12 Best Pathfinder Books
The best Pathfinder books, ranked by how many expert sources recommend each one, with notes on first-edition core rules, character options and campaign themes.
Our take
The Pathfinder books here belong to the game’s first edition. They include the core rules and expansions for character creation, monsters and particular campaign styles, many developed with Jason Bulmahn. They are a useful shelf for a first-edition group, but similarly named second-edition books use a different rules system and should not be treated as interchangeable.
The Core Rulebook supplies the foundation. Bestiary 1 gives game masters a broad creature collection, while Advanced Player’s Guide offers an early expansion of character choices. After those, the best addition depends on the campaign: Advanced Class Guide introduces more classes, Occult Adventures develops psychic and supernatural themes, and Horror Adventures supports frightening scenarios. Pathfinder Unchained takes a different approach, offering revisions and optional systems rather than only adding material.
Begin with the core rules and learn what your group actually uses. Add one supplement for a clear purpose, and agree which options are allowed before building characters around them.
12 books · 5 sources · Last updated
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How to choose from this list
Skip to the full rankingIf you're starting a first-edition game: Core Rulebook → Bestiary 1
If you want broader character choices: Advanced Player’s Guide → Advanced Class Guide
If you want more spellcasting options: Ultimate Magic
If you want occult or horror themes: Occult Adventures → Horror Adventures
If you want legendary power: Mythic Adventures
If you want to revise familiar systems: Pathfinder Unchained
The 12 books, ranked
Ranked by how many expert sources name each book. Ties go to the book more people recommend.
Advanced Class Guide
For first-edition players seeking new character concepts after exploring the basic classes. Its hybrid classes give combinations a dedicated rules structure, though the additional mechanics and options are easier to judge with some existing play experience.
What it's about
This Pathfinder supplement introduces ten character classes, including the hunter, investigator, shaman, and swashbuckler. Archetypes, feats, spells, and magic items support the new classes and provide additional options for characters using the game's existing classes.
Advanced Player’s Guide
For first-edition players who know the core rules and want more ways to build a character. Its classes and expanded options make it a broad early supplement, though the extra choices increase preparation and require agreement about what the campaign allows.
What it's about
This first-edition Pathfinder supplement expands character creation with six classes, including the alchemist, oracle, summoner, and witch. Additional rules for core classes, feats, combat abilities, equipment, and spells give players further ways to develop their adventurers.
Core Rulebook
For groups choosing Pathfinder’s first edition and needing its basic rules in one place. It provides the foundation the supplements assume, though the size and interconnected rules can overwhelm newcomers, and it does not teach the separate second-edition system.
What it's about
Pathfinder's first-edition core rulebook supplies rules for creating characters and running fantasy adventures. Races, classes, skills, combat, spells, equipment, and magic items are joined by guidance on nonplayer characters and advancement in a system compatible with 3.5 fantasy rules.
Occult Adventures
For first-edition players and game masters interested in psychic magic and occult character concepts. Its six classes create a substantial thematic expansion, though their distinctive rules add complexity and need more preparation than familiar core options.
What it's about
This Pathfinder supplement introduces psychic magic and six occult-themed classes, including the medium, mesmerist, and spiritualist. Archetypes, feats, spells, and relics expand character options, bringing supernatural traditions and mysterious powers into the game's adventures.
Pathfinder Unchained
For experienced first-edition groups that want to revise parts of the game rather than simply add options. Its redesigned classes and variant systems invite selective adoption, though introducing several changes together can complicate compatibility and table expectations.
What it's about
Pathfinder Unchained presents optional rules for Pathfinder’s first edition. Revised versions of four classes accompany alternative approaches to combat, skills, magic and advancement, giving groups a collection of systems they can choose to incorporate into an existing campaign.
Ultimate Magic
For first-edition players who want more depth in spellcasting characters. Its magus class and expanded magical options provide a more focused addition than a general character supplement, though the many interactions can make character planning and adjudication slower.
What it's about
Ultimate Magic expands spellcasting in Pathfinder’s first edition with the magus class, character options, spells and rules for creating magical effects. It provides additional choices for existing spellcasting classes and tools for campaigns that give magic a central role.
Advanced Race Guide
For first-edition groups that want ancestry choices to shape characters more strongly. Its broad menu supports unusual concepts and custom races, though the design options can produce uneven results and work best with close game-master oversight.
What it's about
This Pathfinder supplement expands options for the seven core races and introduces thirty other playable races. Traits, archetypes, equipment, spells, and feats accompany a system for designing custom races suited to an individual campaign.
Mythic Adventures
For first-edition groups that want heroes operating beyond ordinary limits. Its mythic paths let legendary abilities develop alongside standard advancement, though the increased power and additional interactions make balancing a campaign more demanding.
What it's about
This Pathfinder supplement introduces six mythic paths that give characters legendary powers alongside the standard rules. Mythic feats, spells, artifacts, and monsters accompany guidance for game masters on creating campaigns or individual adventures centered on extraordinary heroes.
Bestiary 1
For first-edition game masters who want a ready collection of creatures for encounters. Its range makes it more foundational than a themed supplement, though using the statistics well still requires the core rules and attention to encounter difficulty.
What it's about
Pathfinder's first bestiary provides illustrated entries for more than two hundred and fifty fantasy monsters, from goblins to the Tarrasque. The collection supplies creatures for Pathfinder campaigns and games using compatible rules from the 3.5 system.
Bestiary 2
For first-edition game masters who already use the first bestiary and want a wider creature selection. Its new entries broaden encounter possibilities, though it is supplementary rather than necessary and is less immediately useful to players building characters.
What it's about
Pathfinder's second bestiary adds more than three hundred creatures for fantasy campaigns. Illustrated entries range from undead dragons and hippogriffs to the Jabberwock, daemons, proteans, and aeons, expanding the adversaries available to game masters.
Horror Adventures
For first-edition groups planning campaigns around dread and supernatural corruption. Its dedicated subsystems give horror themes mechanical support, though the extra tracking and disturbing subjects require a group that wants that style of play.
What it's about
This Pathfinder supplement introduces horror-themed character options and tools for running frightening adventures. Rules for corruption, sanity, curses, diseases, and haunts accompany new feats, spells, relics, and monster templates, helping players and game masters shape campaigns around supernatural threats.
Ultimate Wilderness
For first-edition groups making wilderness travel and natural settings a larger part of play. Its shifter class and outdoor options give that theme more support, though much of the material matters less in an urban or dungeon-centered campaign.
What it's about
This Pathfinder supplement provides rules and character options for adventures in wild landscapes. The shape-changing shifter class appears alongside archetypes, spells, and material on druidic traditions, giving players and game masters resources for exploring mountains, jungles, and deserts.
Sources
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