Editing Pathfinder Second Edition (section)

==Noted Changes from 1E to 2E (As Gleaned from the Playtest)==
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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.
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* Races
** Goblins are now a default race.
** Half-Elves and Half-Orcs were briefly <s>racial</s> 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 <s>Int-dependent Resonance</s> 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: <s>Canadian</s> 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 [[Blackguard|Antipaladin]]s, 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 <s>(except for Alchemists who use Int for this)</s>, 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 <s>and traps Alchemists who want to make stuff into focusing on a particular set of items/elixirs/mutagens</s>.
** 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.

<big>'''PLAYTEST CLASSES'''</big>

*'''[[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?
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