critter could see and if you are at least 15 feet away from the target of your ranged Strike. Ambush Master makes you, whenever you perform a Strike against a target and are undetected or unnoticed, treat the creature as flat-footed versus your Strikes until the end of your turn, regardless of whether your first Strike hits home. Solid. Disappear requires a smokestick in hand, or Quick Alchemy and the smokestick formula; for one action, you Interact with the smokestick and get to Hide or Sneak. Iconic puff of smoke move, solid in execution. Like it. The rules language is also phrased in a way that does not let the Manipulate trait go missing. Nice. Silent Dispatch is a free action, and triggered while undetected or unnoticed and use an action that kills a creature of your size or smaller or makes them gain the dying, paralyzed, restrained or unconscious condition, and can make the triggering creature unobserved or unnoticed by a creature observing it. You do this by Sneak into an adjacent square, and dragging it to (greater) cover. Two thumbs up. Gold.

Seek Synergy would be a skill feat that utilizes the aforementioned Synergy trait; it requires master in Stealth and expert in Perception, and makes any success with Seek to locate hidden, unobserved or unnoticed targets a critical success.

Finally, there is one new skill feat for 15th level, Spirit Away builds on Silent Dispatch, and also muffles restrained targets temporarily. Neat.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on both a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has a nice piece of original art. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Dustin Knight’s Stealth feats contain some serious gems for a campaign that focuses on clandestine operations; there are several herein that I’d consider to be great picks indeed, and a couple of them are serious seal of approval-material; at the same time, you have noticed in the discussion above that I’m not as happy with all of them. That being said, I do think that this pdf is very much worth its low asking price; Conceal Efforts and the Snipe feats in particular should see some GM oversight, though. As for a final verdict: I consider this to be 4.5-stars pdf, rounded down. Well worth getting.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was requested to be moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters.

Okay, on the introductory page we actually get content, namely a new background…the surfer. This one nets you an ability boost for Strength or Dexterity, and a free one, and makes you trained in Acrobatics and Ocean Lore. Additionally, you get the Surf feat, which brings us to the new feats herein, which all, to some degree, require, no surprise there, at least being trained in Acrobatics.

Surf takes an action, and lets you surf horizontally over the surface of a liquid, using the Athletics check DC to swim through it, and you thus ignore terrain features that would usually impede you, but wouldn’t impede your board. Helpful: Even though snow is technically not a liquid, the rules-text does mention it as a valid surface, and the rules also mentions the requirement for force acting upon you, such as gravity, the push of a wave, etc., and if said force would push you farther, you must keep surfing each round or fall, with a proper differentiation between critical successes, failures, etc. being provided.

Quick Grab is one of the feats that may not sound like much, but that is super useful and will see tons of use: Stride up to your speed and Interact to pick up an item if it was within reach during your movement. The feat accounts for alternate movement modes, and your proficiency in Acrobatics determines the maximum Bulk of the item you pick up. Cool! Okay, so these are the level 1 feats.

For level 2, we have 3, all of which require expert proficiency in Acrobatics: Blinding Squall requires a fly speed and flying at ground level and lets you kick up dust in a short-range burst to generate a concealing cloud that briefly lasts; this is obviously contingent on material to kick up. And nope, it doesn’t actually, you know, blind targets. Confounding Tumbler adds critical success and success effects to Tumble Through, allowing you to render the enemy flat-footed against your next attack, or attacks until the end of your turn. Skillful Contortion makes the enemy trying to Grapple you instead target your Acrobatics DC, and if you’re a master or legendary, you get some benefits if an enemy critically fails to Grapple you.

At level 3, we have Trap Dancer, a one-action feat with the secret and move tags, and which requires that you’re aware of a hazard. With it, you can make an Acrobatics check to move past hazards sans minimum proficiency to disable, and with a critical success, you can even trigger them in a way that prevents them from affecting your allies. If your proficiency in Acrobatics is higher, you can manage to use this feat with traps that require a higher minimum proficiency rank to disable. This one is gold for NPCs escaping, and for characters that enjoy planning/setting up ambushes.

At level 4, we have Perfect Balance, which builds on Steady Balance and requires a rank of master, and makes Shove and Trip attempts against you target Acrobatics DC instead of Fortitude. It also lets you Grab an Edge if your hands are tied or restrained. Level 5’s Cat Pounce builds on Cat Fall, uses your reaction, and lets you weaponize your falling when landing on enemies. The feat scales and, being situational, even a critical success will see an enemy take minor damage. The interaction with Cat’s Fall is also smooth.

At level 12, we have another reaction-based feat, namely Pin the Blade, which lets you retaliate against a missed weapon attack from an adjacent enemy (“Adjacent” is important – the feat works against ranged weapons as well this way, but only if they’re used in close quarters; clever and makes sense!): You make an Acrobatics check vs. the target’s Reflex DC, jumping on the weapon to reduce its effectiveness. The success/failure effects represent rather well what you’d expect here. Neat.

Finally, there would be Step In, another reaction-based one, which requires legendary proficiency in Acrobatics and which may be taken at 15th level; it’s triggered by an enemy of your size or larger using an action with the attack, manipulate or move traits, and makes you use Acrobatics vs. Reflex DC, and can immobilize the opponent and render them flat-footed AND unable to use actions with the concentrate trait. The effect ends, obviously, when you move or are forcibly moved.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are excellent on a rules-language level; on a formal level, the pdf is very good as well, though I did notice a few minor things, like “Expert” in the prerequisite-line being title case, when it usually is lower case, but that is cosmetic. Layout adheres to an elegant 2-column full-color standard, and the pdf sports a really nice original full-color artwork. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none.

Dustin Knight’s Acrobatics Feats were a pleasant surprise to me. Cat’s Pounce is a bit situational as far as I’m concerned, but as a whole, the feats include several definite winners, not a single sucky one, and with Quick Grab we have a feat that should have been core. That gem alone warrants imho getting the pdf. The feats that emphasize the slippery scoundrel angle also help a lot here. As a whole, this is a great example of an unpretentious and extremely useful little pdf. 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf clocks in at 21 (!!) pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 17 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was requested to be moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters.

Okay, so the nashi might be familiar to fans of Everybody Games; to summarize them: They’re raccoon folk with extremely sensitive hands. They get 8 HP, are Small, have a 25 ft. speed and their ability boosts are to Intelligence and a free one; their precise touch nets them tremorsense 5 ft., but not as a vague sense, but rather as a precise one. This is already a pretty awesome component that makes them potentially contribute something to the party that other ancestries wouldn’t be able to do. Oh, and there is something else I adore: This ancestry is not simply a collection of stats: The pdf explains the species’ culture, architecture, etc., making it genuinely feel like an organic and viable addition to the gaming world. Their language, rooted in Sylvan is explained alongside their cuisine, their nations, etc., and yes, their ethnic groups, including the tanukun and the seafaring Zumei!

There are no less than 10 heritages to choose from, which includes a knack for filching items, low-light vision and better chances of noticing concealed creatures with Seek, magical talents, being a socialite, etc.—oh, and yes, there is a heritage that actually represents a tanuki heritage, represented by making you a shape changer!

Unless I have miscounted, there are 11 level 1 ancestry-feats, which include being swifter, a representation of the nashi knack for tinkering regarding their proficiencies, a jaws attack, keen senses, a climbing speed, and means to further capitalize on the excellent tactile senses of the species. We also have the means to use Athletics for initiative as a reaction to scramble up inclines with Climb. This one can be very helpful if your GM is as hardcore as I am. Just sayin’…

The pdf also presents 3 5th-level feats: Sensate Strike is particularly cool: It combines the tactile sense with unarmed attacks, and lets you combine a Strike with actually looking for concealed objects! Among the 3 9th level feats, the one that lets you concentrate to enhance the range of your sense deserves particular applause as far as I’m concerned, and 4 13th level feats complete this part of the pdf.

Beyond that, though, we do get MOAR. Alchemists, for example, will like to hear that we receive a new Gunpowder research field, and this leads me into another aspect of this pdf: This file actually includes tight and well-crafted gunpowder weapon rules, including weapon traits for revolvers (chamber), weapons that let you fire bombs, weapons with spreads and the like. Malfunctions and means to clear them and basic combat actions for Spread Strikes complement this system…and seriously? Paizo’s system will need to best this one. It’s ridiculously cool. Bolas cartridges? Check. Flamethrower-y cartridges? Check. Cartridges that let you infuse alchemical items in them? Check. Rock salt? Smokescreen? Essentially flechette? Check, check, and check again. This system interacts incredibly well with the new alchemist feats, and the whole alchemy-trick-gunslinger build array that you can craft with this pdf? Pure gold. If you want to play a trick-shooting alchemist? Get this. It’s incredibly awesome.

