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Fearsome Foes: Brine Queen PF1
by B C C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/21/2024 15:06:31

My players loved this 1-shot so much, that I took the eponymous Brine Queen and turned her into a recurring NPC (sometimes adversary, sometimes dubious ally). That all said, over the years, we've been a huge fan of Rusted Iron Games and their consistently-top-tier PF1 3PP products. I can count on 1 hand how many 3PPs I will buy their products immediately upon release ... and Rusted Iron is one of them. And we've never been dissapointed even once.

And if Rusted Iron is listening, our favorite content of yours is your hag and witch themed products. If you chose to release any more goodies working these themes, our wallets are standing-by and ready!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Fearsome Foes: Brine Queen PF1
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for taking the time to leave a review! If you like witches, then you might like to hear that I am working on a revised version of Character Options: Witches, one of my first products, to expand it to be more in line with our other Character Options products. Wren Brown
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Deadly Gardens: Yggdrasilar
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/28/2023 06:59:26

As usual another top notch product. Although the product focus's on one creature, there are some surprise inside regarding power componets and addition natural items (harvested parts) from various creatures. Nor only do they juat have a creature you can encounter, but give some good reason why as it can be valuable or useful to players (harvested items). Too bad this trend did not catch on sooner, as it add some flavor to why some hunt creatures and gives more flavor to magic (item creation and spells).



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens: Yggdrasilar
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for taking time from your day to write a review! Glad that you enjoyed the product.
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Character Options: Witches
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/10/2022 13:59:07

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-character-options.html

Character Options: Witches

PDF. $1.49. 7 pages. 1 page cover. ½ page OGL. 5½ pages of content.

This PDF gives us what I consider the "usual bag" of options for the Pathfinder Witch class. NOTE that is not a slight on this book or even a bad thing. It is very, very often exactly what people want.

There are 10 new Patrons with their bonus spells. There are 10 new hexes as well.

There are three (3) new archetypes as well. These include the Devoted Witch (I might call this a Divine Witch or Witch Priestess), Green Witch (largely the same as mine in feel), and the Storyteller Witch which is a lot of fun.

So for just under $1.50 you can get all of this. Not at all bad really. If you need some new witch options then this is a good choice.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Character Options: Witches
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Character Options: Paladins
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/10/2021 20:41:26

Another great product from Rusted Iron Games that still supports Pathfinder 1E RPG system. Not only do they have a phenomenal line of products with their "deadly garden" series, but have some great idead for character classes with this series as well (and is recent!). This product introduce some new archetypes, as well more oaths for the apaldin class. It is a small bite sized portion, but found it veru useful.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Character Options: Paladins
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Fearsome Foes: Crimson Cannibal PF1
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 02/05/2020 12:13:09

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Fearsome Foes-series clocks in at 10 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

At one point, Hugo Perkins was just a scoundrel, a criminal – a successful one, granted, but also one that engaged in serious spending…live in the moment. At one point, however, his fellow criminals sold him out, finally tired of his badly-conceived schemes. Unfortunately, the jailer of the gaol was the brother of a woman left with a bastard conceived by Hugo. He set him and two other prisoners up, hoping they’d kill Hugo, but the scoundrel managed to manipulate his fellow prisoners into killing each other. After the plan had backfired, the jailer instead went the oubliette route, and let Hugo starve to death. The criminal, having previously partaken of the corpses of his fellow inmates, turned ghoul, ripped the jailer to shreds, and escaped. It took some time for him to realize what he had become, and the fugitive ghoul has decided that it’d be payback time now.

For a few months now, he has become the latest serial killer, dubbed the Crimson Cannibal. Investigator Marcy Salund (CR 7 inspired blade/empiricist, comes with kickass b/w artwork, full stats) has been put on the case – the lady btw. also comes with the investigator’s glass item, which allows for the prolonging of inspiration bonuses on Perception – cool!

Speaking of “cool” – the pdf comes with extensive, interesting adventure hooks: From a PC’s relative being killed to being directly targeted, missing McGuffins and blocked areas, there are several interesting angles here, and all of them are more detailed than usual – these general themes may not sound new, but they are depicted in more detail than usual. Particularly cool: The supplement offers essentially a sketch of running a murder investigation, including sample DCs and various types of physical evidence and the skills that can help you discern more information about them. This attention to detail also extends to questioning eye-witnesses and rumors, and for examining corpses, finding the safehouse and the secret identity of the perpetrator, for the crimson cannibal is a CR 8 ghoul vigilante with the stalker specialization. The build is neat, and also includes the sprinter’s slippers, a type of shoe that allows for bursts of serious speed, enhancing the chances of the crimson cannibal getting away.

Finally, the supplement features 5 different sample encounters, with total CRs for them noted, further facilitating the use of the content herein.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting re very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and we get a nice original full-color artwork for the antagonist, and an original b/w-piece for the lady investigator. Kudos: In spite of the brevity, the pdf comes fully bookmarked, making navigation simple and easy.

