Tom Qadim's page

Here's the link, I will also email you both a copy to make sure you get it

Hero Lab Portfolios

A few notes, I didn't include non-combat gear on the NPC's, only items needed in combat.

Plugg's damage on the tidewater cutlass is not coming up properly, so keep an eye on that

Hey Guys,

I've spent a good amount of time creating portfolios in Hero Lab for all the NPC's in Part 1 of the Skull and Shackles. The intent is for using the tactical console and for quick reference through the dashboard.

Do any GM's of Skull and Shackles want a copy of them?

I've a few extra bits I'll posts here too over the weekend me hearties!

I love seeing our old book Dead Man's Chest referenced in the OGL section of the Player's Guide. Yet another Necromancer Games product that carries on with Pathfinder.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

God Bless Lou Agresta.

However, as with the Slaughterhound, you’ve misjudged the power level. Most of the party could easily die through the geometry.

I like that part :)

The winner will be announced in approximately 4 hours and 37 minutes.

Trust me... I absolutely HATED having to point out that "The Scarlet God" stepped on the toes of some unannounced but still in the works adventures, because it IS an unfortunate circumstance.

I especially hated it because, as anyone who reads these boards even infrequently will know... I'm a huge Lovecraft fan. The majority of the Lovecraftian elements in Golarion are there because of my influence (with some help from Greg, Rich, and Wolfgang, of course!). When I saw that one of the proposals this year had such a big Lovecraftian element, I was DELIGHTED since it was, to me, confirmation and proof that I'm not the only one who likes seeing Lovecraft mixed with Golarion.

But I have to put the brand and the game and Paizo's integrity before the contest sometimes. And I decided I would rather let folks know IMMEDIATELY what was going on rather than remain silent and then let people think that we stole a bunch of ideas from "The Scarlet God" to put them into the AP coming out a few months before RPG Superstar 2012's adventure got published. I fear folks'll maybe think that anyway, frankly... which is really unfair to the authors of those two chapters of the Shattered Star Adventure Path.

In the end, though... you should vote for the adventure you want to see the most—take the judges' feedback in mind or ignore it as you see fit and focus only on the merits of the proposals as YOU see them. If enough folks feel that my comments were out of line and uncalled for... the votes will tell.

Because at this stage, the contest results are pretty much only about that one adventure. As far as I'm concerned, all four of the writers who made it this far are imaginative and talented designers that'll have PLENTY of opportunity to write for Paizo in the future.

Heck... Rob McCreary WORKS here now and he didn't win that 32 page adventure when he was a top-four finalist.

In a way... the four authors have already won is what I'm saying.

Doesn't make it any less of an unfortunate occurrence to see this level of parallel design rear its ugly head, though... and we'll be taking a few more steps next year here and there to try to prevent something like this from happening again.

Am I the only person who feels that this side project has eclipsed the much-hyped and cross-promoted Dragon Empires in popularity? I mean, Distant Worlds is in Amazon top 20 RPG books, I can't recall a Paizo softcover hanging around there with big boys such as PF hardcovers and 4E stuff.

I really hope this does spark some creative flames at Paizo, because this is one of the best sourcebooks I've read of late.

My only complaint is that it names the ant people also known as the Formians..... and no stats for them in the Beastiaries 1 to 3.

or atleast none that I saw.... mind you I could have missed it...

The fact that formians haven't shown up in a bestiary yet is a known issue, and one that will be addressed soon.

So, it's not a feature, it's a bug (buh-dum PSHT!).

First in Tom's class in PF Society
Got skills, Tom a Champion of D&D
MC WAR that's Tom's favorite MC
Keep your Magic cards
Tom'll just roll crits on D20

Tom's dice never spin to the contrary
None of Tom's rulings are arbitrary
All of Tom's painted minis are cherry
Got SKR chained up in Tom's library

Tom's PBP page is totally pimped out
Tom's a SupaStah! in the Top 4 spaces
Yo Tom knows RAW to a thousand places
Tom'll have Burbles eat your faces

Tom zaps cheaters with Power Word: Mayonnaise
At PaizoCon, Tom's awake for all three days
Once you see Tom's mad GM skillz you're gonna stay amazed,
TPKs comin' so fast players slump in a daze

There's no killer module Tom hasn't run
At roleplaying, Tom's number 1
Do munchkin builds just for fun
Tom ain't been equaled by anyone

