Other than perhaps individual/personal opinion getting in the way... I have no clue why people have given this title such low ratings.
Tome of Secrets was the first 3PP product I bought for Pathfinder (in late 09, early 2010) and I must say that it's still one of my go-to's for ideas.
Tome of Secrets covers a lot of ground. From ways to modify your favorite monsters, unique races (Saurian have become one of my favorites), Tinker Mages (Artificer) and the best Swashbuckler I've seen for 3.5... to interesting flaws and awesome chase rules. You or your party can take this book to enhance roleplaying (instead of just roll-playing, like many supplements).
Not to mention they will give you a free PDF even if you bought the book from a local store! Now that's service!
I would give Tome of Secrets 4 stars, but I feel that many of the reviews here are very unfair. Especially the 2 and one star ratings that people left NO INFORMATIVE CRITICISM for.
Gamers! Give Tome of Secrets a shot. It's definitely worth it.
Paizo, please crack down on this stuff. Objective and Unbiased versus Ignorant and Careless.
Although I liked the base classes and some of the content, there is a lot in need of fixing. I can stand typos and such, but I really feel too much of this is still stuck in 3.5 edition. I was most excited about the million item list (3 d100 lists) as the Diablo II: Awakening book from 2nd ed had this, and I liked it there, but there really isn't 1 million items. It felt a little ripped out of the diablo list without much change (which I kinda liked), but in the prefixes alone are missing entries 18 and 42, and the +1 to attributes are repeated, making the list feel a little underdone. I don't care that this list is unbalanced, but I got annoyed having to reroll this. I'm giving it 2.5 stars because I happened to get it on sale really cheap, which made the price an okay trade-off. This book came out around the time the final rules did and was one of the first third party to give something substantial. I just caan't understand with all these errors and reviews pointing it out why there iesn't an updated file.
Update from the publisher: There is an expected reprint of this product, but no firm dates yet.
That'd be interesting. I got this when it first came out and provided a fair bit of errata (as in editing stuff, not balancing) to Gareth-Michael... he even mentioned that I could do editing freelancing! Either way I'd be interested to see how it comes after a bit more experience with PFRPG (Ari Marmell's APG for 4E had similar problems with lack of system experience).
And G-M Skarka, I'm happy to do proof reading any time :D
Does anyone know if they ever updated or tweaked the classes to be more in line with those in pf? I'm really hoping for a beefed up version of the swashbuckler and maybe the priest that are more in line with the pathfinder standard.
Does anyone know if they ever updated or tweaked the classes to be more in line with those in pf? I'm really hoping for a beefed up version of the swashbuckler and maybe the priest that are more in line with the pathfinder standard.
Does anyone know if they ever updated or tweaked the classes to be more in line with those in pf? I'm really hoping for a beefed up version of the swashbuckler and maybe the priest that are more in line with the pathfinder standard.
Nothing's gotten tweaked as of yet.
Is tweeking it in the works? I love the priest class, btw.
Does anyone know if they ever updated or tweaked the classes to be more in line with those in pf? I'm really hoping for a beefed up version of the swashbuckler and maybe the priest that are more in line with the pathfinder standard.
Nothing's gotten tweaked as of yet.
Is tweeking it in the works? I love the priest class, btw.
No idea, but if the reprint is true, I'd like to see everything boosted as well.
I have a question about the Warlock and school abilities that can only normally be used a certain number of rounds a day(by a wizard). How long do they last? Elemental Manipulation, for example.
"At 1st level, the warlock may select two school abilities; he also gains new school abilities at higher levels (see the warlock table).
School abilities come from the arcane school lists. In addition, the warlock may learn additional school abilities listed in this section. The warlock does not gain any specialist bonuses or bonus spells. The warlock may only take a school ability less than or equal to his warlock level. He may also take a cantrip in place of a school ability. For example, a 2nd level warlock gets a new school ability. Since he is not yet fourth level, he must select a 1st level ability or cantrip.
The warlock does not need to take a lower level school ability in order to select a higher one. For example, a 4th level warlock can select summon monster even if he doesn’t have acid dart."
This imply's that there are more then one 1st lvl ability, even naming one that does not exist. any errata on this or do I need to homebrew a fix?
This imply's that there are more then one 1st lvl ability, even naming one that does not exist. any errata on this or do I need to homebrew a fix?
This is the only errata that exists, which the pdf will already have in place. However, what that ability is referring to is the wizard arcane schools. Acid dart is the 1st level ability you get when taking the Conjuration wizard school specialization. It's not explained very well, but basically it combines what's in the Core Rulebook with what's presented here in Tome of Secrets. They just didn't reprint the abilities.
As another example, you wouldn't need to take the 6th level Energy Absorption ability from the Abjuration school in the Core book in order to take the 12th level Break Enchantment ability in Tome of Secrets.
Ah so the updates should be in the pfsrd which is where I was getting the class. I differently missed the fact you can take wizard school abilities.
Yes. Checking it out myself, they directly link to the wizard schools, as it should. That definitely helps. I’d actually forgotten it was up on there.
About the only thing I’d truly houserule is adding one of the universal capstones as the warlock doesn’t have one, much like how the cleric, wizard, and witch don’t, but got it added in with the final book release that discussed Alternative Capstones.
Another thing I’d add, because I did in my game, is revise The DR. Damage reduction doesn’t defend against elemental damage so it’s pointless to choose any of those. Instead have the DR only be DR/silver or DR/cold iron 2, and let them also have the choice of gaining Resist 2 for cold, fire, or electricity. They’ll only ever gain one DR, but they could gain all three energy resistances. And it wouldn’t be game breaking that if one increases, they all do. At 19th level the PC might have DR 4/silver (or cold iron), Resist cold 4, electricity 4, fire 4. Not that much in the grand scheme.