It’s one thing to face a dragon armed with a longsword and a suit of magic plate mail, but what if you had an atom gun and powered armor? How many zombies could you blow up with a rocket launcher? What happens if you’re standing next to a graviton reactor when it explodes? All of these questions and more are answered within the pages of the Technology Guide—an invaluable manual of items, hazards, and character options for use in science-fantasy settings like Golarion’s Numeria, land of savagery and super-science!
Within this book, you’ll find:
Rules for dozens of new technological items, including weapons, armor, force fields, hologram generators, grenades, cybernetic implants, nanotech devices, remote controls for robots, and more!
New feats, spells, and archetypes for technologically savvy characters, along with rules for how your skills interact with super-science.
Extraordinarily powerful scientific items and artifacts, such as extinction wave devices, powered armor, and nuclear reactors!
The technomancer prestige class, which allows you to use magic to command robots and power your technology .
Rules for artificial intelligences, the effects of the passage of time on technological items, the dangers of radiation, the seven skymetals of Numeria, technological traps, and more!
The Technology Guide is a must-have for GMs running the Iron Gods Adventure Path or anyone looking to introduce super-science into any Pathfinder adventure or campaign setting.
Short Version: Grab this if you want to run Iron Gods, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Blackmoor, or really anything else involving fantastic technology.
This is a pretty sweet book. It has a lot of rules information for pieces of technology, but the descriptions (particularly the technological artifacts) also bring in a ton of flavor. Even the luddites in our parties can appreciate some of the new spells, feats, and other material.
The rules here work best where technology is a mysterious force, left behind by a previous civilization or fallen from the sky. It's obviously something you want for Iron Gods, but I'd feel comfortable running a Rifts-like setting using the Pathfinder rules as well.
All that said, if you're on a limited budget, note there are plans to add this to the PRD.
This book is quite good. It did a good job at inspiring me. While I am not real interested in the campaign setting it is designed for, it was loaded with a great amount of crunch I could pull from it. They balance it with most weapons doing reasonable damage, limited shots between reloads, and the cost being quite high. The heavy damage weapons cost as much as a castle so that should limit them to high level.
If you are looking to run an Expedition to the Barrier Peaks type adventure, this book will provide what you need for the tech side. If you want to do a campaign of this type where some tech is discovered and researched and new skills and feats are found, this will provide useful information.
I have been planning on running a Dark Sun campaign and this book has inspired me to add in energy weapons and grenades. There effectively is no metal on Athus. I am thinking about having these made from ceramics. I would include some of the skills and feats as well. The thought of having radioactive hazards in addition to the dry lands is appealing. I would probably limit the power generation to solar as the sun shines pretty much all day. The closest Athus comes to clouds is the sandstorms. The Sorcerer Kings might have nuke plants.
Overall, this book gives a wide range of tech types that you could pick and choose what you want to get a good flavor for a specialized campaign.
EDIT: I wanted to clarify something as I was rereading my post about an Expedition to the Barrier Peaks campaign idea.
This book does not tell you how to implement the discoveries. It provides you things that you could decide to implement like the skills and feats that are introduced. You would have to figure out how to introduce them.
Any chance that books like this that Pathfinder deems there are not enough buyers for another printing to become available via OneBookShelf (drivethrurpg) Print on Demand services? Maybe there are not thousands, but probably a few hundreds of people want a dead tree copy, you may call it service for the community.
I'm disappointed that the errata doesn't cover the Savage Technologist's rage bonuses issue. It's an easy enough house rule fix, but still disappointed.
No errata necessary, as it's correct as written. James Jacobs thought there was an error as well at first, but then someone pointed out what they thought the intent was, and he realized they were correct.
Do the two heavy armors introduced in this book, specifically the spacesuit and smart armor (expanded form), reduce a wearer's speed when running to only 3x their speed like other heavy armors do?
On page 37, the stats for dermal plating lists the implantation score for Marks I - V, but Mark III seems to say "4" when the pattern suggests it should instead say "6", when compared to the other varieties.
The front inside cover has four different tables for glitches of timeworn equipment, while the back inside cover has the front cover picture without any words and logos, as was usual for this product line.
The front inside cover has four different tables for glitches of timeworn equipment, while the back inside cover has the front cover picture without any words and logos, as was usual for this product line.
Thanks for letting me know. I found the table of glitches and cover art without labels but wasn't sure that was meant to be the material from the covers. The POD version doesn't have anything printed on the inside of the front or back covers, but does have the contents of the front and back covers printed as an additional page at the end of the book.
When I was worried that I might be missing something, and after I posted my question, I looked to see what was on the front/back covers of a couple other Campaign Setting books. Like this one, the Construct Handbook had the front cover reprinted at the back, but the First World Realm of the Fey book has a map of the First World that I initially thought spanned the front and back covers, but upon further inspection saw was just duplicated inside the back cover without labels.
Anyway, I've just finished my initial reading of Technology Guide. Lots of stuff I'd like to use, but I'm not actually running a sci-fi/technology-focused game, so I'll have to choose judiciously.
Can this book get an update for Pathfinder 2e - This post is just to show interest in PF2e tech book
Thanks for your feedback. It sure would bring Pathfinder and Starfinder closer together. Be sure to check our Guns & Gears and Treasure Vault.
I noticed some items/features in these books use some of the mechanics of some items/features in the Technology guide. Sadly not really a fan of Starfinder rules or how it does Sci-fi overall. I like the Idea of having technology that is completely divorced from magic. I also like having magical technology. It really comes down how items and features decribed I don't really get or like the description for the Chameleon suit in G&G as an example (It seems like it would be uncomfortable and somewhat noisy I also personally find it hard to imagine) Where as the Chameleon suit in the Technology guide seems to me at least is more thematically tangible.
The Technology guide Chameleon suit also is a good alternative to invisibility. This is to me is how technology should function as a way of bringing magical abilities and effects to someone who doesn't have them.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" while the qoute is true, in a world of high magic wouldn't their be people trying to essentially develop technology so you are not reliant on magic.
