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So curious what will happen...
1. Pathfinder does not have a Player's Handbook or Dungeon Master's Guide. There is one core book with all the rules called the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.
2. All the rules are quite obviously in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.
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It would help us help you to know the actual title of the "pretty book" you've got. Because as Blake's Tiger has pointed out, what you're referencing doesn't sound like Pathfinder. Not first edition, not second edition.
Also... if you're familiar with 3.5 you should be familiar with the general structure of this stuff. There isn't really a "rules" section. Rules are in-line within the things that need them. Rules about races are within races. Rules about classes are within classes. Rules about spells are within spells. There's a general combat chapter, but that's just got basic details there as well.
D&D 3.x, PF1 and PF2 are kind of "read the book" to learn how to play. You don't need to read every race, class, feat, skill, or spell to understand the system, but you really do need to read some of each section to have the slightest grasp.
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I think you have misunderstood something on a fundamental level.
So, I went to this site and bought some rather nice looking books...players handbook, dungeon masters guide...monsters manual...
I don't know what you bought, but those aren't Pathfinder books, and I don't see how you could have bought them on this site.
I just wanted a book of rules that I can read and then keep near while I run my game.
You want to start with the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. There are other books of rules that add more classes, ancestries, magic items, etc., but you can run a campaign just fine with only the CRB. It's over 600 pages of rules so it's exactly what you say you want.
And yes, all of the Pathfinder rules are also available for free online for your convenience, but you'll be just fine using the physical books instead.
Edit: Ninja'd by several people while I put in my links. :)
Are you talking about 1st- or 2nd-Edition Pathfinder?
In any case, it sounds like you got scammed when you ordered the books. Pathfinder doesn't have a Player's Handbook or a Dungeon Master's Guide. You're looking for the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.
Also, if you're planning on rewriting your homebrew monsters, I definitely recommend taking a look at both the Bestiary and the monster creation rules in the GameMastery Guide. At least in 2nd Edition, the monster creation rules are so streamlined that you will be converting your homeless over in minutes instead of hours. It will save you a lot of headache. The Bestiary is only really recommended as a pool to pack abilities from and as a basis of comparison to keep things balanced.
But if miles of rules are more to your liking, you may want to stick with 1st Edition. It doesn't play as well in my opinion, but there are a lot of crunchy rules for everything.
Those books you're talking about certainly are not Pathfinder books. Whoever sold them to you seems to have made a mistake. Pathfinder does not have a Player's Handbook, nor a Dungeon Master's Guide or a Monster Manual, and Pathfinder books are not wrapped in any kind of plastic. Pathfinder rules are all in a book called the Core Rulebook, and its monster books are called Bestiary. Whatever you have there, it's not Pathfinder.
Sounds great. I shall seek out this Core Rulebook and obtain it:) Thank you for the assistance! What are these other books for, by the way, just out of curiosity?So curious what will happen...
1. Pathfinder does not have a Player's Handbook or Dungeon Master's Guide. There is one core book with all the rules called the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.
2. All the rules are quite obviously in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.
Maybe you could provide an image or description to solve the riddle of your books?
By the way, even if you want to create your own classes and ancestries (the term Pathfinder uses for race) – of indeed especially if – you should not skip these parts of the book. These chapters will help you understand how classes and ancestries work in Pathfinder, and without that knowledge you'll probably not be able to create your own.
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Sorry, I'm calling them by D&D names. That's not exactly what the covers say. 30 years of habit can be difficult to break. But, yes, you are correct. The do indeed say Player's Guide, Bestiary, and Dungeonmastery. I do, also, feel a bit scammed, but I'm getting used to the sensation. The Mechwarrior stuff was far worse! You need half a dozen books to run it, but at least the books do each have something of value in them. I suppose that times are tight:)
There's no "Player's Guide" or "Dungeonmastery" either in Pathfinder. That must be a different game.
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Second Edition also has Advanced Player's Guide, Bestiary, and Gamemastery Guide.
Second Edition also has Advanced Player's Guide, Bestiary, and Gamemastery Guide.
Oops, you're right. I deleted that inaccurate post.
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Sorry, I'm calling them by D&D names. That's not exactly what the covers say. 30 years of habit can be difficult to break. But, yes, you are correct. The do indeed say Player's Guide, Bestiary, and Dungeonmastery. I do, also, feel a bit scammed, but I'm getting used to the sensation. The Mechwarrior stuff was far worse! You need half a dozen books to run it, but at least the books do each have something of value in them. I suppose that times are tight:)There's no "Player's Guide" or "Dungeonmastery" either in Pathfinder. That must be a different game.You, sir, ought to consider a career in engineering! It should suit you well, I think!
To all else, thank you much for the assistance! I have found and purchased the Core Rulebook. These other books provide additional material, it seems, and while I might not find it of much value, I think I can at least reference it for comparison whilst I'm writing.
Thanks again!
Are you trying to play 1st edition or 2nd edition? They are very different systems. Do the books that you purchased say "2nd Edition" on the covers?
See the upper right corner on this image.
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Are you trying to play 1st edition or 2nd edition? They are very different systems. Do the books that you purchased say "2nd Edition" on the covers?
See the upper right corner on this image.
This is very important. Pathfinder comes in two editions these days.
Pathfinder 1st Edition came out in 2009. It was nicknamed D&D 3.75 due to an effort to keep some backwards compatibility with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. Kerry Allen might be most interested in this edition, since he will be converting his D&D 3.5 creations.
Pathfinder 2nd Edition came out in 2019. It is the edition for which Paizo is generating new material, and the edition most likely found at stores.
