How to play Pathfinder Second Edition

How to play

Build your character: Choose an ancestry and heritage, such as dwarf, elf, gnome, goblin, halfling, human, leshy or orc, then a background and a class. The Player Core classes are bard, cleric, druid, fighter, ranger, rogue, witch and wizard, and Player Core 2 adds eight more, including the barbarian, champion, monk and sorcerer. Every attribute modifier starts at +0; your ancestry, background and class adjust them and you add four free boosts. Feats from your ancestry, class and skills keep arriving as you level.

Four degrees of success: Every check is a d20 plus a modifier against a DC, and an attack is a check against the target's AC. Meet the DC to succeed, beat it by 10 or more for a critical success, and miss it by 10 or more for a critical failure. A natural 20 improves the result one step and a natural 1 worsens it one step. Your proficiency rank adds nothing if you're untrained, or your level plus 2, 4, 6 or 8 at trained, expert, master and legendary.

Three actions a turn: A fight starts with an initiative roll, usually Perception. On your turn you spend three actions and keep one reaction. Stride moves you, Step moves you 5 feet without triggering reactions like Reactive Strike, Strike attacks, Interact draws or uses an item, and Raise a Shield adds the shield's bonus to your AC until your next turn. Most spells take two actions. A second attack in the same turn takes −5 and any later attack −10, or −4 and −8 with an agile weapon.

Reactions and flanking: Your reaction is used off your turn when its trigger happens. A fighter's Reactive Strike, for example, hits a foe in reach who moves away, makes a ranged attack or uses a manipulate action. When you and an ally stand on opposite sides of an enemy, you flank it, and it's off-guard (−2 to AC) against your melee attacks.

Hit Points and Hero Points: At 0 Hit Points you're knocked out and dying 1, or dying 2 from a critical hit. You roll a recovery check each turn and die at dying 4. After a fight, someone with a healer's toolkit can Treat Wounds, a 10-minute Medicine check that restores Hit Points. You start each session with 1 Hero Point and can hold up to 3: spend one to reroll a check, or all of them to stop dying and stabilise at 0 Hit Points.

Encounter balance: The GM builds each fight from an XP budget for a party of four. The threat levels are trivial (40 XP or less), low (60), moderate (80), severe (120) and extreme (160). A creature of the party's level costs 40 XP, one 2 levels higher costs 80, and one 4 levels higher costs 160 on its own, so a single powerful foe can be an extreme fight.

Strategy

Plan the whole turn: The best turns spend all three actions on one plan. A third Strike at −10 rarely hits, so a martial character often Strikes twice and then Raises a Shield, Steps into a flank or Demoralizes. A caster usually spends two actions on a spell and the third on moving, Recall Knowledge or another action that sets up the next turn. Stack small edges: Because a check beats the DC by 10 for a critical, every +1 or −1 shifts your odds of every result. Flanking makes a foe off-guard (−2 to AC). A successful Demoralize leaves it frightened 1, a penalty to all its checks and DCs, and frightened 2 on a critical. Bonuses of the same type (circumstance, item or status) don't stack, so you only get the highest of each type; aim for bonuses of different types from different allies. Know your enemy: Recall Knowledge costs one action and can reveal a creature's weaknesses, resistances or best save. Spending it early lets the party pick the right damage type and the right spell, which pays back quickly in a long fight. Respect level: Proficiency adds your level to almost everything, so level differences matter a lot. A creature 2 or more levels above the party hits often, crits often and is hard to affect. In a severe or extreme encounter, focus fire, protect whoever is dying, and treat retreat as a real option. Build for the long game: Your feats are where your character's identity lives. Read ahead in your class's feat list, since some feats have prerequisites you need to plan for. From 2nd level you can spend class feats on an archetype's dedication to add another theme, such as a fighter who learns some wizardry. If your GM uses the Free Archetype variant from the GM Core, you get extra feats for this. Recover between fights: Treat Wounds is the main way parties heal, so have someone trained in Medicine carry a healer's toolkit, and rest 10 minutes between encounters when you can.

Tips

- Know what a good turn looks like for your class before the first fight, then adapt. - Raising a Shield is often a better third action than a Strike at −10. - Flank with an ally: the enemy is off-guard (−2 to AC) against both your melee attacks. - Step 5 feet to leave a foe's reach without triggering Reactive Strike. - Use Recall Knowledge early to learn weaknesses and resistances. - Bonuses of the same type don't stack; combine circumstance, item and status bonuses instead. - Keep a Hero Point for emergencies: spending all you have when you would die stabilises you at 0 Hit Points. - Every rule is free on Archives of Nethys, which is handy for reading feats before you choose them.

Players and time

A GM and usually four players; the GM Core's encounter budgets assume a party of four and adjust for smaller or larger groups. Sessions usually last a few hours. Adventure Paths are campaigns that run for months of regular play, while standalone adventures and Pathfinder Society scenarios fit one session or a few.

Starting point

Pathfinder Beginner Box: Secrets of the Unlit Star (May 2026) is the gentlest start. It has a Hero's Handbook with a solo adventure, a Game Master's Guide with an introductory adventure, four pregenerated characters (barbarian, bard, monk and sorcerer), pawns, a double-sided map and dice. When you're ready for the full game, the Player Core is the one book each player needs, and all the rules are free on Archives of Nethys.

Adventure Paths

Paizo's campaign series, each published as a run of volumes, usually three, with a free Player's Guide. Abomination Vaults, a dungeon crawl that starts at 1st level, is collected in one hardcover. Recent paths include Myth-Speakers (2025) and Revenge of the Runelords (2025–26), and hardcover editions of Gatewalkers (2025) and Season of Ghosts (2026) collect earlier ones.

Common beginner mistake

Striking three times every turn. The third attack takes −10 (−8 with an agile weapon) and rarely lands, while Raising a Shield, Stepping into a flank or Demoralizing the target helps you or the whole party. Plan all three actions around one goal.