There's a lot of excitement surrounding the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game these days. The RPG fan favorite is undergoing a slew of changes in its upcoming Second Edition release. Gamers will get a chance to play test the new system at next month's GenCon (public playtesting begins August 2 and runs through the end of 2018).
There are hundreds of new spells, magic-items, feats and more. Core classes are also being redesigned in 2e, but it's the new rogue features that I find especially intriguing.
New Pathfinder Rogue Features
Rogues need to be quick and skillful, leveraging their unique abilities against unaware enemies. The Pathfinder Second Edition will help achieve this through a mix of classic and new game mechanics. Here's a quick breakdown of some of the new rogue features sure to excite players and Game Masters alike:
- At 1st level, rogues get a surprise attack feature and can treat any enemy that has not taken its turn yet as if it were flat-footed. Strikes against a flat-footed enemy grant extra d6s of precision damage.
- At 9th level rogues get to apply debilitating strikes against flat-footed enemies as well (allows the entangling or enfeebling of foes in addition to the extra damage). As a rogue levels, more conditions can be applied with debilitating strikes, culminating with Master Strike at 19th level (the potential to insta- kill!).
- Rogues will now gain skill feats at a quicker rate (one per level instead of one every other level).
- Skill feats are rich and wide-ranging, allowing rogues to enjoy varied play styles -- everything from iconic sneak and stealth rogues, to dungeon-delving specialists, to smooth talking con artists, to fences and burglars, to everything in between! Players will be able to use expanded skill feats to create a truly unique character.
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In addition to the features above, a variety of class feats will be available to rogues as they level. A few examples:
- Nimble Dodge: a reaction that increases a rogue's Armor Class by 2.
- Mobility: rogues move at half speed and ignore reactions triggered by movement (attacks of opportunity for example).
- Reactive Pursuit: as a reaction, a rogue can chase after an enemy attempting to disengage.
- Dread Striker: frightened creatures are treated as flat-footed.
- Gang Up: allows a rogue to treat creatures within melee as flat-footed.
- Instant Opening: a rogue can treat a single enemy within 30 feet as flat-footed until the end of the next turn.
- Cognitive Loophole: rogues ignore a mental effect for a full round before it takes hold.
- Blank Slate: immune to detection, revelation and scrying effects.
- Twist The Knife: after sneak attack damage is applied, rogues can then apply persistent bleed damage equal to half their current sneak attack dice.
Final Thoughts
The above is only a sneak peak (pun intended), and there are many more new and exciting rogue features in store for Pathfinder Second Edition. All in all, the planned changes should allow players more variety when creating and roleplaying their characters.
So there you have it fellow travelers! What are your thoughts on the new Pathfinder rogue features? Do you plan on taking part in the upcoming Second Edition playtest? If so, what would you like to see tweaked or added to the rogue character class? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below. Until next time! Remember: life is the ultimate adventure, so keep rolling natural 20s.
