so im fairly new to the whole pathfinder "world"

[maxyman]

i have A LOT of questions about the game.
1. how do skills work, how do distribute points toward them?
2. touch and flat footedness, what are those? do they play a special role?
3. saves? how do they work, when am i allowed to use these?
4. how do i determine my cmd, cmd, and attack bonus'.
5. deities and homeland? do they determine a difference in anything?

thank you in advance,and sorry if this bothers you for me being a "noob".
again thank you.

[Pink Dragon]

Firstly, I suggest reading the Core Rules as many of your general questions are answered therein. Without specific questions, it is hard to give advice.

1. Each class gets a certain number of skill points (SP) at each level, which is modified by the character's intelligence and whether she gets a favored class bonus and/or a race bonus. As for distributing the SP's you get, that depends on character flavour and on the character class' class skills since as soon as you put 1 SP into a class skill the character automatically gets another +3 bonus for that skill.

2. Touch AC is the armor class a character has against simply being touched (as opposed to being whacked). Armor bonuses do not add to touch AC but dodge, dexterity and other bonuses do. Touching someone is different from whacking someone. Flat-footedness is being surprised in combat, so your AC loses ay dodge and dexterity bonuses (because the character barely sees the atatck coming) but armor is still effective. Now, your flat footed AC versus a touch attack could be pretty dismal indeed.

3. Saves is a d20 roll against any sort of effect to which a save applies. If your roll higher than the difficulty class (DC) required, then you save, if not you fail. DC depends on too many things to enumerate.

4. CMB and CMD apply to combat maneuvers (grapple, trip, overrun and the like). Attack bonus applies to the typical whack attack. CMB depends on base attack bonus, strength bonus and some other factors depending on class, feats, etc. CMD is 10 + adders depending on strength bonus, exterity bonus and other factors. When attackiing with a combat maneuver, the attacker rolls a d20 and adds the CMB. If the total is higher than the opponent's CMD the maneuver is successful. The attack bonus applies ot the typical whack attack and is amalgam of base attack bonus (BAB) and adders from various sources (e.g. strength bonus, dexterity bonus, magic, etc.). The attacker rols a d20 and adds BAB and all of the adders. If the total is greater than the opponents armor class (AC), the attack is successful.

5. Deities matter to cleric types but otherwise are for flavour. Homeland can provide an additional language, but are otherwise for flavour.

This is an oversimplification. As suggested above, a thorough reading of Core Rules will answer most general questions.

[Mike Mistele]

Saving throws generally come into play when your character has to defend against an attack against which your armor doesn't really help you (typically, these are spells, but some other effects or attacks may require a saving throw). The description of the attack or effect will indicate which type of saving throw applies, and what the effects will be on your character, depending on whether you succeeded or failed on the saving throw.

As a general rule, if your character fails at a saving throw, he suffers the full impact of the spell or effect; if your character succeeds at a saving throw, he only suffers a lessened impact (or, possibly, no impact at all).

The combat section of the rules (this is a link to the section in Paizo's online reference document) has a lot of the info you want on attacking and defending. This is all also in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, of course.

From that section:

Attack Bonus

Your attack bonus with a melee weapon is the following:
Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + size modifier

With a ranged weapon, your attack bonus is the following:
Base attack bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier + range penalty

Combat Maneuver Bonus (CMB) = Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + special size modifier

Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD) = 10 + Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier

Your Base Attack Bonus (which all of the above use) is a function of your character class and level; the description of each character class in the rulebooks contains a table which shows how the BAB progresses as a character gains levels in a class.

[Matthew Pittard]

If you are new to the 'world' of Pathfinder , it is called Golarion.

Think Germanic Fantasy sandbox world (one you shove as many concepts into as you can). There are early firearms present in one small area, forgotten regions, ancient empires etc.

I recommend the Golarion wiki for more info and the Inner Sea World Guide for the rest.

Gods are present but are more akin to the Deities of Greyhawk if you want a more direct comparison as opposed to the Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance settings where the Gods take a visible and active hand.

[Oceanshieldwolf]

I'm curious why "Germanic" Fantasy. Do you mean Germanic as in germane?

[Black_Lantern]

I'm sorry, but why are you asking simple questions that are answered by the core rule book?

[Oceanshieldwolf]

Perhaps because I don't understand your terminology and so might have difficulty finding the answer. If you can point me to a reference in the CRB this dullard would appreciate the elucidation.

[LazarX]

Oceanshieldwolf wrote:

Perhaps because I don't understand your terminology and so might have difficulty finding the answer. If you can point me to a reference in the CRB this dullard would appreciate the elucidation.

Considering that you have the Star Voter tagline in your account, I find it rather hard to believe that you're as "noobish" as you claim.

[Orfamay Quest]

Oceanshieldwolf wrote:

I'm curious why "Germanic" Fantasy. Do you mean Germanic as in germane?

Germanic fantasy as in based in the German fairy tale tradition. Think of Beowulf, the Prose Edda, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and of course Tolkien. And, by extension, Chainmail, Dungeons and Dragons, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition, and so on.

There are lots of other folklores out there. If I were to design an RPG based on Australian aboriginal myths, it wouldn't look much like D&D.