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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Advanced Race Guide
Get the most out of your heritage with the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide! Embrace your inner monster by playing one of 30 iconic races from mythology and gaming history, or build an entirely new race of your own. If classic races are more your style, go beyond the stereotypes for elves, dwarves, and the other core races with new options and equipment to help you stand out from the crowd.
The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide is a bold new companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
The 256-page Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide includes:
- New rules and options to help you customize all seven of the classic core races, including new racial traits, racial subtypes, and racial archetypes.
- 30 exotic races, from mischievous goblins and reptilian kobolds to crow-headed tengus and deadly drow, each with complete rules for use as player characters, plus archetypes, alternate racial traits, and other options for maximum customization.
- A complete and balanced system for creating an unlimited number of new races, mixing and matching powers and abilities to form characters and cultures specific to your campaign.
- Tons of new race-specific equipment, feats, spells, and magic items for each of the races detailed!
... and much, much more!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide is a bold new companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
The 256-page Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide includes:
- New rules and options to help you customize all seven of the classic core races, including new racial traits, racial subtypes, and racial archetypes.
- 30 exotic races, from mischievous goblins and reptilian kobolds to crow-headed tengus and deadly drow, each with complete rules for use as player characters, plus archetypes, alternate racial traits, and other options for maximum customization.
- A complete and balanced system for creating an unlimited number of new races, mixing and matching powers and abilities to form characters and cultures specific to your campaign.
- Tons of new race-specific equipment, feats, spells, and magic items for each of the races detailed!
... and much, much more!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
255 pages, Hardcover
First published July 10, 2012
8 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
Jason Bulmahn
125 books40 followersLead Designer of Paizo Inc and Minotaur Games, creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 17, 2014
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Advanced Race Guide
by Paizo Publishing
Overview: The Advanced Race Guide opens up the doors to all kinds of crazy/off-kilter races and further expands the options for standard fantasy ones. All the options seem to be well thought out, but I can only imagine a few of them getting played with. This book includes more archetypes, feats, magic items, and spells as well as a little fluff, as per usual with the RPG line. While this is a good reference when making a character (especially if you are a jaded player) or world building for the GM, the guide looses some of its usefulness.
The Look (or, "How pretty is it?"): Typical Paizo quality. That being said, some pieces of art are fantastic while some are below average. While some pieces are incredibly gorgeous, some are like a punch in the gut in comparison. In particular, there is one artist who's paintings seem far too light and style seem out of place in comparison to some of the more realistic, darker pieces in the book. Overall though, Paizo still delivers with the art and there are multiple "Cool! I want to play that!" moments.
The Innovation (or, "Crunch"): Most of the book is dedicated to new options for existing races. While a good chunk covers the standard fantasy races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves, half-orcs, and humans), we see a large expansion into the "other" races and ends with a "Race Builder"
There are four parts to the book. The first discusses, in-depth, more options for the Core Races. Each race gets ten pages for it that discuss bits of setting-neutral fluff and more rules including four new race-specific archetypes, feats, and race-flavored equipment, magic items, and spells.
After that, we get "Featured Races," or ones that are more common at the table or have the potential to be. We get six pages each for these races with a similar layout to the Core Races, albeit with less material. Each Featured Race gets 2 archetypes. I would like to note that the archetypes for the first half of the book were excellent and some were very flavorful.
Thirdly, a section called "Uncommon Races" covers more specific races and sparse options for those races. Yes, while some are very specific culturally, I think it would have been a better option to just include a six page spread on these like they did the Featured Races. Indeed, we only get two pages for them, enough for one archetype (thin ones mostly, with very little to excite) and smattering of other options that just aren't interesting enough to grab me. In my opinion, this section was the biggest let down.
Following the third part, we get the absolutely incredible fourth part, "The Race Builder." This is, arguably, the reason most people will buy this book. It was not a factor in my purchasing the book (I already have a campaign setting that I love, so thus no need), but I still walked away impressed by the system. The first thing I thought of was building Elder Scrolls races for a Pathfinder RPG version of that beloved video game setting. The system works on a point-buy method with varying levels of racial powers. You can craft any race you may want or need for your campaign world and that is impressive. This gives GMs looking to world-build a powerful, and well-balanced, tool to creating races. This also gives the PCs a say in things for those GMs who are not afraid of world continuity kerfuffles, or flat-out mood breaking races. Overall, this system is worth the price of admission, but I dare say it runs out of its usefulness and cool factor quickly after starting a chronicle/campaign.
