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Pathfinder Core Rulebook

4.60/5 (based on 31 ratings)
Pathfinder Core Rulebook
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Advance Your Game

This comprehensive 640-page guide to the Pathfinder roleplaying game provides everything you need to set out into a world of limitless fantasy adventure! Choose from ancestries like elf, human, and goblin and classes like alchemist, fighter, and sorcerer to create a hero of your own design, destined to become a legend! The new Pathfinder rules are easier to learn and faster to play, and they offer deeper customization than ever before!

This indispensable volume contains the core rules for players and Game Masters, and is your first step on a heroic new journey!

The Pathfinder Core Rulebook includes:

  • More than 600 pages of game rules, advice, character options, treasure, and more for players and Game Masters!
  • Six heroic player character ancestries, including elf, dwarf, gnome, goblin, halfling, and human, with variant heritages for half-elf and half-orc!
  • More than 30 backgrounds like bartender, soldier, or apprentice to further immerse yourself in your hero's backstory!
  • Twelve character classes, including the alchemist, barbarian, bard, champion, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, and wizard!
  • Hundreds and hundreds of spells, class feats, and other exciting abilities to help you customize your character to become the hero YOU envision her to be!
  • Streamlined and revised rules to help ease new players into the game while providing the depth of character options and tactical interest that have defined Pathfinder from the beginning!

Written by: Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, and Mark Seifter

ISBN: 978-1-64078-168-9



Available Formats

The Pathfinder Core Rulebook is also available as:

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

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Pathfinder Nexus on Demiplane
Roll20 Virtual Tabletop
SoundSet on Syrinscape
Archives of Nethys

Errata
Last Updated - 11/9/2020

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

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

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This is still Pathfinder

5/5 —

Pathfinder 2 is a fun and faithful evolution to Pathfinder 1. It still has the same feel and familiarity. While I like both systems, I’ve played Pathfinder 2 for the past 5 years and it’s my preferred system.

The best parts of Pathfinder 2 are three action rounds, the condensed skill list, and how easy it is to make and modify characters, while still allowing for many different character builds and options. It’s also easier to make an effective character, and more difficult to make a character that's better than everyone else's. Multi-classing is brilliant and balanced.

Monsters in PF2 are improved and have unique abilities. It helps to make fights different from each other and interesting. The math around PF2 also makes it very easy to build encounters of various difficulties, which is great for homebrew GMs.

Most players will appreciate how easy it is to make a character that has meaningful choices at every level. PF2 should be popular with D&D 5E players that want less generic characters. However, some players in Pathfinder 1 liked to spend hours on their character, looking through splatbooks, looking for ways to make the ultimate character. For these players, they might not like the simplicity of PF2.

PF2 also cleaned up a lot of rules, which makes it easier to play. High level play also scales really well, with fast play, and isn't a burden on the GM, which is a real accomplishment.

It's not all good however. I didn’t like that PF2 nerfed the classes that were too strong in PF1 (alchemist, monk archetypes, spellcasters, gunslingers) and made weak classes in PF1 too strong (rogues, barbarians, fighters). Spellcasters are further nerfed in the sense that they no longer have a niche. Most magical problems in PF2 can be solved with skills that any character can easily attain. The only nerf that was good was that ranged martials are no longer overpowered.

The real failing in PF2 is that there’s too much variation in the damage output between martials and spellcasters. Spellcasters, even with cantrips, do 50% or less damage compared to martials, and it gets worse at higher levels. Spellcasters claim to fame is basically fireball. I could write an essay, but the main problem is the game nerfed the utility of most spellcasters, spellcasters don’t have the same attack modifiers as martials (less hits/crits), and spells do less damage yet take 2 actions. Except for cantrips, spells no longer improve as you level up, so the only spells that are viable are your highest spell level, which is only 3 spells, which is NOT good enough for a typical adventure day.

At one time, spellcasters were "glass cannons" (less AC, HP, saves, perception) but now they do less damage, so they are just glass. At high level tables, if I see we have more than 2 spellcasters, I know we’re in trouble. Those casters are almost always clerics, because clerics get free heals at their highest level, effectively doubling their spell pool.

The Core rulebook, while big and unwieldy, is one of the best purchases in the RPG market. The book itself is presented and explained very well, and is a joy to read.

Pathfinder 2 is my favorite game and I love it, but I really think spellcasters need some love in the future.


Solid foundations

5/5 —

Replaced by the Player Core and GM Core series. My favorite TTRPG had a great beginning with this book.