Vanessa Hoskins kicks serious behind with this supplement – I expected an antagonist with a neat background, and got that AND a cool ally for the PCs, AND essentially all the things you need to spontaneously develop this into a fully realized little investigation. Awesome. Combine that with the low price, and we have a winner. 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Fearsome Foes: Crimson Cannibal PF1
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Fearsome Foes: Black Hounds PF1
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 12/09/2019 13:54:11

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Fearsome Foes-series clocks in at 10 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The story of the Black Hounds begins with Belik Hammerfist, born to loving half-orc parents, and subsequently orphaned at the tender age of 7 in peacekeeping riots that, including arcane police fireballing buildings, seems surprisingly topical when thinking about the world in general. Anyway, this incident did spawn a massive riot that burned half the city down, but Bellik? He survived the next 10 years on the streets, going through the school of hard knocks, if you will. With his renown growing, he struck a deal with the local magic shop proprietor Audrey Vim – she’d be the grey eminence, he’d be the face of the new mercenary outfit. And thus, the Black Hounds were born – a mercenary company not concerned with the ethics of their employers, with one exception – no killing if possible, even when a reward of securing target dead is worth just as much as a target that’s alive.

The narrative was surprisingly compelling here, and this extends to the adventure hooks, which are MUCH more detailed than usual – and more interesting. They do contain rules-relevant components, including DCs, and some can be considered to be closer to adventure outlines than simple hooks. The Black Hounds themselves are not simply background flavor – instead, they are depicted as a full-blown organization, including a logo, notes on good and challenging classes, headquarters, and resources! Yep, full-blown organization rules! For 1 TPA, you can e.g. get a tattoo or brand that nets you a +2 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy with other Black Hounds members. Discounts, retraining, hired specialists, merciful (not italicized properly) weapons at a discount and more – huge kudos here!

The pdf, obviously, also contains stats – the rank-and file member is a level 6 bounty hunter slayer (including bolas etc.!), and Ms. Vim? She is a capable occultist, with focus allocated etc. – minor nitpick: Spell-references in her tactics are not italicized. Belik himself is a capable barbarian/slayer multiclass, and surprisingly not as straight-forward a build as I expected. The pdf also provides prefabricated encounter-information, with individual teams for CRs ranging from 5 to 11. Cool here: One of these ties in with the adventure hooks, namely Audrey’s vindictive ex-girlfriend – the stats of that lady and her bodyguard are from the NPC Codex, but personally? Loved this extra touch.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a rules-language level, and almost as good on a formal level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, with multiple full-color artworks – one for the named NPCs each, and one for the rank and file bounty hunter. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Vanessa Hoskins is a trooper of a designer, and she knows how to write compelling characters. The concept of the Black Hounds should not elicit as much excitement from me as it does; the angle of the professional “bring ‘em back alive”-group is not new; and yet, its implementation made me smile time and again; it’s the little tidbits that render this compelling, both mechanically and from a narrative point of view: The “loving” parents, the tragedy, the inclusion of organization information, the Ex-girlfriend-angle – this feels like a book the designer obviously CARED about. Considering this and the low price-point, my final verdict will be 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Fearsome Foes: Black Hounds PF1
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Race Options: Gillmen
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 11/11/2019 08:40:30

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf clocks in at 9 pages, 1 page front cover, ½ a page SRD, leaving us with 7.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was move up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters.

We begin with a recap of the gillmen’s heritage and the pdf also includes the racial traits of the species. We get three alternate racial traits: One replaces being amphibious with 3/day charm person (not properly italicized) as a SP; alternatively, they can reduce land speed to 10 ft., but get 50 ft. swim speed. Interesting: There is a trait that nets you fast healing of 1 hit point per minute, but at a serious cost – you can only ever spend 3 hours outside of water before death from organ failure, escalating the water dependent trait. The supplement also features an array of favored class options for alchemist, arcanist, barbarian, bloodrager (aberrant bloodline), druid, kineticist, occultist, paladin, psychic, ranger, sorcerer (aberrant bloodline), vigilante and witch. All in all, these check out – they are potent, but not unduly so – relevant options to have.

The pdf contains 4 new feats: Aboleth’s Pawn increases enchantment resistance to +4, and the penalty vs. such effects from Aboleth sources to -4. You also are treated as having Skill Focus Knowledge (dungeoneering) for meeting the prerequisites of the Eldritch Heritage (aberrant) feats or other feats with it as a prerequisite. Water-retentive Skin nets you a longer deadline before requiring immersion in water – kudos: No this may not be used to cheese the potent fast healing alternate racial trait. Remembered Legacy lets you count as human and nets you the human subtype. There is an issue here – what if an effect would benefit gillmen, but penalize humans? This should specify how such cases work. Communal Mind-Gridding is a teamwork feat nets you +1 to saves vs. mind-.affecting effects for every ally with this feat within 30 ft., maximum +4.

The pdf contains 2 archetypes, with the first being the sea sentinel cleric, who is locked into the oceans subdomain, and does not get a second domain. The save DC of spells with the water descriptor increase by 1, and the archetype gets +1 to atk rolls of spells or abilities with the water descriptor, including explicitly the surge domain ability. The bonus increases by +1 at 10th and 20th level. The archetype can heal any aquatic or water subtype creatures, or command them with channel energy, as though per the Command Undead feat. 4th level gets rid of underwater combat penalties, including a limited range where ranged attacks take no penalty – the range of the latter ability increases. 7th level nets an animal companion as a druid at -3 levels, but the companion needs to be aquatic/water subtype. Essentially, a shepherd of the waves style archetype.

The second archetype is more extensive – the ephemeral visionary medium replaces the default spirits with 3 destinies – history, nonce and fate; these otherwise behave as though they were spirits. The spirit bonus of history applies to Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks as well as Fortitude saves, and the Séance boon nets +2 to attacks with non-spell attacks. Influence penalty applies to Dexterity-related checks and Reflex saves, and the taboos including refusing aid or harmless spells, an inability to let insults stand, or demanding half the treasure. The lesser ability nets martial weapon proficiency and Weapon Focus with said weapon. Intermediate nets you a teamwork feat that you may share with all allies within 30 ft. temporarily as a standard action, and it may be used again when accepting influence. The greater ability further enhances the weapon skill with the weapon chosen via the lesser ability, and the supreme ability nets a hefty +6 to all physical ability scores, which can be triggered as a swift action – essentially, this one acts as a warrior-suite.

Nonce applies the spirit bonus to Wisdom checks and Wisdom-based skill checks, as well as, oddly, reflex save. Expected to see Will there, but I assume intention here, since Fate applies the bonus to Will. The séance boon nets you swim speed. Influence penalty sees you paranoid that the aboleth masters will get you, preventing aid another and imposing spirit bonus as a penalty to Charisma-based checks and skill checks. Taboos include slaying all aberrations on sight, not leaving the water for more than an hour or sell at least 1/3 of what you find. The spirit abilities include seeing in water and create water as a 0-level spell (should be called knack); intermediate nets you favored terrain +2 as though a ranger, +4 if you choose water, and hydraulic push as a first level medium spell. The greater ability nets ranged disarm or steal under water a limited amount of times (accept influence for more uses) and slipstream as a 2nd-level spell. The supreme ability nets you the option to generate 5 supercharged geysers that also gate in summon monster VII water elementals every few rounds. OUCH! It also adds quench and geyser as medium spells.

The Fate option applies the spirit bonus to Intelligence checks, Intelligence-based skill checks and Will-saves, and. The séance boon nets a +1 to the DC of enchantment and illusion spells, and the influence penalty prevents you from casting beneficial spells on allies, unless you’re included among the targets or area of effect. Taboos include autofailing Will saves unless they directly harm others or result in directly harming others; communicating exclusively in Aboleth, or being forced to execute vanquished enemies. The lesser ability is using the mesmerist’s spell per day table (NOT the spell list!); for each spell level you get, you also choose a psychic spell to add to the medium spell list. The intermediate ability nets you a 15 ft.-reach tentacle with 1d4 base damage, a primary natural attack. You have to default regarding damage type. It can deliver touch spells. The greater ability lets you expend spell slots to make a ranged attack against a target in close range; targets hit take a penalty vs. your mind-affecting effects, with the penalty determined by the spell slot used. As usual, limited uses, accept influence for more uses. The supreme ability nets you a potent dominate monster SP.

The archetype also replaces location channel mirrors trance of three for other destinies, except the character gains the lesser spirit power, and the ability does some surprisingly interesting modifications, and as a big kudos, the fate destiny’s bonus spells become a separate, distinct array, but can’t be cheesed. Well, this is a cool class-hack. I’d particularly consider this one for 1-on-1-games; It’s versatile and interesting.

The pdf also contains two psychic options: The corrupting slime phrenic amplification, which can lace aboleth slime in linked spells (managing to execute some high-complexity rules-operations rather well), and also add Constitution damage to spell effects; and yes, balanced. Kudos! The major amplification, sleeper agency, can add an implanted suggestion (not properly italicized) in those affected by charm effects. This ALSO is forgotten. Wow. This may not sound like that much, but it can be used to super-devious ends. Like it!

The pdf also features 3 spells: Symbol of mental erosion works like a symbol of death (bingo, not in itaclis), save that it imposes a massive debuff versus mind-affecting effects; deep-sea armaments is a low-level spell that makes your weapon count as piercing for purposes of attack rolls and damage under water, but NOT any other way; kudos: The spell does explicitly state that damage type etc. remains unchanged. This is a really handy rules-hole fix. Underwater suffication[sic!] is funny, in that, while the title has a typo, it gets the formatting of spell-references right. This spell suspends the ability to breathe underwater, and the spell also has a chance of dispelling underwater breathing spells.

Conclusion: Editing is good on a formal level, very good on a rules-language level; same goes for formatting – the pdf may have some typos and cosmetic guffaws, but it gets often complex rules-operations done right. Layout adheres to Rusted Iron Games’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has a couple of solid b/w-artworks. The pdf, in spite of its brevity, comes fully bookmarked. Kudos!

Joshua Hennington’s humble little pdf surprised me in a positive manner. While there are a couple of options herein that I’d consider to be filler, the pdf’s occult options in particular are interesting and well-crafted; surprisingly, it’s not the class hack that I most liked, but the psychic options – they look simple, but are pretty tough cookies to properly pen. Anyhow, this is a solid little supplement, with a few lame things (the feats are imho superfluous at best), but also some gems – all in all, well worth 3.5 stars, rounded up due to the low and fair price and the well-wrought occult material.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Race Options: Gillmen
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Deadly Gardens Collection
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/16/2019 08:21:50

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive collection of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 76 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page introduction/ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page inside of back cover, 1 page back cover, leaving us with a massive 70 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The Deadly Gardens-series has, so far, provided quite a smattering of plant-creatures and related material, and this book collects the material in a handy compilation. From the get-go, we can see that this is not simply all the pdfs tacked together – the content has been reorganized in a sensible manner.

