Review – Genius Guide to: Races of Wind and Wing
February 6, 2011The three races included in this product all seem quite playable and provide interesting story potential. If you have a place for some winged folk in your campaign world, this product is worth your time to look at.
The Genius Guide to: Races of Wind and Wing is a 12-page PDF (11 and 1/3rd-pages if you remove the credits/OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Owen K. C. Stephens and published by Super Genius Games. This is part of Super Genius Games’ Genius Guide line.
The layout is a screen-friendly landscape design, with cover art and 1-column on the first page and three columns on the rest. Everything is clear and easy to read. The cover art is full color with each race getting its own black and white illustration.
Races of Wind and Wing begins with a short discussion about fantastic races and how what was once unusual (elves, dwarves and so on) has become common place and that part of the idea behind this product is to spark the imagination and well as provide three new races. It goes on to discuss the problems having a flying race in a game might cause, some solutions and some rules on the space needed for winged flight.
The three races are:
Aellar, who are -quite simply- winged elves. They have a fascinating creation story and have an interesting culture. The Aellar get four racial feats to provide additional options for them.
Kestral, the children of harpies and gnomes or halfling, these small winged folk have a difficult life. Lots of story potential with them I think. The Kestral get a racial feat and two new pieces of equipment.
Silfide, these (non-winged) humanoid have strong ties to the element of air being able to command it in several ways. They cannot naturally (though they can levitate for short periods) if they learn magic they always gain access to the fly spell at the appropriate level. As a magic-inclined race, the Silfide are supported by three air/flight related spells.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
