Pathfinder Player Core

4.50/5 (based on 8 ratings)
PZO12001
Show Description For:
Non-Mint
Facebook Twitter Email

The Pathfinder Player Core presents a new entry point to Pathfinder Second Edition, with everything a player needs to learn how to play the game! Choose from eight ancestries, eight complete character classes, and hundreds of feats and spells to make unique characters ready for deadly adventures in a world beset by magic and evil! This 464-page hardcover tome is the definitive rules resource for all Pathfinder Second Edition players!

Pathfinder Player Core is the first core rulebook for the fully remastered Pathfinder Second Edition RPG! These rules are compatible with previous Pathfinder Second Edition rulebooks, incorporating comprehensive errata and rules updates and some of the best additions from later books into new, easier-to-access volumes with new presentations inspired by years of player feedback. Along with the GM Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2, these books provide a new foundation for the future of tabletop gaming!

Pathfinder Player Core includes:

  • Easier to Learn! We’ve taken feedback from the Beginner Box and the Core Rulebook and made this new entry into the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game easier to navigate and get right into the fun.
  • Complete character creation rules, walking you through building a character by selecting your Ancestry, Background, and Class, with a focus on the bard, cleric, druid, fighter, ranger, rogue, witch, and wizard! Core ancestry options include human, dwarf, elf, gnome, goblin, halfling, leshy, and orc!
  • A mountain of options allowing you to customize your character including versatile heritages, like the changeling and nephilim, skills and feats, and hundreds of spells (including dozens of new ones), ensuring that the character you build represents your hero not just in story, but in rules as well!
  • Everything you need to know to start playing, from advice on how to explore the world to tips on surviving deadly combats with terrifying foes.
  • A primer on the world of Lost Omens so that your character can be a part of an exciting and diverse world!
  • Rules and tools to advance your character through play, taking them from a fresh-faced adventurer ready to take on the world to a veteran hero, wielding powerful magic that can reshape reality!
  • Fully integrated errata from the first 4 years of Pathfinder Second Edition, including revisions to the witch, expanded options for every character class, streamlined spells, new equipment, and more!
  • This is the first Pathfinder product published under the new Open RPG Creative (ORC) license, giving players and Game Masters even more freedom for making their own creations based on Pathfinder Second Edition.

ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-553-3

Available Formats

The Pathfinder Player Core is also available as:

Note: The character sheet from this book is available as a free PDF here.

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

Product Availability

Print Edition:

Available now

Ships from our warehouse in 3 to 5 business days.

PDF:

Fulfilled immediately.

Non-Mint:

Available now

Ships from our warehouse in 3 to 5 business days.

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.

PZO12001-HC


See Also:

1 to 5 of 9 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>

Average product rating:

4.50/5 (based on 8 ratings)

Sign in to create or edit a product review.

Player Core misses the opportunity to rebalance


This review is written from the perspective of a longtime Pathfinder 1 and 2 player and GM (and 40 years of D&D and other RPGs).

If you see my review of the Core Rulebook, I feel that Pathfinder 2 is a great game, my favorite game.

If you own the Core Rulebook, there’s no need to buy the remaster, either version will do, but this book is the latest. Basically, the remaster was created so that it's different enough from D&D so that Paizo can avoid legal problems.

While this game is still Pathfinder 2, player core 1 missed the opportunity to rebalance the game properly. Instead they buffed classes that didn’t need it (clerics, rogues, barbarians, champions) and nerfed spellcasters even more (cantrips) when they should have been buffed.

For example, the Rogue feat "Gang Up" was buffed even though it was already a must have for rogues and rogues are one of the most powerful classes in a game that is skill centric. This book also buffed clerics (healing font no longer depends on CHR), which is good, but clerics already had twice the spell pool as other casters and were already arguably the best spellcaster. What about other classes (alchemist, gunslinger, monk, swashbuckler, wizard), and especially spells in general?

Player Core changed cantrips that target AC and reduced their damage for some bizarre reason, even though spellcasters were already doing significantly less damage than martials. They also removed the ability modifier from the damage and replaced it with another die. Spellcasters needed less variability, not more, because there’s nothing worse than “critting” for a few points of damage (I crit for 4 damage this weekend with Spiritual Weapon) while martials blast away for 30+ damage.

