Welcome to the Impossible Playtest!

Excited to look over these!!! The flavor of these new releases has been so fun.

It looks like the Demiplane link redirects to the Paizo home page.

"A door has opened, and something impossible is coming." confirmed, nex is definitely back

Am I crazy, or is there not a link to a PDF document with the classes in it like previous playtests?

I'm not seeing a link to the actual playtest document...

The link to Demiplane also doesn’t work.

Am I crazy, or is there not a link to a PDF document with the classes in it like previous playtests?

I cannot answer if you’re crazy (although as you’re here, signs point to yes), but I can’t see the link, either.

Playtest page is up, PDF is there

Direct PDF Link

* updated with direct link to PDF

Where is the actual PDF?

It's here

Please, please, please Paizo, add a blood-themed subclass for the final necromancer <3

Reading through the Necromancer playtest really makes me think someone's recently mainlined the Locked Tomb series.

remember having trouble finding pdf of last playtest

this is certainly the most edgy looking class so far

though the current version of thrall seem uniquely weak to hazardous terrain

Please, please, please Paizo, add a blood-themed subclass for the final necromancer <3

This definitely need a Hemomancer

The Necromancer class is exactly the occult prepared caster necromancer class I was trying to homebrew, just with far better mechanics than I came up with on my own. I love it, thank you.

Is there any guidence on how necromancer PCs are traeated by nps in general? They don't seem to have anything with the unholy trait, but I would imagine that wouldn't stop a lot of people from trying to kill them (unless the stigma on necromancy is going to be turned down). It feels like it wouldn't fit into most adventure paths.

The Runesmith is exactly the class I didn't know I really wanted. I feel like I will be playing this a lot.

I am not sure how I feel about occult necromancer's. It seems to me that necromancers are, weirdly, spirit and matter, which would be a whole new tradition-- the tradition of necromancy. If not that, then divine, but maybe with a feat that gave them access to occult spells with the force trait.

Michael Sayre no longer working for Paizo?

They’ve got at least four people who work on new classes as primary developer, usually in pairs. I think he did and is presumably still doing the Commander.

Ricbau6 wrote:

Please, please, please Paizo, add a blood-themed subclass for the final necromancer <3

This definitely need a Hemomancer

And a Umbranancer shadow based Necromancer

Yeah, would be a great addition too.

An hemomancer could get incredible initiative as a bonus feat. Not sure what an umbramancer could get.

The problem IMO is that it is hard to figure out whether arcane or divine fits better, so making th occult instead is the best solution to the dilemma.

Occult gets a lot more nercromancy spells than you'd think and is a decent overlap between the two spell lists. Plus if you look at necromancers from cosmic horror genre, those necromancers fit the occult type quite well.

I have spent a lot of time arguing for occult being the best necromancy spell list. It is definitly pushing upstream, or I would not have have to argue for it so much. IMO the only real drawback with going with an occult int caster is that undead identification is Religion, which is a Wisdom skill.

But this Necromancer class solves that really well with the auto-upgrading Undead Lore mechanic.

Prince Setehrael wrote:

Ricbau6 wrote:

Please, please, please Paizo, add a blood-themed subclass for the final necromancer <3

This definitely need a Hemomancer

And a Umbranancer shadow based Necromancer

Yeah, would be a great addition too.

An hemomancer could get incredible initiative as a bonus feat. Not sure what an umbramancer could get.

Feather step? Since you use the power of shadow to reduce your weight or something.

Runesmith sounds cool.

GGSigmar wrote:

Michael Sayre no longer working for Paizo?

They’ve got at least four people who work on new classes as primary developer, usually in pairs. I think he did and is presumably still doing the Commander.

Michael is absent from credits listing all Paizo employees in the pdf. He also deleted his reddit and twitter accounts.

New Necromancer seem..off somehow, summoning not minion pseudo creatures seems miles away from grave robbing reanimator of the dead...

Necromancer looks like fun, though I wish there were more ways to use the thralls individually without destroying them. Letting them grapple or disarm opponents, perform interact actions, really feel like you've got (clumsy, limited) hands all across the battlefield. Also, some support in-class for the undead companions from BotD would really strengthen the flavor and add diverse options.

