paizo.com Recent Reviews by Cyradpaizo.com Recent Reviews by Cyrad2024-03-18T23:22:42Z2024-03-18T23:22:42ZPathfinder Guns & Gears: Exceeded my expectations (5 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btq029xk?Pathfinder-Guns-Gears2021-12-14T02:50:37Z<p><b>Pathfinder Guns & Gears</b></p><p>This book exceeded my expectations. Not only are the new classes great, but also the book had many fun surprises. The mechanics are well implemented for many of the odd options, such as gunblades and the new automaton ancestry. Usually niche/gimmick options like this are clunky in games, but Guns and Gears implements them extremely well.</p>
<p>My biggest nitpick is that some of the archetypes miss the mark. The spellshot class archetype is disappointing as it feels like it should have been a gunslinger way. Beastguns are wicked cool, but there's so few of them in the book that it would be difficult for any player to build a character around them.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Guns & Gears</b></p><p>This book exceeded my expectations. Not only are the new classes great, but also the book had many fun surprises. The mechanics are well implemented for many of the odd options, such as gunblades and the new automaton ancestry. Usually niche/gimmick options like this are clunky in games, but Guns and Gears implements them extremely well.</p>
<p>My biggest nitpick is that some of the archetypes miss the mark. The spellshot class archetype is disappointing as it feels like it should have been a gunslinger way. Beastguns are wicked cool, but there's so few of them in the book that it would be difficult for any player to build a character around them.</p>Cyrad2021-12-14T02:50:37ZPathfinder Tales: Lord of Runes: Liked it the more I listened (4 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9ezw?Pathfinder-Tales-Lord-of-Runes2020-11-17T12:20:30Z<p><b>Pathfinder Tales: Lord of Runes</b></p><p>I listened to the audio book on Audible as my first Pathfinder Tales listen.</p>
<p>At first, the novel rubbed me the wrong way. The plot takes a long time to really get going, and the author begins the book by throwing tons of exposition, names, and terms at you. This feels like it accomplishes nothing other than the author trying to show off their lore knowledge (even though they get a few details wrong). Someone unfamiliar with the setting would feel lost or confused. For someone familiar with the setting, it feels pointless and patronizing.</p>
<p>However, the longer the book goes, the more interesting it gets. Most of the characters are quite likeable, and I grew to enjoy the main duo.</p>
<p>However, one of the main characters is absolutely insufferable with few admirable qualities and don't really serve much purpose in the story. The book also makes a really massive revelation that makes absolutely no sense and does nothing but make the main character feel more like a Mary Sue.</p>
<p>Despite these misgivings, I enjoyed Lord of Runes.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Tales: Lord of Runes</b></p><p>I listened to the audio book on Audible as my first Pathfinder Tales listen.</p>
<p>At first, the novel rubbed me the wrong way. The plot takes a long time to really get going, and the author begins the book by throwing tons of exposition, names, and terms at you. This feels like it accomplishes nothing other than the author trying to show off their lore knowledge (even though they get a few details wrong). Someone unfamiliar with the setting would feel lost or confused. For someone familiar with the setting, it feels pointless and patronizing.</p>
<p>However, the longer the book goes, the more interesting it gets. Most of the characters are quite likeable, and I grew to enjoy the main duo.</p>
<p>However, one of the main characters is absolutely insufferable with few admirable qualities and don't really serve much purpose in the story. The book also makes a really massive revelation that makes absolutely no sense and does nothing but make the main character feel more like a Mary Sue.</p>
<p>Despite these misgivings, I enjoyed Lord of Runes.</p>Cyrad2020-11-17T12:20:30ZStarfinder Society Scenario #3-01: Crash Down: Great premise. Bland survival adventure marred by a pointless mechanic. (2 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btq023hb?Starfinder-Society-Scenario-301-Crash-Down2020-11-08T20:16:09Z<p><b>Starfinder Society Scenario #3-01: Crash Down</b></p><p>The premise of this adventure interested me as it touches on a subject I'm surprised to not have seen already: the characters getting marooned on a hostile alien planet. A very cool concept that entire movies and video games have been based on.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the scenario ended up being an example of how NOT to design and run a survival adventure. It's ultimately just a bland adventure with only one encounter that's actually challenging or interesting.
<br />
[Spoiler omitted]</p><p><b>Starfinder Society Scenario #3-01: Crash Down</b></p><p>The premise of this adventure interested me as it touches on a subject I'm surprised to not have seen already: the characters getting marooned on a hostile alien planet. A very cool concept that entire movies and video games have been based on.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the scenario ended up being an example of how NOT to design and run a survival adventure. It's ultimately just a bland adventure with only one encounter that's actually challenging or interesting.
<br />
[Spoiler omitted]</p>Cyrad2020-11-08T20:16:09ZStarfinder Society Scenario #2-09: Bluerise Breakout: Worst Starfinder scenario I've ever played (1 star)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btq021cg?Starfinder-Society-Scenario-209-Bluerise-Breakout2020-02-02T18:37:48Z<p><b>Starfinder Society Scenario #2-09: Bluerise Breakout</b></p><p>The premise of this scenario presents an interesting situation that would make for a highly memorable adventure for Starfinder. Unfortunately, it's marred by shockingly poor execution.</p>
<p>It's not just simply hard. At best, the scenario is a boring slog with a single, dreadfully long combat encounter that puts PCs in an unfair situation and takes away all elements that could make it fun.</p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p><p><b>Starfinder Society Scenario #2-09: Bluerise Breakout</b></p><p>The premise of this scenario presents an interesting situation that would make for a highly memorable adventure for Starfinder. Unfortunately, it's marred by shockingly poor execution.</p>
<p>It's not just simply hard. At best, the scenario is a boring slog with a single, dreadfully long combat encounter that puts PCs in an unfair situation and takes away all elements that could make it fun.</p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>Cyrad2020-02-02T18:37:48ZPathfinder Society Scenario #1-04: Bandits of Immenwood: Good premise ruined by poor design decisions (2 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btq0217k?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-104-Bandits-of-Immenwood2019-10-13T04:56:14Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-04: Bandits of Immenwood</b></p><p>The scenario presents an intriguing mystery in a series of encounters involving the protection of a wagon. While some of the encounters are creative, the interesting premise is marred by:</p>
<p>1) Lack of variety of encounters. The entire scenario is just a linear sequence of combats that gets tiring very quickly.</p>
<p>2) The mystery neither develops nor provides ways for PCs to interact with it. Even characters with special abilities relevant to the mystery and the encounters will find their expertise completely useless as the scenario does nothing to let such characters use their background and skills to solve the mystery.</p>
