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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Class Archetypes

Archetypes with the class trait fundamentally diverge from your class's specialties but still fit within the theme of your class.

You can select a class archetype only if your class meets the criteria listed in the archetype's prerequisites. Class archetypes always alter or replace some of a class's static class features in addition to any new feats they offer.

It might be possible to take a class archetype at 1st level if it alters or replaces some of the class's initial class features. The 1st-level ability is presented much like a class feature and includes the class archetype's prerequisites and rules on how it changes your class. If you select this ability, you must take that archetype's dedication feat at 2nd level, and you proceed normally afterward. You can never have more than one class archetype.

PFS StandardAvengerDedication Feat 2

Source War of Immortals pg. 58
Prerequisites Avenger
Most people are aware of champions and clerics as the most obvious of a deity’s divinely empowered servants, and those familiar with vindicators as the more subtle arm of the church’s might have generally grown to accept their necessity. There exists, however, other corners of religious power that churches may be less open about with their lay worshippers. Avengers are one such example.

Sometimes known as slayers among more brutal doctrines, avengers are trained in remote monasteries or secret cloisters hidden from the eyes of casual passersby. They are indoctrinated in their church’s teachings while being taught a variety of martial skills, many focused around mastery of their deity’s favored weapon. These training environments often also enforce vows of silence, vows of celibacy, or other practices intended to keep the avengers-in-training from forming strong personal attachments.

PFS StandardBattle HarbingerDedication Feat 2

Source Divine Mysteries pg. 272
Prerequisites battle creed
Battle harbingers are elite, specially trained members of their faith, usually carrying out missions that require extra martial prowess. Built for the battlefield and used to working alongside other warriors, as well as tackling dangerous solo operations, battle harbingers typically spend more time training outside their temples than praying within them. What they lack in spellcasting prowess they make up for with expertise in weaponry and defense.

Even less combat-oriented faiths understand that battle harbingers can be a necessity, especially if there's a dangerous quest that must be undertaken alone. Because battle harbingers rigorously train their bodies to withstand hardship, they tend to have more capability to support themselves, leaving more traditional priests to handle group-wide supportive magic and prayers. Battle harbingers specialize in bolstering themselves with their deity's power and weakening their opponents in the same vein.

A battle harbinger's training varies greatly from that of a typical cleric. While this training initially resembles that of a warpriest cleric, the martial and spellcasting philosophies of a battle harbinger soon differ. A battle harbinger is taught to rely less on their spells, instead focusing on a select array of spells to supplement their combat abilities. Their main magical abilities focus on battle auras, spells that create areas centered on the battle harbinger that either empower their allies or hamper their foes. Battle harbingers are generally expected to take the fight directly to a foe, and their auras supplement these tactics. The main component of a battle harbinger's training involves their battle creed. While a battle creed varies from faith to faith, the core aspects of these creeds remain the same regardless of dogma. A battle creed declares a battle harbinger to be a living weapon for their god or faith. The battle harbinger is expected to enter combat on behalf of their god and to adhere to strict training regimens that support this goal. Battle harbingers train to make use of powerful armor and their god's favored weapon. Supplemental training focuses on the body, allowing battle harbingers to stave off fatigue and dangers that target one's health directly. Some battle harbingers, such as those who follow Erastil, prefer to make use of ranged tactics, but they still learn more direct combat should the need arise.

Although a battle harbinger's spellcasting capabilities are more limited than their fellow clerics, their magic generally isn't less potent. Battle harbingers are still capable of calling down strong divine power, but they rely on this magic less often than their brethren. This is mostly due to their martial training, which focuses on their bodies, combat, and defense. As such, a battle harbinger doesn't carry as much magic potential as other clerics. The exception to this is their training in battle auras, which many battle harbingers are able to make greater use of as their prowess grows.

While most battle harbingers are associated with a given temple, it's not unusual for one to be a lone mercenary, enacting their deity's will along their travels and through their contract work.

PFS StandardBloodragerDedication Feat 2

Source War of Immortals pg. 60
Prerequisites Bloodrager
There is a visceral power in blood. It sustains life through its flow. Bloodragers exist throughout societies in different forms. Matanji orcs are demon hunters that turn the power of fiendish blood against its vessels. The Skoan-Quah protect the tombs of their dead, preserved with containers of their fallen companions’ blood. This blood is used by their closest living comrades in combat to utilize lost power and knowledge or drank during festivities to celebrate once more with their companions in battle. In Ustalav, cloaked ministers perform rituals with the blood of extraplanar entities to feed and strengthen their congregation against all manner of maladies and horrors. In Casmaron, divine entities coordinate with mortals to provide their blood as catalysts in wars against hidden threats.

Whatever the path, bloodragers have awakened magical powers to become dangerous forces of physical and magical might wherever there is blood to be found.

PFS StandardElementalistDedication Feat 2

Source Rage of Elements pg. 58 2.0
Prerequisites elemental magic
You revere the elements as the building blocks of creation and the source of all life. You believe that by balancing, mixing, and rearranging these elements, magic is made. This belief has led you to eschew traditional magical theories and divisions, and you instead focus on harnessing, manipulating, and shaping the elements. There are many paths to elementalism, and many classes can become elementalists. As the most basic building blocks of matter, the elements can be shaped to your specific training and understanding. The study of elementalism expands every day.

You cast spells drawn from multiple traditions and can use the elements to alter and empower your spells, making them manifest and mixing them in unique ways. Most elementalists embrace either the philosophy of four elements common in the Inner Sea or the five-element cycle prevalent in Tian Xia. This is often a balance, but some elementalists feel a stronger connection to a singular element that they hone to great heights, utilizing the other elements to support and augment their favored.

Secrets of Magic Elementalist: This section updates and expands the elementalist class archetype originally presented on page 206 of Secrets of Magic. If you're using the version of the archetype from Secrets of Magic and are happy with it, you don't need to make any changes—that original version functions the same as using the new text and choosing Inner Sea elementalism for your elemental philosophy!

PFS StandardFlexible SpellcasterDedication Feat 2

Legacy Content

Source Secrets of Magic pg. 209 2.0
Prerequisites flexible spell preparation
You've learned how to cast spells flexibly, blending the best elements of spontaneous and prepared spellcasting at the cost of casting fewer spells each day.

PFS RestrictedMunitions MasterDedication Feat 2

Uncommon 
Source Battlecry! pg. 64
Prerequisites light mortar innovation
Invention often springs from necessity, and nothing creates necessity like war. While many inventors innovate new tools or seek fortune or fame, the munitions master seeks an edge in battle, one that might mean the difference between victory and defeat for their side. They aim to bring the sheer destructive power of siege weapons to a more compact and personal scale so that they can be deployed anywhere they are needed.

The portable light mortar used by munitions masters first appeared in Dongun Hold, a collaboration between Dongun siege weapon operators and Alkenstar inventors.

Light Mortar Innovation 1st

Through years of experience and countless hours of experimentation, you've developed a siege weapon compact enough to operate by yourself while still packing a deadly punch.

Prerequisites: You must be an inventor.

Munitions Master Adjustments: Instead of choosing an innovation from the options listed in the inventor class, you have the light mortar innovation, as well as the following changes to the class features listed on the following pages. You gain these abilities at the same levels as normal for the class unless otherwise specified. You must select Munitions Master Dedication as your 2nd-level class feat. Your innovation is a mounted siege weapon called a light mortar that weighs 2 Bulk. Whether it propels its payload via an elaborate mechanism or explosive reagents, it's capable of dealing immense damage. Your light mortar requires an Interact action to deploy it before you can Aim, Load, or Launch it, and it includes its own wheeled platform that it is mounted on as part of the deployment. It can be packed back up for easy transport as a 2-action activity with the manipulate trait and either worn as a backpack or carried in one hand while packed. Because of the light mortar's smaller size, the Move Siege Engine activity takes only 1 action when it is deployed.

Your light mortar begins as a 1st-level siege weapon with the statistics shown below. It deals an additional die of damage at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter. When you Launch your light mortar, the Reflex save is equal to your class DC. Its AC is equal to your inventor class DC and it has Hardness 5. It has trained proficiency in Reflex and Fortitude saves, using your Intelligence modifier to calculate these bonuses. It has 10 Hit Points, plus a number of Hit Points equal to 2 plus your Intelligence modifier for each level you have. Its Broken Threshold is equal to half its total Hit Points (rounded down).

At 5th level, your light mortar's Hardness increases to 10. At 10th level it increases to 15 and its proficiency rank in Reflex and Fortitude saves increases to expert. At 15th level, its Hardness increases to 20, and its proficiency rank in Reflex and Fortitude saves increases to master.

Your innovation fires small cannonballs called carry shot. A group of 10 carry shot, which weighs 1 Bulk, can be purchased for 5 sp from most shops that sell ammunition.
Choose one initial light mortar modification to apply to your innovation, either from the following or from other initial light mortar modifications to which you have access. These modifications alter the abilities or form of your light mortar.
  • Contained Shrapnel You alter your light mortar's ammunition to prevent fragments of it from flying outward on impact. Your innovation gains the nonlethal trait. You can choose whether to apply the nonlethal trait on each Launch.
  • Enhanced Shrapnel You alter your light mortar's ammunition to change the way it shatters on impact, spraying nearby creatures with a hail of razor-sharp pieces. Your innovation gains the versatile P and versatile S traits. You can choose whether to apply one of these traits on each Launch with your innovation.
  • Spring-Loaded You've designed your innovation with springs to quickly unfold and extend components, optimizing it for quick deployment. You can deploy your light mortar as a free action.

