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Player's Toolbox: Arborlings
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/11/2013 03:50:19

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Arborlings as a species are humanoid plants. They get +2 Con and Wis, -2 Dex, have the arborling subtype, low-light vision, +2 to Knowledge (Nature) and Survival, +2 to saves vs. mind-affecting spells and effects, paralysis, polymorph, stunning and fatigue/exhaustion-effects, +4 versus bull rush and trip when on at least two inch of soil, a non-proficient slam attack at 1d4 and take 1 point constitution damage per day sans 2 hours of sunlight - polar nights and the underdark are not places for arborlings. At 9th level, they grow to large size, including +2 to Str and natural armor and -2 to Dex.

They come with 6 alternate racial traits that include a +8 stealth in forested areas, dealing piercing damage with slam attacks, +2 to heal and sense motive instead of their regular skill bonuses, alternate attribute-modifiers (+2 Dex and Wis, -2 Str, at 9th level +2 Int, Wis or Cha), subterranean, non-sunlight dependant arborlings that are dazzled by light and +1 natural armor bonus.

They also come with favored class options for barbarian, bard, druid, fighter, oracle, Ranger and Witch-classes as well as the Root-bonded witch archetype that gets a topiary familiar, plat form, 2 new hexes, 1 new major hex and 1 grand hex - all plant-themed. E.g. expand your reach by 5 foot, animate plants to make terrain difficult or make roots grow from the soles of your victims - disturbing!

3 new alchemical items allow arborlings to enhance their bark, provide oxygen or seek water. 4 new feats are included as well: -Branched Fighter: Proficiency with slam and make it count as off-hand when dual-fighting. Nettled arborlings increase damage-dice. -Improved Branched Fighter: +1 slam attack. -Lightning Rod: Attract electricity effects. -Treespeaker: 1/day speak with plants.

On the magical item front, they may engrave glyphs upon their own bark or other plant creatures as per scribe scroll and there is also the new anywood, which can be shaped into just about anything imaginable from wood - a kind of malleable material.

The final page deals with 3 new spells especially suitable for arborlings - bladed leaves for plants, provide 4 hours of rest or attack foes with sprays of needles.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to an easy-to-read two-column full color standard and the full color artworks are nice indeed. The pdf comes in two versions, one art-free and more printer-friendly and are both fully bookmarked. The pdf is extensively hyperlinked to d20pfsrd.com for your convenience.

So. Mike Welham delivers a solidly-crafted plant-race. Yet another one. After Alluria Publishing's Oaklings, Rite Publishing's Mandragorans, LPJr Design's Dalreans, Headless Hydra Games' Gaiants and Purple Duck Games' Xhesa or Jon Brazer Enterprises' excellent Seedlings. And while the race per se is well-crafted, it can't hold a torch fluff-wise to the great Seedlings, the weird Xhesa or the fully campaign-setting integrated Mandragorans or Dalreans. Add to that the race lacks the crucial age, height and weight-tables and quite frankly, I'm left with a race that lacks the reason to be integrated into my campaign - society, structure, everything is simply not compelling, not unique enough to stand out among all the other plant races and especially the Seedlings, Xhesa, Mandragorans and Dalreans mop the floor with the arborlings since they all are more distinct, feel more interesting than the arborlings.

Hence, while solidly crafted, I can't really recommend this race, in spite of its virtues - my final verdict will reflect this at a final verdict of 3 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Player's Toolbox: Arborlings
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The Rogues Gallery: The Cloven Hoof Syndicate
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/14/2012 03:46:54

This pdf is 45 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with a total of a whopping 41 pages of content, so let's check this out!

The pdf kicks off by announcing its intent, which essentially is bringing a new and sinister twist to the old trope of the thieves' guild and then goes on to introduce us to the presumed default setting of Eorthe, the world of CGP. However, you should be aware that the content herein can easily be transported to just about any setting and is in no way too tied to campaign setting specific tropes. Aerendal, City of viridian princes, built upon 6 rocky islands, connected via bridges, makes for the default and we get a whole page describing the city, including a broad over-view map with color-coded districts. I hope we'll one day see an extensive gazetteer including excessively detailed maps on what could become a Venice-style den-of-sin metropolis and intriguing setting extraordinaire.

