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When one starts down the path of the Empath, they select an emotion to specialize in. The chosen emotion grants a variety of thematic abilities thoughtout the class level. In terms of class balance, I chose to compare this to a sorcerer bloodline.

*Anger* - overall okay... capstone is amazing against barbarians & anyone that manages to fall prey to the 5th lv ability. At a glance, the capstone seems really strong but balances itself out perfectly by requiring the use of a standard action to activate.

*Awe* - I'm not sure how the capstone works. I think it's until the start of the user's next turn or maybe it's the target's turn, which isn't bad. If someone's perpetually flat-footed, it would be really good. It seems decent enough but I would definitely like some clarification so I could be sure.

*Courage* - starts a bit weak but gradually builds up in potency, ultimately becoming a solid option. It begins with a very low bonus to saves vs fear but caps off with rendering fear not an issue. It would be better if the level 1 bonus to saves vs fear were just 1 higher to make it more competetive with other level 1 abilities.

*Desire* - seems decent enough. It begins with a buff to social interraction skills & caps off with the ability to read the desires(though not the motvies) of a target. Overall seems like the most interesting of the emotions.

*Despair* - starts decently and gets pretty good at the end.

*Euphoria* - starts good, then becomes a bit too good, causing the daze condition through a variety options, all involving being touched(which can come up quite often), without offering some kind of save. . Since daze makes a target unable to act, this is an extremely powerful ability even by capstone ability standards. Even a higher than normal save DC(such as 15 + 1/2 lv + key ability) would help.

*Horror* - starts decent and grows into something amazing. The capstone is a bit strong but not game-breaking.

The emotions are the bread & butter of the class flavor & overall seem good, though balance can use a little work here & there.

**Deep Bond** is an ability that lets you heal 1 individual, similar to channel energy, and possibly grant that individual special benefits, depending on your emotion specialization. It works a few times per day, but can allow for a lot of healing potential outside of combat. Overall, it's very strong in certain situations, but doesn't seem to unreasonable.

**Spellcasting** is where the bulk of the class power comes from. As expected, the selection is a mix of buff & debuff spells, as well as healing & enchantment spells. It's a dedicated caster so it won't have quite so many issues with save DCs like a mid caster, such as bard would have. It's a spontaneous caster, which lends itself well specializing around a certain theme & sticking to it.

Overall, it seems to be a decent class but could use just a little work here & there.

However, the product is more than just the class. Some products give feats but those don't really seem necessary or fitting for this class. As such, it also includes archetypes to mix things for added options.

**Central Mind** - this is a telepathy themed archetype that replaces all of the class features. It has a telepathic link ability that seems overall solid. I'm not entirely sure how many you can link in that I have doubts about what it means to say vs what is said. Either way, the amount of participants for the link is reasonable enough.

**Instinctual Driver** - this specializes on dealing with things normally immune to most low-end enchantment spells. It does the job well. I like it.

**Sensoral** - It grants special abilities based off enhancing a particular sense. Not too unreasonable concept. I think they meant to say "blindsense" instead of "lifesense" for the hearing option. There's some serious imbalance with this one and the execution is a bit lackluster. So, I'm not really a fan of this one.

**Sycophant of Pain** - The opening ability is thematically interesting, mechanically weak, and definitely not something a player character could use in the average party. It somewhat makes up for it with its potent debuff or get hurt ability but the daily use limit makes it very limited. Overall, in a party, the class would be stuck relying on one ability and not really being able to use the other, severely weaking it. Where it shines is as an NPC, where the lack of clear limits on how many points of damage the ability can accumulate in general for use combined with minions could wreck a party. The limit to only being able to collect damage the level plus stat overall, the core ability is lackluster at best, rising just above those borderline useless 1d4 + 1/2 abilities many casters get & relegating it to a backup option for when you've burned through everything else.
With a little work, it could be a solid villain archetype, but as is, it is lacking.

Overall, about half the archetypes are worthwhile.

Sidenotes, there is a little bit of artwork, but not much. The art is decent. The layout is overall decent, focusing on class features then shoving the spell stuff at the end of the class because that's less interesting. There are some minor formatting hiccups here & there but I generally don't care much about those.

In conclusion, the product's pretty decent for the price. Half the archetypes are solid & the other half are meh. The class is playable & interesting. It does suffer from needing cleanup/clarification on the wording with some abilities.

