Paizo’s August
2014 Player’s Companion release is People
of the Stars, which presents characters with options for playing
characters from space, playing characters that will be traveling into space,
and introducing the stars in general into your character concept.
Disclaimer: I have not read Distant
Worlds and space is not really my jam. That said, I am reading my way through this, the Technology
Guide, and The
Fires of Creation and I’m really excited about what I’m seeing thus
far. So, this comes more from a
position of ability to appreciate and less of a position of authority on these
topics. Also, I've tried to avoid mentioning anything that would break Paizo's community use policy and to respect their IP. If I've failed in any way, let me know and I will remove the offending content.
In general, People of the Stars does exactly what it
promises to do: it gives PCs a basic idea on how to play a character from the
stars or to prepare themselves to adventure amongst the stars. We get just about everything you could
want, except for spaceships, which
James Jacobs has indicated they aren’t planning on looking at until they
explore portions of the universe that will require them to do so. Now that we know the adventure paths
for the next seventeen months, that’s likely to be awhile away.
But fear not
good groundlings, for People of the Stars
has also provided a host of options for characters that are influenced by the
stars, even the characters aren’t going to be adventuring among them
directly. This is especially true
of the astrology-based traits.
Each planet has a sidebar that contains just the right amount for
someone with only a cursory knowledge of the planet to know. It also gives a trait that plays well
for someone who is Golarion-based, but wantes a connection to one of the other
planets. This strikes me as a good
way to give players a connection to the stars without ending up with a party
composed of residents of n different planets.
People of the Stars also gives some good
basic information on space rules without spoiling everything in the Technology Guide. For instance, gravity is discussed, so
players have an idea about how combat could work. Other tidbits are given as well: you’ll need to prepare
spells with somatic components using the Silent Spell feat if you want to cast
them in the void. There’s also
some very cool flavor in the gear options provided: the Traveler’s pocketwatch
is so evocative of R.
Buckminster Fuller’s watch from The Illuminatus!
Trilogy I was ready to channel Hagbard Celine.
We also get
some interesting sub-domains for clerics.
These are meant to be subdomains for characters worshipping the Outer
Gods or the Great Old Ones, but we also see the more beneficent Stars
Subdomain, which practically screams Desna’s name. It’s a nice reminder that at least one of the Outer Gods
wants us to have fun, do nice things, happily explore, and give everyone a
hug. Also, without spoiling it:
Taru Seco. Let’s just say that
I’ve been looking to find a final arc for a Lirgeni campaign considering what
happened to the end of the Saoc Brethren and this put everything I want to
write into place.
Sidebars on the Planets
I really like
that size & gravity presented for each planet is in relation to Golarion’s. It goes a long way to making the
numbers actually mean something for players. Also, as a GM, there’s just enough information here to give
to the players that are thinking about going to a planet without ruining any
good surprises about it.[1]
Paizo staff
did a good job working the astrology information from Occult Mysteries into the planets and allowing for traits that
built that information into a player’s history. These traits would be really neat to require like campaign
traits if you were going to have a planet hopping campaign but wanted the
players to start on Golarion and be ignorant or mostly ignorant of what’s
happening in space.
“New” Races
I say “new”
races in quotations because we’ve seen info about the detailed races before in Distant Worlds, the Advanced Race Guide, and Bestiaries
3&4. We’ve just never
really seen them fleshed out before.
The Lashunta are an iteresting race and the dimorphism between the sexes
makes me ask, is this a play on subconscious views of the gender relations
between male and female humans in the real world?. But, I wonder how much retconning will be required once Paizo’s
new psionics-related hardcover comes out at next year’s GenCon.
The book also
says that, “Cataloging all the species found on each world in detail would be
impossible as counting the stars in the sky.” This statement practically begs you to jump on the
messageboards and beg for a hardback campaign setting gazetteer/bestiary that
at least attempts to do this. If
Paizo’s space-based efforts follow their current trajectory, I’d love to see
this book, albeit down the line after we see more of Golarion (Casmaron, baby!).
In addition to
the four races with in depth write ups, People
of the Stars also gives information about other races. What’s great about this is that it does
something that a player guide designed for working with GMs should do—it paints with a broad brush and then tells
players and GMs to work out the specifics. This is just the sort of thing that gets creativity going on
both sides of the screen. 3 cheers
for doing this—and I hope to see more of it. Also, if there aren’t any players that have assumed roles of
these races at my table, nobody knows their mechanics at the end of the
day. We all try and avoid
metagaming, but the easiest way to stop it in its tracks is if the players
don’t know what they are facing at all.
