But until you nerf Shield Brace and Unhindering Shield (2 feats that just kill sword & shield combat style, cause they basically allow you to fight with your trusted Power Attack buffed two-handed weapon and still have a nice shield bonus) I will not give this book more than 1 star.
If new content just devalues a huge junk of old content - it's bad, horrible game design.
What's the point of this book?
To provide ready-to-use NPCs for a GM, so he will save time.
So my rating and review is based only on this criteria.
Art is (as usual) very good and inspiring, but the content... Really, I must repeat myself, really weak NPCs. Human Clerics from 9th+ level have something around 19-21 wisdom with +2 item? Really? Human Pyromaniac mage (CR 12) has Intelligence 22 with +4 item?? Really? He's spent all his ability bonuses on level-up on what? Strength?
The limitation to Core only even further make these NPCs subpar to even really non-optimized PCs.
I don't know why we need to have NPC Codex (really it should be treated like Bestiary) that fails to deliver adequate challenge? New GMs will have to deal with too weak NPCs that even non-optimized PCs will just trample, experienced GMs will have to spent their time on constant modification of these NPCs.
So. Overall this book really doesn't qualify for a rating more than 2 stars. It can be used as inspiration - yes. It can be used as source of great NPC art - yes. Can it be used as a source of ready-for-use NPCs? I really doubt.
Full Name
Mason Stonewall
Race
dwarf
Classes/Levels
bar 1 ftr 6
Gender
male
Size
4-4
Occupation
baker
About Mason Stonewall
Mason Stonewall
(tank) large weapon ftr.
33897-15 as with most dwarfs. hatred of orcs and their kind is been along standing feud. With Mason. He had no desire to go out and hunt down monsters. He wanted to be a baker. he would push around the mill stone an grind grain. He wanted a peaceful life.
That changed in some personal tragedy he does not want to talk about. He is slightly dim witted but has some common sense, But a bit of a temper.
Pathfinder record do not say or gloss over what changed for Mason to become a warrior. No listing of any family or relatives.
He is consumed with killing every orc and goblin he comes across. Further more he has a special dislike for the Aspis Consortium,
It is rumored that what ever tragedy in his life has something to do with Consortium and Orcs
“I am going to kill them. Every last one. Every single hell spawned orc and goblin. If I can I wont make their death easy. Ill make it make slow and painful. Kill them. Kill them all.”
