Review: Pathfinder Beginner Box (Paizo)

Starting any hobby can feel daunting. The terminology sounds like a foreign language. You need what feels like a ton of stuff just to begin. And if you look for help online, you get a stress-inducing tidal wave of results

Breaking into the world of roleplaying games can definitely feel like this. Player handbooks, game master handbooks, supplemental handbooks, monster manuals, maps, dice, miniatures — it feels overwhelming just talking about it.

That’s why Paizo created the everything-you-need Pathfinder Beginner Box, the fantasy roleplaying counterpart to their excellent Starfinder Beginner Box. Let’s peek inside and look at the top five things you need to know about it.

Party of One

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Every time I got into a new roleplaying game, I always faced the same problem: I had nobody to play with. The Pathfinder Beginner Box solves this by including a delightful choose-your-own-adventure style scenario called Pirate King’s Plunder.

To start playing, you just open the Hero’s Handbook and begin — there’s no character to choose or rules to read. Unpack the dice, grab some scrap paper and a pen, and you’re going.

The scenario introduces Pathfinder mechanics like combat and skill checks as you need them, weaving everything into the game’s narrative. I played several paths and really enjoyed it, even thought I died once when I went into this room and the statue… uh… just be careful in there, okay?

Learning with Friends

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Roleplaying is always more fun with a group, and the box has you covered there too. The first 30 pages of the Game Master’s Guide contain a 2-4 player adventure that starts in the local fishery’s basement.

Thanks to a great job by Paizo of introducing rules as they’re needed, a first-time game master can confidently run the scenario with almost no preparation. The players each select one of the box’s four pre-generated characters, the GM flattens the flip-mat and prepares some pawns, and then it’s time to begin. Seriously, the Pathfinder Beginner Box makes the process a breeze.

Building Characters

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A new player’s next big step into any game system is making their own character. But when you try to do that with the massive rulebook in most roleplaying games, you’re quickly buried under far too many choices. Where do you even start?

The Pathfinder Beginner Box solves this by giving players enough options to spur creativity without leaving them overwhelmed and glassy-eyed. Characters have three possible ancestries, seven background options, and four classes to choose among. From that base, players can create a host of unique characters to explore the basics of Pathfinder.

Growing a Game Master

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It feels like many starter sets focus more on the beginning player than the first-time game master, which I think is a shame. Running a game takes creativity, improvisation, and storytelling, but also plenty of organization and some basic bookkeeping.

The Game Master’s Guide gives the fledgling GM a great overview of how to plan and present an engaging adventure experience. It does this by combining excellent resource information with clear examples and rule references. Best of all, the box’s beginning adventure leaves a slew of open plot hooks just waiting to pique a party’s interest and help the new GM build their first adventures.

So Much Stuff!

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Although we mostly talked about the two books included in the Pathfinder Beginner Box, they’re only part of what you’ll find. The box also comes with a flip-mat for the basic adventure, a set of dice that match the example colors used on the pre-generated character sheets, and over 100 full color pawns to represent both player characters and monsters on the map.

The selection provides everything that the players and game master needs for hours upon hours of fantasy adventure. It’s also ready when you want to step into the full game, with recommendations on which books to purchase and how to get involved in organized play through the Pathfinder Society.

Verdict

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Everything in the Pathfinder Beginner Box hits the mark to successfully introduce a new player to the world of roleplaying in Pathfinder, but without the feeling of drowning in information.

The books, character sheets, dice, maps, and pawns make the learning process easy, providing a seamless experience from the moment you open the box through the triumph of your character completing their first quest.

Whether you’re a parent wanting to give roleplaying a try with your kids or you’re part of a group that’s curious about the Pathfinder system, the Pathfinder Beginner Box makes the perfect place to start. We highly recommend it.