paizo.com Recent Reviews of New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)paizo.com Recent Reviews of New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)2023-07-18T14:51:24Z2023-07-18T14:51:24ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG) (5 stars)Malwinghttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2015-04-01T19:26:25Z<p>Nothing new to add because other reviewers covered this product in great detail. </p>
<p>I have a lot of love for Kobold Press' products and it starts with New Paths Compendium, my first Kobold Press purchase. This book fills in a lot of mechanical gaps and adds a lot of flavorful options that I use constantly. If you want to add meaningful options to your game from new classes that just 'fit' and options that expand your Gunslinger, Monk and others you need this book. Five stars for being such a huge boost to my games.</p><p>Nothing new to add because other reviewers covered this product in great detail. </p>
<p>I have a lot of love for Kobold Press' products and it starts with New Paths Compendium, my first Kobold Press purchase. This book fills in a lot of mechanical gaps and adds a lot of flavorful options that I use constantly. If you want to add meaningful options to your game from new classes that just 'fit' and options that expand your Gunslinger, Monk and others you need this book. Five stars for being such a huge boost to my games.</p>Malwing2015-04-01T19:26:25ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): New Paths to Find (5 stars)Adam B. 135https://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2015-02-12T04:17:57Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I want to open this up by saying: I recommend this book to anyone who is just trying out 3rd party products. It is an excellent example of what people should expect from 3rd party companies. Balanced rules, classes, feats, and spells that easily fit into any Pathfinder game. This is not to say that experienced 3rd party product users shouldn’t use this book. Quite the opposite. Everyone should give this book a shot. New Paths Compendium does not bring any subsystems with it, so it will be very easy to plug and play. </p>
<p>New Paths Compendium was my first Kobold Press product, and I am entirely impressed. The cover art is fantastic, and the art inside the book manages to keep a very high quality as well. The layout is the standard layout you have all come to expect from Pathfinder products, allowing easy and familiar navigation. </p>
<p>I will start with the classes. First is the Battle Scion, a full BAB class that can cast up to 4th level spells from the sorcerer and wizard list. They are very solid, but to save space I will have to refer you to Endzeitgeist’s review of them: <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8yjj?New-Paths-4-The-Expanded-Battle-Scion" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">4.5 out of 5 from Endzeitgeist</a>.</p>
<p>Up next is the Elven Archer, which comes set with 3 variant classes. These variants are the Halfling Slinger, Dwarven Crossbowyer, and the Mystic Archer. This set of classes is interesting. They use d8 HD, full BAB, and get a little bit of spellcasting. Very much all-rounders. These classes get ranged combat feats like crazy, along with other bonuses, depending on the class. For instance, Halfling Slingers get sling talents, Dwarven Crossbowyer can ignore a small amount of armor and natural armor with their attacks, and Mystic Archers can choose from a variety of strong mystic abilities. They all gain the precision rule, which is very much like sneak attack dice with a few notable exceptions: these classes can flank with ranged weapons. Later on, they don’t provoke attacks of opportunity while using ranged weapons. Dwarven Crossbowyer and Halfling Slinger give much needed support for their combat styles and feel quite fantastic, but the Elven Archer and Mystic Archer feel too similar to Rangers. There is nothing wrong with them balance wise, as all 4 are quite solid classes. </p>
<p>The Savant is a really fun, and unique class. Unlike any I have ever seen. Basically, Savants are such great storytellers, that they can make their stories real. They are such great actors that they become their characters. This means that they can change from being a mighty knight, to being a healing wise man, all in the same day. Obviously they won’t be beating a Barbarian at combat, or a wizard at spellcasting, but they certainly can do a lot. Through their storytelling, they can summon characters too using their Avatar of Legend class feature. These avatars are created using the cohort rules of leadership. Normally, I’d be skeptical when I see the word “Leadership,” however, the Savant must concentrate using a standard action for every round they wish their Avatar of Legend to be around. Included are also some fun tips for playing a Savant, and some sample Avatars of Legend. </p>
<p>The Shaman is definitely a favorite class of mine from this book, though I have to refer you to the Endzeitgeist review, as he basically covered it all to a much higher degree than I could have. <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tzn?New-Paths-2-The-Expanded-Shaman" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Another 4.5 out of 5 by Endzeitgeist</a></p>
<p>Aha! The Spell-Less Ranger. The class is exactly as the name implies. Thankfully, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Ranger variant that actually feels like it fairly traded away spellcasting. That is not often done. And again, Endzeitgeist has written a great review of them. <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8sdd?New-Paths-1-The-Expanded-Spellless-Ranger" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">A perfect 5 out of 5 rating by Endzeitgeist</a>. There is one new thing about the Spell-Less Ranger, or rather its alternate class that I have a problem with. The Skin Changer alternate class trades away favored enemy for an ever increasing bonus to natural weapon attack and damage rolls. This bonus greatly exceeds any bonus that other classes get to attack and damage rolls. For reference, it is +8, whereas the Barbarian’s rage only grants +4, and the fighter +4. I understand that this bonus is based off favored enemy, but they should have went the Slayer’s route and halved the bonuses. Besides this one issue, the Skin Changer is top tier fun, and the best spell-less shape shifter you can play. </p>
<p>The Theurge! Oh my! Basically, this is a normal class version of the Mystic Theurge. You get both divine and arcane spellcasting progression, with both sides having halved spells per day. Additionally, each set of spellcasting uses a different ability score for save DCs. The divine side uses a prayer book, which works just like a spellbook. You do not know every divine spell, and must write them down. Anyone who misses the Archivist will be happy to see this kind of feature return. Eventually, you can use both a divine and arcane spell in the same turn though only a very <b>very</b> limited number of times per day. Also, you can gain bonus feats and the ability to cast some lower level spells as spell-like abilities. It goes without saying that while strong like most full-casters, the Wizard might still be more powerful. Though this Theurge has a lot of versatility, and can bring a lot of tools to any party. </p>
<p>Last but certainly not least, is the White Necromancer. The White Necromancer is quite the class, turning established fluff on necromancy on its head. These guys treat the dead with respect, cannot be evil-aligned, and even provide some healing power. They have received a <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy91xy?New-Paths-7-The-Expanded-White-Necromancer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">4.5 our of 5 review by Endzeitgeist</a>, and are really quite marvelous. </p>
<p>The archetypes are quite well done, granting many fun tools to the included classes. If you are a fan of firearms, there is most likely an archetype included to grant a core class them in some way (Cleric, Witch etc.). There is some archetype support for Kobold Press races, such as the Gearforged who get the truly awesome Clockwork Monk. In fact, Monks get a lot of support out of this book in general, getting many fantastic archetypes such as the Six Talisman Monk, who quickly creates paper talismans with a variety of effects. Ninjas got some love too, gaining some new archetypes. </p>
<p>The feat section is quite strong. There are “extra class feature” and “improved class feature” feats included for all of the new classes introduced, and even for some archetypes. Additionally, there is a sizeable number of unarmed combat styles that are very fun, though still well balanced. My favorite being Death Butterfly Style, which makes judicious use of Elemental Fist (acid) to turn your foes inside out. There is also Thundering God Style, to provide strong firearms support to monks. Besides this, there is a lot of animal companion support, bonded item support, and even a few more feats to be added to old feat chains, such as Greater Iron Will. This is definitely a good resource for feats, even if you are using a core Pathfinder class.
<br />
After feats there is… feats! Or rather, scaling combat feats. This is a set of optional rules used to combine some weaker feat chains into one feat that becomes more powerful as your BAB increases. Your mileage may vary, but I thought this was an excellent idea. </p>
<p>Up next is a set of firearm traits for use with the trait system found in the advanced players guide. These traits provide a bunch of funny or interesting roleplay opportunities. A lot of them seem to be written for non-gunslingers that want to use guns. It fits very well with the archetypes presented in this book!</p>
<p>Now for spells! Included in New Paths Compendium are a variety of spells, all compatible with core Pathfinder classes as well (Mostly Druids, Rangers, and Sorcerer/Wizards). Elven Archers and their derivatives get many of the spells in here that are for rangers at one spell level lower than the ranger, providing them an edge. Many of the spells in here are strong, but balanced against spells of their level. Conjure Energy Arrows in particular is quite cool, allowing your bow or crossbow to generate its own ammo for 1 round/level that deals energy damage. Many of the spells involve necromancy, tracking, or archery in some way. Considering the classes provided in New Paths Compendium, I am not surprised. I was a little disappointed that the bone-themed evocation spells were not necromancy spells, but that is a minor gripe.</p>
<p>Last, but not least, we have gear. There are a bunch of new monk weapons, sling bullets and arrows included within. The ammunition is expensive, but understandably so. Many of them combine an alchemical item (thunderstone, tanglefoot bag, ect.) with an arrow/stone, allowing simultaneous damage and debuffing. There are not many magic items, but they are very well balanced. There is a nifty necklace that provides animals and magical beasts an armor bonus, a quiver of infinite arrows, and even an arrow that catches orcs! The last part is a small section detailing Legendary Magical Items. These items start off as humble +1 pieces of equipment, but get stronger if you meet their requirements. Honestly, this section could have been expanded upon more. There are three examples, and the explanation of the system is very short. </p>
<p>Despite my rare complaint, this book is of incredibly high quality. I am giving it a 4.5 out of 5. If the Skin Changer got an errata, and the Legendary Magical Items section were expanded, it would earn a 5 out of 5.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I want to open this up by saying: I recommend this book to anyone who is just trying out 3rd party products. It is an excellent example of what people should expect from 3rd party companies. Balanced rules, classes, feats, and spells that easily fit into any Pathfinder game. This is not to say that experienced 3rd party product users shouldn’t use this book. Quite the opposite. Everyone should give this book a shot. New Paths Compendium does not bring any subsystems with it, so it will be very easy to plug and play. </p>
<p>New Paths Compendium was my first Kobold Press product, and I am entirely impressed. The cover art is fantastic, and the art inside the book manages to keep a very high quality as well. The layout is the standard layout you have all come to expect from Pathfinder products, allowing easy and familiar navigation. </p>
<p>I will start with the classes. First is the Battle Scion, a full BAB class that can cast up to 4th level spells from the sorcerer and wizard list. They are very solid, but to save space I will have to refer you to Endzeitgeist’s review of them: <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8yjj?New-Paths-4-The-Expanded-Battle-Scion" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">4.5 out of 5 from Endzeitgeist</a>.</p>
<p>Up next is the Elven Archer, which comes set with 3 variant classes. These variants are the Halfling Slinger, Dwarven Crossbowyer, and the Mystic Archer. This set of classes is interesting. They use d8 HD, full BAB, and get a little bit of spellcasting. Very much all-rounders. These classes get ranged combat feats like crazy, along with other bonuses, depending on the class. For instance, Halfling Slingers get sling talents, Dwarven Crossbowyer can ignore a small amount of armor and natural armor with their attacks, and Mystic Archers can choose from a variety of strong mystic abilities. They all gain the precision rule, which is very much like sneak attack dice with a few notable exceptions: these classes can flank with ranged weapons. Later on, they don’t provoke attacks of opportunity while using ranged weapons. Dwarven Crossbowyer and Halfling Slinger give much needed support for their combat styles and feel quite fantastic, but the Elven Archer and Mystic Archer feel too similar to Rangers. There is nothing wrong with them balance wise, as all 4 are quite solid classes. </p>
<p>The Savant is a really fun, and unique class. Unlike any I have ever seen. Basically, Savants are such great storytellers, that they can make their stories real. They are such great actors that they become their characters. This means that they can change from being a mighty knight, to being a healing wise man, all in the same day. Obviously they won’t be beating a Barbarian at combat, or a wizard at spellcasting, but they certainly can do a lot. Through their storytelling, they can summon characters too using their Avatar of Legend class feature. These avatars are created using the cohort rules of leadership. Normally, I’d be skeptical when I see the word “Leadership,” however, the Savant must concentrate using a standard action for every round they wish their Avatar of Legend to be around. Included are also some fun tips for playing a Savant, and some sample Avatars of Legend. </p>
<p>The Shaman is definitely a favorite class of mine from this book, though I have to refer you to the Endzeitgeist review, as he basically covered it all to a much higher degree than I could have. <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tzn?New-Paths-2-The-Expanded-Shaman" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Another 4.5 out of 5 by Endzeitgeist</a></p>
<p>Aha! The Spell-Less Ranger. The class is exactly as the name implies. Thankfully, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Ranger variant that actually feels like it fairly traded away spellcasting. That is not often done. And again, Endzeitgeist has written a great review of them. <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8sdd?New-Paths-1-The-Expanded-Spellless-Ranger" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">A perfect 5 out of 5 rating by Endzeitgeist</a>. There is one new thing about the Spell-Less Ranger, or rather its alternate class that I have a problem with. The Skin Changer alternate class trades away favored enemy for an ever increasing bonus to natural weapon attack and damage rolls. This bonus greatly exceeds any bonus that other classes get to attack and damage rolls. For reference, it is +8, whereas the Barbarian’s rage only grants +4, and the fighter +4. I understand that this bonus is based off favored enemy, but they should have went the Slayer’s route and halved the bonuses. Besides this one issue, the Skin Changer is top tier fun, and the best spell-less shape shifter you can play. </p>
<p>The Theurge! Oh my! Basically, this is a normal class version of the Mystic Theurge. You get both divine and arcane spellcasting progression, with both sides having halved spells per day. Additionally, each set of spellcasting uses a different ability score for save DCs. The divine side uses a prayer book, which works just like a spellbook. You do not know every divine spell, and must write them down. Anyone who misses the Archivist will be happy to see this kind of feature return. Eventually, you can use both a divine and arcane spell in the same turn though only a very <b>very</b> limited number of times per day. Also, you can gain bonus feats and the ability to cast some lower level spells as spell-like abilities. It goes without saying that while strong like most full-casters, the Wizard might still be more powerful. Though this Theurge has a lot of versatility, and can bring a lot of tools to any party. </p>
<p>Last but certainly not least, is the White Necromancer. The White Necromancer is quite the class, turning established fluff on necromancy on its head. These guys treat the dead with respect, cannot be evil-aligned, and even provide some healing power. They have received a <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy91xy?New-Paths-7-The-Expanded-White-Necromancer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">4.5 our of 5 review by Endzeitgeist</a>, and are really quite marvelous. </p>
<p>The archetypes are quite well done, granting many fun tools to the included classes. If you are a fan of firearms, there is most likely an archetype included to grant a core class them in some way (Cleric, Witch etc.). There is some archetype support for Kobold Press races, such as the Gearforged who get the truly awesome Clockwork Monk. In fact, Monks get a lot of support out of this book in general, getting many fantastic archetypes such as the Six Talisman Monk, who quickly creates paper talismans with a variety of effects. Ninjas got some love too, gaining some new archetypes. </p>
<p>The feat section is quite strong. There are “extra class feature” and “improved class feature” feats included for all of the new classes introduced, and even for some archetypes. Additionally, there is a sizeable number of unarmed combat styles that are very fun, though still well balanced. My favorite being Death Butterfly Style, which makes judicious use of Elemental Fist (acid) to turn your foes inside out. There is also Thundering God Style, to provide strong firearms support to monks. Besides this, there is a lot of animal companion support, bonded item support, and even a few more feats to be added to old feat chains, such as Greater Iron Will. This is definitely a good resource for feats, even if you are using a core Pathfinder class.
