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Pathfinder Core Rulebook

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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

Available Formats

The Pathfinder Core Rulebook is also available as:

ISBN: 978-1-64078-168-9

Online Resources: Rules and mechanics from this book can be accessed for free on Paizo's official online resource: Archives of Nethys. Click here!

Errata
Last Updated - 11/9/2020

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

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A mash of old systems

1/5 —

Not a lot different than the play test (they did correct a few major problems).
It has parts of 5E and 4E combined to to make a new system; the bad parts of both unfortunately.

Spend your money getting all the 1st edition material you can and enjoy it as long as possible.

The foundation of a truly great game

5/5 —

Reading through this book, it feels pretty clear that this game is designed to grow and expand and evolve over the course of its lifetime. But don't take that to mean that the core game is insufficient or weak.

This is great stuff.

I don't suppose this needs to be a review of Pathfinder 2e as a system, necessarily. Systems work for those they work for, but for myself and the dozen or more players I've run through in a range from quick scenarios to current ongoing adventure paths, this is a terrific way to game. Personally, I came from the D&D side, not the first edition Pathfinder, so this to me represents a massive improvement in so many ways. Action economy is brilliant. Single-enemy encounters are able to be intense and interesting. The encounter creation rules are great. Modular multiclassing has its upsides and downsides, but in the long run I feel it's been working very well. And the options! Obviously it doesn't have the breadth of its first edition predecessor, but I don't find that to be a reasonable strike against it.

Some of the layout is a bit wonky, especially in regards to focus spells and magic/crafted/alchemical items. Some classes feel a bit more well-rounded and fleshed out than others, and same with ancestries... but let's be honest, that's frankly inevitable, especially in a game this size.

I couldn't be happier with the game, in honesty. And much of my happiness with its structure, rules, and concepts are found right here in the core rulebook, as makes sense. So I can't give this any less than a full rating. Very happy with Paizo's work on this.

An excellent evolution

5/5 —

At first, I was lukewarm.
But I decided to forge my own opinion and studied the book.
I was not disapointed.

The good :
This new edition brings a lot of options for character customisation.
The action economy have been simplified with 3 action and a reaction.
Overall, the rules have been streamlined and clarified, thanks to a clever keyword system.

The bad :
It is still a heavy system, requiring dedication and mastery to use at full potential.

The beautiful :
The books is drop dead gorgeous.
The ergonomics and presentation of the rules help learning them.

To sum up, the second edition of Pathfinder is an excellent evolution. Long live to it.

An Underwhelming Successor with The Illusion of Choice

1/5 —

If you didn't like the playtest, you won't like this product either. While it cleans up some of the worse parts of the playtest, there are a lot of design choices that should have been scrapped.

Having finally taken the time to sit down and play some sessions with the new system, I can safely and openly recommend spending your money elsewhere. There are better games out there, and this is definitely not worth the money. For every good idea the game implements, there's another thing that takes away from the enjoyment of the game. The system itself feels more bloated and complex than the previous edition, with an overabundance of key words and special terms that players need to know in order to even play the game. Abilities often don't work with each other, and we often found ourselves sticking to using the same 3 or 4 things that we were using before.

The game gives you a lot of options for how to build and develop your character as you gain levels. In addition to periodically gaining class features, you also gain class feats, race feats, skill feats, and general feats. Each of these gives you options to continue progressing and learning new things. However, while you have these feats, the option in how you use them is limited. Whenever you gain a feat, you have to choose from that specific category. While this isn't necessarily a problem for class feats and general feats, which allow for a broader selection, this is a noticeable problem with the ancestry and skill feats. These feats are meant to provide more development for your character based on their skills and racial heritage. Some of them are interesting, such as being able to quickly heal wounds with a healer's kit or casting detect magic at will. Some give you a cantrip you can use, even if you can't cast spells normally. Most, however, are entirely unremarkable. This is especially true of the ancestry feats, which do very little to stand out or justify being their own distinct feat category. Half the time, you end up taking these feats not because they fit your characters, but because you needed to take a feat to finish leveling.

Playing the game, we found most encounters to be tedious to finish. Abilities felt unrewarding to use. Encounters felt boring to go through, especially for our casters. We hit a point where most of their spells would fail against enemies, despite doing everything to try get them to work. Enemies would shrug off spells without much effort, and eventually our casters just spend their rounds either casting buff spells or attacking with a weapon because that was more likely to succeed than casting their highest level spell.

If you liked the playtest, then you'll probably enjoy this. But if you didn't and you're looking to buy a new RPG, look literally anywhere else. This book will be a waste of your time and money.


