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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Cooper" data-source="post: 2011031" data-attributes="member: 24255">Power Classes III:  ExorcistBy Alejandro MelchorMongoose Publishing product number 110316 half-sized pages, $2.95The third booklet in Mongoose's "Power Classes" series, Exorcist provides an all-new character class, in this case a variant on the cleric class devoted to keeping away not only undead, but also elementals, outsiders, and even fey.The cover is once again by Nathan Webb and Scott Clark.  Nathan's still demonstrating some basic human body shape difficulties: this male human exorcist seems to have no neck and a right forearm that bends like rubber.  On the other hand, he does a nice "shining power" effect on the hilt of the exorcist's sword.  Nathan also provides the interior artwork, in this case 3 black-and-white pictures.  Here he shows some of his strongest pieces to date, starting with a well-drawn male dwarf exorcist on page 3.  The only odd thing about him is that he seems Jewish (the first Jewish fantasy dwarf I can recall seeing since...well, ever): his holy symbol (tattooed upon each palm and also engraved on his belt buckle) looks like a Star of David with a dot in the middle of it, and he's wearing a head covering on his otherwise bald pate that looks like a yarmulke.  However, there are ghostly images in the background that are nicely done; likewise with the scantily-clad female human on page 10.  She may be an exorcist, but is more likely someone being protected by a ward (via the "looks suspiciously-like-Pelor" tattoo on her left arm).  In any case, she's very nicely drawn as well.  The male exorcist and female "possessee" on page 14 is the weakest piece of the three, but there's nothing inherently bad about it; all in all, I'd have to say that Nathan is showing some definite improvement since Power Classes I: Assassin.Proofreading (William James) and editing (Matthew Sprange) take a few hits in the booklet: page 5 references the Exorcist Domains on page 7 (they actually appear on page 9; not a big deal, but come on - there are only 16 pages total, couldn't they have checked just a little harder to get it right?).  Page 6 has the phrase "A cleric may attempt to turn or rebuke undead..." which should obviously read "An exorcist may attempt to turn or rebuke undead..." - apparently a "copy and paste" error that was plunked down without much thought.  On page 11, two lines in the middle of a sentence mysteriously grow a font size for no apparent reason.  Finally, on page 13, we get a sentence starting with "The exorcists usually presents this empowered token..." - take your pick, you can have "exorcist" or "present" ending in an "s" but not both.  Not the best proofreading job I've ever seen, and in a product this size - effectively, 8 normal-sized pages folded in half - a decent proofreading job could be done in, what: half an hour?As for the exorcist class itself, this is basically a cleric with a few modifications (only a d6 for Hit Dice, one less spell at each level except for the 0-level orisons) and a bunch of extra abilities.  Besides turning undead, the exorcist can also "turn" elementals, outsiders, and fey at higher levels.  He can also tell when people are under the effects of domination and similar effects, and eventually scry the creature through its victims.  He eventually becomes able to see ethereal and corporeal creatures.  At 12th level he gains a third domain, but it has to be one of the three Exorcist Domains presented in the booklet (Guardian, Partisan, and Vigilance).  He can use some of his daily turning attempts to create wards and benedictions, two new concepts that allow an exorcist to do something beyond what a cleric could as far as protecting against or banishing enemies that try dominating others - as long as they're undead, fey, elementals, or outsiders.  Of course, one vital question is left unanswered: how long does it take to set up a ward?  In some cases (like the Barrier Signs ward, which involves "many charms that range from statuettes to strips of paper covered in holy writ," which must be placed in a circle with a 60-foot radius or greater), it looks like this simply couldn't be done in the midst of combat.  However, the preparation time is never mentioned in any of the 9 wards and benedictions.All in all, the exorcist makes for a rather odd 20-level character class.  It seems a little odd to me that you could even be a 1st-level exorcist; somehow this seems like it would have made a better prestige class - after all, wouldn't you think that someone going up against demon possessions and the like would have been trained (for several levels at least) as a cleric?  By making it a separate class, the likelihood of a cleric/exorcist is pretty slim: why would any mid-level cleric ever choose to multiclass as an exorcist (or vice versa, for that matter)?  Let's see, I could finally gain (let's say) 6th-level cleric spells, or I can pass that up and gain some more 0-level and maybe another 1st-level cleric spell as an exorcist.  Not a very attractive deal, is it?There are some interesting ideas here, but also some problems with the overall concept and several mistakes that really can't be easily forgiven in such a brief gaming accessory.  All in all, I suppose that evens out to a "3."</blockquote>

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