Which Rulebooks Should I Get?

[RPGNovice]

I already have the Player's Handbook and the Game Bestiary but since I am on a budget I will be saving up for these one at a time. So in what order do you think I should buy the books?

[Troacctid]

Honestly, if you're on a budget, I'd just use the SRD. It's free online, and it has basically everything you need.

[RPGNovice]

Honestly, if you're on a budget, I'd just use the SRD. It's free online, and it has basically everything you need.

I heard of the SRD but I do not want to use it right now for a couple of reasons. I kind of want to gradually get more material as I become more used to the material I have so I do not get overwhelmed, I want to eventually play a game IRL and checking a computer the whole time would be annoying, and I really appreciate the makers of Pathfinder and want to support their game.

[stanprollyright]

I already have the Player's Handbook and the Game Bestiary but since I am on a budget I will be saving up for these one at a time. So in what order do you think I should buy the books?

1. Game Mastery Guide. You could stop there if you wanted.
2. Advanced Player's Guide.
3. Ultimate Combat/Magic
4. Advanced Race/Class Guides
5. Whatever else suits your fancy

[RPGNovice]

1. Game Mastery Guide. You could stop there if you wanted.
2. Advanced Player's Guide.
3. Ultimate Combat/Magic
4. Advanced Race/Class Guides
5. Whatever else suits your fancy

Why in that order?

[Hunter Noventa]

Why in that order?

Those are all solid books with a wide focus. I'm not as familiar with the Game Mastery Guide, but the other books widen the options for classes and races all over the place. Other books from there get more setting or race specific, so they aren't as universally useful.

[stanprollyright]

Why in that order?

Well the GM Guide is the third essential book that makes up the Core. After you have those three books, all you need are people willing to play with you. If you're going to GM, you can start looking at modules and adventure paths after this.

The Advanced Player's guide has a bunch of new character options and new rules, and it was the first thing published after the core series, so every other book builds upon it. As a general rule when buying supplements, the ones that are published first with more generic titles are usually what you want to get first, as the later books expand upon many of the earlier printed options.

Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat are much like the Advanced Player's Guide, with new rule systems and character options, but more focused on magic and combat, respectively.

Advanced Race and Class Guide are mostly more character options. If you're a player you probably want these, but if you're a GM you might want the Bestiary 2 or Chronicles Campaign Setting first.

[Palanan]

The Advanced Player's Guide is excellent, and probably the single most useful of the titles mentioned after the Core Rulebook. It has some very cool options for players and GMs alike.

The Advanced Race Guide is also a good choice, mainly for the wide variety of races beyond the standard options.

[Mehangel]

I would actually suggest a different set of books:

Spheres of Power - by Drop Dead Studios
Path of War - by Dreamscarred Press
Path of War Expanded - by Dreamscarred Press
Ultimate Psionics - by Dreamscarred Press

[RPGNovice]

Those are all solid books with a wide focus. I'm not as familiar with the Game Mastery Guide, but the other books widen the options for classes and races all over the place. Other books from there get more setting or race specific, so they aren't as universally useful.

Thank you very much for your explanation, I am keenly interested in the Golarian setting though.


Well the GM Guide is the third essential book that makes up the Core. After you have those three books, all you need are people willing to play with you. If you're going to GM, you can start looking at modules and adventure paths after this.

The Advanced Player's guide has a bunch of new character options and new rules, and it was the first thing published after the core series, so every other book builds upon it. As a general rule when buying supplements, the ones that are published first with more generic titles are usually what you want to get first, as the later books expand upon many of the earlier printed options.

Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat are much like the Advanced Player's Guide, with new rule systems and character options, but more focused on magic and combat, respectively.

Advanced Race and Class Guide are mostly more character options. If you're a player you probably want these, but if you're a GM you might want the Bestiary 2 or Chronicles Campaign Setting first.

Thank you, but I do not plan on GMing until I have been a player for a while.


The Advanced Player's Guide is excellent, and probably the single most useful of the titles mentioned after the Core Rulebook. It has some very cool options for players and GMs alike.

The Advanced Race Guide is also a good choice, mainly for the wide variety of races beyond the standard options.

Thank you for your input.


