Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Wilderness

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Wilderness
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Wild, untamed lands hold a wealth of mystery and danger, providing the perfect backdrop for heroic adventure. Whether adventurers are climbing mountains in search of a dragon's lair, carving their way through the jungle, or seeking a long-lost holy city covered by desert sands, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Wilderness gives them the tools to survive the wilds. A new 20-level base class, the shifter, puts animalistic powers into the hands—or claws—of player characters and villains alike, with new class features derived from animalistic attributes. Overviews of druidic sects and rituals, as well as new archetypes, character options, spells, and more, round out the latest contribution to the Pathfinder RPG rules!

Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Wilderness is an invaluable hardcover companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an open playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into a new era.

Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Wilderness includes:

  • The shifter, a new character class that harnesses untamed forces to change shape and bring a heightened level of savagery to the battlefield!
  • Archetypes for alchemists, barbarians, bards, druids, hunters, investigators, kineticists, paladins, rangers, rogues, slayers, witches, and more!
  • Feats and magic items for characters of all sorts granting mastery over the perils of nature and enabling them to harvest natural power by cultivating magical plants.
  • Dozens of spells to channel, protect, or thwart the powers of natural environs.
  • New and expanded rules to push your animal companions, familiars, and mounts to wild new heights.
  • A section on the First World with advice, spells, and other features to integrate the fey realm into your campaign.
  • Systems for exploring new lands and challenging characters with natural hazards and strange terrain both mundane and feytouched.
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-986-8

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription.

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Another Great Hardback Update Collection!

5/5

Ultimate Wilderness is a much better book than some reviewers might lead you to believe. You get the new shifter class - which has had some basic errata since release - along with great archetypes for most of the other classes to help them fit into a wilderness-based campaign.

It's a great book to help players prepping to play something like Kingmaker or Ironfang Invasion. You get new spells, feats and a new exploration mode.

The book itself maintains the high quality of work that most Paizo products exhibit. The art in this book is some of my favorite in any of the hardback collections. There are a few updated spells that needed errata, such as snowball.

As a fan, I really like that several of the archetypes convert the flavor of many Game of Thrones characters into Pathfinder mechanics. What more could you ask for?


Lots of ptential, but none of it really sticks

2/5

I was extremely excited for this publication, so it's rather depressing how disappointing the books contents turned out to be.

The shifter class was an interesting idea, but when put down on paper is just druidic wild shape with hunter focus, in the form of aspects. It, unfortunately, never surpasses the druid in the wild shape department, and is, in fact, rather limited, and the temporary nature of all the aspects means that the shifter isn't terribly impressive in that regard either. The archetypes, both for the shifter and other classes, are interesting, but several suffer from massive drawbacks, for little to no gain. Like taking on druidic weapon/armor proficiencies and restrictions, including losing abilities for wearing metal, but don't gain any significant power to mkae up for it.

The new rules expansions are, for the most part, only thrown off by some conflicting skill applications (survival to harvest poison, but heal to take internal organ trophies?) but these are easy to ignore, or fix by homebrew. So these chapters are the most stable and useful of the lot.

One of the most exciting discoveries was the Cultivate Magic Plants feat, allowing you to grow plants that copy spell effects, but the price tag attached to them, especially when attached to something with the considerable disadvantages of being an immobile magical item, makes it entirely useless next to the crafting cost of regular magical items, especially if you have a GM that's willing to allow players to use the rules on creating new magical items. Just for an example, a goodberry bush can fully feed 2 people per day forever... for 4000 GP to craft. While you could make an item to infinitely cast goodberry for 2000 gp if you have to wear it, or better yet create food and water (for about 30000).

In conclusion, the book has a lot of cool stuff in it, but only for GMs. Players won't be able to make good use of many of the archetypes and feats as they revolve too much around staying in a single environment or working with nonsensical restrictions. While many of the feats are just too focused (or expensive) to be useful except to an NPC. GMs, grab it, it's got good stuff, but players will (and should) probably stick to what they've already got.


Everything I wanted from Ultimate Wilderness

4/5

Great race write ups, a fun new class (that doesn't require a ton of source books to play) and tons of information and systems to run a wilderness adventure or spice up the wilderness sections of any game. Definitely happy to add this one to my bookshelf.


