Pathfinder: Playtest Four New Classes For The Advanced Player’s Guide
Four new classes are coming to Pathfinder 2nd Edition ahead of the Advanced Player’s Guide, and Paizo wants you to play them today. Check them out!
The Advanced Player’s Guide was one of the books that changed everything for Pathfinder when it first came out, introducing a ton of new rules that have since become a beloved part of Pathfinder canon. Whether the prophet-haunted Oracle, the hat-wearing Inquisitor, or the Alchemist–now a part of 2E core–the book featured new classes, and introduced one of the mechanics that helped Pathfinder distinguish itself among all the d20 products: archetypes.
Now the Advanced Player’s Guide is coming to Pafthfinder 2E at next year’s Gen Con, and Paizo is previewing it with four new classes that you can download right now and playtest. You’ll find the Investigator, the Oracle, the Swashbuckler, and the Witch. Let’s take a look.
via Paizo
This playtest focuses on four new classes for the upcoming Advanced Player’s Guide, a rulebook full of new character options that is scheduled for release at GEN CON in August of 2020.
The investigator is a savvy, street-smart character who takes cases to uncover clues and solve mysteries. This class ties to parts of the game that aren’t covered in depth in the Core Rulebook, so the playtest will see if their approach to solving mysteries is satisfying while keeping the rules for the game as a whole flexible.
The Invesitgator is very much the skill-focused character you’ve been wanting. They’re basically a rogue but they center around quick observation and noticing key details. They’re very much the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes.
The oracle commands divine powers by drawing from universal concepts, casting powerful revelation spells that take a toll on their body and manifest as a double-edged curse. The designers want to make sure the curse effects are fun and engaging without disrupting the balance of the class compared to other characters. For the playtest, they’ve selected only a subset of mysteries, but there will be more in the final version.
Oracles are powerful support spellcasters and also have access to secret, divine mysteries. These mysteries give you special abilities, training in skills, and special divine domains. You might pick from Battle, Flames, or Life in the playtest. These give you different flavors of curses to use on your foes.
The swashbuckler is the flamboyant daredevil of the battlefield, tumbling through foes and entering a heightened state to deliver devastating finishing blows. Players will be testing a system that encourages them to gain panache, a state of bombastic flair that lets them use more powerful abilities. The playtest version emphasizes new rules specific to the class so that they can playtest those thoroughly, but the final version might pick up some of the fighter’s weapon feats suited to dueling.
Swashbucklers are all about style and substance. They seem to play a little bit like a barbarian only instead of entering rages, they enter a state called panache, which is fueled by sliding down bannisters, swinging on chandeliers, etc. It makes you move faster and gives you access to special finishing moves to use when fighting in melee.
The witch serves a mysterious patron entity, casting spells and hexes learned through a powerful familiar. This is the most flexible spellcasting class Paizo has introduced since it allows you to build your own path by selecting not only feats but also lessons from your patron. The designers want to make sure those options work well both narratively and mechanically across all three of the spellcasting traditions the witch can gain access to.
Witches are all about dark lessons learned from mysterious patrons. But don’t call them warlocks. They are also spellcasters, full casters, but their spells come through a mechanic called Dark Lessons which teach you new spells as well as granting you a special hex that can debuff your foe.
Once you’ve had a chance to try the classes, you can submit your feedback in the following ways. If you only have time for one form of feedback, Paizo asks you to please take the survey. It makes it easier for them to hear and apply your feedback since it’s more structured and puts your responses directly at their fingertips.
Check out the Paizo Advanced Player’s Guide Playtest
Happy Adventuring!
