Faces of the Tarnished Souk: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller
Faces of The Tarnished Souk: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller is a supplement from the Faces of the Tarnished Souk series of supplements for the Pathfinder written by Matt Branch and Justin Sluder and published by Rite Publishing.
By Cape Rust
Faces of The Tarnished Souk (FoTTS): Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller is a rules supplement for the Pathfinder fantasy system that focuses on Nix Ra Bael, Dream Killer. FoTTS: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller contains the statistics for Nix Ra Bael a Male, Blind, Oracle, Siphon, Drow Noble gunslinger (arbalester) at 3 different Challenge Ratings, covers 2 templates an Archetype and has weapons data for the Bladed Tonfa and the Wrist Crossbow and includes 4 magic Items.
CONTENT
This is a svelte tome and contains 7 actual pages of information. The Faces of The Tarnished Souk could be viewed as an NPC character folio and that isn’t a bad thing. The character, weapon and magic item entries are in a standard format that is easy to read and familiar to most gamers. Faces of The Tarnished Souk: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller provides GMs with a powerful yet scalable advisory that will challenge even the most powerful adventuring party.
OVERALL
Nix Ra Bael, is a powerful foe that I would rather not upset unless my character was above about 15th level, and even then I might think twice. This supplement is a slight departure from Rite Publishing’s normally balanced and utilitarian products. Some of the information in Faces of The Tarnished Souk: Nix Ra Bael, Dreamkiller is overpowered and unbalanced.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 9 out of 10
Rite Publishing has done well sticking with black and white pictures for this supplement. Their font choice is easy to read, while still remaining interesting. The faux leather cover contains an outstanding full body shot of Nix Ra Bael resplendent in his theatrical striped pants brandishing his wrist crossbows and wearing the Mask of Sightless Dreaming. All of the entries follow the same format found in the Pathfinder core rulebook. This supplement includes useful sections that include a good history of Nix Ra Bael and how to use him in a Campaign.
Mechanics: 7 out of 10
Most of the mechanics in this supplement and in Rite Publishing’s products are balanced and easy to introduce into most campaigns, but the two templates Blind Oracle and the Siphon are unbalanced, totally cool but completely unbalanced. The Blind Oracle template increases a creatures Challenge rating by 1 but includes blindsight with a range of 10ft per hit dice, immunity to gaze attacks even if the Oracle is using a magic device that grants sight, spell like abilities, ability score increases bonuses to perception checks, grants a feat and gives a bonus to Armor class. But don’t worry, the character who takes this template can no longer read, not a bad trade off if you ask me! At his highest level, Nix Ra Bael is a CR 21 which makes him nigh untouchable by most adventuring parties out there. At CR 10 and 15 he is a much more realistic foe, but just barely.
Value Add: 8 out of 10
If not for the ridiculously high CR of Nix Ra Bael (designed for use with the high-level Coliseum Morpheuon adventure) and the overall overpowered-ness of the two templates, this is a wonderful product as far as adding value to most games. The concept of pre-fleshing out adversaries and allies and including their normal tactics and attitudes is a huge time saver for GMs. This is nothing new, but many products like to spit out interesting NPCs without giving them soul. Rite Publishing has given Nix Ra Bael soul in spades. The outstanding artistic depiction of him combined with the write-ups make him come alive for me. While most of the magical items are powerful, they are solid builds and could add all sorts of fun if put in the hands of the right friend or foe of any adventuring party.
Overall: 8 out of 10
Nix Ra Bael is a well thought-out adversary that I would run away from quickly if encountered anywhere. There are some aspects of this product that are just too overpowered and unbalanced to overlook. This is a solid product that could be integrated (for the most part) into most adventures. These products have a solid layout and the descriptions of the weapons and of Nix Ra Bael are excellent. This product is an 8 out of 10 for being overpowered at places. Some might say that docking Rite Publishing 2 points for producing an overpowered is harsh, but when this product goes OP it goes all the way! This is a good product that with some very cautious tweaking will be highly useful to GMs. I would love to see the addition of Nix Ra Bael at a few lower levels as well. This would give the GM to let him grow in power as the PCs do.
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