Faces of The Tarnished Souk: Kahrvass Fleymbrow, Smith of Burning Desire
Kahrvass Fleymbrow, Smith of Burning Desire is a supplement for Coliseum Morpheuon and the Pathfinder Fantasy system written by Matt Banach and Justin Sluder.
By Cape Rust
Faces of The Tarnished Souk (FoTTS): Kahrvass Fleymbrow, Smith of Burning Desire is a supplement for the Coliseum Morpheuon adventure in the Pathfinder Fantasy system introducing the reader to Kahrvass Fleymbrow, an Advanced Magma Azer Artisan (say that three times fast).
CONTENT
This 15 page supplement has twelve pages that are stuffed with information like a fat person in spandex that is two sizes too small. This book includes statistics on Kahrvass Fleymbrow at Challenge ratings 20, 15 and 8. FoTTS Kahrvass Fleymbrow, Smith of Burning Desire keeps the deluge of information coming with a full write-up of the Artisan class, 14 feats, a new trait, 5 items, 1 weapon trait and full statics and information for the Magma Creature.
OVERALL
Banach and Sluder know their stuff and it really shows in this installment of Faces of The Tarnished Souk. Not only is the backstory for Kahrvass Fleymbrow interesting, it truly makes this Azer Artisan feel alive. This supplement balances business with pleasure as it is fun to read and is overflowing with gaming goodness! Kahrvass feels a bit more balanced than some of the other faces from the souk.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 9 out of 10
The cover art by Mark Hyzer is well-done and doesn’t feel forced. Rite does right when they stick to black and white. The stock art from Joe Calkins is well-done and almost feels not completely out of place. I am a fan of Mr. Calkins skills but not a fan of his coloring style or choices. This drawing is presented in black and white and in spite of normal personal feelings about the coloring style of his art, something gets lost when it is printed in black and white. Most of the art of Mr. Calkins is designed to be in color and I think it should stay that way.
Mechanics: 10 out of 10
I was happy to see Kahrvass at a CR 8. It puts him much closer to most adventuring parties and allows a GM to let him grow as the PCs progress thru the Coliseum Morpheuon adventure (when starting it at a lower level.) The artisan class is close to the Artificer class from D&D 3.5. The Artisan feels like it has more soul and would be much more practical for a player character who actually adventures and the inclusion of an offensive, defensive or balanced path for these crafters adds great flavor. Not all of the feats in this supplement are new, but it is great having all of them in one place. I appreciate the one stop shopping this book offers. The Magma Template comes close to being over powered, but offers some interesting abilities.
Value Add: 10 out of 10
I would have paid the full price of this product for the information and stats for Kahrvass alone, add the feats, a well thought out class, a creature type plus a few more goodies and you should owe Rite Publishing more money! The authors include a how-to-use Kahrvass table on the first page that has five great ideas on how to integrate the K-man into the Coliseum Morpheuon adventure as well as a generic setting.
Overall: 9 out of 10
If you haven’t figured out if I like this product. It is thorough, well-written and I have already figured out how to add this to my next Pathfinder session. This supplement is a complete package that covers all of the bases. The artisan class presented has depth and I would love to play one. When it comes to useful information Faces of The Tarnished Souk: Kahrvass Fleymbrow, Smith of Burning Desire stuffs 10 pounds of goodness into a five pound bag!
