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Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the River (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the River (PFRPG)
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You won’t get lost if you follow the river, and Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the River will be your guide! Whether your character is a Kellid warlord intent on reclaiming his ancestral homeland or a Riverfolk sneak looking for her next score, this volume has you covered. In addition, this Pathfinder Player Companion features expanded details and new rules connected to the science-infused barbarian nation of Numeria and the chaotic realms of the River Kingdoms, making it the perfect resource for Pathfinder RPG players diving into the Iron Gods Adventure Path or Pathfinder Module: The Emerald Spire Superdungeon!

Inside this book, you’ll find:

  • Six new class archetypes, including the resourceful galvanic saboteur for rangers, the vengeful Numerian liberator for barbarians, and the fickle hag of Gyronna for witches.
  • Over two dozen new character traits, making it easy to connect the background stories of countless new characters to the nation of Numeria or any of the River Kingdoms.
  • A beautifully illustrated explorer’s map of the Inner Sea region’s most storied waterway, the Sellen River.
  • Details, suggestions, and new campaign traits for characters getting started in the Iron Gods Adventure Path.
  • New feats, spells, magic items, and so much more to ready your adventurer for the dangers of rivers.

This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-666-9

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
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Good balance of flavour and crunch

4/5 —

People of the River covers an interesting topic for a Pathfinder Player Companion. It's not about a specific race, or a specific country, but about a particular geographic feature (the Sellen River) and the peoples who live near it. The Sellen River is one of the most important rivers in the Inner Sea Region of Golarion, and is the lifeblood of several of the "River Kingdoms", small, independent nations with a variety of different types of governments and national ethos. People of the River covers several of the River Kingdoms, provides options for the Kellid people (tribal barbarians) of Numeria, serves as a general player's resource for the Iron Gods adventure path, and even discusses some general rules and options for river-based adventures generally. There's a lot to talk about, so let's hop into it!

The inside front cover is a "River Dangers" cheat sheet that contains quick rules reference page numbers for remedies for diseases, spells for dealing with dangerous animals, and ways to to safely navigate whitewater rapids. I appreciate little things like this, because Pathfinder has so much rules content it's easy to completely miss perfectly accessible options for dealing with problems. The inside back cover contains a paragraph-long description for each of three other important rivers in the Inner Sea: The Sphinx in Osirion, the Vanji in the Mwangi Expanse, and the Yondabakari in Varisia. The descriptions are very general, but there's not enough room to go into specific detail.

The book begins with a table of contents and a one-page "For Your Character" summary that indicates the book focusses on barbarians, kellids, sorcerers, and witches, but that any characters could benefit from the new background traits, description of life on the river, and map that's included in the book. This is followed by a one-page rules index of the new archetypes (6), feats (7), and traits (28!) introduced in the book. In other words, you can tell this entry in the product line is going to be pretty "crunch" heavy compared to earlier books in the line.

The book proper begins with a two-page introduction about rivers as a source of trade, combat, and borders generally before moving on to the Sellen in particular. About the first half of the book is a description of nine different River Kingdoms (Numeria, Daggermark, Echo Wood, Gralton, Lambreth, Mivon, Pitax, Sevenarches, and Tymon), each of which gets a page of coverage (or two pages in the case of Numeria). Each entry contains a description of the country, new regional traits, and something else special. The entry for Daggermark, for example, introduces the "Veneficus Witch" archetype, a witch specialized in poisons. The entry for Gralton contains a new Cavalier Order, the Order of Vengeance. One of my favorite things in the book is a new Sorcerer bloodline, Retribution, and its power, Vengeful Strike: when someone hurts you, they take the same amount of damage they dealt! (It's usable only once or twice a day, of course.) I was happy with the flavour, cleverness, and balance of the new options presented. I did think one of the new archetypes, the River Druid, was pretty weak considering how much it gives up for mediocre powers that can only be used near water.

Next is a two-page map of the Sellen River and its surroundings. It's a good way to see how the Sellen and its tributaries connect everything from the Worldwound in the north to Taldor and Andoran to the south. I quite like the style of the map: it's done in a "realistic" in-game fashion, but has a scale and enough detail to make it useful in actual gameplay. I assume that it's a pull-out map in the printed book, but I'm not sure as I only have the PDF.

Numeria is revisited for a two-page section that talks a little more about Kellids, the Technic League, and other Numerians. It introduces a cool new sorcerer bloodline for an SF-flavoured game, the Nanite bloodline. I'm not sure why the writers put some stuff on Numeria at the beginning of the book and then more stuff here, but I don't mind the expanded coverage on the country--it's the most unique of the River Kingdoms. Next, there's a two-page catch-all section about other people who might live along the Sellen, an interesting sidebar on "The Six River Freedoms", and a rogue archetype, the River Rat. It's a steep investment, as it gives up the one thing that used to set rogues apart (trapfinding) for some minor bonuses on swimming and navigating swampy terrain. Probably not worth it.

The last third of the book consists of two-page sections on a wide variety of topics. First up is "River Faiths", which mentions some of the "Core 20" deities commonly worshipped in the region but pays special attention to less commonly-known gods like Gyronna (the Hag Queen) and Hanspur (the Water Rat). There's also a new witch archetype for devotees of Gyronna. I don't know enough about the Witch class to offer an opinion, other than to say it has some flavourful features that would be fun to see in a villainous NPC.

Another section, "River Survival", introduces new rules options for "Catching a Creature Floating Downstream" (far more elaborate than is necessary for such a rare event, in my opinion) and "Swinging from Vines" (a fun idea). It contains a couple of new feats, one of which, "Waterway Caster" might see frequent use in the upcoming Ruins of Azlant adventure path: it allows spellcasters to avoid the need for "vigorous or violent motion" concentration checks for spellcasting while swimming or on a ship, and a bonus to underwater concentration checks. There's also a new "Galvanic Saboteur" archetype for rogues, which would be perfect for an Iron Gods campaign.

"Spells of the River" introduces seven new spells. Alter River seems surprisingly powerful for its level (it'd be easy to flood towns with it) and Magnetic Field (drawing metallic items towards the caster) is one of those spells that is quite cinematic but might be quite hard to set up the perfect circumstance to actually use it on the battlefield. Perhaps the best is a simple one: Hanspur's Flotsam Vessel, a low-level spell that creates a raft from river detritus.

Player Companions almost always introduce new magic items, and People of the River is no exception. Ten different ones are introduced, and most are at a character-friendly price point of 5,000 gp or less. I really liked Oath Breaker's Brand (which does as its name implies) and the Drowning Medallion (a steal at just 1,000 gp!).

The book ends with a two-page extract from the Iron Gods Player's Guide, and it reprints all of the campaign traits found in that book. Since a Player's Guide is free to download, I don't consider this good value for the space.

The artwork is top-notch throughout the book, and the writing was lively. There's a ton of quality material (flavour-wise and crunch-wise) for anyone adventuring in the Sellen River area, and the book does an excellent job reminding readers that rivers are far more than just obstacles to be crossed at the nearest bridge. Overall, this is an excellent addition to the line.

A bit too broad-ranging, but otherwise good

4/5 —

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

On the whole, People of the River does a pretty good job of covering a large amount of material, but it is constrained somewhat by that large volume. While it's true that one can turn to more detailed sources (Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars and Guide to the River Kingdoms) for more information, I think I would have much preferred to see this book divided up into two books, one for Numeria and one for the River Kingdoms. They could then each be player-focused companions to the Campaign Setting books mentioned above. It would also allow for more in-depth coverage of the countries and the peoples who live there. But overall, People of the River is not a bad book and there's quite a bit in it to interest players creating new characters.

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Well now my question is, will the Nanite bloodline be PFS legal? You have no freaking idea how much I would love to be a Bloodrager with that bloodline! NO IDEA!!! If they ban it based off of its flavor alone I will understand, even if I'd be super sad :(
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Mutated bloodlines? Pray, speak on! I love me some Sorc stuff something fierce.

Yeah we get 2 new mutated bloodlines and a whole new bloodline all together.

