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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zergtitan wrote:
Keep your eyes on the blog because we are about to see about 10 spoilers (5 for the 3.5k mark and 5 for getting 2nd place or higher) and the reveal of the archetype list! :)

Jason said he'd put the teasers up tomorrow when he gets into the office.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Tels wrote:
zergtitan wrote:
Keep your eyes on the blog because we are about to see about 10 spoilers (5 for the 3.5k mark and 5 for getting 2nd place or higher) and the reveal of the archetype list! :)
Jason said he'd put the teasers up tomorrow when he gets into the office.

While nursing his bruise from the gauntlet punch. :) LOL.


come on swashbuckly mobility abilities...


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So, Bloodrager and Swashbuckler vs. an incorporeal undead dragon? I hope the Bloodrager is well equipped, because the Swashbuckler will do absolutely nothing against that type of monster. ^^

Female half-elf Swashbuckler is looking swell, though.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Why wouldn't a swashbucklers magic weapon be as effective as another?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Yeah, normal damage will go through, but the Swashbuckler relies on precision damage for a lot of her damage potential. Which won't work against an incorporeal undead, at least if the writers kept it like that from the playtest.

Liberty's Edge

Ross Byers wrote:
Why wouldn't a swashbucklers magic weapon be as effective as another?

Some people argue precision damage from Precise Strike doesn't apply against incorporeal creatures. That's...not entirely clear per RAW, but people certainly argue it.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

EDIT 2: I was thinking of something else, actually. Incorporeal indisputably stops precision damage...but only if you lack Ghost Touch. A very good investment for a swashbuckler.


At least the ghost touch property allows you to crit incorporeal creatures.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
magnuskn wrote:
Yeah, normal damage will go through, but the Swashbuckler relies on precision damage for a lot of her damage potential. Which won't work against an incorporeal undead, at least if the writers kept it like that from the playtest.

I hate when good artwork gets in the way of my rpg mechanics.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Hey, it's just a dragon with ectoplasmic creature template.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Eh, just saying it's a bad day for that Swashbuckler. The same could be said for Feiya and Damien on the APG cover. :p


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I dunno. She kinda has that look of "This is going to make for an AWESOME story" on her face.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Gorbacz wrote:
Hey, it's just a dragon with ectoplasmic creature template.

I'm still betting on a vomit twin.


magnuskn wrote:

So, Bloodrager and Swashbuckler vs. an incorporeal undead dragon? I hope the Bloodrager is well equipped, because the Swashbuckler will do absolutely nothing against that type of monster. ^^

Female half-elf Swashbuckler is looking swell, though.

If it were just undead there wouldn't be a problem.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Mnemaxa wrote:
magnuskn wrote:

So, Bloodrager and Swashbuckler vs. an incorporeal undead dragon? I hope the Bloodrager is well equipped, because the Swashbuckler will do absolutely nothing against that type of monster. ^^

Female half-elf Swashbuckler is looking swell, though.

If it were just undead there wouldn't be a problem.

True enough. I'm not sure it was a good idea to negate precision damage for some enemy types. Every time the developers make those inherent nerfs in the name of "realism", it's the martial classes which suffer, while primary spellcasters shrug and still do their thing (and I am not only talking about incorporeal opponents).


Yeah because we don't get creatures with a whole bunch of immunities based on type that prevent spellcasters from being effective...Oh wait;)


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
Yeah because we don't get creatures with a whole bunch of immunities based on type that prevent spellcasters from being effective...Oh wait;)

Only the ones which are unwilling to invest in (Greater) Spell Penetration and some good conjuration spells. I've GM'ed for a lot of primary casters and spell resistance was very seldomly an impediment they couldn't overcome easily.

Verdant Wheel

So the most dangerous monster possible is a swarm of incorporeal golem-bugs immune to acid ?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

3 people marked this as a favorite.
magnuskn wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Yeah because we don't get creatures with a whole bunch of immunities based on type that prevent spellcasters from being effective...Oh wait;)
Only the ones which are unwilling to invest in (Greater) Spell Penetration and some good conjuration spells. I've GM'ed for a lot of primary casters and spell resistance was very seldomly an impediment they couldn't overcome easily.

Spell resistance is not the only thing there. There are classes of monsters immune to mind-affecting effects, petrification, polymorph, and various energy types.

Edit: also, if you're investing feats and changing your spell selection, then clearly it had some impact. Almost as if different monsters require different tactics.


