Ready to go beyond the basics? Expand the limits of what's possible with the Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide! This 272-page Pathfinder Second Edition rulebook contains exciting new rules options for player characters, adding even more depth of choice to your Pathfinder game! Inside you will find brand new ancestries, heritages, and four new classes: the shrewd investigator, the mysterious oracle, the daring swashbuckler, and the hex-slinging witch! The must-have Advanced Player's Guide also includes exciting new options for all your favorite Core Rulebook classes and tons of new backgrounds, general feats, spells, items, and 40 flexible archetypes to customize your play experience even further!
The Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide includes:
Four new classes: the investigator, oracle, swashbuckler, and witch!
Five new ancestries and five heritages for any ancestry: celestial aasimars, curious catfolk, hagspawned changelings, vampiric dhampirs, fate-touched duskwalkers, scaled kobolds, fierce orcs, fiendish tieflings, industrious ratfolk, and feathered tengu!
40 new archetypes including multiclass archetypes for the four new classes, Pathfinder favorites like the cavalier, dragon disciple, shadowdancer, and vigilante, and brand-new archetypes like the familiar master and the shield-bearing iron wall!
New class options for all twelve classes from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook including champions of evil, genie and shadow sorcerers, zen archer monks, rogue masterminds, spellcasting rangers, and more!
Even more exciting new rules, from rare and unique backgrounds to investigative skill feats, from spells and rituals like reincarnate and create demiplane to new items including special wands with unusual effects and exciting potions worthy of a witch's cauldron.
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-257-0
Available Formats
The Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide is also available as:
The Advanced Player's Guide is the capstone piece to the original vision for Pathfinder Second Edition. The PF2 CRB was a whopping 640 pages and Paizo still had more content ready to go in it that they just could not release due to space issues. Everything that was left out was designated to be released over the next year in either the Lost Omens line of books or in the Advanced Players Guide. Things that were not quite fully fleshed out for the original release were then worked out. Four additional classes were put through a playtest and are featured in the APG; the Investigator, Oracle, Swashbuckler, and Witch. Five new ancestries are in the APG while three more were released in the Lost Omens Character Guide in 2019.
One of the new concepts in PF2 is that of Versatile Heritages. Instead of having separate ancestry categories for Aasimar, Tiefling, Changling, Dhampir, and Duskwalker, they are now what is called a versatile heritage. These modify the ancestry choice the player made for the character via the heritage selection. This is a very interesting concept as it provides many additional options for players. These five are just the first of multiple waves of versatile heritages which will be released over time by Paizo.
For those who have been desiring more options for characters, the APG delivers. The four new classes have their dedications for multiclassing along with 38 new archetypes. In addition, each of the 12 original classes gained some new options to choose from as did each of the original ancestries. Not all of the options are as viable as other options, but much of that will depend on the theme of a campaign and how GMs choose to allow players to select archetypes. I can envision some GMs designating some archetypes as free additional choices for players in that they can take one with no additional feat penalties because they give added depth to the campaign's theme such as the dandy or celebrity. Other GMs could emphasize select archetypes like the gladiator as a free archetype for their campaign's theme. The potential for some very interesting campaign themes definitely exists with these archetypes.
One of the things I was watching for in this book was the dreaded power creep. I do not see it present. None of the archetypes seems to overwhelm any of the original classes in terms of raw power while instead they augment them. This was a goal of Paizo from the beginning and it seems to have been met. The APG does what it was intended to do. It expands the options available to players at the initial creation of their characters and as those characters level up over time. Perhaps the best part of that is the APG continues to expand upon building characters as concepts and not as a collection of soulless numbers. While the numbers are important to determining how well a character can do something, the concept behind the character matters more. PF2 put the role back into roleplaying and the APG continues that vision.
Especially, and this is obvious, the Advanced Player's Guide is a terrific resource for players--but that doesn't mean GMs don't have a lot to gain from it!
Just on the strength of classes and ancestries, this book is about 150% the size of the core rulebook. Every existing class gets a major boost of options and feats and the same goes for existing ancestries. Adding in four new classes and five new ancestries on top of that is an amazing boon. True, some get more (or better) options than others, but I would say just on character creation alone, this book well beyond justifies its price point.
And that's just the base.
Add in universal heritages, which seem mechanically reasonable but almost unreasonably bursting with flavor, lore, or character development hooks. Add in the massive chunk of archetypes, which enables so many different nuances of character concepts without always landing on the somewhat clunky multiclassing rules. Add in a shot in the arm to spell lists, item lists, skill and general feat lists, and so on?
