Whether they're used to bolster heroes' abilities or take enemies out of the game, potions and poisons are key parts of many adventurers' arsenals. Far more options than simple healing draughts or strength-sapping toxins are available to savvy heroes, though, especially those ingenious enough to craft their own concoctions. Pathfinder Player Companion: Potions & Poisons offers a sea of new potions, elixirs, and stranger alchemical wonders for the discerning adventurer, plus heinous designer poisons. Class and character options for those who brew or regularly imbibe consumables round out these offerings.
Inside this book you'll find:
Feats and archetypes for races with an affinity for poisons, including gripplis, nagaji, and vishkanyas, plus the scorpion sorcerer bloodline for those with a toxic heritage.
Archetypes for a variety of classes known for brewing or poisoning, including alchemists, rogues, and witches.
Spells and feats specialized for potion brewing, plus drugs, elixirs, gear, poisons, and tinctures—alchemical remedies that produce potent effects but impair the user.
This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but it can be easily incorporated into any fantasy world.
978-1-64078-000-2
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Lovely art, solid flavor text, and several good options. As with any companion book, there are useless feats and items and archetypes, BUT I feel there is a higher percentage of useful options than normal in this book.
Now, the archetype that makes poisons work! The Toxin Codexer INVESTIGATOR archetype. I love it. You get a scaling DC on 18 different poisons, the DC being 10 + INT mod + extract level (1 - 6). And an investigator talent that lets your poison affect creatures normally immune to poisons. This archetype does so many things right.
Also, for those GMs out there who want their villains to have temporary buffs when the PCs are kicking down the front door, there are a few really good potions and a particular magic item that crumbles on use. Very nice options.
Some interesting witch hexes. Racial stuff for Grippli and Nagaji. Rogue archetypes. Alchemist archetypes. A few new spells. new tonics. new drugs.
This book is really good IMO. 5 out of 5 stars.
When somebody says, "I want to play a poisoner," I can help them now.
I feel a little guilty handing out a five star review based largely on a single archetype, but you can now play an effective poisoner, and I feel like that's a pretty big deal. Not just "I have a special, unique poison I can apply to my blade", but whipping up a broad range of injury and ingested poisons with DCs that keep pace with 6/9 casters. There's a way to deal with immunities, and you can even customize your poisons with effects (either good or bad!) that apply even on a successful save. And it does it without hurting the effectiveness of the base class. This is a book that has accomplished its mission.
EDIT: Misread the talent. You get a different effect that replaces the base effect, so you're dealing with the immunity but not bypassing it. Since you can still apply your rider effects (admittedly burning through inspiration to do so), the overall review stands.
I feel less guilty about handing out that five star review since the book has some other cool stuff in it. Interesting poisons (need to fake being sick, or maybe just dissolve somebody?), awesome hexes, neat racial options, and some cool new spells.
Uh, don't expect much from the potions side of this thing, though. Potions are already kind of pricey for what they do; I don't want to spend feats to get effects that work when I spend even more making them.
One other disappointment: Vishkanya only got one new Racial Archetype, and it was for Bards. It's fine, but I was hoping (and will continue to) for Vishkanya Archetypes for classes outside the "rogue" family - I was particularly hoping for something for warrior-types or psychic classes.
On an upside, the Scorpion Sorcerer Bloodline actually turned out really cool!
(based on 7 ratings)
