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.
Yes but do he allow his priests to kill druids who don't help the party which indirectly leads to the death of another party member is I guess my question...
Yes but do he allow his priests to kill druids who don't help the party which indirectly leads to the death of another party member is I guess my question...
Doesn't say anything about Druids but he loathes frauds, cheaters, and dishonesty.
Meditate in a private place before a trophy or broken religious symbol taken from a target you have been contracted to kill. This trophy must be anointed with a single drop of your blood, drawn from your flesh by a sawtooth sabre, and the trophy must be destroyed at the end of your meditation. If you have yet to complete a contract, have no appropriate trophies at hand, or seek to serve the Mantis God in other ways than as the god’s assassin, you must instead offer your own vital fluid to He Who Walks in Blood by cutting yourself along the right arm with a sawtooth sabre. Such self-mutilation deals 1d6 points of damage to you, which cannot be healed during the hour of meditation without disrupting the obedience; after the meditation ends, the wounds can be healed by any means available.
Naderi:
Collect two unblemished white rose blossoms, open to their fullest but without any wilted petals. Stand beside a river and cut the blossoms from the stems, then set them on the water to float downstream. Meditate upon the beautiful perfection of love and the imperfection of a life that would deny it to star-crossed lovers.
Damn Naderi's is gonna be hard if you travel a lot.
Rysky, can you tell me a bit about Apsu and his cult?
Well it does add more fuel to the ApsuxIomedae fire.
It has flat out says he has not created any oracles, and that aside from fighting evil dragons his followers are all about building up defenses, whether they be a single structure or whole settlement.
I'd like some details on Gyronna, Hanspur, and Kugress if there's any.
Gyronna is... unpleasant.... and Hanspur and his followers REALLY don't like Daemons.
Also, he haz Antipaladin code.
Kurgress' Obedience... I could have... so much fun with that.... I love it... It's more fun than Calistria's!
Getting a shot in the dark and guessing this is either:
1)In the morning, do a training montage while singing an appropriate theme song.
2)In the morning, do a training montage by wrestling naked and covered with grappler's grease with someone.
3)Both at the same time!
I'd like some details on Gyronna, Hanspur, and Kugress if there's any.
Gyronna is... unpleasant.... and Hanspur and his followers REALLY don't like Daemons.
Also, he haz Antipaladin code.
Kurgress' Obedience... I could have... so much fun with that.... I love it... It's more fun than Calistria's!
Getting a shot in the dark and guessing this is either:
1)In the morning, do a training montage while singing an appropriate theme song.
2)In the morning, do a training montage by wrestling naked and covered with grappler's grease with someone.
3)Both at the same time!
So is Apsu the Nirvana dragon? And Dahak just big red dragon?
How did they write their backstory now that Tiamat isn't in Pathfinder canon even as mention?
Is demigod with statblock version of Achaekek somehow addressed? :D Yeah, I'd guess not, but I can be hopeful that those stats would be usable setting wise xD
So is Apsu the Nirvana dragon? And Dahak just big red dragon?
How did they write their backstory now that Tiamat isn't in Pathfinder canon even as mention?
Is demigod with statblock version of Achaekek somehow addressed? :D Yeah, I'd guess not, but I can be hopeful that those stats would be usable setting wise xD
Who are heralds for each god?
No mention of the Nirvana dragon. Dhaka is a REALLY big red dragon, which makes sense, since he made the mortal dragons in his image... so that he could hunt them down and destroy... more teenage angst!
Tiamat is still canon, and still in here.
No. They they could make sense as an avatar? lol now that I, ya'know, actually read the thing this is addressed in Achaekek's Herald, which says he is constantly mistaken for his god in mortal form come to deliver his judgement.
Does Sivanah's obedience give a +2 DC to illusion for any version? There's at least two other obediences (Mahathallah and Mestama) that do, so it would be weird if she doesn't.
Rysky wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:
Is demigod with statblock version of Achaekek somehow addressed? :D Yeah, I'd guess not, but I can be hopeful that those stats would be usable setting wise xD
Who are heralds for each god?
No. They they could make sense as an avatar? lol now that I, ya'know, actually read the thing this is addressed in Achaekek's Herald, which says he is constantly mistaken for his god in mortal form come to deliver his judgement.
Is the herald CR 30 vs. others at CR 15? Because otherwise, nope.
Apsu - Oregenus, silver dragon that wears spectacles.
Besmara - Kelpie's Wrath, a horny ship. I'm not kidding.
