I picked this up because some people were telling me there would be a full map of Garund available, and with the Lizardfolk/Iruxi in the nearby release of Lost Omens Character Guide I really hoped there would finally be some information on Droon. I got neither of those things. the rest of the book is pretty meh as well. The Inner Sea World Guide is cheaper and provides much more information.
This book offers Martial Options for players that want less full attack and more Action Movie/Anime/Video game imagery. If you play a martial to optimize your DPR and make all the full attacks, then at the very least, the Spheres of Might provide utility, movement, and defenses, as well as something more meaningful than just regular attacks when you can't full attack.
If you want to play like the book wants you to play, with less full attacking and using all your actions to do different things, then you'll probably enjoy this, and they have some fun creative classes to take advantage of the system, as well as some archetypes and easy conversion system for the first party classes.
effects scale well, so your debuffs and bonuses can stay relevant in to the late game.
Very notably, the Guardian Sphere does a decent job of letting people play tanks.
While most of the content seems relatively balanced, there's some things that leave me scratching my head, like the sentinel class gaining evasion across all 3 saves.
All in all, I like this book and the direction it goes, but I'd like it a lot more if there were more options competative with full attacks.
Some great alternate racial traits for core races, as well as some flavorful love for Gathlains that really play up their natural symbiosis.
A Cha focused witch that can hand out some hefty party bonuses if your party is willing to get frisky.
A flavorful slayer archetype, and a Shadowdancer-lite rogue archetype
some cool teamwork feats (Conduit Casting is begging for a blaster Sorc/Magus wombo combo)
some neat oracle options in the hermit archetype and reclusive curse, and new Loner feats give some use to team oriented abilities if the party isn't interested (Skalds in a party that doesn't want strength can get a larger bonus, for example)
a cool and flavorful monk archetype that tragically lacks an unchained version
Stealth horseshoes with 1/day invisibility. Your charge target literally won't know what hit it.
A time manipulation focused wizard and a host of potent temporal spells
All in all, quality work. Nothing's particularly stronger than existing content, but that's alright because it's interesting and makes you want to play it, and you won't feel weaker for it.
Some of the content is pretty bad though, and not including an unchained version of a monk archetype is pretty unforgivable, so it loses a star on that, but still, would recommend
This book offers all sorts of Familiar related options, as would be expected from something titled "Familiar Folio", giving Familiar Options to the Paladin, Bard, Fighter, and Druid, as well as a host of flavorful familiar-centric archetypes to the Magus, Alchemist, Wizard, and Witch.
Even the Familiars themselves get archetypes! When the tagline up there says "Excel in combat", they weren't joking!
what keeps this book from 5 stars is the complete lack of acknowledgement that the Shaman class even exists, even going so far as to say the witch is "the only character class that has familiars as an integral part of its abilities". while I'm not the biggest fan of the class, it still seems pretty negligent.
all in all, it's definately a worthwhile buy, nice and fluffy while also providing satisfying crunch
