Pathfinder Player and GM Core Are Now Available

The new Remastered core rulebooks will serve as a fresh entry point for Pathfinder 2nd Edition under the ORC license.

Today, November 15th, Paizo released the first two books of their remastered line: Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core. They will continue the line in 2024 with Pathfinder Monster Core and Pathfinder Player Core 2.

These books serve as a fresh entry point into 2nd edition while removing any carried over OGL content and incorporating several years of errata and changes to the game. This comes as a response to the concerns brought about earlier this year with the shifting conditions of the Open Gaming License and the huge influx of new Pathfinder players. This explosion of new players saw Paizo selling out of Pathfinder Core Rulebook in Q1 and triggered an unexpected new and final printing of the book.

Paizo used this opportunity to pull content from many of the previous books, along with errata and feedback from the developers and players, to replace the OGL books as they are phased out of production. They also streamlined the organization of the books to make it easier to navigate for old and new players alike.

The design team also took this opportunity to introduce new rules, heritages, and feats, as well as overhauling spellcasting.

We did a review of both books earlier this month. They are available now in standard hardcover, Special Edition hardcover, and hobby-retailer exclusive Sketch Cover hardcovers.

If you want to find out more about the ORC license, you can find it on Azora’s website.

 

[Reynard]

I spent some time last night creating characters on Fantasy grounds as part of my effort to teach myself PF2ER. First of all, I am super pleased with the Remaster implementation on FGU. I have not been able to purchase the actual Player Core and GM Core books for FGU yet and am relying on the ORC material and it is complete, well implemented and includes a lot of automation. Bravo, Smiteworks. Even though i don't feel like I even need the books because the ORC implementation is so good, I will buy them just to reward the devs for their hard work.

Once I have a party of PCs I will will manually run them through the first part of Abomination Vaults myself so i can try and get a handle on how all the systems work. Plus, it will help me get to know AA so I can run it for whatever players I manage to rope in.

 

[ruemere]

While I haven't read it myself, I've gotten a lot of information from reviews.

Yes, slightly improved but still a clustered mess.

No change in healing, with the exception that the cleric now maxes out the spots available for their healing font, so there's potentially more magical healing available.

They've errata'd that on their website. It now functions again like we all played it before the remaster.

Many thanks. I will be looking at the other reviews.

Note: 2e turned me off due to overindulgence in unnecessary clutter. The rules read like a code written by a junior dev (in places), dying vs. wounded being especially obnoxious...

At some point in the past Sean K. Reynolds mentioned that Paizo magic item competition finalists should be able to express themselves in English. Well, the author of dying rules would fail that requirement.

Also, both the character sheet and the healing rules clearly indicate that Paizo would benefit from services of editing and game flow UX specialist. You have just won a difficult fight, you're tired from all those rolls and now, instead of a few quick healing actions, you start micromanaging healing resources with dice rolling.

Ugh. I do think that the authors of the PFRPG should acquaintance themselves with games like 4E, 13th Age, Blades in the Dark, ... Just reading the manuals would probably show them less complicated means to handle stuff.

 

[Velderan]

I spent some time last night creating characters on Fantasy grounds as part of my effort to teach myself PF2ER. First of all, I am super pleased with the Remaster implementation on FGU. I have not been able to purchase the actual Player Core and GM Core books for FGU yet and am relying on the ORC material and it is complete, well implemented and includes a lot of automation. Bravo, Smiteworks. Even though i don't feel like I even need the books because the ORC implementation is so good, I will buy them just to reward the devs for their hard work.

Once I have a party of PCs I will will manually run them through the first part of Abomination Vaults myself so i can try and get a handle on how all the systems work. Plus, it will help me get to know AA so I can run it for whatever players I manage to rope in.

Do you get a discount on FG material if you have the PDF in your Paizo account? I know they discount AP books on Foundry if you have the PDF (which is entirely the reason I have an AP subscription for the current Season of Ghosts AP).

 

[Velderan]

Many thanks. I will be looking at the other reviews.

Note: 2e turned me off due to overindulgence in unnecessary clutter. The rules read like a code written by a junior dev (in places), dying vs. wounded being especially obnoxious...

At some point in the past Sean K. Reynolds mentioned that Paizo magic item competition finalists should be able to express themselves in English. Well, the author of dying rules would fail that requirement.

Also, both the character sheet and the healing rules clearly indicate that Paizo would benefit from services of editing and game flow UX specialist. You have just won a difficult fight, you're tired from all those rolls and now, instead of a few quick healing actions, you start micromanaging healing resources with dice rolling.

Ugh. I do think that the authors of the PFRPG should acquaintance themselves with games like 4E, 13th Age, Blades in the Dark, ... Just reading the manuals would probably show them less complicated means to handle stuff.

Honestly, it’s probably not for you then. Despite the cries of “new edition!” from some, the remaster books are probably 90% the same books word for word. The organization is cleaned up a bit IMO but if you bounced off the CRB’s wording or how recovery from combat is handled, you’re probably not going to like the new books either. It’s fundamentally the same game.

 

[Staffan]

Also, both the character sheet and the healing rules clearly indicate that Paizo would benefit from services of editing and game flow UX specialist. You have just won a difficult fight, you're tired from all those rolls and now, instead of a few quick healing actions, you start micromanaging healing resources with dice rolling.

I think Pathfinder 2, and RPGs in general, should be more comfortable with just letting things succeed when done by someone with the appropriate skills. For example, I'm considering redoing Treat Wounds as something like:

Treat Wounds
Exploration, Healing, Manipulate
Requirements: You are holding healer's tools, or you are wearing them and have a hand free
You spend 10 minutes treating one injured living creature (targeting yourself, if you so choose). The target is then temporarily immune to Treat Wounds actions for 1 hour, but this interval overlaps with the time you spent treating (so a patient can be treated once per hour, not once per 70 minutes). The target loses the Wounded condition and regains a number of hp depending on your Medicine proficiency: Trained 10, Expert 20, Master 40, Legendary 60. If you treat the target for a full hour, they regain twice that many hp.

Crafting also seems like a prime candidate for things that just work if you have the appropriate skill.

 

[Retreater]

Don't we all basically hand wave healing out of combat? I know I do.

 

[Velderan]

Don't we all basically hand wave healing out of combat? I know I do.

Nope. It’s part of adventure pacing I like to actively manage as the GM.

 

[Thomas Shey]

To some extent, you have to expect a character sheet for a detailed system, especially a heavily exception-based one, to be busy. You can try to organize it for maximum access, but over time there's still going to be a lot to keep track of.

 

[Reynard]

Do you get a discount on FG material if you have the PDF in your Paizo account? I know they discount AP books on Foundry if you have the PDF (which is entirely the reason I have an AP subscription for the current Season of Ghosts AP).

There is a robust thread on the FG forums in which the devs explain but in short: nothing has changed regarding the pricing and PDF stuff. Just in case you weren't aware, it goes both ways: if you buy the FG version, you can sync your Paizo account and the PDF is added to your digital content.

Just to reiterate: all the remaster stuff is available for free on FGU already.

 

[SteveC]

From everything that I've seen so far, I think there is going to be a fair bit of errata and revision on these books. I absolutely wouldn't suggest buying them now. The PDFs? If you don't want to use the Archives? That sounds like a good idea to me. I run my game on Foundry and I'm going to hold off for a bit until I update it just to have things settle down.