Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue (PFRPG)

3.40/5 (based on 19 ratings)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue (PFRPG)
Show Description For:
Non-Mint

Add Print Edition $44.99

Add PDF $19.99

Non-Mint Unavailable

Facebook Twitter Email

Words Cut Deep

In the right setting, a single scathing word can prove deadlier than a poisoned dagger. Behind the scenes of heroic battles and magical realms lies a seething underbelly of danger and deception. This world of intrigue holds endless possibilities for adventure, as heroes duel with words instead of steel, plot daring heists, and engage in battles of wills against relentless nemeses. A high-stakes game of shadows and secrets is yours to master—if you have the wits!

Whether the heroes are taming the blood-soaked back alleys of their favorite metropolis or jockeying for the queen's favor alongside highborn nobles, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue is an invaluable companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into a new era.

Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue includes:

  • The vigilante, a new character class that lives two lives—that of an unassuming member of the community, and a cloaked crusader with his own agenda!
  • New archetypes for alchemists, bards, druids, hunters, inquisitors, investigators, mesmerists, rangers, rogues, slayers, spiritualists, and more!
  • New feats and magic items for characters of all sorts, granting mastery of street-smart combat, impenetrable disguises, and misdirection.
  • Dozens of spells to manipulate tense social settings, whether to reveal adversaries' secrets or hide the truth.
  • A complete system of influence, providing new goals and rewards to challenge players and link their fortunes to nonplayer characters and organizations.
  • Systems and advice to help Game Masters introduce a variety of new encounters into their games­—daring heists, extended pursuits, and tense searches for buried secrets.
  • Rules for social combat and verbal duels, allowing characters to use words as weapons to sway hearts and humiliate foes.
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-826-7

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

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription.

Product Availability

Print Edition:

Available now

Ships from our warehouse in 11 to 20 business days.

PDF:

Fulfilled immediately.

Non-Mint:

Unavailable

This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZO1134


See Also:

1 to 5 of 19 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | next > last >>

Average product rating:

3.40/5 (based on 19 ratings)

Sign in to create or edit a product review.

A Must-Have for Heavy RP Games

5/5

Okay, let's get into Ultimate Intrigue! As the title implies, the purpose of this book is to help flesh out more subtle elements of the game: things like spreading rumors, rallying a crowd, stealing secrets, and other classic cloak-and-dagger stuff. I've used bits and pieces of it in previous campaigns, but read through it carefully (and incorporated a fair bit of it) for my current Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign, as that adventure path is designed around urban political strife. Boiled down to brass tacks, the book is a 256 page hardcover comprised of six chapters. The full-colour artwork is very strong throughout, and the cover is great (though Merisiel's legs are like three times longer than her torso!). There's a very short two-page introduction that summarises each chapter--which is what I'm going to do anyway.

Chapter 1 is "Classes" (60 pages). The big deal here is a new base case, the Vigilante. The concept is that the character has both a normal (social) identity and a masked identity, with certain class options only working while in the associated guise. There are also several safeguards to help keep anyone from figuring out that Bruce Wayne is really Batman. I have a Vigilante character in Pathfinder Society, and one of my players runs one in Curse of the Crimson Throne. I think the class is perfect for an urban campaign mostly set in a single city (especially with lots room for intrigue), but it doesn't work as well with the more traditional "travelling adventuring party" campaign. It's a bit too obvious when five newcomers arrive in town, only for one of them to "disappear" and a new costumed avenger show up. I know there are also some gamers who dislike what can seem like the awkward introduction of comic book super heroes into their fantasy role-playing. For me, I think the concept works well--though as I said, only in particular types of campaigns.

A large chunk of the chapter is devoted to new archetypes for other classes. More specifically, alchemists, bards, cavaliers, druids, inquisitors, investigators, mesmerists, rangers, rogues, skalds, spiritualists, swashbucklers, and vigilantes get some love. Frankly, a lot of the archetypes are fairly forgettable, but there are exceptions--for example, a Daring General Cavalier would be great in military campaigns, the Dandy Ranger could be really useful in an urban campaign, and a couple of the vigilante archetypes are perfect if you want to play the Hulk or Spider-Man. Although the rogue archetypes aren't very good, there are several excellent rogue talents that focus on making the character harder to track through divination, etc. It's worth nothing that this book came out during the period when the hardcover line was still setting-neutral, so there won't be any Golarion-specific flavour with the archetypes (for better or worse depending on your preferences).

Chapter 2 is "Feats" (24 pages). There's something like 110 new feats in the chapter, and probably something for everyone. Given the book's theme, many of the feats are related to sneaking around, hiding and disguising spells, stealing stuff, making plans, figuring out when you're being to lied to, etc. A few that I particularly like include Brilliant Planner (giving you the chance to have just what you need just when you need it), Call Truce (giving a slim chance to actually end combat peacefully when its underway), and Drunkard's Recovery (silly but fun). A couple of important feats are Conceal Spell (which hides the pesky manifestations that spells create in Pathfinder) and Fencing Grace (adding Dex to damage with rapiers, a favourite of swashbucklers everywhere). Overall, I thought the options presented were well-written and plausible in terms of desirability.

