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Pathfinder Player Companion: Champions of Purity

3.70/5 (based on 6 ratings)
Pathfinder Player Companion: Champions of Purity
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Greatest Good!

You don’t have to be a holy warrior to be a true hero. Join in the fight against evil and be a paragon of righteousness as a character of any class with Pathfinder Player Companion: Champions of Purity. Arm yourself with a host of new options specifically designed for good-aligned characters—like new fighting techniques striking the balance between capture and execution, life-fostering magic, rules for the redemption of evil characters, and morally challenging alignment-changing alchemy. With new insights into what it means to play good-aligned hardliners and how to get paid for being a good guy, deal with evil companions, redeem villains, and handle all those goblin babies, this book will change the way you think about playing honorable characters. Also, learn more about some of the greatest do-gooders and virtuous organizations on Golarion—with a focus on nonreligious groups, since the fight between good and evil doesn’t have to unfold entirely in the arena of faith. Join the ranks of the just with Pathfinder Player Companion: Champions of Purity! Inside this book, you’ll find:

  • Detailed discussion on what it means to play a character of each of the three good alignments, including ideas for character generation and specific challenges of these alignments.
  • A look into good-aligned races, good-aligned homelands, and good-aligned organizations for your character, as well as some of the challenges of being good and what happens when good characters come from bad places.
  • A method for redeeming evil characters who your adventuring party encounters during the campaign.
  • New good-based feats, magical weapons and gear, rage powers, rogue talents, subdomains, and more!

This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-511-2

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

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Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
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Shallow Treatment, with a Handful of Good Options

3/5 —

Champions of Purity is a sort of sequel to the earlier [/i]Faiths of Purity[/i]. Whereas the previous book was primarily about the gods and their devotees (clerics and paladins), Champions of Purity has a broader theme: characters of good alignment generally. Since PCs of any class can be on the side of good, a book designed for those characters makes sense. But although there are certainly some useful class options here and there, the book as a whole adopts the scattergun approach of throwing a lot of stuff out there and seeing what sticks. Written mostly by a crop of freelancers, the book is a loose collection of shallow two-page entries on vaguely-related topics. It doesn't really have much in the way of depth, but that seems to be the norm for many of the books in the Player Companion line.

Still, to give credit where it's due, we have to admire the great cover of Seelah cutting through a horde of monsters. The inside front cover is a table of good-aligned deities in Golarion that includes the usual suspects from the Core Rulebook along with some that are lesser-known, including several from the Asian-themed Dragon Empires. The inside back cover does an odd thing and introduces a new feat, "Summon Good Monster," that allows good-aligned spellcasters to substitute a good-aligned creature from the accompanying table in place of what the spell would normally allow, and to give them Diehard to boot. Not too shabby!

The book proper starts with a two-page introduction, "Why Be Good?", that talks about some more specific motivations for PCs, like freedom, honor, justice, mercy, order, and more. It then goes on to give some suggestions as to where characters with those goals might hail from geographically.

Next, each of the three good alignments (Lawful Good, Neutral Good, and Chaotic Good) are discussed in a separate two-page entry which is divided into Philosophies (Lawful Good PCs might be seen as Crusaders or Guardians, for example, while Neutral Good PCs might be seen as Mediators or Redeemers), Advantages & Challenges (in terms of role-playing), Opportunities & Allies (ways those PCs might fit into Golarion specifically), and finally Traits (three new ones each). One of the criticisms I have of the book is that its treatment of alignment issues only barely skims the surface: there's no mention, for example, of how hard it is to play a truly good character when the lowest common denominator is lazy players with a "kill things and take their stuff" mentality. Characters of good alignment face hard decisions and restrictions that other alignments don't, and this can create problems for groups. These are some of the issues that would be worth discussing.

The remaining two-page sections consist of the following:

"Paragons of Virtue" has a line or two on good-aligned races (Aasimars, Catfolk, Elves, and Samsarans), good-aligned organisations (like knightly orders), and good-aligned homelands (like Andoran), but it's a very cursory treatment and of very little use to those familiar with Golarion. Four new traits are included.

"Good Characters in Bad Situations" raises the classic "what do you do with goblin babies" quandary and then suggests (in a sentence or two each) some "bad places" that good characters could come from. Again, the book has identified an interesting issue but has a shallow and wishy-washy treatment of it. Don't look for any deep insights into alignment and RPGs here. (I do love the artwork of the samurai with the goblin babies!)

