![]() Sign in to create or edit a product review. ![]() Pathfinder Lost Omens: World GuidePaizo Inc.![]() Add Hardcover $36.99 Add PDF $29.99 Non-Mint Unavailable Great reading![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This book is great! It is packed with adventure and campaign hooks for a GM looking to run their own material or just to flesh out an adventure or AP set in one of the regions in the book. Although it doesn't dive deep into any one region, it is a useful survey for a player trying to decide where they want their PC to be from, or for a GM trying to narrow down where they want to run their campaign. The backgrounds and archetypes for each region are really neat as well, with the latter particularly dripping with theme. This book is a must have for players and GMs adventuring in Golarion, and is a nice survey of ideas for GMs running campaigns in other settings. ![]() Pathfinder Lost Omens: Gods & MagicPaizo Inc.![]() Add Hardcover $34.99 Add PDF $29.99 Non-Mint Unavailable Lost Omens: GODS (and magic)![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() First of all this book was a little mistitled. A better title might have been "Lost Omens: GODS (and magic)" as the vast majority of the book is taken up with 1-2 page spreads of major and minor deities, pages of paragraphs covering lesser deities and lords, and nearly a dozen or so 1-page spreads of various philosophies. There is no "fluff" content that is more about magic than faith in this book. That's fine, but it's something you should know going into it. The crunch is also skewed towards content for religious characters (though Godless Healing is a great feat for characters that don't get mechanical benefits from a patron deity) with most of the feats and new items relating in some way to the deities in the book, and quite a few really cool new domains. The exception is the section on new spells, which features only a few new Divine spells, and a bunch of non-Divine spells. As for the quality of the content itself, it's great:
There is art in almost every page, and it's all great. As with most of the Lost Omens books, there is a lot more "fluff" than "crunch" in this book. Overall to me this book is a 4.5/5 stars, so I'll round up to 5. ![]() Pathfinder Lost Omens: Character GuidePaizo Inc.![]() Add Hardcover $34.99 Add PDF $29.99
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Adds great breadth of flavor![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This book highlights the richness of Golarion as a setting. The opening chapter that fleshes out the different ethnicities for each of the CRB ancestries is really cool. I also like how they highlight that even the Halflings, which are typically sort of "chameleon"ish in adapting to the culture around them, still have exceptions to the rule in the form of some unique halfling-only enclaves with their own cultures. The chapter introducing Lizardfolk (Iruxi), Leshies, and Hobgoblins is great, as these ancestries are each interesting and you get a clear picture for how they fit into the setting. My favorite chapter might have been the one on the organizations in the setting. I went from disliking Firebrands to respecting them, got a deeper sense for the Knights of Lastwall (whom I already liked), and went from disinterested to very interested in Hellknights after reading about them. The bit on the Pathfinder Society didn't have much new for me, but I've been playing PFS for 6 years. With that said, the Pathfinder Society archetypes and magic items are very cool and themey. I also liked the mechanics for each of the other organizations's archetypes, especially the Hellknight abilities. Obviously PFS has built a whole campaign off of the Pathfinder Society organization. While reading I felt like each of the other organizations presented had the potential to be the centerpiece of a campaign (i.e. "your characters will be Hellknights/Firebrands/Knights of Lastwall, etc.") and there are adventure hooks for how a non-affiliated party might interact or work with each organization sprinkled throughout. In the back there is a section on adapting stat blocks of creatures from Bestiaries or other NPC templates into NPCs from a particular organization, based on the level of the underlying NPC or creature, which looks super helpful for GMs rolling up their own campaigns or wanting to insert these organizations into pre-packaged campaigns. Overall I found this book to be a great value-add for both players and GMs. This was a solid quest. It has a variety of things going on (skill checks, roleplay, a good NPC, a hazard, and a combat) and it does each of them pretty well. It stands out in my memory pretty well and feels like a full-length session even though it only takes an hour (in a good way). ![]() Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-08: Revolution on the RiversidePaizo Inc.![]() Our Price: $8.99 Add to Cartanother new favorite for me![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This scenario takes multiple unexpected turns and I love that. The combats were only so-so, but the story and the general feel of the scenario make it one of my favorites. I have only experienced it as a player but I suspect that it takes a fair amount of prep to GM well. I didn't know that Paizo could pack so much interesting exploration/wilderness content into a single session, but they pulled it off. Great scenario with a lot of variety both mechanically and thematically. This one is a good chance to put your character through their paces in terms of combat. Not a very varied scenario, but nice to have in the rotation. The ending makes me think there will be a "sequel" later down the line. I played this one at GenCon and really enjoyed it; one of the most fun scenarios I've played in PFS. The premise of "going behind enemy lines" felt interesting and exciting. The way the first combat evolved was fun and gave us all a chance to do interesting things with the new action economy. Searching for lost Pathfinder bodies, hoping to find someone still alive, finding fallen heroes with destroyed undead about them... I found the exploration parts of the scenario to be very evocative and engaging. The final fight was a real challenge that put several of us on the dying track, which made it all the more satisfying to come out on top. I enjoyed this one much more than Absalom Initiation and would even play it again. ![]() Starfinder Society Scenario #1-02: Fugitive on the Red PlanetPaizo Inc.![]() Our Price: $8.99 Add to CartFun and Themey, Yet Railroady and Problematic![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I'm not rewriting my review a third time (when are you going to fix your site, Paizo?). In short, the PCs are perfectly capable of keeping a subset of their antagonists from having any reason to be antagonists, yet the scenario forces a combat encounter with said subset of antagonists. There are other problems with the scenario, but this is the strangest one to me. |