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Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide

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Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide
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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



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Player's Guide... but ADVANCED

5/5 —

It gave us four beloved classes (some being reworked as time of writing) with unique flavor and original mechanics, showing what insane feats (pun intended) the system is capable of reaching. Excellent resource for GMs and players alike.

Very good

5/5 —

Now more or less replaced by Player Core 1 and 2. Was very good though.

4/5 —

APG meets Expectations as it Concludes the Original Vision of PF2

5/5 —

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.

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Can't-miss book for anyone at the table

5/5 —

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!

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2 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm gonna use the Assassin archetype with a Monk to create a kung-fu assassin.
Grand Lodge

Honor demands it!
2 people marked this as a favorite.

So basically Gen from Street Fighter. I'm into it!
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Odraude wrote:
So basically Gen from Street Fighter. I'm into it!

Learn some rituals and you have Shredder from IDW’s Ninja Turtles run too. And if you build Gen, you’ve essentially built Pei Mei too....

Vaktaeru wrote:
That looks like a lot more than 5 ancestries: Aasimar, tiefling, duskwalker, kobold, orc, catfolk, ratfolk, tengu, dhampir, changeling? That's at least 10!

Remember the difference between ancestries and heritages. Ancestries are the equivilent of vastly different species, such as human, elf, and dwarf. While heritages are different variations of a singular race.

Thus we have Catfolk, Kobold, Orc, Ratfolk, and Tengu as individual ancestries, or species. While we have 5 new heritages for all ancestries, or species. Aasimar(Upper plan ancestor), Tiefling(lower plane ancestor), Dhampir(Vampire ancestor), Changeling(Hag ancestor), and Duskwalker(I dont actually know they're origin).

It's a change I love with this system as it makes perfect sense that other races would retain their native racial ancestry while still being affected by the strange things that create these heritages.

that reminded me of rhe old 2e male Medusa creature, was it the maeder?
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dazzerix wrote:

<snip>

Thus we have Catfolk, Kobold, Orc, Ratfolk, and Tengu as individual ancestries, or species. While we have 5 new heritages for all ancestries, or species. Aasimar (Upper plane ancestor), Tiefling (lower plane ancestor), Dhampir (Vampire ancestor), Changeling (Hag ancestor), and Duskwalker (I dont actually know their origin).
<snip>

Duskwalker is a heritage for those who have a Graveyard (as in the plane) or Psychopomp ancestor (or influence), essentially.

Carry on,

--C.
Liberty's Edge

I wonder how to create a Magical Girl Assassin, maybe with Aasimar heritage.

What about a Vigilante that would change their ancestry or heritage with their identity?
The Raven Black wrote:

I wonder how to create a Magical Girl Assassin, maybe with Aasimar heritage.

What about a Vigilante that would change their ancestry or heritage with their identity?

That would be interesting.

Psiphyre wrote:
Dazzerix wrote:

<snip>

Thus we have Catfolk, Kobold, Orc, Ratfolk, and Tengu as individual ancestries, or species. While we have 5 new heritages for all ancestries, or species. Aasimar (Upper plane ancestor), Tiefling (lower plane ancestor), Dhampir (Vampire ancestor), Changeling (Hag ancestor), and Duskwalker (I dont actually know their origin).
<snip>

Duskwalker is a heritage for those who have a Graveyard (as in the plane) or Psychopomp ancestor (or influence), essentially.

Carry on,

--C.

Actually, I think they might be Revenants, essentially. They're apparently people who died, but for some ineffable reason were sent back to Golarion and reborn as Duskwalkers. They also periodically get sent on errands by psychopomps to guard the cycle of life and death.

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

42 archetypes (including multiclass) as per Twitch. I see some stuff like Archeologist, Martial Artist, Bounty Hunter, and Linguist.

