New Paths Compendium (PFRPG)

Whether or not you have been collecting the 'New Paths' series, if the idea of being something just that little bit different appeals this is well worth a look... and there is new content as well as an efficient reorganisation of the material to make this a very useful reference, be you a player looking for a novel character or the GM who has to handle him in play.

The first chapter looks at the new base classes introduced in this series: Battle Scion, Elven Archer, Savant, Shaman, Spell-less Ranger, Theurge and White Necromancer. Each comes with a dramatic full-page illustration of a member of that class and extensive game mechanical and flavour details about what it is like to follow this profession and all the rules you need to do so. As well as the Class Features and necessary tables, there are also notes on how best to play one, role-playing ideas to help you bring the character to life, and a sample character - use it straight off if you are in a hurry, or as a template to build your own.

The next section provides a whole bunch of archetypes for each of the new classes as well as for the existing ones. Excellent for those of you who like to plot each and every element of your advancement - and if some of my players are anything to go by, this is something that is growing in popularity. So even if you are not looking to play one of the new base classes, there are still plenty of ideas for new and fascinating directions in which to take your Gunslinger or Monk or... and of course, if you are willing to take levels in more than one class it can get even more interesting.

This is followed by a mammoth collection of new Feats and Traits - put it this way, the one-line summary chart runs to 3 pages before you even get to the detailed write-ups. Again, this is well worth looking over whatever class you play, there's bound to be something that will give that tailor-made twist to your character.

The next chapter has a selection of new spells. Many are referenced in the spell lists available to the new classes, but most can be used by anyone with the necessary casting abilities. Finally, there is a catalogue of new magic items and magic gear for anyone who has the shopping (or crafting) urge. The highest level group of my players has just started to get into magical item crafting big style - they even asked that I held off the next adventure for a couple of weeks game-time so that they could finish making what they wanted! - and this can be an exciting angle to develop as characters get to sufficiently high levels. Even if you are not so much into the magic, there are some new weapons and other items of equipment to consider.

OK, you now have all these exciting abilities at your disposal, so you may find the bunch of Tracking Sheets provided of use to, well, keep track of them - everything from tracking your arrow use to keeping a tab on what your summoned creatures are up to.

If you like pushing the limits and trying out new character concepts and ideas, this is recommended.

As a DM I am usually wary when it comes to 3rd party content, Kobold Press of late has been increasingly changing my mind by making quality products. The New Paths Compendium does a nice job of offering up new options for players without crossing over into territory that would make me nervous to allow as a DM. In particular the spell-less ranger has proved to be popular among some of my players, whereas I have found the White Necromancer and Savant particularly interesting.

Most of the classes offer an interesting take not currently filled by official classes, be it core class variations with the Spell-less Ranger, and to a lesser extent the Shaman which I’d equate as the Sorcerer to the Druids Wizard; or the thematic choices like the Elven Archer and White Necromancer, or even the unique Savant. The exception to this might be the Battle Scion, whose role treads close to that of the magus and paladin, but is still is different enough to not feel like a retread. Lastly there is the Theurge, which of all the classes probably ranks the lowest. The problems I have with the Theurge are similar to all the other takes I’ve seen with the arcane/divine mixture, namely that the trade-offs to be able to cast both seem too high, but this is just my personal take on it. I should also note that while the Savant is an interesting class to me, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, especially less experienced players.

In addition to the base classes the book also features variants and archetypes, the elven archer variants are quite nice, building on the basic concept to allow for more potential use, and it isn’t just a find and replace of elven with another race instead. Each variant offers enough to make it feel like its own thing. I in particular like the Halfling Sling Master, but find the Dwarf Crossbowyer a welcome addition as well. The Skin-Changer is an interesting variant of the Spell-less Ranger, offering a take on the class that incorporates wild shape, or in this case, animal shape. As for the archetypes, there are a range of options, especially for gun based characters, and my only complaint would be that each of the classes presented do not get archetypes, the Theurge and Savant getting left out.

I also want to note the book features a couple of options for the Gearforged race from Midgard. Initially this struck me as odd, as the race isn’t present in the book, but as I thought more on it can appreciate the company continuing to support its own creations with additional supplements. For Gearforged players it offers the Clockwork Monk archetype, as well as a Gearforged race restricted feat called Gear Shred.

The feats section offers some interesting options, such as a section that offers an optional ruleset for scaling feats, a concept that my group has often considered, lamenting the high feat cost for certain feat chains. I am not sure when I will get the opportunity to test this in a campaign, but look forward to it.

Finally the book ends with spells, new weapons, and magic items. I won’t go into great detail on them; they offer new options, and seemed fine. There are also additional tracking sheets, which seemed like they would be handy, especially for the spell-less ranger.

Overall I found the book to be an excellent addition to my collection, a few very minor gripes aside, and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for some new interesting class options.

Reviewed by David A. over on DriveThru RPG

I've purchased various supplemental books for Pathfinder, and have always been impressed by the quality of Kobold Press's releases. This book, I believe, sets a new level of excellence for other third-party publishers to strive for.

