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Death’s Heretic is easily the best in the Pathfinder Tales library thus far. Upon reading the summary I was afraid I’d stumbled into a boring mystery slog with a gimmick that followed a grim and two-dimensional main character, but was pleasantly surprised.

In Death’s Heretic we ride along with Salim, a rather serious protagonist by all accounts but with enough depth and the occasional show of mirth to keep him from being a caricature and a drag. Though born an atheist of Rahadoum, Salim has worked for the church of the goddess Pharasma for quite a while, hunting down those who would fate by spurning death itself. He is contacted to travel to Thuvia, where an influential merchant has been murdered and had his soul stolen from the afterlife to be held hostage. Accompanying Salim in his task is the daughter of the aforementioned merchant, the strong-willed Niela, who regularly butts heads with the inquisitor. Over the span of but a few short days the duo wander off on a delightful plane-hopping adventure of action and intrigue.

It is difficult to give more information without spoiling the plot.

Overall the story was well written and flowed smoothly. It was a great reading the experience to see the characters develop and adapt, and one of the few in the Pathfinder Tales line that could keep me up for hours into the night turning “just one more page before bed”. The story had a few predictable moments, but I noticed no major plot holes and would like to read more of Mr. Sutter’s work.

The first Pathfinder Tale I’ve given 5 stars. Keep up the good work; this one will be hard to top!

Master of Devils by Dave Gross continues the story of Count Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard, Radovan in a fantastic tale of East meeting West. This time their travels take them to the far East (obviously) where the two get separated one again and become strangers in a strange land. Both enter martial tutelage, one at a monastery, the other alone under the strict eye of a master seeking vengeance through his newest pupil. The book is a quick read, containing quite a bit dialogue, that captures the oriental flavor of the setting well and translates it equally well to the reader. Normally my brain tends to shut down while reading combat scenes, but the descriptions of the battles contained within are amusingly reminiscent of the wire fighting martial arts movies that I love so very much. The narrative is written in first person and switches between three perspectives; Jeggare, Radovan, and their faithful hound, all with distinct personalities and styles. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, perhaps the most out of what has been written thus far, but I do have a notable complaint: There are several pages near the center of my copy where the ink is so light (perhaps the printers needed a change?) it was impossible to read a thing and I ended up missing some of the story and having to skip ahead to a legible portion of the book. Thankfully these pages were few and I was able to piece together what I missed. But, unfortunately, this necessitates that I drop my rating from good to merely average. I look forward to reading more from the author.

After having reviewed Making Craft Work as a rare 5 star product I decided to browse over more Spes Magna Games PDFs. 5 Adventures, 25 Rooms caught my eye because of Adventure 3: Bird Flu of the Damned, which sounded like it would be good for a laugh. And I must say, for about $1 I'm quite pleased. While each quest in 5 Adventures, 25 Rooms can be run all by its lonesome, it really is a handful of purposely half-finished adventures. Why would anyone want to purchase a half-finished product? I would; I'm officially referring to this product as cookie dough and here's why:

Say you want cookies. Cookies are delicious- everyone likes cookies. However if you want to bake cookies you need cookie dough. Cookie dough takes quite a few ingredients and can be time consuming to mix properly (not to mention the time needed to clean my kitchen afterward). If you go to the store and buy a box of cookies (or a game module) for you and your friends, then congratulations you have cookies that you and your friends will likely enjoy. However, if you buy a tube of cookie dough you will need to spend a few minutes baking your cookies. It is hardly any extra work, but you end up with delicious, gooey cookies hot from the oven, arguably a better product for the same cost, or often less (in the case of 5 Adventures, 25 rooms, the latter), which is a delightful middle ground between making your won cookies and purchasing already finished cookies. In addition to getting to enjoy warm, fresh cookies with your friends, you then get the credit for making the cookies, along with the level appreciation that goes along with that, even though all you really did was toss them in the oven and let them do their thing for a few minutes. This product design has served Pillsbury and Nestle well over the decades, why not module design as well? This is an excellent innovation for GMs like me who enjoy being able to run games of our own design, but lack the free time to fully flesh out an adventure from scratch every week, providing a few good springboards to jump off of.

