Pathfinder Lost Omens: Firebrands

I went in expecting a book about flamboyant chaotic good do gooders and that's exactly what I got!

I absolutely love it! Ten stars for everyone!

just here to offset the guy 1- & 2-starring all the Second Edition products

Starting writing this review, I have no idea what end score will be. Thing is that I don't like braggart half of firebrands, I don't mind them, but I have heavy dislike of celebrity and social media influencer culture and mixing them with folk heroes doesn't really help that to me. However that doesn't mean book is necessarily bad, the "its good book about firebrands" and "I find firebrands great" ARE two different things, but it admittedly makes it really hard to review this one because that I prefer the more serious cloak and dagger revolutionary half does color my view on the parts that talk about the other half.

Well let's start with introduction and life as firebrand articles. While its not necessarily new information, I do find that this part of the book does make it easier to take firebrands more seriously as a whole. Like I can see the dynamic "serious firebrands are frustrated by the showoffs and then as showoffs pull of something unpredictable and random they have to redo their plans to incorporate showoffs into the plan". Its classic dynamic and players & npcs could be on either side of it. I really got feeling of "its not just because braggarts/blazes are good distractions, its also because they realized they really can't stop people from claiming they are firebrands anyway so they decided to roll with it" that I'm not sure if its intended, but it helps to sell me idea of why firebrands tolerate the braggarts.

Another thing that always bothered me is that the mark reputation system seemed to me to reward braggarts and incentive them to be even louder, but book made it seem like its actually more of a nebulous reputation system of "Who gets the job done and actually changes things for better" because book did do good job with selling idea that braggart firebrands have harder time standing out and are forced to spend lot of time on PR management if they hope to remain famous and not be forgotten. Meanwhile the quiet ones create lasting effect that is remembered.

That said, that is also part of my annoyance with this section, book tries to balance around both subtle and unsubtle firebrands as equals same time downplaying that "braggarts aren't all firebrands are" while also popping up constantly "that doesn't mean braggarts are completely left to dust as unimportant useful annoyances". Like... I do believe good aligned faction books should focus on showing good parts of the faction(otherwise I get flashbacks to how chronicles of the righteous keeps insulting celestials), but the firebrand book seems to ignore what makes sense in favor of "what is more funny".

Firebrands Braggarts make most sense if they were vocal minority that is infamous part of organization for both good and ill and if most of time they just went around making up stories and tall tales rather than actually doing explosive acts of flashy heists.(sidenote: I really need to see faction guide phantom thief council of thieves in 2e x'D) It makes sense to me that people might be inspired by stories of folk heroes and such. It doesn't make sense that "People claiming to be firebrand for wrong or evil reasons will get ousted by commoners eventually and because they know firebrands are good guys by reputation" because 1) real life shows that people can be manipulated to work against their own interest by propaganda 2) it doesn't make sense to me that small town in varisia would know about infamous act of firebrand flashery from cheliax because this is world before telecommunication, the news don't travel THAT far without major telephone game effect. The modern celebrity culture of firebrand braggarts makes more sense in starfinder than in pathfinder.

Heck its kinda weird idea that firebrands police themselves since isn't the whole point that they are decentralized cells of groups that can work together but are mostly independent? How the heck they can tell apart tyrannical government propaganda and actual false firebrand cell?

Like even disregarding my opinion that firebrand braggarts should be vocal minority instead of major part of the organization, I think firebrand braggarts would make more sense if 1) its acknowledged that information doesn't travel THAT far that fast in current pathfinder era 2) its acknowledged that their presence has both positive and negative influences on PR 3) that its acknowledges that they wouldn't be universally popular everywhere or that pretending to be firebrands is a valid tactic for tyrants. The later parts of book acknowledge the nuance of firebrands in good and bad, so why can't this article acknowledge it about the braggarts as well?

But yeah moving on to Firebrand Relationships: there are a lot of fun details here and first of the nuances I mentioned. Like pathfinder society is listed as both their ally and foe because sometimes firebrands and pathfinder clash on matter of glory and loot :'D Its also fun how one of sidebars mentions Rahadoum having retaken Khari from hell's vengeance's article so yay something cool slipped from it into canon xD Hellknight part just kinda reinforces idea that lot of Firebrands just troll hellknights because "lol its funny" though.

Among the firebrands articles are next starting with Factions. As said its nice to get the acknowledgement that most firebrand groups don't have long shelf life but that ones that do are quite interesting bunch. Lot of them lean more into "flashy" side(Fire's Finest kinda gives me mixed feelings because at same time I love idea of group of adventurers with giant robot, but at same time that sounds like disruptive group of npcs to use and they aren't really rebels, they ARE the annoying prankster type I was wary of. They are third mark for some reason, but I guess having giant robot makes you easily standout.) I do kinda like that some of firebrand cells demonstrate that there can be npcs in the world which show that even silly pcs can fit the world, but at same time if I find behavior obnoxious in PCs, I find it obnoxious in npcs and that includes making light of everything :'D still though all art including fire's finest is great, book in general has lot of great art.

