Hello adventurers! Today we’re taking a peek between the covers of Pathfinder Player Companion: Heroes of Golarion! This delightful softcover book from Paizo Inc. is packed with new character options from all around Golarion, sorted by location. The regions covered include Arcadia, Avistan, the Crown of the World, Casmaron, Iblydos, Garund, and Tian Xia. It also contains a lot of new options for occult-themed mythic heroes.
When I heard about Heroes of Golarion I was very excited. It immediately made it onto my (way too long) ‘wishlist.’ Why? For starters, this is the second-last Pathfinder Player Companion being released for Pathfinder First Edition –– a fact both sad and exciting! Second, I love the topic. I adore thematic character options, so seeing new archetypes, feats, traits, and so on from a ton of different regions is always enjoyable for me. But, it’s not so niche that I’ll have trouble getting to use the options inside. Third? Mythic rules! Now, I know not everyone is a fan of mythic rules. I like them, but even then, I don’t use them often. That said, I adore the occult classes. And you know what they’re lacking? Awesome mythic options! Sure, you could make something work with the current options, but it’s not going to be as great as it would be if you were a different class. And honestly? Of the mythic characters I’ve interacted with as a GM and a player, half of them are occult classes. Yeah. Poor things! Haha. So seeing some awesome mythic options for occult classes is pretty amazing. I’m thrilled it’s happening before Pathfinder First Edition comes to an end. And finally? Controversy! There are two sorcerer bloodlines in this book that I had already heard plenty about. I’ve heard people condemning them, and I’ve heard people praising them. Why? They both give the sorcerer the ability to use healing magic (or healing abilities). Now, I knew I would not be in the ‘sky-is-falling’/’it’s-broken’ group. I’m a pretty laid back player, and no, I don’t think letting a sorcerer get some ways to heal or healing spells is going to break my beloved game. But, I was curious to see how it was handled. Also? Pathfinder Second Edition has sorcerers that can heal. I like that these bloodlines act as a thematic bridge between First and Second Edition sorcerers. So how did I like the bloodlines? We’ll get to that in time! For now, let’s start at the beginning…
Pathfinder Player Companion: Heroes of Golarion
The front inside cover features a glimpse at some thematic documents from Golarion, including a recipe, travel documents, and other paperwork. All these documents are layered across each other, though, so you can’t read the full text on any. They’re intended for flavour, not player handouts or anything. Although interesting, it’s not useful.
After this is the table of contents, the rules index, and the introduction which contains a brief summary on Golarion, its continents, and other major regions. Each summary is a paragraph long and lists information on the region, it’s nations, and most common peoples.
Moving on from the introduction we come to our first region: Arcadia! This section contains two pages of new character options, and two pages on wyrwoods (which are most commonly found in Arcadia). Arcadian character options include four gun feats (all of which are useful), three jaguar-themed slayer talents intended for worshippers of the goddess Kazutal, and two legendary spirits for mediums from Valenhall (Adril, the Would-Be King, a Champion, and Father of Legends, a Marshal). Wyrwood options include two alternate race traits (check out experimental body), favoured class options, and eight new feats (my favourites were lifecrafting and sword’s shadow).
Up next are four pages of character options from Avistan and the Crown of the World. This section contains one archetype for bards, Speaker of the Palatine Eye. There’s some new options for mesmerists themed around exploring subterranean locations, including two new feats (I love them both), three new tricks, and three new bold stares. There’s five hilarious (and awesome!) feats for heroic goblins. I particularly enjoyed mental derail and piercing chant. Finally, there’s the frost shaman spirit, which is one of my very favourite character options in this book, and the unicorn bloodline. Yup! A sorcerer bloodline that grants you healing magic for your bloodline spells, and lets you heal a target of some hp whenever you cast a spell as your bloodline arcana! It’s amazing! Although some players argue it’s too powerful, or makes other healers less important, I think it’s going to be great fun. Plus, I love the theme! Who doesn’t like unicorns?
Leaving behind Avistan we get to Casmaron. Here you’ll find two pages of character options from Casmaron, followed by another four pages of character options from Iblydos, an island in Casmaron. Casmaron character options include holy beast, a shifter archetype that focuses on combatting outsiders, and plague eater, a spiritualist archetype that is haunted by the restless dead killed by plague. Although I adore the plague eater, it’s very tightly focused on resisting and healing diseases, so I’m not sure how much use I’d actually get out of it. Other options include the peafowl shifter aspect, and four Vudrani phrenic amplifications for psychics. Iblydos character options include an oracle curse called god-meddled which can be either a help or a hinderance, two new legendary spirits for mediums (Kelksimides the Hierophant and Psomeira the Champion), and a lot of witch hexes and grand hexes that I loved. Beast’s gift, combat hypnosis, swine, and animal servant are all among my favourites. There’s also priest of the fallen, a spiritualist archetype that channels the phantoms of various hero-gods, and the medusa bloodrager bloodline that I really enjoyed.
