Let's Take A Look At Pathfinder 2's Deities & Domains!

There's a new Paizo blog up about the way deities and domains work in Pathfinder 2nd Edition. It shows how deities are described, with the example deity Shelyn, along with new domains and domain powers.

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Favoured weapons, edicts, and anathemas don't have mechanical effects for most characters, but provide strong roleplaying touchpoints. However, for clerics, a deity has alignment restrictions, bonus skills and spells, and more.

As for domains, there are 23 new domains (some of which were subdomains in PF1). New domains include Indulgence, Dreams, and Wealth, and come with basic and advanced powers accessed though Spell Points.

Read the whole thing here.

 

[Yaarel]

Possibly, if going for a vancian style cleric.

While leveling, the cleric selects domain spells for the known spells that can be cast spontaneously. Each domain offers a much larger selection of domain spells that the cleric can choose from.

Non-domain spells or other unknown spells need to be prepared in a vancian way. Perhaps a meditation ritual discerns a normally unknown spell, then invests spell points in it ahead of time, and has it ready to go off like a grenade.

In this approach, the domain spells are the normal spells and comprise the bulk of all cleric spellcasting. The nondomain spells are a minor feature to help expand versatility at the cost of preparation.

 

[Yaarel]

I wouldn't bet on it, they seem to be doubling down on the setting/system combination.

Yeah, I get that vibe too. But that would turn me off. I am mentioning it now in the hopes the rules are more useful for different kinds of campaigns.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, I get that vibe too. But that would turn me off. I am mentioning it now in the hopes the rules are more useful for different kinds of campaigns.

I'm sure the rules will have equal settings free potential as PF1 or D_D 3.x, but the assumption of Golarion seems to be a feature that they are touting.

 

[Arilyn]

Shelyn, The Eternal Rose, goddess of [FONT=&]art, beauty, love, and music, who uses a glaive?

[/FONT]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaive

Shelyn is using her brother's glaive as a memento. Her brother strayed too far into the dark of space, and turned crazy/evil. She is trying to redeem him.

 

[Arilyn]

Yeah, I get that vibe too. But that would turn me off. I am mentioning it now in the hopes the rules are more useful for different kinds of campaigns.

The deities in the book will by default be Golarian's pantheon. There is absolutely no reason to assume it will be difficult to use your own. There will be plenty of domains to choose from, after all.

 

[Sunseeker]

This seems to be a good read on what they are going for with this system, yes.

I don't really agree with that, but I think that stems from the fact that I find the current system confusing.

 

[Morrus]

I don't really agree with that, but I think that stems from the fact that I find the current system confusing.

Well, you haven’t really seen it.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't really agree with that, but I think that stems from the fact that I find the current system confusing.

It isn't a bad thing, but complexity and optimization are certainly design values they are advocating.

 

[Sunseeker]

Well, you haven’t really seen it.

True, but then that isn't making for a terribly good spoiler.

 

[Yaarel]

The deities in the book will by default be Golarian's pantheon. There is absolutely no reason to assume it will be difficult to use your own. There will be plenty of domains to choose from, after all.

It is the possibility of zero gods that tends to be difficult.

Swapping one flavor of polytheism for an other flavor of polytheism is no problem. But when trying to build a world where there is no polytheism − or where polytheism is only one of various kinds of religious traditions − the rules are often unnecessarily cumbersome with inappropriate descriptions.

The rules for the cleric − as a core class − needs to make it straightforward to plug into a variety of possible worlds.