With Pathfinder Player Core 2 releasing at the start of August, we know players are anticipating the remastered versions of some of their favorite classes! In a series of blogs starting right here, we’ll be alternating between talking about the changes to four of the classes and showing off some fun fiction and art starring the iconic characters of Player Core 2.
The champion is the premier divine warrior, with some of the best armor and defenses in the game. They’re devoted to their deity and their tenets. One of the major changes to the remaster was dropping alignment, which the champion has always featured heavily, so we know everyone expects big changes to the class!
We’ve already put basic compatibility rules for the champion in the Pathfinder FAQ—see Pathfinder Core Rulebook Errata (Remaster Compatibility)—but the Player Core 2 version will present a much more thorough overhaul. So what do fans of this class have to look forward to?
Seelah, the iconic champion, battles a tyrant devil. Art by William Liu.
Before the remaster, a champion’s alignment and their choice of champion cause established a strict set of hierarchical rules to be followed. Each good and evil alignment had a cause tied to it, like the lawful good paladin, chaotic good liberator, and neutral evil desecrator. The remastered version still has a cause, but the focus has shifted away from being so strict and static. Now we use edicts and anathema tied to different character choices to guide your roleplaying.
Let’s take the paladin as an example. They used to follow the two tenets of good, two tenets of the lawful good paladin cause, and any edicts and anathema for their deity. A champion under the remastered rules would choose the justice cause. They would follow the edicts and anathema of their deity, plus the following from the cause of justice.
Edicts follow the law, respect legitimate authorities or leadership
Anathema take advantage of another, cheat
More emphasis on edicts rather than an unbendable code loosens some of the restrictions on their roleplaying to allow more well-rounded, nuanced characters. There’s a better balance over “should nots” instead of all “must nots.”
A champion can optionally choose a sanctification. If you’ve read Pathfinder Player Core, you’re familiar with holy and unholy sanctification—a choice based on your deity that lets you commit yourself to the battle for souls between the holy planes and unholy planes. Champions can choose sanctification based on their deity, though unholy sanctification is an uncommon option. Each sanctification gives you another edict and anathema, and adds the holy or unholy trait to all your Strikes.
Some, but not all, champion causes require a certain sanctification. Justice, mentioned above, does not. The Player Core 2 causes are justice, liberation, and obedience (open to all); desecration and iniquity (open only to unholy champions); and redemption and grandeur (open only to holy champions). If you are already playing a champion and want to update them to the new options, you’ll probably be able to keep the core of that character. Though you can always shake things up with the new grandeur cause, which is based on the brilliant splendor of celestials.
Other Changes
This class has seen a huge number of other changes we think will make it more satisfying to play, but we don’t want to keep you here all day with one blog post. So here’s the short version!
- You now have a defined champion’s aura for your reactions, aura feats, and other abilities, which lets other rules alter and refer to the range of your divine abilities more easily.
- The divine ally ability has been changed to blessing of the devoted, and the mount has moved to a 1st-level feat. You can instead choose the blessed swiftness option to move faster—whether you’re mounted or not.
- Feats saw a ton of change, like the new Defensive Advance feat and updated structure for Mercy. We focused on broadly useful feats plus maintaining some backward compatibility, but we did run out of room. You’ll see oath feats moved to Lost Omens Divine Mysteries. We’re hoping to find a book in which it would make sense to remaster litanies at some point, but we don’t have one that can hold them yet.
- You choose a focus spell based on your deity’s divine font options. As before the remaster, you can choose lay on hands if your deity allows the heal divine font or touch of the void (formerly touch of corruption) if they allow the harm divine font. However, there’s also a new option for a deity with any font, specially made for defense-minded characters. Introducing shields of the spirit!
Shields of the Spirit [one-action] Focus 1
Uncommon, Champion, Concentrate, Focus, Sanctified, Spirit
Requirements You are wielding a shield.You Raise your Shield, causing ephemeral spirit shields to float within your champion’s aura. The shields last until the start of your next turn or until you’re no longer raising your shield, whichever comes first. While one of your allies is in your champion’s aura, the shields grant them a +1 status bonus to AC, and each time an enemy makes an attack against the ally, the enemy takes 1d4 spirit damage (even if it misses).
The benefit applies only while an ally is in your aura, ending for any ally that leaves and applying to any that enters later. As normal, you don’t count as your own ally and therefore don’t get the benefits of the spirit shields yourself.
Heightened (+2) The damage increases by 1d4.Logan Bonner (he/him)
Pathfinder Lead Designer
Player Core 2 Preview: The Champion, Remastered
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
