Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Unchained in 2015

[techno]

Paizo just announced that they will release Pathfinder Unchained in the spring of 2015. Apparently, "unchained" refers to being unchained from backwards compatibility with 3.5. The monk, rogue, barbarian, and summoner will reworked (as an option). Sounds a bit like Unearthed Aracana for Pathfinder.

From Wolfgang Bauer:

In spring 2015.... Pathfinder Unchained. Rules team goes wild, backward compatibility be damned! New rogue, monk with full BAB, summoner....

From Jason Bulmahn:

Just announced, the spring 2015 release Pathfinder Unchained! The rules team tinkers with the game! New barbarian, monk, rogue and summoner!

 

[techno]

When asked: Is this the Unearthed Arcana of Pathfinder?

Jason Bulmahn responded: You could say that.

 

[Zardnaar]

Testing the waters for a 2.0? I am not concerned ab9out backwards compatability anymore with 3.x type games. I want them to make a game that looks like 3.5 though even if they redid the math and rewrote spells and feats.

 

[Elf Witch]

That should be interesting. I enjoyed using some of the Unearthed Arcana in my 3.5 game.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Yeah seems to be a tester for PF2. I wish them the best with it, I am sure it will not be so different as 3E to 4E and cause a lot less ruckus!

 

[jib916]

Interesting. Looking forward to what It brings/adds. It seems a good answer to slowing down the next edition as well. (fixing the "problems" that some people have with Pathfinder)

 

[Evenglare]

Cautiously optimistic about this. No rules to tie them to 3.x? Great.....maybe. If you just want to tinker around with the base classes buffing them or nerfing them I'm alright with that, but changing the way fundamental game mechanics work... im not so much okay with that. Specifically if they botch something up and you can't use archetypes anymore and other things that might completely divorce the new stuff from pathfinders old stuff. I'm not TERRIBLY worried because to do seem to know that people want to use old stuff and I can't imagine they would just wipe out what they have built up so far.

 

[Nikosandros]

Good to hear. Compatibility with 3.5 was never a concern for me, since there is so much material available for Pathfinder. Let's hope that the implementation lives up to the expectations.

 

[dm4hire]

I definitely think this is a way to test the water for a 2nd edition. It will allow them to incorporate many of the changes that have come about in the recent past few years that could improve Pathfinder without taking the big step. If the players like it and it is a hit then they can jump in to the next phase and at the same time finally separate the game from D&D.

It also serves as a way to show their fans, who came over from D&D due to 4e, that they are willing to evolve and meet D&D on equal footing instead of remaining in the shadows of its former glory.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm concerned, should be called Dpathfinder Unchained.

 

[Remathilis]

Good. There are a lot of anachronisms that PF could smooth out. I hope they fix some of those lingering math problems and streamline things further. Perhaps Next lit a fire under their bums to start looking for innovation.

 

[IronWolf]

When asked: Is this the Unearthed Arcana of Pathfinder?

Jason Bulmahn responded: You could say that.

Putting it that way makes the book sound more appealing to me. Shifts my head to the right frame of thinking!

 

[Alzrius]

In my view, Pathfinder stopped worrying about back-compatibility after the Core Rulebook came out in 2009.

Once it had established itself, the Pathfinder RPG ceased worrying about issues of back-compatibility - why should it? It didn't take it very long to scoop up the 3.5 market that didn't want to switch to 4E. After that, it became focused on maintaining compatibility with itself - and in that regard, Pathfinder Unchained probably won't change anything.

Pathfinder is about to mark its fifth anniversary, and by all accounts it's still going strong. There's no reason to invalidate their deep bench of existing products, to say nothing of upending their existing fan-base, by dropping hints that they're going to release a second edition of the game. It's not a coincidence that this book's main tease right now are simply tweaked Core classes - not that much different from some new archetypes or just new classes with the same name.

I don't think we're going to see anything here that really changes the game mechanics; at least, not more than some small, modular, optional changes which all work alongside the main rules.

 

[MichaelSomething]

One of the major flaws of the Pathfinder system was that were fairly conservative in changing mechanics due to wanting to be compatible. That meant that weaker mechanics like the Monk class weren't changed enough. Now that they don't have to worry about being compatible, they can finally remake the Monk into a good class.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I don't think we're going to see anything here that really changes the game mechanics; at least, not more than some small, modular, optional changes which all work alongside the main rules.

yeah - optional modular stuff.

They talk about making a simple and easy action economy. That will be interesting to see.

 

[DaveMage]

I'm guessing Pathfinder 2.0 is a long way off. Why split your fanbase?

I think this will be a nice edition.

I still want them to do epic rules though....

 

[IronWolf]

One of the major flaws of the Pathfinder system was that were fairly conservative in changing mechanics due to wanting to be compatible. That meant that weaker mechanics like the Monk class weren't changed enough. Now that they don't have to worry about being compatible, they can finally remake the Monk into a good class.

I'm just one voice, but I always liked the fact they kept things somewhat compatible. But I didn't think 3.x was that broken at its core.

 

[Evenglare]

I'm guessing Pathfinder 2.0 is a long way off. Why split your fanbase?

I think this will be a nice edition.

I still want them to do epic rules though....

I honestly don't think you will ever get epic rules in the way you want them. Mythic is going to be the closest you will ever get, I'd wager.

 

[DaveMage]

I honestly don't think you will ever get epic rules in the way you want them. Mythic is going to be the closest you will ever get, I'd wager.

You're probably right...but I hope you're wrong!

 

[Evenglare]

actually let me revise my statement. At this point with the game as it stands we probably won't see epic level rules as people imagine (lv 21-30+). However, if they actually are gearing up and preparing to tweak the game and release a 2.0 where the system is still in place but different classes are balanced even more then it might not be out of the realm of possibility.