Book Review : Classic Treasures Revisited
Title : Pathfinder Chronicles - Classic Treasures Revisited
Publisher : Paizo Publishing
Have you ever heard of a Vorpal Sword? How about a Bag of Holding? Have you ever been in a game and had a Storyteller say "You find a Staff of The Magi" and felt your stomach fill with butterflies as your mind raced with the millions of things you could do with such a powerful magic item in your hands? Well Classic Treasures Revisited brings ten of the most well known table top RPG items into Pathfinder.
Paizo, a company I love, has a handful of books in their revisited line that go through bits of old gaming material and convert them into current Pathfinder statistics. However this book does more than just give you the stats for a Vorpal blade or a Sphere of Annihilation. Once it gets through telling you the stats and abilities of these items of lore-worthy renown it starts to offer suggestions for how you can work them into your campaign. From there it breaks down how they work within Pathfinder's setting of Golarion.
As a homebrew Storyteller where this book really shines though is the variations on the classic items it gives. Almost every one of the ten treasures has at least three variations on the original, each with unique abilities. For me, these new builds of old classics give me all sorts of jumping off points to insert them into the game as weapons used by folk heroes or beings of myth. It also inspired me to revisit some of the other classic items and start to think about them in new and fun ways that would add some variety and spice to my homebrew games.
As far as whether it's worth the money as a Storyteller, yes, I would say buying this book to add to your shelf is worth it for no other reason that every once in a while it's fun to let your PCs run around with these epic items only to take them away when they least expect it. Not to mention the Deck of Many Things section is always a good time when you really want to mess with your party or are looking for a fun way to kill a few hours... or PCs.
As a player, if you really enjoy learning about magic items and just want something fun to read go for it. This book is full of cool little passages and asides and is written in the traditional Paizo fashion of being enjoyable as just a stand alone text to dig into on a lazy afternoon. It's not a must have, but it is a fun buy.
Ask your local bookstore if they have a copy or you can pick up the softcover or snag the PDF from Paizo.com
