Are there any newbie cheatsheets?


Advice


I'm putting together a gaming group of old friends. Some of us used to play AD&D back in the day, "the day" being about 30 years ago... Ouch! So we aren't exactly new to the whole thing but we are hardly up to speed either. There will be one player who has never played an RPG.

I bought the core rulebook and have read through much of it (skipping all the detailed spell descriptions for now) but don't really feel like I have much of handle on things yet. I've referred the others to the online rules but doubt any of them will realistically get around to reading anything there before our first session, which is set up for a week from Friday. I skipped the beginner's box because we don't need a bunch of the stuff in there, overall cost of re-entering the hobby is an issue, and I figure we'll move on to the complete rules eventually anyway.

I was wondering if there any kind of rules cheatsheets or quick start guides floating around out there that summarize the rules some and would help us get on our way with a little less pain. Since I have bought the rulebook (and some other stuff as well) I hope such a request is acceptable.

I did find the the 1-page Basic Rules CheatSheet that covers Roleplaying Shorthand, Character Elements, and Combat Basics and Actions floating around somewhere and while it will be helpful I'm hoping to get something with a little more detail than that.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For the record, I did search this forum for "cheatsheet". If there is a relevant thread somewhere I'd be happy to go there. These forums seem to move pretty fast and I'm not sure the best way to find info yet.

Thanks,

Ben


It's not available yet, but I have high hopes for these flash cards, due in July.


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Get the Pathfinder DM screen. That has quite a few handy dice details.

Pathfinder as a ruleset is rather bulky. It's streamlined a few systems from 3rd ed, but still carries much of the bulk.

The Core Rulebook is your best place to start. All it lacks are the monsters.

AC (armor class) starts at 10, and increases in number with armor, dexterity, and other bonuses. Your to hit starts with you Base Attack Bonus (labeled on your class's table for each level) and is increased by your strength or your dexterity depending on weapons and feats. Using your BAB plus all your bonuses, you must meet or beat your opponents AC.

Saving throws have been simplified. If you can physically dodge it, say you try to outrun a fireball, you make a reflex saving throw against it. Reflex goes by the base modifier for your class labeled on your class's table, plus your bonus to dexterity. If it attacks your physical well-being, such as a spell causing you to be nauseated, then you make a fortitude save, which, again, is the base modifier for your class, plus your constitution bonus. Will saves are against effects that attack the mind, using your wisdom bonus and your class's base will save bonus.

For the most part, monsters use these rules as well, except instead of class levels they use their hit dice to determine their modifiers.

Most bonuses do not stack with themselves unless explicitly stated. Dodge bonuses always stack with themselves. Untyped bonuses generally do, but not if they are from the same source. Such as, the Monk gains a special bonus to AC because he cannot wear armor. This AC bonus is your wisdom bonus. Another class I enjoy also uses the wisdom to AC mechanic. If you multiclass, you don't get both, even if they were named something radically different because they are coming from the same source, wisdom.

Monsters are built on general templates. Find your template, find the challenge rating you want it to be at, follow the table for your monster's stats. Add your special abilities as appropriate to the concept.

In the beginning of the Core Rulebook, it clearly states that all these rules function to serve compelling gameplay, and should only be as hard and fast as you are having fun. As the game master, you have the authority to make any change necessary to ensure the fun of your players. That is the first rule of the game and truly the only one that matters.


Thank you for that summary! That's a great overview right along the lines of what I needed. I’m going to print it out. I really appreciate you taking the time to write that up.

I'll look into the GM screen. I've never bothered with one before but I can see how it would be handy. Looks like it has good reviews on Amazon.

The cards will be out too late for what I need now but could still prove valuable when they come out.

Thanks for the replies,

Ben


You could start with the Pathfinder Beginner Box which will be more in line with your past experience and once you are comfortable with that move onto the full Core Rulebook.

The Beginner Box material can be found here.

Here is an online reference for your players.


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http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

@Osakaben

The Pathfinder Reference Document, the link given above, is the official online source for rules. Paizo is gracious enough to maintain that link with up-to-date (mostly) information on their game. I would suggest for first time play, use only what is in the Core Rulebook and Bestiary and just ignore everything else for a while. You will have plenty of classes to play, plenty of races, and things won't get generally too overcomplicated. Get the basics down.

Don't let anyone craft magic items your first campaign. It's a complicated set of rules that isn't balanced as well as Paizo wishes it were (and even they have banned all crafting from Pathfinder Society). There are questions daily about how to skirt those rules, so I wouldn't even bother just yet.

Multiclassing is easy. you pick the class you want to go into at any given level (chapter 3 has all your base classes, and those have no requirements), then see if you meet the requirements if you're entering a prestige class (you must meet all requirements of the class before you may enter that class). If you have no levels in your new class previously, you gain all the abilities and drawbacks of the first level of that class in addition to what you've already gained from your first class(es). Your experience requirements to the next level don't change just because you select a new class.

Every character has a favored class, selected at character creation. Any base class can be a favored class, and they aren't tied to race like in 3.5. Prestige classes can never be a favored class. When you take a new level in your favored class, you get a bonus. You can select your bonus each level and are not required to make the same choice every level. You may choose between an extra skill point as your favored class bonus, or 1 extra hp. Later books modify this with additional choices, but stick with the Core Rulebook for now. If you multiclass, you don't get that favored class bonus for the levels in other classes. This was done purposely to help avoid all the multiclass monstrosities that came with the 3rd edition rules Pathfinder inherited.

You can invest as many skill ranks into a single skill as you have hit dice. You may invest ranks in any skill. Skills labeled as class skills gain a bonus +3 to your roll if you have invested at least one point in that skill.

Magic items are built into the challenge rating (CR) system. Each CR assumes a certain amount of magical assets. If your group has too many or too few magic items, adjust your monsters to fit.

If something looks weird, don't hesitate to come here and ask questions. If something pops up during a game, look at the rules, make a ruling, and move on. I've seen games come to a complete stop for the night due to rules disputes. You are the game master. Make a ruling, move on, and revisit it with the player(s) if you need to later on.


THAC0 is dead.

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