Sisters of Rapture by Libertad!

Part 1

posted by Libertad! Original SA post

Eh, I don't really know why Auraks have an exception. Maybe because they can fly via animal transformation or something.

In the meantime, I'd like to introduce you to a little sourcebook known as Sisters of Rapture:

It Came From Drive-Thru RPG: Sisters of Rapture

Trigger Warning: This product's really, really creepy and really, really bad. We're talking 14 year old scantily-clad warrior-priestesses, "harlot boots" which attract rapists, making light of real-world gender identity issues by turning them into harmful spells, among other things. If this kind of stuff can ruin your day, I'd recommend avoiding this review.



Ah, sex, the always-thorny issue which is destined to spring up time and time again in table-top role-playing games. Most gamers treat the act as an afterthought or minor element in their gaming sessions; sex is something which can be hinted at, alluded to, or in some cases helps develop a character’s personality, but it’s rarely a centric focus of the game or player character.

But some people prefer to expand it further, say, making a set of game rules around it or even an entire sourcebook! This is actually old hat in the industry: before the Book of Erotic Fantasy there was the Guide to Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Before the Guide there were Dragon magazine articles on rules for orgies, wandering prostitute random encounters in 1st Edition, and rules for courting women in City-State of the Invincible Overlord (the first 3rd party D&D product). Personally I feel that reducing the sexuality (and all its related drama) to a handful of die rolls, skills, and number-crunching character options detract from the subject instead of building upon it. Something just gets lost in the process when you focus on game mechanics to the exclusion of the world and society.

Sisters of Rapture, written by the ‘erotic artist’ TCatt, touches upon the subject of sexuality, although it takes a different approach than its predecessors. It’s framed primarily around an order of warrior-priestesses dedicated to the Goddesses of love, beauty, sex, passion, and similar concepts and portfolios. They’re dedicated to feminine empowerment and a free-love attitude towards sex. The Sisters are heavily based upon the cheesecake fantasy art which began in the 70s, where buxom warriors fought in hardly anything at all alongside their practically-dressed male companions. The Inspirational Source Material in the book’s introduction is almost entirely examples of artists of this bent, along with the Book of Erotic Fantasy (which they recommend using in conjunction with this product, providing some conversion in the necessary areas).

Chapter 1: Love’s Blessed

The first thing we lay our eyes upon in this chapter is a picture of three women, armed with swords and spears, surrounding a slain insect monster. Their dresses aren’t so much dresses as they are short pieces of fabric which cover the front areas downstairs but leave the breasts bare. The woman on the right must be wearing one of those funeral-style articles of clothing, for it only goes halfway around the front but gives you a clear view of her rear.

You might be thinking that the author’s trying to draw you in by putting the sexy up front, but this is pretty much par for the course when it comes to SoR’s artwork. The art is definitely well-drawn in parts, and can be titillating at times, but overall it’s sort of hit and miss (but mostly a miss). Nudity comprises a significant part to arousal, but it has to be done well. It’s not enough to just draw tits and ass, a large part is in the execution.

The Sisters are pretty much naked or almost-naked in pretty much every situation, be they a pair of temple prostitutes lounging amid colorful pillows and beckoning the viewer to come join them with their arms, or a topless axe-wielding maiden dismembering orc limbs and covered in their blood. The former scenario is definitely sexy and works, but the latter picture fails; the gore and violence overshadows everything and makes the nudity come off as haphazard and unnecessary. Sheer overexposure can desensitize a person, or come off as dumb and silly if it doesn’t fit the situation.

Another factor is that strategically covering up the right areas can be hotter than going for the Full Monty. But TCatt goes for the latter almost every time, and it hurts the work (especially since he’s going for a ‘sexy’ nudity as opposed to non-sexual ‘naturist’ nudity).

Since I can’t post them here due to board policy, I’ll be pointing out if I find any particularly ridiculous pictures and do my best to paraphrase them.

Sex rant over, on to the chapter itself!

Basically the Sister of Rapture is a 20 level core class of a divine warrior-maiden. It grants Medium BAB, d8 hit die, good Fort and Will saves, a slightly more expanded skill list than the Cleric’s with 2 + Int per level, 9th-level spontaneous divine casting, simple and martial weapon and light armor proficiency, as well as some class features revolving around sex, sensuality, and love. They must be non-evil aligned, and traditionally worship goddesses (never a male deity) related to love and passion, although the setting and mechanics heavily revolve around Aphrodite, Isis, and Freya.

Sounds all fine and dandy, given the subject matter, right? Oh no, be afraid, be very afraid.


Seriously, I don’t know where to start. Okay, number one, there’s a real chance by RAW that your sensual, scantily clad warrior maiden’s going to be a 14 year old girl. Second is the serious misunderstanding of sexual orientation; you can preach all you want about spreading love throughout the world, but some people only get turned on by people of a certain gender. It explicitly focuses on love of the sexual kind: a bisexual matchmaker can be just as much of a champion for love as a heterosexual peace negotiator. It comes off more as narrative wank material than anything else. And then there’s the whole “no, no, they’re not promiscuous!” vibe. I get that the writer wants to show the Sisters as being respectful of the bonds that sex can form, but promiscuity and casual sex can still fall within the bounds of free love and mutual joy.

Unlike the core full casters, the Sister gets several class features during the level progression. At 1st level she gets spontaneous divine spellcasting drawn from the Cleric list (and a few new spells from this book, but no turn/rebuke undead). Divine Health is like the Paladin’s, and the Sister produces no fertile eggs unless she desires, thus eliminating the threat of unwanted pregnancy and STDs so that you can get your character’s freak on. Carnal Spells are like a Cleric domain, where you automatically add sexually-themed spells to your spells known when you achieve a new level of spellcasting. And finally, Distracting Beauty grants a sacred bonus to Armor Class equal to your Charisma modifier as long as you’re nude or scantily clad (wearing armor negates the bonus) because enemies find it hard to focus when fighting “such exquisite examples of womanhood.” But it’s divinely granted, so it works on creatures who ordinarily wouldn’t find women attractive. Contradiction, much?

At 2nd, 6th, 12th, 18th, and 20th levels, a Sister learns a special ability known as a Kiss of Power. An individual Kiss is a Supernatural ability which can be used once per day on a living, corporeal target the Sister successfully kisses (with a melee touch for the unwilling), and the Save DC is 10 + ½ level + Charisma. Kisses are ranked levels: Kiss of Power 1 abilities can be selected at 2nd level onwards, Kiss of Power 2 at 6th level and so forth. They’re thematic and appropriate for the most part (kiss to put someone into a pleasurable sleep, kiss to heal wounds, kiss to charm, etc.), but a few bear special mention:


And here I thought the Sisters were the Good guys! I’m sure that those within the S&M community will appreciate having their hobby being called “unnatural” and compared to necrophilia and pedophilia. And randomly being capable of driving a target to suicide seems more appropriate to the Book of Vile Darkness than a holy power.


Bestow life to a living creature? I figure that this is meant to be an exception to the “living, corporeal” limit, especially given how it can work on undead. But it’s still a poor choice of words.

At 4th, 10th, and 16th level, the Sister receives a Love’s Blessing from one of the three Goddesses (Aphrodite, Isis, Freya). There’s around 4-5 Blessings for each of the 3 deities, and they can be used at will unless otherwise noted.