5/5 —

In my opinion - one of, if not, the best system.


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Sovereign Court Director of Community

Removed a post and a few replies with quotes as the post violated the community guidelines on harassment.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I just noticed an error. Moonlit Chain (page 558) has a listed bulk of 2, but it is a chain shirt rather than chain mail so the bulk should be 1.
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Maybe the moonbeams add a bulk. :-)
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Ed Reppert wrote:
Maybe the moonbeams add a bulk. :-)

I don't think they would add much weight. After all, moonbeams are light. ;)

Liberty's Edge
Gisher wrote:
Ed Reppert wrote:
Maybe the moonbeams add a bulk. :-)
I don't think they would add much weight. After all, moonbeams are light. ;)

Photons have mass. Just ask any black hole ;-)

The Raven Black wrote:
Gisher wrote:
Ed Reppert wrote:
Maybe the moonbeams add a bulk. :-)
I don't think they would add much weight. After all, moonbeams are light. ;)
Photons have mass. Just ask any black hole ;-)

I was trying to make a pun using two meanings of the word "light." I guess I failed. :)

Side note: Photons are massless. They have mass equivalence, but no rest mass.

If I buy the .pdf, can I download updated pdfs in the future? Has the bolding issue mentioned on page 10 of this thread been resolved?
Paizo Employee Sales & eCommerce Assistant
6 people marked this as a favorite.
KenpoGMBrian wrote:
If I buy the .pdf, can I download updated pdfs in the future? Has the bolding issue mentioned on page 10 of this thread been resolved?

Hello! I'm not sure if the bolding issue has yet been addressed, but once you purchase a PDF, it's yours for the lifespan of your account. This means any future updates or errata that are uploaded will be available to you to redownload at any time. :)

2 people marked this as a favorite.

I redownloaded the file, saw the formatting error is still there as of today, and saw the last update to the CRB .PDF was November 2020. So it's been a year and a half since the problem's been first reported (and 6 months since I last brought it up). Hopefully it will eventually be fixed, but at this point I think it's safe to say it's not really a priority to be done unfortunately.
Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gisher wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:
Gisher wrote:
Ed Reppert wrote:
Maybe the moonbeams add a bulk. :-)
I don't think they would add much weight. After all, moonbeams are light. ;)
Photons have mass. Just ask any black hole ;-)

I was trying to make a pun using two meanings of the word "light." I guess I failed. :)

Side note: Photons are massless. They have mass equivalence, but no rest mass.

I missed the pun, likely because I am not a native speaker.

I think I might have gotten it if you had used "Light" rather than "light" ;-)
The Raven Black wrote:
Gisher wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:
Gisher wrote:
Ed Reppert wrote:
Maybe the moonbeams add a bulk. :-)
I don't think they would add much weight. After all, moonbeams are light. ;)
Photons have mass. Just ask any black hole ;-)

I was trying to make a pun using two meanings of the word "light." I guess I failed. :)

Side note: Photons are massless. They have mass equivalence, but no rest mass.

I missed the pun, likely because I am not a native speaker.

I think I might have gotten it if you had used "Light" rather than "light" ;-)

You're right. It would have been better with Light capitalized like the bulk rating.

Aaron Shanks wrote:
Varoxus wrote:
So I'm not sure if this was intended or not but in the new (2nd printing) version of the PDF almost all of the text in the 1st chapter has is set to be much darker than the text elsewhere in the book. This change is present in both the "single file" and "OneFilePerChapter" versions of the PDF, was wondering if anyone else was seeing the same issue that I am.
Thanks for the feedback. Shared internally.

Aaron, Can you look into whether and when Paizo intends to fix this issue? It is a make it break issue for me on my buying decisions.

3 people marked this as a favorite.
KenpoGMBrian wrote:
Aaron Shanks wrote:
Varoxus wrote:
So I'm not sure if this was intended or not but in the new (2nd printing) version of the PDF almost all of the text in the 1st chapter has is set to be much darker than the text elsewhere in the book. This change is present in both the "single file" and "OneFilePerChapter" versions of the PDF, was wondering if anyone else was seeing the same issue that I am.
Thanks for the feedback. Shared internally.
Aaron, Can you look into whether and when Paizo intends to fix this issue? It is a make it break issue for me on my buying decisions.

Our descriptions probably make things sound worse than they are. I've posted a couple of screenshots from my phone so you can see what we're talking about. Chapter 1 does use a darker font, but it isn't as if it's illegible. The effects gets exacerbated when the phone shrinks the images to make the "thumbnails" for each page. That's where I noticed the difference.