"Thriller" is Tom's favorite zombie song
Tom can sure kick Rovagug's butt and King Kong
Tom'll drink all the Mountain Dew you bring on
Tom's fluent in Elvish, Aklo, and Klingon
Here's the part Wolfie sing on:

See Tom... roll another... T-P-K!
Tom know in Tom's heart they think Tom's... lich n' nerdy!
Think Tom just too lich n' nerdy
Think Tom just too lich n' nerdy
Can't you see Tom's lich n' nerdy
Look at Tom, just lich n' nerdy

I'm due to run Skull and Shackles next, but I loooooove the idea of running a campaign based around Slumbering Tsar AND Rappan Athuk. Too cool.

Sorry, you're going to be too busy doing other things.

Assuming people hurry up and get their votes in for you before the 4pm deadline in the RPG Superstar event.

Meh.

Ecological overlap has always been an issue in D&D. Any edition. Any setting. Very very few settings have ever put in the necessary effort to establish proper ecology. And most of that effort goes unappreciated in the end. So the criticism does not work for me.

And, important to me and my crew, the cutting and pasting gives a fair amount of familiar room. Crossover. Player knowledge is vital for building dramatic tension and personal investment. We still have elves and dwarves because the familiarity of these elements helps people immediately 'get it'. So, for example, when I tell my players that Brodert Quink has gone a little titchy since he found that old Thassilonian book in the mail and keeps claiming that strange 'hounds' are pursuing him and that's why he can't leave his house ... and then I tell the half-Varisian bard that the Varisians have a story about such a creature, and the Varisian word for such creatures is 'Tindalos' ... that gets everyone at the table invested. Are they going to be real hounds of the Tindalos? Are they going to be monster manual creatures reskinned?

It does the trick in a way that other creepy monsters just don't. And it does the trick quickly and with a minimum of translation required thanks to the shared frame of reference.

Cibet, we'd be playing Brian Lumley Mythos not Lovecraft. Toss out the "Good Twin" idea of the Lumley stuff, him and REH work better for PF than Lovecraft does.

“If nautical nonsense be something you wish…”

Then hop on the deck and… explore the Ship of Fools! Despite its release in time for April Fool’s Day, this adventure is no joke!

The Ship of Fools

Written by TPK’s titanic tag team of former RPG Superstar challenger Richard A. Hunt, and current RPG Superstar challenger “Mr. Threepeat” Tom Phillips.

A strange seaborne adventure designed for the Pathfinder RPG, with scaling options for 4-6 characters of 5th-7th level.

Welcome to the weather-beaten deck of the Green Lady, a galleon adrift on the blue-green waves... but where is her crew? Where is her legendary captain, the self-exiled wizard, Vossian the Green? Set sail 'lubbers and find out in this, our very latest Grave Undertaking starring your characters as the daring scallywags destined to solve the mystery of The Ship of Fools. You're sure to enjoy this excellently weird horror-trip written especially for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and delivered in true TPK Games fashion. Brave deadly zombies, mind-control slimes, suicidal haunts, sharks, swarms of eels and maybe your own crew (!) amongst other delightful deadlies in this rollicking good time!

As a bonus, this three-hour-tour also features a wonderfully detailed 13-page, full-color battlemat of the sinking ship herself--The Green Lady! Print it out, put it on your game table and you're ready to set anchor!

This adventure can be dropped into any campaign setting as a dangerous one-shot session, or as part of your bigger ongoing plot. Hooks are provided to get your group into the action as soon as possible, whether your campaign is already happening at sea or in port.

This adventure features high-quality horrific original art by Michael Fall, a detailed, full-color map of the Green Lady (plus 13 pages of battlemats!), a captain's log player handout and uses the Open Game License to work with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules.

The pdf contains full bookmarks, a hyperlinked table of contents for easy navigation while running, and full hyperlinks to the award-wining d20pfsrd.com web site so that everything you need to run the adventure is right at your fingertips! This adventure is sure to float your boat.

You asked for it—your players can blame us.

Available here for only $6.99!

I just got TPK Games' email through DriveThruRPG and I want to TPK TPK Games.

I HAVE THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS THEME SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD!!!

It is almost, but not quite enough to get me to attempt to drill out the song with a real drill.

-Aaron

PS- I am intrigued by the adventure idea. I may pick it up at a later date. I grabbed the free preview so I can check it out more thoroughly.

