First Look at the Pathfinder Playtest

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Welcome to the next evolution of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!

Just shy of 10 years ago, on March 18th, 2008, we asked you to take a bold step with us and download the Alpha Playtest PDF for Pathfinder First Edition. Over the past decade, we've learned a lot about the game and the people who play it. We've talked with you on forums, we've gamed with you at conventions, and we've watched you play online and in person at countless venues. We went from updating mechanics to inventing new ones, adding a breadth of options to the game and making the system truly our own. We've made mistakes, and we've had huge triumphs. Now it is time to take all of that knowledge and make the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game even better.

By now, you've probably read all about the upcoming launch of the Playtest version of the game set to release on August 2nd, 2018 (but just in case you haven't, click here). In the weeks and months leading up to that release, we are going give you an in-depth look at this game, previewing all 12 of the classes and examining many of the most fundamental changes to the game. Of course, that is a long time to wait to get a complete picture, so I wanted to take this opportunity to give you insight into the game, how it works, and why we made the changes that we made. We will be covering these in much more detail later, but we thought it might be useful to give a general overview right now.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

New, but the Same

Our first goal was to make Pathfinder Second Edition feel just like the game you know and love. That means that as a player, you need to be able to make the choices that allow you to build the character you want to play. Similarly, as a Game Master, you need to have the tools and the support to tell the story you want to tell. The rules that make up the game have to fundamentally still fill the same role they did before, even if some of the mechanics behind them are different.

Building a Character

It's worth taking a moment to talk about how characters are built, because we spent a lot of time making this process smoother and more intuitive. You start by selecting your ancestry (which used to be called race), figuring out where you came from and what sorts of basic statistics you have. Next you decide on your background, representing how you were raised and what you did before taking up the life of an adventurer. Finally, you select your class, the profession you have dedicated yourself to as an intrepid explorer. Each one of these choices is very important, modifying your starting ability scores, giving you starting proficiencies and class skills, and opening up entire feat chains tailored to your character.

After making the big choices that define your character, you have a variety of smaller choices to make, including assigning skill proficiencies, picking an ancestry feat, buying gear, and deciding on the options presented by your class. Finally, after deciding on all of your choices, the only thing left to do is figure out all of your bonuses, which are now determined by one unified system of proficiency, based on your character's level.

As you go on grand adventures with your character, you will gain experience and eventually level up. Pathfinder characters have exciting and important choices to make every time they gain a level, from selecting new class feats to adding new spells to their repertoires.

Playing the Game

We've made a number of changes to the way the game is played, to clean up the overall flow of play and to add some interesting choices in every part of the story. First up, we have broken play up into three distinct components. Encounter mode is what happens when you are in a fight, measuring time in seconds, each one of which can mean life or death. Exploration mode is measured in minutes and hours, representing travel and investigation, finding traps, decoding ancient runes, or even mingling at the queen's coronation ball. Of all the modes of play, exploration is the most flexible, allowing for easy storytelling and a quick moving narrative. Finally, the downtime mode happens when your characters are back in town, or relative safety, allowing them to retrain abilities, practice a trade, lead an organization, craft items, or recuperate from wounds. Downtime is measured in days, generally allowing time to flow by in an instant.

Most of the game happens in exploration or encounter mode, with the two types of play flowing easily from one to the other. In fact, exploration mode can have a big impact on how combat begins, determining what you roll for your initiative. In a group of four exploring a dungeon, two characters might have their weapons ready, keeping an eye out for danger. Another might be skulking ahead, keeping to the shadows, while the fourth is looking for magic. If combat begins, the first two begin with their weapons drawn, ready for a fight, and they roll Perception for their initiative. The skulking character rolls Stealth for initiative, giving them a chance to hide before the fight even begins. The final adventurer rolls Perception for initiative, but also gains some insight as to whether or not there is magic in the room.

After initiative is sorted out and it's your turn to act, you get to take three actions on your turn, in any combination. Gone are different types of actions, which can slow down play and add confusion at the table. Instead, most things, like moving, attacking, or drawing a weapon, take just one action, meaning that you can attack more than once in a single turn! Each attack after the first takes a penalty, but you still have a chance to score a hit. In Pathfinder Second Edition, most spells take two actions to cast, but there are some that take only one. Magic missile, for example, can be cast using from one to three actions, giving you an additional missile for each action you spend on casting it!

