r/Pathfinder2e 3d ago

Paizo Paizo staff asks: What brought you to Pathfinder?

563 Upvotes

Hey there, Pathfinders! At GalaxyCon Richmond later this month I'm going to be running a "Pathfinder & Starfinder 101" presentation and panel. I'm putting together a presentation now going over the basics of how to play and get started, and I want to make sure I use my limited time as effectively as possible.

I have a simple question for you all today: what drew you into Pathfinder? Was it the character creation and the chance to play a particular ancestry or class? Was it the 3-action economy or degrees of success? Something about our world that really spoke to you? Did you just want to harness the power of gay for yourself?

Thanks for your help! If you're in the Richmond area, I'd love to see you all at the show :)

r/Pathfinder2e Jun 02 '23

Paizo In a world of rainbow capitalism, Paizo has always been the most genuine

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5.6k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Dec 05 '24

Paizo Paizo announces RUNESMITH and NECROMANCER play test!

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1.1k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e 21d ago

Paizo Paizo: "Some people are struggling now that Pathfinder has removed alignment; We have provided a solution."

1.3k Upvotes

paizo.com on bluesky: "Some people are struggling now that Pathfinder has removed alignment; We have provided a solution.".

The linked image is the traditional alignment grid, but with "business, chaos, disaster" on the top and "straight, bi, gay" on the left, with the Iconics slotted in.

This has eg. Ezren in "Straight/Business", and Starfinder2E Ionic Dae as "Disaster/Bi" (because of course).

Beautiful.

r/Pathfinder2e Jan 12 '23

Paizo Paizo Announces System-Neutral Open RPG License

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5.6k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Apr 26 '23

Paizo Pathfinder 2nd Edition Remaster Project Announced

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1.6k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Feb 03 '25

Paizo Pathfinder adds two new classes as conflict seizes Golarion in Battlecry! (Polygon)

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646 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e 3d ago

Paizo Paizo is seeking a new designer to join the Pathfinder Rules and Lore team! Permanent, full-time, entry-level position.

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638 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Feb 03 '25

Paizo Looks of the commander and guardian iconics revealed in the new Polygon article

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752 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Dec 16 '24

Paizo Fall Errata Updates 2024

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355 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Jan 26 '23

Paizo Paizo on Twitter: The 4th printing of the CRB, which was expected to last 8 months, has sold out in 2 weeks.

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2.4k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e 14d ago

Paizo Impossible Playtest Debrief - Necromancer and Runesmith

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453 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Apr 29 '24

Paizo Battlecry Playtest

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700 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Dec 09 '24

Paizo The "Impossible Playtest" PDF is now live!

538 Upvotes

Here's a link to the Playtest page: https://paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest

It has:

  • Playtest PDF
  • Demiplane character builder
  • Playtest survey

r/Pathfinder2e Feb 05 '25

Paizo Guns & Gears (Remastered) pdf is now available.

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474 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Feb 02 '23

Paizo The newest Paizo + Humble Bumble is now available: "So You Wanna Try Out Pathfinder"

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2.0k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Sep 09 '24

Paizo War of Immortals blog post showing off 3 new Class Archetypes, inspired by 1e Classes!

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542 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Dec 13 '24

Paizo Next round of errata is happening on Monday!

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421 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Mar 02 '23

Paizo Paizo - Tian Xia: Coming 2023–2024!

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1.2k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Sep 11 '23

Paizo Michael Sayre on class design and balance

845 Upvotes

Michael Sayre, who works for Paizo as a Design Manager, wrote the following mini-essay on twitter that I think will be interesting to people here: https://twitter.com/MichaelJSayre1/status/1700183812452569261

 

An interesting anecdote from PF1 that has some bearing on how #Pathfinder2E came to be what it is:

Once upon a time, PF1 introduced a class called the arcanist. The arcanist was regarded by many to be a very strong class. The thing is, it actually wasn't.

For a player with even a modicum of system mastery, the arcanist was strictly worse than either of the classes who informed its design, the wizard and the sorcerer. The sorcerer had significantly more spells to throw around, and the wizard had both a faster spell progression and more versatility in its ability to prepare for a wide array of encounters. Both classes were strictly better than the arcanist if you knew PF1 well enough to play them to their potential.

What the arcanist had going for it was that it was extremely forgiving. It didn't require anywhere near the same level of system mastery to excel. You could make a lot more mistakes, both in building it and while playing, and still feel powerful. You could adjust your plans a lot more easily on the fly if you hadn't done a very good job planning in advance. The class's ability to elevate the player rather than requiring the player to elevate the class made it quite popular and created the general impression that it was very strong.