I just don't know that more needs to be said. This book is bursting with great content--and it's guaranteed to turn the heads of pretty much any player with at least a couple of its options!
This is a solid addition to 2E and well worth adding to your library, although uneven or even disappointing in places. It feels something like a mix of 1E Advanced Player Guide and Advanced Class guide with less ancestries and classes but I like that: nice to have a bit of both rather than to get a bunch of one while waiting 6-12 months for the other.
Pros:
Witch, Oracle, and Swashbuckler are well designed with clever rethinking of mechanics that adds new dimensions to the classes and definitely improves playability with respect to other classes. I especially liked the witch patrons that could make your witch more like a prophet or a fate-weaver while still providing the usual curse, night and wild options for your classic scary witch. The oracle curses are much more interesting- and much more of plusses with minuses than the old version. And swashbuckler seems both quite playable and fun.
Versatile heritages are a great re-think, one of the best parts of the guide. While less potent at low level, the ability to add tiefling to any race, plus the new versatile heritages and the promise of more, greatly expands the range of character concepts.
Archetypes are nicely fleshed out. While the system was in the core rules, they don't really shine until here. Many will appeal only to a specific concept but can have their uses while others are significantly useful for those focusing on combat in particular. You will recognize many names from prestige classes of yore. While not, in general, as potent as an old prestige class, the move to archetypes is both more graceful and more manageable for all- players, refs and game designers. Many can be taken at lower levels and others at higher levels.
While familiars only get used so often in my games (more so by me as a player :) the extra abilities, feats and specific familiars are great. I especially like that it is both practical and clearly explained how to get an imp or faerie dragon.
Feats and spells are nice, mostly as they relate to new classes and archetypes. For existing classes, probably less useful but there are exceptions.
More middling:
Investigator seems suited to a limited range of campaign types. I wish it was a little less detective-like and more lore focused, but I think for the right players and campaigns, a good option.
The new races, while definitely a nice addition beyond too human-like variants, are also unlikely to get used much in my campaigns, except maybe catfolk, although they all seem well executed.
The new backgrounds are so-so. They are nice enough and its not like backgrounds are a particularly eye-catching part of the game, although it is a nice mechanic. The rare ones were a bit disappointing to me, but again the real flavor of them is left to the player in character creation so they are solid enough.
The core classes additions were a very mixed bag. Some are quite interesting and others are so narrowly drawn as to appeal to very few players. I'm thinking of you druid, where the additions are not likely to apply to most of the druid orders. In general, core classes deserve another round of additions like the 1E combat, magic and other guides. The current crop of goodies may disappoint many.
Overalll:
A strong guide. Hopefully upcoming Golarion and other guides will continue to flesh out 2E.
For those looking for more ancestries, classes and archetypes, I would certainly start with this guide but note that the Golarion books, both already published and planned, add a fair amount, almost all of which can be used in non-Golarion settings. For example, apparently many of the 1E Advanced Race Guide ancestries will be coming to a Golarion guide early next year.
This should have been in the Core Rulebook, but that would have made for an obscene word count. The content in this book is essential to the PF2 experience, and I can't imagine the game without it.
You guys are awesome. It is unlikely my APG will arrive in time for Gencon, so this thread is a lifeline towards making timely adjustments in exploiting the 1,000 options therein.
My next question is pretty specific about the Beastmaster archetype.
What are the specific Prerequisites for the dedication feat? What does the dedication feat provide as a baseline? If you already have the Animal Companion feat, do you get to retrain it? Is there support for character who don't want to juggle multiple companions?
If you have any questions regarding the APG I am available to answer. I am currently more knowledgeable on the topics of Witches. So I can answer those fairly easily.
I do work a 10 hour night shift Monday through Friday. So it may take a bit before I can respond.
Please send any inquiries to me via private message on here as I'll be able to locate them easier. Any questions are viable.
Does the Changeling ancestry give any advantage to a Witch?
Nothing specifically stated mostly Hag related feats.
is there multiple ancestry choices for Changeling hags like there are multiple choices for aasimar?
If you have any questions regarding the APG I am available to answer. I am currently more knowledgeable on the topics of Witches. So I can answer those fairly easily.
I do work a 10 hour night shift Monday through Friday. So it may take a bit before I can respond.
Please send any inquiries to me via private message on here as I'll be able to locate them easier. Any questions are viable.
Does the Changeling ancestry give any advantage to a Witch?
Nothing specifically stated mostly Hag related feats.
is there multiple ancestry choices for Changeling hags like there are multiple choices for aasimar?