Matchmaker can be a pretty powerful battlefield control spell in certain situations (especially the at-will part), but it does raise some thorny issues of consent.


Oh hell, anybody worth their salt’s going to go straight for the Spell Resistance.


At-will rage!

At 8th level you gain Sisterhood and rise to the rank of Honored Sister, where you’re freed from the service of your Patron Mother (a mentor in the order) and expected to go out into the world and forge your own path. That’s a rather late time to grant such a class feature for a typical adventuring party. The Sister ceases to visibly age, suffering no ability score modifiers (positive or negative) for aging, and your corpse is under the effect of a constant gentle repose spell upon death.

At 14th level you gain Motherhood and are eligible to take the rank of Patron Mother. You gain the Leadership feat for free, and can gain a cohort if you don’t take on an apprentice, or gain an apprentice provided you take a level in the Patron Mother Prestige Class. Seems kind of unnecessary; just grant Leadership normally, then discuss the cohort and apprentice stuff in the PrC itself.

Other artwork in this chapter includes a Sister wearing armored sleeves, a corset which leaves the breasts bare, see-through underwear, high-heeled boots, and a white cape; and that aforementioned orc limb-cutter.

And so ends Chapter One.

Thoughts so far: Problematic sexual content setting off mental alarms? Check? Gratuitous nudity? Check. It's going to be one of those reviews, isn't it?

The class itself is a solid tier 2 and versatile. It’s got some Charisma-based skills and debuffing abilities in line with the class’ theme. While the Sister can’t tank as well as a Cleric can (barring min/maxing your Charisma), access to martial weapons proficiency, at-will rage, and spell resistance make up for it.

Next time, the Love’s Chosen chapter, which covers prestige classes and alternate class features!


Chapter Two: Love's Chosen

The opening illustration shows four topless women (presumably Sisters of Rapture) sitting around a dinner table in an inn, which looks medieval for the most part except for modern-looking overhead lights. They're all chatting happily, but a barmaid is looking nervously over to a tiefling-looking fellow in the shadows eyeing the Sisters with an angry stare. A suspicious bearded man in a dark cloak is at the other end of the picture, also looking angry at them.

I get the feeling that the Sisters are being incredibly obnoxious and pissing everyone off in the inn.

So this chapter is also short, and details 4 prestige classes and 3 class archetypes (Pathfinder equivalent to alternate class features). They all require Sister of Rapture levels in the case of PrCs, or are based off of the class in terms of archetypes. Let’s start with the Prestige Classes.

The Inamorare is basically a muse who inspires others to greatness with their presence. They have the Sisterhood class feature and had a 1 month long sexual relationship with an equal to or higher level character (why so specific?), and some easy to meet skill requirements. The class itself is 5 levels long (as are the other 3), d8 hit die, medium BAB, 6 + Int skill points per level, poor Fort and Ref and average Will saves, and gains +1 to spells per day in the Sister of Rapture core class at 1st, 3rd, and 5th levels.

The major class feature Inamorare have is Inspire Greatness. It bears no resemblance to the Bard ability of the same name; it’s an Extraordinary ability, activated with a full-round action and a kiss on the target to be affected, and grants a competence bonus on rolls to certain things equal to levels in the PrC. 1st level it can be applied to skills, 2nd level saving throws, 3rd level attack rolls, 4th level Armor Class, and 5th level it increases a spellcaster’s caster level by two! This ability has an unlimited amount of uses per day and lasts two rounds per level. Allies can only benefit from one kind of bonus at once.

Also, the Inamorare herself is inspired by this act, and receives a bonus on Charisma-based rolls and skill checks equal to the number of people currently affected by this class feature, maximum +20. But if the maximum duration is 10, and it takes a full-round action to bestow, isn’t this bonus impossible to achieve without some serious action economy abuse?

The only other class features include Gift of Beauty at 2nd level, granting a +4 permanent increase to your Charisma score (!!!), and Gift of Grace at 4th level which does the same for Dexterity.

The artwork's nothing special; the first one's a woman with dark-skinned complexion dressed in a see-through Greek robe gazing upon a handheld statue. The other's a woman kissing a man on the cheek while walking on a forest trail.

The verdict: This PrC is really powerful. Losing 2 effective caster levels is balanced out by +4 Charisma and an unlimited-use buff for your allies. The other spellcasters in the party will love your 5th-level ability.


Next up we have the Patron Mother, who are basically the senior mentors responsible for training new initiates. The concept of motherhood is very important, but most Sisters do not have the inclination to raise children while performing their duties. Thus came about the Patron Mother, who is just as much an adoptive mother to the initiate as they are their teacher. Once the initiate is confirmed to be entering of her own free will, the Sisterhood enacts a ceremony to create a spiritual and mental bond between the two. The Patron Mother is considered the initiate’s true mother from then on, even at the expense of her actual biological mother.

Wow, that’s pretty harsh. A metaphorical motherhood is fine on its own, making it literal and excluding the actual mother will just create more unnecessary problems and heartbreak. The text also mentions that Patron Mothers are forbidden from engaging in romantic and sexual relationships with their initiates, and must keep a maternal distance when instructing the initiate about love and sex. The penalty? The Sacred Council nullifies their bond and separates them. No imprisonment or exile from the Sisters, just a goddamn slap on the wrist.

First 13-year-old Sisters, now they’re tolerating sex abuse scandals. This is literally the furthest thing from sexy I can think of, TCatt, please just stop it.

Pre-requisites involve the Motherhood class feature, cannot have any living natural offspring or cohorts from Leadership, undergo the Rite of Sacred Motherhood, and 7 ranks each in Knowledge (Carnal), Knowledge (Religion), and Sense Motive.

The class itself is 5 levels, same skill lists as the core class and 2 + Int per level, Medium BAB, poor Fort and Ref and average Will saves, and +1 spells per day for Sister of Rapture levels per level gained in the PrC.

1st level you gain an apprentice who is treated as a cohort. She’s 1st level in the Sister class, and is a “willing female of the appropriate age (see Chapter One) and may be of any humanoid race.” Per RAW, I could get a Bugbear Sister. Given the vast level difference, this isn’t really appropriate for typical adventuring parties.

Also at 1st level is Mental Bond, which acts as a permanent Rary’s Telepathic Bond and a one-way Status spell from Patron Mother to Initiate. And Inspire Confidence, which works differently than the Bard’s in that it last 10 minutes for each round the Mother spent inspiring (to 5 hours max) and requires a DC 10 + 1 per 5 allies Diplomacy check to activate. It can only be used once per day, and the bonus rises by +1 at 3rd and 5th levels.

At 2nd level they gain a Love’s Blessing, like the class feature of the same name of the core class.

3rd level’s a Physical bond which allows a Mother to transfer hit point damage from her apprentice to herself (up to apprentice’s hit point total + her Consitution score). It can work even if the Mother does not know her location, and it cannot save an apprentice if the damage she just took would kill her.

4th level is a Spiritual Bond , which also works in transferring ability damage and drain, negative status conditions, negative levels, and the results of failed saving throws. Except the apprentice must be within line of sight for it to work.

5th level grants Mother’s Sacrifice, which allows the Patron Mother to cast True Resurrection with 10 minutes of her apprentice’s death, at the cost of the Mother’s own level in the PrC. However, if she chooses not to resurrect the apprentice when given the opportunity, she cannot make use of this class feature again (although the apprentice can still be resurrected normally).

