Chapter: Introduction
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22 rules
| Name ▼ | Page | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | 7 | Pathfinder is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) where you and a group of friends gather to tell a tale of brave heroes and cunning villains in a world filled with terrifying monsters and amazing treasures. |
| What Is a Roleplaying Game? | 7 | A roleplaying game is an interactive story where one player, the Game Master (GM), sets the scene and presents challenges, while other players take the roles of player characters (PCs) and attempt to overcome those… |
| Basics of Play | 8 | Before creating your first character or adventure, you should understand a number of basic concepts used in the game. |
| Playing the Game | 10 | In a Pathfinder game, three modes of play determine the pacing of each scene in the story. |
| Encounters | 10 | In the course of your adventures, there will be times when a simple skill check is not enough to resolve a challenge— when fearsome monsters stand in your character’s way and the only choice is to do battle. |
| Key Terms | 12 | There are a number of important terms that you’ll need to know as you create your first character or adventure. Some of the most important terms mentioned on previous pages are also included here for reference. |
| Example of Play | 14 | The following example is presented to give you a better idea of how the game of Pathfinder is played. In this adventure, Erik is the GM. |
| Using This Book | 16 | While this chapter is here to teach you the basics of Pathfinder, the rest of this rulebook serves as a reference manual during play, and it is organized to make finding the rule you need as easy as possible. |
| Format of Rules Elements | 17 | Throughout this rulebook, you will see formatting standards that might look a bit unusual at first. Specifically, the game’s rules are set apart in this text using specialized capitalization and italicization. |
| Character Creation | 19 | Unless you’re the GM, the first thing you need to do when playing Pathfinder is create your character. |
| The Six Ability Scores | 19 | One of the most important aspects of your character is their ability scores. These scores represent your character’s raw potential and influence nearly every other statistic on your character sheet. |
| Ability Score Overview | 20 | Each ability score starts at 10, representing human average, but as you make character choices, you’ll adjust these scores by applying ability boosts, which increase a score, and ability flaws, which decrease a score. |
| Ability Modifiers | 20 | Once you’ve finalized your ability scores, you can use them to determine your ability modifiers, which are used in most other statistics in the game. |
| Step 1: Create a Concept | 21 | What sort of hero do you want to play? The answer to this question might be as simple as “a brave warrior,” or as complicated as “the child of elven wanderers, but raised in a city dominated by humans and devoted to… |
| Step 2: Start Building Ability Scores | 24 | At this point, you need to start building your character’s ability scores. |
| Step 3: Select an Ancestry | 24 | Select an ancestry for your character. The ancestry summaries on page 22 provide an overview of Pathfinder’s core ancestry options, and each is fully detailed in Chapter 2. Ancestry determines your character’s size, |
| Step 4: Pick a Background | 25 | Your character’s background might represent their upbringing, an aptitude they’ve been honing since their youth, or another aspect of their life before they became an adventurer. |
| Step 5: Choose a Class | 25 | At this point, you need to decide your character’s class. A class gives your character access to a suite of heroic abilities, determines how effectively they fight, and governs how easily they can shake off or avoid… |
| Step 8: Buy Equipment | 27 | At 1st level, your character has 15 gold pieces (150 silver pieces) to spend on armor, weapons, and other basic equipment. |
| Step 9: Calculate Modifiers | 27 | With most of the big decisions for your character made, it’s time to calculate the modifiers for each of the following statistics. |
| Step 10: Finishing Details | 28 | Now add the following details to your character sheet in the appropriate spaces. |
| Leveling Up | 31 | The world of Pathfinder is a dangerous place, and your character will face terrifying beasts and deadly traps on their journey into legend. |