By Thilo Graf
This installment of Rite Publishing’s FoTS-series is 15 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let’s check this out!
Following my format for the series, I’ll first take a look at the supplemental crunch introduced in the pdf: We get 3 different simple templates, the Giant Creature (CR +1), the Enraged (CR +1) and the Combat Clairvoyant creature (CR +1).
Now Jubal is a Jotun, a race that is infused with elemental blood of the giants and unleashes, over the levels said power, growing further and further. A cool class that first premiered in “The the Company of Monsters: Giants” and which can be found in its revised version in RiP’s latest compendium “The Secrets of Adventuring”, though all the pieces of information to run Jibal are in here. There are 3 new feats included in the deal, granting “Aspect of Air”, which represents Jotun-powers stemming from cloud or storm giants, “Crushing Volley” allows you to use combat manoeuvres a limited amount of times per day to make combat manoeuvres with thrown stones, while “Power Throw” allows you to use your Str-mod instead of Dex with thrown weapons.
There also are new magic items in this pdf, for example the triple-toss dagger, a throwing dagger that turns into multiple weapons when thrown and adds a couple of different properties upon throwing, a class of cloaks that duplicates beast shape-effects, a ring made of a vast array of other rings (with their powers) and a new artefact, the Fool’s Blade. It is said blade that can enlarge and enrage (as per the templates) the wielder and, while a powerful blade, it also carries a curse…
We also get a new archetype, the Primagus- which is rather awesome – a spontaneous version of the magus-class, this rather complex archetype also gains limited access to some barbarian-like rage abilities, which is a rather cool addition to an already useful and cool archetype. Better yet, the archetype comes with alternate rules that make it even more versatile, allowing you to trade in some of its powers for bloodline abilities or oracle mysteries, making this archetype even more versatile and one of the best I’ve seen for the magus. If you’re rather an adherent of SGG’s spontaneous gish-class by Marc Radle, the excellent Vanguard, you should still check this out, as it features some neat ideas to potentially modify this class.
Now, Jubal D’tirn starts as a Jotun Paragon 6/primagus 1 (CR 7) and becomes a Jotun Paragon 6/Primagus 6 (CR 12) and his final CR 20 incarnation adds further 6 Primagus levels as well as the combat clairvoyant-template.
Now Jubal is a character that should come off as not necessarily an opposition to the PCs – dreaming of glory in the amphitheatre and a triumphant return home, the Jotun taxidermist is on full route to becoming the next champion of the amphitheatre and comes with a plethora of hooks as well as dreamburning information.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect: I noticed some minor glitches. Layout adheres to RiP’s old, rune-bordered two-column b/w-standard and the piece of cover-artwork is neat. The pdf comes with nested bookmarks.
Jubal D’tirn is an interesting character in that it finally provides a gladiator-champion for the PCs to encounter as an ally, though an unreliable one out for his own glory. The Primagus-archetype is one of the best anywhere for the magus-class and its extremely modularity should ensure that it alone is worth the low asking price. Jubal as a character is more straight-forward and less far-out than e.g. my all-time favourite, Nameless Nil, but he still is an interesting build, though perhaps not as complex as I’m accustomed to by the FoTS-series. This, combined with the minor glitch here and there, make me settle for a final verdict of 4 stars for Jubal.
Endzeitgeist out.
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