A Year of Crunch

Many things to like such as the worshiper specific traits in the "Faiths Of" books, but I think my favorite are the animal companion/familiar archetypes in Animal Archive.

FYI, the "to the bottom" link is broken.

Paizo and the authors of the past years content need to give themselves a pat on the back. The content that has been released over the past year has added flavor to our beloved Golarion (and beyond), and excluded a lot of power creep. I buy a majority of Paizo PDFs because I enjoy reading the wonderful options you folks have created to add depth to our campaigns. Thanks for making Pathfinder my favorite game!

I think that should've said realunched in August 2012

Right now is my favorite is the feat chain that gives any character an animal companion. I've been toying with it a lot the last week or so. Finally, gunslingers can have a horse, and those fighter and monk archetypes that have mount-based abilities can have a mount that grows with them. :)

Incidentally, that feat chain was in "Faiths & Philosophies," not "Animal Archive." Granted, AA would have been a better fit, but it's best to send folks to the right place. :)

Yeah I agree with others here: I loved pretty much everything in Animal Archive, and Faiths & Philosophies making those options available to all classes is a HUGE deal.

Lots of options but the singular option I so, so, SO want to see is substitution options for wizards who don't want to have a familiar and don't want to be cursed with a bonded item either.

Please, please, please...

I haven't picked up Faiths and Philosophies (but probably will).

A question for your Intern to explore - what percentage of the new content is PFS legal? (I think most of it but I haven't tracked every player companion from before when I started my subscription)

I really like the book on the Empyreal Lords - though I did think that the various Lords had a lot of variation - and the first boon they all granted is unclear (does a player get to choose which spell like ability they cast each day or do they have to pick one of the three options when the get the boon and forgo the other two options?)

Holy Bombs for Alchemists and powerful spells of good (Burst of Radiance especially) were among my favorites. And a ton of other stuff from Champions of Purity.

Favorite? Who knows. There's so much crunch that frankly it's become tiresome to even wade through it all.

This is a bit of a back-handed compliment but this post has made me realize that Pathfinder is really, REALLY almost exclusively about crunch. The fluff, although it exists, is a distant second consideration. And that's OK as it obviously appeals to many, many people for that exact reason. I don't begrudge anyone their fun but speaking only for myself, the system is groaning under its own weight.

It has been a great year indeed for the crunch. All sorts of goodies, and i'm only just starting to devour the mythic stuff. Our group is on the last book of S&S, after I run RoW, we will be starting WotR. I am looking at 2 archetypes for my first ever Paladin.

Keep up the good work guys & gals

232 new traits? Wow. Who knew there was even design space for that many new traits, let alone page space.

My favourite option from the last year of Player's Companions is hand's down the mad dog barbarian archetype. It gives a bunch of new class features beyond the obvious (feriocious fetch has come in handy much more than I assumed it would), without taking away too many iconic abilities of the class.

My favorite option is the cavalier archetype from Animal Archive. Can't remember the name, just that I thought the houndmaster was an excellent idea ever since it came up in one of the RPG Superstar contest and was thrilled to see it in print.

Celestial Obedience. That one feat opens up so much roleplaying and character ideas - two of my PFS characters immediately found Empyreal Lords that fit in with what they are about that it was like a call from heaven.

So 2014 will be our year of Fluff?
I certainly hope so

Llama companion. Hands down.

Also Celestial Obedience.

BUT A LLAMA SHAMAN. I LOVE IT.

Chronicle of the Righteous and all the info on the Empyreal Lords has been my favorite of the year -- I have two characters who have taken Celestial Obedience and one who is working towards being a Mystery Cultist.

But that's not in the Player Companion Line, so it doesn't really answer the question.

So to talk about my favorites in the PC Line:

I use People of the North the most because I have a Winter Witch. That one also has my favorite archetypes (Witchguard & Viking).

I really like Champions of Purity (as you could guess from my Empyreal Lord love).

And while I haven't actually used it much yet, I think Faiths and Philosophies will get a lot of use.

but not all the classes can have pets...

fighter (unless you allow KQ)and gunslingers still all alone

but not all the classes can have pets...

fighter (unless you allow KQ)and gunslingers still all alone

Incorrect! you can now take the Animal Ally feat path from Faiths and Philosophies to gain an animal companion at your character level -3.

ah i dont have that one so never mind

Yup, good job Paizo Publishing! I hope to see the following in the coming months or year:

A Cavalier Archetype that replaces the Mount and mount-based abilities with stuff like battle coordination and improving the abilities of your allies even more than normal.

