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Pathfinder Player Companion: Plane-Hopper's Handbook

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Pathfinder Player Companion: Plane-Hopper's Handbook
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Step beyond reality as we know it! Pathfinder Player Companion: Plane-Hopper's Handbook offers new tools for explorers brave enough to venture into the unknown—whether to abandoned cities created by dead gods, worlds where the ground is made of forsaken souls, or even stranger realms. Add planar allies, magic, or heritage to your adventures and infuse them with the power of the planes!

Inside this book you'll find:

  • Five new eidolon subtypes for the unchained summoner, including dualistic aeons, radiant eidolons from the Positive Energy Plane, and ever-shifting storykin eidolons!
  • Alternate racial traits, favored class bonuses, and racial feats for races with origins tied to the Great Beyond, such as aphorites, duskwalkers, and ganzis!
  • Player options and equipment for characters who walk the planes, from hellish style feats to spell-enhancing planar shards to the planar rifter gunslinger archetype!

This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but it can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-071-2

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Fun, Solid Collection of New Material

4/5 —

The Plane-Hopper’s Handbook is a 32-page softcover companion to the Planar Adventures hardcover that Paizo released as the final “big” book for Pathfinder First Edition. Since Second Edition had already been announced, Planar Adventures was intentionally “crunch-light”. But The Plane-Hopper’s Handbook is full of options like new archetypes, feats, traits, spells, and more for players interested in having their characters adventure on other planes. Not everything in the book nails a perfect landing, but overall it’s a solid product and worth purchasing if a campaign looks headed in an off-Golarion direction.

We’ll start with some general notes. The cover isn’t my favourite, as it puts something uninteresting in the foreground (a character looking at their hands, and another tugging on them) and the really cool thing (a gate to another world!) in the background with a colour scheme that makes it hard to make out. This cover art is reprinted, sans text, as the inside back cover. The inside front cover is . . . Well, I’m not really sure—I guess some sort of artistic representation of how some of the planes relate to one another. The full-colour interior artwork is fantastic though—Paizo’s interior art is better than a lot of companies manage to get for the cover of their books. The book has a page for the table of contents and two pages for an introduction. The introduction is a sort of series of one-sentence overviews of each of the planes, and isn’t particularly useful. However, it does have three new traits, and they’re pretty good in that they help characters acclimatize or navigate the planes. The body of the book is divided into nine sections—and yes, I do have all day, and we will go through them one by one!

PLANAR TRAVELERS (6 pages): This section starts with a good explanation of various ways to reach the planes (and get back home), and then moves on to summaries of two planar organisations: the Blackfire Adepts and the Riftwardens. The section has, of all things, a new archetype for gunslingers (“Planar Rifter”)—it’s really cool in that their bullets can open interdimensional portals! The section also includes an occultist archetype (“Planar Harmonizer”—looks okay), several new arcanist exploits, and then a set of really powerful style feats.

PLANE-HOPPING EQUIPMENT (2 pages): This section starts with a couple of different equipment packages for planar adventurers, which is a clever idea. It then introduces several new material power components for spellcasters. My favourite thing in the section is a new vehicle, the planar carriage--a vehicle capable of travelling through the planes, but with a set of specific limitations that makes it a great plot convenience without becoming overpowered. I could envision a whole campaign centered around low-level PCs gaining access to a planar carriage but being given responsibilities across myriad dimensions.

PLANE-HOPPING MAGIC (2 pages): This section contains a couple of good general utility spells. It then provides some aasimar- and tiefling-specific spells, which I’m not a huge fan of as those races are already overpowered to begin with, and don’t exactly need more game support.

APHORITES (2 pages): New to me, aphorites are a sort of free-willed, more individualistic versions of axiomites, and a playable PC race. This section provides them with alternate racial traits, several new feats, and some favoured class options.

DUSKWALKERS (2 pages): Another new playable race, duskwalkers sound interesting—souls given a single, second chance at life because their first life ended too soon. As with aphorites, this section has several new options. I really like the set of origin feats.
GANZIS (2 pages): Ganzis are mortals infused with chaos. The section includes a (somewhat incoherent) new archetype for paladins (“Chaos Knight), some “expanded oddities” for the race (fun flavour, but mechanics are small, forgettable flat bonuses), and some favoured class options.

