Pathfinder
World Overview
Pathfinder adventures take place in the Age of Omens. Pathfinder uses a set of polyhedral dice; these are: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20.
tip If a rule asks for d%, then you generate a number from 1 to 100 by rolling two 10-sided dice, treating one as the tens place and the other as the ones place.
013 - Ability scores
Characters are defined by ability scores. There are six ability scores in the game:
- Strength — represents a character’s physical might,
- Dexterity — represents agility and the ability to avoid danger,
- Constitution — indicates a character’s overall health and well-being,
- Intelligence — represents raw knowledge and problem-solving ability,
- Wisdom — measures a character’s insight and the ability to evaluate a situation,
- Charisma — indicates charm, persuasiveness, and the force of personality.
Go to Table: Ability modifiers to see how to calculate modifiers out of scores.
Link to original
Game modes
In a Pathfinder game, three modes of play determine the pacing of each scene in the story; these are: exploration, encounter, and downtime.
Encounter
During encounters, the players and the GM roll initiative to determine who acts in what order. The encounter occurs over a number of rounds, each of which is equal to about 6 seconds of time in the world of the game. During a round, each participant takes a turn. When it’s your turn to act, you can use up to three actions.
Downtime
Characters recover their wounds, plan future conquests, or pursue a trade. Characters can use downtime to retrain, replacing one character choice with another to reflect their evolving priorities.
Actions
Resources
- Class summaries for new players: Class summary. Found on r/Pathfinder2e.
- Web application with Pathfinder Core Rulebook.
- A guide to Pathfinder’s mechanics for new players: Archives of Nethys.
- Class summaries: Pathfinder Nexus — Classes.
- Obsidian community Vault for designing your own campaign on GitHub.
- Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials for Pathfinder 2e.
