Choose your weapon and stride boldly into battle with Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment! Within this handy, all-in-one reference, you'll find 400 jam-packed pages of magic items and adventuring gear, from simple camping equipment and weapons up to the most earth-shaking artifacts. Included as well are handy rules references, convenient price lists, and extensive random treasure generation tables, all organized to help you find what you need, when you need it. With this vast catalog of tools and treasures, the days of boring dragon hoards are over, and your hero will never be caught unprepared again.
Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and open playtests featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Equipment includes:
Thousands of items both magical and mundane, including the best weapons, armors, magic items, and gear from the Pathfinder RPG hardcover line and select other Pathfinder sources, as well as hundreds of never-before-seen items.
Tons of special materials and magical abilities to help you create exactly the magic item you've been looking for.
A wealth of specific magic items, organized by type to ensure your character is always wearing as much magic as possible.
An innovative new treasure generation system, designed to help GMs roll up exactly what they need, every time.
New alchemical weapons, tools, and poisons.
Kits to help your character get the most out of her skills or profession, plus new mounts, animal companions, and retainers.
Descriptions of every item, plus hundreds of full-color illustrations to aid in window-shopping.
Ultimate Equipment is a whopping, 400-page collection of stuff to kit out your Pathfinder character. With stats and prices included for everything, the book is a shopper’s dream. It compiles, occasionally revises, and significantly expands the gear options from previous Pathfinder hardcovers as well as various other Paizo products. The book doesn’t have *everything*, of course—new books continued to be published after it, containing new items—but it does have a wealth of gear for the vast majority of characters and builds. The lists of items and their descriptions is broken up with a lot of illustrations, and the book is in full-colour. Structurally, the book is sectioned into an introduction, six chapters, and three appendices (plus an index, crucial for a book like this).
The book’s introduction is just two pages long. It starts by going over where the items in the book are drawn from, noting that there are also several new ones (it’s great to see several contributions from the RPG Superstar contests). Each chapter then gets a paragraph or two of description, but the structure of the book is pretty self-explanatory.
Chapter 1 is Arms & Armor, surely the most visited part of the book. The 46 pages of material here cover all of the well-known weapons and armor in the game, but also includes a *lot* of fairly obscure ones. There are good descriptions of the equipment and helpful, clearly-written refresher on rules elements related to them (so you don’t have to switch to the Core Rulebook to remember what Armor Check Penalty affects, for example). There’s an extensive overview of the firearms rules, an organisation of the fighter weapon groups, a section on special materials (including some really interesting ones!), and a section for gear made of primitive material like bone or stone.
Chapter 2 is Gear and comes in at 56 pages. Everything from general adventuring gear (like rope) to mounts to clothing to lodging and services are covered here. Alchemical items receive several pages of coverage (a lot of the alchemical remedies are as good as spellcasting, and much cheaper), and there’s a couple of pages on poisons (with a good, clear explanation of how they work). I’ve always found particular value from the section on services—the book has costs for things like hiring a lawyer, a doctor, or a scribe. A lot of players (i.e., those not as interested in equipment) will appreciate the expanded list of class kits to get things done quickly.
Chapter 3 is Magic Arms and Armor and is 38 pages long. This chapter has weapon and armor special abilities as well as specific named weapons and armor. Some of the named weapons are really cool because they can do some things you just can’t do with the generic list of special abilities. Other items I noticed were things like folding plate (a brooch that instantly covers or removes a suit of full plate mail—like Iron Man in the movies!) and burrowing bullets (staggers living creatures as it burrows through their body).
Chapter 4 is Rings, Rods, and Staves (28 pages). I find most of the items in this chapter too expensive with effects easily duplicated more cheaply elsewhere. Most staffs, for example, just aren’t worth it apart from the few with one-of-a-kind abilities. On the other hand, the metamagic rods are surprisingly cheap for the instant versatility they give spellcasters, and probably should have been priced higher.
Chapter 5 is Wondrous Items and is the longest in the book at 122 pages! The chapter is broken down into body slots, so it’s easy to find something to fill an empty slot on your inventory sheet. There’s a ton of fun things that one hardly ever sees because folks are too busy with optimising every +1 they can out of the game. Neat things I noticed include the belt of the weasel, the shirt of immolation, the cloak of fiery vanishing, the bracelet of friends (in case you *do* split the party), and abjurant salt (could be a real life-saver!).
Chapter 6 is the shortest chapter (26 pages) and covers Artifacts and Other Items. The “Other” category referred to consists of cursed and intelligent items. I’m not a fan of intelligent items--they require the GM to role-play an omnipresent NPC and their ability to cast spells makes the action economy of the game too unbalanced. On the other hand, I am the evil type of GM who likes cursed items, and wishes we saw more of them--classics like the berserker sword and innovations like the dust of sneezing and choking really twist things around! Artifacts aren’t something I’ve ever had much opportunity to use.
