Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide (OGL)

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide (OGL)
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A New Breed of Hero

Adventure like never before with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide! Explore new heights of heroism with 10 new base classes, each with 20 levels of amazing abilities. Incredible powers also await existing characters, with more than a hundred new archetypes and class options. Prepare characters for their most legendary adventure ever with massive selections of never-before-seen spells, magic items, and more!

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 15 years of system development and an open playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide includes:

  • Ten new base classes—the magic-twisting arcanist, the ferocious bloodrager, the cunning investigator, the daring swashbuckler, the formidable warpriest, and others.
  • Variant class abilities and thematic archetypes for all 29 base classes, such as the counterfeit mage and the mutagenic mauler.
  • Nearly a hundred new feats for characters of all classes, including style feats, teamwork feats like Coordinated Shot, and more.
  • Hundreds of new spells and magic items, such as feast on fear and skullcrusher gauntlets.
  • An entire armory of amazing equipment, from vital new adventuring gear to deadly alchemical weapons.
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-671-3

Errata
Last Updated - 7/22/2015

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A Great (if errata-filled) Book for Players

4/5

This book has gotten a lot of flack for two reasons: (1) A number of people were upset by the large amount of errata posted after the book came out. (2) A number of people were upset by the perceived power-creep that this book carried with it, especially in the archetype section.

Both of these are reasonable complaints that I largely agree with.

That said, this book also contains a cornucopia of player options that are great fun. A number of the classes it introduced are now mainstream: it’s hard to imagine playing the game without options like the Brawler, the Investigator, the Slayer, the Bloodrager, the Hunter, or the Warpriest. Or to play without archetypes like the Bolt Ace (Gunslinger), Mutation Warrior or Martial Master (Fighter).

Moreover, the book introduced a number of feats that improve on the available build options available to most players (Extra Hex! Slashing Grace!). Likewise, although the spells in this book seem to have flown under the radar, there are a lot of nice and interesting spells are introduced in this book (Glue Seal, Communal Align Weapon, Wall of Blindness/Deafness, Wall of Nausea, Anti-Incorporeal Shell, Adjustable Disguise, Adjustable Polymorph, Investigative Mind, etc).

Easily 5 stars worth of good material here. Given the unusually large amount of errata, I feel compelled to deduct a star. But all that said, it’s hard to imagine playing Pathfinder without this book -- after the Core Rulebook and Advanced Players Guide, it’s probably the best book for players to pick up.


Unbalanced, uninspired and rushed.

1/5

This book still sticks out as one of Paizo's biggest missteps. It was extremely rushed and it shows.

At least half of the new classes don't even need to exist as anything other than archetypes. Even among the ones that actually work, most feel very uninspired.

There are a few good things in it, but not really enough to justify buying it. It's not worth your money and it's best not to encourage sloppy work.

Hopefully Paizo learns from this and prioritizes quality over quantity and speed from now on.


A continuing disappointment

1/5

The ACG had problems. Many problems. And it continues to have problems.

From concept ("Let's make ten classes as complicated and broken as the magus, or more so!"), to out-of-whack game design, to simply poor editing, the ACG is a mess. The book's philosophy seems to be "create a new utterly unbalanced mechanic, and proliferate it as far as possible." The (quickly issued) errata pulled some of it a bit more into line, but it just doesn't come close to correcting it.

Even something as simple as alchemical items are way out there. Holy Weapon Balm costs 5gp more than holy water, and does 1400% more damage. And that doesn't even include increasing damage to incorporeal creatures.

Even two years after it was released, I continue to be impressed with the complete disregard for balance and sense in this book. If power creep had happened this much every year, we'd be looking at 9999 damage caps by now. The ACG stands out for its insanity.

Perhaps pulping it for the cover error would have been the better move.


The first real dud in my Pathfinder collection

1/5

I am extremely disappointed in this product, and glad I only purchased the PDF version. As other reviewers have pointed out, the new classes are poorly balanced when compared to the preexisting ones, and would be a better fit for a book like Unchained, much like Unearthed Arcana's gestalt characters.

There's far too many feats and toys dedicated to these new classes, which drastically lessens this book's universal appeal, and even though some contrivances are provided to make some of said feats accessible to other classes, it ends up painting the book's title as a misnomer - it isn't an "advanced class guide" any more than it is a guide mostly about ten new classes, that are "advanced" only in the sense that they're more powerful than the others.