Dragon78 wrote:
Yeah because we don't get creatures with a whole bunch of immunities based on type that prevent spellcasters from being effective...Oh wait;)

Not saying those don't exist, but they are way, way less common than the "magic is required" ones.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Come on new Oracle curses! Come On New Oracle Curses! DADDY NEEDS A NEW ORACLE NPC! ^_^

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

^I'll join in, and wish for some more wildblooded options for sorcerers, in addition.


Man, swashbucklers with ghost touch on their weapons sure look like a powerhouse. Only thing that can stop them are elementals and oozes.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Ross Byers wrote:

Spell resistance is not the only thing there. There are classes of monsters immune to mind-affecting effects, petrification, polymorph, and various energy types.

Edit: also, if you're investing feats and changing your spell selection, then clearly it had some impact. Almost as if different monsters require different tactics.

Yet my original point, which was that nerfs by the developers in the name of "realism" disproportionally land on the shoulders of martials instead of casters, had nothing to do with where this conversation has been taken. ^^

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

The funny thing is that PF made precision damage affect a great deal more enemy types (corporeal undead, constructs).

Still, counts as nerf in magnusknverse.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hmm, it could also be a Ravener.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Hmm, new info for the older classes... *begins hoping for possibly a dual mystery oracle similar to cross-blooded sorcerer*

Yes, I know they have a dual-cursed, which isn't what I am wanting.

Contributor

Rysky wrote:
Hmm, it could also be a Ravener.

Personally, I thought it was a Ravener too.

Paizo Employee

Alexander Augunas wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Hmm, it could also be a Ravener.
Personally, I thought it was a Ravener too.

That was my impression as well. I mean, there's a skeletal dragon monster, no reason to assume this is something weird to explain why it's a skeletal dragon.

Cheers!
Landon


The cover is a reminder that the game is about awesome stories, not who has the biggest DEEPEEEHS


Damn, I'm starting to sound like TOZ.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Cheapy wrote:
Damn, I'm starting to sound like TOZ.

There's only one cure. You have to kill the TOZ that bit you...

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

That might be hard. Not only does the TOZ know how to kill a human being in 8 ways, including using a shovel, but also TOZ is ginger.

Gingers ... you can't win against them.

The Exchange

Gorbacz wrote:

That might be hard. Not only does the TOZ know how to kill a human being in 8 ways, including using a shovel, but also TOZ is ginger.

Gingers ... you can't win against them.

They're not infectious, at least. Trust me - I tried.


magnuskn wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Yeah because we don't get creatures with a whole bunch of immunities based on type that prevent spellcasters from being effective...Oh wait;)
Only the ones which are unwilling to invest in (Greater) Spell Penetration and some good conjuration spells. I've GM'ed for a lot of primary casters and spell resistance was very seldomly an impediment they couldn't overcome easily.

And only the swashbuckler who does not invest in undead bane weapons is effected by this.


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Quote:
Gingers ... you can't win against them.

On the plus side, ginger women are TOTALLY HAWT (oogles his pic of Ann Margret as "the Swinger" dressed in a bikini/feather boa). ^_~


Correct me if I'm wrong, but where does it say in either ghost touch or undead bane that it allows uses to deal precision damage against incorporeal foes? Sure, ghost touch lets you deal damage normally (no 50% reduction) but it says nothing about being able to deal precision damage. Undead bane doesn't do either, the extra damage from bane is reduced by 50% as well, unless you also have ghost touch.

Perhaps I'm missing a ruling somewhere that says otherwise? If not, then Swashy's are pretty hosed, damage wise, against Incorporeal creatures, as their precision damage doesn't work on them. Good news, however, is that Swashy's probably have a better touch AC than most other martials, so at least he isn't getting hit as much.

Frankly, I'm okay with that as Swashbucklers have the ability to do a phenomenal amount of damage with relatively little investment. At least, as far as the playtest went.

It just means that the swashy won't be so good against incorporeal creatures, elementals, constructs and oozes. Every class as certain weaknesses, the swashy's happen to be it has trouble fighting certain monsters.


Tels wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but where does it say in either ghost touch or undead bane that it allows uses to deal precision damage against incorporeal foes? Sure, ghost touch lets you deal damage normally (no 50% reduction) but it says nothing about being able to deal precision damage. Undead bane doesn't do either, the extra damage from bane is reduced by 50% as well, unless you also have ghost touch.

That... Is actually a really good question. Had to do a little digging, but found the answer in the description of the Incorporeal subtype:

Quote:
An incorporeal creature has no physical body. An incorporeal creature is immune to critical hits and precision-based damage (such as sneak attack damage) unless the attacks are made using a weapon with the ghost touch special weapon quality. In addition, creatures with the incorporeal subtype gain the incorporeal special quality.

