Note: Most of the information laid out here is in regards to pre-Remaster; updating this article with Remaster info is highly encouraged once Player Core 2 releases.

To return to the page for Pathfinder classes in each edition, go here.

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Pathfinder 2nd Edition

Core Classes

Alchemist

Chemistry Can Do Anything: Unlike the First Edition, alchemy is now completely nonmagical, thus closer to this trope.
Item Caddy: Since alchemy is now non-magical and all items, alchemist as a class is now this. They have ability to create limited number of temporary items that would only last for a day but fully functions otherwise, and all of their feats are about enhancing their abilities to use those alchemical items.
Master Poisoner: The Toxicologist rsearch field specializes in preparing and using poisons.
The Medic: The Chirurgeon specializes in alchemical elixirs and has abilities that make them more efficient.
Throw Down the Bomblet: Forms the core of the alchemist's offensive abilities. Bombers emphasize this further.

Barbarian

Badass Normal: Barbarians of the fury instinct don't have any of the supernatural abilities other Barbarians possess, but they're still more than capable of holding their own.
The Berserker: Can use the Rage ability to sacrifice defense for power.
BFS: Barbarians of the giant instinct can wield weapons made for creatures of Large size.
Mage Killer: Barbarians of the superstition instinct are revolted by magic and refuse to benefit from it, but in exchange they have Anti-Magic capabilities.
Sizeshifter: Barbarians of the giant instinct can acquire the ability to grow in size while raging.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Barbarians of the animal or dragon instinct can transform themselves into the creature associated with their instinct.
Willing Channeler: Barbarians of the spirit instinct channel spirits as part of their rage, making them more effective against undead.

Bard

Adaptational Badass: Quite possibly the biggest example in the jump between editions. In Pathfinder First Edition and most other systems, Bards are "half-casters" (or "2/3rds caster")) that only ever get as high as 6th-level spells that, while powerful, didn't put them anywhere close to the level of full casters and instead focused on utility. In Second Edition, however, the Bard represents the occult tradition of spellcasting in the core rulebook, and thus has been promoted to being just as effective a spellcaster as the likes of Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, and even Wizards. While still exceptional Support Party Members, the occult tradition's spell list is positively rife with devastating debuffs and Mind Rape-y spells that a Bard can expect to make full use of.
The Bard: But of course.
Enlightenment Superpowers: Bards don't have to be particularly wise, but a spiritual connection to their muse is part of the class. It's why they're occult spellcasters.
Magic Music: As always, one medium for the Bard's magic is music. Some composition spells make use of the Performance skill.
The Muse: The name of the Bard's subclasses. The book offers several suggestions as to possible muses, including supernatural creatures and deities.
The Philosopher: Philosophical concepts are given as an example of a potential muse.
The Power of Acting: Composition spells can make use of any performance as a medium, including acting.
Your Mime Makes It Real: The House of Imaginary Walls spell is only usable by Bards and allows them to create magical barriers by miming.

Champion (formerly Paladin)

Healing Hands: Good champions can use the Lay on Hands Focus Spell and heal others using their touch.
Holy Hand Grenade: A large number of their abilities are based on a defensive version of this, either debuffing attacks and attackers or else punishing them with damage.
Irony: The universal Tenets of Good (the items of the Obstructive Code of Conduct all Good champions agree on) are actually less restrictive and more respectful of the champion in question than the Tenets of Evil, for all that the Evil gods proclaim more freedom to their worshipers, as the Tenets of Good do not have a proclamation to be utterly loyal to your god's interests and your own, in that order, while for a Good champion, they are simply to Never Hurt an Innocent and to defend innocents when you can reasonably do so — since the universal tenets always take precedence over the more personal tenets, this also means Good champions can always chose Good when faced with To Be Lawful or Good without worry, and if things are currently calm to take a vacation or day off, allowing them to act more selfishly on their own terms than Evil champions.
Magic Knight: All of them are tanky fighters with divine magic — Good champions are Combat Medics while Evil ones double down on damage and debuffs.
Mighty Glacier: They have the highest defense in the game, second best hit points, and a self-heal, and they're second only to fighters in terms of accuracy. On the other hand they're likely to be wearing heavy armor and their abilities encourage they stay close to the front.
The Paladin: The Lawful Good Cause is called this.
Redemption Rejection: The Neutral Good Cause is called the Redeemer, and their signature ability gives an enemy that hits an ally of the Redeemer an opportunity to reconsider their actions and deal no damage. If the enemy rejects it, they take automatic damage every turn.
Space Master: The capstone feat Everdistant Defense turns them into this, making the radius of their aura count as three times its actual distance in regards to enemies moving and attacking.

Cleric

Combat Medic: Clerics with the Healing Divine Font receive additional Heal spells per day.
Holy Hand Grenade: In addition to the various Divine spells centered around this, a Cleric with a Healing Font can take the Holy Castigation feat to cause their Heal spell to damage Fiends in the same way they do to Undead.
- Post-remaster, the Cleric is one of only two classes so far (the other being the Champion) that can naturally sanctify as holy or unholy. This allows them to add the trait they gained to sanctified spells (which the divine list has a lot of). The disadvantage is that some holy or unholy effects deal additional damage to enemies with the opposite trait, so while sanctifying expands your options for dealing with sanctified enemies, it also improves some of their options against you.
Warrior Monk: Warpriests are trained in armor and weapons in addition to divine magic.
White Mage: Cloistered clerics are a core option this time around.

Druid

The Beastmaster: Druids of the animal order fight alongside an animal companion.
Druid: Through spell casting, order selection, and certain feats, they can use each and every ability listed.
Green Thumb: Druids of the leaf order have a lot of abilities involving manipulating plants.
Heal It with Nature: Druids wield the "power of nature" and can "heal (your allies') wounds".
Nature Hero: Druids cannot despoil nature, or else they lose their abilities.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Druids of the wild order can use the Wild Shape spell and can polymorph themselves more easily.
Weather Manipulation: There's the Storm order for druids that wish to specialize in blasting.

