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Solid Book

5/5

Chapter 1:

This includes the new Vigilante Class and a wide variety of Archetypes for many Classes. It's a really solid chapter, all things considered. Vigilante's a good class in any game that actually uses social skills, and a really good one in any game that stays in populated areas for a while before moving on.

The archetypes are a mixed bag in terms of quality (as is inevitable when there are this many), with some definite duds in there, but there are a couple of Rogue Archetypes that actually make Rogues excellent skill characters, a Swashbuckler Archetype that trades Charmed Life for a more reliable bonus vs. mind effecting stuff, and good socially or urban focused archetypes for a lot of different Classes. The Vigilante archetypes are all solid, too (with one exception).

All told, very good chapter.

Chapter 2:

Where the Feats are. The Feats are mostly fairly niche, or focused on purely social stuff (and a disproportionate number have Persuasive or Deceitful as a prerequisite), but many are good for a specifically focused game on, well, Intrigue. But even for as more typical Pathfinder game, there are several very nice Feats included (a line that enhances Bravery, allowing it to apply to far more things, and allowing you to provide it to your allies is particularly notable).

Solid, if not remarkable chapter.

Chapter 3:

This chapter discusses how to actually run intrigue games, and includes various subsystems for Leadership, Heists, Influencing people, and the like. It also includes an amazing ten pages on how some of the game's more troublesome spells actually operate. That section would almost be worth the price of admission all by itself for many GMs.

Very good chapter indeed, probably the best in the book.

Chapter 4:

Focuses on social conflicts of various sorts. It includes an interesting subsystem for verbal dueling, for example. But the best bit is the ten pages on skill interactions, which clarify such things as when someone is unaware of an opponent, what you can get people to do by making them like you with Diplomacy, and what happens when you pass a Bluff check to say the sky is green. It's another invaluable bit for GMs everywhere.

Also very nice, probably the second best chapter.

Chapter 5:

The spells chapter. Seems like a pretty typical spells chapter, though obviously with an intrigue/social focus.

Looks to be perfectly acceptable as spell chapters go.

Chapter 6:

The Equipment chapter. The mundane equipment is cool enough (wrist-mounted dart launchers are neat), and some of the magic items are really nice, especially for GM use (the armor that makes you a duplicate of someone else, including for scrying purposes, is especially neat).

Nothing super exceptional for PCs, but a solid chapter.