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Pathfinder Dark Archive

4.60/5 (based on 19 ratings)
Pathfinder Dark Archive
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From the fringes, the unknown beckons. Pathfinder Dark Archive contains secrets that any player or GM can use to reveal the paranormal lurking in their Pathfinder games! This spine-tinglingly secretive 224-page hardcover rulebook presents two new character classes perfect for delving into the unexplained: Unleash the untold power of your mind as the psychic or leverage supernatural secrets and mystic implements as the thaumaturge!

Beyond these new classes, eight secret case files each provide player options, GM tools, and lore into a different paranormal topic, including:

  • Strange cryptids glimpsed in the night, gear to track them, and the powers you might gain by surviving an encounter with one
  • Cults and esoteric belief, with apocryphal divine magic and the secret of becoming a living vessel for an eldritch being
  • Temporal anomalies, with archetypes that skim along the surface of time and a new mystery for oracles unbound from causality

Each file concludes with a short adventure to immerse players in the paranormal, spanning across Golarion—play all eight to uncover the inexplicable phenomena of the Age of Lost Omens!

Written by: James Case, Mikhail Rekun, Mark Seifter, Rigby Bendele, Logan Bonner, Dan Cascone, Jessica Catalan, Banana Chan, Kay Hashimoto, Sen.H.H.S., Patrick Hurley, Joshua Kim, Avi Kool, Daniel Kwan, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Liane Merciel, Jacob W. Michaels, Andrew Mullen, Quinn Murphy, K. Tessa Newton, Patrick Renie, Michael Sayre, Shay Snow, Alex Speidel, Solomon St. John, Geoffrey Suthers, Ruvaid Virk, Jabari Weathers, and Isis Wozniakowska

[Additional Web Content spoiler - click to reveal]

The following pages were distributed online after the release of Dark Archive for readers to decipher themselves. You can find them here:

[Solution to Additional Web Content - click to reveal]

The Lost Pages were discovered to lead to the following file:

ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-443-7

The adventures contained within this rulebook, the "Dark Archive Case Files," are sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running these Adventures and Chronicle Sheets are available as a free download (923 KB PDF).



Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Pathfinder Nexus on Demiplane
Roll20 Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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4.60/5 (based on 19 ratings)

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Badly organized, worth it if you want to play psychic/thaumaturge

2/5 —

I imagine most people who like this book like it for the classes: the psychic (an Int or Cha-based occult caster that can empower cantrips) or thaumaturge (a mostly martial class that takes advantage of foe's weaknesses). The classes are interesting, and it's nice to have another occult caster, but neither really inspired me to create a new character.

The rest of the book is a confusing amalgamation of player options. There are a handful of interesting backgrounds scattered among the sporadic Incident Reports, but they aren't listed in the table of contents or index. At least the page numbers for all the items are collected in the index, but they felt somewhat repetitive. There are also 9 archetypes (some of them incredibly situational), some new spells and occult skill feats, a versatile heritage for duplicates (actually quite cool), and options for witches and oracles.

For the GM, this book doesn't offer much. There are a few NPC templates and new hazards, and some interesting ways of rewarding players. The 8 adventures are so short and mixed in with the PC sections that I'd assume any player with access to the book would accidentally read spoilers. If Paizo is going to insist on writing most of its lore and GM advice in-character now, this book does strike a good balance of actually providing content instead of ramblings. Still, there isn't really enough space to do each of the 8 topics justice.

It's sad to be giving another Pathfinder 2E product a bad review. I love the system and need to go back to write reviews for the products I did enjoy.

The new benchmark for Paizo releases

5/5 —

Dark Archive is easily the best Pathfinder Second Edition book to date.

Setting aside the Psychic and Thaumaturge -- two unique, flavorful, and highly-customizable classes that would be enough to hang any release's hat on -- DA is full of personality and great ideas to enrich your game with the strange and occult.

The framework, that the book is a collection of casefiles from the titular Dark Archive organization, holds the content together very well. Unique items and character options will be preceded by a page of interviews or case notes from archivists that uncovered it. The prose itself is just fun to read, on top of providing interesting mechanical content.

And bookmarking each section is a fun mini-adventure that showcases the idea. What better way to teach players and GMs about the new cryptid mechanics than to give them a cryptid to seek out? Though you might have trouble weaving one full campaign from these adventures, they're provided in a way that is easy to weave into an existing campaign.

There really isn't much more to say. This is the standard by which all future PF2e books should be judged. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Lots of phenomenal stuff

5/5 —

The Psychic was one of two classes I most wanted back in 2e, and so I'm delighted that it's not only here so soon, but that it's far and away my favorite caster class in the game! The amount of room for customization in it (and its fellow, the Thaumaturge) are an absolute blast, showing a clear step forward in class design. I can only hope the eventual Inquisitor and Shaman revisits are similarly excellent.

