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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Pathfinder Unchained (OGL)

4.60/5 (based on 16 ratings)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Pathfinder Unchained (OGL)
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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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Great Optional Toolkit

5/5 —

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

5/5 —

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!

Upgraded Mechanics!

5/5 —

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.

Fantastic product

5/5 —

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.

Love The Options

5/5 —

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.

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OMG! 1st post :-)
Shadow Lodge
Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

WANT!
Shadow Lodge
Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I know it's only a mock up image, but the cover is awesome!
Sovereign Court

Wooohooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 people marked this as a favorite.

THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN WANTING!!!

August? Wasn't it supposed to be a Spring release?
Dark Archive

I am interested.
3 people marked this as a favorite.
boldstar wrote:
THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN WANTING!!!

If they also give the fighter (and the bard) some love I agree.

I want this book so badly.

Edit:
I hope they make the use of skills more Epic at higher levels.
13 people marked this as a favorite.

This should totally be called Pathfinder Unearthed.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

I wonder if this is a Pathfinder 1.5?

Okay. Add this to the list of awesome books I want.
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Curious at to why those iconics are depicted given the content describes new versions of the barbarian, summoner, rogue and monk… Oh. Perhaps it is a mockup. Ooops.

Would like to know which authors are contributing as well.
Scarab Sages
5 people marked this as a favorite.

Was at the banquet when they announced this, got the impression that this is going to be kind of like a "Pathfinder Essentials"; JB indicated that they were going to make the Barbarian easier to run at the table, present a nerfed and better balanced version of the Summoner, a full BAB monk, and hinted at "improving" the Rogue. Should be interesting.
5 people marked this as a favorite.

I really hope they don't plan on making a Pathfinder 4th ed version kind of a book.
Ssalarn wrote:
Was at the banquet when they announced this, got the impression that this is going to be kind of like a "Pathfinder Essentials"; JB indicated that they were going to make the Barbarian easier to run at the table, present a nerfed and better balanced version of the Summoner, a full BAB monk, and hinted at "improving" the Rogue. Should be interesting.

Cool. What news had they on the Shaman and the Skald?

Um, isn't this a Spring Hardcover, not a Summer one, or has that changed? Also, this looks awesome - reminds me of the old Arcana Unearthed book
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Ssalarn wrote:
Was at the banquet when they announced this, got the impression that this is going to be kind of like a "Pathfinder Essentials"; JB indicated that they were going to make the Barbarian easier to run at the table, present a nerfed and better balanced version of the Summoner, a full BAB monk, and hinted at "improving" the Rogue. Should be interesting.

Full BAB monk. That is all I needed to hear. Thanks Ssalarn...

3 people marked this as a favorite.

This product is off the chain.
Dark Archive
5 people marked this as a favorite.

Hmmm... interesting. So this is the PF version of UA?
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Ssalarn wrote:
Was at the banquet when they announced this, got the impression that this is going to be kind of like a "Pathfinder Essentials"; JB indicated that they were going to make the Barbarian easier to run at the table, present a nerfed and better balanced version of the Summoner, a full BAB monk, and hinted at "improving" the Rogue. Should be interesting.

Wait, what? Why would you need a simpler version of th barbarian? I never thought it was overly complicated.

Silver Crusade
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Blave wrote:
Ssalarn wrote:
Was at the banquet when they announced this, got the impression that this is going to be kind of like a "Pathfinder Essentials"; JB indicated that they were going to make the Barbarian easier to run at the table, present a nerfed and better balanced version of the Summoner, a full BAB monk, and hinted at "improving" the Rogue. Should be interesting.
Wait, what? Why would you need a simpler version of th barbarian? I never thought it was overly complicated.

Two words: rage cycling.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

5 kinds of shiny

Is this going to have any kind of public Playtest?

I'm super interested!
3 people marked this as a favorite.

I have mixed feelings about this one.

I hope there will be a playtest.
5 people marked this as a favorite.

Curse you, Paizo! Curses, I say! So many things coming out this summer and so little money!!!
Scarab Sages
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

So is this like Book of Nine Swords was for 3.5? A preview into the Next edition of PF?

Because "Alternative Action Economy" hints at that for me.

I will say that I'm very interested in this "Magic item generator" system.
Lantern Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Majuba wrote:
This should totally be called Pathfinder Unearthed.

"Unchained" has a very specific meaning for this title. The rules presented in Pathfinder Unchained are not "chained" to the assumption of backwards-compatibility.

Lantern Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
7 people marked this as a favorite.
Stratagemini wrote:

So is this like Book of Nine Swords was for 3.5? A preview into the Next edition of PF?

Because "Alternative Action Economy" hints at that for me.

I will say that I'm very interested in this "Magic item generator" system.

This is assuredly not a preview of or prelude to any future edition of Pathfinder RPG.

Rather, it's a chance to be able to make "changes" that fans have been asking for over the years (and ones the developers have wanted to make over the years) without fundamentally changing the core rulebook and forcing everyone to play under the new rules. It's options, ideas, alternates, and something you can piecemeal insert into your ongoing games.
6 people marked this as a favorite.

As with all Paizo releases, I'll reserve judgement after I have it in my hands. I am quite interested to see what they do though.
3 people marked this as a favorite.

is this optional rules as in really optional or is this optional rules as in these will be required for PFS
Silver Crusade
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Robert Brookes wrote:
Stratagemini wrote:

So is this like Book of Nine Swords was for 3.5? A preview into the Next edition of PF?

