The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game puts you in the role of a brave adventurer fighting to survive in a world beset by magic and evil. Will you cut your way through monster-filled ruins and cities rife with political intrigue to emerge as a famous hero laden with fabulous treasure, or will you fall victim to treacherous traps and fiendish monsters in a forgotten dungeon? Your fate is yours to decide with this giant Core Rulebook that provides everything a player needs to set out on a life of adventure and excitement!
This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an open playtest involving more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook includes:
All player and Game Master rules in a single volume
Complete rules for fantastic player races like elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half-orcs
Exciting new options for character classes like fighters, wizards, rogues, clerics, and more
Streamlined and updated rules for feats and skills that increase options for your hero
A simple combat system with easy rules for grapples, bull rushes, and other special attacks
Spellcaster options for magic domains, familiars, bonded items, specialty schools, and more
Hundreds of revised, new, and updated spells and magical treasures
Quick-generation guidelines for nonplayer characters
Expanded rules for curses, diseases, and poisons
A completely overhauled experience system with options for slow, medium, and fast advancement
... and much, much more!
Available Formats
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is also available as:
I would say the biggest upgrade from 3.5 is the classes and getting a feat every other level, it all makes for great customization. With this many reviews theres really nothing to add.
Paizo's products for 3.5 were some of my favorites for that system so when I heard that they were releasing their own system based on 3.5 I knew I would eventually pick up a copy. I do not regret paying the fifty bucks for this product. It is familar enough to 3.5 that you don't have to spend much time learning the rules. The changes to the classes and races are really cool, the bloodlines for the Sorcerer class being one of my favorites. The artwork is great, some of the best I've seen in a long time.
The only complaint I have is the binding is already wearing out on my copy and I haven't had it that long. But that's not really a big deal to me. It happens.
To start with, I would have preferred to give this 4.5 stars but the option does not exist. I can not give this game a perfect rating but the drawbacks are very minor...
I had heard nothing of Pathfinder until a friend of mine (who had never played the game) referred me to it after my overwhelming disappointment with DnD 4e. I am a long time gamer (over 25 years) and I generally tend to fringe games rather than core systems. I did play a good deal of AD&D in my time though so I tried DnD at 3e as well and was sorely disappointed then too. I skipped 3.5 as it seemed a money making venture and tried again at 4e to be totally gutted that this is the core system the industry is based on.
So I had just bought a load of 4e stuff when I bought this book and after 6 months those purchases were sold, unread and unopened on ebay after buying Pathfinder Core Rules. This system is SO usable, intuitive and well presented. At its heart is a focus on roleplaying rather than tabletop gaming and it is presented so beautifully.
The system is familiar, improved and well balanced. Information is presented in a cohesive format although the tome is a daunting task with many, many pages of rules.
This book covers the basics and largely all you need to play is one of the bestiary books for a true monster hunt!
The problems are minor but will have an effect on novice players. Firstly, there needs to be a detailed process on building a character. In this book it is spread out and you really need some experience to bring a character to fruition. Many games these days drop the character building tutorial and that sucks for newbies. Secondly, a lot of the important game affecting rules appear in appendices. Things like the way conditions effect, poisons and diseases are all shunted into the appendix. It makes them hard to find when using the index, or even when you make a logical guess at what chapter they should be in.
Love this game though. It is the best fantasy game on the market so GO AND BUY IT!
Thank you Paizo! You have made an old (style) gamer very happy today! I was dreading the possibility of me having to get out of fantasy roleplaying altogether once i ran out of the published material I had (have no real interest in learning a whole new system). You have just saved my game and ensured a very loyal customer for years to come. I look forward to the new system and have just placed an order for the new book!
This is just too awesome. I saw the announcement after coming home from gaming last night and was thrilled. Even more excited this morning! I've preordered this and the beta hardcopy as well.
As soon as I was told about the Pathfinder set-up, I had to get on the website and check it out for my self. I’m new to the Piazo family, but love what I have seen so far.
The fact that the huge sums of money that I have put into the 3.5 system will not be going to waste is great!
I’m also exited about the additional tweaks being made to the system. The expanded abilities for the cleric and wizard classes look very interesting.
I’m looking forward to Pathfinder with an excitement, as opposed to the looming dread that 4.0 has created with me and many of my gaming friends.
Thank you all so much for keeping a great system alive and my subscription to the magazine is on the way!
esta bueno el manual pero deberian de cambiar lo de los puntajes de los rangos de los skills, en ves de hacerlo automata como lo hace saga, hacerlo por el medio clasico de reparticion de puntos de skills, lo unico que tendrian que arreglar solo es la tabla de rangos por nivel.
asi no se vuelve muy mecanico y carente del factor creativo del jugador, lo cual es lo malo que ha tenido Starwars saga en ese lado, los skills muy mecanisados y monotonos en ves de arreglarlo de una forma mas fluida
Any chance of this getting out to us before GenCon Indy '09? It'd be great to not only be able to have a booth and sell the product to GenCon goers but also bring my copy and have you guys sign it.
