That's all folks... until Monday!

Wednesday is holyday here in Brazil, so I’m travelling to meet my wife and to see my parents back in Vila Velha (and also, hopefully, to run the next session of my Chronicles of the 7^th Moon Pathfinder campaign to my old players). I’ll be off until next Monday.

Running a campaign where you can meet your group just once every two or three months is both a chore and an exciting challenge. Particularly because Chronicles of the 7^th Moon started while I was still living in Vila Velha (today I live in Belo Horizonte, some 500 Km away).

At the time my campaigns usually dealt with lots of NPCs, small details, power groups with different agendas and intrigue-like elements (I was coming from a 9 years Legend of the Five Rings campaign). This is far from appropriate to a campaign with probably no more than 6 game sessions per year. I’m still making ad hoc adjustments – eliminating plots and nuances that my group will probably miss with those big breaks between game sessions.

I find interesting to see how, in these 4 years of campaign, my style and preferences changed. I became aware of the Old School Renaissance and began to read practically all D&D editions that I didn’t knew (from before AD&D 2^nd). I also became very much a fan of sandbox campaigns and rules-light systems and while I still love Pathfinder and Paizo’s approach to D&D, I’m much more favorable and willing to run a long-term campaign using systems like Castles & Crusade, Swords & Wizardry and such instead of Pathfinder (actually, I struggling to adjust my Pathfinder, leaving all the complexity and options to my players and running my monsters, NPCs and rules with a minimum of fuss).

My Chronicles of the 7^th Moon is a very different game today in terms of rules. I’m using my own hack of E6 ("E12"), together with a ton of house rules and my own Action and Hero Point system (more in this another day). I was also a great fan of Monster Manuals, but I noted now that each day I use less the Pathfinder Bestiaries and more improved monster through lite systems (like this version, that needs badly of an actualization).

Well, these are my impressions so far. I was tempted recently to cancel my campaign and start something simpler; but I was also afraid that I might lose my old group’s interest in the process. They are not only my oldest group but also my best friend and I now that, barring our RPG sessions, it’ll become hard to find other opportunities for use to meet. You can see why I’m having doubts… I know that at least half of the group wants to keep the Chronicles of the 7^th Moon; so, let’s see how the next game plays out.

Enough useless monologues… to leave with something more useful, I’m going to post a little information about the most important Fantastic Material of my campaign. Beginning with D&D 3^rd, most “fantastic” substances (like mitral and adamantine) lost their mystique, becoming little more than hard light-weight metals (you can practically say that, in Pathfinder today, mitral is aluminum and adamantine is titanium). And yeah, I do miss the old drow adamantine that melted in daylight… it was awesome and unique; and I couldn’t care more about arguments “cheating the players out of treasure” and other useless pseudo-economy ramblings from game designers like Sean K. Reynolds. Drows don’t play fair (at least “true” drow, the first ones, not that insufferable Salvatorian angsty thing). Ok, I didn’t mean this lite nerd-rage. Sorry. Moving on...

The Fantastic Metals of the Seventh Moon

 

Mitral and Adamantine: I feel in the last editions these metals are becoming almost redundant, so I wanted to make each more unique, both in terms of proprieties and origins. In Isaldar (the 7^th Moon), eclipses are not a natural phenomenon, but a planar failure where what you would call the Shadow Planes merges with the Material. It’s a frightening event, full of dark portents and famous for being a time of betrayal, tragedy and madness (and undeads).

These eclipses are called The Darkness (the same name of Isaldar’s Underdark, which is practically another plane below the ground). While each Darkness unleashes vast hordes of grimlocks and other beasts from the underworld, its most dangerous denizens are the Scaedugenga, also known as the Faceless, whose most famous castes are Doppelganger and Myrddraal.

The Scaedugenga steal things that make each creature unique, not only its face and appearance, but its memories, powers, skills, friends until it takes its life and soul. They embody the Darkness and are themselves formless, indefinable and immune to detection. The only things that are sure to work against the Darkness minions are the ancient tradition of the Shadow Hunter (an orc shamanic lore now possessed by the half-orcs of Isaldar) and mitral.