PLANAR SCIONS (4 pages): This section is a bit of a grab-bag. It introduces alternate elemental heritages for oreads, ifrits, undines, and sylphs, but I’m not a big fan--a lot of complication to the setting for little gain. Gathlains gets several new feats representing titles in the court of the fey--they have story prerequisites, which is relatively rare. Finally, shabti (no idea) get a set of alternate racial traits and favoured class options.

PLANAR ALLIES (4 pages): Several new eidolon subtypes are introduced here; I’ve never played a summoner, but many of these looks really cool. Next, new elemental-themed archetypes are added for animal companions. There’s then some “planar mentor feats” that offer up some interesting story possibilities if selected with the cooperation of the GM.

DEMIPLANES (4 pages): Demiplanes are more specialised or unique off-shoots of the major planes. In this section, some new character options related to demiplanes are introduced. There’s a series of spells tied to the Akashic Record, which I like in concept but they all end up pretty underpowered. Worshippers of Desna get a series of feats related to the demiplane Cynosure, and these are pretty cool: they allow non-spellcasters to teleport and plane shift! For the Dimension of Dreams, we get several new lucid dreaming feats. Pathfinder Society devotees will note some feats and a spell related to the Hao Jin Tapestry, and anyone who has played through the very well-regarded module The Harrowing will find a new eidolon archetype. Some fun stuff in this section.

To sum up, The Plane-Hopper’s Handbook is like most Player Companions in that it offers a mix of really good options and a few clunkers. But overall, there’s more gold than dross here, and the writing and artwork are strong. I’d recommend it.

Time to Hop, Skip, and Jump Your way Through The Planes.

4/5 —

A good solid book with some great options for the plane-touched races. Though I really wish the kineticist wild talents didn't require the planar infusion feat since the class is already strongly connected to the plane that you get your power from.

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Yeah, the cover art does lack but at least the content of the book sounds interesting.

I like the cover. :) Also I want more Ganzi stuff if only because then I can make my ganzi paladin of Shelyn be even more awesome.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I also like the new cover art, and w/ the updated description, this became a pre-order for me.

I've never played a gunslinger but this sounds fun. Also, filling out the fcb's for the native outsider's would be great.
Liberty's Edge

yeah. plus i love the gunslingers expression. you would almost think she had never seen named bullet or firearm enhancing spells before.
Dark Archive

Yay at Aeon eidolons!

This is honestly type of stuff I wish for, I hope Paizo keeps covering spots not yet covered in 1e before 2e is out :'D I'd really have been sad if there were several outsider categories in 1e not covered by eidolons for example.(now if they would only release rules and statblocks for member from each outsider demigod/quasigod category...)

I'm just glad there's stuff duskwalkers and ganzi. I might need those when I do my duskwalker Hunter (Divine Hunter) or my Ganzi Paladin of Shelyn that only talks in memes and/or emojis.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Ugh, is there a way to convert new eidolon material for Unchained to make it for the NORMAL Summoner?

Not a fan of the Unchained one.

There's... no pdf yet? shoot.
jdgoerzen wrote:
There's... no pdf yet? shoot.

That's because it hasn't shipped yet. Just got my 'Pending' notice and they hope to start shipping this week (tentatively scheduled for tomorrow...). So, it may be another week or two as the PDFs usually are not available until the books hit the shelves in stores.

Fourshadow wrote:
jdgoerzen wrote:
There's... no pdf yet? shoot.
That's because it hasn't shipped yet. Just got my 'Pending' notice and they hope to start shipping this week (tentatively scheduled for tomorrow...). So, it may be another week or two as the PDFs usually are not available until the books hit the shelves in stores.

I think he meant about the "PDF available Sep 19:" thing not being there, and having an "Add to Cart" button instead of a clickable "Add Print Edition".

Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

I am wondering what is going on with this one myself. My combined August/September subscription order just shipped, and I did not get my PDF for this Player Companion. Unless the Customer Service forum has an explanation, I will be starting a thread there to inquire about it.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Radiant eidolons from the positive energy plane, now that sounds interesting.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
David knott 242 wrote:
I am wondering what is going on with this one myself. My combined August/September subscription order just shipped, and I did not get my PDF for this Player Companion. Unless the Customer Service forum has an explanation, I will be starting a thread there to inquire about it.