If they were going to reduce the damage of cantrips, the least they could do is reduce cantrips (that target AC) to 1 action, which would give spellcasters more tactical choices, and make them more even with martials (even if they still do 50% of the damage). It makes sense since everyone is now targeting AC and there is an even playing field.

For someone who has been playing D&D (and Pathfinder) since both games were created, the new spell names aren’t intuitive. For example, they changed “Magic Missile” to “Force Barrage”. Why not just call it “Force Missiles” like the card game does? Another example, “Bag of Holding” is now “Spacious Pouch”, but why not change it to “Bag of Storage”? At least then everyone would know what it is, and converting to the new names would be much easier. Currently, convention players are trying to use the new names, but the new names are just plain bad, and everyone reverts to using the old names. Whenever Pathfinder 3 is written, hire someone that can pick more intuitive names for abilities, magic items, and monster, because it matters.

As you can probably tell, I feel like the remaster was a wasted opportunity to fix some problems with PF2. In high level PFS, you only see certain classes.

Also, although I know it was done mostly for the ORC license, it reminded me of D&D 3.5. It was too early for a new or updated edition.










1 to 5 of 9 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
101 to 150 of 315 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | next > last >>

1 person marked this as a favorite.
rainzax wrote:
Due to divorce from OGL, what becomes of Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation?

This thread has a discussion of the changes to the Wizard class

Remastered Wizard Reveals


1 person marked this as a favorite.
rainzax wrote:

So.

Due to divorce from OGL, what becomes of Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation?

They are gone.


Love the cover!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Any chance that Paizo will have physical/digital bundles for Pathfinder book on Demiplane like White Wolf has for their WoD books? Since Pathfinder seems to be their flagship game it would be a good incentive to sell both versions of your Pathfinder books in a bundle.

Horizon Hunters

Will this book (or maybe the GM Core, or the Monster Core) be clarifying a bit on which creatures can and cannot bleed?
RAW it’s specifically living creatures with blood that need it to live, but then some creatures that should obviously be immune to bleed are flagged as immune, which then raises the question of what the RAI is.

Are leshies immune to bleed? They have no blood, like plants and fungus, but then the violet fungus is specifically flagged as immune to bleed. Can oozes bleed? Can an osyluth bleed? Why do constructs need immunity to bleed flagged if they also would be covered by RAW? Why don’t undead get that flag if constructs do? It’s a bleeding minefield!

Can you tell I’m very excited for all of the new ORC books? Lots of love to you all!


2 people marked this as a favorite.

"Behold the god who bleeds!" -- Rudyard Kipling, "The Man Who Would Be King".

Radiant Oath

2 people marked this as a favorite.

It's my understanding that all PCs bleed, including undead, unless something specificly says they do not. Monsters and NPCs are up to the GM. My personal opinion is that leshies leak in a way that deals damage like bleeding, but not in a way that would trigger a vampire.


keltic1701 wrote:
Any chance that Paizo will have physical/digital bundles for Pathfinder book on Demiplane like White Wolf has for their WoD books? Since Pathfinder seems to be their flagship game it would be a good incentive to sell both versions of your Pathfinder books in a bundle.

I have this question as well. What becomes of the Demiplane rules? And the character generator? Do they get updated?

Grand Archive

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
LibertyBEta wrote:
keltic1701 wrote:
Any chance that Paizo will have physical/digital bundles for Pathfinder book on Demiplane like White Wolf has for their WoD books? Since Pathfinder seems to be their flagship game it would be a good incentive to sell both versions of your Pathfinder books in a bundle.
I have this question as well. What becomes of the Demiplane rules? And the character generator? Do they get updated?

The Demiplane people said they can't comment on that until they see the actual changes. They don't know yet themselves what they will do.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Elfteiroh wrote:
LibertyBEta wrote:
keltic1701 wrote:
Any chance that Paizo will have physical/digital bundles for Pathfinder book on Demiplane like White Wolf has for their WoD books? Since Pathfinder seems to be their flagship game it would be a good incentive to sell both versions of your Pathfinder books in a bundle.
I have this question as well. What becomes of the Demiplane rules? And the character generator? Do they get updated?
The Demiplane people said they can't comment on that until they see the actual changes. They don't know yet themselves what they will do.