Brigh - Latten Mechanism, a living siege engine that appreciate delicate clockwork objects such as music boxes and jumping animals.
Dahak - Kronoroth (probably my favourite), a white dragon that impales the heads of metallic dragons on her spines of black ice.
Ghlaunder - Bloodboat, mosquito-thing that has fed on divinities.
Groetus - End's Voice
Gyronna - Hebdanke
Hanspur - Ashkaelae’s Brood, a swarm of rats with a single mind that are descended from Hanspur's mortal animal companion.
Kurgess - Watcher Surmios (ties with Kron for my favorite herald) an angel that was watching over Korgess when he sacrificed himself and was by his side as he ascended to true divinity.
Milani - Courage Heart
Naderi - Arden and Lysena, they are attached by a red ribbon going around one wrist to the other, they are believed to be two souls that merged into one.
Sivanah - Ai, a Trumpet archon?! that likes to hijack summons performed by followers of Zon-Kuthon, pretending to be the correct summon through disguise until a pivotal moment.
Zyphus - Gravedragger, don't know why, but I get a Five Nights at Freddy's vibe form this one.
Does Sivanah's obedience give a +2 DC to illusion for any version? There's at least two other obediences (Mahathallah and Mestama) that do, so it would be weird if she doesn't.
Rysky wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:
Is demigod with statblock version of Achaekek somehow addressed? :D Yeah, I'd guess not, but I can be hopeful that those stats would be usable setting wise xD
Who are heralds for each god?
No. They they could make sense as an avatar? lol now that I, ya'know, actually read the thing this is addressed in Achaekek's Herald, which says he is constantly mistaken for his god in mortal form come to deliver his judgement.
Is the herald CR 30 vs. others at CR 15? Because otherwise, nope.
Well the Tarrasque isn't CR 15.... won't know for certain though, the only mechanics/stats in this book are for the Obediances.
Groetus Obedience: If you're in a populated area, go around preaching the end of the world for an hour to those who haven't accepted that it is nigh. If you're unable to do that, contemplate the apocalypse in solitude in a place others never venture and deface a surface with the symbol of the skull-faced moon. Gives a +1 Sacred or Profane bonus to Will saves.
I am a fan of how it captures the crazed-steetcorner-doomsday-profit vibe.
By Nirvana Dragon I meant "Does Apsu look like green dragon with eastern dragon head/whiskers?"
But yeah, thanks for answers :D
Can't access my book atm but this one is odd, at the opener it has a picture of a massive silver dragon, and at each page corner for Apsu's chapter it has a headshot of said silver dragon, for all the other gods they have their headshot in those corners as well.
But then at the end of the chapter they have a picture of the Nirvana Dragon as well, but I didn't read any context pertaining to it. Will investigate later.
Shoot, this one I'll even post word for word. I'm not pasting it from this book though, but from Archive of Nethys. Brigh's full write up came in one of the Iron Gods. I'd look to see which, but I'm a state away from my books right now.
Obedience
While reciting formulas from Logic of Design, you must craft a new creation, continue work on an elaborate device or object, or disassemble an existing creation to see how it works. Share the knowledge you discover while working on this project. Gain a +4 sacred bonus on Disable Device checks.
By Nirvana Dragon I meant "Does Apsu look like green dragon with eastern dragon head/whiskers?"
But yeah, thanks for answers :D
Can't access my book atm but this one is odd, at the opener it has a picture of a massive silver dragon, and at each page corner for Apsu's chapter it has a headshot of said silver dragon, for all the other gods they have their headshot in those corners as well.
But then at the end of the chapter they have a picture of the Nirvana Dragon as well, but I didn't read any context pertaining to it. Will investigate later.
Huh, curious ._. Maybe they did forget they had made art of Apsu (the nirvana dragon that wasn't originally Apsu but was made to be Apsu later) or did they decide to get new art for him anyway?
Well, eagearly waiting if that is also explained in the book :D
Yessum! I was honored by Amanda in being allowed to write Apsu & Dahak.
Dragons... DRAGONS! O_O
Nice.
You successfully took him, in my eyes, from a non-descript God of evil dragons with nothing known to an awesome monster who has made his own hell, while at the same time was put there. I especially like his Obediances and Antipaladin code, as it greatly avoids Chaotic Stupid and adds a lot of depth, and angst, to the dragon. Dood needs a hug.
*hugs Thursty for proxy*
Was there any information that didn't get in that you'd like to reveal? :3