<br />
After feats there is… feats! Or rather, scaling combat feats. This is a set of optional rules used to combine some weaker feat chains into one feat that becomes more powerful as your BAB increases. Your mileage may vary, but I thought this was an excellent idea. </p>
<p>Up next is a set of firearm traits for use with the trait system found in the advanced players guide. These traits provide a bunch of funny or interesting roleplay opportunities. A lot of them seem to be written for non-gunslingers that want to use guns. It fits very well with the archetypes presented in this book!</p>
<p>Now for spells! Included in New Paths Compendium are a variety of spells, all compatible with core Pathfinder classes as well (Mostly Druids, Rangers, and Sorcerer/Wizards). Elven Archers and their derivatives get many of the spells in here that are for rangers at one spell level lower than the ranger, providing them an edge. Many of the spells in here are strong, but balanced against spells of their level. Conjure Energy Arrows in particular is quite cool, allowing your bow or crossbow to generate its own ammo for 1 round/level that deals energy damage. Many of the spells involve necromancy, tracking, or archery in some way. Considering the classes provided in New Paths Compendium, I am not surprised. I was a little disappointed that the bone-themed evocation spells were not necromancy spells, but that is a minor gripe.</p>
<p>Last, but not least, we have gear. There are a bunch of new monk weapons, sling bullets and arrows included within. The ammunition is expensive, but understandably so. Many of them combine an alchemical item (thunderstone, tanglefoot bag, ect.) with an arrow/stone, allowing simultaneous damage and debuffing. There are not many magic items, but they are very well balanced. There is a nifty necklace that provides animals and magical beasts an armor bonus, a quiver of infinite arrows, and even an arrow that catches orcs! The last part is a small section detailing Legendary Magical Items. These items start off as humble +1 pieces of equipment, but get stronger if you meet their requirements. Honestly, this section could have been expanded upon more. There are three examples, and the explanation of the system is very short. </p>
<p>Despite my rare complaint, this book is of incredibly high quality. I am giving it a 4.5 out of 5. If the Skin Changer got an errata, and the Legendary Magical Items section were expanded, it would earn a 5 out of 5.</p>Adam B. 1352015-02-12T04:17:57ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Amazing book overall (5 stars)Andrew Boucher 88https://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2015-02-11T09:23:00Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Overall I really like this book. I actually ended up liking the PDF enough that my brother and I are going to pitch in to get a print copy for our gaming group. Read on to find out why!</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but I have every intent to buy a physical copy when I can due to how impressed I was. I did not let the fact that I did not pay influence my review and I spent more time writing this review than I would have spent earning 15$ at work.</p>
<p><b>Classes</b></p>
<p>Up till now these classes have been covered pretty extensively when they were released solo, so I will primarily discuss the ones that don’t have solo PDFs available and some of the new options. In other words I won’t be covering the Battle Sion, Elven Archer, Shaman, Spell Less Ranger, and White Necromancer. I will discuss their new Alternate classes though. Also it’s worth noting that a lot of these class
<br />
options are very specialized and should probably be played in campaigns that would match their strengths.</p>
<p><i>Halfing Sling Master, Dwarven Crossbowman, Mystic Archer</i>: These are all alternate classes for the Elven Archer.
<br />
I liked the Elven Archer already and these alternate classes give some options if you’re going for a theme. The Halfling Sling master offers cool incentives for sniping with its various debuffs while attacking with its precision damage, removes some feat pre-reqs to make slinging more viable, and most importantly makes the class both fun and viable. The Dwarven Crossbowyer is a good class as long as you’re playing a super dwarfey underground campaign since a lot of its cool features require stonework or caves. The Mystic Archer is mostly similar to the Elven Archer, but with its Terrain based features keying off Jungles and being allowed to any race. These classes all have access to the Elven Archer Spell List and believe me it’s an amazing spell list.</p>
<p><i>Savant:</i> A heavy role-players naughty dream is how I would describe this class. The savant is a true love of storytelling to the point that they become their legends. The Knack and personae mechanic are so cool and would be a blast to role play too. Though the class requires a lot of prep work I found the mechanics themselves to be pretty easy to understand. I haven’t seen one in play, but the nature of the Savant’s class features make him ultra-versatile and capable of participating in just about anything. Additionally there is a small section with advice for playing the class that is very useful. </p>
<p><i>Skin Changer-Spell Less Ranger alt class</i>: We all already know how dangerous a Pouncing Wild Shaped druid is right? Well let’s make it even deadlier, faster, and tougher. While not as versatile as a druid this variant Ranger is fully capable of reaching insane heights of damage with a Primary Natural Attack pounce/rake build. For a book that did so much right I think this is the one part it actually did wrong.</p>
<p><i>Theurge</i>: d6 9th level caster who draws mostly from the Wizard and Cleric list, but can learn spells off the Magus, Witch, Inquisitor, and Druid list via scrolls. Uses both int and wis to cast spells and has low base spells per day for arcane/divine, but bonus slots for each list separately. This really rewards heavy mental stat investment by giving you oodles of spells, a better than average will save, and having decent DCs. They even get a feature to x times per day ‘fuse’ an Arcane and Divine spell that does both affects and reduces the enemy’s save bonus. The class is about on level with a decent Cleric or Wizard and won’t be replacing either anytime soon, but will give someone who loves the idea of a Theurge a viable option.</p>
<p><b> Archetypes</b>
<br />
I speed read through this section, but I didn’t see anything that raised my initial alarms. The same attention to detail used in the rest of the book is present here and it’s awesome! Lots of archetypes that cover a variety of play styles. My personal favorite is the Grave Bound White Necromancer who receives a respected ‘Undead Companion’ that’s similar to an Animal Companion. I love the idea of having an undead companion, untainted by evil, who was so loyal that even death could not separate them from you</p>
<p><b>Feats</b>
<br />
To go through each and every feat would be pure madness in a review. What needs to be known is that each class present in this book has feat support, there are a lot of feats appropriate for Paizo classes too. Several new, and useful, styles are added that are pretty cool. Most of the non-class specific feats are pretty average in power or usefulness. I probably wouldn’t touch about half these feats on any character I build, but for some specific builds they may see use.
<br />
The scaling feats and scaling feat creation guidelines are pretty cool though and help deal with some of the big problems for martials. Suddenly cleave+great cleave as one feat isn’t half bad or the Dodge+mobility+spring attack line. The creation rules explain how the scaling feats in the book were made and will help the GM use consistent internal logic when making new scaling feats.</p>
<p><b>Spells</b>
<br />
To go through each spell would be madness, but I did read them and I can definitely say they are spells. Most of these spells read like stuff out of the Player companion series, as in they were flavorful and fun while being useful. In other words the best kind of spells! All the spells added because of the Elven Archer are my favorites and actually do a lot of stuff that Ranger spells don’t. Even though the Ranger gets a lot of the Elven Archer’s spells, he gets them at later spell levels. Overall it is a very strong section of the book.</p>
<p><b>Items and Magic Items</b></p>
<p>A variety of ‘mundane’ equipment including weapons, ammo, and alchemical gear are included.
<br />
The magic item section is short and only has one decent magic item. The rest either conflict with important items or cost too much for their use.
<br />
The legendary item section has three items and some guidelines for these scaling magic items. The example items are cool, but I think this section is more valuable as a guide by example for DMs who want to create scaling items for their players.</p>
<p><b>Tracking Sheets </b></p>
<p>Sheets primarily for Ranger, Druid, Shaman, Spell Less Ranger, ect use. Easy to read and has a section for everything necessary.</p>
<p><b>Conclusion</b></p>
<p>Honestly this book is amazing and worthy of being on just about any table. Despite having some overly strong and some less useful options this book is still amazing and I don’t feel it deserves lower than a 5. Honestly you're more likely to find broken, in either direction, material in a Paizo book.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Overall I really like this book. I actually ended up liking the PDF enough that my brother and I are going to pitch in to get a print copy for our gaming group. Read on to find out why!</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but I have every intent to buy a physical copy when I can due to how impressed I was. I did not let the fact that I did not pay influence my review and I spent more time writing this review than I would have spent earning 15$ at work.</p>
<p><b>Classes</b></p>
<p>Up till now these classes have been covered pretty extensively when they were released solo, so I will primarily discuss the ones that don’t have solo PDFs available and some of the new options. In other words I won’t be covering the Battle Sion, Elven Archer, Shaman, Spell Less Ranger, and White Necromancer. I will discuss their new Alternate classes though. Also it’s worth noting that a lot of these class
<br />
options are very specialized and should probably be played in campaigns that would match their strengths.</p>
<p><i>Halfing Sling Master, Dwarven Crossbowman, Mystic Archer</i>: These are all alternate classes for the Elven Archer.
<br />
I liked the Elven Archer already and these alternate classes give some options if you’re going for a theme. The Halfling Sling master offers cool incentives for sniping with its various debuffs while attacking with its precision damage, removes some feat pre-reqs to make slinging more viable, and most importantly makes the class both fun and viable. The Dwarven Crossbowyer is a good class as long as you’re playing a super dwarfey underground campaign since a lot of its cool features require stonework or caves. The Mystic Archer is mostly similar to the Elven Archer, but with its Terrain based features keying off Jungles and being allowed to any race. These classes all have access to the Elven Archer Spell List and believe me it’s an amazing spell list.</p>
<p><i>Savant:</i> A heavy role-players naughty dream is how I would describe this class. The savant is a true love of storytelling to the point that they become their legends. The Knack and personae mechanic are so cool and would be a blast to role play too. Though the class requires a lot of prep work I found the mechanics themselves to be pretty easy to understand. I haven’t seen one in play, but the nature of the Savant’s class features make him ultra-versatile and capable of participating in just about anything. Additionally there is a small section with advice for playing the class that is very useful. </p>
<p><i>Skin Changer-Spell Less Ranger alt class</i>: We all already know how dangerous a Pouncing Wild Shaped druid is right? Well let’s make it even deadlier, faster, and tougher. While not as versatile as a druid this variant Ranger is fully capable of reaching insane heights of damage with a Primary Natural Attack pounce/rake build. For a book that did so much right I think this is the one part it actually did wrong.</p>
<p><i>Theurge</i>: d6 9th level caster who draws mostly from the Wizard and Cleric list, but can learn spells off the Magus, Witch, Inquisitor, and Druid list via scrolls. Uses both int and wis to cast spells and has low base spells per day for arcane/divine, but bonus slots for each list separately. This really rewards heavy mental stat investment by giving you oodles of spells, a better than average will save, and having decent DCs. They even get a feature to x times per day ‘fuse’ an Arcane and Divine spell that does both affects and reduces the enemy’s save bonus. The class is about on level with a decent Cleric or Wizard and won’t be replacing either anytime soon, but will give someone who loves the idea of a Theurge a viable option.</p>
<p><b> Archetypes</b>
<br />
I speed read through this section, but I didn’t see anything that raised my initial alarms. The same attention to detail used in the rest of the book is present here and it’s awesome! Lots of archetypes that cover a variety of play styles. My personal favorite is the Grave Bound White Necromancer who receives a respected ‘Undead Companion’ that’s similar to an Animal Companion. I love the idea of having an undead companion, untainted by evil, who was so loyal that even death could not separate them from you</p>
<p><b>Feats</b>
<br />
To go through each and every feat would be pure madness in a review. What needs to be known is that each class present in this book has feat support, there are a lot of feats appropriate for Paizo classes too. Several new, and useful, styles are added that are pretty cool. Most of the non-class specific feats are pretty average in power or usefulness. I probably wouldn’t touch about half these feats on any character I build, but for some specific builds they may see use.
<br />
The scaling feats and scaling feat creation guidelines are pretty cool though and help deal with some of the big problems for martials. Suddenly cleave+great cleave as one feat isn’t half bad or the Dodge+mobility+spring attack line. The creation rules explain how the scaling feats in the book were made and will help the GM use consistent internal logic when making new scaling feats.</p>
<p><b>Spells</b>
<br />
To go through each spell would be madness, but I did read them and I can definitely say they are spells. Most of these spells read like stuff out of the Player companion series, as in they were flavorful and fun while being useful. In other words the best kind of spells! All the spells added because of the Elven Archer are my favorites and actually do a lot of stuff that Ranger spells don’t. Even though the Ranger gets a lot of the Elven Archer’s spells, he gets them at later spell levels. Overall it is a very strong section of the book.</p>
<p><b>Items and Magic Items</b></p>
<p>A variety of ‘mundane’ equipment including weapons, ammo, and alchemical gear are included.
<br />
The magic item section is short and only has one decent magic item. The rest either conflict with important items or cost too much for their use.
