Pathfinder Second Edition

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Second Edition
RPG published by Paizo
Authors	Jason Buhlman
First Publication	2019

"You could not live with your own failure, where did that bring you? Back to me."

– Paizo after the OGL debacle

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Second Edition is, as you'd expect, the second version of the D&D clone that is Pathfinder. That said, however, there is a lot changed here from the original's framework, going for a significantly more feat-centric playstyle. Though this is still a d20 game at its core, the mechanics being a good deal less complicated, and focused on a different direction than what was originally accomplished - as if they were trying to make their own game that shed its old identity.

This has, of course, brought about all sorts of reasonable and eloquent discussion in regards to the identity of Pathfinder itself. Most glaringly, there is the obvious outcry from the loyalists who have now wasted about ten years of their life and several hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in books about a single system and are now bemoaning that now Paizo's cutting off all support for it. While this is all true, it's also true that nobody's forcing people to play this new edition (Though that hasn't stopped neck-beards from screeching before). The second was how much this new system was "pretending" to become a lot more tactical in a manner similar to 4E, the sort of thing Pathfinder was straying away from and even opposed back when 1E was established. Similar to this are the claims that this is meant to be a competitor to 5E because they claim things are getting dumbed down. While it is true that the system's been simplified from the 3.5E-plus-a-few-addons of 1E, it's still nowhere near the pick-up-and-play/braindead simplicity of 5E.

While the game hadn't necessarily been unpopular -- it had a considerable following for a couple years and was slowly growing in popularity -- it did gain a considerable groundswell in popularity following the Open Game License debacle, which saw Paizo leading an army of publishers in championing for the original OGL to remain in effect while Wizards of the Coast sought to replace it with something more draconian. Combined with Paizo's own intent on creating a truly open-source and system-agnostic license to maintain the OGL being actually open for all devs (called the Open RPG Creative License, or ORC) and it's attained a bit of a reputation as an entry-level alternative to people fed up with 5E and WotC's bullshit.

In April 2023 Paizo announced a "Remaster" of PF2e to come out later that year. Stressing that it is not a 2.5 but just moving things around and adding in errata where needed, it does sound like some things will be changing such as the name of the core books (now referred to as "Player Core 1+2", "GM Core" and "Monster Core") and tweaking the classes and ancestries. Of course, these books will also be the first to be released under their brand-new ORC. For the most part the remaster seems focused on removing/renaming concepts tied to D&D/OGL (for example Spell Levels changed to Spell Ranks), the old "get rid of alignment and replace it with something else" popping up, though mechanical changes are also coming, whether the removal of alignment will make Champion mirror 5e's Paladin with an "Oath"-like system or if it will take a new direction is as of yet unknown.

Noted Changes from 1E to 2E (As Gleaned from the Playtest)

Because we have the final version, this section is unnecessary, but is preserved for posterity. And lulz.

The Second Edition Playtest took place between August and December 2018, wherein players had access to a free CRB, Bestiary, and several adventures to play them in (Split between five Pathfinder Society scenarios and Doomsday Dawn, a pseudo-Adventure Path that was more like a clip-show between several loosely-connected plots.) There was also the option to buy these books as physical merch, but doing so proved that your brain was on loan this whole time. All of the feedback was directed towards Paizo's surveys and forums, which could have been a good centralizing point - if Paizo knew which comments to sift through in the avalanche of slush, salt, and general idiocy that comes with such a community. To their credit, they did at least release errata in a semi-regular fashion as well as some alternative ideas.

Needless to say, the playtest was quite contentious. Between a lot of features that people just outright hated, imbalance that took several months before addressing, if at all, and the simple need to adjust to a brand-new system, there was plenty to hate about this system. However, there was also some points that people respected, chiefly the streamlining of skills, the ease of making characters, and the improvements to healing outside of the cleric.

• Races
  • Goblins are now a default race.
  • Half-Elves and Half-Orcs were briefly racial ancestry feats that humans can take at first level. This was dropped in later stage of the playtest.
    • The 10/24 errata decided to offer all the other races a selection of subraces that gave particular perks based on racial variants. For some, this restored at least one racial feature, but others gained a bit of an environmental theming. This also includes half-elves and half-orcs, whom are now under humans.
  • Each race now adds +2 to two stats, -2 to one stat, and a +2 to any stat you want so long as it wasn't mentioned before. Humans just grab two floating stat boosts.
  • HP is now added between a racial HP value and the Class HP value, which includes Con. Just like Starfinder, but without any stamina to buffer out.
  • Many of the key features of each race has been cut out and moved into ancestry feats that you gain at level 1 and every 4 thereafter. All that remains before factoring in subrace is just their types and whether or not they have darkvision.
• Classes
  • Alchemists are a core class now. However their pseudo-casting is now replaced with the ability to learn and slap together whatever alchemical items they want by spending their Int-dependent Resonance special resources.
    • The 11/05 errata realized just how crippling using resonance for everything was and instead gave a whole separate pool made just so alchemists can make their things.
    • The 11/05 errata also finally divorces the bombs from the class' progression and gives a choice between four subclasses: bomber, poisoner, medic, and mutagenist. Each gains improvements as the class levels up, including the ability to infinitely produce certain low-level items.
  • Barbarians no longer have a pool of turns per day with which they can rage, but now they can spend it infinitely...for three turns before needing to cool off for a turn. It's...strange to adjust to, and it especially hurts animal totem barbs, who need to rage for their natural attacks.
    • The 11/05 errata made this even weirder by replacing the flat 3 turns with an ongoing save. See, every turn after the first, the barb has to roll an increasingly difficult save to continue raging or run out of fuel instead. This method is contested for the fact that it offers little better for the number of turns to rage (especially when 5E's barbarians could rage for an entire minute without any need to save) while now painting the funny image of all barbarians being asthmatic or running the risk of throwing out their backs with each turn.
      • Well actually it does make sense fluffwise. Barbarians are effectively redlining their bodies through their rage to pull off superhuman feats. As they grow stronger they can handle doing this for longer periods of time.
    • Totems (a popular addition to Barbarians due to adding new and fantastical abilities) are now a default feature, giving various features from hauling fuckoff-huge weapons to turning into an animal, as well as granting a special damage resistance while raging. They also force a taboo that strips any special rage powers if broken, with the exception of the Fury Totem (essentially the vanilla barbarian which instead gives a free extra class feat).
  • Bards get full spell progression.
    • The three main deals of bards (lots of utility in knowledge skills, performance to replace skills, and magical music) into three separate subclasses. The 11/05 errata gated some feats to certain subclasses and adds a feat to enable multi-subclassing.
  • Cleric domains don't grant spells anymore, only powers (which are just spells that require Spell Points to cast). Instead, clerics get extra spells determined by what god they worship (no word on how this'll work with original settings).
    • There are multiple forces that have managed to dethrone the cleric's undisputed rule as healmaster, from the Medicine skill actually being not-shit in healing, healing potions being rather cheap, Alchemists, and errata reducing the uses of channel energy.
  • Druids get subclasses based upon Orders: Canadian Leaf (Casters with Leshys for familiars), Storm (Blaster druids), Wild (Wildshape-focused), and Animal (Pets)
  • Paladins pretty much get three things guaranteed to them: a reaction (giving an ally protection from an attack and striking back), Lay on Hands, and the ability to infuse holy spirits to one thing (weapon, steed, and the newcomer shield). However, the issue with this is that due to how the action economy is, this means that shield-users are trapped every turn between blowing their reactions on their reaction power or using their shields. Forutnately, the 11/05 errata gave a few feats that grant bonus reactions explicitly for reaction powers and shield users (if you decided for some reason to use your divine bond on shields).
    • As of the 11/05 errata, Paladins are no longer forced into being Lawful Good. While the LG types retain the reactive strike power, the Neutral Good and Chaotic Good paladins gain new powers and different laws to enforce (NG can penalize the attack or weaken future ones that turn, CG allows for saves against grappling). Meanwhile, there's nothing known about how they'll do Antipaladins, if at all.
  • Rangers are pretty much gutted. All they really keep is the ability to hunt down targets (replacing the oft-loathed Favored Enemy with something more universal) and their ability to walk through terrain like nobody's business. The only fighting styles they have for them so far are dual-wielding, crossbows, and (as of the 10/26 errata) archery
    • The 11/05 errata enables rangers to do a few things to targeted foes: spam multi-attacks with reduced penalties (the original version), snipe for extra damage, screwing around.
  • Skill ranks have been done away with completely for proficiency ranks that ring more similar to games like Dark Heresy mixed with 5E: Untrained penalizes you for trying a skill, Trained lets you roll with the requisite stat with no penalties, and Expert, Master, and Legendary are bonuses to the roll in question. This proficiency system even spills over to your armor proficiencies, weapon proficiencies (so as to replace BAB), and saves.
    • In a bit of a turn from its sci-fi cousin, Level 3 doesn't automatically grant 1/2 character level to damage with every weapon group they're trained in, but now only certain characters can get a specialization boost that raises the proficiency rank for attacking with a single weapon group as well as gain access to crit effects with them. Casters can raise the proficiency ranks for spellcasting, but that's usually at level 10 on. Barbarians also lack this system, though level 3 gives them access to all special crits and then gain a rank up for weapons at a later level.
    • Because of how mandatory Perception was as a skills, every class now gets some sort of training in it. It's now also the default skill check needed to roll for Initiative. Funnily, Fighters and Rangers (Two of the classes considered most shat upon by 1E) are now ultra-badass at this skill.
    • Each class also has a selection of "Signature Skills", which permit the player to advance their training in a particular skill to even higher levels for bigger feats.
      • As of the 9/10 errata though, Paizo seemed to get the memo about how pigeonholing this was and just scrapped Signature Skills, letting any skill reach the top-level and gave every class a few default-trained skills as compensation.
  • The spell pool is now drastically shrunk down to 4 types: Arcane (Wizards), Divine (Clerics), Primal (Druids), and Occult (Bards, because Paizo really wants to redo Occult Adventures but doesn't want to make a new spell list just for the bard). Sorcerers are the only casters that are wild-cards, their bloodline feature dictating which spell list they can take.
    • As one can notice, Rangers, Alchemists, and Paladins aren't on the list. Rangers and Alchemists make do by making items (Traps for Rangers, Alchemical Items for Alchemists) while Paladins and Monks (and the other casting classes to a lesser degree) utilize a spell point pool and specific feats to gain new powers.
    • Spellcasters no longer get more spells per day by just getting a high casting stat.
    • Spells now have a rarity, which might be an attempt to limit the rarity of certain really powerful spells. On a similar note, some of the known campaign-ending spells (Wish, Time Stop) are now reserved for 10th-level spellcasting, which is available ONLY if you select a single feat at level 20 for the primary casting classes and you might still need to find them thanks to rarity. Expect this to work out like Paranoia's security clearances played straight.
    • Caster Level no longer affects spell strength. Instead, there are now multiple leveled versions of the same spell, meaning that they have to be "learned" at that level if you want to cast a spell at a "heightened" strength (making it sound like diet metamagic, but in reality just gimping spontaneous casters)
    • Spontaneous casters and Prepared Casters have the exact same spells per day progression (Sorcerers get extra bloodline spell slots, but Wizards get school spell slots, so there's no real difference except Sorcerers have a very finite spell repertoire).
• Similar to SF, backgrounds are now a mandatory feature. Each gives a boost to two stats (one chosen from a set of two, the other to any stat so long as it's not the same stat as before), a skill feat, and training in a related Lore skill (the new name for Profession, though now only tied to Int rather than being multi-stat).
• Feats are given practically every level now, split between class feats, general feats, ancestry feats (racial), and skill feats. Expect the feat bloat to explode even harder than fuck.
  • Multiclass feats make a return. In addition to the ones that grant features from established classes, there are some archetypes (Gray Maiden, Cavalier, Pirate for the playtest) for new perks. You need to sacrifice class feats to make use of this, and once you multiclass, you need to take at least two other feats from that class' list before you can multiclass elsewhere (with exception to one human ancestry feat).
  • Skill feats at least add some new uses for the skill, mostly because of how feats and actual abilities are built off the same format.
• Perhaps the most controversial feature made in the playtest so far is Resonance: a pool based off Level+Charisma (except for Alchemists who use Int for this), this allows folks to make items and allows anyone to use any magical items, either triggering a power or just allowing you to use an item's passive perk. The contention is that you need to spend this crap every day, meaning that those loaded with magical items are stuck having to figure out what items they want to use every day and traps Alchemists who want to make stuff into focusing on a particular set of items/elixirs/mutagens.
  • Magic Weapons now add an extra die of damage per + instead of just adding +1, making them a lot more reliable. The properties are now included in runes, which every weapon has an allotted limit to fill.
  • Magic armor now adds their enhancement value to all saves.
    • Weapon and Armor properties are still tied to fixed slots, but now they don't threaten to absorb than one slot because of their power.
  • There was an alternative play test that tried another method to dealing with Resonance, but it only provided preset characters to work with, and this was generally as derided as the original concept.
  • (For those of you wondering what happened to it, see "investing" towards the bottom of Miscellaneous below)
• Another controversial feature is the action economy: Rather than the typical Standard, Move, Swift action with Free actions sprinkled on, you now get three actions, and everything, from moving to casting, takes an action. In fact, multicomponent spells (Somatic, Verbal, Material, etc.) eat an action for every component the spell needs. Even Metamagic eats up an action to cast with it.
  • While not in itself an issue, some of the things tied to it are indeed stupid. Chief among them are shields, which you need to raise every turn to get their fucking AC bonus. You can then spend a reaction to have this shield block a single attack, likely damaging the shield - and shields break pretty easily if they absorb enough damage on top of only absorbing a limited amount of it before just being overwhelmed and landing on you.

PLAYTEST CLASSES

• Investigator - APG Paytest, November 2019
  • Gain a small bonus to investigate things
  • Subclasses split between the class' history as a not-Alchemist class, Empiricism (As in that one Archetype that made them Int-SAD, now nerfed into just making your investigations faster), and Forensic Medicine (Making you a medic/CSI)
  • Gain a Rogue-tier amount of Skill Feats, though a majority will be focused on Mental-based skills.
    • Also gain a bonus to untrained knowledge skills - not quite the same as Bard's singular Lore skill, but it's still decent.
  • One feat also allows you to pull things out of your Bat-Utility Belt. Like a boss.
• Oracle - APG Paytest, November 2019
  • Curses are now inherently tied to mysteries. Likely so you don't cheese out the really obvious ones (Clouded Sight, Lame, Tongues, etc.)
    • Curses now only flare up when you use your mystery's spells and increase in severity the more you use them. Use it too much and you get knocked out. For a whole fucking day. The only way to drop the curse is to use the Refocus action (The one used for recovering Focus Points) out of combat.
  • The current mysteries available are Battle, Flames, and Life. Each mystery also has associated Cleric domains which you can jump into via feats. Heck, one of the domains is even given to you upon generation like the Cloistered Cleric.
• Swashbuckler - APG Paytest, November 2019
  • Panache is now a condition gained through performing particular actions. You can move faster and you deal additional damage with certain weapons.
  • This Panache can be spent on making Finishing Moves (attacks with more pretentious naming) that deals extra damage.
  • Your subclasses are Braggart (Keying off Intimidation), Fencer (Keying off Deception), and Gymnast (Keying off Athletics)
• Witch
  • Cackle is now mandatory. It now lets you sustain spells using only your voice.
  • Your familiar gets more abilities as it levels up, though it's slower going than the Familiar Thesis Wizards.
  • Your Patron and progression is now keyed through Lessons, each of which grants you a Hex (Read: Focus spell) and your familiar a normal spell. While none of these Lessons depend on each other, it also makes theming a patron rather difficult.
    • Your first lesson grants access to one of the Occult, Primal, or Arcane spell lists, in a similar pattern to the Sorcerer.

• Magus - SoM Playtest, November 2020
  • The most famous part of the magus - that is, casting spells through swords - has changed a bit. The action now counts as a metamagic action (thus meaning that it can't benefit from any others that don't directly affect this action), but it allows you to still hit things to cast. The class even gives you a boost to Strength or Dexterity at level 1 instead of Intelligence like you'd think
    • The drawback is that your spell slots are extremely limited.
  • You start off with a focus spell that actually makes your weapon act as if it has a +1 bonus to it. You can spend a later feat to then add on special properties to it
  • You already start off proficient in medium armor. Great, that "armor proficiencies as you level up" part was a pile of shit anyways!
  • Your subclasses change a bit about how the whole casting thing works: Shooting Star lets you cast ranged spells via arrows/thrown weapons (though it can't do any touch spells and only has a requires a range of 30 feet max), Slide Casting lets you move while casting with weapons (though this movement can provoke opportunity attacks and forces you to use the classic one-handed weapon and open hand style) and Sustaining Steel lets you regain THP after casting a spell through a big two-hander sword.
• Summoner - SoM Playtest, November 2020
  • Your eidolon is now strictly set to a specific preset form and determines which spell list you take (angel for divine, beast for primal, phantom for occult, or dragon for arcane). Unlike most pets, these eat into your action economy (unless you use certain class-based focus spells and actions to act in tandem with them).
  • Each eidolon gains special abilities as they level up. They're also pretty clearly meant to be the frontliner as they get to level up their proficiencies (except saves) much faster than you do.
  • These Eidolons cannot be customized like 1E did. Instead, you need to blow feats in order to give them new features.

• Gunslinger - G&G Playtest, January 2021
  • Crossbow proficiency is now built into the class, yay!
  • Pretty poor armor proficiency progression, but you're already very dependent on dexterity for AC.
  • Misfires aren't quite as pervasive - Now they only happen on specific situations like firing a poorly-maintained gun or as a result of a specific feat.
  • Reloading's a bitch though. Can't dual wield properly or you have two full hands and can't reload.
  • A lot of the panache tricks return as feats, as well as a feat to turn bombs into bullets.
  • Also prevalent are feats that capitalize on enemy attacks (deflecting attacks or striking back on misses)
  • Your subclasses have a set of feats tied to them that you automatically gain: Drifter (Focused on dual wielding or sword + gun) Pistolero (snap-shots with a pistol) and Sniper (Shooting with longarms and sneakiness)

• Inventor - G&G Playtest, January 2021
  • Pretty much a port of the Mechanic from Starfinder rather than an Artificer
    • You have three options for "subclasses", which are the forms your special invention can take: Special armor (with special resistances), Special weapons, or a clockwork drone. All of these have a set of mods available that expands with level progression
      • These mods are independent from mods provided by certain feats, though they can be retrained all the same when you gain the ability to remake your invention
      • While not exactly a pet, taking a construct as your invention does have its own chain of feats that improve the thing with better attacks, improved skill proficiencies and a size change.
  • Several feats grant actions that push your invention to their limits, leading to a chance that it'll pop and be unable to use such taxing actions. The one you get by default...makes the invention go kaboom. Yeah, who'd want to blow up a suit of techno-armor while inside it?

General

• The usual explanation of RPGs for newbies includes the usual advice of making sure everyone's comfortable and on the same page. This is expanded upon in the later chapter on GMing, which introduces things like x-cards and a default set of expectations for players (which GMs are told to tailor to their tables). The default expectations are in many ways incongruous with the slightly crapsack default setting. There's a prohibition on players owning slaves (on its face fairly uncontroversial, except that this could prohibit players from having noble titles since serfdom is widely considered a form of slavery or else only marginally better). Depictions of cruelty shouldn't be shown even though Zon-Kuthon is a core deity.
  • Overall, this is something anyone can assume considering the company's political outlook.
• The general math of the system has been considerably simplified, chiefly by axing the sometimes silly list of bonuses you can slap onto a test.
• The general setting of Golarion has been set at a point where all the 1E Adventure Paths have taken place and were successfully finished(except for Kingmaker, which due to the video game's success got retconned into a new expanded version happening in the present). This means that, among other things, the Worldwound in Sarkoris has been shut, the Whispering Tyrant is free to raise hell, and Cassandalee the android is now a full god with a divine portfolio.
• Magic has been divided into various types: Arcane, Divine, Occult and Primal. Classes are generally restricted to one spell list(ex: Wizards cast Arcane, Druids cast Primal, Clerics cast Divine, etc...) Spell Strength(DC) is no longer strictly tied to Spell Level(i.e. Glitterdust and similar spells can stay useful forever), but attack spells whose effects increase by caster level must now be learned/prepared at those higher levels(i.e.: a wizard who can cast 6th-level spells must prepare Fireball as a level 6 spell to get the full power out of it). Some spells can be heightened at any level, others gain effects only at set levels(i.e. a 3rd-level spell may have additional effects when cast at 6th level, but none at 4th or 5th). Cantrips are automatically heightened to half the character's level.
• The Gamemastery Guide re-introduced quite a lot of older variant systems from Stamina and Automatic Bonus Progression (with accompanying non-magical high-quality items) to Gestalt character and rejiggering the new stat-boost system to be in line with 1E's Point Buy system.

Ancestries

• Among the typical RPG fare (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes) are Goblins, Paizo's de-facto mascots for PF. As for the name? Well, the usual suspects claim that it's because calling them "Races" is problematic. Though it does also allow this part of the character to focus as much on biology as the culture the character was raised in. Also, somebody was cribbing notes from Starfinder, as the growing list of possible Ancestries skews a little weirder and/or monstrous than many other games, including PF1e.
  • Races and classes have static HP values instead of Hit Die (with the racial HP only applying for 1st level). Unlike Starfinder, there's no Stamina by default.
    • The Gamemastery Guide does include a quick-and dirty means to implement Stamina if you really want it: Just halve the default class Health and put the other half as stamina (+ Constitution). Of course, this will gunk up stuff like healing (since HP and Stamina are distinct pools), but you can recover this far quicker in exchange for a more limited means of recovery mid-battle.
  • Each race gives two fixed stat boosts and a fixed stat penalty as well as one stat bonus that can be assigned wherever you wish. Humans, being the snowflakes they are, just get two floating boosts.
    • Tengu and Orcs, added in the Advanced Player's Guide, are surprisingly closer to humans; both have one fixed stat boost (Dex and Strength, respectively) and one floating boost.
      • Aaaaaand Paizo finally bit the race-dependent stats bullet in 2023, allowing players to replace each race's stat boosts with the humie-standard two boosts to whatever you want. Notably, Paizo is fully aware of how this might throw shit off and merely offers this as an option, though it is something of a net gain for the many races with a stat penalty.
  • Each race is divvied up into multiple subraces or "heritages". Each of these grants one specific benefit and can be the pre-req for ancestry feats (like the always-amusing Bouncy Goblin feat and its siblings).
  • Racial Weapon Proficiency is now a feat for each race, as is the ability to improve your proficiency in them if you don't already do so.

Core Rulebook

• Dwarves
  • 10 HP, Medium sized, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, +2 free boost to any ability, -2 Charisma
    • Still everyone's favorite rock punching, medium-sized midgets, dwarf feats focus on crafting, resisting pansy-ass magic, your old ability to walk around in heavy armor like nobodies' business, and having your ancestors be angrier at pansy-ass magic than you are. Also of note is that all dwarves come by default with a Clan Dagger, a special weapon that they are always proficient in and treat like an icon of pride. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Ancient-Blooded Dwarf: Your ancestors passed down their hatred of magic down to you. You gain +1 to saving throws.
• Anvil Dwarf: Your parents beat forging into you harder than they did the clan daggers. Become trained in Crafting, gained a souped-up skill feat that gives you not one, but two classes of items that grant you +1, later +2 to crafting checks with them.
• Death Warden Dwarf: You come from a long-lineage of gravekeepers, hell-bent on keeping the skeletons in their graves. You crit-success every time you succeed on a necromancy-based saving throw.
• Elemental Heart Dwarf: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide, you literally are exploding with elemental energy. You get a daily, 2-action attack that lets you explode with acid, cold, electric, or fire damage against every adjacent creature.
• Forge Dwarf: Not to be confused with the Anvil Dwarf, you think being around an active volcano is cozy. You get fire resistance equal to half your level and heat-based environmental effect resistance.
• Oathkeeper Dwarf: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide, your parents or peers never told you snitches get stitches, or that you didn't believe anyone could give you any in the first place. Your inability to lie gives you +1 to Sense Motive checks and to your DC against being lied to, and +2 to Diplomacy whenever you have to convince someone you cannot lie. To rub in that fact, you suffer a -4 penalty to Lie checks and your DC in Deception whenever someone is trying to Sense Motive against you. It ain't easy being LG.
• Rock Dwarf: Living in the mountains made you built like a brick-shit-house. You get +2 to saving throws against being knocked prone, shoved, or tripped, and you halve any push effect.
• Strong-Blooded Dwarf: Now you are just too angry to be poisoned. You gain poison resistance equal to half your level, and you shake off poison faster any time you succeed on a saving throw against any toxin that managed to pierce through your dwarven hide.

• Elves
  • 6 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Constitution
    • The rapid progress of Golarion in the Age of Lost Omens have done little to change elves in any real respect. Still nigh-immortal, still dexterous, still magical, still stuck-up. Much of their feats focus on one these aspects, whether its gaining new spells, improving DEX-based skills, becoming one with nature, being incredibly difficult to change their minds on anything--external influences included, and using their absurdly long lives to pick up the occasional hobby faster than anyone else.
    • A shocking consequence of the birth of the ORC is the retconning of the Drow from all existence. While understandable on some level due to Paizo's attempt to further distance themselves from what WotC started, this is viewed by some as a little overly zealous as there have been plenty of ways they could have revised them to be something less blatantly copied from Wizards - which means a lot more for SF since that setting has them as a more significant force. While their role as uber-evil demonic species is effectively being replaced by serpentfolk, there's been talk of "Cavern Elves" being the new replacement for dark-skinned elves.
    • Your heritages includes:

Subraces

• Ancient Elves: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide, you are only 200+ years young, and still have several centuries of adventuring left inside your old bones. Your "experience" lets you take a multiclass dedication feat other than their main class for free. Needless to say that this is quite powerful in freeing up feat space, as even humans needed to blow a racial feat at level 9 to pull that off.
• Artic Elves: Frozen tundras that can barely support any kind of life are still forests, and someone needs to be smug and superior about them. Being a long-eared Eskimo have granted you cold damage resistance equal to half your level and you can guard against freezing environmental hazards down one step.
• Cavern Elf: No one told you that the caves are for the dwarves. Your antithetical existence granted you darkvision.
• Desert Elf: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide, they are practically a reprint of Artic Elves. Cold damage resistance and wintery environmental effect resistance are replaced with fire damage resistance and heat-based environmental effect resistance.
• Seer Elf: Born with an inherent connection to magic, you understand magic even more than other elves (as if you needed anything else to be superior about). You start with Detect Magic as an arcane innate cantrip, and gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Identity Magic and Decipher Writing, if it has something to do with magic.
• Whisper Elves: Born with bigger, sharper, keener ears than most, no one's conversations are safe with you around. Whenever you use the Seek action to find undetected enemies, you can find one within a 60ft area instead of 30, and they gain a +2 circumstance bonus to finding them if they are within 30ft.
• Woodland Elves: Jungle life has bred you to be expert tree-huggersclimbers. With a successful Climb check, you can traverse trees, vines, and other natural foliage half your run speed, your full speed if you crit-success it. You can also Take Cover in forest terrain, even if there is zero actual cover to use. We can only assume you either always bring a ghillie suit with you or you are merging with the forest itself.

• Gnomes
  • 8 HP, Small sized, +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Strength
    • Always fending of the lethal case of boredom known as The Bleaching, gnomes have realized several neat tricks over the course of the edition shift into the Age of Lost Omens. Whether its attuning into the fey-natures, mastering illusions, tinkering with their own weapons to make them even deadlier (literally giving them the Deadly trait) or even being able to speak with animals, their racial feats are... rather situational. Cool to behold, nonetheless! Rather fitting for them, all things considering. Your heritages include:

Subraces

• Chameleon Gnome: Latent magic within you lets you alter or change the colors of your entire body, much like a-- well, see the name. You start every day with some weird pattern or color scheme, and it takes an hour to change it to another. If your current color matches the color of the environment you are in, you can spend an action to gain +2 circumstance bonus to Stealth checks as long as you are in it or it stays that color!
• Fey-Touched Gnome: Your family never let go of their fey origins, keeping them close to them for ages. This lets you gain the fey trait and one Primal cantrip to take as an innate spell. You can spend 10-minutes, once per day, to meditate, realigning all your fey chakras with the First World, to swap it out for another Primal cantrip.
• Sensate Gnome: Everything about the world is just a tad bit brighter, sounds clearer, and smells way sicker to you. You can use your sense of smell to locate and hunt things in down like a bloodhound, within a 30ft area. You also have +2 to Perception checks if you are trying to find an undetected creature within your smelling range.
• Umbral Gnome: Black may not be a color, but it is to you. You gain darkvision.
• Vivacious Gnome: You are so much the life of the party, un-life phases you less. You gain negative damage resistance equal to half your level; and while you can't get rid of the Doomed condition easier, you do treat it as one stage less severe than others, meaning Doomed 1 means absolutely nothing to you. A little useful for the Oracle class.
• Wellspring Gnome: Something other than primal fey magic has gripped your being. You can pick either the arcane, divine, or occult spell list as to what has altered your being, getting an innate cantrip from that spell list. Whenever you have you gain an ancestry feat that grants an innate primal cantrip, you instead alter the spell to be your chosen tradition.

• Goblins
  • 6 HP, Small sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Wisdom
    • Over the years, the goblins have become tired of being stereotyped as Always Chaotic Evil assholes that rape, pillage, and burn the common folk and/or cannon fodder. Taking up the adventuring mantle in the hopes of changing the outlooks of everyone, they have become somewhat more friendly to hang around with. They still are natural pyromaniacs and will eat any trash they find off the street, so they have quite the long way to go before they will be 100% welcomed in anyone's house. Their racial feats, paying homage to their violent pasts, focus a lot on crowd control, dealing extra damage, and being quite hard to punish in response. Your choices of heritages are:

Subraces

• Charhide Goblin: Your family has a long history of being on the receiving end of "Kill it with fire!". Mercifully, you aren't quite as flammable as your elders. You gain fire damage resistance equal to half your level, and it only takes DC10 flat check over a DC15 to put yourself out if you ever do catch fire.
• Irongut Goblin: One man's trash is another goblin's five-star cuisine! You can always find a meal to eat, even in the poorest of villages, as long as garbage is easily available. You also can still eat and drink while you suffer the Sickened condition (VERY useful for Mutagenist Alchemist builds!). You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your saving throws, and even turn any successful Fortitude saving throw with this bonus into a crit-success, against getting afflictions, becoming Sickened, and even for removing the Sickened condition, as long as it from something you would have ate.
• Razortooth Goblin: Your family always had very, uncomfortably sharp teeth. You gain a 1d6 piercing jaws unarmed attack.
• Snow Goblin: Cool, chill, maybe even a little coldhearted, your blue fur is testament that you can weather any snowstorm with ease. You gain cold damage resistance equal to half your level and resist cold environments down one stage.
• Tailed Goblin: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide, you are descended from monkeys more directly than even the humans. You gain +2 to your Climb checks, gain a skill feat that lets you fight while climbing unabated, and can even use your tail to reduce the number of free hands you need to climb up with!
• Treedweller Goblin: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide. Taking a page out the elves' playbook, you become one with nature. As long as you are in a forest or jungle, you get +2 to your Stealth, Survival checks to find food, and your Survival DC to cover your tracks well.
• Unbreakable Goblin: You were always called "thick-skulled" growing up, no one knew how literal you'd took it. You gain 10 base HP over 6, and you take half-damage from falls.

