yoda8myhead's page

I love the Compleat Encounters line, but this particular product stretches the definition of encounter a bit too far. It provides a detailed location--a ninja cult's lair--as well as three fully statted NPCs, but doesn't really combine the two. Each NPC has listed motivations and there are suggestions on how to use them all together, but it leaves way too much up to the GM. Using this as a "premade" insert into an ongoing campaign wouldn't really save you that much time. Additionally, I was continually annoyed that it keeps mentioning "the death god" without a name. I know the intention was for this to be modular, but Gorilla King included a definite evil power and that's much of what makes that one the best. I love the minis themselves and the map (displaying both the pristine and bloodied, post-battle ninja hideout) though the latter could be improved by removing the encounter numbers from the middle of each room.

There's a reason that the Gorilla King is one of the elements to carry over to the nascent Golarion from it's larval Compleat Encounters form. James Jacobs creates an encounter that is both simple and exciting, and sets evocative seeds for a whole campaign. As Pathfinders get set to head into the Mwangi Expanse next summer with the release of The Serpent's Skull Adventure Path, this small adventure seems the perfect treat to whet their appetites. Of the Compleat Encounters I've seen, this has the most modular maps, and the ones most easily used despite their double-sided nature. It's also got awesome monkey minis. MONKEYS! Even without the minis, though, this adventure alone is well worth the price.

As an adventure, Vault of the Whispering Tyrant, like the rest of the Compleat Encounters line, is a little sparse. In general, this one is worth picking up for the excellent minis and for a glimpse into the origins of Golarion. For the right level party, and placed in the right campaign, this series of encounters would be a ton of fun and quite a challenge. But if you're looking to use Tar Baphon in your Pathfinder campaign, think again--he's nowhere near epic enough to warrant his place on the cover of the Campaign Setting. Then again, this was produced before Paizo even knew there would be a Golarion. The maps create a high quality dungeon, but aren't 100% intuitive in terms of positioning them, and their double-sided nature makes them less useful outside of the adventure.

This mini is perfect for anyone wanting to run a beast of true Lovecraftian horror. With the shoggoth's inclusion in the Pathfinder Bestiary, I imagine demand for this mini will be going up. I haven't been a fan of most of the recent WotC minis, but this one is among their best in a long time.

I was very excited to pick this book up at GenCon, both for the new classes and races I could use in my PFRPG games, but also to support 3pp's who were willing to make content for my new system of choice. Sadly, the result of my eagerness was that I got a subpar product.

I like the idea behind just about everything in the book, from the three new races, to the new base classes, to the random adventure/monster/magic item generators. But when I was reading through everything, there are tons of balance issues. Some class abilities are incredibly broken, and rarely on the underpowered side. Races and classes are especially unbalanced as far as I can tell, some more than others. Many of the drawbacks are also rather unbalanced compared to one another.

I then look on the forums here and see that some of the major departures from the PFRPG design goals, like tying BAB/HD together, are being corrected in the main print run to release in a few weeks. Makes me think I should have waited to get the book then instead of supporting the publisher on release date. I still need to get the free pdf promised on the last page of the book, and hopefully any errata and changes will be updated in that document over time.

I will probably include many elements from this book into my games, but will have to thoroughly houserule most of it to maintain balance. I'm not opposed to doing this, but it would have been nice to have a sourcebook that would be more modular without the extra work to keep it balanced, though.

In the last year, the fledgling Pathfinder Companion line has struggled through the process of finding its niche, with the format and content varying from issue to issue. But with this volume, the line has found its stride and the result is the best of the line so far and one of the best Pathfinder setting support volumes to date. I haven't been inspired by Cheliax to this point, but this book won me over. I finally get it.

The background information on Cheliax is incredibly detailed without giving away spoilers to players and provided me with more than enough background stories for characters I will probably never get around to playing. I also really love the new approach to the persona section, providing multiple low-to-mid-level NPCs instead of a single person the PCs might never encounter.

For players in the Pathfinder Society, you'll find that there are tons of traits, feats, spells and other goodies legal for play (at least under version 2.0 of the rules).

I sincerely hope that future Pathfinder Chronicles volumes continue the quality of content and formatting of this volume. I'd also love to see a GM secrets version of this book with all the spoilers for people running games in Cheliax. As I said above, this book made me a Cheliax convert, so keep it coming!

I'll admit that I wasn't anticipating this book nearly as much as I was other releases. I tend to GM rather than play and Qadira was never one of the locations in Golarion that grabbed me.

Then I read it. This is a well-written, engaging book that has turned me on to this amazing nation in the setting and given me a caravan's load of new ideas for both sides of the screen. I especially love some of the new crunchy bits, like the suli race (which I think I might play in an upcoming Legacy of Fire campaign) and the zhyen familiar option.

I've been uninspired by past Companions either because of their content or their subject, but this book has made a huge impression on me. Plus, everything in it is 100% compatible with the new rules, so I don't even need to convert grapple to CMB and spot to perception. It's ready to go, right out of the gate.

As most anyone knows, Pathfinder fans don't come any more hardcore than me. But when I saw the incredible production value, professional artwork and creative and well-written articles, I just about gave up on the real Paizo and went exclusively with the fans. The fact that it's free is just another plus. Wayfinder #1 was one of the high points of PaizoCon 2009, a weekend which surpasses just about every expectation or competition, so that's really saying something. I'd be surprised if we didn't see some of the contributors to this in print in official Pathfinder products by the next Wayfinder issue. Which I can't wait for, by the way. When's that coming out again?

Possessing the same high production value of all of Paizo's shirts, the Osirion faction shirt may just outdo all its predecessors. The emblem of the ancient scarab beetle expresses both an undying presence and the ability to hide among the dust, waiting for the right moment to once again reclaim what is rightful that of the wearer. I can't understand why anyone would buy any of the other faction shirts when this one is so very perfect. My only complaint is that is also comes compressed in a triangle, which even after washing still leaves crinkles in the shirt, befouling the great glory of Osirion. But it gets you a free reroll at Cons, so I guess that's ignorable.

I played this for the first time over the weekend and it was a ton of fun! It was my first scenario in the PFS and it was both challenging and rewarding. After playing, I came home and downloaded it to run for other players. Reading through it I see one section where particular classes are a must, which is a little annoying, seeing as my party missed out on some stuff cause we didn't have the right party makeup, but other than that it's a very well-designed mod with enough variable situations that it feels much longer to play through than just the 17 pages it actually is. Great work, and I can't wait to run it and/or play the other PFS scenarios.