"Heavenly Virtues" presents one new feat called "Virtuous Creed" that has different effects depending on which specific virtue the PC identifies with (such as humility, courage, freedom, etc.). In a way, it's like six feats in one, which is interesting, but the different virtues have very different power levels in a mechanical sense.

"Redemption" presents a rules sub-system for tracking an evil creature's progress towards becoming good, along with a variety of penances they can do to help atone. I'm skeptical of these little sub-systems that I know will never be referenced again or expanded upon. This one looks a bit rough, but I guess it does add some content and perhaps guidance to a GM dealing with the issue. I wouldn't follow it too strictly, however.

"Divine Influence" introduces seven new clerical subdomains: Cooperation, Dragon, Imagination, Judgment, Redemption, Revelation, and Revelry. Each subdomain replaces the domain spells and granted power of a specific Core Rulebook domain. It looks like there are some good options.

"Fighting the Good Fight" is a miscellany: a new barbarian rage power (Celestial Totem), two new inquisitor inquisitions (Final Rest and Recovery), six new feats (including one very useful one to keep you from accidentally killing enemies outright and a silly one that adds a single point of damage when you hit with a good-aligned weapon), and a sidebar on subduing and binding opponents (no new rules, but it's useful to have the material all in one place).

"Grace and Guile" has a handful of new alchemist discoveries, a couple of bardic masterpieces, and three new rogue talents. The book really is trying to have something for everyone! The alchemist discoveries seem reasonable, one of the bardic masterpieces seems crazily overpowered (blinding and deafening, or even stunning, all evil creatures that hear the performance and fail a save), and I really like the rogue talent Sacrifice Self that allows a rogue to ignore the effects of their evasion ability to help shield an ally from harm.

"Sublime Spellcraft" has a couple of new summoner evolutions (I wouldn't touch summoners with a ten-foot-pole, so I have no opinion of these), three new witch patrons (which are apparently just bland lists of replacement spells), a few new hexes, and two new wizard arcane discoveries. I mostly liked what I saw here.

"Spells of the Just" includes ten new spells, most of which are for both divine and arcane spellcasters. I really liked the little story in the sidebar about how these spells came to be known, and I wish there were more attempts like this to explain the appearance of new spells and magic items.

"Tools for Good" introduces several new magic items. Although damned expensive, I really liked the Devil's Key (allowing you to follow an outsider to its home plane to kill it for good) and the Equalizer Shield (creating an antimagic field to stymie those pesky spellcasters!).

I think books like this have little enduring value because there's hardly any interesting setting lore or discussion, and readers will just cherry-pick a new spell or class option from an online database. Buy this one if you need to for PFS, but otherwise you can safely give it a pass.

Some interesting parts, but mostly uninspiring

3/5 —

I liked the first half, which explored the different ways to support the cause of Good, but I thought it lacked depth and I would have welcomed more discussion and examples of gameplay or stories in the campaign world for context. e.g. the illustration of Valeros in the Neutral Good section helped me understand what the writers were trying to convey. I found the second half less interesting, but those who enjoy technical details may find it useful.

My main gripe is that I expected a focus on Champions and the stuff that champions do, but I felt like I was reading the guide for Men-at-Arms or Sergeants for Purity.

Useful for many classes, but not necessarily all good characters

4/5 —

Champions of Purity will be useful for some good characters, and I think this depends less on the character’s class and more on the character concept. If you are creating a character that is built around his or her goodness – call it good with a capital “G” – I think there’s a fair amount of useful material here, no matter what class your character is. If not, you will probably pass over most of the character options for ones in other sources that provide more mechanical benefit or highlight other aspects of the character’s personality, talents, and backstory. There’s also a fair amount of space devoted to collecting information found in other sourcebooks (e.g., good-aligned deities, races, organizations, homelands, nonlethal weapons, spells with the good descriptor).

I am giving it 4 stars because if you are picking this up specifically to help you build characters which are "actively" rather than "passively" good, I think it works well.

See my full review at my blog Delver's Diary here.

Worth every penny

4/5 —

Champions of Purity is a good quality product with large collection of rules options for most classes along with a range of role playing advice for anyone interested in a playing a Good character.

