Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Combat

This is a solid book. There is so much more than just new classes and archtypes. Which don't get me wrong, add a lot to what is already available. There are so many feats it is hard to choose which ones to take. The feats add a lot more to waht a player can do. Many can make a grappler very fun to play and very damaging, among other things.One thing that really stuck out to me as a GM. All the additional rules and variant rules. There are stats for Stone and bone weapons to Bronze age and even gold weapons and armor. There are some nice rules for calling shots and just many things that can make building a world much more interesting and fun for both GMs and PCs.I am very excited to incoroporate these into my next campaign.Well worth every penny.

or APG 3?The Short:If you love unarmed combat, dream of racing chariots and fighting in gladiatorial games, wish to sail the seas, love Oriental Adventures, need more spell options, or want to break out of the base class mold; this is the book for you.If you think your party's human shields ought to wield an actual weapon in the classic D&D environment, prepare for disappointment.The Long:To say there is a lot of "love" for the monk in this book is an understatement, it's a full blown obsession. More than 1/4 of the feats are related to unarmed combat (66 Unarmed Strike prereq feats, 10 Imp Grapple, 5 Imp Trip prereqs) and 21 new monk weapons make their debut (out of 40). However, if you are playing a weapon wielding fighter type (paladin, ranger, barbarian, etc.), there is not much love here and the class in most need of Ultimate Combat "love", the base fighter, gets a severe case of frostbite. Other classes not typically consider fighter types (alchemist, magus, wizard, cleric, rogue, druid, etc.) get equal or greater attention (new archetypes for every base class, numerous new feature specific feats, 29 pages of new Spells). It's seems the Ultimate Magic spillover landed here and all the truly martial classes paid for it.My biggest complaint about the feats, besides too many are tailored towards monks, is expense. Only 12 feats need no prereq (4 require Teamwork). Most feats require 2 or more prereqs and its not uncommon for a "base" feat to have 5 prereqs (stats, class features, skills, race, race feature, and/or a BAB). Too many require specific class features like arcane spell casting, channeling, poison use, bardic performance, hex, wild shape, etc. encouraging multi-classing. Only 1 feat requires any levels in fighter while 21 feats use Monk levels as a possible prereq, usually giving access EARLIER than the BAB option would allow any fighter type to take it. There are simply too many reasons to stop advancing as or to never become a weapon wielding fighter.Be warned, this is not a stand alone book. Some of the material requires ownership of non-base books, for example the Alchemist (Ultimate Magic) or Cavalier (Advanced Players Guide) Archetypes or the Elemental Fist (APG) or Improved Dirty Trick (APG) feats. If you don't intend to own either, then these pages and feats are a waste.Check out d20pfsrd, once they've updated the online site, to see if this is something you really want to purchase.

I got this book for my boyfriend for Christmas, and he's really enjoying it! It came in Mint Condition, no scratches, stains, or any markings! Wrapped in plastic and newspaper, it came in just in time for me to wrap it for Christmas!An awesome addition to any Pathfinders game, or as an addition to 3.5 D&D. Gives cool new character, and weapon options! So much fun! I can't wait til we start our next campaign!

The only downside to any of the Pathfinder products I have bought is the actual quality of the construction. It seems I am being more careful with the books a lot sooner than with my old 3.5 books. As a matter of fact, none of my 3.5 books are as in the condition that my Pathfinder books are in, and they are a LOT older.Other than that, this book, like almost all the "ultimate" books, is critical to gameplay. If you are on the fence about buying it, get it now...

Paizo has done a great thing for the gaming community. Pathfinder really is the next incarnation of D&D. They have put out great rules book after great rules book. With that statement of praise on the table, I have to say this is the first book that I have to rank poorly due to the gaping hole in its coverage of combat.There are two types of combat. Melee and ranged. There are differing ways to go about those types of combat, but I've always been a fan of distanced ranged combat (rather than having to throw fireballs to play from a distance). Unfortunately, this book does not cover any kind of ranged combat. There are less than a dozen new feats that relate to distanced ranged combat and no archetypes whatsoever. This completely floored me. I've always thought it was pretty obvious that either the Ranger or the Fighter should have some kind of "Archer" archetype when this book came out. I just assumed it would, since I'm the type of person that regularly enjoys playing those types of characters.Don't get me wrong, this is still a great book with lots of additional material to customize characters and NPCs- as it relates to melee combat. I was simply blindsided when I just bought the book assuming that ranged stuff was covered. Don't fall in to the same pit I did!

This book is slightly worse than Ultimate Magic, but it ultimately (no pun intended) brings good options to the table. The ninja is well designed, the samurai is a nice addition but the gunslinger looks like it could use a little more development. The feats are interesting and the rules for dueling are engaging. The main draw that the book has, in my opinion, are the alternative options for the base and core clases. All in all, a must have for fans.

The product description tells you enough about what's in it but is it any good? As usual with Paizo Pathfinder products the production values and art are very good. It's all clearly laid out and well indexed. The new base character classes are excellent (I particularly like the gunslinger) and the optional rules for all character classes as well as loads of new feats give you huge choice in customising your character.Although I won't use many of the alternate systems for piecemeal armour, wounds and vigour etc, the sections and ideas are well thought out and may suit your campaign down to the ground.The mastering combat section, again, though informative will be of limited use to me but is well presented. I did love the rules for performance combat though! The vehicle rules that follow are also useful to have and will crop up from time to time I'm sure.All in all this is well thought out and put together and gives you a huge amount of options and may trigger some cool ideas.

Much as with other Pathfinder products, this one requires a certain level of familiarity with the game.With that requirement met however, it makes for a great addition to one's Pathfinder repertoire, especially if you lean towards more melee-based classes, or even just want to try out the Gunslinger class.

Excellent delivered on time

If you are a pathfinder player, this book has useful extras in it, however a lot of it is overpowered, and we rarely use it now.Well laid out, artwork is very good.

Goods as described, quick posting.