Secrets of magic hype

What day is secrets of magic due out again also what are people most looking forward to in the book.

Me it's the Magus cause I love me a spell sword.

Secrets of Magic is due out in July. Usually the July/August release comes out toward the end of July or the beginning of August. The site lists the expected availability of the pdf for the first week of August.

Physical book releases may vary slightly due to shipping infrastructure still being impacted by the pandemic so everything is an approximation unless a firm street date is given by Paizo.

If a book "comes out" on August 1st, the PDFs are available before 7am Pacific Time on August 1st. But the bookstores usually don't have the physical books on the shelf for another week. At least near me.

One store near me claimed retailers had no special preorder, and that they ordered books once a week (thus, if Aug 1 were a Tuesday, they may not order until the next Monday, and may not have the book on the shelf until the following week). I am skeptical of that claim, but have no data with which to refute it. Many stores near me had the books on the shelf one week after the formal release date, so my feeling is that how soon after the release date depends on how organized the bookstore is.

As much as I want to support FLGSs and small businesses, the big behemoths (e.g., Barnes and Noble) may have a speed advantage in that they may do daily orders.

I have never ordered a book directly from Paizo so I don't know how prompt they are with shipment. I've always purchased physical books through retailers and the PDFs directly through Paizo.

For hype, I wanna see what more of the optional rules are in the "Book of Unlimited Magic". We already know one is a class archetype, but what other options are there? And while they've named a fair number of the options, there's sure to be more within that book.

Plus, just imagining the new spells, magic items, and whatnot is so exciting. I can't wait to find out more info this weekend at PaizoCon!

One store near me claimed retailers had no special preorder, and that they ordered books once a week (thus, if Aug 1 were a Tuesday, they may not order until the next Monday, and may not have the book on the shelf until the following week). I am skeptical of that claim, but have no data with which to refute it. Many stores near me had the books on the shelf one week after the formal release date, so my feeling is that how soon after the release date depends on how organized the bookstore is.

I'm unsure about a special preorder process, but just like every solicited release - most bookstores are able to order for day and date release.

I have never ordered a book directly from Paizo so I don't know how prompt they are with shipment. I've always purchased physical books through retailers and the PDFs directly through Paizo.

I've had the core rule subscription since 2e began. By and large I've received my copy of the physical book within two days of street release - give or take. A few days after once, and few days before another time.

I’m curious to see how Class Archetypes actually work, and hoping we get a few interesting non-caster magical Archetypes. I’m also hoping for an alternate magic system I enjoy, as someone who has always really struggled with spell slots.

That all said, lore is the main draw for me, and I’m not expecting a ton on that front - a surprise there would be nice!

The in-character essays about magic sound great and not something I was expecting.

Still a ways out. Most looking forward to the full summoner package, trying to keep my expectations low though. Same with a new magic system, as it's likely just some small tweaks to vancian casting and not an actual new system. Could be so many things in it but I don't think they are interested in going out on a limb with new ideas and being afraid of power creep so everything is likely going to be very tame. Just hope to be surprised and able to make some interesting characters with new toys.

I really look forward to learning more about the new Arcanist and their siblings.

A couple times now I've gotten Paizo subscription books early by like a week before official release date. It's sooo nice.

Really excited for the Magus. I've been playing the playtest version in my friend's campaign (now level 8) for the last few months. I'm eager to see how the class changes.

Also new spells!

I'm looking forward to shadowcasting in particular. I've been on a Nidal kick lately and would love to build a shadowcaller.

Geomancer and Elemental casters are high on my list. I'm also hoping for some new Druid orders, but that isn't confirmed.

So many things. If I had to pick one, new spells are on the top of my list. After that, I'm really curious how the new classes turn out.

What I really want but keeping expectations low for is more efficient /cheap ways to access focus spells. Very much like how the Blessed One gives you one for one feat.

1) examples of class archetypes. Hopefully some that allow switching magical traditions of existing tradition-locked classes like Wizard.

2) Both of the new classes. Magus for the improved spell/martial hybrid. Summoner for a couple of character builds that I can't manage to get right with the current classes.

3) Hopefully some new options for some of the existing classes. New Witch patrons and Oracle mysteries would be great.