The Cloven Hoof Syndicate is an interesting organization not only because of its extensive history - reaching back towards a planar event involving Faerie and the realm of Abaddon, the syndicate and its twisted members are detailed in excruciating detail. To be more precise: From smuggling, to drug-dealing and prostitution, the kraken-like tendrils of the syndicate reach into all spheres of illegitimate businesses and describe the methods of the syndicate and its means to avoid detection in detail. Better yet, sample incidents involving key-members of the syndicate's operations are covered and, along-side interspersed seeds of crunch like a new drug etc. serve to paint a tapestry of sin most foul and subtle that not only makes the organization a believable threat, but also makes it clear that the paranoia necessary to uncover its operations will border on the insane, limiting (apart from the blackmailed officials) the options of prospective PCs even further and making this conspiracy a threat that is most definitely not to be trifled with unprepared - their capabilities to create so-called Star-motes, "gems" (complete with rules)with a more sinister origin, is also testament of this.

Of course, no organization can live only from a stellar frame narrative prefacing each chapter or the excellent description of the operations -it needs people to conduct said endeavors. From rank-and-file members (CR 2) to high-level assassins (CR 9), we get a selection of 6 sample statblocks before we get to know them also fully-stated key-members of the syndicate, from its instigator and commander-in-chief , who is a challenge rating 16 brute and comes not only with a full statblock and more than one page of concisely-written prose, to a half-orc brute and the mistress of the prostitution-racket as well as the insane derro alchemist (including 2 new alchemist discoveries) that refers to himself in the plural majestatis (or has MPD) to smugglers that not only are dark creepers, but also carry a cursed taint, the key-members all provide interesting statblocks, entwines, cool narratives and perform key-functions in the smooth running of the syndicate. Have I mentioned the rakshasa-blooded skeletal champion (magus) rogue/sorceress or the tainted nixie bard? You get the idea - the key-members of the syndicate are not only dastardly villains, they are truly intriguing characters of their own right and can play in the upper echelons of cool builds, their abilities reflecting well their status and role in the organization.

Even better, the two level-base of the syndicates operation, the halls of abandon, are portayed in excruciating detail as well, providing a cool location and a neat potential for an "into-the-lion's-den"-type scenario or even as a base that can be established for the underworld contacts of the PCs, slowly sowing seeds of the conspiracy...

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect - I encountered some minor typos in the text. Layout adheres to a greenish-tinted parchment look and the 2-column standard and the full-color artworks are nice: While city-scapes feature an almost impressionism-style standard and transport the taint well, most of the characters come with artworks I've seen before in other publications. The pdf comes fully bookmarked (though I would have enjoyed nested bookmarks for the statblocks) and with a printer-friendly b/w-version. This version, while art-free, has only removed the pieces of artwork, resulting in odd blank spaces in this version of the pdf -reformatting the text in order to save more space would have been the more prudent thing to do here. The cartography is excellent and while letters denote the functions of each room, as a DM you could hand out the maps to the players as is. The pdf comes with full herolab-support.

Clockwork Gnome Publishing as a company so far does not have a steady output, but oh boy, when they do release something, I look forward to it - after their last offering on the maggot god Morithal became my new benchmark for what to expect of cults and religion-write-ups, the Cloven Hood Syndicate by author Paris Crenshaw seeks to establish a new default of what to expect of conspiracies and secret societies - and let me assure you, this syndicate is not another tiefling organization, but something much more sinister - so sinister in fact, that they might make great replacements of e.g. Zobeck's Cloven Nine or similar guilds. The prose in this supplement is of a quality scarcely seen in rpg-products and makes the reading of the pdf an actual joy to do rather than a chore and the frame narrative of an increasingly alienated and desperate investigator also helps to convey a sense of the depth of this particular rabbit hole. Better yet, there are numerous side-bar, should you be so inclined, to inform you about CGP's upcoming world and some peculiarities regarding e.g. ethnicities. That being said, this pdf unfortunately is not perfect: There are some minor editing glitches and I would have loved to get a map of the stunningly enticing default city in which the syndicate is set. Furthermore, the sloppy b/w-version is a disgrace to the quality of an otherwise stellar offering. HOWEVER, even with these blemishes, I can't bring myself to rating this book low - I've read a lot of tribes/secret society sourcebooks and for the low price, this is definitely one of the best. Hence, I'm going to do something I seldom do - I'll rate this 4.5 stars, round down to 4 and still award the endzeitgeist seal of approval. I urge you strongly to check this out and hope the printer-friendly version will be revised to reflect the quality of the full color pdf.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Rogues Gallery: The Cloven Hoof Syndicate
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Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/10/2012 16:36:22

Finwicket's Bestiary- Along the Faerie Path provides a look into the lands of faerie along with some of its denizens. It is a useful resource for those who wish to make wider use of Faerie in their campaign.

