Paizo To Make Kingmaker Bestiary... For D&D 5E!

Parmandur · May 3, 2019

Jer said:
If it's good, it's pretty much guaranteed to outsell the PF2 product. Because there are a lot more 5e players than PF players to start with, and not all of them will transition to PF2.

I admit I'm surprised - this is Paizo signalling that they're willing to give up on having their own game line and go back to being a D&D 3rd party publisher. If they're going to do that why bother with a major revision for second edition PF at all? Why not just clean up Pathfinder into a 1.5 edition and dual-stat their books for Pathfinder and 5e?

Well, if the major revision doesn't pan out financially, it is good to have something solid to fall back on.

Jer · May 3, 2019

robus said:
Agreed and that's kind of why I was surprised that PathFinder 2nd edition didn't pivot to be Advanced 5e.

Why bother with a second edition at all tho if you're just going to make it "Advanced 5e"? Why not just put out an "Advanced Player's Guide" for D&D 5e if you're just going to start from the 5e base? Much lower buy-in that way - you're not asking folks to change to an entirely new game, you're giving them more options for a game they already play.

Paul Farquhar · May 3, 2019

Aldarc said:
Already doomsaying PF2 before it has been released?

Hasn't it been released yet? I thought it had already sunk.

Parmandur · May 3, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Hasn't it been released yet? I thought it had already sunk.

Nah, they did a public playtest that was fairly contentious. The actual game comes out for GenCon.

kenmarable · May 3, 2019

Jer said:
Why bother with a second edition at all tho if you're just going to make it "Advanced 5e"? Why not just put out an "Advanced Player's Guide" for D&D 5e if you're just going to start from the 5e base? Much lower buy-in that way - you're not asking folks to change to an entirely new game, you're giving them more options for a game they already play.

An "Advanced Player's Guide" for 5e would be an interesting book, but it's just that - 1 book.

That's not what Paizo is doing. They have always positioned themselves as an entire alternative RPG with multiple product lines that is more complex that D&D for those who want it. They have never been and are not interested in being "D&D plus some options."

Considering how many years they have been going strong and how they outclass nearly every other RPG publisher out there other than WotC (and did even better than WotC for a while, too), it seems to be working pretty well for them.

Ralif Redhammer · May 3, 2019

Adjusts glasses, checks date.

No, not April 1st.

Checks weather.com for current conditions in hell.

No, hasn’t frozen over…

I’m entirely surprised. A Bestiary is an interesting start - presumably to help folks run this in 5e. I can certainly always use more monsters, though. Personally, I’d like to see a magic item collection – Pathfinder has had some very cool ones that would be fun to see in 5e.

thundershot · May 3, 2019

Maybe rather than doom and gloom, Paizo just wants to make more money? 5E is doing great and extra dough is never a bad thing. Pathfinder was there for me when 4E failed me. But when 5E came out, I found my system of preference. Is it perfect? Nope. But it’s easy and fun, especially useful when teaching my children to play. 2E was the best. Over the top abilities and no concern for balance? It was just fun. But not the easiest system to learn with an 8 and 11 year old.

LuisCarlos17f · May 3, 2019

The bestiaries are a good way to update the modules. I mean the modules are mainly the stories and plot, and you can use a module for a previous edition if you have got the updated stats of monsters.

Now I wonder about we could see a 5th Ed version of Pathfinder classes (inquisitor, knight, oracle, gunslinger, witch, alchemist, summoner...), and how the counter-strike by WotC would be, maybe a Pathfinder version of dragonborn, warlock, and other classes as dread necromancer, archivist or artificer.

MechaTarrasque · May 3, 2019

I haven't played it, but there is a list of monsters at https://pathfinderkingmaker.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Bestiary. Linnorms are always fun (you want to kill it, but you don't want to be the one who actually kills it).

Jer · May 3, 2019

kenmarable said:
That's not what Paizo is doing. They have always positioned themselves as an entire alternative RPG with multiple product lines that is more complex that D&D for those who want it. They have never been and are not interested in being "D&D plus some options."

That response was specifically in response to robus saying:

Agreed and that's kind of why I was surprised that PathFinder 2nd edition didn't pivot to be Advanced 5e.

If they were going to do Advanced 5e and try to get that market, then it makes no sense to make a second edition of Pathfinder - just write some 5e books that will attract the 5e players looking for more crunchy stuff and new character classes.

And while I agree that's not what Paizo is doing currently, this move to make a 5e compatible bestiary suggests very strongly that they are now willing to concede that Pathfinder as an RPG may not be the right approach for where the market is now and they need to start planning to be able to pivot to something else. That's not where I would have suspected they were as a company even yesterday, so I'm honestly shocked by it.