The Secrets of the Iron Titan is another in a long line of “The Secrets of” series from Rite Publishing. From some of the advertising that I had seen getting around about this I thought that this was going to be about playing golems and while it kind of is in some ways, it definitely is not in others. Regardless of this, the book offers up a unique playing experience for Pathfinder players that bears a closer look.
The idea of the Iron Titan is that of a biological creature that has been transformed into an Iron Titan’s shell. Perhaps it has been done willingly, as a form of resurrection or even forcibly by other Iron Titans that are seeking to transform all the flesh born into a much more efficient structure. I was a little dubious about all of this until I read the following quote and it just opened my mind to all the sorts of possibilities that this type of campaign could make, or even introduce to a group.
A GM could use this as a form of impromptu resurrection if a character diesnear the unawakened outer shell of an iron titan, or perhaps all the party could be returned as iron titans after a total party kill.
Imagine killing the party off and then having them reborn into modifiable Iron Titan bodies. I want to run that campaign right now! The Iron Titan is presented as a class, similar in a lot of ways to the Eidolon of a summoner in that you can modify the abilities of your titan with the use of construction points. Want to play a transformable flying titan with pincers instead of hands – no problems. Want to play a piece of long range artillery with a shoulder mounted cannon and an internal furnace that you can throw bad people in to? This is the book for you.
In fact, the only thing that I found a little irritating in the book were some minor spelling mistakes that must have slipped through the editing process. Mind you there is one spelling slip that made me laugh out – the quote at the top of the second column of page 16 where they must make a successful combat manure check… what a shitty circumstance – LOL!
The artwork in this book is incredible. Having Iron Titan’s of course opens the artwork up to some great looking robots and the people at Rite Publishing gripped that opportunity with both hands. I loved every image in it and it just represented the books contents so well. They might have used a little bit more of a futuristic layout but other than that it is exceptionally well presented.
This is a really great book. I read through it a bit dubious about the concept of constructs but the well put together mechanics and the idea of the 20th level capstone power (WOW!) just won me completely over. I am not going to tell you what the capstone is – buy it and find out 🙂 It is $4.99 at DriveThruRPG and well worth every cent. Steve Russell is the author of this one and funnily enough, the author of my favourite class the Luckbringer. The favourite class may have to change now… Keep rolling!