Finwicket's Bestiary- Along the Faerie Path is a Campaign Cog sourcebook for the Pathfinder RPG written by Christopher Correll, Allen Taliesin, and Mike Welham and published by Clockwork Gnome Publishing. It comes with a beautiful full artwork version in color and a just text version. Also included are a set of Hero Lab files for the contents.

It starts with a look at the faerie realm and how to get there through magical and other means (and, sometimes more important, how to get back). Additionally information on the Nowhere Dimension is presented.

Next are four fae creatures, each has an introductory piece of fiction setting up the potential use of the beings:

The Faerie Seer who can look through time and can be a valuable source of information, if they can be convinced to help.

The Harvest Haunt, a fae that means well but can bring disaster in its wake.

The Spindler, who make the most wonderful clothes, so wonderful they can cause immense reactions in those who view them. However, they can be driven into a rage by those who refuse to wear their wonderful creations.

The Thin Men, assassins of the fae courts, moving through cracks in the walls to find and kill their target.

The fae range from a CR of 4 to 7 though only the Thin Man is designed for an exclusively combat encounter.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path
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The Virtuous and the Vile: Morithal, Lord of Unceasing Hunger
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/05/2012 04:05:06

This pdf is 22 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving 18 pages of content, so let's check out this first installment of "The Virtuous and the Vile"!

This first installment of Clockwork Gnomes' new Virtuous and the Vile-series introduces us to the religion of the Maggot god Morithal, a slithering being of unceasing hunger. If you're now reminded of similar gods of gluttony like Aggramogg or Rovagug, rest assured that the first chapter presents us already with reasons why Morithal is worthy of your attention: The first basic concept is that Morithal essentially makes the word "ancient" feel positively like an understatement - the maggot god is a so-called Protogenoi, a deific remnant of a multiverse that has long since ceased to exist. Once a god of fertility, the Maggot God hid in the folds of time and space and weathered the unceasing collapse, transforming slowly from his initial portfolio when finding that the new multiverse not only deprived him of divine sustenance in the form of worship, but turned out to be rather hostile - the light of the sun and even the stars is bane to the maggot god who had slept too long in utter darkness.

The second basic assumption/concept introduced in the beginning, is that there is not one singular underdark, but rather a variety of underdarks - all the subterranean structures of caves and caverns, which are inhabited by a plethora of our most favorite depraved beings and species of all the planets are connected via unstable portals and perhaps even physical pathways created by the burrowing of Morithal, who ceaselessly hollows out the worlds, eating through them like a worm through an apple. Furthermore, the passing of the protogenoi sees him shed crystalline excrements, so-called Morthacite, which is responsible for the spontaneous creation of many a life form that is at the bottom of the food chain, thus enabling the vast amount of underdark civilizations in the first place. For people like me who always were somewhat discontent with "magic did it" as a rationale for the abundance of subterranean life, the ideas presented herein are gold indeed, but the pdf does not stop there:

Instead, we get information on the structure of his anything but unified variety of cults and their promise of the final days, when all will be consumed by the maggot god. Indeed, the church promises not damnation in the Abyss, but the act of being consumed and obliterated entirely by Morithal, a welcome prospect for nihilists and people who have lost everything and fear the damnation of the lower planes. Excerpts from his holy scriptures, the "Oaths to the Starving Coterie", are presented in compelling prose alongside a variety of sample prayers to recite for cultists and clerics. Holy feasts, the modus operandi of his cult, the new famine domain and 2 new spells ensure that encountering any parts of Morithal's often secretive cult should provide for a memorable session indeed.

And that's before going into what I consider a nice idea - with the absence of the Illithids due to being closed content, the Duergar have lacked a compelling and disturbing racial narrative and this pdf provides exactly that, almost as a second thought among the expertly-written prose herein - you can just ignore it or go with it.