Everything else is a lot of fun. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how exciting the Arcadian and Tian casefiles are.

Amazing Classes!

5/5 —

Love the new classes! Really like the small adventure for each section to be able to experience each of the different themes.

Great class design

5/5 —

Psychic and Thaumaturge are some of the best-designed PF2 classes out there. I thought that Magus was great, but these two are even better. Fantastic blend of good crunch, evocative abilities and flexibility. Keep doing this, Paizo.

The lore elements of this book are great, too, although I'm not entirely sold on this being a hybrid GM/player book. I really like the inclusion of mini-adventures, perfect for one gaming night.

Overall, 4.75/5.

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I think we'll see a 3PP Kineticist by Mark now that he is no longer with Paizo for quicker than we'll see Paizo tackling the class themselves.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Totally Not Gorbacz wrote:
I think we'll see a 3PP Kineticist by Mark now that he is no longer with Paizo for quicker than we'll see Paizo tackling the class themselves.

I mean, I expect we’ll keep seeing new classes each year a little longer, and it’s hard to imagine what would make the shortlist above Kineticist; Inquisitor is a popular one, and we’ve heard at least some interest in a Shaman rework for this edition, but I’m not sure either are more in-demand than the elemental benders.

Liberty's Edge
2 people marked this as a favorite.

I think many people wanted Kineticist rather than Summoner, Gunslinger, Psychic or Occultist / Thaumaturge. And yet we got those first.
Scarab Sages Designer
18 people marked this as a favorite.
GGSigmar wrote:
I look forward to more spoilers for this book. Oh great (old ones) Michael Sayre and James Case, please bless us with something new, please! :D

My focus at PaizoCon will be talking about something new and exciting that has nothing to do with Dark Archive, so you'll have to be content with James' response until then.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I think it's a safe bet to assume you are going to announce third rule book for this year ;)
Liberty's Edge
6 people marked this as a favorite.

The book of ads : a book full of advertisement from Golarion. And nothing beyond that. No deep lore, no mysteries, no rules.
Scarab Sages Designer
17 people marked this as a favorite.
The Raven Black wrote:
The book of ads : a book full of advertisement from Golarion. And nothing beyond that. No deep lore, no mysteries, no rules.

Just 264 pages of The Amazing Mister Golarion giving body-building tips and advertising the latest fitness routines and equipment available at Absalom's many YMCAs.

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Michael Sayre wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:
The book of ads : a book full of advertisement from Golarion. And nothing beyond that. No deep lore, no mysteries, no rules.
Just 264 pages of The Amazing Mister Golarion giving body-building tips and advertising the latest fitness routines and equipment available at Absalom's many YMCAs.

Aided by his two wellness representatives....HANZ UND FRANZ!!!.....they may or may not be here to pump you up

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

July feels so far away...

keftiu wrote:


I mean, I expect we’ll keep seeing new classes each year a little longer, and it’s hard to imagine what would make the shortlist above Kineticist; Inquisitor is a popular one, and we’ve heard at least some interest in a Shaman rework for this edition, but I’m not sure either are more in-demand than the elemental benders.

In fairness, I don't think a short list really has proven to be much use. Before the playtest a lot of people had written off the Psychic as subsumed by the Occult sorcerer. People were discussing new ways to reconceptualize the Gunslinger because people knew we wouldn't get a class built around a single weapon type, and while I'd seen some people talk about putting Starfinder classes in PF2, I don't think I saw much of anyone talking about the Mechanic.

With how bad the short lists have been I think we might be better off starting from the bottom up.

So the next book will probably be a martial arts themed book with the Samurai in it.

The Raven Black wrote:
The book of ads : a book full of advertisement from Golarion. And nothing beyond that. No deep lore, no mysteries, no rules.

Obviously not happening but this sort of sounds cool. Little cultural snippets are always really fascinating and something that gets missed with how big-picture setting books necessarily are.

Kinda noticed that Paizo's been using blog fiction to do a lot more personal fiction and lifestyle snippets... might be cool to see like, an advertising flyer or two or something somewhere in there.
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Michael Sayre wrote:
GGSigmar wrote:
I look forward to more spoilers for this book. Oh great (old ones) Michael Sayre and James Case, please bless us with something new, please! :D
My focus at PaizoCon will be talking about something new and exciting that has nothing to do with Dark Archive, so you'll have to be content with James' response until then.

