Hello members of this forum,
I live in an mid/east European country known as Czech republic and that means postage fees are about as insane as they can get, which is why if I ever decide to buy printed books, I will be able to do so once and most likely only once. That is why I would like help from you, experienced players of pathfinder, below this message will be posted a list of books I quickly cobbled together (copied sources from SRD, possible duplicity of information) and I would like you to tell me which of these books are unnecessary or obsolete and which important books I have forgotten. Pdfs are out of the question.
Advanced Class Guide
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Race Guide
Animal Archive
Arcane Anthology
Bestiaries
Cohorts and Companions
Core Rulebook
Familiar Folio
Heroes of the Streets
Inner Sea Magic
Inner Sea World Guide
Occult Adventures
Occult Origins
Ultimate Campaign
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Equipment
Ultimate Intrigue
Ultimate Magic
I am not personally bent on any of these books with the possible exception of Ultimate Intrigue.
I would recommend Inner Sea Gods, maybe drop Cohorts and Companions, Arcane Anthology, Animal Archive and Heroes of the Streets unless you specifically want something from them. Also unless you're GMing or just like to read the entries, Bestiaries aren't necessary.
Thank you. The books are meant for whole group including DM (they are the ones paying for it).
Is the game mastery guide of any benefit to the group or can it be skipped?
Turns out that Familiar Folio is basically Animal Archive, only with worse options(even if newer).
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cohorts and companions was disappointing.
occult adventures and origins - the real 'advanced class guide', the classes are very complex, the concept narrow. I would drop these down the list if you are prioritising.
ultimate campaign is nice to have, but is far from essential.
CRB, APG, ARG, UltCombat and Ultmagic are your core 5 books, they should be top of your list. The only book to break into that top 5 is bestiary 1, but I think with the PRD the bestiaries are not essential. If you want to get bestiaries anyway then you probably only need 1& possibly 2. b3-5 only get if you have spare funds.
I love the advanced class guide, but it is not a 'necessary' book.
Ultimate equipment is solid and really expands on your non-magical gear options.
Inner sea world guide is really good if you want to learn more about Golarion and has a lot of cool 'crunch' with tons of flavour.
Inner sea magic less so. a good read, but I haven't used much from it.
The paperbacks are too focused to really be confident on usefulness. I love my animal companions and familiars, so animal archive and familiar folio go everywhere with me. arcane anthology not so much.
I am also over fond of martials and for them Armour master is absolutely top notch, and I haven't got armour master yet, but it is on my 'must get' list. Dirty tactics is pretty useful.
I've been thinking exactly the same thing now Ive made the decision to get into GMing...
How few or many do you intend to buy? What's your internet access like? It's completely possible to run games without any physical books if you have access to the d20pfsrd, the PRD, or the Archive of Nethys.
I all depends how much money we cobble together. I am looking into buying books from ebay (as it may be cheaper).
Here is updated version of the list (after taking in your input):
Advanced Class Guide
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Race Guide
Animal Archive
Arcane Anthology (I like the spellbooks far too much to let this one go)
Armor Master's Handbook
Bestiaries (more monsters the merrier)
Core Rulebook
Dirty Tactics Toolbox
Familiar Folio
Heroes of the Streets
Inner Sea Magic
Inner Sea World Guide
Occult Adventures
Occult Origins
Ultimate Campaign
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Equipment
Ultimate Intrigue
Ultimate Magic
Weapon Master's Handbook
I should say that I play mainly nature oriented characters in most games (in Pathfinder that would most likely be druid, shaman or witch). Others may vary.
I managed to get the Core Rulebook, Game mastery guide, Advanced players guide, and bestiary 1 for under $100! I wouldn't imagineven there are deals like that being offered all the time, but Ebay has been good to me.
I would say the Core is a must, as well as the APG, but depending on your Internet access you could get away with core only if you really had to.