<br />
The legendary item section has three items and some guidelines for these scaling magic items. The example items are cool, but I think this section is more valuable as a guide by example for DMs who want to create scaling items for their players.</p>
<p><b>Tracking Sheets </b></p>
<p>Sheets primarily for Ranger, Druid, Shaman, Spell Less Ranger, ect use. Easy to read and has a section for everything necessary.</p>
<p><b>Conclusion</b></p>
<p>Honestly this book is amazing and worthy of being on just about any table. Despite having some overly strong and some less useful options this book is still amazing and I don’t feel it deserves lower than a 5. Honestly you're more likely to find broken, in either direction, material in a Paizo book.</p>Andrew Boucher 882015-02-11T09:23:00ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): An Endzeitgeist.com review (5 stars)Endzeitgeisthttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-05-07T05:12:03Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>This massive compilation of the New Paths-series, including quite a bunch of new content), clocks in at 130 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 124 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?</p>
<p>So, from the get-go - I did reviews for the arcane paladin-class, the Battle Scion, the Spell-less Ranger, Shaman, White Necromancer, Monk/Ninja and Gunslinger-installments of the series, so if you're interested in a direct breakdown of these, please take a look at the respective reviews. I will, though, mention the new content or fixes. I also did not review the elven archer-pdf (simply because I don't have it), so that one will get its breakdown. Got that? Great!</p>
<p>So let's take a look at the elven archer, shall we? A racially restricted class (only elves and half-elves may apply), it gets d8, 6+Int skills, proficiency with simple and martial weapons, light armors, bucklers, full BAB-progression, good ref- and fort-saves, prepared divine spellcasting of up to 4th level with wis as governing attribute and track/wild empathy at first level. Beyond that, the class adds so-called precision-damage, +1d6, against foes denied their dex-bonus within 30 ft., increasing this by 1d6 damage every 5 class levels. This damage also applies when flanking with the bow, which becomes possible at 16th level.</p>
<p>Eleven archers are bow specialists and at 2nd level, get a bonus feat (another one every 3 levels) and count as fighter-levels -3 for purposes of feat qualification. They also get a creature type à la favored enemy at 3rd level and gets +2 to several skills pertaining them, as well as +2 to damage and atk against them. This bonus scales up to +6 - but choose wisely, for the archer may choose only one such target! Beyond that, these archers may hide in natural environment sans concealment, ignore specific difficult terrains, leaves no trails, can track faster and later even no longer provoke AoOs with the bow in melee. Beyond that, the elven archer at 9th level learns to temporarily enchant arrows and imbue them with special magical qualities. The class later also learns to deal more devastating shots against stationary targets by taking aim - though this only becomes available at 13th level. Now the class also comes with 3 alternatives for other races.</p>
<p>For example, the halfling sling master, who is rather similar to the elven archer, but instead of bonus feats, the alternate class gets a special trick to perform with the slingshot at 5th level and every 6 levels after that. Trick shots include ricochets and detrimental conditions that can be exchanged for precision damage - sans saves. OUCH. They also get rapid reload for slings. They also are more stealth-focused.</p>
<p>Dwarven Crossbowyer can ignore partially armor, shield and natural armor bonuses, carry more equipment, get a favored terrain and essentially get the elven archer's bonuses in forests instead in caves/earthen environments. The final variant, the mystic archer, has no race restrictions. They are rather similar to the eleven archers (minus the foresty/stealthy components), but at 5th and every 6 levels after that, they may choose from a special array of tricks. All in all, solid, if a bit conservative classes.</p>
<p>Next up would be a new class, the savant. The class gets a d8, 4+Int skills per level, proficiency with simple weapons and light armor, 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort- and will-saves and they start game with 3 knacks and expand that up to 8 at 20th level. Savants may assume a persona for 3+cha-mod minutes per day. A persona is just the name for a given combination of knacks. Some of these are spell-like abilities that duplicate arcane or divine spells and follow the usual restrictions regarding these forms of magic, including DCs - in stark contrast to the regular DC, which clocks in at the expected 10+1/2 class level+cha-mod.. Embodying a persona is a full-round action that doesn't provoke AoOs. The knacks allow the savant to temporarily gain access to proficiencies, items, +4 (scaling up to +8) bonus to attributes, spells (limited in level by the savant class level), skills, racial tricks (like scent or swim speed) and even temporarily boost his BAB. Now as if this kind-of-jack of-all-trades-style ability wasn't enough, a savant also has a notebook - by observing certain happening, he may enter specifics on equipment, feats, races etc., gaining power literally as he observes and travels - much like the emulation of abilities in Rite Publishing's Taskshaper, this means a DM ought to tell the player in question in detail to very carefully keep the books regarding this notebook. Now another interesting thing here is that the savant needs to observe at least a minute and then get to noting this fast - and there's a daily limit on what he can jot down, so some planning involved as well.</p>
<p>Later, the savant also gets advanced knacks with natural attacks, healing (also negative conditions), apply metamagic etc. further increasing the options available. They also learn to conjure forth so-called avatars of legends - essentially cohorts with access to knacks that can be summoned, but which remain only as long as concentration si maintained - cool! The savant later also learns to combine knacks into a so-called hyperbole, , switch knacks etc. and finally, the savant may even share knacks with allies and as a capstone, maintain concentration on their avatars as a move action. All in all, the savant may be a book-keeping intensive class, but also a rather rewarding spinner of tall-tales jack-of-all-trades-style class - that is also sufficiently different from Drop Dead Studios' Dilettante! Kudos for a smart design here! We also get advice for playing the character, as well as a sample character and 3 sample avatars of legend - neat! All in all, one damn fine example of great design, an iconic idea properly realized. Kudos, two thumbs up, great work!</p>
<p>The Spell-less ranger also gets a variant class herein, the skin-changer - this one's interesting: Learning to change into the forms and animals and specializes in better natural attacks. No animal companion, though, and a different list of talents. The skin-changer also gets natural armor etc. - per se a concept none too complex in what it tries to do, but remains very evocative in its versatile options - the variant class remains one of the more iconic ones I've seen and makes for a great addition - once again - fine work indeed!</p>
<p>The next new class would be the theurge - d6, +Int skills per level, 1/2 BAB-progression, proficiency with simple weapons, good will-saves and prepared spellcasting -arcane spellcasting via Int and divine spellcasting via Wis - both from first level on. A Theurge gets a spellbook and a prayerbook and the latter requires the divine spells to be learned similar to arcane spells - from scrolls or levels. However, a theurge may wilder in e.g. druid or inquisitor spell-lists. Which leads me to a massive issue: Not all spells are available for all classes at the same level, making for possible cherry-picking (not only content, but also level-wise!) here, not to start with VERY powerful class-exclusive spells....Think Paladin, Inquisitor, Druid, Magus, Witch...ouch. Yes, there may be costs etc. While first, slots are distinct from another, starting at fourth level, arcane spells may be prepared via divine slots and vice versa, but at a penalty level-wise to the spell prepared, i.e. second level spells need to be prepared as third level spells etc. The capstone gets rid of this minor penalty, though. At 5th level, theurges may cast two spells at once - one arcane, one divine, both imposing a -4 penalty to saves 1/day +1/day 6 levels after that. They also learn to cast a select limited array of spells as SLs. So, I'll be frank here - this class is OP in my opinion. Being able to wilder in any classes spell-list, cherry-picking any exclusives sans penalties or limits is very powerful. A full caster that can cast both divine and arcane spells is a cool concept, but this class drops the ball hard regarding the balancing of spell-levels and spell-lists - there ought to be some kind restriction here.</p>
<p>And yes, the amount of spells cast (which never increases above 2 arcane + 2 divine per level (+ bonus spells via Int + Wis) is severely restricted. It means every spell needs to count. But for a class which may pick the best of the best of ANY casting class, with this amount of flexibility, that also means that every cast WILL count. Which brings me to another issue - I get that the general restriction on spells-slots is there for balance. I'm not sold, though, that it'll make for a particularly fun playing experience. Sure, once you hit out your crême de la crême spells, you'll own the game...but what about the other time? Unlike most other classes, the theurge has nothing but spellcasting. And you don't have enough spells for proper utility tricks, proper buffing, proper debuffing - essentially the class is geared very much toward being flashy super-spell nova-heavy. Which you •may• like, but personally, I think the class would have been more rewarding with more casts per day and a more restricted balancing via spells known. I was not sold on the class concept and playtesting it at level 4, 12 and 16 didn't help either - mainly due to 2 things - theurges at higher levels can be superb crafters - with access to ALL spells and the option to learn just about every spell, these guys can craft like crazy. They may also use just about every spell-in-a-can-item conceivable by virtue of their all-encompassing spell-lists, which means that theurges in game probably will resort quite a lot to wand/staff-slinging when not casting their flashy super-spells.</p>
<p>It's a glass pumpgun (also re buffs/debuffs) - two devastating shots and empty. Personally, I'd be not keen as a DM to structure my adventures to "empty" the super spell-arsenal of the theurge or to play one, trying to keep my super-ammo for the big bad boss. Now all of this sounds negative, but the class per se is not a bad design, it does have its niche in which it will excel superbly. While I'm not sold on the place in a regular adventuring group, I do think the theurge will work superbly in 1 on 1-adventures and small groups - especially if the DM modifies adventures accordingly, groups starved for players get essentially divine and arcane in one class without resorting to gestalting - so yeah, the theurge has its niche, though I maintain it could have been more versatile in its use.</p>
<p>Of course, we also get new archetypes - the elven archer gets the Royal Guardian, a more urban Night Watch-style archer and the Plains Rider, a mounted archer. Apart from that, all the archetypes you'd expect from the base-pdfs can be found herein. It should also be noted that the archetypes have been mostly cleaned up re typos in the originals etc. - nice to see.</p>
<p>In the next chapter, we get a whole slew of traits and feats - also fodder for the new classes, with feats to improve the savant's avatar of legend, leadership for animals - I've covered a lot of these in former reviews. Unfortunately, not all gripes I had with some have been fixed. Take Eagle Style: Upon a successful dirty trick, you can substitute making the target mute for your regular effect. Doesn't sound so bad? Well...no duration. The muteness is, as written, PERMANENT. Yes, this one was broken in the original and is still - but it should be noted that overall, cases like this remain the exception, rather than the rule. Generally, the feats herein can be considered worthwhile additions, with some of the more esoteric style-trees especially coming to mind.</p>
<p>Marc Radle's scaling combat feats from Gygax Magazine #1 are also included herein - and while I still consider them a good idea, I still think it would have been nice to have a note detailing handling the chain balance-wise - it's a slight shift - not a big one, but it exists. It should also be noted that, since the original inception of the idea, TPK Games have released two pdfs of scaling feats, covering the whole core-book and the APG, so if you plan on using scaling feats, make sure that it's clear which system you're going to use.</p>
<p>The spells herein provide rather iconic options - whether conjuring forth Rivers of Moonlight, weaving deadly magics into your arrows/bolts/sling-stones, cast cool bone-themed spells or rain fangs down upon your foes. All in all, a nice array of casting options. We also are introduced to a total of 7 weapon types, various pieces of equipment and magic items and also the 3 legendary items (the level-scaling variant, not the one from Mythic Adventures), depicting the regalia of Gax the Great.</p>
<p>The book concludes with sheets - for animal companions, arrow tracking sheets, favored enemies/terrain, prepared spell tracking sheets, spirit guide, summon monster-sheets and even a wildshape-sheet make for a massive array of neat sheets that will prove to be useful.</p>
<p>Conclusion:</p>
<p>Editing and formatting are very good - there are next to no glitches in this massive compilation, which is quite a feat at this length. The pdf comes with a relatively printer-friendly two-column full color standard and the artworks in full color are neat and numerous and original/former cover illustrations - all in all, a beautiful book. The pdf comes with massive, nested bookmarks, making the book easy to navigate. I can't comment on the physical book, since I only own the pdf.</p>
<p>Designers Marc Radle, Ryan Costello Jr., Crystal Frasier, John Ling Jr., Jerall Toi, Wolfgang Baur, Matt Blackie, Charles Lee Carrier, Chris Harris, Stu Logan, Nicholas Milasich, Mitch Radle, Vincent Colon Roine, Justin Sluder and Michael Timpe have crafted a massive crunchy book full of (mostly!) awesome classes, several of which had player characters in my current campaign. The Savant is a glorious class, the theurge - well, as you've read, I'm not 100% sold on it, but oh well. The archer-classes are nice, if a bit conservative and linear for my tastes. The other classes - well, check the respective reviews for those.</p>
<p>The supplemental information and crunch provided also falls within this spectrum - mostly, the content herein ranges from good to awesome, but here and there, we can find a piece of crunch that could have used some streamlining. On the downer-side, I REALLY expected favored class options, at least for the Midgard and Core-races herein for the new classes and their absence is a bit of a let-down.</p>
<p>How to rate this, then? The New Paths Compendium is a nice resource, if not a perfect one and while the book can be considered mostly awesomeness, the few rough edges standout all the clearer. In the end, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars - with e.g. savant and fixed typos etc. pointing towards the 5, theurge and the few flaws pointing towards the 4. In the end, I will round up due to the majority of the content being problem-free and the good outweighing the slightly problematic by quite a bit and my general maxim of in dubio pro reo.</p>
<p>Endzeitgeist out.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>This massive compilation of the New Paths-series, including quite a bunch of new content), clocks in at 130 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 124 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?</p>
<p>So, from the get-go - I did reviews for the arcane paladin-class, the Battle Scion, the Spell-less Ranger, Shaman, White Necromancer, Monk/Ninja and Gunslinger-installments of the series, so if you're interested in a direct breakdown of these, please take a look at the respective reviews. I will, though, mention the new content or fixes. I also did not review the elven archer-pdf (simply because I don't have it), so that one will get its breakdown. Got that? Great!</p>
<p>So let's take a look at the elven archer, shall we? A racially restricted class (only elves and half-elves may apply), it gets d8, 6+Int skills, proficiency with simple and martial weapons, light armors, bucklers, full BAB-progression, good ref- and fort-saves, prepared divine spellcasting of up to 4th level with wis as governing attribute and track/wild empathy at first level. Beyond that, the class adds so-called precision-damage, +1d6, against foes denied their dex-bonus within 30 ft., increasing this by 1d6 damage every 5 class levels. This damage also applies when flanking with the bow, which becomes possible at 16th level.</p>
<p>Eleven archers are bow specialists and at 2nd level, get a bonus feat (another one every 3 levels) and count as fighter-levels -3 for purposes of feat qualification. They also get a creature type à la favored enemy at 3rd level and gets +2 to several skills pertaining them, as well as +2 to damage and atk against them. This bonus scales up to +6 - but choose wisely, for the archer may choose only one such target! Beyond that, these archers may hide in natural environment sans concealment, ignore specific difficult terrains, leaves no trails, can track faster and later even no longer provoke AoOs with the bow in melee. Beyond that, the elven archer at 9th level learns to temporarily enchant arrows and imbue them with special magical qualities. The class later also learns to deal more devastating shots against stationary targets by taking aim - though this only becomes available at 13th level. Now the class also comes with 3 alternatives for other races.</p>
<p>For example, the halfling sling master, who is rather similar to the elven archer, but instead of bonus feats, the alternate class gets a special trick to perform with the slingshot at 5th level and every 6 levels after that. Trick shots include ricochets and detrimental conditions that can be exchanged for precision damage - sans saves. OUCH. They also get rapid reload for slings. They also are more stealth-focused.</p>
<p>Dwarven Crossbowyer can ignore partially armor, shield and natural armor bonuses, carry more equipment, get a favored terrain and essentially get the elven archer's bonuses in forests instead in caves/earthen environments. The final variant, the mystic archer, has no race restrictions. They are rather similar to the eleven archers (minus the foresty/stealthy components), but at 5th and every 6 levels after that, they may choose from a special array of tricks. All in all, solid, if a bit conservative classes.</p>
<p>Next up would be a new class, the savant. The class gets a d8, 4+Int skills per level, proficiency with simple weapons and light armor, 3/4 BAB-progression, good fort- and will-saves and they start game with 3 knacks and expand that up to 8 at 20th level. Savants may assume a persona for 3+cha-mod minutes per day. A persona is just the name for a given combination of knacks. Some of these are spell-like abilities that duplicate arcane or divine spells and follow the usual restrictions regarding these forms of magic, including DCs - in stark contrast to the regular DC, which clocks in at the expected 10+1/2 class level+cha-mod.. Embodying a persona is a full-round action that doesn't provoke AoOs. The knacks allow the savant to temporarily gain access to proficiencies, items, +4 (scaling up to +8) bonus to attributes, spells (limited in level by the savant class level), skills, racial tricks (like scent or swim speed) and even temporarily boost his BAB. Now as if this kind-of-jack of-all-trades-style ability wasn't enough, a savant also has a notebook - by observing certain happening, he may enter specifics on equipment, feats, races etc., gaining power literally as he observes and travels - much like the emulation of abilities in Rite Publishing's Taskshaper, this means a DM ought to tell the player in question in detail to very carefully keep the books regarding this notebook. Now another interesting thing here is that the savant needs to observe at least a minute and then get to noting this fast - and there's a daily limit on what he can jot down, so some planning involved as well.</p>
<p>Later, the savant also gets advanced knacks with natural attacks, healing (also negative conditions), apply metamagic etc. further increasing the options available. They also learn to conjure forth so-called avatars of legends - essentially cohorts with access to knacks that can be summoned, but which remain only as long as concentration si maintained - cool! The savant later also learns to combine knacks into a so-called hyperbole, , switch knacks etc. and finally, the savant may even share knacks with allies and as a capstone, maintain concentration on their avatars as a move action. All in all, the savant may be a book-keeping intensive class, but also a rather rewarding spinner of tall-tales jack-of-all-trades-style class - that is also sufficiently different from Drop Dead Studios' Dilettante! Kudos for a smart design here! We also get advice for playing the character, as well as a sample character and 3 sample avatars of legend - neat! All in all, one damn fine example of great design, an iconic idea properly realized. Kudos, two thumbs up, great work!</p>
<p>The Spell-less ranger also gets a variant class herein, the skin-changer - this one's interesting: Learning to change into the forms and animals and specializes in better natural attacks. No animal companion, though, and a different list of talents. The skin-changer also gets natural armor etc. - per se a concept none too complex in what it tries to do, but remains very evocative in its versatile options - the variant class remains one of the more iconic ones I've seen and makes for a great addition - once again - fine work indeed!</p>
<p>The next new class would be the theurge - d6, +Int skills per level, 1/2 BAB-progression, proficiency with simple weapons, good will-saves and prepared spellcasting -arcane spellcasting via Int and divine spellcasting via Wis - both from first level on. A Theurge gets a spellbook and a prayerbook and the latter requires the divine spells to be learned similar to arcane spells - from scrolls or levels. However, a theurge may wilder in e.g. druid or inquisitor spell-lists. Which leads me to a massive issue: Not all spells are available for all classes at the same level, making for possible cherry-picking (not only content, but also level-wise!) here, not to start with VERY powerful class-exclusive spells....Think Paladin, Inquisitor, Druid, Magus, Witch...ouch. Yes, there may be costs etc. While first, slots are distinct from another, starting at fourth level, arcane spells may be prepared via divine slots and vice versa, but at a penalty level-wise to the spell prepared, i.e. second level spells need to be prepared as third level spells etc. The capstone gets rid of this minor penalty, though. At 5th level, theurges may cast two spells at once - one arcane, one divine, both imposing a -4 penalty to saves 1/day +1/day 6 levels after that. They also learn to cast a select limited array of spells as SLs. So, I'll be frank here - this class is OP in my opinion. Being able to wilder in any classes spell-list, cherry-picking any exclusives sans penalties or limits is very powerful. A full caster that can cast both divine and arcane spells is a cool concept, but this class drops the ball hard regarding the balancing of spell-levels and spell-lists - there ought to be some kind restriction here.</p>
<p>And yes, the amount of spells cast (which never increases above 2 arcane + 2 divine per level (+ bonus spells via Int + Wis) is severely restricted. It means every spell needs to count. But for a class which may pick the best of the best of ANY casting class, with this amount of flexibility, that also means that every cast WILL count. Which brings me to another issue - I get that the general restriction on spells-slots is there for balance. I'm not sold, though, that it'll make for a particularly fun playing experience. Sure, once you hit out your crême de la crême spells, you'll own the game...but what about the other time? Unlike most other classes, the theurge has nothing but spellcasting. And you don't have enough spells for proper utility tricks, proper buffing, proper debuffing - essentially the class is geared very much toward being flashy super-spell nova-heavy. Which you •may• like, but personally, I think the class would have been more rewarding with more casts per day and a more restricted balancing via spells known. I was not sold on the class concept and playtesting it at level 4, 12 and 16 didn't help either - mainly due to 2 things - theurges at higher levels can be superb crafters - with access to ALL spells and the option to learn just about every spell, these guys can craft like crazy. They may also use just about every spell-in-a-can-item conceivable by virtue of their all-encompassing spell-lists, which means that theurges in game probably will resort quite a lot to wand/staff-slinging when not casting their flashy super-spells.</p>
<p>It's a glass pumpgun (also re buffs/debuffs) - two devastating shots and empty. Personally, I'd be not keen as a DM to structure my adventures to "empty" the super spell-arsenal of the theurge or to play one, trying to keep my super-ammo for the big bad boss. Now all of this sounds negative, but the class per se is not a bad design, it does have its niche in which it will excel superbly. While I'm not sold on the place in a regular adventuring group, I do think the theurge will work superbly in 1 on 1-adventures and small groups - especially if the DM modifies adventures accordingly, groups starved for players get essentially divine and arcane in one class without resorting to gestalting - so yeah, the theurge has its niche, though I maintain it could have been more versatile in its use.</p>
<p>Of course, we also get new archetypes - the elven archer gets the Royal Guardian, a more urban Night Watch-style archer and the Plains Rider, a mounted archer. Apart from that, all the archetypes you'd expect from the base-pdfs can be found herein. It should also be noted that the archetypes have been mostly cleaned up re typos in the originals etc. - nice to see.</p>
<p>In the next chapter, we get a whole slew of traits and feats - also fodder for the new classes, with feats to improve the savant's avatar of legend, leadership for animals - I've covered a lot of these in former reviews. Unfortunately, not all gripes I had with some have been fixed. Take Eagle Style: Upon a successful dirty trick, you can substitute making the target mute for your regular effect. Doesn't sound so bad? Well...no duration. The muteness is, as written, PERMANENT. Yes, this one was broken in the original and is still - but it should be noted that overall, cases like this remain the exception, rather than the rule. Generally, the feats herein can be considered worthwhile additions, with some of the more esoteric style-trees especially coming to mind.</p>
<p>Marc Radle's scaling combat feats from Gygax Magazine #1 are also included herein - and while I still consider them a good idea, I still think it would have been nice to have a note detailing handling the chain balance-wise - it's a slight shift - not a big one, but it exists. It should also be noted that, since the original inception of the idea, TPK Games have released two pdfs of scaling feats, covering the whole core-book and the APG, so if you plan on using scaling feats, make sure that it's clear which system you're going to use.</p>
<p>The spells herein provide rather iconic options - whether conjuring forth Rivers of Moonlight, weaving deadly magics into your arrows/bolts/sling-stones, cast cool bone-themed spells or rain fangs down upon your foes. All in all, a nice array of casting options. We also are introduced to a total of 7 weapon types, various pieces of equipment and magic items and also the 3 legendary items (the level-scaling variant, not the one from Mythic Adventures), depicting the regalia of Gax the Great.</p>
<p>The book concludes with sheets - for animal companions, arrow tracking sheets, favored enemies/terrain, prepared spell tracking sheets, spirit guide, summon monster-sheets and even a wildshape-sheet make for a massive array of neat sheets that will prove to be useful.</p>
<p>Conclusion:</p>
<p>Editing and formatting are very good - there are next to no glitches in this massive compilation, which is quite a feat at this length. The pdf comes with a relatively printer-friendly two-column full color standard and the artworks in full color are neat and numerous and original/former cover illustrations - all in all, a beautiful book. The pdf comes with massive, nested bookmarks, making the book easy to navigate. I can't comment on the physical book, since I only own the pdf.</p>
<p>Designers Marc Radle, Ryan Costello Jr., Crystal Frasier, John Ling Jr., Jerall Toi, Wolfgang Baur, Matt Blackie, Charles Lee Carrier, Chris Harris, Stu Logan, Nicholas Milasich, Mitch Radle, Vincent Colon Roine, Justin Sluder and Michael Timpe have crafted a massive crunchy book full of (mostly!) awesome classes, several of which had player characters in my current campaign. The Savant is a glorious class, the theurge - well, as you've read, I'm not 100% sold on it, but oh well. The archer-classes are nice, if a bit conservative and linear for my tastes. The other classes - well, check the respective reviews for those.</p>
<p>The supplemental information and crunch provided also falls within this spectrum - mostly, the content herein ranges from good to awesome, but here and there, we can find a piece of crunch that could have used some streamlining. On the downer-side, I REALLY expected favored class options, at least for the Midgard and Core-races herein for the new classes and their absence is a bit of a let-down.</p>
<p>How to rate this, then? The New Paths Compendium is a nice resource, if not a perfect one and while the book can be considered mostly awesomeness, the few rough edges standout all the clearer. In the end, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars - with e.g. savant and fixed typos etc. pointing towards the 5, theurge and the few flaws pointing towards the 4. In the end, I will round up due to the majority of the content being problem-free and the good outweighing the slightly problematic by quite a bit and my general maxim of in dubio pro reo.</p>
<p>Endzeitgeist out.</p>Endzeitgeist2014-05-07T05:12:03ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Great Addition, Kobold nailed it. (5 stars)Dexion1619https://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-04-20T19:51:47Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I have been meaning to review this for a while.</p>
<p>The first thing about this book that jumped out at me was the quality of the physical product. The paper is a nice heavy weight, the artwork is quality and reflects the classes and abilities well, and the binding has held up well to use at the gaming table.</p>
<p>Most of the classes have been reviewed by others, but a few deserve special mention.</p>
<p>The Theurge is, in my opinion, a long needed addition to the game. The use of a "Prayer Book" elegantly handles the balance issues of giving a single class access to effectively every spell in the game. </p>
<p>The Battle Scion lives up to it's billing as an Arcane paladin. More importantly, it fills a character roll untouched by core classes (Full BAB, 4 level arcane caster). The Battle Scion can also serve as a "Rules Light" version of the Magus, for players who don't have a high degree of system mastery, but are still attracted to the "Fighter/mage" concept. </p>
<p>The White Necromancer is an interesting solution to a sticky situation. As a GM, a player who wish's to play a Necromancer with undead "Pets" can quickly derail a campaign. The White Necromancer easily handles those issues.</p>
<p>Add to this new equipment, feats and a load of Archtypes, and you have a book that is worth much more then the sum of its parts. Honestly, It seems like every time I flip through the pages I find some new little bit that I can find a use for.</p>
<p>This is a Great, Quality Product.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I have been meaning to review this for a while.</p>
<p>The first thing about this book that jumped out at me was the quality of the physical product. The paper is a nice heavy weight, the artwork is quality and reflects the classes and abilities well, and the binding has held up well to use at the gaming table.</p>
<p>Most of the classes have been reviewed by others, but a few deserve special mention.</p>
<p>The Theurge is, in my opinion, a long needed addition to the game. The use of a "Prayer Book" elegantly handles the balance issues of giving a single class access to effectively every spell in the game. </p>
<p>The Battle Scion lives up to it's billing as an Arcane paladin. More importantly, it fills a character roll untouched by core classes (Full BAB, 4 level arcane caster). The Battle Scion can also serve as a "Rules Light" version of the Magus, for players who don't have a high degree of system mastery, but are still attracted to the "Fighter/mage" concept. </p>
<p>The White Necromancer is an interesting solution to a sticky situation. As a GM, a player who wish's to play a Necromancer with undead "Pets" can quickly derail a campaign. The White Necromancer easily handles those issues.</p>
<p>Add to this new equipment, feats and a load of Archtypes, and you have a book that is worth much more then the sum of its parts. Honestly, It seems like every time I flip through the pages I find some new little bit that I can find a use for.</p>
<p>This is a Great, Quality Product.</p>Dexion16192014-04-20T19:51:47ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): All In One Place (5 stars)TimsterMonhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-04-11T19:53:16Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I had pretty much all the information in this booklet spread out over multiple .pdfs and Kobold quarterly hard-copies. It was so cool to get all the information in one place. And since the awesome tablets that I would use are not being made, yet (or at least not at a reasonable price, and a couple inches bigger and some millimeters thinner), I still prefer a "dead-tree" version over an electronic one.</p>
<p>Really cool options in this compendius tome. I am especially intrigued with the Savant class which is essentially a different take on the Factotum in 3.5ed. I had lots of fun with my Factotum/Uncanny Trickster in Faerun for the hardback-trilogy (Cormryr, Shadowsdale, Anarouch) and wonder what jack-of-all-mischief I could do with a Savant.</p>
<p>Also, one of my favorite archetype names is in this book. There are an array of Gunslinger "mods" to convert a standard class to include using guns. The one for the cleric, Hellfire Preacher is wicked (not alignmently). I especially like that Diplomacy is substituted with Intimidate.</p>
<p>Another cool option is the Battle Scion. The Battle Scion has been called an "arcane paladin", but I find it to be more like a Magus. If one were to put the Fighter and Wizard at extremes of a line and using the mid point for reference, the Battle Scion would be close to the middle favoring the fighter side and the Magus, also close to the middle, but favoring the wizard side. I enjoyed the Battle Scion that I played in my friends home-brew campaign.</p>
<p>Enough yacking and spoiling, go get yourself a copy! 8')</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>I had pretty much all the information in this booklet spread out over multiple .pdfs and Kobold quarterly hard-copies. It was so cool to get all the information in one place. And since the awesome tablets that I would use are not being made, yet (or at least not at a reasonable price, and a couple inches bigger and some millimeters thinner), I still prefer a "dead-tree" version over an electronic one.</p>
<p>Really cool options in this compendius tome. I am especially intrigued with the Savant class which is essentially a different take on the Factotum in 3.5ed. I had lots of fun with my Factotum/Uncanny Trickster in Faerun for the hardback-trilogy (Cormryr, Shadowsdale, Anarouch) and wonder what jack-of-all-mischief I could do with a Savant.</p>
<p>Also, one of my favorite archetype names is in this book. There are an array of Gunslinger "mods" to convert a standard class to include using guns. The one for the cleric, Hellfire Preacher is wicked (not alignmently). I especially like that Diplomacy is substituted with Intimidate.</p>
<p>Another cool option is the Battle Scion. The Battle Scion has been called an "arcane paladin", but I find it to be more like a Magus. If one were to put the Fighter and Wizard at extremes of a line and using the mid point for reference, the Battle Scion would be close to the middle favoring the fighter side and the Magus, also close to the middle, but favoring the wizard side. I enjoyed the Battle Scion that I played in my friends home-brew campaign.</p>
<p>Enough yacking and spoiling, go get yourself a copy! 8')</p>TimsterMon2014-04-11T19:53:16ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Kobold Press blown it out of the park (5 stars)KrythePhreakhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-04-04T09:18:44Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>One thing I love most is that occasional 3rd party piece of material for my favorite role playing game to come out and sweep me off of my feet. Kobold Press has definitely made that happen with their latest book, New Paths Compendium. I myself have been following their New Path character releases for some time when I stumbled onto their Spell-less Ranger class they released a couple of years ago. While I myself may never play some of the written characters, that does not mean they are not well written or mechanically stable, it just different strokes for different folks people. However I must say that all of their classes to this date have impressed me nonetheless and offer a wide range of options. Since we are discussing the classes, I will go ahead and start breaking down my review chapter by chapter.</p>
<p>Chapter One of the book opens up with a full-page art depiction of each character along with their class descriptions and some flavor to boot. There are seven new classes in the book and they are as followed: Battle Scion, Elven Archer, Savant, Shaman, Spell-less Ranger, Theurge, and White Necromancer.</p>
<p>1) The Battle Scion or the “arcane paladin” as per Kobolds description is a neat mesh of Paizo’s Magus and Paladin classes. The Scion carries a full BAB with the ability to launch a Force Blast that grows in power with level, can enhance their weapon like the Magus, along with a few other nice abilities. </p>
<p>2) The Elven Archer is a class based on the iconic image of elves being read about in fantasy novels, which meant a forest dwelling, bow wielding elf. The class plays much like an archery Ranger with a long-range sneak attack ability that scales with level along with an arrow enhancement ability. Kobold has done a fine stand up job by not limiting us with having to actually be an elf if you do not want and can instead opt out by trying out their variant archer designs. These are the Halfling Slingmaster, Dwarven Crossbowyer, and Mystic Archer and they all play similar to the Elven Archer but they have their own unique ability and flavor. </p>
<p>3) The Savant easily has the greatest versatility to ever be laid out in a character. There has never been a truer form of a jack-of-all-trades character than the Savant. The Savant is a character who adopts various persona by using knacks written in their notebook. Knacks can range from weapon proficiencies, to spellcasting, to skill knowledge and come together in unique custom combinations to create the personae the Savant feels is necessary to meet any situation that encounter. This is a class that requires A LOT of prep time and recommends that you have multiple persona written out ahead of time so you will not slow the game down, making it harder on the GM. There really is so much to this class that I find it to really explain without giving away most of its details. </p>
<p>4) The Shaman in a nutshell is a Druid with healing powers. The Shaman bonds with the spirit of an animal that takes a physical form when summoned and acts as an animal companion. The Shaman is also a spontaneous caster using the druid spell list which gives a great option for those who enjoy spontaneous casting, because I know I do. </p>
<p>5) The Spell-less Ranger is easily my favorite class written by Kobold and it was the class that got me interested in the New Paths characters. This class takes all of those iconic Ranger characters such as Aragorn and Robin Hood and makes them playable because magic was not something those guys used…ever. The Ranger gains a few new toys in exchange for losing his spells but the important ones are Stealth Attack, which is essentially a Sneak Attack against favored foes or while in favored terrain, and Ranger Talents. Ranger Talents play much like Paizo’s Skirmisher archetype’s Talents, but these are actually worth losing spells for and are balanced well with a few particularly good choices. There is also a variant for this class that was released with this book called the Skin Changer and it is one that I have been wanting to try out so badly. This variant trades out the favored enemy, combat style, and animal companion of a Ranger with the ability to essentially wild shape into that animal instead that scales like a druid so it actually feels pretty balanced and a ton of fun if you are into playing a shifter without contracting a terrible were- disease.</p>