Champions of Purity starts with an examination of good, trying to answer the general question of “Why to be good?” and then focusing in each of the three alignments individually. It provides generalized motivations for any sort of good character along with locations where characters with each motivation might originate. This provides a nice connection to Golarion in a book that is relatively light on setting details. The different alignment focuses provide examples of different types of philosophies that characters of a given alignment may fall into, along with some of the pros and cons of playing each good alignment. Golarion specific information about opportunities and allies that each alignment may be involved with round out the sections. The only concerns I have with these sections are the listing of the different philosophies, and with the included traits. I worry that players reading these, especially if they’re new players, may see the philosophy suggestions as more rigid limitations rather than just possible ways for characters of each alignment to be portrayed. The traits in each section are listed as complementing a given alignment, but having them listed in a section devoted to that alignment gives the impression that they’re only for that alignment.

The next section is entitled Paragons of Virtue and covers a range of setting information to make a completely Good character, what race to play, organizations to be a part of, and where to be from. Generally this is presented well though I was surprised that none of the good churches were mentioned under the good aligned organizations. The inclusion of countries in Tian Xia as potential character origins was nice, as Tian Xia is often underrepresented in most products. There’s also a list of potential Prestige Classes for good characters, which I appreciated because it’s often hard for players to know about what classes are out there, as they show up in a variety of products. One minor complaint I did have here was that in one of this sections traits they mention an empyreal lord; it seems like there should have been an explanation somewhere of what an empyreal lord is, as players may not know this.

This is followed by Good Characters in Bad Situations, which examines moral quandaries that good players may find themselves in, and shows how different good characters may react to the same situation in different ways. This is quite well done as it covers situations that may come up during gameplay, though a greater list of actual evil acts would have been nice. The list of how good characters fit within “evil” nations is nice, but all the different lists of where good characters come from makes me think that perhaps they all should have been together. It also seems like it could have been a good place to cover how good characters deal with worshiping neutral (or even evil) deities.

The center spread in Champions of Purity is devoted to Heavenly Virtues, creeds for players to live by that provide benefits when the associated feat is taken. All of the benefits seem to be reasonably balanced, but the creeds will require some DM work to keep track of, as breaking a creed means the character loses the benefit of the feat. Some creeds may not be appropriate in all campaigns as the situations they reference may not be present, making them impossible to violate. The art on these two pages is great, with a stained glass style that really works with the virtue theme. On the topic of virtues, I’m starting to feel like Virtue is becoming a bit of an overloaded term, now it may be because I’m running Rise of the Runelords where they come up a bit, but perhaps a different term should have been used.

Redemption is covered next, with a rules framework for an evil character to be turned from the dark side. It seems like a good system to me, though it will require a large amount of DM tracking; a lot of that could probably be avoided by combining it with in game story events. It does include rules for one or more characters helping a character seeking redemption, but I feel that some examination of how a PC could help an NPC seek redemption in a more role playing sense would have been good (and potentially more frequently useful).

The remaining sections of the book are a collection of character options, firstly separated up into Divine, Combat, Skilled, and Arcane characters, and then followed by new spells and items. The divine portion provides details of all the good deities which complements the inside front cover where all the deity’s Domains, Favored Weapons and the like are listed. A number of new subdomains are presented, with Cooperation and Redemption having the most interesting powers. For combat focused characters there are new rage powers and inquisitions, as well as a handful of new feats. There’s also a sidebar on taking enemies alive, going over the rules and options relating to subdual attacks and binding opponents. Some coverage of how to bind someone during a grapple and maybe a feat to go along with it would have been good fit here. For skill based characters there are new alchemical discoveries, masterpieces, and rogue talents, to go with a sidebar on character types for less straight forward good characters. The most interesting new options here are a couple of discoveries that can forcibly change the alignment of the imbiber. Included in the descriptions are the moralistic questions that arise from forcing an alignment change on someone. In the Sublime Spellcasting section arcane casters are the focus, with summoners getting new evolutions, witches getting new patrons and hexes, and wizards getting new arcane discoveries. The mechanics of the Celestial Appearance evolution are interesting, where it’s one 3-point evolution with an increasing point cost if you want to do more with it, so it can be up to a 7-point evolution if you so desire. Based on its name and effect I can see a devil/demon/etc. version showing up somewhere along the line.

In Spells of the Just there are 10 new spells, all with the good type, and a sidebar detailing a scroll that contains them all. I particularly like the Angelic Aspect chain of spells, and Burst of Radiance. For magic items there are a couple of new weapon special abilities and then 9 new magic items (which are said to be wondrous items, when only 2 of them are wondrous items). Surprisingly most of the items are new magic weapons or armor, with only 2 being not combat related. The neatest one is probably the Mantle of the Protector, a way to share some of a character’s armor bonuses. My only concern with all this new rule content is that a lot of it makes players very good at killing Evil things, which may make it on the high end of the power scale in campaigns with few neutral opponents. For instance I can see this material having a big draw in the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous AP.

