Pathfinder Lost Omens High Seas (Review & Deep Dive)

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Pirates and nautical-themed adventures have been a part of tabletop RPGs almost as long as the hobby has existed. Yet it feels like lately the tide has truly come in, with new games like Pirate Borg and Kobold Press’s Pirates and Plunder making waves among the community.

Ready to claim its own share of the booty, Paizo has recently set sail with Pathfinder Lost Omens High Seas, a new supplement designed to bring the vast, unpredictable waters of Golarion to life. Released on July 1st, you can pick the book up now from your local game store, Paizo, Noble Knight or Amazon.

So is this latest Pathfinder release worth plundering? Below, we chart a course and sail through all the details. (NOTE: We purchased a PDF copy of this book at our own expense and have not received a review copy from Paizo.)

What is the Pathfinder Lost Omens Line?

For the uninitiated, the Pathfinder Lost Omens line consists of lore-heavy, world-building sourcebooks designed for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. And while the PF2E core rulebooks cover mechanics and character progression and Adventure Path supplements handle campaigns, the Lost Omens books flesh out the larger world of Golarion (Pathfinder’s default setting).

The supplements traditionally lean heavily into the history, cultures, locations and politics of a specific region or theme, providing GMs with adventure hooks and lore, while also giving players a handful of related ancestries, classes and character options.

What is Pathfinder Lost Omens: High Seas About?

Pathfinder Lost Omens: High Seas is a 128-page hardcover supplement written by an ensemble team at Paizo and overseen by veteran Design Leads James Case and Ivis K. Flanagan. As the name suggests, the book is all about nautical adventure locations, and while much of its focus is on the Inner Sea, it’s also quite expansive, exploring bodies of water and locations that haven’t been covered in as much depth in previous Pathfinder supplements.

What is the lore and history like?

The first 34 pages of the book are really meant to be a high-level view of the Inner Sea, including:

• History: A detailed timeline going from the Age of Legend to the current Age of Lost Omens, including recent events like the Third Corsair War and the Hellfire Crisis and their impact on the seafaring nations and factions.
• People of the High Seas: Focuses on the distinct cultures navigating the waves, including a glossary of “shipspeak” slang used by sailors.
• Beliefs of the High Seas: Breaks down the deities, gods and sailor superstitions that dictate life on the open water. This includes details on the Surveyors of the Deep, an organization of followers of various sea gods who are focused on mapping out the unexplored both above and below the waves.

• Ocean Travelers: Explores the individual factions, military fleets, merchant consortiums and specialized trade crews that claim dominance over the seas, including details on major powers like Andorran and Chelaxian Navies, as well as more loosely organized groups like the Free Captains, Firebrands and Red Mantis Assassins.
• Shipping Routes: Details the massive network of commercial trade lanes and smugglers’ routes vital to the Inner Sea’s economy. This section also includes a variety of new maps.
• Oceans of Golarion: Bridges regional lore while also expanding outwards to map out Golarion’s major bodies of water, including the Arcadian and Obari oceans.

Overall, the materials are excellent in terms of lore (although they do touch upon a lot of content that has been explored in past Pathfinder supplements) and it’s an absolutely fantastic primer if you’re a GM thinking of running a nautical or pirate-themed PF2E campaign.

What are the new ancestries and character options like?

Rather than providing entirely new base ancestries, High Seas updates four aquatic species with new Heritages and Feats. This includes:

• Athamaru: Originally introduced in 2024 in the Howl of the Wild supplement, these fish-like humanoids get the new Benthic Athamaru heritage, which allows you to swim up or down in water without it counting as difficult terrain. Standout Feats include the Razorsharp Bite (essentially turning you into a humanoid piranha at 1st level) and the 17th level Form of the Sea Feat (letting you transform into a water elemental).
• Aquatic Elves: Known natively as the Delvari, this ancestry has been around for decades, but now receives a new Heritage making them fully amphibious with a 30-foot swim speed. They can also tap into new Feats like Aquatic Elf Warrior (which is available at Level 1 and eliminates underwater penalties for slashing or bludgeoning weapons) and Submerged Stillness at 9th level (which lets you turn invisible underwater).
• Merfolk: Also featured as a playable ancestry in Howl of the Wild back in 2024, this updated ancestry introduces several key changes, including the Cecaelia Merfolk heritage (instead of a traditional fish tail, your lower half features octopus-like tentacles, granting a unique climbing speed and the ability to step into difficult terrain). Some standout Feats include Spray Ink at Level 1 (which does exactly what it sounds like) and Hallucinogenic Ink at Level 9 (which also does exactly what it sounds like).
• Tripkee: These amphibious frog-like people first appeared as a playable ancestry in 2021 in The Mwangi Expanse and were updated again later in 2024 for Player Core 2. They now receive a Heritage that allows them to use natural camouflage to Hide or Sneak in specific terrain (either aquatic, forest or swamp). Some of the new standout Feats include Frog Geyser at Level 5 (you spit a stream of water at foes) and Burrowing Tripkee (you gain a Burrow speed of 15 feet).

All four of the ancestries are solid (particularly the new octopus-like merfolk variants), although it would have been nice to include some new ancestries we haven’t really seen before in PF2E.

What are the new locations like?

The book includes gazetteer-style write ups on five key locations found throughout Golarion. Each location is about 12 pages in length and contains information on the government, history, notable figures and key locations (with several accompanying maps). There are also a range of character-facing elements, including magic items, spells and archetypes. The five locations are:

• Hermea: A remote island in the Steaming Sea, it was first started as an experiment by a gold dragon named Mengkare to create the ultimate utopian society (known as the “Glorious Endeavor”). Unfortunately, cracks are now starting to show in its seemingly perfect facade, with all aspects of society now under tight control. It’s a great location if you’re looking to add some unique philosophical themes to your nautical adventures.
• Mediogalti Island: This remote jungle archipelago is home to the infamous Red Mantis Assassins and the lawless pirate city of Ilizmagorti. Players can also explore an untapped wilderness filled with countless creatures that are as beautiful as they are deadly, making this a great option if you’re looking to add some tense, survival action to your PF2E campaign.
• The Mordant Spire: Located on the long forgotten island of Eysuna, the highlight of this location is a sprawling, vine-like tower which is home to a group of xenophobic elves who are survivors of the lost empire of Azlant. The setting includes archaeological hooks, weird magical phenomena and a larger theme around a lost culture.
• The Shackles: This lawless pirates paradise is ruled by the notorious Free Captains who operate primarily out of the aptly named Port Peril. The area is also scoured by violent magical storms, deadly monsters and lawless armadas, making it a solid location for GMs looking to run a pirate-themed campaign or adventure interlude.
• The Open Seas: This looks at several key locations that exist below the waves, including the terrifying underwater city of Gholinom, the aquatic elf stronghold of Irim and the sprawling coral towers of Kienek-Li. It’s a great option if you’re looking for inspiration to build out an undersea campaign or adventure.

All five of the locations are absolutely fantastic in terms of the sheer amount of content they manage to pack into just a few pages, and there’s enough material here to run adventures for literally years on end.

What are the monsters like?

The book includes 11 new monster statblocks. Some key standouts include:

• The Flotsam Terror: An undead horror created out of the souls of drowned sailors and the fused wreckage of sunken ships.
• Scylla: Nightmarish underwater aberrations whose top half resembles a beautiful humanoid and whose lower half is made up of canine heads and writhing tentacles.
• Gutaki: Large intelligent cephalopods who possess seven barbed tentacles and often enjoy conversing with their prey before devouring them.
• The Bone Ship: A massive undead ship crafted from skeletal remains that functions as a high-tier threat to entire fleets.

The book also includes a table listing a variety of monsters that have appeared in previously published Pathfinder 2E supplements that would work well in a high seas adventure or campaign, which is definitely a nice touch and incredibly useful.

What are the new mechanics like?