Beyond that, we have a new sorcerer bloodline supplemented by 3 focus spells, two of which deal with reshaping your body, with one even allowing you to make fingers or other body parts into items, Mr. Fantastic/Plastic Man style, and yes, this interacts properly with the item level system. Did I mention Spell Sake, which makes it possible to make your spells into potions? And yes, these will render the imbiber buzzed; the “sake” moniker is not cosmetic. Magitechnician wizards focusing on Crafting are also covered, and the pdf also features the tinker archetype, supplemented by a couple of feats. Particularly shield-users will welcome the fact that this one lets you swiftly cobble together shields, but the utility of this one goes beyond that. Obviously.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are excellent on a rules-language level, and the pdf also excels on the formal level. Layout adheres to an elegant 2-column full-color standard, and the pdf sports really nice original full-color artworks. The pdf has no bookmarks, which does constitute a comfort-detriment at this level.

…a comfort-detriment that would usually make me rate this lower. BUT hot damn, does this file deliver. This is a perfect example of not going one, but several extra miles. The pdf offers a genuinely compelling ancestry for your game, one that offers a distinct playing experience with a lot of customizing options…and it makes the nashi species feel organic, plausible, vibrant. And then you also, you know, have this very smooth and elegant alchemy firearm system as a frickin’ bonus. And all those class options. Alexander Augunas keeps piling cool stuff on an already excellent species.

The result? Frankly, the bang-for-buck ratio for this one is superb. Even if the firearm system is not something you’d want to use, I’d genuinely recommend giving it a shot (haha!), and once Guns & Gears releases, this’ll be the system it has to compete with/beat as far as I’m concerned. Now, usually I’d axe a star or my seal for the lack of bookmarks, but considering how much cool stuff we get, that’d be mean-spirited and asinine at best. This deserves the full 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

The PDF you receive is missing a monster, the proper mimic, and you need to download the preview pdf to view it. The monster selection is great, and the monsters fit seamlessly in. I bought this to run a Devil-themed campaign, and the statblocks have done their job well. There is a lack of proofreading. "x" shows up in place of values more than once. For example, the Gorgon has "Init +x". It hasn't caused me any issues, but it's certainly not an oversight you'd notice with a proper Paizo Alien Archive. Lots of the monsters have full paragraphs of lore from Pathfinder alongside them to give you context. I find the little "Seargant" bits cute. It's really nice to see this alongside the statblocks, as it takes a lot more effort to give context to most of the monsters. A lot of the art is really cool, a few are a tad ugly, but that is my subjective opinion. It reminds me of a comicbook style, and is charming in that manner. The Erinyes art is weird, and some of the other art feels a bit... I don't know, man. This isn't really an issue as all of the monsters are so common there is a plethora of alternative art to pull from, but it would be nice if the book looked pretty consistently.

Overall, I highly recommend this product to anyone who GMs starfinder regularly. Who doesn't miss throwing Ropers at your poor party?

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the sub-series of the Star.Log-series dealing with more modular playable races clocks in at 13 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page introduction, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreons.

In case you’re new to these pdfs: The series essentially focuses on rewriting a whole host of playable species in a manner that emphasizes player agenda and lets you customize the experience to a higher degree than usual. This design paradigm is very much indebted to how Pathfinder’s 2nd edition deals with species/ancestries, and is also a design-paradigm that I could see in Everybody Games’ upcoming and highly anticipated RPG Eversaga. (Seriously, Eversaga is right now my most anticipated game!)

To recap the system: Write down all 6 ability scores and put 10 next to them. You get an ability boost, which you assign and can’t reassign without a mnemonic editor or the like and add 2 points to the ability score for the boost. You can also choose a flaw, which means you need to subtract 2 ability points from a chosen ability—if you do that, you get another boost, and you may not apply a boost and a flaw to the same ability score. A species’ vital traits entry lists the ability scores you can boost, but flaws remain yours to freely choose, at least usually. Then, you apply the theme’s ability score increase, and after that, you get 10 point to customize your character on a 1-for-1 basis. You can spend these however you want, but at the game’s start, ability scores cap at 18. Points must be spent and can’t be saved for later. Simple, right? So, how does the engine proceed to work? Well, each species gets its vital statistics, which note the eligible scores for ability score boosts (and flaws, if relevant), the Hit Points, sizes, speed, sense traits (designated with the word “sense”), inherent abilities (designated as “inherent”), heritages (which may be specific or universal), and the character chooses two species traits, chosen from the character’s species or the “universal” list. The character gets an additional species trait at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter. Minor nitpick: The “universal” list is not actually in this pdf, but the explanation of the engine does refer to it with “see page $$”-references; while this is not a deal-breaker, considering that the engine actually gets better the more of these pdfs you have, it still was worth mentioning to me. As a whole, I do recommend getting the entire product-line if you want to run with the species reforged anyways.

Worth mentioning: This pdf does uses two terms I enjoyed seeing: Recuperate refers to spending a Resolve Point in a 10-minute rest to regain Stamina; daily preparations is the term employed referencing when 24 hours and an 8 hour rest have passed. This makes the rules language MUCH more elegant than usual. Two thumbs up.

The first species herein would be the brenneri (Alien Archive 3, I think), who get their boost to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom or Charisma, and can get a second boost to any of these by accepting a flaw; they have 4 HP, 30 ft. speed, 20 ft. swimming speed, darkvision 60 ft., 4 HP and hold breath…oh, and if you don’t have AA3, they are humanoid otters! (insert around 10.000 South Park allusions) There are 3 heritages to choose from: Lakedweller brenneri get two additional class skills, one of which must be Diplomacy or Sense Motive; Riverfliters increase their HP by 2 and get an additional Stamina at 1st level and every level thereafter. Seaborn brenneri, finally, increase swim speed to 30 ft. and also increases their hold breath capability further. The traits provided include using Acrobatics (if trained) instead of Athletics for swimming, +2 racial bonus to Diplomacy and Sense Motive, blindsense (vibrations) 30 ft., +1 skill rank at 1st level and every level thereafter, and there is one trait that lets you designate a favored object; when recuperating with it, you once per day also recover ½ character level Hit Points.

Gentle combatant nets Improved Combat Maneuver (grapple) or Improved Unarmed Strike; linguist’s magic nets at-will message or 3/day share language. Mimicry of sound via Bluff is really cool, and there is a trait that nets you +1 racial bonus to saves vs. emotion effects, and by spending a Resolve Point as a reaction when failing such a save, you can retry next round, potentially shaking off the effect. Can be used once per recuperate interval.

The second species would be kalos (AA1), who are kinda like aquatic, humanoid bats (or rays), with boost to Dexterity, Intelligence or Wisdom, and an additional one for a flaw to Constitution. kalo get 2 Hit Points and have a speed of 20 ft. and a swim speed of 50 ft. They are also aquatic monstrous humanoids and get blindsense (sound) and low-light vision. I assume the range of blindsense to be the customary 60 ft., but the pdf doesn’t explicitly state this, which does somewhat compromise functionality. On the plus-side, the trait does explain both of these sensory abilities, which means you won’t have to flip books. Nice. Kalo get to choose from two heritages: Deepborn kalo get an additional kalo trait, and floeborn kalo can hold their breath for 10 minutes. This is important, since kalo are aquatic and not amphibious, and as such, need to hold their breath when on land.

