Paizo Publishing forks D&D looking to produce a better, more streamlined version of 3.5e while forgoing some of the massive changes of 4e. The free alpha version is up to their usual high standards!
Hey man, *I* don't draw the pictures. She looks and dresses like Heather from Rock of Love. Who I'm sure doesn't play RPGs because of their objectification of women.
Excessive PC-ness is just painful to stomach.....so I support your alliterative descriptions of the sorceress!
They were so funny I had to load up the PDF to figure out what you were talking about.....
....Oh my......
.....I wonder which cantrip provides lift and support all at once like that???
Nice overview by the way. Although they didn't leave all combat maneuvers alone....there's a hefty bit of revision going on with grapple, I noticed.
My first take was, "cool, a real effort at extending 3.5 in to 4E" but after reading through I started to get the feeling that it might just be another "house rules all over the place" kind of deal, with a noticeable curve up in power levels. I think I could stomach the increased power scaling in the classes presented if the per-level XP values were listed at "slow" as in the slowest xp advancement option; otherwise characters will simply rocket up in ability too quickly.
I also noticed the column talking about options for hit points and increasing them. For no good reason that I understand this seems to be some weird trend today; I never noticed starting hit points as being a problem at 1st-3rd level, honestly.
I like the skill revisions, though. But given that I think 4E proper is doing the same skill revisions, more or less, that's not enough for Pathfinder to do it for me....need something else, I think, like a non-minis-based combat system (at least a chapter on how to do it, for example).
No kidding. I kept thinking, "why not just use True20?" It already does many of the things they set out to do: simply skills, made each level meaningful, etc.
Interesting.. shame they didn't go True20 for Pathfinder.
In fairness, they are offering True20 conversions for the Pathfinder modules, which I think should cover off most peoples True20 gaming needs.
I'm interested in this game. I've already house-ruled the bejesus out of 3.5 to make is something that I can bear to GM, so I'm thinking I'll grab this puppy also and then merge the two together.
Does this have any implications for 4.0 support by Paizo? Or has this already been positioned as being "in addition to" rather than "instead of" 4.0 support?
They're being careful not to say "screw 4e", and they announced that Necromancer is going to publish a 4e adventure path through them. But for their APs, they're pretty much going to pass on 4e.
On the True20 thing - I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, Green Ronin is my "other" favorite RPG company and I'd love to see them and Paizo join forces somehow. On the other hand, I haven't really liked True20.
I agree that Pathfinder will need to be "more" than just some houserules to be a long term opportunity - otherwise, why not just publish 3.5e adventures, it's not like 3.5e books will be hard to find (heck, they're already hitting Half Price Books en masse). I think that'll come - my read is that their heavy back-compatibility stance will get ground away at by a year of open beta. IMO what needs to be back compatible is mainly stat blocks - if the combat rules change etc. that's more "invisible" to previous product.
And I also agree with the "mini-less combat" option. I never even used the damn things until 3e and then not "all the time" until 3.5e.
Interesting.. shame they didn't go True20 for Pathfinder.
Why? True20 already exists... It's not like they can sell it as if it were their own rules!
If you already like True20, then there's no need for you to pick this one up...
If you don't have it, and are looking for something a little different, you'll now have a choice!
Since it's just a rules set, what was in there that you wanted them to do, that True20 doesn't already do for you?
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William A. Peterson
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"There is nothing in the world quite so exhilarating as being shot at, and missed!" Winston Churchill
Re: [RPG]: Pathfinder RPG Alpha Release 1, reviewed by mxyzplk (4/4)
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