Purple Dragon Knight's page

"I'm hurting. Please, please kill me!" said the... thing... to the adventuring party. The heroes turned their back, saying, "Never lose hope, Quasimodo. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future... or something like that... no! please stay there and observe social distancing. PLEASE! do not follow us!"

Honestly, this is unbelievably sad. Take this mini to the back of the shed...

Epic. Amazing. Wow.

Get this!

Development Leads • Crystal Frasier and Joe Pasini
Authors • Thurston Hillman, with Eleanor Ferron, Crystal Frasier, and Adrian Ng
Cover Artist • Hugh Pindur
Interior Artists • Miguel Regodón Harkness, Oksana Kerro, Katerina Kirillova, Valeria Lutfullina, Irina Nordsol, and Will O’Brien
Page Border Design • Taylor Fischer
Cartographers • Rob Lazzaretti and Damien Mammoliti

Remember those names.

Tour de force (definition):
"a particularly adroit maneuver or technique in handling a difficult situation: The way the president got his bill through the Senate was a tour de force. a feat requiring unusual strength, skill, or ingenuity. [...]"

In my humble opinion, the definition above encapsulates this book. Within the very first pages of this chapter of this new War for the Crown adventure path, the nation of Taldor is brought to life. Not in small evolutionary increments, but more like the big bang or a lightning bolt hitting a pond of primordial soup. Immediately, the reader realizes that this nation of Golarion will no longer be overlooked, set aside, saved for later or just plainly ignored. Dramatic revelations abound, and it immediately dawns on any fan of Pathfinder and Golarion that the continent they all know and love has been shaken, and what they previously 'knew' about this continent was just a highlight of what really is. I now understand why Paizo waited to reveal Taldor so late. Like a magician pulling a cloth from a table to reveal a flight of white doves, Taldor takes to the air and mesmerizes everyone.

I will not go into any detail whatsoever out of respect for Golarion fans out there, and to ensure those who will have the chance and privilege to play this AP from the perspective of a player will not be spoiled in any way. The secrets within this tome are just too precious to share or spoil... and my advice to anyone on these boards discussing this tome is to please save all the secrets for your players. The strength of the AP lies within the generosity of GMs out there I think: to sacrifice themselves and run this for their players, while having the fortitude to keep all the juicy revelations for themselves is no small feat.

This book is rich with culture, history and geography! this reads like a novel, and I find every page containing interesting trivia and long awaited answers to my most Taldane of questions!

The Golden Age of Taldor map is brilliant, and we also get a full timeline for Taldor. Interactions with other cultures is discussed, and a section on religion give us hints on who is considered to be the true 'Taldan Pantheon' (with a satisfying nod to Aroden and its 'arcane' clerics... must... build... one... :) )

The map of Taldor and its prefectures will also become an invaluable tool to any GM running a game set there, which only further aggrandizes its sister achievement and masterpiece: a full geographical section on each prefecture of Taldor, as well as supplementaty information on the provinces (apparently in Taldor, both Bill and Hillary bow to the elephant cavalry!). This section is, for the lack of a better word, a veritable tour-de-force!

Then we have a section on various sites within the Empire, and the coolest harpy cleric of Groetus I've ever seen (when she told you she'd give you the moon she wasn't kidding gents!) This section is a great idea generator for GMs wishing to run their own campaigns or supplement published Taldor-based adventures with a spiffy sidequest or two...

At the end we have a small bestiary which will allow druids and rangers to proudly call their next pet 'titanboar' or 'fading fox' or 'emperor stag'. Selective breeding is a thing in Taldor, and not only for their horses, but for their game too! but for the rest of the bestiary I'll stay silent so as not to spoil that most excellent new bathrobe wearing undead. 'New bathrobe'-wearing undead; or new 'bathrobe-wearing undead', as in new undead? hmmm... hmmm.... who can tell? [/goldblum mode]

Taldor deserved a lore-only book like this. Your mechanical queries can be addressed by the dozens of books preceding this one, but the knowledge gained within these pages will turn the most bland barbarian into a hardcore or unchained Ulfen devotee of the Lion Throne!

Taldor is Avistan.

Wonderfully powerful.