Archetypes
·
Kasatha Bow Nomad (Kasatha Ranger): You’ve got 4
arms, why not wield two bows? At
early levels, this archetype could be really weak. But a character could seriously grow into it later. By starting a character in fighter for
a few levels, you could multiclass into Bow Nomad and get some killer
bonuses. Start with Weapon Focus
(bow of your choice) and Two-Handed Fighting before transitioning over to
ranger and you’ve got some serious bonuses once you do make the jump.
·
Triaxian Season Keeper (Triaxan Druid): The next
time my party has to go anywhere hot or cold, I want one of these bitches
around. Period. Not that big a difference from the
normal rules, but the ability to allow your animal companion to project
temperature changes that can help your fellow party members could make you
everyone’s favorite ally for a few sessions!
Feats
·
Celestial Guidance: As a player, I love this
feat. In fact, it reads more like
a PFS boon than as a traditional feat.
Basically, at night when you can see the stars, you re-roll a failed
knowledge check from earlier in the day to see what the stars tell you. You can choose to either re-roll that Knowledge
skill or use your Knowledge (geography) skill—presumably with the +2 bonus this
feat grants when using geography for the stars—in place of the original
check. The stars really are on
your side. I have a campaign
setting kicking around in my head where the only two deities are Fate and
Luck. This would be an amazing
ability to have tied to a worshipper of the Fate goddess.
·
Nanite Disruption (Android Racial Feat): This is
a great ability, but I’d want to be at a very specific place in the initiative
order to make it happen.
Otherwise, your attempt to short-circuit the electronic creature could
end up penalizing a roll where it’s not particular important. But, tied with the right delaying, this
could really inhibit an electronic construct’s attacks or particular saves.
·
Rapid Recovery (Android Racial Feat): Makes it
very easy for a player to get access to effects of spells that often are off
the books until at least 5th level. This is somewhat ameliorated by requiring the player to take
Rapid Repair as a pre-requisite feat.
Since Androids get only one feat at first level and neither Rapid Repair
nor Rapid Recovery are combat feats, that effectively keeps this out of
players’ hands until 3rd level, which seems about right.
Spells
·
Cosmic Ray (magus 5, sorceror/wizard 6):
Basically shoots a ray that does 1d6 damage per level, or sickens the target
for one round per caster level if it makes a Fortitude save. And if it fails, all creatures within
5’ must also make a Fort save or also become sickened, though only for half as
long. This is an excellent
space-flavored direct damage spell.
·
Planetarium (bard 2, cleric 2, druid 2,
sorceror/wizard 2, summoner 2, witch 2): Allows you to see the lines of the
constellations laid out on the stars.
Not sure that a lot of PCs will take this spell, but any NPC dealing
with the night sky in my campaign is going to get this as a spell or spell-like
ability just for the flavor value.
This could also be a fun low-level magic item to drop on a party so that
they can navigate a stretch of wilderness. Too much fun to not have a chance to describe how this works
at the gaming table!
·
Reboot (cleric 5, sorceror/wizard 5,
summoner 4, witch 5): This basically allows you to temporarily reanimate a dead
construct and make it obey you for the duration of the spell. Casting reboot gives it only 1hp, but
you can also heal it using spells like make
whole. I really like this,
though I’d want some errata on how it works on more traditional fantasy
constructs like golems. Does their
spell immunity continue functioning after they are dead?
·
Starsight (alchemist 1, bard 1, cleric 1,
druid 1, ranger 1, sorcerer/wizard 1, witch 1): Grants a +2 on Knowledge
(geography) checks when you are outside at night (essentially letting you
bypass inability to see the stars through the trees). This plus the Celestial Guidance feat = super star sage!
Magic Items
·
Astrologer’s Telescope (54K gp, CL
10th or 11th[2]): This is neat, but for the price it’s much easier to pick up the
Celestial Guidance feat and save your money. I’d like to retool this as a larger, stationary item that
works more like an artifact, probably Lirgeni. It would give a bigger bonus on a skill check than you could
get with Celestial Guidance and Starsight,
but would be balanced by the fact that its stationary.
·
Harvesting Lens (5.4K, CL 3rd):
The flavor on this is just amazing!
I love the idea of a magical lens that can harness darkness or starlight
into a magical splash weapon. The
crunch on it is great, too. Once
my alchemist PC sees a write up on this, he’s going to want one.
All in all, this was one of the better Player’s Companions that I’ve
read through. It does a good job
at presenting both flavor and crunch and makes me, a Washingtonian who’ll do
anything in his power to avoid a day at the Air & Space Smithsonian, want
to think about getting beyond my planetary bonds. This book gets a solid 4 stars.
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