The three appendices contain *extensive* random tables to generate various types of treasure, gems, and art objects. If you want a random level 1 potion or level 4 wand, this is the place to come.
Everything in Ultimate Equipment is setting-neutral, so you don’t have to worry about adventure spoilers (unlike those naughty players who just start googling stuff!). The items are also better vetted, and I wish more tables just limited available options to this book. If you can’t find what you want here, you probably don’t really need it!
I didnt realize how much I would be using this book when I picked it up. It is by far one of the most valuable PF books available. Get it to add all the right contexts to your partys equipment.
I'm rather disappointed with Ultimate Equipment overall. It reminds me an awful lot of the 3.5 Magic Item Compendium, with insanely cheap items and an overabundance of swift actions.
I find UE nearly useless for treasure generation since "common" Core items end up being so rare, and 80% of what else it generates are broken (too powerful), over-exotically flavored, or too niche. The Treasure Tables themselves, while useful for certain situations, seem turn every NPC into a Christmas Tree of items, half of which I would have to look up to even know what they do.
There aren't quite so many over-powered/dirt-cheap items as the MIC, although the exceptions are pretty exceptional (e.g. the PFS-banned Quick Runner's Shirt and Bracers of the Falcon). At least it fixed the APG staff prices though, and yes, the layout is useful, though I find it encourages metagamy "fill every slot" mentality
Basically, its a special weapon property that is akin to obsidian (aka green volcanic glass). Except the glass is highly toxic and when you strike someone with a viridum weapon, its a DC 12 Fortitude save or they contract leprosy.
I love it so much.
I truly mean no offense but usually a fight against a "opponent" in Pathfinder is quite often to the death (except in terms of outsiders who can make use of teleporting powers). My question for you is how does inflicting a "disease" upon an opponent help kill a foe? One would think that more than 84% of the time it would be utterly useless!
And donning/doffing time for Core Book armours only :(
They include more armors and don't even bother to include the donning/doffing times for them? That's not good. Also, no "fast-donning straps" for armor? That's also bit of a let down.
Basically, its a special weapon property that is akin to obsidian (aka green volcanic glass). Except the glass is highly toxic and when you strike someone with a viridum weapon, its a DC 12 Fortitude save or they contract leprosy.
I love it so much.
I truly mean no offense but usually a fight against a "opponent" in Pathfinder is quite often to the death (except in terms of outsiders who can make use of teleporting powers). My question for you is how does inflicting a "disease" upon an opponent help kill a foe? One would think that more than 84% of the time it would be utterly useless!
Yeah, viridium blades sound like the sort of thing certain cults, drow houses, and all-around jerks would just love to use.
Your usual heroic characters wouldn't want to use them for that property, but those that enjoy inflicting suffering or appreciate the psychological effect of knowing that even just getting scraped can doom a person will be all over this.
Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Viridium sounds like a very nasty and demoralizing material to equip an army with. The opposing side would panic every time they see a rain of Viridium tipped arrows flying towards them.
Freakin' yikes. An army could just catapult scatterbomb loads of viridium caltrops into cities. Many would land in the streets. Plenty will be stuck on walls and rooftops. Those things could claim victims long after a war even if the city holds, like unexploded shells.
I don't know if that will be what you are looking for though.
DAMMIT. No, no it's not. I'm looking for a whip made of metal links with a miniature spiked ball at the end. Like Castlevania's "Vampire Killer" whip.
What you're looking for isn't actually classified as a whip by anyone except the people who make Castlevania games. Look for a flail or a meteor hammer.
I just want a whip that doesn't need a feat to do lethal damage that still has reach. But it looks like we are keeping the UC version of the Scorpion whip for now so no luck there.
I entirely agree with that, even the crappy plastic space age ARs I have used would still hurt whacked around someone's noggin! It is mainly that illustration of the Warhammer Musket, just hilarious :D
Actually, muskets had very heavy butts, because the thing basically exploded while firing, and a counterweight was required to keep the gun remotely in your grasp after the boom happened.
I've long quit looking seriously at fantasy weapon artwork :)
You know weird pistol/musket/hand-weapon hybrids are actually period weapons. Might I recommend taking a quick look here or here. You can actually see a polish warhammer pistol here.
I haven't actually had time to look at Ultimate Equipment yet, so I can't critique the art. But the warhammer/wheellock while a historical oddity is a real weapon.
I also think the punch dagger/double pistol shown above is a particularly sweet weapon that would make a great item for a PC gunslinger.
I just want a whip that doesn't need a feat to do lethal damage that still has reach. But it looks like we are keeping the UC version of the Scorpion whip for now so no luck there.
What's wrong with the Scropion whip? It has reach, and doesn't need a feat (beyond proficiency (whip)) to do lethal damage.
Plus, if you're a serious whip user, you're probably getting that feat anyway.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Oh my god this looks great! Only just started looking at it content-wise, but design-wise...
