I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of Munchkin Pathfinder at GenCon this past weekend, and after reading through all of the cards and playing a couple games, I have to say it's a real treat to play. I love the Munchkin brand, I love the Pathfinder brand, and seeing the mashup of them is just amazing.
There are four Classes and four Factions in the game (Factions sort of taking the place of Races in this set, though if you mix it with regular Munchkin you'd have both). I thought I'd say a few lines about each one.
Classes:
Alchemist: The alchemist does exactly what I expected... usable once only items count double in combat. Along with that, when you sell items for levels, each item counts as a minimum of 300 gold pieces. This means that you can stock up on low-cost items, selling them for levels when you can and using relatively weak potions to have a significant impact on combat!
Necromancer: This is a cool one. I was wondering how they would do a magic user like the Sorcerer when the Wizard already exists in the basic Munchkin set, and this is what they went with. The Necromancer can discard three cards during combat to add the top monster from the discards to the combat and make it Undead. Alongside that, if you kill an Undead monster, you get to draw an extra face-down door. This gives your Necromancer the option to throw away some less-than-useful cards to pull out a low-level Undead creature from the discards and add it to your own combat to get an extra level and a door.
Summoner: The Summoner obviously summons monsters. You can play a monster from your hand during any combat as a one-shot bonus equal to double that monster's treasures. To get those monsters into your hand, you can discard a card from your hand once per turn to take the top monster from the Door discards into your hand. This is a great combo, and if you end up with a Super Munchkin card, you can also combine these abilities with the next Class, the Witch!
Witch: The Witch in the Pathfinder RPG uses Hexes to debuff her enemies, and this version of the Witch does the same thing. You can play a monster from your hand to cause that monster's Bad Stuff to happen to another player as if it were a Curse (though it doesn't work for death). Your familiar also protects you from Curses found when you Kick Open the Door, so you also have a bit of your own Curse protection.
Factions:
Eagle Knight: The Eagle Knight's power is exactly like that of the generic Warrior class, with a slight penalty built in also. You can discard up to three cards to give yourself a +2 to your combat check for each one, but you take a -1 to Run Away for each discarded card also.
Hellknight: The Hellknight's ability is Hellknight Armor, which gives you a +5 in combat, taking up your Armor and Headgear slots at all times. This is the first Class-type card I've ever seen that gives you a direct combat bonus, and it's a very interesting idea.
Pathfinder: The power for the Pathfinder lets you look ahead at the next two Door cards before you Kick Open the Door, choosing one of those cards to leave on top of the deck, and discarding the other one. Very cool, and very thematic.
Red Mantis Assassin: You get a +1 to Run Away from your Stealth ability. Along with that, when you Look for Trouble, you can discard up to three cards to get a +2 bonus against the monster for each one.
Alright, so now that I've told you about each of the Classes and Factions, let's get into the other cards. First of all, the pictures, all drawn by John Kovalic, are awesome! His version of Goblins are just excellent, and I love that you can add more Goblins to combats involving them just like Undead. My very favorite card in the whole set is the Hobbes Goblin, which looks like Calvin and Hobbes, and the Bad Stuff is that the tiger eats you. It's just plain awesome.
Other cards of note:
Chelish, which is a +10 Monster Enhancer, and has a devilish-looking Goblin printed on it.
Bloatmage, which is a Level 10 monster, and takes a -3 against Necromancers because they're used to the sight of blood.
Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters, who is a Level 20 monster which lets other monsters join her in combat. The animation is pretty amazing, too.
Shield of Aroden, which looks awesome and is usable by Eagle Knights only.
Finally, a simple card like "Find the Path -- Go Up A Level" is all it takes to make my day.
One thing I've thought a bit about is the idea of mixing this set with the standard Munchkin game. Mixing with the plain base set should work out perfectly, but I feel like the Gnome class from Munchkin 2 and 3 will probably step on the toes of the Summoner. My plan is to mix this set with my Munchkin Legends set.
One last thing: the purple dice that comes with this and has the Goblin face on it looks AMAZING. Seriously.
