Gamemastery Guide

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Pathfinder 2e

Activate Dancing Shadow

Your relic’s shadow detaches from your relic and dances through the air to attack an enemy.

Action

Pathfinder 2e Nexus - Activate Dancing Shadow - Your relic’s shadow detaches from your relic and dances through the air to attack an enemy.

Activate Dancing Shadow - Actions - Pathfinder 2e Nexus

Just as your character’s ancestry plays a key role in expressing their identity and worldview, their class indicates the training they have and will improve upon as an adventurer. Choosing your character’s class is perhaps the most important decision you will make for them.

CLASSES

Your character’s ancestry determines which people they call their own. A character’s ancestry and their experiences prior to their life as an adventurer—represented by a background—might be key parts of their identity, shape how they see the world, and help them find their place in it.

ANCESTRIES

The peoples of Golarion are many, and they have a long history of intermingling. The inevitable offspring of these mixed unions share physiological features with both their parents, manifesting as a specific heritage.

HERITAGES

There are infinite possible character concepts, but you might find that the feats and skill choices from a single class aren’t sufficient to fully realize your character. Archetypes allow you to expand the scope of your character’s class.

ARCHETYPES

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The alchemist uses their skill at crafting to create alchemical items—such as bombs, elixirs, and poisons—that they use to defeat foes and aid allies. Smart and resourceful, an alchemist often has just the right tool for the job and esoteric knowledge to help their friends get out of a jam.

The alchemist throws alchemical bombs and drinks concoctions of their own making.

The barbarian is a fearsome embodiment of rage, focusing the deadly power of their anger against anyone who stands in their way. A barbarian is quick to enter battle and, once their fury has been unleashed, is immensely strong, often unpredictable, and nearly unstoppable.

The barbarian flies into a rage on the battlefield, smashing foes with abandon.

An artist and a scholar, the bard uses performance and esoteric learning to bolster their companions and foil their enemies. Sometimes sneaky and quite often charming, the bard adventures with pizzazz and talent backed up by an impressive repertoire of occult magic.

Skilled performances and secrets of the occult enable the bard to distract foes and inspire allies.

A defender of good who straps on armor and wields a righteous weapon, the champion protects the innocent and vanquishes evil. Steadfast in their beliefs, and devoted to both a deity and an aspect of good, they follow a strict code as they fight to make the world a better place.

A warrior dedicated to a deity, the champion uses divine power to enhance their abilities and protect allies.

The cleric is dedicated to the worship of a single deity and draws divine magic from this devotion. Clerics can be vastly different depending on who they worship, and whether they’re cloistered clerics who pursue one of their deity’s domains or war priests who serve as the sword arm of their god.

The cleric calls on the power of a deity to cast spells that can heal allies or harm foes.

The druid walks the wild, primordial places of the world without fear, harnessing the primal magic of nature and controlling it with calm purpose. A devotee of the wilderness, the druid finds nourishment in its power, allies among its creatures, and strength in its fury.

The druid uses the magic of the natural world to bolster allies and strike down enemies.

With calculated daring and fearless determination, the fighter tracks down and confronts their enemies while defending allies from harm. A master of the battlefield, the fighter is quick to exploit opportunities and strike any who stumble within reach of their sword or bow.

The fighter is a master of weapons, martial techniques, and powerful attack combinations.

While most people can fire a gun or crossbow, a gunslinger knows such weapons better than anyone. From reloading to customization, a gunslinger demands more from their weapons, though demanding too much can result in a misfire. Gunslingers remain unrivaled in their skill and accuracy with weapons that strike hard from afar.

Gunslingers use firearms and crossbows to perform trick shots and take down their enemies while remaining at a safe distance.

Any tinkerer can follow a diagram to make a device, but the inventor creates the impossible and challenges the boundaries of reality. An inventor remains on the verge of the next great breakthrough, and every trial and tribulation presents another opportunity to test and tune their contraptions.

Inventor

The inventor battles enemies with a groundbreaking innovation only they can use.

Clever and insightful, the investigator solves mysteries and teems with knowledge. In battle, they play out every possibility in advance, striking true when the time is right. Their methodology grants them an edge, and their high Intelligence and number of skills mean they almost always have the right tool for the job.

Investigator

The investigator uses knowledge to uncover mysteries and best their foes.

The magus, a polymath of battle, trains in both spells and strikes. Combining these arts, a magus channels spells into their weapon or body to inflict devastating wounds upon their foes. The magus’s versatility in combat and knowledge of the arcane makes them a welcome addition to any party.

Magus

The magus, a polymath of battle, trains in both spells and strikes.

The monk seeks perfection in all things, and that includes transforming their body into the perfect weapon. They can be walking with calm purpose and contemplating the subtleties of existence in one minute and then transform into a blur of deadly blows in the next.

Monk

The monk wields the secrets of martial arts in dazzling displays of battlefield prowess.

The oracle is a paradox of divine magic, able to tap into and manipulate energies from disparate sources throughout the universe that would overwhelm anyone else. These mysteries grant unusual powers and revelations, as well as a double-edged curse - which they must learn how to simultaneously endure and exploit.

Oracle

The oracle balances powerful divine magic with a supernatural curse.

Resourceful and cunning, the ranger is a hunter, tracker, and warrior who preserves the natural world and protects civilization from its ravages. Whether they use a bow, crossbow, a pair of weapons, or snares, the ranger is a fearsome enemy and great ally in the wild.

