Once upon a time I was a big 3.5 fan and I spent thousands on 3.5 books. 4th ed rolled around and I only bought the core 4th ed rules and a little bit of DDI. Anyway 4th ed was ok but we were really burned out on 3.5 due to splat books and broken mechanics. A few years ago I did buy the PF core rules and the bestiary in PDF from the good folks at Paizo who I was well disposed to from the years they ran Dungeon magazine.
Anyway we have recently been playing 3.5 again but have been plugging in the PF races and classes. We have been enjoying the system so far. IN the edition wars we were kinda burned out on 3.5, PF IMHO did not go far enough revamping 3.5, 4th ed went to far, Star Wars Saga was one of the best d20 product we actually used. Anyway after a break of several years and a general agreement to not try and break 3.5 even though we were gestalting my partner and myself are starting to eye up PF as a system to use until 5th ed comes out or as a replacement for our D&D fix if we do not like that.
I do not want to get into the situation of having to throw large amounts of money at PF a'la 3.5 splat book splurge and if I can use some of my 3.5 material I will be a happy camper. One of my friends acquired the inner sea book and this was my 1st look at Golarion as such and I liked alot of what I saw. This was the first campaign setting I had really liked since 3.5's Eberron and 3.0 FRCS. Anyway what books would people recommend since I think we are getting to the point where we are happy to throw some $$$ Paizo's way and get a mixture of HCs and PDFs. I'm leaning towards the core book, campaign setting and maybe Ultimate Combat and Magic along with the players guide which I assume is a type of Players Hand Book 2 in 3.5 terms.
Hell assume a budget of around $200. What books are the best to get to impress some former 3.5 players and what ones are better off getting on PDF? We do not really have unlimited money to throw at PF or any RPG system in general these days so what are the best bang for buck books to get. Adventures and the like can be PDF if they're cheap enough.
The Core Rulebook, Advanced Players Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, Gamemastery Guide, and all 3 Bestiaries are online for free, albeit without the pretty art. If you can access the setting-neutral rules online, that frees up more of your budget for Golarion-specific books.
*shrug* Even if you decide you want the hardcovers, the PRD is a handy way to try before you buy and figure out which of the core books you want to invest in.
I want some nice shiny books to hand around though. Bestiaries I don't mind not owning real copies off and I don't mind flicking Paizo some $$$.
I live in New Zealand TriOmegaZero so IDK how much that would cost to ship here. This website has free shipping world wide.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Inner-Sea-World-Guide-James-Jacobs/97816012 52692
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Sorry, having the right to play on top of me is pretty expensive.
Yeah its about $10 per book maybe more for shipping hence websites with free shipping and PDFs are looking great around about now. I just don't want to spend $2000-3000 again on a chunk of books I mostly won't use. THeres no FLGS locally, the nearest one got destroyed in the earthquake of last year and the ones in the North Island are stupidly expensive ($70-$80 for the core rules)..
Maybe you could find a pathfinder society near you. Alot cheaper, and they can get a quick one-off or two to whet their appetites. that way you minimize costs, meet some other players already doing pathfinder, and expand your exposure.
IDK if their is a PF society here. Small city (100k) and RPGs are no longer that popular.
I think I want the campaign setting for myself and some nice shiny books for the players and any potential players to read.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/
I don't know if it has absolutely everything, but it has most everything to get by.
Ok thanx for the help guys and the d20pfsrd is quite sweet. Leaning towards grabbing the core boo, ultimate magic/combat, Inner Sea Guide and the Advanced Players Guide.
I went with Amazon myself, though book depository is sometimes the better deal.
Being at the arse end of the world makes getting books less than simple.
There are a few options. The obvious is the the PFSRD. The other is apps for tablet, phone, ect. This allows very fast pursal of the rules and uses PFSRD info. Free is pretty darn cheap. As for campaign and world specific stuff you can always hit the players guides. Each of these lays out a region pretty well. You also have wiki sights that can help with this. Lastly libraries pride themselves on getting books into your hand from all over. Even if your local branch does not have a book you can get on the wait list and get them once available this will get you the book for a few weks per check out.
Besides the Core Rulebook and Bestiary, get Advanced Player's Guide.
Then Inner Sea World Guide.
Then the Ultimate books.
Don't undersell the Advanced Player's Guide, it has the alchemist, cavalier, inquisitor, oracle, summoner, and witch classes, as well as the antipaladin alternate class.
These six classes (seven counting antipaladin) are 20 level base classes to go along with the 11 core classes Pathfinder shares with 3.5e. There are also a number of archetypes in the book, which are like substitution-level sets, to put it in 3.5e terms, but that require that a full set of features be taken, not just a la carte.
Of course you can look at the PRD and see what's in the Advanced Player's Guide and the Ultimate books for yourself, so you can see what you're getting beforehand.
