Get ready to shake up your game! Within these pages, the designers of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game unleash their wildest ideas, and nothing is safe. From totally revised fundamentals like core classes and monster design to brand-new systems for expanding the way you play, this book offers fresh ideas while still blending with the existing system. With Pathfinder Unchained, you become the game designer!
Pathfinder Unchained is an indispensable companion 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 a new era.
Pathfinder Unchained includes:
New versions of the barbarian, monk, rogue, and summoner classes, all revised to make them more balanced and easier to play.
New skill options for both those who want more skills to fill out their characters' backgrounds and those seeking streamlined systems for speed and simplicity.
Changes to how combat works, from a revised action system to an exhaustive list of combat tricks that draw upon your character's stamina.
Magic items that power up with you throughout your career—and ways to maintain variety while still letting players choose the "best" magic items.
Simplified monster creation rules for making new creatures on the fly.
Exotic material components ready to supercharge your spellcasting.
New takes on alignment, multiclassing, iterative attacks, wounds, diseases and poisons, and item creation.
... and much, much more!
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-715-4
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Having completed a couple of adventure paths as GM and gearing up for my third, I felt I had enough experience under my belt to see about implementing some of the alternative rules systems from Pathfinder Unchained. The book presents 254 pages of different or additional ways to do things in Pathfinder, and it’s certainly worth a look if you’re planning a new campaign—chances are there’s something for every GM. These aren’t little things like a new feat, but major redesigns of entire classes, monster creation, magic, and more. The only caveat is that the more you stray from the Core rules, the more unresolved issues are likely to arise, so think carefully through the implications of a change and make sure players are willing to buy in to any adjustments. Anyway, there’s a ton of material to discuss, so let’s get to it!
I’m not a big fan of the cover. The golem or animated statue or whatever it is has a crazy narrow waist that really annoys me for some reason, even though I do acknowledge the whirling chains are a nice nod to the book’s title. The introduction (2 pages long) notes that Pathfinder was released seven years earlier (at that point) and that it’s time to offer a workshop full of tools for GMs to select from to update and customise their game. It provides a brief but useful overview of the major new changes, and is worth a skim.
Chapter 1 is “Classes” (36 pages) and contains the most widely adopted changes across the Pathfinder community. The chapter presents new “Unchained” versions of the Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, and Summoner, and even PFS allows them because they are almost unanimously accepted as more playable (and better balanced) revisions. The Unchained Barbarian has simplified calculations for rage duration (though it still lasts too long, in my opinion) and makes it easier to use rage powers. The Unchained Monk has a simplified Flurry of Blows and new ki powers for versatility. The Unchained Rogue gets skill unlocks (discussed later) and important abilities like debilitating injury, weapon finesse, and (eventually) Dex to damage. The Unchained Summoner is frankly a nerf, but a much-needed one; the biggest change is to the eidolon, but it also fixes the Summoner spell list. I’m happy with all the class revisions, and I only wish Paizo got around to making Unchained versions of some of the other problematic classes out there. The chapter also contains a new method to compute BABs and saves to help multiclass characters, but it looks too complicated to me. Finally, there’s a new “staggered advancement” mechanism that sort of allows a character to partially level up as they go instead of doing it all at once when they reach a new XP threshold; I think it’s more effort than its worth.
