Inner Sea Races — Is It Worthwhile?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Inner Sea Races is one of those books that seems more of a kinda-nice-to-have rather than an absolute-must-have. Apparently it republishes most if not all of its content, which is what I’m concerned about.

Is there any new information on races at all, or is it 100% recycled material? Are there any new character options? And is it entirely rooted in Golarion, or can it be adapted to other campaign settings?


It is filled with many new character options, and all of them easily adaptable to any table top game

Would reccomend


Okay, thanks.

Is there any new lore on the various races, or is it all reprinted from other sources?


There is a lot of new content for races, yes.


Check out Archives of Nethys. It loaded Inner Sea Races a while back. You can see what is in the package.

/cevah


Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber

And there is a lot of information in this book that did not make the Archives of Nethys because it is not directly tied to any game mechanics. If you want the Golarion lore about the various races and human ethnicities, this is the book that has it.


Advanced Race Guide is one of my favourite books, and in comparison Inner Sea Races was a disappointment for me:

1) For my taste it focuses on humans too much. One fifth of the book is dedicated to them - pure fluff, not a single rule element during these 54 pages. Yes, Golarion is dominated by humans - but not every player wants to play them.

2) The descriptions of several races were more inspiring in their respective source books (Blood of Fiends, Blood of the Moon etc.). I see that a book that has to rehash an already well-described race suffers from a handicap - but ARG got it done in a better way.

3) Too focused on teamwork feats - which always have one restriction too much to be attractive. Maybe they work for hunters or inquisitors, but there are a lot of other classes out there...

Now the book has its gems, like a new reincarnate table, the Elemental Strike feat and a few interesting race traits. This book got an average rating of 3/5 - and I totally agree with that.


If you're using the Inner Sea setting then is a useful book to have and even if you're not there's no reason why you can just change the names and insert a fleshed out culture straight into whatever setting you're playing.

It's nice having abundant lore/fluff without being inundated with yet more rule elements. I can't comment as to how much of it is reprinted as I've not read all the player companions/campaign settings but even still it's nice having disparate sources collecting into one book.

I think the book helps bot GMs and players flesh out the cultural aspects of their characters. I quite liked the brief bullet points that present a number likely characteristics of people from given culture as well as a number of assumptions that outsiders are likely to make about people from said culture.


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This is an amazing book if you want lore and background.

In my return to Pathfinder, this has been my unexpected favorite book.

Buy it. You won't regret it.


I like the lore, Golarion is an awesome setting. My favourite book is the Inner Sea World guide. Is Inner Sea Races comparable to that?


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Very much. It has a lot of fluff that fills out the setting from the world guide with a focus on the people. If you're in it for the setting you're going to dig this book.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Inner Sea Races is one of my favorite books for Golarion. Lots of lore info on the core races. It made me understand for the first time how elves on Golarion actually act. I highly recommend it.


No fan of Golarion should be without the book. If you don't like the setting, it has very little to offer, but if you like a book that isn't just filled with feats and stat blocks, this is for you.

It was an unexpected treasure.

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