Orcs have a strength boost, a free boost, and no flaw! Tengu work the same, but with Dex.
Silver Crusade
10 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Archetype list:

Acrobat, Archaeologist, Archer, Assassin, Bastion, Beastmaster, Blessed One, Bounty Hunter, Cavalier, Celebrity, Dandy, Dragon Disciple, Dual Weapon Warrior, Duelist, Eldritch Archer, Familiar Master, Gladiator, Herbalist, Horizon Walker, Investigator, Linguist, Loremaster, Marshal, Martial Artist, Mauler, Medic, Oracle, Pirate, Poisoner, Ritualist, Scout, Scroll Trickster, Scrounger, Sentinel, Shadowdancer, Snarecrafter, Swashbuckler, Talisman Dabbler, Vigilante, Viking, Weapon Improviser.
8 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Catfolk: Dex, Cha bonuses, Wis flaw.
Kobolds: Dex, Cha bonuses, Con flaw.
Orcs: Str bonus, free bonus, no flaw.
Ratfolk: Dex, Int bonuses, Str flaw.
Tengu: Dex bonus, free bonus, no flaw.

Versatile heritages will have ancestry feats to indicate what kind of ancestor they have.

And apparently the kitsune are coming out in February.

And Bestiary 3 in the Spring! Confirmed to return are Clockworks, troops, hyakume (sp), sakhils, imperial dragons, and tooth fairies, and it will debut the Stheno, an ancestry-ready group of medusa-like people who are literal new creations in world.
Silver Crusade
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Evan Tarlton wrote:
and it will debut the Stheno, an ancestry-ready group of medusa-like people who are literal new creations in world.

!!!

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Evan Tarlton wrote:

Catfolk: Dex, Cha bonuses, Wis flaw.

Kobolds: Dex, Cha bonuses, Con flaw.
Orcs: Str bonus, free bonus, no flaw.
Ratfolk: Dex, Int bonuses, Str flaw.
Tengu: Dex bonus, free bonus, no flaw.

*sigh* I did this quickly during the stream. I'm sure it's clear from the other patterns, but I can't edit my post so I'll say it here: Catfolk, Kobolds, and Ratfolk also have a free bonus in addition to their static bonuses, like most of the other ancestries in the game. The Orcs and Tengu have the one static bonus and the one free bonus, similar to humans.

ETA:

Rysky wrote:
!!!

Mark made them sound really interesting. They were created by a single powerful Euryale medusa, and the fact that they are a new ancestry will be baked into their lore. They are still figuring out who they are as a people. They do not necessarily turn people to stone with their gaze.

Silver Crusade

Ooo!

Well, color me aroused.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
VerBeeker wrote:
Well, color me aroused.

Are you sure that's the word you wanted to use?

Gorbacz wrote:

Archetype list:

Acrobat, Archaeologist, Archer, Assassin, Bastion, Beastmaster, Blessed One, Bounty Hunter, Cavalier, Celebrity, Dandy, Dragon Disciple, Dual Weapon Warrior, Duelist, Eldritch Archer, Familiar Master, Gladiator, Herbalist, Horizon Walker, Investigator, Linguist, Loremaster, Marshal, Martial Artist, Mauler, Medic, Oracle, Pirate, Poisoner, Ritualist, Scout, Scroll Trickster, Scrounger, Sentinel, Shadowdancer, Snarecrafter, Swashbuckler, Talisman Dabbler, Vigilante, Viking, Weapon Improviser.

This is maybe the most interesting part of the book for me. I REALLY want to dig into these some more.

What book will kitsune be released in?
Gorbacz wrote:

Archetype list:

Acrobat, Archaeologist, Archer, Assassin, Bastion, Beastmaster, Blessed One, Bounty Hunter, Cavalier, Celebrity, Dandy, Dragon Disciple, Dual Weapon Warrior, Duelist, Eldritch Archer, Familiar Master, Gladiator, Herbalist, Horizon Walker, Investigator, Linguist, Loremaster, Marshal, Martial Artist, Mauler, Medic, Oracle, Pirate, Poisoner, Ritualist, Scout, Scroll Trickster, Scrounger, Sentinel, Shadowdancer, Snarecrafter, Swashbuckler, Talisman Dabbler, Vigilante, Viking, Weapon Improviser.