Between turns, each character also has one reaction they can take to interrupt other actions. The fighter, for example, has the ability to take an attack of opportunity if a foe tries to move past or its defenses are down. Many classes and monsters have different things they can do with their reactions, making each combat a little bit less predictable and a lot more exciting. Cast a fire spell near a red dragon, for example, and you might just find it takes control of your magic, roasting you and your friends instead of the intended target!

Monsters and Treasure

The changes to the game are happening on both sides of the GM screen. Monsters, traps, and magic items have all gotten significant revisions.

First off, monsters are a lot easier to design. We've moved away from strict monster construction formulas based off type and Hit Dice. Instead, we start by deciding on the creature's rough level and role in the game, then select statistics that make it a balanced and appropriate part of the game. Two 7th-level creatures might have different statistics, allowing them to play differently at the table, despite both being appropriate challenges for characters of that level.

This also makes it easier for us to present monsters, giving us more space to include special abilities and actions that really make a monster unique. Take the fearsome tyrannosaurus, for example; if this terrifying dinosaur gets you in its jaws, it can take an action to fling you up to 20 feet through the air, dealing tremendous damage to you in the process!

Hazards are now a more important part of the game, from rangers creating snares to traps that you have to actively fight against if you want to survive. Poisons, curses, and diseases are a far more serious problem to deal with, having varied effects that can cause serious penalties, or even death.

Of all of the systems that Game Masters interact with, magic items are one of the most important, so we spent extra time ensuring that they are interesting and fun. First and foremost, we have taken significant steps to allow characters to carry the items they want, instead of the items that they feel they must have to succeed. Good armor and a powerful weapon are still critical to the game, but you no longer have to carry a host of other smaller trinkets to boost up your saving throws or ability scores. Instead, you find and make the magic items that grant you cool new things to do during play, giving you the edge against all of the monsters intent on making you into their next meal.

We can't wait until you find your first +1 longsword to see what it can do!

What's Next?

There are a lot of things we are excited to show off, so many in fact that we have to pace ourselves. First off, if you want to hear the game in action right now, we've recorded a special podcast with the folks from the Glass Cannon Network, converting the original Pathfinder First Edition Module, Crypt of the Everflame, to the new edition. Head on over to their site and listen to the first part of this adventure now!

Stop by tomorrow for the first blog taking an in-depth look at Pathfinder Second Edition, starting off with the new system for taking actions, then visit us again on Friday for an exploration of the Glass Cannon game, exploring some of its spoilers in detail!

We Need You!

All of us at Paizo want to take a moment to thank you, the fans, players, and game masters that have made this exciting journey a possibility. It's been a wild ride for the past decade, and speaking personally, I could not be more excited for where we are heading. But, as I am sure you've heard a number of times already, we cannot make this game without you, without your feedback and passion for the game. Thank you for coming with us on this adventure, thank you for contributing to our community, and thank you for playing Pathfinder.

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design

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Tags: Pathfinder Playtest
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Dark Archive

Well my playgroup has been pretty burned out from PF, but I hope that the second edition might spice things up a bit. I am looking forward to seeing ways to make this edition better, more flexible and more fun.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

Re the 1e/2e divide. Having gone through this once, one piece of advice I can give is to not be so focused on fixing things that you rob the game of its soul or personality. Dnd did that with 2e and 4e. So, for example, make martials worth paying but don't take away casters' ability to make large changes and alter the field. And make thieves bed able to sneak even at higher level. In other words the mechanics should be there that the cream of each class should be able to be the class that saves the day.

Paizo Employee Designer

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Charabdos, The Tidal King wrote:
I have but one fear from this... Skill Proficiencies, they're the thing I hate the most about 4e and 5e. Please keep to a skill points system. :(

Hey, Charabdos! I recommend taking a look at the blogs on proficiencies and skills when they come out. Between the way our proficiencies system works and some of your feat options, there are some really interesting and flexible ways to customize skills built into the system. We think they do some of the great things skill ranks do without being quite as cumbersome. That said, our system might not do everything you want! But I encourage you to check it out.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I was really surprised by this and hope it succeeds.

I hope some of the rules developments from Starfinder and D&D 5E make it's way in as I do find alot of their rules to be easier to work with, especially with new players. Such as 5th edition proficiency, either ability score system from both versions, I like how ancestry can work to deal with cases of races with non-common origins, such as a half-orc with a half-orc father and a human mother that can be handled the same as a child of a orc and a half-orc.

I really hope to see the kineticist and Gunslinger make it's way into the new edition.

I can't wait to see this and am really excited. but I guess I will put my pathfinder 1st edition books next to my 3.5 books.

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.

