There's plenty of adventure hidden beneath the gentle tidal cycles and crashing waves of Golarion. Discover the rich ecologies and complex societies hidden in the briny depths of the oceans and seas. In this book you can learn more about merfolk nations, the dangerous sahuagin, peaceful aquatic humanoids, and the aquatic terrors that wage war against them. Dare deadly environments, explore strange underwater cities, and find lost treasures within these pages.
This book also provides a wealth of rules for underwater combat and ways for terrestrial adventurers to adapt to aquatic environs, including new archetypes, feats, and magic items. Dive in to underwater adventure!
Inside this book you'll find:
A thorough gazetteer of Golarion's five oceans that explores the various points of interest and conflicts between those who make these bodies of water their home.
A look at Golarion's seas and their inhabitants, as well as strange treasures that can be found within their depths.
An expansion of rules for underwater combat that clarifies those presented in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and introduces new challenges to consider.
Dozens of new archetypes, class features, feats, spells, and items both magical and mundane that players can use to prepare their characters for adventures beneath the waves.
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Aquatic Adventures is intended for use with the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can be easily adapted to any fantasy world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-944-8
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It's fair to say that aquatic combat is complex and cumbersome to handle in Pathfinder: dealing with the shift to three-dimensions is hard to track on a grid, there are special rules for different types of weapons, the constant need for Swim checks to maneuver (or avoid sinking), tracking of how long a character can hold their breath, and much more. If it's a situation that only pops up on isolated occasions (diving to the bottom of a pool in a dungeon, for example), many GMs will just handwave it. But for campaigns set in or around rivers, lakes, and oceans, hand-waving the aquatic combat rules makes aquatic encounters less special, aquatic monsters less threatening, and character options designed for such a situation irrelevant.
Aquatic Adventures does a great job explaining and supplementing the rules for aquatic encounters as presented in the Core Rulebook. I'd consider it indispensable for adventures set in places like the River Kingdoms or for something like the Ruins of Azlant adventure path. Only about a third of the book is rules "crunch", with most of the chapters devoted to crunch-free (but extremely flavourful!) descriptions of the different oceans and seas of Golarion. I'll go through the chapters one by one, but first, we have to give praise to that amazing cover--that's the sort of thing that should be a poster. The art is reprinted on the inside back cover, while the inside front cover is a sort of "in-game" map showing the different oceans and seas in the game world (it's startling to remember just how small the Inner Sea region is compared to the rest of Golarion we rarely see). The overall layout and interior art of the book is very well done.
INTRODUCTION (2 pages)
This is a short, lyrical overview of oceans and their dangers. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's inessential.
ANTARKOS OCEAN (4 pages)
This is the great southern ocean of Golarion. The name is a bit too much on the nose, because the "Antarkos Ocean" has freezing waters, the danger of icebergs, fog, and so forth. The description is very well done, and makes the prospects of exploring the ocean and the ice sheet of the south pole the sort of thing to fill PCs with dread. There are some great bits of setting lore, like a mysterious race of dream-powered giants and a colony of kalo. In addition, there are tons of great adventure hooks to explain why the PCs would want to come here in the first place.
ARCADIAN OCEAN (4 pages)
The Arcadian Ocean separates the continent of Avistan (where most Pathfinder adventures are set) from the rarely-seen continent of Arcadia. The ocean here is filled with pirates, submerged ruins, and lost magics. This is where Ruins of Azlant takes place. Again, a lot of great adventure hooks to explain why PCs would try to cross such treacherous waters.
EMBARAL OCEAN (4 pages)
The Embaral Ocean is a "marine desert", which I didn't realise was a real thing. There's no aquatic life at all, nor is there any wind or currents to make journeys easier. It's an interesting idea in concept, though I'd have to see some adventures using it to really get a sense of whether it would work in practice.
OBARI OCEAN (4 pages)
The Obari Ocean borders Casmaron (and Vudra), and features occasional terrible storms. At this point, I notice that it's hard for the writers to make descriptions of different oceans sound interesting--"water be water", after all. There's something about an ice forest which sounds like a cool concept.
OKAIYO OCEAN (4 pages)
This is a pretty standard ocean, distinctive only by the presence of a mighty sahuagin empire.
