Pathfinder Epilogue, The Best of the 3rd Party pt. 1: The Weird, Niche, and Wonderful

So, with Pathfinder 1st edition coming to a close I think it's time to take a look back on some of the best stuff to come out of the 3rd party stable over the last 10 years. The list of books that has come out in the last few years alone has been truly staggering and as Paizo lays 1st ed to rest and players and GMs look to snap up 3rd party content to fill the void I've compiled this... "small" list of content to help out. So whether you are a GM looking to fill that aforementioned void of new content for your old system or a group looking to add some great weird or unseen content to your game while you wait for 2nd ed to catch your fancy or whatever check this out.

And if you're one of those people who gets overwhelmed just looking at the SEA OF STUFF that is the DrivethruRPG shopping list, don't worry, this is to help you guys too.

This first set is a lot of great content I think of that I love but might not get noticed amid the sea of heavier hitters I know will show up later. Some of these are small publishers, some of these are smaller workers from bigger names, but all of them are great and totally worth your time if any part of my description catches your fancy. They aren't in any particular order, but you should find something you'll dig somewhere here.

So lets take a walk and check out everything from a Survivalist's guide to commoner living to a class that takes the immediate action and builds an entire class around it, here's the Weird, Niche, and Wonderful!




1. The Adequate Commoner

A weird little book from about 4 years ago, I got this book as a birthday gift from a friend and have loved it ever since. Presented as a step by step guide to playing characters with levels in commoner for GMs and REALLY for players, this book is like the min-maxing guide to running an NPC class that should die when a stiff breeze looks at them. Fun, flavorful, and containing one of my favorite magic items in the game, The Adequate Commoner is totally worth the purchase. Also, the new micro archetypes for the commoner to let you design your personal commoner to fit a specific job is a nice touch.

P.S. If you want to see said item it's Fidget's Ballista of the Hole in the World, pg. 84, bottom left. I have had that sitting in a vault somewhere in my home game for 4 years waiting for the moment to foist it on my players and once you see it, you'll get why. It's one of those amazing items that's to fantastically dumb to not give a party and look at with that gleam in your eye that says "Please, use it."




2. Insults & Injuries: A Pathfinder Sourcebook for Medical Maladies

One of the first big 3rd party editions I ever added to my table, I&I is a sourcebook about adding realistic medical concepts to your game. Want realistic burns and hypothermia, want to have a system to model cancer, want to have a table that models the boons and banes of getting drunker that's been written by a GM and medical professional? This book's for you. And if that all sounds a bit too much, the rules in here for broken bones and how to trigger a potential bone break are not only some of my favorite rules, but are so simple you can throw them into your game and have PCs messing with them in like 15 minutes, but are so profound they can fundamentally change your table in awesome ways. If you've ever complained about how martial classes don't have a lot of responses to spellcasters or wish there were more ways to encourage noncombat approaches to problem solving without having to hang the equivalent of a big blinking sign over a noncombat encounter, the bonebreaker rules are worth the price of admission. 

I can say, nothing is more insane and satisfying than that first time a fighter rushes the mage and hits him so hard he breaks the mage's wrist, and the old man now has to decide whether to cast his spells or hold his weapon, and hold himself together through gritted teeth as he tries to concentrate through the pain. Or when your Warpriest of a destructive god looks to the party and says, "Bard, we need you to talk us out of this." because he knows this fight could leave them too broken to escape, and that diplomacy might be the best option. 

Seriously, I could tell stories about the bonebreaker rules for days. And if you are reading this when it launches, Skirmisher is currently running a sale on this in its mega bundle, and I'd say it alone is worth the price. 

3. Phantasia Zoologica Volume I: Cats, Dogs & Horses

An old book an even older player of mine showed to me back when I started Pathfinder, Cats, Dogs, & Horses is one of those books you buy if you've ever looked at the animal companions lists and thought, "Man, I wish I had more options than just "Dog" or "Horse". They are just so boring."

CD&H adds pages of specific breeds and species of Cats, Dogs, and Horses to the game, both as free standing monsters, animal companions, and familiars. On top of fulfilling your desires to have a Rotty animal companion or a Mustang mount that has its own wild spirit, this book adds a host of its own unique creatures for each option, including unique breeds of dogs themed around some of the core 7 races like Orcish Wolfdogs, specialized options infused with powers from the plains like celestial cats, and even full unique animal companion blocks for every animal type listed within. 

Hell, this book made house cat animal companions really cool and fill their own interesting role as scout/spy options and gave me a rideable dog for medium sized characters. If that and the option to have mustangs, pit bulls, and russian blues in your game with their own unique stats and even prices doesn't do it for you I don't know what will. 

Pick this up if you are a Cat, Dog, or Horse lover or you've got players who always want to play with Horses or Dogs but you are both just sick of seeing that same stat block again. 

4. The Perilous Vistas: Fields of Blood, Dunes of Desolation, Mountains of Madness, & Marshes of Malice

Four great books about 4 very different environments, The Perilous Vistas set of books each take in depth looks at 4 very different and very common terrain types seen at nearly every table or ap at one point or another, Deserts, Plains, Swamps, and Mountains. Each of these books is like a love letter to environment nerds like me, with walkthroughs on natural hazards from weather to diseases and deadly plants, to how to roll daily weathers based on the types of of these biomes you may run into. And sandwiched between that giant pile of nitty gritty GM goodness is a pile of new feats, uses for skills, archetypes, and cool new creatures to look into. The whole series can be found on Drivethru and other online retailers but Frog God has the whole collection in one bundle which I've included above. 

So if you've ever wanted to know how to build altitude sickness for players, 4 step system for figuring out the weather in your Great Plains inspired campaign setting that doesn't feel like you're doing a tri exam, or a bunch of new creatures inspired by the environs and the cultures that live in them in our world, these books will float your boat.

Now all I need to do is find out if they ever made any hard copies so I can add them to my library. My Players would likely appreciate getting to see all those extra rules with a book in hand rather than staring at my screen. 

5. The Gardener Base Class

A little book that is near and dear to my heart, The Gardener is written by a friend of mine I met 2 months after I found it. One of my favorite 3rd party classes of the 1st edition age, the Gardener works by giving you special abilities to activate on your opponents turn. Ranging from stopping charges to getting to steal heals from enemies and other players, the Gardener plays like a mono blue counter deck from Magic: The Gathering, and I couldn't be happier. It totally changes the way fights play out in the system and for creative GMs and Players gives a whole new way to play and conceptualize how much can still be done in the d20 system. Sasha did one hell of a job and for 3 bucks it's totally worth checking out and seeing what creative things you and your party can get up to. 

Ohh, and the way it's balanced is so solid I think I could write a whole article on that alone, and I have. Check out the review here to see what I thought. 

So that's going to do it for now. Check back in soon we continue our walk down memory lane, play the hits, and maybe give you some new great stuff to add to your shopping cart.