Pathfinder 2E Wizard Changes in Pathfinder 2e Remaster

Paizo released a preview of the changes coming to the wizard class for the Pathfinder Player Core and GM Core updates to Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

The blog post from Senior Designer James Case discusses the removal of the eight schools of magic. Rather than dividing the wizard class by spell category, the new arcane schools will be based on actual academic study paths in Golarion. Schools previewed in the blog post include the School of Battle Magic, the School of Civic Wizardry, and the School of Mentalism.

A second blog post from Pathfinder Lead Designer Logan Bonner discusses more changes to the wizard class. The term “spell level” is being replaced with “spell rank”, the aforementioned changes to spell schools, and changes to focus spells and the Refocus action.

One of the big changes discussed is the removal of spell components. According to Bonner, the change was made because spell components were highly tied to OGL content, were mostly redundant with traits, had many exceptions for classes (specifically bard, cleric, druid, and sorcerer) to allow those classes to function, and the designers wanted to give more freedom for classes in how they cast spells.

The blog post also goes into detail on changes being made to spell statistics and proficiencies affecting multiclassing, updates to cantrips both for player characters and monsters, and changes to some of the spells.

Full details about changes can be found in the Remaster Core Preview file available in PDF format.

 

[jolt]

It sounds like the class will now be more explicitly Golarion focused which means homebrew settings will have more trouble using it. Oh well.

I believe that's the entire intention for PF2. I think it was somewhere on the Paizo forums where it was mentioned that, unlike PF1, PF2 assumes you're playing in Golarion. You don't have to, but the design decisions assume you are.

 

[payn]

I believe that's the entire intention for PF2. I think it was somewhere on the Paizo forums where it was mentioned that, unlike PF1, PF2 assumes you're playing in Golarion. You don't have to, but the design decisions assume you are.

Folks make it sound like thats a massive hurdle to homebrew, and it really isnt. There isn't anything in the rules that isnt simply flavor text that could be waved away easily.

 

[Velderan]

Folks make it sound like thats a massive hurdle to homebrew, and it really isnt. There isn't anything in the rules that isnt simply flavor text that could be waved away easily.

Same, I think the default setting just makes it easier since you have a functional example to model your homebrew off of.

 

[jedijon]

Artwork is an ad for your product—it’s what gets the fingers to stop scrolling, the mind to say “hey, that’s neat - I’ll buy it”. And this artwork isn’t anything I’d expect from the pathfinder brand. Even as a placeholder it’s surprisingly ‘90’s home published looking.

 

[Marc Radle]

Finally, a version of D&D (called Pathfinder) that doesn't call them spell "levels"

Tales of the Valiant is doing this as well

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Folks make it sound like thats a massive hurdle to homebrew, and it really isnt. There isn't anything in the rules that isnt simply flavor text that could be waved away easily.

For PF2 E v1 sure, but it doesn’t have anything that can’t be easily reskinned or ignored. Changing the mage class to use golarion colleges rather than something more generic might be a bit harder though. It’s not a huge deal ultimately, and most people do use Golarion, so my specific use case is probably irrelevant. This is just another case where if I want something suitably flexible for my needs that doesn’t require ignoring or rewriting, I may prefer to look elsewhere is all. That said, I’ll wait to see the final product before assuming anything.

 

[Staffan]

For PF2 E v1 sure, but it doesn’t have anything that can’t be easily reskinned or ignored. Changing the mage class to use golarion colleges rather than something more generic might be a bit harder though. It’s not a huge deal ultimately, and most people do use Golarion, so my specific use case is probably irrelevant. This is just another case where if I want something suitably flexible for my needs that doesn’t require ignoring or rewriting, I may prefer to look elsewhere is all. That said, I’ll wait to see the final product before assuming anything.

My impression of the PF2R wizard is that the colleges will be pretty generic – they've mentioned Battle Magic and Civic Wizardry, not the Magaambiya or the Acadamae. The latter might show up in support material, but probably not in the core.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

My impression of the PF2R wizard is that the colleges will be pretty generic – they've mentioned Battle Magic and Civic Wizardry, not the Magaambiya or the Acadamae. The latter might show up in support material, but probably not in the core.

That’s a good sign! Thanks for that info.