Same issue here.

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

I have my PDF now.

Table of Contents:

Introduction 2
Planar Travelers 4
Plane-Hopping Equipment 10
Plane-Hopping Magic 12
Aph orites 14
Duskwalkers 16
Ganzis 18
Planar Scions 20
Planar Allies 24
Demiplanes 28

Rules Index:

ARCHETYPES CLASS PAGE
Chaos knight Paladin 18
Planar harmonizer Occultist 7
Planar rifter Gunslinger 6
FEATS TYPE PAGE
Aphorite Feats — 14–15
Asura Sight Combat 8
Asura Spellrend Combat 9
Asura Style Combat, Style 9
Blackfire Summoning — 5
Cerberus Crush Combat 9
Cerberus Snare Combat 9
Cerberus Style Combat, Style 9
Duskwalker Origin Feats Origin 16–17
Gathlain Court Titles — 22
Hao Jin Tapestry Feats — 30
Lucid Dreamer Feats — 29–30
Planar Mentor Feats — 26–27
Retributive Summons — 6
Star Travel Feats — 29
OTHER RULES OPTIONS PAGE
Alternate Elemental Heritages 20–22
Aphorite Favored Class Options 15
Aphorite Racial Traits 14
Arcanist Exploits 7–8
Duskwalker Favored Class Options 17
Duskwalker Racial Traits 16
Equipment 10–11
Ganzi Favored Class Options 19
Ganzi Oddities 18
Ganzi Racial Traits 18
Kineticist Wild Talents 8
Planar Companion Archetypes 26
Shabti Alternate Racial Traits 23
Spells 12–13, 28–30
Traits 3
Unchained Summoner Eidolon Subtypes 24–25, 31

Advocates
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
David knott 242 wrote:

I have my PDF now.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Ooh... Could you tell us about the alternate elemental heritages? Thank!

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Lindley Court wrote:
Ooh... Could you tell us about the alternate elemental heritages? Thank!

They are all geniekin sub-races:

Spoiler:

Gemsoul Crystal Oread
Ironsoul Metal Oread
Lavasoul Magma Ifrit
Mistsoul Vapor Undine
Rimesoul Frost Undine
Smokesoul Fume Sylph
Stormsoul Lightning Sylph
Sunsoul Solar Ifrit

Ability modifiers, spell-like abilities, and affinities all vary from the defaults.

I'd like a little more detail about the style feats along with stuff about Duskwalkers, if you don't mind David. :)
David knott 242 wrote:
Lindley Court wrote:
Ooh... Could you tell us about the alternate elemental heritages? Thank!

They are all geniekin sub-races:

** spoiler omitted **

Any of the geniekin have art?

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Misko wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Lindley Court wrote:
Ooh... Could you tell us about the alternate elemental heritages? Thank!

They are all geniekin sub-races:

** spoiler omitted **

Any of the geniekin have art?

There is a face for each heritage.

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
David knott 242 wrote:

I have my PDF now.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Could you give a brief overview of the archetypes? Also, is this supposed to be extraplanar stuff or space? Because it sounds like there's quite a bit of space stuff.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Thomas Seitz wrote:
I'd like a little more detail about the style feats along with stuff about Duskwalkers, if you don't mind David. :)

I will limit these to the basics:

Style feats:

Asura Style: Your unarmed and monk weapon attacks sicken divine casters.

Cerberus Style: If you hit with an unarmed strike, you may attack up to two other foes.

Duskwalkers:

Alternate racial traits, feats, and favored class bonuses are provided. Four of the seven feats are origin feats based on your cause of death in your previous life.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Alchemaic wrote:
Could you give a brief overview of the archetypes?

Spoiler:

The Chaos Knight is a ganzi paladin archetype that harnesses the power of chaos without being chaotic (as the alignment restriction is left unchanged).

The Planar Harmonizer Occultist and Planar Rifter Gunslinger are more generic archetypes (available to any race) who gain powers associated with the planes.

Alchemaic wrote:
Also, is this supposed to be extraplanar stuff or space? Because it sounds like there's quite a bit of space stuff.