The review:

Presentation
No maps are included, presumably because these are just short adventures and seeds that can be worked in just about anywhere. There are only a few graphics, which make the PDF rather printer friendly. There is an easy to read table of contents, and plenty of sidebars that discuss how to scale each adventure. 5/5

Adventure 1: Guard Duty
An interesting twist on an old cliche and a great jumping off point for something grander, presenting villains for later use that are on a more personal level with the PCs. This adventure can fit well in most low level games regardless of genre designation. 5/5

Adventure 2: Shelter from the Storm
I noticed a typo during this adventure. At one point a character is named Yeranc while later in the same paragraph the NPC is referred to as Yerang. I find this to be the least impressive of the presented quests; it makes some assumptions as to the actions of the PCs (notably room 2), which can cause the adventure to break down if not followed. For a mystery, even just a short one, the cast seems a bit small. 3/5

Adventure 3: Bird Flu of the Damned
I literally purchased this PDF because of this adventure. Sometimes the phrase "zombie emus" is all you need to get a sale. All in all, this quest is a solid, if a bit basic, fight against fanatical goblin cultists, but the undead provide some novelty for an evening's enjoyment. And it does open up some interesting ideas for continence. 4/5

Adventure 4: Lost Love
This adventure has some wonderful, romantic backstory, but seems to require PCs to be a bit more emotionally invested and motivated than what is common without extensive setup. Not a quest I would recommend for every group, but for those that appreciate games that offer a chance at some rather deep roleplay, it'll be hard to find a better seed. 4/5

Adventure 5: I'm so Cold
I'm so Cold is my favorite adventure out of the bunch (probably tied with guard Duty). It well written and thoroughly enjoyable, if a bit depressing. It has a decent mix of action and mystery set in somewhat of a drab (though immersive) background. My only complaint is that the fight in room 4 feels a bit contrived, so I'd alter the time and place of the encounter, which is hauntingly beautiful in itself. 5/5

Everything Else
After the adventure there is the Unseelie template, the statistic block of one of the villains, and the rules for emus (regular, zombie, and my players' favorite: animal companion). The template is handy to have, and the emus are fun and well built. The statistics for the villain feel unnecessary, but it is convenient that it was provided. 5/5

Total
31/35 = 4.4/5, rounded up; the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The innovation behind this product's design is more than enough to push it up that last star.

To date I've run 6 separate groups through Rise of the Runelords, the most recent starting this past June (having made it to the end of the second book after 8 sessions thus far), so I am very familiar with the adventure path. Rise of the Runelords is a very entertaining campaign, and Burnt Offerings starts it off strongly. Warning: here there be spoilers!

The PCs find themselves in Sandpoint, a sleepy coastal community in Varisia, at the start of Autumn where the Swallowtail Festival is in full swing. The book jumps right into the action by having a band of goblin raiders assault the town. Personally I wish more emphasis was put on the festival itself, giving players a chance to mingle with the townsfolk and enjoy games of skill and/or chance while listening to some speeches by noteworthy personalities. However, I understand that in published adventurers there is only so much space to work with, and it is easy for a GM to magic some fun up (or steal a few thing from a very entertaining thread on the message-boards). In Sandpoint the PCs will involve themselves in 3 battles against groups of goblins, while there silly antics set a chaotic scene. These battles felt a bit repetitive, so I made sure to add a unique element to each fight and changed the locations of each battle from what was written (saving th Rusty Dragon from being burnt down is an excellent way to introduce Ameiko Kaijitsu).

Once matters calm down and in the raid is under control the PCs learn of a disturbance at the cemetery, where some of the town's beloved deceased have been dug up, their remains missing. I recommend taking the opportunity here to introduce some red herrings. In the days following the festival, the PCs are regarded as local heroes, and the book gives a few good examples of side quests to take place, though I felt the need to add a little bit more to stretch the duration of levels, otherwise RotRL will have players zipping to the upper teens in no time.

It isn't long before something foul is again afoot in Sandpoint. Goblins, under the command of a disgruntled former citizen have kidnapped poor Ameiko and taken control of the local glass-works. Here we hit my first major problem with Burnt Offerings. The map of the glass-works dungeon is tilted diagonally, making it awkward to copy onto a battle-mat, even more awkward (to the point of needing to create a new map to suit your needs) if you are like me and prefer using hexes to squares whenever possible. The party should discover and old smuggler's tunnel in the basement of the factory which connects to some recently disturbed ancient ruins. This is an optional dungeon, the villain of which is incredibly annoying. She isn't particularly dangerous as written, but it'll take forever to defeat her unless you have the savyiest of players (most groups I've run through the adventure have spent hours of real time locked in battle with her in a most unsatisfying session).

Whether the group decides to delve into the Catacombs of Wrath (the optional dungeon above) or not, they should learn of a greater threat to the town; the goblins of normally feuding tribes are massing to mount an attack that dwarfs their last. They must then head to Thistletop and protect the village in the absence of the law. Thistletop is a rather large dungeon in multiple parts. First, you have the Nettlewood, the forest outside, with a mix of interesting and mundane encounters. Next you have the goblin fortress itself, which holds quite a few humorous asides for the GM, and finally you have the ruins below, which will eventually culminate in a crescendo battle against an aasimar warrior-priestess of Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters.

Overall I was rather pleased with Burnt Offerings. Though it felt more a skeleton than an adventure. It needed more side quests and better pacing, though it provides many opportunities for the GM to flex his or her creativity and add their own material and spin. The motivations feel a bit forced and contrived, which is recurring throughout the path, but for kick in the door groups this poses hardly any trouble at all and it is easily altered for role-play heavy groups. The encounters run the spectrum from ridiculously easy to insanely frustratingly difficult with no rhyme or reason. Saving a town from a montrous horde is a bit cliche, but allows for major parts of the adventure path to be set up, and if it isn't broke...well, you get the picture. With the wealth of player and GM resources available to enhance RotRL on the Paizo message boards alone, you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not play or run this adventure path from start to finish (after some fine tuning, of course).

So what can be said about Fursona? Let’s take a look at how the PDF is set up first. It is 105 pages, so you get plenty of meat for your $10. The entire book is designed to allow players and GMs to customize their very own anthropomorphic races. You start off with a type of animal, gaining some racial adjustments. From there you are allotted a handful of build points to personalize your character. These can be used on relatively minor abilities such as improving ones senses or in grander ways, like becoming venomous. There are disadvantages as well, which by taking you can increase your build points. There are many choices for all of the above, so it is highly unlikely that any two races will be identical. The book not only covers furries, but lovecraftian horrors and clockworks as well, so there is a bit of something for everybody.

In the “pro” column I’d like to point out that the system is highly modular and customizable, which is something I’m personally very fond of. The creators seem to know their audience well, allowing players to create races anywhere from highly feral and natural to highly human in both appearance and ability. The creation system seemed very clear and easy to grasp to me, and I didn’t notice any major grammar or spelling errors.

As far as “cons” go, there are a few that I should mention. There is a handful of mature content in this book. To some extent that goes along with knowing their market, as stated above, but some of it seems to be put in merely to tap that market. Not everyone is comfortable with a game that contains highly sexual themes, but this is a minor issue as groups can choose to avoid these abilities amongst themselves, but because of the content I wouldn’t recommend this book for groups containing young or immature players. While I love a modular system, the ability to take disadvantages to stack on some very strong combinations of powers with build points has the potential to be abused by min-maxing players, so if your group is a mixed bag as far as how much your player’s optimize, this can create a big disparity in power levels- a GM will need to keep a close eye on their player’s personalized races.

Overall I enjoy this book, and would recommend it to any who would like to spice up their game with anthropomorphic races, and have recently purchased it as a gift for a friend. However since it fills such a specific niche, I can’t otherwise say it is a great investment. It is excellent at what it sets out to do, but certainly isn’t for everyone. If you have a handful of furry friends and can get a group together though, I suggest you purchase it and you won’t be disappointed.

Finally a product that I can slap a 5 star approval on! This PDF is short (8 pages), but to the point. It starts off by detailing the problems with the craft skill as it stands with a few quick and mildly humorous examples before moving into alternate rules which will actually allow PCs to take advantage of their investment. It is clear and simple, and best of all: it works! I'd highly recommend this to any and 3.5/PF players or GMs, and have already printed it out and slipped it into its new place in the skills section of my core rulebook. Buy it and you'll be pleased.

D&D 4th Edition has been a subject of hot debate since it was first announced and continues to be so to this day. Strip away all of the fan-boy prattle and nerd rage nonsense from the edition wars and believe it or not, regardless of the motivation for making a new edition of D&D (be it a money making scheme by an evil corporation or a true attempt at a fun an balanced system), a game does exist under there. But is it any good? Reviews have been very mixed, but here is my take.

I first played 4th Edition shortly after its release and found it shockingly different. Not bad, persay, but very different from what I was used to after so much time spent with 3.X, and I will readily admit that I did not warm to all of the new ideas right away. Much of this has to do with the DM that I played under, but those anecdotes are tales for another time. There were many merits that I found within the system even at that time, however;

-The classes seemed well balanced between one another with a wide array of interesting abilities. Including powers usable at-will, so even magical classes continued to feel magical once their allotment was mostly expended for the day.
-The skill system was streamlined into a trained or untrained system.
-Magical equipment was found within the pages of the Player’s Handbook as opposed to the Dungeon Master’s Guide, so the information on a PC’s gear was always at their fingertips.
-Status anomalies were condensed and simplified for quick reference, often using the “combat advantage” system to strong effect.
-Battles contained more enemies on average than older editions often would allow and were not only more dynamic, but longer lasting as well, as combat seemed less swingy and rarely hinged on a single roll.
-Not everything in the game world follows the same rules as the PCs. The lack of emphasis on rules for what is happening off screen allow for the shared telling of a more exciting and cinematic story. This is not a boon for everyone however, as some prefer hard and fast rules for minor details that I personally find only ads bloat to the rulebooks.
-The alignment system has been altered. Where as it once was a grid it is now more akin to a line with 5 possible alignments. While I would have preferred the end of an alignment system entirely, this was a good start.

There were some downsides as well, though many are a matter of personal preference;

-The system itself strongly supports high fantasy, and in that doesn’t lend itself well to grittier, low fantasy.
-The races chosen to be in the Player’s Handbook, while decent and varied, feel a bit out of line with the traditional options offered by the various D&D incarnations. The lose of gnomes as a staple PC race hurt since they have always been a personal favorite.
-Skill challenges can be a double edged sword. They are a natural evolution of 3.5 Unearthed Arcana’s complex skill challenges. When used appropriately they can be a tool to greatly enhance a game session, however when used incorrectly or when poorly built, can bring the fun at a table to a crashing halt.
-The errata is ever increasing and takes some time and effort to keep up with.
-Sometimes mechanics like “marking” can be difficult to explain away in game terms.

The strongest point I found with the system is its ease of use. It is quick and easy to learn or teach and ases the burden of DMing, often cutting the time needed to prepare villain statistic blocks by a good margin. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has a strong chapter on appropriate encounter design which is great for new DMs and old alike. The most fun I’ve had running games were running 4th Edition.

The weakest point overall would have to be the games reliance on a grid. I don’t always use maps, and while I often prefer them to help speed up and accurately represent combat, I don’t like needing to have one. And when I do use maps, I prefer hexes over squares, and there is too much that would need to be changed to facilitate that for 4th Edition.

I’ve heard complaints of the physical quality of the books printed for D&D. My bindings and cover feel to be sturdy and long lasting. I’ve no problems with them since they were purchased at the start of the 4th Edition era. The artwork is simply gorgeous as well. The only minor issue that I’ve had is that the ink tends to smudge a bit as I wrap my fingers around the header of the book while reading and walking, but this isn’t anything any worse than what I experienced with any older editions.

Overall, this is the best incarnations of D&D since 2E AD&D. I strongly suggest not buying into all of the negativity and giving it a try for a while for yourself before you make any final decisions. After a few initial bumps, it quickly grew on me and it may for you as well. There is a wide library of supplements for just about any interests and good online support, even if WotC doesn’t bother with PDFs. The core rules are completely worth purchasing, even if there is always room from improvement.. Four stars for 4th Edition indeed.

D&D 4th Edition has been a subject of hot debate since it was first announced and continues to be so to this day. Strip away all of the fan-boy prattle and nerd rage nonsense from the edition wars and believe it or not, regardless of the motivation for making a new edition of D&D (be it a money making scheme by an evil corporation or a true attempt at a fun an balanced system), a game does exist under there. But is it any good? Reviews have been very mixed, but here is my take.

I first played 4th Edition shortly after its release and found it shockingly different. Not bad, persay, but very different from what I was used to after so much time spent with 3.X, and I will readily admit that I did not warm to all of the new ideas right away. Much of this has to do with the DM that I played under, but those anecdotes are tales for another time. There were many merits that I found within the system even at that time, however;

-The classes seemed well balanced between one another with a wide array of interesting abilities. Including powers usable at-will, so even magical classes continued to feel magical once their allotment was mostly expended for the day.
-The skill system was streamlined into a trained or untrained system.
-Magical equipment was found within the pages of the Player’s Handbook as opposed to the Dungeon Master’s Guide, so the information on a PC’s gear was always at their fingertips.
-Status anomalies were condensed and simplified for quick reference, often using the “combat advantage” system to strong effect.
-Battles contained more enemies on average than older editions often would allow and were not only more dynamic, but longer lasting as well, as combat seemed less swingy and rarely hinged on a single roll.
-Not everything in the game world follows the same rules as the PCs. The lack of emphasis on rules for what is happening off screen allow for the shared telling of a more exciting and cinematic story. This is not a boon for everyone however, as some prefer hard and fast rules for minor details that I personally find only ads bloat to the rulebooks.
-The alignment system has been altered. Where as it once was a grid it is now more akin to a line with 5 possible alignments. While I would have preferred the end of an alignment system entirely, this was a good start.

There were some downsides as well, though many are a matter of personal preference;

-The system itself strongly supports high fantasy, and in that doesn’t lend itself well to grittier, low fantasy.
-The races chosen to be in the Player’s Handbook, while decent and varied, feel a bit out of line with the traditional options offered by the various D&D incarnations. The lose of gnomes as a staple PC race hurt since they have always been a personal favorite.
-Skill challenges can be a double edged sword. They are a natural evolution of 3.5 Unearthed Arcana’s complex skill challenges. When used appropriately they can be a tool to greatly enhance a game session, however when used incorrectly or when poorly built, can bring the fun at a table to a crashing halt.
-The errata is ever increasing and takes some time and effort to keep up with.
-Sometimes mechanics like “marking” can be difficult to explain away in game terms.

The strongest point I found with the system is its ease of use. It is quick and easy to learn or teach and ases the burden of DMing, often cutting the time needed to prepare villain statistic blocks by a good margin. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has a strong chapter on appropriate encounter design which is great for new DMs and old alike. The most fun I’ve had running games were running 4th Edition.

The weakest point overall would have to be the games reliance on a grid. I don’t always use maps, and while I often prefer them to help speed up and accurately represent combat, I don’t like needing to have one. And when I do use maps, I prefer hexes over squares, and there is too much that would need to be changed to facilitate that for 4th Edition.

I’ve heard complaints of the physical quality of the books printed for D&D. My bindings and cover feel to be sturdy and long lasting. I’ve no problems with them since they were purchased at the start of the 4th Edition era. The artwork is simply gorgeous as well. The only minor issue that I’ve had is that the ink tends to smudge a bit as I wrap my fingers around the header of the book while reading and walking, but this isn’t anything any worse than what I experienced with any older editions.

Overall, this is the best incarnations of D&D since 2E AD&D. I strongly suggest not buying into all of the negativity and giving it a try for a while for yourself before you make any final decisions. After a few initial bumps, it quickly grew on me and it may for you as well. There is a wide library of supplements for just about any interests and good online support, even if WotC doesn’t bother with PDFs. The core rules are completely worth purchasing, even if there is always room from improvement.. Four stars for 4th Edition indeed.

I ordered this book with very high expectations and very high hopes. And it mostly delivered. Since I started gaming gnomes have been my favorite race by far and I’ve really enjoyed the Pathfinder/Glorian spin to the little buggers. The physical quality of this supplement was nice. It is a nice, solid paperback with a glossy cover, and the artwork and fonts really pop and show personality. The flavor within, and it does contain fluff by the truckload, is all interesting and fun, and well worth the price alone. and the new spell is exciting, balanced, creative, and generally top notch. The sample NPCs are a couple of the best I’ve seen so far and there are a handful of traits which I would gladly allow in my games. Overall I find this book to be an excellent addition to my collection, but there were some minor details which, when added together, led to the loss of a star;

The new exotic weapon section, despite being one of my favorite sections of the book, contained a couple of errors. One of the weapons listed on the chart doesn’t have a description and as a gnomish weapon it can be difficult to discern how it is supposed to appear or function. There is also a weapon which has a fun description listed that isn’t on the weapon chart, so there is no way to guess its price and weight.

Another qualm I have with this companion is that there are several new feats, which while fun, have a couple of problems. One feat, for example, lists a ability that the opponent must save against, although it lists no way to calculate the DC. Through reading the other feats I believe that I’ve inferred the correct way, but having something so large missing is a bit annoying.

But even with the problems listed above I’d strongly suggest buying this supplement if you like to play gnome characters or if you intend to include them as part of a campaign. I’d even suggest purchasing it for some fun, light reading.

The first book in the Pathfinder Tales line-

I picked this up at a local bookstore on a whim, but enjoyed it enough to subscribe to the line, which, in itself, only speaks positively for the novel. The story was interesting, though it moved a bit slow for my tastes. The print was very small in this book, but feels like it has gotten larger in subsequent tales, which is good on account of my poor eyesight. There is no map in the front of this book, unlike the newer novels, which is mildly disappointing. In alternating chapters the book shifted which character was in the main focus as well as shifting between a third and first person narrative. I found this annoying, but didn’t let it sour my opinion of the tale itself. The characters feel well developed, though the count can be a bit of a bore. There seemed to be a few minor oversights/plot holes, but nothing world shattering. Overall while reading the book I noticed the writing style seemed much more geared for adults over children, which is refreshing in the fantasy genre. Whenever I read a book I like to ask myself if I would go out of my way to find and read other works by the same author, and after reading this the answer is a resounding yes. A good read.

This is probably my favorite Pathfinder product by a wide margin. In it are new spells, feats, traits, magic items, NPC statistic blocks, and just about everything you need to help flesh out adventures your adventures set in Cheliax. There are even a couple of nice maps on the insides of the covers of two major cities. It is excellent for players and GMs alike, and contains plenty of fluff along with all of the options that it presents. As Cheliax is my favorite place to set homebrew adventures in, this supplement book has been a boon. It is short, but fulfills its goal well while being reasonably priced, and I wouldn’t want to run an urban adventure in Cheliax without it.

I simply couldn’t put a review up without handing out a bit of criticism though (even if it is very little- my issues with this book are few and far in between). There isn’t a map of the actual country included, only its major cities. A few of the character options presented feel a bit on the strong side as well (Emergency Force Sphere comes to mind).

Overall this book is a near to perfect a supplement you can hope for. You won’t regret purchasing it.

This book is really more about the journey than the resolution, which is good, because honestly, I found the end a bit disappointing. There are only a couple of main characters in this story: Declan, the cartographer, and Elasif, the warrior. Declan is likable enough, but his barbarian cohort is an annoying caricature. My favorite character in the book was a relatively minor one with fewer lines than I had wished, Declan’s witty, reluctant pseudodragon familiar. The novel is interesting, but by the end feels a bit pointless. As a fan of Irrisen and Ulfen both I had hoped and expected it to focus on those cultures far more than it did, which was mildly irritating. The combat scenes and social interaction are both written fluidly and clearly. This book is an enjoyable read, though not one of the stronger Pathfinder Tales.

I’m hesitant to write a full review as I’m only halfway through the book, but so far this is my favorite Pathfinder Tales novel by a good margin. The characters are vibrant with detailed personalities, and the story is face paced and exciting without sacrificing substance. This book reads fast. There is a lot of dialogue between character, and seeing as verbal character interaction is my favorite part of any given book I could not be more pleased. I cannot wait to finish this book and see more from the same author. Simply excellent. I’m only rating 4 stars as opposed to 5 because I feel there is almost always room for improvement with anything and I’d hate to commit to a perfect rating before I’ve finished the story.

This is the most traditional and generic fantasy narrative out of the paperback Pathfinder Tales thus far. A party of characters, easily portrayed via the Pathfinder RPG rules set, sets out on a quest to save their friend from a vile curse dealing with old friends, enemies, and frienemies along the way. The plot is actually two seperate tales expertly woven together via interludes. The writing was smooth, and I notice no major plot-holes nor typos. The characters have relatable personalities, biases, and relationships, although they do occasionally feel more like caricatures than people. Maybe it was just me, but I found the authors style when describing combat a bit difficult to follow, but I prefer dialogue and substance to action at any rate, so it wasn’t a bit let down at all. Writing briefly as to not give away any spoilers, I will say that overall I enjoyed this book, even if nothing particularly jumped out as amazing or new in the fantasy genre. It is great for some light reading, but don’t expect the characters to become fantasy legends. If a sequel were written, I would pick it up and encourage others to do so; simple as that.

Here is a product that is the essence of a good product gone bad. Well, I shouldn’t say bad, exactly, but it didn’t live up to its potential. It had a strong premise, but a very poor execution.

The Critical Hit Deck is a way to spice up combat with a bit of variety here and there. However, there is a grand disparity in power between the effects of bludgeoning and edged weapons, to the point where while using them in a campaigns, no player would use a bludgeoning weapon. Many of the affects were more powerful than the base doubling as well, so most of the time the players eschewed all weapons except those with the greatest threat range. Inside of a few sessions, every player wielded kukri, rapiers, or scimitars. We even had a decapitation with a kukri by a wu jen on a gargantuan white dragon on the first round of a combat once.

There is little flavor and no artwork making the card format wholly unnecessary when a d% table would’ve sufficed for a much cheaper PDF, and carrying a more than $10 price tag this product, much like the Critical Fumble Deck, feels like a thinly veiled gimmick to grab money.

It seems that people I play with have mixed views on the Critical Hit Deck, but we decided to no longer use it. While the unexpected excitement in combat could be fun, overall the cards greatly rewarded a particular style of character over most others. I would actually be interested in picking up a new Critical Hit Deck if a 2nd version were ever to be produced, assuming the above issues were sorted out.

Overall, if you are just looking to add some randomness to your critical hits, you can find some better, free tables online, but you likely won’t regret picking up this product.

I’d like to start off by saying that I personally think fumbles are lame; they harm PCs more than enemies, don’t scale well with levels (becoming more common the more experienced the character becomes), and they make PCs seem more like bumbling buffoons than heroes. This deck takes that nonsense to the next level. While the Critical Hit Deck merely suffered from poor execution of a good idea there is very little positive that I can say about this product.

After wanting to give the product a fair chance to impress me, I used it in two campaigns (once as a player and once as a GM). In both games I was disappointed to not even find a single merit to the cards. The fumble themselves are poorly thought out. Many do ability damage, which can hardly hinder a villain for several round, but can cause serious problems for a PC who must suffer the condition until it is repaired. Others rely on the fumbler fall into a specific set of circumstances to have any affect at all, such as flying via use of wings, or specifically attacking with a bow, and don’t mean anything other than a miss for the opposition. One card popped up time and time again: “Your attack hits but deals minimum damage.” When a PC dies because their enemy fumbles there is a serious problem.

With no real flavor or artwork, this could have been a d% table as opposed to a more than $10 product which is only a thinly veiled gimmick to get money.

After the campaigns involving this deck concluded I gave it away, although I should have trashed it or let the cards collect spiderwebs in a closet somewhere and not burdened someone else with them. They are a blight to the game and a GM should only use them if they truly hate their friends.

I must admit, that as I am a fan of using devils and the Hells as the focus of my campaigns I’m a bit bias towards liking this book.

The book is a 64 page, softcover book focused on a specific topic which comes in at only $20; just how I like my supplement material. The layout and artwork are both impressive and the Book of the Damned Vol. 1 provides a wealth of exciting material as well as a handful of new options for players and GMs alike, including spells, magic items, and even a prestige class. The book also contains a few new and cool devils. Much of the book is fluff, however, but while it seems both well written and well thought out, many people might not appreciate having less usable material in favor of flavor.

In my personal campaigns I’ve gotten a lot of use out of this book, but it will likely not appeal to anyone who isn’t running or playing a game centered around devious and devilish foes. For anyone who is I strongly recommend this book.

This GM screen is outstanding in physical quality. It is made of thick, study, material, that is heavy enough to stay in place on a table getting knocked about by clumsy gamers and not move about on you even if you are playing outside with a bit of breeze (which is more than I can say for any of my older D&D screens). The artwork of the iconic characters is beautiful and is setting neutral (for those who care what image is displayed to the player). Overall this is a great product.

However it is not perfect. While there are handy tables and even a glossary of common conditions (along with noting corresponding page numbers for everything), a few of the tables seem to only exist to take up space. I’ve never needed to quick reference experience points nor average treasure values per encounters, so the entire far right panel can be ignored and I wished it was replaced with something more useful. That is about the extent of of my criticism though.

I rarely use a GM screen but the appearance and layout of the Pathfinder screen just feel right at the table and any who regularly reference a screen should be pleased with this one. With a few minor changes this review could have easily been five stars. Keep up the good work Paizo.

Finally I arrive at a product I actually support purchasing. Though I was weary of it at first after a sour experience with both the Core Rulebook and the Bestiary, I'm glad that I ended up getting my hands on one.

While my interest in the Pathfinder RPG was dwindling fast, this was the book which made made look past any faults that I have with the system. To supplement your game, for both players and game masters I fully recommend this book. It is full of flavorful variants for all classes, provides several fun, new options for base classes, has a horde of new spells and magic items, and a plethora of feats (not to mention the gorgeous artwork). Simply put, with the addition of this book there is virtually no reasonable character idea that can be portrayed.

Hero points are reminiscent of action points that many people enjoyed, my group included, and traits are a great way to flesh out a character’s personality and skill set.

Oh, and happily, gone are the binding problems that I had with my other Pathfinder products.

I do have a bit of criticism though.

While the new classes are exciting they are, with the exception of perhaps the Alchemist, concepts that could easily be portrayed with the existing core classes. I disagree with both the concept and the execution of the summoner class and could on at great length about this topic, but here is not the place.

There character archetypes can be a bit difficult to read with how they are printed in the book, and I would’ve preferred to see them be more modular, but they aren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Because of erratas and such I wish that I had waited to pick up a later printing, but haven’t really come across many problems with my 1st printing copy.