The World-Building (or, "Fluff"): Typical Paizo RPG line fair. This book is setting neutral so you won't see Golarion mixing in with your Forgotten Realms too much. That being said, some racial descriptions and the like gear more towards Golarion than others.
The Usefulness (or how much use am I going to get out of this?) Despite its excellent production values, cool rule additions, and flat out awesome race-builder, the Advanced Race Guide will not see much use during a game. Once the characters have been rolled and the GM has prepped, you will not find too much to reference in the game. While it opens up a lot of options for a GM, it doesn't as much for a player. There are some nifty items and spells in here though, so that may draw shoppers and casters to it, but not for long, especially since it is divided by race. While Spells have an index, items do not so good luck finding that "one thing" you read about.
The Enjoyment (or, "Is it fun to read?"): Depends honestly. If you enjoy reading rule manuals, then yes. Otherwise, it is still a typical rules supplement. Best to just pick up and read a bit at a time.
Pros: Race Builder; Cool options for the core races; many more options for races in a Pathfinder Game.
Cons: After the start of the game, the book may not be as useful; Uncommon Races should have had the same depth as Featured Races; Some portions of the art were less than stellar (that being said, still leagues above other RPG companies artwork).
I would have given the Advanced Race Guide three stars out of five, but due to the quality of the Race Builder, I feel it deserves a full star boost.
4 out of 5.
Advanced Race Guide
by Paizo Publishing
Overview: The Advanced Race Guide opens up the doors to all kinds of crazy/off-kilter races and further expands the options for standard fantasy ones. All the options seem to be well thought out, but I can only imagine a few of them getting played with. This book includes more archetypes, feats, magic items, and spells as well as a little fluff, as per usual with the RPG line. While this is a good reference when making a character (especially if you are a jaded player) or world building for the GM, the guide looses some of its usefulness.
The Look (or, "How pretty is it?"): Typical Paizo quality. That being said, some pieces of art are fantastic while some are below average. While some pieces are incredibly gorgeous, some are like a punch in the gut in comparison. In particular, there is one artist who's paintings seem far too light and style seem out of place in comparison to some of the more realistic, darker pieces in the book. Overall though, Paizo still delivers with the art and there are multiple "Cool! I want to play that!" moments.
The Innovation (or, "Crunch"): Most of the book is dedicated to new options for existing races. While a good chunk covers the standard fantasy races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves, half-orcs, and humans), we see a large expansion into the "other" races and ends with a "Race Builder"
There are four parts to the book. The first discusses, in-depth, more options for the Core Races. Each race gets ten pages for it that discuss bits of setting-neutral fluff and more rules including four new race-specific archetypes, feats, and race-flavored equipment, magic items, and spells.
After that, we get "Featured Races," or ones that are more common at the table or have the potential to be. We get six pages each for these races with a similar layout to the Core Races, albeit with less material. Each Featured Race gets 2 archetypes. I would like to note that the archetypes for the first half of the book were excellent and some were very flavorful.
Thirdly, a section called "Uncommon Races" covers more specific races and sparse options for those races. Yes, while some are very specific culturally, I think it would have been a better option to just include a six page spread on these like they did the Featured Races. Indeed, we only get two pages for them, enough for one archetype (thin ones mostly, with very little to excite) and smattering of other options that just aren't interesting enough to grab me. In my opinion, this section was the biggest let down.
Following the third part, we get the absolutely incredible fourth part, "The Race Builder." This is, arguably, the reason most people will buy this book. It was not a factor in my purchasing the book (I already have a campaign setting that I love, so thus no need), but I still walked away impressed by the system. The first thing I thought of was building Elder Scrolls races for a Pathfinder RPG version of that beloved video game setting. The system works on a point-buy method with varying levels of racial powers. You can craft any race you may want or need for your campaign world and that is impressive. This gives GMs looking to world-build a powerful, and well-balanced, tool to creating races. This also gives the PCs a say in things for those GMs who are not afraid of world continuity kerfuffles, or flat-out mood breaking races. Overall, this system is worth the price of admission, but I dare say it runs out of its usefulness and cool factor quickly after starting a chronicle/campaign.
