Being an adventurer is a dangerous line of work, but the rewards are well worth the risk. The smartest adventurers never go it alone—they not only bring allies to help explore the dangerous reaches of the world, but also seek aid in the form of support, supplies, and secrets from powerful organizations. With such a group to serve as a guide, an adventuring party's chances for success have never been better!
Pathfinder RPG Adventurer's Guide presents several such organizations, each with its own suite of benefits and boons to grant those affiliated with it. Designed for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and drawing upon the rich traditions of the official Pathfinder campaign setting, this indispensable guide for adventurers provides a wealth of new character options for your game.
Pathfinder RPG Adventurer's Guide includes:
Details on 18 different organizations that use adventurers to further their goals, including the law-enforcing Hellknights, the sinister assassins of the Red Mantis, and of course, the world-renowned Pathfinder Society itself.
A wealth of new player options, including feats, spells, magic items, prestige classes, archetypes, and new abilities and powers for a wide range of classes.
Rules and advice on how to incorporate the new options found in this book into your own game, whether it takes place in the official Pathfinder campaign setting or in a world of your own choice or design.
Notes on the movers and shakers of each organization—nonplayer characters who can come alive in your game as allies and advisors for the player characters.
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-938-7
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I didn’t expect to find such a connection to this book, having not played the APs that touch on the various groups contained herein (and also just generally hating hellknights), but hoo-boy was I surprised.
The writing is lovely, the characters and organizations are vivid, and the player options are exciting and well-designed. The gray maidens chapter in particular blew me away in particular. The mechanics of their player options are a pedect combination of flavorful and mechanically effective, and have the added bonus of fitting together into a coherent and effective character build.
These days, it can take a lot for a book focused on new feats, spells, etc. to impress me. I’ve reached a saturation point. There are so many options now that I can’t keep track of them all, and most new ones get forgotten soon after I read them. Adventurer’s Guide is one of the few books that stays in my mind and keeps pulling me back to it. I can’t recommend it enough!
The title is misleading, as was posited by many during the product preview, and mealy-mouthedly denied by Paizo. This is a Golarion book, period, which has no place in the core line, and the contents consist of an insultingly large percentage of reprints. Shameful, really.
Soooo...I'm going to say that I obsessively collect Pathfinder products, and as such, much of this material is old hat for me. Emphasis here is 'for me.' With that said, I want to examine this in a vacuum.
The artwork is good, but then, it's been good. It serves more as a 'Faction Guide 2' for me than anything, giving some details about the various organizations, class options, feats, and ties. In particular, though, I like that I don't have to flip through two or three books to get character options for the factions. Hellknights in particular were always a pain due to how diffuse their rules were. I can now hand this book to a person and say "here ya go. Here's some ideas of factions in the setting."
One drawback, as has been mentioned, is spoilers for the various APs. While I use those sparingly, it can be somewhat problematic, and I'd suggest steering players away from this if that's the case.
Overall, it's a decent enough product. If you're new to the setting, it's worth picking up as a nice collected list. If you're old hat, a few options inside are interesting enough, and a few setting updates are worth examining. I'm particularly interested in the Lantern Bearers' new direction.
This book helps clear up and collect a lot of older material, balanced now with other released material for GMs. It also adds in a wealth of new material for factions of Adventurers across Golarion.
What's good?
A solid collection of old and new under one singular heading.
What's bad?
Some factions contain major spoilers, making it hard for a GM to just pass off to players who may be playing certain APs.
What's fun?
Inclusion of multiple races and creeds and even transgendered factions and npcs in multiple parts of the book. This book really fleshed out some factions which had little to no crunch.
What's odd?
Certain feats are fun but others are less the useable. A feat that allows a bonus on maneuvers but doesn't stack with improved maneuver feats? Those are the ones that help avoid AoO. So what's the point of the feat? Additionally a heads up to some people about the amount of reprints would have calmed an angry section of customers.
Honestly I love the book and can't wait to try out some of the new material and some of the updated versions of older (and due to other books options more unbalanced) options.
When you get past the salty tears of angry optimizers, you're left with a fine entry into the guides section with Inner Seas flavour.
Looking at the Pre-Reqs, this really isn't an issue due to the following:
Perform (sing) 6 ranks, Spellcraft 6 ranks. Which means, between your Bard levels and PrC levels combined, you will be 13th level.
You'll have to forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere but there seems to be some confusion for me in this book for the Argent Dramaturge and it's Argent Performance ability. Reading the full write up, it states the following:
Quote:
At 13th level, an argent dramaturge can start an argent performance as a swift action if she chooses.
The only issue is that this prestige class only has 10 levels in it. That's fine is by level you mean "total levels of all classes" but this is a bit of a problem as in the prestige class's Class Features block it lists that they receive this ability at Argent Dramaturge level 7 specifically.
The wording assumes that a player will go into the class immediately at 7th level. While this could be true for 99% of the players who choose to do so, there may well be some people who do so at, say, level 9! The wording in the feature would then make it appear that they would be able to do the swift action part of the Argent performance ability at Argent Dramaturge level 5 even though the class features block clearly shows it at AD level 7.
Just thought I would bring this to your attention.
There's no errors. The Argent Performance ability works fine as is. The 13th level ability kicks in when the character is 13th level. Which means that if she only took the class after taking 12 levels in bard, then she gets this ability IMMEDIATELY upon taking her first level of argent dramaturge.
You'll have to forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere but there seems to be some confusion for me in this book for the Argent Dramaturge and it's Argent Performance ability. Reading the full write up, it states the following:
Quote:
At 13th level, an argent dramaturge can start an argent performance as a swift action if she chooses.
The only issue is that this prestige class only has 10 levels in it. That's fine is by level you mean "total levels of all classes" but this is a bit of a problem as in the prestige class's Class Features block it lists that they receive this ability at Argent Dramaturge level 7 specifically.
The wording assumes that a player will go into the class immediately at 7th level. While this could be true for 99% of the players who choose to do so, there may well be some people who do so at, say, level 9! The wording in the feature would then make it appear that they would be able to do the swift action part of the Argent performance ability at Argent Dramaturge level 5 even though the class features block clearly shows it at AD level 7.
Just thought I would bring this to your attention.
There's no errors. The Argent Performance ability works fine as is. The 13th level ability kicks in when the character is 13th level. Which means that if she only took the class after taking 12 levels in bard, then she gets this ability IMMEDIATELY upon taking her first level of argent dramaturge.
Well then, awesome!
Jen Page
Media Specialist, SmiteWorks USA (Fantasy Grounds)
Hello everyone! This is now available for purchase from Fantasy Grounds or on Steam. Sync your FG account first to get it a discount equivalent to the PDF Price ($9.99)
I have a question regarding the Guild Devil / Westcrown Devil prestige class. On every posting of the class I've seen the words "Council Secrets" are referenced, and they seem to be a different entry than "Founder's Favor." But nowhere can I find what these secrets are, a list from which they can be selected, or anything of that nature. Can anyone direct me? I have a tiefling swashbuckler for whom I'd like this as an eventual goal but I want to ensure I've all the pertinent information once she can ascend (descend?) to the position.
Creative Director