The art in Champions of Purity is top notch, with good portraits of most of the iconics and a few others; I especially like the ones of Feiya and Kyra. The cover is also very good; however the two other larger pieces in the product are not really to my liking. On the topic of graphic design the font used on the cover and as the section headers is truly awful, I understand that its look probably matches the content of the book is some fashion but this is a situation where function is more important than form.

Champions of Purity is a great product which adds to the quality of the Player Companion line. There’s lots of interesting material here both for those looking for roleplaying ideas and suggestions and those looking for new mechanical tools to play with. A similar book for the neutral alignments would be good, as I find it harder to player neutral characters than good, though it may be hard to find as much neutral specific rules material as there’s fewer obvious things to build off of and because the core rules are written in a rather neutrally aligned way already.

4/5 —

I agree with almost everything that the previous poster mentioned (except the 3E material). There are areas I wish they had gone more in depth or expanded upon a topic, but over all, a very good book. Unlike many of the other player's guide books, this one does seem to offer options for basically everyone, rather than focus on a handfull of classes. The amount of mechanics in this book is great, and shows that it doesn't detract from the fluff material. Not too much of it is terribly etting specific, either.

The art is pretty good, particularly the cover and the center fold, while most of the other art is generally just various iconics is some sort of pose, but not really relvant to the topics.

The magic items are ok, not great. Nothing really jumps out, with a lot of it at the higher GP end.

The spells mostly look nice. I'm not really sure, (yes I know that Alchemists are their new baby and all) that the Alchemist's materail either needed to be in this book or was really thought out that well. Even at 12th+ level, a single save that can rob some clases of all class features (and can argueably require an Atonement even if it's a temp thing) probably needs to be errata'd a lot or out.

I'm very happy that Roles where not included in this book. Don't care for them. The Virtues look good, though I wish there there where more, or perhaps some of them would be switched out. I'm sad to see that they require a Feat to utilize, as I'm not sure most of them really are worth a Feat, and what's worse the main classes that the flavor really fits are generally the ones that are totally Feat-starved. About the same power level as the Knightly Traits in Knights of the Inner Sea, except in general even more situational, that I'm not really sure they are really worth a Trait. Other than that, they are great and look interesting.

All in all, a great and fun book. I would love to see more books like this, both in the amount of material presented as well as focusing on Good, heroic characters and play. I'd definetly buy a Champions of Purity 2 and 3, or a similar book that is not setting specific, but along the same lines.

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Sovereign Court

Link.

Summoning wrote:

A summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower, but it is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can't be summoned again.

When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire. A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have.
Shadow Lodge

Kinda disappointed in the fact that there's no archetypes in this book, I guess they couldn't fit any in.

I don't miss the roles however.
Verdant Wheel

What a miss is a bit of focus on the law-chaos axis. Champions of Order and Champions of Freedom would be cool too.
Dark Archive
The black raven wrote:
I haven't found this point about disappearing when brought at 0 hit points in the spell description. The only thing about duration I could find is the 1 rd/lvl. Did I miss some errata or something ?

Check page 210 of the core book for this particular rule. Information tends to be scattered around, and summoning can be particularly tricky, since you have to consult two locations in the Core book, and, for celestial / fiendish templated creatures, two locations in the Bestiary, to get the whole story.

Contributor
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Let's write the Sling Blade version of this book: Champions of Purty. um huh

<I keep seeing the title of the thread and reading it as Purty, for some reason--and I worked on the book itself. What's wrong with me? Lol!>

I just got my downloadable pdf and skimmed it. So far this looks like a very good and very useful book. The two parts I like the most are how it describes the alignments and the additional 'good themed' options for various classes. One of my favorites is a grand hex for witches that prevents the 'victim' from attacking innocents. VERY flavorful.

I'll have to show it to my players the next time we do a heavily good aligned campaign.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Shem wrote:
Okay, I have a question. I saw a reference to the Champion of Ironi Prestige Class. Where do I find this class?

That would make an interesting prestige class indeed ...

Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

I was working on a Monk Paladin (don't ask me why except I rolled some amazing stats) and the Champion of Ironi seems to be for exactly that class combination. I skimmed it and will print a copy for my DM this weekend.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Irori will be pleased ...

