Pathfinder adds 2 new classes, conflict seizes Golarion in Battlecry!

Pathfinder’s epic storyline will move forward soon with Battlecry!, a new sourcebook for the tabletop role-playing game’s second edition. Complete with two new classes and a new ancestry, the hardcover book will be available at Gen Con in August with a wider release immediately following the convention. Then, in November, it will be supplemented with a novel. Finally, in early 2026, a full Adventure Path will formally welcome newer characters into the mix. Polygon sat down with representatives from the publisher, Paizo, to learn more.

Battlecry! will tell the story of the wide-ranging conflict known to inhabitants of the world of Golarion as The Inner Sea War. The inspiration comes from World War I — complete with a similar inciting event, specifically the assassination of a foreign dignitary.

“It’s basically taking up where Godsrain and the War of Immortals left off,” said project lead Jason Keeley. “We’ve had a big clash between gods and deities and the power people. Now we’re going to talk a little bit more about what happens down on the ground when governments don’t like each other.”

The major combatants are the democratic nation of Andoran and the demon-worshipping country known as Cheliax, which will do battle on land and sea in a region of Golarion not unlike our Mediterranean — a vital estuary for trade, bordered on all sides by different cultures with different beliefs and goals.

“War is no stranger to the fantasy genre,” Keeley said. “You have the Battle of Helm’s Deep, you’ve got all the Westeros stuff, you’ve got countless other examples, right? Fantasy kingdoms are just constantly going to war with one another. […] Battlecry! [will focus on] how heroes are made or broken during wartime. That can be a touchy subject these days, of course. So what we want to focus on is more about, what are the heroic parts of war? What makes it a fun fantasy to play out? Why does it happen so often? Why do people come along and say, Oh, well, it’s fun to have our little armies kind of bash you up, bash against one another?”

Leading the way will be two new classes that recently completed playtesting: the Commander and the Guardian. The Commander class will be a force multiplier, using its own turn in combat to give more abilities, options, and attacks to allied player characters and troops. Long a part of the Pathfinder ruleset, troops are singular, swarm-like units containing multiple non-player characters or monsters. They will play a key part in the storyline’s pivotal massed battles.

Meanwhile, the Guardian is a tank, full stop.

“Fighter is to weapon as guardian is to armor, to do the old analogy [format],” Keeley said. “They’re the best at getting the most protection out of their armor, and also letting that protection help other people: diving in front of strikes that are meant for their friends, moving some enemies around the battlefield so that other people can hit them a little better while sort of tanking. It’s the tankiest class that we’ve tried to make, and […] I hope people think it delivers.”

The new Jotunborn ancestry, a massive new option for player characters that resembles a classic giant, will provide new options for Commanders, Guardians, and other classes as well.

“Pathfinder has so many different types of giants,” Keeley said. “They are varying in size and temperament and society — representing them through our heritage system of an ancestry just wouldn’t feel satisfying enough. So I wanted to do something unique.”

Jotunborn hail from an alternate plane of existence, where they tend to giant beetles whose silk is used to create subdermal, ritualistic markings that glow on command.

“These are natural protectors and custodians,” Keeley said. “However, with the Godsrain, the War of Immortals, that caused a lot of chaos. So a lot of Jotunborn are coming out to help sort of clean up and they’re finding that they can’t go back home. A lot of them are just trapped in our setting and are getting introduced to the wider world.”

Fans will be able to experience the first adventures in the Battlecry! setting at Gen Con, where live games are hosted at all hours in the Indianapolis Convention Center. Then, next year, the Adventure Path series, titled Hellbreakers, will arrive for at-home players beginning the campaign at level one. Meanwhile, fans can catch up on the narrative with the release of Operation Hellmouth, a new novel by Pathfinder Tales author Chris A. Jackson.

“It’s […] a mixture of some of our iconic characters plus some of those pirate characters that Chris Jackson introduced in his Tales novels,” Keeley said, “handling the Inner Sea aftershocks and effects of this war that’s happening. […] Less of an on-the-front-lines, combat-focused novel and more of a character-focused novel and how they are, to use a pirate term, press-ganged into sort of participating in this conflict because it’s affecting their homes and their livelihoods.”