Just looking for some advice from the more experienced Pathfinder players as to what products I should start with to get into Pathfinder.
I have recently ended my D&D 4e game & am looking to try something different. I found the on-line Pathfinder info very intriguing.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Puck Robin
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Just looking for some advice from the more experienced Pathfinder players as to what products I should start with to get into Pathfinder.
I have recently ended my D&D 4e game & am looking to try something different. I found the on-line Pathfinder info very intriguing.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Puck Robin
First, are you playing or running?
In either casse, oyu'll need the core rulebook, which is the players handbook and GMs guide combined. To start with, that's all a player needs. If you want more inf on the world of Golarion, the default campaign, you should check out the Inner Sea Primer Players Compsnion book.
If you're running, you'll need to add he Bestiary. If you want o run in Golarion, you probably want n Inner Sea Guide, a hsrdback in the Chronicles line. For adventures, there's a nice trio of adventures designed to introduce you to Pathfinder. It stats with Crypt of the Everflame, goes into Masks of the Living Godband finishes with City of Golden Death.
If you have questions, ask as most people here will be glad to help. Ope o enjoy he game.
Well, the core rulebook for starters, but I suppose that's a bit obvious. :p The Advanced Player's Guide I recommend. The base classes presented in it are interesting (my personal favorite is the alchemist). If you are GMing, there's the GameMastery Guide, and the Bestiaries of course. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure many others will be helping you out a bit more shortly. ^_^
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well my advice is that pathfinder requires a little more prep time than 4e, also start the game at 1st level to learn the differences between the 2 systems (especially if you come from a 3.5 background)
start with the core book and the beastiary, play a few games with that and then move on to the other rule books (advance player guide, game master guide, 2nd beastiary, ultimate magic and eventually ultimate combat)
also a good start is to get an adventure path and run it through with your group (after getting the core book and the beastiary)
Thanks for the advice. I should have mentioned that I would be playing & not running; I'm a terrible DM. ;)
The start up time for Pathfinder doesn't seem like it will bother me. Reminds me more of my AD&D days than 4e. I never played 3e or 3.5e so I am not sure if that will be an advantage or not. ;-)
Again, thanks for taking the time.
PR
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I never played 3e or 3.5e so I am not sure if that will be an advantage or not. ;-)
I think this should actually work out to your advantage as the two systems (Pathfinder and 3.x) are just different enough as to cause some confusion at times (small things, but still)...
As for what you'll need to play, as others have suggested, get the Core Rulebook to start and if you find that you like the game, pick up a copy of the Advanced Player's Guide...
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Just looking for some advice from the more experienced Pathfinder players as to what products I should start with to get into Pathfinder.
I have recently ended my D&D 4e game & am looking to try something different. I found the on-line Pathfinder info very intriguing.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Puck Robin
The nice thing about pathfinder is that is it open source. All the rules are here
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/
Now I would recommend picking up the core book. Yes it is a bit pricey, but it has literally everything you need (unlike 4e which requires multiple books to do what the one book does for pathfinder)
Once you have that, you can play.
I highly recommend the adventure paths, as they are reasonably priced and all inclusive. Pick one that suits you, get the first installment, and whoever is GMing is good to go.
Hope that helps.
Now I would recommend picking up the core book. Yes it is a bit pricey, but it has literally everything you need (unlike 4e which requires multiple books to do what the one book does for pathfinder)
Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I don't think this is correct.
If you're going to be playing D&D 4e, you need one of the player's books (A PHB or Heroes book). That's all.
If you're going to be running D&D 4e, you need the DM's Kit. If you want more monsters or adventures (though the DM's Kit comes with both, plus tokens for all the monsters it contains, plus a DM's screen - I could easily say that you need a Core Rulebook, DM Screen, minis, and an adventure just to get what you'd have if you bought the DM's Kit alone) you need to buy those separately.
If you're going to be playing Pathfinder, you need the Pathfinder Core Rules book. That's all.
If you're going to be running Pathfinder, you need the Pathfinder Core Rules book. You'll probably want additional monsters and adventures, so you'll need to buy those separately.
Those look like pretty much identical scenarios to me. If you're playing either game, you need to buy one book. If you're running either game, you need to buy one book and probably an additional supplement or two for monsters/adventures.
This isn't something that Pathfinder has over 4e. In fact, since the 4e player books are cheaper than the Pathfinder Core Rules book, playing in a 4e game is actually less expensive.
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Now I would recommend picking up the core book. Yes it is a bit pricey, but it has literally everything you need (unlike 4e which requires multiple books to do what the one book does for pathfinder)Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I don't think this is correct.
If you're going to be playing D&D 4e, you need one of the player's books (A PHB or Heroes book). That's all.
If you're going to be running D&D 4e, you need the DM's Kit. If you want more monsters or adventures (though the DM's Kit comes with both, plus tokens for all the monsters it contains, plus a DM's screen - I could easily say that you need a Core Rulebook, DM Screen, minis, and an adventure just to get what you'd have if you bought the DM's Kit alone) you need to buy those separately.
If you're going to be playing Pathfinder, you need the Pathfinder Core Rules book. That's all.
If you're going to be running Pathfinder, you need the Pathfinder Core Rules book. You'll probably want additional monsters and adventures, so you'll need to buy those separately.
Those look like pretty much identical scenarios to me. If you're playing either game, you need to buy one book. If you're running either game, you need to buy one book and probably an additional supplement or two for monsters/adventures.
This isn't something that Pathfinder has over 4e. In fact, since the 4e player books are cheaper than the Pathfinder Core Rules book, playing in a 4e game is actually less expensive.