• Halflings
  • 6 HP, Small-sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Strength
    • Happy-go-lucky and struck with a case of permanent wanderlust, the not-Hobbits haven't changed much in the edition shift, outside of losing their ability to pass as human (and look like a child doing so. Though the Core Rulebook's description of them still refer them as "...some looking like shorter adult humans with slightly larger heads and others having proportions closer to those of a human child"). Much of their racial feats focus on their innate luck, being small and innocent, blending in their surroundings, or making sure no one can catch them when the first three fail them. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Gutsy Halfling: Just because you are small, doesn't mean you lack big cajones. You turn any successful saving throw against a Mental effect into a crit-success.
• Hillock Halfling: Being a rural hick has its perks. You can add your Level whenever you are regaining HP while resting overnight, and you can snack on something while someone is using Treat Wounds on you to add your Level to the amount of HP you would recover. The book is vague on what counts as a snack or even where you get it from, so speak with your DM about if you get an infinite stash of bananas or something.
• Jinxed Halfling: Introduced in the Advanced Player's Guide, instead of being blessed with supernatural luck, you can curse others with bad luck! You are unable to take any feat relating to Halfling Luck, but you gain the Jinx action, which lets you, once a day, make them roll a Will saving throw to avoid becoming Clumsy. It isn't a great subrace, given how much you lose over what you gain, so you probably have to be jinxed to take it.
• Nomadic Halfling: Your family's always been on the move, never been one to settle down, and it has been that way for generations. Your experience with all the cultures you've run into let you gain two additional languages. It also boosts the Multilingual feat, letting you take a grand total of three additional languages every time you gain it.
• Observant Halfling: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide, your awareness towers over your height. You gain +1 to all Perception DCs, not to your checks, however.
• Twilight Halfling: The dark of night have always been a friend to your family, and you are no exception. You gain low-light vision.
• Wildwood Halfling: Your big, hairy feet has never got in the way of running about in the forest. You ignore any difficult terrain regarding trees, foliage, and undergrowth.

• Humans
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 to any two ability scores of your choosing
    • They are humans. Not much to talk about. Still the most versatile and adaptable of any race, regardless of how much you believe in Humanity Fuck Yeah or not. Even their feats are more practical than they are flashy. Their heritages are more interesting than they are, being the receptacles of Half-Elves and Half-Orcs races, and possibly any other specifically half-human bloodline that will be printed. Humans can choose these as their subrace to gain access to their respective traits, low-light vision, and their respective full ancestry feat line, as well as feats specific for them.
  • Half-Elf feats lets them utilize their dual-lives to their advantage, whether its blending in with elves or humans, or being so supernaturally charming, no one will care about being a freak of nature.
  • Half-Orc feats (or the few that exists as of the time of this writing) lets you use your added brainpower to fool those that you are as dumb as you look or empathize with monsters. It's better to tap into Orc feats with, especially the many that were added when they became a player race as of the Advanced Player's Guide.
  • Your more human-specific heritages include:

Subraces

• Skilled Heritage: The human mind craves knowledge for meaningless tasks that may or may not gain meaning. You automatically become Trained in one skill of your choice, becoming an Expert in it at 5th Level.
• Versatile Heritage: You believe in your adaptability more than you honestly should. You gain any general feat that you meet the prerequisites for.
• Wintertouched Heritage: Introduced in the Lost Omens Character Guide, your burning passion for humanity keeps you warm in the coldest of climates. You gain cold damage resistance equal to half your level and resist environmental effects down one stage.

Lost Omens Splatbooks

Lost Omens Character Guide

• Hobgoblins
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Wisdom
    • Thanks to the events of the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path, hobgoblins have been elevated into a full society within the mountains of the Nirmanthas region. The heroes of the Adventure Path canonically managed to talk down the invading warlord into ending her continental conquest. However, General Azaersi decided to maintain her claim over the region and establish the hobgoblin nation of Oprak. The residents of Nirmanthas and its neighbor, Nidal, are cautiously optimistic that their new hobgoblins neighbors would make great allies, though some believe they are just biding their time and strength, ready to begin Ironfang Invasion 2: Electric Boogaloo. In the meantime, hobgoblins continue to grow stronger, fiercer, and more militant under the general's rule. Hobgoblin feats are small in number at the time of this writing, focusing on supporting their allies or stacking debuffs on foes. They can be quite powerful, if you play your cards right. Your options for heritages include:

Subraces

• Elfbane Hobgoblin: Your lineage were bred to be weapons against the elves. You gain the Resist Elf Magic reaction, letting you gain a +1 bonus towards your saving throws against magical effects, +2 if it is an arcane spell.
• Runtboss Hobgoblin: You are used to ordering around goblins. You automatically gained the ability to Coerce multiple creatures, and any successful attempt to Coerce goblins will crit-succeed. You also cannot crit-fail such a check.
• Shortshanks Hobgoblin: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You have cartoonishly big shoulders and comically tiny legs. You get the Ride skill feat (Moving while on an animal is pretty much automatic) on top of not being flat-footed while climbing.
• Smokeworker Hobgoblin: Smoke and fire means little to you and your family. You gain fire damage resistance equal to half your level and you can always target creatures concealed behind smoke.
• Steelskin Hobgoblin: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Your skin is quite tough and calloused. You have an easier time recovering from any manner of persistent physical damage.
• Warmarch Hobgoblin: Your family never knew the difference between civilian life and military life, always being on the move. You can always find some kind of food in the wilderness as long as you don't crit-fail your Subsist check, and you can Hustle twice as long without tiring.
• Warrenbred Hobgoblin: Your family lived underground for generations, adapting for such a life. You can Seek undetected creatures in a 30ft area over a 15ft area using your ears, as long as you are underground. You also crit-succeed all successful Squeeze checks using your Acrobatics.

• Leshies
  • 8 HP, Small sized +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Intelligence
    • Grown by a druid's love, care, and vehement rage against those that despoil nature, leshies are back in action! It appears that quite a few different types of leshies have followed suit with the vine leshies in gaining free will and independence.
    • Their feat list, at the time of this writing, are as small as they are, being one of the few races to not get a full ancestry feat list. Still, they have some rather unique feats fitting for their plant-like bodies, such as increasing the range of all two-handed weapons by making their arms into vine-like whips, using their leaves to glide through the air, disguising themselves as ordinary houseplants, or performing photosynthesis to heal.
    • Not every form of leshy is playable, given that they are still a borderline construct tasked with serving their druidic creators, but those with enough of a free will can choose to be:

Subraces

• Cactus Leshy: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You're as prickly as a cactus. Your unarmed attacks are now a bit more dangerous on account of your thorns.
• Fungus Leshy: You are certainly a fun guy. Your mushroom-like senses grant you darkvision.
• Fruit Leshy: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Your deliciousness is now very apparent. Once per day you grow a special fruit that heals about as much as casting heal at your level.
• Gourd Leshy: You abide to that intelligence penalty and literally lack a brain. You have better uses for the space betwixt your ears (or lack thereof). You can store up to 1 Bulk worth of items within your head, making it more difficult to snatch from you. You can also draw and use an item in the same action, if it was the only thing inside your head.
• Leaf Leshy: Born from leaves, your body is incredibly light. No matter how far you fall, your will never take any falling damage.
• Lotus Leshy: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You can float on water, though it requires an Acrobatics check to walk on a moving body of water like a river.
• Root Leshy: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You're much more in touch with the earth. You now have 10 racial HP and are slightly harder to knock over or shove.
• Seaweed Leshy: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You're amphibious now, given a swimming speed but at the cost of a slower walk speed.
• Vine Leshy: Your vines let you clamber up any surface with little challenge. You require no hands to Climb, and you always get a crit-success whenever you successfully pass an Athletics check to Climb.

• Lizardfolk
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Intelligence
    • The lizardfolk are still the highly traditional reptilians seen in first edition.
    • Like leshies, their feat list is small and incomplete at the time of this writing. What they do get is plenty of feats that make use of their brutish strength and natural weapons, getting deadly claw, jaw, and tail strikes. They also gain a few feats that makes traversal like swimming and climbing easier. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Cliffscale Lizardfolk: You have sticky pads on the soles of your feet that makes climbing up any surface easier. You can fight easier while climbing, and as long as you lack footwear, you can climb without using your hands. Anytime you successfully roll an Athletics check to Climb, you automatically crit-succeed.
• Cloudleaper Lizardfolk: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You have flaps of skin on the sides of your body that make you more like a glider. As long as you have the room, you can never suffer falling damage.
• Frilled Lizardfolk: You have spiny dorsal fins around your neck that you can flare up to intimidate anyone wondering how the hell you don't cut yourself with 'em. If your opponent can see you, you can Demoralize without speaking. You also gain a 2-action activity that lets you channel your inner JoJo villain and walk towards anyone menacingly, giving them Frightened 2 over Frightened 1.
• Sandstrider Lizardfolk: You got thick scales that reflect the sun's oppressive rays, granting you fire damage resistance equal to half your level, hot environmental protection, and the ability to 10 times as long without food or drink. However, cold weather hurts you more, treating any cold environment as one level more extreme than normal.
• Unseen Lizardfolk: You got chameleon skin. You can spend an action to blend in with an environment that matches your skin color, granting you +2 to Stealth checks. You can also spend an hour to completely change your skin color.
• Wetlander Lizardfolk: You and your family always lived in places like swamps, marshes, rivers, and other bodies of waters. You gain a 15ft swim speed.
• Woodstalker Lizardfolk: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You are one with the woods. You can hide behind any forest or jungle terrain. You also gain the Terrain Stalker skill feat (You can hide in the underbrush and sneak without issue).

Lost Omens Ancestry Guide

• Androids
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Charisma
    • Remain mostly untouched, though they lose their immunity to emotion-based effects and have their immunities to disease and poison degraded to just slightly better saving throws to resist them.
    • Many of their feats utilize their nanites (including bringing back the Nanite Surge feature that 1E androids had to lug around). Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Artisan Android: You are a skilled crafter. You gain training in Crafting the Specialty Crafting skill feat (A bonus to crafting a specific type of item).
• Impersonator Android: You're a Synth who can pass themselves off as just a normal joe. You can easily impersonate a normal person and trick people into thinking the same, though you can't try and impersonate other people so easily.
• Laborer Android: You are a bot of burden. You gain training in Athletics and the Hefty Hauler skill feat (You can carry more stuff. Woo~).
• Polyglot Android: Your memory banks understand languages easily. You start off with two more languages and getting the Multilingual feat lets you learn three additional languages each time.
• Warrior Android: You're a droid built for war. You are proficient in all simple and martial weapons.

• Azarketi
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Wisdom
    • Essentially rebranded Gillmen. They are the descendants of the Azlanti empire, mutated into being fish-men by algollthus. This makes them into partially amphibious humanoids, meaning they need to get wet once at least every 24 hours. Funnily enough, the Azarketi wasn't supposed to be introduced in the Ancestry Guide, instead being introduced in Absalom, City of Lost Omens. However, that splat got indefinitely delayed, forcing Paizo to release them as part of a web supplement that came with the Ancestry Guide.
    • Many of their feats either tie into their past with algollthus or their unparalleled skills in water. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Ancient Scale Azarketi: You are so used to the darkness of the depths that you can see perfectly fine in the darkness. As a side-perk, you are also bioluminescent.
• Benthic Azarketi: You are resistant to the chills of the deep. You gain a resistance to cold damage and can descend to the deep seas without issue.
• Inured Azarketi: You've adjusted to the polluted waters. You gain resistance to poison damage and can last on land for longer.
• Mistbreath Azarketi: You are capable of living without ever needing to swim. You no longer need to dive under water in order to survive, being fine just with a mere misting or wiping. This allows you to walk faster, but your swimming speed suffers.
• Murkeyed Azarketi: You have lived in muddy waters, so you can see through poor light. You can notice hidden things more easily.
• River Azarketi: Your have lived in a river rather than the depths. Any time you use Athletics to swim in a river, any success you roll becomes a crit success.
• Spined Azarketi: You have poisonous spines you can shoot out of your body.
• Tactile Azarketi: You have some manner of detecting the current well, like feelers or really sensitive skin. You gain a sort of blindsense using ocean waves and can easily sense your way in the water.
• Thalassic Azarketi: You are a warrior, capable of fighting in the depths. You have the Underwater Marauder skill feat (You can use slashing and bludgeoning weapons underwater without penalty) and can throw piercing ranged weapons without any issue.

• Fetchlings
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Remain the same edgy darkfolk with feats focusing on how they want to bend the darkness. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Bright Fetchling: You're actually more of a flashlight than a shadow-boi. You gain the light and dancing light cantrips and can emit a dim light from your own body.
• Deep Fetchling: You are most accustomed to the biting chills of the dark. You gain a resistance to cold damage.
• Liminal Fetchling: Your ties to the shadow and ethereal planes let you sense the unseen more quickly.
• Resolute Fetchling: You are accustomed to the horrors of the dark. Whenever you pass a save against an emotion effect, it counts as a critical success.
• Wisp Fetchling: You're actually more insubstantial than most. Not only are you small sized, but you are trained in Acrobatics (with a bonus for sliding through things) and gain the Quick Squeeze Squeeze skill feat (You can move more quickly when squeezing past).

• Fleshwarps
  • 10 HP, Medium sized, +2 Constitution, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • A catch-all term for any manner of folk afflicted by horrible things, twisted into abominations.
    • Your various feats include ways to weaponize your affliction. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Created Fleshwarp: You're Frankenstein's Monster. You are immune to starvation and can resist poison more easily.
• Mutated Fleshwarp: Your mutation was brought about by wild magic, like the mana wastes. You can recover from persistent bleed more easily as a result.
• Shapewrought Fleshwarp: Your transformation was particularly excruciating, as you were awake and aware for every second of it. As a result, you gain resistant to mental damage.
• Technological Fleshwarp: A fancy way of saying you're a cyborg with a partly-cybernetic brain. When you pass a save against emotion effects, it counts as a critical success.

• Kitsunes
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Kitsune start off with their ability to transform into a more humanoid form or a fox form, depending on your heritage (by default, a humanoid form based off an existing ancestry, in case you use a Versatile Heritage or Paizo forgets to print one...).
    • They have a rather shallow pool of feats, focusing chiefly on either their magical nature or their shapeshifting.
      • The multi-tail shenanigans isn't a feat this time, instead of giving them more tails based on their highest level spell slot, highest level cantrip, or the number of Ancestry Feats they get, up to nine. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Celestial Envoy Kitsune: You have a stronger bond to the gods. You have a special reaction that improve resistance against divine effects.
• Dark Fields Kitsune: Your form is unsettling, capable of terrifying with a mere glance and then feeding off that fear for THP. You do not have a humanoid form, instead opting to turn into a fox.
• Earthly Wilds Kitsune: You can bite! Yeah, that's it. Also, because you're more in touch with your inner animal, you can only turn into a fox.
• Empty Sky Kitsune: You have a better bond to the magic than most. You gain the Kitsune Spell Familiarity race feat (gain a cantrip).
• Frozen Winds Kitsune: You are used to the cold. You gain resistance to cold damage and are less affected by cold weather.

• Sprite
  • 6 HP. Tiny sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Strength
    • By default, all attacks are magical, which might help ease the financial burden of buying magical weapons for a bit.
    • Are like gnomes in that they're distant descendants from their forebears in the First World. As a result, these sprites lack wings...until you invest in the feat chain necessary to make that flight last as long as you wish. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Draxie: You're something akin to a faerie dragon. You gain telepathy, but it only works with whoever you touch.
• Grig: You are Jiminiy Cricket. You have a bonus for doing long jumps and have ghost sound as an innate cantrip.
• Luminous Sprite: You are a living torch. Way to take one for the team.
• Melixie: You're apparently able to talk to bugs and arachnids (and other arthropods) like people.
• Nyktera: You're essentially a tiny bat. You gain improved hearing and have an exclusive feat made for talking to bats.
• Pixie: You're a little bigger than most sprites, being Small instead of Tiny.

• Strix
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Have their human-hating nature be the result of their hate for what old Cheliax had done to them.
    • Those wings do not help with flying...without investing in a feat chain, with the slight benefit of getting flight earlier than other flight-based feat chains. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Nightglider Strix: You are totally nocturnal. You get darkvision.
• Predator Strix: You have a 1d4 claw attack.
• Scavenger Strix: Name says it all. You get training in Survival (plus a minor bonus for surviving off the land) and the Forager Skill Feat (you can get more food for folks).
• Shoreline Strix: Your parents may have been seagulls. You have training in Athletics and the Underwater Marauder skill feat (You can use slashing and bludgeoning weapons underwater without penalty).
• Songbird Strix: You are secretly a canary. You have an easier time impersonating voices and singing.

Lost Omens: Mwangi Expanse

• Anadi
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Constitution, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • A strange race of sentient spiders that hide around the Mwangi Expanse.
    • They shape-shift because people are kinda creeped out at the idea of talking spiders and they managed to make a spell that's pretty much common knowledge among them.
    • Several feats focus on either being a spider or your magical heritage.

Subraces

• Adaptive Anandi: You managed to get your shape-shifting magic to turn you into some other humanoid race. As such, you get the Adopted Ancestry feat for this particular race.
• Polychromatic Anandi: Your fur is a weird and eyecatching hue that wouldn't look off in a Slaaneshi band. You gain training in Performance and the Impressive Performance skill feat.
• Snaring Anandi: Your true form's fangs have a special sort of curvature to them. As a spider, your bites have the Grapple and Trip traits.
• Spindly Anandi: You have particularly long limbs, improving your speed to 30 feet.
• Venomous Anandi: Name on the label. You gain a few daily uses of this venom that coats your fangs and deals extra poison damage on a hit.

• Conrasu
  • 10 HP, Medium sized, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Unlike things like Warforged, these are shards of some cosmic consciousness coalesced into a physical shell and personality. They form wooden shells that are specially formed to their particular needs.
    • Have the ability to heal themselves a bit when in sunlight.

Subraces

• Rite of Invocation Conrasu: You augmented your shell with magic. You gain one arcane or occult cantrip to cast at-will.
• Rite of Knowing Conrasu: Your ties to Axis are stronger than most. You gain a special action that helps improve your successes with recalling information.
• Rite of Light Conrasu: Your shell is particularly abundant with light. You can hare the healing you gain from sunlight with an ally.
• Rite of Passage Conrasu: Your shell is well-connected to the plants it is made from. You are immune to difficult terrain caused from undergrowth and are better at keeping balance in the forest.
• Rite of Reinforcement Conrasu: Your shell has hardened to the point that it's better than even most armor. This makes your shell into a built-in form of medium plate armor that can't be removed, but you can improve like regular armor and you can still sleep in it.

• Goloma
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Wisdom, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Bizarre beast-like humanoids that look like they're wearing multi-eyed masks. Due to some ancient traumas, they believe themselves to be some sort of valuable prey and thus adopt personas to become more dangerous than they may be.
    • Have two sets of eyes for twice the spotting.

Subraces

• Farsight Goloma: Your vision is augmented. You get darkvision.
• Frightful Goloma: Your appearance is quite disarming. You get training in Intimidation and the Intimidating Glare skill feat.
• Insightful Goloma: You're more perceptive than most in social situations. You have an easier time spotting lies and social cues.
• Vicious Goloma: Your hands have sharpened into dangerous claws. These claws can be used as unarmed attacks.
• Vigilant Goloma: You have become more vigilant of any magical traps. You gain Detect Magic as an at-will cantrip as well as improved chances to spot magical traps.

• Gnoll
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Rather than being a singular race of murderfucking hyena-men like prior lore, there is a subspecies of gnolls called "Kholo" who live in the Mwangi Expanse. These Kholo aren't nearly as insane, being more a race of pragmatic savages who wish to be left alone.
    • Remain otherwise ruthless to an extreme, seeing things like honor and chivalry as pointless. They also ritualistically devour their fallen ancestors and worthy foes in hopes of absorbing their traits and using their bones to make weapons.
    • Have lowlight vision and their bite attack by default

Subraces

• Ant Gnoll: You look like an aardwolf rather than any of the larger hyena species, being Small-sized rather than Medium. You get training in Deception and a bonus in using Deception to feign innocence, discerning lies, and using Deception as initiative.
• Great Gnoll: You're much bigger and bulkier than others of your lot. Your racial HP is increased to 10 and gain a bonus to trip or shove your adversaries.
• Sweetbreath Gnoll: Your breath smells oddly pleasant, making others more willing to listen to you. You gain training in Diplomacy and gain an advantage to such checks when others can smell your breath.
• Witch Gnoll: You are a strange one who knows how to make unsettling sounds. You can cast Ghost Sound as an innate cantrip and gain an advantage to deceive your foes using your voice.

• Shisk
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Intelligence, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Look more like humans that have porcupine quills growing out of their bodies. That said, it requires certain feats for these quills to be actually deadly.
    • Have darksight by default because of their subterranean lifestyles.
      • Also thanks to their rather tribal lifestyles, they're rather cagey about what they share with others.

Subraces

• Lorekeeper Shisk: You are known for your particular knowledge. You gain proficiency in Lore and one other Intelligence or Wisdom-based skill and improve the proficiency in that skill at level 5.
• Quillcoat Shisk: Your quills are particularly nasty, able to catch onto an attacking enemy and break off on them for retaliatory damage.
• Spellkeeper Shisk: You are better known for your magical knowledge. You gain one occult or primal cantrip to cast at-will.
• Stonestep Shisk: You're quite good on your feet thanks to your cave-dwelling lifestyle. You ignore difficult terrain made by naturally-formed rubble.
• Stronggut Shisk: Your metabolism is particularly slow. You don't even need to eat for a week before you begin to starve while poisons take longer to set in.

Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar

• Poppet
  • 6 HP, Small sized, +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, -2 Dexterity, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Pinocchio or Winnie the Pooh, as a species. Poppets are magically animated constructs designed to perform minor tasks, and sometimes one gains sentience and becomes an adventurer.
    • Fragile looking, vulnerable to flame, still need to eat and drink.

Subraces

• Ghost Poppet: Animated by a bit of life force and soul from a normal person, usually at the moment of death. Resists Negative Energy.
• Stuffed Poppet: You lack anything inside your skin but stuffing. Takes no fall damage, no matter how far they fall, and gain access to a feat ("Nothing but Fluff") that gives you resistance to precision damage.
• Toy Poppet: See that "Small" size up there? Replace it with Tiny, with all that implies.
• Windup Poppet: As long as you're wound, you don't need to eat. (Still need air and sleep, though.)
• Wishborn Poppet: When you wish upon a star... If you roll a success on a emotion or fear effect, get a crit instead.

Lost Omens: Impossible Lands

• Ghoran
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Constitution, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • As with the Leshies, the Ghorans are plantfolk who don't need to eat, instead subsisting on sunlight for photosynthesis.
    • Originally, they were the result of a druid trying to make a super-adaptable plant and succeeding so hard that the plants eventually evolved into sentient lifeforms. Each one houses a soul that dates back much further, which some can tap into for some extra knowledge using feats. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Ancient Ash Ghoran: You have a stronger link to your past lives, providing a bonus trained skill that becomes Expert as you level up.
• Enchanting Lily Ghoran: You actually smell very nice for a humanoid planty. You're not only trained in Diplomacy but you also get a bonus when talking to people who can smell you.
• Strong Oak Ghoran: You're more tree-man than plant-man. Because of this, you're harder to grab and harder to knock down by tripping.
• Thorned Rose Ghoran: Roses, thorns, you get the gist. You get a daily special reaction that can make an enemy that hits you scratch themselves on your thorns, dealing ongoing bleed damage.

• Kashirishi
  • 8 HP, Small sized, +2 Constitution, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Surprisingly, a wholly new race of empathic humanoid rhinos that are as small as halflings. Sadly, those horns aren't very dangerous, being more useful as personal lanterns as they're made with crystals rather than ivory. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Athamasi Kashrishi: For some reason, you have a second set of vestigial arms. While you can't grab anything, they can help with climbing while your hands can do other things.
• Lethoci Kashrishi: Your society is more coastal, frequently used to swimming in the ocean. You gain a bonus on Athletics checks for swimming and can't critfail swimming checks.
• Nascent Kashrishi: Surprisingly, these are a less developed sort of psychic rhino-man, but it provides its own sort of potential. This provides you with a bonus ancestry feat.
• Trogloshi Kashrishi: Your body actually has more luminescent patterns in addition to your horn. You get the Crystal Luminescence feat, which makes your horn glow brighter, especially when casting spells. You can take this feat again to become more of a lighthouse and make turning the light on/off a free action.
• Xyloshi Kashrishi: Contrary to most, your horn is actually capable of being used as a natural weapon, dealing 1d6 piercing damage with Finesse.

• Nagaji
  • 10 HP, Medium sized, +2 Strength, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Your bite is a d6 piercing natural weapon.
    • While the Nagaji are returning from last edition, the Naga-descended people actually got way more variety to their shapes. They're now capable of being more than just scaly snakemen, they can even look more like lamias. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Hooded Nagaji: Your head is that of a cobra. This means that you now gain a short-ranged venom spit attack that deals 1d4 poison damage and deals ongoing damage on a crit.
• Sacred Nagaji: The aforementioned Lamia-like species, considered uplifted snakes rather than crafted by Nagas. You can't bite people, but you can instead slap people with your tail, dealing 1d6 bludgeoning damage and becoming harder to trip or grab.
• Titan Nagaji: You are literally built different, swoler than fuck. Your scales now act as a natural suit of armor that you can't remove, but it will be an issue if you try making a class that doesn't value Strength to some degree.
• Venomshield Nagaji: Snakes naturally develop a resistance to their own venom, so why can't you? This grants a resistance to poison damage and a bonus to resist any poison.
• Whipfang Nagaji: You have a freakishly long neck. You can use this neck to your advantage by spending an action to extend the range of your bite attack.

• Vanara
  • 6 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • The monkey-men return, complete with a prehensile tail they can use almost like a third hand. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Bandaage Vanara: The most common sort of Vanara, this clan has spread their influence quite wide and have adapted to life in civilization. You suffer no penalties from being in a crowd.
• Lahkgyan Vanara: Though created in the monkey-god's image, they are very ruthless rather than tricksy. You gain a 1d6 bite attack.
• Ragdyan Vanara: The eldest of the heritages, tracing back to the origins of the Vanaras, you value stories and tradition more than others. You can cast one harmless divine cantrip as an innate spell.
• Wajaghand Vanara: The descendants of Vanaras once enslaved by a Rakshasa, leaving scars that have persisted generations. You gain extra resistance to spells and powers that tamper with emotions.

• Vishkanya
  • 6 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Far more humanlike than the Nagaji, but their spit and blood contain very potent venoms that they can use on their own weapons. Through various ancestry feats, you can make this venom even more powerful and more crippling. Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Elusive Vishkanya: You are a lot more slippery than others in a literal sense. You get a bonus to escape and can move faster when squeezing in tight spaces.
• Keen-Venom Vishkanya: Through some keen work, you are capable of using your venom on a weapon as you draw it.
• Old-Blood Vishkanya: The eldest of the heritages, tracing back to immigrants who sought to reclaim Jamelray. You're trained in Diplomacy and get either the Streetwise or Courtly Graces skill feat.
• Prismatic Vishkanya: Your scales are actually quite shiny and sparkly. You are not only proficient in Performance, but you also get the Fascinating Performance feat.
• Scalekeeper Vishkanya: Your skills lie in book-keeping and history. This gives you the ability to recall knowledge for free once per day.
• Venom-Resistant Vishkanya: While your innards contain venom, you also have plenty of antivenoms. You not only get resistance to poison, but your saves against poisons also decrease the severity of it even faster.

Extinction Curse

• Shoonies
  • 6 HP, Small sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Constitution
    • The first of the brand-new races to Pathfinder Second Edition, Shoonies were added to the game in the third book of the Extinction Curse Adventure Path. Pug-like dogfolk living within the Isle of Kortos, they are a pacifistic, kindhearted people that believe no one is beyond redemption or second chances (even if the low base HP and Constitution penalty makes them a little unsuited for PaladinChampion builds). This doesn't stop the few that suffer a personal offense or that threatens their people's peaceful life from becoming adventurers. Shoony feats are few in number and not all that powerful, focusing on traversal and navigating through and around opponents, but they are one of the few playable races of the time of this writing that are able to gain a burrowing speed with them! The heritage options they have are the following:

Subraces

• Bloodhound Shoony: Your family's stout snouts not only are able to block out foul stenches, but they can ascertain specific threats that their other senses cannot pick up. They gain the imprecise scent sense with a range of 30ft, and gain a +2 to any Survival check to Track those they have smelled before.
• Fishseeker Shoony: Years of patient, calming fishing has honed your reflexes. Any time you successfully Grab An Edge, you crit-success the check. Any time you would crit-fail such a check, you only fail to, so you don't have to test if shoonies lack collarbones like real dogs. Also, anytime someone fails to Disarm you, you cause them to crit-fail their check!
• Paddler Shoony: Your kin never found much issue living the swamp life. You ignore difficult terrain and greater difficult terrain regarding bogs, and you crit-succeed any successful Swim check.
• Thickcoat Shoony: Despite most shoonies living in humid marshes and isles, your family was somehow living up north. You have a much thicker coat of fur that grants you cold damage resistance equal to half your level, you resist freezing environments down one stage, and you can always target creatures concealed only by snow. However, heat-based environments are one level more extreme to you than normal.

Advanced Player's Guide

• Catfolk
  • 8 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Wisdom
    • The felines have returned to the play space, and the furries rejoiced. Lithe, wild, somewhat matriarchal, and always like to satiate their curiosity, the amurrans of Golarion are still out and about the place. Their feats focus heavily on improving their movement and manipulating rolls to avoid worst-case scenarios, including the ability to use their reaction to instantly revive a comrade from being knocked out at Level 13. Your pick of the heritage litter includes:

Subraces

• Clawed Catfolk: Your family always had deadly claws, capable of gouging out eyes and leaving nasty wounds. You gain a 1d6 claw strike.
• Flexible Catfolk: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You have the catlike trait of squeezing out of tight spots. As long as you don't need to squeeze, you don't count tight spots as difficult terrain. You also gain a bonus to slip out of binds.
• Hunting Catfolk: You're a natural predator. Stalking your prey comes easy to you. You have a 30ft imprecise scent using your sense of smell. You also have +2 to any Survival check made to Track your prey that you've smelt before.
• Jungle Catfolk: Your kin is closer to panthers and jaguars than just the regular, ol' pussy-cat. You ignore difficult undergrowth terrain, and treat greater difficult undergrowth terrain as just difficult terrain.
• Liminal Catfolk: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You might be related to the Cheshire Cat. You know Detect Magic as an innate spell and have an easier time identifying certain beings from beyond the material plane.
• Nine Lives Catfolk: Great misfortune always seemed to evade or be mitigated with your family, being able to come back from any life-threatening disaster. Whenever you would be KO'd by a critical hit, you only go down to Dying 1, instead of Dying 2.
• Sharp-Eared Catfolk: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You can pick up noises far more easily, helping you pick out hidden creatures a little faster.
• Winter Catfolk: A thick coat of fur guards you from the cold, granting you cold damage resistance equal to half your level, and you treat every cold environmental effect as one step less extreme than normal. Not too thick, else heat might be an issue for you...

• Kobolds
  • 6 HP, Small sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Constitution
    • Everyone's favorite scrappy, overconfident, dragon-loving cannon-fodder returns in the APG. While the intervening years between first and second edition hasn't altered them too much society-wise, they have changed quite a bit appearance-wise. They have wider, flatter heads, more pronounced horns, and a thicker frame, giving them a more reptilian appearance fitting for their dragon-descended claims. Feat-wise, they have a rather short list, but there are some quite useful effects focusing on their innate ability to breathe the elements like their dragon patron, excel in their trap-making abilities, or...to a take a page out of the 5E Kobold playbook and cry, whine, and cringe to negate critical damage or Feint... At least that last bit is optional and they don't have sun sensitivity, unlike their brethren from the coast. Their heritages are the following:

Subraces

• Cavern Kobold: Your family's home was as tight and compact as the egg you hatched from. You can move half your Speed whenever you successfully Climb rock walls and other stone terrain, and your full speed if you crit-succeed the check. You also crit-success all successful Squeeze checks.
• Draconic Sycophant: Introduced in the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You are a skilled climber. You get the Combat Climber skill feat (You can fight while climbing and don't count as being flat-footed). In particular, you can use your tail for climbing and wield weapons with both hands. In addition, any time you pass an Athletics check for climbing, you count it as a critical success.
• Dragonscaled Kobold: While all kobolds have scale colors equal to their draconic exemplar, your scales are far closer to them in color and elemental protection. You gain resistance equal to half your level of your draconic exemplar's damage type, and you double the resistance against dragon's Breath Weapon strikes.
• Spellscale Kobold: You can tap into your latent draconic magics. You gain an arcane cantrip.
• Strongjaw Kobold: You have a vicious set of chompers, coming from your mother, father, or both! You gain a 1d6 jaw attack.
• Tunnelflood Kobold: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Your warren was frequently flooded. You gain a swim speed.
• Venomtail Kobold: Your tail is tipped with a spur, filled with a deadly venom. You can, once a day, spend one action coat any piercing or slashing weapon with it to deal persistent poison damage equal to your level against your opponent, should you land your next blow.

• Orcs
  • 10 HP, Medium sized, +2 Strength, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • The green-skinned boys are back in town! Ferocious, brutish, and undying, the orcs come swinging with a vicious, full-sized feat list. The APG sidesteps a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... by way of conflict. Their feat list focuses a lot on resisting magic, improving their deadly strength, or finding new and exciting ways to refuse to die. This also helps half-orcs tremendously, who started with a comparatively small list of feats they could take, in comparison to half-elves. One of the few niceties orcs have ever given to their illegitimate kin. Their list of heritages have:

Subraces

• Badlands Orc: Your homeland was as equally as harsh and inhospitable as you are. You can Hustle without tiring for twice as long than normal, and you gain environmental heat resistance, dropping it down one level.
• Battle-Ready Orc: Introduced in the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Your countenance is particularly frightening. You are trained in Intimidation and have the Intimidating Glare skill feat (You can scare folks with just your eyes alone).
• Deep Orc: Your red eyes and calloused hands are proof that the cavernous depths have fostered your family. You gain two skill feats, one that grants +1 to Survival checks while you are underground, the other letting you fight while climbing easier.
• Grave Orc: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You were exposed to necromantic energies that didn't quite kill you, even though it should have. You gain resistance to negative energy damage and a bonus to saves against necromancy.
• Hold-Scarred Orc: Your family has a longstanding tradition of ritually scarring or tattooing themselves. You gain 12 base HP from your ancestry, not 10, and you gain a general feat that increases the Dying value threshold to 5, instead of 4.
• Rainfall Orc: Growing up in the flooding rain forests have given you a literally sink-or-swim mentality. You have a +2 bonus to Athletics checks requiring you to Swim or Climb, and a +1 bonus to saving throws against diseases.
• Winter Orc: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Another generic winter-theme. You gain resistance to cold damage and treat cold weather as one degree lesser.

• Ratfolk
  • 6 HP, Small sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 free boost to any ability score, -2 Strength
    • Diligent, communal, and insightful, the ratfolk return, continuing to fight against the stereotypes and discriminatory actions of the other natives of Golarion, hoping to break the not-Skaven or other monstrous outlooks most have of them. With their large families and discerning natures, they prefer to keep to themselves. As a nod to Starfinder, Paizo has officially retconned the ratfolk into Ysoki, even given them their ability to store small objects into their cheek pouches as a feat! Speaking of which, their racial feats aren't all that useful, mostly focusing on their hoarding tendencies, navigation, minor improvements to their crafting skills, or just improving their cheek pouch storage size. Their heritages are:

Subraces

• Deep Rat: Your family dug their homes deeper than any other rat you know. You gain darkvision.
• Desert Rat: Arid lands and desert sandscapes meant nothing to your kin or you. You can scamper on all-fours, increasing your movement Speed to 30ft, as well as treating environmental hazards based on heat as one degree less severe. Though cold weather is one degree more...
• Longsnout Rat: Your sniffer is longer and stronger than most other rats. You gain a 30ft radius to your sense of smell to find creatures, and a +2 circumstance bonus to any Seek check.
• Sewer Rat: Surviving on garbage came natural to your family, giving you an iron stomach and hardy blood. You gain an immunity to the filth fever disease, as well as the ability to recover quicker from successful poison or disease saving throws, decreasing their Stage by 2 instead of 1 on a success, and 3 instead of 2 on a crit-success.
• Shadow Rat: Your dark fur and dour attitude frightens the local fauna. You become Trained in Intimidation, and you can Coerce animals. You can also Demoralize any animal without a penalty for not sharing their language. However, all animals treat you with disrespect in kind, decreasing their default attitude towards you down one stage. This can be a little problematic for any nature-based campaign, as you piss off every species of wild beast within the immediate area into attacking you just by existing.
• Snow Rat: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You are a very fluffy rodent. You get a resistance to cold damage and treat cold weather as one step less dangerous.
• Tunnel Rat: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. You're quite used to tight places. You have the Quick Squeeze skill feat (You can move and squeeze through a tight space at the same time) and any tight spots that don't require you to squeeze don't count as difficult terrain.

• Tengu
  • 6 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • Your default ability is having a d6 pecking attack.
    • The tengu caw there way back into player hands, picking up a lot of new tricks, based around their youkai origins. While they still are scavengers of ill-repute like in first edition, some have became natural "jinx-eaters", able to absorb misfortune, perfect for guiding ships and other mercantile-based trades. Others follow their old, sword-based martial talents, a much easier feat to accomplish thanks to their much more practical stat line for such a calling. Sure, their ancestry feat list isn't too long, but it does have many practical abilities. Such as screwing over any fortune/misfortune effect, growing wings with a fly speed, or even assuming a human-based disguised form that can later evolve into a giant oni monstrosity with Enlarge and Fly as innate spells. The tengu are definitely one of the biggest winners of the edition shift so far! Their heritages include:

Subraces

• Dogtooth Tengu: Your beak also has sharp teeth inside it. Your peck attack has the Deadly d8 feature, making crits more dangerous.
• Jinxed Tengu: Curses mean nothing to your family at this point. Any curse or misfortune effect you succeed in turns into a crit-success. And whenever you would suffer the Doomed status, you can make a DC17 flat check to try to reduce the status value by 1.
• Mountainkeeper Tengu: Your family has a keen link to the spirits of the realm, thanks to their generations of ascetism and spirituality. You gain the Disrupt Undead cantrip as an innate primal spell, and any other spell you would gain from your heritage or ancestry can be cast as either divine or primal.
• Skyborn Tengu: Something about you has gifted you with a lighter frame or even entire (unusable) wings! You take no falling damage, no matter how far you fall.
• Stormtossed Tengu: You have a hankering for storm-chasing, or storms had a hankering for you, ever since you were a chick. You gain electricity damage resistance equal to half your Level and you can target any creature concealed by rain or fog without a flat check.
• Taloned Tengu: In addition to the tengu standard of their strong beaks, your family always had strong claws! You gain a 1d4 claw strike.
• Wavediver Tengu: Introduced in Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Your particular family is adept at dealing with the waves. You gain a swim speed. You have a special feat that makes getting wet less of an issue.

Guns & Gears

• Automaton
  • 8 HP, Medium or Small sized, +2 Strength, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • The remnants of an ancient magitech empire who couldn't build these things fast enough to stop their own collapse due to making so many enemies.
    • Rather than the vague origins of Warforged, these guys are explicitly stated to have souls transplanted from human donors - and the effects of being a human in a nigh-immortal shell went as well as you'd expect.
    • Have low-light vision because you're a robot.
    • Share the Warforged philosophy of being technically living constructs. While immune to sleep or starvation, they can still be healed by normal means and can be affected by many things most constructs would otherwise be able to ignore.
    • Have plenty of feats that provide some badass tricks that being a robot gives. However, there are also some later feats that can improve you earlier feats to become even stronger. As an example, one of your feats provides you with built-in medium armor which, if upgraded, gives you a DC 17 check to degrade a critical hit you suffer into a normal hit. One of your capstone feats turns you into a FUCKING MAGICAL CANNON.

Subraces

• Hunter Automata: For some reason, your appearance is more animalistic than humanoid. This includes being able to move faster when on all fours, but only if your hands are free. You also have ways of being sneaky from a feat.
• Mage Automaton: Your chassis has the ability to tap into your core more easily, allowing you to cast more easily. This allows you to cast one arcane cantrip as an innate spell. A later feat lets you also gain a spell slot from this.
• Sharpshooter Automaton: Your eyesight and reflexes are among the keenest in the world. You get a special action you can use to reduce the penalties inflicted by shooting beyond a weapon's first range bracket. A later feat turns you into a sort of scrap cannon, letting you shoot out random scrap you picked up throughout the day as a rain of shrapnel.
• Warrior Automaton: Your frame is quite bulky, being made for close combat. This gives you an unarmed attack that deals 1d6 damage. A later feat also gives you the chance to piledrive a grappled opponent into the ground.

Book of the Dead

• Skeleton
  • 6 HP, Medium sized, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, +2 free boost to any ability score
    • The meme is real, you are now the spooky scary skellingtons.
    • While you lack any hunger, you still need to collect bones for repairs.
    • Have a lot of feats based on disassembly, from merely collapsing into a pile of bones to using your ribs as weapons and rearranging your structure into something akin to an animal.

Subraces

• Compact Skeleton: You might have once been something like a Halfling or Gnome, meaning that you are Small. You gain the Tight Squeeze skill feat even if you lack the prerequisite skill training and you don't count tight spaces as difficult terrain.
• Fodder Skeleton: The most common type of skeleton, raised from a great many different species including humans. Because of how efficiently necromantic energy runs through you, your speed improves to 30 feet.
• Monstrous Skeleton: You were raised from the remains of monstrous humanoid creature, if not an actual beast. You gain a unique natural weapon that deals 1d6 damage based on some unique physical trait.
• Sturdy Skeleton: Your frame is quite bulky, likely being made from some hardy being like an Orc or Dwarf. Your ancestry gives you 10 HP and you gain the Diehard feat.

Versatile Heritages

No longer your half-_ will always be part human, now your can tack on any of the following to your OC by replacing their normal subrace. Technically, the half-elves and half-orcs fit here too. None of them really give you a lot beside access to their feats. In other words: You can now be a Dwarf Dhampir or Elf Tiefling, but you're only getting more feat options and a low-light vision upgrade, compared to other heritages' much more direct (if situational) bonuses.

• Aasimar
  • Most of the tricks remain, though your some of your level 1 feats lock you into either having Angel, Archon or Azata origins. A later feat even lets you call upon one of your forebears as a ritual.
• Aphorite
  • Tied to the plane of Law rather than good or evil. This doesn't allow to take feats to tie yourself to either devils or archons, meaning that your feat list is pretty slim.
• Beastkin
  • Rebranded skinwalkers/shifters. Unfortunately, you can't really use some of your more esoteric beastfolk qualities, such as those belonging to birds or sharks (while you can be any animal, down to a T. rex, you don't get their different speeds and senses without some mid-to-late-game feats), and your natural weapon is rather poor. Luckily, you can turn into an animal, gain innate spells, and essentially become permanently large.
• Changeling
  • Altered somewhat from their initial appearance, Changelings are still the offspring of Hags. Now they can be of any race and sex, instead of being humanoid and female-only. They still suffer from, women especially, what is known as "the Call", the psychic influence from their mothers that is pushing them to join their coven and turn into hags themselves (begs an interesting question about what happens to the men that end up following the Call...).
  • Their Level 1 subrace feat are split between Brine May, Callow May, Dream May, and Slag May origins, based off the type of hag their mothers are. Later feats provide bonuses like resistance to mental effects, dealing mental damage with your claw strikes, and eventually gaining access to some Hag Magic spells.
• Dhampir
  • Vampires were never really restricted by the base creature, now neither are their hybrid offspring.
  • Compared to other versatile heritages, they're rather limited in their racial feat choices. Not a bad thing though, as you get all the important vampire stuff early on.
• Duskwalker
  • Basically a psychopomp-based equivalent to Aasimar and Tieflings. Feat list is very limited, but it might be due to their very specific origin. Lost Omens Ancestry Guide added a series of feats having you honor and mimic psychopomps around Golarion, such as morrignas, catrinas, and calacas.
  • Despite the above mentioned feats, the closest you have to some sort of heritage feats are two: one gives you a re-roll on a save that would have otherwise killed you (due to dying from some freak accident like choking on a bone or something) or getting a free strike before going down (as a result of having been deliberately killed and resolving to avoid having another killer get away).
• Ganzi
  • Remain beings tied to the plane of Chaos. Instead of low-light vision, they get resistance equal to half their level against to acid, electricity, or sonic...with the caveat being it's randomly picked at the start of the day. Chaos indeed...
  • Have quite a few feats tied to tail shenanigans like Tieflings.
• Ifrit
  • Remain fire-based, having resistance to fire damage and are less affected by extreme heat. Various feats include more fire-based tricks.
  • Have level 1 feats based on the various subraces 1E introduced.
• Oread
  • Lack any sort of native resistance to acid, but have better vision in darkness. Various feats include using earth and steel to reinforce your weapons and armor.
• Reflection
  • You are the result of something going horribly wrong (or right), being an unnatural duplicate of someone. You get level 1 feats that lock your lineages to being the result of Cloning, a Mirror duplicate, or the result of a polymorph spell gone wrong.
  • You gain feats to confuse mental attacks and even yourself about how is the real progenitor with additional powers based on your lineage.
  • Have level 1 feats based on the various subraces 1E introduced.
• Suli
  • Remain the element-neutral descendants of genies. Various feats utilize their ties to elemental magic.
• Sylph
  • Lack any sort of native resistance to electricity, but have better vision in darkness. Various feats let you deal with the wind as well as control it.
  • Have level 1 feats based on the various subraces 1E introduced.
• Tiefling
  • You get level 1 feats that lock your lineages to devil, daemon or demon as well as a later feat to call upon said forebear.
  • A good bit of your feats focus on your more distinct anatomy like a speed boost from hooves, natural weapons and tail trickery.
• Undine
  • Lack any sort of native resistance to cold, but have a minor swim speed. Various feats let you do fun things with water.
  • Have level 1 feats based on the various subraces 1E introduced.

Classes

• Alchemist is now a core class alongside the classic 3.X Roster (Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin Champion, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard).
• Like Starfinder, each class has a key ability score you focus on for class-related saves, and this DC improves in proficiency as you level up. Each also boosts this key stat at level 1.
• Most classes have no out of combat utility. What does remain tends to be gated behind Skill Feats.
• The idea of a "half-caster", as in a class that gains limited access to the lower level spells, is mostly done away with; instead, some classes get "Focus Points". Starting at 1, Focus Points are used to cast Focus Spells, at a cost of 1 Focus Point per use. After a battle, a character can take 10 minutes to refocus and regain a single focus point, but only one. This makes them more useful than once per day, but not as usable as a Cantrip.
  • One could also fulfill their limited-casting fetish through multi-classing (Casting classes grant a limited access to spell traditions and casting powers through the right feats).
  • As of the Secrets of Magic, something resembling a half-caster exists, although it's more along the lines of "highly limited number of spells per day" (4, total, not per level), rather than the "highly limited access to the spell list" method of PF1E or D&D.
• As a side effect of the above, there are exactly four spell lists: Arcane (Wizard), Divine (Cleric), Primal (Druid) and Occult (Bard); no more, no less. All spellcaster classes are either assigned or "pick" exactly one of the four as a baseline; subclass features, special feats and Focus Spells can allow access to a few spells outside the list, but usually at the cost of a feat.
• Focus is a new-ish resource that lets you use spell-like abilities like Cleric Domain Powers, Ki Powers, and similar affairs. Playtesters might better recognize this as Spell Points. Fortunately, this recharges fairly quickly (10 minutes rest) and it's no longer tied to a stat.
  • Focus spells (almost) always cost a class feat, and being able to cast more than one in combat also costs a class feat. In short: Focus Spells are a specialization, and you'll probably only use 1 per encounter, so make it count.
• Multiclassing is purely a matter of feats. For more detail, see below under Miscellaneous.

As to the individual classes themselves:

Core Rulebook Classes

• Alchemist
  • Replaced those spell-like infusions that were totally jank anyways with just gaining access to the big list of alchemical items without needing an extra feat. Some of these items you can even make for free without needing to spend much time or any cash on crafting. This is all managed by your daily resources, your Infused Reagents.
  • Though this is as much an overall system change: Bombs have been replaced with an expansion of the Alchemical(Splash) Weapons (Acid flask, Alchemist's Fire, etc...), which now come in higher levels, so even non-Alchemists can benefit from them past the first three or four levels.
  • Has the ability to instantly make some free lower-level alchemical things using your Infused Reagents.
  • Split into subclasses known as Research Fields. Alongside some other improvements, you do get the means of producing infinite numbers of certain lower-level items for free. They are composed of the following:
    • Bomber (Core Rulebook) -- Lets them produce infinite bombs and target your splash damage against only your main target.
    • Chirurgeon (Core Rulebook) -- Lets the Alchemist craft elixirs of life (basic healing potions) as well as potions and antidotes. It also lets them use Crafting over Medicine for Untrained and Trained Medicine checks (still requiring you to have Medicine Trained in the first place...) any tests and feats requiring the latter. Suffered pretty severely early on due to the extremely limited scope of free items they can craft.
    • Mutagenist (Core Rulebook) -- Lets them use their Infused Reagents to craft mutagens, as well as (added in an errata) the ability to reactivate any mutagen they have consumed that day, regardless of materials, once per day.
    • Toxicologist (Advanced Player's Guide) -- They can craft infinite poisons, as well as only use one action to coat a weapon in poison over two. They also have an easier time inflicting said poison, using their Class DC over the poison's check, should it be higher.

• Barbarian
  • Rather than the rounds/day nonsense of the past, now Rages last a full minute before needing a cooldown, just like in 5E. However, like last edition, going into a Rage does restrict what actions you can take and it initially needs a lengthy cooldown period that...just means you can't rage again. No penalties or anything.
  • "Instincts" are pretty much the replacements of Totems, granting a bonus effect to your rage, a bonus resistance to eventually develop while raging at Level 9, and an anathema that prevents you from raging for a full day should you break it, because everyone needs to fall. The Instincts are:
    • Animal Instinct (Core Rulebook) -- Grants the Barbarian an animal's unarmed attacks while they are raging, polymorphing their body to match those powers. Good, as using weapons while you are raging is anathema.
    • Dragon Instinct (Core Rulebook) -- Increases the damage they deal while Raging, as well as convert that damage to the element of their patron dragon. They also choose to revere or abhor the draconic patron, making it anathema to deny their orders for the former and being unable to slay them for the latter.
    • Fury Instinct (Core Rulebook) -- The simplest of them, it increases the damage they deal while raging as well as gives them an additional 1st-Level Barbarian feat. It has no anathema to break, but no additional abilities either.
    • Giant Instinct (Core Rulebook) -- Lets the Barbarian the ability to wield Large-sized weapons, as well as any weapon one-size larger than them should they be any size other than Small or Medium, all of which also applies to their starting gear. Though its heavy weight and size gives them a status penalty while they wield it, it also increases their rage damage. Failing to face a personal challenge of strength is anathema.
    • Spirit Instinct (Core Rulebook) -- Increases the rage damage they deal, as well as give them the option to make it Positive or Negative damage instead of their normal damage. They also gain the Ghost Touch ability on all their weapons and unarmed attacks while raging, meaning they are so angry, they can punch ghosts and other specters. Disrespecting the dead and other corpses is anathema.
    • Superstitious Instinct (Advanced Player's Guide) -- Being angry about all forms of magic grants them +2 to all saves against magical effects as well as the ability to heal themselves equal to the amount of temporary hit points they would have regained while raging. Willingly accepting magical effects and spells onto yourself, including healing (potions are exempt from this), or travelling with someone that has no intentions of respecting your superstitions, is anathema.

• Bard
  • Now full casters, with access to 10th level spells in their own rinky-dink spell list (called "Occult").
  • Much of the old bardic buffs and debuffs spells and abilities have became what are known as Composition Spells, special focus spells and cantrips that can only be cast one at a time, per turn.
  • Bards are also subdivided into subclasses through "Muses", each providing a 1st-Level feat and a free spell to their spell repertoire:
    • Enigma (Core Rulebook) -- Loves to hunt down mysteries and other forbidden knowledge. Grants them the Bardic Lore feat, letting them roll Recall Knowledge on any subject, no matter how niche or obscure. It also gives them True Strike as a spell.
    • Maestro (Core Rulebook) -- The classic music-playing bard. Gives the Lingering Composition feat and focus spell, giving them a chance to extend any composition spell from one round, up to four. They also gain Soothe as a spell.
    • Polymath (Core Rulebook) -- The traditional jack-of-all-trades bard. Gives them the Versatile Performance feat, letting them substitute Performance for Diplomacy, Deception, and Intimidation checks and for the purposes of Training Prerequisites. It also gives them Unseen Servant as a spell.
    • Warrior (Advanced Player's Guide) -- Closest thing to an occult-based Magus gish at the moment without the need for Archetypes, granting them sword-and-spell prowess. Gives them the Martial Performance feat, giving them proficiency in all martial weapons. It also gives them Fear as a spell.

• Cleric
  • Domains now only give two spell-like powers. Nothing more, nothing less. This is also done over two feats.
    • As a measure of compensation for this, each deity has a small set of spells they automatically grant their clerics (naturally Nethys, the god of magic, gives more than most other deities).
  • Cure and Channel Energy are now one and the same. The effect you'd typically call Channel Energy is now an extended-casting version of the Heal/Harm spell.
  • Clerics are billed between different subtypes known as Doctrines, each providing specific bonuses and proficiency increases every 1st, 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, 17th, and 19th Levels. They are:
    • Cloistered (Core Rulebook) -- The divine spell-focused caster Cleric. Grants them their first Domain feat and improves your divine spell proficiencies to their maximums.
    • Warpriest (Core Rulebook) -- Grants them training light and medium armor proficiency, all the tricks needed for shields, and Expert Fortitude proficiency. While initially stuck with the base weapon proficiencies of a Cleric (unless your favored weapon is a simple weapon, in which caste, you get the Divine Simplicity feat to make them deadlier) gaining martial weapon proficiency at Trained level, and Expert in their Deity's Preferred Weapon.

• Druid
  • They get access to the Primal spell list and Order Spells, special Focus Spells that are dependent on your Order.
  • Druids still abide to their traditional anathemas: you can't don metal armor or shields, carelessly ruin nature, or teach the Druidic language to non-druids. Else you lose your magical powers and Order benefits and must have the Atone ritual cast on you to rejoin them. Orders also provide additional anathemas, similar to Barbarians and Champions.
  • The Orders are:
    • Animal Order (Core Rulebook) -- Grants them Athletics training and an animal companion at Level 1. Being cruel to animals or committing wanton, extinction-class slaughter against them is anathema to the Animal Order.
    • Flame Order (Secrets of Magic) -- Grants Acrobatics training and the Fire Lung feat, which ignores penalties involving smoke. Letting supernatural fires to spread or stopping natural fires in a way that harms the environment is anathema.
    • Leaf Order (Core Rulebook) -- Grants the druid Diplomacy training and a Leshy familiar. Haplessly destroying plant-life is anathema.
    • Stone Order (Secrets of Magic) -- Grants Crafting training and the Steadying Stone feat, which helps keep your balance when on ground. Corrupting the ground and carelessly scouring the earth of its resources is anathema.
    • Storm Order (Core Rulebook) -- Acrobatics training and no penalty to casting spells in or against targets concealed by weather comes naturally to the Storm Druid. Polluting the air or allowing vast, ecological climate shifts to happen to a threat you know of is anathema to you (So no smoking!).
    • Wave Order (Secrets of Magic) -- Grants Medicine training and the Shore Step feat, letting you ignore penalties when in shallow water and improving Athletics checks when in water. Polluting the water of allowing vast ecological climate shifts to happen to a threat you know of is anathema.
    • Wild Order (Core Rulebook) -- The shape shifting-focused Order. Training in Intimidation and easy access to the Wild Shape focus spell, as well the Wild Morph focus spell. Letting yourself become "fully-domesticated to the temptations of civilization", read: owning a house there is anathema.

• Fighter
  • Fighters possess an interrupting Opportunity Attack by default. For sake of gimping everyone else while uplifting the fighter, this is now an exclusive feature (though Champions, Barbarians, and, presumably, similar future martial classes can grab it as a class feat at level 6 while other classes get similar-yet-different reactions - that and Attack of Opportunity being surprisingly rare among monsters and NPCs).
  • They took the Brawler's ability to take feats they don't have, though at a much slower rate.
  • They are also the only class in the CRB that gets Legendary weapon proficiency, giving them much better accuracy, and in return a much higher chance to crit than (nearly) any other martial class.
    • They also gain proficiency at a much faster rate than other classes, beginning with Expert proficiency at level 1.

• Monk
  • Start off with Flurry of Blows and aren't automatically bound to Ki powers or Wisdom at all.
  • By default, you're only trained in fists or simple weapons, and that latter one isn't usable with any of your abilities. You'll need to expend feats for proficiency with either melee weapons or bows (Yeah, APG gave us back the Zen Archer).
  • While not technically a class feature, Guns & Gears does have the Bullet Dancer archetype, which introduces guns into the potential tool of usable tools...though by default, you'll be stuck with simple firearms, most of them being old-school muskets and pistols.
  • Your unarmored defense isn't tied to Wisdom and you still start with all good saves. Leveling up, however, means leaving one save at just "good" rather than "awesome".
  • Alongside the classic Monk powers and maneuvers, your starting Ki powers are either Ki Stride (Move twice in an action) and Ki Strike (Attack once, deal double damage of a certain type). Gaining one of these Ki powers is necessary to gain the later ki powers at the moment, such as the ability to go Super Saiyan ala Dragon Ball Z, including making your hair/fur/scales change color and glow.
  • Monks get innate access to Stance feats, martial stances that switch up their unarmed attacks. Some stances also require ki spells to gain.

