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I have been a member of the forums for quite some time. I have been working on this guide for a while now and finished a rough draft. It's full of little tips and tricks as well as being chalked full of useful information that most beginning players will not know and some moderately experienced players may overlook. I would hope that any new players take the time and read through it. it is broken down into sections to make "cherry picking" the information you want a bit easier.
Nephril's Extended Beginners Guide..
first time using bbc code forgive any links ill try and fix them.
Dear Nephril I’m sure that many new players will benefit from this guide. I have included several things I have noticed in the guide, many are simple spelling/grammar mistakes, which is understandable considering the length of the document.
“Nothing is Law” note, I would advise noting this applies to the GM and not to other players or their PCs, of course players should work with the GM to make things flexible for their PCs.
Section 3 Pitfalls of Pathfinder:
• 2: should be “result in many dead party members.”
• Drowning: instead of 2/level it’s “twice her constitution score” Core pg. 445.
• 6: “Ghost Touch” weapon, also for early level parties the spell “magic weapon” allows weapons to deal half damage to incorporeal enemies when non magical attacks can’t affect them. Spells like magic missile helps too, since it’s a low level spell that does force damage.
• Cleric: on the notes about shields, you should note that since many cleric spells require somatic components (hand movements) you need one free hand to cast them. In this case bucklers or light shields should be used. Also clerics are no longer proficient in heavy armor from default, they are limited to medium unless they take the heavy armor proficiency feat.
• Druid the armor limitation to non metal is worth noting IMO.
Ranger devastating skirmisher note: if you have it working with spring attack it’s not allowed per an errata and FAQ “When I built the Vital Strike feat chain, it was designed specifically to speak to the need for martial characters to be able to take a move action and still do a reasonable amount of damage in a single turn. The decision was made to limit this chain to make it a character decision point, as opposed to just making it part of a larger "must have" feat stack to make "The Baddest Fighter on the Block".
In hindsight, it might be a bit to restrictive, but RAW that is the way it currently functions.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
• Section 2: Expand upon your definition of “min max” please. I usually define it as minimizing a characters weakness while maximizing its strengths for example.
• Dwarfs, I’m not sure how they master wearing armor, they simply aren’t slowed by it.
• Rangers and the feat Boon Companion: I would note which book noncore rulebook info comes from since beginners may not have additional books and try to find the feat in the core rulebook. Boon Companion is from Pathfinder Player’s Companion: Animal Archive for those interested.
• The feat “Natural Spell” allows druids to cast spells in wild shape.
• Combat Free perception checks each round: In the skill section core pg 102 it notes that intentionally searching for stimulus is a move action. Perhaps you refer to the “most perception checks are reactive” note in the skill. Generally I think that means the GM can allow PCs to make perception checks when something is going on, but may be easy to miss.
• Drinking potions: you seem to allude to it, but drinking potions provokes AoO. I think you suggest taking a 5’ step before drinking to avoid the AoO, since you mention the reach thing.
• Technically a 5’ step is no action pg. 183, I’m not sure why they do that since there doesn’t seem to be any difference between free and no action.
• Defense: I believe you mean if you’re wielding a shield as opposed to just carrying it (like an archer with a shield on his back).
• Mages and armor: You could note the Bard’s armor exception I guess.
• Damage two handed weapons: note that the 1.5 strength modifier is rounded down.
• Section 6, 4 Enhancement “none bypass”.
• DR notes, stating the difference between DR X OR Y, and DR X AND Y.
I’ll have to come back to this later.