<p>3) The plot is nonexistent with the "answer" coming out of nowhere because of points #1 and #2 above.</p>
<p>4) The final encounter is a boring, unfair slog. One of the worst I've seen in society.</p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>A huge disappointment.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-04: Bandits of Immenwood</b></p><p>The scenario presents an intriguing mystery in a series of encounters involving the protection of a wagon. While some of the encounters are creative, the interesting premise is marred by:</p>
<p>1) Lack of variety of encounters. The entire scenario is just a linear sequence of combats that gets tiring very quickly.</p>
<p>2) The mystery neither develops nor provides ways for PCs to interact with it. Even characters with special abilities relevant to the mystery and the encounters will find their expertise completely useless as the scenario does nothing to let such characters use their background and skills to solve the mystery.</p>
<p>3) The plot is nonexistent with the "answer" coming out of nowhere because of points #1 and #2 above.</p>
<p>4) The final encounter is a boring, unfair slog. One of the worst I've seen in society.</p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>A huge disappointment.</p>Cyrad2019-10-13T04:56:14ZPathfinder Society Scenario #1-00: Origin of the Open Road: Insufferably boring and unfair (1 star)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btq01zna?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-100-Origin-of-the-Open-Road2019-10-12T12:23:56Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-00: Origin of the Open Road</b></p><p>This would be a middling adventure if not for the fact you're shoehorned into playing poorly designed pregens against threats that directly counter your character's main contribution to fight. Most of the encounters have enemies that leave half the party useless. This results in encounters that take forever to resolve. I literally fell asleep at the table because it took 10 minutes for my turn to come up only for me to just Step into flanking and end my turn since my character had no chance to hurt any enemies. The plot is also fairly uninteresting and disjointed.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-00: Origin of the Open Road</b></p><p>This would be a middling adventure if not for the fact you're shoehorned into playing poorly designed pregens against threats that directly counter your character's main contribution to fight. Most of the encounters have enemies that leave half the party useless. This results in encounters that take forever to resolve. I literally fell asleep at the table because it took 10 minutes for my turn to come up only for me to just Step into flanking and end my turn since my character had no chance to hurt any enemies. The plot is also fairly uninteresting and disjointed.</p>Cyrad2019-10-12T12:23:56ZPathfinder Society Scenario #7–13: Captive in Crystal (PFRPG) PDF: Great adventure from Monica Marlowe. (4 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9hh0?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-7-13-Captive-in-Crystal2019-05-25T22:58:42Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–13: Captive in Crystal (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>An interesting adventure with decent lore and combat encounters involving situations and creatures with unusual tactics. My only complaint is that it's very easy for players to miss important details.</p>
<p>Look forward to see more from RPG Superstar Monica Marlowe!</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–13: Captive in Crystal (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>An interesting adventure with decent lore and combat encounters involving situations and creatures with unusual tactics. My only complaint is that it's very easy for players to miss important details.</p>
<p>Look forward to see more from RPG Superstar Monica Marlowe!</p>Cyrad2019-05-25T22:58:42ZPathfinder Society Scenario #10-14: Debt to the Quah: Solid adventure with a variety of encounters. (4 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btq01wlm?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-1014-Debt-to-the-Quah2019-03-28T14:11:01Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-14: Debt to the Quah</b></p><p>Debt to the Quah has an interesting premise where your fellow Pathfinder has done the stereotypical Pathfinder action of raiding a tomb that the local tribes considered sacred. It's a fun deconstruction of the society that every character will probably have a different reaction to. The scenario is split into two parts. The first section requires the PCs to convince a council of Shoanti to let them fix the rogue Pathfinder's mistakes. This uses an abridged version of the influence rules from Ultimate Intrigue (thankfully provided at the end of the scenario). If you played/ran Solistice Scar, then you know what to expect here. The second part of the scenario involves a dungeoncrawl where the PCs have to restore (instead of plunder) a tomb.</p>
<p>The scenario's greatest strength lies with variety and quality of encounters. There are social encounters. There are puzzles. There are traps. There is combat with unique monsters possessing rather interesting special abilities. The players particularly enjoyed the last fight despite it becoming a slog for a 4-man party. The scenario also has the best designed haunts I've ever seen in a module. Other authors should take note from this scenario on how to write fun and interesting haunts, instead of haunts that are merely hazards that cannot be interacted with unless you're a cleric or a psychic class.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the scenario is not without its flaws. I encountered the following issues when running this scenario.
<br />
[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>Otherwise, this is a pretty solid adventure. I actually hope to see more adventures about this rogue Pathfinder.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-14: Debt to the Quah</b></p><p>Debt to the Quah has an interesting premise where your fellow Pathfinder has done the stereotypical Pathfinder action of raiding a tomb that the local tribes considered sacred. It's a fun deconstruction of the society that every character will probably have a different reaction to. The scenario is split into two parts. The first section requires the PCs to convince a council of Shoanti to let them fix the rogue Pathfinder's mistakes. This uses an abridged version of the influence rules from Ultimate Intrigue (thankfully provided at the end of the scenario). If you played/ran Solistice Scar, then you know what to expect here. The second part of the scenario involves a dungeoncrawl where the PCs have to restore (instead of plunder) a tomb.</p>
<p>The scenario's greatest strength lies with variety and quality of encounters. There are social encounters. There are puzzles. There are traps. There is combat with unique monsters possessing rather interesting special abilities. The players particularly enjoyed the last fight despite it becoming a slog for a 4-man party. The scenario also has the best designed haunts I've ever seen in a module. Other authors should take note from this scenario on how to write fun and interesting haunts, instead of haunts that are merely hazards that cannot be interacted with unless you're a cleric or a psychic class.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the scenario is not without its flaws. I encountered the following issues when running this scenario.
