Across the Inner Sea region, few things are as ubiquitous as faith and religion. However, among the myriad nations and cultures, worship and devotion isn't limited to only the area's most widely acknowledged deities. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Faiths sheds light on 15 lesser-known deities who nonetheless offer great power to their followers, granting spiritual might to any characters willing to offer devotion. Inside this book you'll find details about these gods' histories, dogmas, and practices, all designed to enrich your campaigns with divine lore, including:
In-depth articles about the Inner Sea region's more esoteric divinities, from Achaekek, god of divine punishment and patron of the deadly Red Mantis assassins, to Besmara, the lusty queen of pirates and tamer of the fierce beasts that dwell beneath the waves, to Milani, vehement enemy of tyranny and slavery, to Naderi, goddess of romantic tragedy and forbidden love.
Guidance on how to play an adventurer or create an NPC devoted to a particular god, including the clothing, texts, and holidays sacred to the faithful, as well as aphorisms common among their ranks.
Obediences and boons that can empower all worshipers of each divinity, especially those with levels in prestige classes devoted to their faith.
Details about each divinity's standing in the Great Beyond, as well as a look into the gods' personal extraplanar realms.
Insight into the fascinating creatures that serve each divinity, including the unique astral deva who heralds Kurgess, the Strong Man, and the veiled trumpet archon who heralds Sivanah, the Seventh Veil.
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Faiths is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be adapted to any fantasy world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-825-0
Note:Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Faiths is an extra-large volume, totalling 96-pages rather than the standard 64-page format.
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I love this book just as much as I love Inner Sea Gods, and it has seen a lot of use in my games. It is full of evocative and flavourful information that can form the basis of all kinds of characters and adventures. I particularly like that it uses its full space for this information and doesn’t feel the need to include numerous new feats and spells. I now have ideas for about fifteen new campaigns that I will probably never have time to run, but it’s fun to have the ideas anyway!
While the book is basically Inner Sea Gods: Part 2, I'd argue it is an even better addition to the system. While Inner Sea Gods updated the old AP articles and put them in one place for people to find, this book serves to breath life into many of the minor deities of the Inner Sea that hadn't gotten one before.
Honestly, it has given me more ideas for characters, villains, and adventures than anything I can recently recall. Whether you are more often a player or GM, if you find deities and religions at all compelling I'd say this is the #1 campaign setting book you should pick up this year.
I want to add my voice to the other positive reviews. Inner Sea Gods is also my favorite book that Paizo has published. ISF is a good book, but it is not as great as ISG. That may be due to constraints of length or other factors to which I am not privy.
I'm writing this review because I have read that these reviews help the developers know what to develop. I would very much like to see the deities and their cults receive more attention and more detail, so here we go.
The Good:
The lore this book contains is, without a doubt, the best part. If you don't care about the origins and motivations of deities and those who follow them, buy a different book. ISF, got me excited about deities like Besmara who I never before found interesting, while also giving me rich details about deities I already found interesting. Her section made me want to be a pirate. I think that's the highest praise that I can give as a consumer. The author(s?) of that section painted a vivid enough picture that a new perspective became compelling.
The Bad:
Some of the Obediences could have been better fleshed out. The best Obediences give you at least two options on how to appease your god: one needs to be something you don't need other people or specific locations. Some of these did not. Nobody wants their divine powers turned off because they couldn't find find someone to whom they could brag or whom they could bully.
Some of the Boons evoked the "who would want that?" (which may be a failure of my imagination and not the design) or "why is that so bad?" (Seriously, Mahathallah has better illusionists than Sivanah. Does that seem right to anyone?) Also, if you give a boon that effects Channel Energy, then let Exalted levels stack with Cleric levels for that ability. Let Sarenrae's exalted boon be your guide. If you don't, them you make that boon suck for your Exalted and unlikely to ever come up if you go straight cleric given how late access boons are without the appropriate prestige classes.
However many of the other Boons were good. (Besmara lets her evangelists summon sea monsters she has bullied and even coerce people themselves with her divine charisma. How cool is that?)
Some alignment appropriate deities did not have paladin or anti-paladin codes. Ghaulander is CE and is a god of disease. There is no doubt in my mind that he has anti-paladins and that they have specific beliefs. One of my favorite parts of ISG was the alternate paladin codes. Paladins have codes tailored to their patron makes so much sense, and makes them much more fun to play. You guys struck gold with that innovation. Keep mining it.
There were some editing and grammar errors, but it only confused or annoyed me a couple of times. It's only a minor complaint.