The traits include two difference weapon familiarity traits: Aquatic weapon familiarity nets proficiency with basic melee, advanced melee, small arms and longarms with the aquatic weapon special property group. Now, here rules-syntax is ambiguous: The sentence could be read as the longarms being the only ones that need the aquatic special property, or that the restriction applies to all weapon groups; I assume the latter to be correct. The verbiage would be more precise if it stated: “…gain proficiency with weapons in the aquatic weapon special property group that are basic melee weapons, advanced melee weapons, small arms, or longarms.” 3rd level nets the customary weapon specialization. Alternatively, the trait nets you Weapon Focus applying to all aquatic weapons. Here, the phrasing is weird once more: “If you already have Weapon Focus, you gain Versatile Weapon Focus instead.” But…usually one can’t have Weapon Focus in all weapons with a special property? Is this trait supposed to be available multiple times for the taking? This genuinely confused me. Cryo Weapon Familiarity nets proficiency with basic melee, advanced melee, small arms and longarms in the cryo weapon group. (Same syntax thing applies here.) 3rd level nets specialization. The Weapon Focus consideration applies here as well. …and there is something really weird. The trait is listed twice, as the 4th and as the last trait. :/

The other traits include character level cold resistance, +1 circumstance bonus to atk when moving at least 5 ft. and assaulting a creature in zero-g. flight or in water who doesn’t have a swim or fly speed. Stealthy swimmer nets a +4 unytped bonus when using Stealth in water; pretty sure that should be a racial bonus. One trait nets you a class skill and a free rank for the skill every level. Jet charge provides ferocious charge under water and lets you trip in place of an attack when charging, sans the usual penalties. If you already have a similar ability, you can now charge thus through difficult terrain. Athletic swimmer nets Athletics as class skill, and lets you take 10 in the skill, and if you already can do so, you instead can take 20 to swim as a full action, making 5 ft. progress.

Morlamaw (introduced in AA3, unless I’m mistaken) get their boost to Strength, Constitution or Charisma, and a second boost to them for a flaw in Dexterity or Wisdom; 4 HP, Large monstrous humanoids, they have a 20 ft. speed, swim speed 30 ft., and are amphibious and get 60 ft. darkvision. The Morlamaw are…walrus people! Awesome! Less awesome: We only get one paltry single heritage, no choice. :/ The one heritage, the frigid morlamaw, treats environmental cold as one step less severe and get an untyped (should probably be racial) +4 bonus to Fort saves vs. cold, but also a -4 penalty on saves vs. heat, and they gain cold resistance as a bonus trait, which nets character level cold resistance.

The traits include +1 skill rank per level, blindsense (scent) 20 ft., which changes to blindsense (vibration) 40 ft. in water. We also get Stealth as a class skill (and +2 racial bonus to Stealth if you have it already instead); submerged in water, the morlamaw counts as having cover under water when using Stealth to hide from blindsense (vibration)—cool! The species can also get ferocious charge. Another trait nets a circumstance or morale bonus to AC, atk, saves or skill checks, they also get a +1 insight bonus to it. By contracting and expanding their blood vessels, some morlamaw can, as a standard action, fascinate targets within 60 ft., with the save governed by Constitution and if you beat the save, you’re immune until the morlamaw recuperates. Yes. PSYCHEDELIC WALRUS PEOPLE. SIGN ME ON!! :D I LOVE this!!

Mystic heritage nets Mysticism as a class skill and Connection Inkling; if you’re a mystic, you instead get Spell penetration. Natural weapons, unsurprisingly, is also included. (As an aside: Some Everybody Games pdfs do classify the natural weapon damage type; this doesn’t. Not a bash against the pdf, but something to note. Personally, I enjoy the damage being properly typed.) Finally, rapid swimmer lets them upgrade their swim speed to 40 ft.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good on a formal and rules-language level…but not as meticulously precise as I’ve come to expect from Alexander Augunas. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf sports neat full-color artworks for the species. The pdf comes with basic bookmarks; one per race would have been nice.

Alexander Augunas’ aquatic species leave me torn; in contrast to other species reforged pdfs, this one shows signs of a rough (or sped up) genesis; from the doubled kalo trait to minor hiccups, this feels like it suffered a bit in production. The morlamaw are awesome, but where is the heritage that gets hollow tusks and sonic abilities? Come on, siren morlamaw! (Yes, I genuinely think that’s a cool idea; they can already kinda strobe, so the whole musician/raver/stoner doom angle seems something worth pursuing…) Only getting one heritage for them was a bit of a downer.

That being said, do I love the 3 species? Yes. Do I think that they are superior in their reforged iteration? Yes. In fact, this would be an easy 5 stars + seal of approval once it gets rid of its hiccups, but as written, I should probably rate this 3.5 stars and round down…but I can’t bring myself to doing that, because the ideas? They are pretty cool. The psychedelic walrus people alone? Pure awesome. It’s based on the strength of the ideas that I justify rounding up from 3.5 stars, in spite of the rough patches.

Endzeitgeist out.

These are so great. I especially love the angry fuzzlumps, which are super relatable.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The fourth pdf in the Species Reforged sub-series of Star Log.Deluxe clocks in at 25 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page introduction, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 20 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue as a prioritized review at the request of my supporters.

In case you’re new to these pdfs: The series essentially focuses on rewriting a whole host of playable species in a manner that emphasizes player agenda and lets you customize the experience to a higher degree than usual. This design paradigm is very much indebted to how Pathfinder’s 2nd edition deals with species/ancestries, and is also a design-paradigm that I could see in Everybody Games’ upcoming and highly anticipated RPG Eversaga. (Seriously, Eversaga is right now my most anticipated game!)

It's been a while since we covered one of these pdfs, so to recap: Write down all 6 ability scores and put 10 next to them. You get an ability boost, which you assign and can’t reassign without a mnemonic editor or the like and add 2 points to the ability score for the boost. You can also choose a flaw, which means you need to subtract 2 ability points from a chosen ability—if you do that, you get another boost, and you may not apply a boost and a flaw to the same ability score. A species’ vital traits entry lists the ability scores you can boost, but flaws remain yours to freely choose, at least usually. Then, you apply the theme’s ability score increase, and after that, you get 10 point to customize your character on a 1-for-1 basis. You can spend these however you want, but at the game’s start, ability scores cap at 18. Points must be spent and can’t be saved for later. Simple, right? So, how does the engine proceed to work? Well, each species gets its vital statistics, which note the eligible scores for ability score boosts (and flaws, if relevant), the Hit Points, sizes, speed, sense traits (designated with the word “sense”), inherent abilities (designated as “inherent”), heritages (which may be specific or universal), and the character chooses two species traits, chosen from the character’s species or the “universal” list. The character gets an additional species trait at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter. Minor nitpick: The “universal” list is not actually in this pdf, but the explanation of the engine does refer to it with 2 “see page $$”-references; while this is nota deal-breaker, considering that the engine actually gets better the more of these pdfs you have, it still was worth mentioning. Okay, so what playable species are covered? The first would actually be the dragonkin, which get their boost to Strength, 6 HP, and are Large. They can get a second boost for a “flay” (should be flaw) to Dexterity. They only have a 5-ft. reach and get a 30 ft-fly speed with average maneuverability, and until 5th level, they need to end their movement on ground, or fall—nice way to retain the function of low-level modules. Less nice: The dragonkin fails to specify whether their fly speed is extraordinary or supernatural; I assume the former, but this must still be considered to by a glitch. Dragonkin get darkvision 60 ft. and low-light vision, immunity to sleep effects and a+2 racial bonus to saves vs. paralysis. The dragonkin chooses one heritage and one dragon graft at first level. The species gets two heritages to choose from: Compact dragonkin helps with size and nets you compression (nice!), while terrestrial dragonkin get a 10 ft. reach. Both of these provide meaningful, but situational benefits to the playing experience. The traits include blindsense (vibration), natural weapons (including a caveat that determined damage type), partner bond and the two traits that really interact with the graft thingy: One would be breath weapon, and the other lets you scavenge the chosen dragon graft’s abilities, including Resolve-powered auras, etc. This one precisely codifies e.g. resistances and immunities and balances them against the level; particularly for the more outlandish dragon abilities, this is one impressive design-achievement.

Dwarves assign their boost to Strength, Constitution, Intelligence or Wisdom, and can get a second boost by accepting a flaw to Dexterity; they have 6 HP and a base speed of 20 ft. that is not modified by encumbrance or heavy armor, and they get darkvision. There are three heritages: One reduces HP to 2, but nets you Skill Focus or Skill Synergy, and an additional skill rank at 1st level and every level thereafter. Duergar get see through darkness, extending to magical darkness, and the third heritage nets the classic +2 racial saving throw bonus vs. poison, spells and SPs. The traits include +2 to AC vs. AoOs and reactions/readied actions triggered by spellcasting; artisan lets you determine a type of goods and then nets you a +2 racial bonus to two skills determined by the type of equipment chosen. Master crafter lets you craft faster: When your ranks exceeds item level by some thresholds, you become even faster.