Anything for Fighters?

Anything at all?

Y'know, a combat feat or two maybe..?

/sits in lonely Fighter corner

A few feats and new traits, yes Kwizzy. /flails vaguely.
Shem wrote:
I was working on a Monk Paladin (don't ask me why except I rolled some amazing stats) and the Champion of Ironi seems to be for exactly that class combination. I skimmed it and will print a copy for my DM this weekend.

It's Champion of IRORI, and it's in Paths of Prestige.

Silver Crusade
John Kretzer wrote:
@Mikaze: So how happy are you with the book? Is there any problems?

So happeh. :) I got the print copy tonight and will settle in for the sitdown read ASAP.

Just my opinion and all that, but there were a couple of points that made me go "hey, wait a second", like the mention of Hulrun and his followers when the Burners have been shown as...really not good people that Iomedae herself would be quite angry with. But I think that's more a case of something slipping through the cracks.

I really want my paladin to have a chance to punch some Burners in Wrath of the Righteous, srsly.

Some folks might raise their eyebrows at certain penances listed, like the "refrain from bad language" one, but it can work if you're looking at it as the subject trying to move towards a specific deity/culture during their redemption. It wouldn't be an appropriate penance for Caydenite convert, but it would likely fit for someone moving towards Iomedae. :)

This is probably because I haven't been able to really sit down with it yet, but I haven't been able to find the "how to get paid for being a good guy" elements yet. It may have been an expectations overshoot, but I was hoping to see some advice or alternate routes for characters that go the "we can't accept this money from poor people that need it more than we do"/"we don't want your blood money"/typical-looting route towards keeping up with the parts of the game that require you to keep up with WBL, though honestly that's probably more of a GM-advice thing.

The alchemical alignment changing is going to set some folks off, but I wouldn't call this a problem with the book because it says upfront that it really is pretty shady and that its very contentious in-setting. That stands in notable contrast to the some of the problematic suggestions of similar actions in some books from earlier editions(the sanctify the wicked problem, so to speak). It also bears noting stuff like the Helm of Opposite Alignment is completely absent from the section on redemption, which is awesome. It goes even further than that though: It touches on issues with atonement, suggesting that it should be treated as an aid, not a cure-all. I love that; it lets redemption stories be organic and believable rather than flipping a switch.

Christina Stiles wrote:

Let's write the Sling Blade version of this book: Champions of Purty. um huh

<I keep seeing the title of the thread and reading it as Purty, for some reason--and I worked on the book itself. What's wrong with me? Lol!>

There must have been a redeemed Shelynite ogre somewhere at some point.

Silver Crusade

Also, an avatar of Imrijka's :\ face needs to happen!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Only glanced through the pdf so far, but the "cover girl" from "Blood Of Fiends" revealed to be a follower of Iomedae? That has to have been done just for Mikaze. He must feel so special. ;)
Webstore Gninja Minion
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Mikaze wrote:
Also, an avatar of Imrijka's :\ face needs to happen!

It's been claimed.

Silver Crusade
Nate Z wrote:
Only glanced through the pdf so far, but the "cover girl" from "Blood Of Fiends" revealed to be a follower of Iomedae? That has to have been done just for Mikaze. He must feel so special. ;)

Surely not, but....to whoever made that art order: Thank you. :)

(same for the tiefling cleric of Sarenrae in Blood of Fiends!)

edit-Actually, thank you to everyone that worked on this book. :D
Silver Crusade
Liz Courts wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Also, an avatar of Imrijka's :\ face needs to happen!
It's been claimed.

Awesome. Is best Imrijka face.

I'm just happy that it'll be on the forums. :D
Mikaze wrote:
Nate Z wrote:
Only glanced through the pdf so far, but the "cover girl" from "Blood Of Fiends" revealed to be a follower of Iomedae? That has to have been done just for Mikaze. He must feel so special. ;)

Surely not, but....to whoever made that art order: Thank you. :)

(same for the tiefling cleric of Sarenrae in Blood of Fiends!)

edit-Actually, thank you to everyone that worked on this book. :D

I think its such a sweet and wonderful testament of how much Paizo listens to us that they specifically included that tiefling and the goblin babies for Mikaze :)

Contributor
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Tirisfal wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Nate Z wrote:
Only glanced through the pdf so far, but the "cover girl" from "Blood Of Fiends" revealed to be a follower of Iomedae? That has to have been done just for Mikaze. He must feel so special. ;)

Surely not, but....to whoever made that art order: Thank you. :)

(same for the tiefling cleric of Sarenrae in Blood of Fiends!)

edit-Actually, thank you to everyone that worked on this book. :D

I think its such a sweet and wonderful testament of how much Paizo listens to us that they specifically included that tiefling and the goblin babies for Mikaze :)

Did Mikaze's character get mentioned? I included it as a boxed text bit, but it may have been cut. I haven't seen the final book.

