A wonderful page-background for releases centered on magic and/or summoning. The details in the text space a wonderful, as are those near the corners and the picture arrangement in general. I will not use it for ALL of my products (as it has a rather strong “them” that does not lend itself to each and any fantasy title), but when I am going to write further “dark spellbooks”, it will be more than handy (as I found out already with a release of mine).

The price and license condition is more than fair and a true treat for those who just begin to release their own material.

This is another title from The Knotty Works that I really admire. The polished look makes it “posh”, the writing space is an eye-catcher as well but not interfering with the readability of the text and last but not least, the whole picture arrangement makes it usable for both SciFi and Science-Fantasy (at least, it does so in my books).

The price and license condition is more than fair and a true treat for those who just begin to release their own material.

This is a rock-solid package for those who begin to publish “generic fantasy” titles, especially in regard to item/list-based releases. The seven different color versions allow the author to establish “product lines” which the customers may be able to identify by the cover alone (and it is good to fit different moods or backgrounds of adventure material as well).

I love this background. I really do. The playful little details near the corner turn it into something special, but it still does not interfere with the writing space.

For Mutant Future(tm)-compatible releases, I cannot think of a better background, and I guess that it will suit other radioactive OSR-clones as well.

I was unsure at first if the style of this page would fit my products. It reminded me of wood somehow and I wondered if this would really look good. Well, I found out it does! I use it for titles centered on dwarfs or fantasy in general.

As with all of the products from the Knotty Works, the price and license condition is more than fair and a true treat for those who just begin to release their own material.

Boasting an evolution pool, this Oracle mystery is highly customizable!

See my fullr eview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoOdp-tZylQ

4/5 using my own grading rubric for TTRPG products!

Want to know how I arrived to this score?

Check out my video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qYWQlly6Tk

Great inserts for those looking to put together a MF GM screen. The multiple layers are a fantastic option for those with varying asthetic and printing options.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Advancing with Class-series clocks in at 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 21 pages fo content, so let's take a look!

All right, after a brief and solid piece of introductory prose, we begin with 5 different patrons, with 3 being tied to fey, one representing a more scholarly bent and one being an antithesis of winter. More interesting than these (though their spell selection is pretty interesting) would be the metric ton of hexes that can be found herein, which are further categorized by theme - Eldritch, Fey, General and Shadow would be the respective leitmotifs. Fey hexes are restricted to fey with a fey patron, shadow hexes are restricted to witches with the shadow patron - simple and makes sense, though, as a minor complaint, last time I checked it was "patron" and not "patron theme" - but that's just cosmetic and hence will not influence the final verdict.

Now eldritch hexes are basically a means of grafting a warlock-like blasting chassis on the more utility-centric witch; this is primarily done via the hex bolt hex, which causes 1d6 untyped (sigh) damage per 4 class levels, with a ranged touch attack to hit, a range increment of 15 ft. and a maximum of 10 range increments, which, while a bit rocky considering its behavior, can be considered to be somewhat of a balancing thing. Now, where the verbiage becomes confusing is when it spells out that the bolt is considered to be magic and thus bypasses DR - the wording can be read as ignoring all DR, not just DR/magic. Only one such bolt may be fired at any given round, regardless of iterative attacks. The bolt is treated as a 2md level spell for casting defensively purposes and is not lost on a failed check, but rather receives a penalty to attack The second major theme to be found among these hexes would be the hex forged hex, which lets you weave untyped bonus damage into melee or natural weapons (not unarmed attacks? Why?). Taking a cue from kineticist wording, there are also infusion hexes, which can be applied to either hex bolt or hex forged, with the exception of energy infusion, which replaces the base energy type of a hex bolt to one of the base energies or "sound" -which does not exist. It's sonic. Energy infusion hex bolts apply resistance, but ignore SR and the other infusions net deafening, frightening, blinding or sickening properties to the bolt. Higher level hexes add further effects to choose from.

Weird, btw.: Neither major, nor grand hexes sport the distinction by hex type in their respective arrays, with the major hexes building upon hex bolts providing cones, fireball-like long-range exploding bolts as well as a weird Cleave-y modification. These, alas, do also sport some oddities: A maximum range of a non-range-modifying bolt, for example, contradicts the maximum range of hex bolt. Similarly, the shaping modifications do not specify whether infusion-type hexes affecting hex bolts work with these shaping tricks. While, unlike the annoyingly infinite hex bolt, these do have a hard cap, I am frankly not sold on the whole sequence. I've seen warlock-y classes done better than this graft, which feels like a basic attempt for some blasting capacity that could have been refined into a mighty engine...but wasn't. When compared to e.g. Interjection games' ethermagic or kineticism, it also promotes doing the same each round, namely blasting. Not a fan and the deviations from standard rules-language are fatal in such a chassis.

The fey and general hexes feel more "witchy" in tone to me and ultimately, to me, are the better examples from a design perspective: Here among the general ones we can find hexes to hamper spellcasting, the ability to deliver messages via avian messengers, the option to pass unimpeded through rough terrain or undergrowth sans taking damage or gaining a mildly toxic nettle-skin. Spitting iron nails at short range that may bypass mage armor et al. is a cool visual. That being said, e.g. the traveling itch could have used a bit of a power upgrade - a -1 penalty to atk for class level rounds does not warrant taking. Also: There are no typed penalties in PFRPG. Interesting - there is a touch that nets the witch and allies bonuses versus the recipient, with the major hex providing an AoE-version of deep slumber, thematically codified as a faerie ring around the witch...while only one such ring may be in effect at a given time, it basically exacerbates the sleeping issue that riled up so many GMs, though personally, I consider it valid...but I wished its wording was slightly more refined. Among the fey hexes, there is an AoE-20 ft-gaze that kills standard actions of targets and a nice sequence of hexes that blinds the target selectively to the witch, which is pretty cool.

The shadow hexes...are basically every shadow-themed class ever. Cloak weapons in shadow for damage-bonus? Check. Stealth-bonuses? Check. Minor sneak attack? Check. They're not that bad or problematic, but neither do they blow me away when compared to the better takes on theme. The feats contained in the pdf mostly concern themselves with witch multiclassing, but also sport better attacks via staves or brooms as well as enhancements of new hexes or archetype abilities.

The new archetypes herein follow a similar trend: The Eldritch Witch, for example, would be, surprise, the archetype for hex bolts/hex forged, with the fey-touched witch the specialist for the fey-themed hexes, one that receives a fey familiar, whose table collates two levels per row, which is slightly problematic from a RAW/convention-perspective. The harrowed harlequin is interesting and receives several social skills as well as a gremlin familiar. Weird: Adding damage to feint attacks at high levels is a bit wonky in its implementation...and does not specify a range, whether only the witch can use it for her own feints, etc. - after all...you don't want to get into melee with a full caster. The madness matriarch may cause insanities and the mystic astrologer is one of the more interesting ones, sporting some solid fate-based rerolls and similar abilities. The high-level option to negate actions retroactively, gained at 18th level, is pretty cool in theory, but its wording is mega-opaque and needs clarification.

The occult scholar receives more brainy skills and is a expert scroll-user, while the shadow mistress, bingo, would be the shadow hex-themed archetype of the collection. The pdf concludes with 3 sample characters, 2 at CR 4 (elven fey-touched + human madness matriarch) and a CR 8 serpentfolk eldritch witch.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are issues on a formal and rules-level. From apostrophe-hiccups and similar typos, the pdf lacks italicization for pretty much every spell and violates rules-formatting in several instances., rendering the content more opaque than it should be. Frustratingly, not to the point where the pdf is not operational, mind you...but yeah, you'll have to reread some passages and will stumble over oddness here and there. The pdf adheres to a 2-column, full-color layout-standard with decent stock art. The pdf is internally hyperlinked and fully bookmarked.

