Well, first things first, Welcome to Pathfinder (and the forums), I hope your stay is enjoyable since everyone here seems very helpful and civil.
You made a wise decision to get the core rulebook 1st thing. If I were to recommend any other books, i'd say bestiaries 1 and 2 and the advanced player's guide are great (ultimate magic comes out pretty soon, and it looks promising). Also, you can always look something up at http://www.d20pfsrd.com/
hope this helps.
Welcome to Pathfinder, so if you plan on Gm'ing bestiary I. If you plan on playing and have experience with 3.5 the advanced players guide. Inner Sea guide is a great resource if you want to really learn about the campaign setting.
If you have a chance there is something called Pathfinder Society, if you are lucky enough to have a local game shop with active players in PFS, it is a great way to meet players and learn the system.
I'm also fairly new to Pathfinder, having started about a year ago. The core rulebook, bestiary 1, and an adventure path (Kingmaker) have covered all my gaming needs up until now, and for the foreseeable future.
Other stuff I've thought about includes:
The Inner Sea Guide - the setting detail and worldview would be wasted on my group. We're getting plenty of campaign immersion and background from the AP.
The APG - the extra classes & rules would just confuse them (and me). There's plenty of options in the core rules we haven't explored.
Bestiary 2 - I don't need more monsters just yet. Being as most of us are long term RQ players, the D&D monster selection is still fairly new.
I'll probably pick all these up at some point, but although I've GM'd one game, and am playing in another, I haven't found the need yet. Of course just my opinion. You and your group may have different tastes.
Cheers
Baldy
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Welcome to the boards!!
I would DEFINITELY get Bestiary 1. A number of published adventures that you'll find out there reference pages in the Bestiary, and it is a useful reference for when you need to do conversion work from a D&D 3.5 adventure.
Also, published adventures will include statblocks that refer to monster powers (i.e. energy drain) and monster types (i.e. undead) and assume you know the mechanics of those powers and the immunities, etc. of different types of creatures. The Appendix to each Bestiary includes all of this "crunch." As I view it, those appendices are essentially part of the "core" rules as well.
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Hey thanks for all the advice. So the campaign guide seems less important than the bestiary I thought it would be a good thing to have since ill be gm'ing. But bestiary and a published adv seem good also. Any other advice would be great like what adventures are for 1st level pcs
First Hello and and welcome to the site.
The AP's aka Adventure Paths are a series of 6 adventures linked together with a common theme. They all start at level 1 and go to about level 15. If you want to run a long term game that might be your best bet. Just get a full AP.
If and when money allows the World Guide is a nice pick up. As is the GM guide and APG aka Advanced Players Guide.
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Well, the Bestiary is free online right in the PRD link to the left of your screen. I'd still pick it up for ease of use, though.
Personally, if you don't mind reading on the computer, I'd grab the PDF of the Inner Sea World Guide. It doesn't have too many rules to reference and the PDF's only $10.
The published adventures, particularly the Adventure Paths are very high quality, and I highly reccomend them (despite having not read through most of them, since I want to play them). The one I've read (Legacy of Fire) and the one I'm playing through (Rise of the Rune Lords) are both fabulous, though. And everyone else seems to agree on most of the others being right up there with them.
If money is tight get inner sea pdf, huge book great on info nice to read, dont think you would tote it to every game, more of a read and take notes before a game thing.
This mod is for first levels last 6-12 hours has great reviews, probably would be good to intro players with. 10 $ pdf
paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/paizo/pathfinderModu les/v5748btpy8hil
This module is a single session, you can down load it for free. Probably be best for intro, followed by previous module,
http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/p/pathfinderRPG/paizo/pathfin derModules/v5748btpy8ey4
I have played an Adventure Path, They are great.
I have to agree with the other advice, if you are DMing you need the Bestiary and an AP, if you are playing ... well the APG cannot be beat.