Swashbucklers and rogues are still kind of hosed against anyone with concealment (unless they pay the feat tax) as well as ooze and elementals.


Kudaku wrote:
Tels wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but where does it say in either ghost touch or undead bane that it allows uses to deal precision damage against incorporeal foes? Sure, ghost touch lets you deal damage normally (no 50% reduction) but it says nothing about being able to deal precision damage. Undead bane doesn't do either, the extra damage from bane is reduced by 50% as well, unless you also have ghost touch.

That... Is actually a really good question. Had to do a little digging, but found the answer in the description of the Incorporeal subtype:

Quote:
An incorporeal creature has no physical body. An incorporeal creature is immune to critical hits and precision-based damage (such as sneak attack damage) unless the attacks are made using a weapon with the ghost touch special weapon quality. In addition, creatures with the incorporeal subtype gain the incorporeal special quality.
Swashbucklers and rogues are still kind of hosed against anyone with concealment (unless they pay the feat tax) as well as ooze and elementals.

Cool! That's good to know. However, it's not like ghost touch is one of those 'standard' abilities that everyone puts on their weapon. Nor are incorporeal creatures a super-common enemy (though they do appear in nearly every campaign).

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Incorporeal creatures no long have concealment (unless they are partially submerged in a wall). Magic applied to them is halved in damage instead.

Incorporeal (PRD) wrote:
Creatures with the incorporeal condition do not have a physical body. Incorporeal creatures are immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Incorporeal creatures take half damage (50%) from magic weapons, spells, spell-like effects, and supernatural effects. Incorporeal creatures take full damage from other incorporeal creatures and effects, as well as all force effects.


Alexander Augunas wrote:
My fingers are crossed for ninja, samurai, and antipaladin material. I was pleased with the ninja tricks in Champions of Balance and I'm hopeful for more!

Oh god yes I would love to see more stuff for those classes and some archtypes as well cause I could see them taking influences from different types of samurai's real or made up and ninjas real and made up. You could have some really badass things like a Ryu Hyabusa type ninja which is a high damage reward high damage risk type. Or an demon slayer type of samurai. And antipaladin has tons of material it needs in pathfinder.


Tels wrote:
Cool! That's good to know. However, it's not like ghost touch is one of those 'standard' abilities that everyone puts on their weapon. Nor are incorporeal creatures a super-common enemy (though they do appear in nearly every campaign).

Happy to help! And yeah, Ghost Touch is pretty far down the list of priorities for the martials in my groups as well. They will occasionally carry ghost salt weapon blanches but unless they're prewarned, they're generally better off just sucking it up and taking the damage penalty.

DeciusNero wrote:
Incorporeal creatures no long have concealment (unless they are partially submerged in a wall). Magic applied to them is halved in damage instead.

Not sure if this is adressed to me? I was thinking of creatures with concealment in general - you can't apply precision damage to someone with a Blur spell active unless you have the Shadow Strike feat, for instance.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Kudaku wrote:


DeciusNero wrote:
Incorporeal creatures no long have concealment (unless they are partially submerged in a wall). Magic applied to them is halved in damage instead.
Not sure if this is adressed to me? I was thinking of creatures with concealment in general - you can't apply precision damage to someone with a Blur spell active unless you have the Shadow Strike feat, for instance.

Oops, sorry - I mistook your meaning when you included elementals and oozes at the end. Sorry!


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There is nothing wrong with certain classes being better or worse at fighting certain creatures. I don't see the big deal.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

There is no deal. I just made a comment that the Swashbuckler on the cover was very probably going to have a bad fight, because incorporeal opponents are problematic for PC's who primarily work with precision damage.

That apparently caused great offense, because REASONS and several people felt the pressing need to make clear that Swashbucklers are the BESTEST CLASS EVER to fight incorporeals. Or something something roleplaying vs rollplaying.


Love the cover!

Silver Crusade

magnuskn wrote:

There is no deal. I just made a comment that the Swashbuckler on the cover was very probably going to have a bad fight, because incorporeal opponents are problematic for PC's who primarily work with precision damage.

That apparently caused great offense, because REASONS and several people felt the pressing need to make clear that Swashbucklers are the BESTEST CLASS EVER to fight incorporeals. Or something something roleplaying vs rollplaying.

You assume the Swashbuckler is for DPS, she could be Tanking.


Considering there are ten new classes, I wish they had more then two of the new iconics on the cover.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
Considering there are ten new classes, I wish they had more then two of the new iconics on the cover.

How do we know the dragon is not the Arcanist?

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