What are the Main Differences between Original Pathfinder and Beginners Box


Beginner Box


This question probably already has a thread somewhere, but my search-fu did not find it.

I want to introduce some friends to the game, and wondered if Beginner Box might be the way to go?

I've read that 5' steps, and AoOs are not part of BB. Probably a better start for new kids. Any other major differences?


I don't have it on hand, but from what I remember, it cuts down a lot of choice in terms of classes, races and class options, which can help potentially, but I remember the rules for combat went pretty in depth in some areas, even having stuff like mounted combat, but omitted others, like swift actions.

For creating a character, it attempted to simplify things by telling you, at each level, what to increase or add up to level 5, for each of the classes, and as I said, it omitted a lot of options (only the big 4 in terms of classes, I think) and it only had rules for rolling stats.

Personally, I'd teach people using the base rules, but being there to walk them through each step. The BB does a lot to walk people through on their own, but a DM could do similar things with the core rules. It seems to me that the BB would do a lot for, if say a group of 15 year olds or so decided they wanted to play an RPG, but they didn't know anyone who already gamed, so the GM would have to learn the system alongside the players.

If you don't feel confident about being able to walk your friends through the basics, the beginners' box provides a basic, easy, closed environment for them to get a grasp on the rules, though in my opinion, it's a bit too basic for most cases, but I know it was primarily written for the least-common denominator (in terms of experience, not ability or intellegence).


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The transitions document (which you can find here as a free download) does a great job of explaining the main differences between the Beginner Box rules and the Core Rules, in my opinion.

If they're new to roleplaying, I think the Beginner Box is a much less threatening introduction to the game, personally. The fact that the game has over five hundred pages of rules is something of a barrier I think - that you can 'learn the rules you need' as you go is a different mindset to most games.

Grand Lodge

Also, if you don't already have gaming gear, the Beginner Box comes with a battlemat, stand-up tokens for players AND monsters, a set of dice and some pregenerated characters so you can get right into playing rather than having to learn ALL the rules first, such as character creation.

It covers 5 levels for Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard. Races are Human, Elf, and Dwarf. Each class has fewer options, but there are enough to make pretty varied characters.

The included adventure steps new players and GMs through the adventure and the encounters are built to introduce new concepts one at a time.

In the Beginner Box section on this website there is a Players Kit that adds the Barbarian class and a GM Kit with a second adventure.

It's an excellent introduction to roleplaying. If your group is a bunch of old school gamers that have just been away from the game for a while, you'd probably be better off just getting the Core Rulebook and Bestiary to start. (Unless the group used to play D&D Basic, not AD&D.)

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