The wait for whatever book the impossible play test classes is in, is a tough one. This has been the first gencon since pf2e launched that we haven't gotten the scoop for the next gencon rulebook. It's also looking like the longest wait between play test and release unless there's a very unexpected surprise around the corner (which there won't be).
I don't want to get too much into speculation or doom and gloom, but does have we heard anything about why this might be happening? Is the rulebook release schedule slowing down, have recent happenings in the states delayed product, or is it turnover? I understand all of those reasons, but it would be nice to get some sort of update on things.
I recall reading somewhere that Paizo was transitioning their major announcements to the monthly website updates. However, those haven’t been very consistent and so now as a consumer I don’t have the conventions to anticipate for the announcements, even though I do not attend those. Additionally, with the lack of major bulletins on the blogs/website I’m starting to lose interest in a game that I’ve been playing for a while but know less and less about what products are coming as each month passes.
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This is normally when the playtest for those classes would be wrapping up. SF2 forced a very early playtest, so while it's been a while since we got any news, we aren't actually too behind on news- mainly the book name.
I was actually just about to post something about this. I'm not surprised we don't have a release date yet but i am a bit surprised we don't even have a title. Unlike "battlecry" i kind of doubt "impossible" is what the final rulebook will be called
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I think the much more Impossible wait is the much vaunted, unclearly timed and likely highly-structural change to the Paizo website…
This is normally when the playtest for those classes would be wrapping up. SF2 forced a very early playtest, so while it's been a while since we got any news, we aren't actually too behind on news- mainly the book name.
Eh, not that early. Six months was the general cadence outside the long gap between DA/RoE/WoI which was obviously fueled by the remaster.
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If I had to hazard a guess, I think they've implemented a new book strategy, which discourages talking about the next big event when the latest big event just started.
War of Immortals kicked off the Godsrain, and battlecry! kicked off the Hellfire Crisis. So these last two class books coincided with major events. The Pathfinder setting has been alluding to Nex's return, so it sounds like the Impossible book is meant to coincide with Nex's return, and likely a war between the nations of Geb and Nex reigniting late next year, but Paizo probably does not want to talk about this event while they barely started going into detail on the Hellfire Crisis.
We've sort of entered a new era last year where there is plot to coincide with these class books, rather than them simply being setting-agnostic add-ons to the system, that might occasionally mention lore. The new class book format makes it harder to talk about the book without talking about next year's plot for Pathfinder.
That's a very interesting theory and I would not be surprised if it was the case. I hugely look forward to new classes and I'm not especially patient, so I'm not sure if I agree with stretching out the wait between play test and release, but in the grand scheme it's not a big deal. I was hoping the impossible classes would be out a year after their play test, so around January, but that window has closed. Then hoping to hear more about it at gencon; that didn't happen either. Hopes dashed again when nothing was mentioned in the mid August keynote. I think I look forward to this stuff too much!
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War of Immortals kicked off the Godsrain, and battlecry! kicked off the Hellfire Crisis.
Man they've done a much worse job promoting the hellfire crisis I think this is the first I've heard anyone mention it.
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Man they've done a much worse job promoting the hellfire crisis I think this is the first I've heard anyone mention it.
War of Immortals kicked off the Godsrain, and battlecry! kicked off the Hellfire Crisis.
Is that the new war with Cheliax and Andoran?
I'm not super abreast of upcoming APs.
I just know that there's no shot we get to play it out from Cheliax's side.
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Yeah, it's getting a Rulebook, a Lost Omens book, two Adventure Paths (One 1-10 level, another 11-20), a novel, and some PF Society stuff (assuming no extra stuff which hasn't already been announced taking place during the event, which is I guess possible); plus the Shining Kingdoms book obviously having been released to help set up for the event. Quite a fair sized thing.
