Class Expansions: Apothecary Plaguewright Archetype

This PWYW-expansion for the plaguewright class clocks in at 3 pages -1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page content, so what does the apothecary do?

Apothecaries must utilize benign strains in each of their vials (but still may also use malignant strains!) and gain a dosage pool at first level equal to their apothecary level. Whenever the apothecary draws a culture from his vials, he may spend a dosage point to add a terminal mutation known to the syringe as though it were present in the culture. He must add benign mutations to benign strains and malignant mutations to malignant strains.

Also at 1st level, all benign strains gain the terminal euphoria terminal mutation without occupying a mutation slot; this mutation heals 1 point of damage upon the mutation ending and may be taken multiple times (class levels determining the maximum), thus replacing discerning eye. As a capstone, terminal mutations added are treated as though they had been taken an additional time.

The pdf also provides three benign terminal mutations – as a nitpick, these do not have the terminal descriptor and only note being terminal in their name, but oh well. Terminal Bravado allows for fear-save rerolls, terminal clarity for limited DR-ignoring and Terminal Rehabilitation for the healing of attribute damage.

The pdf also contains two new feats: Chaser Coating makes you choose a vial and mutation known that is both benign and malignant. Cultures made in the vial get chosen mutation added sans occupied mutation slot, but mutations that take up two or more slots can’t be chosen this way. The feat can be taken multiple times. Another feat lets you ignore the DR of willing creatures.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good – apart from the descriptor-hiccup, which is pretty much cosmetic, I noticed no serious hiccups. Layout adheres to IG’s two-column b/w-standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Bradley Crouch’s plaguewright is one of the weirder classes that have come out of Interjection Games’ oeuvre and it is COMPLEX. In fact, it is perhaps one of the hardest to grasp classes and this pdf offers a cool, free expansion for the class. While terminal euphoria is nice, I found myself wishing that its scaling was slightly more pronounced – the largest untapped potential for the plaguewright, ultimately, is that of a science-y healer for campaigns where the gods don’t heal…or the PCs aren’t on their good side. The archetype helps here, but the restriction pertaining the enforced presence of benign strains limits the offense capabilities of the archetype a bit. You can enhance these, both offense and healing, mind you – the class has a ton of moving parts with which you can work and, combined with Terminal Vigor and the temporary hit points from terminal health, the archetype works in interesting buff-combos.

So yeah, while personally, I’ll upgrade that one’s potency a bit, the pdf is also, ultimately, available for any price you’re willing to pay and for a PWYW-book, this is certainly worth a tip and a download. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

You can get this cool archetype for any price you want here on OBS!

The plaguewright class can be found here!

You can directly support Bradley Crouch making unique classes (and even your own class!) here on his patreon!

Finally, Brad is currently running the massive Strange Magic 2 kickstarter – you can check that one out here!

Endzeitgeist out.

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