Pathfinder has turned into a mess. What is worse is that it is becoming harder and harder to sort through this mess and define a character creation ruleset that is reasonable. Currently I am working through this very problem with a group of GMs and I thought it would be worth a post to address.
First let's address the history of Pathfinder and what makes up Pathfinder. The first thing to note is that Paizo makes Pathfinder so they are the primary publisher. Third party publishers fall into two categories -- Psionics and non-psionics. Dreamscarred published books on the psionics extension and they are quite good and relatively balanced. All of the other 3rd party context not dealing with psionics is of questionable balance and must be judged one piece at a time. This includes options like Dreamscarred's Path of War that drastically re-balances martial classes.
Not even looking at Paizo stuff, there is a lot to cover. They basically publish in one of five ways. Hardcover books make up the bulk of Pathfinder and is usually the classes and major element. Adventure Paths are adventures that often have associated content, such as player guides, that include adventure/setting specific content. Setting books cover portions of Golarion and beyond in either hardcover or softcover, and they also contain setting specific character content. The Paizo blog also sometimes publishes content. Additional oftcover supplements are also published on specific topics and contain content.
Delving into the hardcover books, you'll find three distinct categories. Player-focused books contain character creation and equipment content. Bestiaries include monsters. GM-focused books include content meant just for helping GMs.
Online content basically falls into 2 categories. The PRD is published by Paizo and includes all GPL (i.e. rules content) from the hardcover books. The SRD is published by a 3rd party and contains most all Paizo and non-Paizo GPL content.
Now, generally rule sets can be controlled using all of these sources roughly in the order that they were released and including older stuff but not newer stuff, but there are exceptions when in comes to including classes and such. In addition, there are the Pathfinder Society rules which are entirely another options that cover a wide cross-section of possibilities.
The two alternative sets of rules that also can come into play are gestalt rules (using double classes at each level) or mythic rules. These essentially change the game entirely.
So in conclusion, here is the quick and easy set of options to choose for rules possibilities for a Pathfinder game. Numbered options are exclusive of each other, while options with bullet points can be included / excluded independently.
First let's address the history of Pathfinder and what makes up Pathfinder. The first thing to note is that Paizo makes Pathfinder so they are the primary publisher. Third party publishers fall into two categories -- Psionics and non-psionics. Dreamscarred published books on the psionics extension and they are quite good and relatively balanced. All of the other 3rd party context not dealing with psionics is of questionable balance and must be judged one piece at a time. This includes options like Dreamscarred's Path of War that drastically re-balances martial classes.
Not even looking at Paizo stuff, there is a lot to cover. They basically publish in one of five ways. Hardcover books make up the bulk of Pathfinder and is usually the classes and major element. Adventure Paths are adventures that often have associated content, such as player guides, that include adventure/setting specific content. Setting books cover portions of Golarion and beyond in either hardcover or softcover, and they also contain setting specific character content. The Paizo blog also sometimes publishes content. Additional oftcover supplements are also published on specific topics and contain content.
Delving into the hardcover books, you'll find three distinct categories. Player-focused books contain character creation and equipment content. Bestiaries include monsters. GM-focused books include content meant just for helping GMs.
Online content basically falls into 2 categories. The PRD is published by Paizo and includes all GPL (i.e. rules content) from the hardcover books. The SRD is published by a 3rd party and contains most all Paizo and non-Paizo GPL content.
Now, generally rule sets can be controlled using all of these sources roughly in the order that they were released and including older stuff but not newer stuff, but there are exceptions when in comes to including classes and such. In addition, there are the Pathfinder Society rules which are entirely another options that cover a wide cross-section of possibilities.
The two alternative sets of rules that also can come into play are gestalt rules (using double classes at each level) or mythic rules. These essentially change the game entirely.
So in conclusion, here is the quick and easy set of options to choose for rules possibilities for a Pathfinder game. Numbered options are exclusive of each other, while options with bullet points can be included / excluded independently.
- Pathfinder Society Rules
- SRD with 3rd Party Content
- SRD with Dreamscarred Psionics Only
- SRD with 3rd Party a la Carte
- SRD Paizo Only
- PRD Only
- PRD No Technology Guide
- A la Carte
- Core (Required)
- Advanced Player's Guide
- Advanced Race Guide
- Advanced Class Guide
- Ultimate Combat
- Ultimate Magic
- Ultimate Equipment
- Ultimate Campaign
- Occult Adventures
- Gestalt (optional for options 2-8)
- Mythic (optional for options 2-8)
*Pathfinder Unchained was not yet available at the time, so was not included.
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