<p>6) The Theurge is an amazing spellcaster that allows you to cast divine and arcane spells right from the get go, without having to make that climb into Paizo’s Mystic Theurge prestige class which typically took at least 10 levels to get to and the character feels gimped the entire way there. Well fear no longer, because the Theurge can do that from level 1 and can even cast two spells at the same time given that one is arcane and one is divine. Their only downfall is how many spells per day they can actually pull off but then again, if they could cast all day like other classes, then it would be broken and probably banned from tables so I find it very balanced in that fact.</p>
<p>7) Finally to wrap up this chapter we have the White Necromancer, which is not bad per se, but it is probably my least favorite of the six. Essentially this class is a “good” necromancer that studies life and death instead of exploiting it for their own nefarious purposes. If necromancy is your cup of tea, then this class has a lot to offer. At first they cannot cast “evil” necromancy spells as well as a necromancer and this costs them two spell slots to do so which can make tough goings, but later down the road this is negated. They have a pretty decent spell list that consists of a mix of cleric and wizard/sorcerer which rounds out their arsenal. </p>
<p>Chapter Two contains the Archetypes section of the book. In it, eight classes are given new archetype options. Some of them are the New Path classes: Battle Scion, Elven Archer, Shaman, Spell-less Ranger and White Necromancer, while the other three, the Gunslinger, Monk, and Ninja, are some of Paizo’s own. </p>
<p>1) The Battle Scion features two new archetypes. The first is the Bonded Scion, which lets him take an Arcane Bond, though it must be a weapon, and improve it further. There are also a few sweet abilities that go along with it. The other one is called the Force Blaster and it does just that, removing the focus from mainly melee, and instead opting for a blaster type role that boosts the Scion’s force blast capabilities. </p>
<p>2) The Elven Archer got two new archetypes as well. First is the Royal Guardian, which removes the wilderness feel, the Elven Archer brought with him and instead incorporates him into a more societal class by taking on things such as social skills and useful urban environment abilities. Second is the Plains Rider, which is essentially an Elven Archer with a mount and some abilities to go along with it. Not a lot of crazy cool things going for it but it is more options, and that is never a bad thing.</p>
<p>3) The Gunslinger got quite a few new options in this book and scored seven new archetypes, and honestly they are some of my favorites in this book. First is the Black Hat, which carries a really fun “gun witch” feel. The archetype gets abilities that debuff opponents, cause mechanical malfunctions, and still pack the full wallop of toting a gun in PFRPG. Next is the Black Reaver, which is in fact a Barbarian archetype, but it being the only one, would have been a waste of space and ink for unnecessary text. This archetype gives a Barbarian the Amateur Gunslinger feat and various deeds that work with firearms. Really there is not much to say on this one. The next one though steps up it’s A game for sure. The Coilgunner is an archetype that drops the traditional firearm, and instead expands into the science and ancient artifacts side of guns. This archetype uses a coil gun rather than a standard firearm, which essentially can fire two types of ammunition. The first is the standard projectile like other guns can fire, but the classes deeds can change that up and allow a Coilgunner to overcharge their guns and hurl bolts of electricity instead. The only real problem with the class is it is dependent on a cooperative GM to gradually help you keep it upgraded by implementing other lost technologies into his/her campaign, otherwise I can see this archetype falling behind. The Futurist is a Witch archetype but totes firearms which are a really cool option. The Futurist can enchant their bullets with hexes thus causing the creature to take the effect of the hex along with the damage, which is awesome. They also give up their patron/familiar for some really cool effects. The Gunfighter is next on the list and is a Fighter archetype. This one like most Fighter archetypes, allow the Fighter to focus more on guns and thus gain additional abilities for them. If you like feats and guns then this option is for you. The Hellfire Preacher is a Cleric archetype and is full of broken faith flavor. This Cleric archetype is one who is on the edge of renouncement of their faith so in exchange for a weakened connection with their deity, they are granted firearm usage and a really nifty smite ability that looks to be pretty strong but is only applied to one attack. Finally in the Gunslinger department, we have the Noble Shootist and this one is a Gunslinger archetype. This is the personable Gunslinger with social skills to boot. This one seems pretty fun if you are into the whole bravado feel that a Gunslinger can have.</p>
<p>4) The Monk, like the Gunslinger got quite a few options to play with. First is the Beast-Soul Monk, and the first thing I thought when reading this was “Altered Beast” from the 90’s arcade games. This archetype scores the Monk and animal companion and allows them to later transform into their animal companion so it’s like a wild shaping monk with no spells. Next is the Clockwork Monk, which is a racial archetype for the Gearforged race. This is one of the only classes I cannot truly review just due to the face I have never really read up on the Gearforged class itself. But the archetype itself seems very strong. The Monk of the Compliant Style Rod is the bo staff monk that people enjoy playing. If you are a fan of the bo or quarterstaff then this option is for you. Next is one of my favorite Monk archetypes, and that is the Monk of the Glorious Endeavor. This archetype is all about focusing on one weapon of the users choosing and is given appropriate monk abilities that make that one weapon better. Personally I have always loved the flavor of the wandering swordsman in nothing but robes and a katana on his side and a ki pool attached to such a character just gives it so much flavor. It’s just a great archetype and even gets to use feats the affect unarmed attacks with their chosen weapon…Stunning Weapon!!! The Monk of the Peerless Mountain is the kicking monk. Finally an archetype that focuses solely on using their feet, and I must say, they can be quite effective. Focusing on the Cleave feats to deliver their main source of damage opens up new possibilities for Kobold to expand on other feats like this and expand them through a class. The Paper Drake Monk is next on the Monk’s archetype list. This is a monk whose martial arts style revolved around origami and the form the paper itself takes. All in all it is a pretty cool archetype. I feel like I saved the best for last, or I guess I should say Kobold Press did, but we have the really cool Six Talismans Monk. I feel like this is a monk archetype straight out of an anime. The Six Talismans Monk is an archetype that takes pieces of paper known as talismans, and attaches various effects such as exploding fire damage, hold person, and flesh to stone, and slaps them onto an opponent who then takes the damage or effect. If anyone is familiar with the anime Outlaw Star or even Naruto, it is easy to see there are semblances in place that are quite noticeable.</p>
<p>5) The Ninja got two new archetypes in this book and both are as follow. First is the Elemental Ninja, who essentially takes on an element like fire or water and they gain abilities like a wizard of their elemental school would. It’s a fun option that is there for sure. Secondly is the Mist Stalker who gets certain bonuses while standing in fogs, gases, or mists. This is almost a must if anyone wanted to focus on striking from forms of concealment. I hope in the future we get some more Ninja archetypes, because even though these are pretty cool, I have a strong appetite for more. </p>
<p>6) The Shaman is next on the list of classes with archetypes. First is the Elemental Shaman which allows the shaman to form a bond and wild shape with an elemental rather than an animal which is great since I typically prefer elementals to animals personally. The Primal Shifter is next on the list, and this archetype focuses more on the wild shaping factor. The Primal Shifter takes diminished spellcasting in exchange for extra wild shaping goodies. Later they perform a ritual dance that takes their wild shaping even further with really strong buffs that cannot be missed. Finally we have the Witch Doctor who takes diminished wild shaping in exchange for spells and abilities that focus on healing and the undead.</p>
<p>7) The Spell-less Ranger only has two options this time as well but both of those options are absolutely fantastic. First is the Dual Style Ranger who can only take a single Favored Enemy but in exchange can take up two combat styles and the Ranger gets free feats for both styles at the appropriate level. The other archetype is the Companion-Bound Ranger, and they only take a single Favored Terrain in exchange for a very strong animal companion. The companion comes from the Druid companion list and even levels with the Ranger like a Druid’s companion does. This leads to a very strong animal companion for a Ranger. I personally run a Spell-less Ranger in a campaign that has sadly halted due to life getting in the way but I must contest that this is easily my favorite 3rd party class I have ever toyed with and actually play using BOTH archetypes due to them stacking and I must say it was a blast while I was playing it. </p>
<p>8) The White Necromancer is the last of the classes to get archetypes. The first of two new archetype options is the Necrotic Healer. This archetype focuses more on the healing aspect rather than the summoning and controlling of the undead. The Necrotic Healer is seen as a “self-sacrificing” character that strives to ease the pain of others and divert it into them. The other archetype is the Grave-bound, and this one is pretty cool. The Grave-bound take on an undead companion that varies from ghosts and zombies to mummies and vampires and they gain new abilities as the Necromancer gets stronger. It’s a really cool aspect on companions that has not really been toyed with much and has earned my seal of approval. </p>
<p>Chapters Three through Six cover the feats, traits, spells, gear, magic items and tracking sheets. Though the meat of the book lay in the first two chapters, there is still plenty enough to satisfy anyone's appetite for extra options in a tabletop RPG. I would love to go into detail on everything that I could but alas there IS a word limit and due to trial and error I know it is not enough space to cover everything I wanted to talk about. </p>
<p>So all in all my experience with Kobold Press’s New Paths Compendium is nothing but positive. This is easily the best 3rd party book to come out in the last little bit and I strongly recommend anyone interested in anything mentioned in this review to give this book a shot. You will not be disappointed at all. I cannot wait to read and hopefully review the next book produced by them. My hat is off to Marc Radle for leading this book to perfection and with the help of an amazing staff.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>One thing I love most is that occasional 3rd party piece of material for my favorite role playing game to come out and sweep me off of my feet. Kobold Press has definitely made that happen with their latest book, New Paths Compendium. I myself have been following their New Path character releases for some time when I stumbled onto their Spell-less Ranger class they released a couple of years ago. While I myself may never play some of the written characters, that does not mean they are not well written or mechanically stable, it just different strokes for different folks people. However I must say that all of their classes to this date have impressed me nonetheless and offer a wide range of options. Since we are discussing the classes, I will go ahead and start breaking down my review chapter by chapter.</p>
<p>Chapter One of the book opens up with a full-page art depiction of each character along with their class descriptions and some flavor to boot. There are seven new classes in the book and they are as followed: Battle Scion, Elven Archer, Savant, Shaman, Spell-less Ranger, Theurge, and White Necromancer.</p>
<p>1) The Battle Scion or the “arcane paladin” as per Kobolds description is a neat mesh of Paizo’s Magus and Paladin classes. The Scion carries a full BAB with the ability to launch a Force Blast that grows in power with level, can enhance their weapon like the Magus, along with a few other nice abilities. </p>
<p>2) The Elven Archer is a class based on the iconic image of elves being read about in fantasy novels, which meant a forest dwelling, bow wielding elf. The class plays much like an archery Ranger with a long-range sneak attack ability that scales with level along with an arrow enhancement ability. Kobold has done a fine stand up job by not limiting us with having to actually be an elf if you do not want and can instead opt out by trying out their variant archer designs. These are the Halfling Slingmaster, Dwarven Crossbowyer, and Mystic Archer and they all play similar to the Elven Archer but they have their own unique ability and flavor. </p>
<p>3) The Savant easily has the greatest versatility to ever be laid out in a character. There has never been a truer form of a jack-of-all-trades character than the Savant. The Savant is a character who adopts various persona by using knacks written in their notebook. Knacks can range from weapon proficiencies, to spellcasting, to skill knowledge and come together in unique custom combinations to create the personae the Savant feels is necessary to meet any situation that encounter. This is a class that requires A LOT of prep time and recommends that you have multiple persona written out ahead of time so you will not slow the game down, making it harder on the GM. There really is so much to this class that I find it to really explain without giving away most of its details. </p>
<p>4) The Shaman in a nutshell is a Druid with healing powers. The Shaman bonds with the spirit of an animal that takes a physical form when summoned and acts as an animal companion. The Shaman is also a spontaneous caster using the druid spell list which gives a great option for those who enjoy spontaneous casting, because I know I do. </p>
<p>5) The Spell-less Ranger is easily my favorite class written by Kobold and it was the class that got me interested in the New Paths characters. This class takes all of those iconic Ranger characters such as Aragorn and Robin Hood and makes them playable because magic was not something those guys used…ever. The Ranger gains a few new toys in exchange for losing his spells but the important ones are Stealth Attack, which is essentially a Sneak Attack against favored foes or while in favored terrain, and Ranger Talents. Ranger Talents play much like Paizo’s Skirmisher archetype’s Talents, but these are actually worth losing spells for and are balanced well with a few particularly good choices. There is also a variant for this class that was released with this book called the Skin Changer and it is one that I have been wanting to try out so badly. This variant trades out the favored enemy, combat style, and animal companion of a Ranger with the ability to essentially wild shape into that animal instead that scales like a druid so it actually feels pretty balanced and a ton of fun if you are into playing a shifter without contracting a terrible were- disease.</p>
<p>6) The Theurge is an amazing spellcaster that allows you to cast divine and arcane spells right from the get go, without having to make that climb into Paizo’s Mystic Theurge prestige class which typically took at least 10 levels to get to and the character feels gimped the entire way there. Well fear no longer, because the Theurge can do that from level 1 and can even cast two spells at the same time given that one is arcane and one is divine. Their only downfall is how many spells per day they can actually pull off but then again, if they could cast all day like other classes, then it would be broken and probably banned from tables so I find it very balanced in that fact.</p>
<p>7) Finally to wrap up this chapter we have the White Necromancer, which is not bad per se, but it is probably my least favorite of the six. Essentially this class is a “good” necromancer that studies life and death instead of exploiting it for their own nefarious purposes. If necromancy is your cup of tea, then this class has a lot to offer. At first they cannot cast “evil” necromancy spells as well as a necromancer and this costs them two spell slots to do so which can make tough goings, but later down the road this is negated. They have a pretty decent spell list that consists of a mix of cleric and wizard/sorcerer which rounds out their arsenal. </p>
<p>Chapter Two contains the Archetypes section of the book. In it, eight classes are given new archetype options. Some of them are the New Path classes: Battle Scion, Elven Archer, Shaman, Spell-less Ranger and White Necromancer, while the other three, the Gunslinger, Monk, and Ninja, are some of Paizo’s own. </p>
<p>1) The Battle Scion features two new archetypes. The first is the Bonded Scion, which lets him take an Arcane Bond, though it must be a weapon, and improve it further. There are also a few sweet abilities that go along with it. The other one is called the Force Blaster and it does just that, removing the focus from mainly melee, and instead opting for a blaster type role that boosts the Scion’s force blast capabilities. </p>
<p>2) The Elven Archer got two new archetypes as well. First is the Royal Guardian, which removes the wilderness feel, the Elven Archer brought with him and instead incorporates him into a more societal class by taking on things such as social skills and useful urban environment abilities. Second is the Plains Rider, which is essentially an Elven Archer with a mount and some abilities to go along with it. Not a lot of crazy cool things going for it but it is more options, and that is never a bad thing.</p>
<p>3) The Gunslinger got quite a few new options in this book and scored seven new archetypes, and honestly they are some of my favorites in this book. First is the Black Hat, which carries a really fun “gun witch” feel. The archetype gets abilities that debuff opponents, cause mechanical malfunctions, and still pack the full wallop of toting a gun in PFRPG. Next is the Black Reaver, which is in fact a Barbarian archetype, but it being the only one, would have been a waste of space and ink for unnecessary text. This archetype gives a Barbarian the Amateur Gunslinger feat and various deeds that work with firearms. Really there is not much to say on this one. The next one though steps up it’s A game for sure. The Coilgunner is an archetype that drops the traditional firearm, and instead expands into the science and ancient artifacts side of guns. This archetype uses a coil gun rather than a standard firearm, which essentially can fire two types of ammunition. The first is the standard projectile like other guns can fire, but the classes deeds can change that up and allow a Coilgunner to overcharge their guns and hurl bolts of electricity instead. The only real problem with the class is it is dependent on a cooperative GM to gradually help you keep it upgraded by implementing other lost technologies into his/her campaign, otherwise I can see this archetype falling behind. The Futurist is a Witch archetype but totes firearms which are a really cool option. The Futurist can enchant their bullets with hexes thus causing the creature to take the effect of the hex along with the damage, which is awesome. They also give up their patron/familiar for some really cool effects. The Gunfighter is next on the list and is a Fighter archetype. This one like most Fighter archetypes, allow the Fighter to focus more on guns and thus gain additional abilities for them. If you like feats and guns then this option is for you. The Hellfire Preacher is a Cleric archetype and is full of broken faith flavor. This Cleric archetype is one who is on the edge of renouncement of their faith so in exchange for a weakened connection with their deity, they are granted firearm usage and a really nifty smite ability that looks to be pretty strong but is only applied to one attack. Finally in the Gunslinger department, we have the Noble Shootist and this one is a Gunslinger archetype. This is the personable Gunslinger with social skills to boot. This one seems pretty fun if you are into the whole bravado feel that a Gunslinger can have.</p>