GOLARION'S SEAS (18 pages)
This section includes two pages each on the following seas: the Castrovin, the Fever, the Inner, the Ivory, the Shining, the Sightless, the Songil, the Steaming, and the Valashmai. Each entry includes a brief summary, then longer passages on characteristics, denizens, treasures, and a notable geographical feature. It might sound bland, but there's a lot of exciting ideas here like the Razored Labyrinth of the Castrovin Sea (a maze of rocks sure to sink any ship that tries to pass through without a map) or the epic kaiju (and more) of the Valashmai Sea. Devotees of the Inner Sea will find a bit on different countries' navies.
AQUATIC RULES (22 pages)
As I mentioned in the opening, this section is indispensable. It contains clarifications and additions for things like buoyancy, fighting underwater, how various types of spells function, Perception and Survival checks, drowning, pressure and temperature, and more. If you want to do underwater combat well, this section will answer most of your questions. It contains some advice on "thinking in three dimensions", though I'd suggest this may be a trial-and-error thing for most groups. The section also includes several new archetypes and class options--most of them are really good at making underwater exploration and combat more feasible for PCs. For example, there's an "aquanaut" archetype for fighters, an "underwater" combat style for rangers, lots of good mundane equipment, the "aquadynamic focus" feat, and some great spells like free swim and lead anchor (potentially really nasty!). Melee characters will appreciate the underwater special weapon ability. There's a ton of new options here, and the vast majority are solid in terms of power versus cost.
And that's Aquatic Adventures. It's one of those books that's easy to overlook until some goober falls off a bridge, tips over a canoe, or decides to become a pirate--but when you need it, you really need it.
Worth the price for the Aquatic Rules chapter alone
First things first: this is Campaign Setting, so if you bought it to power up your PC and found out that many options are so narrow that they work best for NPCs ... well, you get what you deserve for not reading my review.
Second thing is that there are some very nice things for PCs here. I kind of wish that some of the stuff here was included in Blood of the Seas, but that ship has sailed. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You got the joke, right? Right?
Anyway, apart from rules material, this book has two things going for it. One are the chapters on Golarion's oceans and seas which, while evocative and well written, are somewhat brief. They're more primers than full descriptions, so as usual with Paizo, there's a lot for a GM to fill out with her or his imagination.
Now the big kahuna is the Aquatic Rules chapter which gathers, updates and expands the rules for aquatic movement and actions. Why is this such a great deal? Well it's because these rules are horribly spread across the core rulebook thanks to the CRB inheriting less-than-stellar layout of the 3.5 PHB. Here you have everything in one place - movement, buoyancy, combat, spellcasting, drowning AND the creme de la creme, some guidance as to how do spells work underwater. My snarky tongue-in-cheek argument about lightning bolts underwater suddenly holds far less water than it used to. AHAHAHAHAHAH! Also a joke! C'mon, you did get this one, too? Let me know in comments below.
The book does what it says on the tin, but nearly all of the new rules elements are unusable in all but the most heavily water focused games. An example of this is the Drowned Channeler Spiritualist, who has to be within 25 feet of a major body of water to gain /any/ benefit from Shared Consciousness. Not any water, not even a lake or major river - it has to be something on the scale of an ocean or sea.
If this was an exception and not the rule, I could give this three stars - but this book is sadly not so. Nearly every rules element has no effect outside of water, some actively penalize you for being on land; unless you regularly play entirely-aquatic games, skip this book and save yourself $16+
A good solid book about Golarion's oceans and seas and it also has some nice additional/expanded under water rules. While I do like some of the additional class options, spells, etc. I would have preferred less crunch for more world building.
I find this book very hard to rank in the usual one to five star way.
I enjoyed the first forty pages immensely. They give a really good survey of the oceans and seas of Golarion including plenty of adventure hooks, details of who lives where and everything you'd want from an introductory 'gazetteer' of such large areas.
My main complaint is that each section is too short and further that there's no discussion of the bodies of water to be found in the Darklands. Given the importance of underworld regions to a fantasy world, the latter in particular feels like a glaring omission.
The reason for that is no doubt the perceived need to include the mechanics in the latter part of the book. I suspect that these rules elements are well done and probably even necessary (I don't buy the campaign books for rules, so I haven't done more than flick through the later parts of the book) - nonetheless, I wish they'd been provided in some other way. It feels to me that this isn't really a campaign setting book, but rather two thirds of a campaign book plus some rules stuff.