The World-Building (or, "Fluff"): Typical Paizo RPG line fair. This book is setting neutral so you won't see Golarion mixing in with your Forgotten Realms too much. That being said, some racial descriptions and the like gear more towards Golarion than others.
The Usefulness (or how much use am I going to get out of this?) Despite its excellent production values, cool rule additions, and flat out awesome race-builder, the Advanced Race Guide will not see much use during a game. Once the characters have been rolled and the GM has prepped, you will not find too much to reference in the game. While it opens up a lot of options for a GM, it doesn't as much for a player. There are some nifty items and spells in here though, so that may draw shoppers and casters to it, but not for long, especially since it is divided by race. While Spells have an index, items do not so good luck finding that "one thing" you read about.
The Enjoyment (or, "Is it fun to read?"): Depends honestly. If you enjoy reading rule manuals, then yes. Otherwise, it is still a typical rules supplement. Best to just pick up and read a bit at a time.
Pros: Race Builder; Cool options for the core races; many more options for races in a Pathfinder Game.
Cons: After the start of the game, the book may not be as useful; Uncommon Races should have had the same depth as Featured Races; Some portions of the art were less than stellar (that being said, still leagues above other RPG companies artwork).
I would have given the Advanced Race Guide three stars out of five, but due to the quality of the Race Builder, I feel it deserves a full star boost.
4 out of 5.
June 17, 2017
A great sourcebook for the Pathfinder RPG, the Advanced Race Guide significantly expands the options for character races in the game. The first three chapters of the book detail "Core", "Featured", and "Uncommon" Races, each providing background and role-playing details on a given race, alternate racial features, and new character options associated with that race. The fourth chapter provides a system for creating new character races.
Core Races: The most generally useful section, with the most detailed write-ups. All of these are fairly interesting, with dwarves and half-orcs among the best, and elves and humans among the weakest. (The write-up on humans might lean a little too far towards the negative side, incidentally.) Lots of neat new options, with my favorites including a dwarf spell that gives you an armored beard; the elven Treesinger druid, which bonds with plants; the dread gnome and lava gnome subraces; the half-orc Hateful Rager barbarian, which focuses its anger on favored enemies; the halfling Order of the Paw cavalier; the halfling Book of Marvelous Recipes; and the human Feral Child druid (in case you wanted to play Tarzan).
Featured Races: This section covers races with a prominent role in a typical Pathfinder campaign outside the core options. The write-ups here are shorter than the Core Races, but still neat - the catfolk was probably my pick of the litter, a fun read throughout, although all of the options had something to offer. Races like the drow, kobold, and tiefling were fine, even if they didn't really have any surprises; however, I think they could have done more with races like hobgoblins and orcs, which are way more interesting in D&D 5th Edition. Goblins diverge further from their D&D roots (as anyone familiar with Pathfinder is well aware), reminiscent of the creatures from Gremlins.
Regarding races new to Pathfinder... dhampirs are well-thought-out, although I think the minuses (by default, they can't be magically healed!) outweigh their other abilities. I wasn't enthused by the part-elemental races (ifrit, oread, sylph, and undine), with the oread being the least interesting (despite some distinctive equipment). Fetchlings (shadow-tainted humans) and ratfolk are fine, though they probably work better as NPCs than PCs. Tengus are distinctive from their closest D&D counterparts, the kenku, drawing heavily on Japanese legend.
Uncommon Races: Things start to get really weird but extra interesting in this chapter, with short two-page write-ups for each new race. While a few D&D-derived options are found here (duergar, grippli, merfolk, and svirfneblin), most of the options here are unique to Pathfinder. A number have a southeast Asian influence, an area often overlooked in heroic fantasy. My favorites here were changelings (half-human offspring of hags resisting their heritage) and kitsune (from Japanese legend). Notable other options include the samsarans (which resist death and reincarnate when their lives end), strix (winged nocturnal creatures that reminded me a lot of Gargoyles), sulis (have all four elements in their heritage), and vishkanyas (which have metallic skin and poisonous blood). The shadow-focused wayangs are redundant with the fetchlings from the last chapter, and the snake-like nagaji in this chapter also have a lot of thematic overlap with the vishkanyas; I would have chosen just one in each case.