Spoiler:
The star travel feats are associated with Desna's Realm, the Demiplane of Cynosure. Does anything else appear to be space related?
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
David knott 242 wrote:
Alchemaic wrote:
Could you give a brief overview of the archetypes?

**Chaos Knight Spoilers**

Huh. I honestly don't know what I was expecting, but that sounds really tame for an archetype called "Chaos Knight".

Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

What is more chaotic to a ganzi than becoming a lawful good paladin, that still has chaos powers.

What do some of the Kineticist Wild talents look like?
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:

What is more chaotic to a ganzi than becoming a lawful good paladin, that still has chaos powers.

What do some of the Kineticist Wild talents look like?

Last one for tonight.

Spoiler:

List of wild talents:

Angelic Protection
Infernal Bargain
Shepherd of Souls
Splash of the Styx
Turning Blast

The following sentence introduces the section where these talents are described: "Sometimes, a kineticist can become infused with the energies of the Outer Sphere, altering her connection to her element and granting her unusual abilities."

Silver Crusade

I adore the Chaos Knight already XD

So what does the radiant eidolon get?

I though there was supposed to be a summoner archetype for the positive energy plane?

I’d love to hear what the new eidolon subtypes are!
Contributor
1 person marked this as a favorite.
David knott 242 wrote:
Lindley Court wrote:
Ooh... Could you tell us about the alternate elemental heritages? Thank!

They are all geniekin sub-races:

** spoiler omitted **

ooh, those sound cool!

Thanks for the sneak peeks thus far! Good stuff. Cannot wait to read more on those Wild Talents.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:

So what does the radiant eidolon get?

I though there was supposed to be a summoner archetype for the positive energy plane?

There is no summoner archetype, but there are several eidolon subtypes.

Radiant eidolons are the eidolons from the Positive Energy Plane. Their special abilities reflect that origin.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
QuidEst wrote:
I’d love to hear what the new eidolon subtypes are!

Spoiler:

Aeon
Astral
Radiant
Void
Storykin

David knott 242 wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
I’d love to hear what the new eidolon subtypes are!

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks! Sounds like some cool additions- looking forward to checking them out myself on the 19th!

Can we get a little more detail on what the Duskwalker traits and feats are like ?
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
nighttree wrote:
Can we get a little more detail on what the Duskwalker traits and feats are like ?

I'll just name them for now.

Spoiler:

Alternate racial traits:
Abandoned: replaces skilled.
Fosterling: replaces skilled.
Olethros’s Agent: replaces ward against corruption.
Yamaraj’s Bailiff: replaces ward against corruption.

Origin feats:
Chance Death
Deliberate Death
Lonely Death
Willing Death

Other feats:
Experienced Ghost Hunter
Ghost Hunting Team
Personal Chronicler

Silver Crusade
3 people marked this as a favorite.

OMG WILLING DEATH DUSKWALKER YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Also, NOSOI BUDDY!!!
Rysky wrote:


Also, NOSOI BUDDY!!!

This intrigues me as I already have a Soul Warden Spiritualist (Planar Adventures) who has a familiar that becomes a full-fledged Nosoi Psychopomp at level 4.

Anything that could apply to that archetype? So eager to read this book!
Silver Crusade
Fourshadow wrote:
Rysky wrote:


Also, NOSOI BUDDY!!!

This intrigues me as I already have a Soul Warden Spiritualist (Planar Adventures) who has a familiar that becomes a full-fledged Nosoi Psychopomp at level 4.

Anything that could apply to that archetype? So eager to read this book!

The 2 feat chain works like that.

The Ghost Hunting Team Feat makes your allies' weapons ghost touched, so that might interest you.
Contributor
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Just chiming in to say that I adore some of the stuff in this book. Especially the Abaddon-linked gunslinger, and some of the Maelstrom/chaos themed options.

And in line with the latter, I recently made the following spell for my home game, 'Summon Voidworm Cheersquad'

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs42a1n?Summon-Voidworm-Cheersquad#1
Silver Crusade
Todd Stewart wrote:

Just chiming in to say that I adore some of the stuff in this book. Especially the Abaddon-linked gunslinger, and some of the Maelstrom/chaos themed options.

And in line with the latter, I recently made the following spell for my home game, 'Summon Voidworm Cheersquad'

Summon Voidworm Cheersquad

Woohoo!

