Knights, fair maidens, heroic adventures, and righteous quests—these are the legends of old Taldor. But the once powerful empire has fallen from its former glory. Now rival nobles battle each other with bitter knights and proxy armies for personal power rather than honor. A smoldering truce with Qadira again threatens to ignite into war, and Taldor’s daughter states look down upon her with contempt. Yet there is still greatness in Taldor, a stone foundation under the flaking gold adornments. Sons and daughters of forgotten royal bloodlines hear change on the wind—but is it the whisper of greatness to come, or the death rattle of an empire long past its prime?
This Pathfinder Companion describes the country of Taldor and its capital of Oppara. Become one of the Lion Blades, a secret agent prestige class for the empire! Learn the magic of the oppressed church of the Dawnflower! Rise to greatness from humble origins with new feats! Gain the ostentatious magic of Taldor’s wealthy elite! Taldor needs champions—are you ready for the challenge?
Written by Joshua J. Frost
Pathfinder Companion is an invaluable resource for players and Game Masters. Each 32-page bimonthly installment explores a major theme in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, with expanded regional gazetteers, new player character options, and organizational overviews to help players flesh out their character backgrounds and to provide Game Masters with new sources for campaign intrigue that can be shared with players.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-169-5
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
Taldor has that feel of Greyhawk...old school gaming with a gritty edge to it. The book itself is beautifully illustrated and well layed out. I do wish it gave me a little more information on the local areas and some different crest designs for the region but hey...what you don't provide means I can improvise. Its almost like Paizo set up the base for something amazing...then allowed you to take it over and make it your own. I don't need to be hand held through what a game designer thinks is HIS/HER definitive vision of Taldor. I actually like the set up and release for me to be able to fill in the blanks. FOR TALDOR! FOR THE GLORY OF YOR!
Mesmo a intriga palaciana não sendo o forte de sistemas como o Pathfinder RPG, o livro é competente em demonstrar aos jogadores diversas formas de se lidar com ela e incluir elementos dela no histórico de seus personagens. O livro está cheio de idéias interessante, mas boa parte dele é só isso, idéias. Talvez por ter sido lançado no pior periodo do limbo entre o D&D 3.5E, e o Pathfinder RPG ele tenha uma aproximação meio irresponsável em relação a parte mecânica (introduzindo muita coisa desbalanceada para baixo) e pouco pode ser diretamente aproveitado, mas certamente o livro se mantem com uma das melhores fontes de informação sobre Taldor, mesmo que o reino mereça um livro (desta vez voltado para o mestre) quando for conveniente.
Nice new perspective on Taldor without ruing what I already knew . . .
There are lots of interesting points about Taldor in this book that detail the country for those that want more details. That's good, but it goes beyond that to explain where there are likely adventures, what kind of political maneuvering is going on, and how Taldans see the world around them.
Reading this made me want to run a campaign in Taldor, and previously I viewed Taldor as that "past its prime" country. Its still, well, fading, but there is lots of life left in the place as an adventuring region.
If you like "Sword and Castle" style fantasy, this is actually a really good area to run that kind of campaign.
I had high hopes for this one. Taldor is one of my favourite region write-ups in the Gazetteer, and the artwork looked superb.
On delivery, yes the interior artwork continued to look superb, and strikes me as very much invoking the atmosphere of the grandiose "King's Quest" PC adventure games which I adored in the 90s (tangent: these games have been re-released by AGD Interactive for free). Taldor is King's Quest all over, and to see it brought to D&D tables is something I'm very, very enthusiastic about.
Sadly, though, when you look beyond the illustrations of the Taldor Companion, the writing falls flat. I can't really pin it down but simply didn't find a single city or area write up that I found inspiring. So there's this amazing fey-haunted forest sitting right in the middle of the country, a monastery in the mountains to the east which tries to blend Kelesh and Tuan martial arts, etc etc ... all ideas very well conceived. But when you look at the write-up, you're let down. Or at least, that's what I felt.
So from a DM's perspective, I found it really flat - nothing to edge me into writing adventures for the region. Given that so far this is the only write-up of Taldor we have that's disappointing. I'm not oblivious either to the fact that the guide needs to be player-friendly and spoiler-free. But I'm not looking for outright hooks, I'm looking for inherently inspiring locale write-ups.
From a player's perspective I found the regional traits so-so. I liked the idea behind most of them (very nice character background ideas all over), but the mechanical execution didn't impress me as most of them seemed to be copy-pasted from the freely available Web Enhancement on generic Traits in Pathfinder.
All in all, it's a glossy and beautifully illustrated book (some of the best artwork I've seen in Paizo products, and that's saying a lot as they are amazing when it comes to art), but the writing is sub-par.
This smallish supplement is an excellent guide to Taldor. The descriptions of the country are vivid and bring to life the images of an old and once glorious empire whose time has passed. I especially liked the old canal system and the mercenary pirates out to get the Qadiran ships.
This is a excellent resource for players who want ideas on character background or for DMs for adventure ideas.
Here's a quick legend for the numbers listed on the map of Oppara on p. 15. The information is incorporated into the location descriptions, but I feel it's useful to have it grouped for easy reference.
yay! now, just one question ... where's the house of the immortal son, now oppara's opera house? I was looking for it as I'm scheduled to run among the living and I just know that they're going to demand to tour the town
Here's a quick legend for the numbers listed on the map of Oppara on p. 15. The information is incorporated into the location descriptions, but I feel it's useful to have it grouped for easy reference.
yay! now, just one question ... where's the house of the immortal son, now oppara's opera house? I was looking for it as I'm scheduled to run among the living and I just know that they're going to demand to tour the town
tyvm
I placed in in Seven Towers, for a couple of reasons:
1. Nothing else other than Senator-ian houses and the like are in that district
2. Its an older section of the city
3. It seemed like something the Senate would do (convert a temple into an opera house)
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