Ranger

The ranger is a master of using their surroundings, traps, and animal allies to harry enemies.

Cunning and quick, the rogue brings skill and expertise few of their comrades can match. In battle, they excel at sneak attacks and ambushes. Their racket gives them the tools they need to get the job done, and their wide array of skill choices lets them specialize as they see fit.

Rogue

The rogue is a multitalented master of skulduggery who strikes when enemies least expect it.

The intense magic the sorcerer commands comes from neither study nor worship—it comes from their blood. Their magical abilities depend on whether they have the blood of dragons, angels, fey, aberrant creatures, or some other being flowing through their veins and powering their spells.

Sorcerer

The sorcerer’s magical might flows from their blood and manifests as fantastic spells and abilities.

A summoner acts as the living anchor to a powerful being called an eidolon, which they call upon for aid. Summoners maintain deep connections with their eidolons, granting them the ability to influence the way the creature evolves. Eidolons manifest in many forms, including as constructs, demons, dragons, fey, and other creatures.

Summoner

A summoner acts as the living anchor to a powerful being called an eidolon, which they call upon for aid.

To a swashbuckler, anything worth doing is worth doing with style. This dynamic daredevil performs bold feats of derring-do and mixes their own unique style with flamboyant attacks. The swashbuckler tumbles around the battlefield, befuddling their foes to set them up for powerful finishing moves.

Swashbuckler

The swashbuckler earns panache through showy acts and leverages this flair to thwart their foes.

The witch is a versatile spellcaster who learns a variety of magical lessons from a mystical familiar, sent to them by a powerful and mysterious patron. The witch's mastery of potent hexes from their patron allows them to supplement their other spells with special tricks to solve any problem.

Witch

The witch casts spells and hexes learned through a powerful familiar from a mysterious patron.

The wizard is the arcane master of spellcasting, plucking incredible power from reality through complicated spell formulas. They stride with confidence, without a need for armor or weapons, enacting their will upon the world and bringing woe upon their enemies.

Wizard

The wizard is a scholar whose reservoirs of arcane knowledge powers their wondrous spells and abilities.

Guided by the personal combination of their subconscious and conscious mind, a psychic calls forth occult magic with but a thought. The psychic focuses more on the moment than on daily spell slots, wielding unique, versatile cantrips and unleashing their mind to use strange and powerful abilities.

Psychic

Guided by the personal combination of their subconscious and conscious mind, a psychic calls forth occult magic with but a thought.

The thaumaturge has seen every monster and knows every secret. Supplementing their skill at arms and ability to strike a monster’s weakness with myriad supernatural trinkets and mystic implements that can fill a wide range of roles, the thaumaturge is a versatile agent who can contribute to any team facing the unknown.

Thaumaturge

The thaumaturge has seen every monster and knows every secret.

Elemental matter blasts from a magical gate within every kineticist. Shaping these elements into magical impulses, a kineticist can fight nonstop with wild elemental magic. Kineticists can specialize in one element or grow into many, increasing their command over the fury of the elemental planes as they do.

Kineticist

Elemental matter blasts from a magical gate within every kineticist.

You are the interlocutor between the seen and unseen, the voice that connects the mortal and the spiritual. You may hold your powers as a sacred trust to be kept free of ego and personal desire, or you may see your unique abilities as a sign that you’ve been chosen as a champion of two worlds.

Animist

You channel the power of spiritual entities, called apparitions, to cast potent spells and manipulate the battlefield to your advantage.

An imbalance in the Outer Planes has seeded the Material World with unearthly power. Somehow, a fragment of divinity rests within your body, granting you abilities that reach into the realm previously reserved for heroes and legends.

Exemplar

You fight on the vanguard, scattering lesser foes to the winds. You concentrate your divine energy into the right weapon or tool for the moment.

The bard distracts foes and inspires allies with skilled performances and secrets of the occult.

With calculated daring and fearless determination, the fighter confronts their enemies while defending allies from harm. A master of the battlefield, the fighter is quick to exploit opportunities and strike any who stumble within reach of their blade or bow.

The witch is a versatile spellcaster who learns their magic from a familiar, sent to them by a powerful and mysterious patron. The witch’s mastery of potent hexes from their patron allows them to supplement their other spells with special tricks to solve any problem.

The wizard is the arcane master of spellcasting, plucking incredible power from reality through complicated spell formulas. They stride with confidence, without need for armor or weapons, enacting their will upon the world and bringing woe upon their enemies.

You approach battle with the knowledge that tactics and strategy are every bit as crucial as brute strength or numbers. You may have trained in classical theories of warfare and strategy at a military school or you might have refined your techniques through hard-won experience as part of an army or mercenary company. Regardless of how you came by your knowledge, you have a gift for signaling your allies from across the battlefield and shouting commands to rout even the most desperate conflicts, allowing your squad to exceed their limits and claim victory.

Commander

You approach battle with the knowledge that tactics and strategy are every bit as crucial as brute strength or numbers.

You are the shield, the steel wall that holds back the tide of deadly force exhibited by enemies great and small. You are clad in armor that you wear like a second skin. You can angle your armor to protect yourself and your allies from damage and keep foes at bay. You also make yourself a more tempting target to take the hits that might have otherwise struck down your companions.

Guardian

You are the shield, the steel wall that holds back the tide of deadly force exhibited by enemies great and small..

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