Pathfinder’s New Setting Book: ‘Lost Omens Rival Academies’ Wants To Take You To School – Six To Be Exact
The latest setting book Pathfinder Lost Omens: Rival Academies, due out next month, will transform Golarion’s schools of magic.
One of the absolute best things about Pathfinder is the sheer amount of lore and setting detail you can find. It seems they are constantly exploring new shores and horizons in the world of Golarion. But what’s especially good is that these changes often carry with them implications for the game. Case in point: Pathfinder’s latest setting book, Lost Omens: Rival Academies, redefines schools of magic.
Because Pathfinder has moved away from the OGL paradigm, aka D&D’s way of doing things, this means that big structural parts of the game have been carved into a new shape. Notably, the schools of magic. Because the D&D “schools of magic,” like Conjuration and Evocation, were classifications of spells.
But in Rival Academies, you’ll find actual schools that teach all sorts of different magical knowledge. And with new magical schools come new magical tools to play with, including a new Runelord that gives you all new ways to be one of the deadliest, evilest things to ever happen to Golarion.
Pathfinder’s Rival Academies Wants You to Stay in School
The new book focuses on the grand Convocation of Golarion’s magical academies. You’ll learn the secrets of Sarkoris through the Academy of the Reclamation.
From Cobyslarni, the fey academy, you’ll learn the power of oaths and agreements. The Kitharodian Academy is Taldor’s school for Bards and Spies, while the Magaambya is one of the oldest magical academies in Golarion, extending its influence beyond the Mwangi Expanse.
The Monastery of Unbreaking Waves has recently come back from being utterly destroyed. Meanwhile, the University of Lepidstadt straddles the line between science and heresy with its experiments on lightning coils and the reanimation of the flesh.
Paizo describes the new setting…
Journey to a fortress-city in demon-ravaged Sarkoris to learn the ancient magical secrets of the Magaambya’s wizards, Lepidstadt’s bleeding-edge theories on reanimating flesh with electricity, the extraplanar fey philosophies of the Cobyslarni, and the lore of more than a dozen other academies! With so many prominent scholars in one place, rivalries are sure to abound—whether in the classroom, on the sports fields, or during field trips to dangerous lands.
This 128-page book gives GMs and players a vibrant roster of luminaries, students, athletes, and wizards to build their very own magical academies. Whether players build bonds with classmates or clash with rivals, they’ll gain diverse options like advanced spymaster gear, dazzling new martial arts techniques, or new wizard spells and schools, including the remastered Runelord!
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But more exciting than any of that, the destructive power of Rune Magic may be unleashed in a bold new archetype that will surely not threaten the foundations of Golarion. Unless those Runelords rise again.
