Pathfinder Player Companion: Goblins of Golarion (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Player Companion: Goblins of Golarion (PFRPG)
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We Be Goblins!

The goblins are on the loose! Unleash the homicidal hijinks of Golarion’s most maniacal menaces with this guide to all things goblin. Infamous for their unpredictable attacks, catchy raiding songs, and fear of horses, goblins blend mischief and murderousness like no other monsters. But there’s more to goblins than dogslicers and games of killgull. Now you can join in the quirky carnage with everything you need to know about goblins, whether you plan to do battle against their unpredictable tribes, or lead them as a goblin hero!

Goblins of Golarion presents a player-friendly overview of the favorite foes of the Pathfinder campaign setting, along with new rules and information to help players customize goblin characters in both flavor and mechanics.

    Inside this book, you'll find:
  • The secrets of goblin life, from their strange anatomy and deranged psychology to their baffling culture and hilarious quirks
  • An overview of goblin homelands across the Inner Sea Region, along with details on dozens of unique goblin tribes
  • New ways to fight like a goblin, with equipment and feats to help goblins skirmish and scavenge like only goblins can
  • Revelations on goblin religion, from their unique worship of Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters, to their race’s infamous hero-god
  • Insights into the questionable and grotesque world of goblin arcana, with new goblin-made spells and magic items
  • Rules, traits, and advice for playing goblin characters, giving you everything you need to unleash goblin insanity all your own
  • New goblin songs, games, and tricks, and even more goblin madness!

This Pathfinder Player Companion is set in the Pathfinder campaign setting and works best with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or the 3.5 version of the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

Still need more goblins? Check out We Be Goblins!, an insane Pathfinder Module designed just for goblin characters!

Written by Richard Pett

Each bimonthly 32-page Pathfinder Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for social, magic, religious, and combat-focused characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-362-0

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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Goodness Gracious Goblins!

5/5

There's been a lot of controversy lately over the planned inclusion of goblins as a core race in the second edition of Pathfinder. One side of the debate posits that goblins have been consistently portrayed as little psychopathic murdering arsonists and that's not a good choice for a PC, while the other side says there's always exceptions and predicts some sort of canonical event may happen between editions to explain goblins' newwidespread acceptance throughout Golarion. The debate was definitely in the background of my mind as I read Goblins of Golarion, even though it was just next up in my queue and I'm not here to take sides in the debate.

Goblins of Golarion is a 32-page entry in the Player Companion line of products. The inside front cover nicely summarizes the racial stats of goblins and includes some other useful details for players, such as favored deities, regions, and example male and female names. The inside back-cover is a reproduction (sans text) of the cover, demonstrating quite vividly that goblins like fire and hate horses. The interior of the book is broken into six sections.

The longest section, "Goblins of Golarion" (16 pages) provides a very readable overview of goblins and how the race "fits" in Golarion and what life is like for goblins. There's a ton of great information here, including particular ways (and rules) for how goblins fight dirty (special rules for tossing angry snakes at enemies!), why they hate dogs and horses so much, why they have a penchant for song and a loathing for the written word, the types of games they play and junk they collect (including the introduction of about ten new pieces of equipment, including "pig grease" and "goblin pickles"), and more. Background sections like this in RPG books are sometimes pretty bland, but Goblins of Golarion does it right--tidbits here and there are hilarious, and this is definitely a section I'd recommend to a GM or player looking to get the most out of playing a goblin. There's a useful (and frank) discussion of which classes are suitable for goblin PCs; sorry, Goblin Paladins are right out! The section ends with about two dozen new background traits (Race, Regional, and Religion), and there's some really fun (and useful) ones like Foul Belch and Pustular.

"Goblin Tribes" (six pages) starts with a map of the Inner Sea annotated with the location of almost two dozen different goblin tribes. The section talks about named tribes in Isger, Mediogalti Island, The Shackles, and Varisia, but I really appreciate how it explicitly encourages GMs to make up their own tribes as well and not feel restrained by what's presented. The section is written to show just how varied goblin tribes can be while still staying on theme. The Spelleater goblins of the Mana Wastes were really cool, but I actually even felt a bit sorry for the Isger tribes...

"Combat" (two pages) introduces ten new feats restricted to goblin characters. They have great names like "Ankle Biter" and "Saddle Shrieker" but the great flavour is matched by solid mechanical effects. I will definitely throw some of these on NPC goblins if I get a chance.

"Faith" (two pages) provides short write-ups of four goblin hero-gods: Hadregash, Venkelvore, Zarongel, and Zogmugot. Each entry includes their portfolio, domains, subdomains, holy symbol, and favored weapon along with a one-paragraph description. The section also introduces four new subdomains, some of which would be viable for other (non-goblin) deities as well: Arson, Flotsam, Slavery, and Torture. The powers the new subdomains grant, however, are pretty weak.

"Goblin Magic" (two pages) introduces three new spells attributed to goblin spellcasters and four new magic items. For the spells, Fire Sneeze is hilarious. The magic items are all very weak mechanically but simultaneously far too expensive to really fit the goblin "scavenger" concept. A "Devastating Dog Whistle" *might* do 1d6 points of sonic damage to dogs within its radius, but at a price of 1500 gp it's hard to imagine what kind of goblin tribe would have one.

Last up is "Social: Goblin Player Characters" (two pages), a section that explains that "Goblins are first and foremost villains. They may be comical on some level, but they're also quite evil. Goblins enjoy inflicting misery and causing pain, and a goblin who doesn't isn't truly a goblin--he's some sort of freak's freak. Which is precisely the kind of goblin that makes a good nominee for a player character." The section gives some frank advice on trying to integrate Goblin PCs into a campaign and how to deal with the widespread racial antagonism they would face in civilized areas. At the risk of perceived bias, I do think the lore, at least as presented here, militates against the idea of goblins becoming a common PC race. The section also introduces some new favored class options, but they're not balanced well--gunslingers get a +1 to critical hit confirmations (nice!), while rogues get an extra skill rank that has to be placed in Ride or Stealth, which doesn't make sense since any character of any race and any class can use their favored class bonus to that get one free skill point (in any skill).

Some quibbles aside, Goblins of Golarion is an excellent example of a supplement that's useful for both players and GMs. It has buckets of flavour for running goblin characters while adding depth to their role in Golarion as a campaign setting. I would definitely recommend it.


Definitely Worth Having the Words Stolen from your Head

5/5

I was so absorbed with this book, that I read it cover to cover in one sitting. Having checked out most of the player companions, this was by far my favorite and changed my mind about having goblin PCs in my games. The fluff is absorbing, original and completely entralling with just enough humor to fit the goblin expectations but not so over the top as to make the race a joke. We learn amazing bits of their society from the fear of reading to the hatred of horses all with substantial backstory. And the traits and feats given really help make the race unique and offer some amazing options for fun PC builds.


You Be Food!

5/5

I loved this book. As a GM, it has already seen use in my campaign, and the discussions of goblin psychology and sociology spawned a number of interesting character concepts for semi-heroic goblin pcs for next time I am not the DM.
I go into more depth <a href="http://worldmakers.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/book-review-pathfinder-pl ayer-companion-goblins-of-golarion/">here </a>


Great Material

5/5

Wheter you want to have a goblin PC, flesh out goblins as villains a little bit more, or start your own all-goblin campaign, this book is what you need. It has interesting insights into Golarion goblin culture and tribes, along with various player options. It motivates you to use the annoying little freaks as PCs: we are currently running an all goblin pbp adventure on this board and having a blast.

I have only 1 minor complaint about the editing (a paragraph of the wrong font size in the Feats section) but overall the print quality is very good. A must have if you like monster player races or just can't get enough of those lovable pyromaniac goblins.


Great Resource

5/5

See my full review here.

