GOOD:
The head is pretty good looking.
The raised axe looks a little more threatening than the art on page 181 of Bestiary 2.
BAD:
Getting 4-6 of this mini in a case is a little too much, especially because the weaponless hand has no claws in contrast to the art.
When i cut away the axe, i get another look, but it´s a little strange.
I also could have done without the armor shoulder strap.
UGLY:
-
It would be a cool concept to design these common minis so, that cutting away their weapons creates an alternate version which looks realistic as a weaponless version!
GOOD:
A nice sculpt with a good purple color.
It´s useful to have 4-6 of these for both encounter organization and to create a Darklands (D&D Underdark) mushroom environment.
BAD:
The size is more that of a small than a medium miniature.
UGLY:
The four little tentacles of each mini easily break off, so be careful when storing them.
GOOD:
Everything from pose to paintjob is 100% right.
The intense colors are a joy to look at and this mini is both durable when falling on the floor and very useful in a bulk when building an exotic jungle location.
This is mostly for Mystics (the equivalent of the Pathfinder/D&D Cleric character class), as the twenty image files depict what the holy symbols of the mainly worshipped gods in the "Pact Worlds" system look like.
Thank you for making these freely available Paizo!
GOOD:
The illustrations are very funny.
All the basic rules for a condition are on them.
BAD:
I agree that the Rules/Advertisement card is unnecessary and should have been replaced with a third Incorporeal/Invisible card. The "rules" explainations are self-explainatory and the advertisement for the Combat Pad is meh.
UGLY:
nothing.
I am excited to see new a new card set from Paizo after a few years of nothing.
I wish for a "Starship Stats" set, "Starfinder Equipment" cards and an "Alien Archive" set which contains an image of the creature on one side and it´s abilities and the knowledge DCs to identify them on the other.
GOOD:
This pack contains enough tiles to create a variety of spaceship corridors:
-2 straight (8 long, 2 broad)
-2 straight (2 long, 5 broad)
-2 t-intersectons (8 long, 4 broad in the middle)
-2 cross sections (8 long, 5 broad in the middle)
-2 straight with alcove & hatch/ladder & computer console (8 long with 2 half squares in the middle)
-2 straight with alcove & hatch/ladder & computer console (2 long, 5 broad)
-2 corners (5 long, 4 broad), one open to the left, one to the right.
-1 sliding doors (8 long, 2 broad)
-1 sliding doors (2 long, 5 broad)
-1 suspension tubes corridor (8 long, 2 broad) with 12 tubes.
-1 airlock (5 long, 2 broad before opening into a 3 long and 4 broad vegetation outside)
There are 4 tiles (alcoves & hatch), which enable you to build lower and upper decks and make a multi-level space station/starship with this.
BAD:
A lot of this set (about two-thirds actually) consists of black space.
There are no windows. The outside vegetation behind the airlock limits the usability. the sliding doors are all open.
GOOD:
12 different android images (24 total),
16 different humans (30 total),
10 different Kasatha (21 total),
12 different Lashunta (22 total),
8 different Shirren (16 total),
10 different Vesk (20 total),
10 different Ysoki (11 total),
2 Contemplative,
2 dwarves,
2 elves,
2 Eoxians,
4 half-elves (2 different),
2 half-orcs,
2 Orocorans,
2 Orry,
3 Security Robots,
2 Gnomes,
4 Space Goblins,
1 Gray,
2 Halflings,
6 Drones (2 combat, 2 Hover & 2 Stealth),
1 Haan,
1 Ksarik &
1 Sarcesian
make this a very diverse creature set.
All of the seven player races from the CRB are represented and enough pawns are there to fill any of the 7 class roles for each race.
BAD:
About 25 of the 202 pawns are colored so dark, that you can hardly see details. There is no numbering (but names are on each pawn). There is also some cut-off, almost no Lashunta has it´s antenna intact.
UGLY:
The 44 starship pawns are all too big to fit inside a hex-space on the "Basic Starfield" flip-mat (which by the way are already BIGGER than they should be). The medium sized ones fill one and a half hexes, while the large ones fill a full two hexes.
This way, close quarter starship combat becomes somewhat messy (but not impossible), as the direction the starship faces is important in Starfinder and you have to position the starships in front of (forward)/behind (aft) each other sometimes.
I hope future sets will print the small and tiny starships on small pawns, so that they will fit inside a hex!
Sadly like this, i won´t use them much for starship battle and wait for the minis or use Battlefleet Gothic or Star Wars minis.
GOOD:
The illustration facing the players depicts a cool planetary battle scene of the seven iconics fighting an army of eoxian mecha-undead, while a starship-battle takes place in orbit and a colossal worm-creature breaks through the earth.
The four panels facing the GM show:
-page 1: Skills (DCs & time needed),
-page 2: Enviroment (radiation, materials, wind & zero G),
-page 3: Combat (actions, cover, concealment, long-term stability & conditions),
-page 4: Starship Combat (rounds, speed & maneuverability, critical damage & an overview of firing and shields arcs)
and on which pages of the CRB you can find the rules in-depth.
BAD:
A "landscape" (not as high, but longer) version would have been a better option to allow the GM to more easily reach and see over the screen and onto the battle-map.
