[PF ] Which Book to Buy

[joca4christ]

So, as a 10 year anniversary present at my job, I'm getting enough gift cards to buy at least two PF books. I don't have the core rules at all, have been using SRD. So am getting the core rulebook. What other book should I get? Thinking Beastiary. Thoughts?

[Squirrel_Dude]

Inner Sea World Guide. It's material can't be found on the paizo prd, and it's full of fluff, world history, campaign ideas, and all that goods stuff.

I should also say that the first 4 books I got were in order the CRB, Bestiary 1, APG, and Bestiary 2. That was before your fancy UCs, UEs, Ultimate Campaigns, or ISWGs.

[Keneth]

A lot of the Pathfinder fluff can be found on pathfinderwiki.com, so buying fluff-heavy books may or may not be what you want to do.

I'd go for Advanced Player's Guide since it has the other base classes. Or possibly Ultimate Campaign.

[Novawurmson]

I'd say APG, though if you want to do a Golarion campaign, ISWG is pretty amazing.

[Kudaku]

Advanced Player's Guide probably has the most useful crunch (three new classes! archetypes!), however the majority of that crunch is already available on PFSRD.
The Inner Sea World Guide gives you tons and tons of easily digestible Golarion-fluff. A lot of it is covered on the Golarion/Pathfinder wiki, but it's harder to get a good overview.

That said, you're considering buying 'at least' two books - do the winnie the pooh thing and get both? :smallsmile:

[Uhtred]

Ultimate Equipment is the single best item/enchantment/artifact compendium I have ever seen in an RPG. The artwork and descriptions are stunning and helpful, respectively, and seems to encompass every sourcebook published to that point. My players find it an invaluable resource, and love having a physical copy to peruse pre-session.

[Raven777]

I would second the Inner Sea World Guide. It is a really well made setting book.

After all, the crunchy stuff from things like APG, UM or UC can be found on the SRD...

[Grollub]

I would agree.. Advanced Players Guide for sure

[Grayson01]

I second this one!


Ultimate Equipment is the single best item/enchantment/artifact compendium I have ever seen in an RPG. The artwork and descriptions are stunning and helpful, respectively, and seems to encompass every sourcebook published to that point. My players find it an invaluable resource, and love having a physical copy to peruse pre-session.

[Psyren]

Thirding Ultimate Equipment.

Alternatively, you can get no books and instead buy a Bestiary Box or NPC Codex box. Tons of cardstock minis for your campaigns in those things.

[HylianKnight]

I strongly support the Advanced Player's Guide. Besides giving you the 6 classes they added to the core system (out of 8 total over 4 years), you get an introduction to the rules additions and innovations that really make Pathfinder worthwhile. Traits, alternative race features, and, most importantly, new class options and archetypes.

Honestly, the only reason not to make this your second purchase is if you're fine completely relying on the SRD for your rules stuff, which is valid.

[NightbringerGGZ]

If you GM a lot, pick up the GM guide and Ultimate Campaign. You'll be referencing both books a lot.

If you're a player, Ultimate Equipment is amazingly useful. The Corebook and the APG are also a good idea to pickup.

[ArqArturo]

I strongly support the Advanced Player's Guide. Besides giving you the 6 classes they added to the core system (out of 8 total over 4 years), you get an introduction to the rules additions and innovations that really make Pathfinder worthwhile. Traits, alternative race features, and, most importantly, new class options and archetypes.

Honestly, the only reason not to make this your second purchase is if you're fine completely relying on the SRD for your rules stuff, which is valid.

Wait, they fused the Core with Advanced?.

[Psyren]

Wait, they fused the Core with Advanced?.

Er, not seeing how you got that out of his post tbh :smalltongue: They are separate books.

[Squirrel_Dude]

I should also add that a great deal of the books can be bought as a .pdf from Paizo at vastly reduced prices from what you'd find in a store.

E.G. Paizo Prices (in $US)
{table]Item | Hard Copy Mint Cost | .pdf Cost
Bestiary 1 | 39.99 | 9.99
APG | 39.99 | 9.99
Inner Sea World Guide | 49.99 | 9.99
Ultimate Equipment | 44.99 | 9.99 [/table]

Some books are better for this than others, the relatively demanding nature of Paizo's .pdfs (plenty of handy hyperlinks, you can actually search them), means that they aren't great for casual reading. However, they are awesome for things like the inner sea world guide, bestiaries, or other books you might only want to reference a couple pages at a time during a session or even campaign.

Have some monsters you like in the Bestiary? Print those pages out, and bring them to session. Plan to run your campaign in Katapesh, Cheliax, or Absalom? Print out the pages concerning that region from the Inner Sea World Guide and hand them to your players. It also makes it much easier to share books with friends.

[BWR]

I love the bestiaries but more than any other book, they can be ignored in dead tree format because they are nothing but mechanics. Apart from some nice art, you aren't really missing out on anything by useing the PRD.

The Inner Sea World Guide is pretty good. I picked it up just as my last campaign was wrapping up, wondering what setting to play in and wanting to support Pathfinder. I read it and the opening paragraph was a real hook. Then I read more and thought "Man, they really do try to stuff in all possible cultures into one setting. Here you have the vikings, here you have the ancient Egyptians, here you have the Renaissance, here you have the mediaeval Europeans. It's just like *dawning realization* Mystara."
At which point my love for Mystara was rekindled and the choice of setting was obvious.
So it's a good Mystara replacement if you can't get hold of the old stuff. Perhaps better planned but without the really gripping explorations of culture and crazy.