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1. There are a lot of tiny little changes, it took me awhile to catch them all. It is best just to read the entire book and play and learn.
2. It depends on your area. I my previous location we only ever got 1 core game off, but now they have them all the time. Where I live now we have not run any core games. It is a good idea to have a Core pc ready just in case.
3. Here is my list of books I tell new players they should get if they can:
- Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play (free) - Has the specific rule for Pathfinder Society Org play and character generation.
- Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook (Hardcover $49.99/PDF $9.99) - Core rules for the game
- Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Player's Guide (Hardcover $39.99/PDF $9.99) - A good book with additional rules and very good character classes
- Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Equipment (Hardcover $44.99/PDF $9.99) - A good consolidation of a ton of equipment
- Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide (Hardcover $49.99/PDF $9.99) A good book to get to learn about the setting of the game
- Pathfinder Player Companion: Inner Sea Primer (Softcover $10.99/PDF $7.99) A condensed version of the Inner Sea World Guide.
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Hi, I'm new to Pathfinder and the Pathfinder Society. I've played D&D since 2nd ed, and I've played a lot of D&D Adventurer's League.[/url]
Hello, welcome to the institution.
Flutters guide for newbies should get you started
1> Given that I know D&D 3.5, what are the biggest mechanical differences in pathfinder? What systems do I need to read in particular so I don't slow down games or try to use wrong rules that have changed?Combat manuvers: you now have a "combat manuver defense" which is functionally your armor class vs combat manuvers instead of opposed rolls. grappling isn't quite as limiting as it used to be.
Multiclassing: less painful now.
Prestige classes: more or less replaced with archetypes. Archtypes let you mix and match features of the class. Multiclassing and prestige classing together can make some REAALLY complicated characters.
2> Reading the Pathfinder Society stuff, I see that there's both 'Standard' using all the first party Paizo books, and also 'Core' using JUST the Pathfinder Core rule book. How common are Core games at events like cons or gamedays? Should I both to make a Core character as well as a Standard Character, or am I likely to always be able to find Standard games at events?
Varies a LOT locally. As a newbie most of the benefit of core is lost on you. I've heard of a group in france where core is more common than standard but elsewhere i see mostly standard.
Flat rolling surfaces map ought to point you towards the local group.
3> I have the Core book, and PDFs of Advanced Player's Guide, Advanced Class Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Pathfinder Unchained. What other books would you say are 'Must Haves' and which books would you say are 'Nice to have, but not 100% necessary'?Ultimate equipment,
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I'd say the Core Rulebook and Advanced Players Guide are the only "must have" books, besides the free Roleplaying Guild Guide that you can download as a pdf.
As the last few posters have said, Ultimate Equipment would probably be pretty high up on the "nice to have" list.
I'd put the Advanced Race Guide high on that list, too. Besides having the oddball races, it also has some nice options that you can take by trading out normal stuff on the core races.
Of the thinner splat books, I'd put Seeker of Secrets at the top of the list, just for the ioun stones.
Do you know if there are active games already going on in your area? If you know where to go to catch a game, the best you thing you can do is show up and talk to people. Find out what the atmosphere is like at the local gaming store or other meeting place, and what types of games often happen there. Are they playing Core at all or sticking to standard? Do they regularly have low level tables you can jump in on? Do they use Warhorn or some other web site to do sign ups for games?
Show up and ask those types of things. Bring a PC, so you can join a level 1 game if there's one happening. If they're only playing higher level stuff that day, you're still likely to be able to play using a pregen character.
How strict are Core Campaign events? Is there any leeway on deities, domains, archetypes or is it absolutely nothing that's not in the Core Book?
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How strict are Core Campaign events? Is there any leeway on deities, domains, archetypes or is it absolutely nothing that's not in the Core Book?
deities: A non cleric would venerate, but gain no mechanical benefit from worshiping a non core deity. IE, you cannot have a cleric of Apsu. You cannot take an Apsu trait. You cannot take an apsu feat. A fighter could get a dragon shaped piece of jewelry and roll around on a pile of gold in imitation of his god, but it wouldn't do anything.
domains: no leeway
archetypes: there are no archtypes in core.
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How strict are Core Campaign events? Is there any leeway on deities, domains, archetypes or is it absolutely nothing that's not in the Core Book?
It's covered in the blog that introduced the Core campaign and in the Guide. They are strict. It's not really a matter of leeway, more that the Core Rulebook should be the only book required or used except for things it doesn't cover, and then the minimum of other, generally free, sources for the game to work:
- the RPG Guild Guide including human ethnic languages and wayfinders. Oops.
- the free download for traits,
- the Bestiary (that is, the first one) only when the CRB rules give something that requires creature stats,
- things granted on Chronicle sheets, apart from non-Core races which are not allowed at all (there may have been a clarification for one particular instance),
- that's about it.
No class abilities or mechanical benefits from non-Core deities. As a result, you don't need any new domains and subdomains are not legal. No archetypes.