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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beholder Bob" data-source="post: 2011351" data-attributes="member: 12866">This PDF has 6 prestige classes - made to be portable into any fantasy game and to be new/original.  I found most of the material unoriginal and 2/3 of the material derivative of marvel superheroes.  Of the 6, only 1 was an original idea (the Djinni Sage) - and it was flawed to the point of requiring a complete re-write.    The first four classes (Thunderer, The Brotherhood of the Spider, Defender of the Realm, and Dreadnought) are DnD prestige classes made to emulate super heroes (Thor, Spiderman, Captain America, and the Hulk) in a fantasy setting.  This prevents wide spread use (too campy for most).    It would have been fine if this fact had been anounced -  I'm sure there are ardent comic fans and DMs that would love to play spiderman of the male drow - but the audience it targets are those seeking unique, original, and portable prestige classes.  It fails completely on these four classes because of this.    The fifth and sixth class are: the Inferno Magus and Djinni Sage.  Below is my breakdown of them.    The Inferno Magus is yet another fire mage (YAFM).  Supposed to be the end all of fire magic, a wielder of unspeakable power, it can not be taken until 9th, gains 4 caster levels total out of 10 levels, and so can never cast the upper (8th & 9th level) fire magics (the description of the class infers that the Inferno Magus is the master of fire - but a diviner with 8th/9th level spells can cast fire spells beyond the Inferno Magus!).  It does gain the ability to pump out damage, and retains the versatility of a standard arcane caster.  Unfortunately - other then doing damage, it has nothing to it.  The description infers esoteric knowledge sought, but nothing other then spell damage prowess is gained (they do gain a bonus to skill checks related to fire and some fire resistance - but nothing with flavor).  Far better mechanics and style can be found within Eldrich Magic I and Blood & Tome (Ember Mage and Elemental Savant, if I remember correctly), as well as an excellent rendition in the expanded psionics handbook (for psionics, of course).  The idea is not new, and the concept is not well handled.  You would do better using one of the many other fire mage prestige classes available.    The Djinni Sage was the one bright spot in the bunch, an original idea as best I could tell.  Unfortunately, the mechanics leave him far too powerful - he can channel spells to his Djinni to cast for him (as a move action) and still cast a spell himself.  This allows him to perform a sort of quickened action - that is stackable with a quickened action (so up to 3 spells a round, channel, cast, and a quickened spell).  In addition, the channeled spell is cast at LV = caster LV + LV in this prestige class (so a 10th wizard, 10th Djinni Sage channels spells at 25th LV!  Finally, there is a 10% (20% by 10th LV) chance that this spell is retained.  This is potentially game breaking power - serves no purpose in developing the personality of this class, and on its own requires a re-write for this class.  While a nice concept, it does not have the feel of a Djinni Sage - at least per the description.  You would be better served taking the concept and making a new prestige class then using what is provided.    This PDF is well structured for reading - has ok art, and is logically arranged.  The production value is high - but the materials are awful.  The superhero nature of 2/3 of the materials make them useless to all but a few - certainly not the plug 'n play into your campaign it implied.  1/6 is yet another version of a prestige class available from several sources - most doing a better job!  The last 1/6 is a great concept, but is over powered and could use a more unique list of powers and limits.   Despite the comely appearance and ease of reading - this material is useless to most and has just (as of 2 minutes ago) been deleted from my hard drive to make space for better materials.  At just under $5 dollars - save your money for dice.</blockquote>

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