For Golarion-specific books:
Inner Sea World Guide
Then it becomes much more subjective, and depends more on the type of campaign you plan to run what you consider the most important.
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Besides the Core Rulebook and Bestiary, get Advanced Player's Guide.
Then Inner Sea World Guide.
Then the Ultimate books.
Agreed and seconded. To the OP if your planning on at least getting the core book assume your already going to be spending half of that 200$ busget youm netion in your post. No ways around that imo. Good thing is no that many harcover books to buy at leas for the moment with PF. It can get pricey if you want to buy the APS and other smaller sourcebooks. Either way your going to be spending a certain amount of money. No ways around that. So before getting into PF make sure you really want to spend that money and if your sataisified enough with the 3.5 book you own already.
I think your cheapest route would be to purchase the CRB, Bestiary and AGP from Barnes & Noble, then secure the .PDFs from Paizo. You'll pay less and have both a hard and soft copy.
So core rules, inner sea guide, ultimate magic/combat, and Advanced players guide sounds like good options.
Ok we bought the.
Core Setting
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Combat
Inner Sea Guide
Players Primer Inner Sea
Advanced Players Guide
I have the Bestiary in PDF format and you guys kindly linked to the SRD with the rest of the monsters.
I have a big pile 3.5 books and minis floating around. How compatable are classes such as the Scout, Book of Ninie Swords, and Psionics are with PF? I assume Psions can be bumped up to d6 hit dice. Also feel free to recommend any good/cheap adventures or adventure paths.
Anyfreebies lurking around the Paizo site in terms of adventures?
How compatable are classes such as the Scout, Book of Ninie Swords, and Psionics are with PF? I assume Psions can be bumped up to d6 hit dice. Also feel free to recommend any good/cheap adventures or adventure paths.
Anyfreebies lurking around the Paizo site in terms of adventures?
Scout is fine, though I'd consider mocking up a ranger/rogue archetype to get what you want. Archetypes are awesome and your friend.
Bo9s...not so much. I mean if you really like it, it's fine, but it was only barely compatable with 3.5 anyway. I'm running PF and one player is playing a Swordsage. It's interesting, but just a very different paradigm.As for Psionics, Dreamscarred Press has made a PF compatible psionics book. All their rules are available online at d20pfsrd.com, just search for psionics. It's a solid book, but largely unchanged from XPH.
As for freebies...there's always a few 3pp giving away free stuff. I would highly recommend the APs though, and running off a laptop if shipping and/or book price is a concern. It's a campaign in a box. The ones I can personally attest to are Rise of the Rune Lords (coming out this summer in a single-volume hardbound edition) and Kingmaker, which is very sandboxy and all about exploration.
Anyfreebies lurking around the Paizo site in terms of adventures?
There's a few, if you dont mind using PDFs - those still in print are a bargain too:
.Written for 3.5:
Hollows Last Hope.
Revenge of the Kobold King.
Written for Pathfinder:
Master of the Fallen Fortress.
We be Goblins.
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How compatable are classes such as the Scout, Book of Ninie Swords, and Psionics are with PF?
Bo9S converts really easily, Someone already did it on the boards.
They don't need any real tweaking, just skill changes.
You can get the adventure paths as one book?Whats ones are there and what are the best ones? I rememebr the Age of Works and Saage Tide APs and Shackled City from 3rd ed Dungeon era.
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You can get the adventure paths as one book?Whats ones are there and what are the best ones? I rememebr the Age of Works and Saage Tide APs and Shackled City from 3rd ed Dungeon era.
Only Rise of the Runelords.
It is being updated to PathfinderRPG rules as a special anniversary edition.
The staff view is that releasing them all as single hard-bound books would kill the business model:AP subscriptions are the rock upon which Castle Paizo is built.
In any case, it's not everything from AP1-6, a lot of the awesome support stuff has been trimmed to make it fit in one book. I'm only getting it because of the conversion to PFRPG.
Serpents Skull Adventure path sounds interesting is it any good?
The first book's really fun! I'm still a player in it, so I can't say too much farther than that, but I've heard complaints about the later books. Repetitive fights with the same types of enemies over and over again is the one that comes up the most.
If you have 200.00 bucks for all the material that is in the SRD plus a few setting splat books you have a vastly different definition of cheap than me.
Its cheap relative to the several thousands of dollars I spent on 3.5. Also I would like to throw some $$$$ Paizos way as I still have fond memories of their tenure at Dungeon magazine and I recently got interested in PF due to reading a mates copy the Inner Sea guide. The fluff got me interested and 4th ed really lacked in the fluff department.
Looking at Skull of Serpents or the AP set in the River lands. Also looking forward to some nice new shiny books arriving from the UK.n We're in our 30's and $200 is comparable to a few nights out or 2 tanks of gas here.