Chapter 2 is “Skills and Options” (44 pages). It starts with an optional “Background” skills system, which essentially gives each PC a free rank each level to spend on a non-combat oriented skill like Craft, Perform, etc. I tried it once in a previous campaign but found it was rarely used to flesh out a character and was instead just dumped into learning another language or another point in a Knowledge skill. I do like the expanded skill uses for Craft, Perform, and Profession—they’re easy to integrate into a campaign because they essentially give the GM a list of uses and DCs to make those skills more valuable in ordinary gameplay (such as using Craft to determine what culture made an item, for example). Another optional change is a consolidated skill list that cuts the number of skills in a third! This is essentially what Starfinder did, and I’m not a fan at all because it makes for too much homogeneity within a group. Another proposal is “grouped skills” which makes PCs more broadly skilled but less specialised; complicated but interesting. Next, there are alternative Crafting and Profession rules. I like the changes to Crafting (simplifies and details DCs better) but it doesn’t address magical item crafting which, frankly, is the most likely to be used and abused. The changes to Profession are only for running a business. Perhaps most pertinent are the “Skill Unlocks” for Unchained Rogue (or any other PC who takes a particular feat)—these allow a character who has 5, 10, 15, and 20 ranks in a skill to gain a particular ability with that skill. These aren’t game-changers for the most part, but they do speed up their use or remove penalties, and are worth having for the most part. Last, there’s a new way to handle multiclassing; essentially, you give up feats to get the secondary powers of another class. I found it interesting but ultimately unsatisfactory.
Chapter 3 is “Gameplay” (46 pages) and is a real grab bag of options. The first involves alignment: either making it a bigger part of the game by tracking PCs’ alignment more finely and providing bonuses accordingly, or removing it altogether (which would require a *lot* of GM legwork). Some people like the revised action economy (a version of which was implemented in PF2), which changes the admittedly initially confusing dichotomy of Free/Swift/Immediate/Move/Standard/Full to just “Simple” and “Advanced”. However, I’ve also heard issues with how it handles certain classes. Another proposal is to remove iterative attacks; it looks interesting but too complicated for easy adoption. Next are “stamina points” and “combat tricks”—basically, a pool of points to use for a bonus on an attack or to do certain tricks that improve combat feats; I could certainly see using this. Also tempting is the idea of “wound thresholds”, which means there’s a degradation of fighting ability the more hit points are lost—this would create some new tactical considerations though it would also require some more GM tracking. Last are Starfinder-style disease and poison progression tracks, which make them *much* deadlier (I think they’re too hard to integrate at this stage in Pathfinder, however).
Chapter Four is “Magic” (38 pages). It starts with “Simplified Spellcasting”, in which a spellcaster only prepares spells for their three highest spell levels with all lesser spells grouped in a pool; this provides them even more flexibility, which is anathema to those (like me) unhappy with the caster/martial disparity at higher levels. Next are “Spell Alterations”, and some of these are more my jam: limited magic, wild magic, spell crits and fumbles, and material components have a cost for every spell (old school!). I know a lot of groups use the “Automatic Bonus Progression” rules, which provide a fixed bonus at each level so that the “Big Six” magic item slots can be used for more interesting and flavourful things than just stat boosting gear. Next are magical items that scale; I think one or two of these in a campaign could be really fun (and manageable), though I wouldn’t want to overdo it just because of the complications. Last up is a new way of handling magic item creation that involves the whole party overcoming challenges in order to add unique powers to items; it’s certainly flavourful and worth considering.
Chapter Five is “Monsters” (62 pages). It presents a whole new (and allegedly much faster) way of creating monsters. It’s the method adopted in Starfinder, and is based on arrays and grafts rather than building a creature from the “ground up”. I’m personally not a fan of it (I like knowing monsters follow the same “rules” as everyone else), but I do sympathise with the homebrewers out there who want a faster way to stock a dungeon with custom creations.
And that’s Pathfinder Unchained. If you’ve been playing or GMing for a while and have a good sense of the Core rules, it’s certainly worth a look.
Some of the suggested mechanics are worth the entire price
Automatic Bonus Progression is enough to justify the entire price of the book. Better versions of the Rogue and Monk, as well as fixes to the summoner and streamlining the barabarian seal the deal. There is a lot of other good stuff in here as well. Well worth it!
I love the idea of this book, I wish this happened more often. They took what they saw wrong with their game and spent proper time and effort to come up with proper solutions. It's pretty rare for a company to spend this much effort on tweaking things. The new proposed mechanics for combat and skills are unique and great ideas to help customize your groups' gaming experience.