I was referring to payday, lol

There's a lot of really thorough feedback headed everyone's way. And, regardless of who wins the prize, there should be plenty of insights this round to help everyone in their future work. And that's honestly the goal here. We're trying to build up all of your skillsets for what you'll do beyond RPG Superstar.

Sinister Secrets of Silvermote features a great adversary in Temerlyth the Undying. I purchased this adventure and am just waiting for my groups' PCs to be high enough level to undertake it. It is very well crafted, and looks to be a lot of fun. It is sort of your traditional dungeon crawl, but also has a lot of other fun elements.

Hi there. I'm the author and just wanted to offer my heartfelt thanks for the recommend. It does wonders for me to see folks enjoying Temerlyth and Silvermote! I've enjoyed the feedback so much that it's even persuaded me to run Silvermote at GenCon this year. :-)

You guys are a part of superstar history. It is obviously amazing to just make the top 32. Of course, it is also awesome to win the whole thing. I think, historically, there has been some additional love given to the top 4, so you guys should be very proud of yourselves. Really, this process is about finding some great freelancers for Paizo, and if you are in the top 4 then you have probably caught their eye. The final round, while awesome to win, is a bit misleading as you are just being judged on one submission and real freelancing isn't like that--you'd get to send in several. All of the 4 of you are great. But each of you can, while still being great, submit a proposal that is a miss and fail to win the contest. That doesn't mean you won't be great freelancers. So win or lose, take heart! I am certain we will all be seeing much more of you in the future. But, as Neil likes to say, what you do post-Superstar is up to you.

Welcome to Superstar history! And good luck!

My submission is in.

Good luck, fellow North Carolinians! You too, Tom. :)

Wow, pretty small sample for this exit poll. Not sure you can count on its accuracy.... ;)

Of course, I know if you guys are right or not since I get to see the vote tallies but of course I cant tell you....muuuuhuuuhuhhuhuhhhahahahahaaaaaa!!!

MOAR SUTTUH!!!

I just wanted to send Neil Spicer belated Valentines day wishes from the entire Paizo editorial pit*. Neil's exceptionally nuanced analyses of each contestant's work should be one of the highlights of this year's show for anyone interested in freelancing for Paizo--he's really giving away the secrets here folks. But, for me and all of the developers and editors on the Paizo staff, Neil's writing advice is worth its weight in gold, as it's the exact sort of feedback we give our freelancers.

It turns out that having awesome ideas isn't even half the battle of writing for RPGs (it's actually kind of expected). You've also got to make your ideas exciting to read and easy for your developers and editors to work with. Someone might have the coolest adventure ideas in the world, but if I have to rewrite every sentence, I'm never going to assign that freelancer work again. So, all you would-be designers out there, dust off your grammar books, read Paizo's published products and really consider the styles and formats you're seeing, and take a good look at Neil's advice throughout this competition.

Below I've copied a number of the comments that provoked all this gushing.

- Your use of the word "will" is also a sign of weak writing. Look for ways to avoid that. It'll strengthen your prose. Instead of saying a creature will do something, just say they do it. That makes your writing much more active and evocative.

- You're using a lot of passive voice, though. Try and avoid as many conventions of the verb "to be" as you can. So, go back and highlight just the places where you used "is"..."are"..."was"...and "were" etc. If the majority of your write-up is relying on those types of verbs, you need to work on replacing them with more active verbs to make your prose read better and come across as more evocative.

- Go back through and identify all the usages of the verb "to be" by highlighting "is"..."are"..."was"...and "were"...and you'll see you rely way too much on that to convey your ideas. Overall, your writing would be stronger if you can find ways to use more active verbs as you present your villain's backstory and the location's history. Sometimes, it's okay to rely on a "was" or "were" when talking about things in the past. But use them sparingly.

- On top of all that, you keep capitalizing non-game terms like goblin and ogre as proper nouns. That's not how those terms should be presented in a game product.

- You left commas out of your XP values.

- You've failed to italicize references to the Bestiary, Bestiary 2, and Gamemastery Guide.

- There are a lot of spacing problems in your writeup. Several words got jammed together...

- Missing an apostrophe

- More proofing problems

With all of that in mind, I strongly RECOMMEND Mr. Spicer advance to judge next year's competition**. Thanks Neil, from all of us in the pit!