Up next? Six pages on Garund! Here you’ll find new gun options and ammunition for characters from Alkenstar, an investigator archetype called the Holomog demolitionist that focuses on destroying your surroundings and creating difficult terrain, eight new vigilante talents, six new arcanist exploits that focus on primal magic, and five new shifter aspects (elephant, giant wasp, horse, lion, and snapping turtle). There’s also the sphinx bloodrager bloodline, which I enjoyed, and two feats that allow characters to gain an intelligent magical beast as an animal companion. Along with these feats are five options for magical beast companions: basilisk, behir, bulette, death worm, and sun falcon. Tough decision, but I like the basilisk and sun falcon best.
With that we reach our final destination: Tian Xia. Here you’ll find four pages of character options, two of which are dedicated to new kineticist options! Of the new kineticist wild talents, eleven are utility wild talents, and only four are infusions (three substance and one form). These options are themed around clockworks, toxins, wind, and amplifying your race’s natural abilities. Although plenty of them are cool it’s the bolt form infusion and the various clockwork utility wild talents that I liked the best. But, there’s more than just kineticist options in Tian Xia. In these four pages you’ll also find a wide variety of alchemist discoveries themed around calligraphy and drawing with specially prepared magical inks. My favourite is living pigments, which lets the creatures you draw come to life! There’s also the spirit eater, a medium archetype, and the phoenix sorcerer bloodline! This thematic bloodline lets you do all sorts of cool things, like surround yourself in fire, grow wings of flame, and even come back to life! Perhaps its niftiest ability is it’s bloodline arcana, which allows your fire spells to heal your targets instead of harming them. Of course, these purifying flames don’t heal as well as they could burn… I love it!
Although that’s the end of our whirlwind tour of Golarion, that’s not the end of this book. Heroes of Golarion wraps up with one page of rules for occult mythic characters, and three pages of new mythic path abilities. These path abilities are all useful to, or themed around, the various occult classes and abilities. Although many are specific to a certain mythic path, some are universal, and can be chosen by characters following any mythic path. Although there are plenty of cool options for all the occult classes, it’s the mythic abilities intended for kineticists that I like best.
And that’s it! The end of Pathfinder Player Companion: Heroes of Golarion! This book is packed full of cool new character options from around Golarion. In the end, it’s the frost shaman spirit, medusa bloodrager bloodline, and the phoenix and unicorn sorcerer bloodlines that I enjoyed the most. They’re all definitely going to see use in my house! And honestly? I don’t see why some players were worried over the sorcerer bloodlines. They’re going to be great fun.
But, even more than the character options, it’s the new mythic path abilities and supplementary rules that made this book worth the money for me. Although brief, these new options allow occult characters to make use of mythic paths as effectively as the other character classes can––an incredibly important addition to Pathfinder First Edition, that I’m relieved got to see print before Second Edition rolls around and it’s too late.
Those of you that participate in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play community will be happy to know that Heroes of Golarion is already sanctioned for use, with nearly all of the content in this player companion legal for PFS play! For more information, check out the Additional Resources on Paizo’s website. (And yes, for those of you excited or worried, both sorcerer bloodlines are legal for play. It’s going to be great!).
Thanks for checking out d20diaries! I hope that taking a peek at what’s inside this Player’s Companion helped you decide if this is the right book for you. There’s plenty of great books out there (and I know I’m not the only one who can’t afford them all!).
Shop smart!
Jessica
Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by. Today we’re taking a look between the the covers of the latest ‘gods’ book: 
There are ten faiths discussed in this book. Each is a lesser detailed but very important faith. This includes a few racial faiths — the halfling goddess Chaldira Zuzaristan, the gnome goddess Nivi Rhombodazzle, the elf god Ketephys, and the dwarf god Magrim. It also includes information on deities from other regions of Golarion such as the Tien gods Hei Feng, Shizuru, and Tsukiyo, as well as the anadi goddess Grandmother Spider who is popular in the Shackles and Sodden Lands, the Vudrani god Gruhastha who is popular in Vudra, and the Razatlani goddess Kazutal who is popular in Arcadia. Each of these faiths is incredibly important to their respective cultures and I’m thrilled to see them get some of the attention they deserve. Information on the racial deities, especially, I feel was long overdue. Before sitting down to read this book I was most excited for further information on Ketephys, Shizuru, and Tsukiyo. All of the entries were great, but after reading I was most inspired to make worshippers of Grandmother Spider, Kazutal, and Tsukiyo.
, so today, we’re going to take a look at what’s inside.
, 
, 
, 
, etc.), this book takes a look at a dozen complex philosophies that are found throughout Golarion. As a book in the Player Companion line, it’s aimed at players, which means that you won’t find any great secrets of the order explained in this book. What you will get is spoiler-free information about each of the disciplines inside, including what the discipline’s about, how its organized, and what’s expected of its members. In addition, you’ll find some new player options related to each discipline, typically spells and character archetypes.
Adventure Path–which I’m currently running for my children. (Yes, that’s a horror campaign, and yes, my children are very young. They love it, I swear! Haha! More details on that in the future!). The Shoanti Shamanic Traditions are another example of this. I LOVE them, I cannot emphasize that enough, but they were already covered in depth during the 
Adventure Path (which I played through with a wonderful group of players back when it was new). Still, I was hopeful that the player focus of this book would bring something new to the table.
, but it is hard, and this one didn’t really do it for me. Still, I was intrigued enough with the group to start thinking of other things I wanted to do with the them, which is a win in my book!
. That means that I was coming to the table with a lot of information in hand. I found that although the information on the Order inside this book didn’t offer me anything new, it was interesting, well-written and (very importantly) geared towards players, meaning the group is now accessible to a much wider audience without giving away the group’s secrets and too much history. I really enjoyed it. As for player options, there’s one archetype offered for my favourite class, the occultist, which I loved. The Esoteric Initiate focuses his studies on objects of antiquity related specifically to his Order’s teachings. Their symbolism ability is particularly interesting. There’s also a few new magus arcana which are super useful, my favourite of which is Book-Bound.
Adventure Path, as well as the 
Adventure Path (to a lesser extent). After this we’ve got a new war priest blessing: Godclaw, which is useful and quirky. And lastly we’ve got four new spells called litanies, which are each activated as either an immediate or a swift action, and are for inquisitors, paladins and on occasion even antipaladins. You should really check these awesome spells out! All in all, I highly recommend you give this part of the book a read!
, but this entry contains just enough information to whet your appetite for more, and to briefly describe (just a few sentences) each of the most common empyreal lords in Magnimar. After this it moves right onto a new cavalier order, Order of the Monument. I think this Order is very cool and useful, but not suitable for all campaigns. This order requires that you select a single city or settlement to protect. You don’t need to stay in that city all the time, but it’s pretty hard to justify somehow protecting your city when you haven’t been there in a long time. So, although this would be an awesome Order to play in plenty of Adventure Paths and modules (including 
, 
, 
, 
, 
and even the 
series of adventures), there’s a lot of other Adventure Paths and Modules where it wouldn’t be thematically appropriate. After this nifty new Order we get a Variant Channeling ability for each of the mentioned empyreal lords, which can also be chosen by clerics who worship deities with the same portfolios. These variant channeling abilities include Duty, Flying, Journeys, Moonlight, Monuments and Sexuality. Personally, I like the moonlight and monuments abilities best, but I’d be curious to see what everyone else thinks.
and 
are particularly good examples of this. But, that doesn’t mean that’s all these cultists are. An entire nation worships Razmir, and most of those people are just trying to get by. They’re normal. So, I love that this is an article that aimed at them. We get some information about Razmir himself, reasons that outsiders might say he’s not a ‘real’ god but a charlatan, reasons that believers refute those claims, and reasonings behind Razmir’s teachings. There’s information on a priest’s role, and Razmir’s interactions with other religions. All of this was really helpful, and I feel like it gave me a much better understanding for them as a group. I definitely want to make a worshipper of Razmir now, which isn’t something I’ve never wanted to do before. After all this information we get to an archetype for the ninja. Yeah, when does that ever happen, right? Well, wait no longer! This ninja archetype is called Mask of the Living God, and it’s pretty awesome. Of course, it’s also intrinsically tied to the Razmiran faith, so it’s not very adaptable. After this there’s four new arcanist exploits, my favourite of which is Mending Flesh, and a single greater exploit which is pretty nifty, Convert Wand. All of the arcanist options are worth a read.
, or 
, this is a great way to explore the awesomeness that is the Shoanti. The character options were quite exciting, though. The Totem Channeler is a fun looking skald archetype, while the faith trait Aspect of the Quah, allows hunters to replace one of their animal aspects with a new aspect related to a Shoanti’s quah (tribe). Shiny!
or the 
Adventure Path). There are also two new bardic masterpieces, which are neat. I especially like Kaminari Drums, which allows percussionists to call lightning down from the sky.
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