Given all of that, I still consider this good value and it's a welcome entry in the line. I'd just personally prefer that the flavor proportion of these books be given greater weight.
Dolphin Circle feat. For a full round, you are considered to be in every space along a circular, single move-length path for the purpose of threatening squares and providing flanking for other allies. At the beginning of your next turn, you choose where along the path to end up.
Dolphin Circle feat. For a full round, you are considered to be in every space along a circular, single move-length path for the purpose of threatening squares and providing flanking for other allies. At the beginning of your next turn, you choose where along the path to end up.
Heisenberg Style? Collapse the wave function?
Mark Seifter wrote:
Dolphin and Shark Styles: Based on actual dolphin and shark hunting styles. And it turns out actual dolphins are jerks to their prey.
I think they are the only recorded animal other than the human to kill for fun.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Porridge wrote:
Very cool! And the only thing they give up is the option to expand into different elements?... A big cost, since you usually want to expand with water. But maybe worth it (especially for a campaign with a fair amount of water adventuring)...
...on second thought, I'm confident that isn't right. What else (besides flexibility) does the Aquakineticist trade in for its goodies?
Very cool! And the only thing they give up is the option to expand into different elements?... A big cost, since you usually want to expand with water. But maybe worth it (especially for a campaign with a fair amount of water adventuring)...
...on second thought, I'm confident that isn't right. What else (besides flexibility) does the Aquakineticist trade in for its goodies?
It's a decently balanced trade. You lose some basic hydrokinesis utility in exchange for better underwater mobility, alter your defense to grant cold resistance instead, and have to take some specific wild talents at two levels. That said, breathing underwater at second level is really nice for a hydrokineticist. You're just making a stronger commitment to working with bodies of water.
Very cool! And the only thing they give up is the option to expand into different elements?... A big cost, since you usually want to expand with water. But maybe worth it (especially for a campaign with a fair amount of water adventuring)...
...on second thought, I'm confident that isn't right. What else (besides flexibility) does the Aquakineticist trade in for its goodies?
It's a decently balanced trade. You lose some basic hydrokinesis utility in exchange for better underwater mobility, alter your defense to grant cold resistance instead, and have to take some specific wild talents at two levels. That said, breathing underwater at second level is really nice for a hydrokineticist. You're just making a stronger commitment to working with bodies of water.
The specific wild talents you get, if I recall, are also early access compared to every other hydrokineticist, so you also gain that in exchange for the flexibility of the utility slot. Chances are if you wanted those two talents in your build and quick underwater breathing (and you probably did if you're going underwater with regularity, even if it's not super often), you're going to want this archetype. If you're not going to see a body of water any time soon, you don't want the archetype.
Steam Spell makes spells with the fire descriptor work underwater (but not so good on land),
The aquachymist has Underwater Bombs that work underwater and do steam damage, and instead of throwing (which doesn't work so good underwater) he uses the new buoyancy rules to target creatures directly above or below him. He also has a mutagen that makes him amphibious.
So is "Steam" a new damage type, or is it just "fire but underwater"?
Steam Spell makes spells with the fire descriptor work underwater (but not so good on land),
The aquachymist has Underwater Bombs that work underwater and do steam damage, and instead of throwing (which doesn't work so good underwater) he uses the new buoyancy rules to target creatures directly above or below him. He also has a mutagen that makes him amphibious.
So is "Steam" a new damage type, or is it just "fire but underwater"?
Latter, basically. You make concentration checks to use it out of water, rather than vice versa.
Dolphin and Shark Styles: Based on actual dolphin and shark hunting styles. And it turns out actual dolphins are jerks to their prey.
I think they are the only recorded animal other than the human to kill for fun.
Cats also kill for fun, though I suspect their enjoyment actually comes from the torture they inflict before the kill.
Shouldn't discount corvids either. We're still not quite sure about what they can and can't do. They enjoy pestering other species and I'm not sure how far they take it.
On topic: How does the Oceanrider Cavalier archetype compare to the Waverider from Inner Sea Combat? How much is there to it than just getting an aquatic mount?
How is the Deep Shaman and how does it compare to a normal Shaman with the Waves spirit?
I am disappointed that I have never seen a mermaid vampire.
Dragon78 wrote:
An aquatic variant vampire template would be cool. They could become a swarm of sea creatures or change into water instead of mist form, change into aquatic creatures instead of bat, wolf, etc. maybe have weakness to coral, shell, or bone instead of silver or wooden stakes, etc.