I would actually suggest a different set of books:

Spheres of Power - by Drop Dead Studios
Path of War - by Dreamscarred Press
Path of War Expanded - by Dreamscarred Press
Ultimate Psionics - by Dreamscarred Press

I am looking for pathfinder books, so no thank you.

[digiman619]

FIrst things first, I'm going to recommend two sites: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ and http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/ Both are great resources for official and 3rd party respectively (though there is a handful of 3rd party stuff on the srd). But since you said that you want to get the books themselves, let's talk.

Unless you have a great love of Golarian, Pathfinder's default setting, you can ignore the Adventure Paths, Player Companions, and actually, like 90% of Piazo's books. If you want to get the most out of Pathfinder, here are the three books you NEED.
Advanced Player's Guide: This is the one that really defined Pathfinder to many; this is where it proved it wasn't just "3.75" or "3rd Edition, Mk III". THis introduced 6 new classes and brought forth the introduction of archetypes; essentially sub-classes that let you trade away some of you class features for new ones that better define your concept.
Ultimate Combat: This brought us a ton of new archetypes and options for martial characters, as well as the Gunslinger, and the Ninja and Samurai; alternate classes for the Rogue and Samurai (one of the new classes in the APG), respectively.
Ultimate Magic: This brought us the arcane gish class of the Magus, and tons of more magic archetypes and options. It also brought a alternate magic system in Words of Power, but it isn't very well supported and can be ignored.

If you're willing to go third party (which is bigger in Pathfinder then it ever was in D&D), here's some other ones I highly recommend:
Spheres of Power by Drop Dead Studios: This is the best magic system for a D&D style game I've ever seen. It makes making a pen-and-paper version of your favorite character fun and worthwhile.
Ultimate Psionics by Dreamscarred Press: Remember 3.5's psionics? It's like that but better. If nothing else, soulknives don't suck anymore!
Path of War and Path of War: Expanded by Dreamscarred Press: Remember 3.5's martial initiation from Tome of Battle? It's like that, but better.
Grimoire of Lost Souls by Radiance House: Remember 3.5's Binder from Tome of Magic? It's like that, but better.
Strange Magic by Interjection Games: It contains three non-Vancian magic systems: Ethermagic, the best "regenerating mana bar" style magic I've yet seen; Composition Magic (based around music, it's the mix and match magic system Words of Power wanted to be; and Truespeaking: Like the 3.5 system, but much, much better.

[stanprollyright]

Thank you, but I do not plan on GMing until I have been a player for a while.

OK. Get all the ones from my original post, including the GMG first. Players should have it too.

[RPGNovice]

FIrst things first, I'm going to recommend two sites: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ and http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/ Both are great resources for official and 3rd party respectively (though there is a handful of 3rd party stuff on the srd). But since you said that you want to get the books themselves, let's talk.

Unless you have a great love of Golarian, Pathfinder's default setting, you can ignore the Adventure Paths, Player Companions, and actually, like 90% of Piazo's books. If you want to get the most out of Pathfinder, here are the three books you NEED.
Advanced Player's Guide: This is the one that really defined Pathfinder to many; this is where it proved it wasn't just "3.75" or "3rd Edition, Mk III". THis introduced 6 new classes and brought forth the introduction of archetypes; essentially sub-classes that let you trade away some of you class features for new ones that better define your concept.
Ultimate Combat: This brought us a ton of new archetypes and options for martial characters, as well as the Gunslinger, and the Ninja and Samurai; alternate classes for the Rogue and Samurai (one of the new classes in the APG), respectively.
Ultimate Magic: This brought us the arcane gish class of the Magus, and tons of more magic archetypes and options. It also brought a alternate magic system in Words of Power, but it isn't very well supported and can be ignored.

