It’s a known fact that I have a mixed relationship with magic user classes in a lot of games. The weird mechanical “balances”, spell slots, and bizarre restrictions have always made them harder to get into. But there’s been a few flashes of hope. One was the Magus class back in Pathfinder 1st Edition, which had me approaching Impossible Magic with cautious optimism. So let’s dive in!

NOTICE: Paizo provided me with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes. Also, SPOILERS AHEAD.

Background

Pathfinder has an extremely rich history with magic and magic-using classes, with its 1st Edition pushing the limits of what the OGL 1.0a was able to support and establishing a deep tradition of magic in the setting. Coming into the remaster era of the 2nd Edition, things were a touch lean on the ground. The core classes were there, but some of the more, in my opinion, exciting options and potential weren’t being tapped in the core books. But one thing we’ve all learned is that the Remaster Era of Lost Omens is that Paizo is BUILDING. They’re not looking to push things out quickly, they’re pursuing sustainable quality. And that brings us to Impossible Magic.

The Good

Plot advancement! This is taking the lead because I didn’t think this was going to happen. But Nex is back. The man, the mage, the legend. The whole story is told in parts, featuring the iconic characters from the classes presented in the book, and culminates with his return to the world. This is huge, and is part of Paizo’s ongoing efforts over the last year to show that Golarion is a dynamic setting.

Classes! I have never wanted to play a necromancer until I read this take on them. In fact, all the classes have a lot to offer in terms of creativity, combat use and utility, and flavour. The Magus, Necromancer, Summoner, and Runesmith classes are ripe for use, and have solid links to not just the Inner Sea region, but to Garund, Tian Xia, and the Impossible Kingdoms. Making them highly utilitarian.

Impossible Magic! These aren’t just “level 10+” type spells, they come at multiple levels and are once-in-a-lifetime, leave a permanent mark on your spirit that reincarnates forward types of spells with huge areas of effect and can easily be sewn into a bigger story, especially if you’re rolling with some of the more epic and/or legendary options in the game. I also deeply appreciated the samples of each class, showing off some build and design options to inspire players without funneling them into a “this class does this one thing” sort of scenario.

Gear! Normally this in the “Bad” section, because it’s just magic items. This time it’s here, because it’s the right mix and amount of magic items! This section of the book was a legit joy to read, because it wasn’t just a selection of tomes, rings, wands, staffs, and floating marbles to circle your character’s head. The team at Paizo looked at what they had the magic users in the book doing, and said “how do we support a magic user who is closing with the enemy to destroy them” and ran with that too. And there’s more than enough variety and cultural connections to support the whole of the described setting at this time.

The Bad

Document hot links are still limited. This is a 255 page monster of a book, and navigating it by scrolling or the table of contents isn’t fun. This is a perpetual complaint and will remain until hopefully Paizo addresses it.

Only one new ancestry. I think this would have been a great book to introduce a few new ancestries or at least some heritage options for existing ancestries. Magic impacts the world heavily, and having some magic focused/infused/altered ancestries and/or variants would have been a logical addition. And don’t get me wrong, I love the Automaton expansion in the book. I love Automatons and their entire background in the setting, but I can’t help but feel there should have been more.

The Ugly

The Rune and Fulu sections in the Items category are skimpy. For the Runes, it’s just a low count for something so useful and deeply connected to the larger setting in different areas. The Fulu section is functionally a new system, last examined in 2021’s Secrets of Magic, the book that Impossible Magic supersedes. It needed better explanation, exploration, and more concrete mechanics for making your own than “talk with the GM and sort it out”.

Final Thoughts

This book is Rank S, and contains badly needed magic everything for the game. It breaks away from the conventional spellcaster format and explores options that the new systems and mechanics of the Remastered era of Pathfinder easily support, further setting the game’s evolution further away from its D&D roots. The classes are interesting and impactful, and offer a lot of great narrative options to work with too. There’s a few comparatively minor hiccoughs, but they’re minor in the scheme of things and not enough to drop the rating. Impossible Magic is available now from Paizo.