Ten hut! Fall in! There’s less than two weeks remaining in the Battlecry! playtest for the new commander and guardian classes, so if you haven’t had a chance to register your feedback, report to https://paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest to download the PDF and find the links to the surveys. There’s been a lot of interest in the playtest so far—it was downloaded more times than the original Pathfinder playtest in the first few days!—but we can use every last one of your forward reports. Of course, the boffins back at home base have been paying attention to what you’ve had to say so far in the surveys and on the forums and are starting to formulate ways to make these classes even better.
We’ll have a lot more intel from the feedback front once the playtest closes. It’s too early to note what exactly we’ll be tweaking and how we’ll be changing it, but here are a couple little tidbits of information.
- The commander will receive more tactics for a diverse set of playstyles, especially master and legendary tactics!
- We saw that there was some confusion about the Hardness and statistics for the commander’s banner, so we’re already looking to make sure that will be clarified.
- Similarly, we have noticed a few wording issues with the guardian’s threat technique and have flagged that class feature for future work.
- We’re also closely examining the numbers of the guardian’s Taunt ability, with the hopes of creating something that will really sing.
Two armies clash in the forests of the River Kingdoms. Art by Rogier van de Beek.
I’d also like to share a couple of anecdotes from my own playtests of the guardian! The first, which occurred over PaizoCon weekend, saw a 4th-level party dealing with a “swamp witch,” who was just an ogre glutton and a boggard swampseer working together. The guardian of that party used Area Cover to turn a successful basic Reflex save into a critical success, preventing the group’s fighter from taking any damage! For the second playtest, we put together some 16th-level characters to face an ancient adamantine dragon! The guardian’s ability to withstand damage was put to the test, but he stood firm against the threat and even managed to grapple the fearsome opponent for a round. Overall, these playtests have allowed me to see the classes in action and better understand how people might play them, which will help the team better refine their mechanics.
We don’t yet have sketches for our new iconics but rest assured that Wayne Reynolds is in the trenches producing his usual stellar art. Personally, I’m so excited about what we’ve got in store for these two characters. Now, you might be able to guess some facts about one of the iconics, but I’m certain you’re going to be surprised by the other one! If you’ve got some theories, I’d love to hear them in the comments!
Jason Keeley (he/him)
Senior Designer
Battlecry! Playtest: Boots on the Ground
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
