Another fun little expansion book with good options, one of these, I forget which unfortuntately has a reference to something for the Nexus class that hasn't actually been released yet, but otherwise quite happy with the purchase.

This Fantasy is not Final (wink wink)

DISCLAIMER: This review is based on a free PDF provided by the author and the publisher, which in no way had an influence on the final score.

Following the awesome AR1, Lost Spheres Publishing presents us with volume 2. The content, however, is a bit different from volume 1. But, is it any good? And what’s up with my FF wink in the title? Read on!

What’s inside? 40 pages of content (disregarding cover, legal stuff etc.) for 7 bucks, which include:

-5 akashic races: So here we start with the FF cameos, inspirations or whatever you want to call them. All the races in the book are akashic, having the akashic subtype, an extra point of essence, and a natural ability that can be invested with essence. Also, each race comes with many favored class bonuses, for classes that “make sense” from a big part of Pathfinder class catalogue, including many 3rd party. Some of them are novel, like gaining bonuses when manifesting their racial patron constellation.

The first race is the Cactuar… I meant Cactus Folk, which are small plants. Like Ghorans, they lack most immunities of the plant type save sleep effects, and apparently are genderless. They are fast and have a natural armor, plus their spines give them a natural form of attack and defense. Like their FF counterparts, they have a chance to counter attacks with a needle spray.

Next we have the Tonberries… Sorry, Creepers, another small plant folk that look like humanoid turtles. Why the plant type? Who knows! Personally I would have used monstrous humanoid but eh. They are really adept with small slashing weapons, to the point that a lot of their favored class bonuses play with that idea, and can even invest essence in that aptitude! Also, their eyes glow in the dark. And they DO have vestigial gender even if they reproduce asexually with their own spores.

Mogbears… er, Morphbears look like Ewoks with dragonfly wings, although their racial ability recolor them… reminding me of the Carebears LOL. They can glide and invest essence in their wings to fly… very badly at first, but by now anyone knows how problematic this can be with flying ranged warriors or, worse, summoners. They can attune to one of the elements and get a flavorful ability (don’t worry, a cute tattoo doesn’t appear in their bellies). If they don’t attune, they get extra essence, over the one they already get from being an akashic race, which make them great akashic users. Oh, and they are magical beasts.

Wolgers are a race of natural predators with both canine and feline characteristics, and they are normally RED (wink). Their most unusual characteristic is… they don’t have hands! They can’t wield weapons or cast spells with somatic components, heck they can’t even wear gloves or shape hand veils! To compensate, they can use two pair of magical boots AND can shape, and later bind, two feet veils. They are magical beasts, have natural armor and a bite attack, later developing claws and all are treated as primary natural attacks. Finally, they are blessed by Baha... the Sky King, having a natural electrical aura which enhances their natural attack and damages those who touch them, and they can invest essence in their ability to deal more damage. My spider sense (TM) tells me this ability will be more powerful in the long run, having a lot of repercussions like being in a grapple, swallowed, and even touched with a beneficial effect. Thankfully they can turn off this ability.

Wyrmkin made me yell BANGAI at first, but they are basically PC drakes. They are also magical beasts, quadrupeds, and have wings, having the most unusual characteristics of both Morphbears and Wolgers. They can also invest essence in their wings to fly better.

Finally, we have three variant races: Akashic elves and tieflings, plus essence-less humans.

All in all, a mix of really weird, over-the-top races that may not cater to everyone, but I bet my GIL that you will find two or three to your liking. Also, they don’t have to be PCs, they can work wonders as NPCs too!

-A third Zodiac cosmology: The Quiet Lands cosmology doesn’t only present new toys for the Zodiac, it also includes a new ability for Champion aspects of constellations, which all of them have: a “dismiss” effect. This ability strongly resembles FF summons, where the creatures appear to do a single, powerful effect and then vanishes, leaving the summoner with essence burn. However, each Champion has a “trigger” for this to happen, and some of them happen so often that it makes the manifestation of champions a tactical decision, since it can hypothetically leave you burned out of essence. Also, this extra “dismiss” ability is balanced by the fact that all Quiet Lands constellations only have one more form besides Champion. Also, half of the champions are really expensive to manifest, the highest costing 11 points! And, you know… one of them is a fricking dragon! As for other forms, we have 5 equipment pieces, 3 weapons, 3 armors, and a shield that is considered both weapon and armor. Speaking of FF, each of the constellations strongly mirrors one of the iconic summons of said saga, which is awesome! A few retouches here and there and you have THE FF summons!

