So I dished out 10 dollars to purchase the PDF and was wholeheartedly dissapointed. Expressing this disspointment is no longer tolerated on the prduct discussion so go figure...
This is coming from a player perspective, as I'm mainly interested in character options. There are many in this book but most fail to bring concept and mechanics thoroughly in line.
The shifter. Well we are no longer allowed to talk about it. Need I say more?
Archetypes. A few nice ones (standouts for me are the green knight and the Rogue that gets hexes) a few horrible ones (Nature magus, Menhir guardian), and a great number of boring and mechanically weak options.
Animal companions/Familiars. Many reprints, some unneeded nerfs and some new options a few of which are actually useful.
Feats: I count two good feats. One of which apparently was not printed as intended and will get nerfed. Most other feats are either barred away behind a list of prerequisites that even human fighters find dismaying or are borderline useless. Example: a feat that allows you to immitate animals with bluff but only those living in one terrain. Why?
Let me expand upon why I believe this is the worst hardcover we have seen. To date all hardcovers were able to bring something new to the game and to explore interesting concepts. The ACG despite all it's faults brought well balanced and fun classes. Ultimate Intrigue, despite not being my cup of tea, greatly expanded on class design by bringing the completly modular vigilante to the table.
Ultimate wilderness is merely a boring rehash with so few highlights that most 30 page player companions outshine it. Many of the options printed in this book make it apparent that they were not playtested or critically reviewed by someone with a good grasp of the game mechanics.
I hope that Paizo comes round to realize that listening to it's customers was always one of the foundations of pathfinder's success.
