Pathfinder 2E Pirates & Gray Maidens: Archetypes in Pathfinder 2nd Edition!

It's time to take a look at Pathfinder 2nd Edition's treatment of archetypes. Archetypes are one of the most widely used additions to Pathfinder 1st Edition, and in 2nd Edition they are an integral part of the game. Let's take a look!

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• Archetypes can be accessed by multiple classes.
• They are a series of feats taken instead of class feats (roughly one every other level).
• You take a "dedication" feat which opens up all the archetype's feats to you.
• You can have multiple archetypes by making more than one dedication, but once you take a dedication you can't take another until you've taken a certain number of its related archetype feats.
• Pirate Dedication -- "this first feat gives you a fair number of advantages while on a boat, certainly helping should combat break out, but you need to take more pirate feats before you can pick up another dedication feat... The pirate archetype has six feats to choose from (in addition to the dedication feat), which gives you plenty of variety if you are looking to explore the archetype before heading to the next one."
  • Sea Legs -- "Sea Legs really helps when you are in the water, letting you swim faster and hold your breath longer. It's also a prerequisite for Roll with the Ship, a feat that lets you reroll your Reflex saves when you are on your ship!"
  • Boarding Action -- "Boarding Action is one of those feats that nearly every pirate can be expected to have, since setting yourself up to board and pillage the enemy ship is going to be vital! It lets you close the distance to your foes, and if you move from one ship to another during this move, you can make a strike that deals extra damage! It's a bit more limited than the fighter's Sudden Charge, but you deal bonus damage as a benefit if you pull it off."
• Gray Maiden Dedication -- "Becoming a master at Fortitude saves is not something you can easily do in most classes; in fact, level 6 is sooner than even a barbarian can manage, and that armor is some of the best you can find. Of course, joining the Gray Maiden organization is no simple feat either."
  • Unbreakable -- "This grants many of the benefits of the Toughness and Diehard general feats combined, and it stacks with both to make an incredibly resilient character."

 

[Aldarc]

So at this point, what isn't a feat?

 

[Morrus]

So at this point, what isn't a feat?

I think that's the point. The number of different "types" of building blocks has been reduced. Paizo has commented before on how a lot of "spell-like" stuff is now spells, for example.

 

[Aldarc]

I think that's the point. The number of different "types" of building blocks has been reduced. Paizo has commented before on how a lot of "spell-like" stuff is now spells, for example.

I suppose, but it's still not clear to me how many building blocks a character will have access to over a given span of levels. I am worried about how long it will take to get into your character concept that increasingly appears gated behind a potential wall of feats and feat taxes.

 

[RevTurkey]

These previews are turning me off the new edition. My issues with 1st Edition seem to be getting magnified and turned up to eleven. I think they are trying to please the hardcore 1st edition fans too much and are missing a huge market of people who would buy their Adventure Paths if the system was a bit simpler and more accessible. I cancelled my pre-order of the beta because of the previews. Each to their own etc and it's not like I don't have other games to choose from but it's a shame they seem intent on making this so crunchy, superpowered and overblown for my tastes.

 

[Kaodi]

I, for one, welcome our new 2nd Edition overlords.

 

[Imaculata]

I like having more character options, but I wonder if we're not getting too many. How will a player keep track of all these things? I can see myself easily forgetting that I can reroll a reflex save onboard a ship, due to a feat.

 

[Koloth]

If one of the goals was to clean up the rules language, "Roll with the Ship" might be a step backwards. It mentions rerolling a reflex save "When on your ship." As written, this becomes a very specific feat, only good on the pirate's current ship, either owned or crewed for, not a strange ship.

Plus I keep finding the [[AA]] nomenclature rather jarring on the eyes. We do have computers and printers with symbols outside the range of an old style typewriter.

 

[Morrus]

Plus I keep finding the [[AA]] nomenclature rather jarring on the eyes. We do have computers and printers with symbols outside the range of an old style typewriter.

It’s a placeholder for the little icons they’ll be using in the book.

 

[Ghal Maraz]

Things I keep finding funny about these previews' commenters (here and on Paizo):

- "These are not the old archetypes! I want them back!". You're ignoring the fact the old archetypes' concept of "take Y class feature instead of the baseline X feature" is wholly substituted by the new Class Feat concept.

- "How am I even supposed to remember all those Feat things?". How are you getting to remember all your Class features now?

- "Where's my beloved hyper-snowflake character concept gone?". How are they supposed to recreate every absurd concept from ten years of game content in just one playtest packet?

- "Why aren't they going for a rules-liter game?". Why should they pander to D&D 5th edition crowd, which is perfectly served by that game?

- today's newest preferred complaint: " The nomenclature is jarring". They've already said (quite a few times) that the final product will have special icons instead of old style typewriters' symbology.

[Take all of this at tongue-in-cheek value]