Isaldarian mitral is a silver-like metal hard as steel that glows in dim light or dark environments. Scaedugenga’s Damage Reduction can only be trespassed by mitral weapons and the mere touch of this metal is reputed to cause discomfort or even pain to these creatures. As one of the Darkness’s theme is ‘formless’ and ‘dissolution’ I also established that mitral is my “ghost metal”. Mitral is a natural ghost-touched material, which makes it very useful against ghost and spirits.

Now adamantine. In Isaldar this dark blue diamond-hard material is also known as starmetal. It falls in Isaldar with meteorites and legends claim that these fallen stars are pieces of the Wall of Creation, the Dyson sphere that surrounds the Twin Suns’ systems, protecting it against the denizens from the Nefandous Court of Azathoth. Because of its use as a protection against Cthulhu-like creatures, adamantine is the weapon of choice of aberration hunters (and aberrations usually have DR/adamatine).

Adamantine’s forging is a secret possessed by few Isaldarian races, like the dwarves of Karn.

Primordium: The Fall of the Gods originated the Scar, a supernatural post-apocalyptic wasteland in Isaldar’s main continent. It is said that the Scar was directly caused by the meteor impact of the deities’ destroyed bodies over Isaldar. After the cataclysm, human explorers begin to brave the Scar, facing the now degenerated orcs and corrupted outsiders trapped within the wastelands. Among the most amazing substances (like Godblood) found in the Scar was primordium.

This metal is reflective and shinning like mercury, but almost as hard as adamantine (in fact, only an adamantine blade can break primordium). Its forging is a military secret known only to the dwarves of Karn and Zakzar, the humans of the Melkar Empire and the hobgoblin theocracy of Abannonia. The importance of this secret is because primordium is the only anti-magic substance known. It’s totally impervious to magic and used mainly in the Empire’s technomagic machines*.

Primordium is called Divine Metal because many believe it to be made from the bones of the dead gods. Many religions consider a major sin the use of Technomagic and primordium (except the servants of the machine-god Melkar) and all druid sects are openly antagonistic against technomage and the Empire**.

Orichalcum: Called blood steel or chaos metal, orichalcum is in many ways the opposite of primordium. This substance is heavily saturated with magic and orichalcum blades and armors are easily recognized by their bright red and lightly sparkly sheen. It’s a heavy metal, being a little cumbersome for things like armors and shield.

Orichalcum is Isaldar’s magic plutonium. It strengths magic and casters, but is a chaotic poison and prolonged skin contact with the orichalcum can weaken a creature, drive it mad or provoke mutations. Because of that, most wielders of blood steel weapons and armors use them with prudence, removing it as soon as the battle is over.

While it’s undeniable that orichalcum is powerful, it’s too chaotic to be trustable. Wild magic surges are relative uncommon in Isaldar, but happen with increased regularity close to orichalcum deposits (like in the Vitreous Gorge) or when powerful dweomer clash with pure alloys of forged orichalcum (like that beautiful blood steel full plate +3).

It’s said that the Queens of Discord (the binary planets of Chaos) are made almost totally of orichalcum.

*In Chronicles of the 7^th Moon Technomagic is used to reinforce the themes of industrialization and massive exploration of the natural world. To better distinguish it we established that it used an anti-magic metal and supernatural substances (like Godblood, elemental essence and dragon hearts) to power its machines.

**Druid magic in Isaldar uses ley lines – the natural living force of the world – to power its spells. No deity is involved. Because of this, Technomagic and primordium disrupts druid magic (and fey realms).

Perilous Summonings (House Rule)

Random thought of the day… I like the classic cliché of fantasy where the evil, insane or fool warlocks summons Terrible Things From Beyond© through a dark and dangerous ritual, usually losing their lives (and souls) when a small syllable is wrongly vocalized.

You could, of course, achieve that idea in Pathfinder through Incantations, but let’s aim for something both simpler and more usable by player characters – Summon Monster spells. Any summon monster spell can be casted now on its perilous version.

A perilous summon monster invokes either a more powerful creature (use the table of the next level of summon monster) or 1d3 creatures of its level (instead of only one). For example: a wizard casting a perilous summon monster II could invoke either 1d3 creatures from the summon monster II table (like 1d3 giant spiders) or 1 creature from the summon monster III table (like a dretch).

The caster must declare which version of the dweomer he’s using at the time of casting (i.e. caster that must prepare spell doesn’t need to prepare a perilous version in advance).

As you can guess, casting a perilous summoning is… huh… perilous.