John Buckley's take on the witch is frustrating to me: It takes several cool concepts and proceeds to sport some really ingenious tricks: The nail-spitting, for example, is amazing from a visuals point of view. At the same time, it contains some serious filler and...well...didn't blow me away. I've seen warlock-y blasting done better numerous times; I've seen shadow done better numerous times...and the hiccups in formatting and verbiage make some components...well. Weird. The internal balance is also somewhat inconsistent, with some hexes being clearly significantly weaker than others.

I don't hate this pdf. It does have some gems and if you're willing to iron out some of the verbiage glitches, you'll find some seriously fun concepts herein. At the same time, I can't see the pseudo-warlock graft exciting anyone when there are better options. Same goes for the shadow tricks, rendering a significant portion of the pdf...kinda obsolete and slightly redundant from a thematic point of view. In the end, I can't go higher than 2.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This class clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let's take a look!

The highwayman is a cavalier/rogue hybrid class and, chassis-wise, receives d8, 6+Int skills per level, proficiency with simple and martial weapons, hand crossbow, light and medium armor, full BAB-progression and good Fort- and Ref-saves. The class begins with a non-scaling +1 bonus to Acrobatics, Climb, Disguise, Escape Artist, Knowledge (nobility), Sleight of Hand and Stealth as well as Swim.

At 1st level, 1/day, as a swift action, the class gets a kind of swingy challenge variant: The highwayman receives 1/2 class level to Sense Motive versus the target as well as +1d6 damage. This imposes a penalty of 1/2 class level to Perception and Sense Motive-checks involving anyone else - on a nitpicky side, the penalty-sentence fails to print the skills with capital letters and lacks the minimum 1-note, but that's mostly a cosmetic glitch. The highway man increases the bonus damage by +1d6 every 3 levels thereafter and also receives an additional daily use. The class receives mount and order at 1st level, thankfully noting that challenge modifiers instead apply to the modified ability.

Starting at 2nd level, the class gets +1 to Perception and Sense Motive, +1 every 3 levels thereafter and also nets drumroll a boon, which would be the talents of the class - yes, this means we have actual CHOICE and player agenda here, something painfully non-existent in the vanilla cavalier. An additional boon is gained every 4 levels after the second. The boons allow for the taking of a limited array of rogue talents, substituting the bonus damage of his variant challenge for sneak attack prerequisites. Beyond that, teamwork feat sharing, skill bonuses, (improved) uncanny dodge etc. complement the selection. Here's the cool thing: The boons allow for non-combat utility. The class actually plays rewarding when it's not bashing brains in.

On the defensive side, evasion at 3rd level, improved evasion at 9th and mounted bonus feats complement the concept. The capstone further upgrades the variant challenge of the class. And in case you're wondering - tactician, bonus feats, banner and the charge-related abilities are the things the cavalier retains over the highway man, ensuring that the parent retains supremacy in open warfare - which constitutes a perfect representation of fluff-relationships of classes in crunch. Kudos!

The pdf also sports a new cavalier order, the order of the road, which focuses on social skills as well as Bluff-demoralizes and is pretty non-descript - an okay order, but not one you'll see players gushing on about.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good - while there are some minor formal hiccups, the book is easy to grasp and well-presented. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard and sports solid stock art. The pdf is layered, allowing you to turn off the blue background and the pdf comes with the good type of hyperlinks. Furthermore, it does sport bookmarks in spite of its brevity.

What John Buckley presents here can be summed up with few words: Genius in simplicity. The main issue of the cavalier lies in its lacking flexibility and player agenda as well as next to no non-combat-utility. This adds player agenda as well as the skills necessary to be a good face and actually matter in non-combat situations. The design's variant challenge is pretty elegant and maintains easy compatibility with rogue material, should you elect to diversify the portfolio of the class. Basically, what we have here is the class the cavalier should have been. While the order is not too exciting, that is imho not enough to drag down this class, particularly not at the exceedingly fair price. Similarly, while it does have some minor hiccups in editing, I don't consider that enough to truly complain about it either. I really, really like this class and will continue to use it in my game - hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform and, since this provides a more rewarding take on the cavalier-niche while maintaining compatibility, I will also slap my seal of approval on it.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Player Paraphernalia-series clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let's take a look!

