RSS RSS Facebook Twitter Email
Pathfinder / Rulebooks / First Edition

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide (OGL)

4.20/5 (based on 30 ratings)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide (OGL)
Show Description For:
Non-Mint

Add Hardcover $44.99

Add PDF $19.99

Non-Mint Unavailable

Facebook Twitter Email

Get the most out of your heritage with the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide! Embrace your inner monster by playing one of 30 iconic races from mythology and gaming history, or build an entirely new race of your own. If classic races are more your style, go beyond the stereotypes for elves, dwarves, and the other core races with new options and equipment to help you stand out from the crowd.

The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide is a bold new companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring 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 256-page Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide includes:

  • New rules and options to help you customize all seven of the classic core races, including new racial traits, racial subtypes, and racial archetypes.
  • 30 exotic races, from mischievous goblins and reptilian kobolds to crow-headed tengus and deadly drow, each with complete rules for use as player characters, plus archetypes, alternate racial traits, and other options for maximum customization.
  • A complete and balanced system for creating an unlimited number of new races, mixing and matching powers and abilities to form characters and cultures specific to your campaign.
  • Tons of new race-specific equipment, feats, spells, and magic items for each of the races detailed!
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-390-3

Errata
Last Updated - 7/29/2015

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription.

Product Availability

Hardcover:

Available now

Ships from our warehouse in 3 to 5 business days.

PDF:

Fulfilled immediately.

Non-Mint:

Unavailable

This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZO1121

See Also:

1 to 5 of 30 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | next > last >>

Average product rating:

4.20/5 (based on 30 ratings)

Sign in to create or edit a product review.

Probably one of my favorites...

5/5 —

All the new races and traits and feats and racial magic items really helped me flesh out my campaign world. The addition of being able to make your own race made me sing soprano. Excellent, excellent book for those who want to play a race that's completely outta the ordinary. Part of the reason I got this book is because in the core rulebook it says something like this: "only for more experienced GMs, having players play odd races can be rewarding and fun, but you have to be careful" etc. but doesn't give you a glimpse of the races or explain how they might effect a campaign world a certain way. Using this book, you can experience what it would be like to play a rare (and really cool) race. Being an Oread is awesome and probably one of the most exciting and fun experiences in my gaming career.

Awesome product, Paizo!

Too campaign-specific

2/5 —

The book is focused heavily around the PFRPG "host" campaign, with no clear instructions on how to extrapolate for other campaigns (we use the 3.0 Forgotten Realms setting). So in the end, most of this book is filler and not really very useful. Even the second printing tied the book more closely with the "home team" setting.

What little can be gleaned from the book is helpful, but it's not worth the hardcover price if your campaign is something other than the generic one sponsored by Pathfinder. I wonder why it is, that almost every "host" campaign seems like a patchwork quilt of several others, with most of the interesting stuff left out?

The ARG is how the ACG should of been

5/5 —

The Race Guide is how the Advanced Class Guide should have been set up- with clear rules and customization options to create your own class. Great book for players and GM's ready to venture out into some custom races.

Hit the sweet spot

5/5 —

I don't quite know what it is but this is one of my favorite Paizo products to date. Maybe it's the way the book is organized with each race with its own section. Maybe it's the swappable racial traits akin to class archetypes. Maybe it's the artwork, showing two to three examples of each race to demonstrate the variety within each species. Maybe it's the archetypes, favored class bonus options, notes on society and appearance, spells, feats. It just felt like icing on the cake to include a race builder at the end.

Exactly What my Campaign Needed

5/5 —

please excuse any typos.

so you're supposed to start off easy, right? go by the book, go by the campaign setting they give you. just stick to the six core races, and don't go overboard trying to invent stuff, right? well, I didn't exactly do that. I created a whole world from scratch, messed with the core qualities of numerous races, core races or otherwise, and on top of that, invented a pantheon and mythos which is completely incompatible with Golarion's. this is the first game I will ever GM. to be frank, I'm in trouble.

with that context, this book is a godsend, and I'm glad to have the freedom and ease of use this guide gives me. having a game world populated with multiple monstrous races (most of them completely reimagined), I needed to have a way to make sure the stats reflected the people. it breaks immersion to have a race with traits that quite clearly do not make sense for them. something that always bothered me with the core material is how race was treated: I found it restricted, stereotypical. clearly, the Pathfinder race system needs a little diversity, especially if your campaign isn't actually set in Golarion.