We begin the book with 4 new feats, which center around a couple of crucial components: There are feats that allow for the harvesting of poison from living creatures, for better resilience versus poisons, and, most interestingly perhaps, one that allows you to use poisons to treat diseases and addictions. The other key-feat included herein would be the Deadly Gardener-feat, which lets you Handle Animal plants without the DC-penalty, and even handle unintelligent plants and use wild empathy, if available, in conjunction with them. As far as organization is concerned, I’d have appreciated the plant companion stats that are provided for some creatures to feature here in the beginning as well – instead, they are located in the individual plant creature entries, which is slightly inconvenient, as most GMs probably wouldn’t want to hand out the creature-information.

From here, we get a couple of natural hazards like quagmires, and then move on to one of my favorite aspects of the series – the expansion of mechanically-meaningful terrain types – from kudzu to salt flats to razor shale and scree types, there are quite a few really amazing means to make combat more exciting and dynamic here. As a minor complaint: Damage types generally are concise, and so are the rules, but the scree types don’t mention the proper damage type they inflict –it is readily apparent that bludgeoning is correct here, though. Analogue, thickets should probably inflict piercing damage. These are cosmetic gripes, but I figured they’d warrant mentioning.

The next chapter is one of the hearts of the book, and seriously one of the best reasons to get the book: We receive a massive item-chapter. And I mean massive - if you’ve been following the series, you’ll know that it has championed natural items long before the release of Ultimate Wilderness, and did so rather well. Particularly for low level games and campaigns that enjoy a down-to-earth tone or a more dark fantasy and/or low/rare magic-approach, this’ll deliver in spades! If you’re like me and adore Playground Adventures’ fantastic Creature Component-books, then it should be noted that use of the books in conjunction is a pretty painless procedure!

Category-wise, the book first lists 5 alchemical items that include oil that hardens plant skin, liquid fertilizers, salt bombs, and the like – these are neat, but on a formal level, I noticed that sometimes there is a blank space between the gp amount and “gp”, and sometimes there isn’t. The salt bomb also mentions salt damage, which technically doesn’t exist, but seeing how circumstantial its effects are, I don’t necessarily object to that here to the extent where I’d usually do. The book then goes on to present 8 herbal remedies that range from aloe and lavender, to super-hot peppers that may sicken you with heat, but also help stave off the cold. Their benefits are subdued, nice and would theoretically be appropriate in even a no-magic game. Here, I have no nitpicks. The lion’s share of the items herein, though, are natural items – they note a source creature, the related skill check and the yield you can get from the target – as well as the price these components fetch on the market. The rules for preserving them are as simple and painless as the base engine. While quite a few of the natural items listed here are sourced from the new plant monsters that may be found within these pages, the majority hail from classic critters like intellect devourers, leucrottas, etc.

The eyes of accuser devils, for example, may be used as a kind of grotesque video camera that records things it sees; achaierai oil can be added to flame to create noxious, nauseating and nasty black smoke. Adherer tendrils may be used to facilitate the creation of sovereign glue. The voice-boxes of androsphinxes may be used to double the range of sound-based spells when used as a material component. Blood root vitae can be used to heal and also lesser restoration targets. Boggard tongues can be used as impromptu bungee ropes, while bulette musk is a kind of aphrodisiac that helps you influence those attracted to you via Diplomacy (Skill-reference not properly capitalized). The items also include e.g. items that can act as insect-repellant, as a power component to enhance fire magic, provide metamagic synergy, etc. I am still not a big fan of the cyclops eye soup, which makes the next critical threat within 8 hours automatically confirm. There are also small hiccups in the otherwise generally well-made rules language here – for example, an item that deals sonic damage, but its splash damage fails to properly type the splash damage’s damage type as sonic. This doesn’t impede the functionality of the items, but if you’re as anal-retentive as I am regarding these components, it may bug you here and there – a careful additional pass regarding rules-integrity could have further increased the value of this section. (As an aside – some of the glitches of the individual pdfs that I called out in my individual reviews have actually been rectified, so kudos for those!)

Beyond the ton of items, a massive table of almost 2 pages of natural poisons and 4 power components can also be found here. The book includes a new special material, an armor quality to grant/enhance woodland stride, and a whole array of magic items that include particularly smelly onions that you can eat to become really unappealing to eat (or get near…); there are classic quickly-growing beans, a silver apple that acts as a lycanthrope detector. The rules here generally are solid as well, often doing interesting things (such as with an assassin vine-based whip that can constrict on its own), but there also are some instances where damage is untyped that shouldn’t be.

Now, obviously, this being a compilation, the book also contains the stars of the Deadly Gardens-series – the monsters! From the lowly ophidian vine to the CR 23 Kaiju Verdaxag (who comes with a summary of kaiju traits and a spell to call for its wrath), the book contains a lot of interesting critters – and while it’s not included in the bookmarks, the wandering sundew is actually included in the book. The artworks btw. are sometimes glorious b/w (like the hypno-lotus) and sometimes in full color – in most instances, I ended up liking the b/w-pieces a bit more, though exceptions exist. Now, I really don’t enjoy repeating myself too much, so if you want a critter-by-critter discussion of everything within this tome, please do consult my reviews of the individual Deadly Gardens-installments.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are pretty good on a rules language level, but on a formal level, there are still a couple of minor hiccups present herein that should have been caught. Layout adheres to a nice and generally printer-friendly two-column standard, with matte backgrounds. The artworks are, for the most part, really nice, particularly considering the super-indie niche of the series. Really impressive! The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, making navigation comfortable.

Russ Brown, Matthew Carroll, Kim Frandsen, Jeff Gomez, Chris Hunt, Sam Kaplan, Joe Kondrak, Jacob W. Michaels, Stephen Stack, Andrew Umphrey, Isaac Volynskiy, Mike Welham – considering this cadre of authors, it is pretty impressive to note how unified this book ultimately is. Compilations are difficult for me – on the one hand, I don’t want to unduly repeat myself; on the other, I still need to present valid advice and check the book. So yeah, this was a bunch of work, but work I’m glad I invested my time in.

There is value in this compilation, and it lies in convenience and organization – in contrast to the individual pdfs, you can have all those small tidbits and items all at the flick of the wrist, conveniently-presented in one book, and this ultimately renders the book a useful resource. If you do NOT have any Deadly Gardens installments so far, then this is most definitely the iteration I’d recommend getting. However, if you already have them, the usefulness of the compilation lies primarily in its unified presentation and organization. So yeah, as a whole, I consider this to be a good compilation product. While I would have loved to report that is has gotten rid of the small tidbits and inconsistencies, there are a few still here that made me wish this had received another editing pass to remove the remaining aesthetic blemishes. This notwithstanding, we have a rather nice book here, though my final verdict can’t exceed 4 stars for it – a good book, and an excellent resource if you’re new to the horrific plant-threats and natural items presented by the series.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens Collection
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Deadly Gardens: Verdaxag, King of Trees
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 03/14/2018 04:50:22

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 5 pages, 1 page front cover, ½ a page SRD, leaving us with 3.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

So, this is a change from Deadly Garden’s usual formula, in that we do not begin with the usual magic items – instead, we hear about the legend of Verdaxag and how it works: The colossal king of trees seems to empathetically feel the pain of plants, ignoring it for a while…and when the threshold is reached, the fury is unleashed! Well, or when multiple high-level druids undertake the wrath of Verdaxag ritual, which summons the mighty kaiju to lay waste to all humanoids within a 50 Mile radius. (Btw.: Kaiju subtype information is included for your convenience!)

Now Verdaxag itself is a BEAST. As befitting of a creature of its legend and power, it clocks in at CR 23. With AC 40, fast healing and impressive defenses, even high-level PCs will have a challenge on their hands when facing this force of nature, which btw. has no less than 5 attacks! Verdaxag can breath a cone of devastating, bleed-inducing thorns as a breath weapon and its mere presence entangles targets. Slaying a foe heals the king of trees and no plant creature can be harmed or compelled to harm Verdaxag. Additionally, the lord of trees can emit two types of pollen: Poison and rust can be caused …ouch. Setting fire to the fellow is btw. NOT a smart idea…and even if the mighty kaiju is defeated, that will not end the threat, as it will regrow. Only while in a weakened state after regrowth can the lord of trees be defeated. (Minor complaint: There is a spell reference not italicized.)

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, top-notch on a rules-language level. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard and the artwork for Verdaxag is fantastic, particularly considering the low price point. The pdf comes fully bookmarked in spte of its brevity – kudos!

Mike Welham’s King of Trees is AMAZING. I am a sucker for kaiju, and Verdaxag sports a ton of unique and intriguing abilities that should make the king of trees a fantastic foe for the forces of civilization. All in all, an excellent supplement for a super-fair price. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens: Verdaxag, King of Trees
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Deadly Gardens: Wandering Sundew
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 03/12/2018 06:00:53

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 5 pages, 1 page front cover, ½ a page SRD, leaving us with 3.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Now as always, we begin the pdf with 2 new magic items, the first of which would be the blackthorn gloves allow the wielder, whenever they deliver a spell with a melee touch attack, to inflict +1d3 piercing damage, with a Reflex save to negate. For each point of damage caused by these thorns, the SR, if any, of the target is reduced by an equal amount versus the spell delivered. If the spell sports a save DC, it also increases by +1 per point of damage caused. Additionally, 2/day, the wielder can generate a 15-ft.-cone dealing 1d6 piercing damage, with a Ref-save to negate. The interesting component here would be that all targets affected by the cone are potentially targeted by the spell, replacing the usual touch delivery mechanism, but not the triggering condition for the item. It should be noted that this alternate delivery mechanism does not come with the SR/DC-modification. The spell thus delivered cannot be held and the item covers its bases to prevent Bouncing/Reach Spell abuse. AMAZING item. Looks simple, but is anything but simple and actually a complex, difficult rules-operation. The second item would be the sturdy walnut, which, upon command, can split into two halves, generating a masterwork buckler and a masterwork dwarven boulder helmet, but complete with straps etc. They may be enchanted as usual. Come on, that is a really awesome item that could come straight from fairy tales. Feels magical, love it.

