Paizo Announces Pathfinder War of Immortals Meta Event

As part of a Twitch stream on Tuesday, April 16th, Paizo announced a host of products all connected to the War of Immortals meta-event, including the death of a core deity.

In their Twitch stream on Tuesday, April 16th, Paizo announced all of the products that will be associated with the War of Immortals meta-event.

“This meta event is something that has been in the works for several years, and we’re excited to finally invite our players to experience the War of Immortals,” said Paizo’s Director of Brand, Mark Moreland, “Along with tying together our rulebooks, setting, and adventures, this event is also giving us a fantastic opportunity to return to fiction publishing in a big way.”

Since February 7th, they have been publishing the Godsrain Prophecies, a series of false prophecies about the potential deaths of gods, on their blog to mark one god safe per week. The teasers by Erin Roberts culminated in the god on the chopping block is Gorum, God of War.

They announced a variety of products related to the War of Immortals, including a hardcover rulebook, a hardcover setting book, a variety of adventures, and a hardcover novel. The novel will mark Paizo's return to the fiction market.

Pathfinder War of Immortals​

Paizo is proud to announce the tentpole release of the War of Immortals event, the aptly named Pathfinder War of Immortals hardcover rulebook. This 240-page hardcover (also available in special edition, retailer-exclusive sketch variant, and forthcoming pocket edition) will introduce mythic rules to Pathfinder Second Edition, as well as two brand new classes—the first original classes built on the remastered foundation of the Pathfinder Player Core—the animist and exemplar!

In addition to loads of new character options, War of Immortals also explores Gorum’s death and the ramifications. Most notable among these is the Godsrain: a literal shower of the slain god’s blood, shattered armor, and divine essence that falls upon Golarion and every world on which he was worshiped, leaving war and mythic power in its wake.

Pathfinder War of Immortals releases in October, 2024.

Pathfinder Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries​

The death of a god is sure to reshape a setting, and Pathfinder Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries explores, updates, and remasters the divine landscape of the Age of Lost Omens. This hardcover setting book remasters the deities already present in Pathfinder’s setting, as well as introducing a handful of new gods—such as Aleph, god of darkness, and Nin, god of vampires, shown off on stream.

Also included in Divine Mysteries are a variety of player options related to the new divine landscape—such as the Rivethun Emissary and Palatine Detective. Divine Mysteries is the new guide to all things holy (and unholy) in Golarion.

Pathfinder Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries releases in November, 2024.

Pathfinder Adventure: Prey for Death​

Pathfinder standalone adventures return with Pathfinder Adventure: Prey for Death, a 128 page adventure for 14th level characters written by Vanessa Hoskins. In this adventure, players take on the role of Red Mantis assassins, members of the notorious guild and cult of the mantis god, Achaekek.

This book also introduces the new format for standalone adventures—hardcover, and with more content. Pathfinder Adventure: Prey for Death releases at Gen Con, 2024.

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Curtain Call​

Pathfinder’s 40th Adventure Path, Curtain Call, takes characters from 11th to 20th level as they work to produce an opera based on their past exploits. This Adventure Path is designed to slot in after any previous campaign—celebrating the players’ previous game by immortalizing it as a work of theatre. While this adventure’s tie-in may seem tenuous on the surface, Paizo assures players that Curtain Call will give them a front-row seat to the Godsrain and its affects on Golarion.

Curtain Call opens with Pathfinder Adventure Path #204: Stage Fright at Gen Con, 2024. It continues with Pathfinder Adventure Path #205: Singer, Stalker, Skinsaw Man in August, 2024, and Pathfinder Adventure Path #206: Bring the House Down in September, 2024.

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Triumph of the Tusk​

The second Adventure Path to tie in to the War of Immortals meta event is Pathfinder Adventure Path #41: Triumph of the Tusk— an Adventure Path for 3rd to 11th level characters. Players fight alongside the orcs of Belzen in their war for independence as war rages around Golarion—and Gorum is far from the only god to die or be affected in this global conflict.