What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I am very excited to hear about this. Count me in! :D


5 people marked this as a favorite.

I needed to cut back on my RPG expenditure , so that's my biggest ongoing expense removed, convenient

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Count me as cautiously optimistic. PF 1.0 has had a good, long run, but I'm ready for some major revisions. Starfinder has some interesting mechanics, some of which I like and some of which I don't. Hopefully PF 2.0 has more of the ones I like. :)


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Alchemaic wrote:
Danubus wrote:
Wow. People just don't dig change. You can always still play 1e. Give 2e a chance. Wait to see the rules. Then, run around waving your arms and hurumph'ing.
You can certainly play 1e. You can even go back and play 3.5, or ADnD, but you can't ever expect anything new. Any fixes, any new classes, any new adventures or ideas can't exist without coming from an outside source. The game is frozen in place. It's not going anywhere, but it's also stuck in place.

I disagree. ODND has an incredibly vibrant community that continues to innovate the game and its campaign setting.

The Exchange

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, PF Special Edition Subscriber

I am in the torn emotions club. My stomach is churning due to how much I have invested in Pathfinder to see it now go the route of D&D. One of the initial reasons I came to Pathfinder was to maintain the feel of the system I loved (3.5).

Unfortunately even if there were statements that made it seem unlikely here we are whether we like it or not. Here is to hoping it doesn't change the game as negatively as 4e did or I will have to very sadly part ways with it.

Dark Archive

23 people marked this as a favorite.

1) Please don't go the way of 5e! Simplifying too much takes away from what is now unique to Pathfinder in that there are so many options. The over simplification is why my players and I have avoided 5e for the most part ans stuck with Pathfinder.

2) Archetypes have been a great addition and one of the most fun things about character creation. Please keep it more like Pathfinder than Starfinder for the love of the gods. On this topic, less fresh classes and more indepth archetypes is a good plan (Shifter for example could easily be an archetype of Druid if done right)

3) I'm cautiously optimistic on this release. I especially like the unique reaction for each class. Oft times AoO mechanic is annoying, especially for classes and builds that don't work well with it. Having something unique for each class will be much more engaging I think.

4) With dealing with Martial/Spellcasting disparity I pray 2e doesn't go the route that everybody should be able to do everything. This is a team based game, not everybody should be able to open that tricky lock, or disarm that trap, or help the party fly to safety, or beat a demon's head in, etc.. "Fair but not equal" is a truly valid thing.

4b) Remember, in part this game is about problem solving with what you have. It will become truly boring if suddenly every class has their own way of handling everything. At that point the class choice becomes more aesthetic than anything else. This is my second biggest fear (first being over simplification like 5e).


Vic Wertz wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:

I am not liking the sound of the unified skill system. Is there any way to do it without making all of the characters very samish?

I believe that if you playtest the system in August, you will find out that there is indeed a way to do that. And if you playtest it and still don't think we've done that, let us know, because it's a key objective of what we're doing here.

aaany hints......?


Well, I wasn't expecting this today. I kinda felt like this was happening with the scale back in some PF products and the lack of forward announcements. I'm feeling good about what is described so far.

Of course I have some concern about existing PF books. Aside from the obvious monsters and and class options that exist in abundance, I am hoping that rules systems like Downtime, weather, and the like have some room in here. I hope I'm not alone in loving those subsystems.

Paizo Employee Franchise Manager

26 people marked this as a favorite.
Phylotus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.
What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

Pathfinder and Starfinder are both our babies. Pathfinder is just going through puberty, so things might be a little awkward and we need to give it a bit more attention while it balances its hormones, funny feelings, and hair in new places. After it gets done with its growth spurt, it'll just be an older, wiser version of the RPG it used to be.


6 people marked this as a favorite.

Welp - I guess all good things really do come to an end.

Will Pathfinder 2nd edition have epic rules for playing beyond 20th level (beyond a token mention like in the first edition core rulebook)?


2 people marked this as a favorite.
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

This is their new baby, their second baby. You might have loved the first baby, but nobody wants to hear that they thought you'd stop at one when they announce the new baby.

Sorry, but this analogy is faulty. PF is not just having another, second baby (that was SF for all purposes). They are having a new baby while simultanously giving their firstborn away for adoption

You know, for Paizo and the way they handled the community and fanbase so far, at least it would have been nice to offer a CHOICE in which system future content will be played. You know, instead of forcing us to switch system if we want to play in the setting any longer.

