Paizo, the company behind the beloved Pathfinder role-playing game, has revealed exciting new details about its upcoming Remaster, with a particular focus on fine-tuning character ancestries.
In an update from Jason Bulmahn, Director of Game Design, he explained that the character creation process remains as simple as ABC: picking your Ancestry, Background, and Class. Ancestry, a foundational aspect of Pathfinder, retains its core identity in the Remaster, allowing players to continue to enjoy the familiar basics like starting Hit Points, size, Speed, attribute boosts, flaws, and languages.
However, the game designers are pushing to deliver a richer and deeper sense of what each ancestry is about, particularly in light of the removal of alignment from the game. To achieve this, Paizo has created popular edicts and anathemas for each ancestry, enhancing player understanding of what matters to their character beyond the simple binary of good and evil. This gives players a basis for their character’s code and outlook, which can be used as-is for a traditional approach or tweaked to inspire unique character ideas.
An example of this new approach is seen in the revised Beliefs section for the dwarf ancestry. The beliefs illustrate a strong focus on honor, tradition, friendship, and justice. Popular edicts include creating art with beauty and utility, hunting the enemies of your people, and keeping your clan dagger close. Anathemas include leaving an activity or promise uncompleted and forsaking your family.
Bulmahn highlighted this format as a positive change, and the team is already incorporating it into upcoming releases like the ardande and talos versatile heritages in the “Rage of Elements.”
Paizo’s commitment to refinement doesn’t stop at ancestry beliefs. The design team is also revisiting the feats in each ancestry, ensuring they align with current design philosophy. Several feats are due for upgrades, and new ones, such as Stonewall, a high-level dwarf feat, have been added to the game.
The Stonewall feat is an example of how Paizo is pushing boundaries. With this feat, once per day, a dwarf character can become petrified until the end of the current turn, rendering them immune to any damage from the triggering effect or any other ill effects that couldn’t affect stone.
With this update marking the end of the first round of previews, Bulmahn assures fans that there will be more information about the Remaster books in the coming months. To learn more, players can watch the Pathfinder Remaster panel this weekend at PaizoCon Online. The panel will go live on Friday from noon to 2 pm PST, right after the keynote address, on the Paizo Twitch channel.