Marketing & Media Manager
4 people marked this as a favorite.
KenpoGMBrian wrote:
Aaron Shanks wrote:
Varoxus wrote:
So I'm not sure if this was intended or not but in the new (2nd printing) version of the PDF almost all of the text in the 1st chapter has is set to be much darker than the text elsewhere in the book. This change is present in both the "single file" and "OneFilePerChapter" versions of the PDF, was wondering if anyone else was seeing the same issue that I am.
Thanks for the feedback. Shared internally.
Aaron, Can you look into whether and when Paizo intends to fix this issue? It is a make it break issue for me on my buying decisions.

Happy President's Day.

I see the issue has not been corrected. I'll ask again when the offices reopen tomorrow. Please also email store@paizo.com.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gisher wrote:
KenpoGMBrian wrote:
Aaron Shanks wrote:
Varoxus wrote:
So I'm not sure if this was intended or not but in the new (2nd printing) version of the PDF almost all of the text in the 1st chapter has is set to be much darker than the text elsewhere in the book. This change is present in both the "single file" and "OneFilePerChapter" versions of the PDF, was wondering if anyone else was seeing the same issue that I am.
Thanks for the feedback. Shared internally.
Aaron, Can you look into whether and when Paizo intends to fix this issue? It is a make it break issue for me on my buying decisions.
Our descriptions probably make things sound worse than they are. I've posted a couple of screenshots from my phone so you can see what we're talking about. Chapter 1 does use a darker font, but it isn't as if it's illegible. The effects gets exacerbated when the phone shrinks the images to make the "thumbnails" for each page. That's where I noticed the difference.

Thank you for your reply and screen shot. It gave me exactly the info I needed to decide. As you said, it sounded worse than it was.

I'm glad I could help. I love having the pdfs version of the books. Having bookmarked copies of the texts on all of my devices is wonderful.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I've seen evidence that there is a third printing from 2021 available now (it says so on page 638). Since Paizo has not published any new errata, and the PDF download still has the second printing, am I correct in assuming that nothing has changed in the third printing?
Marketing & Media Manager
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Zaister wrote:
I've seen evidence that there is a third printing from 2021 available now (it says so on page 638). Since Paizo has not published any new errata, and the PDF download still has the second printing, am I correct in assuming that nothing has changed in the third printing?

Yes, I believe that’s so. I am not aware of additional errata coming at this time.

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Thank you, Aaron!
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Is there any way to ensure that if I order the core rulebook, I will get the 3rd printing, or at least the 2nd? I have the 1st printing, and I want one that has been updated with the errata. Been burned twice on Amazon with 1st printings, so I am hopeful if I buy it from Paizo, I'll get the most current printing of the rules.
Grand Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
MajorSarigar wrote:
Is there any way to ensure that if I order the core rulebook, I will get the 3rd printing, or at least the 2nd? I have the 1st printing, and I want one that has been updated with the errata. Been burned twice on Amazon with 1st printings, so I am hopeful if I buy it from Paizo, I'll get the most current printing of the rules.

I'm pretty sure Paizo only order a new print run when they are out of copies for the previous run. So you should be ok. ;)

Marketing & Media Manager
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Elfteiroh wrote:
MajorSarigar wrote:
Is there any way to ensure that if I order the core rulebook, I will get the 3rd printing, or at least the 2nd? I have the 1st printing, and I want one that has been updated with the errata. Been burned twice on Amazon with 1st printings, so I am hopeful if I buy it from Paizo, I'll get the most current printing of the rules.
I'm pretty sure Paizo only order a new print run when they are out of copies for the previous run. So you should be ok. ;)

We are selling and shipping the 3rd printing of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook

Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

I just saw that there's an updated PDF. Any chance of a changelog coming soon? Thanks!
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.

There is a listing on the FAQ page :3
Ezekieru wrote:
I redownloaded the file, saw the formatting error is still there as of today, and saw the last update to the CRB .PDF was November 2020. So it's been a year and a half since the problem's been first reported (and 6 months since I last brought it up). Hopefully it will eventually be fixed, but at this point I think it's safe to say it's not really a priority to be done unfortunately.

I see the Chapter 1 font issue persisted into the 3rd Printing. It's now been nearly 2 years since the first report. Just bringing it up as a reminder once again. One of these days, hopefully it'll get looked at.

Rysky wrote:
There is a listing on the FAQ page :3

Thank you, but that seems to be an errata - not a change log?

