Let’s take a look at the final chapter (well, technically the second, but it’s the last one to preview) in Path of the Wilds: archetypes and class options!
New options featured in Path of the Wilds start off by hitting the obvious choices: archetypal nature-based classes including druid, ranger, and shifter are all getting new ways to interact with their environment, alongside some nature-adjacent classes like barbarian and kineticist.
A big focus of the archetypes and options for this book are to provide significant changes to theme and mechanics, rather than the small incremental changes you see in most archetypes. Shifter, for example, will be getting a more magically-inclined variant with the Mystic Shifter. It gets a more flexible wild shape and the ability to cast spells of levels 0-4; great for those that want to focus more on shapeshifting than the druid, but don’t want to fully give up spellcasting. The barbarian’s new animist archetype replaces rage entirely, instead allowing you to summon ancestral totems to support allies: what’s more, the animist will be able to learn multiple “totem” rage power sets to grant to allies, giving them a lot of flexibility in how they buff the group.
Of course, there’s some new options to give elemental and natural powers to other classes, too. The sorcerer, for example, gets the new Elemental Savant archetype. It loses some of its base spells known, but instead gets to swap its “focus” between air, earth, fire, and water magic: each focus gets its own set of spells to choose from that you can cast while you have that focus. The often-overlooked medium class will be getting an entirely new set of six alternate spirits that focus on natural themes. The sage spirit, for example, lets you access druid spells, while the savage spirit grants you natural attacks and limited shapeshifting ability.
The three new classes in the book will also get archetypes of their own to change up their play style. Elementalists can choose to focus more heavily on the combat or magical capabilities of the class with the Aegis Knight and Planar Conduit archetypes, respectively, or specialize in some elemental themes with the Stormcaller and Volcanist archetypes. Invokers that want more flexibility in their spirit choices can take the Wanderer archetype to invoke any spirit for a limited time each day, while invokers that prefer to play solo can choose the Spiritbound archetype to forgo their spirit companion and learn spellcasting on their own. Lastly, the warden can take the Primal Guardian archetype to focus on straight-defensive power over healing and support, or can take the Verdant Ascetic to shed traditional arms and armor in favor of monk-based unarmed combat.
There’s still plenty more not mentioned here, but that’s all we’ll show for now. We’ll leave off with one of our new archetypes for the book: the geomancer, a druid that learns new spells based on her environment. We’ll preview another archetype early next week!
DRUID - GEOMANCER (ARCHETYPE)
While all druids draw their powers from nature, the geomancer’s bond with the land is deeper than that of their brethren. They draw power from the earth beneath their feet, letting the world guide their hand and shape their mystic potential.
Earthen Bond (Ex): At 1st level, the geomancer gains a single favored terrain, as the ranger class feature of the same name. She continues to gain new favored terrains (and increases the bonuses granted by her terrains) at 6th level and every five levels thereafter, as described in the ranger class. If she selects a plane, she can only select the Plane of Air, the Plane of Earth, the Plane of Fire, or the Plane of Water. This ability counts as the favored terrain class feature for the purpose of meeting prerequisites.
This ability replaces nature bond.
Earth Magic: A geomancer gains Earth Magic as a bonus feat at 1st level. This replaces nature sense.
Geomancy: At 1st level, the geomancer learns to channel the power of the land. Each favored terrain she can take has a corresponding cleric domain (and possibly subdomain), as listed below:
Cold: Water (ice)
Desert: Sun
Forest: Animal
Jungle: Plant
Mountain: Air (wind)
Plains: Weather
Plane of Air: Air
Plane of Earth: Earth
Plane of Fire: Fire
Plane of Water: Water
Swamp: Plant
Underground: Earth (caves)
Urban: Travel
Water: Water (ocean)
While she is in her favored terrain, she can channel her stored spell energy into the corresponding geomancy spell. She can “lose” a prepared spell to cast any domain spell for her favored terrain of the same level or lower. She does not gain any domain powers from these domains. This replaces spontaneous casting.
Sure-Footed (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a geomancer ignores natural difficult terrain while in one of her favored terrains. This replaces trackless step (a geomancer still leaves no trail and cannot be tracked in her favored terrains, as described in favored terrain).
Acclimated (Ex): At 4th level, a geomancer gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against natural hazards and weather while in her favored terrains. She also gains the constant benefit of endure elements whether she is in her favored terrain or not. This replaces resist nature’s lure.
Channel Terrain (Sp): Starting at 9th level, a geomancer can cast terrain bond as a spell-like ability once per day. She can also expend a single use of wild shape to cast terrain bond as a spell-like ability. Either method uses her druid level as her caster level for the effect.
When she uses channel terrain, rather than treating the current terrain as her highest favored terrain (as the normal effect of terrain bond), she can instead gain the current terrain as a temporary favored terrain. The bonuses granted to initiative and skill checks by this temporary terrain are only +2, but it otherwise acts as one of her favored terrains for the duration. This ability replaces venom immunity.