Spoiler alert: I'm a big fan of Pathfinder Second Edition. BUT, this series is about me going over books with a fine-toothed comb and reviewing each piece of them. I'll likely give a shorter and more "standard" review of each of the books when I have the time.
Don't Judge a Book…
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| Image courtesy of Paizo, Inc. |
But in this case – do.
The Core Rulebook cover is rock solid. The art fits the type
of game that the rules encourage. It's laid out in a way that keeps the eye in
the middle of the image and absorbing all the elements at play. The text colors
are well chosen and stand out from the image without being distracting. The
"Second Edition" tab in the top corner is also a well-designed piece
completing the cover. It's just enough to stand out, but not enough to be
demanding attention at all times. It's something that's carried over to all the
books in this edition and is a great unifying feature.
Table of Contents
This two-page spread is a mixed bag.
The credits sidebar on the left has white text on a dark red
background with a slight texture and is easy to read while cleanly calling out
all the people involved in making this massive book. An image of Kyra (their
iconic cleric) is below with Paizo's logo and contact information. I'm glad
they did it here rather than on the title page before. It keeps that page a
clean statement page.
There's a random picture of a wayfinder in the top right
corner that serves no purpose except to distract and should be removed.
The row of thumbnails of a few of the full-page images from
throughout the book with their page numbers takes up a lot of space here. It's
nice, but Paizo seems to have chosen them at random because it's not all the
full-page pictures in the book and there's no indication of why these images
were singled out.
A random picture of a wizard type person causes some of the
table entries to have to shift to the left to avoid the image. Straight columns
would have been fine and preferable. These pages are already covered in art and
it doesn't seem to relate to any of the text.
The actual table of contents itself is clean and concise. It
breaks the book up into 11 chapters, an appendix of the various conditions in
the book, a blank character sheet, and a glossary/index combination. The
glossary/index combo is amazing and super useful during gameplay.
Text Issues
The second sentence of the text under the Feats heading feels off. Accurate, but off. Changing the entry from:
"Expand your capabilities by selecting general feats
that improve your statistics or give you new actions. This chapter includes
skill feats, which are tied directly to your skills."
To:
"Expand your capabilities by selecting general feats
that improve your statistics or give you new actions. This chapter includes
skill feats, which are general feats tied directly to your skills."
This makes it emphasize right from the beginning what skill
feats are and that point is further explored in the Feats chapter.
Adjust the text under the Spells heading to follow similar
formatting as the other entries from:
"Learn to kindle magic in the palm of your hand. This
section includes the rules for spellcasting, hundreds of spells descriptions,
focus spells used by certain classes, and rituals."
To:
"Learn to kindle magic in the palm of your hand with
the rules for spellcasting, hundreds of spell descriptions, focus spells, and
rituals."
Change the text under the Age of Lost Omens heading from:
"Discover the world of Golarion. In the Age of Lost
Omens, you can delve into the secrets of ancient empires and claim your own
heroic destiny."
To:
"Discover the world of Golarion and delve into the
secrets of the Age of Lost Omens and claim your heroic destiny."
The way it's currently written makes it seem like delving
into the secrets of ancient empires is the only way to "claim your heroic
destiny" when many adventures, sessions, or even entire campaigns don't do
that. Delving into the secrets of the Age of Lost Omens though? That they do
quite regularly. From world-shattering secrets to schemes of the local gang,
secrets abound in Golarion adventures.
Jumping Ahead
I want to wrap this up by talking about the character sheet
despite it being towards the end of the book. I wish they had a printer
friendly version in the book instead of the colored one. Or both. The page
count was probably higher than Paizo wanted already so I get why they didn't
include both.
The first sheet is good. A clear layout that lays out pretty
much everything you need for regular play.
The rest…eh.
Sheet Two
This is a place to list off the feats and abilities you
might get as you level, but only has room for the names of them. This is all
that's needed for the most part but doesn't have enough room if your class does
something out of the ordinary or if you take advantage of some of the human
ancestry feats. It's fine for most characters. The inventory section at the
bottom of this sheet is not big enough.
Sheet Three
There's a small area for a character sketch and some
sections for physical and personality descriptions. I like. The Campaign Notes
section (with spaces for Notes, Allies, Enemies, and Organizations) below that
could have taken up the rest of the sheet. Instead, it's a bunch of cramped
sections for actions and activities you gain from your class and ancestry. The
main issue I have is that it only has room for one, maybe two short lines of
description. Most of the actions need more than that, even when simplified.
Sheet Four
The spell page. The section for your Spell Attack Roll,
Spell DC, Magic Tradition, and Spell Slots per Day takes up maybe a quarter of
the sheet. It's super useful/essential if you're a caster.
The rest is space for a spell list with a short space for
spell names, a short line or two for a description, and some of the essential
info you'd need. And if you're a prepared caster vice a spontaneous, you're
going to be doing a lot of erasing if you use it. I understand the intent of
this sheet, but they just don't give enough room for it to be useful.
My Suggestion
- Sheet One: Keep as is.
- Sheet Two: all inventory with more dedicated space to a backpack (with a quick rule callout to the weight reduction), and other sections for clarity.
- Sheet Three: all the essential sections from the spell sheet on the old sheet four with the feats list below that. If there's room, throw in a section for Focus Spells with page numbers for quick reference.
- Sheet Four: the top half of sheet three expanded for more space to take notes.
- Sheet Five: IF Paizo wanted a fifth sheet it could be for the actions and activities from the bottom half of sheet three. Just expand it so there's enough room to write out useful descriptions of the actions.
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