Rysky wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Rysky wrote:


Also, NOSOI BUDDY!!!

This intrigues me as I already have a Soul Warden Spiritualist (Planar Adventures) who has a familiar that becomes a full-fledged Nosoi Psychopomp at level 4.

Anything that could apply to that archetype? So eager to read this book!

The 2 feat chain works like that.

The Ghost Hunting Team Feat makes your allies' weapons ghost touched, so that might interest you.

Actually, the familiar gets that already as part of the Spiritualist archetype. I really like it a lot.

But thanks for the info, Rysky!
Silver Crusade

Np :3
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have it! I have just scanned through the book and my first impression is...
This book is VERY specific: Ganzi, Aphorite, Shabti, Duskwalker get some quite interesting options.
Just know that there is very little in here for core races.
That can be good for some, bad for others.

For instance, the really cool Nosoi Buddy feat? Exclusive to Duskwalkers.

Well, couldnt humans and pass for humans planar races get it, through planar heritage?
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Raviiiii wrote:
Well, couldnt humans and pass for humans planar races get it, through planar heritage?

Humans, definitely.

However, there is some strange wording in the Planar Heritage feat that might make it not work for half-humans and "pass for human" planar races.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Fourshadow wrote:

I have it! I have just scanned through the book and my first impression is...

This book is VERY specific: Ganzi, Aphorite, Shabti, Duskwalker get some quite interesting options.
Just know that there is very little in here for core races.
That can be good for some, bad for others.

For instance, the really cool Nosoi Buddy feat? Exclusive to Duskwalkers.

Ah, I seem to recall there was another book with a similar issue. Cool ideas unfortunately locked to races nobody plays. I think it was one of the Blood books, but I can't remember which one.

4 people marked this as a favorite.

I do wish eidolons were set up better so that a new eidolon subtype wouldn't end up restricted from a lot of natural attack evolutions by default.

Anyway, the astral eidolons are far and away the most interesting addition- they get slower Str/Dex progression, but improve your summoning! (You can use your summoning SLA while your eidolon is out by merging it with one of the summoned creatures, conveying various benefits.) They also can divert more points to the summoner with aspect/greater aspect.

As for race-locked content, it's providing some material to get those new races quickly caught up to some of the existing races. So now there's a good reason to play Duskwalkers- you can get a thematic familiar for one feat less than other characters. Ganzis make good enchantment Oracles thanks to their FCB, and have a unique Paladin option. Aphorites can build Magus-lite on any casting class using scrolls.

There's some nice non-racial content. The ones that stood out to me the most were the five eidolon subtypes and a feat chain for a planar mentor that you can eventually call 1/week at a 50% discount.
Alchemaic wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:

I have it! I have just scanned through the book and my first impression is...

This book is VERY specific: Ganzi, Aphorite, Shabti, Duskwalker get some quite interesting options.
Just know that there is very little in here for core races.
That can be good for some, bad for others.

For instance, the really cool Nosoi Buddy feat? Exclusive to Duskwalkers.

Ah, I seem to recall there was another book with a similar issue. Cool ideas unfortunately locked to races nobody plays. I think it was one of the Blood books, but I can't remember which one.

Aside from Blood of the Night, which has option for vampires, not sure which one it could be.

Or Blood of the Beast/Seas/Shadows.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Souls At War wrote:
Alchemaic wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:

I have it! I have just scanned through the book and my first impression is...

This book is VERY specific: Ganzi, Aphorite, Shabti, Duskwalker get some quite interesting options.
Just know that there is very little in here for core races.
That can be good for some, bad for others.

For instance, the really cool Nosoi Buddy feat? Exclusive to Duskwalkers.

Ah, I seem to recall there was another book with a similar issue. Cool ideas unfortunately locked to races nobody plays. I think it was one of the Blood books, but I can't remember which one.

Aside from Blood of the Night, which has option for vampires, not sure which one it could be.

Or Blood of the Beast/Seas/Shadows.

Definitely not Beast, I remember that one being at most a 50/50 split. Might be Seas?

Also holy crap Asura Style and Cerberus Style are cool. Although there seems to be a typo, Cerberus Snare requires Cerberus Crush as a prerequisite, while Cerberus Crush requires Cerberus Snare.
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