I was a big supporter of 3.X. When Wizards moved on to 4th ed, I had decided to move on as well. I had heard that Paizo was doing a truer evolution of D&D than Wizards. But, I had no idea what do expect. I picked up the core book this week and I am still in shock at the quality of this product. I am now officially a pathfanatic.
So, what are some other books you would recommend?
I read that a lot of people are having problems with the pdf. If all that were fixed, would it worth picking up? I think $10 for a pdf is pretty good, especially when the hardcopy is $50.
Opinions, recommendation, suggestions?
Paizo do a lot of fluff material as well. I heartily recommend the Classic Monster Revisited. Lots of good ideas for some of the most over-used monsters in the game, making them fresh, exciting and - more importantly - sinister. All this without a lot of mechanics to get in the way.
Of course, if you're just wanting to play - pester your prospective DM to get such material. ;)
The only downside to the PDF right now is that the bookmarks are a bit fudged. However they are working on fixing that right now, and you'll be notified when it's updated to redownload it.
I was a big supporter of 3.X. When Wizards moved on to 4th ed, I had decided to move on as well. I had heard that Paizo was doing a truer evolution of D&D than Wizards. But, I had no idea what do expect. I picked up the core book this week and I am still in shock at the quality of this product. I am now officially a pathfanatic.
So, what are some other books you would recommend?
I read that a lot of people are having problems with the pdf. If all that were fixed, would it worth picking up? I think $10 for a pdf is pretty good, especially when the hardcopy is $50.
Opinions, recommendation, suggestions?
Welcome to the Paizo Boards, Planewalker.
I downloaded my PDF recently as part of my subscription and have had no problems whatsoever- in fact for a such a big document, I find it runs exceptionally smoothly (nice one Paizo folks). You'd probably spend more in a fast food joint, so I'd definitely recommend it as $10 well spent.I don't know if you know this, but if you subscribe, you get FREE PDFs of the books- a single file and a one file per chapter version. There are also free PDFs of adventures from the Free RPG day to test drive. If you like what you see, pick a subscription that fits your game style.
I've been on board since just before the demise of Dungeon and Dragon as print entities, and was here for the transition to Pathfinder, and I have to say it's been the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my 25 years of gaming experience.
|
Some free stuff:
GameMastery Module D0: Hollow's Last Hope (OGL) PDF
Pathfinder Module D1.5: Revenge of the Kobold King (OGL)
EDIT: Damn. Ninja'd by firbolg ^_^
|
Hmm. Pathfinder RPG is a great thing, but you must realize that its inception spawned from a lack of an available ruleset for Paizo's Adventures.
Paizo ran Dragon and Dungeon magazines during the last of their paper publications. A lot of people consider it to be the only reason they kept with 3.5 The adventures in Dungeon were the only adventures available throughout 3rd edition. Paizo really has "adventure" in spades. Their first adventure paths and modules are about to go out of print. Though they are 3.5 OGL, they are priceless to me. I have all of Paizo's Adventure Paths from Dragon until this day. If Paizo has meant anything to me, it is their incredible adventures.
A lot of people decided to wait for the Core Rulebook before investing in Paizo, but I feel that was a major mistake. These last two years have been spectacular. The adventures have been so well crafted that I can't believe that I own such majestic things. Paizo's products are the shining star of everything I have bought for D&D. Buy the adventures dude. The rules are nice, but the latest adventure path and the Everflame module was created for PFRPG. Myself, I could care less what rule system I play under...as long as it has an adventure with a Paizo sticker on it.
If you aren't into pre-made adventures, than you really aren't getting the point. PFRPG Core Rulebook is a great stable for an excellent bred horse. Paizo's adventures are the horses. They have been running those horses for a long time. I think you can learn something from that.
|
If you aren't into pre-made adventures, than you really aren't getting the point. PFRPG Core Rulebook is a great stable for an excellent bred horse. Paizo's adventures are the horses. They have been running those horses for a long time. I think you can learn something from that.
I disagree heartily with this statement, I like pathfinder adventures. But I don't feel one who prefers to create their own world and adventures is missing the point of having a great ruleset. 3.5 was a great ruleset, and honestly I think that pathfinder is a better ruleset than 3.5. While I agree that the ruleset is great to use with the adventures, you aren't "missing the point" by just enjoying the ruleset.
One of the all time favorite Paizo supplements is Classic Monsters Revisited The hardcopy has been sold out for about a year and just recently they managed to dig up some copies so if you want to see some awesome FLUFF on goblins, orcs, ogres, bugbears, etc that is the best supplement for those critters ever.
The PDF for the rulebook is a little borked but it's a perpetual product. As they update it and revise it they send out emails so even if it's a bit goofy now (I think it's fine) you will get all the fixes.
If you think you want to use the Golarian campaign setting I suggest you get either the hardcover campaign setting or the Gazetteer. Getting both is a bit of a waste as there is a lot of overlap. The campaign setting is a lot more detailed and not that expensive.
I also really enjoyed Dungeon Denizens Revisited which has some of the other classic monsters. I'm not a huge fan of Dragons Revisited though... it's a decent supplement if you want a little help getting into the head of a dragon but otherwise it's kind of meh...
The Pathfinder Campaign Setting will give you most of the information to either create a homebrew campaign, or to fill out on background information for the player races and regions.
Gods and Magic gives you and the players all the information needed to fully roleplay a follower of one of the Pathfinder dieties.
Both books are pre-pfrpg, but contain almost no rule material, so they're excellent choices to fill in the details on the Golarion setting which the other product lines take place in.
Pick up the current volume of the adventure path line, or module if you want a smaller scale adventure.
To get involved on the boards.....just don't get involved with the boards. The break-up could be messy!
Planewalker (and Bibliomane74, in case you read this) welcome to these crazy boards.
I would recommend:
the basic rulebook (obviously).
either a 3.5 Monster Manual or if you can wait a bit, the bestiary.
The free stuff mentioned above, especially the modules
D 1 Crown of the Kobold King
the Guide to Darkmoon Vale
This should have you covered for a good start. You need some adventures between D 1 and D 1.5, however - the Guide contains enough ideas.
You could continue with
D 4 Hungry are the Dead
later.
All that stuff is written for D&D 3.5, but should convert without much trouble, especially with the conversion guide.
With that, you could easily play through a mini-campaign bringing you from level 1 to 6, which should give you enough experience that you know what you want after that, and plan your acquisitions accordingly.
I haven´t looked at the prices right now, but I would guess that you would invest about 100$ for a start, much less if you only buy pdfs. It is a great idea to sell the Core Rulebook pdf cheap - that way, you can judge the book (and the game) without investing a lot. But I´m probably preaching to the choir here anyway...
Stefan
If you're playing in Golarion, get "Gods and Magic".
I normally hate those types of books, but SKR has changed my tune. These actually feel like myths, and give you lots of story ideas. The campaign setting is a close second.
If you're not playing in Golarion, you should be. But if you've got something else going on, the most setting-neutral book I can recommend is Classic Monsters Revisited. It's hard to find in dead-tree I hear, but the PDF is worth it.
Classic Monsters Revisited. It's hard to find in dead-tree I hear, but the PDF is worth it.
There was a recent announcement that they had gotten some more print versions because a distributor sent them back. Maybe there's still some available right now.
Anyway, that book does rock. The other Revisited books (Dragons and Classic Dungeon Denizens) rock as well, and I'm sure future titles (so far, Classic Horrors) will be great as well.
And a big second for Gods and Magic. That and The Great Beyond. The planes rock.