Christina Stiles wrote:
Tirisfal wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Nate Z wrote:
Only glanced through the pdf so far, but the "cover girl" from "Blood Of Fiends" revealed to be a follower of Iomedae? That has to have been done just for Mikaze. He must feel so special. ;)

Surely not, but....to whoever made that art order: Thank you. :)

(same for the tiefling cleric of Sarenrae in Blood of Fiends!)

edit-Actually, thank you to everyone that worked on this book. :D

I think its such a sweet and wonderful testament of how much Paizo listens to us that they specifically included that tiefling and the goblin babies for Mikaze :)
Did Mikaze's character get mentioned? I included it as a boxed text bit, but it may have been cut. I haven't seen the final book.

I'm not sure; I'm going off of what's being written here. I'm not a subscriber, so I can't buy it for another week :(

Someone needs to shed some light on Celestial Totems.

Like, right nao plz.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Clifs notes version

Lesser Celestial Totem: Heals work better on you

Celestial Totem: You shine & bad guys can't hide

Greater Celestial Totem: You get SR vs Evil
Dark Archive
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Mikaze wrote:
This is probably because I haven't been able to really sit down with it yet, but I haven't been able to find the "how to get paid for being a good guy" elements yet. It may have been an expectations overshoot, but I was hoping to see some advice or alternate routes for characters that go the "we can't accept this money from poor people that need it more than we do"/"we don't want your blood money"/typical-looting route towards keeping up with the parts of the game that require you to keep up with WBL, though honestly that's probably more of a GM-advice thing.

My GM solution would be to have people rescued offer free use of their community resources, up to the 'WBL value' of whatever gold is being foresworn for such things. The dude who owns the inn might allow the PCs to stay there free (in rooms that he couldn't rent, for whatever reason, because they are said to be haunted, or in a sub-building that isn't convenient, etc.) while Bob the Farmer might have nothing to offer other than some free meals, but his cousin Wanda, two towns over, dabbles in alchemy, and can chip in some half-price (at cost) potions.

That way, the WBL coming in becomes a logical side-effect of having saved people, as they become part of a network that supplies the PCs with the gear / items they seek. Nobody in Podunk Village X has any idea how to make a keen falchion for the tank, but between the two hundred and fifty of them, one of them is related to someone who knows someone who owes someone a favor, and can help the party get one at cost (or even get some miller three towns over whose daughter is married to the dude you just saved to give his son-in-law's rescuer his great-grandpa's old sword, which has been hanging on the mantle for seventy years, and just happens to be a magical falchion...).

It also rewards PCs who 'put down roots' and avoid the 'murder hobo' lifestyle of just wandering around and killing stuff, while simultaneously avoiding the 'Ye Olde Magic Shoppe' trope, by having magic item purchases be the result of a large network of people, looking to reward their heroic benefactors with access to gear they heard them mention in passing that they were looking for.

Like gaining new spells or feats or skills or entire languages while 'leveling up,' with the training and research assumed to have happened off-screen, and the new abilities and knowledge not just popping into the characters heads, magic items gained in this manner wouldn't necessarily have any delay time. Just as a wizard can decide right at the very second he turns 5th level that he wants to learn haste and fly as his two third level spells, and is assumed to have been studying those for months, retroactively, the same assumption can be made for that keen falchion. The PC might have just now built up the WBL to afford it, and decided right this moment to 'go for it,' and bam, there's the village apothecary, who heard *months ago* that the PC wanted such a thing, and remembered that her brother-in-law found a magic falchion once in a crypt that they discovered while digging a basement, and that it's probably still in their barn...

Christina Stiles wrote:
<I keep seeing the title of the thread and reading it as Purty, for some reason--and I worked on the book itself. What's wrong with me? Lol!>

I've seen it as Champions of Purty since it was announced, so yeah, you're not alone!

Silver Crusade
Christina Stiles wrote:


Did Mikaze's character get mentioned? I included it as a boxed text bit, but it may have been cut. I haven't seen the final book.

