I am new to Pathfinder and somewhat new to RPGs in general.
My Question for the people in the know is after getting the beginner box set, would I be better to purchase the Core rule book or the Game Mastery Guide and the Advance Players guide? Now I know that it would be more expensive to buy the two books versus one but I just wonder if for practical purposes, if it would be better to have the two books versus the one.
Any suggestions would be great.
Cheers
Cory
Core.
The Game Mastery Guide and Advanced Player's Guide are not the core rulebook divided into two books, nor do they in most ways repeat the content of the core rulebook. You need the core rulebook for either of the other books to make sense, because both are just elaborations on the rules, additional classes, feats, spells, advice for running the game, etc.
Get the Core Rulebook first.
Thank you...that clear things up for me.
Cheers
Cory
Core + APG. You'll love both. Don't worry so much about the "ultimate" books. Core + APG plays really well (just ban the Summoner from APG).
Don't ban the summoner before you read over the class and see it in play.
I would aquire books in this order.
Core book
Bestiary
Advanced players guide
game master's guide.
You will need monster if you want to GM.
Summoner is hard to understand.
Core's definitely the one to get; probably the GM guide too since you did mention being all new to the tabletop rpg scene. The pdf versions for all of Paizo's PF "world-neutral" ruleset-only things are another option to consider.
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Yeah only experienced players that are good at math and don't want to overshadow their members should play a summoner.
Don't ban the summoner before you read over the class and see it in play.Seeing it in play may result in a disrupted game. Banning it before the game ever starts will not disrupt play, so I simply do not value your advice on this point.
Who said anything about a real game. There is something called playtesting. Only takes half a hour to a hour.
@Cory MArion Also is the rest of your group new because then they may get too many options in the advanced players guide so get core first. Also a lot of the advanced players guide is archtypes which you need the core book for.
The apg is awesome.
The APG is awesome, but, it is advanced, it provides way too many options for players graduating from Beginner Box.
I would say play a campaign using the Core rule book and Bestiary 1. Council of Thieves would be a good starting place for an Adventure Path, otherwise grab the Kobold series of modules, they provide a good beginner background.
Again, thanks to everyone for your input.
I think I will grab the Core book followed by the Bestiary.
Don't forget you can look at many of the rules online for free to test the waters before picking up a rules supplement.
Again, thanks to everyone for your input.
I think I will grab the Core book followed by the Bestiary.
That's all you need!
If you are really new to RPGs, I would suggest eventually getting the Game Mastery Guide, however. It is designed especially for people like you who are new to the whole thing and need some advice and guidelines for GameMastering. It also has some useful tools like an NPC Gallery and a Treasure Generation table. It's not essential, but if you're finding you need ideas or are struggling with certain kinds of players or whatever, it can be extremely useful.
As Xaaon suggests, I would NOT get the APG until you get experience playing the full game for awhile. It adds loads of complexity and it is the last thing I would recommend to someone new to RPGs in general and Pathfinder. Similar goes for Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic.