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]

On the other hand, Paizo has a bigger budget including likely its own legal than many game companies. They're not The Big Dog, but they're certainly one of the larger Medium Dogs.

Paizo made it clear in the heat of the OGL debacle that they were willing to put serious resources toward fighting WotC, had WotC gone forward with an attempt to revoke the OGL.

I, for one, am glad those resources went into making the ORC and the Remaster, instead.

 

[Velderan]

Paizo made it clear in the heat of the OGL debacle that they were willing to put serious resources toward fighting WotC, had WotC gone forward with an attempt to revoke the OGL.

I, for one, am glad those resources went into making the ORC and the Remaster, instead.

I think most of us can agree it's better when resources go to things that aren't lawyers.

 

[Reynard]

Alright, so i have a party of four first level characters made up in Fantasy grounds I can test with. Does it make more sense to put them on the map of the Gauntlight and just "play solo" or should I run a contained combat first?

 

[Velderan]

Alright, so i have a party of four first level characters made up in Fantasy grounds I can test with. Does it make more sense to put them on the map of the Gauntlight and just "play solo" or should I run a contained combat first?

There's some pretty easy combats to start the 1st level, so just solo running it might be best to see a few different types of enemies. I don't remember there being a ton of different checks to make on that level but it's been awhile since we were there.

 

[EthanSental]

The way I see it, WotC pushed Paizo under the bus of revoked license once, and they probably pulled all the stops to avoid it happening again.

Unfortunately, they - Paizo - probably invested a lot into remaster, and they are unlikely to remaster remastered edition.

Paizo executive mistakes would be:

• going with the print too early, digital editions would suffice during a forced transition period
• narrow vision. Securing safety of existing player base at the expense of potential new followers who still prefer P1 or play 5E.
• not working on improving user experience. You are 30 plus. You have a job and a family. Where do you fit 500 pages of rules in, or how do you convince the players to digest a character sheet?

Band of Blades:
Ref. Roll20 - Virtual Tabletop for Playing D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, TTRPGs

This is a modern character sheet. It contains all necessary character creation steps, character effects, stats.

I am not particularly fond of the system, but I love how it is organized.

Swords of Serpentine
Ref.
That's another take on modern fantasy gaming character sheet. The approach is more focused on stats, but it is still easy to follow the flow of the information, and finding stuff is easy even if your eyes are not as good as they were once.

----
The bottom line would be to ask Paizo dev team to have a mandatory time off from their home system, play and experience other stuff (even dreadful dredges of 5E would show some improvements, like fewer rolls).

Looking at that character sheet, I’d still be using Hero Labs to keep up with all that fiddly bit info like that. HL was a godsend for PF and keeping track of feats.

 

[Retreater]

WotC backed down from revoking the OGL, but there's absolutely nothing that says Cynthia Williams eventual replacement might not come in with less concern about the PR and want it gone.

When the SRD was put in the Creative Commons, that put a big pause on all of it. I think there was time to do it right.
But again, as was said, I have no skin in the game - other than being a 3PP content creator. We'll just say far less skin than Paizo has.

 

[ReshiIRE]

When the SRD was put in the Creative Commons, that put a big pause on all of it. I think there was time to do it right.
But again, as was said, I have no skin in the game - other than being a 3PP content creator. We'll just say far less skin than Paizo has.

That was only the 5e SRD right though?

Paizo specifically relies on the 3rd Edition SRD and anything they get from there via the OGL. That's why they could not afford to pause this in case Wizards of the Coast decided to upend the OGL or WoTC specifically decides to go after Paizo. Because, I think it's fairly clear, the people in WOTC who made the decision to upend the OGL are still around and in power in the company, and they may decide to go 'naughty word it, remove Paizo' in the future.

------

I think this Remaster included major improvements to the game and only one or two weird things (IMO the Wizard schools should have explicit advice to homebrew the hell out of them; as there should be more explicit advice to homebrew the hell out of gods if your Cleric or Champion players are stuck). It has been worth it.

I also don't think the initial printing contains too much significant issues to not be worth it on hand; the major, major one is the Death and Dying rules, and that's very easy to resolve with a sticky note or errata page beside you.

Seriously, while I haven't seen the changes myself completely yet, the Witch improvements alone sound like a significant improvement.

 

[Jahydin]

Seriously, while I haven't seen the changes myself completely yet, the Witch improvements alone sound like a significant improvement.

My wife is playing a Witch and is quite happy with the changes!

 

[Nylanfs]

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).

They do, and if your Paizo store account is synced and you don't have the PDF. You get the PDF in the Paizo store with the FG purchase.

 

[Retreater]

I also don't think the initial printing contains too much significant issues to not be worth it on hand; the major, major one is the Death and Dying rules, and that's very easy to resolve with a sticky note or errata page beside you.

Death and Dying rules are literally the most important rules in the game. You could say they are of "life and death" importance.
The fact that Paizo got them wrong (which, let's be honest, they only admitted because a large portion of the fan community turned against them), shows that these rules needed to be playtested and get more community feedback before being rushed out the door.
They took a game that was pretty well balanced and willie-nelson changed whatever they wanted with a rushed hack-job. Who knows what other nonsense we'll be catching over the next few years as we pour over the contents of a book that was basically re-written and re-edited in 4 months.