They want to streamline and dumb down the rules? fine by me, if they publish a couple of Unchained books and those of us who don't like that approach can choose to ignore them but buy new APs and modules without the need to rework it into the old system. And those who like the new vesion can incorporate that in their games too.

That would have been a customer friendly approach.


10 people marked this as a favorite.
Malefactor wrote:
If monsters aren't made the using the same sort of rules as the adventurers, it's just not for me. It's what drove me away from Starfinder, and I doubt my reaction will be any different this time.

Yeah, that's our biggest gripe with SF. Almost every single combat makes it really obvious that NPCs and monsters are fundamentally better than we are. Causes a real at-the-table-frustration for us.

My hope is the designers can manage to pull of some weird magic where what they describe happens, but that visible dichotomy isn't present. Like I said, I'll read the rules and give it a try.

Dark Archive Vendor - Fantasiapelit Tampere

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Quote:
You still pick a race, even though it is now called your ancestry.

This sounds interesting. Especially taking account of the discussion around the term "race" in RPG's.

Silver Crusade Contributor

9 people marked this as a favorite.
Mark Moreland wrote:
Pathfinder and Starfinder are both our babies. Pathfinder is just going through puberty, so things might be a little awkward and we need to give it a bit more attention while it balances its hormones, funny feelings, and hair in new places. After it gets done with its growth spurt, it'll just be an older, wiser version of the RPG it used to be.

This metaphor is... really meaningful to me right now. Not a criticism, just... something I'm thinking about.


7 people marked this as a favorite.

I hope it's not going to change the game like the progression from 3.5 to 4th and 5th ed. did. I loved how you all have continued to support the 3.5 mechanics.


9 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Boy can I see both sides of this debate. No, I don’t think Pathfinder has become too complicated. No, I haven’t done everything thing with the system I’d like to try. No, I don’t want goblin PCs in my game. Yes, I did just spend every evening for four months writing a class guide. :-)

But...

A lot of things about Pathfinder don’t work quite as well as I’d like. Some of the absurdly high numbers achievable through minmaxing could use a cold, hard slap. The knowledge skills could use a tweak, as could Diplomacy, just to name a few.

So, I’m excited to see what Paizo comes up with. I didn’t follow 4e or 5e when they watered down my game and I won’t follow PF2 if it does the same. But I was excited by the shift from OD&D to 1e, from 1e to 2e, 2e to 3e and 3e to Pathfinder. So I’ll wait and see!

I look forward to the discussions, at least!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:

I am not liking the sound of the unified skill system. Is there any way to do it without making all of the characters very samish?

I believe that if you playtest the system in August, you will find out that there is indeed a way to do that. And if you playtest it and still don't think we've done that, let us know, because it's a key objective of what we're doing here.
aaany hints......?

Keep an eye on the blogs!


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Rats! I'm an old fart and don't really want to start over. I have a good selection of books, maps and supplements. However, I really only get to play through PFS so for me it's switch or stop playing.

Is there a timeline for publication? Is PFS 2.0 come August?

Silver Crusade

10 people marked this as a favorite.

Bruno grapple playtest.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Meh, it feels a year early, but we all knew it would happen eventually.

The playtest and forums will give us plenty of opportunity to look at it and give feedback -- as long as it doesn't get dumbed-down like the bs wotc games and as long as there's easy compatibility-- I'm okay.

Paizo will be here to answer questions in detail.

Long live PAIZO!

Paizo Employee Designer

27 people marked this as a favorite.
Phylotus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.
What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

It's our child pulled forward into the future and then brought back to our time.

You heard it here first, folks. Starfinder is Cable.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Can I just say that I can't stand that new font for the logo? I realize that is probably just more unnecessary negativity, but it really pales in comparison to the old Pathfinder font.

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Hythlodeus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

This is their new baby, their second baby. You might have loved the first baby, but nobody wants to hear that they thought you'd stop at one when they announce the new baby.

Sorry, but this analogy is faulty. PF is not just having another, second baby (that was SF for all purposes). They are having a new baby while simultanously giving their firstborn away for adoption

You know, for Paizo and the way they handled the community and fanbase so far, at least it would have been nice to offer a CHOICE in which system future content will be played. You know, instead of forcing us to switch system if we want to play in the setting any longer.

They want to streamline and dumb down the rules? fine by me, if they publish a couple of Unchained books and those of us who don't like that approach can choose to ignore them but buy new APs and modules without the need to rework it into the old system. And those who like the new vesion can incorporate that in their games too.

That would have been a customer friendly approach.

I hear you, and empathise with your frustration. You have a difficult path ahead, play the game you have invested in heavily. Or move to a new game.