Well that tangent took lot of word space, so quickly on other major factions: Nightwave(I much prefer Torius Vin but these guys fill the role of mostly good guy chaotic trickster pirate archetype and their leader is loveable enough despite being beginning of braggart firebrands when he declared himself one to escape Hurricane Queen's judgement), Salt Breakers(one of the serious rebel groups so I like them, much more than the other sea based group), Silver Ravens(nice to see them expanded further, kinda getting feeling that devs are working around hell's rebels pcs being unavailable by adding more important npcs to the faction), and there are some fun minor ones but most of them are silly jokey ones as lot of firebrand braggarts are...

On notable figures I won't comment much besides that some of minor ones mentioned are most gonzo characters ever mentioned in setting, and that while I like story of dead guy called Snackary Barkiss it does kinda just add to the feeling of firebrand spirit being "lol that was funny" based on my players being much less amused by the story. But yeah in short: This is coolest picture of Sapphire Butterfly so far(usually she looks kinda silly), Mockingbird is cool, I like Iishi Bunji and Karthival, and I like Passenger despite them being leader of Fire's Finest.(I don't need to specify I like the serious rebel ones right? Right?)

God article is good and I like all of new ones. Well okay Picoperi is just "Eh I think I would like him more if I didn't get annoyed by lot of prankster firebrands earlier in the book" x'D

Firebrand mechanical options are cool though and I like variety of them being spread to so many different archetypes. Some nice spells and items as well, even the silly ones work good for bards. Plus hey service table is great!

Best thing about firebrand effort? The continuation of the escapee groom picture ;D No seriously I just love the story continuing in pictures in new books. But yeah Vaunter's carnival is silly but article has nuance about local reactions and I think its fun enough. Mwangi Expanse article is good, but I'm not sure I like firebrands being able to see through Shosenbe's lies instantly. Not to mention the "any outsider can easily see through his empty promises" part kinda implies "they need outsider to save them!" storyline which isn't really something I'd like. I'd much prefer if they were skeptical of his stated goals(after all anyone who is now the new leader can suddenly turn back on their promises) and were trying to investigate more into him to uncover the truth. Old Cheliax: I like isger getting bit longer write up and in sidebar mention of certain hellknight centaur's sister ;D The Shackles: I like references to underwater stuff and reminders that Azlant exists, I don't like Mediogalti Island being target of firebrand pranks because it downplays scariness of red mantis.

Galt article is nice for telling us after math of night of the gray death. Katapesh one is where I have to comment on the real life thing: paizo might have rushed the abolition storyline, but I like that when they decided to do that, they didn't pretend it wasn't as sudden in universe as it was in real life, so as result they are now exploring consequences of it happening this fast both in Katapesh and in Cheliax.

Other campaigns also has a lot of neat details, but I'm getting exhausted. So any final nitpicks?... Well I had one thing I was slightly confused about but that got addressed in product thread

It is a rare treat getting a Lost Omens book focusing on an organization. As always, the main focus is on lore. The book goes into detail explaining the inception of the Firebrands, how they fit in the world -connecting them to recent events in campaign settings-, their structure, allies, enemies, interesting characters within their ranks and current endeavors.

That is not to say that this book doesn't include new rules to flesh out -mechanically- any new characters one would want to create in the vein of a firebrand. Chapter 3 has 20 pages worth of backgrounds, new feats, spells, equipment and magic items. However, if these were your primary reason to buy this book, I’d recommend waiting for their addition to Archives of Nethys. After all, most of the value is in lore, flavor, adventure hooks and art.

Older organizations such as the Hellknights are explored across many publications in PF1. Having risen during events nearing the end of PF1 settings, this is the first book wholly dedicated to this organization.

Players who have experienced the Hell’s Rebels Adventure Path in PF1 could find the book to be especially interesting as it develops the consequences of the campaign, given that the formation of the Firebrands is directly tied to the conclusion of said adventure. A couple of familiar characters are featured among “Notable Figures” in chapter 2. More recently, players that have gone through the Night of the Gray Death adventure may also be pleased to see some further development on its conclusion.

Nevertheless, it is not necessary to have played any of these campaigns to enjoy the book as the firebrands like to get intertwined with any major events that could happen in any campaign setting -maybe to a fault-.

Many deities are further detailed in the book, however they are explained in relation to those firebrands that would worship them, helping to flesh out individuals within the organization, which is a big help when trying to write an interesting character.

This book could be especially useful to develop a custom campaign in the Inner Sea (or beyond) as the last chapter details adventure hooks on many regions, with some snippets of possible leads for adventures in other continents.