The most compelling parts of Morithal's whole narratives were not the prayers or how his temples are batized/fitted out, though - at least not for me. For me, the true strokes of genius were the fluff depictions of his greatest champions: There is the shapechanging, incorporeal bing named Hollow Longing, which makes for his executioner in the guise of a ghoulish being that is not quite as one would expect. His highest servitor is the legendary first of the purple worms, the Morthacite-studded, self-aware and titanic dread Gothgor the Putrid, at the same time consumer and highest authority of all his creatures. And then there is a self-aware black pudding called Paranvoi, who has consumed the minds and bodies of his whole world, gaining their spirits and souls and blessed with perfect foresight of the future by the dread maggot god - the titanic ooze bubbles on its home-planet, covering all but one mountain where supplicants may ask for fractions of its probably mad, almost omniscient being for their temples. Such a fragment of this being, btw., clocks in at CR 12 and is one of the new creatures provided herein. The other is a genderless, all-consuming humanoid maggot being called "Endless Hunger" (CR 8), things that seemingly seem to spontaneously spawn near large concentrations of Morthacite and death. The latter get an awesome, stunning, full-color artwork.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard and features a nice greenish background. The full-color artworks all range at the upper tier of quality, which brings me to the question: Why use this cover? Seriously, of all the pieces of artwork, the cover is by far the worst and especially the disturbing 1-page artwork of the endless hunger is much more compelling.

The pdf is fully bookmarked and comes with an extra version that omits the background and all art apart from the cover and can thus be considered printer-friendly. the supplement also comes with Herolab-support, which should be another plus for many people. All right, if you haven't guessed it by now: I LOVE this pdf. Why? Via some easy tricks and ideas, it fixes some logic bugs that have annoyed me for quite some time and furthermore enables you to finally reconcile dark tapestry-style beings with regular divinities. Also: Morithal is a being of terrible power, as deities should be. It is clear from the write-ups of his favored agents that they belong to the most powerful of beings. Thus, Morithal evokes a sense f primal dread by proxy that is enhanced by the fact that just putting a shard of Morthacite somewhere, you can remind your PCs of the enormousness of the threat he poses. Worse, it is his very being that can be considered one, if not the source of life, making evolution of some and perhaps all species connected to an intrinsic, atavistic dread. Add to that the expert writing, rock solid rules, cool new creatures, awesome prayers and you get an excellent sourcebook on a dark religion that may very well change how you think about evil gods, their motivations and all the slithers and crawls. Disturbing, genius, cheap, top production values, nothing to complain about - my final verdict will be 5 stars + Endzeitgeist seal of approval. Oh, one thing: I would have loved to see the epic-level stats of his favored servants, but I guess you can't have everything.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Virtuous and the Vile: Morithal, Lord of Unceasing Hunger
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The Virtuous and the Vile: Morithal, Lord of Unceasing Hunger
by Alexander L. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 03/12/2012 07:54:43

Originally Posted At: http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/03/12/tabletop-review-the-virtuous-and-the-vile-morithal-lord-of-unceasing-hunger-pathfinder/

I have to admit, I picked up this particular product simply because of the awesome name. Luckily it turns out that this third party Pathfinder supplement is as exceptional as the title behind it. The deluxe version of this product comes with a full color PDF, a bare bones text only PDF and Hero Lab software for those of you with that program. There is a regular version for half the cost that lacks both the art free PDF and the Hero Lab software which you can get here. Honestly it might be worth going that route, especially if you don’t have Hero Lab. That way you get the essential core piece and at only half the cost. I personally wouldn’t use the art free PDF, but I think it was a lovely idea to include that for those that just want a quick reference piece.

I was shocked by how much material Clockwork Gnome Publishing managed to cram into twenty two pages (only 17 of which are actual content). All of it revolves around Morithal, a Chaotic Evil like being beyond what player characters consider a deity. Morithal is meant to be similar to an Outer God or Great Old One from the Cthulhu Mythos. As a long time Call of Cthulhu fan I always love it when Pathfinder or D&D crosses over to this type of material. In my D&D Next playtesting sessions that I am running for Wizards of the Coast right now, the adventure I have my two groups playing through involves a cult of Azathoth. I only wish I had Morithal’s information sooner as I would have loved to used him instead as he’s that fascinating.