* And we love the rest of you judges too. Just slightly less then Neil. (Unless you're Sean... screw that guy.)

** Sorry dude. No rest for the wicked.

I'm highly amused (and a little bit frightened) by how much everyone likes The Loving Place. Thank you! You guys are a twisted bunch :D

..sadly I'm off to Rio for carnaval tonight..

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Devoured this PDF. Completely unrelated to this book, Eox (and a former Dire Gambler's Club guy trapped there due to an unlucky Void draw from the Deck of Many Things) came up in my Saturday game the day before the download was available. Now I have a bit more information to tease them with if they follow up on that hook. Bone Sages look bad.

Dragonkin are cool, as are the other aliens. The entire book is just so full of awesome, I can't really focus on one part. I feel sorry for those people who were unable to utilize the awesome simply due to a lack of Lashunta stats.

This is stellar work.

To Berselius and other folks who were disappointed by the fact that this wasn't a rules book: I'm sorry you were unhappy. I really tried my best to warn people that this was a campaign setting gazetteer, not a rulebook.

That said, we were already planning to stat up the lashunta in another upcoming product, so you'll see that soon (including stats for using them as a playable race). For the bestiary section of this book, I tried to make sure we had a fairly diverse spread of creatures from various worlds--I just couldn't bring myself to cut the robots and space whales for another pretty humanoid. :D

This book is in the Campaign Setting line, not the Companion line, so mechanics don't filer into the scene as much. Also, it deals with a WHOLE SOLAR SYSTEM and not just a city or nation. There's just not enough space in a book this size to do everything everyone wants it to do. Consider Distant Worlds a taste of what can happen if enough folks are interested in (and buy) a product like this.

Well said Adam.

Its a fact, folks; Paizo likes to write books that people want to buy. The two concepts go together beautifully.

If you enjoy science fantasy and demonstrate the willingness to purchase products like this, you increase the chances of similar books (with more details and mechanics) being written.

I've been a heavy Pathfinder consumer since 2007 so I know of what I speak. If a lot of people buy it, they will write more. Its a safe bet, if not a guarantee.

Thanks again for all the kind words, everybody! And rest assured, this book trades the whimsical tone of Spelljammer for a more serious science fantasy flavor, but should also give those spelljamming folks who like to go bouncing around between bizarre worlds plenty of material to work with. (Though if you want to play an honest-to-goodness SpellJammer game using our planets as settings, that's okay by me! Paizo's still got love for the space hippos.)

While you can never please all the people all of the time, I'm hoping that this book serves both sides of the SpellJammer debate equally well. :)

Holy crap this book is awesome.

Clark is the most common victim of this phenomenon.

Agreed. But at least I learn. Now I dont even bother posting until I see that Neil has. For instance, I've been reading the monster submissions. I'm just waiting till he posts to post my full critique. I always go through and read them and quickly post my initial gut reactions, but I then go back and edit them with my full review. But now I dont even do that until Neil has posted. I mean, why would you? I get "Neiled" all the time.

What's this - talk of mutiny? Time for a taste of the cat.

Wormwood Mutiny is one of the most challenging and unusual adventures I've ever written for Paizo, and indicative of a real trend in this AP to go with something different without loosing the essential spirit of a Paizo AP. It feels to me a little like Kingmaker at sea, and for a group of players like mine that freeform AP is ideal.

I can remember writing an adventure called the Sea Wyvern's Wake and scratching my head for a long time trying to bring elements into an adventure that is essentially a long journey. At that time I didn't like seaborn adventures myself. When I thought about it however I had the chance to draw characters into close proximity to the PCs that they wouldn't necessarily like, but unlike normal adventures the NPCs are part of the furniture. Claustrophobia can be a wonderful tool in role playing. Wormwood is a little like that and for groups who love ropleplaying it will I hope provide a very memorable experience. Of course it's pirating so there's plenty of fighting too, not to mention the kraken. Curses, you tricked it out of me.

After that it's straight into Vaughn's little travesty which as usual will be annoyingly good, in fact I've already seen it as he always sends me his adventures to gloat, curse him the bilge rat. This AP is the one I'm thinking of taking through with my players next as I know they'll love being able to badly overact, has plenty of combat and a strong theme binding the whole AP tightly together. Having said that with the quality of art, fiction and support articles in each edition these days is incredible. I know money is tight but as fans you and I know Paizo always aim for top quality in everything they do and it looks like even though the AP isn't your cup of tea it has plenty in it that could be.

