Pathfinder: "Ultimate Intrigue" [RPG]

Okay, let's get into Ultimate Intrigue!  As the title implies, the purpose of this book is to help flesh out more subtle elements of the game: things like spreading rumors, rallying a crowd, stealing secrets, and other classic cloak-and-dagger stuff.  I've used bits and pieces of it in previous campaigns, but read through it carefully (and incorporated a fair bit of it) for my current Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign, as that adventure path is designed around urban political strife.  Boiled down to brass tacks, the book is a 256 page hardcover comprised of six chapters.  The full-colour artwork is very strong throughout, and the cover is great (though Merisiel's legs are like three times longer than her torso!).  There's a very short two-page introduction that summarises each chapter--which is what I'm going to do anyway.

Chapter 1 is "Classes" (60 pages).  The big deal here is a new base case, the Vigilante.  The concept is that the character has both a normal (social) identity and a masked identity, with certain class options only working while in the associated guise.  There are also several safeguards to help keep anyone from figuring out that Bruce Wayne is really Batman.  I have a Vigilante character in Pathfinder Society, and one of my players runs one in Curse of the Crimson Throne.  I think the class is perfect for an urban campaign mostly set in a single city (especially with lots room for intrigue), but it doesn't work as well with the more traditional "travelling adventuring party" campaign.  It's a bit too obvious when five newcomers arrive in town, only for one of them to "disappear" and a new costumed avenger show up.  I know there are also some gamers who dislike what can seem like the awkward introduction of comic book super heroes into their fantasy role-playing.  For me, I think the concept works well--though as I said, only in particular types of campaigns.

A large chunk of the chapter is devoted to new archetypes for other classes.  More specifically, alchemists, bards, cavaliers, druids, inquisitors, investigators, mesmerists, rangers, rogues, skalds, spiritualists, swashbucklers, and vigilantes get some love.  Frankly, a lot of the archetypes are fairly forgettable, but there are exceptions--for example, a Daring General Cavalier would be great in military campaigns, the Dandy Ranger could be really useful in an urban campaign, and a couple of the vigilante archetypes are perfect if you want to play the Hulk or Spider-Man.  Although the rogue archetypes aren't very good, there are several excellent rogue talents that focus on making the character harder to track through divination, etc.  It's worth nothing that this book came out during the period when the hardcover line was still setting-neutral, so there won't be any Golarion-specific flavour with the archetypes (for better or worse depending on your preferences).

Chapter 2 is "Feats" (24 pages).  There's something like 110 new feats in the chapter, and probably something for everyone.  Given the book's theme, many of the feats are related to sneaking around, hiding and disguising spells, stealing stuff, making plans, figuring out when you're being to lied to, etc.  A few that I particularly like include Brilliant Planner (giving you the chance to have just what you need just when you need it), Call Truce (giving a slim chance to actually end combat peacefully when its underway), and Drunkard's Recovery (silly but fun).  A couple of important feats are Conceal Spell (which hides the pesky manifestations that spells create in Pathfinder) and Fencing Grace (adding Dex to damage with rapiers, a favourite of swashbucklers everywhere).  Overall, I thought the options presented were well-written and plausible in terms of desirability. 

Chapter 3 is "Mastering Intrigue" (68 pages).  This is probably the most important chapter in the book for GMs.  It offers tons of useful advice, as well as clarification on some tricky game mechanics, to help run intrigue-based games.  The pages about how common magic spells can be handled while still preserving mysteries, secrets, and misdirection is pure gold.  The chapter also introduces seven new rules sub-systems, any or all of which can be incorporated into a campaign to flesh out certain aspects of gameplay.  "Influence" is a sub-system that deepens the process of persuading a person or organisation to support you.  Instead of a simple single Dipomacy check, PCs need to make certain skill checks to learn a person's interests and weaknesses, and then other skill checks to take advantage of what they've learned.  The process operates through multiple phases of tracked successes and failures, and can be tied to mechanical favours and benefits.  It's become a very popular facet of many Pathfinder Society scenarios, and I think it's a pretty clever way to handle things--though it can be a bit clunky at first.  "Heists" is a sub-system that contains some excellent advice to GMs on how to structure things so players don't obsess over unimportant trivia and are willing to violate that old canard of "don't split the party."  "Infiltration" contains some quick advice, but that's about it.  "Leadership" deepens the feat of the same name, adding lots of rules for interacting with other sub-systems both in this book and in Ultimate Campaign.  I'm personally still not persuaded that the Leadership feat chain is a good inclusion to the game.  "Nemeses" is all about adding a recurring villain; I think it's trying to systematise something that could be handled just fine without it.  Though there are some fun suggestions on evil plots to foil.  "Pursuit" is a little like the Chase sub-system from the GameMastery Guide but stretched out over hours and days cross-country instead of in minutes through alleyways.  I could imagine using it.  "Research" is probably my favourite of the sub-systems, and one I've used in multiple campaigns.  In essence, it gives the PCs a reason to use things like libraries and archives by giving them bonuses to their Knowledge checks, but then makes gaining different thresholds of information the result of multiple successful checks.  Overall, a great chapter--I wish the Influence and Research sub-systems had been in the Core Rulebook, because they really add a lot to the non-combat aspects of the game.

Chapter 4 is "Social Combat" (25 pages).  The idea here is to present GMs with options on how to handle social conflicts--things like debates, trials, cutting repartee, etc.  There's also a "verbal duels" sub-system.  I'm just not sure about it--it's something I'd have to see in practice.  However, a really useful part of the chapter is advice to the GM on how to handle the various social skills in the game--Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive--as well as the intrigue skills like Disguise, Perception, and Stealth.  The advice here is excellent, and I just stopped in the middle of this review to reread it.

Chapter 5 is "Spells" (40 pages).  You can judge from the length of the chapter that there's a ton of new spells, and every spellcasting class will find something.  One of the fun things the chapter introduces is a new "ruse" descriptor for spells, which means the spell is easily mistaken for another even by observers trained in Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana).  It's a good way to mislead folks who have played way too much Pathfinder.  There are some really clever spells in this section, with a couple of my favourites including false resurrection (instead of bringing back a soul, you stuff a demon into the body!) and the hilarious shamefully overdressed.

Chapter 6 is "Gear and Magic Items" (22 pages).  There are some new mundane pieces of equipment (weapons like the cool wrist dart launcher, alchemical items, etc.) but most of the chapter is new magic items with an intrigue theme.  The one that really stuck out at me was the launcher of distraction, which is perfect for assassination attempts because it makes it seem like the attack is coming from somewhere else.

Overall, I think Ultimate Intrigue is an excellent book.  It's pretty much a must-have in my opinion for any campaign that's going to involve a lot of role-playing or that moves beyond traditional dungeon crawling and wilderness encounters.  Even readers not involved in "intrigue campaigns" per se are sure to find plenty of material they can use.