1. You should concentrate only on the Core Rulebook in the beginning (and the Bestiary, if you plan on being the GM), until you have a clear grasp on the basic mechanics. This would include playing some games using only the Core Rulebook before you start branching out.
As for how to read the book, the Classes, Combat, and Magic chapters would be the most important, while you could skip most of the Feats chapter (reading only those you plan to use early on), most of the Spell Descriptions chapter (similarly reading only those spells you plan to use early on), and the Magic Items chapter.
2. I can't really give you any advice on this, as I've only used published campaign worlds. I would, however, suggest only using the broadest of lines for most of the world, and beginning with detailing only the parts of the world most relevant to the initial adventures you're planning.
3. The ogre is supposed to be an easy encounter for 4 level 3's, and it should be a difficult encounter for 5 level 1's.
Any encounter can become easy in the right circumstances and/or if one side is lucky.
That said, for the ogre specifically, did you account for its reach?
4. Generally, as long as the player has fun playing the character, everything works.
5. I'll let someone else tackle this one.
6. I prefer rolling all my dice in the open. Some prefer covering them. You'll have to find the style that works for you (and your group).
Question 1: read all of the optimization guides you can find and then look up what they're talking about on the srd. Or books if you prefer.
Question 2: no experience with that.
Question 3: no experience with that either, but there are resources for that.
Question 4: entirely player and group dependent. As such stereotypical answers likely won't work anyway.
Question 5: have the villain be the fish monger. You must rescue the other fishing captains and their companies from his tyrannous rule. Kinda sounds like Forrest Gump to me.
Question 6: hide them, but so that you can make adjustments on the fly. Not hiding them is a great way to accidentally tpk your party.
1. Assuming you cant start with the begginer box (this is the best way to start, it gets you playing in 15 minutes or less and you learn the rest as you go), then here is my recomendation.
Read the combat section of the rules first. This is where most of the things you need to know and will use on a regular basis is. Then read the start of the magic chapter. You dont need to read through all the spells, just how magic and spells work. That is only a small portion of everything in the core rules.
Then pick your class. You can start another thread to ask for suggestions. Read through that class. Make your character (possibly with further help from your friend or these boards). Read whatever feats/spells you specifically choose.
You do not need to learn every rule. NO ONE knows every rule by heart. Even Jason Bulman(lead designer) and Sean K Reynolds(all around rules guru and also a lead developer for paizo) reference the book from time to time. You dont have to have it memorized.
Play for a while. As things come up, ask your friend questions, make notes of stuff to look up later. In time you'll learn the rules.
I have not read the core rules cover to cover, though I guess in the years i've been playing ive probably read every word. But I know the rules quite well. You dont have to just slog through it page by page.
2. There is the concentric circle theory of world design. Start iwth one location, a city or province. Detail it, then expand out, the woods near by, the mountains to the south, the neiboring rival province. But do everything that is closest first. Start your game in that first location, and start fleshing out your world in the order of necessity from there.
3. Hard to say without more details. But know this. The game is balanced around a party of 4 players of 15 point buy that are not heavily optimized (not every option chosen is designed to make them the best at their prefered specialization). In addition, the standard party is Guy who fights (fighter) guy who sort of fights and casts divine spells (cleric), guy who sort of fights and has skills (rogue) and guy who casts arcane spells (wizard). The more your party deviates from that the less the cr system will help you.
That said, if I could have a signature on these boards, it would be that single monster encounters are NEVER a good idea. Even against just a 4 person party, the action economy makes a massive difference. Basically even if the ogre can do really powerful things compared to the party, the party gets to do 4 things, the ogre can only do one (gets 1 turn). In this case you had 5 level 1 characters. If the ogre gets a bad initiative roll (or the party gets good ones) thats 5 actions that happen before the ogre gets to do anything. If they all are attacks (remember the standard party only has one guy that attacks really well and does it every turn), then the enemy is going to go down. Mind you if that ogre got to attack, he might have killed a level 1 pc in a single blow. Hence the problem with single monster encounters. Several weaker monsters are almost universally a better idea then 1 stronger monster for encounters.
