Last month Paizo announced the Pathfinder Remastered project, an effort to update the core books of Pathfinder’s second edition and, more notably, remove any dependence on the Open Gaming License (OGL) after the controversy over threatened changes to the license from D&D. The Remastered books will now use the “more stable and reliable” Open RPG Creative (ORC) license.
Today Paizo has given us a preview of how ancestries will work. One of the big changes is that alignments will be removed from the Remastered game rules. Now the ancestry listings will include a Beliefs section, which will include Popular Edicts and Popular Anathema, demonstrating the value systems of these cultures.
While this level of nuance is potentially more interesting than the classic alignment spectra (good-neutral-evil, lawful-neutral-chaotic), I’m left wondering how this will affect in-game mechanics that depend on alignment in regard to patron deities, aligned items, and such. I guess we’ll learn more upon the release of the new Player Core book.
Example: Dwarves
Paizo revealed the following section of the remastered Player Core book for Dwarves.
Popular Edicts
“create art with beauty and utility, hunt the enemies of your people, keep your clan dagger close”
Popular Anathema
“leave an activity or promise uncompleted, forsake your family”
New Feats
While Paizo has said they aren’t making major changes in the Remastered books, they have announced now that not only are they consolidating feats from the Advanced Player Guide into the new Player Core book, they’re also adding some brand new ones. If they’re only consolidating and adding feats, that doesn’t sound too bad, as they’ve said nothing about removing or drastically revising existing ones. This seems in line with their promise that the books will be fully compatible with current 2nd edition products.
They give an example new dwarven feat, called Stonewall, quoted below.
Stonewall [reaction] — Feat 17
Dwarf, Earth, Polymorph
Frequency: once per day
Trigger: An enemy or hazard’s effect hits you or you fail a Fortitude save against one.
The strength of stone overcomes you so strongly that it replaces your stout body. You become petrified until the end of the current turn. You don’t take any damage from the triggering effect or any other ill effects that couldn’t affect stone.
