2018-03-07

Paizo Announces Pathfinder 2nd Edition

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Pathfinder 2nd Edition is Coming!

As the post title says, Paizo announced incoming second edition of Pathfinder being planned. At the moment they want to release public betatest later this year in August and then release the final version somewhere in 2019.

You can find some general information about plans >here<, on (recently redesigned) Paizo website.

The second edition promises introduction of 10th level of spells, inclusion of all eleven core classes from the first edition core rulebook plus the alchemist. I'd like to see a bit more of the classes there but we get what we get. Archetypes that were introduced in Advanced Player's Guide will be introduced from the start of second edition. Paizo promises streamlining of various rules, including redesign of action economy: three generic actions and one reaction per turn, no action types, though some activities will consume more than one action—most spells will use two actions for example. Goblins will become playable characters... 

It's interesting development, although I am at the same time a bit wary. It will probably be based on some of the directions taken by Starfinder, and while some of them were good, some of them were rather unimpressive. One of the things that meshes badly with me is being "Golarion-infused". I'd much prefer it to be setting-agnostic.

I wasn't expecting that announcement but at the same time I am not surprised. Pathfinder will be ten years old next year. Many rules could use improvement, many things introduced after the game was created could use moving into the core rules. Will it be done well? We'll see a glimpse of it in half a year, and the final version next year.

Some more information about new edition can be gleamed in >Playtest FAQ<.

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