Sometimes things go bump in the night, hinting at mysteries that lie shrouded behind the veil of fear. In an old world steeped in magic, some questions can—or should—never be answered, and some investigators find truths so terrible they pray for sweet madness to wipe them away. Pathfinder Player Companion: Occult Origins provides new options for heroes who look beyond the convenient and sensible mask the world wears and plumb the dark secrets underneath. Expand your kineticist repertoire, bolster your phantom's mind, or tie your occult powers to a god. Learn psychic magic, unlock occult abilities for mundane classes, and examine the role of occult characters across Golarion. Occult Origins includes new abilities and tools for every Pathfinder RPG player. Inside this book, you'll find:
Incredible archetypes, class features, feats, and spells to broaden the scopes of all six of the new occult character classes introduced in Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures.
Uncanny archetypes such as the mind sword, the supernaturalist, the Harrowed Society student, and the primalist that bring occult powers to both core and hybrid classes.
Dozens of new mystic spells to augment the power of the mind for both occult classes and arcane and divine casters.
New occult feats such as Cranial Adjustment, Haruspicy, and Trepanation that provide esoteric flavor and psychic skill unlocks to any character.
Occult rituals from Golarion's lost civilizations, including the Jistkan art of genie-binding and Sarkorian god-summoning.
This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-785-7
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
Alright, let's jump into Occult Origins! This 32-page, full-colour book in the Pathfinder Player Companion line was released around the time of the Occult Adventures hardcover book that introduced several new psychic-themed classes to the game. The goal of Occult Origins is to supplement that book, ground it in the campaign setting of Golarion, and add some more options for psychic PCs. Let's see if it achieves those ends. I should flag that the only occult class I've placed is the Psychic, so the ins and outs of the new options presented here are often beyond me.
First up, cool cover! The inside front-cover is a really useful summary of how the different planes connect to or fuel the various new occult classes. For example, it explains how kineticists are linked to the elemental planes, how spiritualist phantoms come from the ethereal plane, and how the spirits that mediums draw upon aren't actual souls or ghosts from remnants left on the astral plane. The inside back cover is just the front cover art sans text. I'll go ahead and mention here, before I forget, that the interior artwork is uniformly excellent.
The first couple pages of the book are a summary of what's inside for each of the six occult classes and an index to the new rules options. This is followed by a two-page introduction that's actually pretty important--it gives specific cultural links in Golarion for each of the six occult classes, turning what can be generic and abstract into a rich addition to the setting lore. The whole concept of the occult in Pathfinder is now much more appealing to me. And did you know that Erik Mona (Paizo publisher) has his own occult library? That's pretty cool.
Next up are sections devoted to each of the six new occult classes. Kineticists get four pages of material, while the other classes get two pages each. Why the discrepancy? I don't know!
* Kineticist: Most people in Golarion wouldn't recognise a kineticist if they saw one, apparently. This book introduces a couple of new elements. The first is Void, which I don't really get it--it seems to be some sort of weird mixture of negative energy and gravity powers. The second is Wood, which is really more of a general nature or even First World-themed power. It does contain a lot of useful utility powers for wilderness (forest) adventures.
* Medium: Some interesting setting lore here. I didn't expect just how unpopular mediums would be in places like Ustalav and Mendev. The book introduces a "Nexian Channeller" archetype which is very focussed on having a mystical third-eye. There's also a new modified archmagi spirit that draws on Nex! Very interesting and fits the setting well.
* Mesmerist: Mesmerists are apparently some of the most common occult practitioners in Golarion, as they skilfully use their powers to gain wealth and political influence. This book introduces several new mesmerist tricks. There's also a new Chelish-themed type of gaze, "Devilbane Gazes" which have extra effects against outsiders. There's also three new spells, with fool's teleport my favourite (it looks like you've teleported away, but really you've just become invisible).
* Occultist: Apparently Osirion is a place of particular strength for occultists, which makes sense. This book introduces a new archetype, the "Reliquarian"--it makes use of religious relics and essentially makes the occultist into a divine caster with one cleric domain. Several new sacred implements are also introduced, themed to particular Core20 deities.
