Pathfinder GM Core

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PZO12002
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Unleash your imagination, creating worlds and stories beyond measure with the new Pathfinder GM Core for Pathfinder Second Edition! This comprehensive 336-page hardcover rulebook gives Game Masters everything they need to craft thrilling tales of adventure, from a single-night’s dungeon delve to complex epics spanning years. Within these pages you’ll find clear guidelines for creating new hazards and monsters, tools to design challenging, balanced encounters, and rules for rewarding characters for the dastardly challenges you array before them! Pathfinder GM Core also contains a dragon’s hoard of magic items and treasure to entice and reward your players, from simple healing potions to magic weapons and armor and legendary artifacts, including dozens of brand-new items!

Pathfinder GM Core is the second 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 Player Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2, these books provide a new foundation for the future of tabletop gaming!

Pathfinder GM Core includes:

  • The rules needed to run a game of Pathfinder, including guidelines for creating challenging encounters, determining success, and giving out rewards.
  • Advice aimed at making you an incredible Game Master, along with tools to ensure you and everyone else at your table has a safe and enjoyable experience.
  • Guidelines to help you create your own content, from campaigns and adventures to hazards and monsters.
  • Rules subsystems to help you handle a wide array of game situations, including rules for chases, duels, research, infiltration, and more!
  • A guide to the world of Lost Omens, with a look at several important regions, an examination of the peoples and cultures of the world, and a glimpse into what lies beyond the veil of the universe!
  • Fully integrated errata from the first 4 years of Pathfinder Second Edition, including improvements to staves and talismans and all-new apex magic items!
  • 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: 978-1-64078-558-8

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A Gift to New GM's

5/5

I am completely new to ttrpgs, but I've been wanting to run a campaign with friends ever since getting a taste for what an RPG can be from Larian's BG3. A big problem was: how the hell do we do that?

After some investigating I decided to take a chance on Pathfinder, and I'm glad I did because the GM Core is a great guide to running the game. As a new GM, I think reading about how to actually structure everything has built my confidence because I was previously worried about the rules of an RPG being too vague/abstract/improvised. Now the game actually feels possible to run with this book, like a manageable floor to get started on, but with a high ceiling for depth in the future.

The physical quality of the book is very nice as well. The art on the front cover is great, and there are more great pieces throughout.

Essentially, if you have a group that wants to run an RPG but you're not sure how, the GM Core (and Player Core) will absolutely help you get there. The rules and advice are yours forever, and you will not regret the purchase.








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Paizo Employee Sales & eCommerce Assistant

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Announced for November! Product image and description are NOT final and may be subject to change.

Director of Marketing

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Blog: Announcing the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I hope this version of the GMG will have guidelines for the number of encounters a party is expected to be able to handle in a day. My tables and the tables of many others have experienced enough problems with having too many encounters in a day through the APs for it to not be a noticed issue. Even the barest guidelines for how many spells are expected to be expended for an encounter type would be of great assistance here.


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

I hope this includes more defined Hex Grid rules for those of us who use them.


From reading this book's description and the Player Core description, it looks like items (magic items, potions, etc.) are all being moved to this book?

Director of Marketing

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Melithian wrote:
From reading this book's description and the Player Core description, it looks like items (magic items, potions, etc.) are all being moved to this book?

I understand some items for adventurers who are just starting out will remain in the Player Core. Most will be moved.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Quote:
Fully integrated errata from the first 4 years of Pathfinder Second Edition, including improvements to staves and talismans and all-new apex magic items!

Please dear god do not tell me that we're not only putting mechanics which SHOULD BE PC VISIBLE in this book, but also the entire magic equipment section, which should be standard inclusion in player-side books? God please do not tell us that our players have to buy the GM book just to have things they should have anyways, and make us loop back to the D&D GM-weighted stress of having to answer all the player questions instead of them having their own access right there in the CRB.

Radiant Oath

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Ravien999 wrote:
Quote:
Fully integrated errata from the first 4 years of Pathfinder Second Edition, including improvements to staves and talismans and all-new apex magic items!
Please dear god do not tell me that we're not only putting mechanics which SHOULD BE PC VISIBLE in this book, but also the entire magic equipment section, which should be standard inclusion in player-side books? God please do not tell us that our players have to buy the GM book just to have things they should have anyways, and make us loop back to the D&D GM-weighted stress of having to answer all the player questions instead of them having their own access right there in the CRB.

The players could look it up on AoN?


8 people marked this as a favorite.
Ravien999 wrote:


which SHOULD BE PC VISIBLE i
which should be standard inclusion in player-side books
do not tell us that our players have to buy the GM book
things they should have anyways
GM-weighted stress of having to answer all the player questions
having their own access right there in the CRB.

Good news!

Archives of Nethys solves all those problems.
Your players don't have to buy more books, and you don't have to answer questions.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Each book will cost $60. That is about $240+ for the 4 books. How does that compare with what we have now? CRB and Bestiary I and APG?


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:
Each book will cost $60. That is about $240+ for the 4 books. How does that compare with what we have now? CRB and Bestiary I and APG?

CRB, APG, GMG, and the first two Bestiaries are considered the original PF2 'core.'


2 people marked this as a favorite.
keftiu wrote:
Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:
Each book will cost $60. That is about $240+ for the 4 books. How does that compare with what we have now? CRB and Bestiary I and APG?
CRB, APG, GMG, and the first two Bestiaries are considered the original PF2 'core.'

All three Bestiaries were considered core, BTW. Monster books like Book of the Dead, and I'm guessing Rage of Elements, are not considered core.

Monster Core 1 will be all of Bestiary 1, and some of Bestiary 2 (mostly the most iconic stuff that couldn't fit in B1).


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Wherever they put it I pray to Torag that they will fix crafting.


Ed Reppert wrote:
Wherever they put it I pray to Torag that they will fix crafting.

Wouldn't count on it, sadly.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Icarus Dreams wrote:
I hope this version of the GMG will have guidelines for the number of encounters a party is expected to be able to handle in a day. My tables and the tables of many others have experienced enough problems with having too many encounters in a day through the APs for it to not be a noticed issue. Even the barest guidelines for how many spells are expected to be expended for an encounter type would be of great assistance here.

I mean that is very party dependent. My groups tend to push on until they have zero resources left and frequently go through 6-10 encounters a day.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

When will the pocket editions be available for pre-order, I am just a little excited for them :)


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
GGSigmar wrote:
Ed Reppert wrote:
Wherever they put it I pray to Torag that they will fix crafting.
Wouldn't count on it, sadly.

I believe crafting changes were mentioned, but I could be wrong. The Treasure Vault Crafting is also really good change

Dark Archive

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

just pointing out if you notice the text by the preorder button it says October and your post says November and I know Jason in the live stream said October and then corrected it and said November as well.

Anyways just point it out so you might want to change it. It is the same on the Players Core Book 1 as well.


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Unfortunately, Treasure Vault's crafting changes don't, IMO, fix the problems with the skill. They help, a little, but...


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

The discrepancy between the two availability dates on the product page has been around forever. Not entirely sure where it comes from, or why they haven't fixed it.


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

Will the automatic bonus progression from the Gamemastery Guide be included in this book?

Paizo Employee Sales & eCommerce Assistant

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Ed Reppert wrote:
The discrepancy between the two availability dates on the product page has been around forever. Not entirely sure where it comes from, or why they haven't fixed it.

Hello! I can answer this one!

The Paizo dot com is drawing the "preorder" month from the fact that the authorization run for November subscriptions is going to be ~10/26. The actual product will release as part of November subscriptions (with a public street date of 11/15). (:

Director of Marketing

3 people marked this as a favorite.
AKA_Kira wrote:
When will the pocket editions be available for pre-order, I am just a little excited for them :)

Per the FAQs, Pocket Editions will now release 90 days after the hardcover. Since this hardcover street date is November, you might anticipate pocket edition product pages in a couple of months.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Dancing Wind wrote:


Good news!
Archives of Nethys solves all those problems.
Your players don't have to buy more books, and you don't have to answer questions.