This book is simply amazing! with careful pruning of your PC's equipment with a thieving encounter or two while your PCs are off the ship, you can insert these ship encounters seamlessly and without increasing PC wealth too much.

The ship themselves are beautifully detailed and I see the dilemma of my players as they wonder "should we sell this ship or keep it? it's SOOOOOOO coooooooooooool!"

:)

This is in my opinion Paizo's best work so far. The culmination and amalgamation of dozens of previous awesome work, finally used as they should be, and used to build the most fascinating monster encounters.

Not only are the goblin gangs and hobgoblin patrols well assembled, but the book goes beyond and presents new and amazing feats, archetypes and magic items for these monsters. Finally the PCs can quake in their boots at fell magic that they are not prepared for, and the meaning of "you see five orcs, roll initiative" has now gained a whole new meaning.

Thanks Paizo!

This module was designed very well with a care to ease the GM's burden. The plot is straightforward and the buy-in from PCs is easy (you don't say "no" to a rescue mission! :) )

The stats are laid out very nicely and the NPC tactics are clear. I found no errors in the stats.

The whole table very much enjoyed the "evil empire" feel of this adventure as they entered Razmiran and their ship got boarded for inspection! :)

Not perfect, as I would like things to snap together permanently, but these at least retain "some" of their shape without glue.

Much better than the torch bearer and invisibles packs, which I don't recommend.

Another GameMastery disappointment! why can't these things snap together? what is this glue requirement nonsense? anything that takes me back to kindergarten crafting mode is a downer.

Is Paizo going into the glue business, and trying to promote glue sales? or is Paizo just sniffing the glue?

For the price: no.

Edit: going through my old things the other day, I found these, and threw them in the garbage, where this belongs.

I agree with the first reviewer. The need for glue is a downer. It would have been simpler to create a pre-assembled product, or create a product that "snaps" together.

Edit: going through my old things the other day, I found these, and threw them in the garbage.

Well, I'm lucky enough that our Pathfinder Society DM decided to run this (ok, it was due to my constant nagging using my +55 diplomacy modifier, which effectively acted as a suped-up suggestion... but I digress).

Two games so far... AWESOME!

This adventure is wonderful, and the player's guide really coalesced our group in one really cool group (even the demihumans have cool arabic names). The arabian feel is wonderful, and a really cool change as far as I'm concerned (I had never played in "sand themed" settings before... dunno about what came before, but this rocks).

The feeling I get is reminiscent of the feeling I got, as a teenager, when I first read Ed Greenwood's "Anauroch"... only instead, Katapesh is readily available/accessible, and not the foreboding, instant life-draining death desert Anauroch represented. The Badawi tribesmen are reminiscent of Ed Greenwood's Bedine tribesmen, and I shall draw upon Ed's great work when I roleplay my Badawi ranger.

Kudos to everyone involved in this glorious AP and player's guide!

This book is fantastic. Buy it. Now. If you regret it, well, sure, feeding your kids was more important, but aside from that, there's NO WAY you can regret this purchase. This is a true masterpiece, akin to Ed Greenwood's Old Grey Box Forgotten Realms set, and you will cherish this purchase for the years to come.

Now, when can we have Pathfinder novels by Ed Greenwood or Elaine Cunningham? Paizo high ups? are you paying attention here? :)

I got this a while ago, and wow... just wow...

This book has completely changed my weekly game. I had somewhat grown jaded in regards to the "simple monsters" of D&D, but the elements of "monster roleplay" advice given in this book is nearly enough to qualify for credits in acting classes! It's fun to see my players scratch their chins trying to wonder why this goblin talked back, and why he ignores the 30+ STR fighter's intimidating pose, just to recoil in utter, abject terror when the chihuahua pocket dog familiar rears it's head out of fold in the wizard's robes... LOL!

This book is fantastic. Buy it. Now. If you regret it, well, sure, feeding your kids was more important, but aside from that, there's NO WAY you can regret this purchase. This is a true masterpiece, akin to Ed Greenwood's Old Grey Box Forgotten Realms set, and you will cherish this purchase for the years to come.

Now, when can we have Pathfinder novels by Ed Greenwood or Elaine Cunningham? Paizo high ups? are you paying attention here? :)