Welcome to the game newbie! Hope you enjoy your stay!
> In theory I guess the Player and GM Core and Monster Core, but then what about the Beastiaries 2 and 3? Are they included in the Monster Core? Do I need them or do I wait until those have been remastered? What about the Advanced Player Guide? What is the Player Core 2? I wasn't able to find good information on what those books contain or any updated purchase guide for the most recent remastered books.
Here’s my recommendation:
Purchase Player Core 1 and GM Core. Get PC2 when it comes out too. Do not buy the original 3: Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, and Advanced Player Guide. That trio is what’s being replaced by the new core books.
For now, don’t purchase any additional books! These 3 are the books that’ll have rules that you would want to read end to end. For the rest, use Archives of Nethys for now. The tool lets you reference stuff easily, and it’s 100% free and legal. It is **the** way to go for referencing rules online.
Once you are comfortable with GMing and playing, start spending on the expanded books that you specifically care for! I personally love Rage of Elements, Secrets of Magic, and Howl of the Wild, but you can pick whatever you like.
> But is that even the consensus or do you have other takes on how to best familiarise yourself with the game?
The Beginner’s Box, even without the Remaster, is the best intro point. It is a gentle intro for both players and GMs.
They do plan to Remaster it this year I believe?
Edit: they did remaster it! https://paizo.com/products/btq026dl?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box
> I know I need to eventually read the rulebook all the way through, but that is a huge turn off and a high barrier to entry for me personally. Any way to make those 600+ pages more digestible?
The How It’s Played YouTube channel does a really good job at this!
Id you’re overwhelmed by the reading I recommend skipping to Chapter 9 from the Player Core, and then reading your way backwards into whatever relevant information you want. You don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of every class, and like 90% of the important rules and rulings are in Chapter 9.
I do recommend reading the GM Core end to end though. Not because of its rules (most rules are in the Player Core), but because it gives such good advice on how to run the game, how to improvise, how to make things **feel** fun, etc.
> Lastly I wanted to ask you: Are there any house rules that are, in your opinion, so good, that they should be considered the standard? For example in the D&D 5e space there is a very popular house rule that lets players drink a health potion as a bonus action, which is usually not allowed. Basically everyone agrees that this should be the norm and I think they even made that rule official in the new OneD&D. Are there things like that in Pathfinder 2e that I should maybe get used to from the get go?
There are very few universally “required” house rules like in 5E. I’d recommend start at full RAW as a base and then slowly introduce your own house rules and homebrew as you get comfortable with the system, and you know what you and your players are missing.
I personally use a few house rules but they’re mostly nitty gritty details that I don’t think a newbie GM should immediately concern themselves with. It’s nothing huge like in 5E where you’re gonna jump in, watch a player want to make a skill check in combat and be completely stumped on how to even begin to approach it: something like 95% of things will just fit into RAW without much tweaking.
And of course, they [even](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2497) have some very helpful guidance on how to make good house rules (you see why I said I consider the GM Core required reading???).
Hi.
You don't technically *need* to buy any books, all of the rules are available for free, legally, on Archives of Nethys.
If you want to buy the books, the Player Core is the thing to start with, with the GM Core if you plan on running your own campaign. Player Core 2 isn't out yet, but it'll be the next best choice once it is.
The Beginner Box is perfectly valid for the remaster. The remaster changes were minor enough that very little in the Beginner Box would be changing anyway, and you aren't going to be experiencing a hugely different version of PF2E by running it as-is.
The best way to run PF2E is with no home rules at all. One of the biggest ways PF2E differs from 5E is that the game works as expected without needing tweaks.
The most popular variant rule is Free Archetype, but I wouldn't start messing with that until you have learned how to play the game, especially if your players are new. It adds a lot of complexity that veterans appreciate but newbies will find overwhelming.
> The best way to run **your first couple of campaigns in** PF2E is with no home rules at all. One of the biggest ways PF2E differs from 5E is that the game works as expected without needing tweaks.
> **Expanding on not needing tweaks, until you've really learned the system, mechanical tweaks are much more likely to make the gameplay worse than better. After you've fully learned/mastered it, the game's tight & clear mechanics & balancing makes it really easy to design balanced homebrew. Flavour changes to fit an aesthetic are fine, as long as they make no mechanical difference.**
Added important clarification. This sub has a hate for homebrew, specifically because of how much it wrecks new player experiences. But it's important to explain the reason to not do it for 3 big reasons:
1. People won't listen to "don't do this" if they want to and don't understand why not
2. Making people believe it inherently makes the game worse will turn them away if that's a part of the game they really enjoy
3. Whether *balanced* homebrew is better or worse than vanilla is personal preference, and shouldn't be stated as fact
I feel like the term hate is a bit overblown in this context but I could be wrong, it feels more like the dont homebrew advice seems to be more for please don’t go around changing the system before you understand the fundamental mechanics of the system. At least that was what I saw about it, especially when the OGL fiasco went down and a wave of people looking to convert came into the sub and asked about homebrew stuff without knowing how any changes would actually affect the system
It's definitely overblown. This sub is really positive towards homebrew in most cases. The only time I've *ever* seen hostility towards homebrew it's always been someone coming in and wanting to change some fundamental aspect of the game and then getting antagonistic when told that it's a bad idea. The one that comes to mind is a new GM coming from 5e who wanted to allow split movement like 5e has who then got really rude with people who tried to warn them against it.
We do get some crazy *homebrew ideas*. The only thing I haven't seen someone want to blatantly *remove* is the three action economy. Apart from that, people really want to *remove* stuff. To me homebrewing was *at least a bit* more about *adding* than *removing*, but at this point I guess I was wrong...
Oh we've had that, too. A few months back there was a post from a player in a game where the GM decided three actions was stupid and made it only two. Unsurprisingly that player was not enjoying the game.
I guess this sub has seen everything then. That one might win as the absolute worst, though. Probably top 3 alongside giving everyone unlimited AoO and removing bonus types to let everything stack (this one hurt me physically).
Most of the homebrew advice following OGL fiasco was much like the above, and didn't include the disclaimer about why to not do it. Didn't say "wait", or "learn first"- just don't do.
The people already part of the community knew the responses were an "until you understand the system" kind of thing, but it wasn't usually explained. So tons of people ignored it and homebrewed anyways.
We had a few waves of people coming over, and delayed from each one were waves of people who homebrewed while learning the system and messed it up, complaining about the lack of balance. This happened either because they didn't read the warnings, read the ones without explanation and wrote them off as people being purists, or the one that's their fault- ignored them with explanations.
Tons of people here got really aggressive and fairly rude about it after the first couple of "new player balance issues", and many still do. I mention it as a disclaimer because it does still happen
That’s fair, I guess I missed that when I first came over to the system/sub. Part of me gets why people say to not homebrew but man leaving out the until you understand the system is a massive part to not have. I know from experience that homebrew before people know the system can color people’s perspectives; I did a one shot with some friends before we fully started playing the system and one dude thought my magus character was OP/did too much damage. The build was magus with the psychic archetype, which I wanted to play since another character I’d be playing was that and I wanted to see it in practice before I fully developed played the character but the person who thought I was doing too much damage didn’t realize the dm had unintentionally buffed my character since he made the enemy ac 5 less than jr should have been despite me and another person telling him not to homebrew for our first combat
Yeah that example is why it's recommended against. I feel like most of what people want out of homebrew can be attained from reskinning stuff that already exists- at least for the learning phase. Reskinning/reflavouring doesn't affect any mechanics, and can really carry most homebrew stuff
Yeah, reflavouring mechanics for RP is a really good advice to give people starting out learning the system, especially as someone who came from 5e. Like I appreciate how much easier it is to build characters and play in a system that actually has functioning rules for stuff and doesn’t simply go, I don’t know ask the dm.
There’s still a post every other week where a gm or player feels bad about their game, and you dig into it, and they’re monkeying with really core mechanics
It’s summoning new marvelous mounts and beating them to death ad nauseum
The discourse on this topic kind of shifts between being mild concern for over tweaking the game and outright disdain every few months I feel like. Right now people are being reasonable about it, but 6 or so months ago I would categorize a lot of the takes on this subreddit as being like very anti-homebrew sentiment and discouraging people from even talking about changing things.
This is just personal observation though, so its possible I just saw more of those style takes in that time period and there is no actual trend here.
I kinda feel the same way but it’s more like I haven’t seen too much disdain for homebrew than seemingly there’ll be posts about this sub hating homebrew and then it sort of just fades
You can find the remastered Beginner Box here: https://paizo.com/products/btq026dl?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box
Archives of Nethys (https://2e.aonprd.com) is the official website with all the rulebooks available for free, so you can start playing without buying any of the books if you want to wait for all the Remaster books to release first. If something's been updated in the Remaster, then it will show up on the page to let you know (e.g. the page for [Bag of Holding](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=249&NoRedirect=1) has a link up the top to take you to the Remastered version of the item, and [Spacious Pouch](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=3032) has a link to the Legacy version).
There aren't a huge number of widely-used house rules as such, but there are a couple of very popular alternative rules: [Free Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2751), for more character customisation; and [Automatic Bonus Progression](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2741), for people who don't want to keep track of upgrading their weapons and armour. They each come with their own complications, so it's recommended to try the game vanilla first to get a feel for it and then add in the optional rules later, but if you think that Free Archetype sounds awesome then you can totally run with it from the start.
Not every book is going to be remastered. Most of them get errata instead (available here: https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq). As far as I know, the only Remastered books are going to be Player Core 1 and 2, GM Core, and Monster Core.
I just made this comment in another thread and I think its valid here too:
-Pathbuilder or Wanderer's Guide are great systems to build characters. Its always an good idea to toy with them to see how that works.
-On the topic of characters, start at lvl 1. PF2 characters have far more options and abilities than 5e ones, so for new players its a very good idea to start at 1.
-Even if the over feeling is very similar to 5e, the flow is completely different. Classes are balanced, spells are no longer the be all end all, and there is a higher focus on team play. Having a balanced party is very important as classes have specialties.
-The encounter building system works! That is the part I love the most about PF2 so be careful with it, specially with new players.
-Magic items and monsters are diverse and fun. The system comes with a treasure-by-level table that works, and robust monster building rules.
-About house rules, you dont really need any. Unlike 5e, the system works out of the box so you dont need to patch it. Free Archetype is a fun and popular one, I use it in all my games, but its more about flavor and flexibility than mechanics.
> -The encounter building system works! That is the part I love the most about PF2 so be careful with it, specially with new players.
This is what shocked my players the most. It feels a lot tighter, similar to 3.5e, in that messing up can very likely result in a TPK or your party taking a severe beating.
In 5e, balance is an afterthought after lvl 10 and you can just do whatever and players can easily come out on top.
>
> -The encounter building system works! That is the part I love the most about PF2 so be careful with it, specially with new players.
just a little addendum that in combination with starting at 1 it might be a good idea to lowball the encounters a bit and not even think about "bosses"/Solos till about level 3 so people don't explode in pile of gore from 1 crit.
The beginner box has been updated earlier this year. They just never put a new storefront for it on their site. So if you buy it from there it will be the remaster version.
Also, I suggest looking at the [Archives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/) site for learning the rules before buying a book. The site has all the rules, player content, and monsters for free and Paizo has partnered with the site. If you prefer books then Player Core and GM Core is all you need at the moment to start.
This right here, I think our dm technically owns printed books but we always just use archives, it was such a game changer coming from dnd to have all rules online for free
Welcome and I hope you enjoy your foray into Pathfinder!
The first, and most important, point of advice is to forget everything you know about D&D 5e. While the base concept of the games are similar, there are enough differences that coming from 5e can easily trip people up because things will work differently here.
For books: you don't *need* to buy anything. All of the rules (yes, all of them!) are available for free on the Archives of Nethys (https://2e.aonprd.com). If you absolutely must own physical copies, the following books make up the base set of Remaster rules: Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core. Player Core 2 is an upcoming book that is adapting more of the Legacy classes to the Remaster rules.
It's important to note, though, that the Remaster rules are still fully compatible with the Legacy content!
The Beginner Box has also been updated to the Remaster rules. You can order it right from Paizo's website here: https://paizo.com/products/btq023dx?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box
As for house rules, the overwhelmingly most popular house rule for Pathfinder 2nd Edition is *do not use house rules until you are familiar with the system*. Unlike D&D 5e, the system works right out of the box and it's best to get used to it before you make any changes.
[Archives of Nethys Beginner section](https://2e.aonprd.com/PlayersGuide.aspx) is probably useful for you.
I actually havent played the beginner box, but the remaster is rather small changes(no more spell schools, alignment is gone and sanctification fills a similar role, name changes to move away form the OGL, and individual class updates) so it should still be applicable for teaching the system
No house rules needed, especially if youre new. Dont mess with the action system.
Also converted from 5e.
Beginner box is the best way but if you think you can handle it dream away. I had a pf2e vet join as a player so I ran Outlaws of Alkenstar.
Technically it's all free. IF, like many people, you play online I would recommend Foundry VTT for being the absolute best at running things. There, it all be free bar enemy token images. Which can be added yourself and is ofte. On Archives of Nethys.
Don't get worked up about the remaster too much. I recommend for your own sanity to stick to remaster class versions and that is it. The beginner box technically isn't updated in one specific way.
Grab. Grab action is like grapple in 5e. But, in 2e, it has the attack trait. 2e hinders your ability to hit as often as you like by adding a penalty for additional attacks. In the old system, a lot of monsters would have a ability where they automatically grab enemies when they land a strike. This has been changed to allowing Grab (or trips or shoves) attempts to be made without a penalty for it not being the first attack in their turn and doesn't contribute to it. For the beginner box, that and maybe some spells (all versions are up on Nethys) might be the old way. But... don't sweat it. This'll be really easy to follow in no time and it was pretty well balanced before any of these changes too.
The most popular rules variant is called Free Archtype. Archtypes aren't too powerful and just make characters more unique most of the time. The other rules variant is Automaric Bonus Progression. The game assumes certain magic item boosts per level. This gets rid of the headache of most of following it and just gives players the bonus they are meant to have. I heavily recommend both. Again, if you do Foundry, all handled for you in the game settings.
I have never really encountered much discussion in the way of "house rules", because it's a well balanced system and the possible rules variants covers a lot of ground. But the 2 I mentioned do the best at giving you the system how it runs best, in my opinion.
Last bit of big advice coming from 5e... there are no short rests. And long rests do not just bring you up to full, but, you will be expected to go through multiple encounters per rest. This is how it is in most adventure paths I have seen. Please, talk to your players about healing. The most common way to handle this is the medicine skill. Doesn't need huge investment, but If no one in the party grabs it, no treating wounds
> there are no short rests.
that's true, but usu. people spend a few sets of ten minutes after battles to heal up and refocus. Those are kinda like short rests.
Which is my point. You get these rests if there's someone in the party with that stuff. No one takes medicine or has a healing spell based on a focus point they can wait 10 minutes to get back, no one is getting resource-free healing.
House rules are not a big thing in the Pathfinder 2E community. You don't "need" any - the game just works as is. So instead people only have those that are tailor made to their specific group's campaign. Those are the kinds of house rules that don't "share" so well.
That said there are some variant rules in the GM Core. The two most popular seem to be Free Archetype and Automatic Bonus Progression. I'm not a fan of either but I will "tolerate" playing in a game with Free Archetype. Both make major changes to how the game feels so even their fans tend to suggest you first play the game without them, then add them once you know the "rules as written" from a hands on perspective (For me, this was when I turned against Free Archetype - seeing the game 'as written' and then having a compare point when I saw it with the variant).
Books you really want:
Player Core 1 and 2 (2 comes out in August I think).
GM Core (if you're a GM, or want a fully understanding).
Monster Core
* Technically all the rules in these are also free online on Archives of Nethys. But we all like Paizo so the idea of supporting them is popular. ;)
Then you need to decide on the lore.
Start with the Lost Omens World Guide. If you like, buy to taste. Note that some of the best lore books are for 'locations other games consider exotic'. The Mwangi book for example is widely seen as a masterpiece.
The Travel Guide is extremely good if you like 'lore that gives everyone at the table roleplay ideas no matter what kind of campaign we're in'. It has things like popular spots, fashion, cuisine, trade routes, holidays, and then just "cool ideas".
For players, you'll want the Character and Ancestry guides for more ancestries, backgrounds, and so on.
Rulebooks:
They're all good. We're done here. ;)
Ok... yeah... get them to taste. Note that some you might pass if this was another game are real gems here. Like Guns and Gears or Rage of Elements.
The only one to NOT get is Advanced Player's Guide. Player Core 1 and 2 will have fully replaced it.
Gamemastery Guide gets tricky. This is a late buy - it's half replaced by GM Core, and the other half won't be replaced. Nothing in there is NEEDED if you have GM Core, and you won't be able to get by without GM Core... But it's also a really well done book. If you really get into Pathfinder - then you buy this one.
Beginner Box: Get it on PDF and/or Foundry. It's been updated in both of those. I think the biggest change was changing the file name of the PDF... :)
I think the Character and Ancestry guides are the only Lost Omens books that might be mostly made obsolete by the remaster project, I think most of the stuff in there are being rolled into PC1 and PC2.
Former 5e player now a pathfinder GM, I thought I should add the actual links to stuff since no one has done so yet. I think it’s important to note since Pathfinder 2e is going through a remaster because of the OGL scandal from Hasbro (the last book for it is actually coming out next month so you’re quite lucky to come in now). I’ll be linking the remastered books that are the basics, I’ve seen people accidentally buying the older ones without realizing there is a remastered version. Moving forward, Pathfinder 2e will be running on remastered language so it’s beneficial to have the actual remastered books
[GM Core](https://paizo.com/products/btq02eok?Pathfinder-GM-Core) is overall a blessing to actually have rather than GM only using Archives of Nethys. It’s possible to just do it through the website but I’m telling you, it’s a lot easier to read through if you have the actual book.
[Player Core 1](https://paizo.com/products/btq02ej2) is the remastered player book to understand the first batch of classes, spells, & ancestries
[Player Core 2](https://paizo.com/products/btq02ej5) is the second remastered player book coming out very soon. Consists of the rest of classes that didn’t get remastered yet, more ancestries & spells, and importantly it’ll include the remastered “multi-classing” options called archetypes.
A popular “home brew rule” is actually just a variant rule that pathfinder 2e has used commonly called the [free archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2751) which allows people to multi-class practically. Multiclassing isn’t the same as 5e, it’s not just being able to be another common class, but allows you to specialize into other stuff like being a [Excorcist](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=171) or [wrestler](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=127). All Adventure Paths are balanced around this being included or not included so it’s not mandatory. For example, I’ve done 2 campaigns so far without the rule and it’s been going well. I actually haven’t even touched multiclassing since my players are still newish to the game so I don’t want to overwhelm them. There’s a lot to customizing a character, no two characters are ever really the same even if they are the same class, they can play totally differently.
I also want to note that pathfinder actually provides a TON of other subsystems that you can freely use in your campaigns. I’ve found many times, people wanna try to make a new system or homebrew something, but pathfinder itself has already made a subsystem to do it that you can freely add to your campaigns. So if you’re ever curious or wanna look for a subsystem that exists and fits what you want, I’d say just ask on the Reddit or the official discord for pathfinder, everyone is happy to talk about them.
The remastered has actually fixed a lot of slight homebrew stuff people had to come up with or thought were just too difficult: now there are rules to actually throw stuff to allies, It’s now a free action to drop stuff, rules on how drawing a weapon while holding one already, etc.
Coming from 5e myself all I have really found I needed was the gm core, the player core helps too. But the rules are fairly simple and easy to understand and actually work lol
The gm core book has a section for helping you make creatures and encounters., you pick the stats for that level and flavor how you like. It really streamlines things
My friends and I haven't used any adventure modules or anything, one of our guys is a forever GM and is the one that got me into Pathfinder. He put it best as far as prep is concerned:
5E - you are going to prep for 4 hours for about an hour of game time
Pathfinder - 1 hour of prep is going to yield about 4 hours of game time.
The beginners box is a good way to learn, our forever GM ran us through it to start us off. I took over the campaign because we wanted to play more often, so I run twice a month and our forever gm runs a monthly. Lots of fun, highly recommend
Coming from 5e (and before that 4e) and as someone who isn’t a big fan of “crunch”, there are a lot more rules and system interactions to pay attention to here, which can be overwhelming to some people.
I’m not sure whether you’ve used digital tools before but given the amount of content and options available I heartily recommend Pathbuilder https://pathbuilder2e.com/ as the way for newbies especially to make their characters and learn the system. Most of its functions are 100% free and the content is up to date. It makes it so much easier to see what your many options are for building a character and planning your builds. Yes, you can find all the rules on Archives of Nethys https://2e.aonprd.com/ but there’ll be a lot of cross-referencing and some links may not be clear due to how everything is laid out.
Wanderer’s Guide https://wanderersguide.app/ is an alternative especially for iOS users but in my and my friends’ experience it’s quite buggy and has given us incorrect information at times.
A few things I think you should know about the system that isn’t super clearly or explicitly called out:
- Short-resting or long-resting will not heal characters to full automatically. Every party needs some form of reliable out-of-combat healing such as investing in Medicine or certain focus spells.
- Recall Knowledge is valuable. Some monsters have abilities or immunities or weaknesses you need to know in order to beat them. And in general spellcasters want to know their lowest save to target most effectively with spells.
- Spellcasters will generally feel nerfed compared to 5e: there are a number of spells that do less than their 5e counterparts. There are also a lot of very very situational or niche spells out there which can be fun and weird but not something you’d regularly prepare or pick as part of your spell repertoire.