Race Builder: The final chapter details a system for building new races from scratch, by choosing from a menu of traits (which come as package deals) and qualities (bought piecemeal) that are priced with "Racial Points" (RP). The number of RP dictates the race's power, and more powerful races suffer an XP penalty at lower levels. This system seems pretty solid, although many of the qualities were directly drawn from specific races, and I would have liked to see more generic or customizable choices. This chapter also includes some sample builds, both familiar races (such as centaurs, gargoyles, and ogres) as well as brand-new options (such as the wyrwoods, self-aware wooden constructs, and the wyvarans, kobold-wyvern hybrids).
Overall this is a solid work, very useful for Pathfinder players. A small number of the write-ups were less creative than I'd hoped, and there was a dependence in many cases on minor bonuses as racial features, but the great ideas vastly outweigh the disappointments. Definitely recommended for Pathfinder players. (A-)
Core Races: The most generally useful section, with the most detailed write-ups. All of these are fairly interesting, with dwarves and half-orcs among the best, and elves and humans among the weakest. (The write-up on humans might lean a little too far towards the negative side, incidentally.) Lots of neat new options, with my favorites including a dwarf spell that gives you an armored beard; the elven Treesinger druid, which bonds with plants; the dread gnome and lava gnome subraces; the half-orc Hateful Rager barbarian, which focuses its anger on favored enemies; the halfling Order of the Paw cavalier; the halfling Book of Marvelous Recipes; and the human Feral Child druid (in case you wanted to play Tarzan).
Featured Races: This section covers races with a prominent role in a typical Pathfinder campaign outside the core options. The write-ups here are shorter than the Core Races, but still neat - the catfolk was probably my pick of the litter, a fun read throughout, although all of the options had something to offer. Races like the drow, kobold, and tiefling were fine, even if they didn't really have any surprises; however, I think they could have done more with races like hobgoblins and orcs, which are way more interesting in D&D 5th Edition. Goblins diverge further from their D&D roots (as anyone familiar with Pathfinder is well aware), reminiscent of the creatures from Gremlins.
Regarding races new to Pathfinder... dhampirs are well-thought-out, although I think the minuses (by default, they can't be magically healed!) outweigh their other abilities. I wasn't enthused by the part-elemental races (ifrit, oread, sylph, and undine), with the oread being the least interesting (despite some distinctive equipment). Fetchlings (shadow-tainted humans) and ratfolk are fine, though they probably work better as NPCs than PCs. Tengus are distinctive from their closest D&D counterparts, the kenku, drawing heavily on Japanese legend.
Uncommon Races: Things start to get really weird but extra interesting in this chapter, with short two-page write-ups for each new race. While a few D&D-derived options are found here (duergar, grippli, merfolk, and svirfneblin), most of the options here are unique to Pathfinder. A number have a southeast Asian influence, an area often overlooked in heroic fantasy. My favorites here were changelings (half-human offspring of hags resisting their heritage) and kitsune (from Japanese legend). Notable other options include the samsarans (which resist death and reincarnate when their lives end), strix (winged nocturnal creatures that reminded me a lot of Gargoyles), sulis (have all four elements in their heritage), and vishkanyas (which have metallic skin and poisonous blood). The shadow-focused wayangs are redundant with the fetchlings from the last chapter, and the snake-like nagaji in this chapter also have a lot of thematic overlap with the vishkanyas; I would have chosen just one in each case.
Race Builder: The final chapter details a system for building new races from scratch, by choosing from a menu of traits (which come as package deals) and qualities (bought piecemeal) that are priced with "Racial Points" (RP). The number of RP dictates the race's power, and more powerful races suffer an XP penalty at lower levels. This system seems pretty solid, although many of the qualities were directly drawn from specific races, and I would have liked to see more generic or customizable choices. This chapter also includes some sample builds, both familiar races (such as centaurs, gargoyles, and ogres) as well as brand-new options (such as the wyrwoods, self-aware wooden constructs, and the wyvarans, kobold-wyvern hybrids).
Overall this is a solid work, very useful for Pathfinder players. A small number of the write-ups were less creative than I'd hoped, and there was a dependence in many cases on minor bonuses as racial features, but the great ideas vastly outweigh the disappointments. Definitely recommended for Pathfinder players. (A-)
November 3, 2022
Good evening and welcome fellow Children of Chaos.
As far as PRPG splats this one might be my favorite. It does go a long way to remove the monospecies problem in a lot of these games. Elves are all sword fighting wizards and dwarves are all axe fighting tough guys.