The Odd:
Achaeckek is now a full god (with 5 Domains) rather than a demigod. It seems a bad call on the pantheon's part to let him get bigger than a demigod. He is an assassin after all. :-p
What Improvements I Would Like:
ISG was so great because it gave feats and spells specific to each religion. This book could have greatly benefitted from such additions along with the missing Heralds. I know some of these gods got feats in ISG, but I want more. I understand that there might have been space constraints. I would have paid more. If this book had been ISG Volume 2, I would be giving it 5 stars, and want to give it 6. Seriously, I would be grateful to have the honor of giving you $10 more.
TL;DNR?
Consumers: buy this book for the excellent lore, but temper your expectations: many of the boons are either not as cool or not as thematic as they were in ISG.
Developers: please make more books in this vein, but more in the style of ISG. ISG seemed to sell well. You guys have a market here. Please exploit it and take our money. It's not like you don't have more gods to detail.
Honestly, how much you will like/use this book depends on the mileage you got out of Inner Sea Gods.
Take whatever rating you would put Inner Sea Gods and subtract a single star: That is the rating of this book.
I LOVE ISG, so this book is still of great value to me.
However, it falls a bit short of it's predecessor.
Why's that?
Each minor god get's the ISG treatment, but only to a degree.
*We open up with a Deific Obedience and some boons, all of which are flavorful but many of which are near impossible to complete regularly (Good luck finding two unblemished white roses and a nearby stream every day you adventure).
*We then get a sidebar about the god, paladin and antipaladin codes for the god, but oddly not for every god that could have paladins/antipaladins (What makes an antipaladin of Ghlaunder special?).
*The next portion is fairly straitforward:
Understanding the God, the Church, Temples and Shrines, *picture of a worshiper*,a Priest's Role, Adventures, Clothing, Holy Text, *Picture of the deity*, Holidays, Aphorisms, Relations with Other Religeons, Realm, Planar Allies. Nothing too odd.
*Variant casting abilities for the faithful are mentioned at the tail end of A Priest's Role, except for the dragon gods, who have none mentioned.
*Heralds for those who have been printed in Adventure Paths (Brigh, Milani, Besmara, Zyphus) are referenced to the appropriate AP; other heralds are described but not stated.
*The sidebars from ISG about deity appropriate spells, items, feats, etc is completely absent.
*Mechanical resources beyond Deific Obedience are also absent; players looking for faith specific magic items will need to dig through ISG (though it looks like each minor god does get at least one magic item there) and conjurists looking to invoke their god's servitor race or herald will need to work with their GM more than Core Deities.
These points all drag down the overall usefulness of the book.
That said, this book DOES provide some wonderful background information of each minor god.
no longer will we be tormented with figuring out just what to call followers of Zyphus (the answer is Zyphens).
Dahak is fleshed out into something other than a draconic parody of Rovagug.
The mysterious Alseta and Naderi are finally unveiled! (The mysterious Sivanah is still mysterious. That's her shtick).
Inner Sea Gods is perhaps my favorite campaign setting book for Pathfinder, so seeing several of the "lesser" deities get the same treatment in Inner Sea Faiths was very exciting for me. The book contains deific obediences and evangelist/exalted/sentinel boons for each of 15 deities, and aside from that, the book contains pure setting info for the gods. I do like deity-specific items and spells, but I was more excited to see information about the history and worship of these deities. Alseta and Naderi were the ones I was most interested in, but I was also excited to see more about Achaekek, Sivanah, Hanspur, and Groetus. There's at least one deity of every alignment, so there should be something for a variety of play choices.
Player Companions should go bimonthly with 64 pages and alternate with 96 page Campaign Setting books. Owen is doing arguably amazing job with the line and recent books such as the incredibly amazeballs Dirty Tactics Toolbox and Monster Summoner Handbook spark the question of what could Owen do given more horizontal dead tree space.
I concur on all accounts. At the least I think bi-minthly pcs would be good.
Me? Not so much. I like as is. I do understand taking March off, but completely resetting the whole Player Companion line/model? I would not care to go there.
I, for one, welcome our new cray-cray, emotionally unstable god overlords.
I'm looking forward to the new format: considering that I usually buy PDFs, I'm more inclined to buy books that are closer to the Chronicles of the righteous format and price than those of the recent Inner Sea Races.
And more spaced out, but more fleshed out player companions sounds like a good idea to me, too: the quality has gone up recently, and I'd like to see what Paizo could do with them having more space.
(Also, 68 pages looks like the perfect length for the original Medium *Hint Hint*)
Player Companions should go bimonthly with 64 pages and alternate with 96 page Campaign Setting books. Owen is doing arguably amazing job with the line and recent books such as the incredibly amazeballs Dirty Tactics Toolbox and Monster Summoner Handbook spark the question of what could Owen do given more horizontal dead tree space.
I concur on all accounts. At the least I think bi-minthly pcs would be good.
Me? Not so much. I like as is. I do understand taking March off, but completely resetting the whole Player Companion line/model? I would not care to go there.
I agree I rather enjoy this monthly dose of Golarion. I am disappointed, even if I do understand the reasons, that my March will be lacking in this department.
For me ideal will be format: PFCS 96 pages/monthly and PFPC 64 pages/bimonthly. Reasons: 64 pages books look better on shelf than 32 pages booklet. More material about CS - better to include information for new continents for example. More space to expand information for players - how much better will be Blood of the Moon with 32 more pages?
Personally I prefer more information on smaller number of topics than less information on twice amount of the topics. I think even for players will be easier to use new material from 64 pages PC line (smaller amount of books to search for options).
For me ideal will be format: PFCS 96 pages/monthly and PFPC 64 pages/bimonthly. Reasons: 64 pages books look better on shelf than 32 pages booklet. More material about CS - better to include information for new continents for example. More space to expand information for players - how much better will be Blood of the Moon with 32 more pages?
Personally I prefer more information on smaller number of topics than less information on twice amount of the topics. I think even for players will be easier to use new material from 64 pages PC line (smaller amount of books to search for options).
Our current standard is 10 64-page Campaign Settings and 12 32-page Player Companions for a total of 1,024 pages a year between those two lines.
A monthly 96-pager PLUS a bimonthly 64-pager is adding 50% more pages per year, so that's pretty unlikely to happen.
Our current standard is 10 64-page Campaign Settings and 12 32-page Player Companions for a total of 1,024 pages a year between those two lines.
A monthly 96-pager PLUS a bimonthly 64-pager is adding 50% more pages per year, so that's pretty unlikely to happen.
If I can't have both (96 pager and 64 pager) because I'm GM that meaning I prefer bigger CS line (96 pages monthly) with smaller PC line (32 pages bimonthly). But still valid option is change PC line to 64 pager bimonthly without changes to CS line. Depends what is easier to produce for Paizo. Even without changes I buy everything from this 2 lines.
I wonder how many 96 page campaign setting books can be done in a year without cloning being used.
About 6, assuming that those 6 books and the map folios are all that we do in the campaign setting line, and none of the other lines change page count.
More info on Sivanah, I love it. She (or he, we don't know) is one weird and mysterious deity. Sponsoring Razmir, being heavily persecuted in Nidal, living in the Maelstrom while feuding with the native proteans (while at the same time being a Neutral deity with the Protean domain) and who knows what else. I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Well... Unless things change through development, I *think* James Jacobs mentioned that all the deities that each got half a page in Inner Sea Gods (but excluding Razmir) will be covered (13 in all), plus Apsu and Dahak.
Of course, things could change before the release date next year, so...
Well... Unless things change through development, I *think* James Jacobs mentioned that all the deities that each got half a page in Inner Sea Gods (but excluding Razmir) will be covered (13 in all), plus Apsu and Dahak.
Of course, things could change before the release date next year, so...
Looking forward to finding out, anyways!
Carry on!
--C.
It's a book about deities and demigods. Razmir is neither, and therefore doesn't get an entry in the book. It's basically all the others plus Apsu and Dahak as mentioned above.
Well... Unless things change through development, I *think* James Jacobs mentioned that all the deities that each got half a page in Inner Sea Gods (but excluding Razmir) will be covered (13 in all), plus Apsu and Dahak.
Of course, things could change before the release date next year, so...
Looking forward to finding out, anyways!
Carry on!
--C.
It's a book about deities and demigods. Razmir is neither, and therefore doesn't get an entry in the book. It's basically all the others plus Apsu and Dahak as mentioned above.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Razmiran Priest wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Psiphyre wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
I can't wait to find who all 15 deities will be.
Well... Unless things change through development, I *think* James Jacobs mentioned that all the deities that each got half a page in Inner Sea Gods (but excluding Razmir) will be covered (13 in all), plus Apsu and Dahak.
Of course, things could change before the release date next year, so...
Looking forward to finding out, anyways!
Carry on!
--C.
It's a book about deities and demigods. Razmir is neither, and therefore doesn't get an entry in the book. It's basically all the others plus Apsu and Dahak as mentioned above.
Razmir is a deity! HE IS! HE IS!HE IS!