The opportunist base class receives d6 HD (which usually are reserved for casters), 8+Int skills per level, proficiency with simple one-handed and light weapons, martial one-handed and light weapons, bows, light armros, bucklers, light shields and may either choose additional Int-mod proficiencies in martial weapons or +1 exotic weapon proficiency for a weapon that has the disarm, reach or trip attribute. The class gets 3/4 BAB-progression and has good Ref-saves.

The opportunist receives a bonus to armor cutting, dirty trick, disarm, feint, reposition, steal and trip equal to his Int-mod and also gets Combat Expertise as a bonus feat at 1st level, though, regardless of proficiency, he takes the armor check penalty as penalty to these maneuvers when wearing medium or heavy armor.

Wait, what? Yes, there would be a new combat maneuver, armor cutting. This requires the use of either a slashing manufactured or natural weapon. If your CMB works, you reduce the armor of your opponent's Max Dex-bonus by 1 and increase armor check penalty by 1 as well. Medium weapon grants +1, heavy armor +3 and magical armor also provides its enhancement bonus to CMD versus this maneuver - at least I think it does. RAW, the text could be read as "instead", but that makes no sense, so in dubio pro reo - still, a minor nitpick. Multiple uses stack...but this still is one of the weakest combat maneuvers and against most targets, not a particularly good strategy.

Starting at 2nd level and every other level thereafter, the class receives a bonus feat from a limited, maneuver-centric list. 3rd level provides an opportunity pool equal to 1/2 the character's level plus Intelligence modifier. These points may be spent in conjunction with opportunities or, as a swift/immediate action, gain a bonus to CMB or CMD respectively for one of the aforementioned maneuvers. The wording here, alas, is a bit wonky: The class may "spend 1 point per levels to gain a circumstance bonus..." is the wording here - but the class fails to specify the exact amount of bonus it receives - I assume 1:1 basis on points spent, but I'm not sure whether you can spend more, less...

In an interesting twist, 1 point is replenished each time the opportunist successfully performs a combat maneuver against an adversary with HD equal to or greater than the character's class level - meaning this can't be kitten'd, has a solid frame and is pretty much abuse-proof, thankfully also capping at the maximum. 7th level provides uncanny dodgem 11th improved uncanny dodge - but the truly interesting component, apart from the aforementioned pool, would be the 5th level opportunity gained - these would be the talents of the class, though only an additional one is gained every 4 levels thereafter. Minor SPs, double aid another, using the pool to slightly enhance AC and point-based evasion (sans need to expend points to activate) - all okay, but not that interesting. Extending feint-benefits to allies would be neat and limited access rogue talents also work.

At 15th level, the opportunist can combine two combat maneuvers from his specialties in one full-round action - both at -4...which is overly punitive. For one, some maneuvers can be executed already instead of an attack. Secondly, the bad BAB, in spite of the bonus of the class, means the character will not be that good in maneuvers to begin with...and then, potentially still provoking AoOs if you don't have both improved-feats...well...that's pretty much a non-ability, though the penalty decreases at 19th and 20th level, with the capstone allowing for three maneuvers to be combined.

The pdf closes with 5 new feats - crit-based armor cutting, +1 opportunity, Improved and Greater Armor Cutting and an expansion of Combat Reflexes...that adds Wis-mod AoOs, replacing the Dex-based ones of Combat Reflexes...while still needing it as a prereq? Very odd and a bad idea - If Wis-mod is so much better for a character, then the dead Combat Reflexes-feat is a bad investment. If not...then, why take this feat in the first place?