Thank you.

is this list missing the witch?

I appreciate the fact that everyone knew exactly what I meant when I said "Kung-fu Assassin".
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:
What book will kitsune be released in?

In the just announced Lost Omens Ancestry Guide, which will also include androids and geniekin, and a few ancestries that have never been available before. This includes the grig, which we know from the cover.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:

Archetype list:

Acrobat, Archaeologist, Archer, Assassin, Bastion, Beastmaster, Blessed One, Bounty Hunter, Cavalier, Celebrity, Dandy, Dragon Disciple, Dual Weapon Warrior, Duelist, Eldritch Archer, Familiar Master, Gladiator, Herbalist, Horizon Walker, Investigator, Linguist, Loremaster, Marshal, Martial Artist, Mauler, Medic, Oracle, Pirate, Poisoner, Ritualist, Scout, Scroll Trickster, Scrounger, Sentinel, Shadowdancer, Snarecrafter, Swashbuckler, Talisman Dabbler, Vigilante, Viking, Weapon Improviser.

Weird that there's no Witch archetype.

Odraude wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:

Archetype list:

Acrobat, Archaeologist, Archer, Assassin, Bastion, Beastmaster, Blessed One, Bounty Hunter, Cavalier, Celebrity, Dandy, Dragon Disciple, Dual Weapon Warrior, Duelist, Eldritch Archer, Familiar Master, Gladiator, Herbalist, Horizon Walker, Investigator, Linguist, Loremaster, Marshal, Martial Artist, Mauler, Medic, Oracle, Pirate, Poisoner, Ritualist, Scout, Scroll Trickster, Scrounger, Sentinel, Shadowdancer, Snarecrafter, Swashbuckler, Talisman Dabbler, Vigilante, Viking, Weapon Improviser.

Weird that there's no Witch archetype.

There's one in the image they showed. It definitely exists, just a transcription error here.

Sporkedup wrote:
Odraude wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:

Archetype list:

Acrobat, Archaeologist, Archer, Assassin, Bastion, Beastmaster, Blessed One, Bounty Hunter, Cavalier, Celebrity, Dandy, Dragon Disciple, Dual Weapon Warrior, Duelist, Eldritch Archer, Familiar Master, Gladiator, Herbalist, Horizon Walker, Investigator, Linguist, Loremaster, Marshal, Martial Artist, Mauler, Medic, Oracle, Pirate, Poisoner, Ritualist, Scout, Scroll Trickster, Scrounger, Sentinel, Shadowdancer, Snarecrafter, Swashbuckler, Talisman Dabbler, Vigilante, Viking, Weapon Improviser.

Weird that there's no Witch archetype.
There's one in the image they showed. It definitely exists, just a transcription error here.

Ahhh no sweat. For a second I thought they cut it after the playtest.

Evan Tarlton wrote:
Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:
What book will kitsune be released in?
In the just announced Lost Omens Ancestry Guide, which will also include androids and geniekin, and a few ancestries that have never been available before. This includes the grig, which we know from the cover.

The grig is actually an heritage for the sprite ancestry. I was hoping for merfolks to be included as well.

Evan Tarlton wrote:
Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:
What book will kitsune be released in?
In the just announced Lost Omens Ancestry Guide, which will also include androids and geniekin, and a few ancestries that have never been available before. This includes the grig, which we know from the cover.

So cool

I wonder if rhe diabolic monk style feats will be available?
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Tons pf great stuff in here. Cannot wait! Side note, seems like a ton of Ancestry stuff coming down the pike.

I'm so curious about the little druid blurb. It seems unlike any druid thing we've seen thus far. "Feats to sow seeds into weapons and spells alike", what the heck does that mean?