I'll admit I'm a bit confused about the playstyle for Runesmith, because you need a free hand to trace runes, which you're expected to do continuously, but you're also a martial who gets shield block. Am I stuck using gauntlets and other free-hand weapons (or taking Engraving Strike) if I want to take advantage of my full defenses and still use my main class feature?

Am I stuck using gauntlets and other free-hand weapons (or taking Engraving Strike) if I want to take advantage of my full defenses and still use my main class feature?

Either that ot use a buckler with your choice of 1 handed weapon.

Xenocrat wrote:

GGSigmar wrote:

Michael Sayre no longer working for Paizo?

They’ve got at least four people who work on new classes as primary developer, usually in pairs. I think he did and is presumably still doing the Commander.

Michael is absent from credits listing all Paizo employees in the pdf. He also deleted his reddit and twitter accounts.

His poster profile does not show his Paizo title either, whereas it is the first thing that appears in Paizo's employees' poster profile.

And his last post was on Oct 18, 2024.

Sad news, if Michael left. I liked and respected him as a designer.

I hope Sayre's okay. Talent aside, he seemed like a really cool guy.

TheTownsend wrote:

Am I stuck using gauntlets and other free-hand weapons (or taking Engraving Strike) if I want to take advantage of my full defenses and still use my main class feature?

Either that ot use a buckler with your choice of 1 handed weapon.

Rune Singer is usable once per minute. And you've got your etched runes preloaded.

I think you'd be able to trace on the first round, then fill your hands to fight, using Rune Singer + etched runes and get through most fights.

After that you'd have to start hand juggling (1 action Swap between weapon and tool probably the most efficient) which probably reduces you to 1 attack/rd + rune every other round.

I've certainly played characters with worse action economy.

New Necromancer seem..off somehow, summoning not minion pseudo creatures seems miles away from grave robbing reanimator of the dead...

Reanimating dead bodies in PF2 is performed using rituals (specifically, versions of create undead), not spells. The occult list does have summon undead for "temporary" undead, if a necromancer wants more than the thralls.

Tremaine wrote:

New Necromancer seem..off somehow, summoning not minion pseudo creatures seems miles away from grave robbing reanimator of the dead...

Reanimating dead bodies in PF2 is performed using rituals (specifically, versions of create undead), not spells. The occult list does have summon undead for "temporary" undead, if a necromancer wants more than the thralls.

Fair, it just seems odd to come up with a total new concept and mechanics when animating undead already was a thing...an admittedly borderline useless thing, but that just gives it room to be improved

graystone wrote:

TheTownsend wrote:

Am I stuck using gauntlets and other free-hand weapons (or taking Engraving Strike) if I want to take advantage of my full defenses and still use my main class feature?

Either that ot use a buckler with your choice of 1 handed weapon.

Rune Singer is usable once per minute. And you've got your etched runes preloaded.

I think you'd be able to trace on the first round, then fill your hands to fight, using Rune Singer + etched runes and get through most fights.

After that you'd have to start hand juggling (1 action Swap between weapon and tool probably the most efficient) which probably reduces you to 1 attack/rd + rune every other round.

I've certainly played characters with worse action economy.

That is complicated enough that even if its "fine" it absolutely needs to be changed. That is way too much just to make a few feats work.

Runesmith “Test of Play” may be them asking us to see if “managing hands” meets a viable play experience.

Add me to sad if Sayre left too - I have enjoyed his creations these years active.

Interesting that this book will release in 2026. The first quarterly release is in March. Will this book come out sooner? Only time will tell.

Anyway, the new classes look promising. I'll have to dive in further, but I like what I see this far.

There are two things which are needed to rectify the Gish-Necro. Bind Heroic Spirit needs to be available sooner, so that you can scale it, and the minions need to be able to aid so that they're not adding to your MAP.

Focus 3; +1 Status, Free Thrall on Crit
Focus 6; +2 Status, Free Thrall on a Hit
Focus 9; +3 Status, Free Thrall on a non-Crit Miss.

Xenocrat wrote:

GGSigmar wrote:

Michael Sayre no longer working for Paizo?

They’ve got at least four people who work on new classes as primary developer, usually in pairs. I think he did and is presumably still doing the Commander.

Michael is absent from credits listing all Paizo employees in the pdf. He also deleted his reddit and twitter accounts.

He's on Bluesky, reposting PF2 stuff as recently as three weeks ago.

Sad news, if Michael left. I liked and respected him as a designer.

And RIP fall errata if that’s the case, it would explain why.

Reading through the Necromancer playtest really makes me think someone's recently mainlined the Locked Tomb series.

I loooooooooove it

TheTownsend wrote:

Am I stuck using gauntlets and other free-hand weapons (or taking Engraving Strike) if I want to take advantage of my full defenses and still use my main class feature?

Either that ot use a buckler with your choice of 1 handed weapon.

A "1+" would work too, right? Bowsmith for the win?

Reading through the Necromancer playtest really makes me think someone's recently mainlined the Locked Tomb series.

Oh absolutely, especially the mention of growing skeleton thralls from bits of bone and calling one of the subclasses "flesh magician", which is the exact term used to describe Ianthe.

One thing I wish would be the return of Nyctessa to be the Iconic Necromancer, unless she's had a massive style update it doesn't look like it

One thing I wish would be the return of Nyctessa to be the Iconic Necromancer, unless she's had a massive style update it doesn't look like it

We dont know any of the iconic of the four upcoming classes, so she might be.

thinksnake wrote:

One thing I wish would be the return of Nyctessa to be the Iconic Necromancer, unless she's had a massive style update it doesn't look like it

We dont know any of the iconic of the four upcoming classes, so she might be.

All of the art used for the playtest had already been made for paizo, but the detectives among the Pathfinder community figured out that the Scythe Necromancer is apparently from the NPC Core based on the product number in her picture- She's representing the Deific Vessel of Urgathoa.

So Nyctessa could make a return, especially since she already returned for Wake the Dead.

runesmith have 6 feat that have once per 10 minute frequency

please just give runesmith focus spell

instead of worse focus spell with extra step

and more difficult to track

The purpose of those frequencies is so that those individual abilities cannot be used more than once per 10 minutes. Changing them to focus abilities would let you do one of them three times a row, entirely blowing up the desired effect.

Also most of those feats are awful and you should not take them. The invocation feats are bad bad bad. Hard to set up, weak effects, extra action to invoke, and you invoke fewer things for the price. Just say no.

Chain of Words is...fine. Define the Canvas is excellent. Henge Gate is fine if you build the entire party around ranged attack spreading a single rune onto enemies who are far away. So not actually good.

Stay far away from the rest.

qwerty3werty wrote:

thinksnake wrote:

One thing I wish would be the return of Nyctessa to be the Iconic Necromancer, unless she's had a massive style update it doesn't look like it

We dont know any of the iconic of the four upcoming classes, so she might be.

All of the art used for the playtest had already been made for paizo, but the detectives among the Pathfinder community figured out that the Scythe Necromancer is apparently from the NPC Core based on the product number in her picture- She's representing the Deific Vessel of Urgathoa.

So Nyctessa could make a return, especially since she already returned for Wake the Dead.

That explains why the art's alt text calls them a deific vessel. I was wondering about that.

Master Han Del of the Web wrote:

Reading through the Necromancer playtest really makes me think someone's recently mainlined the Locked Tomb series.

Oh absolutely, especially the mention of growing skeleton thralls from bits of bone and calling one of the subclasses "flesh magician", which is the exact term used to describe Ianthe.

BRB, gotta go figure out what would be needed to trick an NPC into consuming a bit of my marrow.

graystone wrote:

TheTownsend wrote:

Am I stuck using gauntlets and other free-hand weapons (or taking Engraving Strike) if I want to take advantage of my full defenses and still use my main class feature?

Either that ot use a buckler with your choice of 1 handed weapon.

A "1+" would work too, right? Bowsmith for the win?

Yep, it would.

yes there are design intention behind once per 10 minute ability

since they are terrible design

they should be shift to better designed focus spell

I hope runesmith will play something like Eberron's artificer did. Less on the crafting but more options in a fight and on support. I love it so far. :)