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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9376584" data-attributes="member: 8461">I recently picked up a copy of Ebon Gryphon Games' <a href="https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/192237/Staff-the-Weapon-of-Wizards--for-Pathfinder?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Staff: the Weapon of Wizards - for Pathfinder</a> (affiliate link).This is one of a number of products that I've put on my DriveThruRPG wishlist as a result of my making a concerted attempt to find smaller publishers of PF1 content; the little (oftentimes single-person) companies who release things as a cottage industry, rather than as a professional enterprise, many of whom have had years go by since they last released anything. There's a lot of interesting ideas and materials to be found in those smaller publishers, and I want to see what they have to offer.The way I did this was by running a search that was not only restricted to OGL PF1 materials, but also by limiting the price to Pay What You Want only, looking at the results that came up (of which there were about five hundred) and if they seemed interesting to me, checking out what other products they have on sale. I was quite pleased with how many new things I turned up.In this case, Staff opens with a single-page outline of how the historical quarterstaff isn't like what we think of today. Instead, this product tells us, the historical quarterstaff was typically six to eight feet long, had one end capped with metal to prevent splitting, and was used like a polearm (i.e. thrust like a spear, or maybe swung like a halberd), rather than gripping it with both hands equidistant from the center and attacking with the one-end-then-the-other back-and-forth way that we think of Robin Hood and Little John using. That, the product says, is the result of performances that were often done on relatively small stages, and so needed swings with smaller arcs (that also had less force).Notably, after this it gives us stats for the "halfstaff," which is a quarterstaff that's of the length described, and is a reach weapon. This is followed by almost a dozen feats, many of which are useful for quarterstaves and halfstaves, though there are also some for spellcasters (e.g. one to deliver touch spells through a (non-damaging) halfstaff touch attack). A new druid spell imbues a single wooden object with life enough that it counts as a living plant (but not a plant creature) for the purposes of spells that target plants, which is a creative idea, and so one which I heartily approve.Overall, nothing here is wildly groundbreaking, but it nicely expounds on one of the "unsexier" weapons, and has a few nice magical options rounding it out, all with an interesting historical overview of the weapon in question. For a $1.00 price tag, that's not bad at all.</blockquote>

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