<br />
[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>Otherwise, this is a pretty solid adventure. I actually hope to see more adventures about this rogue Pathfinder.</p>Cyrad2019-03-28T14:11:01ZStarfinder Alien Archive 2: A must have for any GM and most players. (5 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpya20r?Starfinder-Alien-Archive-22018-10-17T18:42:30Z<p><b>Starfinder Alien Archive 2</b></p><p>One of the genius things about Starfinder is that it offers systems that make it easy and fun for Game Masters to create customized creatures. Alien Archive gave us the graft system similar (but infinitely simpler) to Pathfinder's template system that allowed the GM to create unique creatures by attaching simple flavorful bundles of abilities to generic stat blocks. Alien Archive 2 continues this by giving us much needed ways to create any animal creature we need using the Herd Animal and Predator Animal creatures and the environment grafts.</p>
<p>Alien Archive 2 also gives many awesome creatures to build stories around, including a Motherbrain-like ooze that controls starships, powerful guardian fey born from a dying planet, the adorable squox (with a feat to have one as a companion) and old favorites such as metallic dragons and Colors out of Space. We also got races, including aasimar and tieflings (now combined into a single race with different statistics). While we don't have catfolk, we do get new races, including bear people, cat people, and a really neat race of space wolf people that can give Resolve Points to allies. I did wish we got kitsune, especially when this book also (finally) introduces polymorph rules.</p>
<p>Speaking of polymorph rules, they were the reason I picked up the volume as shapeshifting is one of my favorite tropes in fantasy and science fiction. The volume did not disappoint. At a glance, the polymorph rules seem complicated, but they're quite easy to understand and remember. The rules are well thought out and give both GMs and players a sense of customization and agency that Pathfinder, 5th Edition D&D, and even the current iteration of Pathfinder Playtest failed to capture. While some may get turned off by the rules, I really appreciate the amount of work that went into them. Especially polymorphing could have easily been glossed over.</p>
<p>Polymorphing gives you a set of rules to create a form, allowing you to select a creature type and abilities. When you learn the polymorph spell (level 1-6 for both mystics and technomancers), you create four forms with limitations based on the spell level. When casting, you select one of the forms to transform your target into.</p>
<p>Baleful polymorph (also a 1-6 spell) works completely different from Pathfinder and instead gives the target cosmetic features, a penalty to many statistics, and possibly changes their size. If cast as a level 2 spell or higher, the penalty gets worse unless they succeed at an additional saving throw each round as the transformation progresses. At 3rd level, the spell becomes permanent if the penalty progresses too far. At 5th level, the spell can transform the target into a helpless critter when the penalty progresses too far. At 6th level, the spell can permanently transform the target into a helpless creature. Overall, I like this. While no longer the classic save-or-die spell, it makes the spell more cinematic. Though, it is a shame you can't change a creature into a new race, such as teaching that ysoki a lesson by turning him into a barathu.</p>
<p>As much as I love the polymorph rules, there are a few issues that hinder the fun. The biggest issue is that a form's natural weapons use a pre-determined attack bonus based on your level that completely ignores your base attack bonus, ability scores, and any buffs. This bonus equals to 1.5 times your level with a maximum equal to 3 times the spell level. While the weapon does scale in damage, the math means that the natural weapon's attack bonus will always be significantly lower than your normal attack bonus, making the natural weapon essentially useless. However, there seems to be an intentional loophole around this. The polymorph spell allows you to select a limited number of racial traits, which can be any trait from a player race that doesn't involve equipment. You can select one of the many natural weapon racial traits (such as the Vesk's). The best part is that you don't necessarily have to make the form look the race to gain their trait. Go nuts turning yourself into the ultimate chimera!</p>
<p>However, I still wish that there was a way to make polymorph last longer. There's currently no way polymorph someone into a form for more than 1 minute per level. You don't even have the option to cast polymorph with a higher duration at the cost of a lower level effect.</p>
<p>Overall, Alien Archive 2 is a great addition to Starfinder. It gives us plenty of fun creatures and the much needed way to create wildlife without having a seperate statblock for every animal in the universe. It introduces or brings back races that will easily attract players. A lot of effort went into the polymorph rules, something needed in a game with magic, science, and gods dedicated to evolution. While the rules feel a tad bloated and a little rough around the edges, it does a great job giving players and GMs a level of agency and creativity not seen in other games. A must have for any GM and most players.</p><p><b>Starfinder Alien Archive 2</b></p><p>One of the genius things about Starfinder is that it offers systems that make it easy and fun for Game Masters to create customized creatures. Alien Archive gave us the graft system similar (but infinitely simpler) to Pathfinder's template system that allowed the GM to create unique creatures by attaching simple flavorful bundles of abilities to generic stat blocks. Alien Archive 2 continues this by giving us much needed ways to create any animal creature we need using the Herd Animal and Predator Animal creatures and the environment grafts.</p>
<p>Alien Archive 2 also gives many awesome creatures to build stories around, including a Motherbrain-like ooze that controls starships, powerful guardian fey born from a dying planet, the adorable squox (with a feat to have one as a companion) and old favorites such as metallic dragons and Colors out of Space. We also got races, including aasimar and tieflings (now combined into a single race with different statistics). While we don't have catfolk, we do get new races, including bear people, cat people, and a really neat race of space wolf people that can give Resolve Points to allies. I did wish we got kitsune, especially when this book also (finally) introduces polymorph rules.</p>
<p>Speaking of polymorph rules, they were the reason I picked up the volume as shapeshifting is one of my favorite tropes in fantasy and science fiction. The volume did not disappoint. At a glance, the polymorph rules seem complicated, but they're quite easy to understand and remember. The rules are well thought out and give both GMs and players a sense of customization and agency that Pathfinder, 5th Edition D&D, and even the current iteration of Pathfinder Playtest failed to capture. While some may get turned off by the rules, I really appreciate the amount of work that went into them. Especially polymorphing could have easily been glossed over.</p>
<p>Polymorphing gives you a set of rules to create a form, allowing you to select a creature type and abilities. When you learn the polymorph spell (level 1-6 for both mystics and technomancers), you create four forms with limitations based on the spell level. When casting, you select one of the forms to transform your target into.</p>
<p>Baleful polymorph (also a 1-6 spell) works completely different from Pathfinder and instead gives the target cosmetic features, a penalty to many statistics, and possibly changes their size. If cast as a level 2 spell or higher, the penalty gets worse unless they succeed at an additional saving throw each round as the transformation progresses. At 3rd level, the spell becomes permanent if the penalty progresses too far. At 5th level, the spell can transform the target into a helpless critter when the penalty progresses too far. At 6th level, the spell can permanently transform the target into a helpless creature. Overall, I like this. While no longer the classic save-or-die spell, it makes the spell more cinematic. Though, it is a shame you can't change a creature into a new race, such as teaching that ysoki a lesson by turning him into a barathu.</p>
<p>As much as I love the polymorph rules, there are a few issues that hinder the fun. The biggest issue is that a form's natural weapons use a pre-determined attack bonus based on your level that completely ignores your base attack bonus, ability scores, and any buffs. This bonus equals to 1.5 times your level with a maximum equal to 3 times the spell level. While the weapon does scale in damage, the math means that the natural weapon's attack bonus will always be significantly lower than your normal attack bonus, making the natural weapon essentially useless. However, there seems to be an intentional loophole around this. The polymorph spell allows you to select a limited number of racial traits, which can be any trait from a player race that doesn't involve equipment. You can select one of the many natural weapon racial traits (such as the Vesk's). The best part is that you don't necessarily have to make the form look the race to gain their trait. Go nuts turning yourself into the ultimate chimera!</p>
