From the brink of the Worldwound, where demonic hordes lay siege to the mortal realm, to the battlefields of Mendev and Nirmathas, where soldiers distinguish themselves as heroes of ideals, battle is a common part of life in the Inner Sea region. Whether practiced by virtuous crusaders, fierce gladiators, or daring scoundrels, skill with a blade and knowledge of when to use it can mean the difference between life and death. The secrets of battle might not be etched on altars or scribed in spellbooks, but they’re just as diverse and powerful as any magic—and just as available for bold heroes to claim!
Inner Sea Combat explores the role of combat in this vast and varied region. Within this book you’ll find:
A who’s who of the Inner Sea region’s deadliest martial masters.
Details on four types of martial training grounds—dojos, gladiatorial arenas, thieves’ guilds, and war colleges—along with rules for joining and honing one’s skills within such organizations.
Rules for several types of specialized or variant combat, including the secrets of the legendary Aldori swordlords, fighting styles particular to Golarion’s many faiths, gladiatorial combat, mastering monstrous mounts, and using technology in combat.
Two new cavalier orders—the order of the beast and the order of the guard—along with new context for each knightly order.
More than a dozen new archetypes for all manner of brave battlers, including the gun scavenger, the monk of the seven forms, the Shoanti burn rider, and the Tanglebriar demonslayer.
Two new prestige classes—the Pure Legion enforcer and the Ulfen Guard.
Dozens of new magic items guaranteed to protect combatants through the most brutal battles and transform even novices into masters of war.
Inner Sea Combat is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting but can easily be used in any fantasy game.
Written by Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, John Compton, and Thurston Hillman.
Cover Art by Yu Cheng Hong.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-598-3
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
The Aldori feats are bad. Tying ranger combat styles with a deity is a bad idea. Combat performance is big NO. The House of perfection's feats are bad. Oath against chaos is good, oath against grotesquery is ok. The monstrous feat chain is so-so. There are a couple of interesting Rogue's Skill taunt, but the others are quite bad. Firearm feats are ok.
The Combat school section is somewhat interesting, but not great. I guess that It has a greater appeal to people who are accustomed to the Fame rewards mechanics.
Cavalier orders are meh at best. Prestige classes are ok. Archetypes are a mixed bag, with a few couple of good ones, but the rest are quite bad.
Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!
Product-Pathfinder Campaign Setting-Inner Sea Combat
Producer- Paizo
Price- $20
TL; DR- A little long to keep me entertained. 77%
Basics- MORTAL COMBAT! Inner Sea Combat focuses on marital characters and how to build these characters and their world into your Pathfinder Game. The book starts by discussing nations and their interactions with martial characters. Next, the book adds feats and a discussion on how specialized martial characters function within the rules of Pathfinder. After specialization, the book moves to schools/guilds and rules to operate these in Pathfinder. From schools, the books present new prestige classes and archetypes for classes from barbarian to the rogue. The last section of the book focuses on magic items that specialized characters from this book might need.