Okay I never thought I'd like Oracles until I read about them at the spoiler sites. The idea of having a Scaling Curse to Manage / Mitigate in exchange for Proportional Power actually sounds like a lot of fun!
That said, information on all Mysteries but Ancestors is basically available.
What do the Revelation Spells for this Mystery do?:
1) Ancestral Touch
2) Ancestral Defense
3) Ancestral Form
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
rainzax wrote:
Okay I never thought I'd like Oracles until I read about them at the spoiler sites. The idea of having something to mitigate in exchange for power sounds like a lot of fun.
That said, information on all Mysteries but Ancestors is basically available.
What do the Revelation Spells for this Mystery do?:
1) Ancestral Touch
2) Ancestral Defense
3) Ancestral Form
1) Mentally damages a foe
2) In D&D 5E terms, gives you advantage on a Will save
Ok, next question. Let's say I have a character committed to using a Crossbow. Which of the following archetypes would best support that character, either by directly supporting with base abilities / feats that advance crossbow speed / damage, or, indirectly support with base abilities / feats that support ranged combat?
Ok, next question. Let's say I have a character committed to using a Crossbow. Which of the following archetypes would best support that character, either by directly supporting with base abilities / feats that advance crossbow speed / damage, or, indirectly support with base abilities / feats that support ranged combat?
1) Archer
2) Bounty Hunter
3) Poisoner
Cheers.
Right off - Poisoner gives some alchemical abilities, and helps with some melee range attacks, but has nothing that will help a crossbow user.
Bounty Hunter - gives the "Hunt Prey" ability from a ranger, but after that it's tracking and posse things. Not much crossbow help
Archer - almost everything refers to weapons from the "Bow" group, which includes most crossbows. Adding crit effects if your expert trained, profenciency in advanced bows, good stuff. Best is "Crossbow Terror" level 6, which adds +2 damage AND increases the damage die is the crossbow is a simple weapon. "Archer's Aim (8) let's you do a 2 action shot at +2, ignoring concealment and reducing the flat check from hidden. So of the 3, it's no contest.
I can't find any ability called "Verdant Seed" - I think you're thinking of "Verdant Weapon", which is a level 1 Druid feat, that let's you create a verdant seed which you can transform into a weapon and back to a seed as an action.
You guys are awesome. It is unlikely my APG will arrive in time for Gencon, so this thread is a lifeline towards making timely adjustments in exploiting the 1,000 options therein.
My next question is pretty specific about the Beastmaster archetype.
What are the specific Prerequisites for the dedication feat? What does the dedication feat provide as a baseline? If you already have the Animal Companion feat, do you get to retrain it? Is there support for character who don't want to juggle multiple companions?
Prereq is simple - trained in Nature.
The dedication gets you the animal companion feat. If you already have that feat, with this you can get a second animal companion. How that works, though, is you only have one companion with you at a time during encounters, the other is assumed to be close by, foraging for food or something. You can spend 1 minute doing the "Call Companion" activity to swap out which you have with you. So you're never juggling multiples during one combat.
Do the new rogue rackets get feats offering special debilitations at level 10 like the original rackets? And if so, are they sweet?
Eldritch Debilitations, adding a stupify effect or inability to step to your choices on debilitating strike
Methodical debilitations, adding the option to make the enemy not able to flank, or not gain advantage from cover or shields
And, as a bonus, bloody debilitation, level 12, to any rogue trained in medicine. where you choose to add 3d6 persistant bleed damage to a debilitating strike
Just downloaded my copy as well. Anyone else notice that the top half of the sword is missing from the overlaid elven(?) swashbuckler(?) art on the 2nd page of the Table of Contents?
I got my APG this morning and I'm VERY disappointed in all of you for not telling me that Merisiel and Kyra got married on page 243.
rainzax wrote:
Today's question has to deal with my unfortunately boringly favorite ancestry: Humans. What do the other three feats do?
1) Bounce Back
2) Group Aid
3) Sense Allies
Bonus Question: What about Half-elf's Earned Glory? (We know Pinch Time is Haste 1/day...). Also, any Half-Orc feats?
Bounce Back: 1/day you don't increase the wounded condition due to losing the dying condition
Group Aid: After you Aid an ally at a skill check that doesn’t have the attack trait, you can also Aid any other ally who attempts the same skill check for the same purpose that round.
Sense Allies: Allies within 60 feet of you that would be undetected are hidden instead. The flat check to target these willing, hidden allies is 5 instead of 11
Earned Glory: Trained in Performance + Impressive Performance feat + can't critically fail make an impression
Are there any new 1st or 2nd level Sorcerer class feats in the APG? If yes, can someone with the book or pdf let me know what they are? Many thanks!
