Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "Rival Guide" [RPG]

 

The Rival Guide is an interesting idea: the book presents ten fully-detailed adventuring groups that can serve as rivals, opponents, or perhaps allies to the PCs.  For each of the four members of each group, there's full colour art, their background/personality, and a stat block (drawn from the Core Rulebook and Advanced Player's Guide only).  Each group is covered in six pages of the book, with the first two pages of each entry devoted to a background of the group, how they act when in town or in a combat, and then some new mechanics options like spells or feats.  The inside front-cover even includes some pretty cool banners for each group along with a capsule summary.  As the book's intro explains, it's perfectly easy to mix-and-match members of different groups if a GM wants to customise things more.  What's interesting from a quick skim of the groups is just how high-level they are: the very lowest CR is 7, and there are groups with CRs of 19, 21, and even 23!  I would have appreciated some more low-level options.  Anywhere, here are the groups included:

* ARGENTATE BLADES (CR13): Named for their trademark mithral weapons, the Argentate Blades are a mercenary company operating around Brevoy, the Worldwound, and Razmiran (ALL HAIL  RAZMIR, THE LIVING GOD!).  They're not actively evil, but they're definitely not nice either!  I really like how the group has an interesting backstory and interpersonal dynamic--they're not just a random collection of NPCs thrown together.  There's a couple of new (not super exciting) spells, but I really like one of the new magic items: bivouac banners , which protect a campsite overnight by generating an illusory hound that barks loudly if anyone crosses the ward.

* CHILDREN OF STEEL (CR23!): These max-level adventurers are true mercenaries, willing to do absolutely anything for coin.  They're a well-traveled group made up of the classic fighter, cleric, wizard, thief combination.  You could pick one of them as a campaign boss if you wanted.  There's a really mean new feat I like ("Slaying Sprint"--allows you to quickly perform coup de graces without provoking AoOs) and a super powerful new 9th level spell that essentially creates an impenetrable force field/antimagic shell.

* DUST COVEN (CR19): The Dust Coven is a Shax-worshipping Drow murder cult.  I wouldn't get on the wrong side of them.  The individual NPCs are only okay.  The book introduces some new magical powders (cockatrice grit is pretty cool) and a new magic item, a marionette crux that's a very flavourful way to use dominate person.

* HANDS OF SLAUGHTER (CR11): These are cool, scary foes--one of them is an awakened dire-ape anti-paladin!  The group is based in the Mwangi Expanse and allied with the Aspis Consortium, they hate elves, and have a propensity for travelling with disposable minions.  Two new spells and two new feats are included, and all look good.

* HELLBLOOD CORSAIRS (CR21): These high-level treasure hunting pirates target Pathfinders--watch out!  The NPCs are okay, though the new gameplay mechanic needs a little work.  It's a new template called "Haunted One" that's an interesting idea but needs better flavour on what these spiritual possessors want and where they come from.

* KODAR KNEECAPPERS (CR7): I'm presently running Curse of the Crimson Throne, so when I saw this group was located in Harse (just outside of Korvosa) I knew I had to integrate them into my campaign.  The Kodar Kneecappers are a group of (mostly) dwarven giant hunters.  They use excellent teamwork, and the book includes a few new teamwork feat and a new spell--both are potentially useful.  I like how the group is good-aligned, but impetuous.  Perfect as a group that needs to be rescued, or perhaps comes to the rescue of the PCs just when it would be most dramatic.

* MARROW REAVERS (CR12): The Marrow Reavers are mercs and slavers that operate in the deserts of Katapesh and Osirion.  They love nothing better than ambushing other adventuring bands to strip shiny new magic items off of corpses.  I didn't know it came from here, but my Groetus-worshipping street preacher wears a pendant of the blood scarab, a cool, low-price magic item.  I absolutely love an intelligent bag of devouring named Chomper!  The Reavers are a very cool, well-developed and memorable group.

* NIGHT HARROWS (CR17): What do you get when a ghoul, a vampire, an evil fortune-teller, and the invisible man walk into a bar?  The Night Harrows are a group devoted to the Whispering Way, a philosophy that promotes an eventual worldwide undead apocalypse!  They are very evil, very stylish, and very cool.   I could see this group as perfect for some high-level adventuring in Ustalav, for example.  The section even introduces rules for vampiric animal companions (!).

* POISONED LODGE (CR9): The Poisoned Lodge is a great concept: a group of greedy, evil Pathfinders who have left the Society and set up their own shop.  They specialise in poison and drugs, and use secrets they took from the Society to blackmail Venture-Captains to overlook their activities! The section introduces several new poisons and drugs.  The individual NPCs are really flavourful.

* QUEEN'S HANDS (CR15): Perhaps the least interesting of the lot, the Queen's Hands are high-level inquisitors working for House Thrune in Cheliax.  One of the members is of the Jeggare family, which is a nice bit of lore to add to the canon.

The artwork in the Rival Guide is really strong and presents evocative images of the characters.  With one or two exceptions, each group has a strong backstory and inter-personal characterisation of the type that's hard to come up with on the fly.  One of the most common complaints about Pathfinder is how hard it is to come up with stats for high-level NPCs, and this book helps address that problem.  I wasn't expecting much when I bought it, but I think it's surprisingly useful and under-valued.