One of the two pieces of artwork for this PrC depicts a Patron Mother, naked, watching her also naked apprentice (who is obviously in her 20s, as are all the other Sisters depicted in this book, thank God!) caress the leg of a third naked women lying back on a bed. “A Patron Mother instructs her Apprentice in the ways of love.”

No, Tcatt, you’re still not getting it!

The verdict: I can’t see this being of use in a normal D&D game. It revolves around protecting an apprentice too low-level to be going on adventures with you, anyway. And a 1st-level Sister PC effectively has a 15+ level patron watching over them and indirectly protecting them.

Third class is the Spellswinger, the mystic theurge of Sisters and metamagic specialist. They fuel their magic with sexual energy.


Can we please stop it with this whole “promiscuous women have no self-respect and will bed anybody” thing? Although it’s an in-game perception, having the text say that “some women deserve this” flies against the face of the book’s emphasis on spreading free love and feminine empowerment. It also ties into the whole real-world societal double-standard of saying that promiscuous women are devaluing themselves, but men who do so are viewed with admiration and envy (he’s a ‘playa,’ he’s got Game, etc).

The Prc is 5 levels, and in terms of pre-requisites requires CG/CN alignment, the first Love’s Blessing (4th level in SoR core class), able to spontaneously cast 2nd-level arcane spells, any metamagic feat, and 3 ranks each in Perform (sexual techniques) and Knowledge (Carnal).

The class has a d6 hit die, 2 + Int skill points per level, poor BAB, good Fort and Will saves, and +1 to divine and arcane spells per day per level taken in this class.

1st level nets you Sexual Channeling , where you gain a pool of Sexual Energy Points every time you engage in some form of sexual activity (which doesn’t necessarily require another partner), gaining one point every uninterrupted 15 minutes. She can’t gain more than twice her class levels in Points per day, and can be stored for 16 hours after which she must sleep for 8 hours. Unspent Points bleed off for 1 every 2 hours, and they cannot be restored until she sleeps for 8 hours and performs a new sexual activity.

Sexual Energy Points can be used to buy off level increases for metamagic feats, until the spell is equal to its original level. Spending 3 points on a maximized fireball treats it as a 3rd-level spell.

At 3rd and 5th level the Spellswinger gains a bonus metamagic feat.

Artwork shows a sample woman in a see-through dress, the other an Egyptian princess-style woman masturbating to a statue of a goddess while making an "o" face. "A Spellswinger performs her daily ritual." Yeaahh, this is kind of over the top, don't you think?

The verdict: Spontaneous metamagic spells still take at least a full round to cast. It’s much like the original Mystic Theurge, albeit slightly more powerful.

The final PrC here is the Stormsister. They’re a feminist organization dedicated to fighting for women’s equality in society; they target oppressive and sexist traditions, individuals, and institutions which hurt and abuse women and children. In areas where the law is not on their side, they enact a style of vigilante justice, and often clash with the authorities of more patriarchal cultures.

Although it’s implied that they’re a separate organization than the Sisters of Rapture, you have to have levels in the core class to enter this PrC. Pre-requisites include the Kiss of Curses ability (seriously, that shitty power?!), 5 ranks in Knowledge (local) and Diplomacy, 7 ranks in Sense Motive, and must have been the victim of (or witnessed) sexual, physical, or emotional abuse at some point in her life. Combat does not count as “abuse” for these purposes.

I have a problem with this last pre-requisite: you do not need to have personally experienced suffering to fight for peoples’ rights. It’s impractical for the Stormsisters to limit their options in such a way.

The class itself is 5 levels, has a d10 hit die, +1 to spells per day at 1st, 3rd, and 5th level, good BAB, good Fort and Ref saves, and 4 + Int mod skill points per level.

1st level grants Judge the Soul, which is kind of like Ghostrider’s “Look into my Eyes” thing in that it allows you to learn facts about the target’s past injustices. You look into a target’s eyes for up to 3 rounds and learn things about them: 1st round their alignment, 2nd round if they’ve been involved in an abusive incident within the last month; 3rd round their role in the incident of abuse, or if they’ve been involved in one within the last year. The ability grants an objective view of the situation as imparted by the patron deity. “Abuse” for this purpose counts as non-consensual sex, torture (physical and non-physical), and non-consensual violent contact (but full-blown combat doesn’t count). This class feature does not give off any obvious supernatural aura or signs, nor does it require verbal or somatic components. It can be used an unlimited number of times per day, although a successful Will Save prevents the target from being affected again for 24 hours.

1st level also grants Insightful Understanding, providing a +8 insight bonus on all Sense Motive checks.

2nd level grants Favored Enemy: Abusers, like the Ranger’s class feature, but it can only be used on targets the Stormsister determined to be an abuser (circumstantial evidence doesn’t count, only via witnessing it or Judge the Soul). It stacks if the Stormsister has a Ranger’s Favored Enemey and it also applies.

At 3rd level the Stormsister gains Defend the Innocent, where at the start of combat they can declare a target to be their charge and switch places with them whenever they’re within 5 feet and subject to an attack. The attack hits the Stormsister instead.

5th level grants the Lying Eyes Love’s Blessing of the Sister class feature of the same name. It grants a +6 competence bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive checks, and if the Stormsister already has the Blessing the bonuses stack.

So a Stormsister can potentially gain up to a +20 Sense Motive bonus!

The Stormsister’s artwork is admittedly the best one I’ve seen so far in this book. It portrays a woman wielding a shield and hammer standing in front of an injured woman in an alleyway. In front of the Stormsister is a pirate lying in a pool of his own blood, and two of his buddies are advancing upon her while their leader angrily points and shouts at her. The Stormsister looks resolute and has her hammer raised, ready to knock some more heads in.

This picture illustrates clearly exactly what the Stormsisters are all about. Despite being clad in a fur bikini exposing her breasts, the woman in this picture comes off as badass and heroic, and not just a piece of eye candy just there to pose for viewer’s enjoyment. It’s clear that she’s about to do something rather than just stand around like she’s in a supermodel shoot.

The verdict: Despite not being rather underpowered, the flavor text alone makes it my favorite of them all. If you removed their connection to the Sisters of Rapture and the Kiss of Curses ability and found an appropriate setting for them to matter in (ie one with a villainous, oppressive patriarchal society), then they could really have potential.

We’ve got the PrCs out of the way, let’s do the Class Archetypes now!

Class archetypes are alternate class features which replace existing ones. While the ones made by Paizo allow you to pick and choose to an extent, the ones in Sisters of Rapture are an all-or-nothing deal. You must accept all the features in the package in order to benefit.

The Abbess are Sisters of Rapture who emphasize personal love of their deity, and maintain a closer divine tie to them. They gain Domain Focus, where they trade Carnal Spells to gain access to one domain of their patron deity, gain proficiency with the deity’s favored weapon, and can wear armor and concentrate for 1 round to have the Glamered property apply to it. The armor appears as a skimpy, revealing piece of clothing, allowing it to stack with Distracting Beauty.

A pretty good bargain overall.

The Divine Virgin forsakes sexual love in favor of other forms of love. They cannot have sex, which is defined in this entry as any action which can result in pregnancy. Uhh… I think this leaves open a pretty big loophole.

