New player - what stuff should I get first?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Brand new to the game, the only TRPG gaming I’ve done in the last 25 years has been some 5e Starter Set recently with my family.

I’m looking to check out Pathfinder because despite the warnings of complexity vs 5e I am really drawn to the amount of content, the insane amount of options, and the quirky, wild style that Paizo has imbued everything with. 5e has felt a little more…lifeless and generic, like something that was conceived in a boardroom.

This is the order I’ve been thinking of purchasing stuff. Prob one or two at a time as not to overwhelm myself.

Beginners Box
Core Rulebook
Strategy Guide
Advanced Players Guide
Inner Sea Guide
Ultimate Campaign

And for additional fluff on Golarian I’m thinking either the first volume of the comics or the first volume of Tales.

I'd probably be checking out PFS at a nearby store and hopefully running a game at home once I get a big enough group together.

Anything else you’d change/suggest? (maybe the Rules Reference Cards?) Thanks in advance!


I should add that if I wound up GMing I'd pick up Rise of the Runelords, that's the one I keep hearing about, and it looks rad.

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Personally I'd skip the Strategy Guide; I believe that it's designed to be a stepping stone between the Beginners Box and Core Rulebook, but having skimmed it, it feels an unnecessary step.

If you've played any RPG before, and are not intimidated by 600 page hardback books, you can probably bypass the Beginners Box, but it does contain some nice stuff (dice, flip mat, pawns).

Advanced Players Guide is a great book, bringing in the first of Paizo' "own" classes, and helping to cement Pathfinder as its own system. Get it.

Inner Sea Guide? Definitely.

I'd say go Ultimate Equipment over Ultimate Campaign, lots of extra stuff, magical and mundane, for your characters.

Beyond that, what 15-1800 pages? I'd wait until you've digested them and see what has interested you most. The campaign? Get some Campaign Setting books. Character options? Try Ultimate Combat/Magic (whichever is more your focus), or some Players Guides if you want something broader.


lots of the stuff can be found online in the PRD, or at D20pfsrd or archivesofnethys.

Silver Crusade

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I agree with Darrell; Strategy Guide for me wasn't a big inclusion in what I'd find necessary, but APG is pure gold with a lot of interesting stuff and some great classes.

Me personally, I like ultimate campaign a lot. It's really worth a purchase. Inner Sea is nice if you're focusing on golarion, and I like Rise of the Runelords too. Aside from that, I'd say you're set.

Contributor

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While I don't have the Beginners Box or the Strategy Guide and so can't speak of them, I think you've overall intuited a nice list there. You might want to check out some of the free stories in the web fiction archives in addition to picking up the comics and novels.


Something that will prove a boon to you (and part of the reason I've kept sticking with Pathfinder despite an interest in other systems) is their vast online collection of 'free' content. Anything not associated directly with their Inner Sea world setting (so rules, classes, spells, feats, etc) can be found on their official Pathfinder Reference Document, or the unofficial Pathfinder_OGC. Their official site is very clean and does not include any third party content, which makes it ideal if you're playing Pathfinder Society or similar, but tends to update a bit slower than the OGC, which does include all manner of content including 3rd party stuff (which can be filtered out!). With these sites I haven't found it necessary to even purchase the Core Rulebook, Advanced Class or Race Guides, Bestiaries, etc. Of course, owning the books in PDF or physical form is wonderful, if not only for the great artwork but also the layout, but these sites should help alleviate some of the financial 'buy-in' that tends to be a bit of a wall for most people just beginning to look into TTRPGs.

Hope this helps!

Silver Crusade

If you're dealing with newer people, I'd just suggest turning them towards my character creation guide, a free resource online to help people new to the system learn the ropes a bit and focus on what matters to them.


Moravane wrote:

Brand new to the game, the only TRPG gaming I’ve done in the last 25 years has been some 5e Starter Set recently with my family.

I’m looking to check out Pathfinder because despite the warnings of complexity vs 5e I am really drawn to the amount of content, the insane amount of options, and the quirky, wild style that Paizo has imbued everything with. 5e has felt a little more…lifeless and generic, like something that was conceived in a boardroom.

This is the order I’ve been thinking of purchasing stuff. Prob one or two at a time as not to overwhelm myself.

Beginners Box
Core Rulebook
Strategy Guide
Advanced Players Guide
Inner Sea Guide
Ultimate Campaign

And for additional fluff on Golarian I’m thinking either the first volume of the comics or the first volume of Tales.

I'd probably be checking out PFS at a nearby store and hopefully running a game at home once I get a big enough group together.

Anything else you’d change/suggest? (maybe the Rules Reference Cards?) Thanks in advance!