The book is large and hardbound, and as such it carries a heavy price tag. Personally I’m a fan of smaller, niche books due to cost and weight, but this monster has a bit of something for everybody and then some.

The Advanced Player’s Guide will only improve the fun at your table. And if you can’t afford it, there is always the PRD.

Much like my copy of the Core Rulebook, probably more so, I’m very glad that my 1st printing copy of the Bestiary was a gift, for I would’ve not purchased it. To sum up my thoughts as accurately as possible suffice it to say that I knew the book was not worth bothering with when my old roommate’s Yorkshire terrier decided it was a chew-toy while I was at work and I wasn’t upset when I found out about it.

My copy had the same poor physical quality and binding issues that my Core Rulebook had, meaning that it is already in multiple pieces after fairly light use. There is a long errata that seems to change just about every monster within which makes me honestly wonder if there was a proof-reading stage at all before this book was printed. It’s artwork was outstanding, but with the annoyingly bad physical and content quality that didn’t mean much.

Luckily the PRD houses the post-errata monsters sorted conveniently, so as long as I’m near a computer I never need to both with the book version of the Bestiary. And I suppose there are a few decent things to come out of this mess. The simple templates are useful and the chart of average monster statistics is handy since I generally like to build my own creatures anyways. These two things are the only reason this book warrants a second star.

Avoid it. It simply isn't a neccessary addition to the game and Paizo prints far better material to spend your hard earned cash on.

This is a long overdue review-

I should start by saying that I’m glad I was given a 1st printing of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook as a gift. Because now, after seeing it in action for nearly 2 years, I would not have purchased it. I currently both play and run Pathfinder RPG games, because that is what my fellow gamers play these days (which I suppose speaks positively for the system), and it is decent enough. I enjoy game time with the Pathfinder system, I suppose, however nothing stands out as particularly new, exciting, or innovative. All in all it is a relatively minor rehash of an existing system. I really wanted to be a heavy supporter of Pathfinder just like most of my friends, after all it is what the cool cats are playing these days, but I’m still having trouble finding merit in that cause. After playing the beta version and with the hype surrounding it, I assumed that the little annoying problems in D&D v.3.5 would’ve finally been either streamlined and improved or logically evolved into its own game, but instead I received an enormous book to slog through for rules that only rarely improve upon the base material and often changes it for seemingly no good reason.

I’m not going to go into great detail on a lot of the lesser issues I have with the system, many I understand are personal preference more than anything, but there are a few glaring problems I need to mention.

The binding I particularly would like to discuss; it is quite possibly the worst bound book I’ve ever read. Not only can it not stand up to abuse as most hard cover books can, but after a few weeks of light usage the binding began to fail. It is only through extremely careful handling that it is amazingly in 1 piece, mostly at any rate. Its heavy, nearly 600 page count doesn’t help with that issue either. The other hard cover books for Pathfinder I possess, well, they haven’t fared much better. I want to note, however, that despite being of very poor physical quality, I consider the appearance (especially the artwork, which is wonderful compared to most RPG products) to be significantly improved over its predecessor. Again, I have a 1st printing of the book and do not know if the quality has improved in any later copies.

Luckily, the PRD is free online where it belongs (see binding and quality problems above). That, in itself, speaks greatly for the game. I fully support Pathfinder being free and readily accessible to all who want to play it.

The book is extremely difficult to navigate for new and old RPG players alike. While most in my group are used to the rules, when we need to find something specific we often have to cross reference several different pages each holding incomplete tables or summaries, which cuts into game time. Again the PRD has a search function that can help, which is amazingly useful, but only when you are near an internet accessible computer. We’ve attempted to teach a couple of newer players the system as well, but they’ve struggled with the layout, and it is frustrating to teach, while they much more quickly adapt to other games.

There have been quite a few positive changes to D&D v.3.5 along with the negative with the advent of the Pathfinder RPG, although most feel like a series of specific and relatively minor houserules. I unfortunately have to say that I do not recommend purchasing this book. It simply isn’t worth a $50 investment in my honest opinion. It is a solid game, but not only does it not stand out amidst a crowd, but you can get the rules for free online. But if you find a used copy a bit cheaper at a local gaming shop, you won’t be disappointed. Paizo publishes many great products, and I’ll eventually get around to reviewing each one that I have, but I can’t say that the Core Rulebook is one of them. Pathfinder brings with it a wealth of amazingly flavorful supplemental material, a vibrant campaign setting, and excellent modules and adventure paths.