The pdf also contains a total of 6 different natural items: The axe beak adrenal gland, when applied to a wound, doubles hit points gained via resting and nets a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Ref-saves after application. Lammasu claw powder can be used as a power component, increasing the radius of magic circle against evil. Criosphinx horn powder nets a +2 bonus to Cha-based skill checks against the opposite gender. The tentacles of the giant sea anemone allows for saves with a bonus to end ongoing pain effects. The trollhound heart nets brief fast healing and eating it provokes an AoO. Finally, the wandering sundew seedpod is cool. Why? Because it allows you to grow a wandering sundew companion! And yes, we get proper companion stats and proper rules-interaction, courtesy of the plant companion engines created by Rusted Iron Games. The companion is pretty potent, but considering the requires investment and story-requirements, I’m good with it.

Now, as for the star of the pdf, the monster. Wandering sundews are NOT creatures to be taken lightly. Yes, the cover makes them look nice, but they actually clock in at a massive CR 18! With gore, slam and tail attacks, they are pretty brutal melee beasts, particularly considering their Strength above 30 and the bonus acid damage their attacks cause. In spite of being Huge, these critters are actually really stealthy and they have a build that will make players think really hard before engaging: You see, the wandering sundew is a sundering specialist, with the acid bypassing hardness of metal and stone with sunder attempts. Beyond that, the creature has grasping stalks: At the end of the round, a melee touch attack is made against all creatures in reach, which then proceed to stick to the sundew, taking acid damage. A total of 4 creatures can be held thus and targets held as such do not penalize the capabilities of the sundew AND do not bestow the grappled condition on the sundew. OUCH!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on both a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the 2-column full-color standard of the series and the artwork provided is nice, particularly considering the low price point. The pdf fully bookmarked, in spite of its brevity. Kudos!

Russ Brown, Joe Kondrak and Kim Frandsen deliver a really cool critter with ambitious, well-executed supplemental material. I have no complaints to field against this cool pdf, particularly considering the extremely fair, low price point. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval. Cool critter!

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens: Wandering Sundew
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Deadly Gardens: Cinder-Heart Treant
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 03/09/2018 05:14:27

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 5 pages, 1 page front cover, ½ a page SRD, leaving us with 3.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

As always in the series, we begin with new magic items – this time around, the first would be the gullet stone, which is a single-use item that is actually a Medium boulder shrunk to Tiny size – it can be expanded to its proper size on command, sickening the target f it has swallowed the stone. Yes, the creature can vomit the stone. Beyond that, the stone allows an adventurer swallowed by the horrible entity from the 19th dimension to dimension door out of the being swallowed impasse. Cool item and makes sense – If I were an adventurer, I’d carry one of these with me… The second item would be the spring totem, which may be embedded in freshly turned soil, generating fresh water spring for as long as it remains. Destroying the totem may cause springs to slowly dry up and once used, it roots itself, preventing the integrity of your world’s world-building. Really cool story-item!

A total of 8 different natural items are provided as well: Amoeba t the next save, granting a minor bonus; brain ooze gray matter may cause the target to be nauseated, but also prevents being surprised. The tendrils of wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing can greatly enhance the power of undead created, particularly zombies. Jotund troll cranial fluid can nauseate the imbiber, but also provide essentially advantage on the next Will-save. Deep sea serpent jawbones can be used as super greatclubs with an increased critical multiplier. The weapon also causes all three damage types, which can be a bit wonky. Not a huge fan here. Hippocampus swim bladders contain air that can last Medium targets 10, Small ones 20. It can be reused. AMAZING one! I’m so going to use this one. The dire corby femur can be made into flutes that enhance bardic performance DCs. Finally, there would be the cinderheart. This item is really hot, causes damage upon being touched and can act as a large fire source for pyrotechnics etc. Additionally, it can be used as a focus for fire-spells, reducing the resistance of targets affected by the fire spell by 5.

Now, the cinderheart treant (amazing artwork, btw.!) clocks in at CR 10 and gets the fire subtype. The creature is Huge and retains the base treant’s siege capacities. These, however, explode upon being slain and have a short-range heat aura as well as a breath weapon. Driven insane by the ordeal they suffer, their treespeech can confuse plants that hear it. Nice take on the classic burning/insane treant trope.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no glaring issues on a formal or rules-language level. Layout adheres to Rusted Iron Games’ nice two-column full-color standard and the artwork is fantastic, particularly for the low price point. The pdf comes fully bookmarked, in spite of its brevity – kudos!!

Russ Brown and Kim Frandsen deliver a rather cool, fun adversary here – the supplemental items are nice and the execution of this take on the burnt treant trope is nice as well. All in all, a neat addition to the series, well worth 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens: Cinder-Heart Treant
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Template Races: Half-Humans
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 11/01/2017 05:51:49

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This little pdf clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, ½ page of SRD, leaving us with 5.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Half-human is an inherited template that can be applied to 0-HD-creatures. It is not intended to be applied to races that already are half-human, obviously. So, the base race’s physical ability score bonuses are reduced by 2. For each bonus thus reduced. You also reduce an ability score penalty by 2: The order of these is Constitution, Dexterity, Strength, Intelligence, Charisma and finally, Wisdom.

Mental ability score bonuses are also reduced by 2 and for each bonus thus reduced, you reduce one penalty to another ability score by 2. This is pretty impressive – it evens out the ability score bonuses/penalties. After this evening of scores, the half-human may assign a +2 bonus to one ability score that does not have a penalty or bonus attached yet. Ability score bonuses reduced to zero do not count as having a modifier. The template goes on to codify the type/subtype of the race. Size-category-wise, Medium or Large parent races result in Medium half-humans, while Small or smaller parent races result in Small half-humans. Nice: Even larger parent races are codified.

Movement rates, speed etc. is retained from the parent races, as are special considerations and/or restrictions imposed on the movement rates. Darkvision and low-light vision are retained from the parent race. Half humans gain the skilled racial trait and also count as humans via the dual heritage. We are taking a look at weapon familiarity, hatred, defensive training, natural armor. Half-humans also gain keen senses, and additional racial traits are lost – half-humans only qualify for alternate racial traits of humans, not those of their parent race. All right, the basic set-up of the template is pretty solid and should result is pretty solid results.

Now there are a ton of racial traits that may result in some potentially confusing set-ups – thankfully, the pdf does believe in showing how these cases can work out: The translation of the half-human android’s exceptional senses from the parent race, for example. Samples for the core races as well as android, drow, nagaji, ghoran and hobgoblin are provided. Now, obviously, the half-human orc is a bit different than the half-orc, but it makes for a decent alternative.

Hatred, if applicable, can be exchanged for a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy, and weapon familiarity may be exchanged for proficiency with simple weapons and a single martial weapon.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no serious hiccups. Layout adheres to Rusted Iron Games’ two-column, color standard. The interior artworks are solid stock pieces. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

When I saw Russ Brown’s template race approach here was honestly, not something I looked forward to. With the ARG’s RP being notoriously bad at codifying racial strength, I was skeptical on how the pdf would succeed at providing a balanced racial array. Now, with so many different options, it is clearly obvious that the template, system-immanently, can’t account for absolutely everything, but it does account for a truly impressive amount of material. The further guidance by example does help here and, as a whole, the result of applying the template speeds up the creation of half-humans in a concisely-presented manner that is easy to grasp.

In short: This is a surprisingly concise, handy little pdf. This is worth getting and succeeds at its task probably as well as it conceivably can – my final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Template Races: Half-Humans
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Deadly Gardens: Hydra Vine
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/27/2017 04:33:21

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 5 pages, 1 page front cover, ½ page SRD, leaving us with 3.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This installment’s magic item would be the vermin bait flask, which is a low-cost, sticky splash weapon that allows smart PCs to fool mindless vermin and/or use them for their advantage – cool, concise, two thumbs up! The pdf also contain 6 different natural items: Cyclops eye soup can auto-confirm the first critical threat after consumption; Gug wishbones can be broken – the one with the bigger piece gets a luck bonus for 24 hours. Moonflower blossom emit light and may be squashed for a blinding pulse…and they may force shapechanges from lycanthropes on failed saves.

Mothman powder nets +2 to Cha-based skill checks and to the DC of fascination-causing effects. Purple worm dye permanently dyes inorganic material and may only be removed with universal solvent (not properly italicized). Sard sap is hard to collect (spell reference in the text is not italicized, and formatting of magic item referenced is also incorrect)…and utterly ridiculous. It prevents death from negative hit points or negative levels for 24 hours. Functional immortality, if you cover insta-death bases. Utterly broken at 5K price. Utterly broken, even as a super high-powered item. Kill it with fire.

The central focus of the pdf would, however, be the lavishly-illustrated hydra-vine, which clocks in at a mighty CR 15. These critters entangle those within reach and whenever they take slashing damage, is gains growth points and heals…oh, and the plant knocks missiles out of the air – 50% miss chance. What’s the unique thing about it? Well, beyond aforementioned reactive regeneration, swallowing foes nets growth points – and upon gaining 5 of these, the plant gains the giant creature simple template – statistics for Huge, Gargantuan and Colossal size are also provided, which is pretty amazing! After 24 hours in a size greater than Large, the vine splits in two, decreasing both offspring plant sizes by one step…yes, you can have a plague of these plant juggernauts on your hand rather quickly! The creature is evocative and cool…though it should be noted that the statblock does sport some hiccups – these don’t compromise the coolness of the critter unduly, but yeah – if you’re picky about that kind of thing, it’s something to note.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are okay – there are a couple of avoidable formatting hiccups and a few components interact with rules-integrity a bit. Layout adheres to the two-column standard of the series and the b/w-artworks are nice, particularly for the low price-point.

