How many different books in a typical campaign?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Just curious. I own most of the Pathfinder hardbacks. But I find myself sticking mainly to the core rules and the bestiaries. How many of the various hardbacks and which ones do you use in a typical campaign? Are there just a few you use regularly or do you sample from them all?

I'd love to utilize every hardback in every campaign in some way, but it seems nigh impossible.


The small group of NPC's I just made to be leaders of a nation ended up using over 20 books. I don't think I'd ever do a campaign just using Core + Bestiaries.


ooh; well I'd say core + bestiary 1 get the most use by far. That said the total number referenced has to be pretty high; I pick and choose through a lot of the Ultimate X books, stay away from most of the inner sea stuff, and occasionally dip into player companions and 3pp content. Then there's the various stuff my players find and want to bring to the table, which I usually approve. So basically a lot. Milo's 20 books for a small band of NPCs doesn't seem at all unreasonable.

That said I also wouldn't set out to use every hardback in existance for a campaign; it doesn't seem practical. I'd always start with a few core world-ideas and flesh everything out from that. Over the course of several campaigns maybe; if you planned them out accordingly.


Hard to tell, though I own all the hardcover books, I don't really use them very often. Unless for some reason I don't have access to the internet, I use the prd or d20pfsrd. In the rare case something isn't on d20pfsrd its generally in a soft cover book.

But I definitely use a wide variety of sourcebooks in my campaigns. Particularly over the course of it.


All of the books, all of the time, Bradbury.


Yep. All of them. Paizo, third party and so on.

Dark Archive

I'm getting ready to start up a campaign after a three year hiatus. I need to pick up Occult Adventures, Ultimate Intrigue, and Horror Adventures first though.


All of them. No 3pp unless specified or requested under careful consideration. DSP stuff like PoW is generally accepted.


No books. REAL ROLEPLAYERS don't need books to tell them what to do.


So can I have your books if you're not using them?

In all seriousness though quite a few of the hardbacks are just chock full of player options, so outside of creating NPC's a GM has little use for most of the material. Don't get down because you don't seem to be using Ultimate Magic or whatever else, if you ever get to play you very well may. I haven't been able to sit down with a copy of occult adventures so I don't yet allow those classes or spells at my table, not that I suspect they're unbalanced or something, but there's already more than enough to choose from.


Outside of a very small banlist (things like leadership and blood money), everything in non-AP Paizo materials as well as DSP 3pp is in, and anything else will be allowed at my discretion if it is reasonable. This applies to both PCs and NPCs.

The Exchange

Advanced Players' Guide, almost indispensable. Bestiary 2 and Advanced Class Guide, useful on a routine basis. Almost all the others didn't make the grade for me - the cost of hardbacks is not inconsequential and I don't like to pay for pages I won't be using (which is a shame, since Ultimate Combat, Gamemastery Guide and Pathfinder Unchained among others include some good useful material among... other material.) Occult Adventures did recently pass my particular criteria but I wouldn't say it's necessary/suitable for all GMs.


Snowblind wrote:
Outside of a very small banlist (things like leadership and blood money), everything in non-AP Paizo materials as well as DSP 3pp is in, and anything else will be allowed at my discretion if it is reasonable. This applies to both PCs and NPCs.

Shouldn't Blood Money be banned by default due to it being from the RotR AP?


Evil Genius Prime wrote:

Just curious. I own most of the Pathfinder hardbacks. But I find myself sticking mainly to the core rules and the bestiaries. How many of the various hardbacks and which ones do you use in a typical campaign? Are there just a few you use regularly or do you sample from them all?

I'd love to utilize every hardback in every campaign in some way, but it seems nigh impossible.

Think of the various supplements as spice jars on a rack. There really isn't an edible recipe that uses ALL of them at once.


Derklord wrote:
Snowblind wrote:
Outside of a very small banlist (things like leadership and blood money), everything in non-AP Paizo materials as well as DSP 3pp is in, and anything else will be allowed at my discretion if it is reasonable. This applies to both PCs and NPCs.
Shouldn't Blood Money be banned by default due to it being from the RotR AP?

It isn't permitted by default, but if I explicitly ban it then nobody asks.


I own most of the hardbacks, and I've used them all at various times, though seldom more than the CRB plus a couple others during any one game. I tend to browse the Bestiaries for creatures, then print them out from d20pfsrd.com so I don't have a big stack of books at the table.

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