I hope they release more books like this in the future. I've love for more variations for multiclassing, and I'm still waiting for a summoner archetype that removes the class summon monster ability and focuses more on the eidolon.
Highly recommend it, especially for anyone interested in how someone goes about making a gaming system. It provides awesome insights.
It's been a while since it took me so long to digest a Pathfinder book, and boy, did Unchained ever keep me digesting. More optional rules than you can shake a stick at, to be implemented in modular or wholesale fashion, to tweak your game to your heart's content, and with top-notch art throughout, to boot. Excellent work by Paizo and one of their finest offerings in a while.
As for the negatives, the only thing I can really point out is that the writing can be somewhat scattershot and unfocused in a couple of reasonably complex sections, which would have benefited greatly from examples or bolded formulae.
This book is a great addition. Options are optional, and it's great that this book has so many. It really makes customizing a campaign easy. Of you'll like you never use every option, or likely even half of them in a single you play or run, but having them really gives you a great toolbox to use. Some people are finicky about house rules, so having an official batch of "house rules" to choose from is nice for people who prefer to stick to official products. No book is perfect, but being this book isn't really being forced on anyone (of course I suppose none of the supplements are), and that is a giant bag of options that you can pick and choose from to enhance the game, for those who'd like it enhanced, I give this product 5 stars, especially if I am comparing it to the usefulness of the average Pathfinder product.
Aren't we only like 6 weeks from the pdf dropping for PU? Some weekly previews of the new class redesigns would be nice. At least give the people who play summoners that long to enjoy their class before the hammer drops.
The Doomsday Clock is ticking louder and louder...
Cool. What news had they on the Shaman and the Skald?
It doesn't seem like they are addressing these, very specific, points with this book. But who knows?
A while ago there was a thread going on about Unchained speculation. One thing I noted on there was that a lot of people have really specific desires out of the product or hopes that it addresses things that are far away from the items in the product description and/or would take enormous amounts of pages. I think this book is going to lead to a lot of disappointment due to the really wild expectations going around.
We will more then likely get previews for this one in late March early April. Though I wouldn't complain if they started earlier, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink;)
Dare I ask if this will later be implemented in future products?
I mean... this book could either be a side product for alternate rules... or a "mandatory" product that will make its way later on.
I really don't mind paying $10 for it (I've been buying PDF files since Day 1), but I'd like to know if it's "just on the side" or if it's supposed to be a major upgrade to the current system.
For instance, when WotC released Unearthed Arcana, none of the rules in it got imposed later on, as it was just "take it or leave it". Is Unchained gonna be the same?
I've gotten the impression it's strictly 'on the side'. I'm not sure how it could be 'imposed' anyway.
Plus, if this book is anything like Unearthed Arcana, its rules may not even all be consistent with each other. If somebody wants to turn it into a set of "official" new rules, they would probably have to choose among options to accept and options to reject.
...when WotC released Unearthed Arcana, none of the rules in it got imposed later on, as it was just "take it or leave it". Is Unchained gonna be the same?
I'm not certain the source, but I do believe Jason Bulmahn was once quoted as saying something along the lines of "while I can't say it's Pathfinder's Unearthed Arcana, it is".
•Monk changes. The Monk is my favorite class by far. I love the 3.x implementation, even if it ends up not being near as strong as it could be. It's fun, though, and I love the grab-bag of esoteric abilities.
•New monster creation system. This is huge for me. It's part of why the 3.x/PF prep-work is too much for me. I love creating monsters, even if I could just fudge existing writeups or reskin some things.
•Skills and combat changes. I like the skill list, it got some much-needed condensing going into PF as I recall, and hopefully the new options will be good. I like the sounds of good options for maneuvers and things, because it sounds like it will give martial characters fun stuff to do and make combat more dynamic. Anything that helps with the martial/caster divide is good. Same with the changes to iterative attacks and stuff, if they're good changes (from my perspective, which is very subjective).
•New rules for multiclassing, wounds, etc., all sound pretty fun, too.