One or two more Cavalier Orders (like one focused on hunting undead [Order of the Shroud anyone?] or an order focusing on seamanship and defending aquatic or coastal communities [Order of the Trident perhaps?]).

An Undead Hunting Archetype that is a hell of alot better than the puny Vampire Hunter Inquisitor Archetype!

A Ninja Archetype that gives the player an Animal Companion (like the Druid) [for the Final Fantasy VI Shadow/Interceptor lovers in all of us).

And last but not least: some racial-based mythic powers! Especially for the uncommon and rare races.

While I like the product over all I really enjoyed the books tied to areas like Varisia Birth place of legend and the People of the North over the Kobold book and dungeoneer handbook. I would like to see more of a return to those like a Mendev book which should have came out during the Worldwound AP even though i love the demon hunters book.

I picked up the Kobold of Golarian at a local Con and have been loving it. Its a great mix of fluff and crunch that brings out the awesome that is the Kobold and makes me want more.

The 2 books I got the most use out of from the line are the Animal Archive and the Varisa book.

I'd like to see a return of the race books with a focus on the non-traditional ones. I'm looking at you Kitsune book!

New crunch is great but more effort is currently required into patching the rules of the game so class and feat balance is retained. If there is no balance, Pathfinder will fall apart. Either that or GMs will require numerous house rules to keep the Pathfinder rules set viable.

There has been numerous rules recommendations all over the forums. Please start considering developing a major patch to the Pathfinder rules set.

Also the Animal Archives archetypes for pets AND the Faiths and Philosophies' feat that gives anyone a Companion.

Both were a great boon for expanding the variety of character concepts that can be enjoyed in the game.

Oof, I have to pick just one?

Seriously, if there's one thing I can say about the Player Companion line, its that you've done an awesome job of making it more relevant to people like me, who dabble in Golarion (at best) and idly sit by waiting for the next big Core Rulebook line release. Some of my favorite products came out in this past year; in no particular order:

Kobolds of Golarion
Blood of the Moon
Mythic Origins
Animal Archive

If I had to pick just one new rules option as my favorite, it would have to be the animal companion / familiar archetypes. Even though the animal companion archetypes mistakenly do not account for the fact that cavalier mounts don't obtain share spells, they are a wonderful way to customize your companions and I truly hope that we see more of these in the future, especially with another major familiar class on the way. (The Shaman.)

That said, I love the new Skinwalker race and the fact that the rules options it presented did not require me to actually be a skinwalker is marvelously good. Racial restrictions on archetypes and alternate class features, in my opinion, is a retrogression back to the days of 3.5; it seldom makes sense in a world where a PC is supposed to be able to represent atypical members of society and only justifiable (in my opinion) when there is a logical explanation as to why only members of the race can take that class. (And even then, the reason isn't likely to be good.)

As for mythic options, my favorite new option was the mythic path ability that gives you a lightspeed bubble for travelling. That's super cool.

Here's to a (hopefully) awesome New Year of products!

While some of the older ones, like the Cheliax one, were really great, the line lacked a bit at some point.
The relaunch is a good thing in most parts.
Some, like the Dungeoneer´s Handbook also disapointed a bit on the crunch side (most archetypes there i would never take, also expected a lot more rogue stuff in there! Good rogue stuff!).

Faiths and Philosophies, Champions of Purity, Animal Archive and People from the North were definately great though.

I especially love it, if there is not only cool and useful crunch, but when it is also connected and rooted in the world and the fluff therefore helping players to create color- and flavorfull characters.

Unfortunately 8 alchemist discoveries are a bit much though, compared to 0 rogue talents. The backup classes receive is a too much shifted in a certain direction. Exclusive rogue/ninja stuff and additions to existing oracle mysteries that can replace the weaker stuff there no one wants would be a very good thing.

Does somebody know ho many fighters only feat were released?

Does somebody know ho many fighters only feat were released?

I personally haven't seen many, but feats don't need to be fighter only to be good options. The fact that fighters can include obscure feats in their builds because they get so many is one of the biggest bonuses of being a fighter.

Nicos wrote:

Does somebody know ho many fighters only feat were released?

I personally haven't seen many, but feats don't need to be fighter only to be good options. The fact that fighters can include obscure feats in their builds because they get so many is one of the biggest bonuses of being a fighter.

Well, if the other classes only feat are generally stronger than feats then there is a problem IMHO. Like the ones that gives extra rage powers, arcanas, discoveries, misteries etc.

But I am happy to discover that there is afeat that let you have an animal companion, mounted fighters are finally viable.