It's my fault for not properly researching the book before buying it, so buyer beware if you're expecting to find a literal advanced class guide, as opposed to a lengthy introduction to ten new ones.


Overall disappointing

2/5

Okay, there's a lot here that's just terribly rushed and it shows, like the editing here is painful at points. The classes themselves range wildly in value, and there's a lot of examples of Paizo's classic retro nerfing of things to help make options here look better. This was an obvious rush to gencon book, and it shows. While not everything in it is bad, and there's some salvageable content, you could easily continue to play the game without this book and miss out on absolutely nohthing.


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Sczarni

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

From feats or what not?

Grand Lodge

If the site crashes it's probably my fault I'm refreshing this page every other minute to check if "in your downloads" appears.

Sczarni

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Does anyone know what the favored class bonuses are for Bloodrager?


Jim Groves wrote:
Gisher wrote:

Can anyone briefly describe the Voice of the Wild archetype?

I'm hoping it has some druidy flavor. I've been wanting a Celtic flavored druid-like bard ever since… well ever since the original 1st edition bard was eliminated.

Sure, it's kind of a nature bard. They can access some druid spells. They also gain a new bardic performance that allows them to grant an ally an animal aspect, based off of the hunter's animal focus ability.

Yes!

Thanks for the information.

Sczarni

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Disruptive Bloodrage (Su): At 1st level, the DC to cast
spells defensively increases by 2 for enemies within your
threatened area. This increase stacks with those granted
by the Disruptive feat.

If Disruptive is a fighter feat only (6 level) and no one is bound to put 6 levels in fighter just for that feat, why include the ability to stack?


Verzen wrote:

Disruptive Bloodrage (Su): At 1st level, the DC to cast

spells defensively increases by 2 for enemies within your
threatened area. This increase stacks with those granted
by the Disruptive feat.

If Disruptive is a fighter feat only (6 level) and no one is bound to put 6 levels in fighter just for that feat, why include the ability to stack?

Arcane bloodrager can take disruptive and spellbreaker as a bloodline feats with bloodrager levels counting as fighter levels

Sczarni

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Ohhhhhhhhh nice!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Poor fighters. :(

Half the other classes now get the feats that used to make fighters special.


Gisher wrote:

Poor fighters. :(

Half the other classes now get the feats that used to make fighters special.

No problem.

We are used to it. With the exception of the Weapon specialization chain, most fighter feats are not worth having anyway.


I wonder if there are any good fighter archetypes in the ACG, or if they gave everything good to the fighter-hybrid classes.

Liberty's Edge

Poor fighters, who can now FLY under their own power :-)) (archetype)

Liberty's Edge

This book is so full of nice, good, great possibilities (new classes, myriads of archetypes, abundance of feats) that it seems almost impossible to power game it when taking into account all the combinations allowed.

I am sure that in time I will be proven wrong and someone will create the new uber-combo and blame it on Paizo.

But in the meantime, I can again look at classes and feats as tools to create the character I really want to play rather than building blocks to ultimate power. Which REALLY feels refreshing.


The black raven wrote:
Poor fighters, who can now FLY under their own power :-)) (archetype)

Nope. They can't.

An archetype that picks some stuff from the Alchemist can at the cost of some fighter features. Although it does sound cool.

The Selling Point of the fighter is "build it yourself using feats". I kind of think that more fighter feats could have been nice.


The black raven wrote:
Poor fighters, who can now FLY under their own power :-)) (archetype)

Well that sounds like a cool archetype! I can't wait for this book. But I have to.


The black raven wrote:

This book is so full of nice, good, great possibilities (new classes, myriads of archetypes, abundance of feats) that it seems almost impossible to power game it when taking into account all the combinations allowed.

I am sure that in time I will be proven wrong and someone will create the new uber-combo and blame it on Paizo.

But in the meantime, I can again look at classes and feats as tools to create the character I really want to play rather than building blocks to ultimate power. Which REALLY feels refreshing.

The variety appeals to me as well. With so many possibilities, it should be possible to get a decent approximation of pretty much any character concept. And maybe the many, many options will result in fewer cookie-cutter builds. Customized and individualized characters are what I'm hoping for.