I picked up PF last spring when I was starting a game for my kids with my 1E books, but wanted to check out D20 system which I'd heard about. Also about a 20yr break in real TTRPG for me, although I did sysop some MUDs in between.

I'd recommend:
CRB and Bestiary 1. Download the free PDFs from here first. I started with that, and we ordered the hard-backs after a few sessions. They're the -full- books minus pictures, so you're getting a look at everything the game has to offer. Once you get a feel for the system, the hard-copy books are a must have and the art in the bestiary is nice for showing everyone "you see - this".

Game Master's Guide. Even if you're a long-time GM, there are some great tools in here and random tables. If you'd been GMing consistent for several years, you might have most of what it offers in your GM binder/online resources already, but I and my son have found it useful.

Apps: I use Masterwork Tools (complete and searchable reference including bestiaries, APG, UMG; I think everything except unchained); Pathfinder RPG (spells, beasts, feats, magic items - just a different format and just those things, but I find it easier to browse those things than the MWK Tools format. I also downloaded the Pathfinder Spellbook, NPC Gallery, and Monsters Apps - but honestly don't use them much those first 2 are must haves IMO.

Skip the beginner box set. I bought it for my nephew for Christmas. While it is a -great- product, you're probably not going to use anything except the pawns (like 80 or so - but they are the full blown quality pawns you'll get if you buy one of Paizo's packs - very nice) after you buy the CRB and bestiary. It has so much of the "core" game, I was surprised as I was thinking it would have been a lot less crunchy as a true "beginner set". That being said, the approach it takes as it lays things out is more of a teaching format than the CRB, but it didn't hack out much except limiting the character classes.

Pawns. I still had about 200 mini's from my AD&D days (you can never have too many orcs). However, we'll probably buy some pawn sets over time, the art is nice and they're high quality.

Battle-mat. Either buy one, or make one. I took a 2'x3' white-board and put 1" grid in perm marker. I use colored wet-erase markers to outline things like buildings, terrain obstacles, spell area effects, etc. We always used a ruler in 1E with our mini's anyway, but the grid makes it faster. The con is...it can turn into battle chess if people get too focused in on the grid.

That's a big shopping list and a lot of material if you go all in early like that.

Shoot me a PM here if you want to chat more on picking this up vs AD&D or 2E or how kid friendly it is. I have a 12, 10, 8 playing plus my wife who'd never RPG'd. My 12 is GMing a game with us as well.


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I first bought the core rulebook. Then I got the first bestiary, then the player's handbook. (I needed to create an NPC adventuring cleric to complete the party)
I bought the first 2 parts of rise of the runelords as PDFs and they worked well till the group broke up from players moving away.

Since then I bought the second Bestiary, Gamemastery guide, and Advanced Player's Guide. Now I just bought the Advanced Race Guide for the Kitsune race. What you buy will greatly depend on you and your players.

If you get one of those types who think their favorite class is overshadowed by another class, or something similar, look into the homebrew section.

If they really want to play Ratfolk or Kitsune then they should buy that book.

Likewise if they want to play a Gunslinger.


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Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Start with the Beginner's Box: includes two easy to understand booklets which I use frequently, especially when introducing new players to my game, and some flat pawns. I like the box and use it to hold character sheets, adventure paths, notes, and so forth. I stand the box top on its end and use it as a GM screen, too.

Core Rule Book: a necessity.

Inner Sea Campaign Guide: a complete reference for the world of Golarian. Pages and pages of cool inspiration. The adventure paths flesh out specific regions of the guide.

I began with the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, and I'm totally happy I did. It starts off in the iconic village of Sandpoint which is such a great place to launch your characters. It's a grand, sweeping adventure that takes PCs all over the place. Vivid villains, charismatic NPCs, rich settings. Can't go wrong with this one.

From there, you have a ton of options such as the Bestiaries, Advanced Race Guide, Advanced Combat, Ultimate Equipment, and so forth. .

Don't forget that Paizo has a lot of free support materials that are pretty awesome, too.

Have fun and enjoy!


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beginner box is great because it gives you a lot of the essential stuff you'll need to run a game. dice, pawns, map etc.

as for books, the ones I'd recommend are..

Core
Advanced Players Guide
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Magic

that way you'll have access for every base class.
of cause none of this is essential really. if you don't care about having all base classes in a book then I'd say don't worry.


I heartily second the rec for Masterwork Tools. It's actually free and not in the way most free apps are "free" and basically the official SRD as of a year or two ago except that it organizes monsters better and NPCs worse so if you use it and can only get one hardcover I'd get the NPC codex.