Chapter 3 is "Mastering Intrigue" (68 pages). This is probably the most important chapter in the book for GMs. It offers tons of useful advice, as well as clarification on some tricky game mechanics, to help run intrigue-based games. The pages about how common magic spells can be handled while still preserving mysteries, secrets, and misdirection is pure gold. The chapter also introduces seven new rules sub-systems, any or all of which can be incorporated into a campaign to flesh out certain aspects of gameplay. "Influence" is a sub-system that deepens the process of persuading a person or organisation to support you. Instead of a simple single Dipomacy check, PCs need to make certain skill checks to learn a person's interests and weaknesses, and then other skill checks to take advantage of what they've learned. The process operates through multiple phases of tracked successes and failures, and can be tied to mechanical favours and benefits. It's become a very popular facet of many Pathfinder Society scenarios, and I think it's a pretty clever way to handle things--though it can be a bit clunky at first. "Heists" is a sub-system that contains some excellent advice to GMs on how to structure things so players don't obsess over unimportant trivia and are willing to violate that old canard of "don't split the party." "Infiltration" contains some quick advice, but that's about it. "Leadership" deepens the feat of the same name, adding lots of rules for interacting with other sub-systems both in this book and in Ultimate Campaign. I'm personally still not persuaded that the Leadership feat chain is a good inclusion to the game. "Nemeses" is all about adding a recurring villain; I think it's trying to systematise something that could be handled just fine without it. Though there are some fun suggestions on evil plots to foil. "Pursuit" is a little like the Chase sub-system from the GameMastery Guide but stretched out over hours and days cross-country instead of in minutes through alleyways. I could imagine using it. "Research" is probably my favourite of the sub-systems, and one I've used in multiple campaigns. In essence, it gives the PCs a reason to use things like libraries and archives by giving them bonuses to their Knowledge checks, but then makes gaining different thresholds of information the result of multiple successful checks. Overall, a great chapter--I wish the Influence and Research sub-systems had been in the Core Rulebook, because they really add a lot to the non-combat aspects of the game.

Chapter 4 is "Social Combat" (25 pages). The idea here is to present GMs with options on how to handle social conflicts--things like debates, trials, cutting repartee, etc. There's also a "verbal duels" sub-system. I'm just not sure about it--it's something I'd have to see in practice. However, a really useful part of the chapter is advice to the GM on how to handle the various social skills in the game--Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive--as well as the intrigue skills like Disguise, Perception, and Stealth. The advice here is excellent, and I just stopped in the middle of this review to reread it.

Chapter 5 is "Spells" (40 pages). You can judge from the length of the chapter that there's a ton of new spells, and every spellcasting class will find something. One of the fun things the chapter introduces is a new "ruse" descriptor for spells, which means the spell is easily mistaken for another even by observers trained in Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana). It's a good way to mislead folks who have played way too much Pathfinder. There are some really clever spells in this section, with a couple of my favourites including false resurrection (instead of bringing back a soul, you stuff a demon into the body!) and the hilarious shamefully overdressed.

Chapter 6 is "Gear and Magic Items" (22 pages). There are some new mundane pieces of equipment (weapons like the cool wrist dart launcher, alchemical items, etc.) but most of the chapter is new magic items with an intrigue theme. The one that really stuck out at me was the launcher of distraction, which is perfect for assassination attempts because it makes it seem like the attack is coming from somewhere else.

Overall, I think Ultimate Intrigue is an excellent book. It's pretty much a must-have in my opinion for any campaign that's going to involve a lot of role-playing or that moves beyond traditional dungeon crawling and wilderness encounters. Even readers not involved in "intrigue campaigns" per se are sure to find plenty of material they can use.


1/5

Don't get me wrong I love Paizo books, I love their work, and I'm proud to own almost all of their publications.

However, Ultimate Intrigue is the one book I regret buying. It's even more than that, it's the one book i regret they ever published.

We need rules and systems, ok. We need a magic system because magic isn't a real thing. We need a combat system otherwise playing with your grilfriend become home abuse. But we don't need a social system because it's a ROLEPLAYING game. Either you want intrigue heavy campaign and you roleplay them, or you want to dungeon crawl or investigate (that's fine too) and you don't play intrigues. You can even do both and it's great.

Aside from that massive problem, the book suffers from "a turn normal actions into feats/class ability" syndrome. I can't count the number of time where players made me fighters to wizards or rogues with a dual identity. We didn't need the Vigilante, and still don't. And I loved when wizard use to get clever and ask for linguistics/bluff roll to blend a spell into a phrase. Now you need a feat for it. Thanks, Ultimate Intrigue. If that was not enough, some of these nonsense feat are built in feat tax chains.

But the one thing I hate the most about this book is the stupid FAQ it bestowed upon us to promote itself (https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9tza). That makes a whole school of magic (illusion) utterly useless, and destroys a lot of others (enchantment).

Now I know I can just refuse to use it. But i use to love pathfinder for the clarity and perfect sense with out need to houserule much.

Now it's gone.


I'm tired of paizo trying to stuff this book down our face

1/5

If I was playing a home campaign this book might be more fitting,

For society play this verbal debate and other ideas for this book really bog down the game play. I like social aspect of games and role playing but as I said society play it slows the game way down to try and get people up to snuff on the mechanics


An amazing new class in a hit and miss supplement

4/5

So, Ultimate Intrigue took a long time for me to come to a complete opinion on.

