Last month, the Pathfinder designers announced that they would reveal two new classes to be playtested for a new book at Gen Con Online. This weekend was Gen Con Online and they revealed the classes to be the Psychic and the Thaumaturge. The Dark Archive playtest began today and will run through October 29th. Players can use the Dark Archive playtest rules to build characters for these classes and play them in Pathfinder Society or Pathfinder Adventures. As with all of the playtests for both Pathfinder and Starfinder, it is hoped that the participants will report what they learn through the playing of the test rules to Paizo design teams so they can make the final adjustments to the classes.
This will be the fifth playtest for Pathfinder Second Edition. The first playtest was on the actual new edition itself and the playtest generated extremely useful information which definitely had a tremendous impact on the final decisions about the rules. If you participated in that playtest, you remember how things went during the testing phase. The resulting data caused the design team to change many key components, alter the match used in the game design itself, and the removal of some elements which the players just did not care for. The resulting 640-page Second Edition Core Rulebook was well worth it.
The second playtest covered the Advanced Player’s Guide and the Investigator, Oracle, Swashbuckler, and Witch classes. The third playtest covered the Secrets of Magic and the Magus and Summoner classes while the fourth playtest was over the upcoming Guns & Gears with the Gunslinger and Inventor classes. The playtests are important tools where the community comes together to see how the proposed rules will work in actual game play. Therefore, it is hoped that you as players and GMs will download the Dark Archive playtest rules and participate.
Your first chance in the Absalom Lodge will be October 2nd! We have moved the September Conclave back a week so we can participate in the Opening Weekend of Quincy’s newest FLGS, Tri-States Games & Hobbies (see story). Even better, we are debuting the two newest introductory level scenarios which would make a great opportunity for playing a Psychic or Thaumaturge. You will have another opportunity on October 23rd when we hold the October Conclave at Tri-States. That one will be Halloween themed. The plan is to have several different scenarios being ran in both slots. One will be a L3-6 murder mystery. The Pathfinders have a murder to solve. If they do not solve it, they will become the next victims. Another scenario will be one written by our former Venture-Agent Nicole Heits, the East Hill Haunting (L1-4). Also, we will be running the first scenario of the Season 3 metaplot of which the East Hill Haunting is part of. October will be a great time to get back to Society play and to introduce your friends to the game while also making new friends as well.
Not to be outdone, the oldest Pathfinder Lodge in Missouri will be hosting their monthly PFS Smackdown on October 9th at Valhalla’s Gate in Columbia (story coming soon). This will be the first Smackdown where we’re able to run two scenarios back to back since we restarted as VG has expanded their hours. They will be offering the second Intro: United in Purpose and the Season 3 Intro: Year of Shattered Sanctuaries. Again, these will be excellent opportunities for playing a playtest character.
Meanwhile, Gryffyn Flight in Hannibal is continuing the exploration of the Abomination Vaults as part of the three-book Adventure Path. We may take a break and run some Halloween themed scenarios at the of October so the Gryffyns can test out the Psychic and Thaumaturge too before the playtest ends.
It’s going to be a busy month of October for the Pathfinders! This is not all of the news we have either. Look at this blog for more news over the next few weeks! Until then, Explore! Report! Cooperate!
The League of Aroden 
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