Class Expansions: Sorcerer Bloodlines

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112955-thumb140[1]By Enzeitgeist

This pdf is 5 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look, shall we?

No filler seems to be the motto here, as we directly, sans introduction or the like, jump into the first bloodline, the Artificial Bloodline. Now don’t fret – the bloodline is thankfully not yet another construct-themed bloodline, but rather offers a touch attack versus manufactured objects as well as a DR-granting skin-coating and is otherwise very focused on crafting. A solid bloodline.

The second bloodline is the Fatespun, which is interesting in that it nets you an oracle curse as well as oracle favoured class bonus in lieu of sorcerer options. Furthermore, the class may a very limited amount of times per day reroll d20-rolls that are not natural 1s or 20s. Luck’s Equilibrium is interesting – for every natural 1, you gain a +1 luck bonus that stacks with itself and for every 20, you incur analogous a -1 luck penalty, to a respective maximum of 5. Interesting mechanical choice! You may also use your first ability to decrease to potential penalty you might incur and even spread the bonus/penalty to allies and creatures. However, the ability is not 100% clear in one of its caveats – the selection of which allies to include in the bonus requires a +1 bonus, but choosing reduces the net-bonus granted by -1. Does that mean the sorcerer needs a netto-bonus of +2? If not, does it allow the sorcerer to luck allies at +0 luck bonuses? If adversaries can be affected, does that mean that the sorcerer’s luck bonus locked at 0 may cancel out other luck bonuses the targets may have? A minor rephrasing is in order here, though overall I really like the bloodline and its base equilibrium-based mechanics.

The final new bloodline is the radiant bloodline, which nets the sorcerer access to a limited array of neat divine healing-spells and adds the [light]-descriptor to spells with the[fire]-descriptor. What’s slightly weird is that the bloodline modifies spells thusly and adds light damage – an heretofore unspecified type of damage. Sunbeam for example deals untyped damage, so I guess this light-based damage should be untyped as well. Apart from this admittedly cosmetic gripe with the touch attack of the bloodline, the bloodline also offers fast healing-granting flames, add wis-mod times wis-mod to your spell-DC or concentration-check (munchkinism-potential) and at high levels, deal spell level light damage the round after damaging foes.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any significant glitches. The pdf’s layout adheres to a printer-friendly two-column standard and the pdf sports some thematically fitting stock-art pieces and an elegant black border. Nice. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

The three bloodlines herein are rather solid – though minor glitches where the wording could simply be a tad bit tighter detract slightly from the overall appeal – while no game-breakers are included, minor issues like the descriptor-problem can be off-putting. On the other hand, the bloodlines have in common that they actually endeavour to do something different and not just be yet another formula x-collection of bloodlines. Mechanically, they offer some interesting options and I feel that offsets some of the minor issues, resulting in a final verdict of a solid 3 stars for this pdf.

Endzeitgeist out.

Class Expansions: Sorcerer Bloodlines is available from:

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