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1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pawns, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Papa-DRB wrote:

@Phaedre - Is it sitting in Fife, or does it say "Package transferred to dest MI facility" like mine currently does, which means that it has left Fife, but has not been received at the UPS-MI facility near where you live to be injected into the USPS system.

-- david

Yep it's "Package transferred to dest MI facility". My guess is that it'll show up around Tuesday this week and a half dozen tracking updates will all go in at once. That's how it usually happens.

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

My books were shipped Tuesday and I got them on Thursday.

Was there any change on the list of Domains from the one in the playtest? I only want to know if there are more or less or the same number of domains.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I personally hardly looked at the play test in months (play testing wasn't for us) so I can't tell you for sure but there seems to be more of everything that was in the play test.

For example clerics can now choose a doctrine to help guide them on which path to bad assery they take.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Domains appear to be the same but some of the spells have changed.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

When will the character record sheets be available online?
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Companion, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Quen Pah wrote:
When will the character record sheets be available online?

Good question. My best guess would be August 1st. At this point, the site is so buggy that I cannot even find the 1st edition character sheets.

Silver Crusade

Is there a point to expect witch class soon after core rulebook? And I'd like to see Kinetisist class
1 person marked this as a favorite.

^ I think that the soonest we can expect new classes would be sometime next year (probably in the "big book" release of 2020, so maybe a year from now?).

Not wanting to derail ^^':
I mean, the new edition only launches on the 1st of August officially, i.e. it's not actually out 'yet'.

Also, while I understand the desire to get as many of the classes that were present in P1 as soon as possible, I would prefer that the developers take some time to get them as near-perfect (& fun to play!) as possible rather than just rushing out with lackluster & disappointment.

But we'll see...

Carry on,

--C.
Sharktyan wrote:
Is there a point to expect witch class soon after core rulebook? And I'd like to see Kinetisist class

From what I have seen some of the non Core classes from 1st edition can be replicated by these classes in 2nd edition.

Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Companion Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

No tracking for international mail.

I subsist on faith alone.

That and haunting the boards actually.
4 people marked this as a favorite.

Mood.
Liberty's Edge
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Companion Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
The Raven Black wrote:

No tracking for international mail.

I subsist on faith alone.

That and haunting the boards actually.

OMG. The books were waiting for me at home. I am so happy :-D

Grinning like crazy for real.

10 days from Paizo to Normandy, France. Not bad.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Aaaargh, the package arrived today (I think. It's the only package I'm expecting that I have to pay customs for.) and I was at work. With a little luck my father will be home tomorrow to take it.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

I am slowly coming to grip with the new CRB. The organization is not intuitive for me. The index and TOC are not that helpful. Took me half an hour to find the focus powers. Great material there so it is just a learning process for me.
Liberty's Edge
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Companion Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Packing things for a business trip to Switzerland. I feel like I am handling one of Tabris' books :-P

The sum of worlds
Dark Archive

I need to be able to sit down and create a character to see how it works out. Herolab is no help for at least 2 or so weeks.
David knott 242 wrote:
Quen Pah wrote:
When will the character record sheets be available online?

Good question. My best guess would be August 1st. At this point, the site is so buggy that I cannot even find the 1st edition character sheets.

I've been endlessly searching for pdfs of character sheets. I dont have a good way of scanning the book ones and we have to wait until Aug 1 to get our PDF in our account. I find this odd since I have the physical book so it would be nice to have the pdf as well.....I guess i'll just wait to test character creation until august.

Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
GreenShaDow wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Quen Pah wrote:
When will the character record sheets be available online?

Good question. My best guess would be August 1st. At this point, the site is so buggy that I cannot even find the 1st edition character sheets.

I've been endlessly searching for pdfs of character sheets. I dont have a good way of scanning the book ones and we have to wait until Aug 1 to get our PDF in our account. I find this odd since I have the physical book so it would be nice to have the pdf as well.....I guess i'll just wait to test character creation until august.

They said they're trying for next week.

Emphasis on trying.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

People HAVE their books already?! Lucky! (And I would have expected the PF2 character sheets by now, too, but I can't find them. How are people gonna be ready to play and, more importantly, RUN for GenCon?)
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
GreenShaDow wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Quen Pah wrote:
When will the character record sheets be available online?

Good question. My best guess would be August 1st. At this point, the site is so buggy that I cannot even find the 1st edition character sheets.

I've been endlessly searching for pdfs of character sheets. I dont have a good way of scanning the book ones and we have to wait until Aug 1 to get our PDF in our account. I find this odd since I have the physical book so it would be nice to have the pdf as well.....I guess i'll just wait to test character creation until august.