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good - I noticed no glaring glitches of a formal variety and rules-language also is concise for the most part. Layout adheres to a 2-column full-color standard and the pdf sport a piece of solid stock art. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience and with the good kind of hand-crafted, useful hyperlinks.

John Buckley's opportunist tries to be basically a rogue that replaces sneak attack with combat maneuvers and tricky fighting and the associated bonus feats - which is a neat concept. Design-decision-wise, the class has some cool ideas - the opportunity-pool-recharge is interesting and the idea of opportunities is as well. However, the class ends up being exceedingly weak. As in even weaker than the vanilla rogue. The bad BAB screws over the maneuver-prowess of the class, its very life-blood. At low levels, the attribute-bonus does offset that, but in the middle and high levels, these guys, alas, are no longer competitive - a fact exacerbated by the exceedingly weak high-level abilities - which feel to me like they should have been the center of the class, not an afterthought: Multiple maneuvers at once, growing in potency and combination options? That sounds pretty much like a great class waiting to happen. Instead, they are pushed to levels where they are neither competitive, nor do they matter much.

The minor hiccups that can be found here unfortunately do not help the pdf either. The new combat maneuver is a good idea...but not one I can see any character using in its current form...ever. There is no scaling reward (more damage on sunder, higher chance of broken weapon; higher roll on reposition, more reposition...) and the reward ratio, even at level one, alas, is pitiful. Where is the entangle? Where is the "armor falls to the ground?" Granted, the improved/greater feats allow for some neat combos here, but enough to warrant the weak base maneuver?

The opportunist has some awesome ideas and is, craftsmanship-wise, solid, if not perfect. But, oh boy does it need a power-upgrade bad. As written, I'd consider this a slightly better NPC-class or one that mainly works in VERY low magic, low power games where escalating magical defenses do not make the CMB/CMD-math of the class completely get left by the wayside. Still, while pretty weak, the class itself does kind of work (notable one exception in the pool-ability) - though even within the class, balance is odd: The opportunities range from ludicrously weak to nice and could use some internal balancing as well.

My final verdict will clock in at 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for the nice ideas that can be found herein.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised edition

This installment of the Player Paraphernalia-class clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let's take a look!

The Charger is a front-line fighter and gets d10, 2+Int skills per level, proficiency with all simple and martial weapons, light, medium and heavy armors and shields, though encumbrance and heavy armor may impede some abilities of the class. The class gets full BAB-progression and full Fort-save progression. The class begins play with +10 ft. movement rate, which increases to +15 ft. if the character has the Run-feat. This enhanced movement increases by the same amount at 10th level and the bonuses are lost when encumbered. The class receives a bonus feat at 1st level, +1 at 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter from a limited list.

Starting at 2nd level, the charger deals +1d6 damage on a successful charge, +1d6 every 3 levels thereafter. Said damage is not precision damage, but does not multiply on critical hits. At 3rd level, the class receives +1 to CMB when performing bull rush or overrun combat maneuvers and the same bonus to CMD to defend against these maneuvers. The bonus increases by +1 every 3 levels thereafter. So far, so boring, you say? Well, yeah, kind of, but at fourth level the class receives access to its talent-array, a selection of options is available - +1 is gained every three levels thereafter. It should be noted that these charging tactic, if applicable to a maneuver, cannot be used in conjunction with feats modifying the same maneuver. Unless otherwise noted, only one such tactic can be applied to a given charge attack. Charging at the unmodified movement rate while in heavy armor and reducing the armor check penalty would be pretty solid. EDIT: The revised charger-class introduces quite a few new options for chargers, including new tactics, which now also make use of Acrobatics, a vital skill that thankfully now is a class skill for the charger. There also are means to negate AoOs from non-charge targets via Acrobatics while charging at full speed and a means to negate AoOs from targets of the charge at a pretty low rate of success, via Reflex saves, which seems like a trap-option for most campaigns...but then again, against foes with large reach...it makes sense.