The 2 mutated ones are Dark Fey (which comes from fey) and Retribution which comes from Martyred. The former replaces the 1st level power with the ability to fascinated people at 30 ft, the latter makes you a spirit of vengeance who can bounce damage back onto people 1/day at 9th that you have just taken as an immediate action. Also the Dark fey bloodline arcana makes you better at curses while Retribution reduces the level up of metamagic'd spells so long as you are using it on a guy who hit you within the last round.

The new bloodline is Nanite and it lets you basically become a robot man made of clouds of nanites and raise all types of hell.

Does the Retribution mutated bloodline deviate in any mechanical way from Martyred prior to 9th level? It sounds like it would be ideal for my Wrath of the Righteous character & they are still only fourth level.

Neongelion wrote:
Well now my question is, will the Nanite bloodline be PFS legal? You have no freaking idea how much I would love to be a Bloodrager with that bloodline! NO IDEA!!! If they ban it based off of its flavor alone I will understand, even if I'd be super sad :(

You'll have to use the Eldritch Heritage line, of course. The Sorc bloodlines don't carry over.

doc the grey wrote:


3. Nope. Basically she gets bonuses to make people distrust one another and on fear spells. Her big power though is that she can chose to drop a mind affecting ability (including hexes) from a target as an immediate action. What's worse though is that if an ally tries to hit is friend with a beneficial spell the witch can drop the ability they have put on the victim. This forces the guy throwing the beneficial spell to make a Will save, if he fails the effect is wasted and the poor bastard who they were trying to help takes 1d4 Wis. Ohh and eventually you can summon a Night Hag to come and help you a couple of times a week.

I think this is what I am most excited to see ;)

QuidEst wrote:
Neongelion wrote:
Well now my question is, will the Nanite bloodline be PFS legal? You have no freaking idea how much I would love to be a Bloodrager with that bloodline! NO IDEA!!! If they ban it based off of its flavor alone I will understand, even if I'd be super sad :(
You'll have to use the Eldritch Heritage line, of course. The Sorc bloodlines don't carry over.

What do you mean by this? Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with PFS stuff regarding bloodlines.

EDIT: Oh, you mean for the Bloodrager I assume. *Facepalm* I assumed Bloodragers just straight up got whatever bloodlines sorcerers do.
doc the grey wrote:
SamuraiFlamenco wrote:
Galvanic Saboteur
No, but he does have his wild empathy change from effecting animals and magical beasts to effectint mindless and intelligent constructs. Literally you can befriend an Iron golem with him now.

Oooo, now I can make a halfling Hogarth!

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Ambrosia Slaad wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
SamuraiFlamenco wrote:
Galvanic Saboteur
No, but he does have his wild empathy change from effecting animals and magical beasts to effectint mindless and intelligent constructs. Literally you can befriend an Iron golem with him now.
Oooo, now I can make a halfling Hogarth!

...

Oh god. I think you just won the internet today.
I can totally see a Halfling Ranger (Galvanic Saboteur) with Childike & Pass for Human now...

Edit: and now I know what I want to play in Iron Gods.
Shadow Lodge
Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Mutated bloodlines? Pray, speak on! I love me some Sorc stuff something fierce.

Yeah we get 2 new mutated bloodlines and a whole new bloodline all together.

The 2 mutated ones are Dark Fey (which comes from fey) and Retribution which comes from Martyred. The former replaces the 1st level power with the ability to fascinated people at 30 ft, the latter makes you a spirit of vengeance who can bounce damage back onto people 1/day at 9th that you have just taken as an immediate action. Also the Dark fey bloodline arcana makes you better at curses while Retribution reduces the level up of metamagic'd spells so long as you are using it on a guy who hit you within the last round.

The new bloodline is Nanite and it lets you basically become a robot man made of clouds of nanites and raise all types of hell.

Does the Retribution mutated bloodline deviate in any mechanical way from Martyred prior to 9th level? It sounds like it would be ideal for my Wrath of the Righteous character & they are still only fourth level.

Yeah your bloodline arcana changes to:
Whenever a creature damages you, until the end of your next turn if you apply a metamagic feat to a spell that targets that creature, reduce the spell level increase of that metamagic feat by 1 (minimum 0).