I'm excited for the book of unlimited magic and how it could potentially mechanically change how magic works. stuff like ley lines shadowmancy geomancy rune magic. also excited for any new curses & magic items

Book is coming out late august now.

https://paizo.com/products/btq027uy/discuss&page=4?Pathfinder-Secrets-o f-Magic#158

That page says 5th of August, doesn't it?

Seems I can't favorite posts at the moment, so. Book of Unlimited Magic please. Absolutely 100% wanna give the option of more flexible casting, or elemental foci outside of being elemental oneself, or primal casting (leyline stuff?? Heck yeah), especially if it gives alternate ways to throw magic at martials.

Actually, also super hyped for Magus (the game could really use more solid gishes!) and Summoner (dynamic customizable megapet action!!). On second thought I'd also really like filled-out and hopefully better balanced spell lists, please. And throw in any other cool magic stuff you want, yeah that'd be nice. Just give me the whole book. :3

Really hoping for Gloomblade to sneak in here.

I'm gonna be playing a Wizard in an upcoming campaign once I'm done running the group through The Slithering so anything related to that is of immediate interest to me.

I am hoping for expanded casting time mechanics. More spells that can be cast using a different number of actions, and spells or metamagic feats that take a whole turn to prepare and take effect in the next turn.

Humbly,
Yawar

That page says 5th of August, doesn't it?

The page was not updated, the post I linked has the announcement.

Aaron Shanks doesn’t and cannot alter the webpages. I don’t know why they haven’t updated the release date to reflect their current estimate, but that’s hardly a new thing.

Secrets of Magic took extra time to complete and is now scheduled as a late August release. (There is no Gen Con the first weekend of August anyway.)

One store near me claimed retailers had no special preorder, and that they ordered books once a week (thus, if Aug 1 were a Tuesday, they may not order until the next Monday, and may not have the book on the shelf until the following week). I am skeptical of that claim, but have no data with which to refute it. Many stores near me had the books on the shelf one week after the formal release date, so my feeling is that how soon after the release date depends on how organized the bookstore is.

At least in my town, our LGS calls to a state wide distro center, where he gets his hands on the books 3 weeks before you can call upon Amazon or Paizo themselves to send it to you. But he's limited in how many he can get his hands on in a single shipment, and the deluxe/pocket editions are a bit harder to obtain.

As to the actual topic of the thread, I WANT THE NEW SELTYIEL SPLASH ART! That's what I want, all the pretty pictures that the book will have inside. If I could just get an official art book from Paizo for like, $25 I'd be pretty happy about that

As far as hype:

Both classes. I'm especially looking forward to seeing how summoner pans out. It got a huge flavor upgrade in 2e, and I wanna see how they tweaked it from the playtest. I've always loved summoner type characters; even with 2e's nerfed summoning spells, I still enjoy conjuring things, it's just now conjuring is a support thing instead of casting "summon 1d4+1 fighters". I really hope the issue of summoners not having access to 10th level summoning spells, and not actually being able to summon very much was addressed with like a focus spell or summoning font, or even just feats that add auto heighting summon spells as extra spell slots akin to primal evolution.

Magus seems pretty neat, I'm looking forawrd to seeing the new spellstrike. I hope they lean more into the buffing and utility aspects of being able to cast; I never really liked the focus of the magus on just using battle magic, since most of the times it was actually just a more resource intensive and mechanically complicated way of doing what a fighter or barbarian can do all the time for free; spellstrike going to a cooldown to me sounds like they are making it a big finisher kinda move instead of something to spam, which I like.

Incarnate spells look freakin lit.

The new casting mechanics seem interesting; I wonder if they'll end up being class archetypes.

New familiar stuff! I love familiars, I hope we get new abilities for them

New familiar stuff! I love familiars, I hope we get new abilities for them

Oooh! That's something I forgot! I really hope we get a lot of new specific familiars.

I'm interested to see if/what they add to existing non-caster classes to facilitate small dips into casting.

A way for investigators to grab a few spells without an MCdedication?

A Barbarian instinct of class archetype to make a bloodrager?

Something to turn Champion and Ranger back into effectively half casters?

Magic school specialist archetypes!

I'm interested to see if/what they add to existing non-caster classes to facilitate small dips into casting.

A way for investigators to grab a few spells without an MCdedication?

