Review: “Into the Breach: The Druid” from Flying Pincushion Games

 Flying Pincushion Games asked me a review of their latest product, Into the Breach: The Druid. Hey, this is the first time someone wants a review from me, and the first time my blog and my Patreon page host one, so I am deeply honored, very thrilled and a little troubled. Will I be able to do a honest and professional work? Well, there’s only one way to know.

The Into the Breach line not only provides additional options for characters under the existing lines, it also creates additional rules to use with the class, adding more flavor and/or crunch. This is maybe what I like the most, so I was positively struck by the elementalist archetypes, that create an “elemental shaman” druid similar to the animal or terrain shaman archetypes we already know. The idea of “druid groves” (akin to monastic orders) is intriguing, too, and easily implemented, as all it requires is to take some feats, receiving very pretty bonuses from each of them (like spell-like abilities). Pathfinder had presented us ONE specific druidic circle with the Uskwood, but it was only for evil druids, and I feel more of them were highly required!

Nature traits are a welcomed new category of character traits, and are not restricted to druids, so with them, every character could have a more natural or feytouched feel to themselves. Among those there are traits tied to the seasons, that I love in particular (but where is the summer one!?). I also like the new weapons presented, most of all the ice axe, that adds a great deal of flavor to an arctic-themed hero.

Other options focus on different facets of a druid’s personality, as the herbalist, the meteorologist, or the shapehanging mercurial and monsterblood shifter (magical beast wild shape, at last! If anything, I would require even more optional forms!). The extremophile guardian, the fungus gardener, and the origamist also may select among new intriguing kinds of companion creatures, which are always a good thing.

Lastly, we have three new prestige classes to complement it all. The amalgamate FUSES with her animal companion to create one powerful entity (how come I didn't think of THIS before?!?!), the feytouched farmer grows enchanted crops and befriends the nature spirits to gain dairy or agricultural bonuses of all sorts (sweet! I can imagine letting my party rest for a while in such a farm!), and the syncretic priest joins together druidic and clerical/oracular abilities (it could be LG/LE/CG/CE too, if I read correctly- are there penalties for alignment change if you take this PrC? If not, it could be what I ALWAYS WISHED FOR to create a true Brown Friar character for Pathfinder!)

Am I too enthusiastical? Well, it's my first time reviewing, but I see good stuff here. All in all, it's almost everything I wanted from a book with this title. Buy it!