Triumph of the Tusk opens with Pathfinder Adventure Path #207: The Resurrection Flood in October, 2024, and continues through December 2024.

Pathfinder: Godsrain​

The final tie-in announced during Paizo’s livestream is Pathfinder: Godsrain, a hardcover novel written by long-time Pathfinder writer Liane Merciel. The novel follows four iconic heroes—the wizard Ezren, the barbarian Amiri, the cleric Kyra, and her wife, the rogue Merisiel—as they witness the calamity of the Godsrain and are faced with the opportunities—and consequences—of mythic power.

Pathfinder: Godsrain releases November 2024.

Playtest Announcement​

With a global war on the horizon, Pathfinder needs new classes that are suited to military combat. Mike Sayre announced the upcoming Pathfinder playtest for two new classes: the guardian and the commander. These classes will be featured in a Pathfinder rulebook set to release in 2025.

The playtest begins April 29, 2024. For more details, check paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest!

As the launch of War of Immortals looms, Paizo plans to share more details at PaizoCon, Gen Con, and on their monthly talk show, Paizo LIVE.

 

[Psikosis]

I'm excited about all this new material!! I'm particularly excited about the new novel. I've been catching up on reading the Pathfinder comics, and they are really good. Hopefully the book will continue the literary goodness!

 

[Nilbog]

Love the idea, love the art, really don't love the title font!

 

[Superchunk77]

Love the idea, love the art, really don't love the title font!

Yeah, they've used that font before for some previous splat books. It's a bit too cartoony IMO.

 

[Green Onceler]

To each their own, I guess. I'm a big fan of Wayne Reynolds and I think the cover design is pretty striking, though, not particularly pretty.

I didn't mind Wayne Reynolds' art in the PF1 era. A few of his original "iconics" I still really like. In recent years, however, I'm not finding any of the PF covers compelling. To be fair, recent D&D covers suffer a similar malaise. I assume I am just out of touch w/ current preferences.

The font on that cover looks incredibly childish to me. Similarly, I find the new Starfinder font to be far less appealing than the original.

There's no accounting for taste, of course, but for me Paizo's graphic design game has been very weak of late.

 

[EthanSental]

Agreed, I used to enjoy Wayne’s art as well, just not as much lately like I used too. It’s recognizable to the TTRPG crowd or to most of us is that’s a good thing. Like hearing a song that’s a cover but recognizing the singers voice type thing

 

[ReshiIRE]

I am actually legitimately surprised they have not done RotRL for 2E. 20th anniversary maybe?

That is a possibility.

They have commented on redoing full Adventure Paths before; there are a lot of difficulties that have come up for them to do so. Financial, artistically, and time wise. This is a long summary, but I think useful:

1. It is a LOT of work. While there is an outline, they do not just change the rules and content to fit PF2e; they typically have to change up what levels each chapter is for, adjust the content / themes of the adventure for the standards Paizo has now*, figure out what to do with any particular mechanics that AP may have that are different from the base game, etc.

2. They have commented that the Kingmaker conversion was significantly more work and more complex than they thought it would be, and I believe that is not entirely the fault of the stretch goals. They essentially did the work for it in parallel with their usual workload. If I remember correctly, they suggest that if they do another remake, it will be more like what they did with Crown of the Kobold King - it will be scheduled and part of their usual content making, rather than on top of it.

Which means that a remake would replace a release of a new Adventure Path. That would make it a more difficult sell; Paizo is the one who has the data but I wouldn't be surprised if they look at the data between their current subscribers and whether they own the 1e PDF versions of an Adventure Path in question, and think about what that implies when it comes to whether a remake is worth it in terms of sales.

3. Paizo's strategy around Adventure Paths has changed. Since the issues and initial reception of the first three Adventure Paths for 2e - where issues were raised both with how they had early system adoption woes and the issues with content in some of them - and the much better reception of Abomination Vaults - Paizo instead has focused on 3 part APs, rather than 6 part APs, of different level ranges (rather than just 1 to 10, 11 to 20 or 1 to 10). Their recent output have generally been 3 or 4 part Adventure Paths. It seems that these generally sell better, are often received well, and means Paizo can produce a lot more different Adventure Paths (and probably make them more cohesive as a result).

