Heladriel's page

This book had everything to be great, the wilderness themed aspects of the game have a lot of potential and player interest, however the book seems a rushed production with a lot of mechanics that just disappoint.

The Shifter is a mess, the whole idea of the class sells a combat oriented master shapeshifter, and what you get is a underwhelming mockery of a combat druid. It's extremely weak and with uninspired mechanics.

Also on the options part, there are lots of useless feats and archetypes - some unplayable - what reminds me a lot of the 3.5 times. You can find some jewels like a fey themed rogue archetype that gets hexes, but they are rare.

Even with poor execution, the book is filled with great flavor, interesting concepts, really beautiful art and good new options, like items, familiars, animal companions and even useful plants.

It seems clear to me that the main problem with this book is the lack of playtest.

I would recommend buying it just for the flavor, but it's the worst pathfinder rulebook I've bought.

Occult adventures introduces amazing new classes like the Kineticist, the mesmerist and the psychic. The flavor is fantastic allowing several concepts that were in need for a long time. There are new mechanics for rituals, mind battles, unlocking chakras, among others.

The best part: the Kineticist (the jewel of the book), psychic and the whole new spellcasting system, the mesmerist.

The regular part: the medium (overly complicated, and always sub-par, poorly emulating abilities from other classes), the occultist for much the same reason.

The worst part: the spiritualist - an underpowered copy of the summoner re-flavored (could be an archetype), the feats and magic items (too few and lacking impact).

Overall: This is a great book, although not one without flaws. New classes like the Kineticist and the psychic are still in dire need of further development (options, feats, archetyypes, talents...). The theme is coherent and well executed, making this one of the best pathfinder books I have ever read. It's a shame it ends so quickly, because it seem to have the potential for several books.