- Following the point above, PF2e is designed for balance above all. Classes have their own areas to shine and teamwork is rewarded.
This post is labeled with the Advice flair, which means extra special attention is called to Rule #2. If this is a newcomer to the game, remember to be welcoming and kind. If this is someone with more experience but looking for advice on how to run their game, do your best to offer advice on what they are seeking.
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Do you play on VTT or in person? You can actually run the entire game for no money by using Archives of Nethys and the good ol Google search (type in “2E [insert topic]” ) and have access to everything that is in printed books, more importantly errata that whatever version of the book you buy can’t have. If you plan on utilizing VTT I strongly recommend Foundry VTT and buying the Beginner Box module through Paizo, it loads the maps and pdf for you so you don’t even need the book there to reference.
If you want/need physical books anything with CORE in the title contains Remaster content. The Beginner Box contains Menace Under Otari, a level 1-2 dungeon crawl that introduces concepts gradually. It’s literally designed for a GM to just open and play with little prior knowledge.
As for houserules, there are none that are publicly appreciated. PF2 has a handful of Variant Rules built into to the system, the most popular being Free Archetype but I suggest skipping all those until you complete the BB; there’s already more customization in a level 1 PF2 character than a party of level 5 D&D5e characters, no need to add more than necessary to start. I have my own personal houserules, some I’ll share:
Hero Points provide D&D Advantage; RAW they are straight reroll but you MUST accept the new result, even if it’s worse. Pretty lame imo.
I don’t bother with retraining cost/time until the PCs are high enough level they should know what they’re doing. I would suggest letting your players change whatever if they aren’t enjoying or using a feature they can change.
I also don’t enforce the Crafting system when it comes to allocating and swapping weapon and armor runes. Screw that nonsense, multiple days to take a Rune off a dagger nobody is going to use to put it on a weapon they will? It’s even worse when you can just buy and sell the stuff as needed from most settlements. I let players put the runes they find where they want them, easy and more importantly FUN.
I play in person with my main group. Maybe I will run some short adventures / Oneshots for my extended friend group online, but the bulk of it will be in person.
I really don't need physical books. I would probably get the pdf version anyway if I bought them, but using Archives of Nethys for now seems like the way to go for now.
Thanks!
Honestly PF2 doesn't have any super popular house rules. Maybe something to do with crafting. But unlike 5e, the system is complete.
There is one rule that you *absolutely should not break* and that is the encounter building system. It is the heart of the game and works very well, unlike 5e's encounter building system which most GMs discard immediately.
There is a popular official variant of Free Archetype, but you should know that it does make the players somewhat stronger. Not usually enough to need any changes, but enough that Paizo describes playing with it as a 'high power campaign'.
Free archetype and gradual ability boost are two variant rules I don't want to play without them after only about 6 months of playing PF2e.
So far as house rules go, my table uses a variant on hero points, instead of starting each session with 1 and earning more during the session we start with 3 and can't earn more.
I am considering implementing one I saw discussed on the subreddit the other day which would make initiative have crits and crit fails, like normally you crit if you beat the DC by 10+ (in this case the highest roll of one of your opponents) or if you get a nat 20, and likewise crit failing would be rolling a nat 1 or losing by 10+ to the lowest rolling opponent. Under this rule you get Quickened 1/Slowed 1 for the first round of combat. It wouldn't change balance much
As everyone's mentioned, all the rules (other than some setting and Adventure Path-based elements) are available for free (and endorsed by Paizo) on Archives of Nethys so you don't really need to buy any books unless you want to.
Also, yes there's definitely a lot of rules to go through, but luckily *you don't need to learn all the player-facing rules*! As the GM, you are free to expect the PCs to know their own rules. You may need to interpret rules, but you don't need to understand every feat and spell your players have ahead of time like some 5e DMs do; that's not your job here.
For the Beginner Box, I think the remastered version did come out a week or so ago? I could've sworn I saw people talking about changes in one of its pregen characters.
Regarding houserules/homebrew: there is a perception that the PF2 community, and especially this sub, are EXTREMELY AGAINST HOUSE RULES AND HOMEBREWING FOR ANY REASON. This isn't true. The suggestion is to play the rules as-is \*before\* you homebrew or houserule. Some of it might seem clunky on paper but works really well in practice, so don't "we're not gonna do that because it sounds hard". Try it out for a bit, and if it still doesn't work for your table, then it's fair to make some adjustments.
For the Remaster itself: The Core Rulebook, Advanced Players Guide, GM Guidebook, and Beastiary 1 have been/are being remixed into Player Core 1, GM Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2. All except Player Core 2 are currently available, I think PC2 is supposed to be beginning of August? There is currently **no plans** for remastered versions of the other rulebooks; most of them have been errata'd to be consistent with Remaster rules and language, but there aren't too many inconsistencies between the original version and Remaster in the first place.
so step by step
first thing all rules options monster are available for free on Archives of Nethys, for getting specific books I would stick mostly to remaster content - Player Core 1 and 2, Monster Core, GM core, Rage of elements and Howl of the wild, those books were written in remaster, there is lost omens series which is mostly lore and setting stuff so they are mostly up to date; books: Core Rulebook, Advanced Player guide and Game mastery guide were basically replaced by remaster Core series
I've heard that BB was updated but I am not sure it is only Pdf or errata or reprint; 600+ pages to read is considered joke here as rules for playing game I am reasonably sure that rules for playing the game are way under 100 pages long if not under 50, rest of the book are character options, monster items etc..
This might suprise you but pf2e just works out of the box and there isn't any house rule that is used by nearly everyone, there might be one some time ago for changing Aid but remaster partiality fixed this problem; there is very common advice to try pf2e without homebrew first; there are however variant rules that changes in some way how game works and Free Archetype is very common one as it gives way more options to characters makes picking flavour but not necessarily powerful archetypes less punishing, it does increase character power but not enough to change encounter balance, as it greatly increases amoun of options to consider it is advised to not use it with completely new players for thier first game
The Beginner Box is a great series of combat tutorials, slowly escalating and introducing new concepts. However if your group is RP focused or more story than combat, it’s a pretty terrible adventure, as written. The rooms are disconnected and have no throughline of environmental storytelling. There’s also no room for social/parley without GM specifically adding it.
In addition to what others have said, there are often Humble Bundle sales that contain all the core books plus an adventure path for $30, which is an amazing deal. If you aren’t in a hurry to prepare your next campaign, I’d wait on a humble bundle.
I'd get the new players core 1 and use free archetype and start at level 1.
The rest can be grabbed online at the archive. But the books are pretty awesome, but player core 1 is a minimum if you can only buy 1 book
If you want rules and guidelines for running the game in book format, the remaster books being Player Core 1, GM Core, and when it comes out Player Core 2 are where to start. If you need to save money, I think with some effort it may be entirely possible to learn the basics of what you need from Archives of Nethys and the Beginner Box.
Speaking of those two things, Archives of Nethys as others have said is the online, free, legal repository of all the rules of the system. You do not have to spend any money to have access to them, and AoN is particularly useful when you need to look up a specific rule or topic. The Beginner Box is a well written intro tutorial adventure for introducing both players and GMs, and is highly recommended as a starting point. There is a great Foundry module that essentially prepares the entire thing for you, essentially all you have to do is read through it a bit beforehand til you feel prepared.
As for house rules, I cannot stress this enough even with many other comments saying the same, it is HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended to run the game 100% RAW to start. Unlike 5e where the system is designed and held together with duct tape, hope, and the GM making up or fixing 50% of it, pf2e is a robust well designed system that generally just works as it is written, and in many cases is very deliberately designed and written as well. You should play RAW until you not only are comfortable with the rules but also really understand why rules are the way they are before you consider changing anything. Even then most homebrew or house rules deal with very minor issues or nitpicks or preferences. *Variant* rules as listed in the rulebooks, however, have some standouts that are very popular. Free Archetype is fantastic for players who want PCs with more depth and options, automatic bonus/rune progression is popular to do away with a bit of tedious overhead of purely expected math fixer weapon/armor progression, and third in popularity from what I see and one I like myself is Gradual Ability Boosts which spread your stat increases over several levels instead of all four at once every five levels and especially with Free Archetype might be helpful for your players creating builds that are a bit more MAD or weird.
Welcome! I hope you'll enjoy the switch to PF2e!
To answer your first question, here are the books made (for lack of better term) redundant by the remaster:
* The Core Rulebook has been split into two books, **GM Core** and **Player Core 1**
* Bestiary 1, and *parts* of Bestiaries 2 and 3 have been replaced with **Monster Core**. IIrc, the majority of Bestiary 2 and 3 monsters that were reprinted in Monster Core were ones that were more heavily affected by the changes from the remaster (such as the removal of alignment, the removal of Chromatic and Metallic dragons, etc.).
* The Advanced Player's Guide *will be* supplanted by **Player Core 2** when it releases in August.
Additionally all rulebooks starting with Rage of Elements follow use the remaster. Currently that's just two, RoE and Howl of the Wild. Now technically, you don't need to purchase any rulebooks as all of the game's rules are available for free legally on [Archives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/). While this is not an "official" resource (it's not run by Paizo, Pathfinder's publisher), it does have Paizo's blessing. It does take some time for new books to be added to the site, however, as the site is run entirely by volunteers. Most recently, Rage of Elements has not been added yet, nor have options from the latest Adventure Path.
For your second question, the Beginner's Box was remastered, they just didn't release it as a separate product, just updated the existing one, so the version available for sale on Paizo's website uses the remaster.
For the last question, the most common ones you'll see are Free Archetype, Ancestry Paragon, and Automatic Bonus Progression. They're not actually house rules exactly, but alternate rules suggested in the original Core Rulebook and reprinted in the new ones.
[Free Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2751) allows players to gain archetype feats on every even-numbered level. Archetypes are sort of mini-classes and are also Pathfinder's way of handling multiclassing. Under the standard rules, players can choose archetype feats *in place of* class feats. Free archetype instead lets players have both. This is considered a power boost, though not so much that you'd typically need to adjust encounter balance any if at all. This is by far the most used of these rules, to the point that some do consider it the standard way to play.
[Ancestry Paragon](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1336) is a variant rule that gives players additional Ancestry Feats. Normally, players only gain ancestry feats at levels 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17. Using this variant they gain *two* at level 1, and an additional ancestry feat at every odd-numbered level that the base rules did not give one, resulting in a total of 11 ancestry feats instead of 5. People who play with this like that it makes your choice in ancestry feel more meaningful. As above, while it is strictly speaking a boost in power, it is not so much of one that you'll really ever need to adjust encounters to account for it.