NPC codex is just the best book Paizo has ever put together. You may or may not like the tactile experience of a real physical book, but the NPC codex actually takes full advantage of print over PDF with margin coloring marks so you can actually find things. When they do a second edition they should do that with every rule book. They already print decorative color backgrounds all the way to the edge on every page of every book anyways so the printing cost shouldn't be any different and it would make things so much easier to use.


If you're not averse to going beyond the free route, Hero Lab is the best tool you can invest in to help your game. Once you make that leap, you never go back. Not recommended for players/GMs on a budget.


Best suggestion I'd give someone new to the game? Get the core rule book and read it...yes, all of it. This will give you a solid grasp on the base game. From that point connect with a local troupe and start playing. Resist the temptation to go on a spending spree right away and just stick to the basics of a fighter for your first character as this character will allow you to understand the combat system and just focus on that aspect for a while.

A few sessions later (because you are continuing to do some light reading between those sessions on chapters that you aren't as familiar with right??) it might be time to consider a different class like a rogue (a skill based class), or maybe a magic caster class. After about 7 - 10 game sessions start looking at other books to invest in. By this point you have a good idea what you are getting into, and have probably already been looking at the books other players have brought to the table or are checking out the online material mentioned earlier.

First tip: try to find a group that has been playing for a while as they will be your best teachers.

Second tip: the online forums are great for issues like "what is a efficient build for an XX class character that focuses on XX type of combat". Most troupes however don't get as neurotic about the min / max aspects of the game as what the forums would have you believe and frequently you will see "house rules" at the table where the group has decided "that makes no sense to resolve situation XX like that...lets do it this way instead." Personally I have never played with a group that simply ran the game "straight out of the book". They have always changed something.


You need the Core Rulebook. You will be intimidated by this book: It is not written to be friendly to new players, and really does assume a level of familiarity with 3.5/OGL gaming.

If you are new to 3.5/Pathfinder, I would definitely recommend getting the Strategy Guide. The title is a misnomer: It should be called the "A New Player's Guide to the Core Rulebook." It's written for people who have a passing familiarity with TTRPGs in general, but no experience with the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game. The book is not an optimization guide, but an introduction to how to approach character building for Pathfinder in general.

(There's not much love for the Strategy Guide on these boards, because the book isn't aimed at the subset of the veteran gamers who post on RPG messsgeboards.)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Yeah, I'd on other hand reccomend the strategy guide. Most people who don't are D&D 3.5 veterans with easily something like 20 years of experience <_< Quite lot of early reactions from them are "I skipped description of the book before I bought it and I'm quite annoyed this book isn't about high level strategies and min maxing"

Seriously though, it is useful book. It explains rules well and gives ideas for character creation. Heck, if you really want to save money, I'd reccomend you to get that book and use PRD for rest of the rules.

I can't comment on beginner's box though since I completely skipped that one.

On setting stuff, I'd reccomend campaign setting line books for areas that you got interested in after reading Inner Sea World Guide or adventure ones(APs or modules) instead of fiction, but then again I haven't read pathfinder novels. I'd still imagine you get better feel of the world from setting books meant for that.


For a player I would recommend the following

Core Rulebook
Advanced Players Guide
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Magic
Inner Sea Guide

This will give you most of the classes and options. If you are going to be running a game as a GM you will probably need at least the bestiary.


I'd say buy the beginner's box and play the adventure. See if you like the feel.
Then buy the CRB and download some free adventure like "Hollow's last hope". If you like it buy the follow up adventure "Crown of the kobold king" the next part, "Revenge of the kobold king" is, once again free, if I remember right.

Starting with a whole AP might be a bit of an undertaking to start gaming. If you mess up early the whole rest of the AP might not work out anymore. So first get your hands dirty on some easy stuff and then continue from there.

About more sourcebooks:
Start with few. Too much options early on make things too complicated. If you want to try out new stuff you can do so with the archives of nethys or d20pfsrd and buy the stuff you find you like.

I, for example own quite some books just to support Paizo but I never really use them because having a Laptop with all the rules is much easier than digging through several feet of books.

Edit: If you have miniatures you want to use and already own a big bag of dice the beginners box might not be as important. But if you are starting out relatively blank it is really good to have.
Pawns for the premade PCs that can be used for other characters as well, dice, a simple adventure to get into the rules.

Free Adventures I tired and liked:
- Hollow's Last Hope (save a small town - there are several other adventures taking place in this town so it can be used as a start for bigger adventures, too.)
- We be goblins (A fun adventure where you play goblins. Nasty little buggers who like fire and explosives)
- We be goblins, too (Again you play goblins. Nice adventure if not as good as the first part imo)

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