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.

 

[Lojaan]

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

Yep! If there is a reasonable chance of success, no time stress, and no meaningful effect from failure then the check should just succeed.

Also PF2 encounter design relying on the PCs being at full health says to me that rolling to recover health is a unnecessary mechanic. You got it healer and healing tools? You heal.

The exception for me is wounds. You get all your health back, but if you want to remove wounds you need to spend resources out of combat (spell, potion) or roll for it.

People forget that all rules are optional. The difference with PF2 is that if you want a rule to adjudicate a situation - the designers have you covered.

 

[Retreater]

People forget that all rules are optional. The difference with PF2 is that if you want a rule to adjudicate a situation - the designers have you covered.

I see it differently.
If I didn't care about rules, I'd play 5e.

 

[Reynard]

I have tried to get into PF2E before without a lot of success due to player disinterest. Now I am kind of glad it has taken until the Remaster to do so, so I don't have to worry about "change" baggage. Of all the bigger mainstream games, it seems like Pathfinder engenders the most irritation with and resitance to change among its fans, to the point that it is hard to tell if they actually are fans sometimes.

 

[Lojaan]

I see it differently.
If I didn't care about rules, I'd play 5e.

If you didn't care about rules there would be way better and more fun games to play than the mess that is 5e

 

[Lojaan]

I have tried to get into PF2E before without a lot of success due to player disinterest. Now I am kind of glad it has taken until the Remaster to do so, so I don't have to worry about "change" baggage. Of all the bigger mainstream games, it seems like Pathfinder engenders the most irritation with and resitance to change among its fans, to the point that it is hard to tell if they actually are fans sometimes.

I don't know... 5e fans went pretty ballistic with One DnD. Repeatedly. With each playtest. I think they are still going ballistic and thank god I don't care any more.

PF2 fans seem to me to be the usual mix of welcoming and interesting and NO NO NO YOU R DOIN IT WRONG that is the internet. Sorry if you have had some bad experiences!

I'm glad about bringing in players with the remaster too. Especially as the witch class is such a favorite. And thank god for some blissful small changes like changing 'spell level' to 'spell rank'.

 

[Velderan]

I have tried to get into PF2E before without a lot of success due to player disinterest. Now I am kind of glad it has taken until the Remaster to do so, so I don't have to worry about "change" baggage. Of all the bigger mainstream games, it seems like Pathfinder engenders the most irritation with and resitance to change among its fans, to the point that it is hard to tell if they actually are fans sometimes.

I'm not sure the fanbase is any more or less resistant to change than other fanbases. I pretty much stopped looking in the OneD&D forum a few months back and now just read the playtest documents, make up my own mind how I feel about them, and don't bother trying to discuss them. There's definitely some people on the PF2e subreddit that seem upset about the changes, which honestly I think it's mostly people like @SteveC who if I'm remembering correctly appreciated that PF2e was basically a reskinned D&D that played better, but shared a lot things in common so it still felt familiar (and I mean absolutely no offense at this, SteveC. Your explanation just stood out to me as a rational "this kinda sucks and here's why" post.)

In the days of print only games changes mattered less because they were easy to ignore but once you start trying to make things work on a VTT or use a character creator, changes can really suck if you don't like them. Right now we're kind of in a weird middle ground where the first couple Remaster books just released and it's not entirely clear what will be available moving forward. The Foundry team has released a legacy ruleset module, Pathbuilder has yet to update so it's not clear yet where that tool with land for supporting both options. I'm not sure what support will look like on Roll20 or FG, so probably still lots of questions.

 

[Velderan]

PF2 fans seem to me to be the usual mix of welcoming and interesting and NO NO NO YOU R DOIN IT WRONG that is the internet. Sorry if you have had some bad experiences!

Oh that definitely exists and IMO it's the worst part of the fanbase. I've seen people basically make the argument if you're not averaging a TPK per floor of Abomination Vaults, you're doing it wrong. I hate, hate, hate that you're doing it wrong approach to welcoming new people into a hobby. It doesn't help when people say their players are getting frustrated and they don't know what to do when the rules have a lot to offer for ways to make the challenge level appropriate to your table, much better than other games IMO.

 

[Staffan]

I'm not sure the fanbase is any more or less resistant to change than other fanbases.

The Pathfinder fanbase is likely more resistant to change, since the core of them has always been people who looked at 4e and said "No thanks, I'll play the 3.5e clone instead."

 

[payn]

The Pathfinder fanbase is likely more resistant to change, since the core of them has always been people who looked at 4e and said "No thanks, I'll play the 3.5e clone instead."

You would think that, but PF2 is much more similar to 4E. I think the change averse have been shooed away and the new base is more open to change. Thats just my impression of being a longtime PF1 Paizo fan that didnt follow through with the change.

 

[Andvari]

Was planning on getting the pocket editions but decided to go with the PDFs instead. I get it faster, I can put it on my Scribe and Paizo can update it with errata.