A Barbarian instinct of class archetype to make a bloodrager?

Something to turn Champion and Ranger back into effectively half casters?

I actually have a homebrew drafted for the investigator methodology that does that. I'm working on a blood rager, rage prophet, and skald as well. I do hope the book actually introduces these though, since class homebrew is a lot of effort.

I'm not super sure we really need the half casting stuff for ranger and champion though, focus spells and McD already get exactly that fantasy as it stands, but I will def not say no if paizo asks if people want it

If not now, when?!

I'd like to see a generic focus caster dedication. One that let's you pick normal spells as focus spells, so like 3 feats to select spells and a few for better refocusing.

Magic school specialist archetypes!

I’d definitely enjoy themed casting archetypes. Like the fighting style archetypes, I want caster archetypes that align with spell traits. And by that o mean both schools and like “cold” trait.

What I would REALLY like to see is a redo of the "power components" system where you could add additional material components during the casting of a spell to boost or alter the effect. I don't think this should be a "bolt-on" system for sure, but an Archetype that provides something to the effect of free Reagents to do this as well as empowering PCs to stock up on (and pay for) and use additional Material Components to various effect.

Davido1000 wrote:

Magic school specialist archetypes!

I’d definitely enjoy themed casting archetypes. Like the fighting style archetypes, I want caster archetypes that align with spell traits. And by that o mean both schools and like “cold” trait.

I'm really hoping that's similar to what shadowcasting or the elemental magic advertised is.

Im excited for lots of stuff, but they mentioned "casting from emotions" as being in the book of unlimited magic, and thats got my gears turning at the moment.

Im excited for lots of stuff, but they mentioned "casting from emotions" as being in the book of unlimited magic, and thats got my gears turning at the moment.

Now THAT sounds very interesting... Would it be a prototype PF2 Psychic Casting?

P.S. Is it my iOS Safari, or did something go wrong in general with the Like system?

I'm hoping for some expansion of shapeshifting. Maybe new forms for existing shapeshifting spells or just new shapeshifting spells (I'd especially like to see Fey Form and Ooze Form return in some capacity though I don't expect it). Also very hyped for the new classes and for the new summoning spells.

I'm so excited for this weekend's Secrets of Magic panel!!

I forgot about that the shadow magic thing. One character I made toward the end of PF1 that I never got to play was a Wayang shadow wizard. That'll put me half of the way there. Hopefully Wayangs aren't too far behind.

I'm hoping for some expansion of shapeshifting. Maybe new forms for existing shapeshifting spells or just new shapeshifting spells (I'd especially like to see Fey Form and Ooze Form return in some capacity though I don't expect it). Also very hyped for the new classes and for the new summoning spells.

Site seems to not let me be setting posts as favorites right now, otherwise I would do so to your post! I'll also add that I would like a dire animal form or something added that makes one able to turn into their favorite animal all the way into endgame, instead of having to be a monster or dragon. Bonus points if one can choose the size instead of being enormous.

The-Magic-Sword wrote:

Im excited for lots of stuff, but they mentioned "casting from emotions" as being in the book of unlimited magic, and thats got my gears turning at the moment.

Now THAT sounds very interesting... Would it be a prototype PF2 Psychic Casting?

P.S. Is it my iOS Safari, or did something go wrong in general with the Like system?

Probably not? i assume its its own thing, maybe a like an archetype or something, or even a class archetype, its super hard to say. I could totally see it for sorcerer for instance.

I'd like to see a generic focus caster dedication. One that let's you pick normal spells as focus spells, so like 3 feats to select spells and a few for better refocusing.

This is potentially very interesting, since focus spells auto-scale.

Looking just at 1st level spells that are good with auto-scaling:

You've basically got a supercharged Divine Font if you take Heal or Harm.

Incapacitation effects as focus spells means that they're always at full strength, and can thus be used against regular foes. Spells like Sleep and Color Spray are still good effects as focus spells at higher levels.

Mage Armor is a pretty solid pick, letting you never have to buy runes.

Summon Animal, Construct, Fey, or Plant or Fungus are all quite nice to have around at full power for every fight.

Most blasting options aren't great (mostly due to lack of range/area rather than poor damage scaling), but tools like Magic Missile can still absolutely slap.

