Due to concerns with the direction of 2018’s Pathfinder releases, the Know Direction network was leaked a list of products that will be announced at this year’s PaizoCon by a source at Paizo who wishes to remain anonymous (thanks again, Owen. Your secret’s safe with us!) While some of the below titles are ultimately intriguing, overall the list is a worrisome collection of evidence that maybe Pathfinder’s best days are behind it, starting with the RPG line hardcover announcements:

Pathfinder RPG
Advanced Beginner Guide
Not every new player is interested in baby stepping through their first session. For the beginner who wants to start Pathfinder on hardcore mode comes the new Pathfinder RPG Advanced Beginner Guide. 503 pages dedicated to:

• Mathematical minutia for optimal multiclassing;
• The Common language and the advantages of playing a character who doesn’t speak it;
• An alchemist/unchained summoner hybrid class that requires mastery of a complex system of made up science to use even the most basic class features;
• No art or iconography of any kind, or even bold and italic font formatting;
• And much, much more!

Best Aerie 1
The definitive guide to birds and bird keeping! We are so sure that there will more releases in this line of Aeries and each one will be tied for best that we chose the bold name Pathfinder RPG Best Aerie 1. This book includes:

• Pathfinder RPG stat blocks on every breed of bird known to have existed on Earth at some point since prehistoric times;
• Not a single fantasy bird. This is the first in the experimental new Basically Textbooks But For Pathfinder format;
• An equipment chapter on bird feed and bird cages, complete with diagrams for building your own;
• And nothing more! Seriously, it’s 341 pages of just what’s listed above.

Adventure Path
Rune of the Riselords
After years of progressively more complex and original adventure paths, Pathfinder fans demanded a return to basics, and Paizo delivers with the not new and hardly different Pathfinder: Rune of the Riselords. Karzoug Jr, son of Karzoug, seeing the follies of his father’s plans, returns to some familiar Inner Sea settings to correct them with the same types of giants but now the slightest bit modified with templates or class levels, and a surprise or two. Definitely not three. Somewhere between zero and two surprises max, we promise.  

Aroden Must Die!
The greatest mystery of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting is finally solved: Who killed Aroden? You! Catapulted back in the time, the PCs must restore a fracturing timeline by killing the immortal Azlanti. If you thought the Satanic Panic was bad in the 80s, wait until you play a 6-part adventure about killing Golarion’s Christ analog!

Player Companion
Blood of Trolls
A collection of options for troll players! A new feat that lets you pretend you’re using Diplomacy when you’re in fact using Intimidate; strict gender-based options heavily biased towards one gender; a divining pool artifact called the Well of Actuality; and more!

Inner Sea Feets
An old joke says that in tabletop RPGs, a five hour journey takes five minutes but a five minute fight takes five hours. No more! With Inner Sea Feets: The Guide to Walking Around Golarion, page after page of tables, subsystems, and a flow chart of more tables and subsystems means a five hour journey takes five hours!

Campaign Setting
Inner Sea Cookbooks
Dine like it’s the Medieval times, but with enough magic, science, and a skewed view of history to make it feel like it’s modern times. Combine the lengthy section describing food with the travel options from Inner Sea Feets to recreate the Lord of the Rings trilogy!

Book of the Damned 4: Warehouse Raptors
The fourth installment of the Book of the Damned series is here just in time to make the upcoming Pathfinder RPG: Book of the Damned hardcover no longer the definitive Book of the Damned! Detailing the voracious Warehouse Raptors as the hideous outsiders we all know they are.

Pathfinder Society
Season 9: The Year of Dreng’s Ascension
This year, everyone’s favourite venture-captain takes The Test of the Starstone, and field agent participation is mandatory. The new season kicks off with the multi-continental live streamed in technicolour special scheduled for the first day of GenCon –or, in certain time zones, early the next morning- titled “Yes, the Aboleths DID do it!”

 

As you can see there’s a lot to be optimistic about, and a lot more guaranteed to induce panic! What does the future hold? Only time will tell, but we at the Know Direction network believe that Pathfinder enthusiasts won’t soon forget the news we broke today, April 1^st, 2017.