Pathfinder publisher Paizo has released an update about its recent class playtesting, announcing further changes based on fan feedback. A Paizo blog from July 16 says: “Now that the dust of battle has cleared and all your survey responses are in, we can examine the intel you’ve given us to help refine and perfect the commander and guardian classes”. “We can give you some quick insights into some ways we’ll be moving forward.”
Recently, tabletop news has had its eyes on the DnD classes, as Paizo’s competitor prepares to release its new Player’s Handbook. But 2024 is a big year for Pathfinder, too. As part of the War of Immortals storyline, Pathfinder is killing its gods, bringing chaos and new Pathfinder classes to the world of Golarion.
Fittingly, the champion and the guardian are new martial classes. Playtesting ran between April and June 2024, so players have had several months to put their combat prowess to the test. Both classes will be available in an as-yet-untitled Pathfinder book that’s due to release at Gen Con 2025.
The commander is an Intelligence-based martial class that turns the tide of battle with clever tactics and buffs for allies. “One of the big things we saw in the playtest feedback was that by and large, people were really happy with the class as it stands”, Paizo says. “When we see numbers like this, one of the takeaways is that we want to focus on polishing what we’ve got rather than taking apart something that people are already really enjoying.”
Future versions of the commander will have more of their signature tactics, unique combat maneuvers you can choose and swap for your build, to play with. “For the playtest”, Paizo says, “we had two tactics to choose from at each of these tiers, and we’re looking to increase that number significantly”. “With more tactics to choose from, we have room to expand the number of tactics the commander can have in their folio, and we can look at giving them a slight bump to the number of tactics they can have prepared.”
“In addition to modifying the number of tactics available (both while building your commander and while playing them), we’re looking at some adjustments to the tactics themselves”, Paizo adds. “In particular, making the master tactics all function on a once-per-10-minutes frequency and the legendary tactics all function at a once-per-day frequency can help make deciding when and how to deploy the various tactics in your folio a bigger part of your strategies across the day, without raising the cognitive load of play too high.”
The second playtest class, the guardian, is about as Tanky as a tabletop RPG character can get. They’re ultra-proficient with their armor, and they can put themselves in harm’s way to take incoming blows that might have hit their friends. The taunt action encourages enemies to target you, even though your shield and armor mean you can shrug off their attacks.
The guardian was apparently deemed “worth exploring but needed a little more polish to really sing”. “Some of the class’s main features might be able to interact with one another more cleanly, and we might be able to present them in a way that shows that the guardian’s abilities are a set of tools that each have their particular uses”, Paizo says.
“We’re considering some larger overhauls to ensure that the guardian is fun and exciting to play.” This includes increased mobility so the guardian can intercept strikes more consistently, tweaks to the taunt mechanics, and further streamlining specializations and feats.
You can see the full playtest feedback in Paizo’s blog post, and you can check out the original versions of the guardian and the champion in the Battlecry playtest document. For character options you can use now, here’s everything you need to know about Pathfinder races and DnD races.