Pathfinder Player Companion: "Blood of the Beast" [RPG]

 When the Advanced Race Guide came out, the number of playable races in Pathfinder suddenly increased substantially.  There’s an argument to be made that perhaps it was too much, too fast, with some of the new races competing (stats-wise) more than favourably with the classic Core Rulebook races.  I frankly get tired of seeing nagaji bloodragers and kitsune swashbucklers, but I guess that’s neither here nor there.  The value in Blood of the Beast is that it grounds these new races into the Golarion campaign setting, adding some  information about where they come from and how they’re perceived.  For GMs and players interested in a cohesive view of the setting, the promise is an important one.  As with all of these Player Companions, of course, there’s plenty of crunchy new options for character building as well.  The races covered here are catfolk, gripplis, kitsune, nagaji, ratfolk, tengus, and vanaras.

I really like the concept for the cover art, though the actual execution is a bit too cartoony for my tastes.  The inside front cover is a zoomed-out map of the Inner Sea with coloured highlighting showing where the various races covered in the book originate.  I think it’s too zoomed-out to be of a lot of real use though.  The inside back cover is the cover art minus any text.

After a page for the table of contents, we then get a two-page introduction.  There’s a new trait for each race covered in the book.  Some of the traits are fine, but some are of the generic “+1 to a skill and it’s a class skill” type that are really just space-fillers and list-lengtheners. 

Each of the seven races then get a four-page long entry with a brief overview, some favoured class options,  an archetype or two, and often other options like new feats or spells.  Although many of these new options are flavoured as tied to a particular race, most don’t actually have being a member of that race as a prerequisite to taking them.  I’ll go through each of these entries briefly.

Catfolk get a few new archetypes, including the Prowler at World’s End for bloodragers (giving them medium spirits), the Ravenous Hunter for inquisitors (a specialist demon-fighter with an oracle revelation), and the Serendipity Shaman for shamans (gets some new hexes—one of them, Tweak the Odds, is really good!).  There are some new, forgettable feats, and a new natural course for wildsoul vigilantes called “feline.”  Of the new spells, bit of luck is really powerful since it can be used before or after the results of a die roll have been revealed (which is rather unusual).

The new favoured class bonuses for gripplis are interesting, and I really like a cool new archetype for mediums called the Fiend Keeper—it specializes in containing an evil spirit.  The other archetypes are the Poison Darter for rangers and the odd War Painter for skalds.  There are also some new feats and spells, but nothing that jumped out at me.

Kitsune get some alternate racial traits, new advanced versatile performances for bards and skalds, and a new archetype, the Nine-Tailed Heir for sorcerers (great artwork here!).  There are some new feats for shapeshifters, a really clever new spell called contagious suggestion, and some new vigilante talents (I like the one called “obscurity”—it’s basically the opposite of renown).

For Nagaji, there are new naga bloodlines for bloodragers and sorcerers.  There’s a new cavalier archetype called First Mother’s Fang, which is a sort of governor/general concept; it’s pretty good in broadening the knowledge skills available to cavaliers, and who doesn’t want to ride around on a giant snake?  There’s also some new mesmerist tricks and spells.

I love the new ratfolk archetypes, and might have to give one a try soon.  There’s the Opportunist for fighters (a really cool, skills-focused alchemist mix), the Scavenger for investigators (a gadget type of alchemist with a great feel), and the Swarm Monger for druids (which is pretty much what it sounds like).  There are several feats, all of which build off the Swarming special ability of ratfolk, and they’re quite good too.  The only “meh” thing in the entry is a new psychic discipline, Warp.

Tengus receive several new feats (I like Lovable Scoundrel) and spells, as well as several new archetypes.  Courser for swashbucklers makes for a super-mobile character, though they have to give up a lot.  The Jinx Witch for witches provides for some interesting abilities to absorb and expend spells (and has some great art).  The Red Tongue for skalds provides an odd mix of rogue talents.  I think a lot of writers just don’t know what to do with skalds, but I can’t blame them—I don’t know either.

I will always hold a special place in my heart for vanaras, since that’s the race of my favourite character (Goldcape) in the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP I’ve been running for a couple of years now.  The race here gets some new alternate racial traits, including size changing, as well as the usual favored class options.  There are then several new Meditation feats, but none of them are worth it.  Fighters may be interested in the new advanced weapon training options.  There’s one new archetype, the Fortune-Finder for rangers—it’s frankly just kind of bland.  Unchained monks get some new style strikes and ki powers (with freedom of movement particularly great).  Last, there’s a new eidolon subtype for unchained summoners called Ancestor, but it’s not particularly interesting.

Pretty much every book in the Player Companion line is going to contain its share of filler mixed with some real gems of creativity.  I thought Blood of the Beast is better than many in the proportion of wheat to chaff.  I would have like more than just a couple of paragraphs on how each of the races fit into Golarion—remember, that’s the value-add of the books (along with the art), as all the new rules options will be immediately stripped out and placed on the Archives of Nethys. But all in all, this is a worthwhile book to buy.