They trade Carnal Spells for Bodily Denial, which grants a deflection bonus equal to half her class level (minimum +1) against melee touch attacks, natural weapons, and unarmed strikes. If she ever haves sex, she loses this bonus until she atones.

At 14th level, they trade in Motherhood for Mystic Purity, where once per day she can impose a penalty on a target, which applies to the next roll made to resist one of her spells of her Kiss of Power. The penalty is equal to ½ the Sister’s class level, to a maximum of the number of different people the target has ever had sex with. The penalty applies to Armor Class (if it requires an attack roll) or a save (if it requires a saving throw). It doesn’t work against creatures which do not engage in sex, or virgins (as defined by those who didn’t engage in sex which can cause pregnancy).

I don’t think it’s worth the trade-off for bonus spells and Leadership. Mystic Purity can be a big debuffer, but it’s highly situational.

The Sacred Prostitute is the last archetype. I will say that the illustration accompanying it (the archetype with the only one) has the most appropriate form of artwork, in that the nudity and sex fits the scene. A naked elf is beckoning to the viewer, while an unclad half-orc (who merely looks like a voluptuous human woman with some small canines and light green skin) lounges behind her. The nudity fits and doesn't jar with the scene, in comparison to the see-through clothes and bare breasted warrior maidens.

The class features, however, are another matter. Anything I can say about them are better illustrated through direct quotes instead.


This power effectively grants additional spells per day, even ones which may not be on the Cleric list. However, they’re limited in that the specific spell is determined by the DM, and require a hefty price for payment. A PC Sacred Prostitute of even middling level can actually make a lot of gold, provided she finds a demand for her services.


You read that right; they explicitly pointed out that this class feature can be used while raping someone.

And Chapter Two ends on a rather creepy note.

Thoughts so far: Things went downhill fast. By this rate of progression, Chapter Six will look like FATAL.

However, I think that the Stormsister is worth saving. I might redesign it from a fluff and crunch standpoint sometime later.

Next chapter, Love’s Method! New skills, feats, traits, spells, and magic items!

Part 2

posted by Libertad! Original SA post

Chapter Three: Love’s Methods

Today’s opening picture is a pair of bare-breasted Sisters back to back fighting a pair of what looks like Hezrou demons. One wields a sword, the other has magical flames emanating from her raised fists. There isn’t much in the way of artwork otherwise in this chapter.

Chapter 3 deals with all of the other crunchy stuff: skills, feats, traits, spells, and magic items. We start with two new sub-skills: Knowledge (Carnal) and Perform (Sexual Techniques).

Skills

Knowledge (Carnal) is your knowledge of various races’ sexual habits and reproduction, whether certain ones can interbreed, and determining a person’s racial ancestry. Kind of useless and situational.

Perform (Sexual Techniques) is copypasta from the Book of Erotic Fantasy.

Nothing interesting to see, move along.

Feats

There are 8 feats; three of them involve enhancing the Sisters’ class features: two work on the Kiss of Power, extending its range (Blown Kiss) and to work on incorporeal targets (Ethereal Kiss) , while Improved Distracting Beauty adds +2 to the sacred bonus to AC.

Three of them involve social skills: Pillow Talk allows you to substitute Perform (Sexual Techniques) for Diplomacy for the purposes of improving attitudes; Charmed I’m Sure allows you to make full-round Diplomacy checks without penalty; and Popular is quite possibly one of the most overpowered feats I’ve seen.


You know how Leadership grants you mostly low-level followers? Well this potentially can provide you with several NPC allies of equivalent or greater level, more if you take it again. Given that charismatic PCs will be taking this, they’ll quickly drum up a few competent allies.

The last two feats are magic-related. Healing Caress adds your Charisma modifier to damage healed with healing spells if you sexually stimulate a conscious target (yeah they specified the conscious part :twitch), but extends the casting time to 1 full round; given that healing spells have a touch range as well, this really limits its practicality in combat. Orgasmic Spell is a +1 level metamagic feat which can daze the target of the spell for 1 round. If the spell does not allow a save, the daze gets through with no save; if the spell requires a save and the target succeeds, the target ignores the daze.

Hear that? Put Orgasmic Spell on touch spells and rays, no save daze!

Traits

Traits are basically things in Pathfinder which provide a small bonus of sorts, and are usually based upon things like backstory, race, religion, occupation, etc. SoR, being the ever-enterprising sort, decides to create an entirely new subset of traits: Erotic Traits!

Most of these traits are kind of “bleh,” being stuff like “gain +1 on Perform (Dance) if it’s sexually suggestive, although a few bear special mention:


In all my years of reading books, I never thought I’d stumble upon the term “Goose Blocker,” much less as character option in a fantasy RPG.





"Maybe if I think of the sorceress’s bare ass, I can resist her powers!"


Talking about promiscuous people without immediately screaming “slut!” Bravo, writers!


‘Orgasm’ and ‘victim’ should never be used in the same sentence.


“Hey Beavis, check it out, uh huh huh. I’m penetrating your defenses.”


Spells and Domains
So we get a new domain, the Carnal Domain. It’s available to the 3 goddesses in this book, and Sisters of Rapture add the domain’s spells to their spells known with their Carnal Spells class feature. It has 4 granted domain powers, including a constant endure elements effect (Comfortable Nudity, no really), the ability to make creatures within 30 feet of you sexually aroused (although they’re not compelled to have sex and has no game effect, no name), and the ability to grant a bonus on Perform (Sexual Techniques) checks equal to ½ your Cleric level with a touch 3/day + Wis modifier (Sexpert) . At 8th level you can cause the armor and shield of a creature within 30 feet to vanish until the next hit on them on a failed Will Save (Feeling Exposed). A nifty debuffer.

We also have two subdomains: Attraction (trade out Feeling Exposed for Beguiling Allure, failed Will Save makes person want to emulate you and changes their alignment to yours), and Fertility (trade out Comfortable Nudity for Cause Pregnancy, which makes touched creature hyper-fertile for 24 hours).

Aside from the 8th-level abilities and endure elements, none of the granted stuff is widely usable in a typical adventuring context.

And now for the spells. There’s not too many of them, just 9 of them, all of which are part of the Carnal domain.


I’m just going to pretend that I didn’t read that.


It's a kick in the balls.


Potentially funny and a good save-or-suck spell. I actually like this one.


Hey, I think I saw this spell in the Book of Vile Darkness!


I don’t see how this spell can be used for anything other than torture.


Keep in mind that I paid actual money to read this thing. Seven dollars and twenty cents I will never be able to get back.


Transgender people are born where their gender identity (how one self-identifies) does not match their sex (genitals). A person’s gender identity is literally how their brain is wired; a man who gets castrated still mentally registers as a man, while a woman who gets her breasts removed still mentally registers as a woman. Gender is what's between your ears, sex is what's between your legs. The stress from the identity and sex not matching is a very real problem that transgender people have to deal with, and so should not be reduced to a harmful spell to inflict on other people in a game. It makes light of an issue affecting millions of people, and given that the ratio of transgender tabletop gamers is higher than the general population, should not be inserted into an escapist game where people joke around with their friends, slay dragons, and have fun.


It neglects to mention whether threatening and harmful actions break the spell’s hold. This is far more powerful and long-lasting than Otto’s Irresistable Dance, and lower level as well. Game balance!

Oh wait, we’re not done; we have the Magic Items section left to do. Ugh.