What I want to know is if the level reduction brings it to 0 mod does that mean that I can cast it without the usual spontaneous delay? Because if so it will be awesome.
Shadow Lodge
Neongelion wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Neongelion wrote:
Well now my question is, will the Nanite bloodline be PFS legal? You have no freaking idea how much I would love to be a Bloodrager with that bloodline! NO IDEA!!! If they ban it based off of its flavor alone I will understand, even if I'd be super sad :(
You'll have to use the Eldritch Heritage line, of course. The Sorc bloodlines don't carry over.

What do you mean by this? Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with PFS stuff regarding bloodlines.

EDIT: Oh, you mean for the Bloodrager I assume. *Facepalm* I assumed Bloodragers just straight up got whatever bloodlines sorcerers do.

Nahh bloodragers get bloodlines that are based on the preexisting bloodlines but modified to match their more martial bent.

So with that said we might not see a nanite bloodrager bloodline for a while which is a shame especially considering how cool some of it's abilities are.
Shadow Lodge
Neongelion wrote:
Well now my question is, will the Nanite bloodline be PFS legal? You have no freaking idea how much I would love to be a Bloodrager with that bloodline! NO IDEA!!! If they ban it based off of its flavor alone I will understand, even if I'd be super sad :(

I feel your pain but I don't think they will ban it. As it stands we are getting a lot of Numeria stuff in season 6 stuff so we should be okay. Also I am super excited for the veneficus witch, I'm really torn as to whether to make my nagaji a witch or a druid now.

Druid uses those stats better, so maybe do a witch as well with another of the new options.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Considering that we are getting a ton of stuff for Numeria in this season's play, I wonder what the odds are that we will see an Android Boon?
Shadow Lodge
QuidEst wrote:
Druid uses those stats better, so maybe do a witch as well with another of the new options.

Yeah but nagaji are the only ones that also get a free poison attack...

Shadow Lodge
Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
Considering that we are getting a ton of stuff for Numeria in this season's play, I wonder what the odds are that we will see an Android Boon?

From the sounds of it we will get one auctioned off at Gencon for charity but that's about it so far.

doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Druid uses those stats better, so maybe do a witch as well with another of the new options.

Yeah but nagaji are the only ones that also get a free poison attack...

One feat and a penalty to your caster stat is pretty steep, though. Compromise, maybe, and play a Nagaji Shaman when they come out?

Shadow Lodge
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QuidEst wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Druid uses those stats better, so maybe do a witch as well with another of the new options.

Yeah but nagaji are the only ones that also get a free poison attack...

One feat and a penalty to your caster stat is pretty steep, though. Compromise, maybe, and play a Nagaji Shaman when they come out?

Nahh 0 interest in the shaman. Unless it's gotten a steep overhaul since it's last playtest pass it also is stuck in this space between broken bad or broken good without much distinction and isn't really well represented version of the class cross it's supposed to represent.

Either way why so interested? We get Nagaji unlocked here in august, and it helps dodge the issue of heavy poison prices in pfs.
doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Druid uses those stats better, so maybe do a witch as well with another of the new options.

Yeah but nagaji are the only ones that also get a free poison attack...

One feat and a penalty to your caster stat is pretty steep, though. Compromise, maybe, and play a Nagaji Shaman when they come out?

Nahh 0 interest in the shaman. Unless it's gotten a steep overhaul since it's last playtest pass it also is stuck in this space between broken bad or broken good without much distinction and isn't really well represented version of the class cross it's supposed to represent.

Either way why so interested? We get Nagaji unlocked here in august, and it helps dodge the issue of heavy poison prices in pfs.

Well, I'm going to be starting PFS soon, so I'm just interested in people's builds, especially with races I haven't used. I forgot about the lack of poison. (I suppose if you didn't mind awful fluff, human with Nagaji heritage would get around the Int penalty.)

I have my fingers crossed for some Shaman improvements. I had fun with a natural weapon/trip build.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Nine days..........
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Seven Days......
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Just a quick questions for the writer, in the bloodline mastery description for the nanite bloodline it says,

Spoiler:
Living Swarm (Su)
At 20th level, you and the machines within you become one. Your nanites consume and replicate your body, allowing swift and radical physical alterations with little more than a thought. You become immune to bleed effects, diseases, and poisons, and gain DR 5/—. At will, you can break down your body and move in a shimmering stream of flying nanites, as if affected by gaseous form.

Doesn't that sound like the sorcerer should get the ability to use the Alter Self spell at will as well in addition to his other powers?
Contributor
zergtitan wrote:

Just a quick questions for the writer, in the bloodline mastery description for the nanite bloodline it says,

** spoiler omitted **
Doesn't that sound like the sorcerer should get the ability to use the Alter Self spell at will as well in addition to his other powers?

Being able to break down your body into a near-incorporeal cloud of microscopic particles isn't radical enough of a physical alteration for you?

The Flash (Barry Allen, pre-1986) had what was described as "total conscious control over every molecule in his body." In practice, he never used this to shape-shift, but only to restore himself to human form after such dramatic events as being magically transmuted into two separate clouds of water vapor.

In short, there's precedent for sweeping dramatic statements that don't actually give one all the powers they imply. :)
Liberty's Edge
zergtitan wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Clearly someone read this.

Wow, the Nanite sorcerer bloodline might actually a new fav for eldritch heritage based fighters.
Shadow Lodge
QuidEst wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Druid uses those stats better, so maybe do a witch as well with another of the new options.

Yeah but nagaji are the only ones that also get a free poison attack...

One feat and a penalty to your caster stat is pretty steep, though. Compromise, maybe, and play a Nagaji Shaman when they come out?

Nahh 0 interest in the shaman. Unless it's gotten a steep overhaul since it's last playtest pass it also is stuck in this space between broken bad or broken good without much distinction and isn't really well represented version of the class cross it's supposed to represent.

Either way why so interested? We get Nagaji unlocked here in august, and it helps dodge the issue of heavy poison prices in pfs.

Well, I'm going to be starting PFS soon, so I'm just interested in people's builds, especially with races I haven't used. I forgot about the lack of poison. (I suppose if you didn't mind awful fluff, human with Nagaji heritage would get around the Int penalty.)

I have my fingers crossed for some Shaman improvements. I had fun with a natural weapon/trip build.

Ehh on the whole the Int penalty won't matter as much as you think. Misfortune is strong in just about any build and the Int penalty is mitigated by just boosting it more. Now It would be tough if I could choose a vishkanya since they get some poison for free. Really the trick is decent Int, misfortune + Poison words, cackle, profit.

Also I would love an option for skinwalkers since then I might be convinced into a Scaleheart lol.

The real issue in pfs is the poison part since they are so expensive for what they do.

Also I don't believe you can fluff a human into nagaji stuff regardless of fluff answers in pfs.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

A question regarding the Galvanic Saboteur Archetype. As they have to take Construct for their first Favored Enemy & their ability of Reprogram works on Constructs, do they get to add their Favored Enemy bonus to Reprogram checks?
I would imagine not, but confirmation would be helpful.
doc the grey wrote:
Neongelion wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
Neongelion wrote:
Well now my question is, will the Nanite bloodline be PFS legal? You have no freaking idea how much I would love to be a Bloodrager with that bloodline! NO IDEA!!! If they ban it based off of its flavor alone I will understand, even if I'd be super sad :(
You'll have to use the Eldritch Heritage line, of course. The Sorc bloodlines don't carry over.

What do you mean by this? Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with PFS stuff regarding bloodlines.

EDIT: Oh, you mean for the Bloodrager I assume. *Facepalm* I assumed Bloodragers just straight up got whatever bloodlines sorcerers do.

Nahh bloodragers get bloodlines that are based on the preexisting bloodlines but modified to match their more martial bent.

So with that said we might not see a nanite bloodrager bloodline for a while which is a shame especially considering how cool some of it's abilities are.

I REALLY should have read the comments. Had I known there was no Bloodrager bloodline I could have saved myself the purchase.

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