Gwenevere Rothwell
Dec 1, 2023
Archetypes in Pathfinder have always been the system’s staple. Between that and the mentality that “every level should have something, no level should ever be a dead level” are the two core aspects that make Pathfinder stand out from its competitors. Pathfinder 2nd Edition takes both of these mindsets to a new level. There are no dead levels in Pathfinder 2nd Edition, you’re always gaining something and archetypes can completely change how a character plays.
Archetypes in Pathfinder have always been the system’s staple. Between that and the mentality that “every level should have something, no level should ever be a dead level” are the two core aspects that make Pathfinder stand out from its competitors. Pathfinder 2nd Edition takes both of these mindsets to a new level. There are no dead levels in Pathfinder 2nd Edition, you’re always gaining something and archetypes can completely change how a character plays.
Pre Advanced Player’s Guide
Before the Advanced Player’s Guide was introduced, Pathfinder 2nd Edition’s Archetype system was entirely composed of multiclassing. The way it worked was at 2nd level you qualified for “archetypes” which was the game’s equivalent of multiclassing. Your selection was limited to all the classes currently available in the game and you would use your Class Feats to gain access to various abilities that were specific to that class, within reason of course. This was a nice way of doing multiclassing as it meant you didn’t have to sacrifice too much in order to gain some abilities, but this ultimately depends on what you wanted out of your archetype.
Let’s say, for example, that you want to make a Barbarian with a bit of spellcasting. You might dip into Sorcerer and emulate Pathfinder 1st Edition’s Bloodrager and grab all the Sorcerer Spellcasting options, likely focusing on self buffing, debuffing, or even summoning. Overall there’s no real downside to doing this because the Dedication Feat—the starting feat that is required to be taken first before grabbing any feats related to an archetype—gives you basic spellcasting. You’re getting exactly what you want from the start.
The issue however stemmed from builds that wanted to go the extra mile and grab a specific niche of a class, for example, if you’d like some of the bardic performance options you’re first going to need to take Bard Dedication which grants you a muse, but no feats or other abilities tied to the class besides basic spellcasting. If you wanted an animal companion as a class that normally doesn’t get one, you’d first have to spend a feat getting into either the Champion, Ranger, or Druid archetypes before you could even think about getting an animal companion. While class feats are abundant, they are still a valuable resource that might make someone hesitant to dedicate so many feats to something that’s going to be lagging behind substantially compared to the actual class.
The Era of Lost Omens
The Lost Omens World Guide was a large step in the right direction, as well as the follow up, Lost Omens Character Guide. Suddenly some of the most famous prestige classes from Pathfinder 1st Edition were being presented for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. You could make a Pathfinder, a Hellknight, a Lastwall Knight, or a tattooed spellcaster (now called Runescarred). We were starting to get a taste of what was to come. That said, compared to what I wanted to see in archetypes, once the hype died down I found these archetypes to be pretty situational. They were interesting and made me want to make a campaign revolving around Hellknights or Lastwall, but for a regular campaign I felt the system still didn’t have the depth or flexibility that Pathfinder 1st Edition offered.
Post Advanced Player’s Guide
This is where things fundamentally changed with Pathfinder 2nd Edition and raised the game from interesting and fun, but somewhat limited, to a game that I feel like I’ve been waiting for all my life. Four new classes. Over forty new archetypes. You could now play virtually any style of character, from a true embodiment of a dragon, to a suave pirate, to a clever detective by day and vigilante by night. The possibilities were nearly limitless.
The amazing thing about this book to me is not just the fact that you can now make so many characters, builds, and ideas come to life, but also the fact that some of these archetypes made me think about systems I had previously ignored. With classes like Poisoner, Ritualist, Scroll Trickster, Snarecrafter, and Talisman Dabbler being intrinsically tied and expanding upon systems that I tend to ignore limited use items that cost gold in favour of a more permanent solution.
With things like Gladiator, Pirate, Horizon Walker, and Viking I was not only thinking about characters that could fit these roles (or in Horizon Walker’s case, a character who was just damn good at adapting to climates and surviving), but instead I was thinking about entire campaigns where players play in a gladiatorial arena and seek the praise of the crowd, sail the seas looking for plunder and properly working a ship, surviving through all odds in the harshest of environments, or having a straight up viking style game.
The Advanced Player’s Guide also had me thinking about previous builds and character ideas and how I could improve them. A Rogue who uses an animal companion to flank with, a familiar focused Wizard who dedicated all their time and research to making the perfect little friend, the summoning Sorcerer who rallies her summons behind her thunderous and commanding voice, or a Barbarian who harnesses the true essence of dragons to fight other dragons.
The possibilities are limitless.
So, How Do Archetypes Work?
As you likely know by now, you gain specific feats (general, skill, ancestry, and class) as you progress your character level. All archetypes (at the moment) require you to spend a Class Feat in order to gain its Dedication Feat. The Dedication Feat is what will give you your basic or often key ability to the archetype as well as small bonuses and a rule stating, “Special: You cannot select another Dedication Feat until you have gained two feats from the <archetype name> archetype,” which essentially just means you can’t gain another archetype until you’ve invested two more feats into your current archetype. If you’re just grabbing the Dedication Feat and one other feat in the archetype and have no interest in any other archetype, then this doesn’t mean much to you. However, if you plan on using multiple archetypes then this dedication ruling means that you will have to have the Dedication feat and two other feats from that archetype before you can think about gaining another archetype.
Some archetypes also have requirements or can’t be taken until later level. Shadowdancer is a good example of this due to being an 8th level Dedication Feat that requires Master proficiency in Stealth and Expert proficiency in Performance. Additionally, some archetypes grant access to feats that aren’t listed in the feat entry, but instead listed near the descriptive text (something I failed to notice my first few times browsing the book in excitement). It will list the feat name, its source, and the page number for you to quickly reference. So, if you look at the Archer Archetype and wonder why it’s so lackluster, make sure to give that a look.
The Gamemastery Guide
The Gamemastery Guide added yet another layer to archetypes called Free Archetype. It is exactly as the name implies: at 2nd level and every even level thereafter you get a free feat that can only be used for archetype feats. This was huge! And quickly became a staple in most home games. But there was a catch to it. The kind of feat you got was specifically a class feat that could only take archetype feats. Why does this matter? Because some archetypes actually have skill archetype feats, which are skill feats that require having the archetype, and because of that they can’t be taken by the Free Archetype feats. You can always houserule this away if you really want to, and I’m personally mixed on it myself.
Another flaw with Free Archetype is the fact that some archetypes don’t have feats at every even level. Some have a jump between 2nd level and 6th level, or 2nd level and 8th level, which means your free fourth level feat is stuck being vacant. This is further made frustrating by classes that have Archetype feats at those missing levels, but they’re skill feats and so by RAW can’t be taken with that Free Archetype feat. Again, a quick houseruling fixes it, but it’s something to be aware of as a player and not all GMs will hand wave it.