I hope whatever you decide, you get to keep enjoying great games :)


26 people marked this as a favorite.

Add me to the chorus of "Please don't simplify it too much". If people want a simpler game they already have 5e as an option. I love PF for the complexity, modularity and versatility. I like skill ranks and stacking modifiers. I enjoy the plethora of magic available...

I already mourn the probable loss of combat reflexes...

Liberty's Edge

7 people marked this as a favorite.

I was a superscriber for a long time. I have invested too much on the game as it is, but still buy the hardcovers when they come out.

These days I'm lucky if I can schedule a game session every two months, but I still enjoy taking my character to Society Games at cons two or three times a year. I hope Society games do not force us to change editions, that would feel a bit unfair to those of us who have invested so much but still haven't made a lot of progress.

My one request is that you please, please do not dumb the game down. Maths are fun. You have a lot of nerds like me in your fanbase, we love rules and combinations and finding the tweak you make something better than anyone else's. Please don't remove that from the game.

Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Scarab Sages

I'm all for this. I've enjoyed PF 1st Edition and look forward to 2nd Edition as well. I'm sure this will do us all "a solid".


25 people marked this as a favorite.

Two Things that I ask (and I am sure will be ignored):

Please do not muck too much with the monster creation rules. The high level of detail in monster creation is one of the reasons I have stuck it out with Pathfinder all this time. Nerfing and reducing detail like a certain other game did will make me cry.

Secondly... Regarding the Golarion-Infused bit.

Please NO.

NO NO NO NO NO.

Campaign settings are for... well, for campaign setting books. They are not for rulebooks. Rulebooks should be vanilla.

The big, horrible bad weakness of Starfinder is that it is infused with lore that probably 50% of GMs - at least anybody with any kind of creative streak - must REMOVE to get any kind of home game going.

You WILL lose me, and I think a lot of other customers, if we have to wade through any more Golarion in our Core books than the names of gods.

I love Paizo, but infusing Golarion into the rules is bound to result in the sort of tedium that just kills a game. Bad, bad idea.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Logan Bonner wrote:
Phylotus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.
What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

It's our child pulled forward into the future and then brought back to our time.

You heard it here first, folks. Starfinder is Cable.

Oh man. Are you bringing Liefeld on as part of the creative team also?!? Will we see huge shoulder pads on every iconic?


5 people marked this as a favorite.

so, any 3rd party publisher out ther who wants to make lots of money by making new high quality content for us 3.x customers? because right now, if the quality is right, I'll switch my loyality to another company in a heartbeat right now

Paizo Employee Director of Game Design

30 people marked this as a favorite.

I want to take a moment and talk a bit about the a concern I am seeing here with some frequency, and that is that characters will be streamlined and not customizable. I get that we are using some terms that may lead you to think we are going with a similar approach to some other games, but that is simply not the case.

Characters in the new edition have MORE options in most cases than they did in the previous edition. You can still make the scholarly mage who is the master of arcane secrets and occult lore, just as easily as you can make a character that goes against type, like a fighter who is skilled in botany. The way that the proficiency system works along with skill feats gives you plenty of choices when it comes to skills, allowing you to make the character you want to make.

Beyond skills, every class now has its own list of feats to choose from, making them all pretty different from one another and allowing for a lot of flexibility in how you play. And just wait until you see what Archetypes can do...

Next Monday we will be looking at the way that you level up, and the options that presents. Next Friday (March 16th), we will investigate the proficiency system, and how that impacts your choices during character creation and leveling.

Stay tuned folks... we have a lot of great things to show you

Jason Bulmahn
Director of Game Design

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

in a quick survey of my regular player it shakes out to 2 want to try 2e, 2 dont really care and 7 are sticking with 1e for better or worse. All of us voted to switch gears and play starfinder and let things sort themselves out. guess that answers that. i will be cancelling my adventure path and hardback line. planer stuff never really interested me i was only keeping it for completion sake. with a total of about 17 splat books to go i will keep them goi g for now. i have subscribes to everything starfinder .

Silver Crusade

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Hythlodeus wrote:
so, any 3rd party publisher out ther who wants to make lots of money by making new high quality content for us 3.x customers? because right now, if the quality is right, I'll switch my loyality to another company in a heartbeat right now

Certainly, I see a thriving business of 3PP support for the not-anymore-supported-by-the-first publisher edition. Just like it happened with 4ed. Oh, wait...


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Logan Bonner wrote:
Phylotus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.
What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

It's our child pulled forward into the future and then brought back to our time.