Hmm... I wonder if it will be something along the lines of an "Event" book that could be used as a campaign-wide rules option in any Pathfinder game, sort of like a more expansive version of an optional rule like SoM's Pervasive Magic or Starfinder's Drift Crisis book - only it'll be something like "Clash of the T... err...Elementals", "Alien Incursion/Akiton Wants Dwarves", or "Cayden Cailean went on a bender and now everyone is forgetting stuff"/AKA "The Gap". :P

Or maybe it'll be Paizo's version of Savage Species with a lot of monsters as playable ancestries/heritages... after all, if you can dodge a wrench... I mean, play as a construct, dragon, and/or undead, you can play as a nymph, giant, uplifted owlbear, or a sapient slime that wears and operates a skeleton like a puppet/mecha to interact with all the civilized folk! Right!?! :P

Secret Spoiler:
Actually, not joking, I REALLY want to play as a nymph, uplifted owlbear, or sentient ooze (with a bone suit!) now that I have put that out there.
Sczarni
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
James Case wrote:
GGSigmar wrote:
I look forward to more spoilers for this book. Oh great (old ones) Michael Sayre and James Case, please bless us with something new, please! :D
Hmm... just saying, but PaizoCon's next month and that's traditionally when a lot of information for the Gen Con release drops. If I knew what kind of things people were interested in learning more about--the classes? the GM tools? the player options? the lore? the mini-adventures?--that might be good to know about ＿φ( °-°)/

I REALLY want to know about the thaumaturge new implements and the new bonuses that that can be granted instead of just creating weaknesses.. Plus whether there is a unique one per implement or not that was discussed in the overview from the playtest.

"Preorder, expected approximately 27 Jul 2022"

Didn't the Product Availability say 04 August 2022 as of a couple days ago? Did a book get reverse delayed?
Marketing & Media Manager
8 people marked this as a favorite.
bsmith709 wrote:

"Preorder, expected approximately 27 Jul 2022"

Didn't the Product Availability say 04 August 2022 as of a couple days ago? Did a book get reverse delayed?

We are releasing July products on Wednesday, July 29 and not holding them for Gen Con, the first weekend of August.

Aaron Shanks wrote:
bsmith709 wrote:

"Preorder, expected approximately 27 Jul 2022"

Didn't the Product Availability say 04 August 2022 as of a couple days ago? Did a book get reverse delayed?

We are releasing July products on Wednesday, July 29 and not holding them for Gen Con, the first weekend of August.

Yahoo!

1 person marked this as a favorite.

LOVE the final cover look! Really sells the "forbidden tome" feel of this hardcover!

Love the cover!
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

That cover is most excellent.
Aaron Shanks wrote:
We are releasing July products on Wednesday, July 29 and not holding them for Gen Con, the first weekend of August.

I assume you will have plenty of these for sale AT GenCon though? Nothing better than being able to purchase a book and read it immediately :D

keftiu wrote:
Totally Not Gorbacz wrote:
I think we'll see a 3PP Kineticist by Mark now that he is no longer with Paizo for quicker than we'll see Paizo tackling the class themselves.
I mean, I expect we’ll keep seeing new classes each year a little longer, and it’s hard to imagine what would make the shortlist above Kineticist; Inquisitor is a popular one, and we’ve heard at least some interest in a Shaman rework for this edition, but I’m not sure either are more in-demand than the elemental benders.

Demand is not the only factor that determines when we get a new class for PF2. We also have to consider how difficult it is to construct the class. If the Paizo folks see problems with the 3rd party implementations of the Kineticist, it may be that they don't have that problem solved yet.

Marketing & Media Manager
Hikuen wrote:
Aaron Shanks wrote:
We are releasing July products on Wednesday, July 29 and not holding them for Gen Con, the first weekend of August.
I assume you will have plenty of these for sale AT GenCon though? Nothing better than being able to purchase a book and read it immediately :D

I think so.

Paizo Employee Designer
11 people marked this as a favorite.

Hey everyone, I know kineticist is one of those classes that a lot of people really liked in P1 and always comes up on "when/how will Paizo update X class/archetype for P2" lists, alongside a few others, but I'd appreciate if we could keep things on topic here--there's a lot of theorycrafting on over in the General Discussion forums!
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Sorry James, you're right of course. I'm sure there will be a lot more to discuss after paizocon, right now people are chomping at the bit! Very much looking forward to more news about psychic, there are a lot of ways it could change within the framework discussed in the playtest retrospective blog.
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I didn't expect to be excited about it, but I am getting excited for the Psychic class. I don't like playing Bards and it would be very nice to play a dedicated Occult-Tradition full spellcaster without having to be a Bard. I'm not enamored with the 2E versions of the Witch or Sorcerer; they just fall flat for me. The Psychic seems like it will be right up my alley, though.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Ashanderai wrote:
I didn't expect to be excited about it, but I am getting excited for the Psychic class. I don't like playing Bards and it would be very nice to play a dedicated Occult-Tradition full spellcaster without having to be a Bard. I'm not enamored with the 2E versions of the Witch or Sorcerer; they just fall flat for me. The Psychic seems like it will be right up my alley, though.