I'm really hoping this game gives me the groundwork to make Unchained versions of basic classes, too, and I can start using Pathfinder as my go-to fantasy game. I have plans for a Planeswalker-type game, and I'm holding off on settling for another system until I get Pathfinder Unchained and look it over.
For me it's the scaling weapons, as a GM I love character development and having something in place that also allows their gear to also increase as they do will open up some interesting new opportunities.
Will there be any archetypes in this book? Since it is book of optional rules I doubt it, but you never know.
Well, we are effectively getting "archetypes" of four classes. My guess is that we will get the equivalent of archetypes through methods that the archetype system doesn't quite cover properly.
Will there be any archetypes in this book? Since it is book of optional rules I doubt it, but you never know.
Well, we are effectively getting "archetypes" of four classes. My guess is that we will get the equivalent of archetypes through methods that the archetype system doesn't quite cover properly.
While not word of God, James Jacobs seems certain there won't be archetypes in the book.
(quote has been shortened for length)
James Jacobs wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:
...Speaking of archetypes, are barbarian/monk/rogue/summoner archetypes going to be reworked as well in unchained? I don't know if they need to, I'm just curious of whether old archetypes will be compatible with new versions of the classes...
...I didn't actually work on Unchained, and have only glanced through it... but I'm 99% sure that archetypes aren't involved in the book. The point of Unchained is to get crazy and try all sorts of new things, not to muddy the waters with variant archetypes...
No, I actually meant regular archetypes because people kept asking for archetypes and I was wondering if they would actually have any. Though I am not surprised they don't because it is book of optional rules but you never know.
No, I actually meant regular archetypes because people kept asking for archetypes and I was wondering if they would actually have any. Though I am not surprised they don't because it is book of optional rules but you never know.
Rogue already got the perfect revision...it's called the Ninja (which - with the exception of trapfinding - is what the Rogue should've been in the first place).
As for the rest of Unchained, there's already so many options available between archetypes, hybrid classes, prestige classes, hundreds and hundreds of feats and spells, etc, that this just seems like unnecessary overkill to me.
...Unless it has psionics, in which case I totally retract my previous statement and support it 100%. lol.
Rogue already got the perfect revision...it's called the Ninja (which - with the exception of trapfinding - is what the Rogue should've been in the first place).
As for the rest of Unchained, there's already so many options available between archetypes, hybrid classes, prestige classes, hundreds and hundreds of feats and spells, etc, that this just seems like unnecessary overkill to me.
...Unless it has psionics, in which case I totally retract my previous statement and support it 100%. lol.
Fun fact, Occult Adventures comes out later this year with 10 new Psychic themed classes.
Psychic Magic does not mean psionics, however. Psionics is solely the realm of Dereamscarred Press. Paizo has opted to use the Psychic Magic system, one of their own creation, instead.
Fun fact, Occult Adventures comes out later this year with 10 new Psychic themed classes.
Psychic Magic does not mean psionics, however. Psionics is solely the realm of Dereamscarred Press. Paizo has opted to use the Psychic Magic system, one of their own creation, instead.
I hadn't heard about occult adventures so I'll have to check that out, and I absolutely love Ultimate Psionics. Unfortunately, many DM's (including mine) don't allow 3rd party stuff, so until Paizo decides to finally do an official psionics book guys like me are just s.o.l.
Fun fact, Occult Adventures comes out later this year with 10 new Psychic themed classes.
Psychic Magic does not mean psionics, however. Psionics is solely the realm of Dereamscarred Press. Paizo has opted to use the Psychic Magic system, one of their own creation, instead.
I hadn't heard about occult adventures so I'll have to check that out, and I absolutely love Ultimate Psionics. Unfortunately, many DM's (including mine) don't allow 3rd party stuff, so until Paizo decides to finally do an official psionics book guys like me are just s.o.l.
My mistake, I misspoke about Occult Adventures, it's actually 6 new classes, not 10 (I was thinking of the Advanced Class Guide).
