Ultimate Campaign or bestiary 3??


Product Discussion


This is my first post.. I am a new GM slowly acquiring rulebooks as I go. I have the basic rulebook, Bestiary 1,Advanced Players Guide, Advanced Race Guide, Game Mastery Guide, Inner Sea World Guide, and Rise of the Rune Lords {the hardcover version}.
This month I plan on getting bestiary 2, NPC Codex, Ultimate Equipment, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, and I can get 1 other book. Should it be Ultimate Champaign or bestiary 3? Or should I change my list entirely? Also what books of pathfinder tales are the best?
Please help a new GM..

Thanks..
WishFullThinker


ya know, I might consider swapping out one of the Ultimates Combat/Magic books, and getting both Bestiary 2 and Ultimate Campaign. I almost always find looking up class/spell/feats rules is way easier on the PRD than in the books, but the bestiary manuals are really easy to use while I am GMing. Not sure about Ultimate Campaign, but at least the mass combat rules seem like they would be easy to have open when needed.

Shadow Lodge

My advice: priorities should be the APG and the bestiaries (all three, soon to be four), before any of the others.

To be honest, all of the Ultimate ____ books would be near the bottom of my priority list, with Ultimate Campaign being the lowest. The only books in the RPG line I find less of a priority would be the GMG and the NPC Codex.


I'd prioritise Ultimate Campaign over the Bestiary 3, largely because Bestiary 3 is more of the same. Ultimate Campaign is a substantially different thing. Two bestiaries is a fair number of usable monsters already, so you dont gain that much by adding a third (compared to a whole bunch of optional rulesystems which may or may not appeal). I think this is especially true if your plan is to eventually own everything and it's just a matter of time.

It really depends on what your focus is though - breadth or depth. Personally, I prefer the option to run lots of different styles of game rather than lots of options for enemies to fight.


NPC codex though is an awesome time saver, especially when you need quick stats for some player character interactions: "Wait, you want to punch who?"

Campaign I would say is useful if you have need of the rule systems. i.e. mass combat, kingdom building. If your not going to use any optional rules, than it would be towards the bottom of the list.


Steve Geddes wrote:

I'd prioritise Ultimate Campaign over the Bestiary 3, largely because Bestiary 3 is more of the same. Ultimate Campaign is a substantially different thing. Two bestiaries is a fair number of usable monsters already, so you dont gain that much by adding a third (compared to a whole bunch of optional rulesystems which may or may not appeal). I think this is especially true if your plan is to eventually own everything and it's just a matter of time.

It really depends on what your focus is though - breadth or depth. Personally, I prefer the option to run lots of different styles of game rather than lots of options for enemies to fight.

I would agree with this. Ultimate Campaign I think would be much more useful than yet another Bestiary(not that I don't like Bestiary 3....and would recommend picking it up later). But I see Ultimate Campaign being more useful as it will broaden your RPing horizions even if you don't use all the rules. While I see another Bestiary just being more of the same.

Shadow Lodge

Thing is, I see the bestiaries as being more useful at the table, and Ultimate Campaign being more useful in the preparation phase...where the PRD or a PDF would be just as good as a hardcopy.


Kthulhu wrote:
Thing is, I see the bestiaries as being more useful at the table, and Ultimate Campaign being more useful in the preparation phase...where the PRD or a PDF would be just as good as a hardcopy.

Not a big fan of PDfs...like the hardcopies...but I get your point.

Though my point is I have always felt whatever 'Book O' Monster are a waste of time beyond the first or second one as they not really adding in new dimensions or RPing ideas...it really is just more monsters. (Though I'll give Pazio credit as they did put out a 3rd 'Book O' Monster' I actualy liked 80% of...so I have hopes for the 4th one also).

But really all another Bestiary will do is reenforce the concept of hack n' Slash at the table...Ultimate Campaign actualy being other ideas to the table. Which is why I would personaly recommend it over any Bestiary even if you only had one.

Also Ultimate Campaign is very useful to have at the table...but than again I let my player have a more hands on with the Downtime, Kingdom Building, etc rules than perhaps you do.

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