You heard it here first, folks. Starfinder is Cable.

Does that make PF2E Deadpool? Or Stryfe?

Silver Crusade

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:
Logan Bonner wrote:
Phylotus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.
What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

It's our child pulled forward into the future and then brought back to our time.

You heard it here first, folks. Starfinder is Cable.

Does that make PF2E Deadpool? Or Stryfe?

Nate Grey.


7 people marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:
Hythlodeus wrote:
so, any 3rd party publisher out ther who wants to make lots of money by making new high quality content for us 3.x customers? because right now, if the quality is right, I'll switch my loyality to another company in a heartbeat right now
Certainly, I see a thriving business of 3PP support for the not-anymore-supported-by-the-first publisher edition. Just like it happened with 4ed. Oh, wait...

You realize of course that the success of Pathfinder stems to a great part from exactly that? Supporting the 3.x edition after WotC moved on to a worse version?


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Doggan wrote:
Logan Bonner wrote:
Phylotus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.
What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

It's our child pulled forward into the future and then brought back to our time.

You heard it here first, folks. Starfinder is Cable.

Oh man. Are you bringing Liefeld on as part of the creative team also?!? Will we see huge shoulder pads on every iconic?

Forget the shoulder pads... will any of the characters actually have FEET?!?

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Gorbacz wrote:
Hythlodeus wrote:
so, any 3rd party publisher out ther who wants to make lots of money by making new high quality content for us 3.x customers? because right now, if the quality is right, I'll switch my loyality to another company in a heartbeat right now
Certainly, I see a thriving business of 3PP support for the not-anymore-supported-by-the-first publisher edition. Just like it happened with 4ed. Oh, wait...

Pathfinder did pretty well by supporting 3.5 playstyle. Maybe there's a new niche here.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

So, can someone still invest in lots of different skills as a Jack of All Trades option, or invest in many but not as many as a Jack, or specialize, same as in P1 / PF1 just with different mechanics to it?

Paizo Employee Designer

14 people marked this as a favorite.
Doggan wrote:
Oh man. Are you bringing Liefeld on as part of the creative team also?!? Will we see huge shoulder pads on every iconic?

Look...

...they're already covered in pouches.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Bruunwald wrote:
Doggan wrote:
Logan Bonner wrote:
Phylotus wrote:
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
This is their new baby, their second baby.
What's Starfinder then, their adopted child? :-P

It's our child pulled forward into the future and then brought back to our time.

You heard it here first, folks. Starfinder is Cable.

Oh man. Are you bringing Liefeld on as part of the creative team also?!? Will we see huge shoulder pads on every iconic?
Forget the shoulder pads... will any of the characters actually have FEET?!?

no, the feet will be streamlined and simplified to vague bean shapes


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Jason Bulmahn wrote:
Beyond skills, every class now has its own list of feats to choose from, making them all pretty different from one another and allowing for a lot of flexibility in how you play. And just wait until you see what Archetypes can do...

Er, wait, hold on a second, what do you mean by "its own list of feats to choose from"?


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Jason Bulmahn wrote:

I want to take a moment and talk a bit about the a concern I am seeing here with some frequency, and that is that characters will be streamlined and not customizable. I get that we are using some terms that may lead you to think we are going with a similar approach to some other games, but that is simply not the case.

Characters in the new edition have MORE options in most cases than they did in the previous edition. You can still make the scholarly mage who is the master of arcane secrets and occult lore, just as easily as you can make a character that goes against type, like a fighter who is skilled in botany. The way that the proficiency system works gives you plenty of choices when it comes to skills, allowing you to make the character you want to make.

I think you're understating some of the customization options that folks are looking for. A fighter skilled in botany isn't against type. That's just a profession skill. Against type would be something like a muscle wizard who plays as front line (and is so fun).

The customization fear comes from what was given to us as players. Take any base class, and with traits, feats, and archetypes you could turn them into just about anything else. Some of Pathfinder's charm was glut of choice.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

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Ivan Rûski wrote:
Can I just say that I can't stand that new font for the logo? I realize that is probably just more unnecessary negativity, but it really pales in comparison to the old Pathfinder font.

This logo is specifically for the Pathfinder Playtest.

We have not even started designing the Pathfinder Second Edition logo, yet.


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Gorbacz wrote:
BOW DOWN BEFORE YOUR 2ND EDITION OVERLORDS!

Most of us already do. They refuse to game with us, using trapper keepers as monster manuals, and referring to Halflings as what level they are. It's odd.

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