Opposite reaction lets you choose a combat maneuver, increasing your KAC against it, and when an opponent fails at it, you can attempt to counter with reposition or trip. Stonecunning is included (the bonus type should probably be “racial” and not untyped), and your combat training can matter: You can either get an offensive +1 atk bonus or a defensive one…that nets you a +4 racial bonus to attack rolls? Pretty sure that this is a cut-copy-paste glitch, and that this should be a “+4 racial bonus to KAC against attacks rolls of the creatures with the chosen type graft or subtype grafts.” On the plus-side, I like that the ability applies either to one type, or two humanoid subtypes. Another one nets you a +2 racial bonus to Engineering, Physical Science or Profession (miner), which also becomes a class skill, or a +1 enhancement bonus if you already have it as a class skill. Finally, we have proficiency with basic and advanced melee weapons, and specialization at 3rd level.

Elves apply their ability boost to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence or Charisma, and a second boost can be attained by accepting a flaw to Constitution. Elves get 2 HP and have low-light vision as well as immunity to magical sleep and +2 racial bonus to saving throws vs. enchantment. Their heritages let them choose a swim speed as well as the aquatic subtype and amphibious universal rule. Forlorn elves et a bonus universal trait; telepathic elves get 30 ft. limited telepathy; traditional elves get a bonus elf trait, and drow get darkvision 60 ft. and can opt to get +2 HP at 1st level, but if they do, exposure to bright light blinds them for 1 round and dazzles them thereafter. The traits include adding a skill to class skills (or gaining a +2 racial bonus if it’s already a class skill) and +1 skill rank each level that must be used in that skill; additionally, this trait enhances Skill Focus and class features that net a bonus in the skill. Elf Magic lets you choose two benefits: A +2 racial bonus to Mysticism (and added to class skills), a +2 racial bonus to overcome SR, Minor Psychic Power (better if drow or taken twice) or a 0-level SP. Elves can choose weapon familiarity a keen senses Perception bonus, a speed of 35 ft. (including better Acrobatics/Stealth) and a bonus feat: Cool little angle for the latter: the elf may only choose a feat that lists an ability score of 12 or higher in an ability score you applied a boost to as a prerequisite. Cool angle.

Gnomes apply their ability boost to Constitution and can get a second one in exchange for a flaw in Strength or Wisdom, are Small with 30 ft. speed and have 4 HP. Gnomes get low-light vision and only need 5 minutes after spending a Resolve Point to recover Stamina, and heal 2 HP per character level with a full night’s rest, 4 per character level with complete bed rest. When they regain Hit Points, they gain additional Hit Points up to their level, capping at ½ the number of Hit Points the effect would usually heal. The gnomes get 4 heritages: Bleachlings must apply their second boost, if chosen, to Intelligence, and gain the trickery resistance trait (+2 racial bonus vs. illusions, and you get an auto-check when passing within 10 ft.). Feychild gnomes get to choose either eternal hope or ecstatic joy as bonus traits. The latter nets a saving throw bonus vs. pain and anger effects and nets you a minor bonus for a round when you roll a 20 on a d20; after the first use after daily preparations, this trait costs Resolve. The former nets you a +2 bonus vs. fear and despair effects and lets you reroll a d20 after you rolled a 1, and you need to take the second result. As before, additional uses cost Resolve.

Hyperspace gnomes get Kip Up and are not flat-footed, nor do they take penalties when off-kilter. Neblin gnomes get 60 ft. darkvision. Gnome magic nets you the classic SPs. Chameleon helps you with Stealth and Disguise, courtesy of limited control over skin pigmentation. Curiosity helps you if you enjoy legwork: When using recall knowledge or gathering information about something, you gain more information. Finally, gnomish obsession is a focus on a special skill, with bonus, free skill ranks and scaling Skill Focus.

Goblins get their boost to Dexterity, and can get a second one for accepting a flaw to Charisma; they have 2 Hp and are Small with a 40 ft. movement speed, darkvision 60 ft., and 3 heritages to choose from. Chomper goblins get a natural attack (including the usual specialization); junker goblins get tinker as a bonus trait: This one lets them repair equipment via Engineering or Mysticism in half the time, or, as a move action, remove the penalties of broken equipment until the start of your next turn, but if you do, it becomes unusable for 10 minutes. Monkey goblins get 5 arms, two of which act as “legs” holding something n one of them slows you down and prevents guarded steps, but you can do it! The traits include fire resistance, climb speed, advanced melee weapon and longarm weapon familiarity, and eat anything nets a bonus vs. ingested poisons and increases the meal quality of something you consume—oh, and you can consume super-poor food sans becoming sick. You can also choose some scrounging-related skills and gain bonuses/add them to class skills. With the scuttle trait, you can use a reaction when an opponent moves adjacent to you to use guarded step; to prevent abuse, additional uses require Resolve UNLESS you first take a 10-minute break to regain Stamina. Goblins are also obviously really good battle-rappers: They can use Profession (singer) to demoralize targets, and that lasts longer. Finally, tehre’s a trait that increases your HP to 6 and nets you DR versus falling; and if that eliminates falling damage, you don’t end up prone.

Haflings are Small (30 ft. speed), get 2 HP and their first boost can be applied to Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom or Charisma; the second boost can be attained in exchange for a flaw to Strength or Constitution; halflings get a +2 racial bonus to Perception, +1 racial bonus to all saves, and 3 heritages. Country halflings treat their Strength as 3 higher for the purposes of Bulk and becoming encumbered, and get Survival as a class skill, or a +2 racial bonus to Survival if it already is a class skill. Streetwise halflings get the city slicker trait, which reduces gather information time by half. Fated halflings can choose either the jinx trait (reaction; apply -1d4 penalty to an opponent within 30 ft. rolling some d20-based roll; additional uses cost Resolve to balance it) or the lucky charm trait ( +1 bonus for allies within 30 ft. as a reaction, same Resolve-based metric to use it additional times). Beyond these, the halfling traits include an enhancement to the halfling’s luck vs. fear effects, including reduced durations. Human mentorship nets a bonus feat; skittish boost initiative and atk vs. flat-footed foes, and also provides you a buff when affected by a fear effect. Sneaky enhances your Stealth for moving and sniping. Sure-footed boost two movement-related skills and nets them as class skills, provides a bonus, or Skill Focus. Winsome looks like it’s supposed to do something similar, but it’s probably glitched: The traits states “Choose two of the following skills: Bluff or Diplomacy“; after reading the remainder of the trait carefully, I’m pretty confident that the trait works as intended: It’s just supposed to read “Choose one of the…”

Orcs get a free ability boost, and can get one additional one to Strength for a flaw in Intelligence. They have 6 HP, darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity. There’s also a glitch in their conditioned focus ability: “Choose one skill that’s associated with the skill that the orc applied their first ability boost to and add that skill to the orc’s list of class skills.“ That’s supposed to read: “Choose one skill that’s associated with the ability score that the orc applied their first ability boost to and add that skill to the orc’s list of class skills.“ As usual, if the orc already has the skill as class skill, we have +2 racial bonus instead. If the boost chosen was applied to Constitution, orcs get Toughness instead. The species comes with 2 heritages: Feral orcs get the orc ferocity trait, which lets you keep fighting for 1 more round when reduced to 0 HP, and yes, this has a Resolve caveat to prevent abuse for uses beyond the first time after daily preparations. House orcs instead gain he enhanced conditioning trait, which builds on the conditioned focus ability and enhances the benefits by allowing you to choose to grant yourself a bonus to it. (And yes, orcs that choose Constitution are not left hanging!)

The other traits for the species include +2 skills to apply conditioned focus to, a combat feat, losing light sensitivity, weapon familiarity in analog advanced melee weapons and longarms, better saves vs. diseases and poison and reduced damage from dehydration and starvation. Fierce survivalist lets you unlock Athletics, Intimidate or Survival as a class skill (+2 bonus otherwise, or Skill Focus); combo’d with conditioning, this can be pretty nifty if you’re gunning for depth; personally, I’m not the biggest fan of the combo. Resiliency lets you reduce critical hit damage by level (Resolve employed for balancing), and finally, there is a scent-based blindsense.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good on a formal and rules-language level; while, as we’ve come to expect from Alexander Augunas, the precision of complex rules operations is commendable, there are a few typo-level hiccups that partially do affect rules-integrity; never to the extent that the pdf’s utility would be compromised, but they’re there. Layout adheres to the series’ neat two-column full-color standard, and each species gets a cool full-color artwork by Jacob Blackmon. The pdf has no bookmarks, which is a bit of a comfort detriment.