It has the following special requirements and drawbacks:

I – The spell’s Duration becomes “Concentration (Special)”;

II – The character can only keep the dweomer’s effect for a number of rounds equal to half his caster level (minimum 1);

III – If the caster’s concentration is broken, the summoned creature escapes his control and tries to kill either him or whoever damaged it last round (intelligent summoned monster will usually try both tactics, if viable).

There’re, however, a few “cheats” to evade some of those requirements.

The caster can cast a perilous summoning with a Duration of “1 round/2 levels (minimum 1)” – without the need for concentration – if he either offers a sacrifice to the outsider or a portion of his own life force. Both options, however, are amazingly risky.

If he chooses to offer his life force, after casting, he becomes instantly exhausted and at the dweomer’s end he must successfully pass at a Fortitude Save (same DC of the spell) or fall unconscious. If this happens, the summoned outsider doesn’t go back to his native plane but escapes control and stays an additional number of rounds (equal to the caster level) in the area. Usually a neutral or evil outsider will then attempt to kill its summoner, while a good outsider will teach him a lesson (cursing or marking him, planting a geas, burning his grimoire, teleporting him, taking his magic items to the Outer Planes etc.).

If the caster chooses a sacrifice, it must be a defenseless good and intelligent living creature (for an evil summon monster) or a non-neutral magic item of equivalent caster level (for a neutral outsider). Good outsiders don’t respond to summonings made with sacrifices. The caster must destroy the sacrifice at the dweomer’s end (the last round of Duration) or the outsider will be set totally free (like a calling spell) and will use all his strengths to kill the summoner.

Augury - Divine Favor: The Paladin (Pathfinder)

In Divine Favor: The Paladin, author Stefen Styrsky gives 20 pages of new mechanical content for this divine martial class. He starts with the Divine Aspect alternate class feature, which grants the Paladin a suit of powers based on the Domains of his deity. This new ability replaces the Divine Bond class feature. These powers are usually constant abilities, like bonus to skill checks and saving throws against certain attacks. Only “paladin-like” Domains get this treatment (Community, Glory, Good, Healing, Law, Nobility, Protection, Strength, Sun and War). The abilities granted are faithful to its theme, like Trusted Strike (Law Domain) which allows a 14^th level paladin to use the average result of his damage rolls instead of rolling.

Divine Favor: The Paladin introduce rules for Stigmata, the famous holy wounds of Christ and his many Saints. Here they mean divine displeasure and are a very original and interesting way of penalizing a Paladin (and also of moving ahead through plot). The interesting bit is that Stigmata not only inflict penalties, but also small benefits. A very nice twist.

We have 5 new Archetypes: Heavenly Beacon, Holy Sword, Metropolitan, Questing Knight and Templar. Most of these are mechanical-based variants (like the Heavenly Beacon, which works as a support character, almost as a bard). The Metropolitan is one of the most original – an “urban” paladin. The Questing Knight’s directional powers are a little off for my tastes (I envisioned this type of character more as an oath-based hero). The Templar is a great archetype, based on the idea of sanctuary and protection while far from home.

Divine Favor: The Paladin introduces Vow of Abstinence, Poverty, Honesty and Servitude to the class. Each one increase the requirements of the Paladin’s Code of Conduct but adds new spells to his list. While a viable approach I would prefer a spell-less option, particularly due to the existence of cool archetypes that don’t cast spells and, therefore, can’t take these Vows.

Now let’s check feats. Divine Favor: The Paladin has strong feats like Divine Initiative (add your Charisma modifier to Initiative) but also excellent ideas like Enhanced Holy Symbol (use your magical weapon as a holy symbol and add its total enhancement bonus to channeling rolls). Many of these feats require that the Paladin adheres to his Code of Conduct or to a particular Vow to keep its benefits*.

The Paladin is another good hit (or should I say "smite evil"?) for the Divine Favor series, which Divine Aspect and Stigmata been its most original contents. I believe that the Vow part of the PDF deserved a more careful examination and should be more versatile than just extra spells, but that doesn't invalidate this product's good points (and, in fact, it does give you plenty of ideas).

*Potential errata here: the Enhanced Divine Bond feat requires Vow of Honor, but I can’t find such Vow anywhere in the PDF. Am I missing something?