If you're willing to go third party (which is bigger in Pathfinder then it ever was in D&D), here's some other ones I highly recommend:
Spheres of Power by Drop Dead Studios: This is the best magic system for a D&D style game I've ever seen. It makes making a pen-and-paper version of your favorite character fun and worthwhile.
Ultimate Psionics by Dreamscarred Press: Remember 3.5's psionics? It's like that but better. If nothing else, soulknives don't suck anymore!
Path of War and Path of War: Expanded by Dreamscarred Press: Remember 3.5's martial initiation from Tome of Battle? It's like that, but better.
Grimoire of Lost Souls by Radiance House: Remember 3.5's Binder from Tome of Magic? It's like that, but better.
Strange Magic by Interjection Games: It contains three non-Vancian magic systems: Ethermagic, the best "regenerating mana bar" style magic I've yet seen; Composition Magic (based around music, it's the mix and match magic system Words of Power wanted to be; and Truespeaking: Like the 3.5 system, but much, much better.

Well I have already stated that I do not want to use the pfrsd and have already explained why, I have not played dungeons and dragons in any of its incarnations in my life, and I do not want to use 3rd party sources.

[digiman619]

I am looking for pathfinder books, so no thank you.
Pathfinder's a bit different that D&D in its various editions in that it's 3rd party publishers (3PP) are actually very respected and worthwhile. Paizo sells and reviews 3PP supplements and has gone out of their way to say "You want <insert subsystem here>? Go to <appropriate 3PP>". 3PP can take risks and explore subsystems that Paizo doesn't want to support. Paizo's more worried about the Pathfinder Society (their official drop-in, drop-out global campaign) and writing dungeons and modules than new things that take away from the standard "X many spells per day" paradigm.

tl;dr Third party content is more important, respected and viable than it ever was in D&D.

[RPGNovice]

Pathfinder's a bit different that D&D in its various editions in that it's 3rd party publishers (3PP) are actually very respected and worthwhile. Paizo sells and reviews 3PP supplements and has gone out of their way to say "You want <insert subsystem here>? Go to <appropriate 3PP>". 3PP can take risks and explore subsystems that Paizo doesn't want to support. Paizo's more worried about the Pathfinder Society (their official drop-in, drop-out global campaign) and writing dungeons and modules than new things that take away from the standard "X many spells per day" paradigm.

tl;dr Third party content is more important, respected and viable than it ever was in D&D.

I am not looking for an argument. You have your opinions and I have mine, lets leave it at that please.

[Arutema]

I would dispute the need to get the Gamemastery Guide to round out the core set, because the PF Gamemastery Guide is a very different beast from the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide.

Most of the crunch a player would need out of the 3.5 DMG (magic items, PRCs) has been moved to the extra-thick PF core rulebook. At the same time, the divine and planar setting fluff from the 3.5 DMG has been moved to the Golarion books, especially the Inner Sea World Guide.

This leaves for the Gamemastery Guide: GM tips, various subsystems like addiction and chase scenes, and premade NPCs. Ultimate Campaign and NPC Codex went and stole those ideas and expanded on them, leaving the Gamemastery Guide not essential even for most GMs.

Thus you can probably skip the Gamemastery Guide, especially if you don't plan on GMing for a while.

Get Advanced Player's Guide after Core Rulebook and Bestiary. If you plan to play in PF's Golarion setting, get the Inner Sea World Guide. After that, you may want to take a break from hardcovers and pick up some of the softcover Player Companions that interest you. Ranged Tactics Toolbox, Melee Tactics Toolbox and Weapon Master's Handbook have lots of fighter goodies. If you're playing a non-core race, pickup the Blood of X book that covers it. Animal Archive is great to have if you're playing a class with an animal companion or mount, likewise Familiar Folio for a familiar.

[digiman619]

I am not looking for an argument. You have your opinions and I have mine, lets leave it at that please.

Fair enough. I still recommend the Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic if you're interested in 1st party Pathfinder books, though.

[RPGNovice]

I would dispute the need to get the Gamemastery Guide to round out the core set, because the PF Gamemastery Guide is a very different beast from the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide.

Most of the crunch a player would need out of the 3.5 DMG (magic items, PRCs) has been moved to the extra-thick PF core rulebook. At the same time, the divine and planar setting fluff from the 3.5 DMG has been moved to the Golarion books, especially the Inner Sea World Guide.

This leaves for the Gamemastery Guide: GM tips, various subsystems like addiction and chase scenes, and premade NPCs. Ultimate Campaign and NPC Codex went and stole those ideas and expanded on them, leaving the Gamemastery Guide not essential even for most GMs.