Chapter One gives you the origin of Morithal, which is surprisingly similar to that of Galactus from Marvel Comics. Both are survivors of the previous universe and both are cursed with an unending hunger that causes them to consume worlds. That’s not to say that Morithal is a Galen/Galactus clone. They’re very different in a lot of ways. Morithal is Chaotic Evil while Galactus would be True Neutral or Lawful Neutral depending on the writer. Galactus takes the form of a giant humanoid. Morithal can do this, but it tends to take the form of a giant maggot. Both also have worshippers but where Galactus’ worshippers are doing it for a self-serving reason (we’ll make sacrifices so you don’t eat our world), Morithal’s worshippers are nihilistic and more than willing to let their world (and its gods) be consumed by the glory of the Lord of Unceasing Hunger.

One of the other things I found interesting about Chapter One was the idea that the Underworld, a series of Morithal made tunnels throughout the inner workings of a planet are interconnected to those of other planets (and possibly dimensions) by extradimensional gates. This would theoretically include the Underdark and possibly even the Shadowfell if you’re a Dungeons and Dragons player.

Chapter Two talks about “secrets” of Morithal such as his origin, mythos about him, his ultimate goal and something called Morthacite, which are crystals that form on Morithals body and eventually fall off. Morthacite has strange powers such as spontaneously creating oozes, puddings and slimes, but is also directly responsible for the creation and corruption (although not necessarily in that order) of the Deugar aka Dark Dwarves. Chapter Two also covers holy writings and three of his powerful servants. These include Hollow Laughing, a spirit of pure famine and hunger than can take a more humanoid form of an especially perverse ghoul. They also include Gothgor the Putrid, a massive purple worm that is also extremely intelligent and Paranvoi the All-Consuming, a black pudding that is literally the size of an entire planet. I really loved all these divine servants of Morithal. They were highly unique and a lot of fun. I can easily see basing a full campaign around a single one of them – they’re that well done. You also get a great deal of information about Morithal’s cult in this chapter to close things out.

Chapter Three gives you information on creating a cleric of Morithal, including the new domain of Famine and the powers that go along with it. The two domain powers of “Touch of Overwhelming Hunger” and “Famine Bringer” aren’t very powerful compared to those in other domains (the DC is way too low for “Famine Bringer), but they have some interesting uses if you are a clever DM. You also get two new spells for Pathfinder here. The first is “Contaminate Food and Drink” which is a very powerful Level 1 spell. I can honestly see this in the hands of a vampire as a way to counter holy water, Eucharist wafers and the like. You could also team it up with an illusion and trick people into eating food ridden with disease or plague. The other spell is “Infest Corpse” which either a Level 3, 4 or 5 spell (depending on class) and it turns a corpse into a rot grub trap. Kind of neat, although best used as a NPC spell. The chapter then ends with the stats for a “Fragment of Paranvoi” and a “Walking Hunger.” Both of these creatures are must-haves for any campaign that uses Morithal and even on their own, they make from striking (and disgusting) antagonists.

All in all, I was very impressed by The Virtuous and the Vile: Morithal, Lord of Unceasing Hunger , and I really hope that this is the first of many Virtuous and Vile pieces that Clockwork Gnome puts out. It’s exceptionally well done, easy to follow and is a very imaginative addition to any Pathfinder campaign. Whether you are interested in the full deluxe version or the regular version, Pathfinder players who like a bit of Cthulhu-esque flair would do well to pick this up.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path
by Dark M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/13/2011 17:22:24

Along the Faerie Path by Clockwork Gnome Publishing

This product is 22 pages long. It starts with a cover, backcover, and credits. (3 pages)

Overview of the Faery Realm (6 pages) It starts off with a IC introduction by Professor Thaddeus Finwicket. After that it gets into talking about the realm, which is overlayed over the material plane. Just slightly out of phase with the material plane but in places it is so thin between them the fey realm bleeds through. It gives a brief overview of the realm and talks about the lords of the realm in general but no details about the lords. The section ends with ways on how to get in and out of the realm, what happens, how time effects those etc.

To Pierce the Veil of Time (12 pages) Really this is really 4 chapters but each one has a IC page about the creature, a full stat block on a second page and then a third page of a image of the creature. Faerie Seer – CR 7, fate seers. Harvest Haunt – CR6, weird little fey that uses farmers crops as a way to reproduce. Spindler – CR4, A even weirder fey tailor that will ambush people that turn down his offer of clothing and make them wear it. Thin Man – CR 7, assassins of the fey that have been altered by the lords of fey.