* Psychic: It makes sense that Vudra would have a higher concentration of psychics, but I like the idea that Numeria has several as well due to the influence of strange alien technology there. This book introduces some new phrenic amplifications which look okay, and two new disciplines: enlightenment and rebirth. Both are good, and I actually chose rebirth a long time ago when I made my psychic-monk, Arrius Vext.
* Spiritualist: Spiritualists apparently have a very complicated reception on Golarion, with suspicion from the Church of Pharasma and fear (or disdain) from common folk. There's a new archetype, the Fated Guide, which involves a phantom that Pharasma has sent back to Material Plane with very little memory. I don't quite get it. There's also a new emotional focus, Remorse, that has a great story theme (though I don't understand how it works in practice, having never played a spiritualist).
Next up, the book has four pages of occult-themed archetypes for non-occult classes. There's a "Mind Sword" archetype for paladins (giving up lay on hands and channelling? I don't think so!), a "Serpent Fire" archetype for monks (all chakra-based), a weird "Supernaturalist" archetype for druids, a fairly-interesting "Harrowed Society Student" archetype for arcanists, an "Id Rager" archetype for bloodragers, and a "True Silvered Throne" archetype for shamans (it's themed to relate to the Esoteric Order of the Palantine Eye, but lacks any real flavour).
Feats are the subject of the next two pages. Many of the concepts are fantastic, but their effects are unfortunately bland (a minor numerical bonus to a save or a skill). Feats are more interesting when they allow you to do something you couldn't do before, not when they just provide a bump to a dice roll--there are enough of those in the game already. Still, I love the idea of something like the Cranial Implantation feat, where you walk around with needles inserted into your brain!
Two pages are spent on Occult Rituals, and there are some really nicely-flavoured ones tying into lore elements like the Jistka, the Peacock Spirit, and the Sarkoris God-Callers.
Last up are four pages on new spells. Some are available to traditional arcane or divine casters, while others are for psychic casters only. I think my favourite is jealous rage, which makes a character murderously angry if someone is the recipient of a beneficial spell and they're not. Other good spells include ectoplasmic hand and mind over matter, though I think subjective reality is overpowered with no saving throw.
And there we have it. To my mind the greatest value in the book is how it helps to incorporate occult themes into the Golarion campaign setting. The new rules elements will probably be more hit or miss depending on what you're looking for. Still, it's a book I could definitely imagine using.
I don't think this is a terrible product, by any means. I just feel insulted.
It helps pull in some flavour in some circumstances, and tries to break it in others. The Serpent Fire monk archetype does what it says on the tin and is something that /really/ should have been in Occult Adventures as opposed to this book, as much as I want to like the Karmic monk. The divine spin on Occultist isn't executed great. But enough about all that lame-o pathfinder stuff, let's get down to the meaty avatar/D&D big draw, eh?
The biggest draw for you would probably be the kineticist elements, right? I know it was mine! But I'll say it now; the kineticists are half broken, half flavourless, and a big ol' heaping helping of unclear. Whouh. You think the Occultist was a slog to get through in the original OA? At least it had words. You'll be wishing for rule salad.
We'll start with Phytokineticist, the wood one. First thing you'll notice: The basic utility power is missing. They just forgot to even put it in the book. Ouch. Big ouch. It's not a huge deal, it's what you expect. Trims bushes, does nothing else. But that doesn't make it better; even if you're not missing much, that's still the ICONIC ABILITY of the entire class missing, and somehow that still doesn't take away much!
Phytokineticist. All I can say is "Why didn't you take earth kineticist?". It doesn't do much different from earth kineticist. It even gives you jagged flesh. The defensive power? It gives you some natural armor, which is worse than earth's DR and worse than water's armor/shield bonus. Depending on the campaign you're running, it's worse than searing flesh. The other abilities, things like being able to deal nonlethal damage easily, are all too demanding. You have to be fourth level to effectively deal nonlethal damage, and 9th level to get a VERY mild toxin (maybe sickened for one round? For 3 burn? You kidding me?). The rest almost entirely emulate geokineticist powers, but worse. 90% of the wild talents that are feasibly usable seem to be composite blasts and the rest require you to be ridiculously high level to get mild low level effects. You would do immensely better to just be a fey/verdant sorcerer.