3 people marked this as a favorite.
ntw wrote:
Rysky wrote:
There is a listing on the FAQ page :3
Thank you, but that seems to be an errata - not a change log?

OK - that's confusing!

Turns out that when Paizo say "errata", they actually mean "changelog".
Silver Crusade
4 people marked this as a favorite.

… that’s what errata is.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

• (errata) a list of corrected errors appended to a book or published in a subsequent issue of a journal.

• erratum: an error in printing or writing.

Above from my dictionary

"A changelog is a log or record of all notable changes made to a project." -- wikipedia
Shadow Lodge
4 people marked this as a favorite.

I was going to ask if we were really arguing about definitions and then remembered this is the Pathfinder CRB discussion.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Matthew Jaluvka wrote:
Xenocrat wrote:
Matthew Jaluvka wrote:
Xenocrat wrote:
Quote:

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean different things–that’s all.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master–that’s all’
The slaves, at least, are clear.
I don't think any of the words in your post mean anything.
I know you don't.
Let's pretend south park doesn't exist. Explain literally anything you've said in your own words.

I think they're saying that people shouldn't be so dependent on Rules as Written and to use the rules how they work best for you.

I might be mistaken, and I had to really think about it, but that's the conclusion I came to.
Grand Lodge
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Hey, there are some people that don't understand badger badger badger, mushroom mushroom. If you want to be understood, speak clearly.
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Hey, there are some people that don't understand badger badger badger, mushroom mushroom. If you want to be understood, speak clearly.

A snake, a snake

Snaaake! A snaaaake
Oooh, it's a snake
Paizo Employee Customer Service Representative
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Removed some posts for being off topic. Please keep the conversation to the topic at hand.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I guess the Core Rulebook pocket edition will still be identical the the 2nd printing for a while, until a reprint is needed. Will you please announce when that time comes and the pocket edition catches up?
Marketing & Media Manager
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Zaister wrote:
I guess the Core Rulebook pocket edition will still be identical the the 2nd printing for a while, until a reprint is needed. Will you please announce when that time comes and the pocket edition catches up?

I'll try. That might be a couple years, but the faster I sell them, the sooner we get a reprint. :)

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Guess I'll have to wait a while then. :)
1 person marked this as a favorite.
KenpoGMBrian wrote:
If I buy the .pdf, can I download updated pdfs in the future? Has the bolding issue mentioned on page 10 of this thread been resolved?

I just purchased the PDF and the first 30 pages have a bold and blurry font. The rest of the book looks fantastic. I too hope they are going to fix this - but considering the age of your post (5 months) that might be wishful thinking.

Trak3r wrote:
KenpoGMBrian wrote:
If I buy the .pdf, can I download updated pdfs in the future? Has the bolding issue mentioned on page 10 of this thread been resolved?
I just purchased the PDF and the first 30 pages have a bold and blurry font. The rest of the book looks fantastic. I too hope they are going to fix this - but considering the age of your post (5 months) that might be wishful thinking.

Have you tried a different PDF reader from whatever you're using?

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Trak3r wrote:
KenpoGMBrian wrote:
If I buy the .pdf, can I download updated pdfs in the future? Has the bolding issue mentioned on page 10 of this thread been resolved?
I just purchased the PDF and the first 30 pages have a bold and blurry font. The rest of the book looks fantastic. I too hope they are going to fix this - but considering the age of your post (5 months) that might be wishful thinking.

It hasn't just been 5 months. This has been an issue since the first printing 2 years ago. So 'wishful thinking' indeed.

Grand Lodge
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

I just downloaded it, I don't see the blurry or boldness in Acrobat.

I do see it in Preview on the preview panes, but then it goes away.
TriOmegaZero wrote:

I just downloaded it, I don't see the blurry or boldness in Acrobat.

I do see it in Preview on the preview panes, but then it goes away.

The boldness/additional stroke around the Chapter 1 text is less noticeable in the full view, but I can tell the difference once I start bouncing back and forth between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. It is MUCH worse in the preview panes.

It's just such a weird thing to change???
1 person marked this as a favorite.
TriOmegaZero wrote:

I just downloaded it, I don't see the blurry or boldness in Acrobat.

I do see it in Preview on the preview panes, but then it goes away.

For me it gets worse the smaller the image.

The difference isn't that significant when reading on my computer screen, but this is what it's like on my iPhone.

It isn't as if the first chapter is illegible, but it's odd that it uses a different, heavier font than the rest of the book.

And thumbnails look really weird.
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