The best of Pathfinder 1st Edition

[birbajans94]

With Second Edition on the way, I'm curious know what everyone's favourite First Edition books are - either for GMs or players. This is part idle curiosity but mostly to know which items I should look at picking up before it's too late.

Thanks.

[Skrayper]

Critical pickups:
Advanced Player's Guide
Advanced Class Guide
Bestiaries (As many as you can get, but definitely the 1st one)
(Both obvious choices but really good ones)

I personally like the Alchemy Manual, as it adds a lot of new options for those wanting to go deep into Alchemy.

Inner Sea World Guide contains a lot, and would be a good one for the GM but also as a player resource.

GM's guide isn't as critical, but if you are new to GM'ing it will help. That said, you can probably find just as good loot tables (if that's what you want it for) elsewhere.

[Dragon78]

Hardcovers

Advanced Players Guide
Advanced Races Guide
Bestiaries(All)
Inner Sea World Guide
Occult Adventures
Ultimate Equipment

[SunKing]

Dragon78 wrote:

Hardcovers

Advanced Players Guide
Advanced Races Guide
Bestiaries(All)
Inner Sea World Guide
Occult Adventures
Ultimate Equipment

Dragon78 is on the money. For me, specifically:

- Bestiary 6: always had a sweet spot for it.
- Occult Adventures: inspired a whole mini-campaign. So cool.
- APG, of course.

[Jason Wedel]

I really like Inner sea gods...just a must have for anyone looking to play a divine...

[Albatoonoe]

For what it's worth, I'm not sure there will be a "too late" for digital copies.

That said, my favorite core books are Occult Adventures, Horror Adventures, and Planar Adventures. I like things to get a little weird.

For adventures, Strange Aeons, Reign of Winter, and Iron Gods are all incredibly cool.

For splat books, this is a bit tougher. Distant Realms and Distant Worlds are fun. All of the "Blood of" books are really cool with a special shout out to Blood of the Coven. Occult Mysteries, Harrow Handbook, and the accompanying splat books to the hardcovers above are also good.

I'm starting to think there is a lot of good PF1 content.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

Definites:
Core Rules
APG
Ultimate Magic
Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Equipment
Bestiary 1-3

Maybes:
ARG (Mainly I use this for the alt racial abilities and to boost especially weak races with a couple little extras)
ACG (I'm not a fan of several of the classes)
Ultimate Campaign (I mostly use this for the expanded trait list)
Unchained (I mainly only use this for ABP and the rogue rewrite)
Occult Adventures (primarily for the kineticist)

[Tim Emrick]

Here is a break down of source books that I wrote up for my most recent home campaign. The short version is:

Primary sources (used almost every session): CRB, APG, ARG, Bestiary.

Secondary sources (used on a limited basis): Adventurer's Armory, Animal Archive, Familiar Folio, Bestiary 2 & 3, GMG, Ultimate Campaign.

Other sources (GM only to start with/may introduce gradually later on): ACG, Bestiary 4 & 5, Monster Codex, NPC Codex, Mythic Adventures, UC, UM, UE, Unchained.

Not used at all in this campaign: ISWG, OA.

*****

Most of the rest of my Pathfinder experience is Pathfinder Society. I'd probably weight things this way for that:

Absolutely essential: CRB, APG, ARG, Bestiary (and probably 2 & 3?), UE.

Add some or all of the following, depending on which non-core classes, feats, and spells you're interested in: ACG, UC, UM, OA, Unchained, UI, UW. Add all of these if you GM, so you'll know how your players' toys, and random NPCs in scenarios, are supposed to work.

Add if you GM regularly: GMG (mostly for NPCs and haunts), Monster Codex, NPC Codex, the rest of the Bestiaries, ISWG (or at the very least, the Gazetteer).

Limited use in PFS: Ultimate Campaign (pretty much just traits and retraining), Mythic (only for a handful of scenarios/APs).

I find that most splatbooks are strictly optional, unless you want to take a deeper dive into a specific region, expand on class features or feats, etc. My personal favorites that have seen a lot of use across my own stable of PCs include Animal Archive, Familiar Folio, Dragon Empires Primer, and Seekers of Secrets.