The Void/Chaos/Negative energy/Gravity kineticist is...okay. You get either negative energy or gravity. Gravity is basically just air blasts so you can use the cool negative energy powers while not being useless while fighting undead. Negative energy is a energy blast, so it's pretty good, if you don't plan on running into undead often. If you do...All I can tell you is to take some levels in Life Oracle, play overwhelming, and hope your charisma bonus can give you enough channel uses to not be completely worthless.
Oh, yeah, you don't get a way to bypass the undead not being effected by your blasts. You know, how every other kineticist gets draining infusions, and how fire can sear away fire resistance? Yeah you don't get that here. Draining infusion? Rules as written, it doesn't work, Unless somehow you come across a negative energy elemental. Good luck finding that. You'll need it.
I, and others, tried to ask the developers several times, if draining infusion worked. Never answered, as far as I could tell. Maybe it was, somewhere in the dozens/hundreds of posts in the product discussion. If I cant find it in 20 seconds, though, it should count as completely broken. When you buy a book, it needs to work on it's own. I can understand a editing error or something where you need to put up a FAQ or some very obscure usage where you need to form surf, that's not great, but I can't hold it against you. But this is Kineticist. You get one job when you take this class. ONE JOB. You need to know how to do it. The book doesn't tell you, leaving you and your GM guessing. Spark of life as a phytokineticist, or void kineticist? Screw you.
Then we move on to it's other abilities. Basic utility talent is pretty sweet, on paper. You can create shadows that protect from bright light, increase carrying capacity, and even give small bonuses to acrobatics due to your gravity powers. Oh, and uh, for void kineticists you get gravity and negative energy powers regardless of the blast. Honestly this needed it, so I don't mind
"But wait!", you say, "Protect from bright light? What does this mean?"
You don't take penalties from bright light.
"What kind of penalties?"
Screw you. Stop thinking about it. This isn't a book for smart people. Shhhhhh. No, I took it upon myself to ask. Then I realized several people had asked before me. The devs never responded, so I heckled them until they did. They answered with
"If, and only if, you have some condition that causes bright light to give you penalties, this negates those penalties.
That's it. Full stop. Just like it says, with no other interactions."
So, what counts as that? Vampires protect from daylight, right? No, actually. It means the specific "Bright light" condition, and only that condition, you actually get the same amount of light, so daylight still hurts. Stealth penalties from the bright light condition, right? Those penalties are there specifically from the concept of "Bright Light" in the rulebooks, so it works, right? No, they told me, it doesn't protect from that, because it doesn't reduce the amount of light that hits and reflects off of you.
Yes.
You heard me right.
It creates a shadow that doesn't exist so you can ignore penalties that may or may not exist and some penalties that exist because of the concept of bright light still effect you anyways, except when it doesn't.
WHAT.
No. WHAT?!
The other aspects of Void kineticists, I could go on. There are some cool ones, like creating actual darkness, not having to breath anymore (Awesome), and using gravity mind waves to throw yourself. But really, this is all I'll say more on the matter of the Void kineticist.
They missed the basic point of kineticists. The point is to actually, PHYSICALLY, primally, control the elements. The geokineticist isn't supposed to have some weird bass-ackwards conditions. It's not supposed to have a dozen asterisks on the end of each ability that say "*only applicable in very situational circumstances wherein your caster level exceeds the base 12 strength of a stone crafted by no more than twelve peasant--" NO. You PICK UP 25 POUNDS OF ROCKS AND THROW THEM. No big slog. No intense planning required for every circumstance, no 20ft long list of rules. You are the rock man. You do rocks. That's what you do.
The Void Kineticist? It's just rules. It's just being a really bad sorcerer. That's all it does. It misses the fundamental basis of kineticists as a whole.
As for the other classes:
I hate the medium class on it's own, and the archetypes here don't change that. If you like the base medium, and you want to give this one a spin, I can't say much.
