Endzeitgeist
First Post
In the Company of Gargoyles
This pdf is 16 pages long, one page front cover, one page editorial, one page advertisements and one page OGL. That leaves 12 pages of content.
The pdf kicks off with the by now obligatory, glorious and well-written in character introduction to the race I’ve come to expect from Rite Publishing. In this case, I was almost immediately taken in by both the elegant solution of the problem of the Bestiary gargoyles as well as a flash of nostalgia: The concept reminded me of the gargoyles animated tv-series I grew up with and I love it. A permeating sense of melancholy is present within the writing and serves well to convey the mindset of the Stonewardens (the PC gargoyles), that have been betrayed by mankind and still, oath-bound, silently guard the thin-skinned races.
After 2 beautiful one-page artworks and the introductory texts on age, height, mindset and so on, we get the Stonewarden Paragon racial class.
The class gets 4+Int skills, a good BAB, a good Fort and Will save, claws, bite and gore attacks. Better yet, they get so-called enticements, mutations you can choose for your Gargoyle.
You can e.g. get a tail, spit acid, grow extra arms and become a damn hard hitter in melee – a gargoyle with several arms, a tail and bite attack is a potentially fearsome for to behold indeed! What really sold the class on me, though, is that even mundane things like a bonus on survival and perception gets fluff: The Stonewarden touches a stone and communicates with them. Oh yeah, and the lvl 20 ability is GOLD for high-level investigations or food for a truly mastermind-type villain. Each and every ability has been written with flavor in mind and practically screams “gargoylish” to me.
After that, we get 7 new feats, most of them developing the ability and combat tactics being able to fly entails.
Finally, we get 10 new spells ranging from 1st to 9th level that just ooze earth elemental coolness and which I’d really like to throw at my PCs: From rolling shockwaves over partial petrification up to a devastating hail of boulders, the spells serve as a nice closing for the pdf.
On another note: In contrast to Jotunnar, Stonewardens may freely class in and out of their racial paragon class, which really helps to integrate them and make them more versatile in their usability.
The editing is top-notch, the b/w artwork is great and the amount of information cramped into the pdf is stunning, especially with the high-quality prose.
Conclusion: Would I want to play a gargoyle? Hell yeah! Would I work as a DM to implement them in my campaign world? Oh yes, I would, even if it were harder than it is thanks to the great prose. Would I recommend this file to you? Yes, definitely. Even if you are only remotely intrigued by the concept, go for it. My final verdict is 5 stars.
This pdf is 16 pages long, one page front cover, one page editorial, one page advertisements and one page OGL. That leaves 12 pages of content.
The pdf kicks off with the by now obligatory, glorious and well-written in character introduction to the race I’ve come to expect from Rite Publishing. In this case, I was almost immediately taken in by both the elegant solution of the problem of the Bestiary gargoyles as well as a flash of nostalgia: The concept reminded me of the gargoyles animated tv-series I grew up with and I love it. A permeating sense of melancholy is present within the writing and serves well to convey the mindset of the Stonewardens (the PC gargoyles), that have been betrayed by mankind and still, oath-bound, silently guard the thin-skinned races.
After 2 beautiful one-page artworks and the introductory texts on age, height, mindset and so on, we get the Stonewarden Paragon racial class.
The class gets 4+Int skills, a good BAB, a good Fort and Will save, claws, bite and gore attacks. Better yet, they get so-called enticements, mutations you can choose for your Gargoyle.
You can e.g. get a tail, spit acid, grow extra arms and become a damn hard hitter in melee – a gargoyle with several arms, a tail and bite attack is a potentially fearsome for to behold indeed! What really sold the class on me, though, is that even mundane things like a bonus on survival and perception gets fluff: The Stonewarden touches a stone and communicates with them. Oh yeah, and the lvl 20 ability is GOLD for high-level investigations or food for a truly mastermind-type villain. Each and every ability has been written with flavor in mind and practically screams “gargoylish” to me.
After that, we get 7 new feats, most of them developing the ability and combat tactics being able to fly entails.
Finally, we get 10 new spells ranging from 1st to 9th level that just ooze earth elemental coolness and which I’d really like to throw at my PCs: From rolling shockwaves over partial petrification up to a devastating hail of boulders, the spells serve as a nice closing for the pdf.
On another note: In contrast to Jotunnar, Stonewardens may freely class in and out of their racial paragon class, which really helps to integrate them and make them more versatile in their usability.
The editing is top-notch, the b/w artwork is great and the amount of information cramped into the pdf is stunning, especially with the high-quality prose.
Conclusion: Would I want to play a gargoyle? Hell yeah! Would I work as a DM to implement them in my campaign world? Oh yes, I would, even if it were harder than it is thanks to the great prose. Would I recommend this file to you? Yes, definitely. Even if you are only remotely intrigued by the concept, go for it. My final verdict is 5 stars.