Thus you can probably skip the Gamemastery Guide, especially if you don't plan on GMing for a while.

Get Advanced Player's Guide after Core Rulebook and Bestiary. If you plan to play in PF's Golarion setting, get the Inner Sea World Guide. After that, you may want to take a break from hardcovers and pick up some of the softcover Player Companions that interest you. Ranged Tactics Toolbox, Melee Tactics Toolbox and Weapon Master's Handbook have lots of fighter goodies. If you're playing a non-core race, pickup the Blood of X book that covers it. Animal Archive is great to have if you're playing a class with an animal companion or mount, likewise Familiar Folio for a familiar.

Thank you very much.

What exactly does the tactics toolboxes have in them though?


Fair enough. I still recommend the Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic if you're interested in 1st party Pathfinder books, though.

Ok, thank you for your input.

[CockroachTeaParty]

I'd actually recommend you get Pathfinder Unchained, especially if you're going to be running games. Lots of fun ways to tweak the system there, and it gives a big boost to the rogue and monk (and reels the summoner in a bit, if you grab the APG).

[daryen]

Your next book should be The Advanced Players Guide, for the reasons already stated. After that, I dunno.

I will also offer a different website:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

This is the PRD directly from Paizo. It is divided by product, so you can see exactly what is in each book. This also means you can look at only each book individually, so it won't be overwhelming. It also is from Paizo directly, so it is just first party sources.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Arutema
…you can probably skip the Gamemastery Guide, especially if you don't plan on GMing for a while.

I agree that for a player the GameMastery Guide isn't essential, and not really that useful in terms of player options. Definitely skippable for new players.


Originally Posted by CTP
I'd actually recommend you get Pathfinder Unchained, especially if you're going to be running games.

The OP has already stated he won't be running games and wants to focus on player-specific material.

And I wouldn't recommend Unchained for a newcomer, since it has a lot of variant material that could be confusing for someone still learning the basics.


Originally Posted by daryen
I will also offer a different website:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

I'd strongly second the PRD for a new player. The site's clean functionality is a lot easier to navigate, and since it's restricted to Paizo hardbacks it's not nearly as overwhelming.


Originally Posted by RPGNovice
What exactly does the tactics toolboxes have in them though?

I would recommend checking with your GM before buying any of these, just to make sure they're allowed. A former GM of mine disallowed these books in particular, since he felt that some of the new options were too powerful. Most people on this forum probably wouldn't agree, but in this case it's your GM's opinion that matters.


Originally Posted by RPGNovice
…I am keenly interested in the Golarian setting though.

If you're interested in learning more about Golarion, definitely pick up the Inner Sea World Guide, since this has regional profiles for dozens of kingdoms, empires, free cities, wastelands, you name it. Each region or principality has several pages of history, lore, key sites and prominent individuals, along with some decent maps and artwork. If you want to do a swan dive into Golarion, this is your Olympic-sized swimming pool.

.

[RPGNovice]

I'd actually recommend you get Pathfinder Unchained, especially if you're going to be running games. Lots of fun ways to tweak the system there, and it gives a big boost to the rogue and monk (and reels the summoner in a bit, if you grab the APG).

How so?


Your next book should be The Advanced Players Guide, for the reasons already stated. After that, I dunno.

I will also offer a different website:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

This is the PRD directly from Paizo. It is divided by product, so you can see exactly what is in each book. This also means you can look at only each book individually, so it won't be overwhelming. It also is from Paizo directly, so it is just first party sources.

Thanks but I would like to support Paizo by buying their products, it also feels better when I get something that I worked to obtain.


I agree that for a player the GameMastery Guide isn't essential, and not really that useful in terms of player options. Definitely skippable for new players.

Okay that defiantly will not be my next buy then.



The OP has already stated he won't be running games and wants to focus on player-specific material.

For the most part at least, I still am interested in lore books.



And I wouldn't recommend Unchained for a newcomer, since it has a lot of variant material that could be confusing for someone still learning the basics.



If it updates classes that where to weak, then should I get it to just for that and ignore the variant stuff?



I'd strongly second the PRD for a new player. The site's clean functionality is a lot easier to navigate, and since it's restricted to Paizo hardbacks it's not nearly as overwhelming.


Addressed above.



I would recommend checking with your GM before buying any of these, just to make sure they're allowed. A former GM of mine disallowed these books in particular, since he felt that some of the new options were too powerful. Most people on this forum probably wouldn't agree, but in this case it's your GM's opinion that matters.


I have no GM.



If you're interested in learning more about Golarion, definitely pick up the Inner Sea World Guide, since this has regional profiles for dozens of kingdoms, empires, free cities, wastelands, you name it. Each region or principality has several pages of history, lore, key sites and prominent individuals, along with some decent maps and artwork. If you want to do a swan dive into Golarion, this is your Olympic-sized swimming pool.

.

Thanks! I will definitely check it out. :smallsmile:

[CockroachTeaParty]

How so?


Unchained is a certainly odd book, but I find myself using it more than Ultimate Magic or Ultimate Combat. Three of the classes it 'updates' are from core: rogue, barbarian, and monk.

The short story on the rogue is that while many classes got an upgrade in the transition from 3.5 to Pathfinder, the rogue got left behind, primarily by certain spell nerfs that rogues used to rely on for dependable sneak attack damage. The unchained rogue throws them a bone in the form of new combat abilities and some extra ways for them to enhance their skills. It's perhaps the best addition in the book.

The unchained barbarian is largely the same as the core barbarian, just with easier math and less on-the-fly calculation. The unchained monk got a very nice upgrade (in my opinion), becoming a much tougher and accurate fighter at the cost of a worse Will save.

Basically, if you're at all interested in playing any of those classes, Pathfinder Unchained will be your best friend.

It also details the Background Skill system, which seems to be increasingly popular.

[RPGNovice]

Unchained is a certainly odd book, but I find myself using it more than Ultimate Magic or Ultimate Combat. Three of the classes it 'updates' are from core: rogue, barbarian, and monk.

The short story on the rogue is that while many classes got an upgrade in the transition from 3.5 to Pathfinder, the rogue got left behind, primarily by certain spell nerfs that rogues used to rely on for dependable sneak attack damage. The unchained rogue throws them a bone in the form of new combat abilities and some extra ways for them to enhance their skills. It's perhaps the best addition in the book.

The unchained barbarian is largely the same as the core barbarian, just with easier math and less on-the-fly calculation. The unchained monk got a very nice upgrade (in my opinion), becoming a much tougher and accurate fighter at the cost of a worse Will save.

Basically, if you're at all interested in playing any of those classes, Pathfinder Unchained will be your best friend.

It also details the Background Skill system, which seems to be increasingly popular.

I think the next five books I am purchasing will be in this order:

Unchained
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Race's Guide
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Combat

[Stealth Marmot]

Most of the crunch a player would need out of the 3.5 DMG (magic items, PRCs) has been moved to the extra-thick PF core rulebook. At the same time, the divine and planar setting fluff from the 3.5 DMG has been moved to the Golarion books, especially the Inner Sea World Guide.

This is why I consider Pathfinder books to be much better designed than 3.5. They included everything you need to play as a player in one book, and didn't keep the magic items and their descriptions in the DMG just for some outdated idea of keeping the info on magic items away from players. (This was all based on early D&D where players were not meant to know what an item did so they would have to kill themselves testing it and the DM could laugh at how clever he was and how much smarter he was than his players.) Not to mention the BAFFLING decision for 3.5 to have the core prestige classes be in the Dungeon Masters Guide.

Instead the players have access to the magic items so they can you know, look up what they do when they have them, and the DM doesn't have to buy an extra book for it. Also, it allows players starting at levels beyond 1 shop for their gear. And if they want to be or are already have levels in a prestige class they don't have to check the DMG to look up their abilities.

It also means that when Paizo made a Dungeon masters book, it really is for Dungeon Masters and players rarely, if ever, need to even look at it.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by RPGNovice
I think the next five books I am purchasing will be in this order:

Unchained
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Race's Guide
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Combat

Of course it's up to you, but I would still caution against starting with Unchained. Much of the book is taken up with variants and alternative rules which may never see play in any given campaign, and it can be confusing if you're not already familiar with the system.

By contrast, the Advanced Player's Guide includes half a dozen base classes, and a lot of material which seems to be much more widely used, such as the always-handy hero points. When I first switched to Pathfinder, I found the APG to be the single most helpful book for a new player, so that would be my recommendation to start with.

.

[daryen]

To reinforce Palanan's point, Advanced Player's Guide is where a bunch of player options are introduced and defined. Without that information and foundation, a lot of information provided in other books may not make much sense if you are only looking at physical books you buy.

I recommend reversing the order of your first two listed books.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

The APG also has traits and alternate favored class bonuses; I have never seen a game not using the former, and the latter can be an important part of building a character.

[Calthropstu]

The core rulebook, which is what you should already have, is really all you need to play in a game.

I advise getting the advanced players guide next, as it has great classes and some decent material for the classes in the core rulebook.

Next get the Advanced Class guide. Many of the next books have rules based off of the options introduced in this book such as archetypes.

Next depends on what kind of classes you like to play. Each individual book allows for new feats, classes, spells, abilities. All of the next few books focus on different areas and are all great choices:

Ultimate Combat: deals with martial classes and semi martial classes. Introduces the gunslinger, ninja and samurai classes.
Ultimate Magic: Introduces the Magus class, a very versatile and powerful combatant that wields spell and sword. Introduces many new spells, further explains how planar binding works, and introduces alternate rules for magic.
Ultimate Intrigue: Introduces the vigilante class and contains many new options for out of combat encounters, as well as many new items.

I would advise getting these books next.

Afterwards, grab the bestiary 2 and 3.

Following that, get the mythic adventures book. Getting into a mythic game is hard, but a lot of the rules in that handbook deal with the monsters in the bestiary 4 and 5.

[Calthropstu]

1. Game Mastery Guide. You could stop there if you wanted.
2. Advanced Player's Guide.
3. Ultimate Combat/Magic
4. Advanced Race/Class Guides
5. Whatever else suits your fancy

Eh, I have never picked up the gm guide, and have yet to see any use for it.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Archetypes were introduced in APG, not ACG. Also, by the logic of recommending Mythic Adventures, you also need to get Occult Adventures for Bestiary 5, since it has psychic monsters.

[RPGNovice]

The core rulebook, which is what you should already have, is really all you need to play in a game.

I advise getting the advanced players guide next, as it has great classes and some decent material for the classes in the core rulebook.

Next get the Advanced Class guide. Many of the next books have rules based off of the options introduced in this book such as archetypes.

Next depends on what kind of classes you like to play. Each individual book allows for new feats, classes, spells, abilities. All of the next few books focus on different areas and are all great choices:

Ultimate Combat: deals with martial classes and semi martial classes. Introduces the gunslinger, ninja and samurai classes.
Ultimate Magic: Introduces the Magus class, a very versatile and powerful combatant that wields spell and sword. Introduces many new spells, further explains how planar binding works, and introduces alternate rules for magic.
Ultimate Intrigue: Introduces the vigilante class and contains many new options for out of combat encounters, as well as many new items.

I would advise getting these books next.

Afterwards, grab the bestiary 2 and 3.

Following that, get the mythic adventures book. Getting into a mythic game is hard, but a lot of the rules in that handbook deal with the monsters in the bestiary 4 and 5.

Well if the rouge, barbarian, and monk where underpowered and they fixed that, I want to get the book that fixes the classes I do have first. Also I see that most of the pathfinder adventures on the forum use only the unchained versions of these classes.

[Hunter Noventa]

Thank you very much for your explanation, I am keenly interested in the Golarian setting though.

That's great, Golarian is pretty neat, we just don't use it much in my group's games. The setting-specific information and lore is also excluded from the SRD, so it's the best stuff to buy physically to support Paizo.

On that note, I know you've said you don't want to use the SRD because you want to support Paizo, which is great. but at the same time, you could use it to preview what's in the books, unless you plan to leaf through them at your local gaming store first instead, which is also cool.

And I'll reiterate what some folks further up the thread said, while Unchained is a great book overall, it really builds heavily on things introduced in the Advanced Players Guide, as well as Ultimate Magic/Combat, so it shouldn't be your #1 pick.

Other interesting books I've picked up in physical form include-
Ultimate Campaign: Extensive ideas and inspiration on character background, including mechanical benefits if so desired, as well as detailed (albeit clunky) systems for building strongholds, managing businesses and even running kingdoms, if that's what you're into.
Ultimate Intrigue: Some more detailed social interaction rule for more high-intrigue settings, as well as the Vigilante class which is literally Batman.
Mythic Adventures: Paizo's answer to Epic levels in 3.5, however rather than being tacked on the top, it's a parallel progression that can be added to a campaign at anytime.

[RPGNovice]

That's great, Golarian is pretty neat, we just don't use it much in my group's games. The setting-specific information and lore is also excluded from the SRD, so it's the best stuff to buy physically to support Paizo.

On that note, I know you've said you don't want to use the SRD because you want to support Paizo, which is great. but at the same time, you could use it to preview what's in the books, unless you plan to leaf through them at your local gaming store first instead, which is also cool.

And I'll reiterate what some folks further up the thread said, while Unchained is a great book overall, it really builds heavily on things introduced in the Advanced Players Guide, as well as Ultimate Magic/Combat, so it shouldn't be your #1 pick.

Other interesting books I've picked up in physical form include-
Ultimate Campaign: Extensive ideas and inspiration on character background, including mechanical benefits if so desired, as well as detailed (albeit clunky) systems for building strongholds, managing businesses and even running kingdoms, if that's what you're into.
Ultimate Intrigue: Some more detailed social interaction rule for more high-intrigue settings, as well as the Vigilante class which is literally Batman.
Mythic Adventures: Paizo's answer to Epic levels in 3.5, however rather than being tacked on the top, it's a parallel progression that can be added to a campaign at anytime.


Yeah, I have been leafing through some of these at my local Hastings, but some of them are wrapped up where you cannot do that so I looked up a synopsis online.

I wish I could find a game at Hastings but everyone there is interested in D&D 5e more than Pathfinder and apparently the store is only allowing one of those kinds of games because it does not generate a lot of revenue like MTG and Yugioh does.

One question though: Whats epic levels?

[GrayDeath]

In Original 3.x, Level progression went from 1-20.
At that Point Epic levels began, which among changing a lot of the progression in itself offered new feats, Spells, etc.

overall it was were D&D fell apart even more than on lower levels.
Lets elav it at that.

Mythic Levels on the other Hand are independant (mostly) from your regular Class and Levels. You choose an Archetype of "how am I legendary/Mythic" and enjoy additional options and power without having to "reach Lv x before I can take Y to gain Z".

[Calthropstu]

Yeah, I have been leafing through some of these at my local Hastings, but some of them are wrapped up where you cannot do that so I looked up a synopsis online.

I wish I could find a game at Hastings but everyone there is interested in D&D 5e more than Pathfinder and apparently the store is only allowing one of those kinds of games because it does not generate a lot of revenue like MTG and Yugioh does.

One question though: Whats epic levels?

3.5 has levels beyond 20th level, the rules for which are included as "epic" levels. To be honest, it got a bit ridiculous beyond 20th level. Epic spells were so obnoxiously powerful you may have just declared yourself a god and called it a day.

The epic martial classes got some neat stuff too, but nothing as godlike as epic spells. Epic spells could affect things like global climate change, mass destruction on a city wide scale, generating your own personal permanent demiplane with you getting the benefits of being basically a deity in that realm. It got horrendously ridiculous.

[Calthropstu]

In Original 3.x, Level progression went from 1-20.
At that Point Epic levels began, which among changing a lot of the progression in itself offered new feats, Spells, etc.

overall it was were D&D fell apart even more than on lower levels.
Lets elav it at that.

Mythic Levels on the other Hand are independant (mostly) from your regular Class and Levels. You choose an Archetype of "how am I legendary/Mythic" and enjoy additional options and power without having to "reach Lv x before I can take Y to gain Z".

I find mythic quite difficult to balance. All encounters for mythic characters are either ridiculously overpowered, or ridiculously trounced. Finding a happy medium there seems very difficult.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Having read the rest of the thread, I would suggest getting the Advanced Player's Guide before Unchained; most of the rules in there will see a lot of play.

That said, I place Unchained at the same level, if not a bit ahead, of Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic. UC and UM contain a lot of archetypes, which is nice, and a few new spells, as well as the new base classes / alternate classes. But both also contain a great deal of optional rules that never see the light of day, not unlike Unchained. Since Unchained updates core and APG classes, it might be more immediately beneficial than UC and UM (and UI). Indeed, the combat stamina system is an easy inclusion and helps the core Fighter as well.

[RPGNovice]

Having read the rest of the thread, I would suggest getting the Advanced Player's Guide before Unchained; most of the rules in there will see a lot of play.

That said, I place Unchained at the same level, if not a bit ahead, of Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic. UC and UM contain a lot of archetypes, which is nice, and a few new spells, as well as the new base classes / alternate classes. But both also contain a great deal of optional rules that never see the light of day, not unlike Unchained. Since Unchained updates core and APG classes, it might be more immediately beneficial than UC and UM (and UI). Indeed, the combat stamina system is an easy inclusion and helps the core Fighter as well.

For now, I am probably going to ignore alternate rules unless I try to join a game that requires them and focus on what it offers to players that are not using them. I just think it might be more worthwhile to get a book that updates the classes I have rather than a book that adds a lot of new ones.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Really, beyond the core rulebook and Inner Sea World Guide, I'd use the PRD. Chances are the other players have the book if you need it; save the purchases for "Y'know, I'd like to flip through this thing myself." I have PDFs of every core release that I don't have a book of, but sometimes I start with the PDF and graduate to the book version. For example, I only have PDFs of Occult Adventures, Ultimate Intrigue, and Horror Adventures, but I'd like to pick up hard copies of the first and last books, for as much use I'm getting out of them.

That's another thing; do you have a tablet? If so, I'd recommend loading up on PDFs. It's one of the reasons I'm such a PF fan: all the core books are easily accessible.

[RPGNovice]

Really, beyond the core rulebook and Inner Sea World Guide, I'd use the PRD. Chances are the other players have the book if you need it; save the purchases for "Y'know, I'd like to flip through this thing myself." I have PDFs of every core release that I don't have a book of, but sometimes I start with the PDF and graduate to the book version. For example, I only have PDFs of Occult Adventures, Ultimate Intrigue, and Horror Adventures, but I'd like to pick up hard copies of the first and last books, for as much use I'm getting out of them.

That's another thing; do you have a tablet? If so, I'd recommend loading up on PDFs. It's one of the reasons I'm such a PF fan: all the core books are easily accessible.

Please read the whole thread before responding, I have explained several times why I will not be using the PRD.

[RPGNovice]

Alright, tonight I am buying Pathfinder Unchained because the next two classes I want to play as are probably going to be barbarian and monk.

[NomGarret]

While I was about to chime in with another suggestion of APG next, I was going to temper it with "it depends on what you want to play." So, given that you are interested in monk and rogue, bumping Unchained up a spot makes sense. After that, APG will still be good bang for your buck as it includes plenty of good options for those as well as other classes.

Enjoy and happy gaming!

[RPGNovice]

While I was about to chime in with another suggestion of APG next, I was going to temper it with "it depends on what you want to play." So, given that you are interested in monk and rogue, bumping Unchained up a spot makes sense. After that, APG will still be good bang for your buck as it includes plenty of good options for those as well as other classes.

Enjoy and happy gaming!

Yeah now that I got Unchained I think I will get the APG, Advanced Race Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, Advanced Class Guide, Occult Adventures, Ultimate Intrigue, and then I will go get the other stuff.

Oh also my friend who plays pathfinder but does not want to play in Golarian gave me a multitude of books for the Golarian setting. So I have been having fun reading those.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

The PRD is there for a reason. Hell, I still use it when I need to look something up if I don't want to page through a half dozen hardcovers. And, again, I have every single core release. It's not a replacement, but rather a reference document. And, if you can't find the specific thing you're looking for, then search it up.

[RPGNovice]

The PRD is there for a reason. Hell, I still use it when I need to look something up if I don't want to page through a half dozen hardcovers. And, again, I have every single core release. It's not a replacement, but rather a reference document. And, if you can't find the specific thing you're looking for, then search it up.

I do not want to start an argument. I have stated I will not be using the PRD, please respect my opinion.