Chapter 1: Classes
The book starts off with the “unchained classes”, rewrites of the Barbarian, Monk, Rogue and Summoner. It also contains two new subsystems for multiclassing and gaining levels.
Barbarian
The unchained Barbarian no longer gains strength and constitution when he rages. Instead Rage grants an untyped bonus to melee attack rolls, melee damage rolls, thrown weapon damage rolls, and will saves. He also gains temporary hit points, which avoids the old barbarian’s unfortunate habit of dying when he was knocked unconscious. Trap Sense has become Danger Sense, which also grants a perception bonus to avoid ambushes. A number of previously underwhelming rage powers have been improved (Raging Climber now grants a climb speed) and a set of new Stance rage powers have been included.
Frankly, I'm a little torn on this. I like the new barbarian, but... The rewritten rage could have been handled via an archetype akin to the Quinggong monk, and the new rage powers could simply have been added in other material. I'm not sure I see the need to completely rewrite the barbarian. Perhaps a little selfish of me, but I can't help but wish that the Fighter had gotten this attention instead. Fingers crossed for Pathfinder: Unshackled!
Monk
The unchained Monk has gained a D10 hit die and full BAB progression! Monks gain proficiency with the normal list of weapons, but also any weapon with the Monk quality. Flurry of blows has been changed to give the monk fewer attacks but make it more likely that the flurry attacks actually hit. Rather than getting a fixed list of abilities as he levels up, the monk gets to choose from a selection of Ki powers every two levels that allow him to do a variety of things, including everything on the Quinggong monk list. He’s also gained Style Strikes, which lets him include one “strike” whenever he uses Flurry. These grant the monk a number options, such as extra AC, "mini-pounce", or extra attacks. Unfortunately it’s not all good news. The monk has been moved to the poor will save progression and he is still on the MAD side - you really want strength, dexterity, constitution AND wisdom, meaning the dumb uncharismatic monk is still very much a popular pathfinder trope.
I like the new monk, I absolutely think it's a marked improvement over the old one. A friend at my table playing his third straight brawler literally squealed with joy when he read the new monk. That said, the monk still suffers from MAD syndrome and heavily relies on a decent point buy budget or good rolls to really come together. I wish Paizo had maybe played around a little bit with the ability score requirements for the class.
Rogue
The unchained Rogue has most likely seen the most improvement compared to the original class. He gains weapon finesse as a bonus feat on level 1 and gains dexterity to damage with any one weapon that can be used with weapon finesse at level 3. Sneak Attack is no longer foiled by dim light, and is effective unless the target has Total Concealment. Like the barbarian, Trap Sense has become Danger Sense. All the CRB rogue talents have been rewritten and most of them have seen a fair bit of improvement. At level 4 rogues can deliver a debilitating injury - whenever they make a sneak attack, they can inflict a special condition, such as moving at half speed and being unable to take a 5-foot step, gaining a -2 to attack rolls (with an additional scaling penalty to attack the rogue), or gaining a -2 to armor class (with an additional scaling penalty to AC vs the rogue). An advanced rogue talent allows the rogue to apply any two of these conditions at once, rather than only having one active. Finally, at level 5 rogues gain a skill unlock power. This refers to a special system found in chapter 2, in which you unlock new ways to use a skill for every 5 ranks you put in it.
The rogue intrigues me. It's been significantly improved compared to the old class, but I'm not quite sure if it's on the same level as the investigator or the bard. I'm hoping to see this in play soon, to judge for myself how much it has improved. One thing that makes me a little sad is that there's zero support for rogues that want to use ranged combat.
Summoner
Disclaimer: I’ve never played a summoner, or indeed ever seen a summoner in play. Every game I’ve ever played in Pathfinder has had the summoner on the ban list. As such, I’m not terribly experienced with the class and I might miss important things. That said, from what I can tell the unchained Summoner took a bit of a beating. While seven spells were added, there are a number of spells missing: Simulacrum, Antipathy, Dominate Monster etc. In addition, many spells have had their level adjusted up. Slow and Haste to level 3, Charm Monster and Dimension Door to 4, Wall of Stone and Teleport to 5, and Banishment and Planar Binding to 6, and so on. The end result is that the summoner is still a competent spellcaster, but he is no longer a 9th level caster camouflaged by a 6th level spell list.
Eidolons have been radically changed - you now choose a subtype, which dictates the base form and what base evolutions they will gain. Examples include Angels, Elementals, Inevitables, and Psychopomps. The evolution pool has been reduced, starting at 1 and capping out at 15. From what I can tell, the evolution prices have been reworked - An example of this is Pounce, which was changed from 1 to 3 points.
I'm not quite sure how much power the summoner has lost, since I'm only marginally familiar with the class. I absolutely welcome the spell list changes. I'm less sure about the eidolon changes since I liked how "limitless" the original eidolon system was - there was a great deal of flexibility to visualize your eidolon exactly how you wanted. The new subtypes are interesting, but also confining.
The Fractional System is a system meant to help multiclass characters by tracking save and base attack bonuses as fractions rather than whole numbers. It’s a little complicated to explain, but it’s a great system for players who take lots of class dips. I will be using this in my games.
Staggered Advancement breaks each level up into four milestones, each milestone grants some of the benefits of leveling up. This makes leveling up more gradual and less abrupt, but requires a bit more homework on players. It’s an interesting system if you find "overnight" leveling unrealistic, or if you’re running a very slow-moving game and you want to reward the players with “mini-levels” more frequently. I probably won't be using this since my campaigns tend to move fast anyway.
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