Augury - Divine Favor: The Druid (Pathfinder)

 

More Divine Favor goodness at this Tower. Let’s what ideas Stefen Styrsky has for the Druid class. I already mentioned briefly in my first Divine Favor augury about these PDF’s structure.

After the traditional introduction to the Druid’s basic traits, we’re presented to variant abilities for Wildshape. Nature’s Multitude let the druid wildshape not in one but in a pack of small beast, while Swarm Shape is self-explanatory (please note that they’re different variants). The next options are for Animal Companion, with traits that allows the druid to have a flock of beast allies, or animals that can speak, cast spells or even being possessed by the druid. Excellent stuff.

Divine Favor: The Druid has the following Archetypes: Moon Druid, Greenman and Element Shaman. This may seem little, but the Archetype are further divided in subcategories (Full Moon, New Moon and Phase Moon for the Moon Druid; Green Warden and Forest Child for the Greenman; and Air, Earth, Fire and Water for the Elemental Shaman). These  variant traits aren’t complex, but change considerably the druid’s role and world view. For example, the Forest Child can turn fey creatures and the Elementals Shamans have wild empathy with elemental creatures.

Next are new Domains (and their respective Subdomains): Bird (Feather and Wind), Hunting (Fur and Tactics), Insect (Inevitable and Toil), Transformation (Deception and Protean) and Tree (Growth and Season). Among these, the Primal Cancelation (of the Transformation Domain) is one of the stronger (perhaps too much) and most interesting, generation an aura of true neutrality that negates all other descriptors (even spells and DR base on alignment).

Divine Favor: The Druid also presents new animal companions (very weird animal companions I mean, like brain ooze and green slug) and new feats. These last ones are geared toward strengthening animal companions and spells with animal or beast themes. The most original is Healing Tongue which allows your animal companion (or you wildshaped) to use the Heal skill by licking the target.

Divine Favor: The Druid is a great selection of variant rules, archetypes and feats. It’s a good mix of classical themes (archetypes) and weird traits (animal companions and wildshape variants). If you like the Druid this PDF is a must.

Augury - Divine Favor: The Cleric (Pathfinder)

Time for my second Divine Favor augury – Divine Favor: The Cleric.

After a short description of the cleric’s role in an adventure party, author Stefen Styrsky introduces three new Domains (Alchemy, Apocalypse and Prophecy) and 10 new Subdomains (Books, Entropy, Exorcism, Gambling, Horoscope, Lies, Potion, Transmutation, Truth and Weapons).

The Alchemy Domain is quite interesting – practically a multiclass with the Alchemist class. The other two Domains are also very original in theme (and I simply loved the mechanics of the Prophecy Domain).

Most Subdomains were made specially to supplement the new Domains above. The Book Subdomain is by far my favorite, granting the Cleric access to a spellbook.

Next topic is Archetypes: Ascetic, Charismatic, Enthusiast, Exorcist, Flagellant, Theosophist, Vatic, Weapon-sworn e Wonder Worker. As you can see, Divine Favor: The Cleric goes deep in medieval flavor (or Warhammer flavor, which is also excellent). This design approach fits nicely with the Cleric and presents not only good concepts but also great mechanics.

The Ascetic is one of the most rules-heavy Archetype (in fact, it seems more an Alternate Class), representing a more mystic type of Cleric, like a fakir. The Enthusiast is another one that blends the line between Archetype and Alternate Class – an unarmored Cleric without spellcasting abilities but that can enter holy trances of fervor (a good fit for a dervish character in my opinion). The Flagellant is your usual self-mortifying fanatic – players will love it. The Theosophist is a (better) version of the famous Cloistered Cleric. The Weapons-sworn is another spell-less Cleric, trained to excel in melee combat (with the ability to use his Cleric level instead of BAB when wielding his Favored Weapon).

The Archetypes are excellent, with both interesting concepts and original rules. Even the simplest ones, like Charismatic and Vatic, present in a clear fashion its themes. The only Archetype that left me with some doubts was Weapon-sworn – I’m still not sure if class traits compensate the fact this Cleric is spell-less.

Divine Favor: The Cleric also present Variant Channelings for its new Domains and Subdomains. Finally, we get a few new spells. My favorite is Lucky Break (fun mechanic with a certain “Old School” feel to it).

Divine Favor: The Cleric was a pleasant surprise. It took an old class and gave it new tricks (and made it seem easy). I believe this little PDF can make even jaded players (like half of my group) go back to this classic character.

