Pathfinder 2nd Edition

The fine folks at Paizo announced they are working on a second edition of the Pathfinder roleplaying game, due to enter a playtest period in August 2018. As part of the announcement Paizo’s Director of Game Design, Jason Bulmahn, sat down with the crew over at everyone’s favourite actual play podcast —  the Glass Cannon Podcast — to run them through the first recorded version of the in-development rules.

I listened to the GCP Pathfinder playtest podcasts this weekend and what follows are some notes on mechanics which stood out to me:

  • Action Economy overhaul: instead of the 7(!?) types of actions in 1st edition the new rules are moving to a massively simplified action system. Each character can take 3 actions on their turn and one reaction before the start of their next turn.
    This is almost certainly an evolution of the Revised Action Economy rules in Pathfinder Unchained. Some examples from the podcast:
    • Movement is one action, attacking is one action, etc.
    • Characters can attack more than once, from first level! Attacks after the first have a penalty applied (-5, -10) which is different for some weapons (-4 for the Rogue’s second attack action with their dagger).
    • Spell casters use one action per component (Verbal, Somatic, Material) of their spell.
    • Employing a shield to provide an AC bonus requires one action for each turn in which you wish to benefit from the AC.
    • As part of the efforts to balance fighters they have a unique action whereby they can double-move then attack as 2 actions (instead of 3) — Sudden Charge.
    • Classes seem to get different Reactions. In the podcast the Rogue was able to make a “Nimble Dodge” to reduce damage taken and it was mentioned that the fighter could use a Reaction to absorb the impact of a blow on their shield.
    • Jason Bulmahn has revealed more details in a post on the Paizo blog – “All About Actions“.
  • Bulk: 2nd edition appears to be doing away with calculating the weight of all carried items and is instead moving to a “bulk” system. Details are scant but I was immediately reminded of LotFP‘s inventory slots when the team were talking about it. I believe Starfinder has a bulk system too, but I haven’t come across this term yet in my my stalled read through of the rulebook.
  • Passive DC for opposed checks: it was mentioned that more skills are using a “passive” score for opposed checks rather than both sides rolling off. For example a PC using stealth might roll a check against an NPC’s passive Perception skill and a PC attempting to Bluff might roll against an NPC’s passive Sense Motive skill.
  • Initiative is no longer a fixed modifier based on the character’s Dexterity ability, instead the actions the character was taking before the encounter suggest which skill to roll for Initiative:
    • a character who is sneaking about might use Stealth.
    • one who’s tracking a foe could use Survival.
    • the default appears to be Perception.
  • Perception is no longer a skill or at least, it’s a skill every character gets and at which some classes are better at without an explicit player choice.
  • Critical/Fumble: can be scored on skill checks as well as attacks. Fumbles in skills might apply a condition or other negative effect. Beating a DC by 10 or more is a critical, whilst failing by 10 or more is a fumble.
  • Skills: seem to have changed a lot, I’m curious for the Paizo blog post which reveals more about these. There seems to be a base skill modifier called Proficiency (reminiscent of 5e terminology) based on level. I.e. a skill check is d20 roll + level +relevant ability modifier. There also seem to be levels of skill which confer additional modifiers; expert, master, etc.
    • I think there’s still the notion of trained vs. untrained
    • Skills are consolidated, much like in Starfinder and Pathfinder Unchained’s Consolidated Skills alternative rules.
    • Fumbled skill checks have consequences, I.e. false info on a fumbled Society check.
    • Skill Unlocks were mentioned, in his Pathfinder Playtest: Return to the Crypt post on the Paizo blog Jason Bulmahn says they are called Skill Feats in 2nd edition. Skill Unlocks are a feature of Rogues in Pathfinder Unchained.

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