A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Planar Adventures

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Planar Adventures is a role playing game supplement published by Paizo, Inc. for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This supplement covers the various planes.

The supplement is available as a 258 page PDF for $9.99 and as a hardcover for $44.99; the PDF is the version reviewed. Two pages are the colour front and rear covers, two pages are the front matter, one page is the Table of Contents, one page is the Index, one page the Open Game License and one page an ad for Ultimate Wilderness.

The two page Introduction has an overview of the different types of planes, how they interact with each other and a sidebar of book references (Book of the Damned is not included in this list, yet it is probably a useful supplement to use with it, given references to various fiendish powers that are not elaborated on).

Chapter 1: Planar Characters starts with an overview of planar campaigns and has a sidebar on Planar Terrains, which is relevant because some classes interact with terrain types. Planar Races has a list of races, and the book they are covered in (which in some cases is this one), which have ties to specific planes.

Planar Archetypes has a set of new archetypes for character classes, both core and otherwise. Not every class is covered but there is a wide range.

The Azatariel is a Swashbuckler archetype. They hail from Elysium and their goal is spreading whimsy and capricious goodness.

Chronicler of Worlds is a Bard archetype, one that forsakes morality in favour of understanding, and is inspired by the angel Tabris who wrote the Book of the Damned.

The Dreamthief is a Rogue archetype has access to dreamscapes and powers over dreamers.

The Energist is an Alchemist archetype, one that uses either positive or negative energy as a power source.

The Gloomblade is a Fighter who draws power from the Plane of Shadow.

The Idealist is a Cleric that embraces the purest ideal of their deity’s realm.

The Pact Witch is a Witch that has a pact with a plane, not a patron.

The Planar Scout is a Ranger archetype that specialises in travelling the planes.

The Portal Seeker is an Investigator archetype who has abilities related to the finding and closing of portals and teleportation.

The Progenitor is a Druid archetype with a connection to the First World, one of the Golarion planes that is detailed later and is the Realm of the Fey.

The Soul Warden is a Spiritualist archetype who is no longer accompanied by a phantom, instead serving Pharasma and the psychopomps.

The Worldseeker is a Wizard archetype that specialises in travelling the Great Beyond.

Feats introduces a range of new feats, all connected with the planes and planar creatures. There are combat, conduit and metamagic feats, as well as new style feats, which were originally introduced in Ultimate Combat. There are four new styles, all based on outsiders related to the alignment extremes.

Spells begins with spell lists for a wide range of spellusers, not just those in the core rulebook. There are a range of different spells, although not a huge number, connected to the planes.

Magic Items has a selection of armour, weapons, rings, rods and wondrous items, all connected to the planes in some way.

Chapter 2: Running Planar Adventures starts with planar traits. Each plane (and perhaps in cases such as the Abyss, individual layers) has different options for how gravity and time behave, how big the plane is, the rules that underlie a plane’s structure, what elements are dominant, how strongly a plane is aligned with an alignment and what alignment and how magic functions.

River of Souls is how souls are handled in the Golarion setting, how they are judged by Pharasma (the deity of the dead) after death and where the souls go.

Role of the Divine considers gods. There are three levels of deities, with the highest being deity, which are beings which have no stats and therefore cannot be defeated. Demigods do have statistics and can be fought, although as these creatures include archdevils, demon lords, empyreal lords and Great Old Ones, this doesn’t mean that they can easily be defeated. Quasi deities also have stat blocks, but are less powerful than demigods, and include such as nascent demon lords, malebranche and qlippoth lords. This chapter also includes divine intervention, divine gifts, faith and deific realms.

The Core Pantheon is next and lists the primary gods of the Golarion setting. Each deity has a stat block, but not of a type used in combat. Instead, these consider things such as name, realm, titles, relationships with other deities and other matters related to the deity and their religion. A sidebar on Other Divinities lists other Paizo supplements that cover other deities.

Building a Planar Campaign is the last part of this chapter and considers why this is done, how to do it, how to travel the planes and different cosmologies from the one described in this supplement.

Chapter 3: The Great Beyond covers the main planes, both inner and outer as well as transitive, and demiplanes of Paizo’s Golarion setting. Each plane has a stat block and there are instructions on reading them. There are the descriptions of the planes, their inhabitants, divinities and various locations of interest, including what are called planar hubs, which are the most detailed location, have a city stat block and are usually the largest, and probably safest, place on the plane, as well as how to explore them and encounter tables.

The planes include many of the standard D&D ones: Astral, Ethereal, Shadow, Positive and Negative Energy and the four main elemental planes, as well as various alignment-based Outer Planes.

After the main planes are various Demiplanes and Dimensions; these are smaller and usually finite in nature. This sections starts with a list of planes of this type that aren’t described in any great detail, followed by many that are described in more detail, following the way in which planes are described. Unsurprisingly given that demiplanes are smaller, these descriptions are also smaller.

Chapter 4: Bestiary has new creatures – in particular, there are some that are not outsiders, to create variety – some of which are also playable races.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Planar Adventures in Review

The PDF is extensively bookmarked going down to subsections and sidebars. The Table of Contents covers the major sections. Finally, the Index is also quite thorough. Navigation is very good, which is necessary in a book of this size. The text maintains a two column full colour style and is almost free of errors. The supplement is extensively illustrated with many custom full colour images, up to nearly two pages in size. Presentation is excellent.

The planes, inner, outer or otherwise, are frequently neglected in many D&D-derived settings. Perhaps the most thorough treatment of them was with the Planescape setting for AD&D 2nd Edition. Up until now there has been very little official (or even third party for that matter) material on the planes for Pathfinder and it’s a bit odd that a fairly significant book would be released at the very end of the first edition of the game

Some of the concepts and planar descriptions are perhaps compatible with earlier D&D treatments but others are less so. The Planescape setting in particular had many more planes, especially such as the Para-Elemental and Quasi-Elemental planes, where the Elemental planes bordered others. Much of the planar concepts in Planescape were inherited from earlier treatments and supplements. The elemental planes are lacking these quasi and para planes; instead there are descriptions of what the individual planes are like where the two elements meet, which can result in similar environments to the Para-Elemental planes, but for a much smaller area.

The coverage of the various planes is a lot less thorough than it is in Planescape, but there was a lot more published for that setting than a single book. This supplement has perhaps more in common with the Manual of the Planes; the planes are covered in more detail than in that book, but this one is about twice the size. It’s also a lot more entwined with Paizo’s Golarion setting than either Manual of the Planes or Planescape were. Both of the latter did cover deities but, perhaps because the planes were to a degree inherited from Deities & Demigods, and later Legends & Lore, there were many pantheons of deities rather than a single one. There were pantheons from different game worlds as well as some that weren’t really used in any official setting. Planar Adventures only has deities from one setting, and these are Golarion’s gods, so it is not as generic as it could be. The supplement is part of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Subscription not the Pathfinder Campaign Setting Subscription yet truthfully it seems to fit the latter more than the former.

If a GM was to spend the time to convert Planescape to Pathfinder, they would have a lot more material, and material that would probably be easier to use in other settings. There is some interesting material, especially character options and magic, in this but, even with the suggestion of other cosmologies, it is very tied not only to the D&D Great Wheel concept but especially the Golarion version of this. Chaos, known as the Maelstrom, erodes the outer planes, the Abyss is effectively a fissured ball surrounding the other planes and the Astral plane is stirred by heat from the Plane of Fire. Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Planar Adventures has some nice material, is great for the Golarion setting but rather less great for others.