We all know those dedicated D&D players who like the idea of Pathfinder Society and a universal campaign, but just cannot seem to break free of that 5e mentality, and thus never actually get around to playing Pathfinder 2e. You explain the basics to them, the advantages of the three-action combat economy, how easy it is to pick up on the rules, and the amazing combinations available for character creation. Yet, they shake their heads and go back to 5e dreaming of the high level characters they will never get to play. How many times have you heard those 5e players say, “I wish Paizo would publish their Adventure Paths for 5e!”
The producers over at Paizo Publishing have finally decided to do just that! Two exciting Adventure Paths will be hitting the market for D&D Fifth Edition. First up is Paizo’s most popular Adventure Path for First Edition, Kingmaker, which comes out on October 26th! Paizo originally published this back in 2010 and it proved to be wildly successful. This updated version has been completely rewritten as a Second Edition Adventure Path, and it has been expanded as well. But that’s not all! Additional tie-in Bestiary books are available for GMs to use in converting this updated version of Kingmaker to First Edition or D&D 5e rules. Not only that, but a plethora of accessories are available for use in any edition such as a kingdom management screen, a kingdom management tracker, a poster map folio, a pawn collection, three flip-mat multi-packs, and the Kingmaker Companion Guide which pulls from the Kingmaker video game.
The second Adventure Path Paizo is publishing for D&D 5e is the incredible Abomination Vaults in March of 2023. This AP has been one of our favorites across many lodges because it is a dungeon crawl meant for levels 1-10. Pathfinder 2e really hit its stride with this AP. A lot of 5e players really wanted to play it, but just kept hesitating while wishing for it to be a 5e product. Their wish is coming true! There is also an Abomination Vaults pawn collection available for this AP. No word is out yet on maps for it, but I do know the pdfs for the 2e version had interactive maps as part of the purchase. Those are huge maps which are double the size of the regular flip-mats. The 2e version is also available on Foundry for those who wish to play on a virtual tabletop (VTT).
Naturally, Organized Play sanctioned the 2e versions of the products. Player’s Guides are available for them. But this time, Organized Play has really taken that extra step and announced the following addition to the Guide to Organized Play: If Paizo has released an official conversion of a sanctioned adventure to another game system (such as the ”Pathfinder Kingmaker Bestiary (5e)” or ”Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults (5e)”), GMs and players may play these adventures using those rules and earn credit as if they had played it using Pathfinder rules. Adventures that have not been converted by Paizo in this way must be played using standard Adventure Mode rules.
Now, those 5e players and GMs can earn official Society credit for running and playing these APs using 5e rules. As more APs are converted by Paizo so that 5e players can finally enjoy the high quality of Paizo’s products, we may see some players enjoying both systems at long last. Those 5e players who wish to may also use those chronicle sheets to create new characters for 2e and jump into our Society campaign as well. It really will be the best of both worlds!
-Xathos
The League of Aroden 