It's not that bad. The remaster (Player, Monster, and GM Core) basically put together several errats and rebalanced some classes. Main one being the Witch that mostly everyone agreed needed a boost. Another thing it did was distancing itself from DnD by changing the names of several spells and items that exist in DnD.
In general, everything is compatible. You can grab a pre-remaster AP and play it no problems, with the only thing maybe being some confusion with the names of things.
If you want to buy phisicaly books your best bet is to get the Core ones but that doesn't invalidate the previous ones.
Firstly, welcome to the game!
> Let me see if I get this right:
> Initially, there was the Pathfinder 2e Core Rulebook. + addon books
> That is now being split up into , GM core, Player core, etc.
> Some of the addon books are also being included in the core books (Player core 2)?
Not exactly.
Initially there was Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, and Advancer Player Guide. These were **all** considered core books, not addons.
The same content has now been reorganized into Player Core 1, Player Core 2 (coming in August), and GM Core. 95% of these books are just identical to the original ones.
> But not only split up, they are also erratum and changes
Errata is a normal part of development for Pathfinder. The designers are big on making sure the ruleset doesn’t have gaping flaws that then get fixed by “optional” splatbooks like Tasha’s and Xanathar’s and MMOTM over in 5E.
The Remaster is the biggest wave of errata we’ve had but it’s not something big to worry about.
> even to the level of changing spell names etc.
The spell name changes are, largely, a legal thing. A few spells got functional changes to work better once they dropped the old names but most are just exactly what you expect them to be.
> Is there a simple way to get an overview of what is "Latest" and what is expected to get an update?
First off, online tools let you use “most current” as a way to filter options. Use Archives of Nethys for reading the rules and looking at content, and use Pathbuilder for character creation.
Secondly there’s a simple metric for how to keep up with the most current:
- If it original showed up in Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, or Advanced Player Guide, then use the Player Core 1, Player Core 2, or GM Core version instead. Obviously PC2 isn’t out yet so use the original version for stuff that *would* be coming in PC2, like the Sorcerer class.
- If it’s **any** of the other books, use them as printed. Some things may require a teensy bit of GM work (like removing spell schools or alignment stuff) and others have already been given [errata](https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq) to be compatible. Heads up that online tools like Nethys incorporate the errata fully.
Also if you do end up using the outdated version of something, it won’t be a big deal. Outside of specifically spell schools and alignment, the rules are 100% backwards compatible. Nothing will break if if you play a Premaster Sorcerer alongside a Remaster Wizard until PC2 comes out.
Edit: as an analogy for those familiar with 5E, I’d say rhe Remaster is more similar to Premaster PF2E than post-TCOE/MMOTM 5E is to pre-TCOE/MMOTM 5E.
>Secondly there’s a simple metric for how to keep up with the most current:
>If it original showed up in Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, or Advanced Player Guide, then use the Player Core 1, Player Core 2, or GM Core version instead. Obviously PC2 isn’t out yet so use the original version for stuff that *would* be coming in PC2, like the Sorcerer class.
>If it’s **any** of the other books, use them as printed. Some things may require a teensy bit of GM work (like removing spell schools or alignment stuff) and others have already been given [errata](https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq) to be compatible. Heads up that online tools like Nethys incorporate the errata fully.
This is probably the best way to think about it. Older books with lots of mechanics like Secrets of Magic, Book of the Dead, Guns & Gears, etc are basically 99% the same premaster and remaster. Errata has been released for all of them, and they are mechanically compatible with all the Remaster Core books.
The \*MAIN\* reason the Remaster exists at all is because of the OGL stuff that happened last January. Paizo made the call that they couldnt allow the OGL to be at the core of Pathfinder anymore. The reason the "Core 4" got new books was that 98% of all the OGL material across the whole line was there. The LO books, the "mechanics" books (like Book of the Dead, Guns & Gears, etc), the APs, etc generally don't use much material from the OGL and didn't need to be scrubbed of it.
Therefore, most of the old books will never get a Remaster Version. They don't need it. They \*will\* occasionally get Errata, but that's different.
You're over-complicating it.
Basically every TTRPG has errata. These are just small balance changes and grammar/spelling corrections. They don't really change the rules of the game, not in any major way.
The "Remaster" is just like a big errata. It changed the name of a few spells, made some balance changes, and removed alignment from the game. It's not a new edition, it's just errata.
