Pathfinder 1E Is your relationship to monster books (Bestiaries) changing?

[MerricB]

Here's a question for Pathfinder players...

With Pathfinder providing all of the monster stats online (and rarely in adventures for monsters published in a Bestiary), have you found yourself changing how you handle monster stats?

Are you finding that actually buying a copy of the latest Bestiary is less attractive? Do you get them and then leave them mostly on the shelves and mainly work from online? Or do you still consider the physical copy to be of paramount importance?

(Myself, I'm something of a traditionalist: I like having physical copies of the books).

I was just wondering, having looked at the amount of space the Bestiaries are now taking up on my shelves...

Cheers!

 

[Nightfall]

As a player and a DM/GM, I still need physical books. I love using pfsrd20 for rule clarifications, but honestly nothing beats the illustrations a Bestiary can offer more than just 'stats.'

Plus I like books.

 

[Morrus]

For me, that's no a Pathfinder-specific thing. Yes, I am less interested in monster books beyond the first one or two, but that's been the case for every iteration of D&D for me.

The exception, I think, was a couple of the specific-themed Monstrous Manual thingy (the thing with the binders - god I loved that thing!) - the outer places and Dragonlance additions, I believe.

Whether I prefer physical or digital is another question entirely. We've now banned electronic devices at the game table (and we are SO glad we did!) so physical is a necessity. I prefer it anyway.

 

[paradox42]

Even running online, I always prefer physical books- and I disallow any player from using anything from any book which I do not personally own a physical copy of. Nothing from PDFs or the PRD/SRD is allowed unless I have a physical book containing it, and you can tell me which book it's in (if I don't happen to have that factoid memorized already, that is- which I often do thanks to my eidetic memory).

Monsters are no different- I never use a monster in the game unless I personally made the stats for it, or it's in a monster book I own (and I open the book up to the appropriate page when running).

Besides, the art isn't posted online, and the art in the Pathfinder Bestiaries is beautiful.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I have gone the completely digital route, DMing from my wife's laptop and slowly selling off my physical books (not just monster books, everything).

I just find physical books to be too cumbersome, now.

 

[billd91]

I generally prefer the physical copy for reading so I'm still buying them. But I also subscribe via Paizo, so I get the pdf too (which I use to copy/paste monster stats for modifying). Best of both worlds in my opinion.

 

[Nightfall]

E-books can't replace the feel I get from holding a monster up and saying "It looks like this." with a physical copy.

 

[Kinak]

I don't use monster stats out of books anymore, so all I really use the Bestiaries for is the joy of reading them, as a source for ideas, and the pictures as [MENTION=374]Nightfall[/MENTION] mentioned.

But I still have all of them, because that's all I've really ever used monster books for, back to 2nd Edition at least.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[DaveMage]

I still like (and use) both the electronic versions and physical copy.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I use the physical copies for reading.

But when I'm prepping? I use either HERO LAB (if I'm adding class levels to a monster) or the PDF or PFSRD.

The PDF/PFSRD has the benefit of me being able to to prep a monster encounter from my phone, ipad or laptop.

These days if a game doesn't have a PDF or electronic version? It's not getting bought or used by me at all.

Ease of use trumps traditionalism every time.