Not really a good excuse for bad book division. Contrary to popular belief, there are people that actually enjoy using Paizo's books and not being forced to go to a website.

Silver Crusade

9 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

And you still can.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

And then you don't need to buy any book.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
The Raven Black wrote:
And then you don't need to buy any book.

Except I do - for two reasons

As someone who often engages in society, especially in meatspace games, I effectively do have to, as I have to stay current with RAW and if I'm going to be passing judgement on rules, I need to have an updated copy of said rules.

And secondly, the issue is about player ignorance - as a GM, this forces me to tell players 'oh yeah you have to buy the gm book or buy an outdated book that's out of print to get the magic items in your book' - or force them to a website which is an absolutely horrible UI for actually reading and learning anything. AoN is terrible for anything other than moment-of-time lookups.


6 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Ravien999 wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:
And then you don't need to buy any book.

Except I do - for two reasons

As someone who often engages in society, especially in meatspace games, I effectively do have to, as I have to stay current with RAW and if I'm going to be passing judgement on rules, I need to have an updated copy of said rules.

And secondly, the issue is about player ignorance - as a GM, this forces me to tell players 'oh yeah you have to buy the gm book or buy an outdated book that's out of print to get the magic items in your book' - or force them to a website which is an absolutely horrible UI for actually reading and learning anything. AoN is terrible for anything other than moment-of-time lookups.

By this logic you've bought every errata'd core book then? I've been running pf2e for over a year. I don't think a single player of mine has purchased a book.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Ravien999's reference to "society" leads me to believe he's talking about organized play, which iirc has a rule that if a player wants his character to have something -- like a feat, or an item, or whatever -- the player has to own the book from which the something is sourced.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Ed Reppert wrote:
Ravien999's reference to "society" leads me to believe he's talking about organized play, which iirc has a rule that if a player wants his character to have something -- like a feat, or an item, or whatever -- the player has to own the book from which the something is sourced.

I considered that, but many of their complaints don't make sense in that context either.

For example, they are upset that they will now have to

Quote:
tell players 'oh yeah you have to buy the gm book or buy an outdated book that's out of print to get the magic items in your book' - or force them to a website which is an absolutely horrible UI for actually reading and learning anything.

But the players already have to either reference AoN or own the books to use options in PFS. Those rules are already in place so whether the remaster is coming or not is irrelevant to that complaint.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I mean to be fair, original 2e gamemastery guide was pretty skipable. Great if you're doing homebrew, but really just the core rulebook and maybe apg was all you needed as a player. Putting magic items in gm core does make it more important for players to buy. But yes, everything will be available on aon.


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

Also, Pathfinder Society Character Options state:

Ownership of the Core Sources is not required for Character Option use in the Pathfinder Society campaign, as long as rules are referenced from the official Pathfinder Resource Document (prd).
The Core Sources currently are: the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Bestiary, and Lost Omens World Guide

I think the Monster Core will be added and there is no need to address Lost Omens World Guide as that is unaffected, but we don’t know yet how that statement will be amended, clarified, and/or updated when these 2 new Core Player books come out since the Core Rulebook and the Advanced Players Guide (which is not a part of the above statement) are being divided between Player Core 1 and Player Core 2. I mean, will either or both of those new books be added to that statement about core sources? I think so, but don’t know for sure because it has not been addressed yet, to the best of my knowledge. And if magic items are going to be put in the GM Core, it seems to me that that information should also be added to the Society’s statement, as well. Furthermore, new material and existing material from other books is being added to and amended in these new books, too. (i.e. Gnoll/Kholo, Nephilim, Iruxi, Hobgoblins, a new and as yet unnamed versatile heritage, etc.) What from that will be considered core source material or not for society play; all, none, some?

