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Occult Archetypes
[978-1530479672]
$9.99
Publisher: Legendary Games
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by N. J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/23/2016 07:21:08

Note: I received a review copy of this book, but no other compensation. I did provide feedback on the Focus Kineticist, and this review will only be focusing on Kineticist content.

What I liked

-Glad to see the notes I gave on the Focus Kineticist helped. While the damage of this archetype will probably be lower than that of others, the utility given to it is certainly going to help, and the flavor of it certainly helps make for a more memorable character. With the enhanced internal buffer, you'll also have more chances to use your utility wild talents, giving you more chances to cut loose with game changing effects.

-With the God-Touched Kineticist, a small change helps make for an interesting archetype, feeling flavorful without overpowering the player. It's a rather large archetype, but takes up little space to explain, which is nice. Revelations don't even feel out of place with the kineticist, instead feeling like a welcome change.

-The Primal Kineticist is really a much better healer than the kinetic chirurgeon archetype, although much like normal, going negative is going to be bad for you. I think the flavor here is a little off, and that the name doesn't exactly fit what it's going for, but that doesn't stop it from being mechanically sound.

-Infuse Weapon is an interesting way of boosting damage, and one I think the class needed. Antilife shell was a nice inclusion, although I personally think antiundeath shell should have been lower level due to its lesser utility. Deathsight is nice and thematic here, as is dimensional anchor and aura, although I feel like anchor would have been better as an infusion. Hide from undead is another that isn't super clear about the connection, but I don't care because it's sweet. And I love me some wall walker.

What I was indifferent towards

-I want to like Poisoned Earth, but at the same time it's a situational archetype with some exclusive wild talents that I think should have been in the archetype rather than listed at the end, making them feel like general infusions. For the games that it works in, it'll be nice, but that number isn't exactly huge.

-We all saw acid blast coming, but taking it doesn't put any new infusions on earth's talent list, meaning RAW you can only get some of these by going water and taking them for that blast. A simple house rule to add them to your list when you select acid blast, but it's still an issue.

-Things like corruption resistance and detect radiation are standard, nice filler talents here. Gravitic leaper makes sense, although I'd have liked to have seen aether be able to share with gravitic pack horse. Amusing that irradiate specifically says 'please don't use this!' The rest of the radiation themed things are okay, but it's nothing game changing, and the water talents do well for a game specializing in it.

-While I like the amount of art, so much of it is just dark and hard to see.

What I didn't like

-Just a minor gripe, but the text felt a tad small.

-The Mystical Kineticist is just a straight upgrade, and lacks any real flavor to it. It feels like there's too much design space left untapped here, playing around with other features that could help to flesh out this archetype in my opinion.

-The Psychic Kineticist seems promising, but the mechanics for its spell list are just too daunting for me to want to try and make my way through. While thematic, the difference in power between getting wizard conjuration (creation) spells and earth elemental specialist spells is a rather large gap, and the M.(ulti) A.(ttribute) D.(ependency) issues that the class has due to needing both intelligence and constitution make for a difficult archetype to suggest.

-I'm just not a fan of acidic boost. I know that it was done as a space saver, I can recognize that, but I would have really liked to have seen some more composites in its place, as acid doesn't have the same feel as aether or negative energy in the sense of boosting. Add to that there's not even an acid/earth composite, and this feels like too much of a throw in to be worth considering.

-Eveneration feels so off to give when we already have an infusion that does the same thing, and the 1/day targeting limit just kills this for me. I don't really understand hide from animals as a wood talent either, although wood's hard to work with, so I can't be too harsh. Plane Shift also feels a little wonky to me.

Final Thoughts

From the perspective of just a kineticist player, you will easily get your money's worth from this product. The bad part aren't enough to ruin the book, the average parts are nice for less conventional players, and the good parts of it help expand the class in a way that it hasn't seen before while still keeping to the theme of the book. Nothing in here is a huge departure from what you're used to, making it a solid product all around for something not dedicated to only one class.

As a whole, I'd give this book a solid 4 out of 5, as there were some ideas I would have liked to have expanded on (acid blast), but there's also a lot of nice content in here that can really help you shape a better kineticist.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Occult Archetypes
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