Archivist’s Codicil by Jace Claxton and Satchel Shah is a role playing game supplement published by Foul Fox for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition and Tales of the Valiant. It is therefore covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The supplement is available for free as two PDFs from DriveThruRPG. One PDF is for each game system and one page is the front cover.
The opening paragraphs explain that this is a collection of new character options inspired by a library in which have been collected fallen heroes, scholars, mages and leaders to preserve their knowledge. It explains the duties of the archivists and that four new subclasses each incorporate a unique role in shepherding the dead. It discusses these subclasses, though only one is covered in this supplement.
Way of the Pale Keeper (5E)/ Pale Keeper (ToV) is the new subclass, a monk that collects the dead and is trained in arts to animate corpses. They can infuse a corpse with a fragment of their own soul as an Undead Disciple, have this mimic their movements, transfer their consciousness to it temporarily, restore themselves to life by drawing on the essence of it and briefly animate a creature that dies nearby. These are class features that are granted as level increases.
Item: Record of the Dead is a new magic item that allows the user to check it for information on a specific topic and hain a bonus to rolls for that topic.
Archivist’s Codicil in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is short enough that they aren’t needed. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is a new subclass, though given its rather specific role within an organisation, it is limited a bit for general use. Not so much that it’s unusable, but it’s less likely a player would want to play one. Archivist’s Codicil can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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