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Thinking about maybe starting a game when I move. I want to run some modules or adventure paths before getting started on a full on campaign.
A hardcopy of the Bestiary helps, but you can find the information here or here.
Earlier modules or APs will use beasties from the d20 SRD, which you can find here or here.
I only have the one module, but yes, annoyingly, the monsters aren't fully stated out there, you need to use the beastiary
Even more annoying, sometimes you need to modify them a bit.
I would honestly do them out in advance on an index card and leave the card in the page where its found.
Ugh! I am NOT a fan of adventures without the stat blocks right there! I buy adventures because I just don't have the time to write my own anymore. It is so cumbersome to flip between books and the adventure and it is very time consuming to do so much prep ahead of time. I haven't played 3.5 in a long time and this is my first experience with Pathfinder. I picked up the first Jade Regent adventure and just realized I need both the Bestiary and Bestiary 2 for most of the monsters. OK, OK. I get it. I just wish I had it all on the same page!
APs and modules tend to only contain the stats of unique monsters that don't appear in the beastiaries. Some monsters that appear in APs have been included in Beastiary 2 and assuming beastiary 3 will contain some too.
Poet22 you could just buy the PDFs and then just print out the page/s you want. I don't have an ipad so I don't know if this would work, but maybe you could put the PDFs on an ipad as an easy way to carry all the books and have it at your finger tips - assuming it works.
Something to consider, though, is their word and page counts. Sure they could reprint those same creatures over and over, OR they could include more non-creature stuff. Like, you know, plot. :)
I'm just saying.
I'll take a dungeon with 2 less rooms so i don't need to juggle between 2 books.
Creative Director
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I'll take a dungeon with 2 less rooms so i don't need to juggle between 2 books.Something to consider, though, is their word and page counts. Sure they could reprint those same creatures over and over, OR they could include more non-creature stuff. Like, you know, plot. :)
I'm just saying.
It'd be quite a bit less than 2 fewer rooms.
A full stat block tends to take up 1/3 to 1/2 a page.
I just grabbed the closest Pathfinder AP volume off the shelf... #18... and counted the short stat blocks in it and it looks like there's about a dozen of them in there. That would equate to something like 5 to 7 pages less content for adventure in that particular volume, had we decided to print full stat blocks. If we decided to print full stat blocks even for monsters that were used more than once in that single adventure (rather than just say "see page 22" or whatever) that'd probably increase to 10 pages. And since we generally can fit an average of, say, 4 encounters on a page, that'd be, best-case-scenario, an adventure with 24 fewer rooms.
We'd have an uprising on our hands if we did that, I predict.
And all of that is for a HIGH level adventure, which traditionally have to use unusual or advanced or class leveled creatures, which means full stat blocks anyway. If it were a low or mid level adventure, where we can use more short stat blocks, I wouldn't be surprised to see that double...
Actually, here's a copy of "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv." Let's see...
This is a 1st level adventure. It has 24 short stat blocks, about double what Pathfinder #18 had. Which means that if we'd put full stat blocks for every short one in that adventure... that adventure would be about a dozen or so pages shorter. For those familiar with "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv"...
I understand that folks buy published adventures to save time... but when you get right down to it, if you're going to GM an RPG, you need to accept the fact that you're taking upon yourself the responsibility to your players to invest some of your time in the game. And part of that means having to shoulder some of the responsibility for the game itself—we can't do everything for you. And if we published full stat blocks for every monster... we'd be doing even LESS for you since we'd be giving you less bang for your buck—a dozen or two dozen or more pages of material you either already bought or could have acquired for free from the PRD online.
If you're concerned about juggling fewer books, I would suggest investing in something like an iPad or a laptop computer and using PDF versions of the books instead.
And as for adjusting monsters in adventures to mesh better with your home game... that's actually part of the fun of being a GM as far as I'm concerned!