Pathfinder Unchained announced-Paizo's answer to D&D Next?

[oslecamo]

Not coming before April 2015 though

Break your chains!

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game contains numerous rules considered sacred by players and GMs alike. Since the system itself was based upon RPG "technology" already more than 20 years old, "backwards compatibility" often meant sticking with the familiar, even if tradition was filled with cobwebs and decades-old assumptions. Pathfinder Unchained dares to take a fresh look at the system itself, altering some of the fundamentals of the game and giving fresh optional takes on classic rules. Inside this collection of alternate rules and options you'll find completely redesigned versions of the barbarian, monk, rogue, and summoner classes. Delve into a new system for resolving player actions designed to speed play and dispel confusion. Many of the new systems (such as the revised classes) work seamlessly with the existing Pathfinder rules. Even the most staunchly traditionalist player will appreciate the book's math-lite system for on-the-fly monster creation and the new system for generating dynamic magic items that go far beyond a simple +1 to add lore and interest to the campaign. Players will love the book's new resource pool for martial characters, allowing for exciting new tactical options, as well as the robust new system that allows spellcasters to modify their spells with powerful spell components.

This 256 page hardcover addition to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is designed to be used by GMs and players that want to change the way their game is played. You can pick and choose the systems you want to change or you can adopt a number of them for a truly new play experience. With Pathfinder Unchained, you can have the game you want to play!

Well, that's quite a lot of promises.

I also read it as Paizo themselves admitting "Yeah, we printed some pretty broken stuff", even if it is followed by "Totally not our fault".

[Kasz]

I read that as:

"Here at Paizo we understand people loved 3.5, they also loved our take on it... go figure.

Now that D&D Next is out people are responding well to the "math-lite" approach, simplifying the numbers and we can do it too! Just give us a year to copy what we like and throw our opinions on top!"

[Unbeliever]

I think it's kind of funny to tout backwards compatibility in a system that is not really backwards compatible ...

Some of the stuff may be neat, though a lot of it is not breaking any new ground.  I mean, we've had funky spell-altering components for at least 2 editions now. 

[Eldritch_Lord]

Rather than this being Paizo's response to 5e, I'd see it as a lead-up to a potential Pathfinder 2e.

Traditionally, D&D editions come out with the "let's throw drastically game-changing variants at the playerbase and see what sticks" books (1e Unearthed Arcana, 2e Player Options, 3e ToM/ToB/MoI, 4e Essentials) shortly before announcing a new edition, to allow them to effectively do a covert playtest of new-edition mechanics or recycle rejected versions of new-edition mechanics.  There are only so many Advanced X and Ultimate Y books you can publish, after all, so now would be a good time to figure out if the players are as dead-set against ever having a new PF edition as they were when it first came out.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Yeah that sounds like a real plan.
And if they can get 1 tricky smart Fancy Maths guy to fix / re-fix / in-fix / wtf ...

I still say the easiest errata is changing the level # on something, and nothing else !!

[Libertad]

I'm not buying unless they got rules for erotic role-play.


But seriously, making the Monk full BAB shouldn't be that big of a decision.  Hopefully they'll do a lot of cool stuff for martials, such as allowing them to move more than 5 feet and full attack.


On the fly monster creation?  Do want.