A Look at Pathfinder 2nd Edition Roleplaying Game One Year Later

The year is 4719. Hellknights enforce an uneasy peace in the lands of Golarion and alchemy is the science of day. Goblins have turned good and are now accepted in polite company, having received a letter of recommendation from Mad Dog Mattis, Paladin of Iomedae.

OK, my apologies. I’m failing miserably to write a lede that introduces the Pathfinder 2E roleplaying game, which was released by Paizo Publishing to enthusiastic orc hordes of nerds in late July 2019.

It is now approaching roughly one year later. So what is the state of the Pathfinder 2E roleplaying game today?

The Pathfinder 2e Roleplaying Game: One Year Later

Put simply, Pathfinder 2nd Edition is doing great. Recent RPG sales numbers were released that placed Pathfinder as the #2 best selling RPG in game stores, sitting below D&D. While we don’t have exact sales figures (only relative position), we can surmise that Pathfinder 2E is profitable and extremely popular in the nerd marketplace we call the FLGS.

Paizo is known for supporting their properties extremely well and this is absolutely true for Pathfinder 2E. Paizo has produced flip mats, condition cards, and much more in support. While miniatures have been slow coming, Paizo has added a couple new products like the excellent Bestiary Cards.

Us nerds love our stuff, so the fact that Paizo has hustled out so many Pathfinder products in just one year is great. Plus, it serves as another indicator of the health of the product. Companies makes things because they sell.

The hardcover releases of Pathfinder have been stellar thus far. Sure, cards and pawns are good and all, but they’d mean nothing without proper hardbacks. In just one year of release, let’s list the gameplay hardcovers:

Pathfinder Core Rulebook is the book that started it all. And it’s a behemoth. Here’s our review from way back then.
Gamemastery Guide is the 256 page hardback that helps dungeon masters (DMs) run great games.
Pathfinder Bestiary comes in at 360 pages, not an ungodly length for Pathfinder’s hardcovers. Think of the Bestiary in terms comparable to the Monster Manual, which doesn’t boast 400 monsters.
And Bestiary 2, which just released.

Now I want to list the Lost Omens hardcover line, a favorite of mine. Lost Omens is the term for Golarion, the setting of Pathfinder 2E:

Lost Omens World Guide takes you into the ten geographical regions that combine to make up the Inner Sea area of Golarion, where most adventuring will take place.
Lost Omens Character Guide explores the cultures and organizations that make up Golarion.
Lost Omens Gods and Magic details the Golarion pantheon.

There are adventures as well. Paizo is best known for Adventure Paths, which are serialized adventures for their games. The Age of Ashes AP was the first out of the gate for Pathfinder 2E, and it featured 6 floppy books that played in sequence would take your little goblin from level 1 all the way to 20, if it was possible to align 5 adults’ schedules often enough to level that high.

APs a such an integral part of Pathfinder, we created a separate article to help players keep track of them: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Adventure Paths.

Pathfinder 2nd Edition: The Year Ahead

Beyond the goodness listed above, what is the future of Pathfinder 2nd Edition? Well, something for brand new players actually. Paizo recently announced a Pathfinder Beginner Box, which will be a nice product for getting new players engaged with the game. Here is the full news on the Pathfinder 2E Beginner Box.

More hardcovers are coming as well. Tops is the Advanced Player’s Guide has been announced and will release Summer 2020 with the Swashbuckler, Witch, and Investigator class and more. More classes is a good thing.

Pathfinder Bestiary 3 was announced for a March, 2021 release.
Pathfinder Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide is coming in September 2020.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide will follow that with more character options.

I also have some tips from little birdies as well as NDA protected information, so I need to be really shifty here. But 4 new classes hardly seems like enough, huh? At some point you’d expect Paizo to release even more classes for the game, wouldn’t you? I’ve said too much!

So, the Pathfinder roleplaying game is strong currently, plus has a fun pipeline of products for the years ahead. It is further supported by a nice organized play scene, the Pathfinder Society.

But organized play is company support. The fans are building their own community as well. The best Pathfinder-centric podcasts–Glass Cannon, Find the Path, and Dragon Punch Squad– are dabbling in Pathfinder 2E storylines for our nerdy ears.

And Nerds on Earth contributes to the Pathfinder 2nd Edition love. If you want to nerd out with us, check out some of the encounters, tips, player builds, and guides we’ve released here on the website for free. Like this.