Dudemeister makes a very interesting point that whatever the setting there is always something to be taken away andf I think you may be surprised by the AP. It also of course gives you an option to dip into little sections of it and bind it into your own AP if you wish.

Thanks for the ongoing support of my stuff everyone, it goes both ways as every time I get useful feedback it gets noted and acted on so that the next thing is better than the last.

I hope you'll all get those eyepatches out, unsheath your cutlasses and begin practicing the longest ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars! your breath can manage.

Rich

Also, I will repost something I posted in the judges chambers:

I have coined a new term for Neil. Clark is a judging machine, but Neil is a judging juggernaut... a judgernaut!

Tom, I think that might make it worse, actually!

Well, let me be a tease and make it a little worse for you, then. :->

Sometimes the judges pop in and drop an enigmatic "we like and don't like what we've seen" post a day or so before the entries go live. Maybe they'll toss us a bone at some point today.

Bone tossed.

I like and don't like what I've seen in some of the Round 2 submissions. ;-)

Also, one other important thing the judges noticed is...

Seriously, Jacob and Jacob...one of you is going to have to switch avatar. To my bleary eyes, it looks like one of you is having a conversation with himself.

Was thinking about the Bestiary 3 and I think I've figured out the twist! The monster's going to have to come from a poem!

If I'm right, I totally call dibs on Custard the Cowardly Dragon.

"Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes."

I love this place's whole vibe. Whether I finish in the top 32 or fail to make the top 1000, I feel like this competition has reinvigorated my interest in RPGs. I've had a hard time playing regularly the last few years, so it's easy to lose sight of what makes the whole hobby special.

Good luck to all entrants, and good luck to the judges brave enough to wade through several novels worth of words!

So I often use scripts. These are out-of-character cut-scenes that allow the PCs to get some flavour or some plot without experiencing it first hand. In my current game, one of the PCs is a Varisian follower of Desna, so these take the form of dreams to her, but they could be delivered in any number of ways, or even without explanation. We don't use these every session, just every now and again.

To use them, simply print out a few copies, hand them out and allocate characters. If possible, the DM should not be a character (ie, entirely player read), but otherwise you can just read a minor character.

Anyway, here are the scripts I used for the first two modules.
Script 1: Prologue to the campaign
Script 2: Murder in Ravengro
Script 3: Introducing Auren Vrood
Script 4: Count Caromarc as a young man

Some notes:

* Script 1 can be used as the very first action in the campaign. It allows the PCs to feel an immediate bond for the Professor and Kendra, which is useful I think. It foreshadows Judge Daramind (II), Estovion (III), and Modd (V).

* Script 2 is useful if your PCs haven't solved the Ravengro murders by the first time you escalate to a human. It throws suspicion on a bunch of characters in Ravengro in a murder-mystery style. (NB: the Lorrimor cheese collection was an in-game joke.).

* Script 3 deviates a little from the plot in that we have the Whispering Way kill Aleece and also have Luramin the money-lender a necromancer. To me, one of the changes the campaign needs is more of a prominent villain and more encounters with the Whispering Way. This allows for some WW action in Ravengro as well as framing a big bad evil guy for the PCs. (It also allows you to mask the real big bad, so Vrood is sleight-of-hand in a way).

* Script 4 is my take on a Count Caromarc origin story. Both Koch and Werner are added characters. Werner was the father of one of my PCs and Koch was an NPC at the University who could help out with various alchemy things related to the module, as well as enroll Kendra in class.

More scripts to come for later modules. The one I regret not doing is a script around the night of the fire in Harrowstone. I think there is a lot of cool information in the first module that goes to waste, and having that dramatic evening as a flash-back would work well.

Comments welcome...

Ah, of course. It's just like blood biography.

So, given that he is trying to have a relationship of sorts with his wife, this will be difficult. Like memento, she will have no ability to gain memory of their conversations, even short-term.

