Pathfinder NPC romance rules will let players forge loving relationships or "have a villains to lovers arc", much to their GMs dismay

Pathfinder lead designer Logan Bonner took to Twitch the other day to discuss the upcoming Pathfinder NPC Core rulebook, and while there's some interesting content promised, love is most certainly going to be in the air for the would-be NPC romancers at your game table.

The NPC Core rulebook is an attempt to improve NPCs and give GMs everything they need to populate a bustling settlement at a glance. This sourcebook for one of the best tabletop RPGs not only includes 250 stat blocks for all manner of characters to liven up your Pathfinder campaigns, it also comes with an extra set of rules for romancing Pathfinder NPCs.

The addition of NPC romance options comes as part of a play to make them "More engaging and more fun", says Bonner in the Twitch stream. It lays out a kind of relationship sliding scale that determines an NPCs bond with each individual player character.

The scale is there because the designers know, as Bonner notes, "A lot of folks are just gonna' wanna' roleplay it, but there are gonna' be some people who are like 'I need a number that says how much this NPC loves me'."

"You can have a villains to lovers arc if you want with your NPCs, because it includes all the way up to bonded–which would be like married or in a serious relationship–or vindictive where you've really dropped the ball and they're out for revenge."

"This covers romantic relationships, but it also covers any other close relationships," Bonner makes clear. And sure, these connections don't always have to be romantic, but as Organizing Play Coodinator Alex Speidel notes "Let's be real, we know what they're gonna use it for."

Whatever kind of relationship you want to forge with your Pathfinder NPCs, Bonner says you'll be able to "Give tokens and commit insults that improve or ruin your relationship."

Of the new romance system, Bonner notes that "This is for those recurring NPCs who you really want to have back time and again" says Bonner. "You don't necessarily want to use it with every NPC, but for the ones that the players have really latched onto it's really fun."

Along with the news, Paizo has gone ahead and made a collection of Pathfinder character-themed NPC Valentines cards, which you can download and share with whoever your heart desires.

"The marketing team got together in a Zoom call, and for 90 minutes made the worst puns and pick-up lines and jokes we could possibly think of, and then we put some of them on Valentines," says Speidel. "I apologise for nothing that I did at that time," he adds. "It was a delightful time."

Pathfinder NPC Core book is set to release March 5, and will come in three different cover styles, with the same content inside each one: a standard colored hardcover; a black and white sketch art cover; and a much more refined, limited edition green leatherette cover.

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