Yeah, I believe every other partner aside from AoN have remarked the same way: They have not seen how the new rules are presented, so they have no idea how they'll go about updating their sites and apps to reflect said changes. And even AoN has only stated they are likely to have a toggle between Core and Legacy content. There's not really a concrete plan as of yet.

Maybe once we're closer to November, the variety of partners will have a better idea of how this will all shake down.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Have to say, overall pretty hyped for the remastered, lots of good changes that I'm looking forward to have. Love the changes for the wizard schools, and the love for ranger focus spells.

I'm still having some doubt about the cleric though. The warpriest "buffs" for what is announced for me are not something great (still have to wait for the specific benefits and feats). My main problem is that I don't see the master proficiency in one weapon at level 19 a great buff, and also a fair tradeoff (with armor and fortitude prof too) for the lost of the legendary proficiency in spellcasting. The problem is not much for the trade in proficiency in the class, but compared to other spellcasters that share the "melee caster" theme; warrior muse bard and battle mystery oracle don'r sacrifice spellcasting prof for armor and weapon, and they also share a spell tradition focused on buffs and healings (one being also divine and the other occult). And since the remastered is also a way to walk away from legacy elements, it's a little weird to se the attachment to this element. Would have liked a doctrine that doesn't change the proficiencies progression, but just differentiates some unique benefits a base cleric would get (also since the champion is already the divine-themed warrior, and even maybe a future inquisitor-like divine bounded spellcaster).

But again this is just one element i don't like, at a time in which i don't have the full picture of the changes. Everything else is looking great (I'm going to love the new dragons)

Radiant Oath

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I would not put warrior muse bard in the melee casters group. They are archers at best.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Has anyone heard about if the people who already have the 2e Bestiary 1 or 2E core rule book PDFs will get an update on the equivalent core book? Or if they might get a discount on the new core book in PDF?

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.

No, and most likely not.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Moth Mariner wrote:

We heard from Erik Mona that rogues will no longer have a complicated weapon proficiency list and will simply get all martial weapons access, and wizard similar but with all simple weapons.

Will the bard also get some variant of this clean up, or stay on its partial martial selection?

The answer to this turned out to be yes, and Warrior Muse is getting a new benefit.


Super excited for the Remaster! It seems you get to fully unleash the game under your own vision unfettered!

Could we ask if there were any familiar changes? I love the Witch changes, but the current rules does leave some concern for how a familiar focused class can successfully use their squishy familiar.

Thank you!

Grand Archive

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Has anyone else been trying paizo.com/corepreview after seeing it on Roll For Combats video about Rage of Elements and the remaster changes table in the intro? Keen to see what this preview will hold


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Calcryx666 wrote:
Has anyone else been trying paizo.com/corepreview after seeing it on Roll For Combats video about Rage of Elements and the remaster changes table in the intro? Keen to see what this preview will hold

This page I guess. but redirects to paizo.com for now.

Wait until one of subbies get one.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Laclale♪ wrote:
Calcryx666 wrote:
Has anyone else been trying paizo.com/corepreview after seeing it on Roll For Combats video about Rage of Elements and the remaster changes table in the intro? Keen to see what this preview will hold

This page I guess. but redirects to paizo.com for now.

Wait until one of subbies get one.

It sounds like the page will go live 5 minutes after the Paizo keynote address at GenCon.

Grand Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Evan Tarlton wrote:
Laclale♪ wrote:
Calcryx666 wrote:
Has anyone else been trying paizo.com/corepreview after seeing it on Roll For Combats video about Rage of Elements and the remaster changes table in the intro? Keen to see what this preview will hold

This page I guess. but redirects to paizo.com for now.

Wait until one of subbies get one.

It sounds like the page will go live 5 minutes after the Paizo keynote address at GenCon.

Yep from what Logan was saying during Paizo Live June they are still deciding what might be in this document, either way I’m looking forward to this!

Grand Archive

Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Do we know if this and GM Core will be part of October subscriptions or November? Just planning ahead


Calcryx666 wrote:
Do we know if this and GM Core will be part of October subscriptions or November? Just planning ahead

November.

Director of Marketing

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Calcryx666 wrote:
Evan Tarlton wrote:
Laclale♪ wrote:
Calcryx666 wrote:
Has anyone else been trying paizo.com/corepreview after seeing it on Roll For Combats video about Rage of Elements and the remaster changes table in the intro? Keen to see what this preview will hold

This page I guess. but redirects to paizo.com for now.

Wait until one of subbies get one.

It sounds like the page will go live 5 minutes after the Paizo keynote address at GenCon.
Yep from what Logan was saying during Paizo Live June they are still deciding what might be in this document, either way I’m looking forward to this!

The page is live and the free Core Preview PDF is targeted to drop August 3, the first day of Gen Con.

Horizon Hunters

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Aaron Shanks wrote:
Calcryx666 wrote:
Evan Tarlton wrote:
Laclale♪ wrote:
Calcryx666 wrote:
Has anyone else been trying paizo.com/corepreview after seeing it on Roll For Combats video about Rage of Elements and the remaster changes table in the intro? Keen to see what this preview will hold

This page I guess. but redirects to paizo.com for now.

Wait until one of subbies get one.

It sounds like the page will go live 5 minutes after the Paizo keynote address at GenCon.
Yep from what Logan was saying during Paizo Live June they are still deciding what might be in this document, either way I’m looking forward to this!
The page is live and the free Core Preview PDF is targeted to drop August 3, the first day of Gen Con.

If it's live why do I still get redirected to the Player Core page?

Director of Marketing

4 people marked this as a favorite.
firelark01 wrote:
Aaron Shanks wrote:
Calcryx666 wrote:
Evan Tarlton wrote:
Laclale♪ wrote:
Calcryx666 wrote:
Has anyone else been trying paizo.com/corepreview after seeing it on Roll For Combats video about Rage of Elements and the remaster changes table in the intro? Keen to see what this preview will hold

This page I guess. but redirects to paizo.com for now.

Wait until one of subbies get one.

It sounds like the page will go live 5 minutes after the Paizo keynote address at GenCon.
Yep from what Logan was saying during Paizo Live June they are still deciding what might be in this document, either way I’m looking forward to this!
The page is live and the free Core Preview PDF is targeted to drop August 3, the first day of Gen Con.
If it's live why do I still get redirected to the Player Core page?

https://paizo.com/corepreview


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Have people been able to preorder these yet? I’ve tried but have been unsuccessful.

Director of Marketing

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Glee_Harvey_Oswald wrote:
Have people been able to preorder these yet? I’ve tried but have been unsuccessful.

It is a bit early for our e-commerce system—one of the reasons we will move to a new one. For now you should be able to "save it for later" in your cart, or better yet, subscribe to the rulebooks line.


Where can we look at PF2e core remaster preview pdf?

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Daniel T8888 wrote:
Where can we look at PF2e core remaster preview pdf?

Here you go.

Linky


Aaron, can you update core remaster preview to answer this?

This needs addition of Wood and Metal

  • Elemental Form (spell)
  • Elemental Motion (spell)
  • The Oracle's Battle mystery, with Metal
  • The Druid's Leaf order, with Wood

Director of Marketing

6 people marked this as a favorite.
Laclale♪ wrote:

Aaron, can you update core remaster preview to answer this?

This needs addition of Wood and Metal

  • Elemental Form (spell)
  • Elemental Motion (spell)
  • The Oracle's Battle mystery, with Metal
  • The Druid's Leaf order, with Wood

Can I personally? No. Likewise, the Editorial Team does not have an errata for the Core Preview PDF planned. Final content will be delivered in November with the remastered Core releases!


Will these be getting spell cards?


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

First Pathfinder book published under the ORC!!! I don't know why, but seeing the different product lines switch to the ORC license is very exciting form me.

