Pathfinder: Pirates of the Inner Sea

Today I'd like to briefly talk about  Pathfinder Player's Companion: Pirates of the Inner Sea.

The Basics: Pirates of the Inner Sea is a full-color 32 page Pathfinder book. The retail price is 10.99. The book gives an overview of piracy on Golarion. The book starts three page overview, then goes into six different pirate regions. Each region gets a two page spread which includes character traits. We then get four pages of equipment, four class archetypes, one prestige class, and two page discussion of the faith of Besmara (the Pirate goddess), and six spells. The book ends with a discussion the social aspects of pirate life.

The Good: I love the discussion of Andoran pirates. Essentially Andoran is colonial America and their pirates are actually pirate hunters. My other favorite is the discussion of the pirates of the River Kingdoms. These pirates use rafts and barges to ply the waterways. I plan on using this info when I finally get around to running Kingmaker. The archetypes are really cool. My favorite is the buccaneer bard. They get songs of surrender, which is great when you're trying to take over a ship. The prestige class is cool too. The Inner Sea pirate prestige class is very rogue-y. It gets sneak attack and pirate tricks.

The Bad: I can't point to anything in this book that I don't like, but then again, I LOVE pirates.

Final Thoughts: If you want some pirate goodness in your Pathfinder game, pick this one up.

Pathfinder: People of the Rivers

I recently snagged some Pathfinder books at a great price and decided to keep my little mini reviews going. Today I'm going to talk about Pathfinder Player's Companion: People of the River.

The Basics: People of the River is a full-color 32 page Pathfinder book. The retail price is 12.99. It's a player focused book that describe the people that live in areas that border the Sellen River. The book is a tie-in to both the Iron Gods adventure path and The Emerald Spire and Thornkeep.

The Good: This book has a lot of crunch. It has 29 traits, 6 archetypes, seven feats, a cavalier order, 3 arcane discoveries, a sorcerous bloodline, barbarian powers,10 magic items, 7 spells, and more. My favorite archetypes are the witch ones. First we have the veneficus, which is a witch that specializes in poison. The second archetype is hag of Gyronna. This which dedicates herself to the minor goddesses of hags. Finally there is a really cool map of the Sellen River region that looks like something you could hand your players in game. The other thing that's cool about this book is that it's a good resource for Kingmaker, which takes place in the northeastern part of the River Kingdoms.

The Bad: This book is very divided. The material is either useful for Iron Gods or Emerald Spire, with not a lot of crossing over. It's just odd.

Final Thoughts: If you're playing Iron Gods, The Emerald Spire, or Kingmaker you will probably find this book useful. Otherwise, it's one to pass on.

Pathfinder Adventure Paths

I don't have much personal play experience with Pathfinder's Adventure Path's. I own all of Skull and Shackles and Shattered Star. I just picked up the Rise of the Rune Lords Anniversary edition last week (for only 30 bucks at Half-Price Books... woot woot). I also have random parts ofCouncil of Thieves, Reign of Winter, and Giant Slayer. When all is said and done though, I've only actually played a session of Curse of the Crimson Throne and Serpent's Skull and ran one session of Kingmaker.

My friend Stew has ran several, though I believe Rise of the Rune Lords and Carrion Crown are the only ones he's finished. He and I have discussed them on several occasions. Honestly, the idea of the adventure paths appeal to me, but in execution they just tend to fall flat in my eyes. In particular one issue I see with several of them is that they're extended chase scenes in which the party has to constantly be on the move to stop the foe (Serpent's Skull and Carrion Crown are guilty of this). And then there's Jade Regent, the AP that should have been awesome, but ultimately turned into one giant escort mission (ugh, wait make that a double ugh).

While I wouldn't mind playing in any of the adventure paths, I think the ones that most interest me are the ones that include more sandbox elements, namely Skull and Shackles and Kingmaker.

I'm in love with 5E and I don't see that love affair ending anytime soon. I have two regular 5E games (and a pick-up one). That being said, once one of the games ends, I think Kingmaker will be my triumphant return to Pathfinder.

I'll run these bad boys someday...