Reprinted material, lack of clarity

1/5

First off, I'm a huge fan of Pathfinder. But I'm not a fan of "Ultimate Wilderness." There are a number of issues with the content in the book, mostly the clarity of language. A lot of the rules seem unclear and not straightforward. The shifter is the biggest example of this.
To be honest I was looking forward to the shifter, being far more robust than it actually is. And I understand that this is my issue with what I expected from them, but what built up my anticipation of the shifter was the quality of past classes released by Paizo: summoner, alchemist, witch, bloodrager, investigator, brawler, spiritualist, medium (even if it isn't harrowed), magus, ninja, hunter and so on and so forth.
Past that, I'm not a big fan of the reprinted material because I buy the smaller books. If I'm buying the smaller books why would I want to buy them again with a hardcover?
That being said, I'm still a big Pathfinder fan, but I'd like for future releases to take a different developmental cycle than what "Ultimate Wilderness" received. This book seems like it lacked editing and playtesting.


4/5


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Ectar wrote:
Chess Pwn wrote:
does the magus archetype touch spellcombat, spellstrike, or arcane pool?

Arcane pool is replaced with a plant familiar.

Spellcombat and Spellstrike are unaffected.

Dang, I really want to see the opposite sometime. I love the arcane pool and it's swift enhancing, but I'm interested in a magus that doesn't do the normal spell combat & spellstrike.


What else does the Magus archetype do? Wild Empathy, Woodland stride?
Is there an arcane Ranger archetype? That's my interest on more utility end than magus blaster end.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Quandary wrote:
What else does the Magus archetype do? Wild Empathy, Woodland stride?

He gets to add a small number of druid spells to his spell list as he levels up. His bond with his plant familiar becomes symbiotic, allowing them to merge starting at 4th level and granting the magus a natural armor bonus and at 11th level a bonus to Strength and Constitution. They lose spell recall and improved spell recall for this.

Woodland stride, yes. Wild Empathy, no. Loses knowledge pool for woodland stride.

Quandary wrote:
Is there an arcane Ranger archetype? That's my interest on more utility end than magus blaster end.

As far as I know there has never been an arcane based ranger (interesting idea though; I might work on an archetype for that).

Dark Archive

CorvusMask wrote:
I still want to know how much of the reprints have been changed from old versions

I knew something got nerfed, but it took two days to remember what:

the 1st level spell Snowball was reprinted, but it now allows spell resistance, when it previously did not.

Shadow Lodge

And no longer staggers. Does it have a save for half too?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber
Dragonborn3 wrote:
Does it have a save for half too?

No.

Grand Lodge

Isn't it also in the evocation school school now? As it really should since its the most damaging level 1 ranged touch spell.

Shadow Lodge

TriOmegaZero wrote:
Dragonborn3 wrote:
Does it have a save for half too?
No.

That's a nice surprise. Well done on this spell, Paizo.


Is it midnight in California yet? I want to read the PDF, but I'm getting so sleepy...

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Oh man, this will be a fun review to write!

Grand Lodge

Does anyone else think the Giant Mosquito companion is absolutely awesome? Grab, bleed, and CON Damage. That thing is absolutely nasty.

Shadow Lodge

Well I'm gonna desk in that as a giant Stirges now,,, >.>

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Hmm, I finally got the pdf so I can finally see this for myself. From glance I like wilderness rules, animal companion/familiar related stuff and archetype related stuff, but at the moment I feel too afraid to review since it seems there is review bomb war going on with people only doing 1/5 or 5/5 reviews ._.; I think I'm gonna wait for a while to people calm down before doing my own review, gives time to try out stuff from the book too.


11 people marked this as a favorite.

Hi all
I just want to say something.
This book is written by people.
People tend to get very emotionally invested in things they have spent large amounts of creative energy and time working on.

Constructive criticism and advise, and discussion is incredibly important.
But it is also important that there is a person behind whatever you are critiquing.
There have been occasions where many in this thread have gone beyond the material to attack the person behind it, and this is not something I feel we should be doing.

If you have an issue with the material, it is just that, with the material. Not with the individual who put pen to paper.

Let's try not to be overly critical. Let's try to be constructive. Lets be positive about the awesome stuff in the book, which there really is a plethora of. If you think something stands out as lets give a shout out to the people who worked on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now I have heard a bunch of criticism, and what some of the low points are.
What are some of your favourite things in the book so far?

  • Large Bears
  • Green Knight
  • Wilding Feat
  • Totem Feats
  • [edited in] Giant Mosquito

Thats what I can recall people as having really liked, or have been mentioned as standout so far. What have I missed?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Jurassic Pratt wrote:
Does anyone else think the Giant Mosquito companion is absolutely awesome? Grab, bleed, and CON Damage. That thing is absolutely nasty.