I decided to do it the old fashioned way, with a notebook.

It's not as pretty, but it gets the job done!
Pathfinder Companion, Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Saint Bernard wrote:
I am slowly coming to grip with the new CRB. The organization is not intuitive for me. The index and TOC are not that helpful. Took me half an hour to find the focus powers. Great material there so it is just a learning process for me.

Yeah, I struggled to find the focus spells too, and eventually found them accidentally while randomly flipping through.

For anyone else struggling: Focus Spells are in their own section at the very end of the Spells chapter, grouped by class.
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Companion Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Will 2nd edition material be able to be converted to first, and vice versa. I know the new edition is coming up in a while, but still want to see if its possible to run through something like age of ashes with some kineticists or shifters. if not, i can understand the reasoning, but if it is possible, i will be quite pleased.

There might be a shifty druidy thing.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Just got mine yesterday and boy is it a beautiful book. As an experienced PF1 player, I can't wait to dive in.
But I can't help but feel that the sheer size of this tome (over 600 pages) has to be quite intimidating for someone brand new.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Just saw my books are out for delivery! should be waiting for me when I get home from work.. I just might be coming down with a cold.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Mine hasn't been seen since it left Fife on the 19th. My Druma book, which left Fife on the same day arrived yesterday, although the tracker still says it hasn't been delivered yet either. My book could be almost anywhere in the US. =(
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Quen Pah wrote:
There might be a shifty druidy thing.

Monks also get a Ki blast if I'm not mistaken.

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Card Game, Companion, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Just wanted to pop in and say, this book is not only gorgeous, but the layout is AWESOME. One of the best design layouts I've seen in a while. Kudos to all involved!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pawns, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Mine arrived yesterday, six days after Fife. It's a beautiful book! Looking forward to digging into it.
shadram wrote:
Saint Bernard wrote:
I am slowly coming to grip with the new CRB. The organization is not intuitive for me. The index and TOC are not that helpful. Took me half an hour to find the focus powers. Great material there so it is just a learning process for me.

Yeah, I struggled to find the focus spells too, and eventually found them accidentally while randomly flipping through.

For anyone else struggling: Focus Spells are in their own section at the very end of the Spells chapter, grouped by class.

Can you post a page #?

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber
Quen Pah wrote:
shadram wrote:
Saint Bernard wrote:
I am slowly coming to grip with the new CRB. The organization is not intuitive for me. The index and TOC are not that helpful. Took me half an hour to find the focus powers. Great material there so it is just a learning process for me.

Yeah, I struggled to find the focus spells too, and eventually found them accidentally while randomly flipping through.

For anyone else struggling: Focus Spells are in their own section at the very end of the Spells chapter, grouped by class.

Can you post a page #?

386-407.

Liberty's Edge
Saleem Halabi wrote:
Mine hasn't been seen since it left Fife on the 19th. My Druma book, which left Fife ...

What the heck is Fife??

I keep seeing people mention it ...
Liberty's Edge

Anyone here who ordered from Amazon get their book yet?
Marc Radle wrote:
Saleem Halabi wrote:
Mine hasn't been seen since it left Fife on the 19th. My Druma book, which left Fife ...

What the heck is Fife??

I keep seeing people mention it ...

A city in Washington, near where Paizo is located.

Fife

-- david
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Companion, Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Joana wrote:
Quen Pah wrote:
shadram wrote:
Saint Bernard wrote:
I am slowly coming to grip with the new CRB. The organization is not intuitive for me. The index and TOC are not that helpful. Took me half an hour to find the focus powers. Great material there so it is just a learning process for me.

Yeah, I struggled to find the focus spells too, and eventually found them accidentally while randomly flipping through.

For anyone else struggling: Focus Spells are in their own section at the very end of the Spells chapter, grouped by class.

Can you post a page #?
386-407.

I've also since noticed that some classes (e.g. Bard) give page numbers for their focus spells, but other (like Monk and Druid) do not. I read the Monk class first, but if I'd read in alphabetical order (who does that anyway?) I wouldn't have had that problem. It's also a problem you have exactly once, and then never again, so it's not a major issue.

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
shadram wrote:
...if I'd read in alphabetical order (who does that anyway?)

Lol.

*raises hand*
Liberty's Edge
Papa-DRB wrote:
Marc Radle wrote:
Saleem Halabi wrote:
Mine hasn't been seen since it left Fife on the 19th. My Druma book, which left Fife ...

What the heck is Fife??

I keep seeing people mention it ...

A city in Washington, near where Paizo is located.

Fife

-- david

Ah! Got it!!

Marc Radle wrote:
Anyone here who ordered from Amazon get their book yet?