Mechanics or Crunch-This books adds a bunch of ideas for a GM to add to his/her game, but the ideas are not ground breaking awesome that you would expect for hidden techniques grown on the mountain top monasteries of the world. The book adds lost arts that are the talk of many a hushed conversation, but when you look over the options, they might fit will in just a player line book. Also, the book adds schools and guilds. I don't hate the mechanics behind these, but I think the numbers are off. I think the DCs are too high and will likely make life very hard for anyone who wants to go after a school and not get kicked out. Some of the options are well done, but it's more diamonds in the rough then a constant flow. I did like the items that were added to this book. 3/5
Fluff or Story- I liked this the most in this book. The story provides lots of ideas for a GM to add to his/her game. I didn't like the distribution of focus in the world, though. There isn't much love for the pirates of the Shackles in terms of schools or options as well as a few other key areas. But, what is there are options it's well done. 4.5/5
Execution-I think this book suffers from a "textbook problem." This book has a few too many sections of just text that make the book less fun to read. It's not hard to read, but it does tend to drag on a bit. The book does have some nice new art to help make reading a bit easier, but the format makes things feel long. The text is not bad, just a bit of a drag. 4/5
Summary-I didn't hate this book, but it's not one of my favorites. The mechanics and the textbook nature of the 64 page format are just a little bit off making this book slightly drag on a bit. I would have preferred this to be a few shorter 32 page books focusing on monks, fighters, or some other class. I did like the story that this book adds to the world. Also, knowing who the best of the best fighters are can give the characters goals for whom to fight later. It's not a bad book, but just a bit long to keep me completely interested all the way through. 77%
One of the things I like best about a book like Inner Sea Combat is that it’s much easier to see immediate uses for the new options contained within. Pathfinder is a game with a lot of options—far more than most people can easily keep track of. While generic books like Ultimate Combat may contain many interesting abilities, they can quickly get lost in the deluge as they don’t have a context to make them stand out. But with the world-specific flavour that Inner Sea Combat offers, its options are instantly more recognizable. They make both the characters and the world more interesting. There are several things in here that I already want to introduce to my own games, and any game book that fills me with ideas is a good book, in my opinion.
Inner Sea Combat mentions the six from the APG (Cockatrice, Dragon, Lion, Shield, Star, and Sword), but not the three from the Ultimate Combat (Blue Rose, Seal, and Tome). Why not?
Also missing: Order of the Paw (the halfling one from ARG).
They really need to come out with some serious combat rogue talents. The fact this was touted and lauded as a combat book, this is shameful. I feel badly giving such negative feedback but I'm really sick of rogues getting screwed and was super excited for this book. Instead I'm very disappointed. A fighter gets a feat every level, a rogue basically gets a talent when a fighter would get a feat, but our talents are often worse than traits in my opinion.
I completely agree with Wraithkin. Rogues need combat love too.
I was very disappointed in Inner Sea Combat, Why did you waste space in a book that was supposed to be about Martial class characters with Rouges and Monks? Give those classes they own books. Right now IMO Pazio is being out done in feats by your Competitors [Kobold Press]. Please introduce Scaling Feats for martial Characters and cut out the obnoxious feat trees that you seem wedded to. For instance in Inner SEA Combat there is a feat tree that takes 4 feats to gain flying mount/ companion that can be ridden. Why not make the initial Feat scale as the Ranger gains levels the feat increases in strength so the Ranger does not have to blow 4 feat of his total feats on a flying animal companion.
You do not make casters take a boat load of extra feats to cast their spells which are far more powerful than any animal companion that a Druid or Ranger can ever have.
I Liked the magic Items in Inner Sea combat alot but they are over priced IMO. The Efreet Scabbard cost 43000 GP That half of the expected wealth for a 10th level character for one Item according to the WBL table either you need to scrap the WBL table or price you items at a lesser price.
All of the items in Inner Sea combat a good most of them are just over priced IMO.
1) Just what 'secrets of the Aldori Swordlords' do we get?
2) What's the main emphasis of the two new cavalier orders? I seem to recall reading that the order of the beast centers on non-horse mounts, and I'm guessing that the order of the guard centers on a cavalier who shields their allies?
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
1) the Aldori swordlords just get a selection of feats to add to their skills based on certain swordlord styles. mainly the feats are meant to help in a duel mechanic found in Ultimate Combat.
2) Order of the Beast centers actually on being a servent of rovagug or one of the great old ones, who wreaks havoc and destroys at every possible moment.
Order of the Guard is based on being a mercenary who job is protect a certain person or thing until the job is finished, meant for one of the members of the blackjackets of the mercenary league.
Zergtitan, thanks for explaining all of that. And while the Order of the Beast sounds a bit odd for its one-deity focus, it does make good inspiration for other single deity focused cavalier orders.
Anyone know where or if that picture of an Aldori Swordlord on page 10 is up on the internet anywhere? I found the one on page 8 on Deviantart but I'm curious about the page 10 one.
Aside from a monastery teaching dwarven monks, er, not really. Kind of a let down as I was hoping we'd see a school teaching dwarves (and others) how to be Foehammers or Stalwart Defenders. Maybe we'll get more down the road though.