Paizo Employee Organized Play Coordinator

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Ashanderai wrote:
What from that will be considered core source material or not for society play; all, none, some?

Great question! We can't make these decisions until the books are finished, and they won't go to the printer for at least another month. We know people are eager for information on how the remaster will affect Pathfinder Society play, and as soon as we know, we'll tell you. For now, please be patient until we can review the books ourselves and provide more guidance.

Wayfinders Contributor

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Whatever happens, we know you'll do a thorough job considering what the core assumption will be, Alex.


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Patient? What is this thing? :-)

Sovereign Court

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Ravien999 wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:
And then you don't need to buy any book.

Except I do - for two reasons

As someone who often engages in society, especially in meatspace games, I effectively do have to, as I have to stay current with RAW and if I'm going to be passing judgement on rules, I need to have an updated copy of said rules..

So if you would have had to buy the next printing anyway, since each new printing incorporates errata, is there a functional difference here?

Community and Social Media Specialist

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Removed a harassing post

Paizo Employee Sales & eCommerce Assistant

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hey I heard you all like final cover art
ENJOY!

Liberty's Edge

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Mika Hawkins wrote:

hey I heard you all like final cover art

ENJOY!

Majestic.

Thank you.


Love the green vibes on the cover!!

What kind of new Dragon is on the cover??


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Vanvakaris wrote:

Love the green vibes on the cover!!

What kind of new Dragon is on the cover??

That is a Mirage Dragon, the perfect companion for the Runelord of Pride.


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, PF Special Edition Subscriber

Do we know if there are to be special editions of the new core books?


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This is one of the most majestic pieces of fantasy TTRP I have seen since some of Easley's stuff in the 80s.


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Please tell me there's an Appendix N-style reading list in this one. I love reading lists and it has been sorely missed (by me, maybe others?) in 2e.

Paizo Employee Sales & eCommerce Assistant

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Kronyn wrote:
Do we know if there are to be special editions of the new core books?

Hello!

Yes, there will be both special and pocket edition versions of all four Remaster titles (Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core, Player Core 2), but their product pages are not yet up. Note that in all cases the special edition will be a separate product from the announced retailer Sketch version. (:


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

So $60 for the hardcover, $80 for the special edition, $27 for the pocket edition, $60 for the FLGS edition, or $227 for all the available forms of one book. Times 4. $908. Hm. I should probably cancel at least one of the two subs involved. Decisions, decisions.


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Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Ed Reppert wrote:
So $60 for the hardcover, $80 for the special edition, $27 for the pocket edition, $60 for the FLGS edition, or $227 for all the available forms of one book. Times 4. $908. Hm. I should probably cancel at least one of the two subs involved. Decisions, decisions.

Or maybe you don't really need four versions of the same book?

Says the person who owns more than 30 different versions of The Lord of the Rings...


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Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

But, but... :-)


4 people marked this as a favorite.

Figured this is a good place to bring this up.

Putting an acronym in the title is not good from an accessibility standpoint. Should probably be "Gamemastery Core" or "Game Master Core". I presume there's no way to change this now before this goes to print. Figured the name was just an abbreviation before I saw the final product page.

Also, do we know if this or the Monster Core 1 will have anything on what monster abilities are appropriate for what minimum levels? The numbers guidance provided is solid enough, but what would be nice is something like what action-compressions are acceptable at what levels? Like what level does one go from Grab to Improved Grab, at least roughly? Draconic Momentum, Double Slice, the Amalgam's Too Many Limbs, the Doprillu's Whirling Strike and Whirlwind Throw, what levels are any of these okay at? What condition numbers are okay at what levels. For example, if you go up levels you'll note that monsters start capping the drained they inflict at 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, but there is no indication in the monster creation guides about when this is fine. What is acceptable scaling for poisons and the conditions attached? Things like that make creating homebrew monsters much harder.

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