<p>4) The Monk, like the Gunslinger got quite a few options to play with. First is the Beast-Soul Monk, and the first thing I thought when reading this was “Altered Beast” from the 90’s arcade games. This archetype scores the Monk and animal companion and allows them to later transform into their animal companion so it’s like a wild shaping monk with no spells. Next is the Clockwork Monk, which is a racial archetype for the Gearforged race. This is one of the only classes I cannot truly review just due to the face I have never really read up on the Gearforged class itself. But the archetype itself seems very strong. The Monk of the Compliant Style Rod is the bo staff monk that people enjoy playing. If you are a fan of the bo or quarterstaff then this option is for you. Next is one of my favorite Monk archetypes, and that is the Monk of the Glorious Endeavor. This archetype is all about focusing on one weapon of the users choosing and is given appropriate monk abilities that make that one weapon better. Personally I have always loved the flavor of the wandering swordsman in nothing but robes and a katana on his side and a ki pool attached to such a character just gives it so much flavor. It’s just a great archetype and even gets to use feats the affect unarmed attacks with their chosen weapon…Stunning Weapon!!! The Monk of the Peerless Mountain is the kicking monk. Finally an archetype that focuses solely on using their feet, and I must say, they can be quite effective. Focusing on the Cleave feats to deliver their main source of damage opens up new possibilities for Kobold to expand on other feats like this and expand them through a class. The Paper Drake Monk is next on the Monk’s archetype list. This is a monk whose martial arts style revolved around origami and the form the paper itself takes. All in all it is a pretty cool archetype. I feel like I saved the best for last, or I guess I should say Kobold Press did, but we have the really cool Six Talismans Monk. I feel like this is a monk archetype straight out of an anime. The Six Talismans Monk is an archetype that takes pieces of paper known as talismans, and attaches various effects such as exploding fire damage, hold person, and flesh to stone, and slaps them onto an opponent who then takes the damage or effect. If anyone is familiar with the anime Outlaw Star or even Naruto, it is easy to see there are semblances in place that are quite noticeable.</p>
<p>5) The Ninja got two new archetypes in this book and both are as follow. First is the Elemental Ninja, who essentially takes on an element like fire or water and they gain abilities like a wizard of their elemental school would. It’s a fun option that is there for sure. Secondly is the Mist Stalker who gets certain bonuses while standing in fogs, gases, or mists. This is almost a must if anyone wanted to focus on striking from forms of concealment. I hope in the future we get some more Ninja archetypes, because even though these are pretty cool, I have a strong appetite for more. </p>
<p>6) The Shaman is next on the list of classes with archetypes. First is the Elemental Shaman which allows the shaman to form a bond and wild shape with an elemental rather than an animal which is great since I typically prefer elementals to animals personally. The Primal Shifter is next on the list, and this archetype focuses more on the wild shaping factor. The Primal Shifter takes diminished spellcasting in exchange for extra wild shaping goodies. Later they perform a ritual dance that takes their wild shaping even further with really strong buffs that cannot be missed. Finally we have the Witch Doctor who takes diminished wild shaping in exchange for spells and abilities that focus on healing and the undead.</p>
<p>7) The Spell-less Ranger only has two options this time as well but both of those options are absolutely fantastic. First is the Dual Style Ranger who can only take a single Favored Enemy but in exchange can take up two combat styles and the Ranger gets free feats for both styles at the appropriate level. The other archetype is the Companion-Bound Ranger, and they only take a single Favored Terrain in exchange for a very strong animal companion. The companion comes from the Druid companion list and even levels with the Ranger like a Druid’s companion does. This leads to a very strong animal companion for a Ranger. I personally run a Spell-less Ranger in a campaign that has sadly halted due to life getting in the way but I must contest that this is easily my favorite 3rd party class I have ever toyed with and actually play using BOTH archetypes due to them stacking and I must say it was a blast while I was playing it. </p>
<p>8) The White Necromancer is the last of the classes to get archetypes. The first of two new archetype options is the Necrotic Healer. This archetype focuses more on the healing aspect rather than the summoning and controlling of the undead. The Necrotic Healer is seen as a “self-sacrificing” character that strives to ease the pain of others and divert it into them. The other archetype is the Grave-bound, and this one is pretty cool. The Grave-bound take on an undead companion that varies from ghosts and zombies to mummies and vampires and they gain new abilities as the Necromancer gets stronger. It’s a really cool aspect on companions that has not really been toyed with much and has earned my seal of approval. </p>
<p>Chapters Three through Six cover the feats, traits, spells, gear, magic items and tracking sheets. Though the meat of the book lay in the first two chapters, there is still plenty enough to satisfy anyone's appetite for extra options in a tabletop RPG. I would love to go into detail on everything that I could but alas there IS a word limit and due to trial and error I know it is not enough space to cover everything I wanted to talk about. </p>
<p>So all in all my experience with Kobold Press’s New Paths Compendium is nothing but positive. This is easily the best 3rd party book to come out in the last little bit and I strongly recommend anyone interested in anything mentioned in this review to give this book a shot. You will not be disappointed at all. I cannot wait to read and hopefully review the next book produced by them. My hat is off to Marc Radle for leading this book to perfection and with the help of an amazing staff.</p>KrythePhreak2014-04-04T09:18:44ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Crazy Kobolds with Class (5 stars)TheDisgaeanhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-02-26T02:37:51Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Back when I still played 3.5 of the Original Game, I was mind-boggled at how many character classes there were to choose from across the different books (and not in a good way). The game was saturated with classes that were little more than existing classes with a few new toys and a fresh coat of paint, and the few unique ones had so few abilities, they might as well have been feats. With the advent of Pathfinder's archetypes, variants, and soon to be released hybrids, and Super (now Rogue) Genius Games' "talented class" line, this issue has largely been alleviated. But despite all the streamlining, there are some niches that need filling, and Kobold Press has, at least in my opinion, delivered.</p>
<p>In addition to wide variety of new options for existing classes, the kobolds have created over eight new classes, each one bringing something different to the table. Some noteworthy examples include:</p>
<p><b>Battle Scion</b>
<br />
The oft-demanded "arcane paladin". Compared to the magus, the battle scion leans more toward the knight end of the "mageknight" spectrum. While its official cousin is all about wielding sword and spell simultaneously, the scion is geared more toward augmenting his weapons and armor with arcane power, while using its Force Blast ability and limited repertoire of wizard/sorcerer spells to deal with enemies from afar. All in all, a cool class.</p>
<p><b>Elven Archer & Spell-less Ranger</b>
<br />
These classes are variants of the ranger, as both have many abilities in common with it. The elven archer focuses more on magically augmented ranged combat and an expanded spell selection, while the spell-less ranger trades his nature drawn magic for a variety of special "ranger talents", a stealth attack (sneak attack that can only be used in favored terrains), and an expanded and improved Heal skill. Good classes, but the elven archer has a pretty narrow scope, and the spell-less ranger tends to overlap with the rogue a little <i>too</i> much, something I find uncomfortable.</p>
<p><b>Savant</b>
<br />
By far the quirkiest, coolest, and most convoluted class here. The crack baby of the Neverending Story and Final Fantasy's job system, the savant has the power to become any race or class, and use any feat, ability, or item he's properly studied and recorded its story in his notebook, provided he's of the proper level. The idea of drawing power from stories is an interesting concept, but at the same time, the class requires a massive amount of book keeping and is difficult to understand, even after reading it several times. Another winner, but keep away from beginners and the memory-challenged.</p>
<p><b>Theurge</b>
<br />
Remember the Mystic Theurge prestige class? I do, and I hated it. All it gave you was the ability to casting two spells at once, and use spell slots from other classes to cast other spells. Fortunately, the kobolds managed to salvage it and convert it into its own base class. Now you gain a limited repertoire of spontaneous spells as you level up, two books for wizard and cleric spells which function like the former's spellbook, some bonus feats, and the ability to roll twice on concentration checks and take the higher result. While I'm concerned about the last one's lack of uses per day, since the theurge has such few abilities, it shouldn't be too bad. Now if they could just do something about the Loremaster...</p>
<p>As far as the existing classes, they get all sorts of solid, flavorful archetypes, equipment, and feats, with special mention going to the gritty, disillusioned "Hellfire Preacher" (Cleric archetype), the items of Gax the Great (Hail Gary!), and the new "Scaling Combat Feats" system (though owners of TPK's "Feats Reforged" books might want to consult their GM should they consider using both.).</p>
<p>At the end of the day, the kobolds have done the impossible: added new, unique classes to a game that effectively gutted and salvaged hundreds of others.</p>
<p>My Verdict: Buy it...NOW!</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Back when I still played 3.5 of the Original Game, I was mind-boggled at how many character classes there were to choose from across the different books (and not in a good way). The game was saturated with classes that were little more than existing classes with a few new toys and a fresh coat of paint, and the few unique ones had so few abilities, they might as well have been feats. With the advent of Pathfinder's archetypes, variants, and soon to be released hybrids, and Super (now Rogue) Genius Games' "talented class" line, this issue has largely been alleviated. But despite all the streamlining, there are some niches that need filling, and Kobold Press has, at least in my opinion, delivered.</p>
<p>In addition to wide variety of new options for existing classes, the kobolds have created over eight new classes, each one bringing something different to the table. Some noteworthy examples include:</p>
<p><b>Battle Scion</b>
<br />
The oft-demanded "arcane paladin". Compared to the magus, the battle scion leans more toward the knight end of the "mageknight" spectrum. While its official cousin is all about wielding sword and spell simultaneously, the scion is geared more toward augmenting his weapons and armor with arcane power, while using its Force Blast ability and limited repertoire of wizard/sorcerer spells to deal with enemies from afar. All in all, a cool class.</p>
<p><b>Elven Archer & Spell-less Ranger</b>
<br />
These classes are variants of the ranger, as both have many abilities in common with it. The elven archer focuses more on magically augmented ranged combat and an expanded spell selection, while the spell-less ranger trades his nature drawn magic for a variety of special "ranger talents", a stealth attack (sneak attack that can only be used in favored terrains), and an expanded and improved Heal skill. Good classes, but the elven archer has a pretty narrow scope, and the spell-less ranger tends to overlap with the rogue a little <i>too</i> much, something I find uncomfortable.</p>
<p><b>Savant</b>
<br />
By far the quirkiest, coolest, and most convoluted class here. The crack baby of the Neverending Story and Final Fantasy's job system, the savant has the power to become any race or class, and use any feat, ability, or item he's properly studied and recorded its story in his notebook, provided he's of the proper level. The idea of drawing power from stories is an interesting concept, but at the same time, the class requires a massive amount of book keeping and is difficult to understand, even after reading it several times. Another winner, but keep away from beginners and the memory-challenged.</p>
<p><b>Theurge</b>
<br />
Remember the Mystic Theurge prestige class? I do, and I hated it. All it gave you was the ability to casting two spells at once, and use spell slots from other classes to cast other spells. Fortunately, the kobolds managed to salvage it and convert it into its own base class. Now you gain a limited repertoire of spontaneous spells as you level up, two books for wizard and cleric spells which function like the former's spellbook, some bonus feats, and the ability to roll twice on concentration checks and take the higher result. While I'm concerned about the last one's lack of uses per day, since the theurge has such few abilities, it shouldn't be too bad. Now if they could just do something about the Loremaster...</p>
<p>As far as the existing classes, they get all sorts of solid, flavorful archetypes, equipment, and feats, with special mention going to the gritty, disillusioned "Hellfire Preacher" (Cleric archetype), the items of Gax the Great (Hail Gary!), and the new "Scaling Combat Feats" system (though owners of TPK's "Feats Reforged" books might want to consult their GM should they consider using both.).</p>
<p>At the end of the day, the kobolds have done the impossible: added new, unique classes to a game that effectively gutted and salvaged hundreds of others.</p>
<p>My Verdict: Buy it...NOW!</p>TheDisgaean2014-02-26T02:37:51ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Impressive Product (5 stars)DougErvinhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-02-25T20:01:00Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>This is a 130 page compendium dedicated to introducing new options into the game. Instead of trying to review the entire document I am going to focus on the points I was most impressed with but nothing in this product is poorly thought out or written.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 1 Classes: The star for me is the Thergue. Similar to wizard in spell casting ability, the thergue has the ability to cast both arcane and divine spells, more on that latter. Lever by level the thergue can prepare as many spells as the wizard but half of the spell slots are arcane and half divine. The thergue can know an unlimited amount of spells and stores them in two spell books, the one for the divine spells called a prayer book. As the thergue advances, the character gains two new arcane spells (sorcerer/wizard)and two new divine spells (cleric). As a special ability, the thergue can learn any other class's spells from a scroll or another spell book. Potentially a thergue can know every spell known. The thergue has the potential to be the most powerful character in game.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 2: ARCHETYPES - A number of interesting and balanced archetypes are available for the player to explore.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 3: FEATS & TRAITS - The winner here are the scalable feats. These fix the problem of feat chains. Instead of taking two weapon fighting followed by improved and greater two weapon fighting you take a single feat, which improves as the character advances. This is such a great advance I wish I could go back in time to the PF play test and suggest it. Highly recommended to use.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 4: SPELLS - Some really good spells with nothing out of line.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 5: MAGIC ITEMS & GEAR - The one item I would think about before I gave it out is the ever-full quiver. One of the downsides of an archer is ammo management. For 9,000 GP I can have an unlimited number of adamantine arrows. As a player I would love one.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 6: TRACKING SHEETS - Some very useful addition sheets for players to track aspects of their characters.</p>
<p>Overall, I highly recommend this product.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>This is a 130 page compendium dedicated to introducing new options into the game. Instead of trying to review the entire document I am going to focus on the points I was most impressed with but nothing in this product is poorly thought out or written.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 1 Classes: The star for me is the Thergue. Similar to wizard in spell casting ability, the thergue has the ability to cast both arcane and divine spells, more on that latter. Lever by level the thergue can prepare as many spells as the wizard but half of the spell slots are arcane and half divine. The thergue can know an unlimited amount of spells and stores them in two spell books, the one for the divine spells called a prayer book. As the thergue advances, the character gains two new arcane spells (sorcerer/wizard)and two new divine spells (cleric). As a special ability, the thergue can learn any other class's spells from a scroll or another spell book. Potentially a thergue can know every spell known. The thergue has the potential to be the most powerful character in game.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 2: ARCHETYPES - A number of interesting and balanced archetypes are available for the player to explore.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 3: FEATS & TRAITS - The winner here are the scalable feats. These fix the problem of feat chains. Instead of taking two weapon fighting followed by improved and greater two weapon fighting you take a single feat, which improves as the character advances. This is such a great advance I wish I could go back in time to the PF play test and suggest it. Highly recommended to use.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 4: SPELLS - Some really good spells with nothing out of line.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 5: MAGIC ITEMS & GEAR - The one item I would think about before I gave it out is the ever-full quiver. One of the downsides of an archer is ammo management. For 9,000 GP I can have an unlimited number of adamantine arrows. As a player I would love one.</p>
<p>CHAPTER 6: TRACKING SHEETS - Some very useful addition sheets for players to track aspects of their characters.</p>
<p>Overall, I highly recommend this product.</p>DougErvin2014-02-25T20:01:00ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Kobold Press Set's The Bar High for All 3rd Party Content (5 stars)Terokaihttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-02-22T19:48:47Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>The New Paths Compendium is one of the best third party products you will ever lay your eyes upon. The new classes are all well balanced and full of interesting RP opportunities. Of special note is the White Necromancer, a class which finally allows for the application of good and neutral necromancers in parties that fall definitely on the side of good.</p>
<p>Scaling feats are also one of the greatest additions to the Pathfinder game that I wish they were a core feature of the game. This new rule helps every martial character and raises them up in terms of power, and these classes do need the love. </p>
<p>If you are the fence about this book please give it a spin the price is fair for the sheer amount of content that this book provides and you will not be disappointing.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>The New Paths Compendium is one of the best third party products you will ever lay your eyes upon. The new classes are all well balanced and full of interesting RP opportunities. Of special note is the White Necromancer, a class which finally allows for the application of good and neutral necromancers in parties that fall definitely on the side of good.</p>