Magic Items

So we have 8 magic items. This section opens up by explaining that most of the Sisters’ magic items are made by the Isis worshipers. Freyans dabble in it at best, while the devotees of Aphrodite simply convince others to do it for them.

First up we’ve got the Brass Balls of Tyr (sex joke!), which grants the owner immunity to fear and +4 bonus to Charisma and on Will Saves. But it makes the wielder reckless.

The Bedroll of Constant allows for restful sleep in any environment, and grants a +1 Perform (Sexual Techniques) bonus to people inside it. Even with a totally non-sexual magic item, you guys just couldn’t resist.


This magic item is horrible, and here's why: in the real world the majority of rapists and sexual predators do not abuse people based upon what they wear, but actually seek out people who are in vulnerable positions. Trusted friends and family members, children, senior citizens, etc. The whole “what was she wearing?” thing is a serious problem which impedes both justice and healing via victim-blaming and creates the assumption that victims were “leading on” their attackers. And finally, the idea that rapists are attracted to self-confident/sexually forward women also reinforces unhealthy and regressive attitudes.

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.

Boots of Nakedness is a cursed item which can only be removed by remove curse, and cause a person’s clothes to teleport off of their body into a neatly folded pile 5 feet away.

Necklace of Attraction allows the wearer to fascinate and enthrall onlookers who find her attractive.

Penelope’s Portable Playroom is quite possibly the most original and well-thought out thing to come out of this entire book:


Grumbletim owns.

Persistent Lipstick is a multi-use (50 kisses) item which increases the duration on a Kiss of Power by 10, 30, or 60 minutes depending on the item’s quality (minor, medium, major).

Rings of Faithfulness come in pairs and are placed upon the couple upon a lawful marriage. They cannot be removed without magical assistance, and if one of them is unfaithful the other immediately becomes aware of the transgression. I really like the touch on this last time; it’s the kind of thing I can see Clerics creating for people, as opposed to magic items specifically tailored to dungeon-crawling.

Thoughts so far: Penelope’s Portable Playroom is the silver lining in this dark and stormy cloud. I find it disturbing that so many of the spells and abilities of the Sisters revolve around emotional torment and pain. Sometimes I wonder if this book had any role to play in the inspiration of this creeptastic homebrew. Because the Knights and the Sisters both seem to share quite a bit in common.

Next time, Love’s Divinity, the Goddesses of the Sisters.

Part 3

posted by Libertad! Original SA post

Chapter Four: Love’s Divinity

The opening art of this chapter is a naked woman offering a bounty of food in front of a statue of a naked woman, presumably one of the three Goddesses, alongside two other scantily clad statues. We’ve got naked artwork in our naked artwork! It’s getting all postmodern in here!

This short chapter details the three most commonly worshipped Goddesses of the order (Aphrodite, Isis, and Freya) and their relationship to the Sisters. It’s acknowledged that there are other Goddesses of love with a more minor presence, such as Parvati (Hindu Pantheon). Hmm, I don’t think that it would be wise to translate a deity’s game stats from a popular religion with ~400 million followers, doubly so if you’re going to associate her with a very skeevy order. The Sisters have differing religious rituals and beliefs, but are unified by the Power of Love. The only restriction is that worship of male Gods of love/beauty/lust/etc. are not allowed. But there’s hardly any around supposedly, so this doesn’t cause any problems for the group!

We first get Aphrodite, a Chaotic Good goddess of love, beauty, and passion. Her favored weapon’s the dagger and her domains are Carnal, Chaos, Charm, Good, and Healing. Her blurb is mostly real-world Greek knowledge about her, notably her passion makes her just as capable of vengeance as she is at love. Sisters of Rapture associate her as an unadulterated portfolio of love, although some of a more martial bent venerate her war-goddess interpretation of Aphrodite-Areia. Sisters who worship her usually multi-class into cleric, bard, and Paladin (even though she’s Chaotic Good, this is not called out as an exception in the text. Editing FTW!). They can never be barbarians, rangers, druids, or rogues. Never explained why.

Isis is the Neutral Good goddess of love, fertility, magic, and marriage. Her favored weapon’s the quarterstaff, and her domains are Carnal, Good, Magic, Protection, and Water. Her worshipers claim that she was the one who first discovered the secrets of arcane magic and eternal life. She is the most cerebral of the three, encouraging calmness and the promotion of knowledge and education. Sisters who worship her usually multi-class into an arcane spellcasting class; they can’t be fighters, rogues, barbarians, paladins, or druids. I don’t get this restrictive multi-classing, it’s never explained anywhere.


“Exotic” as code word for non-European. She’s the only deity here with this description.


Because poor editing is kewl!

Freya’s the Neutral Good Goddess of fertility, love, magic, and vanity. Kind of overlapping with Isis, don’t you think? Her domains are Air, Carnal, Charm, Good, and Magic. Personally I would’ve gone with War and Death, considering that’s part of her real-life portfolio, and she’s connected to the Valkyries.

They describe her in the text as a war goddess, and is the most outright erotic of the three. Aphrodite represents love, Isis represents feminine power, Freya represents raw sexuality. She’s the most violently inclined of the Goddesses, and half of all Norse men and women who die in battle come to live in her hall in Asgard.

The pictures of Aphrodite and Isis are typical “beautiful naked Goddess,” although Freya’s clad in that ridiculous chainmail bikini. Only this time, the bikini top does not extend to cover her nipples (classic T. Catt apparel in this book, we need a name for this), and the bottom part reveals a slightly darkly discolored outline of her vagina. It’s gross, it looks like she wet herself.

Her worshipers tend to love proving themselves in martial competitions and are the most forward and strong-willed. They usually won’t have sex with someone until they prove their worth to them (usually by winning some sort of physical competition). They usually multi-class into martial roles, and are never rogues.

The ending text explains that the 3 Goddesses might not be appropriate to all campaigns, and briefly lists a bunch of names from real-world pantheons of love deities. They encourage the Gamemaster to create their own Love’s Devotions for new deities. I personally would have gone with making Devotions as broad as possible for the most common kinds of love/passion deities, but that’s just me.

Calling all board Hindus, we've got 3.X stats for Parvati! Did T. Catt thoroughly butcher her, or was his interpretation mostly accurate (I’m putting my money on the former).

Parvati is a Lawful Good goddess of love, devotion, and family. Her favored weapon is the Kukri, and her domains are Carnal, Glory, Good, Law, and Protection. She’s the supreme feminine force in the Hindu pantheon, the second consort of Shiva, the reincarnation of Sati, and the mother of Ganesha.

Parvati’s Devotions are Lion’s Rage (1/day a combined beast shape and rage spell), Wife’s Devotion (status at will), and Shared Love of Life (can transfer her own Charisma to an ally on a 1-1 basis. Her Charisma can’t be lowered to 0, and it comes back at a rate of 1/hour. Super-buff for the party Paladin/Sorcerer.

Chapter Five: Love’s Order

The opening picture is a conclave of women clad in breast-exposing threads of cloth sitting on luxurious chairs at the top of stairs to a temple. A crowd of women is gathered as one among their number ascends, presumably to bring some matter of import to the council. Although their backs are towards the viewer, I’m pretty sure that everybody in the crowd is topless as well.

This chapter’s about the Rapturous Sisterhood, the proper name of the organization. It’s a hierarchal power structure, and members can only ascend the ranks through promotion from a higher-ranked member. The chapter goes over each rank, its required class level, and its responsibilities.

Apprentices , or novitiates, are not considered true Sisters yet. They’re levels 1-7, and their most common roles are as students and doing menial chores and duties around the temple. Most apprentices live in the temples, although a few go out adventuring with a Patron Mother, or alone at the behest of the Patron (which is the most controversial option). Most apprentices who reach 8th level are automatically promoted by their Patron Mother assuming they performed to her standards. In the rare case she did not, she must multi-class into another class and leave the Sisterhood permanently. She can no longer take SoR levels from then on.

Honored Sister is the next rank, and comprise the bulk of the Sisterhood. They’re 8th level and considered true Sisters, but don’t have any other special privileges. They can also choose to leave the service of their Patron Mother and encouraged to venture out into the world on their own to spread the Sisterhood’s teachings.

Patron Mother is a title bestowed upon any Honored Sister who chooses to take an apprentice under their wing.

Divine Sisters oversee the administration of a single temple and the religious leaders of the local group. They must be 10th level and possess a knack for organization and running the affairs and upkeep of an establishment.

The Rapturous Sisterhood divides large areas of land which possess multiple temples into districts. A district has 3-10 temples (but never above this maximum), and an Honored Mother oversees all of them. They must be 13th level with levels in Cleric, and their duties including mediating disputes between temples and officiating larger-scale matters individual temples can’t handle. Twice a year, they call the Divine Sisters together to share news and exchange ideas in a 3-day event known as an ecstatic assembly. Oftentimes they’re an excuse for Sisters to engage in dance, drink, and orgies.

Divine Mothers are 15th level and relocate to the Sacred Council’s headquarters. They represent a district and their interests. When Honored Mothers cannot settle a problem within the district, the Divine Mother steps in to settle it or brings its attention to the Sacred Council. Divine Mothers are also in charge of handling applications to the Rapturous Sisterhood, and presents those she finds worthy to the Sacred Council.

The Sacred Council is the ruling body of the Sisterhood, and is comprised of 8 people: 2 for each of the three major goddesses, and the remaining 2 from separate minor goddesses. They have final say over all official policies and ratify the decisions of promotion of Sisters by superiors.


Why is the inner circle of an international organization interested in the sexual habits of new recruits?


Commune’s a 5th-level Cleric spell, meaning that it’s available to 10th-level and up Sisters of Rapture. The Sacred Council is not enjoying a unique privilege.

Oversisters are one of two ultimate leaders of one of the religious sects and at least 18th level. They often apply pressure to Divine Mothers to further their own interests. When the Sacred Council makes unanimous decision, official policy is that their decision represents the Goddesses themselves.

Self-interested leaders claiming to speak on the behalf of a deity are usually signs of hypocrisy and corruption in works of fiction, although it’s not portrayed this way. Does the Sacred Council cast Commune at every meeting? Do they summon arch-celestials to carry messages between them and the Goddesses? It’s never said one way or the other. That’s what I’d do if I were writing a D&D-style hierarchal, centralized church.

The Overmother is the highest possible rank in the Sisterhood. She represents the wills of all the Goddesses the organization serves, minor and major. An Overmother acts as an oracle/mouthpiece for the deities, and it’s left to the Sacred Council to interpret the proclamations. Yeah, sounds like a corruption-proof plan to me, fellas.

The Overmother is always chosen by her predecessor, and can be from any rank within the Sisterhood. The decision must be ratified by the Sacred Council, but they have never contested the choice due to her divine status. An Overmother holds her position for life, or until she chooses a new person.

Thoughts so far: This is the least terrible portion of the book, although the problems tend to be less weird sex stuff and more in the realm of a priesthood system just begging to be abused. I think that the deity domains overlap too much.

Next chapter, Love’s Relations, detailing monsters and antagonistic organizations!


Chapter Six: Love's Relations

This time we've got a sensibly-dressed heroine in the opening artwork, at least by the standards of this book: a skirt and blouse covering up the naughty bits. She's hiding behind a tree and wielding a sword, watching a legion of sinister-looking men in wolf hides escorting a crowd of chained and naked women away from a burning village. The dead bodies of the town's defenders are all men. This is the Congress of the Wolf, the preeminent evil organization in the sourcebook. We'll be getting to them later.

Chapter 6 covers a list of 9 new monsters, both friendly and malicious, and a new antagonistic organization. The chapter starts out by saying that the Sisters consider anyone of evil alignment to be an enemy of their order, although they don't rely just upon alignment to designate who's an enemy: generally it's anyone who oppresses people (which would generally fall under Evil) or denies free will (which would probably include a lot of the extremities of Law).

First up we've got the Passion Archon:


So a Passion Archon represent divine love and sacred bonds. They look like beautiful naked angels with golden bows and arrows. Sometimes deities of Law and Good send them out to have sex with mortals they fancy, who then relay the sensation back to the deity to avoid direct dalliances. In cultures which place great emphasis on marriage, Passion Archons enforce and uphold those bonds, acting against those who would disrespect them via adultery.

Next up we have the Beloved, which is actually a template. They're people who died as a result of the succubus' negative level drain, and their souls continue to linger in their bodies to seek out that addictive embrace once again. They travel great distances, across planes even, to find the succubus who killed them.

Their hit die changes to all d8s (instead of the normal d12), their alignment shifts to CN or CE, can sense the presence of demons within 30 feet, and their kisses bestow a geas spell on victims to help aid them in their quest. They also get a Wisdom decrease, an increase to all ability scores other than Constitution, a +4 natural armor bonus, and DR 10/Cold Iron or Good.

The next entry is the Congress of the Wolf. They're not a monster, but an organization. Basically, they're a Chaotic Evil group who believes that all women are a lesser species who should be the slaves of men, no better than labor and breeding stock. Their ways of carrying this out vary, although it regularly includes the rape, torture, and killing women who fit outside this mold, and raiding and burning down small communities and temples of female deities. They're widespread and disorganized, more akin to autonomous cells than a centralized hierarchy. Every man (and only men) who joins must take a vow. The specifics are unknown, but no known member has betrayed the organization's secrets, and captured members end up getting killed before authorities can interrogate them.

We're presented with the stat blocks and descriptions of 3 members for low, mid, and high level parties. The first guy, Cyrvrim C'Vel is an elf Ranger who sticks to the wilderness and ignores almost everyone he encounters in his domain, except for women, who he rapes, tortures, and murders at the earliest opportunity. The second guy, Rhem Rammerspike, is basically a big orc Barbarian who leads raids into communities to take women and girls to add to his harem. He likes to talk in great detail about his sexual conquests and the size of his dick. The third guy, Karl Reichart, is a human Roguer/Assassin who gets off on sneaking into the bedrooms of married couples and slitting the wifes' throats before leaving. He imagines himself to be a super-stud, but most women view him as a creepy perv.

Now I can understand the whole contrast of a blatantly misogynistic order with the Sisters. I don't really have a problem with them being relatively flat antagonists, as D&D is no stranger to such groups (devil-worshipers, the drow, slavers, et cetera), but the NPCs feel really one-dimensional and lacking in characterization, more appropriate as minions or short encounters. There's also the fact that the Sisterhood isn't very saintly itself when it comes to sexual abuse; the Congress of the Wolf is just more blatant and violent about it.

Next up is Lileetha, the Succubus Queen. She's basically a powerful demon who has an Abyssal layer. She has a beautiful palace of marble and obsidian. Inside is an endless maze full of demonic minions, and she regularly hosts orgies in the main chambers, of which attendant demons consume the souls of mortals at the end. An entire army of balors guards the palace, while the entire sub-level is dedicated to torture chambers. Also, she enjoys raping children, because apparently the torture chambers and soul-eating wasn't enough of an "ick" factor.

Her accompanying picture, of course, is a naked succubus lounging on some propped-up pillows.


She's only CR 16, but can command an army of Balors. It's not really expounded upon her relationship to the Sisters of Rapture. I get that she's supposed to be an enemy, but all we really have is a statblock and headquarters description. What do her mortal cultists do on the Material Plane, what schemes is she plotting against the Sisterhood?

Next up, the Half-Nymph template. They're the union of mortal men and nymphs, naturally. They're always women, and usually given over to elf and druidic communities to be raised.


"Dammit those teenage girls keep starting trouble by being too hot! Turnin' decent folk into creepy molesters and all that!"

Half-Nymphs get a luck bonus equal to Charisma modifier on saving throws or armor class, chosen at character creation. They also get DR 5/cold iron, +2 Dex/Int/Wis, +6 Cha, and the Dazzling Beauty (like a Nymph's Blinding Beauty, but dazed for 1 round instead of blinded).

Next up is the Huldra, a 1 hit die LA 0 race. They're fey who live in northern/Viking climates, and the women usually appear as village girls with the tail of either a fox or cow. The men are squat, ugly, and bear a closer resemblance to trolls. They tend to live a simple life of woodsmen, herders, and farmers, and are more work-oriented than most fey.

Also, the females of the species lose Charisma as they age, until they become venerable and resemble hags. This can be alleviated if they marry a male humanoid, during which their tail drops off. Divorced and widowed huldra lose these changes. This is pretty much in line with the mythical folklore.

Huldra who are female gain +2 Wisdom/Charisma and -2 Strength, males gain +2 Strength/Constitution and -2 Charisma. Both genders can cast create water, plant growth, purify food and drink, and speak with animals 1/day each as spell-like abilities.

Next monster's the Pleasure Ooze, an ooze which takes the form of a sexually desirable creature, and uses mind-inducing euphoria to compel people to have sex with it and thus drain their Wisdom for sustenance. No really.


Look at how much Wisdom it needs to eat in a day! It could depopulate a whole dungeon in a week.

The last monster in this chapter is the Venus Mantrap, a plant which lures prey by creating the illusion of a sexually attractive person in its clutches, thus compelling horny adventurers to try and free the illusory victim. This is not the creation of a mad wizard, it adapted this as a survival mechanism to feed itself in the middle of the wilderness. Sounds plausible.


That's a rather high CR for something with a slow speed and melee-only options. It could be tough for anybody unfortunate enough to get into melee with it. The Illusory Bait doesn't necessarily have to involve a helpless person being attacked by the monster, so it's not necessarily forced into one type of trap.

Thoughts so far: These are all the chapters. Overall the book was lackluster at best, tasteless at worst. The artwork's nudity is too frequent, too obvious, to be sexy most of the time. The class/feats/spells are either too situational, weak, or offensive to see use in most gaming sessions.

My recommendation: give this book a pass. Sisters of Rapture doesn't provide anything you can't get with the Book of Erotic Fantasy, which covers more ground and has less rapey vibes all over it.

We have two appendixes left: one detailing 5 write-ups of influential NPCs within the Sisterhood, the other a Prestige Class, the Nefer-Set (worshipers of Isis who bond with an arcane spellcaster).

Next time, the appendixes!

Part 4

posted by Libertad! Original SA post

Appendix One: Who's Who Among the Rapturous

So we've got 5 sample NPCs, including the Overmother and 4 Oversisters representing the 3 major goddesses and Parvati. The other 4 members of the Sacred Council are left for the DM to create for their campaign. I really don't see the need to past their stat blocks here, considering that they're not unique monsters or anything.

Theophania is the current Overmother, chosen by her biological mother who was the previous one as well. She worships Aphrodite, as did the previous 6 Overmothers. Although she does her best to hear the concerns of other sects, some Sisters are concerned at the Aphroditian sect's entrenched power structure. She's rather staid in her leadership, preferring to keep the status quo instead of doing more ambitious projects. She secretly feels alone, as she has never gotten over the death of a boy she knew as a teenager, who was killed by orcs.

Althea is the Oversister of Aphrodite. She's a half-nymph who was placed at the doorstep of a Sisterhood temple. The Sisters tried their best to find her parents, but to no avail. Althea is very religious, and splits her time between the Church of Aphrodite and the Rapturous Sisterhood. She loves to party, and can fight just as hard if pressed.

Saereid is the elven Oversister of Freya. While she was still a toddler, the Congress of the Wolf slaughtered all the adults in town and sold the children as slaves, and Saereid ended up sold to a warlord as a sex slave. Over the decades she grew to know hate, and killed him with a kitchen knife one day before escaping in the dead of night. In the wilderness she had a vision of the goddess Freya, who told her that if she let go of all her hate and embraced love she would be saved. Saereid accepted, and was eventually saved by a passing longboat of the Freyan Sisterhood.

The warlord's castle was set ablaze, the girls freed and the men slaughtered. Saereid has now joined the Sisterhood and regularly crusades against the Congress of the Wolf and other slaver groups, earning her much respect.

The aesop of the story is kind of ruined, considering that she's taking revenge against the Congress for what they did to her. Plus in this case it's entirely reasonable to hate such people.

Ninythys is the Oversister of the Isis sect and an "exotic beauty" (this is going to be a recurring theme when discussing Isis' followers). She came to join the Sisterhood at 17, which was considered a "remarkable age." Her past is unknown, of where she trained and who trained her. She has a harem of men and women who eagerly please her, and her critics remark that she pays more attention to them than the administration of the Council.

Kamala is the Oversister of Parvati. Her mother, Ahmina, was an Oversister and trained her in the Sisterhood since she "was old enough to understand the concept of love." At age 15 her mother was slain in combat and the lesser sects elected Kamala to the position of Oversister. Despite being the youngest-ever elected, she has been a skilled leader for 23 years. She's also a mother and adopted several orphaned children to raise, earning her much respect.

Thoughts: I really don't have much to add to this. The histories are very brief, and there's not much in the way of conflict or adventure hooks. Kamala is probably the most interesting character, considering that she's not defined by her sexuality (like Theophania and Ninythys) or uncomfortable subject matter (like Saereid).

Appendix Two: The Nefer-Sefet

The Nefer-Sefet, or the Companions of Isis (also described as "exotic beauties" in the text!), are Sisters who believe that the greatest way to spread their goddess' teachings is to support those who use her gift, aka arcane spellcasters. They form a bond with such a person, using their powers to enhance their spellcasting. Oftentimes such bonds take romantic overtones, but this is not a requirement.

The PrC is 10 levels long, has a d8 hit die, requires the Sisterhood class feature, 2 ranks in Diplomacy, 5 ranks in Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft, one metamagic feat, and worship Isis or a goddess with love and magic in her portfolio. They have a Medium BAB progression, an average Will Save, 2 + Int skill points per level, and full spellcasting progression.

At 1st level, a Nefer-Sefet can establish a Bond of Friendship with an arcane spellcaster with 50 gp of components and a 30 minute ritual, during which they create a pair of tokens. Once per day, the bonded arcane spellcaster can call upon this bond and receive:

Gain a +1 boost to the caster level of the next spell cast.
• Gain a bonus equal to the Nefer-Sefet’s full character level to next concentration, Knowledge (arcana) or Spellcraft check.
• Gain a bonus equal to the Nefer-Sefet’s Charisma bonus (minimum +1) to next caster level check to penetrate spell resistance.
• Treat as if 2 levels higher for 1 round when using a bardic performance, bloodline power, arcane school ability, or hex. Alternately, the spellcaster may opt to treat their familiar or eidolon as if the spellcaster were 2 levels higher for 1 round.

Both parties must be within 60 feet of each other and aware of each other's presence, and must continue having ownership of the tokens (although not on their person) in order to benefit. Which means that if the tokens are stolen, the class feature can still be used.

At 2nd, 5th, and 8th level, the Nefer-Setet gains a bonus metamagic feat.

At 3rd, 6th, and 9th, the Nefer-Setet gains Metamagic Aura, which is keyed to one metamagic feat and can be activated as a free action. As long as they remain within 30 feet of each other, the arcane spellcaster and Nefer-Setet can benefit from the feat without increasing effective spell level or caster time, and the arcane caster doesn't need to have the metamagic feat (just the Nefer-Setet) in order to use it.

Only one aura can be up at a time, but it has unlimited amount of uses per day.

Fuck, this is amazing.

At 4th level, the Nefer-Setet gains Marriage of the Mind and she and the arcane caster can sense each other's exact location up to 60 feet. Beyond that requires a concentration check and a standard action.

At 7th level, the Nefer-Setet gains Marriage of the Heart and can transfer the results of a failed saving throw or damage from her partner to herself, and she makes the roll/resistance as though it targeted her.

At 10th level, the Nefer-Setet gains Marriage of the Soul, where she can sacrifice one of her own spell slots to replenish a slot of her partner of an equal or lower spell level. Spontaneous casters get one more use back, while prepared casters gain back the use of a spell they had previously cast that day.

Thoughts: Metamagic Aura and Marriage of the Soul can make spellcasters ungodly. I would not allow it in my campaigns, as it's buffing an already powerful tier of classes.

Next time, the Rapturous Factions!


The Rapturous Faction Guide

This is a separate product written by someone other than T Catt. It was made by Shane O'Connor, one of the staff members of Drive-Thru RPG. He was so enamored of Sisters of Rapture that not only did he review and promote it on the site, he helped convert it to the Pathfinder system and made this product for it.

The guide's only 7 pages long, and uses the Faction Rules from Pathfinder Chronicles: Faction Guide. Basically, when you're part of a faction, you gain points known as Prestige Awards by performing important quests and deeds on behalf of the group. It represents a combination of goodwill, favors owed, and status. It's measured in two ways: Total Prestige Award (TPA), which is the amount of points you've ever gained, and Current Prestige Award, which represents the amount you currently have. Current Prestige Award can be spent for in-game benefits, such as goods and services.

Faction is a poor choice of words here. The 3 organizations are entirely separate entities: the Rapturous Sisterhood, the Congress of the Wolf, and the all-new Autarch Sorority, who stands opposed to both groups.

The Rapturous Sisterhood mostly goes over what we've already covered, except that the organization is Neutral Good, and they're a feminist organization which promotes equality between men and women. Their headquarters is the Temple of Eternal Love, a place so large it's a community unto itself. No men are allowed entry beyond the periphery, and none have successfully infiltrated the complex. Most women who join the Sisters of Rapture are invited in at a prepubescent age, and are majorly comprised of orphaned girls and those rescued from abusive relationships.

They gain Prestige Awards by taking levels in the SoR and related PrCs and promoting the cause of love and fighting oppression against women. Most resources and Prestige Awards revolve around divine magic and sexual services, and temples supplement their income via sex work such as bordellos and massage parlors.


Nothing too numerous or interesting.

The Congress of the Wolf is detailed, including their secret initiation ritual and how they prevent members from betraying the organization. The Congress almost always approaches a member they think is suitable material and asks them to join. The other way around is not impossible, but it rarely happens.

They have no centralized headquarters, and the initiation ritual involves the member taking a woman they personally hate and proving their sincerity by gang-raping and murdering her. He then recites an oath to never betray the Congress, which is actually a super-powerful form of the Quest spell which prevents it from being removed unwillingly (even by Wish or Miracle). Additionally, this oath allows the member to mentally commit suicide as a free action, usually in the event of imprisonment.

Members gain prestige by performing large-scale operations which result in the degradation of women, such as murdering prominent female leaders and slavery rings.


Much more benefits than the Rapturous Sisterhood and more varied. I can't see any PC making use of these things unless the groups running a FATAL-style game, given the subject matter.

The Autarch Sorority is a movement dedicated to women's liberation. Their symbol is a rose based off of the real-world Venus symbol , where the "t" part is the stem and leaves and the "o" part is a circle of red petals. They believe that their organization is the only one capable of bringing about universal positive change for women. They're basically elitists, and they have a selective process where they determine who's worthy to join. Anybody who comes up to them and asks to join is refused; they come to you.

The Sorority views the Rapturous Sisterhood's methods as "naive or ineffectual at best, counter-productive at worst" as described by the text. Out of character, they're right, especially in regards to the latter!

The Sorority is united in its goal of ending sexism against women, but is comprised of varying factions who all have their own ideas and goals on how best to achieve this. Which results in partisan politics and groups doing their own thing. Most of them want an egalitarian society, but a vocal minority argue for matriarchy or gendercide (eliminate all males!).

The organization is Lawful Neutral and largely non-violent, and bring about social change via protest, legal reform, and appointing qualified women to prominent positions in the community. Unfortunately, they favor Autarch members first and foremost.

The governing council is known as the Gynic Senate, and Senators are elected to their position. The Senate also determines who is eligible to join the Sorority. They have no headquarters, instead communicating via long-range magical communications and hidden safe spaces for meet-ups.


This last one seems only useful in peaceful communities. An evil or tyrannical ruler would send in their minions to violently disperse the protests.

Thoughts: Despite being portrayed as stuck-up elitists, I'm much more partial to the Autarch Sorority. They're a more genuine women's liberation movement than the Sisterhood, who seem more concerned with sexy-times. Hell, the Autarchs relocate abused women out of their own pocket at the behest of even new members with little political pull. The Rapturous Sisterhood takes abused girls and indoctrinates them into the order, ostensibly to grow up as apprentices and sex workers.

One of these things is not like the others
one of these things just doesn't belong
can you tell me which thing is not like the others
by the time I finish this song?

And so ends our review of the Sisters of Rapture. It's been a very scary and soul-scarring ride, but I'm finally free, freeeeeee!



I'd also like to point out that despite heavy advertisement on Drive-Thru, I was literally the first person to have written an honest review of this book. Look at what the other folks are saying about it:





The first 3 read more like cheerleaders. The feminist in the fourth one seemed to have missed all the slut-shaming, rape culture, sexualization of children, and other sick stuff.


PS The Congress of the Wolf kind of reads like a Men's Rights Redditors.