This book is pretty good. Nice art, lots of flavor. If you are running a game in Nidal or just a horror themed game, there are some solid ideas in the book.
This book has some good flavor to inspire and provides unique locales for the next time PCs need a place to get a drink. The Elven Aeylinth Vineyard in particular is very well done, beautiful artwork too.
The new inebriation and bar fighting mechanics in the back third of the book seem a bit off, shoe horning in yet another sub system of rules.
If you want some cool ideas for bars and taverns, this book is a solid purchase.
Good flavor text, solid art, and a lot of little cool things.
An Archtype for Oracle, Ranger, Monk (works with vinalla and unchained), Occultist, Warpriest, Ninja, Spiritualist, Skald, Samurai, and Medium.
Arcanist exploits, Bardic masterpieces, a Warpriest blessing, Investigator talents, Magus arcana, Occult rituals, a cavalier Order, a psychic discipline, a few new Variant channels, some Vigilante talents, some cool new spells, and a few Magic items.
Like most companion books, there are a few gems, several non optimal (but interesting) options, and a few clunkers that are laughably bad. Overall I like this book. 4 out of 5 stars.
Lots of flavor. Lots of geography. Not much substance. If you are running a game in Taldor, it's probably a good idea to get this book.
The bestiary in the back feels out of place. IMO use that space to talk about the specifics of Taldor nobility.
There are no mechanics in this book (save the bestiary), which makes it feel out of place IMO. A lot of Campaign Setting books have mechanics in them these days.
Lovely art, solid flavor text, and several good options. As with any companion book, there are useless feats and items and archetypes, BUT I feel there is a higher percentage of useful options than normal in this book.
Now, the archetype that makes poisons work! The Toxin Codexer INVESTIGATOR archetype. I love it. You get a scaling DC on 18 different poisons, the DC being 10 + INT mod + extract level (1 - 6). And an investigator talent that lets your poison affect creatures normally immune to poisons. This archetype does so many things right.
Also, for those GMs out there who want their villains to have temporary buffs when the PCs are kicking down the front door, there are a few really good potions and a particular magic item that crumbles on use. Very nice options.
Some interesting witch hexes. Racial stuff for Grippli and Nagaji. Rogue archetypes. Alchemist archetypes. A few new spells. new tonics. new drugs.
Good flavor text, decent art, and as usual, a few gems in the ever increasing bloat. My favorite new bit is the new Alchemist archetype with guns, it is mechanically solid and flavorful.
I like some things about this book. From a fluff standpoint, the art and the flavor text are all rock solid, as most hardcover Paizo books are.
From a mechanics standpoint, you get a lot of new archetypes, a lot of new feats, some new rules on being out in the 'wilderness', some new spells, and the new class, the Shifter.
The Shifter is full BAB, 2/3 Fort 2/3 Ref 1/3 Will, no spells, wild shape sorta like the druid but a bit different, has a few things that only druids had before, and can get WIS to AC if no armor (or 1/2 WIS to AC if in druid armor). There are several problems with the class, outlined in many of the reviews posted after mine. I think, like many, the class is poorly designed. -1 star.
I give this book huge props for the section 'Spells of the Wild' that starts on page 156. Its good to acknowledge how magic, in a lot of cases, nullifies the challenge of wilderness settings. The section where they talk about how create food and water combined with the 0th level spell purify food and water make survival checks to forage food basically useless. Good on Paizo for going over this stuff.
Another issue, reprints. This book contains reprints. Not a ton like the Adventurer's Guide, but enough that it is noticeable.
Lastly, the problem of too many feats, archetypes, and spells are awful. Borderline useless. This happens a lot in Pathfinder over the last few years, Horror Adventures had very similar problems. I would rather have fewer choices that are meaningful. As it is right now, I feel like it adds to the bloat issue.
This book is basically all three 'book of the damned' campaign setting books smushed into one book, with a few extras and new things sprinkled in. If you already own the campaign setting books, I personally feel this book is not worth the price tag, it's just too much reprinting. If you don't own them, and plan on having a lot of villains that serve devils / demons / daemons, then it is worth a purchase.
The art in some areas is terrible, the 2 worst offenders being Andirifkhu on page 17 and Charon on page 36. It is so bad, I honestly thought it was a mistake at first.
Overall, these 2 issues take a chunk out of the rating for me.
If you are going to be in a game with a decent portion of it being underwater, especially combat, pick this up, there are some good options. Otherwise, your not missing much.
Got the PDF August 3rd, very prompt. Began reading, read it nearly all day. Next steps; generate a few characters and try out the combat, skill system, vehicles, ships, and the magic system.
So far reading the book, the layout is good, the artwork is solid, and the whole book has a really nice flow.
The system itself is very 3.5 / Pathfinder at its core, but a lot of the more prickly parts of the system have been cleaned up. It just feels more smooth and streamlined. Two examples. No more iterative attacks. Thank you! I expect this will speed up combat at higer levels quite nicely. Also, magic only goes to 6th level and their are no more full 9th casters. Once again, thank you. From what I am reading, martials are in a much better place in Starfinder.
Overall, this game looks really amazing, can't wait.