Conclusion: 100% this book is worth its price. The new classes are its main draw, and they alone are worth the price of the book in my opinion. You know you have a great product when you struggle to think of any negative elements to write about. I highly recommend this product, and hope to see more material of similar quality soon both from Kobold Press and other Third-Party publishers.

Be sure to check out the entire review: Drivethru RPG

For an explanation of how I use the five star review method, see my entry on So What's the Riddle Like Anyway? HERE.

The New Paths Compendium from Kobold Press is a compilation of the various entries in the New Paths series of supplements. It has seven new classes, twenty-eight new archetypes, and a lot of feats and traits. It’s a large rules supplement for players that opens up a great number of new possibilities in character creation.

The first thing I notice is a lack of introduction or forward. While I can appreciate the concentration on crunch and getting the product in at a set page count, leaving out some overview bothers me. I like the commentaries on DVDs and appreciate knowing why certain decisions were made. I love the designer sidebars that come up in some products to give further reasoning behind the rules as presented. Why? Because it allows me to understand the design better, to make my own decisions for what kind of game I want to present to my players. By knowing why something is the way it is, I can project what altering or removing that rule could do. Lacking such sidebars, I look to an introduction for at least a background on the material, when it was begun, the intent, etc. Without this, I learn nothing of the design concepts involved. It’s a personal nit-pick, and I’m not going to drop the final evaluation for this supplement because of it, but I am saying for those of us who do read the introductions the absence of one is very striking.

There is a small problem on the Table of Contents page where the Spells are listed as being on page 44, instead of 104. Small problem, but annoying.

The first Chapter is on the New Classes. The Battle Scion I reviewed some months back HERE, and I quite liked it.

The Elven Archer is quite obviously the Arcane Archer prestige class made into a full base class, but that is alright as it comes with good flavour and decent balance. The precision damage is intelligent in its use. My only problem is with the three variants given at the end. They are so similar to the prime class that we have multiple repetitions of the exact same powers behaving in the exact same way in the book that introduces them. This is a wild waste of space and print that could have been edited down and each variant made into an archetype and placed in that section. This seems to indicate that the editing was pressed for time and that Kobold Press basically copied the document exactly as the original. That’s OK, but it does lead to wasted ink when this book enters print.

The Savant may be one of the most original classes I have ever read. The ability to mimic the powers and strengths of legendary heroes and items the savant has seen in action is very unique. They have built in a system of Knacks which limit how many powers may be used at once, and from what I can see the savant will never be as good as one of the classes it tries to emulate. That’s OK though, as for versatility it is unmatched. This is easily the most complicated class I have ever seen, in that you create not one character, but several characters which are changing all the time. This would be gold for role-players and I commend the design here. Very impressive!

Kobold Press’s take on the Shaman is as a spontaneous caster druid essentially. Some powers are changed and there is a far more spirit world over natural world slant to the class, with many powers designed specifically to deal with spirits. There are Totem secrets that they select as Barbarians choose rage powers and Rogues choose rogue talents. These generally have good flavour and add to the spirit abilities of the Shaman well. I like this class overall.

The Spell-less Ranger should really have been converted to an archetype instead of alternate class. There are already two Ranger archetypes from Paizo that have no spells (the Trapper and the Skirmisher) and this makes a third. Like the Skirmisher, the Spell-less Ranger loses spell-casting and gains a series of Talents from which to choose. The Skin-changer variant is far more interesting, but it also repeats what the Ranger and Spell-less Ranger have for abilities. The Skin-changer places Wild shape in for spell casting. Great idea: Beorn from the Hobbit is not well represented in fantasy games, and this does the trick.

The Theurge is the Mystic Theurge prestige class made into a base class. While a good idea and the mechanics are solid, this class suffers a little from lack of flavour. It is a magic-user, full stop. All of the class’s abilities revolve around spell casting and nothing else. This makes sense, but it does force the player to do more to create an interesting character. Very good class that seems to have little direction.

I own the White Necromancer supplement, and it is very good. Where the Theurge lacks flavour, the White Necromancer is practically overflowing with it. A non-evil practitioner of necromancy that uses the magic of the dead to battle against the perversions of the life-death cycle by evil forces is very cool. They even believe in redeeming and helping undead go to rest or complete whatever task is keeping them from moving on. A spontaneous caster with powerful abilities with the undead, this is a wonderful addition to the game. I particularly like the form of necromantic arcane healing they have: transferring some of their hit points to the person they wish to heal.

Chapter 2 introduces the archetypes for some of these classes as well as for other base classes from the core Pathfinder rules. The Battle Scion archetypes I discussed in my review. I found both good, but the Force Blaster could be a touch over-powered in the right hands. For the Elven Archer, the Royal Guardian is an archer defender while the Plains Rider is a mounted archer. Both are simple and not out of balance, though I note a change in format style of the Royal Guardian that slipped through editing. For the Gunslinger archetypes, I refer you to my review HERE of The Expanded Gunslinger. It’s all good and I’ll just give another shout out for the Hellfire Preacher: Clerics with guns and attitude!

