I don’t think I’ve ever done a review where I had to use two books at once, but here we are. Paizo has been hard at work with the remaster of Pathfinder Second Edition, and the latest two books can be taken separately, but are best looked at together. So let’s dive into Lost Omens : Divine Mysteries and War of the Immortals!
DISCLAIMER: I was provided with electronic copies of these books by Paizo for review purposes.
Background
Golarion is a world where the divine is EXTREMELY active, and one of the things that immediately set it apart was that ordinary mortals could become gods if they succeeded in the Test of the Starstone. And it’s a world where the mythic coexists alongside the heroic and legendary. However, the last genuine support for this type of story and adventure was way back in 2013 in Pathfinder 1sr Edition’s Mythic Realms and Mythic Adventures. So it’s been overdue for updates and upgrades.
The Books
Before I get into this, it’s important to understand that both of these books are player and GM facing. The difference is how they are. Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries (LODM) is the bedrock of the Pathfinder’s universe on a divine scale. War of Immortals (WoI) is is the mythic level adventures happening on that foundation.
LODM is a beast of a book, clocking 326 pages! And it is PACKED with content. If it’s a being that can be worshipped and grant spells or divine gifts? It’s probably in here. The lists and descriptions of various pantheons is a whole year’s worth of podcasts alone to explore.
WoI is 222 pages long and loaded with player character creation information, and then leaps into the adventure content and world building material. It’s complementary to LODM in the same way that the two Tian Xia books are complementary to each other.
The Good
First and foremost, the lore expansion and updates to the divine lore and mythic adventure aspects of Golarion. The 2nd edition and its remaster have been doing soft retcons on problematic content the entire time and these books continue that practice. And the fact that they’re able to do this without losing the spirit and vibe of the setting shows that Paizo is still willing to invest in quality world building.
The art is the next thing. It’s crisp, consistent, and diverse. Flipping through these books, it’s easy to see yourself, and the vibrancy is solid. Another nice feature about the art is that it shows all kinds of different people in action. I dig it.
LODM is art least partly hot linked! One of my major complaints about the electronic copies of the remaster has been their lack of internal links. It makes navigating them a pain. LODM is the first of the remaster books to have links in the table of contents. This is a big step in usability at the table, online or off.
ARMOUR! After ages, WoI brings us new kinds of armour for the players to use! And it’s cross cultural! There’s types of armour that take form and inspiration from all over the real world and it’s absolutely glorious to see Pathfinder 2nd Edition breaking away from the eurocentric rut it’s been in for this area.
Magic, feats, gear, monsters and more. These books are loaded with all the content that a player needs to break into the mythic range of adventures, and for GMs to introduce mythic elements to any type of game. The books also broadly cover the entire planet, making them usable in games in all of the sub-settings of Golarion.
Kaiju! I’m not sure what exactly is going on at Paizo that kaiju are figuring big in the picture, but they are. And honestly, it’s good. The setting is already an epic kitchen sink, and adding in some kaiju (good, neutral, and malevolent) gives some great non-dragon options.
Finally, these books finally, FINALLY, layout in cold black and white how the divine world interacts with the mortal one. This is a weak point in a lot of settings, where religion and the divine are kind of hand-waved or rely on what the users think it should be like. By laying it out, and diving deep into it, the world is enriched.
The Bad
LODM got my hopes up. WoI lacks internal links. It’s a great book but this lowers it’s usability.
WoI’s key new mythic mechanics and all the stuff for player characters to become mythic are an all or nothing thing. And this isn’t well explained, it’s just assumed. What I mean is that the WHOLE party and the GM all have to be onboard with this as a campaign. If one or two players are pursuing this, and everyone else isn’t, it has potential to cause some serious Main Character issues. So I think this should have been more clearly laid out.
The Golarion metaplot is happening and it’s moving too slowly and there’s too many gaps. Now, I don’t know what it is, or how it results in Starfinder’s future, but the world of Golarion is dynamic and there’s a metaplot going down that we’re missing a lot of information about. Metaplots are fine, and a good thing, but the piecemeal distribution of information is frustrating.
The Ugly
I got nothing. The metrics I use for these didn’t ping for Ugly issues in either book.
Using These Books
These books need an extra section, because they will fundamentally change your campaign.
Together or apart, these books offer valuable insight to the divine and mythic workings and relationships on Golarion. They’re great for developing storylines, coming up with character background ideas, and are perfectly usable for a conventional game. However, the mechanics and narratives they offer for mythic level play need to be carefully considered before being applied. I touched on this earlier, but now it’s time for detail.
One of the things that can kill fun at a table is over focus on specific player characters in the story. And while it might be possible for a good GM to manage having a party of mixed mortal and working on becoming immortal player characters, it’s going to be a struggle. How? Think real world mythology. We remember the heroes and maybe a few of their sidekicks. And that’s a big maybe. The narrative pressures of a single or pair of would be immortals is going to overshadow everything. They’re the main show in a mixed party.
So if you’re going to use the mechanics, have that immortality development track happening, it’s my strong recommendation that the whole party be would be immortals. Switch your thinking from “dungeoncrawl and adventure” to the sorts of things you’d see in a JRPG or anime. And I give those examples specifically because they often involve groups, as opposed to classical mythology that tends to focus on an individual.
My last piece of advice, for GMs and Players alike, is COMMUNICATION. More than a conventional campaign, using these books demands that both sides communicate to craft the story of the characters’ journey to mythic status. And to be clear, I’m not arguing that this is a mission to guarantee success for the party. Just that both sides need to be on the same page with the nature of the journey, the stakes, rewards, punishments, and the rest. Mythic play is much more narrative and less sandbox, so to make it play well, it needs that extra effort.
Final Thoughts
These books have value outside their direct use. LODM is a world level resource, it lays out the divine infrastructure of Golarion and how it all meshes together. And that’s before it dives into the mechanics and player facing stuff. WoI is the handbook for tables that want to adventure in that divine world. And I can’t stress that enough. LODM is a setting book with some additional mechanics, and WoI is a character guide with some world building. They’re usable alone, but when combined, they’re arguably the “over setting” to Golarion. Overall, high marks for both and a solid Rank S. These books may not be for everyone, but they’re invaluable for the added details to the world.
