Humble Bundle supplements


Pathfinder Society

Liberty's Edge 3/5 * Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Ontario—Kanata

Hi All,

Kind of a general and opinionated question here, but what PDFs do you recommend from someone that got into PFS via the Humble Bundle?

Please be clear as to what the book adds, and what sort of build it is useful for. It would be nice to have a list to use as a guideline.

** For reference, assuming you got everything but the physical starter box in the humble bundle, you got:

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game:
Core Rulebook
GameMastery Guide
Beginner Box (PDF)
Player Character Folio
Advanced Class Guide
GM Screen
Inner Sea World Guide
Strategy Guide
Bestiary
Ultimate Equipment
Advanced Player's Guide
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Campaign
Ultimate Combat
Bestiary 2

Pathfinder Player Companion:
Inner Sea Primer
Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide

Adventure Path:
In Hell's Bright Shadow (Hell's Rebels 1 of 6)
Turn of the Torrent (Hell's Rebels 2 of 6)
Dance of the Damned (Hell's Rebels 3 of 6)

Pathfinder Society Scenario 7-01: Between the Lines
Pathfinder Society Year of the Sky Key Scenario Mega-Pack (23 Adventures!)

5/5 5/55/5 ***

JamesTheDonkey wrote:
Please be clear as to what the book adds, and what sort of build it is useful for.

* * * INFORMATION OVERLOAD * * *

4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Venture-Captain, United Kingdom—England—Coventry

Start with a character using the core rules and advanced players guide. there is plenty there to be getting on with.
You will
a. get a better grasp of the rules
b. you will kow what you character can do

5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Massachusetts—Central & West

I know it's not the answer you're really looking for, but: the usefulness will depend on what you're looking for, how comfortable you are with pen-and-paper RPGs, and what you're looking to build. So, what are you looking for? Even books like Ultimate Combat, though physical fighting oriented, have some good things in it for casters. Let me kind of explain the Top 3 of those.

The obvious stand-out is the Core Rulebook. It's got all the core rules, in a book!

Next I'd recommend the Inner Sea World Guide, for flavor. You can learn about the world of Golarion, and its ins and out. There's very little "crunch." but a lot of "fluff." There are some player options, but it's a small sliver of the book.

And of course, the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide, because that's got all the rules specifically for Pathfinder Society Organized Play.

Grand Lodge 2/5

Really the only must have additional book is Animal Archive. And that's only if you're playing a class with an animal companion. This is because of the extra tricks it gives.

Inner Sea Gods has a lot of stuff, and is probably the best lore book there is. There are also some good feats in there if you're following a specific deity.

These are obviously my opinions.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

The GameMastery Guide, Beginner Box, Player Character Folio, GM Screen, scenarios and Adventure Paths can't be used to create characters, so that thins down the list.

The Core Rulebook should really be read all the way through. It provides the backbone for everything else.

The Advanced Players Guide introduced the Alchemist, Cavalier, Inquisitor, Oracle, Summoner, Witch, and the concept of archetypes.

Ultimate Magic introduced the Magus and many alternative spellcasting options.

Ultimate Combat introduced the Gunslinger (plus firearms rules), Antipaladin, Ninja and Samurai.

The Advanced Class Guide introduced the Arcanist, Bloodrager, Brawler, Hunter, Investigator, Shaman, Skald, Slayer, Swashbuckler and Warpriest.

With just those books alone you'll have enough characters to last you for years.

To offer an example, I've been playing and GMing more than average for almost four years, have over 30 characters (including eight at level 12+), and even I haven't come close to maxing out on options.

But you'll really have to read through them to figure out what caters to your interests.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 * Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Ontario—Kanata

I have been playing Pathfinder for a while. I have toyed with builds of almost every base class, using d20pfsrd. Now that I am getting into PFS, where I need purchased access to use content, I am looking to build a guideline of nice purchases.

It would be nice to have a list of which books contain which build-changing effects. For example, I know the Agile enchantment is in the Pathfinder's field guide. If I plan to play a character that needs that enchantment, I will have to go for that book.

I also know that I can find every source book listed on d20pfsrd, and can just build my character off those, then buy the books needed for that build.