<p>Scaling feats are also one of the greatest additions to the Pathfinder game that I wish they were a core feature of the game. This new rule helps every martial character and raises them up in terms of power, and these classes do need the love. </p>
<p>If you are the fence about this book please give it a spin the price is fair for the sheer amount of content that this book provides and you will not be disappointing.</p>Terokai2014-02-22T19:48:47ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): An RPG Resource Review (5 stars)Megan Robertsonhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-02-05T18:02:46Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Whether or not you have been collecting the 'New Paths' series, if the idea of being something just that little bit different appeals this is well worth a look... and there is new content as well as an efficient reorganisation of the material to make this a very useful reference, be you a player looking for a novel character or the GM who has to handle him in play.</p>
<p>The first chapter looks at the new base classes introduced in this series: Battle Scion, Elven Archer, Savant, Shaman, Spell-less Ranger, Theurge and White Necromancer. Each comes with a dramatic full-page illustration of a member of that class and extensive game mechanical and flavour details about what it is like to follow this profession and all the rules you need to do so. As well as the Class Features and necessary tables, there are also notes on how best to play one, role-playing ideas to help you bring the character to life, and a sample character - use it straight off if you are in a hurry, or as a template to build your own.</p>
<p>The next section provides a whole bunch of archetypes for each of the new classes as well as for the existing ones. Excellent for those of you who like to plot each and every element of your advancement - and if some of my players are anything to go by, this is something that is growing in popularity. So even if you are not looking to play one of the new base classes, there are still plenty of ideas for new and fascinating directions in which to take your Gunslinger or Monk or... and of course, if you are willing to take levels in more than one class it can get even more interesting.</p>
<p>This is followed by a mammoth collection of new Feats and Traits - put it this way, the one-line summary chart runs to 3 pages before you even get to the detailed write-ups. Again, this is well worth looking over whatever class you play, there's bound to be something that will give that tailor-made twist to your character.</p>
<p>The next chapter has a selection of new spells. Many are referenced in the spell lists available to the new classes, but most can be used by anyone with the necessary casting abilities. Finally, there is a catalogue of new magic items and magic gear for anyone who has the shopping (or crafting) urge. The highest level group of my players has just started to get into magical item crafting big style - they even asked that I held off the next adventure for a couple of weeks game-time so that they could finish making what they wanted! - and this can be an exciting angle to develop as characters get to sufficiently high levels. Even if you are not so much into the magic, there are some new weapons and other items of equipment to consider.</p>
<p>OK, you now have all these exciting abilities at your disposal, so you may find the bunch of Tracking Sheets provided of use to, well, keep track of them - everything from tracking your arrow use to keeping a tab on what your summoned creatures are up to.</p>
<p>If you like pushing the limits and trying out new character concepts and ideas, this is recommended.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>Whether or not you have been collecting the 'New Paths' series, if the idea of being something just that little bit different appeals this is well worth a look... and there is new content as well as an efficient reorganisation of the material to make this a very useful reference, be you a player looking for a novel character or the GM who has to handle him in play.</p>
<p>The first chapter looks at the new base classes introduced in this series: Battle Scion, Elven Archer, Savant, Shaman, Spell-less Ranger, Theurge and White Necromancer. Each comes with a dramatic full-page illustration of a member of that class and extensive game mechanical and flavour details about what it is like to follow this profession and all the rules you need to do so. As well as the Class Features and necessary tables, there are also notes on how best to play one, role-playing ideas to help you bring the character to life, and a sample character - use it straight off if you are in a hurry, or as a template to build your own.</p>
<p>The next section provides a whole bunch of archetypes for each of the new classes as well as for the existing ones. Excellent for those of you who like to plot each and every element of your advancement - and if some of my players are anything to go by, this is something that is growing in popularity. So even if you are not looking to play one of the new base classes, there are still plenty of ideas for new and fascinating directions in which to take your Gunslinger or Monk or... and of course, if you are willing to take levels in more than one class it can get even more interesting.</p>
<p>This is followed by a mammoth collection of new Feats and Traits - put it this way, the one-line summary chart runs to 3 pages before you even get to the detailed write-ups. Again, this is well worth looking over whatever class you play, there's bound to be something that will give that tailor-made twist to your character.</p>
<p>The next chapter has a selection of new spells. Many are referenced in the spell lists available to the new classes, but most can be used by anyone with the necessary casting abilities. Finally, there is a catalogue of new magic items and magic gear for anyone who has the shopping (or crafting) urge. The highest level group of my players has just started to get into magical item crafting big style - they even asked that I held off the next adventure for a couple of weeks game-time so that they could finish making what they wanted! - and this can be an exciting angle to develop as characters get to sufficiently high levels. Even if you are not so much into the magic, there are some new weapons and other items of equipment to consider.</p>
<p>OK, you now have all these exciting abilities at your disposal, so you may find the bunch of Tracking Sheets provided of use to, well, keep track of them - everything from tracking your arrow use to keeping a tab on what your summoned creatures are up to.</p>
<p>If you like pushing the limits and trying out new character concepts and ideas, this is recommended.</p>Megan Robertson2014-02-05T18:02:46ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Worthy Addition (5 stars)MrWakkahttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-01-23T23:45:01Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>As a DM I am usually wary when it comes to 3rd party content, Kobold Press of late has been increasingly changing my mind by making quality products. The New Paths Compendium does a nice job of offering up new options for players without crossing over into territory that would make me nervous to allow as a DM. In particular the spell-less ranger has proved to be popular among some of my players, whereas I have found the White Necromancer and Savant particularly interesting.</p>
<p>Most of the classes offer an interesting take not currently filled by official classes, be it core class variations with the Spell-less Ranger, and to a lesser extent the Shaman which I’d equate as the Sorcerer to the Druids Wizard; or the thematic choices like the Elven Archer and White Necromancer, or even the unique Savant. The exception to this might be the Battle Scion, whose role treads close to that of the magus and paladin, but is still is different enough to not feel like a retread. Lastly there is the Theurge, which of all the classes probably ranks the lowest. The problems I have with the Theurge are similar to all the other takes I’ve seen with the arcane/divine mixture, namely that the trade-offs to be able to cast both seem too high, but this is just my personal take on it. I should also note that while the Savant is an interesting class to me, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, especially less experienced players.</p>
<p>In addition to the base classes the book also features variants and archetypes, the elven archer variants are quite nice, building on the basic concept to allow for more potential use, and it isn’t just a find and replace of elven with another race instead. Each variant offers enough to make it feel like its own thing. I in particular like the Halfling Sling Master, but find the Dwarf Crossbowyer a welcome addition as well. The Skin-Changer is an interesting variant of the Spell-less Ranger, offering a take on the class that incorporates wild shape, or in this case, animal shape. As for the archetypes, there are a range of options, especially for gun based characters, and my only complaint would be that each of the classes presented do not get archetypes, the Theurge and Savant getting left out. </p>
<p>I also want to note the book features a couple of options for the Gearforged race from Midgard. Initially this struck me as odd, as the race isn’t present in the book, but as I thought more on it can appreciate the company continuing to support its own creations with additional supplements. For Gearforged players it offers the Clockwork Monk archetype, as well as a Gearforged race restricted feat called Gear Shred. </p>
<p>The feats section offers some interesting options, such as a section that offers an optional ruleset for scaling feats, a concept that my group has often considered, lamenting the high feat cost for certain feat chains. I am not sure when I will get the opportunity to test this in a campaign, but look forward to it.</p>
<p>Finally the book ends with spells, new weapons, and magic items. I won’t go into great detail on them; they offer new options, and seemed fine. There are also additional tracking sheets, which seemed like they would be handy, especially for the spell-less ranger.</p>
<p>Overall I found the book to be an excellent addition to my collection, a few very minor gripes aside, and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for some new interesting class options.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>As a DM I am usually wary when it comes to 3rd party content, Kobold Press of late has been increasingly changing my mind by making quality products. The New Paths Compendium does a nice job of offering up new options for players without crossing over into territory that would make me nervous to allow as a DM. In particular the spell-less ranger has proved to be popular among some of my players, whereas I have found the White Necromancer and Savant particularly interesting.</p>
<p>Most of the classes offer an interesting take not currently filled by official classes, be it core class variations with the Spell-less Ranger, and to a lesser extent the Shaman which I’d equate as the Sorcerer to the Druids Wizard; or the thematic choices like the Elven Archer and White Necromancer, or even the unique Savant. The exception to this might be the Battle Scion, whose role treads close to that of the magus and paladin, but is still is different enough to not feel like a retread. Lastly there is the Theurge, which of all the classes probably ranks the lowest. The problems I have with the Theurge are similar to all the other takes I’ve seen with the arcane/divine mixture, namely that the trade-offs to be able to cast both seem too high, but this is just my personal take on it. I should also note that while the Savant is an interesting class to me, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, especially less experienced players.</p>
<p>In addition to the base classes the book also features variants and archetypes, the elven archer variants are quite nice, building on the basic concept to allow for more potential use, and it isn’t just a find and replace of elven with another race instead. Each variant offers enough to make it feel like its own thing. I in particular like the Halfling Sling Master, but find the Dwarf Crossbowyer a welcome addition as well. The Skin-Changer is an interesting variant of the Spell-less Ranger, offering a take on the class that incorporates wild shape, or in this case, animal shape. As for the archetypes, there are a range of options, especially for gun based characters, and my only complaint would be that each of the classes presented do not get archetypes, the Theurge and Savant getting left out. </p>
<p>I also want to note the book features a couple of options for the Gearforged race from Midgard. Initially this struck me as odd, as the race isn’t present in the book, but as I thought more on it can appreciate the company continuing to support its own creations with additional supplements. For Gearforged players it offers the Clockwork Monk archetype, as well as a Gearforged race restricted feat called Gear Shred. </p>
<p>The feats section offers some interesting options, such as a section that offers an optional ruleset for scaling feats, a concept that my group has often considered, lamenting the high feat cost for certain feat chains. I am not sure when I will get the opportunity to test this in a campaign, but look forward to it.</p>
<p>Finally the book ends with spells, new weapons, and magic items. I won’t go into great detail on them; they offer new options, and seemed fine. There are also additional tracking sheets, which seemed like they would be handy, especially for the spell-less ranger.</p>
<p>Overall I found the book to be an excellent addition to my collection, a few very minor gripes aside, and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for some new interesting class options.</p>MrWakka2014-01-23T23:45:01ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Well Worth the Price (5 stars)Marc Radlehttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-01-21T17:29:25Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p><i>Reviewed by David A. over on DriveThru RPG</i></p>
<p>I've purchased various supplemental books for Pathfinder, and have always been impressed by the quality of Kobold Press's releases. This book, I believe, sets a new level of excellence for other third-party publishers to strive for.</p>
<p>Conclusion: 100% this book is worth its price. The new classes are its main draw, and they alone are worth the price of the book in my opinion. You know you have a great product when you struggle to think of any negative elements to write about. I highly recommend this product, and hope to see more material of similar quality soon both from Kobold Press and other Third-Party publishers.</p>
<p>Be sure to check out the entire review: <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=124729?affiliate_id=178947" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><b>Drivethru RPG</b></a></p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p><i>Reviewed by David A. over on DriveThru RPG</i></p>
<p>I've purchased various supplemental books for Pathfinder, and have always been impressed by the quality of Kobold Press's releases. This book, I believe, sets a new level of excellence for other third-party publishers to strive for.</p>
<p>Conclusion: 100% this book is worth its price. The new classes are its main draw, and they alone are worth the price of the book in my opinion. You know you have a great product when you struggle to think of any negative elements to write about. I highly recommend this product, and hope to see more material of similar quality soon both from Kobold Press and other Third-Party publishers.</p>
<p>Be sure to check out the entire review: <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=124729?affiliate_id=178947" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><b>Drivethru RPG</b></a></p>Marc Radle2014-01-21T17:29:25ZNew Paths Compendium (PFRPG): Wall-to-Wall Crunch of Good to High Quality (4 stars)Feroshttps://paizo.com/products/btpy93mn?New-Paths-Compendium2014-01-21T16:12:54Z<p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>For an explanation of how I use the five star review method, see my entry on <i>So What's the Riddle Like Anyway?</i> <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8uz5?So-Whats-The-Riddle-Like-Anyway" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. </p>
<p>The <i>New Paths Compendium</i> from Kobold Press is a compilation of the various entries in the New Paths series of supplements. It has seven new classes, twenty-eight new archetypes, and a lot of feats and traits. It’s a large rules supplement for players that opens up a great number of new possibilities in character creation.</p>
<p>The first thing I notice is a lack of introduction or forward. While I can appreciate the concentration on crunch and getting the product in at a set page count, leaving out some overview bothers me. I like the commentaries on DVDs and appreciate knowing why certain decisions were made. I love the designer sidebars that come up in some products to give further reasoning behind the rules as presented. Why? Because it allows me to understand the design better, to make my own decisions for what kind of game I want to present to my players. By knowing <i>why</i> something is the way it is, I can project what altering or removing that rule could do. Lacking such sidebars, I look to an introduction for at least a background on the material, when it was begun, the intent, etc. Without this, I learn nothing of the design concepts involved. It’s a personal nit-pick, and I’m not going to drop the final evaluation for this supplement because of it, but I am saying for those of us who do read the introductions the absence of one is very striking.</p>
<p>There is a small problem on the Table of Contents page where the Spells are listed as being on page 44, instead of 104. Small problem, but annoying.</p>
<p>The first Chapter is on the <b>New Classes</b>. The Battle Scion I reviewed some months back <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8yjj?New-Paths-4-The-Expanded-Battle-Scion" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, and I quite liked it. </p>
<p>The Elven Archer is quite obviously the Arcane Archer prestige class made into a full base class, but that is alright as it comes with good flavour and decent balance. The precision damage is intelligent in its use. My only problem is with the three variants given at the end. They are so similar to the prime class that we have multiple repetitions of the exact same powers behaving in the exact same way in the book that introduces them. This is a wild waste of space and print that could have been edited down and each variant made into an archetype and placed in that section. This seems to indicate that the editing was pressed for time and that Kobold Press basically copied the document exactly as the original. That’s OK, but it does lead to wasted ink when this book enters print.</p>
<p>The Savant may be one of the most original classes I have ever read. The ability to mimic the powers and strengths of legendary heroes and items the savant has seen in action is very unique. They have built in a system of Knacks which limit how many powers may be used at once, and from what I can see the savant will never be as good as one of the classes it tries to emulate. That’s OK though, as for versatility it is unmatched. This is easily the most complicated class I have ever seen, in that you create not one character, but several characters which are changing all the time. This would be gold for role-players and I commend the design here. Very impressive!</p>
<p>Kobold Press’s take on the Shaman is as a spontaneous caster druid essentially. Some powers are changed and there is a far more spirit world over natural world slant to the class, with many powers designed specifically to deal with spirits. There are Totem secrets that they select as Barbarians choose rage powers and Rogues choose rogue talents. These generally have good flavour and add to the spirit abilities of the Shaman well. I like this class overall.</p>
<p>The Spell-less Ranger should really have been converted to an archetype instead of alternate class. There are already two Ranger archetypes from Paizo that have no spells (the Trapper and the Skirmisher) and this makes a third. Like the Skirmisher, the Spell-less Ranger loses spell-casting and gains a series of Talents from which to choose. The Skin-changer variant is far more interesting, but it also repeats what the Ranger and Spell-less Ranger have for abilities. The Skin-changer places Wild shape in for spell casting. Great idea: Beorn from the Hobbit is not well represented in fantasy games, and this does the trick. </p>