For the mesmerist, some of the tricks seem needlessly nerfed. In one, you can share senses for up to a minute per level, unless you ever open your eyes in which case it immediately ends it and wastes the trick. Why? Is it really game breaking? Couldn't it just be a swift action to delay/restart the trick, with time still wasting either way? Slip bonds is alright, but incredibly situational and I can't see an instance where you'd pick it over the better ones like psychosomatic surge. One of them allows you to make people carry messages without knowing they did it, but you have to volunteer to a mesmerist's tricks so I don't see the point. They add new mesmerist gazes, and some of them are pretty useful. Not worth the asking price of physical, not even really the 10 bucks of PDF.
The divine occultist archetype, Reliquarian. It's what you'd expect and doesn't break the mold at all. I was disappointed with it. It might be my ignorance in Occultist implements, but the book gives you a few suggestions as to what your holy relic is, and then immediately tells you to get stuffed because the necromancy implement is a coin instead of the fingerbone of a saint like it suggested.
I fell asleep reading the the new Psychic rules.
Spiritualist archetype referenced a feat from a book I don't have on me at the moment. It kind of seems like that's what it's hanging on, so if you don't have inner sea guide on you, it's a big window shopping experience that leads nowhere. The remorse emotional focus is ok.
The serpent fire adept, a monk archetype for opening the chakras, is a good archetype. It does it's job. Being a monk, especially one focused on the chakras, it's still as weak as Limbo's tax code.
At around this point the book lost all interest to me. It just couldn't keep me with it's mild successes and huge pitfalls.
Again, it's not a terrible book. I just feel disappointed.
The Good: I can't think of a moment when the book made me want to scream in anger.
The Bad: I was smouldering on a low "What the hell, man?" setting the entire time. It insults your intelligence and doesn't put forth half the effort it should.
The Ugly: You'll never get to be a cool wood-bender and you'll have to be stepping on eggshells with the rules every 5 seconds as a void kineticist. The rest of the book evokes no strong emotions. Just disappointment and very mild enjoyment.
Occult Origins is definitely the best of the Origins books to date. Paizo has refined the series with each successive book. Occult Origins is a book of mostly “crunch” (i.e. mechanical rules options for characters), but it is the best kind of crunch—the kind that supports the flavour of the setting as well as giving characters fun new options. The material in this book is full of flavour that both expands the world of Golarion and expands our understanding of it. And this only serves to enhance the gaming experience.
Uses the harrow deck (or a simple d6 translation)
Psychic Reader (Ex): replaces 1st-level arcanist exploit; gains some class skills (weird place to gain them), and Psychic Sensitivity as a bonus feat.
Harrow Reservoir (Ex): replaces consume spell; harrow reading as a 5 minute ritual, gain some points for arcane reservoir.
Divine the Mysteries (Ex): gain some divine spells to her spells known.
Trump Card (Su): replacing 9th-level arcanist exploit; gain an insight bonus to one of a list of things, depending on the harrow card drawn:
caster level check, saving throw, damage roll, initiative check, hit point healing or skill check.
Sarkorian God summoning: only mentioned in a small paragraph.
basic chaokinesis:
shield you from light, or change gravity (for increased carrying capacity or bonus to Acrobatics check) for one creature.
Id Bloodrager looks amazing! The lack of slam attacks will make some options worse, certainly, but the flavor's awesome. Love the Nex Medium and Serpent-Fire Monk too. :)
New tricks:
Chain of Eyes (see through subject's eyes for a time)
Slip Bonds (Escape Artist bonus, trigger to "blink" out of bondage)
Unwitting Messenger (subject delivers spoken message, retains no memories of message)
New Masterful Tricks:
Concealing Veil (nondetection for several rounds when triggered)
Willful Ignorance (trigger to make a lie undetectable)
NEW: Chelaxian Devilbane Gazes
New options for bold stare; their effects are narrower. When used against outsiders, double the penalty.
Binding: Charisma checks/SR vs. planar binding
Dampening: energy resistance
Dismissal: summoning effects used by/conjured by are reduced
Impediment: Must concentrate to use SLAs
Mundanity: spell resistance
Withering: attack and damage (outsider only; not doubled)
Yes it does function as the Wooden Phalanx spell except you always get 4 golems also after you rest you automatically summon them without taking burn. If you have any of the season composite blast one of your golems gains an additional ability.
Spring- fly speed.
Summer- fire immunity(cold vuln.) attacks do fire damage.
Fall- burrow speed.
Winter- attacks do extra cold damage.
One benefit to each golem. The duration last until you recover burn or until all the golems or destroyed.
Death pact - a variation on dominate person that includes a "self-destruct" trigger.
Fool's teleport - you and allies become invisible, while making it seem as though you had teleported away.
Phantom limb - conjure a limb of ectoplasm; can either perform new functions or replace a missing limb. Eyepatch and sexy sniper not included.
Psychonaut manifestation - subject your self to a randomized mutagen/cognatogen; re-randomize with effort (or end up dazed for a round)
Hey just wanted to ask what level are the forest siege and wood soldiers meant to be? They're listed as 9 but the quick overview of talents available to Phytokineticists stops at 8 and includes both talents
Question about the void kineticist. What Infusions can Negative Admixture be used with? Technically, this composite blast is not listed as a compatable option for any infusion and I don't think it says it counts as another type for prerequisites. Is Negative Admixture supposed to work with anything that works with a 'negative' blast?
Mark. In future books, will we expect to expand on the options each element gets, by chance? Or are we stuck with wood and void being a little low on content?
This is exactly why I don't really get excited anymore on new material as opposed to expanded material. Because these new material never get expanded.
"This is exactly why I don't really get excited anymore on new material as opposed to expanded material. Because these new material never get expanded."
Owen. Mark. This is my fear as well. Can we get assurance that this will be expanded on by future content patches? =)
If we have the right book, and the right writer, I'll be happy to expand the material. But no, I can't promise that it'll happen. I will note that things like bardic masterwork performances, subdomains, style feats, downtime rules, story feats, and even archetypes were "new material" when they were introduced, and have all seen ongoing support.
OTOH, words of power, bargaining rules, and mass combat really haven't seen support, and there are reasons for that. Some of those are space and utility, but we also pay attention to how the community receives a rule set and what we think of it as time marches on.
I'm a big fan of alternate element breakdowns from other cultures, so I'd love to see more for these, but that's space taken up for one build of one class. We'll see how it goes.
If we have the right book, and the right writer, I'll be happy to expand the material. But no, I can't promise that it'll happen. I will note that things like bardic masterwork performances, subdomains, style feats, downtime rules, story feats, and even archetypes were "new material" when they were introduced, and have all seen ongoing support.
OTOH, words of power, bargaining rules, and mass combat really haven't seen support, and there are reasons for that. Some of those are space and utility, but we also pay attention to how the community receives a rule set and what we think of it as time marches on.
I'm a big fan of alternate element breakdowns from other cultures, so I'd love to see more for these, but that's space taken up for one build of one class. We'll see how it goes.
Will there be any upcoming books that describe how the new Occult classes fit into the world of Golarion ?
Also any possible novels that feature the new classes ?
Pathfinder Tales: Liar's Island seemed to have a teaser of some material from OA but would love to see more.
If we have the right book, and the right writer, I'll be happy to expand the material. But no, I can't promise that it'll happen. I will note that things like bardic masterwork performances, subdomains, style feats, downtime rules, story feats, and even archetypes were "new material" when they were introduced, and have all seen ongoing support.
OTOH, words of power, bargaining rules, and mass combat really haven't seen support, and there are reasons for that. Some of those are space and utility, but we also pay attention to how the community receives a rule set and what we think of it as time marches on.
I'm a big fan of alternate element breakdowns from other cultures, so I'd love to see more for these, but that's space taken up for one build of one class. We'll see how it goes.
Will there be any upcoming books that describe how the new Occult classes fit into the world of Golarion ?
Also any possible novels that feature the new classes ?
Pathfinder Tales: Liar's Island seemed to have a teaser of some material from OA but would love to see more.
One suspects, in addition to this book, Occult Realms will discuss at least some of this.
The Id Rager confuses me with what exactly it receives from the Phantom's abilities, but specifically does it get built-in stuff like the Phantom's slams, Dex and Charisma increases and natural armor bonus?