one clear example of the usefulness of this guide for worldbuilding and racial diversity is the Gnome trait "hatred". see, the rules state that the Gnomes have a deep-seated hatred of goblinoid and reptilian races, but in my campaign, Gnomes and Goblins hail from different corners of the universe, and logically, shouldn't even be aware of the other's existence. it simply wouldn't make sense for me to have a gnome character that's trained against a race they've never seen before in their life. thank god this guide has other plausible gnome traits that I can replace that problematic one with one with. not even to mention how the Ifrits, Oreads, Sylphs, and Undines had filled a gaping hole in my mythos. (though I was dissappointed to find that the Kobolds were still utter weaklings)

in another spur of greatness, I can already tell that my players, by now fairly intoxicated on the freedom I've given them, are going to love these new options. I can already see one of them deciding they want to go with one of the very comprehensive and imaginative archetypes, or choosing catfolk or kitsune instead of elf or goblin. the best part is, this book is so easy to figure out, so I am perfectly able to give them this freedom without puzzling over the rules for a month (like I embarrassingly did with the core rulebook).

trust me. if you're the kind of Game Master that doesn't like playing by the rules, and likes to do your own thing lore wise (like create a complete departure from the default setting), then this book is almost a necessity for you. for anyone else who likes the idea of monstrous PCs, you'll love this one.

1 to 5 of 30 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | next > last >>
Search Thread

Search this Thread:

301 to 350 of 1,448 << first < prev | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | next > last >>

Castrovel(the Green) is the "venus" one and Akiton(the Red) is the "Mars" one Ashanderi.

Hopefully they added Aberation, Dragon, and Magical Beast to options
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Dragon78 wrote:

Castrovel(the Green) is the "venus" one and Akiton(the Red) is the "Mars" one Ashanderi.

Hopefully they added Aberation, Dragon, and Magical Beast to options

I figured I got it wrong when I wrote it, but I didn't have time to look it up while at work. Despite the planet I mentioned not being a direct analogue to Mars, I think my point stands.

May just can't get here fast enough, can't wait to see the official cover art.
Silver Crusade
Dragon78 wrote:
May just can't get here fast enough, can't wait to see the official cover art.

The cover art was revealed a few weeks ago in the latest Wayfinder. :)

Dark Archive

May and June are shaping up to be 2 crazy packed months of books!!!

Wayfinder? is that something Pathfinder society related?

It's a Pathfinder fanzine created by fans of Pathfinder. You can download the released issues HERE. Want to contribute? Check out THIS thread.

Thanks for the info Heine Stick.

I can hardly wait for this book~

I like the new cover but I wish they included some more non-core races.

I am more excited about this book then I was for Ultimate magic and Ultimate combat.

I hope there will racial traits and racial favored class bonuses.

I am sure there will be racial feats but I hope there will be a large feat section since the races only got 2-6 pages.
Sovereign Court

As a GM, I can't wait for this book ... but it maybe a waste :(

My players are VERY humano-centric, though one of them did play a (prepare to be shocked) half-elf once ;)

I'd be looking forward to traits for Centaurs personally -- I've always thought a group of Centaurs with lances and bows would kick butt :0

Roll on May :)

Noobie

I hope there are racial favored class bonuses.

I also hope there is a scent feat for Catfolk, Ratfolk, and other animal race that should get it.

Is there going to be magic items in this book?
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Are there going to be racial bonuses for favored Ultimate classes?
Dark Archive

Will there be guidelines for making templates?

What kindof templates are you talking about?

Bardess, are talking about classes from the ultimate books or something else?

Classes from ultimate books: Magus, Gunslinger, Ninja and Samurai.

I would say that the new races need favorite racial bonuses for all the classes.

Also the core classes need favorite racial bonuses for the classes they were mising from the other classes as well.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

*sigh* June. Oh well, more time to build up money for this!
Sovereign Court

June? I thought this was supposed to be out in April?

:(
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Apparently the combination of Snowpocalypse and Chinese Printer Rebellion threw tore Paizo a new one in their release schedule.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Ow - this plus Runelords plus poosibly the Runelords minis makes my wallet worried...

Darn pushed back again.
Grand Lodge

June?! NOOOOOOOOOO! oh well.
Shadow Lodge

Hey this will be well worth the wait until June so I'll be looking forward to this. Besides we still have the playtest docs which might tide all us eager fans over at least a bit.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Hmmm..reading through the playtest document. I'm disappointed that it doesn't seem to allow for the creation of some really weird new races. I was looking forward to creating an ooze race and creating a race with the incorporeal subtypes.
Dark Archive

Wow, so now there will be 2 hardcovers in June and another in July...
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
the Haunted Jester wrote:
Wow, so now there will be 2 hardcovers in June and another in July...

Actually it will be two in June and one in August, as Gencon is back to being in the middle of the month this year.

