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Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide Preview #3

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The start of Gen Con 2010 is now just three weeks away, which means things are getting busy around the office, but the big buzz is still the impending release of the Advanced Player's Guide, due to hit mailboxes and games stores in early August. Each week until release, I am taking you on a tour of this mighty sourcebook. In the past weeks we have looked at some new race material and rules for the six new base classes. This week we are wrapping up Chapter 2 by exploring some of the new rules content for the 11 base classes from the Core Rulebook.

The biggest portion of this part of Chapter 2 is given over to new class archetypes. These packages allow you to play one of the classes, but with a different theme. Each archetype swaps out a number of class features from the base class, but keeps much of its core mechanics, meaning that you can easily have a character that is similar in concept without having to worry about stepping all over the rules of the existing classes. For example, let's take a close look at the court bard.

Like the standard bard, the court bard uses the same base attack progression, Hit Dice, class skill list, and proficiencies. The differences first appear in the court bard's bardic performance. Instead of inspire courage, the court bard receives the following ability:

Satire (Su): A court bard can use performance to undermine the confidence of enemies who hear it, causing them to take a –1 penalty on attack and damage rolls (minimum 1) and a –1 penalty on saves against fear and charm effects as long as the bard continues performing. This penalty increases by –1 at 5th level and every six levels thereafter. Satire is a language-dependent, mind-affecting ability that uses audible components.

Of course, that's not all the court bard gets. At 3rd level he gets mockery instead of inspire competence. This ability causes a foe to take penalties on all Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks as long as the bard is performing. At 8th level, the court bard replaces dirge of doom with glorious epic, which causes enemies to become flat-footed while the bard is performing. At 14th level, the scandal performance replaces frightening tune. This ability mimics song of discord, causing panic in the court bard's foes. There are changes to some of the court bard's other class features as well, including the ability to change the area of his bardic performance.

Moving beyond the bard, each class has a host of archetypes of new class features to choose from. Clerics, for example, can select from a host of subdomains. Each subdomain is linked to one of the domains from the Core Rulebook, and taking one is the same as taking its parent domain, except that some of the domain spells and one of the granted powers is different. For example, let's take a look at Fate, the subdomain of Luck, and its granted power that replaces the good fortune power.

Tugging Strands (Su): At 8th level, you can force a creature within line of sight to reroll any one roll that it has just made before the result of the roll is revealed. The result of the reroll must be taken, even if it is worse than the original roll. You can use this ability once per day at 8th level and one additional time per day for every six levels above 8th.

Each class has a host of new options to play with, from dozens of new rage powers and rogue talents, to new ways of playing wizards and rangers. There are literally more character ideas in this book than I can summarize in a single blog post. Just while I was flipping through, I remembered that I want to make an urban ranger in an upcoming campaign. Instead of favored terrains, he receives favored communities, granting him bonuses whenever he is within city limits. He also receives trapfinding like a rogue, and the ability to push through crowds and other difficult urban terrains.

I am also looking forward to making a new sorcerer with one of the 10 bloodlines from the sorcerer section of the book. Of them, Stormborn might be my favorite. At 15th level, you gain the ability to turn into a living lightning bolt and zip around the battlefield at 10 times your speed, damaging everyone in your path. Truth be told, I am also looking very strongly at the Shadow bloodline, which grants an ability to create a darkness so thick that it entangles your foes.

If you can't tell, I am very excited about the wealth of new character options presented in this book. I am so excited that I want to leak the entire list of archetypes that will be found in the Advanced Player's Guide. Check out this spread from Chapter 2 that lists them all.

Thats all for this week. Tune in next week for a look at feats, gear, spells, and magic items.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

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Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

In before the Baron !

And I am oh so totally rolling a Celestial Dire Gas Spore Zen Archer !

Teh Hax!
The wiener must be me!
Dark Archive
Gorbacz wrote:

In before the Baron !

And I am oh so totally rolling a Celestial Dire Gas Spore Zen Archer !

Don't push it, sack boy! Jesting at our esteemed m'lord Baron's expense might swiftly get you a one-way ticket to one of our slave galleons... ;P

Dark Archive

I'm truly impressed at this preview! There are *more* alternative builds than I even dreamed of... and they don't just replace a single class feature like those substitution levels in 3E did -- you get a host of alternative abilities! :)

I'm a bit worried that 'Arcane Duelist' (Bard) or 'Swashbuckler' (Rogue) might step on Duelist's toes... and 'Breaker' and 'Drunken Brute' (Barbarian) sound like bad jokes -- don't 99% of barbarians usually break stuff while drunk? ;) And what's the difference between 'Savage Warrior' and 'Savage Barbarian'?

On the other hand, there are a lot of cool builds there; for example Shamans, Shadow bloodline, Beast Master, Shining Knight, Polearm Master (although I'm not sure if this is the proper mechanical way to go with different combat styles) and Skirmisher. Nice!
Asgetrion wrote:
And what's the difference between 'Savage Warrior' and 'Savage Barbarian'?

Why, loincloth style, of course!

Un-pathed Arc-finder!

Alternative class features are great! Break the mold without breaking the game, yay!
Grand Lodge

I don't think that the Swashbuckler and the Arcane Duelist will end up stepping on each other's toes too much. I think the Arcane Duelist will just be a nice take on the melee spellcaster... The Buckler o' Swash will be the fighting oriented Rogue-ish character...

As for Barbie, I dunno... that will remain to be seen...

I am really looking forward to this book... *sigh* Time doesn't move fast enough when you want it to.
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