Paizo Unveils Two New Classes

Paizo unveils two new, never-before-seen classes that tie into a large canon event in 2024.

As gods die, new gods arise and all of existence will be drawn into the conflict. Two new classes have been announced with their own roles to play in the colossal battle. In preparation for a new rulebook release, Paizo is playtesting two new classes: the animist and the exemplar.

The animist will be a Wisdom-based divine spellcaster, with bonds to apparitions, spirits who share their power and knowledge in exchange for the animist to act as their agent in the physical world. This wise spellcaster can change their abilities each day, or moment to moment, based on which apparitions they align themselves with.

The exemplar will be Pathfinder Second Edition's first rare class, a Charisma-based divine warrior. They can move their divine spark between receptacles called ikons to unlock potent effects and abilities. As their power grows, so does their immortal legacy.

Playtesting will run from September 1st 2023 through October 2nd 2023. Anyone who is interested in the playtest can do so either in home or as part of Paizo's Organized Play Program. Demiplane is also hosting a free character builder of both classes. Foundry VTT users will receive access to the module added to support the new classes on Friday, September 1st.

Feedback for the new classes should be submitted via one of two online forums: the Class Survey and the Open Response Survey. There will also be dedicated playtest forums on paizo.com to discuss the new classes.

 

[coriolis]

That exemplar gives me so many mawi vibes.

The iconic exemplar is definitely inspired by Maui (the role played by Dwayne Johnson in the recent Moana). However, once you read the class details, you see it's derived from all legendary heroes from across the world: Hercules, Achilles, Odysseus, Cu Chulainn, Miyamoto Musahi, Hiawatha, etc.

In particular, I would call out the flavour names for all the special abilities as being ultra evocative and memorable.

I am constantly amazed at how much the Paizo designers are willing to push the envelope and carve out new design space!

 

[Shardstone]

Well of course they would write their new materials to be compatible with the biggest, best-selling, and current industry standard rules system. That's a no-brainer. Calling Wizards of the Coast a "rival" is a bit of a stretch, because WotC doesn't have any serious competition at the moment (it's kind of a problem, really.) Until things change in the TTRPG industry, I think that creating 5E-compatible and/or system-neutral versions of your products is the safe, smart move.


I don't recall them saying that. Did I miss an announcement or interview or something? Because I think they'd probably eat nails before they admitted there was anything "too hard" about their 5E products.

Yes, its why we only have one new class.

 

[doctorhook]

Yes, its why we only have one new class.

Artificer. And 5E wouldn’t even have that if Eberron players hadn’t demanded it. (Dunno if anyone else remembers the first playtest article for 5E Eberron, but they literally tried to make the artificer into a wizard subclass, blech.)

 

[CleverNickName]

Artificer. And 5E wouldn’t even have that if Eberron players hadn’t demanded it. (Dunno if anyone else remembers the first playtest article for 5E Eberron, but they literally tried to make the artificer into a wizard subclass, blech.)

This was my preferred version of the Artificer. :-/

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess their previous experiencie in the 3.5 age is sourcebooks for no-core classes aren't so easy to be sold. For example if they publish a new psionic handbook, then the complete psionic will be sold worse than other sourcebooks with crunch for core classes.

Maybe their hope is to sell in D&DBeyond, the digital market. Then they shouldn't worry about printing, storage and shipping costs but we should worry about our own backup.

 

[Alzrius]

Yayyy...more new content for PF2e that us PF1e fans won't ever be able to play with since Paizo doesn't want to convert some new PF2e material to 1e for us. First me and my players can't use the Inventor class for our 1e games, now these two classes.

While Paizo might not have done a Pathfinder 1E conversion of the inventor class, there is a third-party version (affiliate link), and it looks to be pretty impressive in what it offers.

 

[Jharet]

Yayyy...more new content for PF2e that us PF1e fans won't ever be able to play with since Paizo doesn't want to convert some new PF2e material to 1e for us. First me and my players can't use the Inventor class for our 1e games, now these two classes.

But they'll gladly convert to 5e, however! Nothing for the consumers who helped them get to this point to begin with. Nah, they'd rather convert stuff for their rivals instead.

Make it make sense.

They look pretty much like occult class reskins. If you grab resources like the New Paths Compendium, you have plenty of great classes without ever touching PF2. That said, we're four years into PF2, so the surprise of no more new PF1 content should have worn off by now.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Further proving how bs it is that wotc calls balancing new classes too hard.

To be fair, the math of PF2 is much tighter so that makes things easier.

Not that I think the “difficulty” is a reason WotC is not making more classes

 

[Velderan]

To be fair, the math of PF2 is much tighter so that makes things easier.

Not that I think the “difficulty” is a reason WotC is not making more classes

5e is flexible enough that you can likely accomplish most anything by adding a subclass to an existing class IMO.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

5e is flexible enough that you can likely accomplish most anything by adding a subclass to an existing class IMO.

That is true too, but you can have more flexibility with a dedicated class. Not that I want more classes in 5e (or any RPG). If anything i would prefer a system with fewer base classes.