Tabletop RPG publisher Paizo has shared a preview document detailing some of the Pathfinder Remaster changes we can expect to see in the revamp of second edition, including what will happen to Wizards now schools of magic are gone. Shared on July 24, the preview will accompany the upcoming Pathfinder book, Rage of Elements (read our Rage of Elements review here), which is the first Pathfinder product written to be compatible with the remaster.
Beginning in late 2023, Paizo will begin to release remastered versions of the core Pathfinder 2e books. According to the preview document, the project’s aims include “simplifying some unnecessary complexity, adding more nuance, and improving the play experience”. As we already saw with the removal of Drow, the remaster also aims to distance Pathfinder from Dungeons and Dragons and the DnD OGL as it begins using its own ORC licence.
Keen Pathfinder fans may already know about many of the changes in this preview. Paizo has shared many of the details itself in livestreams, but more recently, Roll for Combat shed further light on the rules remaster in a Rage of Elements preview (see below):
The Pathfinder Remaster removes alignment and schools of magic from 2e. As this has a direct impact on gameplay, Paizo has come up with some new terms to replace these concepts. Edicts and Anathema are now the main way to understand the morality and values of a particular character, and a Pathfinder Wizard subscribes to a particular Curriculum that grants them Curriculum spells.
First-level Wizards automatically get a cantrip and two first-rank spells added to their spellbook. They also gain an extra cantrip and spell slot specifically for their curriculum each day.
Paizo provides an example Curriculum, the School of Mentalism, as an example. Its Curriculum spells are:
- Daze (cantrip)
- Figment (cantrip)
- Dizzying Colors (1st)
- Sleep (1st)
- Sure Strike (1st)
- Illusory Creature (2nd)
- Stupefy (2nd)
- Dream Message (3rd)
- Mind Reading (3rd)
- Nightmare (4th)
- Vision of Death (4th)
- Hallucination (5th)
- Illusory Scene (5th)
- Never Mind (6th)
- Phantasmal Calamity (6th)
- Project Image (7th)
- Warp Mind (7th)
- Disappearance (8th)
- Uncontrollable Dance (8th)
- Phantasmagoria (9th)
It also has ‘school spells’ (which are now tied to the actual school they attended). These are Charming Push and Invisibility Cloak.
Plenty of Pathfinder terms are also getting a name-change in the remaster – for example, Attacks of Opportunity are now Reactive Strikes, Mephits are now Scamps, and MetaMagic is called Spellshape. Additionally, ability modifiers have been replaced with attribute modifiers, and Pathfinder will no longer refer to ability scores at all. Spell levels have also been changed to spell rank to reduce confusion.
The preview document also provides a list of new and revised spells, items, and creatures. Much of this is directly relevant to the content in Rage of Elements, but it also gives a glimpse of upcoming changes to the core books. For more info on this particular book, check out our exclusive Rage of Elements preview and Plane of Metal preview.