Russ Brown, Joe Kondrak and Isaac Volynskiy deliver a per se nice little supplement, that has some cool components, but also some rough edges – the critter’s stats could have used a second pair of eyes, particularly considering how cool it is. The magic item is neat, but the sard sap needs to die in a fiery blaze – pretty much the epitome of unbalanced BS. This item and the minor formal hiccups drag slightly down an installment I otherwise rather enjoyed. My final verdict will clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded down for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens: Hydra Vine
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Deadly Gardens: Blood Root
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/25/2017 04:14:20

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 5 pages, 1 page front cover, ½ page of SRD, leaving us with 3.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

All right, as almost always, we begin with a new magic item, which would be the hideaway log this time around: This item would basically be a twig that, on command, can turn into a moss-covered, hollow log, into which Medium-sized (or smaller) creatures can squeeze themselves. The item itself is concise in its presentation and has actually a second use: When uttering the command word again while inside the log, it doesn’t shrink, but instead detonates, potentially blinding targets nearby and also causing piercing damage to those outside the log. Slight problem here: there is no limit regarding the amount of explosions you can thus trigger: While not overly powerful, I am pretty sure that the item regenerating hit points while inactive in its small twig-size was supposed to cap this aspect somehow. Also problematic: The log has no weight even in its deployed form – this means that you can carry it around pretty easily – put a halfling sniper inside and you have a potent weapon. I am pretty sure that the deployed, massive version of the log was supposed to have a weight.

The pdf also contains 9 natural items: light-duplicating blindheim eyes that can be thrown as flashbangs; the alter self duplicating green hag wig; the shantak suit that helps fortify its wearer against the void between the stars; there would be lamia matriarch scales that can be added as power components to spells, causing failed saves to add minor Wisdom drain to the effects of compulsions. Stirge powder can help against poison, but does cause bleeding. Twigjack shafts can make arrows that burst into splinters, causing harm to adjacent foes on a failed Reflex save. Yeth hound fangs can be used in lieu of regular spikes, helping demoralization efforts. Xacarba runes can be used to make the covers of spellbooks, which nets 1/day access to Bouncing Spell sans changing the casting time or spell level, but only for a spell taken from the book. Not the biggest fan there, but oh well. Finally, there would be blood root vitae, which heals 1d8 points of damage and also duplicates lesser restoration (not properly italicized).

Now, the star of the book is obviously the critter, here the CR 7 Blood Root. The blood root can use sickening entanglement 1/day as a SP and is actually two plants: The conglomerate consists of a tendril network and the carnivorous predator. The latter sports a heart root, making it likely to regrow. Blood roots can move via earth glide through a symbiotic tendril network, which they may even share among others. The network also provides superior senses or the plant and blood roots can fire spray of thorns. All in all, a cool critter, though it does sport some minor hiccups; e.g. the CMD forgot the special size modifier for being Large and should be one higher. Unless I am not sorely mistaken, that’s not the only minor hiccup there – let it be known, though, that the plant can be used as provided.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect – I noticed a few minor hiccups, some of which pertain the rules. Layout adheres to the nice two-column standard of the series. The b/w-artwork provided is nice. Big kudos: The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Russ Brown, Andrew Umphrey and Joe Kondrak deliver an inexpensive file with a solid critter here. I wished the pdf did something more with its cool premise of two symbiotic creatures here, but yeah. As a whole, the blood root is a nice creature to thrown at your players. Not a mind-boggling one, but for the fair price-point, the pdf is worth checking out. Still, as a whole, I can’t round up from my final verdict of 3.5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens: Blood Root
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Deadly Gardens: Swarmhive
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/28/2017 05:46:19

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Deadly Gardens-series clocks in at 6 pages, 1 page front cover, 1/2 page of SRD, leaving us with 4.5 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Okay, this time around, we don't have magic items in the pdf - but there's a reason for that I'll get to later. We do get 3 natural items, though: Boggard tongues, 10 feet long, can stretch to up to 50 ft. when used as a short bungee! Sargassumm [sic!] Fiend Pheromones can produce the mirage effect of the creature and finally, swarmhearts can be used to affect the swarms of the swarmhive creature from which it was created.

My experienced readers will have probably noticed the gig by now: Swarmhive is actually a template and sports a brief table to calculate the CR of the new creature; depending on how they align, the table may increase the CR - you take the base creature and swarm and consult the table. As a minor complaint, I think this section could be a bit cleaner in how it works. I read it a couple of times before getting it. The host creature gains the augmented subtype and traits of the swarm minus the swarm or mindless traits. (As an aside, there is a "the" missing in the text here.) The base creature gains the swarm's senses and while the base creature is supposed to be a plant, a designer's note acknowledges that this is more to retain the consistency of the product line.

The swarmhive creature receives an aura that works pretty much like the swarm, with the base creature determining the aura radius. The HP of both creatures are added together and the aura's benefits are based on the respective swarm. Swarmhive creatures can vomit swarm 3/day as an extraordinary ability, with the swarm's type being equal to that of the base swarm. Problem: I have no idea how long this is supposed to last. Being Ex, this really needs a duration...without it, the creature could generate, provided the time's there, infinite swarms.

The pdf does contain a sample CR 10 sargassum fiend creature and a CR 7 shambling mound with the template applied.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are okay, but could use some more clarity; I noticed typos, rules-language hiccups and the like, sometimes to the detriment of the content. Layout adheres to Rusted Iron Games' two-column full-color standard and the pdf sports some really nice b/w-artworks by Graeme Cunningham and Christian Dragos. The pdf is fully bookmarked, in spite of its brevity - kudos!

Russ Brown's swarmhive is a cool template in concept, though its current incarnation could have used a bit more polish to really make it shine. The template is neat, but it is not that easy to use and sports a couple of typos. The pdf is inexpensive, though, and well worth checking out for the low price point. Still, I can't go higher than 3.5 stars, rounded down for this one.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Deadly Gardens: Swarmhive
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