What I want to know, and I am sorry if I was not clear, is what books do you recommend, because of their value, versatility, or key items? What builds do those books complement and why?

Grand Lodge 2/5

After reading my response and Nefreet's, it's clear that your question isn't clear. Are you asking "what additional pdfs should I buy? *here's a list of what I already have." or "what should I read first and why? *here's a list of what I have."?

Liberty's Edge 3/5 * Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Ontario—Kanata

The former. What should I buy to supplement my humble bundle?

Once again, sorry for the lack of clarity.

Lantern Lodge 5/5

For just a ton of options, I suggest the following books (as far as strict bang-for-your-buck goes):

Inner Sea Magic
Inner Sea Combat
PFS Field Guide
Dirty Tactics Toolbox
Weapon Master's Handbook

That gives you a nice spread of options for pretty much any type of character you'd ever want.

3/5

To supplement the Humble Bundle, I would look towards the Player Companions. Look at the Strategy Guide and the Players guide to get an idea of what class you would like to play. Once you have that nailed down we can help you pick a good Player Companion. For example, if you want to play an Alchemist then the Alchemy Manual is a nice fit or a street thief then Dirty Tactics Toolbox is the way to go. There is also a new book, Ultimate Intrigue, out at the end of the month but I would focus on what you have right now.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

You could search for character builds over in the Advice Forum, see what options they suggest, and find out what books they come from.

I would recommend using Archivesofnethys to help build your characters, rather than d20pfsrd. Archives tells you whether your selections are PFS legal, whereas the other does not. In addition, d20pfsrd changes the names and text of their content to avoid copyright infringement, whereas Archives uses the original text. Plus, Archives tells you all of the sources that an option was printed in, whereas d20pfsrd only gives you the most recent printing. Oh! And you can search Archives easier.

(is my personal bias showing?)

Archives isn't infallible, though. No matter what option you go with, just be sure to vet it before purchasing.

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/55/5 ****

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Something not included in the Humble Bundle was the Advanced Race Guide. I don't own this (yet) but I suspect that is one you will want to pickup because of the races that are PFS legal.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ** Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Pathfinder Unchained. Make sure to get this before building a rogue.

The unchained rogue is cool and can hold his own among the other classes.

The core rulebook rogue is only for people who don't know any better or people who want to make things hard on themselves.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

...or people who really like Offensive Defense ^_^

Shadow Lodge 4/5

Gary Bush wrote:
Something not included in the Humble Bundle was the Advanced Race Guide. I don't own this (yet) but I suspect that is one you will want to pickup because of the races that are PFS legal.

It opens up some fun options (Tengu, Wayang, Kitsune, Nagaji), but isn't required by any means. You'll need it if you ever get a chronicle sheet to unlock another race, but for now I'd suggest sticking to core. One of then nice things about PF is that the unusual races are rarely stronger than core ones.

Grand Lodge 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Seeker of Secrets for flawed and cracked Ioun stones, as well as the basic Ioun stone/Wayfinder resonances used in PFS, Method 1, but only for flawless Ioun stones.

Pathfinder Society Field Guide includes a bunch of stuff, including some PFS oriented archetypes, like the Lore Warden for the Fighter, Seeker for some of the caster classes, etc.

Pathfinder Society Primer offers some more Ioun stones, and their imperfect variants, and the standard resonances for them.

4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ****

In my opinion... the big three would be... In on particular order;

Pathfinder Society Field Guide,
Pathfinder Unchained,
Advanced Race Guide

~

Advanced Race Guide;
The Alternate Racial Traits make it worth it... even just for the Core Races...

Pathfinder Unchained;
The Unchained Rogue almost makes it worth it alone... but it also has the legal source for the Summoner as well...

Pathfinder Society Field Guide;
Great background info, and a nice collection of PFS oriented Archetypes...

~

As to the Core/Unchained Rogue... If you are making a solidly Dex+Melee based Rogue... Unchained is better... If you are not making a Dex+Melee based Rogue, you get more options out of the Core Rogue...

Read both, see what you give up for Unchained, then decide if what you gain going Unchained is worth what you give up...

Liberty's Edge 3/5 * Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Ontario—Kanata

Thank you, everyone. I will take those into consideration when designing my characters from now on.

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