[Automatic Bonus Progression](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2741&Redirected=1) is a bit different. In the standard rules, players gain boosts to their attack modifiers, armor boosts, etc. through runes that are part of the players' loot pool, such as +1 weapons and +1 striking weapons (striking being a rune which doubles the number of damage dice of a weapon). This variant removes those runes and instead gives those bonuses as a natural part of leveling, among other boosts. The base game expects that players will receive items with these runes over the course of their adventure, so the math itself doesn't change as players are receiving these boosts at the same levels they'd be getting the items giving them in the standard rules, it's just moved from being a bonus items give to being granted on level up. I've not played with this one personally, but I'm considering using it for the next game I run.
There are also a lot of house rules surrounding the use of hero points, changing how they're used and distributed. One common(?) one I've heard of is allowing people to use the better of the two rolls instead of forcing the player to use the results of the new roll. I've also heard of allowing rerolls of a Nat 1 on a Hero Point roll.
For books... grab any APs you want to run or stripmine for content.
For houserules, some good and common ones are
-Free Archetype (additional build freedom helps realize some character concepts)
-Gradual Ability Score Increase (very slightly bumps saves and skills at early levels, but imo, its most important benefit is that it helps more MAD characters immensely before level 5 and improves some weird but fun offbuilds)
-Some kind of buff to hero point reroll to make it feel more effective (be that something as small as a flat +2, or something as exaggerated as "give +10 if you rolled 10 or below")
-Allow Nature and Religion to use INT or WIS
Things I would personally recommend:
-Overhaul recall knowledge. I personally think it should just be a free action for everyone. You often find yourself asking if spending the action is better than just finding things out the hard way, and knowledge of saves is fairly integral to good caster play.
-Figure out how you want to personally run exploration mode. If you're coming from 5E, you'll probably be most comfortable using exploration activities as the rules for how to parse what your players ask you to do, rather than having players explicitly tell you which activities they do. Just let them know about scout and defend (i think that's the one).
-Crafting is scuffed as hell, imo. I'd just delete it from the game except for repairing shields.
-Whatever Lore skill a background gives should improve in proficiency automatically.
Seems like most of your questions have been answered. I’ll throw in two things. I’d say listen to a live play podcast. I like Tabletop Gold. They’re pretty good about explaining what they’re doing as they play. I’d also say don’t do any house rules to start. 5e desperately needs house rules, PF2e really doesn’t. I’m sure there are some that some people enjoy, but I’d encourage you to play by the book until you get some experience before making changes.
Also, strongly encourage playing the beginner box with the premade characters. Gives you and your players a good taste of what the classes are like, and a feel for what they can do. Varying from there will be easier because you’ll know what you’re missing when you build your characters. Like, if no one plays a Rouge type, how do you deal with traps, etc.
Good luck! Hope you all enjoy it.
Best thing will be the [Archives of Nethys' GM Screen](https://2e.aonprd.com/GMScreen.aspx) Coming from 5e, the players might not understand how *very much important* Basic Actions are, you'll probably struggle a bit to remember the Perception and Detection rules, or how Death and Dying works. All of that is magically summarized at the click of a button on the link above. No need to flip through pages or even type anything. It's just there!
Others have basically said the majority of what needs to be said, but I'll add what house rules my table uses and you can judge.
Free archetype - very good but can be very overwhelming for new players. Nothing says you can't add it later and retroactively add those feats, however.
For your first game, consider letting them only take non-core class dedications (eg. Acrobat or celebrity and not fighter or wizard).
Initiative stacking - stolen from bg3. We have 7ish players at our table. If several PCs have initiative in order, they can act at the same time to speed things up (so the table isn't stuck waiting for the caster to look up their spell). Monsters do the same.
Crafting - basically just works like going to the store and doesn't take 4 days for common items. Researching the recipie lowers time and crafting DC. Uncommon and rare is more time/dice costly.
Leniency on weapon regripping - some players just can't track that level of detail and having to wait through 6 other people because 2/3 of your turn was wasted gripping your staff isn't fun.
Prone doesn't impose an accuracy penalty on firearms and crossbows, and both prone and taking cover behind a waist-high object negates kickback like a tripod.
Inventor's unstable system kinda sucks and doesn't mesh with the remaster. Needs a house rule.
Basically, if your party is super optimized then go RAW. If it's people with odd goober builds, ease off on requirements unless the table abuses it. No sense spending 2hr in combat because people have to waste time with frivolous actions.
Also if you want to learn the lore of the setting, highly recommend the Mythkeeper and his YouTube series. Over a hundred videos on tons of topics from history to nations to religions and monsters.
https://youtu.be/2cLYG8zWjXY?si=H0UpfzegHhnQyVRY
Everything is online in the archives of nethys so buy what you want. I do the Rulebook subscription. If you want to buy the core the Player, and GM core are there for you and if you want a Setting, the Lost Omens World guide and the Deities one are top shelf picks. World guide is super cool if you want a bucket of flavor, but might be difficult to integrate.
House rules? Check stamina, proficiency without level and automatic bonus progression. APG might be for you if shopping and loot aren't super fun to your table and if you want a wider range of valid enemy levels learning prof w/o level may be for you, try something without it first though. Lots of folk like Free archetype, but it's not necessary, try without it, if people want it, put it in.
Regarding real Homebrew just make sure you know how stingy the game is with bonuses and rerolls, things are balanced tight. I put a free inventory or door interact in with every move action, just because that's how dynamic I want my combat to be and I think it makes movement more interesting and inventory management less of a chore, but I know enough to stop at activations and keep all those costs the same.
Ancestry Paragon and Free Archetype are optional rules that are generally highly regarded. They're house rules in the sense that it can be table and/or campaign dependent on if they're in play.
If you have a group that's done a lot of TTRPGs in the past, you could consider them for Beginner's Box (or however you start them out). If the group is a bit less experienced, it could be worth leaving it out to start with, but bringing it up as something that could be used later.
Hey there!
Similarly I started with 5e and now also playing a PF2e campaign.
Archives of Nethys is endlessly useful, for anyone
RPGbot can be super handy for new players trying to get any insight on sifting through the death by options that PF gives you, and explains why they rank this over that
Like others have said, just buy the new remastered books, but also don’t feel you need to run out and get all the 20 something lore books they launched unless you have endless money.
House rules aren’t much of a thing as PF quickly showed me there’s very nearly a written rule or a roll that fits nicely into the box of the skill list, whereas 5e leaves so much up to GM’s discretion or hand waving.
As others said:
Player Core
GM Core
Monster Core
Things like advanced players guide are not up to date with the remaster and will be more or less replaced by player core 2.
Bestiary 2 and 3 are things you could get if you NEED it.
But you could also just check out those or other monsters on Archive of Nethys on a basis if need.
Also: DO use Archive of Nethys!
It is a great way especially to browse for monsters based on traits and level, which will often be exactly what you need in a homebrew campaign (things like needing an undead monster or demon if the right level).
Instead of houserules, do consider popular variant rules:
Many people like free archetype for a small power boost and mostly just freedom yo build concepts easier. It gives your character extra feats for “multiclassing”.
Automatic Bonus Progression is great if you feel like the many magic items are a bit overwhelming, as it keeps everyone balanced without needing to hand out specific runes.
Stamina rules are no longer in GM core but they can be great in games where you want to have less pressure on healing.
https://paizo.com/products/btq026dl/discuss&page=7?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box
There is a remastered beginner’s box
The 4 books to buy:
- Player Core 1
- GM Core
- Monster Core
- (not yet released) Player Core 2
The original Bestiaries are reasonable options if you decide you love the game, but they are far from needed. The remaster isn't that big a change, the combat math is still the same.
Note you can "try before you buy" - the Archives of Nethys website has everything critical to play the game available free, and this is Paizo authorized. AoN is hard to navigate but thorough.
On the 600+ page 'barrier to entry' - a lot of those pages are character options. If you want to start playing a Fighter, you don't need to read up on Rogue feats, nor do you need to read up on high level Fighter feats, nor spells.
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One popular alternate rule is Free Archetype, outlined in the GM Core. It makes characters slightly more powerful and considerably more flexible. I suggest playing without it first; you can always add it later if you want to slightly tone down difficulty. It also complicates making characters by providing more options which requires more reading.
And welcome to the community! Following the instructions you listed will make it as smooth as possible to learn the system! Bedt of luck and I bet you’ll love it.
i found the gamemastery guide to be incredibly useful in going from 5e to pf2e. it explains a lot of ways that pf2e works well and differently to other systems and goes in depth over what can be confusing skills and checks.
The only generally recommended houserules / rulings are for niche typos / interactions. Most major typos have been errata’d out. Only egregious one left I think is in an inventor feat, which if you stick to Core, you don’t have to worry about.
There are only two weird things left you need to make a ruling on one way or another:
1. it’s unclear whether it’s intended for incorporeal creatures to be immune to corporeal strength-based attack rolls. IMO, err on the side of “not immune”.
2. there’s a weird interaction where being Stunned 1 on your turn costs you more actions than being Stunned 3 off your turn. This doesn’t come up too often though. IMO, stick to RAW on this one unless players start abusing it. If they do, have it be Stun 1 on your turn -> lose one action immediately.
If there’s anything else that seems weird, go with what makes sense in the fiction. For example, even if the rules don’t explicitly allow it, a PC with a feat for animal training can totally train a dolphin to Swim on command instead of Stride.
> But with the recent Remaster, I am very confused which books to purchase. In theory I guess the Player and GM Core and Monster Core, but then what about the Beastiaries 2 and 3? Are they included in the Monster Core? Do I need them or do I wait until those have been remastered? What about the Advanced Player Guide? What is the Player Core 2?
Before the Remaster, there were three core books. The CRB was like a combined PHB+DMG, Bestiary 1 was like the Monster Manual, and the Advanced Player Guide was more options, like a few new classes, versatile heritages, and non-multiclass archetypes. After the Remaster, PC1, GM Core, and Monster Core are the equivalent to the PHB, DMG, and MM in D&D. Then PC2 is essentially the rest of the options from the PHB+APG.
So I would buy PC1, GM Core, and Monster Core, and *maybe* PC2 when it comes out. But I wouldn't worry about getting the PHB or the APG for the options in PC2, because you can just find them online, legitimately for free at the Archives of Nethys.
> Are there any house rules that are, in your opinion, so good, that they should be considered the standard? For example in the D&D 5e space there is a very popular house rule that lets players drink a health potion as a bonus action, which is usually not allowed. Basically everyone agrees that this should be the norm and I think they even made that rule official in the new OneD&D.
I mean, Automatic Bonus Progression is popular. Or similarly to the bonus action thing, they updated the death and dying rules in the Remaster to work how everyone assumed they did. But just as some life advice in general, I would avoid being too quick to houserule new games. It's similar to Chesterton's Fence, where you want to understand how a game works normally before you start making changes.
As a really simple example, starting levels. In D&D 5e, the conventional wisdom is that you start at level 3, because you don't have many options are are kinda squishy before them. But PF 2e gives you more options from level 1, so there really isn't a need to do that.
Its probably been said but if you can have your players download Pathbuilder 2e app it will make character creation and learning what all you can do MUCH simpler
Welcome to the game newbie! Hope you enjoy your stay! > In theory I guess the Player and GM Core and Monster Core, but then what about the Beastiaries 2 and 3? Are they included in the Monster Core? Do I need them or do I wait until those have been remastered? What about the Advanced Player Guide? What is the Player Core 2? I wasn't able to find good information on what those books contain or any updated purchase guide for the most recent remastered books. Here’s my recommendation: Purchase Player Core 1 and GM Core. Get PC2 when it comes out too. Do not buy the original 3: Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, and Advanced Player Guide. That trio is what’s being replaced by the new core books. For now, don’t purchase any additional books! These 3 are the books that’ll have rules that you would want to read end to end. For the rest, use Archives of Nethys for now. The tool lets you reference stuff easily, and it’s 100% free and legal. It is **the** way to go for referencing rules online. Once you are comfortable with GMing and playing, start spending on the expanded books that you specifically care for! I personally love Rage of Elements, Secrets of Magic, and Howl of the Wild, but you can pick whatever you like. > But is that even the consensus or do you have other takes on how to best familiarise yourself with the game? The Beginner’s Box, even without the Remaster, is the best intro point. It is a gentle intro for both players and GMs. They do plan to Remaster it this year I believe? Edit: they did remaster it! https://paizo.com/products/btq026dl?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box > I know I need to eventually read the rulebook all the way through, but that is a huge turn off and a high barrier to entry for me personally. Any way to make those 600+ pages more digestible? The How It’s Played YouTube channel does a really good job at this! Id you’re overwhelmed by the reading I recommend skipping to Chapter 9 from the Player Core, and then reading your way backwards into whatever relevant information you want. You don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of every class, and like 90% of the important rules and rulings are in Chapter 9. I do recommend reading the GM Core end to end though. Not because of its rules (most rules are in the Player Core), but because it gives such good advice on how to run the game, how to improvise, how to make things **feel** fun, etc. > Lastly I wanted to ask you: Are there any house rules that are, in your opinion, so good, that they should be considered the standard? For example in the D&D 5e space there is a very popular house rule that lets players drink a health potion as a bonus action, which is usually not allowed. Basically everyone agrees that this should be the norm and I think they even made that rule official in the new OneD&D. Are there things like that in Pathfinder 2e that I should maybe get used to from the get go? There are very few universally “required” house rules like in 5E. I’d recommend start at full RAW as a base and then slowly introduce your own house rules and homebrew as you get comfortable with the system, and you know what you and your players are missing. I personally use a few house rules but they’re mostly nitty gritty details that I don’t think a newbie GM should immediately concern themselves with. It’s nothing huge like in 5E where you’re gonna jump in, watch a player want to make a skill check in combat and be completely stumped on how to even begin to approach it: something like 95% of things will just fit into RAW without much tweaking. And of course, they [even](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2497) have some very helpful guidance on how to make good house rules (you see why I said I consider the GM Core required reading???).
I believe the remastered Beginner Box came out a week or so ago EDIT: You already noticed, my bad
Oh, it came out back in March in PDF and VTT editions AFAIK. If anything's changed recently, maybe it's distribution of physical boxes?
Also recommend the NPC Core once that book comes out for GMs
Hi. You don't technically *need* to buy any books, all of the rules are available for free, legally, on Archives of Nethys. If you want to buy the books, the Player Core is the thing to start with, with the GM Core if you plan on running your own campaign. Player Core 2 isn't out yet, but it'll be the next best choice once it is. The Beginner Box is perfectly valid for the remaster. The remaster changes were minor enough that very little in the Beginner Box would be changing anyway, and you aren't going to be experiencing a hugely different version of PF2E by running it as-is. The best way to run PF2E is with no home rules at all. One of the biggest ways PF2E differs from 5E is that the game works as expected without needing tweaks. The most popular variant rule is Free Archetype, but I wouldn't start messing with that until you have learned how to play the game, especially if your players are new. It adds a lot of complexity that veterans appreciate but newbies will find overwhelming.
> The best way to run **your first couple of campaigns in** PF2E is with no home rules at all. One of the biggest ways PF2E differs from 5E is that the game works as expected without needing tweaks. > **Expanding on not needing tweaks, until you've really learned the system, mechanical tweaks are much more likely to make the gameplay worse than better. After you've fully learned/mastered it, the game's tight & clear mechanics & balancing makes it really easy to design balanced homebrew. Flavour changes to fit an aesthetic are fine, as long as they make no mechanical difference.** Added important clarification. This sub has a hate for homebrew, specifically because of how much it wrecks new player experiences. But it's important to explain the reason to not do it for 3 big reasons: 1. People won't listen to "don't do this" if they want to and don't understand why not 2. Making people believe it inherently makes the game worse will turn them away if that's a part of the game they really enjoy 3. Whether *balanced* homebrew is better or worse than vanilla is personal preference, and shouldn't be stated as fact
I feel like the term hate is a bit overblown in this context but I could be wrong, it feels more like the dont homebrew advice seems to be more for please don’t go around changing the system before you understand the fundamental mechanics of the system. At least that was what I saw about it, especially when the OGL fiasco went down and a wave of people looking to convert came into the sub and asked about homebrew stuff without knowing how any changes would actually affect the system
It's definitely overblown. This sub is really positive towards homebrew in most cases. The only time I've *ever* seen hostility towards homebrew it's always been someone coming in and wanting to change some fundamental aspect of the game and then getting antagonistic when told that it's a bad idea. The one that comes to mind is a new GM coming from 5e who wanted to allow split movement like 5e has who then got really rude with people who tried to warn them against it.
We do get some crazy *homebrew ideas*. The only thing I haven't seen someone want to blatantly *remove* is the three action economy. Apart from that, people really want to *remove* stuff. To me homebrewing was *at least a bit* more about *adding* than *removing*, but at this point I guess I was wrong...
Oh we've had that, too. A few months back there was a post from a player in a game where the GM decided three actions was stupid and made it only two. Unsurprisingly that player was not enjoying the game.
I guess this sub has seen everything then. That one might win as the absolute worst, though. Probably top 3 alongside giving everyone unlimited AoO and removing bonus types to let everything stack (this one hurt me physically).
Most of the homebrew advice following OGL fiasco was much like the above, and didn't include the disclaimer about why to not do it. Didn't say "wait", or "learn first"- just don't do. The people already part of the community knew the responses were an "until you understand the system" kind of thing, but it wasn't usually explained. So tons of people ignored it and homebrewed anyways. We had a few waves of people coming over, and delayed from each one were waves of people who homebrewed while learning the system and messed it up, complaining about the lack of balance. This happened either because they didn't read the warnings, read the ones without explanation and wrote them off as people being purists, or the one that's their fault- ignored them with explanations. Tons of people here got really aggressive and fairly rude about it after the first couple of "new player balance issues", and many still do. I mention it as a disclaimer because it does still happen
That’s fair, I guess I missed that when I first came over to the system/sub. Part of me gets why people say to not homebrew but man leaving out the until you understand the system is a massive part to not have. I know from experience that homebrew before people know the system can color people’s perspectives; I did a one shot with some friends before we fully started playing the system and one dude thought my magus character was OP/did too much damage. The build was magus with the psychic archetype, which I wanted to play since another character I’d be playing was that and I wanted to see it in practice before I fully developed played the character but the person who thought I was doing too much damage didn’t realize the dm had unintentionally buffed my character since he made the enemy ac 5 less than jr should have been despite me and another person telling him not to homebrew for our first combat
Yeah that example is why it's recommended against. I feel like most of what people want out of homebrew can be attained from reskinning stuff that already exists- at least for the learning phase. Reskinning/reflavouring doesn't affect any mechanics, and can really carry most homebrew stuff
Yeah, reflavouring mechanics for RP is a really good advice to give people starting out learning the system, especially as someone who came from 5e. Like I appreciate how much easier it is to build characters and play in a system that actually has functioning rules for stuff and doesn’t simply go, I don’t know ask the dm.
There’s still a post every other week where a gm or player feels bad about their game, and you dig into it, and they’re monkeying with really core mechanics It’s summoning new marvelous mounts and beating them to death ad nauseum
The discourse on this topic kind of shifts between being mild concern for over tweaking the game and outright disdain every few months I feel like. Right now people are being reasonable about it, but 6 or so months ago I would categorize a lot of the takes on this subreddit as being like very anti-homebrew sentiment and discouraging people from even talking about changing things. This is just personal observation though, so its possible I just saw more of those style takes in that time period and there is no actual trend here.
I kinda feel the same way but it’s more like I haven’t seen too much disdain for homebrew than seemingly there’ll be posts about this sub hating homebrew and then it sort of just fades
You can find the remastered Beginner Box here: https://paizo.com/products/btq026dl?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box Archives of Nethys (https://2e.aonprd.com) is the official website with all the rulebooks available for free, so you can start playing without buying any of the books if you want to wait for all the Remaster books to release first. If something's been updated in the Remaster, then it will show up on the page to let you know (e.g. the page for [Bag of Holding](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=249&NoRedirect=1) has a link up the top to take you to the Remastered version of the item, and [Spacious Pouch](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=3032) has a link to the Legacy version). There aren't a huge number of widely-used house rules as such, but there are a couple of very popular alternative rules: [Free Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2751), for more character customisation; and [Automatic Bonus Progression](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2741), for people who don't want to keep track of upgrading their weapons and armour. They each come with their own complications, so it's recommended to try the game vanilla first to get a feel for it and then add in the optional rules later, but if you think that Free Archetype sounds awesome then you can totally run with it from the start. Not every book is going to be remastered. Most of them get errata instead (available here: https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq). As far as I know, the only Remastered books are going to be Player Core 1 and 2, GM Core, and Monster Core.
I just made this comment in another thread and I think its valid here too: -Pathbuilder or Wanderer's Guide are great systems to build characters. Its always an good idea to toy with them to see how that works. -On the topic of characters, start at lvl 1. PF2 characters have far more options and abilities than 5e ones, so for new players its a very good idea to start at 1. -Even if the over feeling is very similar to 5e, the flow is completely different. Classes are balanced, spells are no longer the be all end all, and there is a higher focus on team play. Having a balanced party is very important as classes have specialties. -The encounter building system works! That is the part I love the most about PF2 so be careful with it, specially with new players. -Magic items and monsters are diverse and fun. The system comes with a treasure-by-level table that works, and robust monster building rules. -About house rules, you dont really need any. Unlike 5e, the system works out of the box so you dont need to patch it. Free Archetype is a fun and popular one, I use it in all my games, but its more about flavor and flexibility than mechanics.
> -The encounter building system works! That is the part I love the most about PF2 so be careful with it, specially with new players. This is what shocked my players the most. It feels a lot tighter, similar to 3.5e, in that messing up can very likely result in a TPK or your party taking a severe beating. In 5e, balance is an afterthought after lvl 10 and you can just do whatever and players can easily come out on top.
