How Pathfinder Society is Handling Remaster

Paizo is giving us some answers to how Pathfinder Society is handling the switchover to Remaster.

With the November 15th release of Pathfinder Remaster right around the corner, Paizo just announced some of the changes coming to the Pathfinder Society characters. They aren't intending for any of the scenarios to be written using the Remastered rules until the beginning of Year 6 at Gen Con 2024, but characters will be making the switch before then.

That being said, the rules are still changing and adapting as we go. The guidelines for these changes will live on a subpage of the Guide to Organized Play as a living document.

They state their intent with the Remaster is: to ensure that players are not forced to rebuild characters, to ensure as much previous material is still useable, to incentivize adoption of the new ruleset, and to provide an optional method to rebuild characters.

General Guidance​

1. Game Rules: Players and GMs must use the remastered rules of the game immediately where possible.

2. Character Options

1. Beginning on November 15, 2023, no new characters may be created using the class chassis printed in the Core Rulebook if the class has been reprinted in the Player Core.
2. If a character option has been reprinted with the same name, use the new version as if it were errata. No additional retraining is necessary.
3. If a character option has not been reprinted, characters are free to use the option as previously printed, or to select it at any time.

Specific Rules​

1. Alignment: Alignment has been removed from the game. PCs and NPCs no longer have alignment.
   1. Edicts and Anathema: To replace certain aspects of alignment, edicts and anathema are being emphasized. These are voluntary and optional, though deities and classes may introduce specific edicts and anathema which are not optional.
   2. Holy and Unholy: Many previously-aligned options now have either the holy, unholy, or sanctified traits. At a GM’s discretion, enemy abilities which previously had the good or evil traits may now have the holy or unholy trait.
2. Wizards
   1. Wizards built using the Core Rulebook chassis may continue to treat spells that had their spell school removed as part of the Remaster as if they have spell schools. They must otherwise fully update their remastered spells.
   2. Wizards built using the Core Rulebook chassis may learn new spells printed in remastered books, but they can never treat them as having a school spell if they did not previously have one.
   3. Runelords
      1. On November 15, 2023, the Runelord boon will be removed from the Achievement Points store. No new Runelords may be created after this date until/unless the archetype is reprinted.
3. Campaign-Specific Rules and Clarifications
   1. Pathfinder Society characters may not be sanctified to unholy. This is the spiritual successor to the previous rule forbidding PCs of evil alignment.

Rebuilding​

1. On November 15, 2023, all characters with at least one game reported are granted one free rebuild. This is a full rebuild; you may completely alter a character’s ancestry, class, background, and any options selected. You may not alter the adventures a character has participated in, nor may you alter a character’s Reputation earned.
2. Upon rebuilding, your character starts with gold equal to Table X.X[Note: this table will be published with the full rules, and is built on our baseline assumption of earning 8 TB per scenario].
   1. Alternatively, a player character may sell any and all currently-held items at face value and purchase new items as normal.
3. If you use this rebuild, indicate “Remaster Rebuild” on your character’s most recent Chronicle Sheet.
4. If, in the course of this rebuild, you wish to refund any purchased boons, please email orgplayreportingerrors[at]paizo[dot]com with your character’s name, OP ID and character number, and the boon(s) you would like to refund.
5. This rebuild must be used before December 31, 2024. A second rebuild of this type will not be granted following the release of Player Core 2.

Final Change​

Beginning on November 15, they will also be removing Pathfinder Training. Any character who is already Field Commissioned may still take bonus downtime and they will still have any bonus Lores or feats they have already gained, but new characters may not use this system.

Pathfinder Provisions will be available to all agents. This will be a pared-down list of consumables that they can choose from at the start of the mission. This is to ensure all agents come home safely.

 

[Scribe]

Alignment: Alignment has been removed from the game. PCs and NPCs no longer have alignment

 

[payn]

I kinda miss PFS.

 

[Finrod_Shaelara]

Seems pretty reasonable to me. As soon as Hero Lab gets updated with the remaster rules I will update my soon to be 5th level cleric.

 

[Xohar17]

Why the runelord archetype specifically?

 

[Stone Dog]

Why the runelord archetype specifically?

From what I understand, the Runelords are intimately tied up to the D&D schools of magic, which are no longer options in the Remaster which has stripped D&D IP. So, they need to be worked over because Karzoug won't be a Transmuter anymore.

But that is inference and conjecture, so grain of salt and such.

 

[Staffan]

From what I understand, the Runelords are intimately tied up to the D&D schools of magic, which are no longer options in the Remaster which has stripped D&D IP. So, they need to be worked over because Karzoug won't be a Transmuter anymore.

But that is inference and conjecture, so grain of salt and such.

The whole "Runelords embody cardinal sins as represented by a school of magic" always felt really forced to me, and should have been an early sign to abandon the schools of magic for a more interesting system.

 

[ReshiIRE]

The whole "Runelords embody cardinal sins as represented by a school of magic" always felt really forced to me, and should have been an early sign to abandon the schools of magic for a more interesting system.

That is certainly arguable for Pathfinder 2e.

There's some aspects such as Schools of Magic and possibly Alignment where it's unclear how much the designers of the system wanted to keep it versus them calculating that removing those elements could cause a certain amount of backlash from their audience without - in the eyes of Paizo - being an objective win in terms of game design.

For Pathfinder 1e however, they had no choice, since that game is explicitly a revised clone of 3.5e; they were always going to have to keep Schools of Magic for that. Granted, Runelords could have worked off something else... but Rise of the Runelords is originally a 3.5e Adventure Path anyway, so it just makes sense that is the implementation they did, and the implementation they kept.

(I presume you already know this Staffan - just wanted to provide context for anyone who may not know the history).

----

Since Paizo has explicitly commented on Runelords (and the fact it is an important aspect of the history of the game and of Golarion), I expect the update to the Archetype will come soon.

Seven Dooms for Sandpoint is an adventure coming at the end of March next year, and is explicitly a 200 page book to celebrate the 200th volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path line. Sandpoint is an important location in Rise of the Runelords and other adventures, and I would not be surprised if the revised Runelord archetype appears there.

If not there, it could also appear in Player Core 2, released mid next year, if Paizo wants it to be considered part of the 'core' ruleset (which after the Remaster will be made up of Player Core, GM Core, Player Core 2, and Monster Core).

Otherwise, I don't know if there's any other obvious place for it to pop up, at-least from the announced books.

 

[Velderan]

I kinda miss PFS.

I recently went by Galaxy Games in Eagan during PFS play. They seem like a really friendly group, the organizer seemed pretty interested when I mentioned I GM for my groups AV AP campaign. I guess the GM shortage is real.

 

[payn]

I recently went by Galaxy Games in Eagan during PFS play. They seem like a really friendly group, the organizer seemed pretty interested when I mentioned I GM for my groups AV AP campaign. I guess the GM shortage is real.

Back in '09 I was in the PFS scene that played at the old FFG center. I got a couple groups going though and faded out by '11.

Speaking of FFG center (now GameZenter...I hate that name) I dont know if anyone is playing in there since they charge a cover now?