Armor as Damage Reduction (Variant rules for Ultimate Combat variant rule)

Ultimate Combat had the audacity of (re)opening that old tin can of worms “armors should reduce damage”, last seen on D&D (if I remember it right) at Unearthed Arcana… which is great! Variant systems are the kind of mechanic that I never tire of reading.

However…

(You knew there’d be one, no?)

The problem with any optional system that turns Armor Bonus to Damage Reduction is that they mustn’t forget that no amount of DR can compensate for being hit and damaged at every single strike.

It also seems that many forget that characters that don’t use heavy armor become almost unplayable in these variant systems because the DR granted by light armor becomes practically irrelevant – and, to make things worse, light-armored characters are further penalized by the fact that any reduction on Armor Classes numbers make a huge difference in D&D/Pathfinder (in part because at mid and high levels, all strikes are usually hitting due to the great disparity between attack and defense).

So, how to address that? (That is: How to address that if you still want to use the rules as written on Ultimate Combat?)

Ok, some quick ideas that I had after reading them… I hope they might help you in this endeavor (these are just some random thoughts; I don’t pretend to post solutions here).

As you can note I’ve changed “Armor Class” to “Defense” here in order to avoid confusion (and because with armors acting as DR it doesn’t make much sense to keep the old terminology).

1) Double the Shield Bonus

This one is (I believe) from A Game of Thrones d20. In fact, I believe it can be used with other ideas below. It not only help to compensate for the reduced Defense, but also reinforce the importance of shields (which I like).

2) Distribute your BAB between Attack/Defense

At the beginning of a character’s turn, he must distribute his total Base Attack Bonus between Attack Rolls and your Defense stat. It does require a little math, but it helps to compensate the reduction to Defense in general. It also adds a nice tactical side to each turn.

A good rule of thumb to implement this is to establish a maximum to the amount of BAB “points” that can be distributed to Defense. I suggest that this limit must be your total BAB minus your total Armor Check penalty. For example: if you’re using a chain mail (armor check -5) and your BAB is +7, you can distribute a maximum of 2 points to your Defense (leaving your BAB reduced by 5 and your Defense increased by 2).

3) Use your CMD as Defense

This one is radical but simple. Use now your CMD as Defense, with the following extra rules:

Your CMD suffer a -5 penalty for each attack after the first in the same round;

You can add your shield bonus to your CMD.

An interesting side effect is that big monsters are now a lot scarier. You can add some tactical depth to this by ruling that any character can sacrifice a move action to ignore one “-5 penalty” do his Defense.

4) Add a Base Bonus to Defense, but use also Armor Check Penalty.

This one is radical and I’m not sure if it’ll work. It almost turns Defense into CMD. Don’t forget that in this variant your total Defense is 10 + Dex + BAB – Armor Check Penalty. Being proficient doesn’t change that because your armor is still cumbersome.

Another option is to establish a Defense Progression by class (a famous solution since Wheel of Time RPG). I suggest the following progressions:

12HD* and 10HD Classes: use the Medium BAB progression as your Defense;

8HD Classes: use the Poor BAB progression as your Defense;

6HD Classes: these classes gain a +1 to Defense at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter (maximum +4 at 20th level).

*You can give to the Barbarian a Defense progression equal to its class level if he’s wearing light armor or no armor. Otherwise, just use the above progression.

If using this system I also suggest that the Monk lose its AC Bonus.

Examples:

A 1st level Ranger (d10) would get a Defense bonus of +0.

A 5th level Fighter (d10) would get a Defense bonus of +3.

A 10th level Cleric (d8) would get a Defense bonus of +5.

5) Parry and Dodge Rules

When attacked and not flat-footed (or with the Combat Reflexes feat) you can parry. Parry works like using an Attack of Opportunity – in fact each parry consumes one of your AoO for that round.

A Parry works like an Attack Roll but you add your shield bonus to it.

Using this system I recommend that each character gains one extra AoO for each +6 at your BAB. I also recommend that Combat Reflexes gives you extra AoO based on either your Strength or Dexterity modifier (whichever is best).

You can also simulate Dodge with this system, but it requires two AoO and at least one space around the dodging character must be empty or he must fall prone after the attack.