Ultimately, I can only recommend most of this product. There's enough solid stuff in there to make the class playable but it does fall short of its potential. If those issues are worked out, it would be a solid & fun class.

The basics:
*Has an at-will energy blast with a logical damage increase progression
*Has up at-will spell-like abilities
*Learns abilities for enhancing the energy blast
*4 different pacts to choose from(Demon, Devil, Fey, Lovecraftian-horror), which grant an ability to the user certain thematically different abilities at certain level.

The good:
*Over the course of the levels, the energy blast gains optional effects to enhance it in addition to its at-will spell-like abilities.
*Pact abilities are obtained throughout the class levels
*The new feats are decently balanced
*The energy blast deals untyped damage or a damage type based off the nature of the pact the Invoker has, which lets the user balance power & flavor.
*The various incantations(spell-like abilities) & pact abilities are very flavorful
*There is a good bit of content for the money

The bad:
*a minor formatting issue or two

Overall
When I first review it, it needed some work. The developers were quick & thorough with their adjustments. Now, this is a pretty solid class that really gets the occult feel down. I highly recommend it.

Gunslinger - they gave alternative options for other classes to do basically the same thing & that's really good enough. A new class wasn't needed.
Unless you go into advanced firearms, guns kinda suck, but any reasonable GM will run in the setup where guns aren't insanely expensive so at least cost isn't the issue & thankfully they didn't do rules for effects of blackpowder smoke in a dungeon.

Ninja - okay as a Rogue variant. My only complaint is that Light Steps is a freebie stock class feature instead of a talent like it should. That aside, contrary to what some reviewers have said, the choice between Rogue & Ninja is depends on your preferences. Both classes can pick up eachother's talents & they gave Rogue a Ki Pool talent.
As for the weapons gap. The Katana in this book isn't OP, trading general damage potential for a surprisingly appropriate utilitarian function, when compared to previous versions of the weapon, so no big deal guys.

Samurai - not needed as a class. Give me options for Fighter & Cavalier, maybe Monk(maybe). Concept achieved.

Feats: Some are good. Some are mediocre. There are a few that are overly specialized, so they're iffy on their value for PCs.
-Monk styles. I looked this over & the qualities vary greatly. Half the styles are pretty good & the other half suck. Some of that could be preference, but that would require another option. The good ones offer up enough of a sampling to make some balanced styles of your own, which is really good. All in all, I like them.

Weapons - several of them are nice. I like what they did with Katana instead of making it re-flavored Bastardsword, though it does give less reason to favor it over Wakizashi, as that's a light weapon & Katana isn't & the damage gap is negligible. Guns are only viable if you have the right set of cost rules(the price varies depending on the rarity of guns in the world)

Class variants - there are some okay ones, but some seem to be just desperate attempts at filling space. A few of the variants appear to be incomplete, such as Martial Artist Monk still getting Abundant Step, but is incapable of actually using it. There are other examples of this sort of oversight & it's kinda disappointing.
I honestly would like to see some variants that just trade off particular class features only which would allow for a bit more character customization.

Overall, it's okay. Some things are incomplete & the balance is lacking in certain things. You can use it if you've got the sense to exclude the broken stuff. I'd recommend the PDF, but it's not something the average player should rush to get a hard copy of anytime soon, as the PDF can be replaced with a downloaded update. Hopefully, Paizo can get their act together & work on this.

I finally read over the class thoroughly. There are a lot of things I like about it. There is a decent selection of quality class abilities, allowing for more customization. Combine that with the good skills(6+Int Mod) & you've got a decent class.

I do find it a bit lacking in the damage output department, though. All of the damage abilities use the same points you use for other abilities, while delivering sub par damage. That is the only weak point of the class, but it does weigh heavily on it.

That said, a few of the right feats(most of which are in the core book) can remedy the damage problem, as can playing strategically. So, all in all, I'd give this one a 4 out of 5. Definitely worth purchasing.

I had some pretty decent ideas for how to play apprentice/children/0-level characters. I think it's safe to say those ideas are scrapped & won't be seen again for years(if at all). There's only one thing I'd do to expand on the system & it's just something I'd do for the Pathfinder system as a whole anyway.

Whether you want to do something like "starting off the 1rst session with the characters as children & having them end up banding together for some reason" or simply make more varied 1rst level characters, this booklet can get the job done.