Maniacs are reckless arcane spellcasters that enter into an altered state of consciousness called rave. While in a rave, these rash enchanters draw upon a set of primal forceful emotions rooted deep in their psyche.
Burning emotions to fuel their magical abilities, maniacs harness powers that other arcane practitioners consider unreliable if not outright dangerous. Often ostracized by society and treated as lunatics by their peers, maniacs seek out extreme situations in which they can explore the full emotional array, drawing them towards a life of adventuring.
Included in the Maniac Character Class:
- The maniac character class, a wild 9th level spellcaster that harnesses emotions as fuel.
- 20 emotional raves for the maniac to exploit.
- 5 Maniac archetypes: the affector, fractured soul, fury, korybant, and tempermentalist.
- 7 favored class options, 3 magic items, and 2 maniac specific feats.
I have never been a fan of change, so new things that disturb my deeply-rooted sense of history and what's right-and-proper irk me. That's right, I'm thinking about psionics and psychic casters
ReplyDelete(also 3.5 warlocks and Alien vs. Predator the movie, but I digress). Anyhow, I'll admit I haven't devoted any of my brainpower learning about psychic casters and classes, so I may have been initially wary about the maniac class. Luckily, I found that with the exception of some psychic components to their spells while in their emotional raves, the class is well-written and utilizes abilities that are balanced and work with each other based on your decisions for the character: like the emotive blast, that does more than just straight damage. It also takes advantage of the primary emotion of the maniac, adding a unique twist to the attack, hindering the target with lethargy, mistrust of allies, or the inability to concentrate, depending on your emotional state at the time.
The two feats probably won't make a mark ultimately and the three new magic items are definitely strictly meant for the maniac (and all have really unique names, which I can't pronounce,) but that doesn't make them bad, just unlikely to have the impact that the actual maniac class has. The archetypes are all well-done but I would predict the Affector to probably be the star of the lot (especially for blaster-loving warlock types) who love firing cones of anger, hatred, and loneliness at their enemies.
The main draw was the emotions and the amount of variability they gave. Similar to how bloodlines, schools, or mysteries works for sorcerers, wizards, or oracles, these help define a character and there are a good number to choose from, but the addition of a secondary mania which you can switch up allows for combinations and interesting character builds.
Unique mania spell lists, quirks, and a drawback accompany the numerous emotions and I think the enjoyment I had just reading the manias section could net this book about $1 more than its price tag, but I already have my copy (So it's easy for me to say that, you on the other hand may want to act quickly).
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete