Recommended Pathfinder Books?

[FallenFallcrest]

I've been wanting to get into Pathfinder, but with all of the different books available, especially third party books, (and Paizo's website not being the most well organized), I was hoping for some recommendations of books. Does anyone have good experiences with a particular set of third party books? (one of the annoying things is that a lot of the third party books are PDF only, but that isn't the worst thing, I guess.)

Currently there is a deal going on on Paizo's website (which ends tomorrow, so expedient advice would be great :smallwink:) that has half off on The Inner Sea World Guide, Faiths of Balance, Faiths of Purity, and Faiths of Corruption. Inner Sea World Guide seems like a must, but are the other three good? There were a number of other books on sale, but none of them sounded as appealing. Maybe Demons Revisited?

Thanks

[Miry]

Inner sea world guide is a must only if you want to play in Golarion, the official world of Pathfinder. If you want to play in your own (or some one else) setting, it's mostly useless.

I have no idea what is in the other books you mentionned, but everything relwted to gameplay published by Paizo is freely available on d20pfsrd.com

[Palanan]

I would skip the Inner Sea World Guide, since as Miry said it's really only useful if you're playing in Golarion--and even then it's more helpful to DMs than to players, unless you want to write an extremely detailed character background. I haven't read any of the "Faiths" books, but from what I've seen the player companions tend to be thin on useful content.

If you want to get into Pathfinder, the single best book apart from the CRB is probably the Advanced Players Guide. That was my first major Pathfinder purchase and it's served me well, as both player and DM. It's on the Paizo PRD, but I've never regretted buying the hardcopy.

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[Milo v3]

The necessities are really just Core Rulebook and Advanced Players Guide if you're a player, and add Bestiary 1 if you are a GM (though all the non-setting based books are viewable for free on the PRD (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/) except for their newest releases).

When it comes to third-party the best in my opinion is Dreamscarred Presses Ultimate Psionics, Dreamscarred Presses Akashic Mysteries, and Drop Dead Studio's Spheres of Power. Path of War is something I recommend but whether or not it suits your group means it'll either be a really really good purchase or a really really bad purchase.

[exelsisxax]

Thirding the "use the PRD"

Seconding DSP materials, path of war and ultimate psionics specifically.

Also mentioning the pfsrd (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/home), an alternative to the PRD that also hosts third party content.

[JoshuaZ]

Not absolutely necessary but a really fun book is Kobold's Press "Deep Magic." Not absolutely necessary but has a lot of really good material. (I second most of the earlier comments also.)

[Sayt]

the PRD and PFSRD are good, although the latter sometimes omits useful information.

Outside of the Corebook, the useful books are the Advanced [X] Guides (Race, Player, Class), and the Ultimate Series.

Going more speciic than that, the pathfinder Player Companion line is probably what you want to look at as a player looking for mechanical options. If you're a Gm looking for setting information, you should look at Campaign setting product line, which is lighter and less consistent on mechanical options and mostly conveys the world of Golarion, and usually has a few topical monsters for the areas being covered.

[FallenFallcrest]

Thanks for the advice, just so you know, I am the GM of the group, sorry for not mentioning it. I know the core mechanics are available online, but none of the setting stuff, and that was what I was interested in.

Does anyone have any recommended adventure path books for any useful inspiration?

[BWR]

I love "Distant Worlds" which introduces us to the other planets in the solar system, but that may not be particularly useful. The Inner Sea Guide is a must if you want the setting, and most of the cultures have smaller, more detailed guides if any of them seem interesting.
"Rise of the Runelords" is generally well liked and seems, based on my brief read-through of it, to be a solid adventure path.
My gf is playing through Strange Aeons which she says does a good job of portraying Lovecraftian D&D - yes you kill **** all the time but it's creepy and madness and the hint of bigger things behind the scenes is everpresent.
She also played "Reign of Winter" which was almost old school D&D in it's weirdness. Lots of fairy tale events and logic, planar and dimensional travel, and saving the world.

[Krazzman]

I think the CRB is the most important. Ultimate Magic and Advanced Players Guide are both essential for the base classes. Ultimate Combat is a nice additional source IF you want a gunslinger.

After that use the d20pfsrd as a source for archetype and you are good to go. I'm inclined to say that the unchained classes are a must have, but you could live without rogues or monks.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by FallenFallcrest
Thanks for the advice, just so you know, I am the GM of the group, sorry for not mentioning it. I know the core mechanics are available online, but none of the setting stuff, and that was what I was interested in.

If you're a GM who's interested in the setting of Golarion, then the Inner Sea World Guide becomes much more relevant. I'm not personally much of a Golarion fan, but if you want a solid overview, the World Guide is the place to start. After that, as Sayt mentioned, there are specific Player Companions dedicated to various regions, although they're more pamphlets than anything.


Originally Posted by JoshuaZ
Not absolutely necessary but a really fun book is Kobold's Press "Deep Magic."

This book is amazing, colossal, and sometimes hilarious. A friend of mine was a supporter and his name is in the book. (Along with half the Playground, probably. :smalltongue:) It's almost overwhelming, but there's no lack of options, and some really interesting sections on ley lines.


Originally Posted by BWR
"Rise of the Runelords" is generally well liked and seems, based on my brief read-through of it, to be a solid adventure path.

This was my first major exposure to Pathfinder, and my overall experience was raucous good fun.*

The sections of Runelords I played through were heavy on the dungeon-crawling, and the plot could be seen as railroady by some, although the group I played with needed big honkin' rails to manage any forward motion at all. The intro is a little basic (goblins attack, yadda yadda) but once the storyline gets going there's an abundance of NPCs and a good mix of urban, dungeon, and cross-country locales. As a player who had a ton of fun with it, I'd definitely recommend you give it a look.



*Apart from the section with the hillbilly ogres, which was…it was…o gawd, I can't talk about it now.

[Ualaa]

Almost nothing is required, for Pathfinder, since most of the basic books (90%, or more of the rules) is available free on the System Reference Document.
If you search for d20pfsrd, that site has a nice interface and most of the open content has been uploaded already.

That said, I'd recommend at least the Core Rulebook at the table.
If you have a laptop with net access, you can look up whatever you need on the fly, or better pre-lookup stuff and print/make notes.

Any of the books with classes are nice to have.
The big ones (beyond the Core Book) are: Advanced Player's Guide (7 classes), Advanced Class Guide (9 classes), with a few in Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic.
I would prioritize the Player's Guide over the Class Guide, as the Class Guide is hybrid classes of previously existing classes, and having an understanding of the parent classes helps; the hybrid's are often different enough that they function well as their own class.
Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic (along with Ultimate Equipment) expand the system enough, that even without the classes they're nice to have.

The other 'Ultimate' books are excellent for flavor, if you want to play a specific style of game.
Ultimate Horror gives many elements of scary stuff if you want to play a Ravenloft/Lovecraftian style game.
Ultimate Intrigue lets you play a Batman/Bruce Wayne kind of game, with alter egos -- but if you're not playing that style, I'd skip that book until you're at the point where you're rounding out your collection.
Ultimate Campaign has a lot of things to do between sessions, for development of characters without actually adventuring... a good book, but not part of the initial set.



For third party content...

Before you buy a lot of the 'core' stuff...
I would seriously consider going with predominantly 3rd party material.

A game which uses Akashic Mysteries, Path of War, Path of War: Expanded, and Ultimate Psionics (all by Dreamscarred Press) for their melee classes results in MUCH more interesting/flexible melee guys, who while still 'weaker' than casters (in terms of flexibility and/or raw power at higher levels) is much closer than the Paizo stuff.

Ultimate Psionics have psionic classes that function well as casters.
I would personally combine this with Spheres of Power (Drop Dead Studios), in the place of the entire Pathfinder magic system (this product rocks, and is my favorite non-Paizo product for gaming).

Spheres has the option of replacing the default magic or running alongside it, as a different kind of magic.
You can essentially build almost any style of caster, with Spheres.
And their 'Expanded Options' book gets you archetypes, to play those base magic classes like Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Oracle, Arcanist (from the Paizo books), but using Spheres for the magic system.

Spheres is great, in that you get basic magics that you can do all day.
So you never run out.

And through the sheer flexibility of the system, you can duplicate the magic of almost any game, video game, novel, cartoon, anime, etc.
And play that kind of a class from level one up, rather than being Fighter X, plus Paladin X, plus Rogue X, plus Sorcerer X, and finally being similar to the Magic of whatever source you want around level 11.
With SoP, you're a weak Jedi (or Air Bender) from level 1 up, with most of their abilities at the outset and gradually adding the rest over a few levels, and the improving in them as you gain levels.

While the flexibility of concepts is massive, you're limited by spell points.
Those let you do more powerful effects, but a limited number of times per day.
In sheer flexibility of your made character, you're weaker than a Paizo Wizard/Cleric/Druid etc...
(But in flexibility of making a unique character, you're massively more flexible).
Also because of spell points, you're weaker than their top damage level per round too.
But you're still stronger than Ultimate Psionics, Path of War or Akashic Mysteries melee...
But the disparity is a lot closer.
Instead of having a 1-10 scale, with casters close to 10 and melee close to 1... the scale is more like casters close to 6 and melee close to 4.



I'd take a very hard look at...

Paizo: Core Rulebook
Dreamscarred Press: Ultimate Psionics, Path of War (and PoW: Expanded), Akashic Mysteries.
Drop Dead Studios: Spheres of Power and Expanded Options.

(if you're USA based, buy SoP from the Paizo Store, but anywhere else in the world get from Drive Thru RPG with their Print on Demand hardcover option for 1/4 the shipping cost).



Add Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Equipment, Ultimate Combat over time, if you want hard copies instead of looking stuff up.
Add the hard covers with classes, for the same reason.

[Mehangel]

I'd take a very hard look at...

Paizo: Core Rulebook
Dreamscarred Press: Ultimate Psionics, Path of War (and PoW: Expanded), Akashic Mysteries.
Drop Dead Studios: Spheres of Power and Expanded Options..

Honestly, Just sticking with the Core Rulebook, DSP's Path of War (and PoW: Expanded), and DDS's Spheres of Power is enough; You dont really NEED anything else.