Because "Alternative Action Economy" hints at that for me.

I will say that I'm very interested in this "Magic item generator" system.

This is assuredly not a preview of or prelude to any future edition of Pathfinder RPG.

Rather, it's a chance to be able to make "changes" that fans have been asking for over the years (and ones the developers have wanted to make over the years) without fundamentally changing the core rulebook and forcing everyone to play under the new rules. It's options, ideas, alternates, and something you can piecemeal insert into your ongoing games.

Well, that won't stop people, in particular the ones with a long-standing axe to grind with Paizo, to run around the Internet screaming "paid beta of PF 2.0 out next year - WotC did that to you with Bo9s and now Paizo is doing it again".

10 people marked this as a favorite.

I wish Book of Nine Swords had been a paid beta, it was not similar to 4E. You can argue its maneuver system was put into 4E, but only if you squint and really work it backwards. It if anything felt more like 3.5 trying to do wuxia or something similar.

Dot for great interest.
7 people marked this as a favorite.
David Neilson wrote:
I wish Book of Nine Swords had been a paid beta, it was not similar to 4E. You can argue its maneuver system was put into 4E, but only if you squint and really work it backwards. It if anything felt more like 3.5 trying to do wuxia or something similar.

+1. If 4E had been based on Bo9S I probably would have been a lot more interested in it.

Dot...dot....DDDOOOTTT!!!!!!!!!
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:
Well, that won't stop people, in particular the ones with a long-standing axe to grind with Paizo, to run around the Internet screaming "paid beta of PF 2.0 out next year - WotC did that to you with Bo9s and now Paizo is doing it again".

Heck, it probably won't even stop people *without* grudges from continuing the "Pathfinder 2.0 is coming!!" chant like they've already been doing for some time now.

The irony is, even if there were a Pathfinder 2.0 coming, once it was announced, those people would then start bragging about how "they knew it was coming" because they'd seen the writing on the wall- no matter if it is 5, 10, or 15 years after the fact. :p
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Ok, so this is closer to a book of errata and rules amendments. It just so happens to have some redesigns on a number of "problematic" classes.

Summoner, I can understand. It tends to require a different kind of system mastery than most casters, and is even more accounting heavy due to the malleable eidolon. Rogue makes sense too. A number of traits, alternate class archetypes, and other sundry things make the rogue seem totally lackluster to practically everything.

Monk is a little hazy on the revamp, though I understand that full BAB reduces language for Flurry of Blows. May also make it easier to qualify for various maneuver feats, which tend to be the Monk's niche. But the Barbarian is the real oddity. I get that rage cycling is a problem, and that some rage power combos are a GM's nightmare. But I honestly can't think of much else they'd consider revamping.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I wonder if this is Paizo's attempt to make a more rules light version, kind of like Dungeon World (but obviously not quite that light)? I just recently read through the basic rules for DnD Next, and it seems like they decided to go in a more rules light direction. Seems to be all the rage these days. I love me some pathfinder and complex systems, but it's so much easier to get my friends and family to come back to the table with a game like Dungeon World, so I'm all for this.

I hope they keep the malleability of the eidolon. Its a really cool mechanic in my opinion.
Scarab Sages
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lamontius wrote:

is this optional rules as in really optional or is this optional rules as in these will be required for PFS

I would hope Brock and co. carefully evaluate the new rules and import the best of the book while omitting the rest from PFS play.

At a minimum, I would like to see the monk and rogue updates make it into the allowed resources.

I think the 'pool' may be the way forward for pathfinder.....arcanist, ninjas,magus, etc already going this way

I think this would be a good move
Scarab Sages
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Kalvit wrote:
Summoner, I can understand. It tends to require a different kind of system mastery than most casters, and is even more accounting heavy due to the malleable eidolon. Rogue makes sense too. A number of traits, alternate class archetypes, and other sundry things make the rogue seem totally lackluster to practically everything.

The summoner we currently have is the first iteration of brand new class concept. It was bound to have many unforeseen issues. Unchained will give the developers the opportunity to correct many of those issues provide a more refined set of abilities. Hopefully they don't nerf the class into the ground.

On the subject of summoners: I would like to see the synthesist revamped and given far more attention than it received in Ultimate Magic. The archetype is a very popular concept, but poorly implemented under current rules.
Scarab Sages
1 person marked this as a favorite.
David Neilson wrote:
I hope they keep the malleability of the eidolon. Its a really cool mechanic in my opinion.

To a certain degree, yes.

What is bad is the option to dump nearly ALL evolution points into offense, creating an unbalanced eidolon.

I'm actually more interested in this than in the ACG.

dot for interest.....
Dark Archive

well over a year to wait to see all the fun stuff paizo will come out with this
1 person marked this as a favorite.

*shudders with delight*
Grand Lodge
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Robert Brookes wrote:

This is assuredly not a preview of or prelude to any future edition of Pathfinder RPG.

Rather, it's a chance to be able to make "changes" that fans have been asking for over the years (and ones the developers have wanted to make over the years) without fundamentally changing the core rulebook and forcing everyone to play under the new rules. It's options, ideas, alternates, and something you can piecemeal insert into your ongoing games.

I do wonder why you are so sure of that, and why it cannot be both.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:
Well, that won't stop people, in particular the ones with a long-standing axe to grind with Paizo, to run around the Internet screaming "paid beta of PF 2.0 out next year - WotC did that to you with Bo9s and now Paizo is doing it again".

Uhm, I'd be delighted if it were that. Either way, I'll definitely be picking it up.

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