Pathfinder Player Companion: "Haunted Heroes Handbook" [RPG]

I'm probably not the natural audience for the Haunted Heroes Handbook, as I've never delved deeply into any of the classes or rules from the Occult Adventures book.  Indeed, I bought this book because it has a trait that's perfect for my PFS caveman shaman.  But having read this Player Companion cover-to-cover, I'm really impressed with it.  It has some great artwork and evocative writing, and a lot of material for the "regular" classes.  If I were to play something like a spiritualist or occultist, or to run a more paranormal or horror-themed game, this would be a book I would turn to.

We start off with that great cover, showing the Iconic Spiritualist Estra and her companion Honaire facing off a creepy wave of tortured souls.  It sets the mood perfectly.  The scene is reproduced as the inside back-cover, while the inside front-cover summarises the "six most common sources of hauntings."  In essence, there's a paragraph each on how hauntings could be caused by aberrations, oni, spellcasters, fiends, haunts, and undead.  It's necessarily very general.

The core of the 36-page book is separated into separate sections, most two pages long but with a couple of sections that are four pages long.

The first two pages of the book combine a brief introduction, a "Primer on Possession", and an index of rules features in the book.  The material on possession is very detailed from a mechanics point of view, explaining how different spells and effects work, how they show up on divinations, what happens if multiple possession attempts are made, etc.  It's incredibly useful in a sort "Possession FAQ" sense, offering advanced rules for something that has been in the game for a long time.  I'll definitely refer back to it if questions arise in the course of normal gameplay with spells like magic jar, dominate person, etc.

The next section, "Haunted Places" (two pages) includes a brief two-paragraph description and one associated feat with locations on Golarion that have special connections to the spirit world:  the Forest of Spirits (in Tian Xia), Galt (home of the bloody Red Revolution), Geb (a nation of undead), Shenmen (a gloomy place overrun by spirits and monsters), and Ustalav (the gothic horror nation).  The feat linked to Geb, called "Soulblade", seems particularly useful--it allows the owner to have a fair chance to detect haunts before they manifest, and to attack them with weapons if they do.  Overall, I liked the section and thought the material in it was interesting and balanced.

"Breaching the Veil" (two pages) is an unnecessarily opaque title for a section on organisations on Golarion devoted to studying, suppressing, or using the spirit world.  There's a paragraph or two and an associated feat for the following groups:  Conference Z (an off-shoot of the Aspis Consortium I've never heard of), the Esoteric Order of the Palantine Eye (the stars of the Doomsday Dawn Playtest adventure), the Order of the Pyre (Hellknights!), the Pure Legion (the enforcers of Rahadoum's atheism--I have plans for a PC here), the Rivethun Followers (Dwarven spiritualists), and the Whispering Way (adherents of the lich, Tar-Baphon).  I think what I would like added to capsule descriptions of organisations like this is a quick cross-reference or footnote to where more information on them can be found--a paragraph doesn't really do them justice.

"Gods and Spirits" (two pages) gives brief notes on six faiths with particular links to the spiritual and paranormal, along with a variant domain power for each: Asmodeus, Cayden Cailean (a surprising addition, but the explanation given makes a certain kind of sense), Irori (again, not a deity one would think about first in this context), Naderi (the only non-Core deity in the list, but as the goddess of drowning, suicide, and tragedy, her inclusion makes sense), Pharasma, and Urgathoa.  As for those variant domain powers, my sense from reading them is that they're fine, but pretty samey.

"Fraudulent Hauntings" (two pages) is an interesting idea for a section, but I'm just not sure it fits into a game like Pathfinder when there's so much more to worry about than a con artist, and skeptics would seem like the crazy ones.  The section gives a brief overview of how and why hoaxes might occur, and then goes on to introduce three new hoaxing tools (like "false ectoplasm") and a new archetype for the Investigator class called the Skeptic.  The archetype seems conceptually confused, as part of its abilities are around debunking the paranormal and part of it is around dealing with real hauntings and possessions (like smiting haunts and exorcising spiritual possession).

"Secular Exorcism" (two pages) talks about non-magical ways to deal with spirit possession--things like restraints, talking with spirits, how to drive them out with holy water and intimidation, etc.  Again, in a movie like The Exorcist something like this would be useful, but Pathfinder is so chock-full of magic that I just don't see the necessity.  There's some non-magical equipment in this section to better spot haunts, but I don't really imagine they'd get much use.

"Ghost-Hunter Archetypes" (two pages) contains the Ectoplasm Master (for Alchemists), the Expulsionist (for Inquisitors), and the Spiritslayer (for Slayers).  The one for the Alchemist looks pretty good and fits nicely, while the other two are very niche only.  The section lists seven on-theme archetypes from other books, and I appreciate the references.

"Exorcism Rituals" (two pages) introduces four new occult rituals (per the Occult Adventures rules).  I've never used rituals in a game, but the ones presented here are really interesting and flavourful (with big penalties for failure!).  This is an area of the game I could definitely imagine exploring some day in the right storyline.

"Haunted Backgrounds" (two pages) is a bit of a grab-bag: three new traits, a new Psychic Discipline ("Haunted"), and a new Sorcerer Bloodline ("Possessed").  Everything seems pretty solid and reasonably balanced from my initial read-through.

"Allying with Spirits" (four pages) introduces six more archetypes: the Invoker (for Witches), the Pact Wizard (for Wizards), the Rivethun Spirit Channeler and the Uda Wendo (for Mediums), the Scourge (for Spiritualists), and the Steelbound Fighter (for Fighters).  This last one is the one that stuck out to be the most: it allows the character to gain an intelligent weapon which has some really interesting storyline possibilities--the downside is the archetype doesn't really come online until Level 5.  As an aside, I'll mention that the artwork on page 21 (reproduced on the back cover) is simply fantastic.

"Haunted Feats" (two pages) introduces nine new feats.  Five of the feats have to do with getting a possessed hand that can do various magical things.  It's a flavourful concept if you wanted to build a character around it and invest feats accordingly.

"Haunted Spells" (four pages) has nine new spells that are of a whole new type: they create temporary haunts in an area.  My favourite is Besmara's grasping depths which is cast in an area of deep water and starts pulling creatures down, down, down until they drown!  A lot of the ones here are similarly flavourful.  I don't know how often PCs would use these, but I could definitely see them forming the basis for some great scenarios with NPC spellcasters.

"Spirit Tools" (two pages) concludes the book by introducing one new feat and four new magic items.  The new feat, "Haunt Scavenger", allows a player to gather the ectoplasmic remnants of dispatched haunts and incorporeal undead and use them as the raw materials in crafting magic items.  It's a cool idea, but I haven't looked into the magic creation rules to see if it has any realistic viability.  The magic items seem cool at first, but they're pretty expensive for what they do.

Overall, I'd rank the Haunted Heroes Handbook as a success.  It has some flaws, but most of the material is well-written and fun to imagine becoming part of a game.  I wouldn't call it essential, but I'd certainly say it's useful.