DnD Archive

Pathfinder is the latest release from Paizo Publishing, the former producers of Dungeon and Dragon magazines. With Pathfinder, they continue their tradition of publishing adventure paths, originally introduced in Dungeon. An adventure path is a series of linked adventures, published monthly, which form a long-term campaign.

Before I review Pathfinder, I’d like to give a brief history of Paizo Publishing. When Wizards of the Coast (WotC) took over publishing the D&D brand, they established an in-house group to handle Dungeon and Dragon magazines. After Hasbro picked up WotC, they trimmed less profitable areas of business, including GenCon, which was picked up by Peter Atkinson, and Dungeon and Dragon magazines. In the case of the magazines, the in-house group was spun off, forming Paizo Publishing. Paizo made several innovations to the magazines, including introducing the monthly adventure paths. The first, Shackled City, was extremely popular, and Paizo was able to release it as a 400 page hardcover, complete with supporting material. It was followed by two other adventure paths, Age of Worms and Savage Tide. Each adventure path consists of twelve adventures, published in Dungeon, which bring the characters from level 1 to level 20-21. Each month’s adventure was supported by a few pages in Dragon with supplemental material for players. In early 2007, WotC decided not to renew Paizo’s license to publish the magazines, and publication ceased. Sadly, WotC has also denied Paizo’s requests to republish past articles from the magazines, meaning that we most likely never see an Age of Worms or Savage Tide hardcover. Paizo has moved on to produce Pathfinder and the Gamesmastery line of adventures and accessories.

OK, on with the review. Pathfinder is a 98 page, perfect-bound, full-color publication. The artwork and page layout are very impressive, and the entire book is printed on high quality glossy paper. As far as style goes, this is basically as good as it gets. Maps of encounter locations and pictures of key NPCs are present on nearly every page. The book is divided up as follows: the actual adventure takes up the first 49 pages, followed by a 13 page article detailing the town of Sandpoint, where this adventure takes place. This is followed by 8 pages on the ancient Empire of Thassilon, which is destined to be important throughout the campaign, 6 pages on the Pathfinder organization (a guild present in some of the major cities), and finally a bestiary detailing 6 new monsters.

At a hefty 49 pages, the adventure, Burnt Offerings, is actually a series of three mini-adventures, followed by a fourth adventure, which is a dungeon crawl that will take characters from level 1 through level 4. The adventures detail how the party meets in the town of Sandpoint, meet key NPCs who are destined to play a role in the path, and save the town from rampaging goblins. The writers really go out of their way to make each encounter memorable, from including interesting NPCs, like a goblin warchief who rides a giant gecko, to interesting environments for the encounters, such as in a glass factory complete with furnaces and ovens for the hot glass. This is an introductory adventure, so little of the overall metaplot is visible to the players, but the seeds of an overarching plot are evident.

Another interesting element is Paizo’s take on the core D&D elements, especially the various races. Elves have long, swept-back ears, reminiscent of anime-style elves, while goblins are vicious little brutes who look like misfits from the movie Gremlins. The adventure even includes a “10 Commandments of Goblins” that includes things like “Goblins hate horses” and “Goblins hate dogs!” along with “Goblins get stuck easily” and “Goblins believe writing steals your soul!” It also includes “The Goblin Song” which every DM should sing to his players while the runts attack.

The second article, detailing the town of Sandpoint, discusses the history of the town, gives details on important NPCs that the players might run into, and gives a brief paragraph or two about fifty of the important locations in town, along with a full-page map of town showing where all fifty of those buildings are located. This is all the information that a DM needs to really flesh out this town.

The third article, Thassilon, gives the history of the once-mighty Thassilon Empire – an empire based on sin. Yes, that’s right, sin. The ancient empire was divided into seven regions. Envy, Lust, Greed… they’re all here. This article goes a bit into the metaplot of the campaign, so that DMs can drop hints on what’s coming up if they choose. The next article goes over the Pathfinder Guild. “Members of the Guild are part archeologist, part historian, and part foolhardy adrenaline addict.” Sounds like something every PC should join.

Finally, the book rounds out with a bestiary of new monsters. The goblin dog combines the worst aspects of dog and rat into something that only a goblin could love… or use as a mount! The goblin snake is an oversized snake with a goblin’s head that likes bossing around goblins. It’s also the first aberration I’ve seen with the goblinoid subtype. Giant geckos are nasty wall-climbing lizards, which can also serve as mounts for goblins. Sinspawn are hideous deformed aberrations. They remind me a bit of the dolgaunts from Eberron. They weigh in a CR2, but can have class levels. One nice thing is that the book tells you how to adapt the basic sinspawn to create envyspawn, lustspawn, pridespawn, etc. The attic whisperer is a vile little undead created from the broken hopes and dreams of children. Finally, the Sandpoint devil is a bipedal horse-creature, which is inspired by tales of the Jersey devil. At CR8, it can put a hurting on anyone going through this adventure.

Anyway, there you have it. Pathfinder #1. If you’re a DM looking to pick up an adventure or start a new campaign, this is an excellent value at only $20. Subscribers can pick it up for only $14/month, an absolute steal. If you’re not a DM, there isn’t much reason for you to buy this. Convince your DM to pick it up, and save your pennies for some of the player supplements that Paizo is releasing early next year – if the quality of their publications continue like Pathfinder, they’ll be worth it.

Pathfinder #1 - Burnt Offerings