Gisher wrote:
I wonder if there are any good fighter archetypes in the ACG, or if they gave everything good to the fighter-hybrid classes.

2 one that gives mutagen and on that gives Martial flexibility

Liberty's Edge

Zark wrote:

The Selling Point of the fighter is "build it yourself using feats". I kind of think that more fighter feats could have been nice.

Actually the selling points of the Fighter are higher damage with your chosen weapon, better movement while armored and tons of feats.

No need for more fighter feats. As those force people to dip (or even play) Fighter just because of the feats and not because of the class.

Forcing people to choose between their concept and their class is not good for the game IMO.

Exact same reason why I approve of granting Divine Grace to character builds that do not involve a 2-level dip in Paladin ;-)


As if I didn't already have a problem building a hundred more characters than I actually have opportunities to play... This will be interesting. Also, I'm curious to see how long after release until they get the crunchy bits on d20pfsrd or other similar places that utilize the OGL.

Scarab Sages

So does untouchable barbarian still have to take a standard action to lower SR? If so, it's still going to be an ability that hurts you more than it helps you.

Liberty's Edge

Imbicatus wrote:
So does untouchable barbarian still have to take a standard action to lower SR? If so, it's still going to be an ability that hurts you more than it helps you.

Actually (per someone earlier in this thread) they can't drop it at all...while Raging. But it also only applies while Raging. So...not that much worse than Superstition, there.


Any hints for the Human FCP for warpriest? :D


Untouchable Rager(Bloodrager) gains SR8+level(wich improves at certain levels as well) while in a bloodrage and can't lower it. At level 14 he gains the SR at all times and can lower it while not bloodraging.


The Dirge feats aren't "love", they're some of the most broken feats in the game, able to end encounters far faster than ANY other class could, as long as the foes aren't immune to fear. You're untouchable by a third of the game at a minimum.

Then there's a feat that makes Dirge of Doom's original purpose redundant.

Just FYI, each non new class got about a page or two of archetypes or class features. If it got two Archetypes, chances are it doesn't get discoveries, talents, masterpieces, etc.


Cheapy wrote:

The Dirge feats aren't "love", they're some of the most broken feats in the game, able to end encounters far faster than ANY other class could, as long as the foes aren't immune to fear. You're untouchable by a third of the game at a minimum.

Then there's a feat that makes Dirge of Doom's original purpose redundant.

Can you expand on these?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Nah. There are other interesting things to spoil. Like rings that expand the list of monsters you can summon.

Or the coffee spell.

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Cheapy wrote:
Or the coffee spell.

We already had that (along with the aspirin spell and the LSD spell) in Polypurpose Panacea...


Cheapy wrote:
Nah. There are other interesting things to spoil. Like rings that expand the list of monsters you can summon.

Interesting. How expensive are they and how many options do they add?


-Grabby hands- I wish I had a copy of that PDF about now T_T I'm almost tempted to pick up a subscription just to get the pdf... almost.

Grand Lodge

New nominee for most ambiguous feat name: "Energy Channel"


A question about the investigator: does it have the option to apply studied combat and studied strikes to ranged attacks?
There's also some archetype/facilitation to do a gun-based investigator?


-Stares at his shopping cart, wondering if getting the PDF a week early is worth 40 dollars.-

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jim Groves wrote:
Zark wrote:


AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do they keep inspire courage?

Yes.

And I misspoke. They lose inspire competence (and countersong, suggestion and dirge of doom) for various alternate powers. The fire resistance also increases with level.

I've wanted a fire Bard for awhile. This is good news.

Can she use a flaming whip? She needs to have a flaming whip.


About 7k, plus a few hundred depending. Honestly, they almost make forge ring worthwhile, if you want to collect them all. Almost.

And nah, this is a spell that requires a coffee bean, and increases attentiveness. I think it'll actually become a standard spell for most classes. There are few first level spells that scale as well, and Pearls of power are cheap.

Speaking of the PoP, sure would be interesting if this book had the runestones of power... and maybe some sort of equivalent for arcanists.

Oooooh....


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Cheapy wrote:

About 7k, plus a few hundred depending. Honestly, they almost make forge ring worthwhile, if you want to collect them all. Almost.

And nah, this is a spell that requires a coffee bean, and increases attentiveness. I think it'll actually become a standard spell for most classes. There are few first level spells that scale as well, and Pearls of power are cheap.