It ends with a OGL (1 pages)

Closing thoughts. The art work is black and white and ranges from not so good to fair. Layout and editing are decent. Nothing bad but there was a couple of spots I had to stop and reread to fully understand what the author meant. The first part is very good, the second part is good. The Harvest Haunt and Spindler show why people would hate and fear fey. Even though they are not “mean” per say what they do can have very bad consequences on their targets. The other two where well done as well. So what's my rating? Well for the price I am going to give this one a 4 star review. I liked it and the first half is very good about the fey realm, the new fey are cool, I especially liked the Spindler. The art was below average as a whole and a bit surprised stock art wasn't used in the book. Regardless if you are a fan of the fey then the book is worth the asking price.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path
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Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path
by Charles D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/03/2011 13:46:07

Provided a copy to review.

Excellent product and I highly recommend it even if you don’t play Pathfinder (any GM could use the roleplaying parts). I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or more of these creatures appear in a Paizo product in the future.

I was surprised and thrilled by the cover. Classy and colorful and a good start to a great product.

The book starts with a description of the Faerie Realm. The realm is flavorful but grounded in the planar rules that Pathfinder utilizes as well as common myth. For example, time passes haphazardly in the Faerie Realm and can cause a visiting mortal a lot of problems when he or she returns to the Material Plane. The Faerie Realm is divided up into dominions but the product doesn’t go into the specifics of any individual dominions.

The Nowhere Dimension is a creepy place that causes travelers there to disappear and slowly be erased from reality. No rules are given for this event; it is GM driven. Thin man assassins are fey partially touched by this terrifying realm.

However, fey can be filled with fear by indicating they are going nowhere. The fear result is handled by a Will saving throw and uses the standard Pathfinder rules for handling fear. This touch is great as is the consequence for using it too often: thin man assassins will come after those who use these words and learn too much about the Nowhere Dimension.

Next up are the fey themselves. The stat blocks follow the standard Pathfinder layout. I didn’t do a large amount of math checking, but the numbers look correct from a quick overview. One teeny tiny error is that one time the GM is referred to as the DM which is a word that belongs more properly to D&D.

The faerie seer is a diviner who can see into the future in exchange for a unique price. Nice and simple creature that fills a unique roll and can be used as both an ally or a foe (some faerie seers are driven made by their visions).

Harvest haunts are tiny fey that use crops to continue their life cycle. This method of reproduction will bring the fey into direct conflict with farmers. Great roleplaying and problem solving would result from introducing harvest haunts into a campaign.

The spindler is a fey that creates magical clothing. Nobles might have a spindler creating clothes for them. If an unfortunate adventurer slighted the clothing produced, the adventurer might be forced to wear a shirt of frolicking kittens complete with a curse for everyone who views it. Great flavor here and the social convention of trades at major festivals and The Great Swap for mating is a wonderful touch.

Thin men are the assassins of the fey world. Existing in only two dimensions, thin men have potent defenses and providing a natural attack in the form of arm blades. The details on society and habitat as well as ecology give a well designed monster a frightening reason to pursue murder.

The art is decent as well with only the harvest haunt and thin man having an almost cartoon like quality. However, even those two pieces are above average and manage to still capture the essence of the depicted fey.

Shouldn’t be too hard on printers except for the cover. Pages have just a splash of color, no border, and some nice looking gears surrounding page numbers. It is bookmarked.

These fey are not just spell-casting or fighting monsters. Each fey has a reason to exist, a society of sorts that are alien by normal standards, and a variety of defenses and attack that accurately reflect their origins. The creator had an obvious grasp of the Pathfinder system as well as real-world knowledge of myths about fey and faeries.

