Options Pack 1: Thinkers is a $2 downloadable PDF from God's Parlor Games. It contains 9 pages of "crunchy bits" in addition to a Table of Contents and the D20 license. There are no borders or illustrations.
Paul Stefko does a good job of presenting new ideas for a campaign setting. Each of the three new character classes is presented in the style of the Player's Handbook, and an example character is given. For the Arcanist (a variant magic-user/sorcerer) a sample organization, the Judimen, is briefly described. The arcanist section includes 4 new feats, 4 new spells, and a new magic item.
The Scholar is basically the expert class from the DMG, except that its class skills have been chosen for their scholarly flavor. (Deciper script, any 7 knowledge skills, etc.) It is clearly labelled as an NPC class, not suited for PCs.
The Tinker also seems to be an NPC class. They have fewer class skills than an expert, but gain device creation feats every 4 levels. These feats give bonuses to Craft checks, reduce the xp cost required to enchant them, and so on. Seven feats are presented in this section, along with a new creature (the clockwork golem) and a straight-forward mechanical-creature template. A mechanical raven is the example creature. The tinker section concludes with a sample adventure seed called "the Brass Menagerie."
Finally a location is presented (the Library of Carmisch), stats are given for the three "masters" of the library, and some adventure seeds are suggested.
Paul Stefko has a clear writing style and the text is virtually error free. His presentation of his ideas is good. However, (and this is a big "however"), the quality of the ideas is lacking.
The Scholar and Tinker are not excessively powerful, but do not seem to be fun player characters. Much more seriously, the arcanist is grossly unsuitable for use as a player character. It has the cast-on-the-fly flexibility of a sorcerer (and a lot more fire-power), the unlimited access to spells of a wizard, and more skill points than either. With access to the appropriate spellbooks and scrolls (which do not require a spellcraft roll to learn), the arcanist may learn and cast any wizard spell. Flesh to stone at first level? No problem.
The feats seem grotesquely unbalanced. One allows a spell to be delayed for up to 3 rounds per caster level with no increase in spell level (compare to the Delay Spell feat in T&B!). Another gives a wizard or sorcerer one additonal spell per day for every spell-level. This latter feat stacks with itself. The spells seem ok, though this may be only in comparison with the feats.
All in all, much better ideas for classes, feats and spells can be found by perusing the ENWorlds forums. Options Pack 1: Thinkers is an attractively packaged collection of deeply flawed ideas. Don't waste your $2 on it.