Occult Adventures is Paizo's answer to those who desire psychic themed classes and stuff in the game. However, Paizo is not fond of the Power Point system, so Psychic Magic functions just like normal magic does, only it's powered by a different source.
You can download the playtest document, but, be warned, the playtest is already over and many things will likely have changed once the book is released later this year. Still, it functions as a good preview of things to come.
Occult Adventures is Paizo's answer to those who desire psychic themed classes and stuff in the game. However, Paizo is not fond of the Power Point system, so Psychic Magic functions just like normal magic does, only it's powered by a different source.
I just got done reading the Occult Adventures thread, and that watered down bastardization of psionics sounds horrible to me. I guess I'll just have to try and find a DM that allows 3rd party stuff.
Something I'd very much like to see in the book is a re-examination of the interaction between spellcasting and sneak attacks. Right now you get 1 set of sneak dice from scorching ray due to a holdover from 3.5 based upon a ruling for Manyshot, even though Manyshot is a single attack roll and Scorching Ray requires each ray to make it's own attack.
It's understandable that this ruling would carry over and be made in this way, but adding the option of making the Arcane Trickster a lot blastier than it currently is would be a nice shot in the arm for the prestige class. Perhaps rather than having all the rays use the primary attack bonus they could use iterative attacks when targeting more than one enemy? Although that might cause issues for straight arcane casters.
Allowing sneak dice on all the missiles from a Surprise Spells magic missiles would be pretty sweet too and make that an impressive capstone.
My group plays RAW and we allow sneak dice on any attack roll. It is balanced, and works fine. Simply allowing it, is the answer.
Occult Adventures is Paizo's answer to those who desire psychic themed classes and stuff in the game. However, Paizo is not fond of the Power Point system, so Psychic Magic functions just like normal magic does, only it's powered by a different source.
I just got done reading the Occult Adventures thread, and that watered down bastardization of psionics sounds horrible to me. I guess I'll just have to try and find a DM that allows 3rd party stuff.
Or you could wait until you see what the fluff is like. Plus psionics didn't ever allow you to play as a bender from what I remember :p
Occult Adventures is Paizo's answer to those who desire psychic themed classes and stuff in the game. However, Paizo is not fond of the Power Point system, so Psychic Magic functions just like normal magic does, only it's powered by a different source.
I just got done reading the Occult Adventures thread, and that watered down bastardization of psionics sounds horrible to me. I guess I'll just have to try and find a DM that allows 3rd party stuff.
Or you could wait until you see what the fluff is like. Plus psionics didn't ever allow you to play as a bender from what I remember :p
I understand that the end result may change from the playtest, but I think that the kineticist fails at being a bender. Decent class, but no bender. Also based off the playtest I will always prefer the psion over the psychic. PP just feels better than spell slots.
Or you could wait until you see what the fluff is like. Plus psionics didn't ever allow you to play as a bender from what I remember :p
I understand that the end result may change from the playtest, but I think that the kineticist fails at being a bender. Decent class, but no bender. Also based off the playtest I will always prefer the psion over the psychic. PP just feels better than spell slots.
Personally, I think the kineticist is more Marvel Universe than Avatar. Bending in avatar is equal parts physical and spiritual, and being focused on Constitution rather than Wisdom doesn't help the kineticist capture that feel. In contrast, the kineticist looks great for capturing characters like Human Torch or Ice Man, who really just blast stuff all day long.
But then again, this is coming from the guy who designed a bending class for Liber Influxus Communis, so your milage might vary.
Steering my post back on-topic, I find myself getting more giddy about Unchained rather than Occult Adventures, and I'm crossing my fingers that some of the rules that have been previewed thus far (like the new classes, the fatigue pool for fighters, and the additional skill ranks per level) are legal for Society play. To me, the presence of Unchained suddenly makes the Core Campaign "make sense," so to speak. Meaning that you assume the Core Campaign is core and the standard campaign benefits from the tweaks and changes made by Unchained.