Pathfinder 2E Pathfinder To Get New Core Rulebooks Soon

It's not just D&D that's getting a 'revised' set of core books--Pathfinder is also getting 'remastered' books! The core rulebooks are being replaced by a new set of books, with new names, but like D&D it is being reiterated that this is not a new edition--"With the exception of a few minor variations in terminology and a slightly different mix of monsters, spells, and magic items, the rules remain largely unchanged."

The existing Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, Bestiary, and Advanced Player’s Guide are being replaced with Pathfinder Player Core, Pathfinder GM Core, Pathfinder Monster Core, and Pathfinder Player Core 2.

These books appear to focus on re-organization and consolidation of existing material rather than substantive changes. They also represent Paizo's move away from the Open Gaming License and towards the new Open RPG Creative (ORC) license. Paizo says "This transition will result in a few minor modifications to the Pathfinder Second Edition system, notably the removal of alignment and a small number of nostalgic creatures, spells, and magic items exclusive to the OGL. These elements remain a part of the corpus of Pathfinder Second Edition rules for those who still want them, and are fully compatible with the new remastered rules, but will not appear in future Pathfinder releases."

Pathfinder 2E - Paizo Reveals Wayne Reynolds' Pathfinder Remastered Cover Sketches

While the final colour pieces won't arrive for a few weeks, Paizo's Erik Mona revealed the cover sketches of the upcoming Pathfinder Remastered core rulebooks while at the GAMA industry trade show yesterday. In an unsual move, you will actually be able to buy special 'sketch' editions of the...

www.enworld.org

 

[BigZebra]

When all is said and done - PF2 will be well served by a new rulebook. I find the current CRB not very good or utalitarian. I have no idea how they should improved, it's a herculean task to make a good rulebook for something like PF2 me thinks, but man last year when we tried PF2 I had to do so many lookups in different sections to get "the full rule", and many times I missed part of a rule because I couldn't find it.
I know that if I'll ever run it again I will definitely be happy knowing there's a new take on it.

 

[Justice and Rule]

When all is said and done - PF2 will be well served by a new rulebook. I find the current CRB not very good or utalitarian. I have no idea how they should improved, it's a herculean task to make a good rulebook for something like PF2 me thinks, but man last year when we tried PF2 I had to do so many lookups in different sections to get "the full rule", and many times I missed part of a rule because I couldn't find it.
I know that if I'll ever run it again I will definitely be happy knowing there's a new take on it.

I do think this was very much a driver of things, among more extensive errata they probably wanted to get published for a few classes. Every time I see people compliment the system, they often talk about the CRB not being the best to look things up in. I think they figured going forward they would use the chance to straight-up revise the book to make an easier read. Given that they are including APG characters I'm guessing they will be including feats from the APG (Which will be nice to have all in one place), but I wonder if they'll be including the archetypes as well as some of the feats made in some of the APs.

 

[Remathilis]

I had the same impression too from Paizo. I think it was when Erik Mona was on a Roll for Combat stream during the OGL fiasco back in January that I remember him saying something along those lines that PF2 can easily remove OGL should they reprint it without it. PF2 is different enough to exist without it. The OGL was largely kept in the books for 3PP benefit to easily be able to publish 3rd party content for the game. It has been a bit since I watched that steam but that was definitely the impression I got.

But maybe Paizo underestimated how easily they can divorce themselves from the OGL?

I still think they could reprint the core books with 3-18 ability scores and alignment, but they are seizing on the anti-WotC sentiment to make changes they wanted to make in the first place but thought their audience would treat as a bridge too far. It eased a lot of people from 1e to 2e, but now that 2e is a success, they don't need those legacy elements and they can remove them while their fans cheer about "sticking it to WotC" or something.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

I still think they could reprint the core books with 3-18 ability scores and alignment, but they are seizing on the anti-WotC sentiment to make changes they wanted to make in the first place but thought their audience would treat as a bridge too far. It eased a lot of people from 1e to 2e, but now that 2e is a success, they don't need those legacy elements and they can remove them while their fans cheer about "sticking it to WotC" or something.

Alignment at least is something that has actually changed dramatically since playtest, the 2e base wants nothing to do with it.

