Upcoming Pathfinder 2E supplement to add assistive items, including a battle wheelchair you can use as a weapon
“If that’s what the character needs for their everyday adventuring life, they’ll have that.”
Tabletop publisher Paizo has announced that a battle wheelchair and other assistive items will be coming to fantasy RPG Pathfinder 2E as part of the Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar supplement to be released in June.
Designers Eleanor Ferron and Luis Loza appeared on the Danger Club actual-play podcast to talk about some of the details from the still in-production campaign book. Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar introduces players to the sprawling market of Absalom, which hosts merchants from all over the world and provides access to items, weapons, adventure hooks and flavour they may not find elsewhere.
Loza explained that the wealth of item descriptions doesn’t put the tome in the same category as Pathfinder’s Battle Books, specifically because much of the gear and the NPCs hawking it should feel like part of the story and not just a list of tables to consult between adventures.
Among those special items will be gear specially designed for disabled player characters. “One of the things we’ve announced is a bunch of assistive items. Canes, wheelchairs and hearing aids are going to be a part of this book,” Loza said. “If that’s what the character needs for their everyday adventuring life, they’ll have that.”
These items, including the wheelchair, can be modified and specialised to be used as weapons in lieu of a sword or mace - which now seem boring in comparison to gladiatorial spikes or chains affixed to the reinforced wheel of a battle chair. Loza also mentioned magical versions with incredible effects, such as a Minotaur Wheelchair that can store up energy throughout the day and release it in a ramming burst during combat.
Keen Pathfinder players might be thinking, “If the chair is a weapon, can I put runes on it?” The team has already planned for such a thing. “I don’t want to write checks we can’t cash since this book is still early in development, but I believe you can put runes on your battle wheelchair,” Ferron said.
If that cheque clears, players can look forward to “flaming chainsaw wheels” digging smouldering furrows where their enemies once stood. Paizo has brought on tabletop disability designer afficianado Sara Thompson to write for Grand Bazaar. They previously helmed efforts to introduce wheelchairs, prosthetics and general rules for playing with and around disability for The Witcher RPG, Dungeons & Dragons and, most recently, Cyberpunk Red.
Pathfinder’s Lost Omens: Grand Bazaar is currently slated for release in June of this year.