Fighter

Critical Hit Class: Critical Hits are now tied to accuracy, and Fighter is the most accurate class in the game. Given the same ability modifier, a Fighter will score a critical hit 10% more than any other class. They're also unique in that they can use the critical specializations for any weapon they're a master in in every circumstance.
Determinator: Fighter's Bravery feature resilience against fear effects returns, giving them a slight boost to their Will saves and greatly reducing the effectiveness of effects which would grant them the frightened condition. At higher levels a Fighter can take the Determination feat to instantly end one condition they're suffering, or attempt a saving throw to shake off a spell.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: The Knock Sense feat allows a fighter to non-lethally hit a Confused ally to make them shake it off.
Instant Expert: The only class to get universal training in advanced weapons, which tend to be more unique weapon types from specific ancestries or cultures that require special training for other classes to use. Fighters know enough about weapons that they can pick up an entirely new weapon and use it almost if not as well as people who grew up with it.
Jack of All Trades: Though they have the best accuracy in the game, Fighters still tend to fall into this niche given how they stack up to other characters. A Fighter can tailor their playstyle to be almost as good as another martial at what they do best, and balance out the difference with their strong accuracy to make up for not being as resilient as Monks and Champions, as brutally powerful as Rangers and Barbarians, or as tricky and adaptable as Summoners and Thaumaturges.
Skill Gate Characters:
- Zigzagged; Fighters are generally considered a solid class that are good at all levels of play, but their higher modifiers can cause players to attempt brute-forcing encounters instead of learning more versatile strategies. It's very common for inexperienced players to assume Fighters are the only martial class worth using because their modifiers enable them to hit particularly higher-leveled threats easier, when in fact such enemies are better handled by inflicting debuffs and denying them action economy (and thus actions that will usually be deadlier than what players can do by comparison) than trying to out-damage them. Fighters can still be good in this paradigm, but they have to engage in those strategies, not simply rely on their higher weapon proficiencies. Thankfully, like a small subset of other skill gate characters, Fighters still prove their mettle once the player masters the system, as they have easy access to several potent ways to debuff and wrangle enemies while sacrificing none of their powerful, consistent damage output.
- Two-weapon builds specifically play this more straight, for the exact reasons above. They have some of the highest damage output in the game, but lack utility and defensive options other fighter build options have ^note, making them reliant on party members to cover defense and utility roles. They also lack the ability to easily use free hand options, and being knocked unconscious is also more punishing, as they will have to spend a whole turn picking up their dropped weapons. A well-played two-weapon fighter will deal monster damage, but a bad one will burden a party with trying to overcompensate for their lack of defences and inability to support anyone else.
Weapon Specialization: Fighters are encouraged to focus on a specific group of weapons, such as Bows, Polearms, or Swords, due to their proficiency with the chosen group generally being a step ahead of all other weapons.

Monk

Always Accurate Attack: Downplayed, as the attack can technically miss in extreme scenarios, but under most circumstances the 19th level Monk ability 'Perfected Form' ensures the first attack a Monk makes each turn will hit, because the roll can't be anything under 10. Given the fundamental math of the game, the late stage the Monk gets 'Perfected Form,' and assuming the Monk is keeping up on magic items and advancing their primary offensive stat, this should only ever miss in highly unique scenarios.
Armor Is Useless: Monks are Untrained in all forms of armor, making the usage of any armor a weakness rather than a strength. They make up for this by being an Expert in defending while unarmored.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Monks specialize in unarmed combat, although some use monastic weaponry or the bow.
Elemental Armor: The Mountain Stance and Rain of Embers Stance, both of which grant a bonus to armor class.
Elemental Powers: Not exactly a given, as they are just a few options among many, but Monks subscribe to the 'Wuxing' idea of elemental powers, in that they have access to the standard array of water, wind, earth, and fire stances, but also possess metal and wood stances. Though they don't all give the Monk access to direct elemental manipulation, their associated abilities and attacks still have something to do with the element they represent. The Ironblood Stance, for instance, gives the Monk the impenetrable resilience of metal, while the Wild Winds Stance allows the Monk to throw out blasts of overwhelming gales from a distance.
Elemental Punch: Not all elementally-themed stances give Monks physical attacks aligned with the power they are invoking, but some, such as Wild Winds Stance, Rain of Embers Stance, and Reflective Ripple Stance, do. Monks can also pick up a feat called Elemental Punch to infuse any attack they make with their Ki Strike with the classical four elements.
Ki Manipulation: Ki spells are an option for monks, although not all monks make use of them.
Lightning Bruiser: They're the fastest class in the game, and every monk starts off with Flurry of Blows to let them attack twice in one action. This is exemplified by the Stoked Flame Stance, which increases their passive speed boost, makes them faster while in the stance, and has its attacks get stronger if you attack multiple times in a single turn.
Necessary Drawback: Monks have the second-highest defense out of all the martial classes, are the fastest, and are the only class that can make two attacks in one action in any scenario. In exchange they fight barehanded, making them generally weaker than other martial classes, and even if they can use weapons, their options are limited.
Stance System: Several classes have stance-based abilities, but monks make more use of them than any other class.
Stone Wall: Compared to other offensive martial classes. The issue isn't their speed, considering they are absurdly quick and can cover the most distance of any class, but rather their offenses; their offensive options are limited in scope compared to Fighters and Summoners, who focus on a balance between offense and defense, and Rangers, Barbarians, and Thaumaturges, which focus on incredible damage in return for shaky defenses. Though their stances offer them a variety of offensive options, they typically won't hit as hard as the other characters but make up for it by being the only class besides Champion to reach Legendary in an armor field and having the best saving throws in the game, which they customize to suit their playstyle.
Super Mode: The Ki Spell "Ki Form", which works like going Super Saiyan in Dragon Ball Z

Ranger

Action Pet: Rangers are one of two classes that can have an animal companion.
The Beastmaster: Rangers, like Druids, have an entire feat chain devoted to getting an animal companion.
Blade Spam: Rangers who choose Flurry as their Hunter's Edge can greatly reduce the normal multiattack penalty suffered for striking multiple times in one around, and borderline eliminate it at higher levels when using Agile weapons.
Classical Hunter: The core assumption.
Glass Cannon: Rangers are some of the strongest characters in the game. Their strength-focused builds, especially, can rush down foes and hit them with overwhelmingly powerful greatsword blows or barrage enemies with several attacks that almost completely eliminate accuracy degradation, making them potentially the most accurate class in the game ^note, which allows them to quickly accrue ludicrous amounts of damage. As a consequence, they're one of the least resilient martial classes around, despite their great HP, because their armor proficiency progression, while standard with other martials, lags behind significantly; they don't master medium armor until level nineteen.
Hunter of Monsters: The Monster Hunter feat and its upgrades gears rangers towards identifying and hunting monsters.
Trap Master: Rangers have class-specific feats for making snares.

Rogue

Intangibility: The Implausible Infiltration feat allows them to "squeeze" through wood, plaster, or stone walls that are 10 feet or thinner, although not metal.
Walk on Water: The Cloud Step feat allows them to temporarily treat any insubstantial surfaces, including water and air, as a rigid surface, allowing the rogue to walk over them. They won't trigger pressure-based traps either. The primary limitation is that they must end their turn on the ground, or they'll fall.
Utility Party Member: Rogues are extremely good skill monkeys due to their massive number of skill increases, not to mention that they're the only class other than Investigator that gets both a skill increase and a skill feat at every level, while other classes only get skill feats at even levels and skill increases at odd levels.

Sorcerer

Boring, but Practical: The Sorcerer is one of the simplest spellcasters in the class lineup, but they also have the most spell slots for any given tradition.^note
Deal with the Devil: It is possible for a Sorcerer to inherit their magic from a devilish pact an ancestor made.
Elemental Powers: The elemental and genie bloodlines.
In the Blood: Sorcerer's alignment changing as a result of the magic they use is generally not a risk, but some bloodlines grant spells with an alignment trait, which can when overused. This has become a moot point with the removal of alignment.
Lamarck Was Right: The arcane bloodline returns under the name of the imperial bloodline and has the same origin.
Semi-Divine: The celestial bloodline returns in the form of the angelic bloodline, and because a Sorcerer's tradition is based on their bloodline in Second Edition, they actually use divine magic.

Wizard

Familiar: One of the wizard's arcane thesises gives them the best familiar out of the core classes and second only to the witch.
Jack of All Trades: It is possible to choose not to specialize in a school and become a universalist instead.
Magic Staff: Wizards with the staff nexus thesis have a magic staff they make themselves.
Necromancer: Wizards can choose to specialize in an arcane school, and before the school revamp with the remaster, necromancy was one of them.
Spell Book: Wizards have to study their spellbook in order to use their spells with the exception of cantrips.

Advanced Player's Guide Classes

Investigator

Awesomeness by Analysis: Their "Devise a Stratagem" ability is this trope: they take time to analyze how to attack enemies, which lets them roll a result in advance against a target. Should the Investigator use the die roll while using suitable weapons (agile/finesse melee weapons or ranged weapons), they can substitute Intelligence for Strength or Dexterity for accuracy, and deal additional damage via Strategic Strike.
Chemistry Can Do Anything: Harkenening back to their 1st edition abilities, Investigators with the Alchemical Sciences Methodology can create limited number of free alchemical elixirs and tools (but no bombs or poisons) per day (much smaller than Alchemists can) to help them with investigations.
Critical Hit Class: In a different way to Fighters. They're able to Devise a Strategem against an opponent, see if it's going to hit, miss, or crit, and then decide to not attack at all if the outcome isn't favorable to them. It makes them very compatible with weapons that have both the Loading and Lethal properties.
Mechanically Unusual Class: Though they fit the standard 'skill monkey' chassis of Rogues, Investigators tend to not be as offensively sound^note as Rogues and give up the Rogue's freedom of choice over what skills they choose to advance. In return, however, Investigators are some of the only characters who have feats and abilities that allow their player to directly ask the GM questions about what's going on with the plot. 'That's Odd,' for example, requires the GM to note whenever something is off about a room or area the Investigator enters, while 'Red Herring' gives Investigators a mulligan when focusing on something that isn't important to the overall plot. Because of this, Investigators have an uncanny and unprecedented ability as utility characters to figure out what's going on and turn the story itself to their advantage by unraveling key parts of it. At their peak, they can even take a feat that lets them see the rolls they make when they Recall Knowledge so they know when their checks are giving them accurate information and when they aren't getting all the facts.
The Smart Guy: Generally their modus operandi. More so than even other intelligence-focused characters such as Witches, Magi, and Inventors, the Investigator is built to utilize several tools that give the player a leg up on solving various aspects of the plot as they go along. Many of their feats, especially the ones tied to the specific subclasses, force the GM themselves to give the player information pertinent to the game at hand to help the player fit into the role, such as by forcing someone who doesn't want to talk to give some amount of information or telling the player if something is unusual about an area they're in.
Utility Belt: Similar to Operative's Utility Belt exploit in Starfinder, Investigators with Predictive Purchase can pull out items on demand from their bag, paying for the item retroactively. However, Predictive Purchase has more limitations than Starfinder's Utility Belt until they take Implausible Purchase.
Utility Party Member: They're even more of a skill monkey than rogues, with a considerable number of class features and feats for noncombat uses. They also get a lot of bonuses to rolls to Recall Knowledge. Like Rogues, they gain skill increases at every level. Unlike Rogues, at every odd level from 3rd level onwards they gain a skill feat that is restricted to skills using their mental stats or skills from their chosen methodology.

Oracle

Cast from Hit Points: Oracles of the Life Mystery center around this, with their curse causing them to become a fountain of healing for nearby allies whenever they cast a spell, at the cost of suffering damage scaling with the amount they heal. On the bright side, they gain hit points-per-level equivalent to a Fighter to compensate.
Curse: All oracles have a curse which is tied to their mystery.
Cursed with Awesome: The origin of their abilities, tapping into the divine powers of the gods without needing to necessarily be a worshiper of any… but also suffering from the strain of utilizing those powers. An example can be seen in their Minor and Moderate Curses: while the Minor curse has only downsides, the Moderate curse brings more downsides but also some usable upsides as well.
Heroic R Ro D: Trying to use a Revelation Spell while at the max Curse level a Oracle can handle causes them to not be able to use their Oracle spells until a they take a full rest.
My Skull Runneth Over: Lore Mystery oracles are saddled with the Curse of Torrential Knowledge, causing them to be slower to react to danger and unable to communicate coherently, explicitly because too much information is being divinely channeled into their minds.
Power at a Price: Central to the class. Oracles can be much more powerful than other divine spellcasters through their revelation spells, but always at a cost.

Swashbuckler

Dance Battler: The Battledancer's preferred form of combat.
The Fighting Narcissist: Like in 1st edition, with the "Panache" system, Swashbucklers are encouraged to be flashy and showy fighters. However in second edition, how Swashbucklers gain Panache is dependent on their Style.
- Battledancers gain it by using Fascinating Performance (does what it says on the tin — causing enemies to gain the fascinated condition with your performance).
- Braggarts gain it by successfully Demoralising foes.
- Fencers gain it by successfully using the Feint or Create a Diversion action.
- Gymnasts gain it by successfully performing Grapples, Trips, and Shoves.
- Wits gain it by successfully using Bon Mot (reduce enemy's Perception and Will saves with a well-timed quip).
- Aside from these, all Swashbucklers have a style-agnostic method by Tumbling Through a foe (using Acrobatics to move through their square on the map), though the GM may also award it for suitably flashy and daring actions.
Finishing Move: Swashbucklers can make use of a Finisher as long as they have panache, which ends panache but deals a significant amount of damage.
Not Quite Dead: The Swashbuckler feat Cheat Death lets you ignore being killed, letting you hang on with just one hit point. You can use it to ignore multiple lethal events in short order since there's no cooldown on its usage, but each use of the feat increases your doomed condition by 1, meaning that if you try to use it too often, you'll survive the killing blow... and then drop dead immediately afterward.

