Review – Secrets of the Luckbringer

Tired of bad dice rolls?  Want a class that lets you manipulate luck directly?  Perhaps you should give the Luckbringer a try.  While all of the class powers are luck based, there are enough variety and options to allow a wide range of different lucky characters.  It is an interesting mix of in game flavor and mechanical manipulation.  If such a combination intrigues you, give the Luckbringer a chance.

The Secrets of the Luckbringer, a new base class, is a 14-page PDF (10 pages if you remove the cover, OGL page and ads) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Steven D. Russell and published by Rite Publishing.

The layout is a standard two-column design, the class chart is easy to read and it is fully book-marked.  The cover is full color from a classic painting and the interior black and white art is a repeat of the cover and well-drawn art by Toby Gregory.

The class gets a two-page introduction talking about the place of luckbringers in a world.  The Luckbringer is a full 20-level base class combining descent combat skill and survivability (d8 hit dice, two good saves), a good range of skills and skill points and, as one would expect, the ability to warp luck.

The basic class ability is called moment of chance and can be used a limited number of times a day, increasing with level, for various luck-based effects usually involving manipulating the dice used in some way.  As the Luckbringer gains levels, she gains access to other ways to manipulate luck, gaining powers under the headings of: Improbable, Nothing is Written, Longshot and Highly Improbable.  Each time one of these powers in gained, the Luckbringer gets to choose an ability which cover a wide variety of options, though -naturally combat oriented talents predominate.  Most of the power end with a one sentence ‘color’ piece that give an example of how the power might appear in play which I quite liked.  The capstone ability of the Luckbringer is the ability to cause a disaster, which they are slightly more likely to survive than those around them.

As is usual for these class products, I would have liked to have seen some feats and maybe a magic item or two in support of this class, but it is entirely usable as is.

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.