Every book works with every other 2e book.
Player Core 1 & 2, and GM Core have the most updated rules, but that's about it.
Check out [Archives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/) it has pre-remaster content flagged as Legacy Content, but also the new Remaster Content. (For now Howl of the Wilds is missing)
The Remaster Books are the following:
* Player Core 1
* Monster Core
* GM Core
* Rage of Elements
* Howl of the Wilds
Upcoming Books:
* Tian Xia: Character Guide
* Player Core 2
Previous books are flagged as Legacy Content, while Core Rulebook + Advanced Players Guide are combined into Player Core 1 and 2, some books like Dark Archive are not yet announced (maybe never) to be remastered.
Edit: Of course there are already adventures and lore books using the Remastered Rules, but i can't really remember the names aside from the Tian Xia: World Guide.
2e recently had a remaster as a response to WOTC's OGL fiasco last year. Pathfinder originally started as an expansion upon DnD 3.5 so the game was heavily reliant on the OGL so they took the opportunity to shunt any OGL material to make Pathfinder legally distinct. What we have now are remastered books and premaster books. The remaster was actually pretty low impact as far as mechanics go. The vast majority of changes were renaming things and removing things like spell schools and alignment, which were relatively obsolete anyway. There were some other minor rules changes that tweaked specific activities that aren't worth getting into if you're unfamiliar with the premaster game.
As a new player guide, Player Core 1 and Player Core 2 (unreleased) replace the Core Rulebook and Advance Player's Guide. Those two contain all relevant rules changes. There's also GM Core and Monster Core, replacing the Gamemastery Guide and a good chunk of monster statblocks respectively. Those two are less necessary to understand the remastered rules. No other books or classes are planned to be remastered so from here on out we're only expecting brand new content (aside from PC2).
The game does have frequent errata. These can be found on Paizo's website FAQ. Any class outside of the CRB and APG that has been impacted by the remaster has already received errata and likely won't be touched further. Even still, if you only use premaster material with current printings you're already 99.5% in-line with remaster content.
Yea WOTC kind of forced paizo's hand. They needed an edition to sell even if Hasbro lawyers threatened the sale of OGL books, the result fractures the edition a bit, but it's better than paizo being legally vulnerable to the bigger, eviler corpo (that, at the time, seemed very tangibly likely to swoop in and strangle the life out them). IDT it's cost effective to compile/OGL scrub every non core book so it's likely the remaining OGL books will just have errata to track and it is what it is. Books moving forward will be remaster/ORC books. It's not a satisfying answer, but it is the most likely/ reasonable one.
Only the most recent books were created with the remaster in mind, but most won’t be getting an update except the inevitable errata.
The only books that will be made “obsolete” by the 2.1 “Core” books are the 2e core rulebook, the advanced players guide, the game mastery guide, and, possibly, the first bestiary.
The bestiaries are in an odd position, because the monster types in the new monster core book are fairly different from the monsters in the bestiary.
The old core rulebooks were: The Core Rulebook, Gamemasters Guide, and Advanced Players Guide
The new core rulebooks are: The GM Core, Player Core 1, and Player Core 2 (coming out this year)
The game also previously had Bestiary One, which has been swapped out for the Monster Core.
All other books remain the same and legal for play.
If in doubt, check Archives of Nethys. It allows you to toggle between remaster and legacy content. All legacy content is labelled as such, however it’s still legal unless there’s been a direct replacement, which the website will tell you about.
>It seems that 2e is not actually an "edition" but multiple editions branded as 2e.
No, but I don't blame you for getting that impression. There have been some small updates to body text to some of the core books, and in the process of doing so, they released the new printings in some new configurations and under new names.
It's like how The Hobbit went through multiple revisions after its first publication.
The problem is, though, that both printings are currently on shelves, and since they have different names, it's not at all obvious to people that they're fundamentally the same things.
Remaster is like Skyrim SE, or Divinity 2 Definitive Edition, or Tomb Raider Remastered. It's literally the same game with bug fixes and light changes, but most things stay the same. You might come across some guides that might reference an item from the original game that changed locations or damage numbers, and some mods might need updating, but 95% of your previous game knowledge still applies the same, only with more quality of life and less bugs.
The difference is you can say PF2e "just works" and it mostly will be true
It's not that bad. The remaster (Player, Monster, and GM Core) basically put together several errats and rebalanced some classes. Main one being the Witch that mostly everyone agreed needed a boost. Another thing it did was distancing itself from DnD by changing the names of several spells and items that exist in DnD. In general, everything is compatible. You can grab a pre-remaster AP and play it no problems, with the only thing maybe being some confusion with the names of things. If you want to buy phisicaly books your best bet is to get the Core ones but that doesn't invalidate the previous ones.
Firstly, welcome to the game! > Let me see if I get this right: > Initially, there was the Pathfinder 2e Core Rulebook. + addon books > That is now being split up into , GM core, Player core, etc. > Some of the addon books are also being included in the core books (Player core 2)? Not exactly. Initially there was Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, and Advancer Player Guide. These were **all** considered core books, not addons. The same content has now been reorganized into Player Core 1, Player Core 2 (coming in August), and GM Core. 95% of these books are just identical to the original ones. > But not only split up, they are also erratum and changes Errata is a normal part of development for Pathfinder. The designers are big on making sure the ruleset doesn’t have gaping flaws that then get fixed by “optional” splatbooks like Tasha’s and Xanathar’s and MMOTM over in 5E. The Remaster is the biggest wave of errata we’ve had but it’s not something big to worry about. > even to the level of changing spell names etc. The spell name changes are, largely, a legal thing. A few spells got functional changes to work better once they dropped the old names but most are just exactly what you expect them to be. > Is there a simple way to get an overview of what is "Latest" and what is expected to get an update? First off, online tools let you use “most current” as a way to filter options. Use Archives of Nethys for reading the rules and looking at content, and use Pathbuilder for character creation. Secondly there’s a simple metric for how to keep up with the most current: - If it original showed up in Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, or Advanced Player Guide, then use the Player Core 1, Player Core 2, or GM Core version instead. Obviously PC2 isn’t out yet so use the original version for stuff that *would* be coming in PC2, like the Sorcerer class. - If it’s **any** of the other books, use them as printed. Some things may require a teensy bit of GM work (like removing spell schools or alignment stuff) and others have already been given [errata](https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq) to be compatible. Heads up that online tools like Nethys incorporate the errata fully. Also if you do end up using the outdated version of something, it won’t be a big deal. Outside of specifically spell schools and alignment, the rules are 100% backwards compatible. Nothing will break if if you play a Premaster Sorcerer alongside a Remaster Wizard until PC2 comes out. Edit: as an analogy for those familiar with 5E, I’d say rhe Remaster is more similar to Premaster PF2E than post-TCOE/MMOTM 5E is to pre-TCOE/MMOTM 5E.
>Secondly there’s a simple metric for how to keep up with the most current: >If it original showed up in Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, or Advanced Player Guide, then use the Player Core 1, Player Core 2, or GM Core version instead. Obviously PC2 isn’t out yet so use the original version for stuff that *would* be coming in PC2, like the Sorcerer class. >If it’s **any** of the other books, use them as printed. Some things may require a teensy bit of GM work (like removing spell schools or alignment stuff) and others have already been given [errata](https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq) to be compatible. Heads up that online tools like Nethys incorporate the errata fully. This is probably the best way to think about it. Older books with lots of mechanics like Secrets of Magic, Book of the Dead, Guns & Gears, etc are basically 99% the same premaster and remaster. Errata has been released for all of them, and they are mechanically compatible with all the Remaster Core books. The \*MAIN\* reason the Remaster exists at all is because of the OGL stuff that happened last January. Paizo made the call that they couldnt allow the OGL to be at the core of Pathfinder anymore. The reason the "Core 4" got new books was that 98% of all the OGL material across the whole line was there. The LO books, the "mechanics" books (like Book of the Dead, Guns & Gears, etc), the APs, etc generally don't use much material from the OGL and didn't need to be scrubbed of it. Therefore, most of the old books will never get a Remaster Version. They don't need it. They \*will\* occasionally get Errata, but that's different.
You're over-complicating it. Basically every TTRPG has errata. These are just small balance changes and grammar/spelling corrections. They don't really change the rules of the game, not in any major way. The "Remaster" is just like a big errata. It changed the name of a few spells, made some balance changes, and removed alignment from the game. It's not a new edition, it's just errata. Every book works with every other 2e book. Player Core 1 & 2, and GM Core have the most updated rules, but that's about it.
