Pathfinder 2E Paizo Shares Color Covers Of Pathfinder Remaster

At Paizocon today, Paizo revealed the final color covers of two of the upcoming remastered core rulebooks.

 

[Velderan]

Apparently it's a non OGL dragon - "diabolical" I think they call it.

Yep! They posted a blog article a little while ago previewing it here.

 

[Retreater]

No indication on the trade dress that these are different versions than og 2nd ed?

Yep. So some people who haven't been following Pathfinder are going to accidently purchase the Core Rulebook and Player Core. Which is doubling up on some content.
Same issue is going on with Old School Essentials. Figuring out which books you need to play that game are probably the most frequently asked questions on their social media. (More than any rules questions.)
I guess the only "benefit" is that (I think) they're going to stop printing the old books, so eventually this just becomes "the standard" rulebook versions to get.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I've never cared for Wayne Reynolds' art style, personally.

 

[Ghal Maraz]

Yep. So some people who haven't been following Pathfinder are going to accidently purchase the Core Rulebook and Player Core. Which is doubling up on some content.
Same issue is going on with Old School Essentials. Figuring out which books you need to play that game are probably the most frequently asked questions on their social media. (More than any rules questions.)
I guess the only "benefit" is that (I think) they're going to stop printing the old books, so eventually this just becomes "the standard" rulebook versions to get.

Well, that seems quite par for the course in RPG-land. The newer tends to simply substitute the older.

The Remastered books will soon be the only PF2 core manuals around, so there shouldn't be much confusion going on any longer.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ah yes, I forgot PF2 is remaking their dragons to shed that element of the OGL. The classic chromatic and metallics are being replaced with two each for each of the four source of magic (arcane, divine, occult, and primal) for a total of eight new dragons. (This is assuming I read this somewhere and didn’t just dream it.)

Honestly, the fact that so many other fantasy games use the D&D breakdown is depressing. It's not a terribly interesting arrangement and it certainly shouldn't be the basis for all dragons in gaming. Do new stuff! Give us new ideas!

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I still don't like occult as a power source name. But... I can see an ephemeral dream dragon or such.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I will miss the fiends and chromatic dragons.

 

[Staffan]

I still don't like occult as a power source name. But... I can see an ephemeral dream dragon or such.

Dream dragons... or maybe luck dragons?

 

[Kaodi]

I think one of the biggest weaknesses of chromatic and metallic dragon art has been that the dragons tend to be so... monochromatic. Like, there is no variation or pattern within their scales, and no little meaningful variation between specimens. Like, we could use more dragon art where the wyrms are all the same kind but different .

 

[EthanSental]

I enjoyed Wayne’s art in the 2008-2012ish time frame when he did magazine covers and PF. But kinda like some comic book artist I used to like, my enjoyment of his style ebbs right now. Having said that though my group always liked when I used his Dm screen PF iconics cause they liked looking at the classes/heroes.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I enjoyed Wayne’s art in the 2008-2012ish time frame when he did magazine covers and PF. But kinda like some comic book artist I used to like, my enjoyment of his style ebbs right now. Having said that though my group always liked when I used his Dm screen PF iconics cause they liked looking at the classes/heroes.

I’m the same. I’ve grown weary of his style. I still think his artwork is great - just not for me anymore.

 

[Justice and Rule]

I think I like the GM Core cover a lot more than the Player Core book. The Player Core looks good but I think I like the original CRB cover more. The GM Core... I dunno, I like how verdant it feels. I feel like a lot of Wayne's artwork has a sort of red tint to it, and the greenness of this makes it feel fresher.

 

[Kaodi]

I will always be a WAR fan but I do feel like we could perhaps use some other styles in Pathfinder; give us some time to get nostalgic for him. Unfortunately I imagine a "realist phase" would be... expensive. Pathfinder, and D&D (though I am not up on its recent trends) has sort of been in "animation still" mode for a long time. Maybe the success of the D&D movie can help with that though, pushing artists to try something that evokes live action.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

the disproportionately large lucerne hammer head on the gm core cover bothers me to no end. i mean, come on, it's so close to an actual lucerne hammer and then the head is too big. infuriating. incredibly nitpicky, and infuriating.

 

[Justice and Rule]

the disproportionately large lucerne hammer head on the gm core cover bothers me to no end. i mean, come on, it's so close to an actual lucerne hammer and then the head is too big. infuriating. incredibly nitpicky, and infuriating.

Real weapons don't look as impressive as people think they should, which is why people are always making them as ridiculous as they thought they would be.

 

[Lojaan]

The expression on the face of the guy on the GM cover is EXACTLY how I see my face looking when I GM.

I don't particularly want my face to look like this when I GM but hey, you work with what you got.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

the disproportionately large lucerne hammer head on the gm core cover

In DnD worlds, he might have to hit something that's bigger than a regular human. Like player character egos.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I will always be a WAR fan but I do feel like we could perhaps use some other styles in Pathfinder; give us some time to get nostalgic for him. Unfortunately I imagine a "realist phase" would be... expensive. Pathfinder, and D&D (though I am not up on its recent trends) has sort of been in "animation still" mode for a long time. Maybe the success of the D&D movie can help with that though, pushing artists to try something that evokes live action.

I can’t speak for all of D&D, but WotC 5e for the most part has not been anything close to anime. There is some of it, but most of it is not. There is a range.

 

[stadi]

One of the reasons I've never gotten into Pathfinder is the artstyle. For some reason I profoundly dislike those covers and character art. It mostly has to do with those strange looking weapons, anime like long-eared elves and the way the goblins look. The GM Core looks much better than I've seen for Pathfinder, but the Player Core unfortunately has the same art style.

 

[Bagpuss]

I actually loathe that "red dragon" head. The horns look weird to me, and I am not thrilled by how its mouth opens either. Most of the other things about it, other than maybe Harsk's face, look good though.

It looks like it doesn't have any width to it jaw, and the teeth look like spikes attached to skin rather than teeth, embedded in bone.