To dodge rolls 1d20 + your total Reflex bonus +/- Size mod + any dodge, luck, protection or deflection bonus. You must score equal or higher than the Attack Roll of you enemy.

Augury - Divine Favor: The Oracle (Pathfinder)

After a short hiatus, we’re back with more PDF goodness from Open Design. I’m great fan of the Advanced Feats line, so it’s only natural that I was eager to see Divine Favor, their most recent series of small PDFs for Pathfinder. Each Divine Favor is a color PDF, with approximately 20 pages, costing 3.99 bucks, and dedicated to give new mechanical options to a divine spellcasting class of Pathfinder. This particular augury is about the Oracle supplement.

Divine Favor: The Oracle doesn’t waste space, giving us new Oracle's Curses... and that's precisely my only problem with this PDF, so let’s take a closer look at them.

The first one is Coward. In my opinion this is a weird option for a Curse. It has heavy penalties, but also strong benefits (Uncanny Dodge being just one of them). However, I admit that fear effects are one of my least favorite effects in Pathfinder (or in any other RPG). They’re rarely fun for the players; so I’m usually against things that make your character craven (especially in games like D&D or Pathfinder). On the other hand, I must also accept that there’re players that like to roleplay these type of character (usually thieves).

Next one is Drunken – again an odd choice. Here, however, we have definitely a stronger “fun element” to roleplay (Drunken Master-types are famous concepts). The problem is that I believe that the Curse’s drawbacks are too strong – one drink per hour or become shaken?

Actually, reading again these two Curses I noted why I find them so “off”. They look more like Flaws or Disadvantages than mystic curses or marks inflicted by deities.

Our third Curse – Echo, is quite better in this regard. It’s bizarre and seems like something that a god would inflict on a mortal. The fourth Curse – Grotesque – is also a very good concept. Unfortunately, like Drunken, on both cases the drawbacks are still very demading. In fact, this pattern repeats itself with another Curse: Illiterate; and while the Mute Curse doesn’t offer such disproportionate disadvantages, some of its drawbacks don’t make much sense (penalties for social skill sounds weird, at least for me – the character already can’t talk, this is over-penalizing).

After these trials we finally get to the good stuff: Soulless is in opinion the template for a perfect Curse. It’s a good mix of mechanical benefits and drawbacks which fit nicely together.

The next one – Unstable Form – is made of pure awesomeness! An amazingly bizarre and fun Curse – the best I have see so for the class.

The last Curse – Wanderer – has a good theme, albeit one that creates characters incompatible with any campaign that doesn’t involve lots of (long) travels. Unfortunately, the drawback is (again) out of proportion with the Curse’s benefits.

Moving on to the new Revelations, Divine Favor quickly hits the mark with what I believe to be one of the coolest suit of powers for Pathfinder – the Construct Revelation. It’s a famous concept, done in an excellent and intelligent way (and perfect for settings like, Zobeck, Iron Kingdoms or even Bas-Lag).

The Moon Revelation is a classical mythology archetype, well fitted for the Oracle class, while Old Gods let you play a Cthulhu cultist. The Plague and Snakes Revelations are also good themes that add a lot to the class. The Wine Revelation is my second favorite one (after Construct) and let me already pondering about Dionysian Oracle a want to play.

Moving ahead we get new feat. Some quick commentaries on those that caught my attention.

- Divine Intervention is simple, useful and lot better than Guidance (the orison).

- Summon Avatar is a very clever and fun idea to personalize an Oracle’s summons and I believe that Forbidden Knowledge (which let an Oracle cast 1/day a cure or inflict spell he doesn't know) could have been expanded in a similar way (using the Revelations).

The other new feats help to empower the Oracle’s spell-like abilities.

Divine Favor: The Oracle is a difficult product for me to qualify. I’m a total Oracle fan and I was really eager to read this PDF. Maybe that’s why I’m being so harsh with this review.

In the end this is a product of highs and lows. It has superbly ideas for Curses (Soulless and Unstable Form) and one of the most original and fun Revelations I’ve seen so far (Clockwork and Wine), but it also probably requires a few adjustments by the Gamemaster (in my case, I’m going to change practically all the remaining Curses, and remove those that I believe to resemble general Flaws instead of divine interventions).

For its price I can say that Divine Favors: The Oracle is a excellent acquisition. In fact, I’d pay this PDF price only for two Curses and two Revelation quote above… yup, they’re that good!