Big Pathfinder/Starfinder Reference Document News!

Thursday, September 13, 2018

As a fan and a community advocate, you grow attachments to things you wouldn't have ever imagined you would. One of the projects I've gotten the opportunity to make my mark on at Paizo is neatly nestled into that fan/community/design challenge niche: the Pathfinder Reference Document. As it became obvious in this last year of architecting and laying out the plans for the future of paizo.com, and as the time increased between that "last updated" date and our resources began to shift course, a problem arose that we needed to solve: how do we provide our community a free, up-to-date online version of the rules for our games? Well, I finally get to share the answer with you all!

Paizo is pleased to announce that Blake Davis and the Archives of Nethys will be maintaining the Pathfinder and Starfinder Reference Documents!

As an official licensed partner, the Archives of Nethys includes setting-specific rules content as well as Open Game Content, so you'll be able to find the Golarion- and Pact Worlds–specific rules you're looking for quickly and easily.

Eventually, these reference documents will become more integrated into the paizo.com website, but for the near future, we will be redirecting PRD and SFRD requests to the Archives of Nethys website:

Pathfinder Reference Document: pfrd.info
Starfinder Reference Document: sfrd.info

During this transition, you will not be able to search the PRD or the SFRD using the paizo.com search tool—you'll need to use the Archives of Nethys search tool instead for Pathfinder content; the search engine for the Starfinder site is still in development and is expected to go live in the next 1-2 weeks.

(The AON will not be hosting a Pathfinder Playtest reference document, as those rules are transitory, but we are planning to launch the reference document for Pathfinder Second Edition with them next year.)

Both reference documents on the Archives of Nethys will remain a completely free resource, but you can help support their future growth on Patreon.

I'm so excited to see our new partnership with Archives of Nethys and our online offerings to the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities evolve! Be sure to check out the AON, update your bookmarks, and keep up with the Paizo blog for future announcements.

Chris Lambertz
Web Product Manager

9/14/2018 Update: After reviewing community feedback, the legacy PRD website has now been made available at legacy.aonprd.com. It does not contain the search functionality, however.

Untold Horrors, Celestial Allies, and Hordes Alike—It's Time for Something New!

Friday, October 16, 2015

One of the projects that I've come to call my own during my time at Paizo is our Pathfinder Reference Document (or PRD for short). This project has been passed around and improved by different folks over the years, including our System Administrator Lissa Guillet, who was responsible for past incarnations of our global indices features. I'm proud to say that the formation of our Community team means that we now have Liz Courts championing for more useful improvements and features for GMs and players alike. Her first new feature, the Bestiary Index is ready for you to use in your own games!

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

I've always been a big proponent of using technology to make your game run smoother, and so I put some of my old class skills to use. As some of you may have noticed during our latest update, some portions of the PRD got a bit of an improvement—most specifically the Bestiary and Spell List Indexes. More than just an alphabetical listing now, the new Bestiary Index now allows you to sort by Challenge Rating (including highlighting CRs based on the calculated APL), creature type and subtype, climate and terrain, size, and also a quick way to find companions, character races, cohorts, and familiars. (I also threw in the Template Index as well.) For the Spell List Index, there was a lot of data corrections (not to mention that the bloodrager and shaman spell lists are now completely listed), and there's now an option to filter your results by a spell's school.

I'm not done hammering out some improvements to help you find the information you need to run your game or select options for your character—I'm just getting started! Keep your eyes out for a few other "free-tures" in our coming updates!

Happy gaming, and may your next crit confirm!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Our next round of PRD updates will include both Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures. And as always, if you find any issues or have ideas for the Pathfinder Reference Document, let us know here!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Gen Con 2014 PRD Update!

Friday, August 15, 2014

With the release of the new Iron Gods Adventure Path, we figured it would be a really cool idea to put the tools you need from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Technology Guide up on the Pathfinder Reference Document. Now that the books are in the hands of many gamers at home and at Gen Con, you can get started on planning your campaign by checking out the latest update to the PRD right now! While you're there, you may also notice that you can now access the content from the Bestiary 4. There are also some visual changes to help improve the experience for many who access the PRD from mobile devices like iPads, Android tablets, and various phones.

Be sure to check it out and leave your feedback in our reporting thread if you have any comments. The Paizo Skeleton Crew back here in Redmond hope you're having an amazing time at Gen Con!

Chris Lambertz
Digital Products Assistant

Illustration by Eric Belisle

More Monsters!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Every GM knows you can never have enough monsters, and yesterday the risk of ever running out got way slimmer with the addition of Bestiary 3's more than 300 menaces to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document. Check them all out for free and our online PRD right here!

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Pathfinder Reference Document: Now 20% Cooler with Indexes

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The new PRD has been out for a while now, but a new feature may have gone unnoticed by some. Recently, we've added a set of indices to the PRD (look toward the bottom of the menu on the left-hand side of the page). These indices were originally created as mobile content so that anyone trying to look up a single reference on their phones would have an easier time doing it. It quickly became obvious that we should also give the people on their desktops and iPads similar capabilities. We had all of the data right there, but we just needed to apply it a little differently. At first we only offered feats and spells, but eventually we were able to add magic items and spell lists. Each addition has been a little more complicated than the last.

The first two, feats and spells, are alphabetical indices with filters that allow the user to sort data by book. Originally, this was the only data really available to us and was sufficient for those lists, but the magic item index gave us reason to develop that a little further. Knowing that people often like to browse through the magic item index looking for a particular type of item—such hunting for a new suit of armor or filling in an empty ring slot—we created our index filters for that page with this in mind.

After that, most of our requests for these types of indices came in two forms: spell lists and monsters. And though we've not yet created a monster index, this is certainly something we’re considering for the future. Spell lists, however, have been tackled, and you can now pick from any class and then filter spells by book and spell level. This has become a valuable resource and probably useful for a lot of people, especially those not as familiar with spells in the more recent books, like Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat, but who would like to give them a try.

The indices are still evolving, and we appreciate all of your feedback and hope that everyone gets a lot of use out of them!

Lissa Guillet
Assistant Software Developer