I was so not looking forward to covering a pdf that deals with the legacy species. This may be me, but SFRPG gets me most excited when it does something that feels distinctly oddball and steeped deeply in scifi/space opera, hence also my fondness for weirdo races like skittermanders or msvokas.

But it’s Alexander Augunas. I know no other author with such a consistent track-record of making me really enjoy content which I was sure I’d hate. This applies here as well. While the classic races, by necessity, won’t conceptually blow you away, HOW he implements them in SFRPG is awesome and shines in little design-flourishes that genuinely make the playing experience distinct. I was particularly fond of the implementation of the luck-angle for gnomes and how he dealt with halflings. Similarly, from a design perspective, seeing dragonkin handled in such a way was impressive. This is, most assuredly, one of the best and most interesting takes on the classic races I’ve seen for a while in a rpg-supplement, and it is worth getting. Were it not for the minor hiccups, this’d be a 5-star offering, but as presented, I can’t go higher than 4 stars. Still highly recommended, though—the species reforged engine is a pleasure to play with.

Endzeitgeist out.

I wanted to get started with Pathfinder 2E and this adventure module has been a great help! I'm trying to solo it using different characters and I'm learning something about the system everytime they die somewhere in the dark corridors of this dungeon.

The included companion, which can heal outside of combat, gives all PC classes a bit of breathing room as you navigate the dungeon. It's a good challenge with the included character, and quite doable with a Champion. Precision-based PCs like Rogues and Swashbucklers are going to have the hardest time with the boss battle, as it is immune. I suspect mages might have a hard time in the cramped spaces without a tank to stand between them and the baddies.

The product itself has nice lay-out and design, with neat little illustrations in between the text. The dialogues are fun and give a sense of "story interaction" as you play along, being both PC and DM, and overall the text is very clear. I haven't had any problems with interpreting the text.

A run takes me around 2 hours on average, but that includes me looking up the rules for feats, spells, conditions, etc.

All in all, fun little module! Great for exploring aspects of the game and trying out character concepts. Would recommend.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This Star Log.EM-installment clocks in at 8 pages, with 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page introduction/advertisement, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 4 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

So, the first thing you need to know is that the playable species herein uses the highly modular (and awesome) reforged-playable-species engine employed first in the Star Log.Deluxe-series: If you’re not familiar with it yet, I suggest searching for my reviews of these pdfs, because I assume familiarity with the engine in this review. That being said, if you don’t want to go through the hassle, think of it as more akin to how PF2 handles ancestries. The pdf can also be used with standard species rules – guidelines are included.

Kithians get an ability boost to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma, with a second boost available for an ability flaw to Strength or Constitution. The species only gets 2 Hit Points, but gains the amphibian and aquatic subtypes: They can survive on water and land, can breathe water and get a base speed of 30 ft., swim speed 30 ft., and also a climb speed of 10 ft. They also have reflexive camouflage, which they can activate as a reaction when targeted, behaving like an operative’s cloaking field, but attacking or using a concentration-requiring ability ends it, and it can be used again after a 10 minute rest to regain Stamina Points.

So that would be the basics – but do they feel like an actual species? Well, first of all, while looking rather normal, they actually lack endo/exoskeleton and instead move via the inflation and deflation of air bladders; they are only fertile once in their life, and can procreate with pretty much any species via skin-contact – and yes, this can happen sans the donor knowing, though this is frowned upon in kithian culture. Finally, the final stage of their life cycle sees them discorporate into insects, becoming a hive mind; when only a few are left, they are usually consumed consensually by friends and family. They also tend to gravitate to being pacifists. Now how is that for a cool and thought-provoking culture when contrasted by the relatively mundane look?

Anyhow, we also learn about their culture, cuisine, home world, etc., and the pdf includes a table for different age categories, as well as the “Playing a kithian…” and “others think…”-sections as roleplaying pointers. But let us return to the crunchy side of things: There are 4 kithian heritages to choose from: Anurarian kithians gain extraordinary fly speed 20 ft. than must end on solid surface, and are a bit frog-like; holthurian kithians gain Filtration as a bonus species trait: This trait lets you be treated as though having a poor meal if you spend 2 hours in a body of water capable of supporting life. Mulluscain (not sure if that should be Mulluscian…I’d think so…) kithians gain the Compress Form trait. This trait lets you deflate or inflate as a standard action: While deflated, you become Small and off-target, but gain the compression universal creature rule—cool! Salamile kithians are somewhat more salamander-like and get Shed Skin: You can, as part of the action to attempt such a check, shed a portion of your skin to gain an untyped +4 bonus to Acrobatics to escape from grapples, pins and restraints. First of all, that bonus should be typed. Secondly, shouldn’t that have some sort of limit? Otherwise, why bother making this an active decision and not simply something that happens automatically? Pretty sure something went slightly wrong here.

At 1st level, kithians get to choose 2 species traits, with 5th level and every 4 thereafter providing another one. I’ve already covered a few of them in the coverage of the heritages above. The remainder would be: Bog Runner, which makes you operate normally in bogs; Combat Training nets Improved Unarmed Strike or Improved Combat Maneuver, and may be taken multiple times. Expand Form is cool: standard action to increase to Large size (or back) and you are off-target, but space and reach increase by 10 ft. Intimidating Inflation provides synergy here, netting you a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate checks made to demoralize, which upgrades to +3 when Large. Kithian Expertise nets you Skill Focus, and later allows you to increase the bonus granted later…or instead gain an enhancement bonus to the skill.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level – for the most part. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork provided by Jacob Blackmon, while solid…kinda left me unimpressed this time around. The kithian race is so cool, the artwork feels a bit anticlimactic in comparison. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Joshua Hennington and Alexander Augunas deliver a rather interesting species here: A timid culture that is strange and still…good? In many ways, the race feels like one that would make for a great old-school Star Trek episode, you know, when Star Trek was optimistic and wholesome and was about encountering interesting, strange cultures, and not about action scenes and grimdark, dystopian misery? But I digress. I really like the kithians, more than I should. They are a fragile race that requires some player skill, and make for excellent envoys, for example. At the same time, I do feel like they’re geared a bit strongly towards that role, but the uneven race/class-combo is a paradigm that also haunts the core SFRPG game, so it wouldn’t be fair to bash the pdf for it. Mechanically, there isn’t much to complain about here, apart from Shed Skin, and a distinct wish on my part that the different heritages had some more exclusive traits between them. On the plus side, using the Advanced Occult Guide can add some nice tactical depth when it comes to the relatively spontaneous size-enlarging tricks. So yeah—as a whole, this is certainly worth the asking price. My final verdict will be 4.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

On the introduction page, we receive a brief contextualization of the vanguard class in the context of the Xa-Osoro system before diving into the nit and grit of the supplement.

We begin with an alternate class feature for vanguards, warrior’s insight (1st level), which replaces the aspect insights attained at 1st and 8th level: At first level, you gain a feat (Bodyguard, Cleave, Coordinated Shot, Deadly Aim, Improved Unarmed Strike, Kip-Up or Multi-Weapon Fighting), while at 8th level, you gain a related feat boost or gear boost, based on the feat chosen at first level. As you can glean, this is somewhat closer to a more martial vanguard.

The pdf then proceeds to provide an array of 4 different aspects: Emergence is all about teamwork and being part of a system that is greater than the sum of its parts; as such, we have Improved Combat Maneuver (Trip) and an insight bonus to Diplomacy as aspect insight, 1/combat (still prefer concrete durations) with a significant enemy the option to regain an Entropy Point sans action when hitting an enemy adjacent to an ally, AoE bludgeoning damage that is increased when adjacent to an ally, and an ally-based damage boost for entropic strike. Interesting.

Stasis is interesting, in that its embodiment rewards you for not taking you entire options contingent, and the catalyst allows for AoE fatigued, while the finale entangles creatures when you use mitigate. This aspect is design-wise very interesting and offers a rather distinct playing experience. Like it. Senescence nets you 1/combat an Entropy Point when taking ability score damage or drain to a physical ability score, and its AoE catalyst nets you low-range ability score drain, with the finale allowing for massive Entropy Point expenditure for a combo of entropic strike with said aspect catalyst.

Transference nets you Entropy when you succeed on a save, and its aspect catalyst lets you decrease the durations/end spell effects on enemies – cool! The finale lets you share conditions with enemies that caused them – and thankfully, this catches some of the nastier ones, so no cheesing. The duration is btw. contingent on Entropy Point expenditure.