On the plus-side, short burst rage-like bonuses are pretty decent and charge/feint combinations make sense as well. Charging while fatigued (at the risk of then being temporarily exhausted) also makes sense in a context of a class thus geared towards one mechanic. Combining overrun with drag are interesting - particularly since the ability manages to get the wording right. A Cleave-y option for secondary attacks (balanced by potentially AoOs) can also be found here and yes, there is a reposition-variant that has nice synergy with the hard-hitter ability's bonus damage upon charges. Similarly, a solid two-weapon charge and some sundering-fun can be found within these pages. I'm also a big fan of an AoO-gambit: When a foe moves out of the charger's threatened square, he may delay the AoO for 10 feet to then charge the adversary, which makes it rather hard to get away from the charger - and yes, while a high-level option, this does receive some balancing temporary debuffs.

As a capstone, the class may initiate a super-charge with all the tactics applied at 3x range and if criting, the hard-hitter bonus damage is multiplied. A total of 6 feats intended for the class, which, surprise, focus on charging (or gaining +1 talent) - including the much needed overrun/charge-synergy. We close this pdf with some feasible designer comments.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good, the new material does sport a bit more punctuation errors than the old material. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked in spite of its brevity. Additionally, we get the good kind of hyperlinks here - kudos for those!

John Buckley's revised Charger seems, at first glance, like a class you don't need - this is basically a moderately complex modification of the fighter, one that focuses on singular, devastating attacks. This narrow focus, ultimately, is both blessing and curse for the base class - the revised edition does not change much here. Generally, the charger's attacks can deal brutal amounts of damage and the class does have tools to mitigate the easy means of sabotaging charge-attacks. At the same time, though, this per se mechanically well-crafted class is very one-dimensional. While it succeeds in its endeavor to make the respective combat maneuvers more viable and while the scaling bonus damage is feasible, considering the loss of iterative attacks and action-tax on the respective tricks, ultimately, in spite of the tactics and options provided, these guys are one trick ponies.

The playing experience, with a class this focused on, surprise, charging, is not one you can expect to offer much diversity or complexity, as quite a bit of the fighter's flexibility and feat-array is sacrificed for this prowess. At the same time, the massive damage potentially caused makes the charger an interesting foil for high-DR foes. EDIT: The most significant innovation of the revised version of this pdf is a support for actual mobility to get away from foes. While the rules-language is good, it does, here and there, sport some cosmetic hiccups, which, while not impeding the usefulness of the class, can be considered to be slightly problematic on a design-aesthetic perspective if you're like me and a bit, well, picky. The most problematic choices of the class have been cleaned, though, and the pdf now does indeed offer more variety, a more satisfying playing experience, which will be represented in the final verdict - the revised edition receives a final verdict of 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised edition

This installment of the Player Paraphernalia-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 4 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

The Imperial Druid's angle, concept-wise, would be the inherent natural order of things within the animal kingdom, providing control over this concept by graces of the celestial Court. Imperial Druids thus need to be neutral good and may utilize metal weapons and monk weapons, gaining their proficiencies...but at the cost of all armor and shield proficiencies.

The imperial druid also receives an imperial bond - either a domain chosen from air, earth, fire, good, celestial court, nobility and water or an animal companion with the Minor Foo Creature template at 1st level, the full foo creature template at 8th level and the imperial foo creature template at 18th level, but the companion neither receives evasion, nor improved evasion. Problem here: As written, the ability is obviously intended to modify animal companion, but does not explicitly state this, rendering it RAW an addition to Nature's Bond instead of an replacement. While the intent is clear, RAW, this is still a nasty little oversight.