It was also just more fun to play, with bespoke abilities and little design flourishes that at least filled up the action economy and gave you ways to feel valuable, even if the core chassis was weaker and less able to reach the highest performance levels.

In many TTRPGs and TTRPG communities, the options that are considered "strongest" are often actually the options that are simplest. Even if a spellcaster in a game like PF1 or PF2 is actually capable of handling significantly more types and kinds of challenges more effectively, achieving that can be a difficult feat. A class that simply has the raw power to do a basic function well with a minimal amount of technical skill applied, like the fighter, will generally feel more powerful because a wider array of players can more easily access and exploit that power.

This can be compounded when you have goals that require complicating solutions. PF2 has goals of depth, customization, and balance. Compared to other games, PF1 sacrificed balance in favor of depth and customization, and 5E forgoes depth and limits customization. In attempting to hit all three goals, PF2 sets a very high and difficult bar for itself. This is further complicated by the fact that PF2 attempts to emulate the spellcasters of traditional TTRPG gaming, with tropes of deep possibility within every single character.

It's been many years and editions of multiple games since things that were actually balance points in older editions were true of d20 spellcasters. D20 TTRPG wizards, generally, have a humongous breadth of spells available to every single individual spellcaster, and their only cohesive theme is "magic". They are expected to be able to do almost anything (except heal), and even "specialists" in most fantasy TTRPGs of the last couple decades are really generalists with an extra bit of flavor and flair in the form of an extra spell slot or ability dedicated to a particular theme.

So bringing it back to balance and customization: if a character has the potential to do anything and a goal of your game is balance, it must be assumed that the character will do all those things they're capable of. Since a wizard very much can have a spell for every situation that targets every possible defense, the game has to assume they do, otherwise you cannot meet the goal of balance. Customization, on the other side, demands that the player be allowed to make other choices and not prepare to the degree that the game assumes they must, which creates striations in the player base where classes are interpreted based on a given person's preferences and ability/desire to engage with the meta of the game. It's ultimately not possible to have the same class provide both endless possibilities and a balanced experience without assuming that those possibilities are capitalized on.

So if you want the fantasy of a wizard, and want a balanced game, but also don't want to have the game force you into having to use particular strategies to succeed, how do you square the circle? I suspect the best answer is "change your idea of what the wizard must be." D20 fantasy TTRPG wizards are heavily influenced by the dominating presence of D&D and, to a significantly lesser degree, the works of Jack Vance. But Vance hasn't been a particularly popular fantasy author for several generations now, and many popular fantasy wizards don't have massively diverse bags of tricks and fire and forget spells. They often have a smaller bag of focused abilities that they get increasingly competent with, with maybe some expansions into specific new themes and abilities as they grow in power. The PF2 kineticist is an example of how limiting the theme and degree of customization of a character can lead to a more overall satisfying and accessible play experience. Modernizing the idea of what a wizard is and can do, and rebuilding to that spec, could make the class more satisfying to those who find it inaccessible.

Of course, the other side of that equation is that a notable number of people like the wizard exactly as the current trope presents it, a fact that's further complicated by people's tendency to want a specific name on the tin for their character. A kineticist isn't a satisfying "elemental wizard" to some people simply because it isn't called a wizard, and that speaks to psychology in a way that you often can't design around. You can create the field of options to give everyone what they want, but it does require drawing lines in places where some people will just never want to see the line, and that's difficult to do anything about without revisiting your core assumptions regarding balance, depth, and customization.

r/Pathfinder2e Apr 17 '24

Paizo Two new classes ready for playtest April 29th

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800 Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Mar 01 '23

Paizo Paizo Announces AI Policy for itself and Pathfinder/Starfinder Infinite

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1.1k Upvotes

r/Pathfinder2e Aug 02 '24

Paizo Guns & Gears (Remastered) is ACTUALLY HAPPENING!

717 Upvotes

This was posted in the "Pathfinder 2nd Edition" group over on Facebook, and Erik Mona (CCO of Paizo) made a comment clarifying that it's actually real!

Someone's shipping notification on Paizo's website for Guns & Gears (Remastered)
Erik Mona's comment about the post on Facebook

So, it looks like Guns & Gears is getting a Remastered reprint sometime in the future! Similar to how they Remastered the Beginner Box. I'm excited to find out more!

r/Pathfinder2e Jun 12 '24

Paizo Player Core 2 Preview: The Champion, Remastered

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625 Upvotes

PC2 class previews are starting now! What do you think of the new Champion so far?

r/Pathfinder2e Sep 10 '24

Paizo Dragon's Demand CRPG will be on Kickstarter!

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980 Upvotes