The Genius Guide to the Talented Witch
The Genius Guide to the Talented Witch
This HUGE book clocks in at 57 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial 1 page SRD, leaving us with…54 pages of content. Yep, that’s right… brutal!
The witch class, as rebuild in the talented line, mostly is identical in chassis to the base witch – though one noticeable discrepancy is an upgrade in skills per level from 2 + Int to 4 + Int, which may not be required for the witch in general and/or constitute a glitch.
At this point, I am assuming you’re familiar with teh concept of the talented class redesigns – basically, you have class features as a grab-bag, taken from archetypes and codified as two types of “talents” – hence, talented. D’uh. Anyways, talents are usually less valuable, while edges constitute more crucial class components. The talented witch begins play with 4 edges and 1 talent and then gets a talent at 2nd level and alternates between gaining talents and edges at every level. Major talents are unlocked at 10th level, grand talents at 18th level. Got that? Great. Now you already basically know how the class operates.
Where appropriate, brackets denote the type of archetype an ability is taken from and edges and talents are grouped by basic type – want a hag-style witch? Consult that line and you get them all – bite, claws, etc. Want a familiar? that’s an edge. Occult prowess via Psychic Sensitivity? Edge. Patron? Edge. Speaking of which – you *can* be patron-less! Oh, and you can be either a spontaneous or prepared witch via these rules (yes, spells per day tables provided) – but here’s the thing: Spellbook or similar spellcasting conduit that allows you to learn spells beyond leveling? Well. Edge. And no spellcasting does not simply progress – you have to take one edge on a level sufficiently high to get access to spells of a new level – which means full spellcasting with eat your edges like crazy. And no, you can’t combine prepared and spontaneous spellcasting to make a low-level abuse-scenario in e.g. an E6-campaign. Sorry…wait. No. I’m not. That’s a good catch. 😉
Beyond the massive, ridiculous amount of edges, over 140 talents await. Yes, you read that right, and yes, once again, they are grouped by category. Beyond this, however, the pdf also collates all hose familiar options including special benefits for your convenience. And the Improved Familiars. And TEMPLATED Improved Familiars. Oh, have I mentioned the list of patrons? The list of patron domains? Or the huge, massive, compiled witch spell list that incorporates all the big Paizo hardcovers, including Occult Adventures? These massive, exceedingly handy appendices are very, very useful, not just for players aspiring to make talented witches, but also for GMs.
Oh, right, hexes…I should talk about them, right? Well, they’re talents marked with an asterisk. Yes, that simple. And yes, the pdf does remember to state the synergy-clause for feats and abilities like Extra Hex etc..
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Kudos! Layout adheres to Rogue genius Games’ two-column full-color standard and sports a blending of full-color artworks of different styles, several of which, though not all of them, fans of 3pps may recognize from other publications. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks for your convenience.
Stephen Rowe of the four horsemen is definitely a BEAST. This massive tome transcends in scope even the older talented class-pdfs, is crafted with his trademark precision and makes a lot of sense from a customization standpoint – with this, you can make just the witch you always wanted – which witch? Well, the witch which I wanted to make was a white-haired dwarf with bonethrall that masquerades as a bum. Got the rules. What more can one ask for? Well, not much – just oen piece of advice – with great power comes…*slap* Sorry. this one’s so trite, but it’s true – the customization options here are powerful, but they also place responsibility on the player, so choose wisely, young padawan! My final verdict will, also thanks to the *HUGE* and extremely useful amount of supplementary lists etc., clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.
You can get this glorious tome here on OBS!
Oh, and btw.: The MASSIVE Talented Bestiary, which codifies monsters to be modular and awesome is currently being funded with only 4 days to go, so check it out here!
Endzeitgeist out.