<p>The Theurge is the Mystic Theurge prestige class made into a base class. While a good idea and the mechanics are solid, this class suffers a little from lack of flavour. It is a magic-user, full stop. All of the class’s abilities revolve around spell casting and nothing else. This makes sense, but it does force the player to do more to create an interesting character. Very good class that seems to have little direction.</p>
<p>I own the White Necromancer supplement, and it is very good. Where the Theurge lacks flavour, the White Necromancer is practically overflowing with it. A non-evil practitioner of necromancy that uses the magic of the dead to battle against the perversions of the life-death cycle by evil forces is very cool. They even believe in redeeming and helping undead go to rest or complete whatever task is keeping them from moving on. A spontaneous caster with powerful abilities with the undead, this is a wonderful addition to the game. I particularly like the form of necromantic arcane healing they have: transferring some of their hit points to the person they wish to heal. </p>
<p><b>Chapter 2</b> introduces the archetypes for some of these classes as well as for other base classes from the core <i>Pathfinder</i> rules. The Battle Scion archetypes I discussed in my review. I found both good, but the Force Blaster could be a touch over-powered in the right hands. For the Elven Archer, the Royal Guardian is an archer defender while the Plains Rider is a mounted archer. Both are simple and not out of balance, though I note a change in format style of the Royal Guardian that slipped through editing. For the Gunslinger archetypes, I refer you to my review <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy90lq?New-Paths-6-The-Expanded-Gunslinger" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> of <i>The Expanded Gunslinger</i>. It’s all good and I’ll just give another shout out for the Hellfire Preacher: Clerics with guns and attitude!</p>
<p>The Monk archetypes are quite varied. The Beast-Soul Monk gains an animal companion and the ability to change shape to match that companion instead of flurry of blows and standard unarmed combat. Very cool. A Clockwork Monk is a racial archetype for clockwork beings such as the gearforged from Midgard, so this is very niche, but still quite interesting. The Monk of the Compliant Style Rod is a staff weapon specialist. The Monk of the Glorious Endeavor is a weapon specialist that exchanges some of the character’s normal hand-to-hand abilities for improved weapon combat. The Monk of the Peerless Mountain focuses on kicks in spectacular whirlwind type fashion over the traditional flurry of blows. The Paper Drake Monk is quite unique, using paper as the medium to be emulated and even gaining the eventual ability to become a swarm of paper cranes (!) This is probably my favorite of the group. Finally there is the Six Talismans Monk, who creates little paper talismans that explode in flames when attached to opponents or cast a spell-like ability that can blind or paralyse the opponent in some manner. I don’t see any balance issue here of significance, and the themes and visuals behind these archetypes are very interesting. Good stuff!</p>
<p>The Ninja archetypes are the Elemental Ninja, who combines elemental magic with their Ninja skills but only if they take the appropriate ninja tricks to pull off these energy attacks. Two new tricks, elemental fist and elemental fusion provide options beyond a modified <i>ki</i> charge to accomplish this. The Mist stalker doesn’t even get an intro explaining it, which is a significant oversight in my opinion. The Mist Stalker is essentially a ninja of smoke and mist. There are two new tricks to back this up: Empty Form (able to become mist) and Smoke Demon (allowing the gaseous ninja to solidify part of her body in a person for damage). Lots of flavour here, but some missing without an intro to the Mist Stalker.</p>
<p>Elemental Shamans deal with elemental spirits and even wild-shape into elemental form. The Primal Shifter is more focused on wild-shape than spell-casting, and are more combat oriented as a result. The Witch Doctor brings out the old clichés of communicating with the dead and increased spell capability while still remaining balanced by diminishing wild-shape; sort of the opposite direction from the Primal Shifter. I like how they managed to specialize the class while still adding theme and story elements.</p>
<p>The two Spell-less Ranger archetypes are noted as being useable by any ranger. One learns two combat styles over one at the cost having no more than one favored enemy, while the second builds up the animal companion ability to utilize in combat at the expense of much of the woodland skills a ranger usually has.</p>
<p>The White Necromancer has two really good archetypes: one focused of the life aspect of the triad (life-death-undeath) and is a great healer. The second deals with undeath and even has an undead companion! Here there is a failing that I noticed in the original document: no third archetype dealing with death. A mercy killer who also acts as an assassin of those who need to die could have been a very cool addition, and nothing was done. I’m not sure if that was just an oversight, or if an attempt was made and wasn’t able to come up to the level of quality required. Still a little disappointing.</p>
<p><b>Chapter 3</b> covers new Feats and Traits. There are new style feats that augment the monk archetypes, as well as a large assortment that enhance the new classes. Of special note are the scaling combat feats which I reviewed in the first issue of Gygax magazine <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8xms?Gygax-Magazine-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. Essentially, instead of feat chains and trees, you replace a group of feats with a single scalable feat. I love this, as it adds to the variety of feats that a character can select. The new traits are those from the Expanded Gunslinger, and are quite good.</p>
<p><b>Chapter 4</b> is about new Spells. Overall they are little different from other spells of the same level, but do add a certain amount of style to the various casting classes presented in the book. Quite a few are arrow related spells for the Elven Archer and would be of great use for Arcane Archers as well.</p>
<p>In <b>Chapter 5</b> we have Magic Items and Gear, mostly alternate monk weapons (including a garden hoe) and magic items geared for Battle Scions and Archers. This chapter is short and pretty much to the point.</p>
<p>The final chapter has a number of tracking sheets for favored terrains, animal companions, wild shape statistics, summoned monsters, spirit guides info for shamans, prepared spells, and arrows (all those magic arrows characters can use). These are great and of high value for any group.</p>
<p><b>Final Thoughts</b>: There is a HUGE amount of material here, and it is mostly of very good quality. There are some editorial concerns as the various supplements that went into this compilation feel rather shoved together. There is practically no pure flavour material as was found in the original documents beyond what was written into the various entries. Some context was removed and format errors have crept in here and there. Perhaps another editorial pass could have caught these minor flubs, but that still would not make up for a certain inconsistency that can be felt throughout the document. Not in the quality of the gaming material; that is consistently high. But the presentation and format of the classes produces a slight dissonance between the parts. </p>
<p>Still, if all I have to quibble on is a few editorial oversights I’m not overly concerned. This supplement is wall-to-wall crunch with a lot of character and story elements baked in for good measure. I prefer a balance with a little more fluff, but that is my preference only. I would place this at about 4.5 stars out of 5, because it is better than a 4 star product. But that is the score I’m going to give it on the grounds that some of the best material (Gunslingers and White Necromancers) are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. From my perspective, an excellent compilation of optional game elements. 4 out of 5 stars.</p><p><b>New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)</b></p><p>For an explanation of how I use the five star review method, see my entry on <i>So What's the Riddle Like Anyway?</i> <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8uz5?So-Whats-The-Riddle-Like-Anyway" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. </p>
<p>The <i>New Paths Compendium</i> from Kobold Press is a compilation of the various entries in the New Paths series of supplements. It has seven new classes, twenty-eight new archetypes, and a lot of feats and traits. It’s a large rules supplement for players that opens up a great number of new possibilities in character creation.</p>
<p>The first thing I notice is a lack of introduction or forward. While I can appreciate the concentration on crunch and getting the product in at a set page count, leaving out some overview bothers me. I like the commentaries on DVDs and appreciate knowing why certain decisions were made. I love the designer sidebars that come up in some products to give further reasoning behind the rules as presented. Why? Because it allows me to understand the design better, to make my own decisions for what kind of game I want to present to my players. By knowing <i>why</i> something is the way it is, I can project what altering or removing that rule could do. Lacking such sidebars, I look to an introduction for at least a background on the material, when it was begun, the intent, etc. Without this, I learn nothing of the design concepts involved. It’s a personal nit-pick, and I’m not going to drop the final evaluation for this supplement because of it, but I am saying for those of us who do read the introductions the absence of one is very striking.</p>
<p>There is a small problem on the Table of Contents page where the Spells are listed as being on page 44, instead of 104. Small problem, but annoying.</p>
<p>The first Chapter is on the <b>New Classes</b>. The Battle Scion I reviewed some months back <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8yjj?New-Paths-4-The-Expanded-Battle-Scion" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, and I quite liked it. </p>
<p>The Elven Archer is quite obviously the Arcane Archer prestige class made into a full base class, but that is alright as it comes with good flavour and decent balance. The precision damage is intelligent in its use. My only problem is with the three variants given at the end. They are so similar to the prime class that we have multiple repetitions of the exact same powers behaving in the exact same way in the book that introduces them. This is a wild waste of space and print that could have been edited down and each variant made into an archetype and placed in that section. This seems to indicate that the editing was pressed for time and that Kobold Press basically copied the document exactly as the original. That’s OK, but it does lead to wasted ink when this book enters print.</p>
<p>The Savant may be one of the most original classes I have ever read. The ability to mimic the powers and strengths of legendary heroes and items the savant has seen in action is very unique. They have built in a system of Knacks which limit how many powers may be used at once, and from what I can see the savant will never be as good as one of the classes it tries to emulate. That’s OK though, as for versatility it is unmatched. This is easily the most complicated class I have ever seen, in that you create not one character, but several characters which are changing all the time. This would be gold for role-players and I commend the design here. Very impressive!</p>
<p>Kobold Press’s take on the Shaman is as a spontaneous caster druid essentially. Some powers are changed and there is a far more spirit world over natural world slant to the class, with many powers designed specifically to deal with spirits. There are Totem secrets that they select as Barbarians choose rage powers and Rogues choose rogue talents. These generally have good flavour and add to the spirit abilities of the Shaman well. I like this class overall.</p>
<p>The Spell-less Ranger should really have been converted to an archetype instead of alternate class. There are already two Ranger archetypes from Paizo that have no spells (the Trapper and the Skirmisher) and this makes a third. Like the Skirmisher, the Spell-less Ranger loses spell-casting and gains a series of Talents from which to choose. The Skin-changer variant is far more interesting, but it also repeats what the Ranger and Spell-less Ranger have for abilities. The Skin-changer places Wild shape in for spell casting. Great idea: Beorn from the Hobbit is not well represented in fantasy games, and this does the trick. </p>
<p>The Theurge is the Mystic Theurge prestige class made into a base class. While a good idea and the mechanics are solid, this class suffers a little from lack of flavour. It is a magic-user, full stop. All of the class’s abilities revolve around spell casting and nothing else. This makes sense, but it does force the player to do more to create an interesting character. Very good class that seems to have little direction.</p>
<p>I own the White Necromancer supplement, and it is very good. Where the Theurge lacks flavour, the White Necromancer is practically overflowing with it. A non-evil practitioner of necromancy that uses the magic of the dead to battle against the perversions of the life-death cycle by evil forces is very cool. They even believe in redeeming and helping undead go to rest or complete whatever task is keeping them from moving on. A spontaneous caster with powerful abilities with the undead, this is a wonderful addition to the game. I particularly like the form of necromantic arcane healing they have: transferring some of their hit points to the person they wish to heal. </p>
<p><b>Chapter 2</b> introduces the archetypes for some of these classes as well as for other base classes from the core <i>Pathfinder</i> rules. The Battle Scion archetypes I discussed in my review. I found both good, but the Force Blaster could be a touch over-powered in the right hands. For the Elven Archer, the Royal Guardian is an archer defender while the Plains Rider is a mounted archer. Both are simple and not out of balance, though I note a change in format style of the Royal Guardian that slipped through editing. For the Gunslinger archetypes, I refer you to my review <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy90lq?New-Paths-6-The-Expanded-Gunslinger" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> of <i>The Expanded Gunslinger</i>. It’s all good and I’ll just give another shout out for the Hellfire Preacher: Clerics with guns and attitude!</p>
<p>The Monk archetypes are quite varied. The Beast-Soul Monk gains an animal companion and the ability to change shape to match that companion instead of flurry of blows and standard unarmed combat. Very cool. A Clockwork Monk is a racial archetype for clockwork beings such as the gearforged from Midgard, so this is very niche, but still quite interesting. The Monk of the Compliant Style Rod is a staff weapon specialist. The Monk of the Glorious Endeavor is a weapon specialist that exchanges some of the character’s normal hand-to-hand abilities for improved weapon combat. The Monk of the Peerless Mountain focuses on kicks in spectacular whirlwind type fashion over the traditional flurry of blows. The Paper Drake Monk is quite unique, using paper as the medium to be emulated and even gaining the eventual ability to become a swarm of paper cranes (!) This is probably my favorite of the group. Finally there is the Six Talismans Monk, who creates little paper talismans that explode in flames when attached to opponents or cast a spell-like ability that can blind or paralyse the opponent in some manner. I don’t see any balance issue here of significance, and the themes and visuals behind these archetypes are very interesting. Good stuff!</p>
<p>The Ninja archetypes are the Elemental Ninja, who combines elemental magic with their Ninja skills but only if they take the appropriate ninja tricks to pull off these energy attacks. Two new tricks, elemental fist and elemental fusion provide options beyond a modified <i>ki</i> charge to accomplish this. The Mist stalker doesn’t even get an intro explaining it, which is a significant oversight in my opinion. The Mist Stalker is essentially a ninja of smoke and mist. There are two new tricks to back this up: Empty Form (able to become mist) and Smoke Demon (allowing the gaseous ninja to solidify part of her body in a person for damage). Lots of flavour here, but some missing without an intro to the Mist Stalker.</p>
<p>Elemental Shamans deal with elemental spirits and even wild-shape into elemental form. The Primal Shifter is more focused on wild-shape than spell-casting, and are more combat oriented as a result. The Witch Doctor brings out the old clichés of communicating with the dead and increased spell capability while still remaining balanced by diminishing wild-shape; sort of the opposite direction from the Primal Shifter. I like how they managed to specialize the class while still adding theme and story elements.</p>
<p>The two Spell-less Ranger archetypes are noted as being useable by any ranger. One learns two combat styles over one at the cost having no more than one favored enemy, while the second builds up the animal companion ability to utilize in combat at the expense of much of the woodland skills a ranger usually has.</p>
<p>The White Necromancer has two really good archetypes: one focused of the life aspect of the triad (life-death-undeath) and is a great healer. The second deals with undeath and even has an undead companion! Here there is a failing that I noticed in the original document: no third archetype dealing with death. A mercy killer who also acts as an assassin of those who need to die could have been a very cool addition, and nothing was done. I’m not sure if that was just an oversight, or if an attempt was made and wasn’t able to come up to the level of quality required. Still a little disappointing.</p>
<p><b>Chapter 3</b> covers new Feats and Traits. There are new style feats that augment the monk archetypes, as well as a large assortment that enhance the new classes. Of special note are the scaling combat feats which I reviewed in the first issue of Gygax magazine <a href="http://paizo.com/products/btpy8xms?Gygax-Magazine-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. Essentially, instead of feat chains and trees, you replace a group of feats with a single scalable feat. I love this, as it adds to the variety of feats that a character can select. The new traits are those from the Expanded Gunslinger, and are quite good.</p>
<p><b>Chapter 4</b> is about new Spells. Overall they are little different from other spells of the same level, but do add a certain amount of style to the various casting classes presented in the book. Quite a few are arrow related spells for the Elven Archer and would be of great use for Arcane Archers as well.</p>
<p>In <b>Chapter 5</b> we have Magic Items and Gear, mostly alternate monk weapons (including a garden hoe) and magic items geared for Battle Scions and Archers. This chapter is short and pretty much to the point.</p>
<p>The final chapter has a number of tracking sheets for favored terrains, animal companions, wild shape statistics, summoned monsters, spirit guides info for shamans, prepared spells, and arrows (all those magic arrows characters can use). These are great and of high value for any group.</p>
<p><b>Final Thoughts</b>: There is a HUGE amount of material here, and it is mostly of very good quality. There are some editorial concerns as the various supplements that went into this compilation feel rather shoved together. There is practically no pure flavour material as was found in the original documents beyond what was written into the various entries. Some context was removed and format errors have crept in here and there. Perhaps another editorial pass could have caught these minor flubs, but that still would not make up for a certain inconsistency that can be felt throughout the document. Not in the quality of the gaming material; that is consistently high. But the presentation and format of the classes produces a slight dissonance between the parts. </p>
<p>Still, if all I have to quibble on is a few editorial oversights I’m not overly concerned. This supplement is wall-to-wall crunch with a lot of character and story elements baked in for good measure. I prefer a balance with a little more fluff, but that is my preference only. I would place this at about 4.5 stars out of 5, because it is better than a 4 star product. But that is the score I’m going to give it on the grounds that some of the best material (Gunslingers and White Necromancers) are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. From my perspective, an excellent compilation of optional game elements. 4 out of 5 stars.</p>Feros2014-01-21T16:12:54Z