Goblins of Golarion is a bit of an unusual supplement. As I mentioned in my review of Humans of Golarion, that product is a useful, albeit not particularly exciting book. Goblins of Golarion is the reverse: a fun, interesting read, but not particularly useful to most games. More specifically, it’s not particularly useful to most players. Game Masters are likely to gain much more use out of it, but as a product that is part of the Pathfinder Player Companion line, many people will expect it to be usable by players. Of course, not every product should necessarily be usable by everyone. It makes sense that there would be some niche products. However, it’s important that people be aware that this is a niche product, as there are some players out there who feel that because something is printed, it’s their right to use it, and that’s going to annoy some GMs who don’t want monster PCs in their games. Players should be sure to check with their GMs before making use of this book.

For players with goblin characters, there’s no doubt that it’s very useful indeed. It’s full of information about goblin society, lifestyle, beliefs, and physiology, along with lots of useful game mechanics including goblin equipment, new traits and feats, and even goblin spells. In addition, it’s an engaging read that fully brings across the character and style of Golarion goblins.

For games that don’t allow goblin PCs (or simply don’t have any players interested in playing goblin characters), Goblins of Golarion can still be a useful supplement for Game Masters, who will find a wealth of information. The “Goblin Tribes” chapter, for example presents the most prominent tribes from around the Inner Sea. It allows GMs to keep every group of goblins unique, yet still unmistakeably goblins. From goblin pirates in the Shackles, to freedom fighters in Isger who are devoted to preventing goblins from ever being enslaved again by hobgoblins, to dinosaur riders on Mediogalti Island, there’s a tribe for just about every need. I really like that there are areas of the world where goblins are more common (such as in Varisia) and areas where there are very few, if any. It makes goblins more than just something you roll on a random encounter chart and plunk down anywhere.

Overall, Goblins of Golarion is a fun book that fully fleshes out goblins and makes them a viable race in their own right. Gaming groups that include goblin PCs will find the book invaluable. Game Masters of groups without goblin PCs will still find the book useful for providing interesting encounters with goblins. And even if your group has no goblin PCs and rarely, if ever, encounters goblins as monsters, the book can still provide a fun and interesting read.


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Was Limp Lash supposed to be a level 2 spell? It seems like it should be a level 6 or 7 spell.

The Exchange

Cheapy wrote:
Was Limp Lash supposed to be a level 2 spell? It seems like it should be a level 6 or 7 spell.

To be safe I just double-checked the source since I just added this one to the site today and I've been in a mad frenzy of updating there was a decent chance I might have oops'ed it but apparently not... it's 2nd level in the book... and in the immortal words of George Takei... OH MY!

Contributor

I came looking for this thread just to see if Limp Lash had been erratad. I'm wondering if it's supposed to be a named penalty (like an enhancement penalty) that doesn't stack? You can keep focusing it every round to try to increase the penalty by rolling higher, but not adding to it...that's my best guess anyway. Or a level typo.


Will Paizo be making a reprint of this? I'd love to have a physical copy of it. Pathfinder goblins are so interesting and fun. It would be a shame to have this missing from my collection.

Webstore Gninja Minion

CorallineAlgae wrote:
Will Paizo be making a reprint of this? I'd love to have a physical copy of it. Pathfinder goblins are so interesting and fun. It would be a shame to have this missing from my collection.

We don't have any plans to reprint at this time.


Liz Courts wrote:
CorallineAlgae wrote:
Will Paizo be making a reprint of this? I'd love to have a physical copy of it. Pathfinder goblins are so interesting and fun. It would be a shame to have this missing from my collection.
We don't have any plans to reprint at this time.

Understandable. Thank you for answering. Considering the price of this pamphlet on the secondary market I think the PDF will do.

Is there another goblin supplement you would recommend that's still in print? My daughter loves loves loves Pathfinder goblins and I'd like to get her a book on them to go with the plushies.

Webstore Gninja Minion

CorallineAlgae wrote:
Is there another goblin supplement you would recommend that's still in print? My daughter loves loves loves Pathfinder goblins and I'd like to get her a book on them to go with the plushies.

The Pathfinder Goblins! comics, along with We Be Goblins! adventures, and an entry from Classic Monsters Revisited should help sate her appetite. :D

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