Pathfinder Releases Free Playtest For Highly Anticipated Second Edition
Pathfinder, the popular tabletop role-playing game, has officially released its full playtest [...]
Pathfinder, the popular tabletop role-playing game, has officially released its full playtest rules for its upcoming Second Edition.
Pathfinder is a spinoff of sorts of Dungeons & Dragons, created back in 2008 as an alternative to D&D's controversial Fourth Edition rules. Pathfinder built off of D&D's popular 3.5 edition rules to create an RPG with a near limitless option of builds and character types.
After ten years, Paizo, the maker of Pathfinder, announced plans to release a second edition of Pathfinder that solved some of the well-known problems with the game. To help prepare for the release of Pathfinder 2.0, Paizo released an extensive set of rules and a full adventure path for players to test the new game and provide feedback. Since this is a public Playtest, the rulebook and adventure path can be downloaded for free on Paizo's website.
If you've played D&D or Pathfinder before, you shouldn't have too many problem jumping into the Pathfinder Playtest. The core classes and races are largely the same (Paizo has added goblins and an alchemist class as core parts of the game) and the point of the Playtest is still the same - to explore, battle, and gain experience.
However, the Pathfinder Playtest does approach character builds and combat a bit differently. In combat, players can take three actions instead of the usual "move action," "action," and "bonus action" approach seen in other RPGs. All actions, whether moving, attacking, or otherwise, are counted equally, although some actions have a penalty if taken multiple times on a turn.
As for character building, Pathfinder's arduous feat system has been completely overhauled. Many feats are specific to a certain class, which makes it easier to choose...but also takes away some of the customization options that players are used to. In addition, magic items are also overhauled, as players now need to use "resonance points," which forces some classes to make hard choices on what items to use instead of simply stacking as many magical items as they can into the game.
Since this is a Playtest, these rules aren't necessarily final and aren't "official." However, if you want to get into the ground floor of the next big RPG, you can download the complete Pathfinder Playtest package for free and provide valuable feedback used to craft the next generation of the game.
