The Latest Pathfinder 2 Playtest Update Has Dropped!

Along with the start of The Mirrored Moon, the fourth of the seven playtest scenarios which make up Doomsday Dawn, Paizo has released Pathfinder Playtest Update 1.3, which includes numerous changes plus a big update to the multiclass archetypes.

Along with the start of The Mirrored Moon, the fourth of the seven playtest scenarios which make up Doomsday Dawn, Paizo has released Pathfinder Playtest Update 1.3, which includes numerous changes plus a big update to the multiclass archetypes.

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Playtest Update
Today also marks the release of Update 1.3, which delivers a number of substantive changes to the game, including a revision to the Proficiency, DCs, death, dying, the Medicine skill, and revisions to a number of classes. But there’s one other gigantic addition:

Multiclass Archetype Update. Paizo has playtest material for all 12 of the multiclass archetypes, along with some revisions to the existing multiclass archetypes found in the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook. These additions expand the range of tools when building new characters. With these changes, players can now create a bard that dabbles in the strange mysteries of the monk, or a barbarian with a sorcerous lineage. Paizo put all of these archetypes in a document for ease of reference, the Multiclass Archetype Update. The playtest bundle, updates, and surveys are all free to download at PathfinderPlaytest.com.



The Mirrored Moon


Today, Paizo Inc. officially began The Mirrored Moon, the fourth of seven scenarios in the Doomsday Dawn adventure. It runs through October 8 as part of the worldwide, free playtest of the second edition of Pathfinder on both real and virtual tabletops.

The adventure sees a return of the characters from Part 1, now at 9th-level. In the years that have passed, these heroes have grown to be powerful adventurers in their own right, but the mystery that started all those years ago in Keleri’s basement has yet to be solved. In Part 4, they continue the quest in Thicketfell, in the faraway River Kingdoms.

“The heroes from Magnimar are sent to secure aid in the River Kingdoms, while looking for a place called the Moonmere, the home of an ancient Kellid wizard who has something to do with the ominous Countdown Clocks,” said Jason Bulmahn, Director of Game Design at Paizo.
 

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The 'Feat Tax' could be a way to enforce a disadvantage on the 'half' races that is paid on character creation. The flavor descriptions in previous versions mention that the halves are often shunned by both pure cultures, especially the Orc variants, yet I have rarely seen that played out in game. The end result is the halves wind up being somewhat better then intended since the shunning and distrust disadvantages rarely show up.

I don't agree with trying to balance mechanical advantages with roleplaying, unless you have some kind of meta-currency (hero points, Fate points, etc). I think the half-races are less popular in some (most?) groups because they seem to have less identity. I also usually find half-elves especially to be mechanically weak and flavorless. For Pathfinder I can't even remember the PF1 half-elf's abilities. (I can remember for 4e, being competitive with humans without too much overlap, but the ability score choices really sucked.)

Khoravar are that common in Eberron, and the elves have not disappeared.

I had forgotten about them!
 

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Grimstaff

Explorer
Though not true "half-elves" per the lore, Numenoreans/Dunedain occupy that niche in Arda. Numenor was essentially "Half-Elf Island." I would say that Aragorn formed the literature that inspired the playable...

While Aragon certainly inspired the Ranger, he was many dozens of generations away from being a Half-elf, though he apparently picked up enough of their immortal blood to still be hale and energetic at age 75. Elrond was the only living half-elf seen in LotR. Arwen would have been 3/4 Elf.
 

Grimstaff

Explorer
It's a playtest program, not a finished game. That's exactly what the process is for. If you're judging your interest in Pathfinder 2 on the playtest, you're kinda missing the point.

If you don't want to participate in the playtest process (and that's a perfectly valid position) just wait till it comes out next year and decide then.



While there may be tweaks, I don't think the central conceit of the new edition: building a character, Lego-style, out of a bewildering selection of ancestry, background, and class feats, is going anywhere.
 

Arakasius

First Post
Well of course they’re not going to diverge that much from feat customization being how you drive your character. It was so in PF1 and they’re not going to remove that. Now sure they could simplify things a bit and it sound like they will do that with ancestry feats from their streams. But I am not sure why class feats would be confusing. They’re pretty basic and have some pretty laid out paths for each class. I think where they could use clarification/simplification is in ancestry/general/skill.
 



I'm not sure what you consider to be printer friendly, but I think the formatting is still the same. Update documents are not complete rulebooks, just summaries of changes.
So the update doesn't include an updated rulebook PDF? That's weird.

And what I mean by printer friendly is not having stuff like parchment textures and ornamental borders on the pages. Also no art. Just plain text as much as possible.
 

zztong

Explorer
So the update doesn't include an updated rulebook PDF? That's weird. And what I mean by printer friendly is not having stuff like parchment textures and ornamental borders on the pages. Also no art. Just plain text as much as possible.

I don't recall if the update docs have decoration, or not. I'm using the PDFs and I guess haven't taken the time to notice.

If I'm not mistaken, Paizo is not updating the rulebook, though somebody outside of Paizo is rumored to be doing so. Also, the last I looked Hero Lab Online wasn't keeping up with the updates either. I'll know more in a week as the playtest game I'm in needs us to make 7th level characters next week.
 



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