GOOD:
The Mars/Akiton side is a nice idea with the different rock elevations.
BAD:
The too busy "steel grating" side make it hard to draw something meaningful in the squares.
UGLY:
The thickness of the mat seems thinner than that of previous products.
The grid is printed wrong, resulting in half-squares and smaller.
the squares are too big.
I first read "Adventurer´s Armory" and then this book. The first one is superior in every single way.
GOOD:
-The Spider-Silk Bodysuit is very useful if you are a drow with high dex and not enough money for bracers of armor.
-The Dwarven war shield is nice if you always wanted to play a dwarf with two shields.
-The Drow Razor is great for sneak attacks and criticals.
-The Sanpkhang is a poison-users weapon of choice.
-Gnome Piston Maul & Gnome Ripsaw Glaive are both fun and useful.
-The Orc Hornbow is very powerful, but it´s an exotic weapon for everyone without orc-blood.
-The tools and kits are good as are the poisons.
-The six spells are all very flavorful and useful.
-The Alchemical Wares.
-Concoctions are fun, especially if you drink too many.
BAD:
-The traits are all much too specialized.
20 out of the 25 new weapons are bad.
-The Ladder, Lantern, Lamp, Mirror and Pole Equipment tricks are very special and far away from the usefulness of the Heavy Blade Scabbard and Shield tricks from AA.
-The new Clothing, magic items and Alchemical Equipment tricks are of very limited use or costly.
-The Equipment from Abroad items are underwhelming.
UGLY:
-Equipment Packages are clearly overpowered for 1st level characters. For instance, the "Holy Warrior Package" is worth 1245 gold pieces - more than a 2nd level player character has!
-Armor Modifications give very minor special boni but impose larger penalties.
-The Butchering Axe is way overpowered, i wouldn´t allow it in my games.
-The Weapon modifications are very pricy, give minor boni and often may need a feat to use.
-The nine feats are all bad.
-Out of the 18 Adventuring Gear items, 17 are very special and one is overpowered (Spring loaded scroll case).
-Nalinivati´s kiss got cut from the book but is still listed on the interior back cover.
-Poppets, while being a nice idea, are too cheap and easy to construct, their capabilities are held too vague. Their whole existence undermines the craft construct feat and would change the way manual labor is done on Golarion significantly. This is not well thought out.
To me 21 of 30 pages are useless, 9 are interesting.
While i am used to the fact that most of the Player Companions have 50% good and 50% bad content, this one is weaker than most.
1 star minis: 4!
2 star minis: 6.
3 star minis: 16!
4 star minis: 12.
5 star minis: 12!
GOOD:
The common minis are the real stars of this set (only one disappointed)!
The faces are really good, with very few exceptions.
Some much needed minis are inside this set (dog, small spider, medium spider, boy, girl, large scorpion, Lillend Azata, Bone Devil, Horned Devil, Rakshasa, large Black Dragon).
The non-humanoid minis are all great.
Very few breakage (1 scorpion) and no loose poles (all are glued in place)!
BAD:
27 out of 44 creatures are small and medium humanoids, four additional ones include humanoid riders, that´s too many (half/half would be okay).
Size issues: some minis were too big (Geist, Wereboar, Scorpion, Leukodaemon), others too small (Gray Maiden Guard, Monstrous Skeleton, Bone Devil, Reclamation Cavalry, Lectern).
Wrong rarity slots for six large minis - the Red Reaver, Issaya and Monstrous Skeleton should have been rare and the three Cavalry minis uncommon.
UGLY:
A lot of people, me included didn´t get a full set in a case. I was missing four minis.
This set has the worst rare minis in memory.
GOOD:
There is a lot of detail here: From the seven skulls over the mummified hand to the chainshirt and longbow with quiver full of arrows.
The paintjob is also pretty good.
BAD:
The six eyes are not visible easily. This creature looks more impressive on all four legs like on the "Curse of the Crimson Throne" art.
UGLY:
This is a very rare monster. I pulled out the little wings from one of the three i got to differentiate it. I guess i could use it as a fiendish Dire Ape, but still. This could and should have been a rare mini, leaving it´s uncommon slot for one of the three rare cavalry minis.
GOOD:
The idea to make a skeletal owlbear is cool. The bones are clearly visible and the half-skeletal skull is horrifying.
BAD:
If i put this beside "Beaky" the owlbear from the "Rusty Dragon Inn" set, it´s only half it´s size.
UGLY:
I don´t need four half-decayed owlbears. This should have been bigger and a rare mini. It´s uncommon slot could have been given to one of the three rare Cavalry minis, none of which has a paintjob qualifying for a rare anyway.
GOOD:
Finally a Lillend Azata!
Face detail and nine different colors are stunning for an uncommon mini.
BAD:
The seam between the snake tail and lower body is clearly visible.
The too long bendy sword and it´s placement.
UGLY:
For a large uncommon there is nothing overly ugly here. But this would have been better as a rare mini, as i don´t need three. The uncommon slot should have been given to the "Reclamation Cavalry" or "Skeletal Cavalry" (which have less detailed paintjobs) instead.
