Mental Traditions occult Cast [two-actions] somatic, verbal Range touch; Targets up to 3 creature Saving Throw Fortitude
You snap a quick kick at a creature and barely touch them. This tiny kick causes the creature to make a Fortitude save as they’re mind causes weakness to spread through the body. Critical Success The target is unaffected. Success The target takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage. Failure The target is knocked prone and takes 2d8 bludgeoning damage. Critical Failure The target is knocked prone and takes 4d8 bludgeoning damage
TL; DR-New toys and adventures for things that go bump in the night. 97%
Basics– What goes bump in the night? Dark Archive focuses on all the stuff that gets thrown into your average Halloween party. It covers psychics, occult inquisitors called thaumaturges, archetypes, feats, spells, and a TON of adventures. Let’s dig in to this book!
Mechanics or Crunch– I love what’s here, but there are small problems that hurt things overall. The two new classes fit within the world of wizards, warriors,and clerics as now we have a mind wizard and an occult paladin. There may be a slight bit of power creep as these might be a bit better than the core classes, but it’s nothing absolutely game breaking. Feat, spell, and archetypes all fit solidly there as well. Interestingly enough, this book has almost MORE for the GM than the players. There are adventures and ways to upgrade monsters to add the occult feel like cryptids and secret societies. Aside from a bit of power creep, the other thing that I feel hurts this is the lack of inclusion into Pathfinder Society. PFS is the majority of the way I play an while I LOVE that adventures are included, new options that you only get when weird stuff happens to you are not given as options in the PFS documenting materials. What is here is well done, but balance and lack of inclusion into Paizo’s flagship gaming market hurt the book a bit. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff– As a lover of ghost stories and campfire monsters, this book calls to me. I love the flavor here and the fact that crunch is being tied deeper into story. The new ways to add things like cults and monsters also helps. What’s here is amazing. I am slightly sad I didn’t see much Lovecraft lore here. We can make it, but I still want my crazy horrors from beyond time and space to make more of an appearance in a book where time magic and feats get put into the system. Couple that with adventures that GMs can drop in instantly, this is a solid book on the Pathfinder occult. 4.9/5
Execution– This is a physical book and a PDF by Paizo, so I’m almost automatically going to love it. Solid layout, fonts, formats, hyperlinks make this a great book and a breeze to read. My one minor issue is this is a book with almost as many pages for the GM as the players. It would be nice to have a PDF of the maps and pictures that I can show to the players like they do with their adventure paths. But, if my criticism is that I want more, that’s a good place to be in production. 4.9/5
Summary– I love me some crazy stuff, so I love me this book. I listen to too many podcasts about monsters, skepticism regarding monsters, and ghost stories to pass this book up. It has great additions to the system that might be a touch overpowered compared to things before. It has fun adventures with some amazing options that I wish PFS players could get their hands on. It has solid production, but a lack of web enhancements might hold it back a bit. What’s here is good, but I just want more ways to get at it. 97%
Pathfinder emphasizes muscles for grappling, but I’ve known small people with solid technique who can hold even the biggest guys.
Mastery over Muscle Feat 7
General Skill Prerequisites expert in Acrobatics
You don’t need to be strong if your technique is solid. You can use acrobatics instead of athletics when using weapons with the grapple traits or when you use the grapple action.
Concentrate mental Traditions occult Cast [two-actions] Range touch Defense Will; Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You reach out and grab a creature lightly and your mental force grabs the creature. The target must attempt a Will save. Each turn you can Sustain this spell and the target is still immobilized takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage. A creature can attempt to Escape, rolling against your spell DC.
Success The creature is unaffected. Failure The creature is immobilized and takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage. Critical Failure The creature is immobilized and take 4d6 bludgeoning damage.
Heightened (+1) The bludgeoning damage dealt when you Sustain this spell increases by 1d6 and 2d6 for creatures who fail who critically fail the saving throw.
What do you think ? Damage too high for level 1 spell or does having to be damager close compensate?
You concentrate and focus your mental energy around your fist or foot and swing with all your mind at the target. Make a melee spell attack roll against your target’s AC. If you hit, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d8 plus your spellcasting ability modifier. On a critical success, you deal double damage and knock the enemy prone.
Auditory General Linguistic Mental Skill Prerequisites trained in Diplomacy
You bolster an ally’s spirits within 30 feet. Attempt a Diplomacy check. The DC is 20. If you have expert proficiency in Diplomacy, you can instead attempt a DC 25 check to increase the number of affected dice roll to 2. If you have legendary proficiency, you can attempt a DC 45 check to increase the number of affected dice rolls to 3. No matter the result, the ally is temporarily immune to Pep Talk until they either Take a Breather or rest for the day.
Critical Success The ally gains a +2 status bonus to their next d20 roll. Success The ally gains a +1 status bonus to their next d20 roll. Critical Failure The ally takes -1 penalty to their next d20 roll.
Reading for my undead campaign, so it’s time for feats to help the players!
Positive Tolerance Feat 8
Prerequisites Undead
Through your experience with the living world, you have forced yourself to survive the foul lights and medicines of those with a pulse. You are no longer damaged by healing effects or positive energy.
Your rotting body provides you some defense against the things that will kill lesser, living beings. You gain resistance to bludgeoning damage equal to your level and you gain immunity to nonmagical diseases that affect living creatures.
You gain resistance to all damage equal to half your Constitution modifier. while raging. This increases to your full Constitution modifier at level 12. This reduction triggers before and in addition to any other damage reduction you have.
Throat Punch Games 