The Vigilante class introduced in this book is, in my opinion, easily the best non-spellcasting class Paizo has ever created. It breaks up its social options and combat options in such a way that you have a great character able to participate in all areas of the game without having to choose whether you want to be competent in combat or in the myriad other facets of the game like exploration, social encounters, etc. It has deep and well-designed talents that allow you to pick any of a variety of different ways to participate in combat, with or without weapons, and numerous tools for allowing players to influence the story with safe houses, contacts, and more.

At PAX Prime 2016 I had the opportunity to visit Paizo's Pathfinder demo area and play their pregenerated vigilante character. I honestly didn't expect it to go terribly well; after all, the vigilante is a class built around balancing two identities and moving between different social strata, so you'd think that this would require a more controlled environment where you know the other players in advance and have time to plan out how your character fits into the game world with your GM ahead of time, right? Turns out, I was wrong. The vigilante class is well-crafted enough that even while playing a 1st level pregen I was able to easily deal with situations in and out of combat, and it took me about 60 seconds of conversation to establish with the group that I had a secret identity they were privy to and might need them to cover for my character from time to time if he needed to swap identities. It didn't hurt matters that the only downside to anyone learning a vigilante's secret identity is that, well, they know his or her secret identity. You can go all Tony Stark if you want, announce that you are Iron Man, and carry on as normal. Very few of the vigilante's abilities actually require you to maintain truly secret identities, and the only real hit you take is that you're a bit easier to find by magical means (though even this can be addressed with clever use of the Safe House Social Talent).

The book also elaborates on the intent behind numerous spells that often prove problematic for GMs in games where they want to have a focus on gritty investigation of mystery, such as the various detect spells, speak with dead, etc.

I think my biggest disappointments with the book, and the reason I can't give it 5 stars, lie in the feats and archetypes. I'll start with the feats, and a bit about why I see most of them as representative of missed opportunities.

To start with, Pathfinder's skill system is heavily dated. When Paizo brought it over from 3.5, they combined a few extraneous skills, but otherwise did little to update things, meaning the core area of the rules covering everything in the game that isn't casting spells or hitting things is now well over a decade old and out of date. Several skills don't even actually work, or work well, as written, have interactions you're just supposed to kind of assume or make up (Ride and Handle Animal are a mess, Stealth requires one to check out FAQs and blog posts online to use as intended, Bluff and Diplomacy have more than a few vague areas and inconsistencies, etc.), so what better book to address, update, and expand these core components of the game than a book about playing skill and intrigue heavy campaigns? Unfortunately, Paizo chose not to go that route, instead relying on feats to stretch skills over their gaps and issues, leading to many of the feats in the this book providing skill uses that I've seen GMs at hundreds of tables houserule as basic functions of those skills to begin with. Instead of formalizing intuitive uses of existing skills into their basic function, they added a feat tax to allow characters to do things many people already thought they could do. While there is a section in the book going over several of the vague areas in a few key skills, these are primarily common sense clarifications instead of the full address the skills could have used.

The archetypes, like many Paizo hardcovers, are all over the place. Some of them are interesting and dynamic, like the Masked Performer bard archetype, some show an attempt at embodying a cool and modern concept but fail to achieve that concept in the actual execution, like the Magical Child vigilante archetype, and some are just plain bad, so obviously terribly designed that you almost wonder if the person who wrote them has ever actually played Pathfinder, like the Brute vigilante archetype.

Now, don't let the above wall of negativity mislead you; there is a lot of great stuff in this book, including perhaps the most inspired and well-crafted class Paizo has ever produced, a class that introduces really interesting design concepts, plays with components of the class chassis we haven't seen classes treat as quite so malleable before, and is a genuinely fun and interesting class to play in and of itself. Despite many of the feats ranging from useless to frustrating, there are still quite a few that are interesting and viable, and while the archetypes are very hit or miss, that's generally true of Paizo books in general and probably shouldn't be held against this one in particular.

My final verdict on Ultimate Intrigue is 4 stars, and a strong recommendation to pick it up, if for no other reason than to add the Vigilante class to your game (though there definitely are other reasons to add this book to your collection).


Pathfinder presents Batman!

4/5

No seriously. The vigilante class is freaking batman. Look at the art for chapter one and for the character. HE'S BATMAN. Of course they also have archetypes if you want to make Hulk, Sailor Moon, even He-Man. With the archetypes from other books the list goes on.
My favorite part, and I cannot wait to test this properly in a game, is the social combat. It works a lot like playing craps or roulette. You get a pool of Determination points which you use to place a bet then you roll off with your social skills check! Seriously it sounds like lots of fun!


1 to 5 of 19 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | next > last >>
651 to 700 of 1,471 << first < prev | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | next > last >>

Anyone interested in giving some details on the "Brute" archetype?

I've always wanted to be able to play Bruce Banner/The Hulk (or Jekyl/Hyde), and while Master Chymist works pretty well, it'd be nice to have "The Other Guy" from level 1.


Since I'm on the Zealot kick and trying to figure out my character changes: What are the new inquisitions like? Any for Milani? Lacking that any for no deities?


Luthorne wrote:
Street Style can only be used in urban areas, and allows you to deal extra damage and bull rush enemies you hit with an unarmed strike as a swift action once a round. The others let you knock prone and stagger someone if you punch them after bull rushing them, and increase your crit multiplier to x3 with unarmed strikes.

This is pretty interesting. My current vigilante uses trips/Vicious Stomp/Vital Punishment to his advantage; bullrush attempts might be useful. If the brute doesn't lose too much class features and if there's unarmed combat options (besides Fist of the Avenger) I might rebuild him to be fully unarmed/gauntlet instead of switching back and forth with various greatswords and unarmed.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Aww man, no new ninja tricks, just new rogue talents that ninjas can take too? :'D (not really useful for me since I'm planning to only take ninja tricks for current character. I'm weird like that)


I am so incredibly curious about the new stuff Mesmerists get in this book.


jedi8187 wrote:
I guess. But that's like 4, two of witch convert your social skills to wisdom (which unless it changed from the playtest is actually a bad thing for the charisma casting vigilante), 1 of which (redemption) has a highly situational cap ability (at least it's other abilities are alright), and just in general not fitting my character.

What? No. Just look in Ultimate Magic (the book that first introduced inquisitions), none of those had any ties to any gods. I don't know about campaign setting/player companion line, but none of the RPG-line inquisitions have any god-limitations.

Inquisitions that aren't tied to a god are the default. I have never actually seen an inquisition that was tied to a god.


Mark Seifter wrote:
Yrtalien wrote:
Milo v3 wrote:
Are warlocks able to learn spells off spell lists other than magus?
They use the Sorc/Wiz list
Yep, sorry; meant to say they had magus 6th-level prepared casting off the wizard list.

Yay! I was really disappointed when I thought the Blog said they worked off the Magus list.


I this version of Fencing Grace any different from the previous one?


Milo v3 wrote:
jedi8187 wrote:
I guess. But that's like 4, two of witch convert your social skills to wisdom (which unless it changed from the playtest is actually a bad thing for the charisma casting vigilante), 1 of which (redemption) has a highly situational cap ability (at least it's other abilities are alright), and just in general not fitting my character.

What? No. Just look in Ultimate Magic (the book that first introduced inquisitions), none of those had any ties to any gods. I don't know about campaign setting/player companion line, but none of the RPG-line inquisitions have any god-limitations.

Inquisitions that aren't tied to a god are the default. I have never actually seen an inquisition that was tied to a god.

You should reread ultimate magic too, aside those 4, All the inquisitions introduce in the book are tied to portfolios


Can anyone give some info on the new ranger combat styles?


CorvusMask wrote:
Aww man, no new ninja tricks, just new rogue talents that ninjas can take too? :'D (not really useful for me since I'm planning to only take ninja tricks for current character. I'm weird like that)

I, too, find it odd there wasn't anything going for the Ninja. It's as if, just like WotC, Paizo wants to shy away from non-Euro style game settings. I feel like there is never enough Medieval Asian-themed game material. But they love to find any excuse to use Cthulu-mythos stuff. Just my observation, it seems.


CorvusMask wrote:
Aww man, no new ninja tricks, just new rogue talents that ninjas can take too? :'D (not really useful for me since I'm planning to only take ninja tricks for current character. I'm weird like that)

Well... No. You can't. Not really. Unless you ignore the part where it says that they're for sure for sure Rogue only. Like. Technically, they're Unchained Rogue only, but the book urges to allow them for normal Rogues as well. But literally just the two. It even calls out Ninja as a no-go.

But like me and my table would ever obey that one if it really mattered to a Ninja pc. I continue to make flippant house-rules as a non-pfs gm.


jedi8187 wrote:
Ashram wrote:
It makes me feel both sad and old that people see the magical child archetype description and think "Sailor Moon" rather than rocking out to the original Power Rangers theme.
That's because sailor moon is closer, yes both have transformations, but power Rangers don't have magical pets

Actually, every Power Ranger has a Zord.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Brew Bird wrote:

Anyone interested in giving some details on the "Brute" archetype?

I've always wanted to be able to play Bruce Banner/The Hulk (or Jekyl/Hyde), and while Master Chymist works pretty well, it'd be nice to have "The Other Guy" from level 1.

Spoiler:
It's a bit of a complicated archetype, but. The brute needs to be chaotic in their vigilante identity, and social/vigilante identities have to be within one step from each other. Saving throws change to have only a good Fortitude save. Only proficient with light armor and simple weapons, but gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. In vigilante identity, they grow one size category, but take a penalty to AC, and gain similar penalties and restrictions to the same sorts of skills that barbarians do while in rage. When in danger, you need to make Will save or transform into your vigilante identity as a full round action, and has a risk of attacking allies or bystanders unless they make a Will save, though allies can use aid another via Diplomacy and similar skills to help on the Will save. While in their vigilante identity (but not social identity) they have full BAB, and get a scaling bonus to melee attack and damage rolls while in vigilante identity. Growing like this damages mundane clothing, but not magical clothing; magical armor, on the other hand, requires a vigilante talent. Can only remain in vigilante identity for two hours at a time, and is fatigued for the same amount of time they were in vigilante identity after returning to their social identity, if you change while fatigued, you get exhausted, if you change while exhausted, you can only do so for a much shorter length of time and go unconscious afterwards. They get access to special vigilante talents that allow them to get access to awesome blow, deal damage as if they were a monk of their level in vigilante identity, get a climb speed, resize magical armor and weapons for the new size, getting to throw objects and eventually people at people, and at 20th level they get something like rend.
jedi8187 wrote:
Since I'm on the Zealot kick and trying to figure out my character changes: What are the new inquisitions like? Any for Milani? Lacking that any for no deities?

Crime inquisition is for Calistria and Norgorber, lets you fill someone with the desire to commit a crime with a touch (acts as one of the new spells) and you get Improved/Greater/Quick Steal as bonus feats.

Secrets Inquisition is for Calistria and Norgorber, there are two new spells in this book that act somewhat like detect thoughts, detect anxieties and detect desires, you can cast one and choose to get the effects of one of the other two instead, and aren't overwhelmed for high Intelligence/Wisdom/Charisma, and you get constant nondetection.

CupcakeNautilus wrote:
I am so incredibly curious about the new stuff Mesmerists get in this book.

Spoiler:
Lots of cool stuff. Six archetypes: the enigma, who uses their hypnotic gaze to erase their presence from people's minds, the eyebiter, whose eyeball can pop out of their eye and act as their familiar along with some other eye-related tricks, the fey trickster, who trades their regular casting for the hunter spell list as a divine caster and becomes more like a fey, the thought eater, who devours the identities of others, the vizier, who subtly influences their allies and makes it seem as if his attacks come from them, and the vox, who uses his voice rather than his eyes as a conduit for his mesmerizing abilities. There's also a mesmerist feat that lets you use your hypnotic stare to defend against gaze attacks and even turn them against the creature making them. And, of course, there are many new spells.
Gisher wrote:
I this version of Fencing Grace any different from the previous one?

You can't use it with two-weapon fighting, flurry of blows, or anytime another hand is occupied, now.

Wolfgang Rolf wrote:
Can anyone give some info on the new ranger combat styles?

Deceptive focuses on feats related to feinting. Menacing focuses on feats related to demoralizing and otherwise intimidating enemies. Underhanded focuses on dirty tricks and stealing, though you can also snag Combat Expertise without needing 13 Intelligence and count as having 13 Intelligence when it comes for qualifying for other feats that need Combat Expertise as a prerequisite.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Lanitril wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:
Aww man, no new ninja tricks, just new rogue talents that ninjas can take too? :'D (not really useful for me since I'm planning to only take ninja tricks for current character. I'm weird like that)

Well... No. You can't. Not really. Unless you ignore the part where it says that they're for sure for sure Rogue only. Like. Technically, they're Unchained Rogue only, but the book urges to allow them for normal Rogues as well. But literally just the two. It even calls out Ninja as a no-go.

But like me and my table would ever obey that one if it really mattered to a Ninja pc. I continue to make flippant house-rules as a non-pfs gm.

Wait what, it explicitly says they aren't allowed for ninjas?

.-. I could swear I read somewhere that there are new options for ninjas even though there aren't new archetypes...

Well, anyway, yeah that sucks if true


Mark Seifter wrote:
Lanitril wrote:
Holy poop. There's a lot of things in this book. A significant amount of stuffs. Like. So much excellence. I don't even know where to start.
We managed to pack this one full of some pretty cool stuff for you! Why not start at the beginning and give it a read-through?

This is what I'll do doing.

In two weeks time, gah! :(


Mark Seifter wrote:
Xethik wrote:
Skeld wrote:
djones wrote:

Oh, phantom thief sounds intriguing, if you'll excuse the pun.

Without going into mechanics, what's the concept of the archetype?

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

Oh, hrm. Not what I expected but definitely cool. Sounds like a mix of Vigilante for the Rogue. Thanks!

Unrelated, but is the Fencing Grace feat essentially an errata to the Fencing Grace feat from Advanced Class Origins?

Just for fun Wikipedia on phantom thief. I happened to be looking at the fictional archetype that inspired the Pathfinder archetype in wikipedia when I saw that phantom thief was an alternate name (and way better than my previous archetype name), so I grabbed it.

Good call imo


Is the Magical child a charisma caster?

Are there any vigilante archetypes that grant sorcerer bloodlines, kineticist abilities, oracle revelations/curses, swashbuckler pinache, or druid wild shape?

Are there any feats that add bonuses to skills or add skills as class skills?


Dragon78 wrote:

Is the Magical child a charisma caster?

Are there any vigilante archetypes that grant sorcerer bloodlines, kineticist abilities, oracle revelations/curses, swashbuckler pinache, or druid wild shape?

Are there any feats that add bonuses to skills or add skills as class skills?

Spoiler:

-The Magical Child casts like the Unchained Summoner.

-The Warlock archetype has a d6 elemental blast and some element based talents. It's the closest thing.

-The book is filled with stuff regarding skills, mostly social ones.


Entryhazard wrote:
You should reread ultimate magic too, aside those 4, All the inquisitions introduce in the book are tied to portfolios

Guess this is what I get for using the PRD. Which fortunately doesn't limit inquisitions to specific gods... which is you know, useful when not everyone plays golarion. So I'd personally just take the listed deities for each of those inquisitons as primary suggestions and just follow the text that says it has to be appropriate for the deities portfolio, I mean, they're not going to list all the golarion gods in there... that'd take so many pages.

Hmm... this reminds me.

Does Ultimate Intrigue have golarion specific stuff in it?


From the limited info I've been able to glean on the Grey Paladin and my guessword it looks like it won't be compatible with the Redeemer archetype, which is a bit of a shame, but can someone tell me which class features it modifies specifically?


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
djones wrote:
From the limited info I've been able to glean on the Grey Paladin and my guessword it looks like it won't be compatible with the Redeemer archetype, which is a bit of a shame, but can someone tell me which class features it modifies specifically?

It alters alignment restrictions, class skills, smite evil, aura of courage, aura of resolve, aura of righteousness, the section on ex-paladins.

It replaces aura of good, divine grace, code of conduct and associated abilities, divine health, channel positive energy, and aura of justice.


Milo v3 wrote:
jedi8187 wrote:
I guess. But that's like 4, two of witch convert your social skills to wisdom (which unless it changed from the playtest is actually a bad thing for the charisma casting vigilante), 1 of which (redemption) has a highly situational cap ability (at least it's other abilities are alright), and just in general not fitting my character.

What? No. Just look in Ultimate Magic (the book that first introduced inquisitions), none of those had any ties to any gods. I don't know about campaign setting/player companion line, but none of the RPG-line inquisitions have any god-limitations.

Inquisitions that aren't tied to a god are the default. I have never actually seen an inquisition that was tied to a god.

I haven't downloaded Ultimate Magic yet from the Humble Bundle, I was going of Nethys and Bodhi's guide which list them as tied to specific deities. So I'll check it out.


Does the reprint of Fencing grace have any changes?

Are there any other feats that add dex to damage?

Anything new/cool with the final version of the Vigilante?


Hey, can I get more information on the metamirph archetype for alchemists?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Thoughts after reading over some of the stuff

Spoiler:

A _lot_ of the feats feel like traits or are loaded up with tax feats to pass. Fighters actually get some great options, though, and arcane/divine casters will be happy to have a hidden casting option. Hidden psychic casting is still easier, though- arcane/divine requires two skill checks unless you remove somatic components. Still comes with a one-feat pre-req. There are some useful feats, but the ratio isn't great.

Many very solid archetypes. The lack of Extra Vigilante Talent is very rough on caster Vigilante archetypes, since they get their talents at 2, 6, 12, 18, and 20, and frustratingly get some unique talent options with minimum levels like 8.

Gray Paladin is waker than Paladin, but keeping a fully-functional Smite Evil (with an extra option), Lay On Hands, and casting is enough to get by on. The Irrepressible trait means your saves will be good, if not divine.

Intrigue Oracle mystery is great without being obnoxiously good. Cha to some skills, plenty of illusion/enchantment/divination stuff. Some notable inclusions are Conceal Spell without the pre-req and at-will Disguise Self that upgrades to remove the save.

Courtly Hunter is one of the best surprise archetypes in here. Your Animal Companion gets Int like a familiar, and you can transform it into a tiny-size equivalent (tiger to house cat, etc.). Loses its combat options for skill boosts, but it's nice to have a smart companion option.

The Snoop Rogue which gets Inspiration for skill use only finally returns Rogue to the top of the skill-monkey pile if you want.

Vizier Mesmerist is actually pretty funny- you can make it seem like the Fighter is some overpowered psychic gish acting twice a round. Fey Trickster allows you to use the Hunter list off of Cha, and does pretty good trades all around if you like that particular swap. You'll probably want to pick up either of the fey magic feats that add some enchantment/illusion spells to the Ranger or Druid lists respectively.

Eyebiter Mesmerist is awesome, and I'm really glad they didn't prevent familiar archetypes on your eye-familiar. Grab figment and you can use your class features without needing a seventh-level spell to repair the damage if something goes wrong. All in all, a cool archetype though.

Finally get a Mesmerist archetype based on The Shadow.

FEYSPEAKER IS NOT SPONTANEOUS. It is a charisma-based prepared caster Druid. Sorry guys.

Wit Bard is nice- initiative boosts and surprise-round action, minor no-save damage, and you become a strong debuffer at 8th without trading in your buffing ability. The only downside is trading Versatile Performance, but it's worth it.

Ringleader Bard is a nice Bard parallel to the Mastermind, allowing you to prep your allies with bardic performance in advance and improving Inspire Competence.

Masked Performer Bard gets two identities, but it's implied (?) that there's no secret about them (?). In any case, there's no reward for being in masked form over regular identity, so it's mostly just a second alignment.

Interrogator Alchemist trades bombs for some very cool injections. You penalize people's will saves while hitting them with some alchemical "enchantments". Removes access to mutagen or cognatogen, though.

Nice new bomb-planting Alchemist archetype also trades mutagen away, but can take it as a discovery at 8th. Good alternative to the existing bomb-planting archetype, with pros and cons to each.

At _minimum_, Vigilante can function as a Fighter that has traded its Fighter-specific class features and d10 for social skills and skill points. I prefer casters, so I'll probably be sticking with those archetypes out of personal preference.


Dragon78 wrote:
Does the reprint of Fencing grace have any changes?

The Fencing Grace feat has the same limitations as Slashing Grace: You must have a hand free, no TWF or flurry of blows, and no spell combat.


KaveDweller1349 wrote:
Hey, can I get more information on the metamirph archetype for alchemists?

Spoiler:
Trade bombs, extracts, and Throw Anything for wildshape off of the Alter Self/Monstrous Physique/Giant Form lines. So no bombs, extracts, etc. Probably doesn't stack with any other archetypes.
Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm a huge fan of the level 4 leadership feats. Torchbearers for the win!


So there are alternate leadership feats?


Any new stuff for Investigators? Archetypes or Talents?

Scarab Sages

There are 5 that are basically leadership lite, giving only a level -3 cohort.

Spoiler:
Groom for the horses
Torchbearer
Page
A low level organization member (Acolyte, Apprentice, Etc)
A Weapon Bearer

They let you trade out the feat at 7 for full Leadership, so you're not burning two slots just to get followers.

There is also an EEEEEEEVIL! themed leadership score modifier chart for those times when you don't want to be super nice to your followers.


In addition to request for Investigator stuff, could a clarification be provided:

Does the new Fencing Grace still only work for rapiers? Is it now for all piercing weapons?

Is there a feat yet to allow Dex damage for sword canes?

Contributor

Cruel Illusion wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Actually many magical girls get a blast they can use all day like a kineticist. They also tend to get elemental or healing/curative powers or at least an ability to purity/dispel evil.

Just as a guess, I'd say all that added together would be too many goodies for a single class or archetype.

-Skeld

As Mark pointed earlier, the Warlock can probably do all of this.

Mystic Bolt for Blasting, Celestial/Infernal Healing for healing, Dispel Magic and Protection from Evil to purify. They can even get familiars.
Frankly they're closer to Magical Girls than Magical Children, since I don't think I've ever seen a Magical Girl who didn't blast things, while some don't have familiars.

The magical child is basically Sailor Moon; the familiar with a secret identity is totally a Sailor Moon / Card Captors thing.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Thanks for the info on the new Fencing Grace. Makes me quite sad, personally. Rapier + Rapier with Effortless Lace should live on, forever!

I mean, I guess it helps to be consistent and disallow Dex to damage with extra attacks (Flurry or TWF) with URogue as an exception. I guess I'm just against that movement.


I wish the magical child could get an energy blast or summon ability like the summoner(but could choose between summon monster or summon nature's ally at character creation).

Anyone care to list the non-combat feats?

Contributor

6 people marked this as a favorite.
Xethik wrote:

Thanks for the info on the new Fencing Grace. Makes me quite sad, personally. Rapier + Rapier with Effortless Lace should live on, forever!

I mean, I guess it helps to be consistent and disallow Dex to damage with extra attacks (Flurry or TWF) with URogue as an exception. I guess I'm just against that movement.

It only really bothers me for the swashbuckler, personally. Here you have what is supposed to be the ultimate Dex-based martial, and not only can it not use Dex to damage for all but a scarce few weapons (which what ought to be its inferior, the unchained rogue, can), but it is completely unable to use one of the most iconic swashbuckler weapon styles: two-weapon fighting.

Here's hoping that time will heal all wounds. :-)


Alexander Augunas wrote:
Cruel Illusion wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Actually many magical girls get a blast they can use all day like a kineticist. They also tend to get elemental or healing/curative powers or at least an ability to purity/dispel evil.

Just as a guess, I'd say all that added together would be too many goodies for a single class or archetype.

-Skeld

As Mark pointed earlier, the Warlock can probably do all of this.

Mystic Bolt for Blasting, Celestial/Infernal Healing for healing, Dispel Magic and Protection from Evil to purify. They can even get familiars.
Frankly they're closer to Magical Girls than Magical Children, since I don't think I've ever seen a Magical Girl who didn't blast things, while some don't have familiars.
The magical child is basically Sailor Moon; the familiar with a secret identity is totally a Sailor Moon / Card Captors thing.

Nah, weirdly the Magical Child seems to only have the pet and transformation sequence in common with magical girls.

Sailor Moon is definitely a blaster, her cat is mostly here to advise her.
Sakura's Kero fits better since he is more useful in a fight, but Sakura herself is closer to an Occultist Arcanist than anything else, with her powerful summons and spells.


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Feats:

Feats
Acrobatic Spellcaster*
Agent of Fear
Betrayal Sense*
Blustering Bluff
Brilliant Planner
Brilliant Spell Preparation
But a Scratch*
Call Truce --> Entreating Critical*
Careful Flyer
Careful Sneak --> Exquisite Sneak
Cartogramancer --> Planar Wanderer
Cat and Mouse*
Cat's Fall
Circuitous Shot*
Clambering Escape*
Conceal Spell --> Improved Conceal Spell
Confabulist
Criminal Reputation
Cutting Humiliation
Darkness Trick
Deft Catcher
Drunkard's Recovery
Expeditious Sleuth
Extra Contingency
Eye for Ingredients
Feign Curse
Fencing Grace*
Fey Spell Lore
Fey Spell Versatility
Fool Magic
Gaze Reflection
Graceful Steal*
Improved Bravery*
Incite Paranoia*
Insightful Advice
Inspiring Bravery*
Inspiring Mentor --> Omnipresent Mentor
Intoxicating Flattery
Ironclad Logic --> Play to the Crowd
Legendary Influence --> Improved Legendary Influence
Manipulative Agility
Martial Dominance*
Misdirection Tactics* --> Misdirection Redirection --> Misdirection Attack*
Nerve-Racking Negotiator --> Threatening Negotiator
Notorious Vigilante*
Ostentatious Rager*
Persuasive Bribery
Piercing Grapple*
Quick Favor
Quick Study*
Quiet Death*
Ranged Disable
Ranged Feint*
Read Spell Traces
Ready for Anything* --> Cunning Intuition*
Sabotage Magic Item
Sabotage Specialist
Sabotaging Sunder* --> Improved Sabotaging Sunder*
Sense Assumptions
Shadows of Fear*
Sliding Dash*
Social Bravery*
Starry Grace*
Startling Getaway*
Street Smarts --> City Sprinter, Measure Foe*, Sense Relationships
Subtle Enchantments
Superior Scryer
Swipe and Stash*
Telepathy Tap
True Deception
Unimpeachable Honor
Walking Sleight
Willing Accomplice