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That's a very interesting theory and I would not be surprised if it was the case. I hugely look forward to new classes and I'm not especially patient, so I'm not sure if I agree with stretching out the wait between play test and release, but in the grand scheme it's not a big deal. I was hoping the impossible classes would be out a year after their play test, so around January, but that window has closed. Then hoping to hear more about it at gencon; that didn't happen either. Hopes dashed again when nothing was mentioned in the mid August keynote. I think I look forward to this stuff too much!If I had to hazard a guess, I think they've implemented a new book strategy, which discourages talking about the next big event when the latest big event just started.
War of Immortals kicked off the Godsrain, and battlecry! kicked off the Hellfire Crisis. So these last two class books coincided with major events. The Pathfinder setting has been alluding to Nex's return, so it sounds like the Impossible book is meant to coincide with Nex's return, and likely a war between the nations of Geb and Nex reigniting late next year, but Paizo probably does not want to talk about this event while they barely started going into detail on the Hellfire Crisis.
We've sort of entered a new era last year where there is plot to coincide with these class books, rather than them simply being setting-agnostic add-ons to the system, that might occasionally mention lore. The new class book format makes it harder to talk about the book without talking about next year's plot for Pathfinder.
I feel the same. Im so excited for this announcement that im going crazy with the wait.
I just realized the playtest explicitly states that the book will be released in 2026, so that has me less confused and concerned on why we haven't gotten much new info on this yet.
They explained at GenCon that going forward they want to move more product anouncements and line-up changes to the beginning of their fiscal year (That's why the PFS and AP changes start in 2026). So we just happen to be in a transitional drought. It's probably also why we've gotten so little more than teasers for SF2 content beyond the 3 core books.
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A novel? I didn't think Paizo did those anymore. Did I get the wrong end of the stick?
They released 2 novels this year already (1 Pathfinder, 1 Starfinder), with the third coming in February.
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Yeah I think the most optimistic take I have is that paizo is changing from announcing their biggest rulebooks at gencon, to letting gencon be more about the releases that come out gencon week. We might still get this book next gencon... Hopefully. It's just unfortunate that we get a change in announcement scheduling, seemingly the longest play test we have had, and no communication about any of it. Made worse that I find the classes really interesting and am very curious to see the final versions.
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We might still get this book next gencon... Hopefully.
I really don't expect it to take that long. The playtest was released Dec. 2024. I expect the book to release Q1 or early Q2. A whole year and a half sounds WAY to long. So far I think books have usually released 13-14 months after playtest, not 18.
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I understand Paizo wants to change around their announcement or release schedule, that's fine and normal. But the reason this is somewhat bothering about this particularly book is that was the book we playtested the classes for where they wouldn't even tell us the title of the book for the playtest (a thing that they hadn't done before.)
So some part of this has to be "they are holding their cards close to their vest" because the very title of the book is predicated on something big happening.
We might still get this book next gencon... Hopefully.I really don't expect it to take that long. The playtest was released Dec. 2024. I expect the book to release Q1 or early Q2. A whole year and a half sounds WAY to long. So far I think books have usually released 13-14 months after playtest, not 18.
I'd love for you to be right, but that seems really close to not have any announcements (or leaks, which seems to be pretty consistent lately with rulebooks, such as the upcoming dragon book or dark archive remastered being spoiled ahead of paizo announcing).
Yeah, I assume the Nex/Geb thing is starting again and they didn't want to tell us that three years out. But also, "the Nex/Geb thing can start happening again at any point" has also been a thing they've been signposting for over 10 years.
We might still get this book next gencon... Hopefully.I really don't expect it to take that long. The playtest was released Dec. 2024. I expect the book to release Q1 or early Q2. A whole year and a half sounds WAY to long. So far I think books have usually released 13-14 months after playtest, not 18.
I will point to Starfinder having an uncertain playtesting schedule that they may have intentionally cleared space for. Unless you think they are going to fit in a class playtest in for the GenCon book, or that they won't not have new classes at GenCon?
having a playable necromancer and another magic themed class in a thing titled impossible when 'impossible' is used specifically to refer to two places in setting.
And it's probably not 'impossible kingdoms' content since that would require extra support and doesn't suggest necromancer.
I will point to Starfinder having an uncertain playtesting schedule that they may have intentionally cleared space for. Unless you think they are going to fit in a class playtest in for the GenCon book, or that they won't not have new classes at GenCon?We might still get this book next gencon... Hopefully.I really don't expect it to take that long. The playtest was released Dec. 2024. I expect the book to release Q1 or early Q2. A whole year and a half sounds WAY to long. So far I think books have usually released 13-14 months after playtest, not 18.
It's possible. Some of the playtest > release cycles have been as short as 6 months, so a January playtest for a gencon book wouldn't be entirely outside what we've seen before.
I understand Paizo wants to change around their announcement or release schedule, that's fine and normal. But the reason this is somewhat bothering about this particularly book is that was the book we playtested the classes for where they wouldn't even tell us the title of the book for the playtest (a thing that they hadn't done before.)
So some part of this has to be "they are holding their cards close to their vest" because the very title of the book is predicated on something big happening.
I think another thing they hadn’t done before (at least in my memory/back to 2012ish) is release a playtest without sketch art of the Iconics.
I feel so many things are in transition for Paizo at the moment. Changes to Adventure Paths from episodic releases to hardcovers; the release of SF2; changes to PFS; the final Remasterings and also the slow but sure move to a new webportal/store/site.
I also feel that these are all fairy useful/necessary, the unfortunate thing is that any or all of these changes, taken together or in part will play havoc with production and thus the release schedule will no longer be “normal”. What might have been a usual occurrence is…a thing of the past.
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We might still get this book next gencon... Hopefully.I really don't expect it to take that long. The playtest was released Dec. 2024. I expect the book to release Q1 or early Q2. A whole year and a half sounds WAY to long. So far I think books have usually released 13-14 months after playtest, not 18.
Battlecry playtest was April 2024 and the book came out at the end of July 2025, so that was 15 months.
So 18 isn't that much longer of a delay, considering all the other stuff going on.
Didn't they say the Impossible Playtest came early so as to not overlap with the planned (subsequently delayed) Starfinder Tech playtest?
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If they did, I missed it. Personally I'm not marketing genius, but I would think just announcing he product with a bit longer of a wait is preferrable to radio silence and uncertainty. If there is a reason for the delay/paizo being tight lipped, it would be nice to know that reason. But again there could be, and probably is, a reason for what's going on; I'm just antsy.
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I understand Paizo wants to change around their announcement or release schedule, that's fine and normal. But the reason this is somewhat bothering about this particularly book is that was the book we playtested the classes for where they wouldn't even tell us the title of the book for the playtest (a thing that they hadn't done before.)
So some part of this has to be "they are holding their cards close to their vest" because the very title of the book is predicated on something big happening.
I think another thing they hadn’t done before (at least in my memory/back to 2012ish) is release a playtest without sketch art of the Iconics.
I feel so many things are in transition for Paizo at the moment. Changes to Adventure Paths from episodic releases to hardcovers; the release of SF2; changes to PFS; the final Remasterings and also the slow but sure move to a new webportal/store/site.
I also feel that these are all fairy useful/necessary, the unfortunate thing is that any or all of these changes, taken together or in part will play havoc with production and thus the release schedule will no longer be “normal”. What might have been a usual occurrence is…a thing of the past.
Battlecry's playtest didn't have them either.
Ah yes. I don’t remember seeing the Jotun iconic until I saw the cover.
Someone correct me if im wrong, but I recall the Battlecry and Impossible playtests being virtually back to back, on the scale of playtests. Its not weird to me its been so long since Impossible because it was weird to me that Impossible was so fast after Battlecry that I outright assumed it would be almost two years until we saw fruition.