The Monk archetypes are quite varied. The Beast-Soul Monk gains an animal companion and the ability to change shape to match that companion instead of flurry of blows and standard unarmed combat. Very cool. A Clockwork Monk is a racial archetype for clockwork beings such as the gearforged from Midgard, so this is very niche, but still quite interesting. The Monk of the Compliant Style Rod is a staff weapon specialist. The Monk of the Glorious Endeavor is a weapon specialist that exchanges some of the character’s normal hand-to-hand abilities for improved weapon combat. The Monk of the Peerless Mountain focuses on kicks in spectacular whirlwind type fashion over the traditional flurry of blows. The Paper Drake Monk is quite unique, using paper as the medium to be emulated and even gaining the eventual ability to become a swarm of paper cranes (!) This is probably my favorite of the group. Finally there is the Six Talismans Monk, who creates little paper talismans that explode in flames when attached to opponents or cast a spell-like ability that can blind or paralyse the opponent in some manner. I don’t see any balance issue here of significance, and the themes and visuals behind these archetypes are very interesting. Good stuff!

The Ninja archetypes are the Elemental Ninja, who combines elemental magic with their Ninja skills but only if they take the appropriate ninja tricks to pull off these energy attacks. Two new tricks, elemental fist and elemental fusion provide options beyond a modified ki charge to accomplish this. The Mist stalker doesn’t even get an intro explaining it, which is a significant oversight in my opinion. The Mist Stalker is essentially a ninja of smoke and mist. There are two new tricks to back this up: Empty Form (able to become mist) and Smoke Demon (allowing the gaseous ninja to solidify part of her body in a person for damage). Lots of flavour here, but some missing without an intro to the Mist Stalker.

Elemental Shamans deal with elemental spirits and even wild-shape into elemental form. The Primal Shifter is more focused on wild-shape than spell-casting, and are more combat oriented as a result. The Witch Doctor brings out the old clichés of communicating with the dead and increased spell capability while still remaining balanced by diminishing wild-shape; sort of the opposite direction from the Primal Shifter. I like how they managed to specialize the class while still adding theme and story elements.

The two Spell-less Ranger archetypes are noted as being useable by any ranger. One learns two combat styles over one at the cost having no more than one favored enemy, while the second builds up the animal companion ability to utilize in combat at the expense of much of the woodland skills a ranger usually has.

The White Necromancer has two really good archetypes: one focused of the life aspect of the triad (life-death-undeath) and is a great healer. The second deals with undeath and even has an undead companion! Here there is a failing that I noticed in the original document: no third archetype dealing with death. A mercy killer who also acts as an assassin of those who need to die could have been a very cool addition, and nothing was done. I’m not sure if that was just an oversight, or if an attempt was made and wasn’t able to come up to the level of quality required. Still a little disappointing.

Chapter 3 covers new Feats and Traits. There are new style feats that augment the monk archetypes, as well as a large assortment that enhance the new classes. Of special note are the scaling combat feats which I reviewed in the first issue of Gygax magazine HERE. Essentially, instead of feat chains and trees, you replace a group of feats with a single scalable feat. I love this, as it adds to the variety of feats that a character can select. The new traits are those from the Expanded Gunslinger, and are quite good.

Chapter 4 is about new Spells. Overall they are little different from other spells of the same level, but do add a certain amount of style to the various casting classes presented in the book. Quite a few are arrow related spells for the Elven Archer and would be of great use for Arcane Archers as well.

In Chapter 5 we have Magic Items and Gear, mostly alternate monk weapons (including a garden hoe) and magic items geared for Battle Scions and Archers. This chapter is short and pretty much to the point.

The final chapter has a number of tracking sheets for favored terrains, animal companions, wild shape statistics, summoned monsters, spirit guides info for shamans, prepared spells, and arrows (all those magic arrows characters can use). These are great and of high value for any group.

Final Thoughts: There is a HUGE amount of material here, and it is mostly of very good quality. There are some editorial concerns as the various supplements that went into this compilation feel rather shoved together. There is practically no pure flavour material as was found in the original documents beyond what was written into the various entries. Some context was removed and format errors have crept in here and there. Perhaps another editorial pass could have caught these minor flubs, but that still would not make up for a certain inconsistency that can be felt throughout the document. Not in the quality of the gaming material; that is consistently high. But the presentation and format of the classes produces a slight dissonance between the parts.

Still, if all I have to quibble on is a few editorial oversights I’m not overly concerned. This supplement is wall-to-wall crunch with a lot of character and story elements baked in for good measure. I prefer a balance with a little more fluff, but that is my preference only. I would place this at about 4.5 stars out of 5, because it is better than a 4 star product. But that is the score I’m going to give it on the grounds that some of the best material (Gunslingers and White Necromancers) are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. From my perspective, an excellent compilation of optional game elements. 4 out of 5 stars.