• Paladin Champion
  • See that thing up there? The rename? That's a big stride that, among other things, allows you to actually introduce Paladins that aren't Lawful Good without needing all the rehashing/archetyping/using another class. Again, a sacred cow is slaughtered, and again, much bile and salt spilled forth from it.
  • A Champion follows their Code of Conduct, composed of their Deity's rulings and their Tenet, which determines which Cause they can take, each giving them a special reaction they can preform. Later levels provide bonus features and effects to the Reactions. Each Tenet provides its own anathema, with additional ones tacked on depending on the Cause you take and the deity you follow. The Tenets and their respective Causes are of the following:
    • Tenets of Good (Core Rulebook) -- Each of the Causes here focus on defending the party and being an upstanding citizen. Each one provides the Lay on Hands focus spell, as well as a special Reaction to help your party members if they end up attacked. You cannot knowingly preform evil actions, harm innocents, or let innocents be harmed. Naturally, you require a Good alignment and follow a Good-aligned God to take this Tenet and its respective Causes.
      • Paladin -- Lawful Good -- The stereotypical Law-Poindexter. You must always act honorably and be a good role-model, as well as always obey and respect the local, legitimate laws. In turn, you gain access to Retributive Strike, a special reaction in which you grant resistance to all damage to an ally being attacked equal to 2 + the Champion's Level, as well as the chance to strike the attacking foe if they are in range of you.
      • Redeemer -- Neutral Good -- Believing that everyone deserves second, third, or even fourth chances grants you the Glimpse of Redemption reaction, the chance for a foe to stop its attack dead in its tracks should it damage an ally. If they choose to go through with the assault, your ally gains damage resistance equal to 2 + the Champion's Level, and the foe gains a status penalty for 2 turns. However, this means you must give your foes the chance to redeem themselves, only taking extreme measures should they continue to act out. You must also show compassion to everyone's care, no matter their authority or station.
      • Liberator -- Chaotic Good -- You believe that everyone deserves freedom and the ability to make their own decisions, regardless of station or circumstance. Your steadfast beliefs in self-determination grants you the Liberating Step reaction, the power to grant damage resistance equal to 2 + your Level to an ally that is under attack or the effects of an immobilizing ability. They can either attempt a new saving throw against the effect or Escape if they were being Grappled or Restrained, in addition to a free 5ft-Step away from the enemy. Being a Liberator, disrespecting people's choices, even if it threatens their own lives, forcing or threatening them to see your point of view, or participating in slavery or tyranny (rather redundant, given the de jure ban on owning slaves already) is anathema to your core values.
    • Tenets of Evil (Advanced Player's Guide) -- While the Tenets of Good focuses on defending allies and keeping them alive through copious usage of Lay on Hands, the Tenets of Evil are all about dealing heavy amounts of damage and penalizing anyone that dares touch you through their reactions. They all also gain the Touch of Corruption focus spell, essentially reverse Lay on Hands. You throw your weight around, making sure that you are a spiked wall, converting your defensive prowess into offensive might. This, however, makes playing the Champion as their intended sentinel-like roles harder, as the game lacks any particular Taunt-esque feats and Champions require spending their Level 6 feat to get their Attack of Opportunity. It does tie into their innately selfish natures, as willingly performing good acts, or putting others' lives and well-beings above your own or your deity's is anathema to you. Their Causes include:
      • Tyrant -- Lawful Evil -- Your steadfast beliefs in social Darwinism means you are obliged to keep those weaker than you are in line, as you and your god are the mightiest. You gain access to the Iron Command reaction, allowing you to channel your inner General Zod and force a foe that has dealt damage to you to either kneel prone or suffer mental damage. A feat can even enhance the damage to be persistent!
      • Desecrator -- Neutral Evil -- Evil feels good, and you make sure that everyone knows it. Kick puppies, steal to your hearts content, do whatever you want and let no one stop you. Living up to your hedonistic heart, spreading the good word of evil, grants you the Selfish Shield reaction, granting you damage resistance equal to 2 + your Level, as well as let you deal extra Evil or Negative damage against the triggering foe on every one of your strikes 'til the end of your turn. Being a Desecrator, you are obliged to corrupt, destroy, and subvert anything good in your way, obliging others to free themselves and join you in your objectivist paradise.
      • Antipaladin -- Chaotic Evil -- The old, demon-worshipping, incredibly destructive, fiendish blackguards are back and here to stay. Their need to destroy all that gets in their way grants them the Destructive Vengeance reaction, the ability to take an additional 1d6 damage on top of the damage you would have taken normally to deal 1d6 back to that enemy, as well as let you deal additional Evil or Negative damage against them. Probably the most confusing of the reactions, as Evil Champions lack the sustainability of Lay on Hands or the Heal spell, and the damage you deal and take to yourself scales as you level up. Doesn't even fit the theme of the Antipaladin, as even their anathema explicitly mentions that you don't have to take an action that would mean your own destruction. On that note, Antipaladins are obligated to lie, cheat, steal, never bind yourself to a law, rule, or code other than your own Tenet and deity, and always destroy those that stand in your way.
  • A Champion's Code of Conduct is written as such to prevent any particular Lawful Stupid incidents that comes as a result of having contradicting or improbable to follow Tenets. All Tenets are ordered from most important to least, making sure that should a situation results where you must pick one Tenet to follow over the other, you abide to the most important one first and foremost.
  • Your dependence on Charisma is heavily reduced. Your few focus powers might only need it as a Saving Throw, and you can easily build around them. Hell, Lay on Hands doesn't even factor it in until you.
  • Interestingly enough, while you do lose your Focus Pool and any Divine Allies you have should you fall, as well as access to any feats requiring such, you do keep all other Champion abilities and feats, and you can keep leveling the class. It makes playing a Fallen Champion much more viable than in PF1E, though you still end up a worse Fighter at the end of the day.

• Ranger
  • No longer casters. Good, because they sucked at it anyways...only to return via focus spells known as Warden Spells as of the APG. For the most part, they're really focused on support and work best with pets.
  • Favored X is heavily scaled back. Hunt Prey echoes this by making it easier to locate a certain enemy, but this is universal. You have feats that make certain things easier to hunt and another for certain terrain benefits though.
  • Though not an exclusive feature, rangers do have feats to make traps (here named "Snares") more conveniently, and these traps are established clearly, rather than the fuckstorm 1E gave us.
  • Rangers are subclassed by Hunter's Edge, an action they get while using Hunt Prey. An Edge grants you bonuses against your targeted prey, such as:
    • Flurry (Core Rulebook) -- You strike as fast as lightning, reducing your Multiple Attack Penalty down to -3 on your second strike, -6 on your third and additional ones. Agile weapons reduce it even further, down to -2 on your second, -4 on your subsequent ones.
    • Outwit (Core Rulebook) -- You gain a +2 bonus on your Deception, Intimidation, Stealth, and Recall Knowledge checks against your prey. You also gain +1 to your AC against any of your prey's strikes against you.
    • Precision (Core Rulebook) -- You strike with lethal accuracy, granting you an additional 1d8 Precision damage against your foe on your first strike against them. 11th Level increases the damage to 2d8 and 19th to 3d8.

• Rogue
  • In a sort-of homage to Unchained's Signature Skills, Rogues get a couple more Skill Feats and Skill Increases than anyone else.
  • Rogues are subdivided based around their Racket. Each Racket contains an Ability Score Boost the class can take over their default Dex increase. They include:
    • Eldritch Trickster (Advanced Player's Guide) -- Dabbling in magical studies for their heists grant the Rogue a free multiclass dedication feat for any spellcasting archetype with full magic progression (Basic, Expert, and Master Spellcasting Proficiency feats) as well as training in the skill tied to their chosen spell list.
    • Mastermind (Advanced Player's Guide) -- Information brokering and creating convoluted plans to destroy their enemies comes easy to the Mastermind. They grant the Flat-footed condition to any enemy they successfully Recall Knowledge on until the start of their next turn, for a full minute on a Critical Success. They also become Trained in Society and one additional magic-based skill.
    • Ruffian (Core Rulebook) -- Smash and grabs are second-nature to the Ruffian, with their ability to Sneak Attack with any simple weapon with a d8 damage die or lower, over just with agile or finesse weapons. They gain training in Intimidation and Medium Armor, the latter scaling with their levels.
    • Scoundrel (Core Rulebook) -- These slick spies are as fast with their hands as they are with their silver-tongues. Scoundrels can grant the Flat-footed condition against a target they successfully Feint 'til the end of their next turn, as long as it is a melee attack they deal. A Crit Success makes their target Flat-footed against all melee strikes made against them. Combined with their innate Deception and Diplomacy training, they make great supportive skill monkeys.
    • Thief (Core Rulebook) -- You don't need to teach an old dog new tricks, you just need to make their old ones more accessible. The Thief is the classic Dex-to-Damage option, able to gain it with no additional feats, options, or stipulations, as long as they make a melee strike with a finesse weapon (so far the only source of getting dex-to-damage). Naturally, they gain Thievery as their trained skill.

• Sorcerer
  • Your bloodline now not only determines what bonus spells you possess, but also which of the four spell lists you can use. This is in addition to your bloodline spell-like powers, which are now the sole triggers for your arcana.
    • Unfortunately, this variety works against the Sorcerer, as there are several variations of the same feat for each spell list and thus limits your choices.
    • Crossblooded Sorcerers (i.e. I have two bloodlines at once like the mongrel I am) exist as feats, letting you poach spells off of one other spell list, but your limit is very small and the feats needed are very far apart.
  • Fortunately, the Sorcerer gets 4 spells per day for each level at max, in comparison to everyone else's max of 2 or 3. They also get a number of Signature Spells, which can automatically be heightened by casting them at the preferred level.

• Wizard
  • Bound items are now a constant that not even familiars can remove...though they can somewhat replace this with the proper Thesis.
  • Besides schools (Which only grant one school spell and power and then another with a certain feat), you also have a subclass in Theses, which focus on one aspect: Familiars, Metamagic, Spell Blending (Giving you 5E's means to combine lower spell slots for bigger ones), Spell Substitution (Letting you swap spells during the day) and Staff Nexus (Build your own flexible staff)

Advanced Player's Guide Classes

• Investigator
  • Gain a small bonus to investigate things relating to a case. The best equivalent to this is the Expertise dice of last edition, which had plenty of talents focused on expanding its uses - You now have feats that expand how you can investigate.
  • Subclasses split between the class' history as a not-Alchemist class, Empiricism (As in that one Archetype that made them Int-SAD, now nerfed into just making your investigations faster), Forensic Medicine (Making you a medic/CSI) and Interrogation (Charmer)
  • During combat they can scan an enemy, allowing them to roll before declaring their attack. If they attack with their roll, they get to add their Int-modifier, instead of what they normally would use, if they're attacking with certain weapons (agile or finesse melee weapons or unarmed strikes, ranged weapons, or saps).
  • Gain a Rogue-tier amount of Skill Feats, though a majority will be focused on Mental-based skills.
    • Also gain a bonus to untrained knowledge skills - not quite the same as Bard's singular Lore skill, but it's still decent.
  • One feat also allows you to pull things out of your Bat-Utility Belt. Like a boss.

• Oracle
  • Curses are now inherently tied to mysteries. Likely so you don't cheese out the really obvious ones (Clouded Sight, Lame, Tongues, etc.)
    • Curses now only flare up when you use your mystery's Revelations spells and increase in severity the more you use them. It progresses as follows, with the max you can reach before overwhelming yourself increasing with level: Minor, Moderate, Major, Extreme. Refocusing drops your curse down from where it was back to minor, only resting for a full 8 hours gets rid of the curse completely. Use them too much and you eventually become overwhelmed, preventing you from casting any of your mystery's Revelation spells for the rest of the day. They are still able to cast other, non-Oracle related Focus Spells, however.
  • The current mysteries available are Ancestors, Ashes, Battle, Bones, Cosmos, Flames, Life, Lore, Tempest, and Time. Each mystery also has associated Cleric domains which you can jump into via feats. Heck, one of the domains is even given to you upon generation like the Cloistered Cleric.

• Swashbuckler
  • Panache is now a condition gained through performing particular actions. You can move faster and you deal additional damage with certain weapons.
    • This Panache can be spent on making Finishing Moves (attacks with more pretentious naming) that deals extra damage.
  • Charmed Life is no longer limited in use, but it's a feat that only adds +2 to a save roll and spends a reaction.
  • Your subclasses are Battledancer (Keying off Performance), Braggart (Keying off Intimidation), Fencer (Keying off Deception), Gymnast (Keying off Athletics) and Wit (Keying off Diplomacy). Each gives you an additional means to gain Panache mode.

• Witch
  • Your Patron designates which spell list you can use and grants you a special cantrip and your familiar a normal spell, similar to the Sorcerer.
    • Most of your patron themes are of vague concepts, though not all - The Lost Omens Legends splat gives you access to Baba Yaga as a patron.
  • Lessons are special feats that provide bonus spells, allowing you to dip outside of your list.
  • Your familiar can potentially net six familiar abilities thanks to feats.

Secrets of Magic

• Magus
  • The most famous part of the magus - that is, casting spells through swords - has changed a bit. The action can't benefit from any metamagic feats on its own, but it allows you to still hit things to cast. The class even gives you a boost to Strength or Dexterity at level 1 instead of Intelligence like you'd think.
    • Spellstrike is also somewhat limited in use - either you recharge your use by expending an action or using one of your subclass-or-feat-exclusive focus spells. At 20 you can get a feat that makes you permanently Quickened (but only lets you make a Strike or recharge Spellstrike with that action).
  • Certain feats let you merge your weapon with magical items like scrolls and staves. This is usually not that helpful, especially when picking the subclass that makes you really good at using a staff as a weapon anyway.
  • Your spell slots are extremely limited (a paradigm the game calls "bounded casting"), with the maximum number of total slots you get being a paltry 4. These are always 2 slots each of the two highest spell levels your full caster friends will be casting, though, all the way up to 9th-level spells. (You get to Spellstrike twice with the same spell slot instead of getting 10th-level spells.) This is somewhat less limiting than it sounds, or would've been in 1e, given that most spells can be upcast.
    • As you level up, you gain a small subset of spells made for minor conveniences, some determined by subclass. These spells are all given their own lower-level slots that you can expend, which is critical considering your limitations.
    • You can still use wands, scrolls, staves, and the rare few items that give you more prepared spells, though, giving you around 4 extra prepared spell slots if your GM lets you find/buy a Ring of Wizardry Type II+ and an Endless Grimoire. Treasure Vault added a staff explicitly designed for Magi, which can shapeshift into a weapon of your choice, lets you turn a missed Spellstrike into area damage, and gives you a bunch of staff charges you'll probably just use to spam True Strike before your Spellstrikes.
  • You already start off proficient in medium armor. Great, that "armor proficiencies as you level up" part was a pile of shit anyways!
  • You gain a special stance that you can trigger after casting called Arcane Cascade. It deals extra damage (That can be typed depending on the spell you cast) and makes your weapon magical.
    • Your subclasses also add a perk to this stance. Inorexable Iron grants temp HP if you wield a two-handed weapon with spells made to trap your enemies on your level. Laughing Shadow keeps to the one-handed weapon trope and acts more like a rogue, boosting speed and dealing extra damage to the flat-footed while using illusory magic. Sparkling Targe lets you use shields while in the stance and lets it block spells and your spells help you defensively. Starlit Span doesn't change your stance any, but it lets you Spellstrike with ranged weapons and provides spells meant to help you hit your mark. Twisting Tree makes staves way more versatile, granting special properties depending on how you hold it and letting you switch styles on the fly. Lost Omens Tian Xia is apparently going to add another Magus subclass when it releases between 2023 and 2024.

• Summoner
  • Your eidolon is now strictly set to a specific preset form and determines which spell list you take (angels or demons or pychopomps for divine, beasts or plants or fey for primal, phantoms of anger or devotion for occult, constructs or dragons for arcane). Unlike most pets, these eat into your action economy (unless you use certain class-based focus spells and actions to act in tandem with them)--though you still come out ahead if using Act Together to basically gain 4 actions each turn total.
    • Each eidolon gains special abilities as they level up. They're also pretty clearly meant to be the frontliner as they get to level up their attack proficiencies much faster than you do. Each eidolon type has multiple forms focusing either on combat or on casting based on what you plan on using them for.
    • These Eidolons cannot be customized like 1E did with points. Instead, you need to pick up specific feats in order to give them new features.
    • You and your eidolon now share the same HP pool, which is a pretty healthy one at 10+Con Mod at level 1. On the plus side, this means that any AOE damage is effectively halved as it counts as if it only hit one of you and status conditions that hit both of you won't stack.
  • Last edition's free slots for casting summon spells gets condensed into feats that let you fit multiple summon spells into one spell slot.
  • Your spell slots are now OBSCENELY limited, with the maximum number of slots available to you being a paltry 4 and you never get level 10 slots. (Like Magus, you're stuck with Bounded Casting.) While you can auto-heighten any spells you've learned starting at Level 3, it also means that the aforementioned summoning feat becomes way more precious.
    • This gimped casting ability is aided slightly by your focus spells. By default, you get two unique cantrips to augment either the eidolon's offense or defense as well as a spell to add some general utility buffs.
  • The Synthesist (that one archetype every munchkin and their mother used because it allowed you to min-max the summoner and eidolon as two halves of a perfect whole) comes as a feat with some severe hurdles: You're no longer able to cast any spells you know when merged (Eidolon casting is still fair game) or benefit from anything you wield that can't also affect it (chiefly things like potions or wands), all while using all the eidolon's stats -- including its mental ones.