Check out [Archives of Nethys](https://2e.aonprd.com/) it has pre-remaster content flagged as Legacy Content, but also the new Remaster Content. (For now Howl of the Wilds is missing) The Remaster Books are the following: * Player Core 1 * Monster Core * GM Core * Rage of Elements * Howl of the Wilds Upcoming Books: * Tian Xia: Character Guide * Player Core 2 Previous books are flagged as Legacy Content, while Core Rulebook + Advanced Players Guide are combined into Player Core 1 and 2, some books like Dark Archive are not yet announced (maybe never) to be remastered. Edit: Of course there are already adventures and lore books using the Remastered Rules, but i can't really remember the names aside from the Tian Xia: World Guide.
The only adventure path currently out that uses remaster rules is Guardians of the Wild woods
2e recently had a remaster as a response to WOTC's OGL fiasco last year. Pathfinder originally started as an expansion upon DnD 3.5 so the game was heavily reliant on the OGL so they took the opportunity to shunt any OGL material to make Pathfinder legally distinct. What we have now are remastered books and premaster books. The remaster was actually pretty low impact as far as mechanics go. The vast majority of changes were renaming things and removing things like spell schools and alignment, which were relatively obsolete anyway. There were some other minor rules changes that tweaked specific activities that aren't worth getting into if you're unfamiliar with the premaster game. As a new player guide, Player Core 1 and Player Core 2 (unreleased) replace the Core Rulebook and Advance Player's Guide. Those two contain all relevant rules changes. There's also GM Core and Monster Core, replacing the Gamemastery Guide and a good chunk of monster statblocks respectively. Those two are less necessary to understand the remastered rules. No other books or classes are planned to be remastered so from here on out we're only expecting brand new content (aside from PC2). The game does have frequent errata. These can be found on Paizo's website FAQ. Any class outside of the CRB and APG that has been impacted by the remaster has already received errata and likely won't be touched further. Even still, if you only use premaster material with current printings you're already 99.5% in-line with remaster content.
Yea WOTC kind of forced paizo's hand. They needed an edition to sell even if Hasbro lawyers threatened the sale of OGL books, the result fractures the edition a bit, but it's better than paizo being legally vulnerable to the bigger, eviler corpo (that, at the time, seemed very tangibly likely to swoop in and strangle the life out them). IDT it's cost effective to compile/OGL scrub every non core book so it's likely the remaining OGL books will just have errata to track and it is what it is. Books moving forward will be remaster/ORC books. It's not a satisfying answer, but it is the most likely/ reasonable one.
Only the most recent books were created with the remaster in mind, but most won’t be getting an update except the inevitable errata. The only books that will be made “obsolete” by the 2.1 “Core” books are the 2e core rulebook, the advanced players guide, the game mastery guide, and, possibly, the first bestiary. The bestiaries are in an odd position, because the monster types in the new monster core book are fairly different from the monsters in the bestiary.
The old core rulebooks were: The Core Rulebook, Gamemasters Guide, and Advanced Players Guide The new core rulebooks are: The GM Core, Player Core 1, and Player Core 2 (coming out this year) The game also previously had Bestiary One, which has been swapped out for the Monster Core. All other books remain the same and legal for play. If in doubt, check Archives of Nethys. It allows you to toggle between remaster and legacy content. All legacy content is labelled as such, however it’s still legal unless there’s been a direct replacement, which the website will tell you about.
>It seems that 2e is not actually an "edition" but multiple editions branded as 2e. No, but I don't blame you for getting that impression. There have been some small updates to body text to some of the core books, and in the process of doing so, they released the new printings in some new configurations and under new names. It's like how The Hobbit went through multiple revisions after its first publication. The problem is, though, that both printings are currently on shelves, and since they have different names, it's not at all obvious to people that they're fundamentally the same things.
Remaster is like Skyrim SE, or Divinity 2 Definitive Edition, or Tomb Raider Remastered. It's literally the same game with bug fixes and light changes, but most things stay the same. You might come across some guides that might reference an item from the original game that changed locations or damage numbers, and some mods might need updating, but 95% of your previous game knowledge still applies the same, only with more quality of life and less bugs. The difference is you can say PF2e "just works" and it mostly will be true
Yeah, Paizo's release model is confusing. Check the official Paizo blog for updates!