Pathfinder 2E Playtest Four New Pathfinder 2E Classes

You can now download and playtest the investigator, oracle, swashbuckler, and witch classes, all slated for July's Advanced Player's Guide. The playlets runs for just under a month, until Dember 2nd, 2019.

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• The investigator is a savvy, street-smart character who takes cases to uncover clues and solve mysteries. This class ties to parts of the game that aren’t covered in depth in the Core Rulebook, so the playtest will see if their approach to solving mysteries is satisfying, while keeping the rules for the game as a whole flexible.
• The oracle commands divine powers by drawing from universal concepts, casting powerful revelation spells that take a toll on their body and manifest as a double-edged curse. We want to make sure the curse effects are fun and engaging without disrupting the balance of the class compared to other characters. For the playtest, we’ve selected only a subset of mysteries, but there will be more in the final version.
• The swashbuckler is the flamboyant daredevil of the battlefield, tumbling through foes and entering a heightened state to deliver devastating finishing blows. We’ll be testing a system that encourages them to gain panache, a state of bombastic flair that lets them use more powerful abilities. The playtest version emphasizes new rules specific to the class so that we can playtest those thoroughly, but the final version might pick up some of the fighter’s weapon feats suited to dueling.
• The witch serves a mysterious patron entity, casting spells and hexes learned through a powerful familiar. This is the most flexible spellcasting class we’ve introduced, since it allows you to build your own path by selecting not only feats, but also lessons from your patron. We want to make sure those options work well both narratively and mechanically across all three of the spellcasting traditions the witch can gain access to.

There's a survey which open on Tuesday, November 12th.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Not a dumb question, but you are not the first to raise it. There is a certain design aesthetic resemblance, and certain parts do look like the 4E solutions.

Thanks. That’s why I asked. It had a feel like I was looking at a 4e book, and wondered if PF2 used the 4e SRD like PF came from the OGL. Just curious.

 

[teitan]

Thanks. That’s why I asked. It had a feel like I was looking at a 4e book, and wondered if PF2 used the 4e SRD like PF came from the OGL. Just curious.

no it’s still very much similar to D20 with some big changes but not very similar to 4e except in presentation. I thought the same way for a bit, it was similar to 4e but not that I’ve read a good bit it’s similar but very different. Not a lot of samesy characters and the class features aren’t all the same or extremely similar with different fluff.

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks. That’s why I asked. It had a feel like I was looking at a 4e book, and wondered if PF2 used the 4e SRD like PF came from the OGL. Just curious.

Nope, not that level of basis. The layout is very similar, and the Feat-heavy design is reminiscent of the Powers system at least in broad strokes.

 

[Kaodi]

Anyway it is interesting that they mention hidden demigods as possible witch patrons and yet divine is the only spell list they cannot access.

 

[Kramodlog]

So dumb question. So is PF2 basically the 4e version like PF was to 3e?

5e inspired a lot, I mean a lot, of the design Like PF2 has bounded accuracy, casters have less spells and they do to put them in higher level slots to increase the damage.

 

[teitan]

5e inspired a lot, I mean a lot, of the design Like PF2 has bounded accuracy, casters have less spells and they do to put them in higher level slots to increase the damage.

To be fair, that last bit was lifted from Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook.

 

[MaskedGuy]

5e inspired a lot, I mean a lot, of the design Like PF2 has bounded accuracy, casters have less spells and they do to put them in higher level slots to increase the damage.

Umm, but PF2 DOESN'T have bounded accuracy. It does have table for level scaling dcs(like identifying monster's difficulty is based on monster's level and how common they are) and table for adjusting dcs to be easier or more difficult, but that isn't the same thing, that is more of doing the math for the gm for ease to figure out what dc would be hard for level 17 characters.

While it sounds similar, its not bounded accuracy. Bounded accuracy is that there is very hard cap to maximum attack bonuses and ac that can't ever be exceeded and as result this results in stuff like low level mooks still being dangerous to high level pcs because they still have decent chance of hitting them in large numbers.

Meanwhile in PF2 if mooks are 5 or more levels lower than PCs, they are too trivial in difficulty to pose any threat to them.

 

[mach1.9pants]

The investigator has a feat called "JUST ONE MORE THING"

Sold!

 

[Parmandur]

Umm, but PF2 DOESN'T have bounded accuracy. It does have table for level scaling dcs(like identifying monster's difficulty is based on monster's level and how common they are) and table for adjusting dcs to be easier or more difficult, but that isn't the same thing, that is more of doing the math for the gm for ease to figure out what dc would be hard for level 17 characters.

While it sounds similar, its not bounded accuracy. Bounded accuracy is that there is very hard cap to maximum attack bonuses and ac that can't ever be exceeded and as result this results in stuff like low level mooks still being dangerous to high level pcs because they still have decent chance of hitting them in large numbers.

Meanwhile in PF2 if mooks are 5 or more levels lower than PCs, they are too trivial in difficulty to pose any threat to them.

Alas.

 

[kenada]

Thanks. That’s why I asked. It had a feel like I was looking at a 4e book, and wondered if PF2 used the 4e SRD like PF came from the OGL. Just curious.

It’s still based on the 3e SRD according to the OGL at the back of the book. A couple of its designers also worked on 4e, and some of the solutions to problems are indeed similar, but it still feels very much like Pathfinder 1e in play.