Blood of the Elements [RPG]

Blood of the Elements, a 32-page entry in Pathfinder's Player Companion line, focuses on a collection of races that are pretty new to me even though I've been playing RPGs for a couple of decades now.  "Geniekin" are five different races in Golarion descended (as their name implies) from genie and human blood, and each has strong ties to particular elemental forces.  Ifrits are passionate and impetuous humanoids with links to elemental fire, Oreads are strong and stoic creatures linked to elemental stone, Sylphs are slight and willowy people linked to the element of air, Undines are the cold but perceptive links to the element of water, and Suli are . . . well, I'm not quite sure.  They're kind of the odd race out, and even after reading the book I still didn't get a good read on exactly how/why they relate to the other four beyond having genie ancestry and (I guess) a balance of the four other elements.  I'll get into the details in a second, but as a quick overview I'll say that 1) I think the artwork and layout for this book is fantastic--it has a very cool, unearthly feel that fits the theme perfectly; 2) The book has (to me) a good balance of flavour text and rules mechanics, but readers expecting character options covering every single page will be a bit disappointed.

The gorgeous cover speaks for itself.  The inside front cover concisely summarizes the racial traits of each of the five races.  It's good to have them here, as otherwise a player would have to find them online in an unofficial source or get the hardcover Advanced Races Guide where they first appear.  Next up are three pages that you'll probably skim over quickly (a table of contents, an index of new rules options, and an admittedly more useful "For Your Character" page that tells you what classes the book focuses on).  Usually the inside back-cover of books in this line just reprint the cover art, but here its devoted to a table listing spells with elemental descriptors from hardcover sourcebooks; it's a really nice way to help find spells for a geniekin PC that fits their theme.

The book proper starts with a two-page introduction that talks about the origins of the geniekin races.  It also has a terminology section--usually I find these unnecessary, but as I'm pretty unfamiliar with this whole area, I found it surprisingly useful.

Each of the five races then gets a two-page overview, with the first page consisting of description and lore and the second page presenting new player options that include at least a couple of race and regional traits in addition to something else.  The traits are interesting and original, without being so awesome that they become mandatory.  Many of the new player options are thematically-linked to the race, but broad enough that PCs of other races could take them as well.

* The section on Ifrits introduces a new cavalier order: The Order of the Flame (an order devoted to members achieving personal glory).  It sounds really fun as a role-playing choice, with some potentially crazy results in big combats.

* The section on Oreads introduces the idea of "gem magic," which allows them to modify (usually in a pretty minor way) the effects of spells by adding a valuable gem as a material component.  It's an interesting idea, but frankly pretty weak in most cases considering the cost.  I think it's a system that would require a full elaboration somewhere, not just a one-column entry.

* The section on Suli introduces the concept of Elemental Totems for barbarians, with the rage powers granted depending on the particular element the barbarian is devoted to.  I'm not an expert on barbarian rage powers, but some of them at least sound pretty cool, like an Earth element one that would likely result in enemy weapons shattering against their skin.

* In the Sylph section, two new arcane spells appear:  "Enshroud Thoughts" and "Storm Step," the latter of which sounds really fun (the PC turns into a lightning bolt and can zap opponents in order to change positions on the battlefield).

*The Undine section introduces two new bloodlines for the "Wildblooded" sorcerer archetype in Ultimate Magic.  One of the bloodlines has to do with elemental water (of course), while the other is tied to Marid ancestry.  The granted powers are pretty high-level, and I'm not familiar enough with the norm for sorcerers to say how desirable they'd be.  Thematically, they're interesting at least.

Each section has an "On Golarion" sidebar that discusses (geographically) where the race might be concentrated, and I thought this was great for integrating character backgrounds.

 The middle of the book is a two-page map titled "The Inner Sphere of the Great Beyond."  It's done in the style of an in-game artist's rendering of how the different planes relate to each other.  I think it's pretty cool and would be something I'd use in a game to explain the relation of planes to players.

Next up is a series of two-page entries on each of the four elemental planes.  The first page describes the plane and what adventures might be like there, while the second page introduces some new equipment and regional traits.  Apart from the description of the Plane of Earth (which was a lot of name-dropping with very little information), I thought these were nice (if necessarily cursory) overviews of the planes.  Most of the magical items and traits didn't really stand out to me, but two did: first, a "Planar Alchemical Catalyst" piece of equipment that modifies normal alchemical items in some really interesting ways to (in part) make them more useful at higher levels; second, a "Thoughtful Wish-Maker" regional trait for the Plane of Fire that allows a character to (probably) avoid having their wishes corrupted--it's probably a trait that would have no effect for about 85% of a character's adventuring, but could then turn out to be really useful near the end!

The remainder of the book is something of a miscellany, with each section consisting of a two-page entry on a different topic.  There's an overview of the City of Brass (a scary place!) that would be useful to GMs; it also introduces a couple of new magical items and regional traits.  An entry titled "Elemental Magic" introduces a new teamwork feat that creates a new secondary effect when two elemental spells are combined into one; it's an interesting idea, but as with all teamwork feats, it requires just the right PCs in an adventuring group in order to make it worthwhile.  The section also contains a really cool picture of an Undine spellcaster and a sidebar on how other areas of Golarion conceive of the elements--an idea worth developing if areas like Minkai or Vudra ever get dedicated sourcebooks.  Last, there's a section simply titled "Magic Items."  My conclusion is that, for what they do, they're way too expensive.  I suppose they could make an interesting quest item or dungeon loot, however.

Overall, I really liked Blood of the Elements as a colourful and evocative introduction to the genie-kin.  I've heard some grumbling from other readers that it didn't contain enough "crunch," but to me it had a nice balance.  When I consider playing one of the races, it'll be the first place I turn.