If we have the right book, and the right writer, I'll be happy to expand the material. But no, I can't promise that it'll happen. I will note that things like bardic masterwork performances, subdomains, style feats, downtime rules, story feats, and even archetypes were "new material" when they were introduced, and have all seen ongoing support.
OTOH, words of power, bargaining rules, and mass combat really haven't seen support, and there are reasons for that. Some of those are space and utility, but we also pay attention to how the community receives a rule set and what we think of it as time marches on.
I'm a big fan of alternate element breakdowns from other cultures, so I'd love to see more for these, but that's space taken up for one build of one class. We'll see how it goes.
I should have specified by saying I hardly get excited at new class material. The ones oh mentioned belong to a generic character (anyone can take Style feats) or belong to a core class (bardic performance).
Advanced Player's Guide receives more support probably because of its long PF history by now. But it is a rare gem to see a new Grit feat, Ninja archetype, Bloodrager bloodline etc.
So about this serpent fire monk I keep hearing about...
Trade in a bunch of bonus feats and abilities to be less bad at opening/maintaining chakras. At 8th, opening one lets you use it for a round for free. At 16th, you get two rounds for each one you open.
Upon looking at the Kineticist elements, there is a serious problem with every non-universal infusion for Wood and Void from Occult Adventures: They don't have listed associated blasts.
It is unclear if Pushing is available for both Gravity and Negative Blast or if any Wood Composite Blast can use Deadly Earth, Entangling, Impale or Pushing.
Upon looking at the Kineticist elements, there is a serious problem with every non-universal infusion for Wood and Void from Occult Adventures: They don't have listed associated blasts.
It is unclear if Pushing is available for both Gravity and Negative Blast or if any Wood Composite Blast can use Deadly Earth, Entangling, Impale or Pushing.
EDIT: I just checked, and indeed the intros (in the simple blast text) tell you the associated blasts.
Upon looking at the Kineticist elements, there is a serious problem with every non-universal infusion for Wood and Void from Occult Adventures: They don't have listed associated blasts.
It is unclear if Pushing is available for both Gravity and Negative Blast or if any Wood Composite Blast can use Deadly Earth, Entangling, Impale or Pushing.
EDIT: I just checked, and indeed the intros (in the simple blast text) tell you the associated blasts.
Phew! Thanks Mark, I was really worried there for a second. I was afraid the elements would get lost in the Player Companion FAQ purgatory. >_>
Sarkorian God summoning: only mentioned in a small paragraph.
Oh PLEASE tell me your kidding...that was what I was most looking foreword to :( <stomps off to have a tantrum>
This isn't actually true. There's a whole occult ritual from Sarkoris used by god-summoner-types to grant a band of warriors bonuses, at the price of the primary ritualist being possessed by spirits in a somewhat unpleasant fashion.
Upon looking at the Kineticist elements, there is a serious problem with every non-universal infusion for Wood and Void from Occult Adventures: They don't have listed associated blasts.
It is unclear if Pushing is available for both Gravity and Negative Blast or if any Wood Composite Blast can use Deadly Earth, Entangling, Impale or Pushing.
EDIT: I just checked, and indeed the intros (in the simple blast text) tell you the associated blasts.
I think this is true for all blasts except for Negative Admixture. Currently, I don't think Negative Admixture can be combined with anything. Is it supposed to be usable with all infusions that can be used with Negative Blast?
Unfortunately, I have to say that over all, I'm pretty disappointed in the book. I was looking really forward to having more options for my Mesmerist I've started, but most of the stuff for mesmerists seems to be rather.. flat.
Like all the new bold stare things, most of which is far too specific to really use, or just doesn't give enough imo.
However there are a few spells I like, and hope to get them in the future. Like "Selective Reality" a flipping crazy spell with a lot of utility. Like how you can look at an object and ignore it. So you could do that do a door, wall, bridge, bolder of death, pool of non magical acid, etc.
The part I'm a little confused on is if you get attacked with a magic sword, would they swing right through you, or will they do half damage?
Then there is Out of Sight. A spell that could allow you to perfectly be The Silence.
I do also note.. There is a feat that basically lets you or other people become Pinhead.
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