All right, you'll now note something - firs of all, yes, the Celestial Court domain is provided herein. The domain allows for 1/day communion with spirits, which acts as commune with nature, with the caveat that it also works in dungeons, cities, etc. EDIT: The ability has been re-declared as the proper SP. The second ability is a supernatural, more heavily modified spell: At 8th level, you can, as a standard action that does not provoke an AoO, call forth a celestial templated summon nature's ally with a minimum Intelligence of 10, which remains for 1 round per level, with the summon nature's ally spell-level being equal to 1/2 your class level (9th level version at 18th level) - while the wording is slightly wonky here, this still is okay.

The template progression of the foo-templates from minor to the lesser imperial foo template has been cleaned up and now lacks its prior ambiguity, making this key-component of the pdf work significantly better. On a further plus-side, while the powerful stony defense ability is retained, the lesser foo template has receives a nerf that makes it less overbearing at low levels, with its power-gain being a sensible offset for the delayed wild-shape gain.

Instead of nature sense and wild empathy, imperial druids may intimidate evil fey, evil outsiders and evil incorporeal spirits, gaining +class level to the check. The prior issue with the Knowledge (nobility) bonus has been fixed as well - though a GM still has to define "spirits" since that is no creature type...but granted, this is cosmetic, which is also why I didn't complain about it in the original review.

The imperial druid may also spontaneously convert non-domain spells (if applicable) to summon nature's ally-spells of the same level, adding kami to the list of creatures that can be called.

Instead of woodland stride, trackless step and thousand faces, the imperial druid receives a scaling natural armor bonus and, at 10th level, EDIT: nerfed to hardness 2 (which scales up to 4), though this costs 5 feet of movement in three steps, reducing movement down to up to 10 feet. Hardness 4, bought with what can be countered by a level 1 spell. Hardness is better than DR; notably energy and ranged attacks halve their damage before applying hardness. This is INSANE, even with the caveat of not working in wild shape and being able to negate it via stone to flesh.

The Wild shape (gained at 4th level, with a delay) similarly allows for the addition of the lesser foo creature template, with sizes of the animal form chosen and class levels determining the foo-creature template that is gained EDIT: Now sans template-botch and ambiguities! Conversely, higher levels allow for the assumption of draconic forms, with foo templates added, though at least the breath weapons thus gained adhere to a daily limit.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are rather good on a formal level - there are no obvious typos and the like herein. On a rules-language level, while there still are quite a few non-standard wordings, the new and exceedingly quickly revised version, while not perfect, has significantly improved. Layout adheres to an easy to read full-color two-column standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked and with the good type of hand-crafted, actually helpful hyperlinks - kudos for those!

John Buckley has crafted a thematically cool archetype herein - the idea of a quasi-eastern druid with fitting servants, in service of the celestial bureaucracy is something I really enjoy in theme. The new and revised iteration of this archetype is a powerful archetype for the druid - the foo creature summons, draconic wild-shapes at higher levels and HARDNESS (OUCHOUCHOUCH) still render this archetype too strong in my book - hardness on its own wouldn't be that bad, but its resulting halving of ranged/energy damage...now that's BRUTAL. So balance-wise, I'd suggest this archetype for more high-powered rounds; in low magic games, this one won't work. However, after a quick check of the math, I'm pretty confident that this will work as a strong archetype in more high-powered rounds. While some rough edges still can be found here, this constitutes a fast and significant step upwards for the archetype and thus nets it a final verdict of 3.5 stars - high-powered rounds that do not mind the relative strength should round up, while the others should round down. Due to in dubio pro reo, my final official verdict will round up.

Endzeitgeist out.

This class also gets good combat ability and some powers, but it also gets spells to 4th level. This puts it on par with the Ranger. It has a couple of new feats, but no new spells. Though you are getting a lot here for a buck and half. I liked how this one was more focused against witches than just any spell casting class.

This product is excellent. It is not game changing but it certainly adds some new options and flavor to the game allowing characters to further customize their characters. I recommend it to anyone playing Pathfinder. The ability to selectively add certain skills to your characters class list is a great idea and the trade off is balanced in my opinion.