If you have the pathfinder core book, you have the players handbook and DMG in one book. One has open source, one doesn't. Both require the bestiary, although the pathfinder bestiary is open.
In fact, you can actually play pathfinder without the books, since it is on the SRD.
Compare to
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/welcome
I would rather not turn this into edition wars, but there really is no debate as to which one is more open...
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This isn't something that Pathfinder has over 4e. In fact, since the 4e player books are cheaper than the Pathfinder Core Rules book, playing in a 4e game is actually less expensive.
Hello Scott,
I know that you really, really, really want to make 4e look good, and you're trying very, very hard but sometimes your zeal gets you one step ahead of reality. All the Pathfinder rules are available freely online as part of PRD and/or D20PFSRD, which makes the actual cost of playing a PF game being ... zero.
Now if you can show me how 4e is cheaper than that, I would be delighted.
I've been running my last few Pathfinder games using only PDF's and/or the Pathfinder reference document app for the iPad/iPhone.
The PDFs are $10 each the app is about $5 I think.
Still cheaper than 4E I think.
Then again if you wanted to run a game using the PFSRD you could very easily and that's free.
And just in case someone sees fit to dismiss the electronic nature of these books, on more than one occasion a 4E proponent has touted the DDI (which you have to pay for) as bonus over over other games particularly Pathfinder so, well...there's that then.
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Now if you can show me how 4e is cheaper than that, I would be delighted.
I could be wrong (and I can't obviously speak for him), but I think that all Scott was trying to point out was that in order to play Pathfinder or 4e, all one really needs to play is one book for each system (I don't recall him mentioning the PRD or the DDI)...
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Nice to have you, Puck Robin.
For the rules, yep, Core Rulebook is all you need (or a character sheet and reliable access to the PRD). Your GM (or DM if you prefer) will need the first Bestiary (or, again, the PRD. As a GM who owns the Bestiary, I use the book to prep but the PRD when I run).
One thing that's a bit confusing to new players is that Pathfinder is both the brand name of the rules and of the campaign setting. If you hope to play in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, you might want to get the Inner Sea Primer and your GM should get the Inner Sea Guide (the difference is about two hundred more pages and a hardcover for the Inner Sea Guide). You can also check out the Pathfinder Wiki, a great resource for information on Golarion, the world of Pathfinder.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rulebooks do not assume you are playing in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting and do not reference it, but Golarion is a very popular setting amongst PFRPG players.
Nice blog post by zizazat on Beginning Pathfinder:
Now if you can show me how 4e is cheaper than that, I would be delighted.I could be wrong (and I can't obviously speak for him), but I think that all Scott was trying to point out was that in order to play Pathfinder or 4e, all one really needs to play is one book for each system (I don't recall him mentioning the PRD or the DDI)...
Yep. If you're comparing how easy either system is to get into based on books, you can't really say one is easier than the other. It's a little senseless to deride 4e for requiring more books. It rather plainly doesn't.
Yep. If you're comparing how easy either system is to get into based on books, you can't really say one is easier than the other. It's a little senseless to deride 4e for requiring more books. It rather plainly doesn't.Now if you can show me how 4e is cheaper than that, I would be delighted.I could be wrong (and I can't obviously speak for him), but I think that all Scott was trying to point out was that in order to play Pathfinder or 4e, all one really needs to play is one book for each system (I don't recall him mentioning the PRD or the DDI)...
I didnt read ciretose' post as deriding 4E at all. It just looked as if he was just using it as a basic comparison since it is another well known brand/game.
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Yep. If you're comparing how easy either system is to get into based on books, you can't really say one is easier than the other. It's a little senseless to deride 4e for requiring more books. It rather plainly doesn't.Now if you can show me how 4e is cheaper than that, I would be delighted.I could be wrong (and I can't obviously speak for him), but I think that all Scott was trying to point out was that in order to play Pathfinder or 4e, all one really needs to play is one book for each system (I don't recall him mentioning the PRD or the DDI)...
Actually you can, since one is open and one isn't.
If you are player, you actually need no books for pathfinder.
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Just looking for some advice from the more experienced Pathfinder players as to what products I should start with to get into Pathfinder.
I have recently ended my D&D 4e game & am looking to try something different. I found the on-line Pathfinder info very intriguing.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Puck Robin
Welcome Puck Robin.
I agree with what has been posted above, and since you are coming as a player, I suggest that you also ask him what campaign he will be running, and in which world.
depending on how much you want to invest, you may also want the Inner sea primer if you play in Golarion.
If you are playing Council of thieves, you may want both the Council of Thieves player's guide (free), and possibly the Cheliax player companion.
And so on.
You can also download Wayfinder, which is free.
EDIT : almost forgot the free Traits download.
But you don't HAVE to download everything.
Well, the core rulebook for starters, but I suppose that's a bit obvious. :p The Advanced Player's Guide I recommend. The base classes presented in it are interesting (my personal favorite is the alchemist).
I actually wouldn't recommend the APG straight off to a new player. It is "advanced" for a reason and a lot to try to learn on top of learning the core rules. Likewise, the APG classes are neat but they are higher on the learning curve, with a lot more abilities to track.
The Advanced Player's Guide is great, but I would suggest getting comfortable with the core rules first before expanding out.
Buy the core rulebook and jump into the game. You've eventually want the Advanced Player's Guide for more feats, spells, and classes but for learning the game you will find all you need in the core book.
You'll find out what else you need when you see what campaign is being run and what books everyone else uses.