Just because he's got Mythic tiers and a couple of Divine Source path abilities... Oh, wait, if he had those then he could actually have clerics. He doesn't even have that.
You're worshiping a fraud! Now the Great Old Ones, they'll actually grant spells to their followers. Sure, you might have to pay the price of your sanity, but at least they're actually divine, more or less.
(In other words, taking what James Jacobs said above, this book should be detailing Achaekek, Alseta, Apsu, Besmara, Brigh, Dahak, Ghlaunder, Groetus, Gyronna, Hanspur, Kurgess, Milani, Naderi, Sivanah, and Zyphus.)
So, consulting my copy of Inner Sea Gods...Achaekek, Alseta, Apsu, Besmara, Brigh, Dahak, Ghlaunder, Groetus, Gyronna, Hanspur, Kurgess, Milani, Naderi, Sivanah, and Zyphus.
Hmm, I like Besmara, Brigh, Kurgess, and Sivanah, so might get this just for them...will have to see how finances look. Inner Sea Gods was quite good...well, mostly. Boots of the Earth and Stagger-Proof Boots aside.
Well... Unless things change through development, I *think* James Jacobs mentioned that all the deities that each got half a page in Inner Sea Gods (but excluding Razmir) will be covered (13 in all), plus Apsu and Dahak.
Of course, things could change before the release date next year, so...
Looking forward to finding out, anyways!
Carry on!
--C.
It's a book about deities and demigods. Razmir is neither, and therefore doesn't get an entry in the book. It's basically all the others plus Apsu and Dahak as mentioned above.
Razmir is a deity! HE IS! HE IS!HE IS!
Just because he's got Mythic tiers and a couple of Divine Source path abilities... Oh, wait, if he had those then he could actually have clerics. He doesn't even have that.
You're worshiping a fraud! Now the Great Old Ones, they'll actually grant spells to their followers. Sure, you might have to pay the price of your sanity, but at least they're actually divine, more or less.
(In other words, taking what James Jacobs said above, this book should be detailing Achaekek, Alseta, Apsu, Besmara, Brigh, Dahak, Ghlaunder, Groetus, Gyronna, Hanspur, Kurgess, Milani, Naderi, Sivanah, and Zyphus.)
If you don't believe in Razmir then why do you hate him so much!?.
Adding to my post above, I look forward to finally seeing official artwork of Apsu and Dahak. I'm sure the artists have more planned for them besides "bigger dragons."
Adding to my post above, I look forward to finally seeing official artwork of Apsu and Dahak. I'm sure the artists have more planned for them besides "bigger dragons."
We have had official artwork for Apsu for years; check out the Inner Sea World Guide, over in the planes section. Said art first showed up in the first hardcover Campaign Setting but without much in the way of an indication of who it was... some folks have taken to calling it a "Nirvana Dragon" but with the advent of the change from 3.5 to Pathfinder... it's Apsu!
(Had a close call, in fact, in house with some folks not realizing we'd illustrated Apsu years ago and hopefully managed to get the correct art from Inner Sea World Guide into the book at the last minute... will know for sure on Monday! Yikes!)
Dahak, for better or worse, is indeed just a "bigger dragon." But Apsu has a unique look. Of course, BOTH dragons can assume the form of any dragon they want. Being a deity is handy for things like that.
Adding to my post above, I look forward to finally seeing official artwork of Apsu and Dahak. I'm sure the artists have more planned for them besides "bigger dragons."
We have had official artwork for Apsu for years; check out the Inner Sea World Guide, over in the planes section. Said art first showed up in the first hardcover Campaign Setting but without much in the way of an indication of who it was... some folks have taken to calling it a "Nirvana Dragon" but with the advent of the change from 3.5 to Pathfinder... it's Apsu!
Also, this is the first time we've ever experimented with a 96-page campaign setting.
We're very interested in hearing what people think about the format, price, and size.
Since this book will be 96 pages, will we still be seeing a Player's Companion book for March? I only ask since no new player companion book was announced along with the other products.
Nope. We're skipping March in the Player Companion as a trade-off for this book, essentially.
It's an experiment!
One that I would like to voice makes me unhappy. As a GM of the Pathfinder RPG, but not its campaign setting (I run a Forgotten Realms game), less neutral game material that I could use is not a plus for those in my camp.
One that I would like to voice makes me unhappy. As a GM of the Pathfinder RPG, but not its campaign setting (I run a Forgotten Realms game), less neutral game material that I could use is not a plus for those in my camp.
Conversely, less setting-specific material in the setting-specific product lines would, I imagine, seem like a strange move to a large part of the target audience for those product lines.