Eventually you might get good enough at designing encounters to overcome the action economy vs threat to single party member problem, but if you are new, stick to multiple monsters.
4. Play them and find out. I like paizo's backstory for gnomes personally, the idea that they HAVE to experience new or exciting things or essentially die, is really interesting.
5. To start with you probably want a more focused adventure with a set path. Its hard to run an open world game. As you are learning, again its better to do something easier. If you are struggling with creating your first adventures, grab a paizo module, the dragons demand is a great starting point. Run it or use if for ideas, but it will give you a better view of what makes a good adventure then anything I could write here.
6. Hide. There are some things players shouldnt be able to know. Attack bonuses, saves etc of npcs is one of them. In addition, sometimes you have to fudge rolls as a dm (usually i do this when I have made a mistake either in the encounter with a rule or when I misjudged how difficult something was going to be and it went badly for my party). Rolling in the open removes this option.
Let's say i'm starting to learn pathfinder and how to play for the first time my friend lent me a pile of books to help, how do i go about reading them.
You read
the core rule book front to back
the combat chapter of the core rule book
the combat chapter of the core rule book
Learning every single rule would drive me insane, So how should i go about it.
Play. Play a lot.
How do i read it and what books should i read after Core and in what order?
The advanced players guide, which covers archtypes and whatnot. (they're modifications/customations to the classes)
Tips on building your own world?, For me so far to get a start point.
Start with a theme or major historical event.
How to balance your game.
Don't play at levels where the rules get horribly unbalanced (post 12)
Gnome or Halfling I was curious how other people opinions on this because between all the races in the core rule book these 2 stick out as my favored but between them i dunno which one i like more and don't know which one would be more entertaining to role play.
They're very similar.
Question 5:
If you were a dm how would you make.. Oh say a small fishing village very deep and a creation point for a recurring villain
He's the one in the village that everyone works for: he owns the boats the docks, the inns. He's a big fish in a small pond that owns everything in sight, but grumbles that he was meant for better things.
Hiding or showing the Dice?
I tend to show.
I was trying the fighter, i wanted to put away my shield and use my long sword with both hands and use said long sword as a two handed weapon how would damage work different then using it with 1 hand?
When wielding the sword in 1 hand, you add your STR modifier to damage.
When wielding the sword in 2 hands, you would instead add your STR modifier times 1,5.
So, if you have a 14 STR (+2 modifier), you would normally add +2 damage, but when wielded in 2 hands you would add +3 damage instead.
The rolling of Stats vs a point buy?
Are you lawful or chaotic?
How to deal with over powered or very under powered players?
I think you kind of need to leave that one where it lies. The DM playing communist government tends to feel unfair to the folks getting held back.
Well, it's something he can do, but he'll die horribly as soon as something doesn't respond to his diplomancy. Incidentally, fighters do not get diplomacy as a class skill. Doesn't mean they can't do it, but other classes will do it better. He's going to be at least medium encumbered, which means major penalties to everything he tries to do, and he'll have at most 10 HP at first level. You can survive as a fighter with 10 HP, but not with such a low Dex and trying to talk everything to death.
I assume you did 15 point buy. If these are new players, just give them the Heroic array from the CRB, it's what all the NPCs with player class levels are built on. Alternatively, do 20 point buy, but require no scores above 18 or below 8 AFTER racial modifiers. And if a character is going to try to be a diplomancer, they need to try it as a bard, cleric, sorceror, rogue, or something like that.
Alright i been reading though but i can't for the life remember much stuff i'm quizzing myself currently if i can name every racial trait all the Core rulebook races has and the attack bonus each class has at level 5 but it sorta hopeless on that. memorizing the core rulebook is impossible for but also i have 12 other books to get though as well.
you don't need to memorize the core rulebook: thats why its a book. its there for you to remember. Just get a general idea of the races classes feats etc.
Memorizing it isn't necessary. Familiarizing yourself with it is, though, so that you have a general idea of which area in the book to turn to if you need a particular rule.
As I tried to mention above, you should probably keep the "12 other books" on the shelf until you've run several sessions using only the Core Rulebook (and Bestiary, if you're the DM). Only once you're comfortable with that should you begin adding other books.
