Pathwarden

Pathwarden is a Pathfinder 2e hack released under ORC License.

Pathwarden is a Tactical Fantasy Roleplaying game based on the ruleset of the second edition of Pathfinder (Not affiliated with Paizo in any way). It is a digestable yet robust game, allowing for fantasy gameplay and tactical action, easy to pick up and easy to play.

It's a modern TTRPG with a dash of OSR mentality and improvements from outside of the influence of the Dragon.

FEATURES

Paths and Boons: Classless character creation, where you mix abilities from three Paths: Combat, Magic and Skill, each having their own Boons, sort of mini-archetypes.

Heroic Scaling: As you become stronger, lesser threats become menial, and stronger threats are truly intimidating. Support for levels 1 through 10.

Tactical Combat: Use the well-known 3-action system with a smaller scaling, making each action even more impactful than before.

Everything is viable: Every single skill in the game has abilities usable in variety of situations, making it impossible for you to build yourself into a corner!

Incant before Casting: Completely new way to cast spells, where attrition is gone and spells are easy to cast, but you can as easily be interrupted: You must incant your spell before casting it!

NPCs, Creatures and More: The 200-page rulebook has a 75-page bestiary, including rules for creating your own Creatures and NPCs, including new Nemesis-type characters.

Threads: Explore player characters with a new Threads mechanics, created to give players access to giving each other Hero Points.

WHY PATHWARDEN?

Pathwarden is a game based heavily on Pathfinder 2e, so you might ask what the reason for its existence is. Here are my thoughts on the matter:

• Loose Rules: While some of the action rigidity still remains, Pathwarden leaves more narrative gaps for players to fill with their actions. This, alongside with the easier access to all sorts of abilities (you can use any Feat at 5 difficulty if you want) makes it easier to play your character "outside of your character sheet".
• Narrative Growth: In Pathwarden, you can use narrative opportunities to build your character in unexpected ways. Was a mage forced to fight off some enemies with their staff, and scored two critical hits? Why not spend a Path point to the Martial Path to reflect that?
• Vestigial Features: Perhaps a controversial opinion, but to me, Attributes, Initiative and Vancian spellcasting are vestigial features, ones which Pathfinder 2e already was taking steps to move away from. I see their removal as a way to make Pathwarden more modern and interesting.
• Lower Scaling: Pathwarden scales much less severely than other games of its ilk. Creatures will never have hundreds of points of hit points, attacks will rarely if ever deal more than 20 damage, and falling damage from even minor heights never stops being relevant. Similarly, the strength of characters is much more represented by their general level, increasing all of their checks and defenses.
• Leniency and Cooperation: Pathwarden wants you to cooperate. Challenges are daunting unless you use tactics and your abilities to their fullest extent. But, at the same time, the game is lenient, making character death unlikely, and focuses more on consequences outside of that. Additionally, the game wants the players to encourage each other to roleplay, as the new Threads mechanic exists to encourage players to open up into roleplaying opportunities.

PHYSICAL COPIES

Physical copies are available on DrivethruRPG through Print on Demand. Available as a Hardcover for $34.99 or Softcover for $24.99.

REGIONAL PRICING ($4.94)

Pathwarden supports regional pricing! Feel free to use the coupon to purchase the game if you can't afford it because of powers that be!

COMMUNITY

By popular demand, I have set up an official Discord server for the game. It's where you can get the newest updates on what I'm working on, and even influence the design itself!

Join the official Discord channel here!