As someone more accustomed to the sort of character-building systems seen in universal/toolkit-style rpgs, the standard D&D/Pathfinder approach to races has long been a source of annoyance for me. So for me, Spheres of Origin has been an absolute godsend. Using this book instead of the core race rules effectively puts an end to the frustrating concept of certain races being optimal/suboptimal for certain classes. I'm also continually amazed by how useful this book has been for stating up nonstandard races/species/etc for homebrew settings, or for adapting "core" ones to settings where not all of the default Pathfinder lore is being used.

If there was any one thing I could knock a point off my review for, it's that there are a couple of origin categories I would've liked to have seen more talents for. Even so, the book is complete enough that I'm not comfortable deducting a full point for that. So let's just call this review a 4.5/5 and a wholehearted recommendation.

This is the sort of thing I really love seeing being offered. It is an outside of the box approach to something that has just been assumed there is only one way to do something. It may not be your cup of tea but it gives a DM the tools to do something new and interesting. It is a reletively easy set of options to learn and can be used time and time again without feeling stale. Bravo.

I'm the kind of player that opts for every optional customization for race or class, and I am still frequently disappointed in how many limits there are for which race is best paired with a class. This supplement will go a long way for satisfying my urge to build a unique and interesting character that isn't shackled by unnecessary restrictions. I am also a permissive DM, and don't think games are made more fun by imposing limits (insert "Defying Gravity" music here for added effect), so take my feedback with a grain of salt I suppose. I think the writers were thoughtful in their creation and put out a solid piece of work. The result is a well-formatted product ready for GM or Player to use. I'm a fan of Drop Dead Studios and their other Spheres works, and would encourage you to check out their other products and related works created by other third-party publishers.

Out of the last several Spheres products released, this is my absolute favorite both as a player and a DM, and I think it changes up character creation in a way that'll help people create exactly what they want without anything getting in the way of flavor.

It effectively replaces race in the Pathfinder sense with the Origin, which can cover race just as much as it can cover background and learned skills without affecting your class level. Some of the examples in the book are the core races that we all know and love, but there are also others like Frontier Survivor, Courtley Noble, War Machine, and Hermetic Mage.

It allows you to make the exact character you want without having to pick a race that doesn't quite fit, because with this book, race doesn't matter anyway.

Beyond this though, I have to mention what drew me to the book to begin with. There are rules in here for Variations, a mechanic that introduces a change to your origin (sometimes a familiar minor penalty, like Light Blindness) in exchange for a minor thematic ability, and with these variations came various disabilities, largely in the form of the Assistive Device, which requires your character to have an assistive device (which may be sundered, but its hit points and hardness scale with level) to function at normal capacity, and without it they operate at a penalty.

As someone with cerebral palsy, I think this is a lovely mechanic for including physical disabilities in a Pathfinder game. It's simple, it's effective, and it does the job without adding too many frills, or penalties so severe that nobody would dare take them. Of course as a drawback system for a game, it could be... well... gamed, with a character having multiple disabilities and getting multiple minor bonuses for them, but I don't think that's a problem for most reasonable folks. The bonuses are niche enough, like having a prosthetic arm with a storage compartment, or a wheelchair that makes it harder for enemies to trip and grapple you. The devices themselves can be defined by the player, and the benefits they give are picked from a given list, so no two have to be exactly the same, and they can also cover more fantastic fare like animated prosthetics and high-tech breathing apparatuses. But put simply, I appreciate this inclusion as a disabled person and as a gamer, I think it is simple and tastefully done.

The rest of the book is good too, and there are a few other options presented, my favorite being an archetype for the Shifter called the Paragon, which changes the class from a shapeshifter into a martially-oriented one meant for representing those characters whose abilities are defined by their race, in essence being a build your own monster class, or a way to bring back the old Paragon classes from the Unearthed Arcana in 3rd edition D&D, gaining abilities through obtaining more Origin talents, and some through the Shifter's Bestial Traits.

Since getting it I've already written up origins for a Half Ogre, a tainted mage like something out of Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a soul bonded to a suit of armor. And once I finish typing this up I'll be working on a little gray alien and a Dunedain Ranger origin just for fun. There are a lot of options presented in this book, and it'll be seeing use even in my non Sphere games.

I think this was an amazing product for redesigning a character's upbringing and physiology. it opens up so many new avenues for designing a character from their race, culture, and more that is easy to work with for GMs. I know the groups I used this for during the playtest absolutely loved this compared to the standard base racial systems and the race builder options in Advanced Race Guide since they could effectively reskin those options to convey other ideas like a mage inspired from Ars Magica, a desert survivor, or some sort of horrible magic gone wrong in an easy to comprehend way that was easier to work with.

Dividing the potency of an effect into three categories really helps to prevent a character from having too much power from their upbringing, and having the talents be divided into three spheres really helps to develop an origin one has in mind. All of them seem to cover the basis that most racial effects, and anything that was deemed to really need a GM's attention was put in its own category of phenomenal talents. Most of the options for talents are balanced, and majority of them aren't so drastic as to break the game or feel like power creeping for characters in my experience of using this.

It feels like the disability segment tried to handle physical disabilities respectfully, but as with all things it can be exploited by some players. For some it might seem like the disabilities are basically a free way into getting super powers, but the alternative would be essentially disabilities being a crippling effect that most players wouldn't want to try to have on their character. I'd say try to keep an eye on this section if you want to avoid a player crippling themselves in order to get more power, but for those who don't mind then this should not be an issue.

This book does feel like it should primarily be used for building humanoid-like creatures as well. Making animal companions and familiars with this book tends to bring out pretty poor results and they aren't as fulfilling as their true counterpart. For some this could be an issue, for others you might be looking to work with it or tweak it a bit. But, making humanoid-like creatures for most of the party members works great.

For GMs interested in worldbuilding their own races, species, background, or other things that impact the backstory of a character, I would recommend giving this system a go. Your players may like it a lot with the freedom it offers and it helps keep the GM involved in the process of how a character fits into the setting and campaign.

Where to start...thankfully, the section about DMs not allowing players to use this supplement as being discriminitory against their origins was removed.

However, despite working with a consulting firm meant to avoid such issues, you can deliberately cripple yourself physically for superpowers. This is in addition to the new base class that attempts to mimic racial paragons of editions past, about becoming more powerful via accumulating physical traits normally associated with race, despite the book treating that word like taboo.

Furthermore, as is common with Matt Daley products, power creep is rampant. As a tool for DMs? It wasn't even initially intended as one and it somehow does a poorer job of the default Paizo race build even with its plentiful number of issues.

I would not reccomend this book for DMs or players looking to make new races or to respectfully handle disabillity in their games and it hurts to say that I've come to expect works like this from Dead Drop Studios when the author of this book and others I've reviewed is at the helm.