We also have an array of new disciplines: for 2nd level, we have 4, the first of which would be Accelerate Entropy: 1/round reduce current HP and Stamina by entropic strike damage to generate 1 Entropy Point per damage die rolled, which lasts until the start of the next turn. This loss cannot be negated/cheesed. Blade Block does what it says on the tin: Reaction + Reflex saves to halve kinetic melee damage. Half-swording lets your one-handed entropic strike benefit from the penetrating weapon special property, or do so at an increased level—essentially a reason to go one-handed. Star’s Entropy lets you deliver entropic strikes via solarian weapon crystals, gaining the crystal’s critical effect. You also get to choose to deal acid, bludgeoning, or the crystal’s damage bonus when using entropic strikes, but the attacks are not treated as solar weapons, and effects applied to solarian weapon crystals do not apply. Good catch there!

For 6th level, we have 3 new disciplines: Defensive Posture requires Blade Block or Flatten Bullets, and lets you combo mitigate with them. Cool! Entropic Raider nets Spring Attack, and when using it as a full action, you gain 1 Entropy Point (here erroneously called Entropic Point). Fierce Knight requires Entropy Shield and allows you to treat it like a knight’s shield, with 8th, 13th and 18th level providing upgrades.

Finally, we have 3 10th level disciplines: Grasp Blade builds on Blade Block: If you succeed on the save, you can spend an additional Entropy Point for a disarm maneuver. Neat combo! Hasten the End lets you spend 1 Entropy Point as a reaction when you full attack to gain the benefits of haste until the end of your turn. Herd Immunity…is very important, and we all…sorry, slipped there. In the context of the game, when you succeed a saving throw against a poison or disease, all allied creatures within 30 ft. gain an untyped +4 bonus to the next save against the disease or poison, as though treated with Medicine. This one requires Curative Deconstruction to take.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no serious snafus on a formal or rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard with a nice artwork by Jacob Blackmon. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none.

Sasha Laranoa Harving delivers an interesting expansion for the vanguard class here; the power-level of the new options falls within the paradigms established by the class. Senescence’s 2d3 ability score drain, particularly in the Improved version, which extends this to all 3 physical ability scores, seems brutal at first glance, but the classes most hampered by the low-range effect are those with a good Fortitude save, so I consider this to be within the functional framework. Personally, I think that the bonus type of Herd Immunity should be typed, but apart from very minor niggles, I found myself genuinely appreciating and enjoying this expansion for the class. 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf clocks in at 9 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters as a prioritized review.

So, want to play a character who is down to earth, but not a halfling? Someone who is (bad pun incoming), real “salt of the earth”? And you’d like to play something weird, a race you haven’t played in another d20-based game? Well, I’ve got something here for you! Loamlings! Kindly and patient mole people! Wait, that didn’t come out right. I’m not talking about the mole people as per the traditions of superhero comics and weird fiction, but of literal, anthropomorphized moles.

This uncommon ancestry is Small, gets 8 HO, has a speed of 20 ft. (and burrow speed 10 ft.), and the ability boosts go to Constitution and Wisdom, with the third being free; the ability flaw is assigned to Dexterity. Starting languages are Common and Sylvan, and loamling claws grant them an unarmed attack at 1d4 slashing damage, with the agile and finesse traits, which is treated as in the brawling group. The burrow speed applies to sand, soil, snow, etc., and you get to choose whether the tunnel collapses or stays open; if it stays open, Small or smaller creatures and Medium creatures that Squeeze, can Crawl through. Collapsing the tunnel behind you runs potentially the risk of suffocation, and scent-based perception is reduced to 20 ft., but you create enough of a disturbance to still allow others to follow you. Loamlings have a scent-based perception and only see clearly up to 10 ft., with 60 ft. scent as a precise sense – and yes, this does allow for the targeting of spells. However, you are immune to gaze attacks and visual effects unless they originate from within 10 ft. Anything outside that range, and you’re blinded to it.

This is a pretty epic and complex change of pace: On the one hand, we have a rather severe and meaningful incision into how the ancestry places, but one that is counteracted by some seriously powerful benefits that have a ton of narrative potential. Can you see, öhm, I meant “smell” the basilisk shepherds? I sure as heck can!

The pdf provides 4 different heritages: Blufflings get better claws, with 1d6 slashing claws that also have the versatile (piercing) trait; darklings get 90 ft. precise scent (30 ft. while burrowing) and can smell incorporeal creatures. Fieldlings decrease the effects of environmental heat by one step and gain Natural Medicine (I appreciate that, having worked on fields in some summer during my youth…), and finally, rootlings get Combat Climber, and when you succeed on an Athletics check made to Climb, you get a critical success instead. You also need only one piece of fresh fruit to stay hydrated and fed for a week.

The pdf provides 6 ancestry feats for first level characters: Here we have talking to burrowing creatures, a feat for being so cute that you gain Shameless Request (and +1 for Deception-based initiative rolls), one that nets you trained proficiency rank in Nature and Survival, as well as Loamling Lore. Loamling Weapon Familiarity nets training in hatchet, light pick and pick, as well as access to all uncommon gnome weapons, with martial gnome weapons treated as simple, advanced gnome weapons as martial. So yeah, you get hook hammers and my beloved flickmaces. One of the level 5 feats nets the respective critical specialization effect, building on that. At level 13, when you gain expert or greater proficiency in a weapon, you also extend that to the loamling/gnome weapons…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Another feat upgrades claw damage to 1d6, or if you are a buffling, 1d8 + deadly d8 trait – ouch! You don’t want to mess with those claws. There also is a reaction-based feat, Hit the Dirt!, which can be triggered while touching ground and hit by an attack that deals your level or more damage, whereupon you take the damage and then dig straight down by your burrow speed. This is a very potent tactical trick if executed properly.

5 ancestry feats for level 5 are provided: building on aforementioned claw-improvement feat, we have the option to apply the unarmed attack’s critical specialization; another feat lets you automatically Cover Tracks while burrowing, including full speed while Avoiding Notice etc. while burrowing. I can smell the smuggling plot. Speaking of which: Detect magic as a primal innate spell at will, automatically heightened to a spell level equal to half class level, rounded up. Sounds cool, right? Also comes with +2 circumstance bonus to disbelieve illusions that do not include smell or olfactory stuff.

The 3 level 9 feats include burrow speed upgrade to 20 ft., half your level Hardness during the round you emerge from the earth (Dirt Armor), and the ability to use earth to Raise Shield a one-use Shield Block shield of earth. I really like this one, and wished it had been, in a modified version, available sooner. Really cool!

The remaining 2 (talked about one before) level 13 feats include not having your scent-based sight reduced while burrowing, and another feat enhances both Soil Shield and Dirt Armor. At level 17, we have a 1/day summon elemental heightened to 8th level, earth elemental only. True Scent lets you sniff through illusions, and potentially discern the truth behind polymorph and similar effects. Finally, we have another upgrade for Dirt Armor, which no longer falls apart after 1 round, instead lasting until you lose half HP or are critically hit. While you’re at lower than half maximum HP, the Dirt Armor is less effective.

These rules are all supplemented with proper and rather well-written prose that outlines the ancestry properly. Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level; I encountered no serious hiccups. Layout adheres to a 2-column full-color standard, with quite a few original pieces of Jacob Blackmon’s artworks. The pdf has no bookmarks, but at this length doesn’t exactly require them.

Michael Sayre’s loamlings are an interesting sight (pun intended), in that they offer a variety of different tactical options that are truly novel and unique; powerful, yes, but also limited in an intriguing and rather creative manner that significantly influence how the race plays, for good and ill. This is the type of design-paradigm I enjoy seeing. That being said, there is one thing that needs to be noted, and that would be that a player-race with such a burrow focus requires a bit more consideration on part of the GM. While dungeons can’t usually be burrowed apart by loamlings, e.g. smuggling, burrowing in cities and similar scenarios might require some consideration. In an ideal world, some guidance for handling warfare with e.g. loamling sappers, buildings made less stable, etc. would have been awesome to see, because that sort of thing is inevitably where my mind goes. Additional magical detection and protection versus burrowing intruders in the form of magic items, rituals or spells would also have been nice to see, but then again, all of that would have significantly increased the page-count of this supplement. Still, as a GM, I think the race would have been easier to implement with a few supplementary pieces of information and (mechanical) guidance. I also think that the influence of e.g. (magical) perfumes or particularly bad smells, scentblocking effects and how the loamlings perceive the world is a treasure trove that can (hopefully) still be explored in an interesting manner in future publications. Within its limited frame, this pdf does its job very well, but left me wanting more. As such, my final verdict remains at a heartfelt recommendation of 5 stars, just short of my seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

This volume is packed with lots of strange yet interesting and fun options and systems for fully realizing the bold tropes of science fiction and fantasy in Starfinder. It's also just genuinely fun to read.