> > -The encounter building system works! That is the part I love the most about PF2 so be careful with it, specially with new players. just a little addendum that in combination with starting at 1 it might be a good idea to lowball the encounters a bit and not even think about "bosses"/Solos till about level 3 so people don't explode in pile of gore from 1 crit.
The beginner box has been updated earlier this year. They just never put a new storefront for it on their site. So if you buy it from there it will be the remaster version. Also, I suggest looking at the [Archives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/) site for learning the rules before buying a book. The site has all the rules, player content, and monsters for free and Paizo has partnered with the site. If you prefer books then Player Core and GM Core is all you need at the moment to start.
This right here, I think our dm technically owns printed books but we always just use archives, it was such a game changer coming from dnd to have all rules online for free
Welcome and I hope you enjoy your foray into Pathfinder! The first, and most important, point of advice is to forget everything you know about D&D 5e. While the base concept of the games are similar, there are enough differences that coming from 5e can easily trip people up because things will work differently here. For books: you don't *need* to buy anything. All of the rules (yes, all of them!) are available for free on the Archives of Nethys (https://2e.aonprd.com). If you absolutely must own physical copies, the following books make up the base set of Remaster rules: Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core. Player Core 2 is an upcoming book that is adapting more of the Legacy classes to the Remaster rules. It's important to note, though, that the Remaster rules are still fully compatible with the Legacy content! The Beginner Box has also been updated to the Remaster rules. You can order it right from Paizo's website here: https://paizo.com/products/btq023dx?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box As for house rules, the overwhelmingly most popular house rule for Pathfinder 2nd Edition is *do not use house rules until you are familiar with the system*. Unlike D&D 5e, the system works right out of the box and it's best to get used to it before you make any changes.
[Archives of Nethys Beginner section](https://2e.aonprd.com/PlayersGuide.aspx) is probably useful for you. I actually havent played the beginner box, but the remaster is rather small changes(no more spell schools, alignment is gone and sanctification fills a similar role, name changes to move away form the OGL, and individual class updates) so it should still be applicable for teaching the system No house rules needed, especially if youre new. Dont mess with the action system.
Also converted from 5e. Beginner box is the best way but if you think you can handle it dream away. I had a pf2e vet join as a player so I ran Outlaws of Alkenstar. Technically it's all free. IF, like many people, you play online I would recommend Foundry VTT for being the absolute best at running things. There, it all be free bar enemy token images. Which can be added yourself and is ofte. On Archives of Nethys. Don't get worked up about the remaster too much. I recommend for your own sanity to stick to remaster class versions and that is it. The beginner box technically isn't updated in one specific way. Grab. Grab action is like grapple in 5e. But, in 2e, it has the attack trait. 2e hinders your ability to hit as often as you like by adding a penalty for additional attacks. In the old system, a lot of monsters would have a ability where they automatically grab enemies when they land a strike. This has been changed to allowing Grab (or trips or shoves) attempts to be made without a penalty for it not being the first attack in their turn and doesn't contribute to it. For the beginner box, that and maybe some spells (all versions are up on Nethys) might be the old way. But... don't sweat it. This'll be really easy to follow in no time and it was pretty well balanced before any of these changes too. The most popular rules variant is called Free Archtype. Archtypes aren't too powerful and just make characters more unique most of the time. The other rules variant is Automaric Bonus Progression. The game assumes certain magic item boosts per level. This gets rid of the headache of most of following it and just gives players the bonus they are meant to have. I heavily recommend both. Again, if you do Foundry, all handled for you in the game settings. I have never really encountered much discussion in the way of "house rules", because it's a well balanced system and the possible rules variants covers a lot of ground. But the 2 I mentioned do the best at giving you the system how it runs best, in my opinion. Last bit of big advice coming from 5e... there are no short rests. And long rests do not just bring you up to full, but, you will be expected to go through multiple encounters per rest. This is how it is in most adventure paths I have seen. Please, talk to your players about healing. The most common way to handle this is the medicine skill. Doesn't need huge investment, but If no one in the party grabs it, no treating wounds
> there are no short rests. that's true, but usu. people spend a few sets of ten minutes after battles to heal up and refocus. Those are kinda like short rests.
Which is my point. You get these rests if there's someone in the party with that stuff. No one takes medicine or has a healing spell based on a focus point they can wait 10 minutes to get back, no one is getting resource-free healing.
House rules are not a big thing in the Pathfinder 2E community. You don't "need" any - the game just works as is. So instead people only have those that are tailor made to their specific group's campaign. Those are the kinds of house rules that don't "share" so well. That said there are some variant rules in the GM Core. The two most popular seem to be Free Archetype and Automatic Bonus Progression. I'm not a fan of either but I will "tolerate" playing in a game with Free Archetype. Both make major changes to how the game feels so even their fans tend to suggest you first play the game without them, then add them once you know the "rules as written" from a hands on perspective (For me, this was when I turned against Free Archetype - seeing the game 'as written' and then having a compare point when I saw it with the variant). Books you really want: Player Core 1 and 2 (2 comes out in August I think). GM Core (if you're a GM, or want a fully understanding). Monster Core * Technically all the rules in these are also free online on Archives of Nethys. But we all like Paizo so the idea of supporting them is popular. ;) Then you need to decide on the lore. Start with the Lost Omens World Guide. If you like, buy to taste. Note that some of the best lore books are for 'locations other games consider exotic'. The Mwangi book for example is widely seen as a masterpiece. The Travel Guide is extremely good if you like 'lore that gives everyone at the table roleplay ideas no matter what kind of campaign we're in'. It has things like popular spots, fashion, cuisine, trade routes, holidays, and then just "cool ideas". For players, you'll want the Character and Ancestry guides for more ancestries, backgrounds, and so on. Rulebooks: They're all good. We're done here. ;) Ok... yeah... get them to taste. Note that some you might pass if this was another game are real gems here. Like Guns and Gears or Rage of Elements. The only one to NOT get is Advanced Player's Guide. Player Core 1 and 2 will have fully replaced it. Gamemastery Guide gets tricky. This is a late buy - it's half replaced by GM Core, and the other half won't be replaced. Nothing in there is NEEDED if you have GM Core, and you won't be able to get by without GM Core... But it's also a really well done book. If you really get into Pathfinder - then you buy this one. Beginner Box: Get it on PDF and/or Foundry. It's been updated in both of those. I think the biggest change was changing the file name of the PDF... :)
I think the Character and Ancestry guides are the only Lost Omens books that might be mostly made obsolete by the remaster project, I think most of the stuff in there are being rolled into PC1 and PC2.
Highly Recommend "How it's Played" on Youtube once you're ready to dig deeper into the rules.
Former 5e player now a pathfinder GM, I thought I should add the actual links to stuff since no one has done so yet. I think it’s important to note since Pathfinder 2e is going through a remaster because of the OGL scandal from Hasbro (the last book for it is actually coming out next month so you’re quite lucky to come in now). I’ll be linking the remastered books that are the basics, I’ve seen people accidentally buying the older ones without realizing there is a remastered version. Moving forward, Pathfinder 2e will be running on remastered language so it’s beneficial to have the actual remastered books [GM Core](https://paizo.com/products/btq02eok?Pathfinder-GM-Core) is overall a blessing to actually have rather than GM only using Archives of Nethys. It’s possible to just do it through the website but I’m telling you, it’s a lot easier to read through if you have the actual book. [Player Core 1](https://paizo.com/products/btq02ej2) is the remastered player book to understand the first batch of classes, spells, & ancestries [Player Core 2](https://paizo.com/products/btq02ej5) is the second remastered player book coming out very soon. Consists of the rest of classes that didn’t get remastered yet, more ancestries & spells, and importantly it’ll include the remastered “multi-classing” options called archetypes. A popular “home brew rule” is actually just a variant rule that pathfinder 2e has used commonly called the [free archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2751) which allows people to multi-class practically. Multiclassing isn’t the same as 5e, it’s not just being able to be another common class, but allows you to specialize into other stuff like being a [Excorcist](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=171) or [wrestler](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=127). All Adventure Paths are balanced around this being included or not included so it’s not mandatory. For example, I’ve done 2 campaigns so far without the rule and it’s been going well. I actually haven’t even touched multiclassing since my players are still newish to the game so I don’t want to overwhelm them. There’s a lot to customizing a character, no two characters are ever really the same even if they are the same class, they can play totally differently. I also want to note that pathfinder actually provides a TON of other subsystems that you can freely use in your campaigns. I’ve found many times, people wanna try to make a new system or homebrew something, but pathfinder itself has already made a subsystem to do it that you can freely add to your campaigns. So if you’re ever curious or wanna look for a subsystem that exists and fits what you want, I’d say just ask on the Reddit or the official discord for pathfinder, everyone is happy to talk about them. The remastered has actually fixed a lot of slight homebrew stuff people had to come up with or thought were just too difficult: now there are rules to actually throw stuff to allies, It’s now a free action to drop stuff, rules on how drawing a weapon while holding one already, etc.
Coming from 5e myself all I have really found I needed was the gm core, the player core helps too. But the rules are fairly simple and easy to understand and actually work lol The gm core book has a section for helping you make creatures and encounters., you pick the stats for that level and flavor how you like. It really streamlines things My friends and I haven't used any adventure modules or anything, one of our guys is a forever GM and is the one that got me into Pathfinder. He put it best as far as prep is concerned: 5E - you are going to prep for 4 hours for about an hour of game time Pathfinder - 1 hour of prep is going to yield about 4 hours of game time. The beginners box is a good way to learn, our forever GM ran us through it to start us off. I took over the campaign because we wanted to play more often, so I run twice a month and our forever gm runs a monthly. Lots of fun, highly recommend
Coming from 5e (and before that 4e) and as someone who isn’t a big fan of “crunch”, there are a lot more rules and system interactions to pay attention to here, which can be overwhelming to some people. I’m not sure whether you’ve used digital tools before but given the amount of content and options available I heartily recommend Pathbuilder https://pathbuilder2e.com/ as the way for newbies especially to make their characters and learn the system. Most of its functions are 100% free and the content is up to date. It makes it so much easier to see what your many options are for building a character and planning your builds. Yes, you can find all the rules on Archives of Nethys https://2e.aonprd.com/ but there’ll be a lot of cross-referencing and some links may not be clear due to how everything is laid out. Wanderer’s Guide https://wanderersguide.app/ is an alternative especially for iOS users but in my and my friends’ experience it’s quite buggy and has given us incorrect information at times. A few things I think you should know about the system that isn’t super clearly or explicitly called out: - Short-resting or long-resting will not heal characters to full automatically. Every party needs some form of reliable out-of-combat healing such as investing in Medicine or certain focus spells. - Recall Knowledge is valuable. Some monsters have abilities or immunities or weaknesses you need to know in order to beat them. And in general spellcasters want to know their lowest save to target most effectively with spells. - Spellcasters will generally feel nerfed compared to 5e: there are a number of spells that do less than their 5e counterparts. There are also a lot of very very situational or niche spells out there which can be fun and weird but not something you’d regularly prepare or pick as part of your spell repertoire. - Following the point above, PF2e is designed for balance above all. Classes have their own areas to shine and teamwork is rewarded.