Metamagic Feats
Fleeting Spell
Studied Spell
Stylized Spell
Tenacious Spell

Panache Feats
Enrage Opponent*
Lightning Draw*
Structural Strike*

Style Feats
Fox Style* --> Fox Insight* --> Fox Trickery*
Owl Style* --> Owl Swoop* --> Owl Dive*
Street Style* --> Street Sweep* --> Street Carnage*

Teamwork Feats
Cooperative Disabling
My Blade is Yours*
Timely Coordination

* This is a combat feat, and can be selected as a brawler, fighter, gunslinger, swashbuckler, or warpriest bonus feat.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

I wish the magical child could get an energy blast or summon ability like the summoner(but could choose between summon monster or summon nature's ally at character creation).

Anyone care to list the non-combat feats?

Warlock with Summoner VMC or Magical Child with Eldritch Heritage and a rod of quicken or extend are both good ways to get there. There's also a feat to get a minute/level summons of a scaling improved familiar that would work well.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
Are there any other feats that add dex to damage?

Starry Grace is effectively Fencing Grace applied to the Starknife.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Dragon78 wrote:

I wish the magical child could get an energy blast or summon ability like the summoner(but could choose between summon monster or summon nature's ally at character creation).

Anyone care to list the non-combat feats?

Non-combat Feats:
General Feats

Agent of Fear
Blustering Bluff
Brilliant Planner
Brilliant Spell Preparation
Call Truce
Careful Flyer
Careful Sneak
..Exquisite Sneak
Cartogramancer
..Planar Wanderer
Cat’s Fall
Conceal Spell
..Improved Conceal
Confabulist
Criminal Reputation
Cutting Humiliation
Darkness Trick
Deft Catcher
Drunkard’s Recovery
Expeditious Sleuth
Extra Contingency
Eye for Ingredients
Feign Curse
Fey Spell Lore
Fey Spell Versatility
Fool Magic
Gaze Reflection
Insightful Advice
Inspiring Mentor
..Omnipresent Mentor
Intoxicating Flattery
Ironclad Logic
..Play to the Crowd
Legendary Influence
..Improved Legendary
Manipulative Agility
Nerve-Racking Negotiator
..Threatening Negotiator
Persuasive Bribery
Quick Favor
Ranged Disable
Read Spell Traces
Sabotage Magic Item
Sabotage Specialist
Sense Assumptions
Street Smarts
..City Sprinter
..Sense Relationships
Subtle Enchantments
Superior Scryer
Telepathy Tap
True Deception
Unimpeachable Honor
Walking Sleight
Willing Accomplice

Metamagic Feats
Fleeting Spell
Studied Spell
Stylized Spell
Tenacious Spell

Teamwork Feats
Cooperative Disabling
Timely Coordination


What do Fey Spell Lore and Fey Spell Versatility do?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Cruel Illusion wrote:
What do Fey Spell Lore and Fey Spell Versatility do?

Fey Spell Lore adds 10 specific spells (one of each spell level 0-9) to your druid spell list.

Fey Spell Versatility lets you choose 4 spells (one of each spell level 1-4) from various arcane spell lists to add to your ranger spell list.


David knott 242 wrote:
Cruel Illusion wrote:
What do Fey Spell Lore and Fey Spell Versatility do?

Fey Spell Lore adds 10 specific spells (one of each spell level 0-9) to your druid spell list.

Fey Spell Versatility lets you choose 4 spells (one of each spell level 1-4) from various arcane spell lists to add to your ranger spell list.

Thanks!

Is there an equivalent for the Hunter spell list?


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

What are the mechanics for Conceal and Improved Conceal Spell?


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Cruel Illusion wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Cruel Illusion wrote:
What do Fey Spell Lore and Fey Spell Versatility do?

Fey Spell Lore adds 10 specific spells (one of each spell level 0-9) to your druid spell list.

Fey Spell Versatility lets you choose 4 spells (one of each spell level 1-4) from various arcane spell lists to add to your ranger spell list.

Thanks!

Is there an equivalent for the Hunter spell list?

I would assume that the Hunter would qualify for both of these feats since he can cast both druid and ranger spells.


What does gaze reflection do?


Cruel Illusion wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Cruel Illusion wrote:
What do Fey Spell Lore and Fey Spell Versatility do?

Fey Spell Lore adds 10 specific spells (one of each spell level 0-9) to your druid spell list.

Fey Spell Versatility lets you choose 4 spells (one of each spell level 1-4) from various arcane spell lists to add to your ranger spell list.

Thanks!

Is there an equivalent for the Hunter spell list?

Sort of? Depends on your GM's interpretation, but if a Hunter has the "ability to cast druid spells" or the "ability to cast ranger spells", then they can take both of those. You'll still need to spend spells known on them.


I guess if Fencing Grace is getting nerfed it means all the Magi can go back to being devout Sarenite Dervishes?

651 to 700 of 1,471 << first < prev | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Paizo / Product Discussion / Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue (PFRPG) All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.