Witch

An Ice Person: The Winter Witch returns in the form of the winter/Snow in Summer patron theme.
Bargain with Heaven: There's absolutely nothing about patronage that restricts it to malevolent entities; the Faith's Flamekeeper patron is generally a Celestial supplying divine power to a more pragmatic person than a cleric (however, patronage is removed enough to the point where it can be a Fiend who stole some holy power).
Curse: Witches specialize in curses, as their form of focus spell is hexes, although not all hexes are curses.
Deal with the Devil: A witch's patron is generally morally ambiguous at best. It doesn't help that the default assumption is that they don't know who they are. Operative word is "generally", however; the Remaster assumes the patron at least isn't trying to screw over the witch in question, if only to not waste a valuable agent, and see Bargain with Heaven; even a seemingly dark source can actually be benign in intention and turning it against intended purposes.
Familiar: A witch's familiar serves as their link between them and their patron, and are more powerful than other classes' familiars.
Public Domain Character: Not the class itself, but the Lost Omens Legends sourcebook includes a patron theme for witches whose patron is Baba Yaga.
Winds of Destiny, Change!: Witches with the Fate/Spinner of Threads patron theme can nudge fate ever so slightly.
Witch Classic: Witches have all of the abilities of the classic witch, but are no longer required to take them.

Archetypes

Acrobat

Combat Parkour: Literally all of their feats are dedicated to making them more mobile and trickier to pin down, even being able to attack or trip enemies while moving through their space.

Archaeologist

Adventure Archaeologist: The intended flavor of the archetype, making the character better at disarming and avoiding traps, translating languages, and recalling knowledge over history.

Bastion

Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The focus of the archetype, with all of their feats granting the character more and more bonuses to how well they can use a shield.

Beastmaster

The Beastmaster: Naturally, and this allows classes other than Rangers and Druids to have a trusty animal companion that levels with them. At higher levels (or if starting as a companion-having Ranger or Druid), multiple companions can be had, with one feat allowing the character to field two at once.

Bounty Hunter

Anti-Escape Mechanism: The Keep Pace feat allows Bounty Hunters to use their reaction to follow any creature that tries to move out of their reach.
Bounty Hunter: The theme of the archetype, giving the character tools that make them better at tracking down and subduing targets.

Bullet Dancer

Gun Fu: A somewhat literal example, the Bullet Dancer's abilities mix martial arts with firearms skill.

Captivator

Master of Illusion: Captivators are people who are just so good at commanding attention that they've manifested actual magical power from it, typically illusions and enchantments.

Cathartic Mage

Emotional Powers: The Cathartic Mage is able to empower their spells depending on their emotional state, though at the cost of gaining penalties once that emotion fades.
Emotion Bomb: The Infectious Emotions feat, which lets the Cathartic Mage grant the benefits of tapping into an emotion to a nearby ally.

Cavalier

Mounted Combat: The archetype's speciality, granting the character an animal companion to use as a mount and several feats that allow beast and rider to fight efficiently as a single unit.

Dandy

The Social Expert: All of their feats are focused around manipulating others and navigating social situations.

Dual-Weapon Fighter

Dual Wielding: Obviously. All of their feats are based around improving the character's effectiveness with two weapons.

Eldritch Archer

Mage Marksman: Of the Arcane Archer variety, allowing the character to fire a selection of magical Trick Arrows and granting them some minor spellcasting.

Marshal

Frontline General: The archetype is built around this style of play, giving you a relatively small aura which grants nearby allies buffs and allows you to issue orders to those within it.
Hope Bringer: A Marshal who raises their Diplomacy skill and adopts Inspiring Marshal Stance can come off as this, increasing mental defenses and accuracy.
Terror Hero: A Marshal who raises their Intimidation skill and adopts Dread Marshal Stance can turn themselves and nearby allies into this, with their critical hits causing opponents to become frightened.

Medic

Back from the Dead: At higher levels, the Medic can take the Resuscitate feat and attempt to resurrect dead allies, so long as they have only been dead for the past few turns. By all appearances, there is also nothing magical about this ability, the Medic is simply that skilled in the healing arts.
The Medic: As one would expect, the Medic archetype grants massive boosts to the Medicine skill both out of combat and in the midst of it.

Unexpected Sharpshooter

Accidental Aiming Skills: The archetype is entirely based around this concept.
Born Lucky: All of the archetype's feats are based around the character managing to accidentally set off improbable chain reactions and ricochets that inexplicably end up impeding their enemies and leaving them unharmed, or to dodge enemy attacks by just happening to bend down at the wrong time.
I Meant to Do That: They literally have a feat called "I Meant to Do That." It allows the character's missed shots to cause unintended reactions that creates a problem for their enemies, such as accidentally shooting their weapon out of their hand or causing them to stumble and trip while trying to avoid the gunfire.
Obfuscating Stupidity: It's suggested that an alternative way to flavor the archetype is to make it so they really are just that skilled, and they're merely playing the part of the lucky fool.

Secrets of Magic Classes

Magus

A warrior that combines martial skill with arcane might.

