By Thilo Graf
This pdf from Super Genius Games is 11 pages long 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page editorial & SRD, leaving 9 1/3 pages of content, so let’s give these exalted domains a try, shall we?
What are exalted domains? Well, essentially, you give up one of your cleric domains for a focus on one domain and thus, new abilities. The issue of subdomains is also touched upon and while guidelines for the respective subdomains are provided in the section of their parent-domains, I consider the advice for creating/modifying them yourself to be the more valuable piece of information – good to see that the supplement was created with the GM’s option to expand the rules in mind.
This instalment of the series offers us 9 domains and 18 subdomains that each get the exalted domain treatment. While some subdomains only combine the abilities of their parent and exalted domains, most get individual and cool abilities. Theme-wise you get pretty much what you’d expect, nature and element-focused domains as well as the luck domain. However, in contrast to the other two pdfs of the line, some of the abilities felt a bit uninspired – 5 elemental blasts via ranged touch attacks, one of which at least deals some additional effects, left me rather bored – come on, 4 elemental domains and no additional effects to set these particular abilities apart? That’s just a wasted chance.
Fans of SGG should rejoice, for as in Light & Lore, we get additional content in the form of Exalted Domains as a support for their books: We get the exalted cold iron, ice and wind domains, all of which surprisingly are more interesting than their elemental counterparts. (e.g. Wind>Air, Ice>Water)
The pdf also offers advice for other 3rd-party material and e.g. how to handle clever godlings and exalted domains as well as a discussion of their interaction with SGG-archetypes.
The pdf closes by providing 3 new feats, dealing with offering limited access to exalted domain powers and spontaneously cast spells from a certain domain. Neat little feat-tree.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to the 3-column-SGG-standard. Artwork is nothing to write home about and the pdf has no bookmarks. I was curiously underwhelmed at a very high level by this instalment of the exalted domains mini-series. Marc Radle’s excellent job with the first two instalments of the series becomes even more obvious by the direct comparison with this book – there’s nothing wrong with this per se, but it just feels good – not awesome, not genius, just good. Thus my final verdict will be 4 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
A Necromancer’s Grimoire: Paths of the Druid is available from: