Pathfinder Player and GM Core Are Now Available

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[SteveC]

I'd guess that given the amount of renaming they did, the ability names were probably deemed safe to use by their lawyers.

I imagine so, but there is history with those names. Both Judges Guild and Role Aids did 'generic' D&D supplements and were sued. Both of them changed attribute names. I am not a lawyer obviously, but if WotC wanted to sue, I suspect they could still do so and it would all become very expensive for Paizo. It would be interesting to see this discussed by an actual IP lawyer because I obviously should not be trusted.

 

[Jahydin]

I’ll have to give that section a read in the GM Core. I saw they moved the material for wheelchairs and such to the Player Core from one of the Lost Omens books (Grand Bazaar?), which seemed like a good move given their push to make the game more inclusive.

Yeah, makes sense, agreed.

I noticed the wheelchair that is depicted in the Player's Core as a "Traveler's Chair" is just a normal wheelchair? I wonder if it's just a case of deciding later to make them more substantial in the description after the art was already done?

 

[Staffan]

I imagine so, but there is history with those names. Both Judges Guild and Role Aids did 'generic' D&D supplements and were sued. Both of them changed attribute names. I am not a lawyer obviously, but if WotC wanted to sue, I suspect they could still do so and it would all become very expensive for Paizo. It would be interesting to see this discussed by an actual IP lawyer because I obviously should not be trusted.

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that there's a lot of stuff that happens before any suit goes to actual trial, and that stuff is expensive. So even if a judge or jury would rule "There's no way those ability scores can be copyrighted to D&D, they are used in hundreds of other games both pen & paper and computer", the process of getting to that point might be more than Paizo would be willing to pay for.

 

[Velderan]

Personnel scheduling and such is not something that turns on a dime. Once they'd committed to it, slowing it down was not likely to be a choice without cost, either.

Considering they rearranged their release calendar to accommodate it, I’d be inclined to agree.

 

[Jahydin]

I've read a pretty good amount now and my only word of caution for those thinking of switching over is a lot of the spells have changed in name and mechanics.

Although I think most of the changes are better and completely understand Paizo had to change them, you will be spending a good amount of time with your spellcasting players getting them swapped over/changed.

Also, the spell cards I've been slowly building up are pretty useless now...

 

[Justice and Rule]

Honestly I'm kind of confused as to why people think there is a whole lot of errata in here. There are some editing mistakes and the Death/Dying thing, but beyond that it's basically superior version of the CRB. Things are just much easier to find and the book itself is easier to use. I can understand wanting to wait until errata is included, but at the same time I don't think this has the "Alchemist" problem of a class that needs to be constantly tweaked. Everything in the book seems pretty good at the moment.

I would say if you want something to hand to new players which will help them actually learn the rules, the Remaster is great because it's just a better-edited and organized version of the first CRB, with general improvements to the classes. It has its mistakes, but comparatively speaking I don't think anything is broken (outside of the Death/Dying rules, which got errata) or needs a big fix. I think I've heard people complaining about poisons, but that's really it.

If anything, I'm kind of waiting to see Player Core 2 because the Alchemist is something that has been fiddled with since Day One and it seems like they still want to keep doing it. Hopefully they get to where they want to be with that and make the Oracle a bit... well, I dunno, I wanted it simplified, but perhaps just more interestingly done than it was before will suffice. I think I'm more confident in them getting the Oracle right compared to the Alchemist given how well they did with the Witch.

 

[Velderan]

Also, the spell cards I've been slowly building up are pretty useless now...

That does suck and I hope they release a Remaster pack that only has the renamed/adjusted spells in 1 pack. Erik Mona did say they won't be reprinting the cards, so who knows what their plan is moving forward.

 

[Reynard]

That does suck and I hope they release a Remaster pack that only has the renamed/adjusted spells in 1 pack. Erik Mona did say they won't be reprinting the cards, so who knows what their plan is moving forward.

I'm sure someone on Infinite will have a set ready shortly.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I imagine so, but there is history with those names. Both Judges Guild and Role Aids did 'generic' D&D supplements and were sued. Both of them changed attribute names. I am not a lawyer obviously, but if WotC wanted to sue, I suspect they could still do so and it would all become very expensive for Paizo. It would be interesting to see this discussed by an actual IP lawyer because I obviously should not be trusted.

Note that happened very early. There's been decades of other games using those attribute names now.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that there's a lot of stuff that happens before any suit goes to actual trial, and that stuff is expensive. So even if a judge or jury would rule "There's no way those ability scores can be copyrighted to D&D, they are used in hundreds of other games both pen & paper and computer", the process of getting to that point might be more than Paizo would be willing to pay for.

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