Oh... even better is if I could set up a 3.75 game to run at GenCon..
Thanks Vic! That seems like an excellent idea as well. If it is ready for GenCon '09 do you (Paizo) have any ideas set up for playtesting at the convention? Games, encounter runs.. etc..
Thanks Vic! That seems like an excellent idea as well. If it is ready for GenCon '09 do you (Paizo) have any ideas set up for playtesting at the convention? Games, encounter runs.. etc..
Right now, we're focused on Gen Con '08, where we'll launch the Pathfidner Society organized play program, but you can expect us to make it a very big deal for '09.
I have resisted the forked tongued devils trying to push me to 4th edition. I have steeled my resolve and resisted, and for my rewards a light has shone down upon me and revealed in all it's glory this product.
Like finding your first magic item, I will savor opening the 420 pages and smelling the fresh print and know I made the right choice, new is not always better, but this is one of the exceptions.
To the abyss with you 4th edition, you will not capture my soul with your honey flavored lies!
I cannot wait to attain this book, for inside is all that glitters.
HH.
p.s. Our D&D group switched to the Pathfinder adventures after our DM of 15+ years disappeared on us, and so far we love it.
august 2009? i still need to finish my current homebrew campaign...then play Age of Worms... then play Savage Tide... then play Rise of the Runelords... then Curse of the Crimson Throne... and really wanted to give a shot at Star Wars Saga... aw my gawd... so much to play... so little time...
maybe i could be done by the time DnD 25th edition comes out... aw well...
Mid Last year a friend introduced me to Dungeon Magazine (and I must admit to being very ashamed of that fact - been playing D&D and others since 1980)
shortly after - found out that Paizo was bumped by WotC
yesterday talked to a Game Shop owner who mentioned Pathfinder (he told me that it was a "new version of Dungeon" and that Paizo was going to be putting out a "3.75 version"
I then went home and looked up Paizo on the internet and have been reading the Alpha and the two released arcs constantly since. (GF will not be happy when I tell her that I will be getting back into DMing ;) )
Does anyone know if they plan on releasing a PDF version?
One of my projects after the PRPG's release is combine all the spells I'll allow into my game in one huge binder for easy acces/reference. Being able to copy and paste the spells from my rulebook of choice would greatly speed up the process.
Still have the print version on pre-order by the way.
A question about the Pathfinder RPG cover: Is that the final version or just a mock-up? I really like the cover art, btw. But is it really going to be orange/reddish? The gray of the Alpha and the beige of the Beta look a lot more stylish IMO. Goes better with the winter-themed artwork, too.
A question about the Pathfinder RPG cover: Is that the final version or just a mock-up? I really like the cover art, btw. But is it really going to be orange/reddish? The gray of the Alpha and the beige of the Beta look a lot more stylish IMO. Goes better with the winter-themed artwork, too.
It's just a mockup. The Alpha and the Beta use artwork that was scavenged from our other products—that particular piece was taken from the cover of Pathfinder #5. We'll be commissioning new art for the final cover.
The Beta has been wonderful and we're looking forward to purchasing the hardcover. This is the game we've been wanting to play. Thanks so much for all the terrific Pathfinder material.
I hope so, I like having the hardcopies, but lately most of my rpg gaming is done sitting in front of my computer & such, so it would be nice to be able reference those rules off the computer & such.
& I hope you don't take this the wrong way but I hate having to pay twice for the same product & such.
Hrmm. The hardcover would indicate that Dwarves are a mere foot shorter than humans (on average), while the height tables in the RotRL and CotCT Player's guides indicate an average difference of a foot and a half.
Does the CS override the older player's guides, or should this be chalked up to rounding?
Hrmm. The hardcover would indicate that Dwarves are a mere foot shorter than humans (on average), while the height tables in the RotRL and CotCT Player's guides indicate an average difference of a foot and a half.
Does the CS override the older player's guides, or should this be chalked up to rounding?
Wow. How did you get it a year early? I didn't even think it had been written yet.
(I think you meant to post this in the campaign setting hardcover thread)
Incredible marketing move folks. I think you have secured quite a large customer base. Those of us who prefer not to adjust our D&D experiences to drastically, both from a player and DM perspective. I was extremely dismayed when i heard about the 4.0 revision and the changes that were made. I have play tested the Pathfinder Alpha & Beta releases and it has surely secured my loyalty and that of my gamers for quite a long while yet. My sincere thanks for supporting your roleplay comrades the world over by tweaking the 3.5 rules. Long live Pathfinder and Paizo!!