Guns & Gears

• Gunslinger
  • Crossbow proficiency is now built into the class, yay!
    • Guns as a whole are a lot less jankily integrated into the system. Misfires aren't so catastrophically common and they don't need to only hit Touch AC. They also aren't their own weird proficiency bracket but are more just considered Uncommon and only available in certain areas. While they aren't quite as powerful as they were in 1E, they rely more on crits to score the Fatal trait.
    • Also present are "Beast Guns", weird magical guns crafted using the parts of certain monsters (Hi, Monster Hunter!) and other cobbled-together firearms that could misfire on any hit. Of course, there's an archetype to specialize in them.
    • Speaking of misfires, they only happen on specific situations like firing a poorly-maintained gun or as a result of a specific feat. For the former, you also need to make a simple flat DC 5 check or else it just jams, no weird "counts as broken and a second misfire blows it up" deal.
  • Pretty poor armor proficiency progression, but you're already very dependent on dexterity for AC.
  • The only other class to get Legendary proficiency in weapons besides fighters. However, this only applies to firearms and crossbows.
    • The gunslinger has limited proficiency in other weapons, only capping out at Expert proficiency, which hurts the value of the Drifter especially.
  • A lot of the panache tricks return as feats
    • Also prevalent are feats that capitalize on enemy attacks (deflecting attacks or striking back on misses)
  • One chain of feats not only provides the feat necessary for you to make ammo (Alchemical Crafting, the cornerstone for the Alchemist), but also gives you a lesser version of the Alchemist's Infused Reagents feature including the ability to make bombs and alchemical ammo. Later feats let you turn bombs into ammo and craft ammo from rare metals.
  • Your subclasses have special actions, including a thematic special action that integrates to your reload.
    • Drifter (Guns & Gears) -- The most direct and mobile style, focusing on sword & gun combat. The unique reload lets you smack someone and reload at the same time.
    • Pistolero (Guns & Gears) -- Focusing more on swagger, providing training in either Intimidation or Deception. You have the ability to reload and then distract or demoralize an enemy in the same action.
    • Sniper (Guns & Gears) -- The sneaky one, focused more on firing from a distance than getting up close and personal, scoring precision damage while hidden. Your reload lets you hide from the enemy as well, though you'll need to find ways to hide.
    • Spellshot (Guns & Gears) -- Oddly more an archetype than an actual subclass, as it locks you into the Spellshot archetype. Contrary to the name, you don't actually gain spellcasting from it, but some spell-like effects such as infusing bullets with typed damage or teleporting the moment you shoot someone. Your reload action lets you recall knowledge as you do it.
    • Vanguard (Guns & Gears) -- The siege engineer's choice, made for lugging big guns. Your reload lets you use your gun to shove someone back so you can have room to reload.

• Inventor
  • Pretty much a port of the Mechanic from Starfinder rather than an Artificer. A mechanic with more than a little inspiration from some mad scientist from a b-movie(they can even get a feat called "No! No! I Created You!").
    • You have three options for "subclasses", which are the forms your special invention can take: Special armor (either a bulky suit of Power Armor or something stealthier), Special weapons, or a clockwork drone (also present via feats, but the feats you have will kinda force you into either using the drone or your other innovation). All of these have a set of mods available that expands with level progression.
      • These mods are independent from mods provided by certain feats, though they can be retrained all the same when you gain the ability to remake your invention
      • While not exactly a pet, taking a construct as your invention does have its own chain of feats that improve the thing with better attacks, improved skill proficiencies and a size change.
      • Have a class feature that lets you change your invention's damage to being typed.
  • Have an action that pushes your invention past its limit, adding your Intelligence (half or full if you crit succeed the check necessary) to your damage. Crit Fail just makes it overheat, burning you as well.
  • Several feats grant actions that push your invention to their limits, leading to a chance that it'll pop and be unable to use such taxing actions. The one you get by default...makes the invention go kaboom. Fortunately, this explosion won't hurt you.

Dark Archive

• Psychic
  • Can be played as an Int-focused or Cha-focused occult spontaneous caster depending on the Subconscious Mind subclass you select.
    • You get fewer spell slots and a fixed set of cantrips based on your Conscious Mind subclass, but get boosts to those cantrips and can spend focus points to "amp" them further. You also add more spells to your repertoire based on your Conscious Mind.
      • You can grab feats providing new amp options for your cantrips.
  • You can follow-up casting by unleashing your psyche, allowing you to trigger certain feats as well as an action that's determined by your subclass. Unleashing gives your spells a large damage boost for two turns. But afterwards you are spent, and have a failure chance on all spells cast for two turns.

• Occultist Thaumaturge
  • You essentially remain a not-quite-caster bedecked in tons of items that knows too much. Difference now is that it's not mechanically built as spellcasting anymore. The implements all have different perks based on what they are.
    • Your implements are now based on certain types of items rather than certain schools, some of which give special tricks while others stack onto your central power.
  • As befits someone bedecked in fancy crap, you have a feat that lets you trigger magical items one more time, as well as one that lets you invest in a TON of magical items that scales based on your Charisma.
  • Your combat value needs you to perform a knowledge check (Using a Charisma-based special Lore skill in the vein of Bardic Knowledge) to identify weaknesses and either attune your attacks to them or create your own vulnerability to slap on.
  • There are feats that allow you to make temporary scrolls and talismans for whatever you need.
  • Some feats allow you to have your own personal hideout without using the Vigilante archetype, as well as feats made for warding circles

Rage of the Elements

• Kineticist
  • Remains the same elementally-focused not-bender, now unfettered from the very dubious occult links. It's now actually considered Primal.
  • Subclass shows how much you dedicate to a certain element (either only one element, two elements, or all) with the more dedicated kineticists getting more feats from it.
    • Feat overload is at its finest here. Not only do you have your basic class feats, but you also get feats for each element to pick from. While not such an issue for Single Gate Kineticists (those focused on only one element), Dual Gate ones will be needing to pick out wisely, to say nothing about the Infinite Gate Kineticists who can pick anything. Thankfully, those last sorts have a flexible feat slot that changes each day.
  • Several feats also let you emanate an aura of elemental energy that can affect those around you, with a class feat letting you expand its reach further.
  • Kinetic Blast can now freely swap between punches and ranged attacks, gaining proficiency ranks alongside unarmed attacks.
  • Rather than using Burn or Focus Points, certain abilities now expend the elemental energy you have gathered (which in itself is now an action). This gathered power is doubly important as your blasts (and some other abilities) also draw from it, though not as much so it won't go out with one shot.
  • Likely to change further when Rage of the Elements actually releases.

General Class-Related Stuff

Some side notes:

• Companions are now effectively a chassis you add on by selecting a type of animal. Each has a special attack, each has a trained skill, and you can spend one action to give them two of their own.
  • The old archetypes (Before Ultimate Wilderness gave us all the gonzo things like robo-pets and dragon-pets) are now reclassed as Specialized Companions, which add a special capstone to pet progression feats.
• Familiars have to select between two sets of powers: One grants it special properties (Which includes abilities the animal would normally have, like wings or speech), and the other has abilities made to support you.
• Multiclassing (Labeled as 'Archetyping' for some asinine reasoning) is managed through feats, just like 4E. You have to take one entry feat instead of a class feat and then buy two associated feats before you can access another archetype. But aside from the loss in feats(which is honestly a big part of some classes' power), you never actually stop progression in your main class.
  • This is also pulling double duty for Prestige Classes, as setting books let you access specific organizations like the Hellknights and Pathfinder Society, and some archetypes even branch off of other archetypes by circumventing the three-feat limit (See: Hellknight Armiger to Hellknight or Hellknight Signifier). The biggest game-changer introduced in the Advanced Player's Guide wasn't the four new classes, but actually the whopping 36 Archetypes the book introduced. Some specialising in particular fighting styles or skill sets, some being more mystical in nature, and others adapting some of 1e's Prestige Classes to the new ruleset (e.g., Dragon Disciple).
  • Some tables also allow a "free archetype" rule that lets you take archetype feats alongside your standard class feats instead of replacing them.
  • Secrets of Magic has also introduced some archetypes that radically alter how casting works, like the Flexible Caster's ability to prepare a smaller pool of auto-heightened spells instead of the typical prepared spell slots or the Runelord's hyper-focus on certain schools of magic to the point of forbidding spells from opposed schools. While all have some unusual twists to the class' ability to cast spells, they also force you to sacrifice your level 2 class feat slot to eat up that archetype and demanding you dedicate to it - unless you picked the Flexible Caster archetype, which lacks extra feats.
  • Treasure Vault added "artifact archetypes," which act as a 2-20 package of feats for Free Archetype tables to represent using an artifact that grows in power with the player character. The two it provides are the Gelid Shard (you can do ice magic really well and become increasingly cold over time), and Ursine Avenger Hood (you can turn into a bear to fight crime and gain bear-themed abilities).
• The four spell lists are Arcane (Wizard), Divine (Cleric), Occult (Bard), and Primal (Druid). What differentiates them is that each does two of four things.
  • "Matter": All the elemental and many transmutation spells. Primarily associated with the Arcane and Primal spell lists. Direct opposite of Spirit.
  • "Mind": Divination, Illusion, any kind spell about knowing shit or deceiving people. Primarily associated with the Arcane and Occult spell lists. Direct opposite of Life.
  • "Spirit": Anything to do with the Soul, rather than the mind. Primarily associated with the Occult and Divine spell lists. Direct opposite of Matter.
  • "Life": Healing and direct harming spells, some necromancy; think "Finger of Death". Primarily associated with the Primal and Divine spell lists. Direct opposite of Mind.
    • This is apparently just a method of classifying what spells go on what spell list (i.e., the Bard is now to the Druid as the Cleric is to the Wizard, and this list is just Paizo's way of parsing that). An alternate formulation is that:
      • Primal sucks at anything to do with information gathering or being indirect.
      • Divine sucks at doing damage other than positive, negative, and alignment damage.
      • Occult sucks at being direct about most things.
      • Arcane sucks at healing.
    • There are spells that belong to all four spell lists, such as Plane Shift. If a spell belongs to three spell lists, the most likely to be left out is Primal.

Miscellaneous

• FEATS. FEATS EVERYWHERE. Indeed, Paizo decided that the only way to customize things (including all skills not granted by class) is by making everything into a feat.
  • They are at least split across separate categories, earned at different rates (which are clearly marked on each class' progression chart) so you no longer have feats competing with every other feat in the bloody game this time around.

• Opposed rolls are now almost non-existent in the system, now being rolled against a static DC based on a skill or save. It works out the same way as 5e's Passive Perception (so as though they rolled a 10 on the check).
• Skills have been overhauled into a proficiency system akin to Dark Heresy, where being untrained gives no bonus but the various degrees of training lead to increasing bonuses. Similarly, there are also certain uses for each skill that can only be performed by someone trained in it.
  • The only ostensibly new skill is Lore, which covers knowledge of particular niches that wouldn't fit any other skill.
  • Combat Maneuvers have similarly been folded into skills rather than needing another number to figure out and are rolled against one of the target's Save DCs (the relevant save's modifier +10).
  • Everyone is now trained in Perception to some extent. Just as well, because this is now the default roll for Initiative (While some situations might let you use other skill) and everyone was already maxing out this skill to begin with.
  • DCs for all checks have four conditions: Success, Failure, Critical Success (Beating the DC by 10+, giving an extra benefit) and Critical Failure (Failing the DC by 10+, causing extra bad things to happen).
    • Natural 1s and 20s don't inherently do anything of their own, other than downgrade/upgrade your level of success by 1. So if your modifier alone is high enough to get a success no matter what you roll, a natural 1 will downgrade that into a failure.
    • While all rolls have these four states, not every roll has conditions for all four (ie; by default, a crit-failed attack roll is the same as a normal fail, but some reactions are triggered by being the target of a crit-failed attack).
  • Basically everything you're trained or better at doing scales with Level+a bonus, both skills and other things (like weapons, saves, and AC).

• Spells have been drastically reduced to being only four lists: Arcane (Wizards), Divine (Clerics), Primal (Druids), and Occult (Bards, because...we don't want another Arcane caster?), with Sorcerers gaining access to any one of these four, depending on their Bloodline.
  • No more will a maxed casting stat influence how much you cast per day.
  • Spells no longer have numerations, instead merely just having their effects scale by level. Prepared casters can heighten a spell just by preparing it in a higher-level slot at the start of the day, while spontaneous ones need to learn the spell at whatever levels they want to cast it at (though they do have a class feature, Signature Spell, that lets them heighten some of their spells while only knowing them at one level).
  • 10th level spells now exist. This is generally restricted to the real game-breakers (Time Stop, Wish, Gate) and without a certain feat for the casters at level 20, you can only use one a day.
  • Cantrips use the same heightening, but still don't cost spell slots and automatically heighten. The wording is a bit finnicky at first, but it basically amounts to them being heightened to the same level as what a full caster's highest spell slot would be at that level (ie; when your wizard's highest level spell slot is 3rd, their cantrips are heightened to 3rd as well).
    • To clear up some confusion people have had - they are no longer "0-level spells", they are now "1st level cantrips".

• The Combat System has been redone into a three-action system akin to the proposed system in Pathfinder Unchained. Everything has now been broken down into taking actions (Moves, Attacks, Spell Components/Metamagic), with Free Actions being a 'whenever' deal and one Reaction per turn (Unless you have certain feats to override this).
  • Similar to 4E, your actions now focus a lot on various keywords. However, the concise formatting clearly labeling what you roll to hit and how much damage an attack does is not present.
  • A step further from SF, Touch AC and CMD are no more. The latter was replaced by saving throws against combat maneuvers, while the former no longer had a use. Spells (which normally hit Touch) instead go for Spell Attack rolls like 5E. Flat-Footed, meanwhile, just inflicts a flat -2 to AC.

• Weapons have crit effects like Starfinder, but these crits only work for those with weapon specialization (which is a class feature for martial classes).
  • Shields, for some idiotic reason, require spending an action to raise and confer their AC bonus. A certain feat also provides a degree of damage reduction before transferring the rest to the shield and, by extension, you.
  • Finesse Weapons let you use Dexterity to hit from the outset. No more feat tax on this front.

• Take 10/Take 20 does not exist. You can blow a feat that lets you do it but worse with one skill. So now everyone has to be uber competent at their job or have a chance to fail catastrophically.(Except now its usable in combat so enjoy autopassing all your combat tricks and stabilize checks)

• Magic Items involve investing into them, similar to how 5E has items work. However, your magic item limit is set at the more lenient 10.
  • Magic Weapons and Armor now have two base improvements. For weapons, these are the one for a bonus to hit, the other is to roll another die for damage. For armor, this is a bonus to AC and a bonus to saves.
  • The numerical bonus to the chief function also serves as a hard limit to how many properties you can add to a suit of armor. While it's good that now you don't need to worry about Vorpal hogging up an entire sword, the limit you have is exceedingly small.

• Character generation and progression has been strengthened by a degree, even discounting the obscene feat overload. Between classes and backgrounds giving stat boosts, the general philosophy of adding +2 for everything, and each race offering a free floating stat boost, you'll find it considerably easier to put together at least a halfway competent character.

• Easy to overlook but AC is now considered a kind of DC. Which means any status effect that says it reduces the target's DCs (ie; the Frightened Condition) also reduce their AC. So a sorcerer who's invested skill increases into Intimidate can use it to soften the enemy up either before their own attacks or make them an easier target for their allies.