No, but today my order status updated from 'delivery date pending' to 'will be delivered on August 1st.'

To those of you who have the book- what are your initial impressions/reviews?
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Steve Geddes wrote:
shadram wrote:
...if I'd read in alphabetical order (who does that anyway?)

Lol.

*raises hand*

Raises hand

Brocimus wrote:
To those of you who have the book- what are your initial impressions/reviews?

Format-wise it’s beautiful. The new art looks wonderful and unique!

Crunch-wise I can see why some would be a bit disappointed (legacy spells like cloudkill got nerfed, and spell durations got an overhaul), but I’ve got a feeling (call it senseless optimism if you wish) that it’ll end up better in practice than on paper. I find focus spells interesting and am curious how that’ll end up in play. As a GM I find the tight math to be better because then CR doesn’t break down horribly at higher levels. Casters have fewer spells per day but the DCs for a 1st level burning hands and a 9th level meteor swarm are the same when cast by the same caster.

I know that a good chunk of this was also in the playtest, but I still think vocalizing said things is good too.

Honestly, with my read thus far (going cover-to-cover and just getting to Ranger; sometimes jumping around occasionally) I only have a few complaints, and they’re nitpicky:

The book is GIGANTIC!
If you’re proficient in Performance then you’re just as good at singing as you are at playing a violin—which is NOT how that works!
(Not Core, but Bestiary) Of all the nine standard outsider species (demons, archons, psychopomps, etc.) literally ONLY agathions (NG species) don’t have any representation in it!
I had/have others, but I’ve forgotten; that’s how nitpicky they are.

TL;DR: It’s definitely different from 1e, but I personally think it’ll be for the better.

It is a beautiful book.
Joana wrote:
Quen Pah wrote:
shadram wrote:
Saint Bernard wrote:
I am slowly coming to grip with the new CRB. The organization is not intuitive for me. The index and TOC are not that helpful. Took me half an hour to find the focus powers. Great material there so it is just a learning process for me.

Yeah, I struggled to find the focus spells too, and eventually found them accidentally while randomly flipping through.

For anyone else struggling: Focus Spells are in their own section at the very end of the Spells chapter, grouped by class.

Can you post a page #?
386-407.

Thank you.

Pathfinder Card Game, Companion, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
shadram wrote:
Joana wrote:
Quen Pah wrote:
shadram wrote:
Saint Bernard wrote:
I am slowly coming to grip with the new CRB. The organization is not intuitive for me. The index and TOC are not that helpful. Took me half an hour to find the focus powers. Great material there so it is just a learning process for me.

Yeah, I struggled to find the focus spells too, and eventually found them accidentally while randomly flipping through.

For anyone else struggling: Focus Spells are in their own section at the very end of the Spells chapter, grouped by class.

Can you post a page #?
386-407.
I've also since noticed that some classes (e.g. Bard) give page numbers for their focus spells, but other (like Monk and Druid) do not. I read the Monk class first, but if I'd read in alphabetical order (who does that anyway?) I wouldn't have had that problem. It's also a problem you have exactly once, and then never again, so it's not a major issue.

The location of Focus Spells are also mentioned in the "Spell Lists" paragraph on pg 307. But yeah, a bit hidden, but as you say not a major issue.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

The book is indeed beautiful, but leafing through it left me with an indistinct "meh" feeling. I'll have to buckle down this weekend and read it in detail from cover to cover to form a solid opinion, but what I've read of ancestries, spells and feats doesn't give me great hopes that it'll wow me.
I can see the appeal for other people though, as it seems like a solid system.

How many page were dedicated to the gods? Did each of them get at least half-a-page?
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber
The Gold Sovereign wrote:
How many page were dedicated to the gods? Did each of them get at least half-a-page?

No, it's pretty bare-bones. They fit about three to a column, or six to a page. It's just the basics you need to make a cleric with; I would expect more detail in the Lost Omens World Guide.

2 people marked this as a favorite.

For those asking for a character sheet, they've been released here (in case you didn't read the blog or saw the front page at release).

Also, once you receive your book(s) it might be a good idea to take proper care on how you open it the first time. Here's a video showing and describing how to open such a large book to ensure the spine of the book lasts longer.

Thank you for the sheet information!
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Joana wrote:
The Gold Sovereign wrote:
How many page were dedicated to the gods? Did each of them get at least half-a-page?
No, it's pretty bare-bones. They fit about three to a column, or six to a page. It's just the basics you need to make a cleric with; I would expect more detail in the Lost Omens World Guide.

The Gods and Magic book in January is a more likely source for fleshed out details.

Got my books today!!!!
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