Overdrive

The additional damage you deal from Overdrive applies to Launches made with your light mortar, as if they were Strikes.

Explode

When you use this ability, the emanation is centered on your innovation, and you can choose to exclude the square you are in from the emanation.

Breakthrough Innovation7th

When choosing a breakthrough innovation, choose from the following breakthrough light mortar modifications. As usual, you can choose an initial light mortar modification instead if you prefer.
  • Blanching Chamber You embed tiny metal filings into ammunition in the firing chamber of your light mortar. These filings remain embedded in the fragments of the ammunition after it shatters on impact. Your ammunition counts as cold iron and silver.
  • Earthbreaker Each time you Launch, you can choose to alter the ammunition to direct the brunt of the explosion downward, dealing half damage but creating difficult terrain in the blast area.
  • Narrow Blast You alter your ammunition so that the force of the impact is directed in a narrow band. Each time you Launch you can choose to have the explosion form a 20-foot cone instead of a 10-foot burst. This cone must originate at the point of impact and can be directed either directly away from you or 45 degrees to either side of that.

Inventive Expertise7th

You gain this class feature at 7th level instead of 9th.

Offensive Boost9th

The offensive boost you choose applies to Launches made with your light mortar, as if they were Strikes.

Inventive Mastery15th

You gain this class feature at 15th level instead of 17th.

Revolutionary Innovation15th

When choosing a revolutionary innovation, choose from the following revolutionary light mortar modifications. As usual, you can choose an initial or breakthrough light mortar modification instead if you prefer.
  • Enhanced DamageAs the revolutionary weapon modification of the same name.
  • Impossible Alloy As the revolutionary weapon modification of the same name, except that the alloy is embedded in your ammunition on launch.
  • Precise Blast You have such precise control over your light mortar that you can wrap the blast of impact around your allies without harming them. When you Launch, you can select a number of squares up to your Intelligence modifier to exclude from the blast area.

PFS StandardPalatine DetectiveDedication Feat 2

Uncommon 
Source Divine Mysteries pg. 288
Prerequisites investigator
You are an elite agent of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. Separated from the regular members of this obscure league of scholars and academics, you have attained divine and occult abilities through methods kept secret to outsiders. The air of mystery that surrounds you and your organization only serves to aid you in your cases, which can often be dangerous investigations into cultists and supernatural threats. However, you might have earned the suspicion or ire of others within the Order of the Palatine Eye due to your near-constant field work and the fact that initiates and lower-order members are kept in the dark about your provenance.

You are likely unclear as to the exact source of your abilities. Depending on your understanding of your Order’s teachings, you could have gained this power from the knowledge you gained through The Lost Gospels of Tabris. This knowledge seems to hint at greater mysteries underlying existence and the cosmos, as well as mysteries hidden between the veils of morality that suffuse the planes, which could have unlocked your potential. It could also be that you gained your abilities due to your connection to the various artifacts and relics that the Order of the Palatine Eye has collected over its lifetime. The nature of many of these items remains unclear even after decades of study, but your proximity to these relics could have triggered an awakening of abilities. Your abilities might simply function because you believe they must. It would be disastrous for you to lose access to these abilities, so you believe them to function and considerations otherwise are something you refuse to acknowledge.

Regardless, you’ve learned to make use of your abilities to work against magical forces. These abilities allow you to tap into greater magical potential, create wards to protect yourself from magical attacks, and even grant you esoteric insight to better harm your foes. While these abilities are potent, you must also make sure to not let your Order training lapse. You make use of your mind, your canny insight, and deductive skills to deal with the various mysteries of existence that you encounter and the supernatural foes that you find along the way.

PFS StandardRunelordDedication Feat 2

Rare 
Source Rival Academies pg. 114
Prerequisites runelord
You’ve learned arcane magic, following the path of the runelords. You learn the secrets of runic magic, the building blocks of magic. But be warned: You might succumb to sin in your pursuit of power. The seven runes held in highest regard by the runelords echo the addictive power of the seven sins.

Beyond the runes themselves, you also learn the techniques of the ancient runelords. You learn to use their signature weapons and can acquire the secrets of the ancient magic items called aeon stones, embedding them into your skin.

PFS StandardSeneschalDedication Feat 2

Rare 
Source War of Immortals pg. 62
Prerequisites Seneschal Witch
Whether dead or simply missing, your patron has gone silent, and you can no longer hear its whisper. While other witches might find this silence disquieting and lose hope without direction, you embrace this new challenge. Without a governor, you can now realize the true potential of your magic by tapping into the connection you once shared with your absent patron. You are no longer bound by the your patron’s desires; you are free to forge your own path.

PFS StandardSpellshotDedication Feat 2

Uncommon 
Source Guns & Gears pg. 140 2.0
Prerequisites way of the spellshot
Spellshots aren't ordinary gunslingers. They come from a tradition of ancient secrets and principles, which they temper with modern innovation and perspective. Spellshots combine magical power into the art of gunplay to create a distinct and mystical way known only to spellshots, enigmatic and unavailable to other gunslingers in the world at large. The first to identify themselves as spellshots tied their magical traditions to the history of the Star Code and the Crowned Regents in Arcadia. Ancient, reclusive crafters known as the Crowned Regents created star guns, the legendary magical firearms that shot white-hot blasts of energy. Wielders of star guns became bound together by the Star Code—a set of cultural expectations that defined how one should behave while using these powerful weapons. You can find more information about star guns, the Crowned Regents, and the Star Code in Guns & Gears.

Most spellshots continue to come from Arcadia, as the stories describing the relevant skills and training to become one have been passed down over the generations. Many gunslingers who grow up in this region hear of these tales early in their lives, and they develop the techniques to channel magical energy through their firearms in imitation of the Regents' arcane methods. While Arcadia is home to the vast majority of the world's spellshots, the techniques have slowly spread to other regions. However, spellshots remain particularly rare in the Inner Sea region due to the unique history of guns there and their connection to the Grand Duchy of Alkenstar, which exists in a magic-dead region of the Mana Wastes.

PFS StandardVindicatorDedication Feat 2

Source War of Immortals pg. 64
Prerequisites Vindicator
Many undead and supernatural predators have the ability to blend unseen among the general population, preying on mortals completely unaware of their presence. Vindicators are skilled warriors who use keen analytical talents and a smattering of divine magic to seek out such monstrous prey and pronounce judgment upon them. Evil religions, whose vindicators are more likely to be referred to as “inquisitors,” occasionally train their agents to seek out heretics within their own ranks, a fact that contributes heavily to the attitudes of fear and mistrust many vindicators find themselves faced with in the course of their duties.

PFS StandardWar MageDedication Feat 2

Uncommon 
Source Battlecry! pg. 68
Prerequisites You have a spellcasting class feature.
You learned the arcane craft at a war college, focusing less on theory and scholarship and more on applied magic and how best to leverage spellcraft on the battlefield. You were schooled in arcana, tried and tested in war, and learned how and when best to employ those spells to turn the tide of battle. Your training included lessons on swordplay and the upkeep of armor alongside the preparation of spells and the deciphering of arcane runes.

There are many war colleges that provide this specialized training. Perhaps you were schooled in one of Molthune’s military academies, or as part of your military training in Taldor or Qadira. Regardless of the source, your unique skills make your combat magic some of the most potent on Golarion.

PFS StandardWarrior Of LegendDedication Feat 2

Uncommon 
Source War of Immortals pg. 66
Prerequisites Warrior of legend
It is said that the greatest heroes are often stalked by an implacable doom, the shadow cast by the light of their deeds. Such warriors of legend often garner great reputations for their prowess and ferocity in battle, spawning legends of their invincibility. These stories almost always end in tragedy, however, for the blessings that carry the warriors to victory are always accompanied by a terrible curse that all but ensures their heroic tales have grim endings.

Since the Godsrain scattered divine power across Golarion, more and more tales of such legendary warriors have sprung up all over the world, from Garund to Tian Xia, Casmaron to Arcadia, and across Avistan all the way to the Crown of the World. Hallmarks of these stories include heroes and villains who prefer lighter armor, hafted weapons, and who all seem to have an aversion or vulnerability to certain types of opponents.

The would-be ruler Gulrik the Fierce slew a linnorm in the depths of the Grungir Forest but was slain by the arrows of lowly bandits before he could claim a kingdom for himself. The warrior Mohaadjii had just begun to forge a legend by driving pillagers from Bloodcove out of the Kaava Lands, when a slingstone from a halfling raider struck her dead before she even realized she was under attack.

This cursed weakness perhaps goes a long way to explaining why certain pieces of gear are so common to the figures at the center of these stories. With each warrior of legend living under the shadow of finding their doom at the hands of a particular threat, even such staunch stalwarts might prefer a weapon that gives them enough reach to assess their opponent before closing in for the kill, and armor light enough that it won’t become a burden if flight becomes the better part of valor.

PFS LimitedWellspring MageDedication Feat 2

Legacy Content

Rare 
Source Secrets of Magic pg. 248 2.0
Prerequisites wellspring magic
The source of your magic buckles against your control, always pressing to be released.