Well done.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path
by nick e. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/01/2011 18:06:05

(I was provided a free copy for this review). Along the Fairy Path is a $2.99 PDF that comes in at 22 pages. The book reads partially as an in world gazetteer, written from an in character perspective, and the use of different font and layout makes this changeover easy to navigate, and would allow you to print a page as a players handout if you wanted them to find part of the book. The first new game material you are introduced to is the new Faerie Realm. (Note: The book uses both Fairy and Faerie, and I am not sure if this is an editing mistake or intentional.) This is a Realm far more user friendly for casual players, and definitely more friendly to lower level PCs. In my 20+ years with DnD, I never really had much use for sending characters to the planes, other than as a climax to a story. The Faerie Realm is much easier for PCs to access, and the mythology connected to it steals liberally from folklore, with a Fey version of domains, similar to the realms of Ravenloft (in a good way), and a sprinkling of Fair Folk that makes me reminiscent of Exalted’s Raksha (in a very good way). You then get four faeries, with a gazetteer page, a stat page, and a picture.

A seer who is a well written plot hook, and I like quite a bit. It is a great ‘deal with the devil’ style of fey that gets paid in memories, and the only thing that needs to be done to really get great mileage out of it is to make sure those minor childhood memories HURT once they are gone.

A harvest fey, who fills a time honored niche for faeries, but has some errors (no listed size in stat block, assumed tiny, and listed as a hermaphroditic creature instead of a parthenogenetic one.), and that causes negative energy, which I’m not sure I’d leave as that type of energy if that sort of thing mattered in my game. I’m not sure what I’d change it to though, and kudos for not adding a new type that no creatures will have a resistance to.

The third is the Spindler, which is hands down my favorite creature, but it also has three issues. One, the flavor text has its power effecting the victim, and the crunch has the affect effecting the viewers of the victim. Maybe this is supposed to be an in character mistake, but it doesn’t read like one. Secondly, a CR 4 creature that’s most powerful, most flavorful, and signature attack requires a grappled opponent should have improved grapple. Lastly, in the ecology section, there is this: “The desire to force his creations on humanoids might also explain why the creature developed blood their advantage.” I have no idea what that sentence means.

The final creature is the Thin Man, a well written creature that, while an effecting monster (the only real monster of the four, the rest being obstacles, but not really ‘bad guys.’), could be used to really freak out a party if the groundwork was laid out properly.

Overall this is a really good book, and well worth the price. This is the only material I have read from Clockwork Gnome Publishing, but if your first books only issues are minor editing errors, bravo to you. I certainly would buy further products from this company based on this book, and I can see grognards like myself getting a lot of use from this book, along with those new to Pathfinder. I plan on using the Faerie Realm and the Spindler in an intro to DnD I am running Friday night for a group of 5 newbies. For $3, any book that will drive a session is well worth it, in my book.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path
by Timothy L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/01/2011 15:53:45

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product for the purposes of this review.

If I could, I'd probably give this 4.5 stars, but eh, let's round up.

Finwicket's Bestiary: Along the Faerie Path (is that a hint that Finwicket is going to have more entries on other creature types? Because I'd love to see that) is actually more than just a few new creatures. It begins with a fairly detailed (4-5 pages depending how you count it) description of Faerie as a plane overlapping the Material, with information on traveling to and from the plane of Faerie, how its portals work, and the way the plane is split into Dominions. It's all very well done and fits well with fey lore. I especially like the art on page 4 that shows how the overlapping looks. Were this a larger product, or if Clockwork Gnome has any interest in expanding, I'd love to see a product with details on specific Dominions and their Overlords, including more examples of geasa (each Fey Ruler must abide by a rule specific to that individual, or suffer drastic consequences). I'm not sure I necessarily like the idea of Faerie having normal time flow, but at least it's explained well and still allows for mortal confusion.

After this section we get 4 new creatures. Each is introduced with a page of in-character diary by Finwicket, as the first section was. I like these little vignettes, they're interesting and give me a good idea of the flavor of each fey and how to use them in my game. The Faerie Seer is a great option for the next time your game needs an mysterious oracle or sage, the Harvest Haunt is a good example of the curious mix of benevolence and malice that define many fey legends, as is the Spindler. The Spindler is also a bit goofy, but in a successful way, and in a way that fits. Finally we get the Thin Man, a wonderfully creepy fey assassin for those PCs too used to helpful nymphs and dryads.

All in all a high quality product, few spelling errors, layout was clean and easy to read. I liked most of the art, though the Harvest Haunt and Thin Man pictures are a little... weird. Admittedly, Along the Faerie Path is a bit niche, fey are a less often used creature type, but it does a good job expanding your options of them and maybe inspiring you to use creatures you wouldn't have thought of before.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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