The Inner Sea campaign setting is pretty well defined and yet.. there are enough 'gaps' in the setting you can drop an entire city/county, province or whatever you'd like in for your home game. It's 'complete' but without the all encompassing feel of the Forgotten Realms where you have a small hamlet whose '1st level commoner' average was so slewed that APL for a poker game group could be double digits.
Don't get me wrong. I LOVED the old FR setting. Miss it to this day. Shadowdale was a fun spot to play if you knew how to do it. I had a lot of DMs who did. I had a few who didn't. It's the nature of the game. The folks at Paizo went with 'broad tapestry with relevant points' rather than a census of what a city might have. I like it better, makes it easier for most GMs to put their own touch on an established realm.
Inner Seas Gods (Hardcover): The second book, hardcover, of the Campaign series line and in it's own way JUST as good a buy as the Inner Sea Campaign Guide (ISCG) itself. Weighing in at $39.99 cover price, with a stiched spine, 333 pages of content and a strong graphic look it is a great book end to wedge all the small 'splat' books with it's 'big brother' (ISCG).
My personal copy isn't the best hardback that I have gotten from Paizo but it's clearly the exception (as I've seen about a half dozen copies in players hands).
Layout: Like the ISCG it breaks things down into 'digest' elements. Best example of this is the Gods themselves. You have the God, his/her 'soundbite' of things like favored weapon, domains, alignment, obedience and boons. What are obedience/boons? Those are the results of following the obedience, specific acts/actions, to gain a mechanical benefit from the feat Deific Obedience. There are boons for a lay worshiper, Evangelists, Exalted and Sentinels (Three new Prestige Classes). Each 'God digest' that offers a summary of the god, The Church, Temples & Shrines, 'A Priest's Role', Adventurers, Clothing, Holy Texts, Holidays, Aphorisms, Relations with other religions, Realm, and Planar Allies.
Material: You got a list of 'God specific' feats, traits items, spells and variant spellcasting. There is a very BIG feat section with all manners of feats (Channeling, Combat, and more). Magic section with dozens of spells that cover the spread of 'god specific' to more spells for everyone. Yeah, you get special spells for worshiping a god. (And not just the divine casters)
You have the rest of the usual crunch: Magic items, regular gear, critters (specificially the Divine Messengers and such). If you've seen the book already, you know I've left out one specific section.
The Prestige Classes: There are
TECHNICALLY only 3 prestige classes. The Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel. The Evangelist is a character who essential takes a 1 level side turn into a prestige class that grants some extra benefits IN ADDITION to the normal class abilities they get (As at 2nd level you can choose one class (the features is called Aligned Class) and every level Evangelist from 2nd level on gets that chosen class as well as the Evangelist benefits. The Exalted is the divine caster PRC, gaining a variety of benefits from her god as they advance. The Sentinel is the last, a martial PRC that fills in some of the points (and duties) of a Paladin without the spells.
Thoughts: I like it. It's got a nice mix of info on the various gods for both players and GMs, new toys in a variety of ways : classes, spells, feats and gear. You can use it and get a lot of use out of it. And like the ISCG it's sturdy and well suited for a long lasting part of your Pathfinder book collection.
More books to come. (Inner Sea Combat, Alchemy Manual, Undead Hunters Handbook)
