Review: Pathfinder 2e Complete Wizard Chronicle (Beadle and Grimm)

Everyone who loves roleplaying games handles their character sheets and game notes in different ways. Some people — like me — never quite got the hang of writing down my character’s story as a continuing legend-in-the-making.

But if anything will inspire me to bask in the power of long-hand game notes, the Pathfinder Complete Wizard Chronicle from Beadle and Grimm will do it. Wrapped in vegan leather, this hardback tome is the ultimate elegant home for every detail about your character’s life and adventures.

Let’s curl up in the corner of our castle workshop and take a look at the top five things that the Complete Wizard Chronicle delivers to bring your favorite magical character to life.

Beginning at Birth

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Every character’s story starts somewhere, whether that’s in the hands of a capable midwife or a seething vortex of magical energy. The Complete Wizard Chronicle starts right there at the beginning with a built-in “certificate of live birth” designed to fire your imagination.

The certificate includes space for all the standard items a fantastic birth needs, like location, ancestry, and parents (“if known”). From there, it dives straight into deep background and potential plot hook territory with spaces to record the birth conditions, peculiar birth marks, and how your character was raised.

It reinforces the plot hook options and builds a sense of history with sections for inherited quests, familial curses, and magical treasures that have been in the family for generations.

A Space for Every Detail

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Cramming your wizard’s details onto a typical two-page character sheet often demands writing so small that you need a magnifying glass and a great perception roll to decipher your notes.

Those concerns vanish here thanks to this book’s 20+ pages of space devoted to everything from your character’s basic stats to feats and abilities, favorite spells, and the creatures you most often summon.

And if you enjoy Pathfinder Society games, the Complete Wizard Chronicle gives you dedicated pages for boons, scenario logs, quest notes, and lists of important people that your character knows or interacted with.

Not Your Ordinary Journal

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Fully one third of the book is dedicated to pages for recording the story of your character’s adventures in the chronicle’s journal section.

The journal includes a mixture of page types to help you capture every detail. You start with plenty of narrow-ruled pages for general notes. Interspersed among those you’ll find quotes from legends of the Pathfinder universe such as Ezren, Tahenkot, Almara Delisen, and more, along with special call-out spaces for recording notable foes and great battles.

To further encourage your storytelling, the journal section also includes blank pages for sketches, graph paper for recording maps, and inspirational images of magic items and eerie creatures from beyond.

To the Battle Board!

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Tucked away within a built-in bag inside the back cover is a heavy plastic dry erase battle board for tracking your character’s stats during each game session. Think of the board as a highlights area for the information you need to have handy to maintain the flow of the game.

The front includes spaces for spell notes, consumables, a few character stats like perception armor class, and spell saving throws. On the back, you find a detailed game cheat sheet with quick reference guides for basic actions, hero points, and conditions.

And if your character isn’t careful during the adventure, there’s a section on the rules for Death and Dying (plus a Certificate of Death a few pages in).

Just the Rules You Need

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Wizard characters grow in so many possible directions that it can be hard keeping up with which rules cover what. That’s why Beadle and Grimm put a lengthy rules reference section right into the The Complete Wizard Chronicle.

Have a question about a spell, some skills, or perhaps the detailed character creation instructions about your class? Just grab your chronicle and slip through the pages to find exactly what you need. The exhaustive spell lists alone make this book a valuable purchase.

Verdict

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Everything about The Complete Wizard Chronicle tells a story of quality components, thoughtful design, and meeting the needs of real-life roleplaying game lovers.

The book’s thoughtful design touches made a big impact on us. For example, the book’s graphic layout includes gorgeous elements that mimic the tears, stains, and naturally uneven cut of hand-made paper. The book uses different paper stock depending on whether you’re looking at reference pages (heavy-duty glossy paper) or the journal pages for your character’s stories (uncoated paper).

This book rocked our collective worlds. The journal pages take ink very well, while the glossy paper protects the reference guides. The space for plot hooks and quests blows my mind

If you’re really proud of your Pathfinder 2e wizard and want to cherish their story as you play it out, then you need this book. Really, it’s that simple.