The books from the two editions of Pathfinder are not easily compatible with each other. I have converted some PF1 material to PF2 via the Building Creatures rules in the PF2 Gamemastery Guide. If Kerry Allen already has a PF2 Gamemastery Guide and is converting to PF2, then he may want to keep it for its creature rules.
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I still genuinely don’t know what OP bought. There aren’t any Pathfinder books with no mechanics that I know of.
The Archives of Nethys are a free, legal, Paizo-sanctioned resource that holds all of the mechanical content for both editions of Pathfinder. I’d strongly advise poking around there before making any further book purchases.
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What a perplexing thread.
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Kerry, generally speaking people on this site (especially outside of rules discussion) genuinely want to help.
However, your posts are a bit confusing and at least for me are concerning that you might have been scammed. But I want to state, it wouldn't have been Paizo doing the scamming. All of Paizo's rule books contain...well rules.
The ratio of rules to lore is going to depend on the particular book, as some focus more on the setting than providing a bunch of new rules, but they all have rules.
I'm also slightly concerned if you bought a mixture of 1st and 2nd edition books.
If possible, I would suggest taking a picture of the books your purchased, loading it into one of many free picture sharing services, and dropping us a link to it.
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Given the clarification that he's using D&D nomenclature to refer to books later referred to as"Player's Guide" and "Dungeonmastery," I suspect--as theorized by a few other posters--what was purchased was the "Advanced Player's Guide" and the "Gamemastery Guide." The description of the "Player's Guide" contents sounds like the "Advanced Player's Guide."
If you're coming to Pathfinder cold and used to D&D's traditional Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, I can see how the mistake could be made.
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It looks like the OP's been helped, but I wanted to add that the comments about "modern 5e players not liking to roleplay" came across as a little edition war-y, and they might want to be careful to avoid coming across the wrong way to people. :)
Honestly, I don't personally like 5e a ton these days (it's not as much to my taste, because I like crunching numbers!), but I would not say its community is averse to roleplay. The new generations of TTRPGers seem to be more RP-focused than ever--some new players actually seem a lot more bored by the rules side of things, if anything. It sounds like you've had some bad luck with players!
...its not unreasonable for someone to unknowingly buy the wrong book. I know it happens all the time when buying school books.
I made that mistake myself when I first hopped into Pathfinder. I bought the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Guide for D&D 3.5, rather than the Inner Sea World Guide. The former was not compatible with the new (at the time) Pathfinder 1st Edition rule set, whereas the latter was made for it.
It was the basis for my very first post on these forums a mere thirteen years ago.
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Sounds great. I shall seek out this Core Rulebook and obtain it:) Thank you for the assistance! What are these other books for, by the way, just out of curiosity?
As for the other books:
In Pathfinder 1st Edition, the Pathfinder Core Rulebook is the main book of rules. It contains the core races, such as humans and elves, the core classes, such as fighters and wizards, the core feats such as Craft Wand and Power Attack, and the rules for play. It is essentially the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide combined into one fat volume.
The Pathfinder 1st Edition Bestiaries 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 contain the monsters. Bestiary 1 does not have the numeral 1 on it, but we still call it Bestiary 1.
Supplementary rulebooks for Pathfinder 1st Edition contain the Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, Occult Adventures, and the Advanced Class Guide. These mostly include new classes to play. The Advanced Player's Guide also introduced the PF1 archetypes, which is a way of modifying a class by swapping out some abilities in exchange for others. For example the Zen Archer monk loses some mystic monk abilities but becomes good at shooting a bow. Ultimate Combat described primitive firearms for the Pathfinder setting and the Gunslinger class that can use them as if they were less primitive.
Ultimate Campaign has rules for the GM setting up towns and the PCs setting up businesses in the towns. Ultimate Intrigue has rules for espionage and social conflict and introduces the Vigilante class that has a secret identity. Ultimate Equipment provides catalog of items, especially new magic items.
Paizo also published a series of softcover books whose names begin with Pathfinder Campaign Setting and Player Companion. They fill out the Golarion setting for Pathfinder, with the Campaign Settings mostly for the GMs and the Player Companions mostly for the players. For example, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Cheliax, The Infernal Empire, describes the nation of Cheliax and its control over other countries. Pathfinder Player Companion; Familiar Folio gives a list of new familiars and options for customizing the abilities of the familiars.
Pathfinder 2nd Edition does not yet have as many books as Pathfinder 1st Edition, but Paizo is trying to catch up. The Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rulebook is once again the basic rulebook for playing and running the game. The Bestiaries are the books of monsters.
Paizo changed the naming system for supplemental rulebooks after publishing the PF2 Advanced Player's Guide. Instead of calling another book Ultimate Magic, they called the PF2 version Secrets of Magic. Instead of calling another book Ultimate Combat, they called the PF2 version Guns & Gears. And so on.
And the PF1 softcover setting guides went hardcover, but they still have a splatbook identifier, "Lost Omens." The Lost Omens World Guide describes the nations of the Inner Sea area (not of the entire world). The Lost Omens Character Guide gives new feats and ancestries (PF2 says "ancestries" rather than "races'). The Lost Omens Ancestry Guide gives stranger ancestries, like geniekin, androids, kitsune, and sprites. Lost Omens Legends has articles on famous people from Golarion history, along with some spells, feats, or artifacts associated with them. And some, such as Lost Omens Absalom, City of Lost Omens, are about individual countries.
And Paizo keeps publishing their monthly Pathfinder magazine that each contains an adventure module. Paizo groups together 3 issues or 6 issues into a continuous adventure path for GMs who don't want to write their own adventures.