Yeah, this archetype is probably broken unless the spells have a delay on their level scaling in the same way that Splinter Faith delays spell scaling.

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I WANT THE NEW SELTYIEL SPLASH ART!
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YES!

I'm hoping for some expansion of shapeshifting. Maybe new forms for existing shapeshifting spells or just new shapeshifting spells (I'd especially like to see Fey Form and Ooze Form return in some capacity though I don't expect it). Also very hyped for the new classes and for the new summoning spells.

A natural spell metamagic feat would be pretty nice and would beef up shapeshifting quite abit.

Super stoked from the few infos dropped about the magus already.

Spellstrike recharging from using Magus Focus Spells as a side benefit (at least from the offensive ones) is great, gives them more value and flexibility.
Bespell Weapon being a base feature (if I understood correctly) is great, even in a dragged out fight in which we can't recharge Spellstrike, we'll still feel like a Magus.

That's all good in my book. Only last concerns would be about action economy, and details about stuff like: Can a Magus wear a ring of wizardry ? Can they use staves to cast spells of lower levels (pretty sure they can) can those spells from staves or wands be used for spellstrike ? (that, I feel like no, since a feat was needed to use a scroll for it. Though we might have Weapon-Wand and Aroden's Spellsword back as spells or focus spells?)

See, I took the Arcane Cascade feature (converting spell energy into a boost) was more like the feat Spell Shroud, but you might be right that its just Bespell Weapon as a class feature. Either way, the info drop on the Magus has me dumped. Sounds like things are changing for the better!

See, I took the Arcane Cascade feature (converting spell energy into a boost) was more like the feat Spell Shroud, but you might be right that its just Bespell Weapon as a class feature. Either way, the info drop on the Magus has me dumped. Sounds like things are changing for the better!

You're not wrong either, maybe it's both xD

I would lean more toward Bespell, as it is more "magus-like". But that may be too strong since you'd have it constantly on every spellstrike (save for cantrip ones)

School Shroud would be another type of benefit... oh wait rereading.
Yeah Arcane Cascade could be School Shroud and the damage buff is likely Bespell.

Yeah I'm a fan of the Focus Solution too, it almost seems like they designed Spell Strike as a finisher, so you can load it up and fight with benefits from the charged spell until you want to unload. Either that or it makes a bespell weapon where you spellstrike and then ride the after efffects for a few hits.

I feel like Spellstrike (from what we know) is somewhere between the Swashbuckler's Finisher/Panache and a Monk Ki Strike.

We likely begin with the ability to use our Spellstrike (maybe more than one, or unlimited cantrip ones, that we cannot know).

After use, we need to recharge it. But we aren't "helpless until we do".
Recharging it seems to be as varied as a Swashbuckler's gain of Panache, if we choose too.
And those abilities used to recharge it have values by themselves too, so it isn't a waste to use them (just like using Bon Mot is still useful even when you already have panache) of course we'll have to see what the Focus Spells are, and what the Magus' focus pool progression is (as it'll likely be pretty focus centric, akin to Oracle).

But as a base, this is a fairly elegant solution to balance Spellstrike.

Paradozen wrote:

I'm hoping for some expansion of shapeshifting. Maybe new forms for existing shapeshifting spells or just new shapeshifting spells (I'd especially like to see Fey Form and Ooze Form return in some capacity though I don't expect it). Also very hyped for the new classes and for the new summoning spells.

A natural spell metamagic feat would be pretty nice and would beef up shapeshifting quite abit.

Honestly, I think I'd prefer some shapeshifting spells that are designed for spellcasting forms to having a metamagic feat to cast spells while polymorphed. One of the cool things about Fey Form was that it was shapeshifting that buffed your spellcasting instead of shutting it off. I could see something similar in 2e, though it would probably not give a bonus directly to spell attacks/DCs.

Spellstrike recharging from using Magus Focus Spells as a side benefit (at least from the offensive ones) is great, gives them more value and flexibility.
Bespell Weapon being a base feature (if I understood correctly) is great, even in a dragged out fight in which we can't recharge Spellstrike, we'll still feel like a Magus.

Woah, where'd this info come from? The Magus is overwhelmingly my favorite class and I'd thought I'd kept up with the info coming out regarding it?