1. Don't memorize or read the entire book. Read the chapter headings, then skip to the one that says "combat." Skim it for the pictures and any paragraph titles. Then pick up your dice and start playing.
2. Draw a roundish bit with some blobs close together; that's a section of land with some trees. Now add some squiggly lines (roads, water), some jagged lines (hills, mountains) and maybe some hash marks or another roundish bit (swamps, lakes, and coast). Throw down some names in any fantasy style you fancy and mark your first settlement with a dot. Start playing.
3. Balance your game with the help of a pair of mates I always have with me at the table: Mr Trial and Mr Error. Start playing.
4. Whichever ones get my players to the table. Start Playing.
5. Its good that you fear your own villains; you're on the right track there. As to how to make 'em well there's a section in the back of the CRB that says "Creating NPCs". Go there, look at the pic of the party girl in the pink frock, then wing it; only this time, do it with a sneer and pretend you have a hook for a hand. Start playing.
6. Always hide what you DON'T want the players to see. Never hide what you do. Start Playing.
So to sum up...Start playing.
I can't stress it enough - this is a game. Remember games when you were a kid? Not video games or board/sport/grown-up games; y'know, the ones that kill it with all the rules? But the ones you played when you were 5 and a rock was either a mountain, or a laser gun, or your best friend, or a freaking weapon since your bloody brother wouldn't stop with the freaking arm-twists...
Anyway, the games where you just made it all up and got silly or sad for no good reason at all. Games that your mom told you not to play or your face would stay that way. Games where, days later you were STILL playing. Yeah, THOSE games.
Well, Pathfinder is sort of a mix of those and an RPG. It's right in the Core somewhere (I never read the darn thing so I've no idea where) where they say something like "and if you don't like the rules in here, then make it up." So...
1. If you LIKE reading, start at the beginning and go left to right, front to back. (Unless you're reading this in a different country, at which point I apologize if I've offended or confused you)
2. There's no good answer here, other than to say prep as much as makes you happy. I'm an overprepper but I know this about myself, so I ALWAYS make a point to start small (a village, a single landmark, a couple plot threads, and go) but if you ENJOY big, go big!
3. If you want to strive for balance then you simply must play, a lot. There's no other way. You see, you're ogre might have been unlucky, your players might have gotten more actions than it, or perhaps you as a new GM didn't know all it's moves. Any of these are acceptable answers. But what if all 5 of your PCs had failed to beat it's initiative and the ogre happened to be in charging distance of the wizard at the outset? In my game that's called "1 down, 4 to go..."
4. Frankly I like Halflings. I'm a sucker for an underdog and love me a mean-weenie build like a Halfling slinger. But then there are some who insist "fun" is a barbarian optimized for DPR in the middle of a horde of goblin warrior 1's. Whatever flavor ice cream you like doesn't matter so long as you dive in with a spoon.
5. In all seriousness this one's hard. But again; it comes with experience. I was so afraid of an ACTUAL NPC build I didn't actually start customizing my villain monsters with classes, swapped powers and re-skinned styles until a couple years ago, and I've been playing 3x and Pathfinder for 10 years now! Villains for now can be the smarter monsters in the book or just an interesting character you want to try out. As time goes on you'll pick it up.
6. This one really depends more on your players and your own style than anything else. If you're all brand new you really don't have a style, so do what seems to make sense to you.
My best advice (besides to start playing) is to bag all the advice. Grab a sheet of paper and sketch a little dungeon. Doesn't have to be massive; about 6 rooms should be fine. The map doesn't even have to look good. Then put a single intelligent monster in it - this doesn't have to be a rocket scientist, just something that would make a lair instead of just a place to sleep.
Then just...work outward. Why did that monster choose this place? What are it's resources and motivations? What do other sentient beings nearby do about it? Now add in a couple support creatures (like beings to the villain or intelligent guards) and a secondary monster (like a trained pet wolf or an attack-ooze or something) that works with the theme of the place. Finally draw a larger map showing where the dungeon is in relation to where the players start.
This "dungeon" is actually a series of interconnected locales in the heart of a dense copse of trees. The "rooms" can be a meadow, a collection of misty bogs, the cavernous bole and chambers under the roots o an enormous, gnarled oak tree and finally the lair of the "king" himself.
