In classic fantasy, people often envision the heroic Paladin in his shining armor. Although Paladins have almost always been a staple in RPGs, their dark counterparts, the Antipaladins, have been often neglected. The authors of Pathfinder wisely amended this with the Antipaladin class, an alternative to the Paladin with a full 20 levels, but unfortunately, every character in this class was roughly the same (Only 1 archetype that I can remember,).
No longer! A Tome of Wicked things contains favored class options, feats, and even 5 archetypes to make an Antipaladin for all playing styles!
The favored class options all made sense and helped add a level of depth to the feel of the class in addition to their benefits. The feats are interesting and allow Antipaladins to pledge themselves into the service of dark powers to further enhance their own abilities and add flavor to their background.
Now on to the meat of the review, the archetypes (Well, alternate class features,).
Black knights are Antipaladins that prefer to skulk in the shadows and down foes with silent blades and deadly poisons, losing the Smite Good and Plaguebringer abilities, but gaining Sneak Attack and Poison Use, allowing for a more subtle Antipaladin. The only thing I would have preferred was if the Black Knight gained a disguise bonus or divination immunity when wearing a helmet or mask and giving up another class feature besides Plaguebringer, though this is a matter of personal taste.
Wrath reapers make pacts with dark necromantic forces to further their unholy mission. They replace Touch of Corruption and Cruelty with Wrath, which are essentially debuffs (Such as staggered or sickened,) added to Smite Good. Wrath Reapers also lose their Fiendish Boon, but can choose from an awesome array of necromantic alterations and abilities called Crypt Blood, which ranges from being able to see in the dark, to being healed by negative energy, to being able to cannibalize foes that they pin! Can we say awesome?
Disciples of Discord are Chaotic Neutral in alignment, devoting themselves to sowing discord and anarchy. They lose Aura of Evil, Aura of Sin, Detect Good, Smite Good, and Plaguebringer, but gain several cool and powerful abilities in turn. They can disguise their auras to detect as good or evil, can detect and smite lawful creatures much as a regular Antipaladin can in regards to good creatures, they gain an aura that makes every attack against enemies chaotic aligned, and beef up a LOT in terms of hit points, but gains a phobia against a particular type of creature and all creatures of that type gain bonuses against him similar to a Ranger's Favored Enemy ability. Neat!
Then there are the Red Swords, masters of slaughter and violence. They lose Aura of Cowardice, Channel Negative Energy and Aura of Despair, but gain an intimidating aura, a rage ability, and the ability to impose part of his bloodlust on adjacent enemies, giving them all the penalties of his rage, but none of the benefits, which is so cool.
Then there are the Infernal Champions who essentially gain more evil Cleric style abilities, which is cool for a Mordred style character.
I noticed no formatting glitches and found only 1 minor error in the text. The artwork is very cool and really shows the flavor of the Antipaladin types listed within. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in playing such a character and to GMs who want to make a very memorable villain for their campaigns.