Oh wow. I was not expecting something like that. :D

It's not in there, but wow, thanks! Honestly, this book is spoiling me as it is, especially with the goblin babies art. Hayato is exactly where I wanted that character to go. :)

Set wrote:

My GM solution would be to have people rescued offer free use of their community resources, up to the 'WBL value' of whatever gold is being foresworn for such things. The dude who owns the inn might allow the PCs to stay there free (in rooms that he couldn't rent, for whatever reason, because they are said to be haunted, or in a sub-building that isn't convenient, etc.) while Bob the Farmer might have nothing to offer other than some free meals, but his cousin Wanda, two towns over, dabbles in alchemy, and can chip in some half-price (at cost) potions.

That way, the WBL coming in becomes a logical side-effect of having saved people, as they become part of a network that supplies the PCs with the gear / items they seek. Nobody in Podunk Village X has any idea how to make a keen falchion for the tank, but between the two hundred and fifty of them, one of them is related to someone who knows someone who owes someone a favor, and can help the party get one at cost (or even get some miller three towns over whose daughter is married to the dude you just saved to give his son-in-law's rescuer his great-grandpa's old sword, which has been hanging on the mantle for seventy years, and just happens to be a magical falchion...).

It also rewards PCs who 'put down roots' and avoid the 'murder hobo' lifestyle of just wandering around and killing stuff, while simultaneously avoiding the 'Ye Olde Magic Shoppe' trope, by having magic...

Love this. It sounds like a perfect thing to include in Ultimate Campaign or a sort of Gamemastery Guide 2.

I'm really digging those secondary effects such an approach brings to the table. :)

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:

Clifs notes version

Lesser Celestial Totem: Heals work better on you

Celestial Totem: You shine & bad guys can't hide

Greater Celestial Totem: You get SR vs Evil

Yeah, it's a perfect match for Sarenraen barbarians in particular. :)

Speaking about the goblin babys' art...is any else concerned that one of them is holding what appears to be a bloody knife?
Silver Crusade
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John Kretzer wrote:
Speaking about the goblin babys' art...is any else concerned that one of them is holding what appears to be a bloody knife?

They were cutting a cake without parental guidance and then spilled the cake and now they have no cake.[/itsthatordeadpuppiesorponies]

Tirisfal wrote:
I think its such a sweet and wonderful testament of how much Paizo listens to us that they specifically included that tiefling and the goblin babies for Mikaze :)

Well they've got to feed him sometime right ;)

The change alignment infusion is... interesting. I can see it being approved for use on subjects seeking redemption, as a form of psychotherapy (cue Boston's "I Think I Like It").
Sovereign Court
Liz Courts wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Also, an avatar of Imrijka's :\ face needs to happen!
It's been claimed.

Does that mean Crystal's old avatar goes into general use?

Silver Crusade
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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

MIKAZE, write a review of this or else I'll start having fun with puppies. My kind of fun, that is.

Come here, little puppy. My, what wonderful, smooth skin you have. How beautiful will it look <REDACTED>
John Kretzer wrote:
Speaking about the goblin babys' art...is any else concerned that one of them is holding what appears to be a bloody knife?

It's a goblin... they're psychotic and evil... even as babies. So, it makes sense. Now, were it a human baby... that might be cause for concern... but goblins giving a baby a knife and telling it "Go have fun slaughtering innocents!"? Yes, the goblins would totally do that.

Can we get a "fluff" spoiler on the new Hex's....I'm hoping they are not to puupy dogs and candy.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4
nighttree wrote:
Can we get a "fluff" spoiler on the new Hex's....I'm hoping they are not to puupy dogs and candy.

Sure.. I used to love to give little tidbits before I was a freelancer.

New Patrons, Boundaries, Devotion, and Peace.

There are Minor, Major, and Grand Hexes

Minor:
Aura of Purity
Peacebond

Major:
Witch's Bounty
Witch's Charge: Designate an ally, and keep track of them and help them with touch spells but at range. This one could be misunderstood, so I gave you a few details).

Grand:
Curse of nonviolence
Lay to rest
AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:
John Kretzer wrote:
Speaking about the goblin babys' art...is any else concerned that one of them is holding what appears to be a bloody knife?
It's a goblin... they're psychotic and evil... even as babies. So, it makes sense. Now, were it a human baby... that might be cause for concern... but goblins giving a baby a knife and telling it "Go have fun slaughtering innocents!"? Yes, the goblins would totally do that.