I feel very similarly; full casters don’t do much for me, but I’m a sucker for that occult flavor, and can’t seem to run out of unique ideas for Psychic PCs.

Excited for this one!

I'm excited for the few new monsters & those oh you survived an encounter with x feats
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Actually, now that you say that, I am very curious to see how much of this will also be a Bestiary. I imagine each section will likely have a number of monsters related to whatever topic the dossier is about. Hoping to see a healthy number of additions of that front.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

A mini Bestiary would be welcome. :3

A supplement that my GM could really use right now, but that Paizo has all but guaranteed will never happen:

Monsters of Sarusan!
2 people marked this as a favorite.

It is what... 10 days until we learn what lurks inside The Dark Arhive? I want to see all the horrors and secrets inside already :)
Wayfinders
David knott 242 wrote:


I have my copy, so feel free to ask questions.

Excuse me, how?

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have my copy, so feel free to ask questions.
David knott 242 wrote:


I have my copy, so feel free to ask questions.

I’m not sure that’s possible, but I’m choosing to believe you!

What are the dossier topics? Are there any new Psychic subclasses?

ⁿᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ
4 people marked this as a favorite.

Oops, I got my books mixed up. I just received Knights of Lastwall and failed to notice that this is a thread for a different product that is still two months out. Sorry about that.
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

And like a cryptid creature, it was but a myth. D:
Paizo Employee Designer
15 people marked this as a favorite.

All shall be revealed... next week!
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
James Case wrote:
All shall be revealed... next week!

He said "All"! You guys saw that too, right?!?!? Now, we get to know everything about the Dark Archive and "all" its mysteries in 10 days!!! Woohoo!

;) :P

Just kiddin', James! I would never hold you to that!
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Well I am curious about that "being a vessel to eldritch being" thing.
Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Ashanderai wrote:
James Case wrote:
All shall be revealed... next week!

He said "All"! You guys saw that too, right?!?!? Now, we get to know everything about the Dark Archive and "all" its mysteries in 10 days!!! Woohoo!

;) :P

Just kiddin', James! I would never hold you to that!

10 days for a week ?

Inflation really hit.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Ashanderai wrote:
James Case wrote:
All shall be revealed... next week!

He said "All"! You guys saw that too, right?!?!? Now, we get to know everything about the Dark Archive and "all" its mysteries in 10 days!!! Woohoo!

;) :P

Just kiddin', James! I would never hold you to that!

They will be revealing everything... psychically.

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Gisher wrote:
Ashanderai wrote:
James Case wrote:
All shall be revealed... next week!

He said "All"! You guys saw that too, right?!?!? Now, we get to know everything about the Dark Archive and "all" its mysteries in 10 days!!! Woohoo!

;) :P

Just kiddin', James! I would never hold you to that!

They will be revealing everything... psychically.

My mind is ready.

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
The Raven Black wrote:
Ashanderai wrote:
James Case wrote:
All shall be revealed... next week!

He said "All"! You guys saw that too, right?!?!? Now, we get to know everything about the Dark Archive and "all" its mysteries in 10 days!!! Woohoo!

;) :P

Just kiddin', James! I would never hold you to that!

10 days for a week ?

Inflation really hit.

The mention of 10 days was a reference to GGSigmar's post further up, but on the same day as my post. I haven't seen the PaizoCon seminar schedule yet and 10 days from yesterday would have put a potential Dark Archive Seminar on Saturday the 28th and I thought that James Case was being generic in his mention of a week and that maybe GGSigmar had seen the schedule (which I cannot seem to find - is it even out yet?).

Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
The Raven Black wrote:
10 days for a week ? Inflation really hit.

Hehe. One RPG setting I know (Hârnworld) doesn't have weeks. The closest it comes is that sometimes some people refer to a "tenday". I guess because all 12 months are exactly 30 days, and there's a full moon on the first and a new moon on the fifteenth.

5 people marked this as a favorite.

I know we will know in like 4 days, but right now I am still willing to be a vessel for an eldritch being just to have a peek inside of the Dark Archive. Notice me, C'thulu-senpai!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Be careful what you wish for. :-)
4 people marked this as a favorite.

ooh an adventure set in Iblydos!
3 people marked this as a favorite.

I am hoping to make my Phoenix/Dark Phoenix/Emma Frost character
Marketing & Media Manager
4 people marked this as a favorite.

PaizoCon 2022: Declassifying The Dark Archive will premier on YouTube at 9 AM Pacific on June 1.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Aaron Shanks wrote:
PaizoCon 2022: Declassifying The Dark Archive will premier on YouTube at 9 AM Pacific on June 1.

That was very informative.

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