"Do you know who I am?", he asked.
"You sound a bit like my husband", she said. "But your voice is older, sadder. No, I don't know who you are."
"I am your husband. It has been 40 years since you died my love".
She said nothing, for she only replied to questions.
"Do you remember that time we used to go for picnics on the bank of the river?"
"I'm sorry" she said. "I can't answer that question. I don't know who you are".
He sighed, and single tear began to form in his eyes. "Do you remember the time that you and your husband used to go for picnics on the bank of the river?".
"Yes" she said. "I remember that. Alpon and I would count the butterflies as they flew past. He knew every species in Vieland he once said. I would have liked to have had more picnics, but Alpon was always busy with his work".
"Did you enjoy the picnics? How did they make you feel?"
"I enjoyed them very much. They made me feel alive, free from the burden of the royal life, and our duty. It was always duty with Alpon and his family. The picnics were our only break."
"And how do you feel about that now?"
"Now?" she said. "Now I feel nothing. I'm dead."
"I'm so sorry... so sorry... do you forgive me my dear?"
But she said nothing. For his spell had run out of questions for the day and all that looked back at him was lifeless eyes.

I just wanted to say a few words about Temerlyth the Undying and about TPK Games in general. Though it isn't readily apparent from the product description I'm his humble creator. It may sound as though I'm bragging on myself, for which I apologize, but I just want to mention a couple of my personal accomplishments to help reassure about quality of this product. I'm really proud of my work on this despicable villain.

I participated in the RPG Superstar 2010 Contest and placed in the top 8--doesn't buy me a beer at the local house, but there it is. :)

Anyway you may recall my Needles of the Ebon Strand, my Splorudra or perhaps the Green Barrow, my round 8 map and adventure pitch. These were all favorites with some.

My name also appears in Ultimate Combat as one of the contributing designers (Richard A. Hunt... that's me!). This is also my very first work for a game company, other than as a contributor or in some old Dragon Magazine articles. I'd like to see Temerlyth's evil spread world wide... Muhahahah! *Ahem*

To close, we think Temerlyth came out so well, that I've also written his lair--what I hope will be our next major companion product. So what you'll be getting is just the tip of the iceberg! We have big plans to produce hundreds of weird and wonderful products--all simple to use, filled with old school goodness, built on the chassis of the best RPG system in the world and in some cases as dark and twisted as the hair in a demon's arm pit. Haha!

One suggestion I have seen is to use one of those little 3-minute hourglasses for a player's turn. In that amount of time they have to decide what they want to do and begin to resolve it, or they 'delay' instead.

This works for over-analyzing spell lists, attack routines, or other options too, not just hyper-examining the battle map.

...
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

Ah uh-ooh-ah ah!

I wrote a big, long post, thought better of it, and then spoiler'd it and wrote a shorter, self-pitying post so it won't take up so much of the page.

I finally got around to flipping through my big box of Paizo goodies and was much pleased with this month's offerings. Particularly Jade Regeant, which, despite my misgivings on Asian flavor, looks really great.

But, I wanted to give a special shout-out to the new format features in the book. The short summary at the beginning of the chapter along with the various level progressions is a wonderful addition. I am constantly hunting for that type of information, and having it so easily accessible is nice.

Second, the magic items broken out into their own section is also a nice touch. It makes it much easier to find a unique item from an adventure without hunting through it trying to remember where the item is to be found. Plus, it makes it easier to use them outside of the particular AP in which they appear. Again, a nice upgrade in usability.

Finally, the real showstopper - the layered pdf maps! Maps with the DM information removed has been on my wish list forever, and having it in this format is great.

Excellent work, Paizo!

lol It makes me sad to think of the acres of forest that became copies of this book.

Somewhere between dozens of feats (remember, feats are Fighter class features, right?) such as: Hammer the Gap, Death or Glory or Felling Smash, between Performance Combat (ever wanted to be that show-off swashbuckler or gladiator AND benefit from it mechanically?), and Called Shots/Wounds+Vigor systems, this book has more material for a vanilla Fighter than APG and Core combined.

Seriously, Fighters were already top of the food chain when it comes to damage. What they needed is versatility and cool options, and Ultimate Combat gives exactly that.

Oh just an archetype... because that makes it so much better that ultimate COMBAT has wizard crunch in it.

Glad I didn't get my hopes up for this book.

I was also completely outraged that this book had material for almost every class. Clearly it's expansive coverage makes it worthless.

While everybody is busy reading the actual content of the book, I glanced over at the credits page. And I found this:

Development: Stephen Radney-MacFarland and Chris Sims

Before somebody screams "4E designers are writing my Pathfinder books, noes!" I'd like to say that liked Secrets of Sarlona very much and I'm happy to see Chris working for Paizo :)