Wait. Old-school Anderson mermaids turned into sea foam when they died, because they didn't have souls.
Clearly the only logical conclusion is that MERMAIDS HAVE BEEN VAMPIRES THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!
Oh Mark dear, is a sorcerer barred from taking the Child of Two Worlds story feat due to their bloodline class ability?
It says "you can’t have other feats, traits, or abilities that specify your bloodline such as Racial Heritage." A sorcerer bloodline doesn't fall under "abilities" does it? I really, really, really want to take it with my land-bound mermaid aquatic seaborn sorcerer, Meredith; to really reinforce her purpose for adventuring on land. To think that her human father adventured into the depths, facing untold peril, so that he could be with his true love, her mermaid mother! And now she travels the land hoping for a similar fate. *swoons* Oh how romantic Marky!
Who do I have to thank for this blessed feat? It was you, wasn't it? It will always be you, Mark...in my heart.
But why does this feat bar other bloodline options when no other bloodline options do so? Isn't it conceivable that a person could have an aquatic heritage, but but also come from a powerful arcane family (arcane bloodline) or been subject to bizarre magical experiments (resulting in the abberrant bloodline)?
It's all Amber's fault isn't it? She put you up to it, didn't she? Never did like her! The way she looks at you. Always up to no good that one! Hmph!
The other players scoffed at my character concept before, but now, if I can take this feat, I will finally be able to show them a character background that makes sense to them! "It's good enough for Mark, why isn't it good enough for you?" is what I will say to them! You will say yes, I can take it, won't you, Mark? For me?
Uhh...all the rules in the book I designed and then Adam developed them to tip top shape; Amber wrote all the awesome and fun parts that came before that chapter.
Essentially that rule in the feat is meant that you can't have the feat if you have a trait that says "one of your parents is a dragon" or "your orc mother and human father were part of a happy relationship" or Racial Heritage because your mother was a nagaji or something like that since this feat spells out what your parents were. You have my blessing to take it with a mermaid or human with the aquatic sorcerer bloodline as long as Adam thinks that's OK; now that I think of it, I really should have probably said "parentage" "lineage" or the like rather than bloodline since bloodline is a rules keyword for sorcerers (also maybe could have said you can't take it with a conflicting bloodline/heritage/lineage, since aquatic doesn't really conflict).
Is there anything interesting about Aquatic Elves in this book?
Nothing in-depth rules-wise, but there are certainly mentions of them in various parts of the gazetteer chapters in the book. For player-facing things, you might be interested in Blood of the Sea.
Is there anything interesting about Aquatic Elves in this book?
Nothing in-depth rules-wise, but there are certainly mentions of them in various parts of the gazetteer chapters in the book. For player-facing things, you might be interested in Blood of the Sea.
Thanks for the reminder. I think that book and this one got conflated in my mind. :)
What happened to the Pearl Seeker? There supposed to be an archetype called Pearl Seeker in this book for Paladins. I even have the page number and everything. :(
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
MadScientistWorking wrote:
What happened to the Pearl Seeker? There supposed to be an archetype called Pearl Seeker in this book for Paladins. I even have the page number and everything. :(
It's in there, I just overlooked it when making the list.
My copy came in today, huzzah! In celebration, rules elements!
List of Aquatic Adventures Rules Elements:
Aquatic Rules
-Swimming and Aquatic Adventures
--The Basics
---Swim Speed
--Buoyancy
---Aquatic and Water Creatures
---Buoyancy Speed
---Moving Against Buoyancy
---Drag
--Thinking in Three Dimensions
---Flanking
---Flexible Movement
-Fighting Underwater
--Physical Attacks
---Ranged Attacks
---Combat Maneuvers
---Cover from the Surface
--Off-Balance and Prone Underwater
---Tripping Underwater
--Freedom of Movement
--Spells
---Acid Spells
---Cloud and Weather Spells
---Cold Spells
---Electricity Spells
---Fire Spells
---Invisibility
---Sonic Spells
--Perception and Survival
---Perception
---Survival
-Underwater Hazards and Features
--Drowning
--Oceanic Zones
---Pressure
---Temperature
---Sunlight Zone
---Twilight Zone
---Midnight Zone
---Abyssal Zone
---Abaddonian Zone
--Currents and Running Water
--Whirlpools
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