Ponyfinder; an informal review

I've been following the Ponyfinder-inspired story "A Dangerous Sparkle" for some time now, and intrigued by it, I ended up purchasing a copy of the Ponyfinder corebook. Now that it's finally arrived, I thought I might as well share my thoughts on it for anyone interested.

For those who need it, a brief rundown: Ponyfinder is a fan-written expansion/slot-in for Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder ruleset, allowing one to adventure in an Equestria-inspired setting and/or to add My Little Pony-inspired races to their own settings. The setting currently consists of the corebook (being discussed here), two adventures (Tower of Misery and Royal Decree), and two PDF-only pamphlets; Flights of Honor (expanded lore on pegasi, complete with some new feats, equipment and spells) and Forgotten Gods of Everglow (details on the goddesses Lashtada and Soft Whisper, and on the Pony Satyr race). A griffon-based expansion splat is currently under development, which will contain several varieties of griffons and a nebulous array of other races, presumably including hippogriffs (half pony, half griffon, mentioned in Forgotten Gods).

The Ponyfinder corebook is an interesting piece; crammed full of art that is not cartoony, yet still has the "feel" of a MLP piece, it includes extensive fluff about the setting of Everglow, including an elaborate timeline and details for playing in different eras detailed in the timeline.

The crunch of the book is more extensive, including several new enemies, rules for ponykin as animal companions/familiars, a wonderfully thematic array of racial feats, some interesting gear, a bevvy of interesting gods, and the true heart of the book: the races.

The races are a vast array, and whilst the impact of G4/Friendship is Magic is clear, there's also more individuality beyond that. In addition to the ponies, who I'll get to in a minute, there are also Phoenix Wolves (fiery wolves fluffed as redeemed hellhounds), Sun Cats, Purrsians (winged cats), Griffons and Cloven (goats).

The diversity of ponies is handled quite well, through the use of racial variant rules. The earth ponies (referred to here as "earth-bound") are the default race, but a player can change tribe by swapping out the Earth-bound racial trait or add a sub-tribe by replacing the Unique Destiny racial trait.

All in all, the book is quite well-written and I enjoyed it. That said, there are some things I have issues with...

Firstly, there are some notable editing mistakes. Most blatant is in the Leather Wing section, where an unintentional duplication of the last line of Minesight is repeated below the original line. More subtly, there are problems in the Clockwork (Fragile Soul says that Clockworks "cannot be raised or resurrected normally" and then leaves it at that) and in the Antean and Sun Pony (who are presumably sub-tribes who sacrifice Unique Destiny, but are described only as requiring that the player "give up the bonus feat" to be applied).

Secondly, the Chaos Hunter sub-tribe. I really do not think that this was a good idea for a sub-tribe; the pony opposition to chaos is a nice thing to touch upon, but let's face it, giving up a bonus feat for bonuses to CMB and AC against Chaotic Outsiders and +1 to Will save doesn't really make a lot of sense. I would have made Chaos Hunter a feat tree, a fighting style, or even a Prestige Class or Paladin Archetype - it would have made more sense.

Thirdly, I really don't see what would have been so wrong with giving the Ghost Tribe the ability to ethereal jaunt for 9 rounds per day and a couple of higher level feats to allow for at will plane shift to the ethereal, instead of making them dependent upon magical items. As with the Chaos Hunter, this isn't so much a flaw as just something that personally strikes me as wrong, kind of like the Sea Horse Tribe not gaining the ability to breathe water without a feat (even if it is easy to qualify for).

Finally, we reach my real problem. The Steelheart "ponykin" race. I feel sad to say this, but I just do not like this race. Why? Because it is lazy. We already have an artificial pony race in the Clockwork sub-tribe - in fact, statwise, the Steelhearts are literally nothing more than Clockworks with set Ability Score Modifiers (rather than "tribe with extra -2 racial penalty", as Clockworks are), an expressly written note about how they can be raised/resurrected, and Resist Electricity 5. This is bad enough, but the race's appearance and flavor text comes off as being basically Eberron's Warforged in pony shape. It's just a disappointing affair, in my eyes.

On the positive side of things, though, there's a lot to recommend the setting. The tribe and sub-tribe setting for ponykind makes it very easy to build unique and interesting characters - Antean Pegasi, Clockwork Unicorns, and many others.

So, all in all, I enjoyed the Ponyfinder setting, save for that mess with the Steelhearts. I customise my own setting with various tweaks (no Chaos Hunters, Sea Horses received Return To Sea feat for free, Ghost Ponies have the benefits of Ghost Hooks as a racial supernatural ability, Clockworks take the Conductive trait and Steelheart feats before replacing Steelhearts entirely), but I still would recommend this to anyone who likes My Little Pony and Pathfinder alike.