*hides before the thread degenerates into an alignment thread*

Silver Crusade

Don't look at me. I made my will save.

Gorbacz wrote:

MIKAZE, write a review of this or else I'll start having fun with puppies. My kind of fun, that is.

Come here, little puppy. My, what wonderful, smooth skin you have. How beautiful will it look <REDACTED>

workan on it already, probably going to be one of those "too long, link to a post in the thread" deals. gb2milo&otis

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FINE!

Ordered.
>:(

:)

About this Celestial Totem, is it SR vs Evil descriptor spells or spells of Evil casters/monsters?
What exactly is this 'can't Hide from you deal'? You are always aware of their location or something, even thru Invis, etc?

Is there anything that ties into those Nabambyaan Arcanists? White Necromancy?
Sovereign Court

I think people are trying to give you a sense of the product without massive spoilers.

I know you've got to wait 5 days to buy it... them's the breaks.

The celestial totem isn't quite either of those things: more complex. There's a whole glowing-with-the-light-of-virtue vibe.

Celestial Totem, Lesser-magical healing on barbarian is increased by 1 per caster level(healing spells, channeling, and lay on hands)
Celestial Totem-shines like daylight spell+ invisibility purge vs non-good creatures within 5' radius of barbarian(8th).
Celestial Totem, Greater-gains SR11+barbarian level vs spells with the evil descriptor and a +2 save bonus vs spells and effects from evil creatures(12th).
Silver Crusade
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Quandary wrote:


Is there anything that ties into those Nabambyaan Arcanists? White Necromancy?

No White Necromancy(though I do recommend Kobold Quarterly's awesome take on that), but there is a little bit for the Magaambya: Ancient scrolls Old-Mage Jatembe recovered from the original Mwangi civilization. They can serve as focus items, boosting your capability to cast good-aligned spells(and hindering your abilities with evil ones).

Dragon78 wrote:

Celestial Totem, Lesser-magical healing on barbarian is increased by 1 per caster level(healing spells, channeling, and lay on hands)

Celestial Totem-shines like daylight spell+ invisibility purge vs non-good creatures within 5' radius of barbarian(8th).
Celestial Totem, Greater-gains SR11+barbarian level vs spells with the evil descriptor and a +2 save bonus vs spells and effects from evil creatures(12th).

I can live with this. Thanks a million. :D

Mikaze wrote:

but there is a little bit for the Magaambya: Ancient scrolls Old-Mage Jatembe recovered from the original Mwangi civilization.

They can serve as focus items, boosting your capability to cast good-aligned spells(and hindering your abilities with evil ones).

EEEEENTERESTING....

Silver Crusade

Yeah, it's just a little bit, but I suspect Chronicles of the Righteous will be dropping more information, given the hints here. :D
Mikaze wrote:
Quandary wrote:


Is there anything that ties into those Nabambyaan Arcanists? White Necromancy?
No White Necromancy(though I do recommend Kobold Quarterly's awesome take on that)

That sounds intriguing - do you remember which issue it's in?

EDIT: Whoops, google came through for me after I posted this :)

Issue #19
Quandary wrote:

About this Celestial Totem, is it SR vs Evil descriptor spells or spells of Evil casters/monsters?

What exactly is this 'can't Hide from you deal'? You are always aware of their location or something, even thru Invis, etc?

Is there anything that ties into those Nabambyaan Arcanists? White Necromancy?

Every good-aligned wizard spell in the book, and potentially the good-aligned druid spell, is a boost to the Arcanists, as is the expanded-summoning feat (Arcanists get bonuses to caster level and duration on all good-aligned spells, but there aren't very many on the wizard spell lists apart from abjurations and summons).

Liberty's Edge

I'm still waiting on my preorder, (either today or likely not until the PDF is out :( ), so how do the Cleric Summon spells and the Feat work with Sacred Summons, (which allows you to Summon creatures with Alignment Subtypes that match your Cleric Aura as a Standard Action)?
Yanos wrote:
I'm still waiting on my preorder, (either today or likely not until the PDF is out :( ), so how do the Cleric Summon spells and the Feat work with Sacred Summons, (which allows you to Summon creatures with Alignment Subtypes that match your Cleric Aura as a Standard Action)?

I see no reason why they shouldn't work with it.

Hooray, witchy love!

I can hardly wait. Mine got sent out yesterday.
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