The book includes several pages with new rules for naval encounters and combat. It breaks them down into three modes that use existing modified PF2E rules and subsystems.

• Boarding Combat: Ships are locked in position and the crews battle. It’s essentially a standard combat encounter that can be run with a gridded battlemap and is a great option if you want combat without too much naval crunch.
• Sailing Combat: This mode features both ship movement and tactical combat and is the most complex of the three options, requiring GMs to be able to manage both ship-to-ship elements as well as player, NPCs and monsters.
• Naval Chase: This option uses the PF2E chase subsystem, with ships pursuing one another or racing to reach a destination, with the action playing out over several hours or days.

All three systems are incredibly well designed and having a variety of options is an incredibly smart move on the part of the Paizo team, letting GMs and players use whatever works best for their table or the situation at hand.

What is the art and design like?

For the most part, the artwork is extremely well done, with some unique images that really bring the theme and locations to life. There are a few duds here and there that aren’t quite up to snuff with what we’ve seen from other recent Paizo products, but in general the book shows that Paizo can definitely still go toe to toe with Wizards of the Coast in the art department.

The book is also incredibly well designed. The layout is smartly organized, easy to reference and includes a number of sidebars with extra information. In fact, here Paizo definitely has Wizards of the Coast beat in terms of presenting information in a way that’s extremely easy to reference and use at the table. The writing is also outstanding, with text that’s evocative without being too wordy.

It’s also worth noting that the accompanying maps are also very well done, with beautiful cartography and location keys that GMs can pick up and run with easily.

How much is Lost Omens: High Seas?

The standard hardcover retails for $44.99 USD (not including shipping) with the special edition hardcover going for $64.99 USD (the latter is bound in deluxe faux leather with metallic deboss elements and a ribbon bookmark). You can also pick up the standalone PDF for $29.99 USD, which is available exclusively from Paizo.

The price is comparable to other recent Paizo products we’ve seen, such as the Troubles in Grayce adventure anthology.

Is Pathfinder Lost Omens: High Seas Worth Picking up?

Pros

• An incredible amount of lore: The book packs a ton of content into just a few pages, providing enough depth across its five major locations to run adventures for years.
• Smart and flexible ship combat: Breaking naval encounters down into three distinct operational modes (Boarding, Sailing and Chases) is an inspired design choice that lets GMs choose their preferred level of tactical crunch.
• A unique take on a classic theme: While there are no shortages of pirate and nautical-themed TTRPG supplements, Lost Omens High Seas manages to breathe new life into the genre, with locations, ideas, NPCs and adventure hooks that are incredibly unique.
• Solid character customization: While the four ancestries are not exactly new, the updated Heritages and Feats they offer are solid. The book also includes a new Marine Marauder Archetype, plus new magic items and spells that are great for players looking to add a dash of nautical flair to their characters.

Cons

• Familiar territory: Longtime Pathfinder GMs players may find some of the material repetitive, as the text frequently touches upon historical and regional details that have been explored in past Paizo supplements.
• Hit or miss art: While the book is visually striking overall, the artwork suffers from a few occasional misses that don’t quite match the standards set by other recent Paizo releases.
• Lack of new ancestries: While the four ancestries are great, they aren’t exactly original, and it would have been great to see Paizo test the waters a little bit with something new.
• Limited monsters & magic: The book includes just a handful of new creatures, magic items and spells. It’s not a huge oversight, but even a few more options would help the book feel more expansive.

Final thoughts and review score

Lost Omens: High Seas is a solid addition to Pathfinder 2E, offering enough content to fuel a lifetime of swashbuckling, nautical adventures. And while the book does revisit some familiar destinations above and below the waves, it’s also packed with a veritable pirate’s booty of of new and innovative ideas. If you’re looking to add some seaborne adventure to your PF2E campaign, you should definitely set sail for High Seas.

Final Review Score: 18 out of 20

You can pick up the Lost Omens: High Seas now from your local game store, Paizo, Noble Knight or Amazon.