Resources for a soon to be newbie PF DM

[JeffB]

I had been asked to run a 3.5 game by a few folks I have not gamed with in some time. We originally played some 3.0/3.5, as well as tried a few different games like LA (very briefly), Hero Wars, C&C and eventually 4E. I burned out on 3.X , the players did not care much for C&C (and had less kinder things to say about LA), HW was too narrative, and while I love 4E, I believe they just prefer a more "traditional" D&D game (vancian magic, different subsystems for class abilities/powers, etc).

I swore I'd never run 3.x again, and I won't- 3.5 corebooks are out of control pricing-wise, and I know Paizo has made some improvements. So I ordered up the core book, the bestiary, and a copy of Crypt of the Everflame as I no longer own ANY 3.x modules (only Secret's of Xen'Drik, which I most certainly will be stealing alot from). Luckily I can run a bit fast and loose on the DM side of things with these particular players- they are not sticklers for rules/system mastery/exploiting rulings etc.

At any rate- I was wondering about what are some other good resources for me.

1) I HATE HATE HATE making NPCs in 3.x, so is there any sort of "rogues gallery" with a bunch of NPC stats available? (in print- no PDFs please).

2) Not a fan of minis- I have some counters from 4E- but wondering if there is a Pathfinder "battle box" of sorts with counters, etc. I didn't look too hard but didn't see anything on the Paizo site.

3) Game Mastery Guide? Seems like opinions are split on this. I've not run 3.x in 6 years, and have limited time to be doing "math". I'd rather be creating adventure material. Good buy?

4) "Encounter groups/areas". In Secrets of Xen'Drik (for 3.5) there is a section with encounter groups of monsters with stats, that you can plug in wherever you need/want to- like a "drow raiding party" for example.. Also 4E has adopted a similar approach in some books but also providing a small location, and very loose adventure plots or ideas (e.g. Open Grave, Dungeon Delve, etc). Any similar resources for PF?

Any advice is much appreciated, I'm gonna need it :gulp:

 

[pawsplay]

The Pathfinder core book has some very solid advice on making NPCs quickly. In addition, because they "show their work" for monster design, you can easily design "monster" NPCs if a classed character is more work than the role calls for. Liberal use of the warrior class, advanced and giant templates, and monster HD have somewhat reduced the amount of time I spend fiddling with monster stats.

The Gamemastery guide has some great stealable NPCs. Not every CR, but you can always pick the NPCs so the EL rather than vice versa, and there is a good variety. It's also fairly straightforward to advance an NPC a few levels. The "split" is mainly between people who think it's awesome, and those who think it's awesome but not necessary for them personally.

 

[tlantl]

the game mastery guide has a decent section on npcs with a large selection of pre-generated characters.

 

[IronWolf]

1) I HATE HATE HATE making NPCs in 3.x, so is there any sort of "rogues gallery" with a bunch of NPC stats available? (in print- no PDFs please).

The GameMastery Guide has NPCs in it that may help. Since you mentioned playing fast and loose I would suspect you can get by without statting up a ton of NPCs as well. I typically only stat up the ones that are likely to really need statting up. For those you can steal from the GameMastery Guide and such.

2) Not a fan of minis- I have some counters from 4E- but wondering if there is a Pathfinder "battle box" of sorts with counters, etc. I didn't look too hard but didn't see anything on the Paizo site.
]/quote]

I am not aware of Pathfinder specific battle box.

3) Game Mastery Guide? Seems like opinions are split on this. I've not run 3.x in 6 years, and have limited time to be doing "math". I'd rather be creating adventure material. Good buy?

I think the book was worth the purchase. Lots of good advice, sometimes with a slightly fresh perspective, advice on world building, plotting and in your case, a possible resource for NPCs.

4) "Encounter groups/areas". In Secrets of Xen'Drik (for 3.5) there is a section with encounter groups of monsters with stats, that you can plug in wherever you need/want to- like a "drow raiding party" for example.. Also 4E has adopted a similar approach in some books but also providing a small location, and very loose adventure plots or ideas (e.g. Open Grave, Dungeon Delve, etc). Any similar resources for PF?

Someone else may be able to pop in with a Pathfinder specific suggestion, but I am not aware of one. You could pretty easily borrow something from another edition though and use in Pathfinder. My home DM used things and ideas from the Hammerfast sourcebook in our 3.5 game. It worked well.

 

[Dog Moon]

There's a book called NPC Guide that should have a decent number of NPCs in it for your use. Also, Gamemastery Guide has some NPCs of varying levels/types in it.

As for whether the GMG is worth buying or not, I'm not sure. I bought it at Amazon.com for cheap, so I don't consider it a bad buy. The charts and the NPCs are pretty awesome, though a lot of the rest of the book was sorta meh to me. Had some interesting stuff in it, but some space was wasted. So basically, if can get for discounted, probably worth it. Full price, IMO no.

Creature tokens? Not that I know of...

Encounter Areas/Locations: Well, the closest thing I can think of is their Pathfinder modules. When I looked at them a while ago, they were about 32 pages and detailed a short little adventure. They might contain a little more than simply an area/location, but from the couple of them I looked at, not by much. Buying the physical books may be a little expensive though, but the pdfs I think could be a decent price.

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

The NPC Guide is exactly what it says - a book full of NPCs. There's a section of specific NPCs, and a section with a TON of generic NPC stat blocks. If NPCs is what you're looking for, this is a great buy (IMO).

 

[Steel_Wind]

I think the Gamemaster Guide ("GMG") is a vastly better product for NPC galleries and general GM use than the NPC guide, imo.

Doesn't mean the NPC guide is bad, simply that the GMG is better.

 

[JeffB]

Excellent advice from all, thanks!

The GMG sounds like a must-buy for me and will handle what I need as far as pre-made NPCs go. And the GM screen is on my list as well.

Besides Everflame, can anyone recommend some good (stand alone) PF adventures ? (that are easily used outside Golarion)

 

[ghaladen]

You could also go the route of Litko's Paper Counter Stands in place of minis. I'm thinking about going this route since D&D minis are getting way too expensive for the aftermarket sets (which includes many more of the iconic monsters). Here's the video I discovered them from
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga6uWDzKb1w]YouTube - Litko Paper Counter Stands[/ame]

 

[Friend of the Dork]

Is it really that more quick to make than in 3.5?

As far as I could tell the only "tricks" was a simplified skill system, a few "typical feat lists", and guidelines on budget for types of magic items. You still buy stuff piecemeal though, which can take ages for high level PC/NPCs.

That's one of the things I loved in 4th ed: You wanna get stuff for a 10th level PC? Sure, pick one 11th level item, one 10th and one 9th, and get gold worth one 9th for minor items. Quick and dirty.

I still spent probably a couple of hours making one 12th level dual-class NPC... maybe I'm just too picky but I want the combination of skills, feats and items to make sense for the NPC especially for "bosses" but even the details of a first level warrior. The latter still takes alot less time to make and is more fun IMO, and can be used for many encounters.

I'm generally disappointed in pre-gen NPCs, especially in modules were they can be plain wrong or just don't make sense for the NPC in question as the flavour text or in game text contradicts his stats/skills etc. completely.