Warp Not, Waste Not

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Golarion is filled with adventurers from sleepy villages and pristine cities who spend their days navigating the labyrinthine social structures of society. In fact, there are a host of Paizo books filled with Pathfinder player options to support and encourage just those kinds of characters and stories.

Pathfinder Player Companion: People of the Wastes is not one of those books.

Rather, the myriad archetypes, feats, items, and class features in People of the Wastes are for characters who are from or adventure in some of the most treacherous parts of the world, from the demon-filled Worldwound to the corrupted Southern Fangwood of Nirmathas to the flooded Sodden Lands to the unpredictable and primal magic of the Mana Wastes.

This book, as such, provided us with an opportunity to gleefully provide options for PCs who, though often nonstandard, nonetheless fit right into these wasteland locales. Characters who have encountered the Cindersnort goblins of the Mana Wastes, for example, might choose this book's volatile fuse character trait, or its Sizzling Shot feat, each of which focuses on the use of powerful but unpredictable firearms.

Another fun option People of the Wastes provides involves advice for playing character with the mutant template from Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 5 (at your GM's discretion, of course!). There's also the constructed pugilist brawler archetype, which is perfect for mutant PCs who have chosen to use mechanical prostheses to augment their bodies. This archetype grants the brawler a constructed limb and provides a host of options for modifying it.

I won't spoil the rest of this archetype's specifics, though. I'll simply leave you with this illustration below.

Illustration by Benjamin Widdowson

Amanda Hamon Kunz
Development Coordinator