To keep it short I just made a decision to switch to pathfinder from 4ed . I have the core rulebook and was looking for some opinions. Should I get the inner sea campaign guide or the bestiary. What would help me more in my quest to learn pathfinder? Thank you
Welcome to Pathfinder! For books, I would go in this order:
- Core Book (check, you got it)- Bestiary
- APG
- Other books
You can get a good impression on what you can find in those books in freely available online sources such as d20pfsrd.com
In terms of adventures I would recommend Curse of the Crimson Throne, though you'll still have to make some adaptions from old 3.5 to new Pathfinder options there. If you do not want to do that, I believe Kingmaker is an AP using the new Pathfinder rules - maybe someone can confirm that...
Enjoy the game! :-)
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To keep it short I just made a decision to switch to pathfinder from 4ed .
Welcome to the madhouse - I have a feeling you'll feel right at home :D Like me, you've come in quite late and the amount of sourcebooks and adventure paths available is overwhelming. The Bestiaries are top notch, as I feel using WoTC 3.5 stuff is slightly underpowerd to the new PC generation for PFRPG - The Adventure Paths will have your players occupied for ages maybe get the free Players guides for each one (traits and extra goodies)
The APG is recommended and if you want a bit of background done for you try to get hold of a country sourcebook - Cheliax, Osirion, Sargava etc - more experienced players and GM's will help you here.
The majority of posters here are 'internet' polite, from my experience, and are really helpful. try these 3 guidelines:
1 go to the Community Use page and download the world map(s)
http://paizo.com/search?q=community+use&includeUnrated=true&include Unavailable=true&what=products&x.x=43&x.y=6
Print off onto just a sheet of A4 or a 2x2 map for more detail- hey presto! Sandbox map with very few towns/cities
2 flick through your other FRP games for inspiration
3 ENJOY!!!
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I'll throw it at you from a different angle,
If you know 3E really well (10 years or so of DMing), then all your 3E Monster Books are usable, with a bit of (mostly) simple adjustment. So..., if you're more into Fluff than Crunch and you want to check out the Pathfinder Campaign world, get the Inner Sea World Guide. And look at the Bestiary online.
If you're not so fluent in 3E and/or you're more into Crunch and playing as near to RAW as you can, get the Bestiary and check out Pathfinderwiki.com!
Thanks Ray haven't seen a couple of the free downloads :)
Welcome to Pathfinder.
IMO, you'll _need_ the Core Rulebook and Bestiary I. There's enough material there to cover a year of gaming, easily. You'll _want_ the Advanced Player's Guide. It's quite tasty.
You don't need the Inner Sea World Guide at all, *IF* you have time & imagination of your own. It's not much more than above average fiction that you can mold to your purposes. But if you have time & adequate imagination, you can probably do better for your group.
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If you're running your campaign in Golarian, you may want the Inner Sea World Guide over the APG. If you want a slightly more adavanced game in a home setting, go for the APG. If neither are true, the Beastiary II might not be a bad idea. If you're new to DMing, I'd suggest not getting either and getting one of the adventure paths. I've never read one, but from what I know of them, they make things pretty easy and slowly give you experience at GMing rather than throwing you into the fire all at once.
One of the amazing things about pathfinder is how open paizo is about their content, and what that has allowed them and fans to provide us with. Alot of what you need you can get online from the prd or the pathfinder wiki, until you can get a hold of the books. Its always better to have the books, but we all know you cant get everything right from the start.
The order I would get things is the following:
1. Core rules (done)
2. An adventure pathf (since you are starting off I would choose one of the ones made for pathfinder and not 3.5: Council of Thieves, Kingmaker, Serpent Skull, or Carrion Crown)
2. Bestiary 1 (until you get it use the PRD on this site and print out what you need for your adventure while you are doing your prep)
3. Campaign Setting (untill you get a hold of this you can read up on golarion here
4. Game Mastery Guide - As a new dm there is a lot of invaluable advice in this book, though all the crunchy bits are available in the prd.
5. Advanced players guide - as you get used ot the rules you may want to try some new option, this books is full of them (again all the rules within are available online in the prd).
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Welcome to Pathfinder.
I would suggest the module Crypt of the Ever Flame. The module is written for begining DMs and players, and also it tries to explain some of the transitions from 3.5 D&D to pathfinder.
Also there is a flip map for the dungeon in the module you can pick up as well.
i hope this helps.