I was introduced to D&D about a year ago and my tabletop RPG experience has exclusively been with the relatively rules-light systems FATE and D&D 5e. I hear a lot of people say that they really enjoy Pathfinder and I've been trying to get into it. But the process of creating even a level 1 character makes me want to tear my hair out because I feel like I'm constantly doing something wrong, and not really knowing where all these numbers and modifiers go.

If there's anyone out there who's willing to take on a Pathfinder newbie who might need a bit of hand-holding at the beginning, I'd be super grateful!

If all you are wanting is help with the process of creating a Pathfinder character, I'd be happy to help you out.

link to another game is a game of mine (for clarity, that game is rated Mature) that I created as a SOLO game for someone.  They have been inactive recently, but I'd be happy to create a thread over there and I would be happy to help work through any questions you have.

First thing I want to point out, is that Pathfinder has lots of options, because it has quite a lot of history and breadth of material.  What you have to realize is that just because the material is out there, you don't have to use it for your character, especially when you are beginning to learn things.

That game involves some house/optional rules you wouldn't probably want to start with.  Actually, I have the Pathfinder Beginner Box.  Which you can get electronically for free at: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/products/beginnerbox

It can be used, and starts you out with just the core mechanics, and lets you get used to how things work.  You can either continue playing with those more simplified rules or advance into more detailed rules from the standard version of the game.  [for instance, I started my kids out with this strategy, and my daughter already has taken an interest in some of the more advanced things, my youngest, my son has been happy simply to stick pretty much with the beginner box rules for his dwarven wizard.

The object, is to have fun, with whatever rule-set is the most fun for you and those you are playing with.  That could be Beginner box rules, Core rules, or some subset of Paizo and/or third-party rule sets you want to use.  There is even the 'set' of Pathfinder Society rules, if you want to play and advance characters in public tournaments and such.  (Pathfinder Society rules are basically core + most of the Paizo rules as long as they haven't been identified as potentially being abused/imbalanced in economic and/or power.  Some of them might also be restricted due to concerns with recordkeeping and consistency.

edit: I think I stand corrected.  It looks like the electronic portion of beginner box is about $10 but it looks like you can get the player part for free download, am double-checking that.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:09, Fri 14 July 2017.