<p>However, I still wish that there was a way to make polymorph last longer. There's currently no way polymorph someone into a form for more than 1 minute per level. You don't even have the option to cast polymorph with a higher duration at the cost of a lower level effect.</p>
<p>Overall, Alien Archive 2 is a great addition to Starfinder. It gives us plenty of fun creatures and the much needed way to create wildlife without having a seperate statblock for every animal in the universe. It introduces or brings back races that will easily attract players. A lot of effort went into the polymorph rules, something needed in a game with magic, science, and gods dedicated to evolution. While the rules feel a tad bloated and a little rough around the edges, it does a great job giving players and GMs a level of agency and creativity not seen in other games. A must have for any GM and most players.</p>Cyrad2018-10-17T18:42:30ZPathfinder Society Scenario #10-03: Death On The Ice: Miserable (2 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btq01zso?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-1003-Death-On-The-Ice2018-09-29T08:19:05Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-03: Death On The Ice</b></p><p>Playing this scenario resulted in one of the most miserable experiences I had in PFS. And because the four-player adjustments felt non-existant, it almost resulted in a TPK twice and someone almost dying in every encounter. The explanation below doesn't reveal anything about the plot but does provide some tactical information about the encounters.</p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>Overall, it was not a fun scenario. The encounters were poorly balanced for a low tier party of four. The roleplaying seemed shockingly minimal for a scenario that's supposed to have plenty of lore behind it. It has a potentially lethal "gotcha" moment. And the final encounter can easily railroad you into an unwinnable situation. The only reason I don't give this 1-star is because I strongly suspected the GM wasn't effectively bringing out the best in the scenario.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-03: Death On The Ice</b></p><p>Playing this scenario resulted in one of the most miserable experiences I had in PFS. And because the four-player adjustments felt non-existant, it almost resulted in a TPK twice and someone almost dying in every encounter. The explanation below doesn't reveal anything about the plot but does provide some tactical information about the encounters.</p>
<p>[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>Overall, it was not a fun scenario. The encounters were poorly balanced for a low tier party of four. The roleplaying seemed shockingly minimal for a scenario that's supposed to have plenty of lore behind it. It has a potentially lethal "gotcha" moment. And the final encounter can easily railroad you into an unwinnable situation. The only reason I don't give this 1-star is because I strongly suspected the GM wasn't effectively bringing out the best in the scenario.</p>Cyrad2018-09-29T08:19:05ZCombat Tiers Base Set: Not useful (2 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9u75?Combat-Tiers-Base-Set2018-04-22T22:20:27Z<p><b>Combat Tiers Base Set</b></p><p>I purchased a set last Gen Con. After trying to use them, I found them way too clunky to use since you have to pick up all the miniatures to lay down the massive base. On top of that, they have a tendency to tip over, they're not very portable, and they're expensive. The only time they're useful is when the GM has a large flock of flying enemies.</p>
<p>Other times, you're better off using Chessex dice containers or flying miniature standees you can buy off of Amazon.</p><p><b>Combat Tiers Base Set</b></p><p>I purchased a set last Gen Con. After trying to use them, I found them way too clunky to use since you have to pick up all the miniatures to lay down the massive base. On top of that, they have a tendency to tip over, they're not very portable, and they're expensive. The only time they're useful is when the GM has a large flock of flying enemies.</p>
<p>Other times, you're better off using Chessex dice containers or flying miniature standees you can buy off of Amazon.</p>Cyrad2018-04-22T22:20:27ZPathfinder Player Companion: Elemental Master's Handbook (PFRPG): Great options, need more kineticist (4 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9uf8?Pathfinder-Player-Companion-Elemental-Masters-Handbook2017-11-26T15:40:14Z<p><b>Pathfinder Player Companion: Elemental Master's Handbook (PFRPG)</b></p><p>This book is full of crunchy, interesting options, including options to "cyborg" yourself with elemental matter. Almost all of them are pretty well written and worth considering.</p>
<p>However, I have to remove one star from the lack of kineticist options. The community has a large demand for more kineticist talents. Many elements have a crippling lack of talents at various levels, and people hoped this volume would help solve that. Unfortunately, the book only got two pages of content.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Player Companion: Elemental Master's Handbook (PFRPG)</b></p><p>This book is full of crunchy, interesting options, including options to "cyborg" yourself with elemental matter. Almost all of them are pretty well written and worth considering.</p>
<p>However, I have to remove one star from the lack of kineticist options. The community has a large demand for more kineticist talents. Many elements have a crippling lack of talents at various levels, and people hoped this volume would help solve that. Unfortunately, the book only got two pages of content.</p>Cyrad2017-11-26T15:40:14ZPathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes Set #7: Best of the series (5 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9u0z?Pathfinder-Battles-Iconic-Heroes-Set-72017-11-14T19:01:50Z<p><b>Pathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes Set #7</b></p><p>This is definitely the best Iconic Heroes product in the series. Every figure has lots of detail honoring Wayne Reynolds's design of the iconic characters. The medium's scarf is patterned while his cards have been painted to look like they're a fan of cards. The occultist has tons of painted items all over his person. The spiritualist's translucent phantom looks absolutely amazing. And of course, the kineticist has her owlbear plushie Gom Gom.</p>
<p>I was surprised to see there's no PFACG cards with the set, but not a deal breaker. It's among the best pre-painted miniatures I've seen.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes Set #7</b></p><p>This is definitely the best Iconic Heroes product in the series. Every figure has lots of detail honoring Wayne Reynolds's design of the iconic characters. The medium's scarf is patterned while his cards have been painted to look like they're a fan of cards. The occultist has tons of painted items all over his person. The spiritualist's translucent phantom looks absolutely amazing. And of course, the kineticist has her owlbear plushie Gom Gom.</p>
<p>I was surprised to see there's no PFACG cards with the set, but not a deal breaker. It's among the best pre-painted miniatures I've seen.</p>Cyrad2017-11-14T19:01:50ZPathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons (PFRPG) PDF: Fun Investigation Scenario (4 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9tlb?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-902-A-Case-of-Missing-Persons2017-10-15T16:23:57Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>Awesome scenario. It gets a little hard to follow, but it had one of the most insane plot twists ever.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>Awesome scenario. It gets a little hard to follow, but it had one of the most insane plot twists ever.</p>Cyrad2017-10-15T16:23:57ZPathfinder Society Scenario #9-01: The Cost of Enlightenment (PFRPG) PDF: Pretentious (2 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9tla?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-901-The-Cost-of-Enlightenment2017-10-07T22:17:50Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-01: The Cost of Enlightenment (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>A promising premise marred by...</p>
<p>1. Overly pretentious philosophy running on circular logic and self-created contradictions that makes you feel railroaded into agreeing with a belief that makes no sense
<br />
2. A quiz encounter where the hours you spent on investigation feel meaningless
<br />
3. A pointless combat encounter that easily one-shots 1st level characters, and
<br />
4. Terrible map design where maps are drawn diagonally for absolutely no reason with tons of wasted space.</p>
<p>If my GM hadn't soldiered through this like a champ, this would have been miserable. Instead, I just feel neutral with a hint of disappointment.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-01: The Cost of Enlightenment (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>A promising premise marred by...</p>
<p>1. Overly pretentious philosophy running on circular logic and self-created contradictions that makes you feel railroaded into agreeing with a belief that makes no sense
<br />
2. A quiz encounter where the hours you spent on investigation feel meaningless
<br />
3. A pointless combat encounter that easily one-shots 1st level characters, and
<br />
4. Terrible map design where maps are drawn diagonally for absolutely no reason with tons of wasted space.</p>
<p>If my GM hadn't soldiered through this like a champ, this would have been miserable. Instead, I just feel neutral with a hint of disappointment.</p>Cyrad2017-10-07T22:17:50ZPathfinder Society Scenario #9-00: Assault on Absalom (PFRPG) PDF: Best special I played (5 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9tld?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-900-Assault-on-Absalom2017-08-31T19:42:29Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-00: Assault on Absalom (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>Mikko Kallio did not disappoint with this awesome multi-table special that really captures the essence of the new season with uniting the factions together to cooperate and help one another. The challenges have a surprising amount of variety, which differs from my experiences with other specials. The challenges were creative and fun!</p>
<p>The scenario debuted at Gen Con with an issue related how boon rewards were granted, but the PFS team has since amended what is otherwise an excellent adventure!</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-00: Assault on Absalom (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>Mikko Kallio did not disappoint with this awesome multi-table special that really captures the essence of the new season with uniting the factions together to cooperate and help one another. The challenges have a surprising amount of variety, which differs from my experiences with other specials. The challenges were creative and fun!</p>
<p>The scenario debuted at Gen Con with an issue related how boon rewards were granted, but the PFS team has since amended what is otherwise an excellent adventure!</p>Cyrad2017-08-31T19:42:29ZPathfinder Adventure Card Game: Summoner Class Deck: Best class deck I ever bought (4 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9mbi?Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-Summoner-Class-Deck2017-04-09T17:02:00Z<p><b>Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Summoner Class Deck</b></p><p>This is the first time I bought a class deck where I liked all three characters. Each one had an interesting play style on top of living up to the game mechanics that make the summoner break the mold. I bought this deck with low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>However, I have to give this only four-stars because the deck doesn't come with enough blessings and other basic cards to create a full deck for some of the characters. While I'm not crazy about paying money for common duplicates, class decks are a product series marketed as a stand-alone card pool for your character decks — which is mandatory for organized play. You can't market a product like this and then force me to borrow components from the base set.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Summoner Class Deck</b></p><p>This is the first time I bought a class deck where I liked all three characters. Each one had an interesting play style on top of living up to the game mechanics that make the summoner break the mold. I bought this deck with low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>However, I have to give this only four-stars because the deck doesn't come with enough blessings and other basic cards to create a full deck for some of the characters. While I'm not crazy about paying money for common duplicates, class decks are a product series marketed as a stand-alone card pool for your character decks — which is mandatory for organized play. You can't market a product like this and then force me to borrow components from the base set.</p>Cyrad2017-04-09T17:02:00ZRhune—The Gun Priest: The Blessed of Velash (PFRPG) PDF: A bit of a misfire (3 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9ci8?Rhune-The-Gun-Priest-The-Blessed-of-Velash2016-11-29T10:58:22Z<p><b>Rhune—The Gun Priest: The Blessed of Velash (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I was disappointed in the class. I love the lore and flavor. The production values are awesome with a beautiful PDF filled with cool illustrations. However, the class just feels really bland. It's basically just a warpriest with a gun. Honestly, I think it would have worked better as an archetype since the class seems to lack unique class features. I'm not a fan of the feats. Most feel too way too strong or have abuse cases. For some reason, the PDF includes a revised version of Gunsmithing that requires you to have to make Craft checks for ammunition.</p>
<p>That being said, it is a solid class that's cleanly written (other than ordering the class features wrong). And as I said, the PDF looks absolutely stunning and the illustrations of cool fantasy guns almost makes the product worth checking out. Though, with all the cool illustrations of gunblades, it does feel disappointing there's no option for gunblade-wielding priest.</p><p><b>Rhune—The Gun Priest: The Blessed of Velash (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I was disappointed in the class. I love the lore and flavor. The production values are awesome with a beautiful PDF filled with cool illustrations. However, the class just feels really bland. It's basically just a warpriest with a gun. Honestly, I think it would have worked better as an archetype since the class seems to lack unique class features. I'm not a fan of the feats. Most feel too way too strong or have abuse cases. For some reason, the PDF includes a revised version of Gunsmithing that requires you to have to make Craft checks for ammunition.</p>
<p>That being said, it is a solid class that's cleanly written (other than ordering the class features wrong). And as I said, the PDF looks absolutely stunning and the illustrations of cool fantasy guns almost makes the product worth checking out. Though, with all the cool illustrations of gunblades, it does feel disappointing there's no option for gunblade-wielding priest.</p>Cyrad2016-11-29T10:58:22ZPathfinder Player Companion: Legacy of Dragons (PFRPG): Like Dragons - There is very good and very bad (3 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9nfl?Pathfinder-Player-Companion-Legacy-of-Dragons2016-08-11T10:51:33Z<p><b>Pathfinder Player Companion: Legacy of Dragons (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I feel rather conflicted. I absolutely love the good parts of Legacy of Dragons. For the bad parts, I absolutely hate to the point of feeling insulted.</p>
<p>Legacy of Dragons has a great premise that deserves a larger book and possesses plenty of awesome options like variant draconic heritages and a feat that lets you get dragon-themed powers without having to be a sorcerer. The new Form of the Dragon spells were something we really needed, and the other spells are really cool.</p>
<p>However, Legacy of Dragons has some content that absolutely infuriates me. The drake companion rules and some of the archetypes are absolutely poorly designed. This isn't just the case of content missing the mark - there's major flaws here that render the archetypes totally worthless and unplayable. There's a fighter archetype that replaces bonus feats at levels the fighter doesn't get any feats. This archetype also gives Arcane Strike, but forgets to indicate the fighter's effective caster level.</p>
<p>The alchemist archetype is also particularly baffling in that I honestly don't see any reason to ever take this archetype. It severely weakens your mutagen without giving you anything in return. It takes away your 2nd level level discovery and gives you a worst version of feral mutagen. It restricts you to using breath weapon bomb for all bombs AND takes away Throw Anything, the class feature vital to an alchemist's damage. All but one ability this archetype gives are literally just worst versions of discoveries you can take as a vanilla alchemist — except the ability granted by the archetype all come at a hefty cost of other class features for no explicable reason.</p>
<p>I absolutely cringe whenever I see flaws like this, and I don't know why it happens. Does Paizo hire inexperienced freelancers? Do they not have anyone checking for errors like this? Are their deadlines so tight that designers can't QA their work sufficiently? Whatever the reason, it leaves me feeling like Pathfinder RPG products are created by a company that fails to understand how its own game works. This is the main reason I only sparingly buy Player Companions. More often than not, I can get higher quality work from reputable 3rd Party Publishers and get it cheaper.</p>
<p>The real question is: Do I condemn the book for a few pages of terrible work? I don't know. But overall, I do feel positive about the purchase. I honestly wouldn't feel so bad about the bad content if we got a larger volume. With only 32 pages, a few pages of poor quality content can become a massive stain on an otherwise good product.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Player Companion: Legacy of Dragons (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I feel rather conflicted. I absolutely love the good parts of Legacy of Dragons. For the bad parts, I absolutely hate to the point of feeling insulted.</p>
<p>Legacy of Dragons has a great premise that deserves a larger book and possesses plenty of awesome options like variant draconic heritages and a feat that lets you get dragon-themed powers without having to be a sorcerer. The new Form of the Dragon spells were something we really needed, and the other spells are really cool.</p>
<p>However, Legacy of Dragons has some content that absolutely infuriates me. The drake companion rules and some of the archetypes are absolutely poorly designed. This isn't just the case of content missing the mark - there's major flaws here that render the archetypes totally worthless and unplayable. There's a fighter archetype that replaces bonus feats at levels the fighter doesn't get any feats. This archetype also gives Arcane Strike, but forgets to indicate the fighter's effective caster level.</p>
<p>The alchemist archetype is also particularly baffling in that I honestly don't see any reason to ever take this archetype. It severely weakens your mutagen without giving you anything in return. It takes away your 2nd level level discovery and gives you a worst version of feral mutagen. It restricts you to using breath weapon bomb for all bombs AND takes away Throw Anything, the class feature vital to an alchemist's damage. All but one ability this archetype gives are literally just worst versions of discoveries you can take as a vanilla alchemist — except the ability granted by the archetype all come at a hefty cost of other class features for no explicable reason.</p>
<p>I absolutely cringe whenever I see flaws like this, and I don't know why it happens. Does Paizo hire inexperienced freelancers? Do they not have anyone checking for errors like this? Are their deadlines so tight that designers can't QA their work sufficiently? Whatever the reason, it leaves me feeling like Pathfinder RPG products are created by a company that fails to understand how its own game works. This is the main reason I only sparingly buy Player Companions. More often than not, I can get higher quality work from reputable 3rd Party Publishers and get it cheaper.</p>
<p>The real question is: Do I condemn the book for a few pages of terrible work? I don't know. But overall, I do feel positive about the purchase. I honestly wouldn't feel so bad about the bad content if we got a larger volume. With only 32 pages, a few pages of poor quality content can become a massive stain on an otherwise good product.</p>Cyrad2016-08-11T10:51:33ZPathfinder Society Scenario #6–10: The Wounded Wisp (PFRPG) PDF: Confusing Story (3 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9a1y?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-6-10-The-Wounded-Wisp2015-03-18T18:29:58Z<p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–10: The Wounded Wisp (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I had the chance to play this scenario. The encounters are great and allows for really fun roleplaying. However, the story didn't make any sense to me. I never understood why we were doing what we were supposed to do. I never really knew what our objective was other than the vague notion of solving some kind of riddle.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–10: The Wounded Wisp (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I had the chance to play this scenario. The encounters are great and allows for really fun roleplaying. However, the story didn't make any sense to me. I never understood why we were doing what we were supposed to do. I never really knew what our objective was other than the vague notion of solving some kind of riddle.</p>Cyrad2015-03-18T18:29:58ZPathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide (OGL): Sloppy but accomplishes its goals (4 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy978v?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Advanced-Class-Guide2014-08-28T14:45:49Z<p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide (OGL)</b></p><p>Pathfinder tries to reinforce the idea that the game should give you the tools to fully realize your character concepts. Pathfinder establishes classes as more of a starting point, rather than a straight-jacket, to build the character you want to play. In the past, it did accomplished this through archetypes, traits, and class features that work like rogue talents. The Advanced Class Guide now truly blurs the line between classes by introducing 10 new "hybrid" classes that combine the theme of two existing classes to create unique features in their own right.</p>
<p>The arcanist is a 9-level spellcaster that does not need to prepare multiples of the same spell to cast it and gains a talent pool to do a variety of neat things.</p>
<p>The bloodrager is a 4-level spellcasting full BAB martial that gain the benefits of a sorcerer-like bloodline while raging.</p>
<p>The brawler is a full BAB fighter/monk that can temporarily gain the benefit of a combat feat to adapt to any situation.</p>
<p>The hunter is a 6-level gish class that uses druid and ranger spells, and gains an animal companion that benefits from teamwork feats.</p>
<p>The investigator is a delightful skill monkey class that can use alchemist extracts, buff their skill checks and attacks with a resource pool, and make a special attack against a target they studied.</p>
<p>The shaman communes with a spirit and gains special abilities from it, which makes me think of the pactbinders from Pact Magic Unbound.</p>
<p>The skald is a barbarian that performs as he rages, giving benefits to his allies.</p>
<p>The slayer is an assassin class meant to act as a "patch" for the rogue, except it focuses mostly on combat and singling out a single target.</p>
<p>The swashbuckler, my most anticipated class, is an agile fighter that can perform stunts using a resource pool like a gunslinger's grit.</p>
<p>The warpriest is a 6-level divine gish class that have the ability to cast spells on themselves as a swift action and a weapon whose damage dice scales like a monk's unarmed strikes.</p>
<p>The book also introduces a some ambitious archetypes and feats that I applaud. These include a Charisma magus archetype, multiple multiclass archetypes, a gunslinger archetype that specializes in crossbows instead of firearms, feats that trigger off of Arcane Strike, multiple alternates to Stunning Fist that do other conditions, and a whole line of feats that add bonus effects to Vital Strike. I am, however, very sad there's few options for the magus, my favorite class. The bard and the barbarian got two hybrid classes. I would have loved to see a monk/magus, but alas.</p>
<p>However, the book really drops the ball with the archetypes and feats section. While I praise the ambition shown in some of these entries, most of them are really sloppy. Typos are all over the place. Some archetypes refer to abilities that don't exist. Some break existing class features and don't replace them.</p>
<p>The worst issue is that the class designers obviously wrote the class descriptions with the assumption certain feats would exist to support the class. The swashbuckler is the worst offender as the heavily advertised "Dexterity to damage" feature came as a poorly designed last minute addition tacked onto an existing feat. That class really got the short end of the stick, and I hope Paizo will aggressively remedy the problem.</p>
<p>The Class Design Guide at the end of the book left me wanting more. While I wasn't expecting something as thorough as the Race Builder in Advanced Race Guide, I wished this section flowed more like the spell creation guide in Ultimate Magic or perhaps a "behind the scenes" look at how the designers create classes and archetypes. Ultimate Magic's spell guide gave a lot of insight in how spells are designed, provided a list of benchmarks for each spell level, gave examples of both good and bad spells, explained damage metrics for arcane and divine spellcasting. By contrast, Advanced Class Guide merely shows the differences between classes of different BAB and that abilities are either "secondary" or "primary." I cannot even call it a "dev blog" as I've read way better blog articles on class design than this.</p>
<p>Why four stars with all these problems? While Paizo obviously rushed additional options to get the book out the door to GenCon, much care was taken into the creation of the 10 new classes. 9 out of the 10 classes look rather well done. This book brought us a new standard for full BAB classes, all of which look fun to play. It gave us the slayer, a "patch" for the rogue until Pathfinder Unchained. Despite each class being a hybrid, nearly all of them have unique game mechanics never seen in a Paizo product. Even if you turn your nose up at adding more bloat to the game, I still recommend the book if only to cannibalize the new classes to patch/houserule the classes in the Core Rulebook.</p>
<p>While sloppy and unpolished, Advanced Class Guide accomplished its goals: give us new classes that raise the bar in terms of gameplay and design.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide (OGL)</b></p><p>Pathfinder tries to reinforce the idea that the game should give you the tools to fully realize your character concepts. Pathfinder establishes classes as more of a starting point, rather than a straight-jacket, to build the character you want to play. In the past, it did accomplished this through archetypes, traits, and class features that work like rogue talents. The Advanced Class Guide now truly blurs the line between classes by introducing 10 new "hybrid" classes that combine the theme of two existing classes to create unique features in their own right.</p>
<p>The arcanist is a 9-level spellcaster that does not need to prepare multiples of the same spell to cast it and gains a talent pool to do a variety of neat things.</p>
<p>The bloodrager is a 4-level spellcasting full BAB martial that gain the benefits of a sorcerer-like bloodline while raging.</p>
<p>The brawler is a full BAB fighter/monk that can temporarily gain the benefit of a combat feat to adapt to any situation.</p>
<p>The hunter is a 6-level gish class that uses druid and ranger spells, and gains an animal companion that benefits from teamwork feats.</p>
<p>The investigator is a delightful skill monkey class that can use alchemist extracts, buff their skill checks and attacks with a resource pool, and make a special attack against a target they studied.</p>
<p>The shaman communes with a spirit and gains special abilities from it, which makes me think of the pactbinders from Pact Magic Unbound.</p>
<p>The skald is a barbarian that performs as he rages, giving benefits to his allies.</p>
<p>The slayer is an assassin class meant to act as a "patch" for the rogue, except it focuses mostly on combat and singling out a single target.</p>
<p>The swashbuckler, my most anticipated class, is an agile fighter that can perform stunts using a resource pool like a gunslinger's grit.</p>
<p>The warpriest is a 6-level divine gish class that have the ability to cast spells on themselves as a swift action and a weapon whose damage dice scales like a monk's unarmed strikes.</p>
<p>The book also introduces a some ambitious archetypes and feats that I applaud. These include a Charisma magus archetype, multiple multiclass archetypes, a gunslinger archetype that specializes in crossbows instead of firearms, feats that trigger off of Arcane Strike, multiple alternates to Stunning Fist that do other conditions, and a whole line of feats that add bonus effects to Vital Strike. I am, however, very sad there's few options for the magus, my favorite class. The bard and the barbarian got two hybrid classes. I would have loved to see a monk/magus, but alas.</p>
<p>However, the book really drops the ball with the archetypes and feats section. While I praise the ambition shown in some of these entries, most of them are really sloppy. Typos are all over the place. Some archetypes refer to abilities that don't exist. Some break existing class features and don't replace them.</p>
<p>The worst issue is that the class designers obviously wrote the class descriptions with the assumption certain feats would exist to support the class. The swashbuckler is the worst offender as the heavily advertised "Dexterity to damage" feature came as a poorly designed last minute addition tacked onto an existing feat. That class really got the short end of the stick, and I hope Paizo will aggressively remedy the problem.</p>
<p>The Class Design Guide at the end of the book left me wanting more. While I wasn't expecting something as thorough as the Race Builder in Advanced Race Guide, I wished this section flowed more like the spell creation guide in Ultimate Magic or perhaps a "behind the scenes" look at how the designers create classes and archetypes. Ultimate Magic's spell guide gave a lot of insight in how spells are designed, provided a list of benchmarks for each spell level, gave examples of both good and bad spells, explained damage metrics for arcane and divine spellcasting. By contrast, Advanced Class Guide merely shows the differences between classes of different BAB and that abilities are either "secondary" or "primary." I cannot even call it a "dev blog" as I've read way better blog articles on class design than this.</p>
<p>Why four stars with all these problems? While Paizo obviously rushed additional options to get the book out the door to GenCon, much care was taken into the creation of the 10 new classes. 9 out of the 10 classes look rather well done. This book brought us a new standard for full BAB classes, all of which look fun to play. It gave us the slayer, a "patch" for the rogue until Pathfinder Unchained. Despite each class being a hybrid, nearly all of them have unique game mechanics never seen in a Paizo product. Even if you turn your nose up at adding more bloat to the game, I still recommend the book if only to cannibalize the new classes to patch/houserule the classes in the Core Rulebook.</p>
<p>While sloppy and unpolished, Advanced Class Guide accomplished its goals: give us new classes that raise the bar in terms of gameplay and design.</p>Cyrad2014-08-28T14:45:49ZPathfinder Module: From Shore to Sea (PFRPG): Good on paper, disastrous in practice (3 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8evj?Pathfinder-Module-From-Shore-to-Sea2014-03-23T02:14:44Z<p><b>Pathfinder Module: From Shore to Sea (PFRPG)</b></p><p>When I read this module, it looked really awesome, and I couldn't wait to run it. When I actually did run it, my players had the worst experience ever at my table. In fact, this marked one of the few times my players were actually very angry at me. While the encounters, plot, background, and maps are high quality, several issues make the adventure frustrating to play.</p>
<p>1) Because of the structure and order of locations and events, the adventure gives very little exposition until very late in the module. My players were left with almost no information to act on. Every decision they made felt like a shot in the dark.</p>
<p>2) The island's effects misled the players into believing there's a time limit. This put a lot of stress on my players, disabling them from leisurely exploring the island at their own pace. Worse is that it railroaded my players into continuing an adventure they had no fun with. It was so bad that a couple of the PCs preferred they leave and spend another adventure curing themselves than actually finishing out the adventure.</p>
<p>3) Martial characters felt completely useless. Nearly all of the adventure's major challenges require magical expertise. All non-spellcasters in my group spent most of the two 4-hour sessions twiddling their thumbs while the spellcasters solved the mystery.</p>
<p>4) I also noticed that sometimes the text did not match the maps provided. For example, the description said one location was in the west when it was north on the map.</p>
<p>Thankfully, all of these can be avoided with some clever GMing. If you wish to run this adventure, I suggest the following recommendation:
<br />
[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>Overall, From Shore to Sea has a great story and premise marred by poor sequencing and a frustrating pseudo-time limit mechanic.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Module: From Shore to Sea (PFRPG)</b></p><p>When I read this module, it looked really awesome, and I couldn't wait to run it. When I actually did run it, my players had the worst experience ever at my table. In fact, this marked one of the few times my players were actually very angry at me. While the encounters, plot, background, and maps are high quality, several issues make the adventure frustrating to play.</p>
<p>1) Because of the structure and order of locations and events, the adventure gives very little exposition until very late in the module. My players were left with almost no information to act on. Every decision they made felt like a shot in the dark.</p>
<p>2) The island's effects misled the players into believing there's a time limit. This put a lot of stress on my players, disabling them from leisurely exploring the island at their own pace. Worse is that it railroaded my players into continuing an adventure they had no fun with. It was so bad that a couple of the PCs preferred they leave and spend another adventure curing themselves than actually finishing out the adventure.</p>
<p>3) Martial characters felt completely useless. Nearly all of the adventure's major challenges require magical expertise. All non-spellcasters in my group spent most of the two 4-hour sessions twiddling their thumbs while the spellcasters solved the mystery.</p>
<p>4) I also noticed that sometimes the text did not match the maps provided. For example, the description said one location was in the west when it was north on the map.</p>
<p>Thankfully, all of these can be avoided with some clever GMing. If you wish to run this adventure, I suggest the following recommendation:
<br />
[Spoiler omitted]</p>
<p>Overall, From Shore to Sea has a great story and premise marred by poor sequencing and a frustrating pseudo-time limit mechanic.</p>Cyrad2014-03-23T02:14:44ZPathfinder Module: The Godsmouth Heresy (PFRPG): Lame Story, Cool Map (3 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8hil?Pathfinder-Module-The-Godsmouth-Heresy2013-03-23T12:56:08Z<p><b>Pathfinder Module: The Godsmouth Heresy (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I personally thought the story was rather lame. I don't know, the villain just did nothing for me, even though I did like how they were playing with Pharasma lore with his backstory. The map also has a difficult swarm monster, which even a 2nd level party would have no answer. While running away is a viable option, it feels odd that a swarm of cockroaches is the most dangerous creature in a dungeon full of demons and undead.</p>
<p>The real gem of the module is the map. It's a pretty fantastic map with lots of colorful background flavor surrounding Thassilon lore. This makes the map an excellent adventure for any Varisian campaign or any campaign that plays with Thassilon and the runelords. My players were completely oblivious to Pathfinder lore, but after this module, they wouldn't stop talking about the runelords.</p>
<p>The map, though, does have a few problems of its own. There are several areas my players absolutely refused to explore simply because they smelled like a trap but gave no incentive to look into it. The best example is one pair of rooms that do a neat, terrifying, and yet relatively harmless effect to any that linger in it. However, no sane player would ever go into the room. There's no incentive to enter it and it just screams "THIS IS A TRAP."</p>
<p>There's also several staircases that lead to other areas not featured in the module. It's great if you have the supplements or another dungeon in mind. For me, this module took three or four sessions to finish. Neither I nor my players wanted to use up more time there. It was extra work to make sure every "hole" was plugged in. Even having a collapsed stairway was enough to make my players waste resources getting to an area that wasn't there. It's rather annoying and comes off as a shameless plug for other materials.</p>
<p>Over all, Godsmouth Heresy is decent. It has a good map that touches on Thassilon lore that makes the whole module worth getting. And while I did not like the story, your players may think differently.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Module: The Godsmouth Heresy (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I personally thought the story was rather lame. I don't know, the villain just did nothing for me, even though I did like how they were playing with Pharasma lore with his backstory. The map also has a difficult swarm monster, which even a 2nd level party would have no answer. While running away is a viable option, it feels odd that a swarm of cockroaches is the most dangerous creature in a dungeon full of demons and undead.</p>
<p>The real gem of the module is the map. It's a pretty fantastic map with lots of colorful background flavor surrounding Thassilon lore. This makes the map an excellent adventure for any Varisian campaign or any campaign that plays with Thassilon and the runelords. My players were completely oblivious to Pathfinder lore, but after this module, they wouldn't stop talking about the runelords.</p>
<p>The map, though, does have a few problems of its own. There are several areas my players absolutely refused to explore simply because they smelled like a trap but gave no incentive to look into it. The best example is one pair of rooms that do a neat, terrifying, and yet relatively harmless effect to any that linger in it. However, no sane player would ever go into the room. There's no incentive to enter it and it just screams "THIS IS A TRAP."</p>
<p>There's also several staircases that lead to other areas not featured in the module. It's great if you have the supplements or another dungeon in mind. For me, this module took three or four sessions to finish. Neither I nor my players wanted to use up more time there. It was extra work to make sure every "hole" was plugged in. Even having a collapsed stairway was enough to make my players waste resources getting to an area that wasn't there. It's rather annoying and comes off as a shameless plug for other materials.</p>
<p>Over all, Godsmouth Heresy is decent. It has a good map that touches on Thassilon lore that makes the whole module worth getting. And while I did not like the story, your players may think differently.</p>Cyrad2013-03-23T12:56:08ZGameMastery Critical Fumble Deck (3.5/PFRPG): Don't even want to use it... (2 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy89mn?GameMastery-Critical-Fumble-Deck2012-08-26T17:50:50Z<p><b>GameMastery Critical Fumble Deck (3.5/PFRPG)</b></p><p>I personally like fumbles because they can add tension and drama to a fight when done right, but can turn an epic fight into slapstick comedy if down wrong. I bought this to have a tool for more creative fumbles, because I'm tired of the usual 'drop prone' or 'your weapon flies out of your hand.'</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that's precisely the type of fumble effects you see in this deck. Most of them are damage or ability score damage.</p>
<p>Some are silly (create a stink cloud around you).
<br />
Some are harsh (your weapon is instantly destroyed).
<br />
Some are deadly (you critical threat an ally).
<br />
Some punish the defender more than the assailant (you take minor damage but the defender's armor is destroyed).
<br />
Some are repeated over several cards</p>
<p>Several, particularly the mage fumbles, are easily character-ending. Such as teleporting next to an enemy or immediately taking heavy damage.</p>
<p>Some GMs might still find this useful. However, I highly advise you exercise creativity and judgment when integrating this with your game.</p>
<p>Overall, I looked for a convenient tool for coming up with creative ways to add suspense and drama to a fight. Instead, I got a deck of ways to clown my players to death. I was excited to get this deck, but now I'm not sure if I really want to use it.</p><p><b>GameMastery Critical Fumble Deck (3.5/PFRPG)</b></p><p>I personally like fumbles because they can add tension and drama to a fight when done right, but can turn an epic fight into slapstick comedy if down wrong. I bought this to have a tool for more creative fumbles, because I'm tired of the usual 'drop prone' or 'your weapon flies out of your hand.'</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that's precisely the type of fumble effects you see in this deck. Most of them are damage or ability score damage.</p>
<p>Some are silly (create a stink cloud around you).
<br />
Some are harsh (your weapon is instantly destroyed).
<br />
Some are deadly (you critical threat an ally).
<br />
Some punish the defender more than the assailant (you take minor damage but the defender's armor is destroyed).
<br />
Some are repeated over several cards</p>
<p>Several, particularly the mage fumbles, are easily character-ending. Such as teleporting next to an enemy or immediately taking heavy damage.</p>
<p>Some GMs might still find this useful. However, I highly advise you exercise creativity and judgment when integrating this with your game.</p>
<p>Overall, I looked for a convenient tool for coming up with creative ways to add suspense and drama to a fight. Instead, I got a deck of ways to clown my players to death. I was excited to get this deck, but now I'm not sure if I really want to use it.</p>Cyrad2012-08-26T17:50:50ZPathfinder Module: Master of the Fallen Fortress (PFRPG): Great Map! Stupid Encounters. Lame Story (3 stars)Cyradhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8ey4?Pathfinder-Module-Master-of-the-Fallen-Fortress2012-08-22T01:52:38Z<p><b>Pathfinder Module: Master of the Fallen Fortress (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I used Fallen Fortress for my very first module and heavily modified it with a new story, replacing some nonsense encounters, populating boring areas, and made it into a sandbox dungeon crawl trying to rescue a damsel in distress. It turned out great and the players had a blast.</p>
<p>What made it wonderful is that the map is absolutely fantastic. It's an intriguing shape with plenty of ways for you to set up alternate routes and surprises. It's small enough to make the adventure short, but large enough to keep players wanting to explore. It's also easy to add floors, if you wish to make it bigger.</p>
<p>The downfall is that the story is lackluster and many of the encounters don't make any sense, like a giant frog that's isolated in a room and one large room that has absolutely nothing in it except for a javelin trap. If you must make any change, I recommend swapping the fire skeletons for normal ones. Those things can easily kill a 1st level PC in one round, never mind the damage reduction.</p><p><b>Pathfinder Module: Master of the Fallen Fortress (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I used Fallen Fortress for my very first module and heavily modified it with a new story, replacing some nonsense encounters, populating boring areas, and made it into a sandbox dungeon crawl trying to rescue a damsel in distress. It turned out great and the players had a blast.</p>
<p>What made it wonderful is that the map is absolutely fantastic. It's an intriguing shape with plenty of ways for you to set up alternate routes and surprises. It's small enough to make the adventure short, but large enough to keep players wanting to explore. It's also easy to add floors, if you wish to make it bigger.</p>
<p>The downfall is that the story is lackluster and many of the encounters don't make any sense, like a giant frog that's isolated in a room and one large room that has absolutely nothing in it except for a javelin trap. If you must make any change, I recommend swapping the fire skeletons for normal ones. Those things can easily kill a 1st level PC in one round, never mind the damage reduction.</p>Cyrad2012-08-22T01:52:38Z