-- THANK YOU FOR FIXING THE INCONSISTENT COMMA ISSUE ("sword, short" vs "longsword" -- now it's shortsword and longsword and this grammatical consistency thing that probably only bothered me is gone and YAY.)
-- I LOVE THE LAYOUT! Very clean, very easy to read, I like that the little pretty watermarky stuff on the side is lightened and less complex looking--it still adds style to the document without making things overwhelming (and competing with all the art on the page) and I reckon will also make things way, way, way printer friendlier. The use of color in the headings is helpful for a book which is basically one big long book of lists, as are the small all-cap gothic headers in certain areas. I don't know if I'd want to see all of the same tricks used in other kinds of books but it works really well here.
-- Thanks for the quicklinks on the side on the .pdf--that makes it much more usable as a .pdf. Generally speaking I think this is one of the most screen-readable documents you've put out.
I've also noticed that while it's not entirely avoided (as it would likely be impossible to be) there are fewer paragraphs/item entries that are broken across a page which also makes it easier to look at on the .pdf. I did notice one page where there was nothing but an item header at the bottom of the page and its description at the top of the next column which is a little wonky but that's not common, so far as I can see.
-- The art is great--helps illustrate but the items are small and simple enough they do not dominate the page. I appreciate each item is matched to its entry so you know exactly what you are looking at, as opposed to seeing a picture of sword and realizing what's depicted is 3 pages ago.
As I said I'm still just starting to absorb content. There's some stuff I'm gonna want to houserule or not use (although some of that is stuff from Ultimate Combat so it's not new) but so far so good, and it's so useful to have this in one place. I like the new special materials. And I love the different "kits" for the classes, great way of handling the various "kit" requests a bunch of us threw into the request thread awhile back.
And finally after 12 years, we know what a backpack holds! :D
Thanks for the quicklinks on the side on the .pdf--that makes it much more usable as a .pdf. Generally speaking I think this is one of the most screen-readable documents you've put out.
This is a new thing we're trying to implement on new PDFs with a hardcover counterpart. While hyperlinking the whole document isn't possible within our time constraints, I'm glad what we can do is useful to some! :)
You know weird pistol/musket/hand-weapon hybrids are actually period weapons. Might I recommend taking a quick look here or here. You can actually see a polish warhammer pistol here.
I haven't actually had time to look at Ultimate Equipment yet, so I can't critique the art. But the warhammer/wheellock while a historical oddity is a real weapon.
I also think the punch dagger/double pistol shown above is a particularly sweet weapon that would make a great item for a PC gunslinger.
Wow you learn something everyday! The lump on the end of the pistol is just a wee bit smaller than the illustration, but fantasy games can't seem to get past anime looking weps now-a-days anyway.
***grognard sniff***
Great link thanks Gary, and tell the printers to hurry up with WotW 3 and 4 for me!
I am liking the book overall so far, I especially like the extensive mundane items available, and crazy weps! Warhammer Pistol is missing tho ;)
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Gully13 wrote:
No Dwarven Maulaxe? Do I have to remove this from my PFS character?
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Hm, reading the other thread, my enthusiasm for getting the hardcover later on has considerably cooled. The "Bodywrap of giving the Ultimate Middle Finger to Monks" really is getting my dander up.
Hm, reading the other thread, my enthusiasm for getting the hardcover later on has considerably cooled. The "Bodywrap of giving the Ultimate Middle Finger to Monks" really is getting my dander up.
While that particular item is underwhelming (but certainly not the end of the world, nor is it even the f-you to monks its naysayers are saying it is, and I'm usually in the mob clamoring for good stuff for monks), and there's a few other bits of content I'm not thrilled with, the book is also chock full of good stuff as well. It is wall to wall with content including a lot of content at least I as a collector of the RPG books have never seen before. I think there are a lot of people who are focusing on what it doesn't have ("they don't contain that one item I liked from that one book that they never said they would include the content from it! Ergo, the whole book is ruined!") instead of all the stuff it DOES have... which is lots of gear, useful descriptions, new item materials, new item properties... and of course the utterly awesome random gen treasure tables. Plus of course the whole point of the book is to be a compilation of stuff from the RPG books and Adventurer's Armory, so the value of having one place to look up gear is awesome to me.
Does the book have its flaws? Sure. I can't think of any RPG book that didn't. Are there bits I don't like? Yup. But the nerdrage on this one honestly baffles me.
(And again, I'm in the "need moar for monks" crowd--but they also made very clear what this book was and was not going to include as far as monks go, so anyone who is surprised has not been paying attention.)
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Oh, I am still getting the PDF, as the random item tables alone will be quite useful. Nonetheless, getting the hardcover has gone way down as a priority.
Oh, I am still getting the PDF, as the random item tables alone will be quite useful. Nonetheless, getting the hardcover has gone way down as a priority.
Because a few outspoken people raised a smurfstorm about one single item? That's...really petty.