I love this book, and not just for the hidden temple of Lamashtu swarming with gnolls. It's a great quick take on the Golarion version of Egypt, filled with cursed tombs, shady foreign adventurers, touchy mummies angry over having their 5000-year nap disturbed, and everything else that a book like this needs.

My sole problem is that it could have been twice as long and covered even more, but this is a great piece of work.

Thank you, Mister Nelson, and Shemmy!

Thus far I've been impressed with this line- and the Osirion book continues it. It is nice to see a nation detailed out a bit, at least enough to inspire a campaign. I wasn't expecting much, considering the 10 dollar (or 7 dollar, if all you want is a PDF) price. For that amount, I expected not much.

But I'm impressed. A prestige class as well as feats, along with a gist of the region. This is nice buy for anyone who plans to run a game focused on Osirion or has a character from there. It builds off nicely what was started in the Campaign Setting.

The guide to Osirion is well written, has cool illustrations, and lots of ideas for adventures. However, there were a few key things I wanted to see, that never materialized. First and foremost, I would have really liked a map of Sothis, Osirion's capital city. You get a writeup of the place after all, so the lack of a city map seems to be a sore oversight. Another problem I had, was the inclusion of three Osirion-specific deities... except their alignments, favored weapons, and domains are not listed. Again, this is a real problem for me; why invent new deities without giving any concrete information on them? My final gripe is the lack of info on the elemental spirits of Osirion. They are alluded to several times, yet very little of substance is said about them. The genies and elementals appear to play a vital role in this land, yet we are told next to nothing about them.

The bad stuff aside, I did really enjoy this product's offerings. You get a list of several neat locales, with all the spinxes, lost and forbidden pyramids, and evil mummy kings that you can handle. There's also some great, distinctly Egyptian-flavored necromancy spells (seal your enemy in canopic jars? Yes please!), a prestige class to scare the crud out of any would-be tomb robbers, and a great write-up of Osirion's ruler. There's a section of new feats, but none of these impressed me.

All in all, I'm glad to have this sourcebook, but wish there was a bit more in the way of vital info and a few less adventure locations.

*EDIT: I decided to give this 4 stars instead of 3. I forgot that this book was meant primarily for players, rather than DMs, and was looking looking at it from the wrong perspective. For player's, it's great.

I really like ancient Egypt and Paizo's Osirion is by far my favorite country in their campaign setting.

I loved this product, and I really feel that it's far better than the single star review below reflects. The guide gives a brief gazetteer entry for many of the cities and locales in Osirion, perfect for any edition. The art is absolutely gorgeous. The historical sections will make you drool, the new spells and items are awesome, the description of Sothis really brings the capital to life, and the new prestige class the Living Monolith makes me want to play one ASAP.

Well written and very well done.

The Pathfinder Companion, Osirion, Land of the Pharaohs, attempts to describe the region of Osirion on the continent of Garund in 32 pages. Sadly, it is an incomplete work and my first disappointment from Paizo.

This companion product outlines many cities, towns and adventuring locations which are otherwise just places on a map. Described are the cities of An, Eto, Ipeq, Shiman-Sekh, Tumen, Torta, and Wati as well as The Footprints of Rovagug, The Glazen Sheet, The Hungry Sepulcher, The Labyrinth of Shiman-Sekh, Lamashtu's Flower, The Lost Fortress of Mekshir, the Monastery of Tar Kuata, the Pyramid of An-Hepsu XI, The River Sphinx, The Ruins of Tumen, The Seven Stelae, the Slave Trenches of Hakotep, The Sphinx Head, Valley of the Pyramids; all the above are given major headings in the work. This is an impressive list until it is compared to the locations that are not described but available on the map. Junira River, Lamasara, Ruins of Akhenaten, Ruins of el-Amara, Klarwa Fountain, Alamein Peninsula, Cliffs of Kusha-ta-Pahk, Stepped Tower of Djedefar, Coast of Graves, Hor-Aha, Xefon-Ra, Parched Dunes, Tar Kuata, Ruins of Kho, Kho-Rarme Pass, Pillars of the Sun, Mount Osiki, Pyramid of Doom, The Swells of Gozreh, Garden of Shepeska, Burning Cape, Underdunes, Mount Na-Ken, Temple of An-Alak, The Scorpion Coast, Salt Hills, The Temples of Pharaoh Ahn, Sand Haven, and Brazen Peaks are either ignored entirely or mentioned only in reference to another location. If it is important enough to put on the map then it is important enough to describe it in the text. A single short paragraph would have been sufficient to fill the need. It also bewilders the mind why there is so much artwork using so much valuable real estate that could have been used for text when the product is incomplete. The top 50% of page 2 is an illustration of pyramids....

This review is continued in a post below.

I have always had a thing for ancient Egypt. I was looking forward to Paizo's take on this world and I was not disappointed with the materials and artwork in this books as it really sets the scene for this part of the world.

Though as Paizo experiments with the Campanion layout, notable sections were missing from this codex. There are no additional traits particularly regional ones. The captial city was discussed in great detail but no map was supplied.

There was some interesting additions such as the prestiage class and I was very happy to see the necromancy school get new spells that were useful. There also was new feats that were based around the them, particularly for tomb robbers.

Overall, a good book for a collecter and with the new AP Legacy of Fire it will assist any play group. I can not help feel that the timing of this book's release was wrong as it is more of an enhancement than an exciting lead into Osirion as one would expect from the title and the purpose the Companion series. I would rate this book 3.5 out of 5 and sticking true to my rating system I round down.