Very happy with what's been said about witch and oracle, two classes I was worried about. Hex cantrips is huge, all spell lists is great, new familiars are exciting. I'm curious about how they fixed familiars dieing being too big of a problem, as they said they were going to make the penalty much less severe. Oracle having 8 (!!!) mysteries is huge, and being able to mix and match mysteries and curses is awesome, if I understood that right. And cosmetic changes for each one! Time will tell if the penalties and bonuses are rebalanced to a good spot.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gaulin wrote:
and being able to mix and match mysteries and curses is awesome, if I understood that right.

Unfortunately, you didn't not understand that right. Mysteries and curses are still tied together, but they've been rebalanced and include the minor physical manifestation with the combo, making it difficult to hide your curse/power.

6 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber

I have a Google Doc here that contains all of the notes I took, plus double checking them against the fantastic live notes taken by /u/The-Magic-Sword on Reddit.
Dark Archive
VestOfHolding wrote:
I have a Google Doc here that contains all of the notes I took, plus double checking them against the fantastic live notes taken by /u/The-Magic-Sword on Reddit.

This is fantastic, thank you!

VestOfHolding wrote:
I have a Google Doc here that contains all of the notes I took, plus double checking them against the fantastic live notes taken by /u/The-Magic-Sword on Reddit.

This is great! Thank you!

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber

No problem! I'll be making more updates over the next day or two as I transcribe the text that's in the images more fully.

So just looking over what new archetypes could go with the new classes, I came up with the idea of a party that is a research team going out on an expedition: an Archaeologist Investigator, a Medic Oracle, a Linguist Swashbuckler, and a Loremaster Witch. Which all sound like a blast to play to me.
Silver Crusade
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Cleric Medic, for when you absolutely, certainly, must make sure that heroes never die.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Gorbacz wrote:
Cleric Medic, for when you absolutely, certainly, must make sure that heroes never die.

Life oracle medic might be even better

VestOfHolding wrote:
No problem! I'll be making more updates over the next day or two as I transcribe the text that's in the images more fully.

How did you capture the art? It is gorgeous.

will the improved familiars be available from the get go for casters at lvl 1?
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Looking over Vestof Holding’s google doc, I’m wondering if a spear based swashbuckler is a viable option.

Very curious to see if casting ranger and Eldritch trickster are going to get increasing casting proficiency. It would be cool to have cantrips on either that scale without having to take so many multiclass feats

I'll be surprised if the ranger's focus spells matter much whether they get casting proficiency. (Buffs/utility, not attacks/debuffs.)
Paizo Employee Developer
Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:
is this list missing the witch?

I typed the list live during the twitch stream (in the audience). Twitch didn't have enough characters to let me type "Witch" so I had to include it in a second message as "...Witch".

Paizo Employee Developer
Daemoro wrote:
Along with others here I'm hoping for a Neutral Champion Order... other than one with "Druish" tendencies I can't think of another neutral champion other than maybe a "Knight of Meh".

This is all off the top of my head but...

A Champion of Balance could worship the Monad, Pharasma, Nethys or even Shyka. They could focus on maintaining the balances between alignments, the elements or even ideals like freedom and security. They could have reactions that trigger in response to alignment or elemental damage.

A Champion of Knowledge could worship Brigh, Nethys, Shkya or Sivanah. They could be defenders of creation, experimentation and/or records. They could have reactions that defend against attacks of opportunity taken against spellcasters.
Paizo Employee Developer
LizardMage wrote:
Looking over Vestof Holding’s google doc, I’m wondering if a spear based swashbuckler is a viable option.

There was a fabulously fun fighter archetype in the later days of PF1e that played like a spear-based swashbuckler. And the bladed brush feat from paths of the righteous. I'm sure we'll see a dexterous spear-fighter before 2e is out.

Are Neautrel champions now options?
VestOfHolding wrote:
No problem! I'll be making more updates over the next day or two as I transcribe the text that's in the images more fully.

Please let us know when they are done.

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