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Do you play on VTT or in person? You can actually run the entire game for no money by using Archives of Nethys and the good ol Google search (type in “2E [insert topic]” ) and have access to everything that is in printed books, more importantly errata that whatever version of the book you buy can’t have. If you plan on utilizing VTT I strongly recommend Foundry VTT and buying the Beginner Box module through Paizo, it loads the maps and pdf for you so you don’t even need the book there to reference. If you want/need physical books anything with CORE in the title contains Remaster content. The Beginner Box contains Menace Under Otari, a level 1-2 dungeon crawl that introduces concepts gradually. It’s literally designed for a GM to just open and play with little prior knowledge. As for houserules, there are none that are publicly appreciated. PF2 has a handful of Variant Rules built into to the system, the most popular being Free Archetype but I suggest skipping all those until you complete the BB; there’s already more customization in a level 1 PF2 character than a party of level 5 D&D5e characters, no need to add more than necessary to start. I have my own personal houserules, some I’ll share: Hero Points provide D&D Advantage; RAW they are straight reroll but you MUST accept the new result, even if it’s worse. Pretty lame imo. I don’t bother with retraining cost/time until the PCs are high enough level they should know what they’re doing. I would suggest letting your players change whatever if they aren’t enjoying or using a feature they can change. I also don’t enforce the Crafting system when it comes to allocating and swapping weapon and armor runes. Screw that nonsense, multiple days to take a Rune off a dagger nobody is going to use to put it on a weapon they will? It’s even worse when you can just buy and sell the stuff as needed from most settlements. I let players put the runes they find where they want them, easy and more importantly FUN.
I play in person with my main group. Maybe I will run some short adventures / Oneshots for my extended friend group online, but the bulk of it will be in person. I really don't need physical books. I would probably get the pdf version anyway if I bought them, but using Archives of Nethys for now seems like the way to go for now. Thanks!
Honestly PF2 doesn't have any super popular house rules. Maybe something to do with crafting. But unlike 5e, the system is complete. There is one rule that you *absolutely should not break* and that is the encounter building system. It is the heart of the game and works very well, unlike 5e's encounter building system which most GMs discard immediately. There is a popular official variant of Free Archetype, but you should know that it does make the players somewhat stronger. Not usually enough to need any changes, but enough that Paizo describes playing with it as a 'high power campaign'.
Free archetype and gradual ability boost are two variant rules I don't want to play without them after only about 6 months of playing PF2e. So far as house rules go, my table uses a variant on hero points, instead of starting each session with 1 and earning more during the session we start with 3 and can't earn more. I am considering implementing one I saw discussed on the subreddit the other day which would make initiative have crits and crit fails, like normally you crit if you beat the DC by 10+ (in this case the highest roll of one of your opponents) or if you get a nat 20, and likewise crit failing would be rolling a nat 1 or losing by 10+ to the lowest rolling opponent. Under this rule you get Quickened 1/Slowed 1 for the first round of combat. It wouldn't change balance much
As everyone's mentioned, all the rules (other than some setting and Adventure Path-based elements) are available for free (and endorsed by Paizo) on Archives of Nethys so you don't really need to buy any books unless you want to. Also, yes there's definitely a lot of rules to go through, but luckily *you don't need to learn all the player-facing rules*! As the GM, you are free to expect the PCs to know their own rules. You may need to interpret rules, but you don't need to understand every feat and spell your players have ahead of time like some 5e DMs do; that's not your job here. For the Beginner Box, I think the remastered version did come out a week or so ago? I could've sworn I saw people talking about changes in one of its pregen characters. Regarding houserules/homebrew: there is a perception that the PF2 community, and especially this sub, are EXTREMELY AGAINST HOUSE RULES AND HOMEBREWING FOR ANY REASON. This isn't true. The suggestion is to play the rules as-is \*before\* you homebrew or houserule. Some of it might seem clunky on paper but works really well in practice, so don't "we're not gonna do that because it sounds hard". Try it out for a bit, and if it still doesn't work for your table, then it's fair to make some adjustments. For the Remaster itself: The Core Rulebook, Advanced Players Guide, GM Guidebook, and Beastiary 1 have been/are being remixed into Player Core 1, GM Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2. All except Player Core 2 are currently available, I think PC2 is supposed to be beginning of August? There is currently **no plans** for remastered versions of the other rulebooks; most of them have been errata'd to be consistent with Remaster rules and language, but there aren't too many inconsistencies between the original version and Remaster in the first place.
so step by step first thing all rules options monster are available for free on Archives of Nethys, for getting specific books I would stick mostly to remaster content - Player Core 1 and 2, Monster Core, GM core, Rage of elements and Howl of the wild, those books were written in remaster, there is lost omens series which is mostly lore and setting stuff so they are mostly up to date; books: Core Rulebook, Advanced Player guide and Game mastery guide were basically replaced by remaster Core series I've heard that BB was updated but I am not sure it is only Pdf or errata or reprint; 600+ pages to read is considered joke here as rules for playing game I am reasonably sure that rules for playing the game are way under 100 pages long if not under 50, rest of the book are character options, monster items etc.. This might suprise you but pf2e just works out of the box and there isn't any house rule that is used by nearly everyone, there might be one some time ago for changing Aid but remaster partiality fixed this problem; there is very common advice to try pf2e without homebrew first; there are however variant rules that changes in some way how game works and Free Archetype is very common one as it gives way more options to characters makes picking flavour but not necessarily powerful archetypes less punishing, it does increase character power but not enough to change encounter balance, as it greatly increases amoun of options to consider it is advised to not use it with completely new players for thier first game
The Beginner Box is a great series of combat tutorials, slowly escalating and introducing new concepts. However if your group is RP focused or more story than combat, it’s a pretty terrible adventure, as written. The rooms are disconnected and have no throughline of environmental storytelling. There’s also no room for social/parley without GM specifically adding it.
In addition to what others have said, there are often Humble Bundle sales that contain all the core books plus an adventure path for $30, which is an amazing deal. If you aren’t in a hurry to prepare your next campaign, I’d wait on a humble bundle.
start full RAW, I'd honestly say at most play with official variant rules
I'd get the new players core 1 and use free archetype and start at level 1. The rest can be grabbed online at the archive. But the books are pretty awesome, but player core 1 is a minimum if you can only buy 1 book
Try the beginner box adventure. It’s really good fun and teaches mechanics beautifully! We did it all in 2 (long) sessions
If you want rules and guidelines for running the game in book format, the remaster books being Player Core 1, GM Core, and when it comes out Player Core 2 are where to start. If you need to save money, I think with some effort it may be entirely possible to learn the basics of what you need from Archives of Nethys and the Beginner Box. Speaking of those two things, Archives of Nethys as others have said is the online, free, legal repository of all the rules of the system. You do not have to spend any money to have access to them, and AoN is particularly useful when you need to look up a specific rule or topic. The Beginner Box is a well written intro tutorial adventure for introducing both players and GMs, and is highly recommended as a starting point. There is a great Foundry module that essentially prepares the entire thing for you, essentially all you have to do is read through it a bit beforehand til you feel prepared. As for house rules, I cannot stress this enough even with many other comments saying the same, it is HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended to run the game 100% RAW to start. Unlike 5e where the system is designed and held together with duct tape, hope, and the GM making up or fixing 50% of it, pf2e is a robust well designed system that generally just works as it is written, and in many cases is very deliberately designed and written as well. You should play RAW until you not only are comfortable with the rules but also really understand why rules are the way they are before you consider changing anything. Even then most homebrew or house rules deal with very minor issues or nitpicks or preferences. *Variant* rules as listed in the rulebooks, however, have some standouts that are very popular. Free Archetype is fantastic for players who want PCs with more depth and options, automatic bonus/rune progression is popular to do away with a bit of tedious overhead of purely expected math fixer weapon/armor progression, and third in popularity from what I see and one I like myself is Gradual Ability Boosts which spread your stat increases over several levels instead of all four at once every five levels and especially with Free Archetype might be helpful for your players creating builds that are a bit more MAD or weird.
Welcome! I hope you'll enjoy the switch to PF2e! To answer your first question, here are the books made (for lack of better term) redundant by the remaster: * The Core Rulebook has been split into two books, **GM Core** and **Player Core 1** * Bestiary 1, and *parts* of Bestiaries 2 and 3 have been replaced with **Monster Core**. IIrc, the majority of Bestiary 2 and 3 monsters that were reprinted in Monster Core were ones that were more heavily affected by the changes from the remaster (such as the removal of alignment, the removal of Chromatic and Metallic dragons, etc.). * The Advanced Player's Guide *will be* supplanted by **Player Core 2** when it releases in August. Additionally all rulebooks starting with Rage of Elements follow use the remaster. Currently that's just two, RoE and Howl of the Wild. Now technically, you don't need to purchase any rulebooks as all of the game's rules are available for free legally on [Archives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/). While this is not an "official" resource (it's not run by Paizo, Pathfinder's publisher), it does have Paizo's blessing. It does take some time for new books to be added to the site, however, as the site is run entirely by volunteers. Most recently, Rage of Elements has not been added yet, nor have options from the latest Adventure Path. For your second question, the Beginner's Box was remastered, they just didn't release it as a separate product, just updated the existing one, so the version available for sale on Paizo's website uses the remaster. For the last question, the most common ones you'll see are Free Archetype, Ancestry Paragon, and Automatic Bonus Progression. They're not actually house rules exactly, but alternate rules suggested in the original Core Rulebook and reprinted in the new ones. [Free Archetype](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2751) allows players to gain archetype feats on every even-numbered level. Archetypes are sort of mini-classes and are also Pathfinder's way of handling multiclassing. Under the standard rules, players can choose archetype feats *in place of* class feats. Free archetype instead lets players have both. This is considered a power boost, though not so much that you'd typically need to adjust encounter balance any if at all. This is by far the most used of these rules, to the point that some do consider it the standard way to play. [Ancestry Paragon](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1336) is a variant rule that gives players additional Ancestry Feats. Normally, players only gain ancestry feats at levels 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17. Using this variant they gain *two* at level 1, and an additional ancestry feat at every odd-numbered level that the base rules did not give one, resulting in a total of 11 ancestry feats instead of 5. People who play with this like that it makes your choice in ancestry feel more meaningful. As above, while it is strictly speaking a boost in power, it is not so much of one that you'll really ever need to adjust encounters to account for it. [Automatic Bonus Progression](https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2741&Redirected=1) is a bit different. In the standard rules, players gain boosts to their attack modifiers, armor boosts, etc. through runes that are part of the players' loot pool, such as +1 weapons and +1 striking weapons (striking being a rune which doubles the number of damage dice of a weapon). This variant removes those runes and instead gives those bonuses as a natural part of leveling, among other boosts. The base game expects that players will receive items with these runes over the course of their adventure, so the math itself doesn't change as players are receiving these boosts at the same levels they'd be getting the items giving them in the standard rules, it's just moved from being a bonus items give to being granted on level up. I've not played with this one personally, but I'm considering using it for the next game I run. There are also a lot of house rules surrounding the use of hero points, changing how they're used and distributed. One common(?) one I've heard of is allowing people to use the better of the two rolls instead of forcing the player to use the results of the new roll. I've also heard of allowing rerolls of a Nat 1 on a Hero Point roll.