With this in mind, any future 6 part Adventure Path would be a big deal from Paizo, and that to me indicates they'd prefer to put the work into making something new.

4. With the OGL disaster and the move to ORC, now there could be issues with conversion. Some early Adventure Paths rely on D&D / Forgotten Realm IP. For example, while we'd probably never receive a Second Darkness conversion because I dont' believe it was received well and its early content doesn't align with Paizo's lore develops and retcons since then, it was possible for Paizo to do before 2023.

Now it's impossible - Paizo cannot use fantasy / D&D like Drow and so the entire thing would be changed. It would be, at most, adopting a similar premise but done differently. At which case - they could just release a new Adventure Path.

5. Pathfinder Infinite exists, and allows the community to make conversion guides and documents - including for money - for Pathfinder Adventures and Adventure Paths. This means that if you own a copy of the original Adventure Path, you can use these guides to help you convert for former Adventure Path. On some level this reduces the need to convert previous Adventure Path. Though, on the flip side, this probably helps guide Paizo on which Adventure Paths to convert in the future if they want to.

This is why Hell's Rebels is, I think, the most likely Adventure Path after Rise of the Runelords to convert, because I see the conversion guide for it for Pathfinder 2e constantly on the front page or search results of Pathfinder Infinite.

6. Paizo I think on some level feels that GMs can, with some effort, convert Pathfinder 1e Adventures to 2e without their help.

A recent Adventure Path - the special 200 issue - is Seven Dooms for Sandpoint. Without going into spoilers, part of the premise for the AP is that it references past Adventure Paths that are related to Sandpoint... including Rise of the Runelords.

It's mentioned within the AP itself that, to lead into the adventure, you could play #1 Burnt Offerings - the first ever Adventure Path issue and the first part of Rise of the Runelords. Since they explicitly say that the player characters who play through Burnt Offerings could also be the PCs for Seven Dooms (set 17 years later), I think there is a strong implication that they'd expect you to convert Burnt Offerings to PF2e.

I think that is a strong sign that Paizo thinks that - while a full conversion would obviously very useful - that GMs could be able to use a 1e Adventure Path and convert themselves if they want to do so.

... regardless of all that:

I absolutely expect a Rise of the Runelords 2e conversion for the 20th Anniversary and I see it being marketed hard. There will be a lot of content adjustment including to the story, but I absolutely see them doing that and including extras and goodies - post adventure content, rules to add on top, deliberate twists within it etc.

One last note on this long essay:

Kingmaker is a special Adventure Path. Outside of one or two things, such as the fate of some kingdoms involved, it is the one Adventure Path that doesn't really have a 'canonical' ending in Pathfinder 2e lore books. This is in stark contrast to every other Adventure Path, pretty much. This is almost certainly because Kingmaker is so, so player driven as written compared to the other Adventure Paths, and Paizo doesn't want to invalidate any group's choices.

I think on some level this may have made it the perfect remake candidate; any content adjustments are not going to have the same impact on 'canon' or future adventures as it is if they remake another adventure path.

However that's definitely not going to be a reason they decide not to do another remake, as they've already remade a fair few previous adventures for Pathfinder 2e anyway.

* I have not read Rise of the Runelords, but apparently book 2 has some very, very horrifically dark content in it that Paizo would almost certainly remove and significantly adjust, replacing it with something dark but much less uncomfortable for them to write.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

Agreed, I used to enjoy Wayne’s art as well, just not as much lately like I used too. It’s recognizable to the TTRPG crowd or to most of us is that’s a good thing. Like hearing a song that’s a cover but recognizing the singers voice type thing

The effect of seeing Wayne Reynolds style en masse across a bunch of Hardcovers splattered with the Pathfinder logo is actually some insane level of product identity, it really conveys that there's this whole cool ecosystem of high adventuring fantasy you can dive into. I honestly think they're the most attractive books on the book, just from like, the impact of seeing them on display in Barnes and Noble or something.