 

[SteveC]

Alignment at least is something that has actually changed dramatically since playtest, the 2e base wants nothing to do with it.

Not all of them. I will miss Alignment and think it made an interesting and useful addition to Pathfinder. And it is actually imbedded in a lot of different places. But I also know that I am in the minority.

 

[Retreater]

You know, I'll still hold my players accountable for actions. Like "if you bully and harm people, that will hurt your standing in the world."
I can use setting and story to handle these situations somewhat realistically.

 

[SteveC]

I thought I'd comment on the upcoming revisions, since the Pathfinder community is something I'm a part of and I purchase stuff regularly from Paizo. What this is doing for me is making sure I won't buy anything until the new edition is out. I had been buying the APs and the Foundry ad-ons, with the intention of running them for my group. We're running Abomination Vault at the moment. The discussion I've read is that the APs and associated modules won't be updated to the new rules. For me, that means I'm not going to buy any of APs until the revision is out so I don't have to deal with the transition.

I don't think I'm the only one on this issue. I still plan to play PF2, but I'll hold off on buying things, and I'll end up waiting for a bundle for the PDFs of the new rulebooks. I think Paizo would be well advised to take that into consideration.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That always happens with any new editons and quasi-editions. All you can do is forge on and try not to fool around too long while getting to it.

 

[Velderan]

I thought I'd comment on the upcoming revisions, since the Pathfinder community is something I'm a part of and I purchase stuff regularly from Paizo. What this is doing for me is making sure I won't buy anything until the new edition is out. I had been buying the APs and the Foundry ad-ons, with the intention of running them for my group. We're running Abomination Vault at the moment. The discussion I've read is that the APs and associated modules won't be updated to the new rules. For me, that means I'm not going to buy any of APs until the revision is out so I don't have to deal with the transition.

I don't think I'm the only one on this issue. I still plan to play PF2, but I'll hold off on buying things, and I'll end up waiting for a bundle for the PDFs of the new rulebooks. I think Paizo would be well advised to take that into consideration.

That's fair. Personally I was interested in checking out Starfinder, even buying the Beginner Box to run for my group in a couple months once we've had more time to get used to PF2e. But with Paizo's cryptic not yet answer to whether the Remasters will be done for Starfinder as well, I think I'll wait to see what they end up doing before deciding to buy anything further for the game. We can still use the Beginner Box as a test to see whether the system seems like something we'd like to play.

I'll pick up Rage of Elements to see what changes are evident in it since Logan Bonner said that book will reflect the Remaster material. I buy the Lost Omens books that interest me for the lore, so no change to my spending there. APs? I've only bought Abomination Vaults since that's what we're currently running, no immediate plans for what to run next. The Tian Xia material sounds interesting and since that releases after the Remaster material should be finished it's probably safe to buy without too much worry about system changes being reflected in it.

 

[Retreater]

I thought I'd comment on the upcoming revisions, since the Pathfinder community is something I'm a part of and I purchase stuff regularly from Paizo. What this is doing for me is making sure I won't buy anything until the new edition is out. I had been buying the APs and the Foundry ad-ons, with the intention of running them for my group. We're running Abomination Vault at the moment. The discussion I've read is that the APs and associated modules won't be updated to the new rules. For me, that means I'm not going to buy any of APs until the revision is out so I don't have to deal with the transition.

I don't think I'm the only one on this issue. I still plan to play PF2, but I'll hold off on buying things, and I'll end up waiting for a bundle for the PDFs of the new rulebooks. I think Paizo would be well advised to take that into consideration.

I was in the same boat, and I think I posted the same sentiment earlier in this thread.
And since then I've purchased Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons and their first Bestiary. And then I picked up Crown of the Kobold King and Kingmaker for 2e. I got a pretty good discount on all of them.
My rationale ... Let's consider a popular alternative rules additions: Free Archetype.
Are there APs, adventures, and creatures that aren't 100% balanced to account for Free Archetype characters? Yes.
Do some of my players want to use Free Archetypes? Yes.
Do I want to keep up with all those changes? No.
So do we use them in my game? No, not at the moment.
I can ignore plenty of alternate rules. And I can make adjustments on the fly to account for minor changes. It's all fine to me.