Science fiction and fantasy has a wealth of great tropes and storytelling beats. As much as I like Starfinder, the game's official content base barely scratches the surface of the enormous potential of the genre, especially with bold tropes like mad science, genetic mutations, and alien supernatural things.

This is where Advanced Occult Guide steps up.

The real value of this book comes from rules and options that enable tropes and stories otherwise impossible or weakly supported. We get better support and options for transformative effects. We get rules for rituals, corruptions, building curses, age alteration, and pact magic. We also get some rules that even most major science fiction/fantasy systems won't even touch, such as miniaturization, rules for causing characters to grow into giants, and ghostbuster-ish technology. The bestiary is full of unusual monsters using these rules, too.

You can dedicate entire campaigns with the content in this book. And best of all, they're all surprisingly well-written and well-designed. These rules are deep enough to feel fun and interesting, but not so complicated to make it feel like a chore to read and memorize how they work.

I have a long list of things I love, including a solarian that manipulates solar/lunar energy to gain a lycanthrope-like form, the rather flexible and simple curse-building rules, and the corruptions that are just fun to read. There's a staggering breadth of rules and options for transformative effects, which have received surprisingly anemic support in most fantasy and science fiction games. This book also has a lot of really weird yet interesting surprises, like a gigantic monster made entirely of Medium creatures, complete with illustration.

If I had to find something to nitpick and criticize, it would be that many options will cause your character's gear to break or become destroyed when you shapeshift or get transformed. This could be understandable for curses and corruptions, but even some player options do this. This can cripple a character financially or make them unplayable since many Starfinder adventures assume the characters wear armor that grants life support and environmental protection. Some of the content in this book can also get unsettlingly weird. This can be quite fun and allow the GM to deliver scary or quirky unexpected twists, but for some people, it might not be their cup of tea.

Admittedly, it's hard for me to criticize this book. The writing, formatting, and rules language are solid. The volume carries the author's distinct character of bold design built to enable stories and character fantasies. It's one thing to have rules to cover certain topics in a game, but it's a whole new level to realize and inspire character concepts and new types of campaigns.

For these reasons, I plan to use Advanced Occult Guide the next time I run a Starfinder campaign. If you're looking to spice up your Starfinder, I recommend you do the same!

This book is on par with things coming directly from Paizo. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive tome clocks in at 435 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial/ToC, 3 pages of SRD, 2 pages of KS-backer thanks, leaving us with 427 pages of content.

…okay, 3 are an index, which is a very much required feature for a book of this length.

This review was requested to be moved up in my reviewing queue as a priority review by my patreon supporters. Oh, and I’ve had various iterations of this book available throughout its genesis, just in case you’re wondering how I can have a review of a book of this size done at release. It’s because I’ve been able to test this as it became more and more refined for quite a while.

The first thing you need to know about this is this: This is one densely-packed colossus of RULES. While there is flavortext, while there are artworks galore, this massive tome is essentially ALL FRICKIN' RULES. That is more page-count than e.g. two Alien Archive tomes back to back. And approximately half of it is player-facing stuff, which might make this one of the meatiest tomes of player options for SFRPG out there, perhaps even the meatiest.

As you can glean from its sheer size, the volume of the book makes an analysis of every single piece of content prohibitive – while possible, it would take weeks of dedicated work to talk about everything, and bloat the review to a wordcount that would all but ensure that nobody will read it in its entirety, so I’ll be giving you a general overview of what to expect within this tome, highlighting what particularly stood out.

As for the scope of this tome, it behooves me to state that this delivers several components of gameplay that I consider all but mandatory for my enjoyment of SFRPG: This book unites rules for age categories (mechanically-relevant), rules for ritual magic, rules for corruptions, rules for curses and diseases that include level-scaling, and size-change rules, including the tools for grid adjustments. Oh, and pact magic.

…

If you’ve been following my reviews, you’ll note that all of these are things I love…but this also means that this has very big shoes to fill, and usually safe bet books that I think I’ll love end up disappointing my, but I digress. The avid reader will have noticed at this point that some of these components have been released before, and indeed, in many ways, this is a best-of compilation of previous Starfinder-material released by Everybody Games, save that it’s, well, not just a simple compilation. Much to my pleasant surprise, I went through my previous reviews of individual files and realized how damn often the minor niggles I had were addressed, how often the designs had been adjusted, improved, smoothened.

But I’m getting ahead of myself once more. We begin with an assortment of various new themes, which includes the options to play old characters, young prodigies, chosen heroes, isekai adventurers (people from our world), and those who have fallen through time; and yes, the concept of the chimeraborn is also represented via mutations – these have been streamlined into a superior context, namely by making them functional according to the COM-rules, but also in accordance with the PF2-inspired, highly modular and rather cool species reforged series of Star Log.DELUXE-pdfs. Want proper emotional awareness, a draconic bloodlines, or limited ability for regeneration due to levialogos limbs? You can have that. And no, this can’t be cheesed.

(In case you’re new to the latter: The levialogoi are super-deadly and EXTREMELY hard to kill outsiders inspired by Supernatural’s Leviathan story-arc. They are awesome and have transcended this basic concept to being essentially all-consuming, nigh-unkillable super body-snatchers...and yes, they are in the bestiary.)

The book also presents no less than three base classes, with only the zoomer, the dedicated speedster class being something that SFRPG-fans may have seen before, though, suffice to say, the fellow’s been expanded and streamlined. The two new classes fill important niches in SFRPG that will have some fans jump in the air: For one, we have a dedicated shapeshifter class, which begins with a limited number of dedicated forms and expands these over the levels; adaptations allow you to customize your shapeshifting, aspects provide scaling benefits (4 per aspect); beyond these, we also have instinct, which are the talent-like further options available…oh boy can you tweak this fellow. Yes, you can make hybrids. And the class has its own massive forms-engine to easily and quickly tailor your forms. Want to crush enemies? Have a breath weapon?  Yeah, possible. Want species traits? Yup. Oh, and in case you don’t want to wait, guess what – premade forms available. This is a class with an incredible depth, and considering how modular it is, it is astonishing how well its results come out. So far, I haven’t managed to use it to break the game – it delivers potent builds, but none that would render the game askew.

Secondly, we have the elementian. What’s that? Well, it’s essentially a kineticist-like class, save that its engine hasn’t been copy-pasted from PFRPG; instead, it has been rebuild from the ground up with SFRPG in mind, with the Burns-equivalent being Strain. It should be noted that the class offers multiple choices regarding key ability modifiers, and the option chosen also influences how Strain affects you. You can gather power to gain Energy, you get the idea. However, the way in which the elements have been modified is impressive – while thematically clearly the heir of kineticists, the elementian’s chassis is completely different, with each element noting its associated ability score, skills, weapons, the elemental strike damage and weapon properties that can be applied to them, etc. Of course, these also provide a linear array of abilities, and a serious number of techniques allow for customizing this fellow. It’s also notable that building an elementian for the first time is a much quicker process than making your first kineticist.

Now, the book also features a serious number of archetypes, some of which are old acquaintances – the legacy ones like shadow dancer, eldritch knight etc. are here; but personally, I was most excited by the pact maker (who does what it says on the tin)…and the soulmark user. What’s the latter? Okay, brace yourselves, fellow otakus: Fate/STAY – the archetype! You know, drawing soulmarked weapons from your body! Seriously, in another book, this’d have been a class of its own – here, it has been condensed to a surprisingly tight and varied archetype that spans two whole pages of delicious goodness. Oh, and there is a terminator archetype that essentially replaces/refines the previous assassin concept. I have one serious issue with this one: It lacks an ability that is called “I’ll be back.” ;) Kidding aside, the concept of the vessel has also been included in this section: Whether protean, demon, angel, archon, etc. – you can play a character housing such a passenger.