Speaking of the PoP, sure would be interesting if this book had the runestones of power... and maybe some sort of equivalent for arcanists.

Oooooh....

I hate you so much right now it hurts.

And I also realized that I wouldn't even get the PDF until they shipped my book in a few days.

Therefore I hate you more for making me not spend 40 dollars.

//Logic.


Cheapy wrote:

About 7k, plus a few hundred depending. Honestly, they almost make forge ring worthwhile, if you want to collect them all. Almost.

And nah, this is a spell that requires a coffee bean, and increases attentiveness. I think it'll actually become a standard spell for most classes. There are few first level spells that scale as well, and Pearls of power are cheap.

Speaking of the PoP, sure would be interesting if this book had the runestones of power... and maybe some sort of equivalent for arcanists.

Oooooh....

Cheapy, truly you are, the greatest master of subtlety. :P


Subtle as a flailing cow, that's me.


I can't believe that all these things fit in 256 pages. They must have used a tiny font. :)


fuzzyillogic wrote:

A question about the investigator: does it have the option to apply studied combat and studied strikes to ranged attacks?

if i recall correctly it dose, its ether a feat or an archtype, away from my pdf atm

Silver Crusade

fuzzyillogic wrote:

A question about the investigator: does it have the option to apply studied combat and studied strikes to ranged attacks?

There's also some archetype/facilitation to do a gun-based investigator?

Yes and yes.

:-)


Exocrat wrote:
New nominee for most ambiguous feat name: "Energy Channel"

Hmm... Dealing energy damage with channel energy, I'm guessing?

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Joe M. wrote:
fuzzyillogic wrote:
There's also some archetype/facilitation to do a gun-based investigator?

Yes

:-)

My wife will be thrilled. She wants to play Phryne Fisher, and the little golden gun is a key part of the concept for her.

Grand Lodge

Sharkles wrote:
Exocrat wrote:
New nominee for most ambiguous feat name: "Energy Channel"
Hmm... Dealing energy damage with channel energy, I'm guessing?

Yeah, adding it as bonus damage to a weapon.


Still waiting on some Eldritch Scrapper info.

Scarab Sages

Exocrat wrote:
Sharkles wrote:
Exocrat wrote:
New nominee for most ambiguous feat name: "Energy Channel"
Hmm... Dealing energy damage with channel energy, I'm guessing?
Yeah, adding it as bonus damage to a weapon.

Ok... I guess Channel Smite wasn't enough for that.


Imbicatus wrote:
Exocrat wrote:
Sharkles wrote:
Exocrat wrote:
New nominee for most ambiguous feat name: "Energy Channel"
Hmm... Dealing energy damage with channel energy, I'm guessing?
Yeah, adding it as bonus damage to a weapon.
Ok... I guess Channel Smite wasn't enough for that.

I'm guessing it's something like, "Pick one energy type when you select this feat, either acid, cold, fire or shock. You can expend 2 uses of Channel Energy to add half the damage rolled as the elemental damage type chosen."


Joe M. wrote:
fuzzyillogic wrote:

A question about the investigator: does it have the option to apply studied combat and studied strikes to ranged attacks?

There's also some archetype/facilitation to do a gun-based investigator?

Yes and yes.

:-)

Yay! Depending on the details of this, maybe I have found my next character!

For Science! :D

Dark Archive

Just received my physical book. Time to start reading it.


Jim Groves wrote:
Zark wrote:


Agree.

I would mind brief description of both archetypes :)

Okay, here are some notes about the flame dancer.

A low level ability to use Performance to mitigate high heat conditions and help allies who have caught on fire.

A 3rd level ability to grant allies the ability to see through flames and smoke without penalty as long as there is light, plus the gaze of f lames oracle revelation. replaces inspire confidence.

A little later they grant fire resistance to allies.

Eventually they go back and add in a nice handful of wizard fire spells (up to and including fireball)into their spell list.

Does this stack with Dawnflower Dervish?


Tels wrote:
I'm guessing it's something like, "Pick one energy type when you select this feat, either acid, cold, fire or shock. You can expend 2 uses of Channel Energy to add half the damage rolled as the elemental damage type chosen."

...close but much more powerful if I'm remembering right but only for a round at least.

Dark Archive

Steadfast personality is a nice feat. It's not as good as divine protection though.

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