One curiosity is why the Tanglebriar Demonslayer isn't an elf racial archetype. Everything I was told or have seen or read has left me with the impression that the elves don't let those without some form of elven blood into Treerazor's domain.
Is it just me or does the Spellscar Drifter have a non-functioning challenge?
Yeah, it looks like they forgot to add the bit to challenge for the Drifter that says "Attacks made by the spellscar drifter with firearms deal extra damage whenever the attacks are made against the target of his challenge." Especially weird because of "old reliable" at 11th level which doubles your threat range against subjects of your challenge.
A reoccurring problem with these gun archetypes is the lack of reliable static damage bonuses. As it stands you're probably better off going 3 trench fighter for dex-to-damage before going into spellscar drifter. I guess you could dip 1 level into Mysterious Stranger too, since Spellscar Drifter keys off CHA instead of WIS. Would have been nice if they had just given the poor guy gun training at level 11 or something.
This is my first non-core purchase and I really like a lot of the flavor, but the crunch sure does leave something to be desired.
So who should I ask about the Spellscar Drifter and its non-functioning challenge class feature?
Paizo rarely posts errata on softcovers so I don't think you are going to see any official errata on this though. It certainly should get it's bonus damage to firearms attacks, that is the cornerstone of the archetype.
So who should I ask about the Spellscar Drifter and its non-functioning challenge class feature?
Paizo rarely posts errata on softcovers so I don't think you are going to see any official errata on this though. It certainly should get it's bonus damage to firearms attacks, that is the cornerstone of the archetype.
I remember a while ago the author of the Titan Mauler Barb archetype posted an "unofficial errata" that actually allowed the archetype to wield a large weapon. I see that you're credited with writing part of "Inner Sea Combat," so if you happen to know who wrote the Spellscar Drifter maybe they could do the same?
Also I did really enjoy the book. The Ulfen Guard is one of my favorite PrCs and the fluff is informative for character building or DMing something unexpected. Also the archetypes, while relatively weak for PCs, are great for interesting encounters as archetypes like the Blackjack work well as a group of them.
I did indeed write the Spellscar Drifter, and I'm a bit frustrated that I blew this (though it's possible this was changed in development, I find it unlikely though).
I'm not really comfortable with the phrase "unofficial errata", but my intention was for challenge damage to apply to firearms.
Incidentally, I believe the Ulfen Guard prestige class was mine as well.
Really? Because I adore that one!
Easily the best part of being a freelancer is hearing people use and enjoy your work.
The Iroran Paladin is not mine.
Well then you should be happy to know that I plan on using the Ulfen Guard both as a DM for cool NPCs, and as a player. Its just too delicious to not want to double dip on.
The primary reason I like it is because I feel like it gives up an appropriate amount for what the player receives. For me that is the most important part of a PrC.
I believe one of the big goals of this book was to provide a resource that was focused purely on non-spellcasters. I'm 99.99% sure there are no spells, but I'd have to look back through the book to be certain.
I dunno if it was you, but another favorite from that book was Ioran Paladin.
That would be me.
Thumbs up to you! It's a real fun looking option! It's my favorite kind of archetype, one that makes you feel like a completely different class than the base.
I love the Iroran Paladin too! I've been writing a Guide about it, in fact.
If you see this, and are willing to answer, I would love to know whether you intended Confident Defense to apply to CMD as well as AC. Thematically, it seems like it should (monk and all), but a strict RAW reading says "no". I'll likely be running as "yes" in my home games, at least for the moment.
Even if you won't/can't answer, it's a lot of fun, and I wanted to say how much I like it.
Can anyone point me to a list of the organizations/training grounds in this book? Kinda hoping for Orsini or Endrin Academy, or the Cerulean Society, so figured I'd ask before buying. Thanks!
It's never really necro'ing when it comes to a product thread. These should be evergreen.
As to your question... I don't have the book handy (I'm at home now), but I don't believe that any of those Korvosan organizations appear in this book.