What if I, as an Elf, grew up with humans and never held a sword. Rules as written. NO YOU ARE AMAZING WITH A BOW AND RAPIER, BY YOUR GENES! That is dumb.
The elemental races are cool. And fuck goblins PRPG, hey give us more Grippils. Those frog dudes are cute as hell.
However this book as a cardinal sin. CHA does not mean hotness. Drow and Damphir both are describes as monsters who hate everyone and everyone hates them. +2CHA.
Why? Because they are hot goths. If you wanted hot goths, write that. Make it so Damphir are adaptable and social chameleons. But no, as much as I crusade against the idea that your CHA stat governs appearance, you have to do everything you can to keep that old school mindset.
Also fuck Drow, there is not a single thing about those stupid elves that I like. Throw that idea in the trash Tabletop gaming.
As far as PRPG splats this one might be my favorite. It does go a long way to remove the monospecies problem in a lot of these games. Elves are all sword fighting wizards and dwarves are all axe fighting tough guys.
What if I, as an Elf, grew up with humans and never held a sword. Rules as written. NO YOU ARE AMAZING WITH A BOW AND RAPIER, BY YOUR GENES! That is dumb.
The elemental races are cool. And fuck goblins PRPG, hey give us more Grippils. Those frog dudes are cute as hell.
However this book as a cardinal sin. CHA does not mean hotness. Drow and Damphir both are describes as monsters who hate everyone and everyone hates them. +2CHA.
Why? Because they are hot goths. If you wanted hot goths, write that. Make it so Damphir are adaptable and social chameleons. But no, as much as I crusade against the idea that your CHA stat governs appearance, you have to do everything you can to keep that old school mindset.
Also fuck Drow, there is not a single thing about those stupid elves that I like. Throw that idea in the trash Tabletop gaming.
September 17, 2012
I liked the idea of replacing ECL by a point system and giving tools to the GM to balance the races between themselves and the games and the notion of feats to gain race abilities. But I found the point system to be incomplete, purely a not-that-well-balanced representation of the abilities already there and the longer race descriptions felt like fillers (culture vs racial not clearly defined). Some good materials and ideas in there but not enough for the size and price of the book.
January 5, 2013
A truly optional book, in my opinion, but no less interesting - a book with lots of cool ideas both for established races and new/alternate races in the Pathfinder RPG. Nifty book!
June 22, 2019
My favorite of the Pathfinder guides so far.
July 24, 2016
I have to say, the inclusion of the race builder is what really seals the deal. Its simple, shows what you are doing to any other player, including balance issues, and comes with alot of ability options to plug in. Adding to new gameplay info and builds for preexisting races was nice, and the weirder races of course were a favorite for me.
I do have to say though, minor nitpick but still, I was disappointed that Gnolls only got a small stat section and not a full two page spread with class abilities etc. They are kind of my favorite and certainly have more play appeal than mermen or gripplis.
I do have to say though, minor nitpick but still, I was disappointed that Gnolls only got a small stat section and not a full two page spread with class abilities etc. They are kind of my favorite and certainly have more play appeal than mermen or gripplis.
October 11, 2023
Basic Premise: Deep dives into the core PC races of Golarion, the world of the Pathfinder RPG.
For those of us who really get into the "role" part of roleplaying, this book is really useful. There is a ton of detailed information about the different playable races here. Society, culture, naming (so many name ideas!), and pretty much anything you could hope for to build a detailed backstory for a character. There's crunch, here, too- feats, spells, items, etc. There are also some new races. A very handy book.
For those of us who really get into the "role" part of roleplaying, this book is really useful. There is a ton of detailed information about the different playable races here. Society, culture, naming (so many name ideas!), and pretty much anything you could hope for to build a detailed backstory for a character. There's crunch, here, too- feats, spells, items, etc. There are also some new races. A very handy book.
December 7, 2012
I loved how, while giving some increasingly different things for the game, it also gives the ability and rules for players and DMs to build their own races with a balancing act to them. it is FANTASTIC
February 5, 2013
Does exactly what I want it to do, and does it well.
April 30, 2013
Livro bacana para incluir raças exóticas em sua campanha... ou para fugir dos estereotipos e clichês dos personagens tradicionais.
April 10, 2016
Great installment. Provides players with a ton of useful and/or fun options. One of my go-to books when creating PC's and NPC's for the game.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews