Morality is the shield of the weak. Followers of the evil gods know the truth—that the world is a harsh and uncaring place, and that only strength and cunning matter. From the crafty acolytes of the assassin god Norgorber to the howling hordes of Lamashtu the Demon Queen, the servants of dark gods need not fear the night, for they strive to be the most terrifying thing in it. Some may seek to justify their actions, yet others flock to blood-soaked banners with bitter joy, desiring nothing more than the chance to join in the fiery destruction of all things.
Faiths of Corruption presents a player-friendly overview of the evil-aligned religions and faiths of the Pathfinder campaign setting, along with new rules and information to help players customize pious characters in both flavor and mechanics. Inside this book, you’ll find:
Information on each of the major evil gods and his or her corresponding religion, including what’s expected of adventurers of various classes, ways for the faithful to identify each other, taboos, devotions and ceremonies, church hierarchies, holy texts, religious holidays, and more.
New character traits to help represent and cement a character’s background in the church.
An overview of several secular organizations affiliated with the various evil churches.
Codes of conduct for the fearsome antipaladins of many different gods, designed to help distinguish evil holy warriors of different faiths.
New feats for merciless warriors and vindictive spellcasters.
New spells to help evil casters spread pain and despair.
Details on minor evil deities, demon lords and archdevils, elemental lords, the Four Horsemen, and more!
Written by Colin McComb
Each bimonthly 32-page Pathfinder Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for social, magic, religious, and combat-focused characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-375-0
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
Although this book is in the player companion line, it's more useful for GMs. It can really help you create the story for the villains your PCs are going to vanquish, or flesh them out and make them more interesting.
The book also contains oaths for antipaladins (including one that isn't on the inner sea gods) just like faiths of purity and faiths of balance had oaths for paladins.
One might think that now with the inner sea gods out this book would be redunt, but the price of inner sea gods might be quite steep, so if you just want to flesh out your villans then this book's price is very good.
Being part of a relatively conservative gaming group, the only time I get to use supplements like this is when I'm GMing, so I guess I come at this from a slightly different perspective than a player.
The bulk of this book is extraordinary, providing players with great insight into what makes Golarion's evil religions tick. The section on Zon-Kuthon still gives me the shivers! The sections on the minor evil deities, archdevils, demon lords, horsemen and great old ones/outer gods are also great (if cut short for space reasons).
The parts that I was less impressed with were the feats and many of the traits--they seemed on the whole to be relatively unimaginative and to provide underwhelming benefits. The spells and such are fine.
In the end, if you're after flavour and an insight into how the evil religions of Golarion function, go get this right now. If you're just after mechanical things like feats, you might find yourself a little less excited, but overall this is a great addition to anybody's Golarion library.
... after reading books like this you almost start to accept it :D
Seriously though I was looking forward to the last of the Faiths of... line and I wans't disappointed. Like the previous booklets it bridges the gap between tenets of the faith and the believers even further and inpires. Antipaladin codes are wonderful as well. Now back to making the norgorberite ninja :)
I'm going to apologize right from the front here - this is not going to be a serious review. I mean, it's written by Colin "What, Planescape?" McComb, who is a great author, and who surely does a splendid job at describing the evil faiths, churches and believers.
But nothing is relevant. This book has an artwork of CHEERFULLY SMILING LAORI VAUS. The best NPC in Paizo's history got a fanservice treatment. She's happy...so happy. SO HAPPY.
Thank you. I'll see what I can do with my local store but they order the Pathfinder products from Diamond just for me (my retailer is a comics shop and Diamond is mainly a comics distributor), and as far as I know Diamond doesn't maintain a stock. I never managed to get a Pathfinder product from them that I hadn't preordered. Thank you for your help.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Vakr wrote:
I'm loving the fact that** spoiler omitted ** is officially one of the Great Old Ones of the Pathfinder Chronicles Setting.
I'm loving the fact that** spoiler omitted ** is officially one of the Great Old Ones of the Pathfinder Chronicles Setting.
** spoiler omitted ** Are these generally allowed to be used now? ** spoiler omitted **
That depends on what you mean by "allowed to be used".
You've always been free to use them in your home games, for example.
Chaosium holds the rights to the game versions of many specific creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos, as I understand it. James Jacobs has several times expressed gratitude that they have allowed Paizo to use the creatures in published works.
If you mean "allowed to be used in published works", then the answer is probably no (as always, consult a lawyer in that case).
Chaosium holds the rights to the game versions of many specific creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos, as I understand it. James Jacobs has several times expressed gratitude that they have allowed Paizo to use the creatures in published works.
If you mean "allowed to be used in published works", then the answer is probably no (as always, consult a lawyer in that case).
All of Lovecraft's writings that were published in his lifetime are now in the public in the US and most of the rest of the world. The rest of the world is easy; they protect works for 50, 60 or 70 years from the death of the author, and Lovecraft died that many years ago. The US had some tricky requirements that US authors renew their copyrights after 28 years, which neither he nor his heirs did, so pretty much all his works are believed to be PD in the US. (The copyright in some works depend on whether he signed all rights over, and the contracts have long been lost, so it's not entirely clear; http://www.aetherial.net/lovecraft/ has most of the brutal details.)
In practice, whatever the case may be, or more importantly whatever a court might rule on it, the estate has been a paper tiger, at least for the works published in his lifetime. So anyone may use Lovecraft's works and things derived solely from them. Other elements of the Cthulhu Mythos may be under copyright; notably elements derived from Derleth's writings (including his so-called posthumous collaborations with Lovecraft) or Chaosium's works itself are still under copyright, and many aspects of what we would consider the Cthulhu Mythos derive from the works of various authors which may or may not be in copyright and may or may not in and of themselves be copyrightable. Chaosium has a trademark on Call of Cthulhu and probably other things, but their control over the original works derives from the underlying copyrights.
Short? If you're working from Lovecraft's works, you're safe, even if the lines aren't quite clear in the US. Modern stuff and Derleth's works are definitely copyright, and writings of Lovecraft's contemporaries may or may not be copyrighted in the US and elsewhere.
If you do consult a lawyer, there are a number of us who'd like to hear his answers; there's a lot of analysis on these issues, but not much by people with law degrees.