Liberty's Edge

Brinebeast wrote:
First Pathfinder book published under the ORC!!! I don't know why, but seeing the different product lines switch to the ORC license is very exciting form me.

Shedding the old skin. The prelude to new growth.

Silver Crusade

keftiu wrote:
Nephilim…

Formerly known as aasimar and tiefling?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jander Reiss wrote:
keftiu wrote:
Nephilim…
Formerly known as aasimar and tiefling?

Yes (& possibly may come to include other planar scions in future releases...).

Carry on,

--C.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I still want to know who decided Sorcerer isn't a core 1 class. I JUST WANT TO TALK.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
falco1029 wrote:
I still want to know who decided Sorcerer isn't a core 1 class. I JUST WANT TO TALK.

Pretty sure it's because the Draconic Bloodline needs some reworking since chromatic/metallic dragons are tied to the OGL and Paizo needs extra time to get their new dragons right. Same goes for Barbarians.


Also because having two different spellcasting systems but just one class that benefits from the other one isn't the best idea for a book that's supposed to get new players into the game easily.

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Totally Not Gorbacz wrote:
Also because having two different spellcasting systems but just one class that benefits from the other one isn't the best idea for a book that's supposed to get new players into the game easily.

And yet, with Bards being in Core 1, that’s exactly what’s happened.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

What if PF2.1 Bard is a prepared caster?

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Totally Not Gorbacz wrote:
What if PF2.1 Bard is a prepared caster?

Then your point would stand. But you'd think Paizo would have mentioned that level of change by now.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
falco1029 wrote:
I still want to know who decided Sorcerer isn't a core 1 class. I JUST WANT TO TALK.

On a serious note:

Fighter and Rogue need to be there to provide baseline classes.
They wanted a dedicated caster for each spell list, so that's: Bard, Cleric, Druid and Wizard.
As they had the Druid they wanted to include the other pet class, the Ranger.
That left one slot and they had a desire to include one of the former APG classes, so in comes the Witch and the Sorcerer gets delayed to Core 2.


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

The main reason the sorcerer gets delayed to Player Core 2 is the draconic bloodline, for which they want to have the new dragons published first in Monster Core.

Dark Archive

Hope to see in the remastered the form spells to all have scaling with intensified effects up to 8/9/10 spell ranks. Cause right now after a form stops scaling, you are better off with choosing a different spell, which can be kinda negative to someone that likes one or some forms (thinking of animal form for example)


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Ricbau6 wrote:
Hope to see in the remastered the form spells to all have scaling with intensified effects up to 8/9/10 spell ranks. Cause right now after a form stops scaling, you are better off with choosing a different spell, which can be kinda negative to someone that likes one or some forms (thinking of animal form for example)

Weeeelllll.... darkened forest form (and the three form spells contained therein) makes me guess that form spells still have their intended level ranges of use

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
WWHsmackdown wrote:
Ricbau6 wrote:
Hope to see in the remastered the form spells to all have scaling with intensified effects up to 8/9/10 spell ranks. Cause right now after a form stops scaling, you are better off with choosing a different spell, which can be kinda negative to someone that likes one or some forms (thinking of animal form for example)
Weeeelllll.... darkened forest form (and the three form spells contained therein) makes me guess that form spells still have their intended level ranges of use

Yeah, that didn't leave me with much hope left :/


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Mika Hawkins wrote:
Announced for November! Product image and description are NOT final and may be subject to change.

I am all in!


@Aaron - a question that was raised a couple of weeks ago while discussing Rage of Elements release. Have you been able to confirm if the PDFs for the new Core books will suffer the same image compression issues as we saw with the Rage of Elements PDF?

Director of Marketing

6 people marked this as a favorite.
AJCarrington wrote:
@Aaron - a question that was raised a couple of weeks ago while discussing Rage of Elements release. Have you been able to confirm if the PDFs for the new Core books will suffer the same image compression issues as we saw with the Rage of Elements PDF?

Yes, I have confirmed that we have been able to use our normal (pre-Rage)compression for the Player Core and GM Core.

1 to 50 of 315 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Paizo / Product Discussion / Pathfinder Player Core All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.