Sounds like a companion that will never see PFS play, to me.

Grand Lodge

Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Sounds like a companion that will never see PFS play, to me.

I hope it does. It's honestly not OP considering it only gets one attack and doesn't get Blood Drain til 7th. I could absolutely see it getting into PFS.

Dark Archive

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I can give my first impressions so far though: I think 3/5 or 4/5 max is more accurate score for the book. Can't comment on shifter though before 20th day since there is now temp ban on topic so gonna ignore it for now.

It can't be 5/5 because amount of feats I don't think anybody really wanted that plus it will make searching for feats from nethys much more intimidating for my players when list keeps getting longer and longer <_< As example, feat that makes you treat cold environment one step better(sure it has perception and snow blindness bonus but seriously), there are much more easier ways to handle cold environment as pc and its not good feat for npcs since it required favored terrain class feature. Anyway, I found companion/familiar section great so I don't think it can be 1/5 or 2/5 either, archetypes didn't seem bad either for most part(Love that plant eidolons can now be used by unchained summoner since leshy caller was added, it seems to be updated version of wild caller that previously shared name with another archetype so yay two things fixed). I also like that through this, PRD will eventually get Green Faith, First World and The Eldest featured in it so thats plus for me. I don't really have strong feelings about spells, besides that "REINFORCE CAMPSITE School abjuration; Level 4" aka one of the spells doesn't have any classes listed for it.

Like, biggest problem for the book for me is that there is lot of rushed feeling like or that paizo needs to put more effort into editors' work, mistakes like that don't really give good impression. Its not really enough for me to give 2/5 though, but its another reason why I think 5/5 score is too generous. I also like that snowball was changed into evocation spell since conjuration version didn't make sense, but I don't really like that they removed staggered save because it reinforces idea that paizo never buffs weak options and only nerfs strong option without touching actually broken options. I mean, snowball was comparatively too strong compared to other level 1 spells, but it wasn't over powered.

So yeah, my score will probably either be 3/5 or 4/5 depending on how well wilderness rules will work in practice, unless I find out something on closer look that really irks me, like if it somehow turns out that "ravenous tumbleweed" familiar betrays me horribly :D

Edit: Anyhoo, too long to read version for those who wanted to know what I liked since apparently you are now listing them, if you want to know what I disliked well just read the post :p Anyhoo, so liked familiar and companion options, particularly ravenous tumbleweed, liked leshy called archetype, liked stuff that will get added to PRD through this and didn't really mention this before, but I always like new races and alternate racial features.


7 people marked this as a favorite.

I.... mmmm ..... mhmmm ... I wrote a review for you, you all, crazy D&D people.

Shadow Lodge

3 people marked this as a favorite.

It's a bit tough to read, to be honest, once you go Goldblum.

You were so busy typing it out because you could, you never stopped to wonder if you should....


Is it intentional that Gathlain don't have the fey type?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Milo v3 wrote:
Is it intentional that Gathlain don't have the fey type?

Yes & No. Yes because Gathlain's race statblock has always not mentioned them having fay type as you can see from this link, no because they are still fay as you can see from bestiary statblock.

I guess reason why it forgets to mention that is because fey type doesn't really give the race anything but low light vision <_< Though yeah, it should mention it since it means spells targeting humanoids don't affect them, just like the native outsider situation with tieflings and aasimars.


CorvusMask wrote:


Yes & No. Yes because Gathlain's race statblock has always not mentioned them having fay type as you can see from this link, no because they are still fay as you can see from bestiary statblock.

Their original racial statblock does say they're fey.

And we can't go off the bestiary stats for these races because two of them are reprints from the bestiaries with the whole point of them being there is to be retconned.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Milo v3 wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:


Yes & No. Yes because Gathlain's race statblock has always not mentioned them having fay type as you can see from this link, no because they are still fay as you can see from bestiary statblock.

Their original racial statblock does say they're fey.

And we can't go off the bestiary stats for these races because two of them are reprints from the bestiaries with the whole point of them being there is to be retconned.

That original original statblock is race builder statblock though so its not in same format that other character race trait boxes are. For some reason, gathlain character race trait box has never remembered to mention they are fey type, but common sense wise they are since creature can't be typeless as far as I know <_<

Its just seems to be another over sight that makes me think something is going off with paizo and editing


Gorbacz wrote:
Oh man, this will be a fun review to write!