There are!
Ancestral Blood Magic (1) - you gain the blood magic effect when casting non-cantrip spells that come from an ancestry or heritage
Anoint ally (2) - let's you give a blood magic effect to an ally
Entreat with Forebears (2) - gives a bonus on social checks with creatures that share your bloodline trait, as well as bonuses to perception and saves against them.
Are there any new 1st or 2nd level Sorcerer class feats in the APG? If yes, can someone with the book or pdf let me know what they are? Many thanks!
There are!
Ancestral Blood Magic (1) - you gain the blood magic effect when casting non-cantrip spells that come from an ancestry or heritage
Anoint ally (2) - let's you give a blood magic effect to an ally
Entreat with Forebears (2) - gives a bonus on social checks with creatures that share your bloodline trait, as well as bonuses to perception and saves against them.
Thanks Moximus! You (and Porridge last week) have really helped me out!
Are there any new 1st or 2nd level Sorcerer class feats in the APG? If yes, can someone with the book or pdf let me know what they are? Many thanks!
There are!
Ancestral Blood Magic (1) - you gain the blood magic effect when casting non-cantrip spells that come from an ancestry or heritage
Anoint ally (2) - let's you give a blood magic effect to an ally
Entreat with Forebears (2) - gives a bonus on social checks with creatures that share your bloodline trait, as well as bonuses to perception and saves against them.
Thanks Moximus! You (and Porridge last week) have really helped me out!
I'm glad to help, and it gives me an excuse to read up on different chunks of new rules!
Pretty frustrated. My subscription went into pending on the 10th, and still hasn’t shipped. Others have gotten their hard copies but I don’t even have the PDF’s yet.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Applied_People wrote:
Just downloaded my copy as well. Anyone else notice that the top half of the sword is missing from the overlaid elven(?) swashbuckler(?) art on the 2nd page of the Table of Contents?
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Verlaunte wrote:
they should show they queue for shipping when your order is pending and maybe show the approximate time for your order to be approved.
they should show they queue for shipping when your order is pending and maybe show the approximate time for your order to be approved.
Honestly that probably would be a disaster. You'd most likely end up with a bunch of impatient people continuing to whine but now with information to try and micromanage. I could imagine the warehouse crew have an emergency or a meeting and somebody scream their head off on the forum because their shipment didn't go out when they expected.
they should show they queue for shipping when your order is pending and maybe show the approximate time for your order to be approved.
Honestly that probably would be a disaster. You'd most likely end up with a bunch of impatient people continuing to whine but now with information to try and micromanage. I could imagine the warehouse crew have an emergency or a meeting and somebody scream their head off on the forum because their shipment didn't go out when they expected.
There have certainly been episodes over the years when people tried to calculate how many packages the warehouse crew "should" be sending out each day that translated into (imo) an eye-watering and soul-destroying pace.
I'd personally like to see it, but you're probably right - Paizo would have some event that threw things off and there'd be a sudden flurry of CS queries about "how come I was 312th in line and now I'm 405th?"
Pretty frustrated. My subscription went into pending on the 10th, and still hasn’t shipped. Others have gotten their hard copies but I don’t even have the PDF’s yet.
Pretty frustrated. My subscription went into pending on the 10th, and still hasn’t shipped. Others have gotten their hard copies but I don’t even have the PDF’s yet.
Mine has been pending since the 9th.
So even that is not the same for all? Subscriber since the first rulebook preorders and 10th (still pending) for me
They started the authorisations on the 9th and it spilled over into the 10th.
Ah explains it though i am surprised a bit sounds to me like manual interactions are necessary there instead of fully automatic algorithms (surprise and curiosity......programmer and automatism fan at hearth :D )
I have only been this agonized by waiting for my subscription to ship once before - the month Wrath of the Righteous #1 shipped. The wait is killing me!
They started the authorisations on the 9th and it spilled over into the 10th.
Ah explains it though i am surprised a bit sounds to me like manual interactions are necessary there instead of fully automatic algorithms (surprise and curiosity......programmer and automatism fan at hearth :D )
It is automated (they set it to run overnight, generally) though it also often stalls and needs to be restarted.
The shipping method on my order changed last night to priority adding $7 to my order. I don't mind it but it really confused me. I'd prefer the cheaper shipping but I'm too worried it'll put my order back further to correct it so I'll leave it.
Got my APG shipped today, so I got my .PDF downloaded and reading through it right now! I can't wait for my players to check it out and explore these new options. <3
What are the limitations on the lineage trait? I assume you can only have one lineage feat. But do you have to take it at level 1 or can you do it later on?