Pathfinder 2E Take A Look At Pathfinder Remaster's Edicts & Anathema

The new version of Pathfinder coming later this year dispenses with alignment and replaces it with edicts and anathema. Paizo has shared an example of what this looks like in the game with a preview of dwarf beliefs, along with a sneak peak at a brand new 17th-level dwarf feat.

Edicts and anathema appear in ancestry description and classes, with suggestions of 'popular' examples. For the dwarf they shared, the examples were:

• Popular Edicts create art with beauty and utility, hunt the enemies of your people, keep your clan dagger close
• Popular Anathema leave an activity or promise uncompleted, forsake your family

Additionally, the new Stonewall feat looks like this:

Stonewall [reaction] — Feat 17​

Dwarf, Earth, Polymorph​

Frequency once per day​

Trigger An enemy or hazard’s effect hits you or you fail a Fortitude save against one.​

​

The strength of stone overcomes you so strongly that it replaces your stout body. You become petrified until the end of the current turn. You don’t take any damage from the triggering effect or any other ill effects that couldn’t affect stone.​

paizo.com - Community / Paizo Blog

 

[Ramaster]

Uh, I like that feat.

I also think it's about time PF (or all RPGs, for that matter) discarded the alignment system.

"Edicts" and "Anathema" don't sound like anything groundbreaking, but just distancing the system out of alignment is a noble goal in and of itself, IMHO.

 

[Prof_Dogg]

Uh, I like that feat.

I also think it's about time PF (or all RPGs, for that matter) discarded the alignment system.

"Edicts" and "Anathema" don't sound like anything groundbreaking, but just distancing the system out of alignment is a noble goal in and of itself, IMHO.

Really it's just a new framework for alignment. If the above example were for dwarves, an adherent would be of dwarvish alignment.

 

[Corinnguard]

Edicts sound like things you like doing while anathemas are basically your character's pet peeves.

I also think it's about time PF (or all RPGs, for that matter) discarded the alignment system

I don't think they discarded the alignment system. I think they made it more personal. The problem with the original alignment system is that you were expected to get your character behind one of the 9 alignments and follow it. That made the system more of a straitjacket.

A player should get to decide their own moral and ethical code.

 

[Zehnseiter]

That Feat puts a smile on my face.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

I'll never understand the issues with alignment. I've always enjoyed it, both the good and the bad, and to take it away means destroying a legacy for the sake of stupid nonsensical change and nothing else. It was both straightforward and complex all at the same time, plus it created a fantasy mythology based entirely around it. Law and Chaos, Good and Evil, and the Balance between each. I think that concept is awesome but so many people whined over it enough I guess they gotta cater to the loudest and not the acutal majority.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Edicts sound like things you like doing while anathemas are basically your character's pet peeves.


I don't think they discarded the alignment system. I think they made it more personal. The problem with the original alignment system is that you were expected to get your character behind one of the 9 alignments and follow it. That made the system more of a straitjacket.

A player should get to decide their own moral and ethical code.

Incorrect. People wrongly assumed it was a straight jacket. Plenty of DM/GM guides over the years have stated otherwise, but people don't like to actually read, or fail at reading comprehension, that they just assumed that to be the case. I still have to remind my players now and then, telling them don't worry about their character's decision, the alignment only will change if your decisions become consistent and your character shifts their entire aura to a different set of cosmic principles willingly. If my Chaotic Good player does an evil act, I won't change their alignment, but definitely they'll score huge on leaning in that direction. Pathfinder actually had a system of tracking alignment in Pathfinder Unchained.

But again...people don't like reading these days.

 

[Xohar17]

I'll never understand the issues with alignment. I've always enjoyed it, both the good and the bad, and to take it away means destroying a legacy for the sake of stupid nonsensical change and nothing else. It was both straightforward and complex all at the same time, plus it created a fantasy mythology based entirely around it. Law and Chaos, Good and Evil, and the Balance between each. I think that concept is awesome but so many people whined over it enough I guess they gotta cater to the loudest and not the acutal majority.

Its seems to me more of a lets change this so they dont sue us, than just a "dtupid nonsensical change". Also the fact that you love the classic alignment system, foesnt mean that a substantial number of players (in my experience specially the newer ones) dislike it. I personally like it, but im not married to it.

 

[Velderan]

Its seems to me more of a lets change this so they dont sue us, than just a "dtupid nonsensical change". Also the fact that you love the classic alignment system, foesnt mean that a substantial number of players (in my experience specially the newer ones) dislike it. I personally like it, but im not married to it.

I may be getting this topic mixed in with them removing ability scores, but I'm fairly sure Logan Bonner and Jason Bulmahn said removing alignment was a serious consideration when they started working on 2e but decided it might be too much of a departure for 1e players switching to the new edition. I guess the de-OGLification gives them reason enough to go back to some of those ideas and implement them.

I don't really have a strong opinion on it one way or the other since my groups have largely ignored it, so I'm not terribly upset it's going away. If I cared enough, the rules for using it in 2e are out there and older editions of games are also out there.

 

[Stone Dog]

Yeah, they are pulling away from the OGL and D&D in general, so a lot of things are going out the door, or exist by legacy in previous printed material.

Like chromatic and metallic dragons. Apparently they are still going to be in setting, just not in future printings.