Awesome, but Impractical: Save-based spells are this for the Magus. Magi can learn and cast spells from the arcane tradition much like Wizards, giving them the same extensive options for a wide array of AoE spells and crippling debuffs. Unfortunately between key ability scores and proficiency levels a Magus' spell DCs are always going to be at least 1-2 points lower than a primary caster with the same investment, and in a system where every modifier counts that difference can be critical. Between that and a Magus' bounded casting leaving them with only four spell slots by default (not counting extra slots for Studious Spells or multiclassing), a Magus is typically far better off making the most of their spell slots via buffs and attack spells.
- "Expansive Spellstrike", a low-level feat that allows a Magus to use save-based spells with Spellstrike, similarly falls under this. To whit, while Expansive Spellstrike allows you to use spells that have AoEs or requires saves (normally Spellstrike can only be used with spells that themselves have attack rolls), it does nothing to improve your spell DCs or worsen your enemies' saves. On top of that, it requires that any AoE spell you use be centered on the target you're striking. Meaning that if you're trying to Spellstrike with a Fireball or similar spell, you are going to be caught in the blast zone. The one exception to this might be the "Starlit Span" Hybrid Study and its ability for ranged Spellstrikes, wherein the ability to use a distant target as the source for cone, burst, or emanation spells is much more useful.
Bag of Spilling: An interesting variation. Magus and Summoner both have a unique casting progression dubbed "wave casting"; whereas other casters get and keep spell slots as they level up, Magus only has access to spell slots of the highest two levels it can cast (and cantrips). This means a Magus has to be incredibly sparing with the spells they use while shoring up their limited spell slots with wands, staves, and potentially multiclassing. The more limited spell casting does of course come in exchange for a variety of other abilities that other casters could only dream of, so in theory it evens out.
Crippling Overspecialization: Downplayed; Magus' Spellstrike is its bread-and-butter skill, with a lot of power focused either directly or indirectly into the feature. Arcane Cascade empowers your weapon strikes (like Spellstrike) with additional damage, all of the class' focus spells innately recharge Spellstrike, and the majority of Magus' class feats are centered around improving, empowering, or otherwise better facilitating a Magus' ability to use Spellstrike. While they can definitely and at times are encouraged to make due without it (see below), it's where most of their power lies and where the class is intended to shine.
Critical Hit Class: Not to anywhere near the degree of Fighter or 1e Magus, but with critical hits doubling the damage of both the weapon strike and the spell this just comes naturally. With a sufficiently strong spell- such as the infamous Shocking Grasp — a Magus can absolutely devastate the hitpoints of even the hardiest opponents with a single critcal hit Spellstrike. It used to be even worse during public testing; critically striking with a Magus' spellstrike while using a save-based spell forced the target to use a save result one degree worse than whatever they rolled. This encouraged a positively ridiculous amount of crit-fishing for the class and proved to warp its balance too much, and was changed prior to the class' official release.
Empowered Badass Normal: Despite having casting abilities, the Magus still qualifies as a "martial" class first and foremost. Between its armor and weapon proficiencies keeping up with every other martial that isn't Fighter, it's entirely possible for a Magus to hold its own while relying entirely on physical prowess and still being reasonably effective. Then you add Full-Contact Magic and Spell Blade on top of that, and you've got someone who can be a devastating factor on the battlefield.
Exactly What I Aimed At: Starlit Span magi with the Expansive Spellstrike feat can have any of their spellstrike-capable spells originate from the location struck by one of their ranged strikes. Sometimes, it's much better to forego the direct damage of the strike itself in favour of casting the spell at an odd angle, circumventing cover or just catching more targets in the blast zone. To anyone watching, it looks like the attack shot far off course.. and all the while, the magus is grinning.
Fighter, Mage, Thief: An interesting case in that many of the Magus' subclasses — referred to as "Hybrid Studies" — fall into this dynamic. "Inexorable Iron" and "Sparkling Targe" both fall under the Fighter, specializing in using heavy two-handed weapons for Inexorable Iron while Sparkling Targe specializes in Knightly Sword and Shield. Inexorable Iron's features are specialized for sustaining itself while in the thick of battle while unleashing devastating strikes, whereas Sparkling Targe empowers its shield against magic and makes itself an unyielding wall. "Laughing Shadow" is the Thief; it specializes in moving fast and staying light on its feet, benefitting from wearing as little armor as possible and doing extra damage to flanked or distracted foes. It gains abilities to feint and obfuscate enemies and even teleport across the battlefield for quick hit-and-run tactics. "Twisting Tree" meanwhile fills the role of Mage; as the Hybrid Study that specializes in the use of staves it naturally has more spells available to it than other Magi and can make use of staves without interfering with its other features, something the other Hybrid Studies struggle with. Its features likewise make the most of staves, allowing them to strike from greater distances with the weapon and further empower their staff via runes and weapon traits. The Starlit Span subclass splits the difference between thief and mage, becoming a Glass Cannon who lacks the mobility of the Laughing Shadow, but makes up for it by allowing spells to originate from the impact of their shots, enabling Confusion Fu; that archer at the backline seemed like a mere neusance right up until your buddy was hit by an arrow and began to petrify.
Full-Contact Magic: The Magus' whole shtick, emphasized by its class feature Arcane Cascade; a specialized stance that a Magus can only enter immediately after casting a spell. Essentially channeling the magic from their spell throughout their body, it empowers the Magus with certain benefits based on their hybrid study — temporary HP, a stronger shield, faster movement, etc. — and universally grants bonus damage to their weapon strikes based on the type of spell cast before entering Arcane Cascade. It can be taken even further with the "Arcane Fists" class feat, improving a Magus' unarmed attacks and making it entirely practical to literally punch enemies with fistfuls of magic.
Glass Cannon: Though they qualify as a Lightning Bruiser class at their best with their massive damage potential and solid defensive profile akin to the Ranger, Magi lack the Ranger's 10 + Constitution modifier HP per level and instead get 8 + Constitution modifier HP per level, rendering Magi a touch frail. Toughness and multiclassing feats can mitigate this issue substantially.
Jack of All Stats: HP per level, weapon proficiencies, armor proficiencies, casting proficiencies; everything Magus gets puts it roughly on the same level as other classes, without coming out on top anywhere in particular. The only thing that stands out is its abysmally small number of initial skill proficiencies at 2+Int, shared only with the Wizard. At first glance this would theoretically put Magus in Master of None territory where it does nothing to really stand out. However its Spell Blade and Full-Contact Magic class features complement these well-rounded stats and allow Magus to easily carve out its own distinct niche within a party. No single stat might stand out on its own, but the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
Lightning Bruiser: It varies based on your Hybrid Study — some are more bruiser, some are more lightning — but medium armor proficiency, martial weapon proficiency, and 8+Con HP/level put Magus in the same league as the likes of Ranger and Monk, if slightly squishier. Combined with access to buff spells like Haste, Mirror Image, Blur, and more, a Magus can be a self-sufficient terror in a fight that can not only hit hard and fast but also withstand a surprising number of hits as well.
Mage Marksman: The Starlit Span Hybrid Study turns the Magus into one, allowing them to use Spellstrikes through ranged attacks, even if the target is further away than the spells range. However, this can only be done within the weapon's first range increment.
Magic Knight: The definitive example within Pathfinder. Even when other classes can be multiclass-ed to combine martial ability and magic, Magus is the only class that not only gets both by default (innately getting Master proficiency in martial weapons, whereas it's impossible for other casters to get higher than Expert) but can also combine them.
Signature Move: Take a wild guess. The Magus class is all but built around its ability to Spellstrike, something no other class can do or replicate outside of multiclassing into, of course, Magus. As said above most of the Magus' class feats are centered around making Spellstrike more powerful, more versatile, and allowing the Magus to Spellstrike more often.
Smart People Shoot: This is true for the Magus in general since is uses Intelligence to cast spells, but it's more explicit for the Starlight Span Magus: not only they can use bows or guns to channel their magic, their attacks produce Splash Damage, meaning that a Starlight Span Magus has to be creative when aiming to maximize their damage output.
Spell Blade: Spellstrike returns from 1e, once again allowing Magi to channel their spells through their weaponry to devastating effect. However they also get a different variety in the form of "Arcane Cascade"; a stance that a Magus can take after casting any spell to give their melee attacks additional damage based on the type of spell cast.
Telescoping Staff: The Twisting Tree Hybrid Study gives Magi a downplayed version of this ability, allowing them to turn any staff into a one-handed or two-handed melee weapon with differing traits for each form. The feat Lunging Spellstrike which requires taking the Twisting Tree Hybrid Study, takes this further, allowing a Magi to extend their staff by 5 feet for every level of the spell being used for a Spellstrike.
Weak, but Skilled: In terms of casting, a Magus doesn't come anywhere close to full casters like Wizards, Sorcerers, Witches, or even Bards. A Magus will only ever have four spell slots on its own, whereas full casters will have more than that by level 3. Even with its Studious Spells feature giving Magus a small handful of additional spell slots, they're restricted solely to a specific list of utilitarian spells. Where a Magus excels however is its capabity to capitalize on self-buffs and devastating windows of burst damage via SpellBlade. A Magus will never control the battlefield or debuff enemies the same way a full caster can, but prudent use of their spells combined with higher durability and martial training permits any Magus to positively devastate a vital target while still being in the thick of things.

Summoner

As spellcasters who can choose one of the four primary magical traditions to draw power from, Summoners are mages who can only take a few spells from whatever tradition they are studied in; at most only five at any given time. However, the true strength of Summoner lies in their Eidolon, a special ally bonded to them through some crux of fate, magical accident, prayer to a God in times of need, and so on that represents the Summoner's connection to their tradition — and often, vice-versa. Together, Summoner and Eidolon form a potent team with access to might greater than what either can achieve alone.

Bond Creature: The Eidolon doesn't qualify as much for this trope as it did last edition, but overall most of the qualities apply; the Eidolon grows with and empowers the Summoner bonded to it, and the Summoner and Eidolon share a glowing mark on their bodies that mark them as connected somehow, even to a layperson. Devotion Phantoms, however, fit this trope to a t, as the flavor text for each of their specific powers explains how they grow in might and magic as a direct result of the bond between Summoner and Phantom strengthening.
Golem: A frequent form the Construct Eidolon takes, being an entity of magic that can be composed of almost anything. The standard stone and metal golems are one such interpretation for what the final result is.
Elemental Punch: Well, 'Elemental-bash-of-some-stripe.' All Eidolons naturally attack with their bodies, and one of the starting Summoner feats confers an elemental affinity to one of the Eidolon's standard attacks. You can even have fun combinations, like a Plant Eidolon slapping an enemy with fire, or a fire-focused Dragon Eidolon clawing at enemies with ice .
Fairy Companion: Effectively the Fey Eidolon. While they can take the form of many fey entities, fairies are common choices. The natural energy and esotetic power of the Fey Eidolon grants their Summoner access to the Primal tradition of spells.
Guardian Angel: What the Angel Eidolon effectively is. The common lore for them is that they descend from the celestial planes to work with a mortal to carry out a God's will, losing some of their might in return for their connection to the Summoner. The Summoner can draw on the angel's power to cast from the divine tradition.
Jack of All Stats: Enforced subtly for each major cadre of statistics.
- On the topic of actual attributes, Summoners are the only class so far that can max out two attributes naturally, since the Eidolon gets stats roughly on par with the Summoner but in different fields than what the Summoner is likely to choose. While this means a Summoner can cast with attributes on a level with any specialized Sorcerer or Cleric, and the Eidolon can have the might of a Fighter or the finesse of a Rogue, their proficiences instead act as a stopgap to hold them back; a Summoner ends their career with Mastery in their spell tradition of choice and the Eidolon with their physical blows. Neither can reach Legendary in anything outside skills, meaning dedicated warriors have a subtle +2 over the Eidolon when it comes time to strike and Wizards have a somewhat easier time getting their spells to stick.
- A Summoner easily gets a large number of skills and languages thanks to their connection to the Eidolon, which gives out two skills for free in addition to the three Summoners get with the bonus skills from their intelligence modifier — above average overall. Their skill ranks increase at the standard frequency, too. What holds a Summoner back is, though their level of competency in a skill is shared with the Eidolon, they need to factor in the different attributes each member of the pair has when updating a skill. It's all well and good to become a Legendary athlete to ensure one's Eidolon can compete with a Barbarian in terms of lifting things, but if the Eidolon for whatever reason isn't available, the Summoner is left with a useless Legendary proficiency in a skill they likely haven't invested much in. This ensures a Summoner cannot simply replace their entire party by being both a physical and mental powerhouse combined in one character.
- The Summoner is the only caster that comes with 10 + Constitution modifier HP on level up, but this comes at a cost. Not only is the Summoner not equipped to dodge attacks, their miniscule number of spell slots makes recovery during combat incredibly costly, and if the Eidolon stays close to their Summoner to defend them, area-of-effect-attacks become a death sentence for the duo. While they don't take combined damage, the assailant gets to roll twice when determining damage and confer the higher amount to the two. This means that while an Eidolon is about as sturdy as most martials on paper, the reality is that with the Summoner around, they're Armored But Frail.
Magic Knight: Of a different kind as opposed to most characters with such a distinction. The Summoner can pick up a weapon and fight alongside an Eidolon, but they're not given much incentive to do so as their accuracy and AC will always lag behind their Eidolon and fellow teammates. However, most Eidolons are physical bruisers or ranged warriors of some stripe, and as both the spellcasting Summoner and the martial-like Eidolon are controlled by the same player, the class itself technically functions as a "gish."
Mechanically Unusual Class: The Summoner stands out for not fitting in as a mage due to the fact it can't use its spells with the same frequency as most other spellcasters (unless it takes Master Summoner and gives up spell slots to get more summoning spells per day, which really only pigeonholes it further), not fitting in as a skill monkey due to getting a somewhat large number of skills but having to choose carefully what skills it updates that are useful for the Eidolon or the Summoner, and not fitting in as a martial because the Eidolon simply isn't on par with the actual martial classes. The Summoner can buff reliably, but the only creature that benefits from most of its buffs are the actual Eidolon. Instead, what keeps the Summoner competitive with everyone else is action economy; by using Act Together, Tandem Movement, and maintaining a Summoned creature, the Summoner can do more in a single turn than any other class with some careful strategy. Most of a Summoner's strategies with this improved action economy tend to boil down to buffing its own Eidolon on a turn-by-turn basis, which either makes the Eidolon competitive with the other martial classes or gives it a unique set of tools to address odd and uncommon situations.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Even beyond the Summoner differing from the classes around it, the Fey Eidolon goes further to diverge significantly from the other Eidolons. While any Eidolon can take a feat path that gives them some small degree of spellcasting ability, the Fey Eidolon takes this concept and runs with it, becoming a pseudo-mage attached to their Summoner. As a result, the Summoner themselves veer closer towards a traditional spellcaster role when aligned with this fey creature, gaining access to enchantment and illusion spells from the arcane tradition in addition to every primal spell (outside of 10th-level spells) they get access to simply by bonding with the Fey Eidolon.
Our Dragons Are Different: One Eidolon option Summoners have access to is a Dragon Eidolon. This Eidolon gives Summoners access to the arcane tradition of spells, but are not quite what their name implies; rather, they are the cast-off echo of some mental feedback left by an actual dragon in the astral plane. They take the form of the dragon that "birthed" them, often appearing as traditional "western" dragons but sometimes forming as "eastern" Long dragons or other such draconic entities. Though they cannot fly naturally without feat investment or spells, they otherwise possess many qualities associated with actual dragons, though often noticeably weaker.
Our Ghosts Are Different: For one thing, both Phantom Eidolons are formed from strong emotional stimuli that dictate their personalities and actions. Devotion Phantoms follow their Summoner often out of a sense of obligation as the duo discover what exactly the Devotion Phantom's unfinished business is, while Anger Phantoms frequently aid their Summoner because it's the quickest way to fulfill their grudges. Either way, both Phantoms, due to their mysterious, esoteric nature, grant a Summoner access to the occult tradition of spells.
Plant Mooks: The Plant Eidolon is a plant. They're often formed from the leftover energy used to create Leshys, and grant Summoners access to the primal tradition of spells.
Summon Magic: What else would someone expect from a class called Summoner? Beyond their Eidolon, Summoners are given the opportunity to pick up numerous feats that allow summoned creatures to explode on arrival or come out while the Eidolon is swinging, and a feat path that allows them to sacrifice a number of spell slots to recieve double the spell slots they gave up so long as those spell slots are used exclusively for summon spells, with the feat chain culiminating in the Summoner being allowed to give up 9th level slots for two 10th-level slots — the only way a Summoner can cast at 10th level.
Support Party Member: The Summoner is frequently this for its own Eidolon, as the Summoner is given access to a bevy of spells that improve, heal, or modify their Eidolon.
Synchronization: A major aspect of the Summoner and their Eidolon is that they have different AC values and totals for saves (as the Summoner is often focused on Intelligence, Wisdom, and especially Charisma, while the Eidolons are largely focused on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, even if their save proficiencies update at the same time) but draw from the same pool of hit points and thus both get hurt if one member is harmed. While this does make Summoner the only 'mage' class that gains 10 + Constitution modifier HP on level up, it also means the Summoner should primarily keep in the back of the group while the Eidolon does most of the heavy lifting in combat, since the easily assaulted Summoner makes for a good punching bag to get through the Eidolon's otherwise impressive defenses.
- This is further demonstrated in how Summoners and Eidolons take damage and deal with status effects. Though both Summoner and Eidolon separately suffer from some ailments, any ailment that precludes the ability to take action affects both, and it's always the greater of the two effects that apply. If both Summoner and Eidolon are caught in an area of effect, the greater amount of healing or damage is applied to both characters, unless a feat is taken that allows the Summoner to take the lesser of two damage values.
Talking Animal: Beast Eidolons naturally speak the Sylvan language, and given their connection to their Summoner will almost inevitably learn the more common languages such as Common and Dwarven.
When Trees Attack: As the Plant Eidolon can be any plant the Summoner chooses for it to be so long as it makes no major mechanical difference, it is entirely possible for a Summoner to form a bond with a stab-happy tree.

Guns & Gears Classes

Gunslinger

Abnormal Ammo: Several firearms can make use of atypical ammo, ranging from whatever rocks and junk can be stuffed down the barrel to the Gunslinger's "Alchemical Shot" feat allowing them to douse their ammo with an alchemical bomb.
Armor-Piercing Attack: Many firearms have the "concussive" trait, which amounts to this. It basically means that a firearm's damage automatically uses the target's weaker resistance between bludgeoning or piercing damage. For example if a target has resistance or immunity to bludgeoning, a concussive firearm is treated as dealing piercing damage instead and vice-versa.
Boom, Headshot!: Between Gunslinger's Critical Hit Class and the "fatal" trait mentioned below, this is very likely to happen.
Critical Hit Class: Somehow both exaggerated and downplayed compared to the Fighter. Gunslinger is the only class besides Fighter to get legendary proficiency in any weapons, and most firearms have the "fatal" trait that not only increases their die size by one step (a d4 becomes a d6, for example) but also adds an additional die of damage when landing a critical hit. At the same time the firearm critical specialization trait stuns enemies rather than dealing or facilitating additional damage, and see Utility Party Member below.
Fantasy Gun Control: Played with. On Golarion the reintroduction of Gunslinger early into the lifespan of Pathfinder Second Edition subverts this, as firearms are integrated into the various cultures of the various regions with much more ease. Their accessibility and power are likewise much more balanced when compared to First Edition. However firearms — and in fact the Gunslinger itself — are uncommon and thus are up to a GM's discretion regarding their inclusion. Developer's Foresight grants the Gunslinger class proficiency in crossbows as well as firearms, ensuring that Gunslinger is (at least mostly) playable even should guns be a non-factor in a given campaign.
The Gunslinger: Naturally. Depending on the build and playstyle a Gunslinger can qualify for any of the four styles except The Vaporizer due to the reload limitations on firearms.
Utility Party Member: Not immediately apparent when one looks at Gunslinger and its proficiency with firearms, but this is actually their niche. Firearms are devastating damage dealers — when they crit. When they don't the damage is a bit subpar and the reload requirements ensure that you're not lobbing a lot of shots in one turn without some way around it. Instead what the Gunslinger excels at is using their firearms in creative ways; terrifying enemies with warning shots, blasting locks off of doors, increasing their jump distance via recoil, cauterizing bleeding wounds with a smoking barrel, and more. This is even reflected in the firearm critical specialization, which inflicts the stunned condition on enemies. This isn't going to deal more damage, but it takes an action away on their turn and prevents them from using any reactions until then, making the stunned condition devastating for an enemy's action economy.

