Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Player's Guide [Hardcover]

The new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game gives those disenchanted with D&D v4's radical changes, a gentler alternative. It is a comprehensive reworking of a much loved friend. Good though it is, there is little that is new on the original 3.5 rules, so why bother buying into it? Until now, Paizo supported its rules through sumptuous game aids, high-quality and inventive adventure paths and a real enthusiasm for the game. This new rulebook sees 'Pathfinder' step out of the shadow of its predecessor.

The main development are six new base classes - Alchemist, Cavalier, Inquisitor, Oracle, Summoner and Witch. These are original and inventive, and look great fun to play, each having a host of new Class Features. Bombs, Challenges, Judgements, Mysteries, Eidolons and Hexes respectively. The Eidolon is particularly interesting - a summoned magical creature that evolves as its Summoner increases levels. Like a familiar only more interesting. Oracles have powerful Mysteries but against that, they are cursed, with blindness, deafness or perhaps a shrivelled limb.

This rulebook puts the characters back at the heart of the game. Unlike v4, which seemed to me all about emulating the combat experience of a computer game, Pathfinder is about character evolution. Expanded rules on races and the original base classes, mean that you could play this game religiously for years, racking up years of gameplay, without ever duplicating a character. There are a number of suggestions for tailoring your Race towards particular Classes, and alternative racial traits to give a specific flavour for whatever race you want to be - Pyromaniac Gnome anybody?

The classes have been expanded with (where appropriate) new class features (such as a new set of rage powers) and again each class now comes in different flavours - fancy playing a drunken barbarian, or perhaps maritime bard? It's all here. Clerics have new sub-domains, Druids skills can now be relevant to the type of terrain they live in. Want to be a healing monk, or your fighter to be a crossbowman? Well now you can. Rogues can now be underworld investigators, working on the right side of the law, and for the paladin whose halo has slipped, there is the dark and destructive 'Anti-Paladin' alternate class. When you work in the formalised rules for character traits - New 'half-feats' that add depth to your characters background, the permutations for character generation become almost infinite.

By comparison the rest of the book is almost a disappointment! The new feats, equipment and spells are all fine, but as is often the way, you can't help thinking all the best ones were put in first time around. The new Teamwork feats are interesting. Two characters who take the same feat, can then use it together to greater effect. A nice idea, but I wonder if they may prove a headache to play in anger? I'm sure there some of these new rules will be invaluable, but only by extensive playing will I find out. (Sadly, time for extensive playing is not something I have much of these days!). The new prestige classes are solid if unexciting - the notable exception being the Master Chymist, whose potion brewing allows for a 'Jekyll and Hyde' split personality, and looks like fantastic fun to play.

Once again, the book has been put together using the highest production values. It's a weighty tome that looks and feels great. For anybody who plays a lot of Pathfinder this book is an essential purchase. For those who have less time, you'll never manage to use everything in here, but it will enhance any game. Terrific stuff!

This book expands all parts of the Pathfinder RPG from the players perspektive; new feats, spells, magic items and prestige classes are a given for a product like this. But there are also 6 new core classes with a 1-20 level progression;
The Inquisitor a divine monster hunter, the Alchemist a new type of spellcaster that can enhance himself and his allies with his brews, the Cavalier a mounted specialist with a strong knightly feel, the Oracle a divine counterpart to the sorcerer, the Summoner with a pet you can mould to your exact specifications and a slew of summoning and enhancing magic spells and the Witch with various curses and an interesting way of storing and using spells.
But all the races from the core rulebook also gets some attention with various features that can replace the standard racial features. Like another group of weapon Proficiencies for the Elf and stuff like that. Each race also gets some new options for favaored class bonuses, instead of an extra Hitpoint or skill point, they can choose something specific for a class, like one extra rounf of Rage/day for a Dwarven barbarian or 1 point of energy resistence for a human Paladin.
Some of the old core classes also gets more powers to choose from, like mercies, rage powers, rogue talents, ranger fighting styles (Crossbow ranger!) etc.
But the coolest new feature in this book is the slew of Archetypes introduced for each class, the concept harkens back to ther kits in Ad&D and the replacement levels in 3rd ed D&D. You choose an archetype of a class, which usually is some sort of fantasy archetype; Polearm fighter, swamp Druid, acrobat rogue etc.
The archetype will then replace some (or all) of the class features with some more specailised toward the archetype, and if the two archetypes dont replace the same features you can have more than one. For example the ranger archetypes Skirmisher and Beastmaster. Skirmisher removes the Rnagers spells and replaces them with ranger tricks (special attacks and skill tricks) that are still based in Wisdom but are non-magical in nature. And the beast master repplaces Hunters Bond and favored enymies with a pool of levels you can distrubute on up to 5 diffrent animal companions. My only critism is that the Sorcerer, Wizard and Cleric get some pretty boring stuff like "only" new bloodlines for the sorcerer and sub-school and sub-domains for Wizard and Cleric respectivly. The sub-school/domain takes an already established school/domain and specialises further in an aspect of that domain/school like the Healing domains gets resurrection and restoration sub domains. My complaint is that they feel too much like the standard stuff the classes get.
This is a very solid product, every single pages of this book has something that I would like to use at some point. Many of the ideas have been seen before in the old editions of D&D, but they are done so much better (and more balanced) than before.

The Advanced Player's Guide (APG) is not essential to your game in the way that some of the books that followed the 4th Edition Player's Handbook are essential, but it *will* take your game to a new level. The new classes open your game world with a mixture of old favourite variants (the witch, the cavalier), and a number of new classes, such as the ranger-rogue-like inquisitor, the alchemist and the summoner which basically lets your character have just the imaginary friend she's always wanted.

Beyond all the great stuff, which is described in the product blurbs, this product really gives you an insight into what makes a feat, a trait and a spell. Between the Core Rulebook and the APG, you get a good sense for what each of these can do in terms of damage, bonuses, penalties and effects. And that means that you have a good benchmark for future splatbooks from Paizo and other companies.