Primary Monster: a wyvern; Int 7 but it has cultivated a devious system of hidden "tunnels" through the middle canopy so it doesn't have fly about but rather skulks and poisons it's prey then wings away until it's foes drop. It's become a prolific hunter and has cowed other intelligent beings into worshipping it like a forest spirit they must appease to survive. His nest is in the upper boughs of the oak.
Support monsters: a small band of boggards worship the king and patrol his hunting ground keeping intelligent foes at bay. They make great use of the bogs sometimes drowning folks here to feast on their victims while sacrificing the treasure of their prey to their king. These boggards make their lair in the sodden chambers beneath the wyvern's oak.
Secondary monster: a satyr named Gylavalus used to hold his revels here until the Bitter King arrived and drove out his brethren fey. He remains because the dryad he was wooing was killed when the wyvern came. He is however equally mistrustful of outsiders as he is of the King and his disciples, so an encounter with him can be battle or parlay. However this creature also presents a possible ally if the party can influence him in some way.
Nearby settlement and their reaction: The town of Blackwood (NG small town) has existed near this dark heart of the forest for years. They've always held an attitude that they don't bother the fey and the fey don't bother them. Unfortunately something they don't quite understand has been terrorizing the game and the faeries in the woods; now as they prepare for winter their desperate huntsmen probe dangerously deep in search of food. What's worse; a host of sprites, atomies and even a brownie have taken up in a twisted old willow near the Church of the Everlight and they plague the town with their mischief. Several hunters have gone missing; one who escaped a grisly fate described wooded bogs decorated with bones and skulls. A croaking frog-brute glowered at him there and told him to flee the domain of the Bitter King.
Now the town of Blackwood grows desperate. They know nothing of this force in the woods though they suspect some fell faerie to be behind it all. The town's overlord, Baron Edolph Von Malek has levied a chest of gold as a reward for the confirmed end of this blight. The local priestess, Imelle Hartsfire preaches calm and claims to speak with the fey - they insist they have no hand in this danger. Yet even Pontess Hartsfire is plagued by sudden shoots of ivy and wildflowers choking the church gardens and little giggles when she trips over gourd vines across the walk. Now the PCs arrive at the Bearded Treant inn, brought here by wild tales and the promise of reward. How will their fortunes fare?
Craft creates physical items.
Profession is everything else.
So, Craft (weaponsmith) Guy is employed by Profession (merchant) Gal.
Craft allows you to create items.
Profession allows you to make an amount of income over time.
Edit: Most NPC weaponsmiths would have ranks in both "Craft (weapons)" and "Profession (weaponsmith)".
I'm a bit confused on the difference between craft and profession as well. So what would be the difference of taking say Profession: weaponsmith to Craft Weapons
The mechanical difference between Craft and Profession (other than which classes get them as class skills and which ability score they use) is that Craft can be used to convert raw materials into a tangible thing, and Profession has a sentence about being able to answer questions about your profession. Both of them let you earn money at the same rate, and both of them cover being able to perform the basic functions of your job, use relevant tools, and solve common problems.
So in your example, the difference between someone with only Craft: weapons and someone with only Profession: weaponsmith is that the second guy is incapable of actually making a sword, and so the GM should probably tell his player to Craft: weapons instead unless he's some bizarre fringe case like an experienced manager who runs a specialized business very well but doesn't actually understand the manufacturing process.
What sort of action in combat would be a knowledge check to determine
What this Monster is?
What is it weak against?
also heal checks to determine how injured a party member or a monster is,
Non action. If you know what a wolf is, your brain is going "ahhh wolf!" without you having to do anything.
Alright, i think determining DC of certain activities such as
(Oh no a tree has fallen on the road and your cart and pony cannot get pass what will you do?)
These you kind of just eyeball. You're the dm, make it up. You're right
-You HIYA! and slap the reins to get the pony to jump the tree! (dc 25 handle animal, cause pony don't play that)
-Pick up the tree and shove it out of the way! (dc 20 strength check)
-Use a saw to cut the section of the tree out (dc 0 craft carpentry or profession woodcutter check)
(A Hill giant is at the edge of a steep cliff the only way to get to him is to climb the cliff)
Climb has some suggested DCs.
