A door has opened, and something impossible is coming. But worry not—in preparation of the coming emergence, we’re introducing two new classes!
The necromancer is an occult spellcaster who raises undead thralls to power their grave magic. While thralls lack the speed or cunning to fight on their own, what they can offer is their life… or unlife, that is. Necromancers have all kinds of ways to sacrifice their thralls for their own gain, whether that’s by devouring their essence to replenish a Focus Point using the Consume Thrall ability, or by detonating one into a deadly spray of phalanges with the bony barrage grave spell!
Art by Tatiana Pavlova (left) and Sandra Posada (right).
Equal parts artist, scholar, and warrior, the runesmith devotes themself to the study of mystical symbols. These support-focused martial combatants diligently etch runes of every magical tradition onto their (and their allies’) gear, or even directly onto their foes. These runes can be applied even in the heat of combat: use feats like Engraving Strike to stamp ranshu, rune of thunder onto an enemy before Invoking it to call down lightning, or Trace zohk, rune of homecoming in light onto an ally’s boots to ensure their path back to you is always a little shorter.
Art by Vicky Yarova (left) and Andrew Huerta (right).
This playtest will run for eight weeks, beginning December 9th (today!), and continuing through January 31st. In addition to playtesting these classes in your home games, you’ll be able to try them out in our organized play program by making your own Pathfinder Society characters using the rules located in the Guide to Organized Play. The necromancer and runesmith classes and all related options are available to all players during this playtest.
Our friends at Demiplane are also hosting a free character builder for the necromancer and runesmith classes, available at www.pathfindernexus.com/playtest, for those of you interested in taking advantage of their digital toolset to generate your characters.
Once you’ve had a chance to get a feel for the new classes, please be sure to leave your feedback at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ImpossiblePlaytestSurvey and https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ImpossiblePlaytestOpenResponse to let us know what you think of them and where you think they could be improved! We also have dedicated playtest forums here on paizo.com to discuss these classes and options with your peers. We’re looking forward to hearing what you have to say! We’d also love to see stories of your adventures with these classes on social media!
Joshua Birdsong
Designer
James Case
Lead Developer