Of course, there is also a whole cornucopia of class options waiting for you: We occult method as a replacement for the biohacker’s scientific method and fields of study like aberrantology or necrology. Mechanics can have an infernal apparatus or a biomech drone chassis; solarians can be attuned to the music of the spheres; vanguards can choose the zero point aspect – and that is not even coming close to the depth of the material herein. For example, what about a witchwarper who replaces infinite worlds with a more planar-themed ability? The feats, in case you were wondering, follow similar high-concept/utility design-paradigms. What about one, for example, that lets you summon fictional characters from the zeitgeist instead of plain old critters? And yes, this has mechanical benefits.

The armory section of the book includes positron weapons that combine electricity with positive energy, and, as hinted at before…SHRINK WEAPONS! :D Black boxes for armors, a powered armor designed for fighting ghosts…or what about the option to store your vehicle in your armor? This might be a good place to note that, like all books of this size, this cannot be perfect – in this one, we have for example one instance where “vehicular” should read “vehicle”, but one still grasps the functionality of the material presented. Augmentations and cybernetics, from extending arms to golemgrafts and necrografts complete a pretty massive chapter, and yes, technological and magic items are included in the deal as well, and we do get artifacts…yes, including the infamous time-traveling hot tub. The new drugs presented are provided in the excellent format introduced in Pop Culture Catalog: Vice Dens, which renders them scaling and relevant for all levels.

The chapter on magic presents new spells that allow, among other things, to alter ages and sizes, call forth temporal duplicates…and yes, limited time manipulation. Several pages of new formwarps are included alongside a selection of rituals, which do include means to lock out targets (one of the best “create a barrier vs. critter xyz” takes I’ve seen for a d20-based game, and pretty crucial for my future horror-y designs), using your blood to banish foes (Heeellooo Supernatural once more…), and much to my joy, there is also the call the end-times, your friendly custom-tailored apocalypse ritual for all your insane cultist needs! (Endzeitgeist not included.) Binding agreements, clone creation, dividing targets into multiple creatures…or what about fantastic voyage, which projects your consciousness into nanomachine effigies, unlocking a whole new sphere of potential adventuring in creatures and on the microscopic level! The classic “use map to narrow down on target as it burns/otherwise designates the goal” is also provided. Rites to break potent spells, imprison targets, robotize them, etc. are also part of the deal. And no, I haven’t even mentioned all of them – suffice to say, they do come with adventure hooks. Not that you’d need them after reading them. The “design your own ritual”-section is super-appreciated as well, and rather smooth.

The pact magic section of the book is absolutely great; there is but one thing I dislike about it – namely that I’d have loved to see an entire tome devoted to it…one might dream. At this point, it’s also no secret that I adore Alexander Agunuas’ corruption rules, and have blood space, botanification, cannibal cravings etc. all in a handy book? Great. Ever greater, though: What about a corruption that ties in with the size-changing rules and makes you slowly become a titan, as “Attack on Titan”-titan? Yeah…shudder The cognitive fixation that can be used to roleplay intrusive thoughts is also one damn fine (and very tactfully-handled) piece of writing that gets two thumbs up. Levialogos subsumption, in which you slowly are absorbed into one of these monstrosities, also is one damn great corruption. You may want to get rid of it…but its benefits are so enticing…Going Akira, aging backward, going soulless…also part of the deal. (And yes, the classic like turning into a blob, therianthropy and vampirism are here as well…)

Curses include eternal sleep, wendigo psychosis, lost identity, amnesia and more, and from cures to affixes to modify them, the engine is concise and solid, and for diseases, a similar frame is employed.

One of the highlights in utility would be the handy grid adjustment section I mentioned before – that’ll be printed out and tacked to my screen. And in case you were wondering: The book does provide rules for ultrafine creatures…and supercolossal ones, the latter including rules for use in starship combat. Speaking of which: Let us talk about how cool the bestiary section is, because not one of the critters in it is lame or boring. NOT ONE. What about an earth elemental creature consuming emotions, aptly named apathyst, which also is presented in planetoid size as a nasty alternative? A best-of from the Star Log.EM-series is provided here, including Deisauryu, the Godzilla of the Xa-Osoro system; new critters include shrink devils, and one of my all-time favorurite critetrs every published, the Great old One Allakhadae, the Arsonist Against Reality. Speaking of Great old Ones? Good ole’ Cthulhu and Hastur are included, and our friend Slenderman also gets the Great old One treatment – The Tall One. Yes, these fellows are all beyond CR 20, obviously. Unlike many critters at such high CRs, they are, however, actually suitably hard (read VERY) to stop. Yes, I did not use the word “eliminate” for a reason…

Beyond these, we have aforementioned levialogoi, soulless, killer clowns…and hateflesh creatures. They are what you’d expect: Super-icky flesh/bone things that reminded me of Tomb raider 1’s Atlantean monstrosities, save they are even more grotesque… ”sinewed screamer” indeed. What about wererenkroda? One of my favorites would be the “thing-That-Walks”-template graft. Remember Kyuss and the worm-that-walks? Now picture you could make such a collective entity out of everything. The artwork illustrates this by providing a nightmare fuel kitsune thing-that-walks: Humanoid, consisting of thousands of the shapechangers…and boy it is disturbing. Want something more biblical? What about the beast with 7 heads and ten horns, the Woe of the Dead (CR 25)? Yep good luck stopping this harbinger of the end of days… The tome concludes with proper class grafts, template grafts, and a whole arsenal of critter abilities.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are honestly better on both a formal and rules-language levels than a book of this size crafted by a small team (and I mean size category superfine) has any right to be, particularly considering the density and complexity of the rules-operations and subject-matter featured within. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard and features a huge amount of artworks penned by Jacob Blackmon in his signature style. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. I don’t yet have the print version, but I’ll get it as soon as possible.

Alexander Augunas, with additional design by Liane Merciel, Matt Morris, Michael Sayre, Chris S. Sims and Owen K.C. Stephens, has done it. Seriously.

Let me make that abundantly clear:

For me, this is the most important Starfinder rules book I currently own. This is a superior achievement regarding not only scope, but also of quality of the content herein, and a love letter to STARfinder.

You see, it’d have been pretty easy to take PFRPG1ed’s concepts like pact magic, kineticist, size rules, etc. and just jam them on top of Starfinder’s chassis. The systems look so incredibly similar. This may be new to some readers, but probably not to most designers: That doesn’t work. Starfinder operates under wholly different paradigms in many ways, and the way in which its math is constructed is a long shot from PFRPG’s 1st edition.

This book shows that the author REALLY knows SFRPG…and LOVES the system. All the systems that a lesser designer would have half-heartedly grafted onto the engine? They have been designed with panache aplomb, from the ground up, expanded, tweaked, changed, improved – until this is what we got. This beautiful, wonderful tome that breathes SFRPG from every page.

The main achievement of this book, however, does not lie in the quality of its new class options and monsters, well-designed though they may be.

It lies in the fact that this book unlocks a whole plethora of inspiring storylines and scenarios, whole types of adventures and playstyles, that the system previously did not support. With this, you could theoretically play Supernatural in Space, a whole campaign in the body of a dying person, duke it out with the Great Old Ones, unleash apocalypses, play a  full-blown space-horror game , duplicate a ton of my favorite anime scenarios…and so much more.

Crunch can be good when it lets you do cool new stuff, when it helps you realize that one cool idea you had; crunch is outstanding when it sets your mind ablaze with so many ideas for new characters, plotlines, and campaigns, that stare, starry-eyed (haha) at the pages and can’t wait to use…everything.

…

How do I put this best? If I was an isekai stranded in the Xa-Osoro system, and you put a proton-rifle to my head and forced me to choose only one Starfinder book apart from the core rules, only book, and told me that’d be all I’d get forevermore to run Starfinder….i’d choose this one, without a second of hesitation.

It's not perfect, but it’s damn close, and it is more inspired than several hardcovers I could mention. And in contrast to most tomes of this size, it never lets up. It doesn’t have this one section where it feels like the author ran out of ideas or steam. This is a resplendent masterpiece that is a must-own for every self-respecting Starfinder-GM out there.

Right now, this is the best Starfinder book in my library. This is the tome to beat.

5 stars. Seal of Approval. Best of. Hot contender for the Top Ten of 2020 (and a true ray of light in this horrible year). And this is an EZG Essential. I wouldn’t ever want to run a SFRPG-campaign without it.

Do yourself a favor. If you even remotely are interested in SFRPG, if you are playing/running it…get this. If you’re a player, buy this for your GM. This is a truly outstanding gamechanger.

Endzeitgeist out.