-12 Feats: The book includes 6 reprint feats: the three Planar Infusion conduit feats, the three Astrologist feats, Amateur and Noble, plus Expanded Cosmology; it’s worth noting that, while reprints, the last one has an interesting clause not present in the original feat: you actually CHANGE one constellation from your repertoire for one from a different cosmology. Why? I don’t really know but my guess is that it was done to prevent too much elemental stacking. There are 6 completely new feats, 5 of which have racial requirements; one of them, geared towards natural attackers, lets you channel a weapon constellation into one of your natural attacks! The last one bears (mogs?) special mention, since it builds on Essence Rejection and lets those inferior beings that can’t use any akashic magic the possibility to do so by using Crystech. Wait, what? Yes, Crystech is a new way to introduce akashic magic in a campaign via pseudo-magical technology.

-Magical Items: With one new item and one humble sidebar, this book includes a whole trove of pseudo-magical items, one for each veil in existence! The new item is an akashic Materia-like “Aspected Crystal” that can be used by akashic characters to eek some temporary essence, but their real use appears to be powering Crystech. The crystals normally have a type of essence (like fire, darkness, good, etc.), meaning that they can only power certain abilities and Crystech items.

-One Plane: The Quiet Lands While the previous book tackled many planes, this one tackles only one. I prefer this approach since it permits the authors to explore and give more depth to the location. So, the Quiet Lands are called so because, while not a “resort” plane to go on vacation, it has a quietness of spirit, having traits that prevent and interfere with aligned outsiders, their entrance, summoning, and even their sole presence! The Quiet Lands also feel way more connected to the City of Seven Seraphs campaign setting, and even to the first volume of Akashic Realms, as should be. That book, however, is not necessary. There are many factions in the plane that want to take control of the aspected crystal sources. And, while I’m not a master of FF lore, many things give me a strong FF7 vibe, but I may be wrong. The plane is divided in six parts, each one detailed and accompanied with locations of interest and a couple of important NPCs. The details are scarce but enough to start a campaign there.

-11 champion stat-blocks: Like the previous books that include a Zodiac cosmology, this volume include the stats for all the champions, saving the players and game master time and letting the game master to use some on the fly. There are 11 because two constellations, the Phoenix and Thunderbird, share the Roc as their base champion.

Of Note: If someone told me this book included FF-inspired races, I would have thought Viera, Bangaa, Nu Mou and Moogle, with maybe Lunarian or Half Esper. But making iconic FF monsters into PC races is amazing! And the new cosmology expands the possibilities of the Zodiac class, AGAIN! The dismiss effects rock, and I can see enterprising game masters giving dismiss abilities to constellations from other cosmologies, maybe with a feat tax.

Anything wrong?: There are some writing and editing mistakes but most are ignorable. The most offending one is the Phoenix constellation having the air type, since the Thunderbird already shares a Champion form to also share the type. The worst one, however, is in the description of the Brionitic empire, since it cuts short the introductory description of the plane. Also, in my review of the Zodiac class book I mentioned that it is a really strong class. Well, the new cosmology has some really powerful options, some of which completely overshadow others from previous cosmologies. The Sultan of Fire and Leviathan’s weapon forms are really strong, and give you a ranged attack. The Sultan’s give you half your level in fire damage dice, making Nexus glee with delusions of stacking those dice with their blasts. Leviathan, however, gives you physical damage dice! While arguably fire is the weakest element since a lot of creatures resist it, and some creatures will have both damage reduction and fire resistance, Leviathan feels like too much. Both weapons only receive half the normal enhancement compared to other weapon manifestations (+1 for every 4 levels instead of every two), but the damage increase is too much IMHO. And the races also feel strong. While I thank the boldness of the authors with the unusual races, I also think some of their abilities completely overshadow more standard choices. I mean, why play a Halfling Vizier when you can play a Morphbear? They can have 2 more essence AT FIRST LEVEL! AND CAN FLY!

What I want: The aspected essence concept BEGS for expansion. You could make all the genie-kin races akashic just by changing their spell-like ability for one point of aspected essence (or just give it free, since those races suck when compared to aasimars or tieflings LOL). Also, why prevent the aspected essence to be used however you like? Why not make it so but with a plus? Maybe you spend your fire aspected essence crystal into your weapon-like veil, and it gains the fire descriptor and either deals some bonus damage or changes elemental damage to fire? Or it works as normal, but when shaping a veil that shares the descriptor it is shaped as if your veilshaper level was one higher? Or maybe when descriptors match it increases you essence cap by one? Oh, the possibilities! Also, to this date there is no option to manifest the same constellation with different forms, so there is a little design space there.

What cool things did this inspire?: An expansion for the other cosmologies via giving their champions a dismiss effect, but with a feat tax. Also, the favored class section can give ideas for other races’! And the cosmologies themselves, now with 3 different ones, can inspire enterprising game masters to make their own for their home campaigns! I KNOW I will make one at least!

Do I recommend it?: While volume 1 was bold, this one amps that boldness to new heights. FF fans will have a blast identifying all the winks in the setting, while others will relish in the amount of fresh options for building characters. I give this book 5 star-shaped Materias and a high five to the authors!