Note: I don't have a huge familiarity with balance when it comes to what is "balanced" or not. I've got some basic experience using 3rd party material and have bought/read through quite a bit.
This pdf is 11 pages long, specifically covering a race of dinosaur humanoids called Saurians.
It begins with a bit of fluff on why people like, or rather, are fascinated by reptiles overall. Specifically, the king of the repitles, the dinosaurs are focused here.
Saurians are an ancient race. There's a small line that I love about how when even during the creation of the new races, the saurians were already "old". They've lived through the catastrophes that end worlds, and continue on. They are a proud people, but also an out of touch people with the modern world. They keep their ancient ways if possible, clinging onto traditions that still remain.
Their personalities are generally calm, unhurried like the modern world, but when they act, they strike quickly and powerfully. They are friendly, eager to help out when possible, but also a bit reserved, and even stubborn.
Traits: They receive a +2 to Strength, +2 to Wisdom, and a -2 to Charisma. They are strong, wise, but a bit aloof. They gain a natural bite attack, have dark vision, favored terrain similar to the ranger's ability in terms of ignoring natural difficult terrain (not magical though!). They also have an ability that I really like, if for the fluff, called stability: receiving a +4 to CMD for resisting bull rush and trips while grounded. Akin to their reptilian cousins, they are cold blooded and take some minor penalties while in the cold.
Nothing too surprising here, all pretty basic stuff. It does seem very fitting for what their description earlier is too. They are strong, even able to stand their ground against much tougher creatures, but also not great at handling certain social situations.
For alternate traits, they gain a +5 against sense motive but lose the terrain bonuses. They exchange the ability to stand their ground in order to reroll a bull rush check once per day. They can also replace their stability for the ability to take a hit for an ally instead. All in all, some cool thematic abilities here that I like.
There are additional favored class options here for a large amount of the pathfinder base classes. Not going to go over them, but they all seem pretty cool. I'm always down for more options.
There's also a decent chunk of feats here too. Again, there's a decent chunk of variety: becoming amphibious and gaining +10 to swim, to being able to eat rotten foods and gaining some poison resistance, entering a semi-barbarian rage, or being able to fight well against other saurians. Nothing too gamebreaking overall here I'd say.
The next section covers armors and various "ancient" items. From the Beak Axe, which is like an axe, but the head is shaped like the beak of a bird to ancient style bone armor, there's some good stuff here. Again, very fitting for the ancient theme they've got. Makes me really want to run a Saurian style druid that focuses on channeling the spirits of their ancestors overall.
The next section covers magical items, but again, I'm not great when it comes to understanding what would be considered balanced here or not. The section covers 4 items in total: Boots of the Raptor (increase your movespeed by a large amount and also can be activated for offensive bonuses), the Crown with a Fossilized Eye (gain sight through a special gem), Collar of Beast Speech (enables your animals to speak, but doesn't improve their INT), and the Dinosaur Shield (a shield that can animate and also bite enemies).
The final section covers ancient ancestries. These replace the racial abilities in order to become similar to a specific breed of dinosaur. Again, lots of options here that all look pretty cool and interesting.
Conclusion:
In the reading I did, I didn't notice any big typos or any glitches. The imagery and art here were really good too, and was incredibly evocative of that ancient theme they've got going on. The race themselves have a pretty unique history that I definitely plan on using in a campaign.
I'm entirely happy with what I found in the book. There's a sizable chunk of options when it comes to how you want to make your Saurian; from their stats, to their heritages, to their class bonuses. Al lin all there's a lot of stuff to choose from, which as someone who was a player for many years is something I appreciate.
With that in mind, I give it a 5 out of 5. Nothing really detracted from what I saw and read, and it seems rather well thought-out that provides a good amount of options to customize your character.
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