Or my favorite (Player knowledge vs Character knowledge) where you know the player knows he can do this but don't believe his character would know.
Knowledge check. See the knowledge skill.
What DC would someone roll to make attempts to keep a non combat trained mount or animal in combat?
such as a horse that primary use is to push a cart
Under ride
Control Mount in Battle: As a move action, you can attempt to control a light horse, pony, heavy horse, or other mount not trained for combat riding while in battle. If you fail the Ride check, you can do nothing else in that round. You do not need to roll for horses or ponies trained for combat.
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Two weapon fighting vs Double weapon fighting negatives and bonuses
If you only swing the doubel weapon once, it acts just like a two handed weapon. If you swing it multiple times it acts like a one handed weapon and a light weapon.
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How cover and partial cover works and how to know when to use it in game.
Combat under cover. Usually people eyeball it.
Good questions.
All of it will come from reading the rules, playing the game and pulling from your favorite fantasy tropes (whether from books other games or movies etc.)
The learning curve can be steep, but it is best to read the core book frint to back and then run a few mock battles. Dont be afraid to crack open the rulebook during the game either, it happens to the best of us. As you get comfortable with the rules, building a world gets easier. Making villains can be a challenge, so just browse through the beastiary. There is a lot of flavor in the game rules that can often provide inspiration for how to create an adventure or a villain.
And stick to the rules as often as possible early on. Limit access to outside material and secondary books. Once you have the core rules down then you can start changing things and making things up with full understanding of the impact.
I would highly suggest getting hold of a published adventure path. This will make it very easy for you to run a game and they are great professional examples of how to write your own adventures and build your own worlds.
Lastly, good luck and most importantly, have fun.
Also how Improvised Weapons work such as a drunk picks up a chair to throw or use as a weapon against a character
As it says in the chapter on equipment:
Improvised Weapons: Sometimes objects not crafted to be weapons nonetheless see use in combat. Because such objects are not designed for this use, any creature that uses an improvised weapon in combat is considered to be nonproficient with it and takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls made with that object. To determine the size category and appropriate damage for an improvised weapon, compare its relative size and damage potential to the weapon list to find a reasonable match. An improvised weapon scores a threat on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. An improvised thrown weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.
What weapon is swinging a chair at someone most like? A club. So, they're using an improvised club, with a -4 penalty unless they have the catch off-guard feat.
1. I've been playing D&D for twenty years and I still don't know all the rules, I'll ocassionally flip through pathfinder and go "oh wow, I didn't know you could do that". Don't feel like you have to memorize the entire rulebook, it's good to know as much as you can but you'll still have a great game even if you're only using about 50% of what's there.
2. Once you start building worlds, everything that exists is a valuable resource. If you go on a camping trip, visit another city, read a book, watch a documentary or anything else then use it as an inspiration for your world.
3. CR is a funny thing. They're not really built to be a challenge, they're built to feel like a challenge while giving the PCs an almost guaranteed win. You're also meant to have four of them in a single adventuring day. Your PCs may have won easily only by using up all their once/day special abilities and would have a harder time with the next three.
I usually aim a little high with my CRs, but it's good to carefully experiment with different CRs and your group until you get a feel for them. Also 1st level combat can be very random with a few lucky dice-rolls turning the tide of the battle completely.
4. I generally find both of them a little too comedic for my tastes. YMMV. That said, I've seen beautiful examples of both. One was a halfling highway robber who pretended to be a human child and used that to trick people into lowering their guard. Another was a gnome who really roleplayed fear of boredom very well. So they can both be very awesome.
5. Players invent all sorts of things in their own heads that you never told them. Steal their ideas. At the end of the session, ask them about the people in the fishing village and they'll have probably come up with all sorts of stuff you never thought of. They might have some crazy theory that the fishing boats are secretly smuggling weapons to an invading nation. When you steal these ideas everyone wins, you get a cool idea and the PCs get to have been right all along.
6. The only dice I ever hide are the ones I roll for no purpose at all, just to keep the players on their toes. Any diceroll that actually means anything I let the players see.