Funnest review ever! :)


Aside from not givinga description of exactly how small the Gathlians are, I'm glad I got the book.

The Shifter is a bit underwhelming, but I'm definitely going to be playing as a Gathlian and a Ghoran. Those are both awesome races with lots of possibilities.

Still going through the archetypes though to see which really spark ideas.


So with base classes continuing to come out after Pathfinder Unchained, in Ultimate Intrigue and now Ultimate Wilderness, is there any appetite among the community or the developers for official VMCs of the classes?

Both Vigilante and Shifter seem to be good "secondary flavour" options.


ericthecleric wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
Oh man, this will be a fun review to write!
Funnest review ever! :)

Without a shadow of a doubt. Nice work, Bag.


Is it me or the Sylvan Trickster archetype doesn't mention that they use their rogue level as witch level for the hexes?
Doesn't that make them terrible at using most of the hexes?


Just got the PDF. A brief look over reveals some fun and flavorful options. The Shifter is certainly not the most powerful class, but I think it does its intended job as an entry-level shapeshifter. I could definitely see myself giving one to some of my less rules-savvy players. I'm not certain I'd pick one over the other shapeshifting options for my own characters though.

The archetypes for the class are a mixed bag. Some are definitely as good as, if not a little better, than the base class, though I'm left sadly underwhelmed by the Rageshaper, it feels like it's giving up far more than it's getting. Limited access to rage powers might have gone a long way to making up for the loss of versatility through aspects, though I could be undervaluing the size increases.

Haven't yet looked over all the archetypes for the other classes, though the Feral Champion Warpriest looks like it could be a solid option, and the Avenging Beast Vigilante looks like fun.

There are a few really solid feats in here for wild shape users, like Mutated Shape, which grants you an additional natural attack of your choice, and Shifter's Edge could help a finesse shifter's DPR outpace that of a strength based one at higher levels.

I'll probably highlight some more things as I continue to read through the book. Overall though, while I wouldn't call this Paizo's best hardcover, I don't think it comes close to being a 1-star product.

As always though, YMMV.


There's an errata thread to report any typos or rules issues/inconsistencies you spot.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
captain yesterday wrote:

How easy would it be to convert Vine Leshies to Starfinder.

Skittermanders need some competition.

Done!

:D


I've finally gotten a chance to take a closer look at the rest of the book. I have to say that the wilderness rules section is very well done. The animal companion and familiar sections are also very nice.

Hmmmmm. Taking that into account with my issues with the other parts of the book... If I get around to posting a review it will probably be three stars.


CorvusMask wrote:
Like, biggest problem for the book for me is that there is lot of rushed feeling like or that paizo needs to put more effort into editors' work, mistakes like that don't really give good impression.

This is pretty much my feeling on looking over the book. While it has it's share of bad and mediocre material, even the good feels like it could have been put together better.

Myself, I don't know what rating to give. My initial reaction was a 1 because my main reason for wanting the book was the shifter and the races and neither is what I really wanted/expected plus nerfs and reprints don't leave me impressed. After get a chance to look through the material in full, I may give it a few more points for things I find interesting, but I'd be surprised if I end up with a number higher than 3 out of 5.


Jurassic Pratt wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Sounds like a companion that will never see PFS play, to me.
I hope it does. It's honestly not OP considering it only gets one attack and doesn't get Blood Drain til 7th. I could absolutely see it getting into PFS.

Drain? O_O

Drain means at least 100gp out of the victim's pocket i.e. restoration.

Silver Crusade

GM PDK wrote:
Jurassic Pratt wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Sounds like a companion that will never see PFS play, to me.
I hope it does. It's honestly not OP considering it only gets one attack and doesn't get Blood Drain til 7th. I could absolutely see it getting into PFS.

Drain? O_O

Drain means at least 100gp out of the victim's pocket i.e. restoration.

I don't think NPCs in PFS Scenarios have to worry about that.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager

2 people marked this as a favorite.

If you have an issue with a review please email community@paizo.com. Please don't derail a thread by starting a side conversation about it.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I noticed the new spring attack feats lately, and the possibilities they open up intrigue me. Aside from the obvious ability to make characters more mobile in combat, I'm thinking that these feats could be very useful for characters and creatures with a single natural attack. Characters who wildshape into a wolf form and then use that feat chain to trip two or three different enemies could suddenly be viable.

I don't have the feats in front of me to confirm this though, for all I know they require that you use an attack with itteratives.

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