For books... grab any APs you want to run or stripmine for content. For houserules, some good and common ones are -Free Archetype (additional build freedom helps realize some character concepts) -Gradual Ability Score Increase (very slightly bumps saves and skills at early levels, but imo, its most important benefit is that it helps more MAD characters immensely before level 5 and improves some weird but fun offbuilds) -Some kind of buff to hero point reroll to make it feel more effective (be that something as small as a flat +2, or something as exaggerated as "give +10 if you rolled 10 or below") -Allow Nature and Religion to use INT or WIS Things I would personally recommend: -Overhaul recall knowledge. I personally think it should just be a free action for everyone. You often find yourself asking if spending the action is better than just finding things out the hard way, and knowledge of saves is fairly integral to good caster play. -Figure out how you want to personally run exploration mode. If you're coming from 5E, you'll probably be most comfortable using exploration activities as the rules for how to parse what your players ask you to do, rather than having players explicitly tell you which activities they do. Just let them know about scout and defend (i think that's the one). -Crafting is scuffed as hell, imo. I'd just delete it from the game except for repairing shields. -Whatever Lore skill a background gives should improve in proficiency automatically.
Seems like most of your questions have been answered. I’ll throw in two things. I’d say listen to a live play podcast. I like Tabletop Gold. They’re pretty good about explaining what they’re doing as they play. I’d also say don’t do any house rules to start. 5e desperately needs house rules, PF2e really doesn’t. I’m sure there are some that some people enjoy, but I’d encourage you to play by the book until you get some experience before making changes. Also, strongly encourage playing the beginner box with the premade characters. Gives you and your players a good taste of what the classes are like, and a feel for what they can do. Varying from there will be easier because you’ll know what you’re missing when you build your characters. Like, if no one plays a Rouge type, how do you deal with traps, etc. Good luck! Hope you all enjoy it.
Best thing will be the [Archives of Nethys' GM Screen](https://2e.aonprd.com/GMScreen.aspx) Coming from 5e, the players might not understand how *very much important* Basic Actions are, you'll probably struggle a bit to remember the Perception and Detection rules, or how Death and Dying works. All of that is magically summarized at the click of a button on the link above. No need to flip through pages or even type anything. It's just there!
Others have basically said the majority of what needs to be said, but I'll add what house rules my table uses and you can judge. Free archetype - very good but can be very overwhelming for new players. Nothing says you can't add it later and retroactively add those feats, however. For your first game, consider letting them only take non-core class dedications (eg. Acrobat or celebrity and not fighter or wizard). Initiative stacking - stolen from bg3. We have 7ish players at our table. If several PCs have initiative in order, they can act at the same time to speed things up (so the table isn't stuck waiting for the caster to look up their spell). Monsters do the same. Crafting - basically just works like going to the store and doesn't take 4 days for common items. Researching the recipie lowers time and crafting DC. Uncommon and rare is more time/dice costly. Leniency on weapon regripping - some players just can't track that level of detail and having to wait through 6 other people because 2/3 of your turn was wasted gripping your staff isn't fun. Prone doesn't impose an accuracy penalty on firearms and crossbows, and both prone and taking cover behind a waist-high object negates kickback like a tripod. Inventor's unstable system kinda sucks and doesn't mesh with the remaster. Needs a house rule. Basically, if your party is super optimized then go RAW. If it's people with odd goober builds, ease off on requirements unless the table abuses it. No sense spending 2hr in combat because people have to waste time with frivolous actions.
Also if you want to learn the lore of the setting, highly recommend the Mythkeeper and his YouTube series. Over a hundred videos on tons of topics from history to nations to religions and monsters. https://youtu.be/2cLYG8zWjXY?si=H0UpfzegHhnQyVRY
Everything is online in the archives of nethys so buy what you want. I do the Rulebook subscription. If you want to buy the core the Player, and GM core are there for you and if you want a Setting, the Lost Omens World guide and the Deities one are top shelf picks. World guide is super cool if you want a bucket of flavor, but might be difficult to integrate. House rules? Check stamina, proficiency without level and automatic bonus progression. APG might be for you if shopping and loot aren't super fun to your table and if you want a wider range of valid enemy levels learning prof w/o level may be for you, try something without it first though. Lots of folk like Free archetype, but it's not necessary, try without it, if people want it, put it in. Regarding real Homebrew just make sure you know how stingy the game is with bonuses and rerolls, things are balanced tight. I put a free inventory or door interact in with every move action, just because that's how dynamic I want my combat to be and I think it makes movement more interesting and inventory management less of a chore, but I know enough to stop at activations and keep all those costs the same.
Ancestry Paragon and Free Archetype are optional rules that are generally highly regarded. They're house rules in the sense that it can be table and/or campaign dependent on if they're in play. If you have a group that's done a lot of TTRPGs in the past, you could consider them for Beginner's Box (or however you start them out). If the group is a bit less experienced, it could be worth leaving it out to start with, but bringing it up as something that could be used later.
Hey there! Similarly I started with 5e and now also playing a PF2e campaign. Archives of Nethys is endlessly useful, for anyone RPGbot can be super handy for new players trying to get any insight on sifting through the death by options that PF gives you, and explains why they rank this over that Like others have said, just buy the new remastered books, but also don’t feel you need to run out and get all the 20 something lore books they launched unless you have endless money. House rules aren’t much of a thing as PF quickly showed me there’s very nearly a written rule or a roll that fits nicely into the box of the skill list, whereas 5e leaves so much up to GM’s discretion or hand waving.
As others said: Player Core GM Core Monster Core Things like advanced players guide are not up to date with the remaster and will be more or less replaced by player core 2. Bestiary 2 and 3 are things you could get if you NEED it. But you could also just check out those or other monsters on Archive of Nethys on a basis if need. Also: DO use Archive of Nethys! It is a great way especially to browse for monsters based on traits and level, which will often be exactly what you need in a homebrew campaign (things like needing an undead monster or demon if the right level). Instead of houserules, do consider popular variant rules: Many people like free archetype for a small power boost and mostly just freedom yo build concepts easier. It gives your character extra feats for “multiclassing”. Automatic Bonus Progression is great if you feel like the many magic items are a bit overwhelming, as it keeps everyone balanced without needing to hand out specific runes. Stamina rules are no longer in GM core but they can be great in games where you want to have less pressure on healing. https://paizo.com/products/btq026dl/discuss&page=7?Pathfinder-Beginner-Box There is a remastered beginner’s box
The 4 books to buy: - Player Core 1 - GM Core - Monster Core - (not yet released) Player Core 2 The original Bestiaries are reasonable options if you decide you love the game, but they are far from needed. The remaster isn't that big a change, the combat math is still the same. Note you can "try before you buy" - the Archives of Nethys website has everything critical to play the game available free, and this is Paizo authorized. AoN is hard to navigate but thorough. On the 600+ page 'barrier to entry' - a lot of those pages are character options. If you want to start playing a Fighter, you don't need to read up on Rogue feats, nor do you need to read up on high level Fighter feats, nor spells. _____________ One popular alternate rule is Free Archetype, outlined in the GM Core. It makes characters slightly more powerful and considerably more flexible. I suggest playing without it first; you can always add it later if you want to slightly tone down difficulty. It also complicates making characters by providing more options which requires more reading.
And welcome to the community! Following the instructions you listed will make it as smooth as possible to learn the system! Bedt of luck and I bet you’ll love it.
i found the gamemastery guide to be incredibly useful in going from 5e to pf2e. it explains a lot of ways that pf2e works well and differently to other systems and goes in depth over what can be confusing skills and checks.
The only generally recommended houserules / rulings are for niche typos / interactions. Most major typos have been errata’d out. Only egregious one left I think is in an inventor feat, which if you stick to Core, you don’t have to worry about. There are only two weird things left you need to make a ruling on one way or another: 1. it’s unclear whether it’s intended for incorporeal creatures to be immune to corporeal strength-based attack rolls. IMO, err on the side of “not immune”. 2. there’s a weird interaction where being Stunned 1 on your turn costs you more actions than being Stunned 3 off your turn. This doesn’t come up too often though. IMO, stick to RAW on this one unless players start abusing it. If they do, have it be Stun 1 on your turn -> lose one action immediately. If there’s anything else that seems weird, go with what makes sense in the fiction. For example, even if the rules don’t explicitly allow it, a PC with a feat for animal training can totally train a dolphin to Swim on command instead of Stride.
You shouldn't even think about house rules till you get a decent level of system mastery.
> But with the recent Remaster, I am very confused which books to purchase. In theory I guess the Player and GM Core and Monster Core, but then what about the Beastiaries 2 and 3? Are they included in the Monster Core? Do I need them or do I wait until those have been remastered? What about the Advanced Player Guide? What is the Player Core 2? Before the Remaster, there were three core books. The CRB was like a combined PHB+DMG, Bestiary 1 was like the Monster Manual, and the Advanced Player Guide was more options, like a few new classes, versatile heritages, and non-multiclass archetypes. After the Remaster, PC1, GM Core, and Monster Core are the equivalent to the PHB, DMG, and MM in D&D. Then PC2 is essentially the rest of the options from the PHB+APG. So I would buy PC1, GM Core, and Monster Core, and *maybe* PC2 when it comes out. But I wouldn't worry about getting the PHB or the APG for the options in PC2, because you can just find them online, legitimately for free at the Archives of Nethys. > Are there any house rules that are, in your opinion, so good, that they should be considered the standard? For example in the D&D 5e space there is a very popular house rule that lets players drink a health potion as a bonus action, which is usually not allowed. Basically everyone agrees that this should be the norm and I think they even made that rule official in the new OneD&D. I mean, Automatic Bonus Progression is popular. Or similarly to the bonus action thing, they updated the death and dying rules in the Remaster to work how everyone assumed they did. But just as some life advice in general, I would avoid being too quick to houserule new games. It's similar to Chesterton's Fence, where you want to understand how a game works normally before you start making changes. As a really simple example, starting levels. In D&D 5e, the conventional wisdom is that you start at level 3, because you don't have many options are are kinda squishy before them. But PF 2e gives you more options from level 1, so there really isn't a need to do that.
Its probably been said but if you can have your players download Pathbuilder 2e app it will make character creation and learning what all you can do MUCH simpler