Inventor

Explosive Overclocking: An innovation can be set to Explode to deal Fire damage around it. Surprisingly, this (normally) doesn't harm the innovation at all (or the Inventor if they're wearing it).
Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Inventor can have their innovation explode with a class feature, launch a bolt of lightning with the Megavolt feat, or vent a jet of freezing coolant with the Deep Freeze feat, which deal fire, electricity, and cold damage, respectively.
Idiosyncratic Mecha Storage: The Collapse Armor and Collapse Construct feats allow armor or construct innovations to fold themselves into a compact, portable form.
Impossibly Cool Weapon: Any weapon innovation. The modifications for a weapon innovation include supersizing it, making it capable of grabbing and tripping enemies (with the suggestion that it has a "flexible construction"), allowing it to change its shape to the point that it can be used to cut, stab, and bludgeon enemies and collapsed to a size that can be easily concealed, and that's just a small sample of the initial modifications! Further modifications only get more complex, including a feat that allows the inventor to swap it between two forms.
Powered Armor: What the armor innovation effectively is, which comes in two flavors: Subterfuge Suit, which is less armored but lets you use more Dexterity, or the aptly named Power Suit, which is more heavily armored, but isn't as mobile.
Rocket Jump: The explosive leap feat allows the Inventor to use their innovation to do this, or the innovation itself if it's a construct.
Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Actions with the "unstable" trait are this, all of which have a chance of having the innovation break down.

Dark Archive Classes

Psychic

Spellcasters who harness the power of their minds in order to cast Occult magic.

Emotions Versus Stoicism: The subconscious mind you pick determines which side of the debate you fall under. Two subconscious minds prefer emotion — one which channels raw emotion, and another which utilizes imagination. The other two prefer reason — one through rote memorization of psychic powers, and the other by using calculations to build a psychic power from scratch.
Mind over Matter: The "Distant Grasp" Conscious Mind specializes in this.
Necessary Drawback: Psychics can regain 2 Focus points per Refocus activity, whereas all other classes can only recover 1 Focus point per Refocus activity, but only if they've spent Focus points on Psi Cantrips and Psychic features.
- Similarly, once a Psychic's "Unleash Psyche" ends they're stupefied for two rounds and can't use "Unleashed Psyche" until it wears off.
Prescience by Analysis: An ability granted the Precise Discipline Subconscious Mind allows the Psychic, while there under "Unleash Psyche", to gain an AC bonus via this.
Reality Warper: Those of the Tangible Dream conscious mind fit this trope, as they are able to bring the impossible into reality from their mind.
Signature Move: Or Moves in the case of a Psychic's Psi Cantrips, cantrips which have special uses called Amps that a Psychic activates by expending a focus point.
Super Mode: Psychics can enter this state by using their exclusive ability called "Unleash Psyche". While in said state, the damage they do with their spells is increased and they can use certain abilities that they couldn't use otherwise.

Thaumaturge

Awesomeness by Analysis: A Thaumaturge can learn the "Diverse Lore" feat, which allows them to roll their Esoteric Lore for any type of Recall Knowledge check they wish with only a -2 penalty and also gives them a free Recall Knowledge check when they succeed on an Exploit Vulnerability action.
Attack Its Weak Point: Their specialty, as they have a unique action that allows them to figure out an opponent's vulnerabilities and automatically trigger them when attacking... or create a vulnerability if the opponent doesn't already have one.
Firing One-Handed: Enforced. Because of their need to carry esoterica in one of their hands, Thaumaturges cannot use any two-handed weapon without losing access to many of their abilities. To compensate for this, they deal 2 additional damage per damage die on the weapon held by their other hand.
Item Caddy: Like the Alchemist, the Thaumaturge can learn how to create temporary items with certain feats. In this case, the items in question are spell scrolls and talismans rather then alchemical items.
Muggle with a Degree in Magic: While their esoterica would be ordinary trinkets of no value in anyone else's hands, a Thaumaturge's ability to draw on the latent magic within them turns them into artifacts of great power despite not having the natural ability to cast spells. This trope is even further exemplified with the Scroll Thaumaturgy and "Esoterica" chain of feats which allows a Thaumaturge to wield spell scrolls from any school of magic without having to make a check, and even cobble together several free spell scrolls every day.
Sympathetic Magic: One example of how a Thaumaturge can create vulnerabilities on their targets is to use the symbolic meaning behind object and forge a connection through them to harm enemies. More traditionally, they can also learn a feat that grants them the ability to create a Voodoo Doll of an enemy after damaging them in order to make them weaker to their spells and abilities.
Unorthodox Reload: The Ammunition Thaumaturgy feat allows a Thaumaturge to reload their hand crossbow/pistol even while they have their other hand occupied by their esoterica, making ranged-based Thaumaturges viable.

Rage of Elements Class

Kineticist

Combat Medic: The Water and Wood elements contain a handful of healing and condition-cleansing Impulses, in addition to damage and control.
Elemental Armor: Earth focused Kineticists can get a skill at first level that lets him form armor onto them, giving them fairly good AC at level 1. It gradually improves as the Kineticist levels as well.
Elemental Fusion: Kineticists with two or more elements can take Composite Impulses, which combine two elements to produce a unique effect.
Elemental Powers: Their main shtick, naturally. In addition to the Classical Elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, the Kineticist of Second Edition also incorporates the elements of Metal and Wood.
Elemental Weapon: Should they chose to, the Kineticist can take a feat that allows them to form weapons made from the element they chose. Said weapons function like their blasts, but they give unique effects, though they are not as outright powerful as the weapon they are formed in the shape of.
Magic Knight: Kineticists' elemental blasts can be made as melee or ranged attacks, and their naturally high Constitution allows them to serve well enough as frontline melee combatants. How much they lean into this depends on their chosen element and skills, with earth letting them be akin to a melee bruiser, while fire making them closer to spellcasters.
Master of One Magic: Single Gate Kineticists gain a special benefit when using a two- or three-action Impulse of their associated element, allowing for this playstyle. Even when given the opportunity to branch out, once can choose to instead stick to this trope, granting more and more benefits related to one's primary element.
Mechanically Unusual Class: The Kineticist is a mixture of a spellcaster's elemental magic and area-of-effect focus, but they don't cast spells (except via magic items, through a feat). Instead, they manifest their elemental magic via Impulse feats and can do so without limit (like with spell slots), though more powerful Impulses can impose a heft tax upon their action economy. In a sense, they're closer to a Fighter, who can use maneuvers gained from feats as often as they like. Notably, their main stat is Constitution, making them play differently than any other class.
Obvious Rule Patch: Extract Element is one of the only ways any class has to work around resistance or immunities to energy damage. The reason the Kineticist gets this is fairly obvious: in the case of a single gate Kineticist dealing with a creature that they can't deal damage to with even their standard Elemental Blasts, they would be completely useless.

Characters / Pathfinder Classes Second Edition

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