Did everyone see the preview of the Duergar in this month's Game Trade Magazing from Alliance? The race is completely stated out over these two pages. If you can find a copy you might want to pick it up! I am glad I did!
LMPjr007 wrote:
Did everyone see the preview of the Duergar in this month's Game Trade Magazing from Alliance? The race is completely stated out over these two pages. If you can find a copy you might want to pick it up! I am glad I did!

Link please.

Azure_Zero wrote:
LMPjr007 wrote:
Did everyone see the preview of the Duergar in this month's Game Trade Magazing from Alliance? The race is completely stated out over these two pages. If you can find a copy you might want to pick it up! I am glad I did!
Link please.

There is not link, this came out of the actual book. I am hoping Paizo places the pages up for us to download.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Azure_Zero wrote:
LMPjr007 wrote:
Did everyone see the preview of the Duergar in this month's Game Trade Magazing from Alliance? The race is completely stated out over these two pages. If you can find a copy you might want to pick it up! I am glad I did!
Link please.

Requested Link

Justin Franklin wrote:
Azure_Zero wrote:
LMPjr007 wrote:
Did everyone see the preview of the Duergar in this month's Game Trade Magazing from Alliance? The race is completely stated out over these two pages. If you can find a copy you might want to pick it up! I am glad I did!
Link please.
Requested Link

Thank you

I just want a good Large Sized player race.

Thanks for the link.

Not a big Duergar fan but still interesting choices none the less. A racial archtype for a class is really interesting.

I'm actually currently crafting a Duergar NPC. I was already pretty excited for this book, but getting to use it a little bit on something I'm actually doing has only stoked that excitement.
Silver Crusade

Wondering if the amount of background material in the duergar preview is indicative of how much there will be for the six-pager races or if those guys will be getting more.

The duergar was only a two page one, so it will be interesting to see the four page ones.
Silver Crusade

I'm hoping. The duergar's text leaned pretty hard in the "these are all horrible people" direction. I'm hoping the races with more pages(orcs, goblins, etc) get more range and flavor to back that up.

Now that we've seen the final cover for Ultimate Equipment, might this one be coming soon?

Will there be any other races with a race specific archtype for a class?

If so can you say what race(s) and/or class(es) was/were picked?

When will the cover image be updated?
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Joseph Wilson wrote:
Now that we've seen the final cover for Ultimate Equipment, might this one be coming soon?

Ultimate Equipment is a bit unusual in that we had the finished artwork in hand before we had to make the mockup cover. So while that mockup uses the final art, it's *still* a mockup cover, and will likely be adjusted prior to publication.

Generally, we post the finished covers a little while after the books are sent to the printer, and the printed has generated proofs, and the proofs have been approved. That's the first point that we know the cover is 100% final, and we wait until that point so that we don't have to update the image repeatedly should things be required to change. I'd expect that to happen for this book within about a month.

Thanks for the insight, Vic!
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Justin Franklin wrote:
Azure_Zero wrote:
LMPjr007 wrote:
Did everyone see the preview of the Duergar in this month's Game Trade Magazing from Alliance? The race is completely stated out over these two pages. If you can find a copy you might want to pick it up! I am glad I did!
Link please.
Requested Link

Gotta love it!

Is there an official reason as to why it has been moved back a few months? I hope that Paizo doesn't follow MWP's Dragonlance releases.
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.

It was probably mentioned upthread, but the latest Wayfinder has an ad featuring the likely final cover art.

still hoping for four-arm mechanics in the race building
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
Mikaze wrote:
I'm hoping. The duergar's text leaned pretty hard in the "these are all horrible people" direction. I'm hoping the races with more pages(orcs, goblins, etc) get more range and flavor to back that up.

Given what we saw in "Orcs of Golarion" I am not holding my breath on that. :(

Silver Crusade
Lord Fyre wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
I'm hoping. The duergar's text leaned pretty hard in the "these are all horrible people" direction. I'm hoping the races with more pages(orcs, goblins, etc) get more range and flavor to back that up.
Given what we saw in "Orcs of Golarion" I am not holding my breath on that. :(

Well, that's me. Eternally and foolishly hopeful.

I'm hoping being divorced from Golarion canon means that they actually put some flavor their for non-Always Chaotic Evil orcs.
Liberty's Edge

I'm fairly certain the answer is "no"--and I apologize if this has already been asked--but, will there be any races in the Advanced Races Guide that are approved for play in Pathfinder Society?

Are orcs really that popular of a PC race?
301 to 350 of 1,448 << first < prev | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Paizo / Product Discussion / Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide (OGL) All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.