Product– Pathfinder Dark Archive
System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed
Producer– Paizo
Price– $41.99 here https://miniature-market.sjv.io/q4marn
TL; DR-New toys and adventures for things that go bump in the night. 97%
Basics– What goes bump in the night? Dark Archive focuses on all the stuff that gets thrown into your average Halloween party. It covers psychics, occult inquisitors called thaumaturges, archetypes, feats, spells, and a TON of adventures. Let’s dig in to this book!
Mechanics or Crunch– I love what’s here, but there are small problems that hurt things overall. The two new classes fit within the world of wizards, warriors,and clerics as now we have a mind wizard and an occult paladin. There may be a slight bit of power creep as these might be a bit better than the core classes, but it’s nothing absolutely game breaking. Feat, spell, and archetypes all fit solidly there as well. Interestingly enough, this book has almost MORE for the GM than the players. There are adventures and ways to upgrade monsters to add the occult feel like cryptids and secret societies. Aside from a bit of power creep, the other thing that I feel hurts this is the lack of inclusion into Pathfinder Society. PFS is the majority of the way I play an while I LOVE that adventures are included, new options that you only get when weird stuff happens to you are not given as options in the PFS documenting materials. What is here is well done, but balance and lack of inclusion into Paizo’s flagship gaming market hurt the book a bit. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff– As a lover of ghost stories and campfire monsters, this book calls to me. I love the flavor here and the fact that crunch is being tied deeper into story. The new ways to add things like cults and monsters also helps. What’s here is amazing. I am slightly sad I didn’t see much Lovecraft lore here. We can make it, but I still want my crazy horrors from beyond time and space to make more of an appearance in a book where time magic and feats get put into the system. Couple that with adventures that GMs can drop in instantly, this is a solid book on the Pathfinder occult. 4.9/5
Execution– This is a physical book and a PDF by Paizo, so I’m almost automatically going to love it. Solid layout, fonts, formats, hyperlinks make this a great book and a breeze to read. My one minor issue is this is a book with almost as many pages for the GM as the players. It would be nice to have a PDF of the maps and pictures that I can show to the players like they do with their adventure paths. But, if my criticism is that I want more, that’s a good place to be in production. 4.9/5
Summary– I love me some crazy stuff, so I love me this book. I listen to too many podcasts about monsters, skepticism regarding monsters, and ghost stories to pass this book up. It has great additions to the system that might be a touch overpowered compared to things before. It has fun adventures with some amazing options that I wish PFS players could get their hands on. It has solid production, but a lack of web enhancements might hold it back a bit. What’s here is good, but I just want more ways to get at it. 97%
Throat Punch Games 