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Please cancel all subscriptions except the Adventure Path for me.
This includes:
Pathfinder Modules
Pathfinder Chronicles
Pathfinder Companion
Planet Stories
This is primarily due to the fact that in discussion of the Beta Rules Jason has said that the number of skill points for fighters is fixed at 2. Skills are my primary concern with the move to Pathfinder RPG, and I was hoping to see all classes get at least 4. I was tempted to cancel at several times earlier, but I opted to wait until it was more definite.
After Pathfinder RPG is released I will evaluate it and may consider resubscribing.
Do what I am planning on doing. Uping the fighter's skill points to 4 instead of two. Easy enough house rule.
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Please cancel all subscriptions except the Adventure Path for me.
This includes:
Pathfinder Modules
Pathfinder Chronicles
Pathfinder Companion
Planet StoriesThis is primarily due to the fact that in discussion of the Beta Rules Jason has said that the number of skill points for fighters is fixed at 2. Skills are my primary concern with the move to Pathfinder RPG, and I was hoping to see all classes get at least 4. I was tempted to cancel at several times earlier, but I opted to wait until it was more definite.
After Pathfinder RPG is released I will evaluate it and may consider resubscribing.
kinda seems like you are reporting on "the straw that broke the camels back." or else you just have way too much emphasis on this one minor point.
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While I thank the gallery for their comments, this was an intensely personal decision, and I ask that you respect it.
This is in no way a hostage situation. I have not indicated that if they grant fighters 4 skill points per level that I will change my mind. Only that when Pathfinder is released I will make an evaluation of the quality of the product and make my personal decision accordingly.
I was a little rushed when posting my request to cancel my subscriptions, but this is not the first time that I was going to do so. I wrote a multi-page post a couple of weeks ago explaining why I was cancelling the subscriptions that I have. I felt that Paizo deserves an explanation, and in this case, it is certainly the issue of the 'straw that broke the camel's back'.
Since the money I spend is my money, I do not feel any obligation to spend it with Paizo, unless the value of product I receive exceeds the value of the money to me. I have recently seen dramatically increased expenses owing in part to the beginning of the academic year and my child beginning day care. The extra $650 we're spending on day care has to come from somewhere. Since Paizo products are an elective expense, I ought to cancel my subsciption from simple pragmatism. However, that alone was not enough to inform my decision.
I do not need any Paizo products. I am not currently running a campaign, but am instead a player. The game that I'm involved in has just begun, and will likely take several months to conclude. After the end of this campaign I have several other APs that I can run. I have not run any of the prior APs from start to finish, and have the Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide and will soon have Second Darkness to choose from. I also have yet to run a single Pathfinder Module (and I have them all). I also have 60+ issues of Dungeon to draw on for additional adventure material. I have another shelf full of Necromancer game modules that I have yet to even read, and several more campaign setting/adventure books, including the World's Largest City, the World's Largest Dungeon, and Ptolus. Hopefully it is apparent that I have no current need for additional game materials, and will not for some time yet to come.
When I choose to buy Paizo products that I know I do not need, the reason has more to do with my future selfish needs. If I don't buy the products I don't need now, Paizo may not exist for me to purchase the products I may need in the future. Since Paizo has excellent quality and product values I believe that helping them to remain in business is in my best interest. They could not exist as a company if all of their customers chose to wait to buy the product until they had used everything else that Paizo produced. Thus purchasing from Paizo was not even a matter of want but of convenience - having a company that produces the kinds of material I *MIGHT* want or need was the valuable commodity that I considered worth the expenditure of my money, despite increased costs and fears of a deteriorating economy.
Paizo will be switching to Pathfinder in August of 2009. If I were going to be playing Pathfinder in 2009 it would certainly be worthwhile to support Paizo until that time arrives. However, I do not believe that I will be supporting Pathfinder. There are numerous 'problems' I have with the Beta (and have had with the Alpha). The reason I delayed my decision to cancel last time is that most of my concerns could still be addressed. After the Beta was released I was extremely disappointed at the small number of changes from the Alpha 3. I was afraid that if so little changed between Alpha 3 and Beta, there would not be much difference between Beta and Final Version. Since that isn't NECESSARILY true, I decided to wait a bit longer.
To be clear, I really do enjoy 3.5. It is an incredibly flexible system, and I'm extremely familiar with it and am easily able to modify it to accomplish my aims as a DM. Since I can play 3.5 or a houseruled version and have fun, the only incentive to switch to Pathfinder is if the game system is BETTER than 3.5. In my mind, that is no small feat. That means that every considered change should improve the game. So far, I find that is not the case.
A comprehensive list of all the things I don't like about the Beta would be more trouble than it is worth, since many of those may change. The 'sticking points' or 'must haves' that Paizo has changed are much more limited.
1) All classes should have a minimum of 4 skill points per level.
2) Concentration should be a skill.
3) Search should not be included in Perception.
4) Skills like Decipher Script (linguistics) should not include a free extra language every time you put a rank in it.
5) Save or Die should be an interesting option, but there should be a chance for a PC to survive on a failed save.
6) Hit points a barbarian loses during a rage should not be subtracted from their full normal total.
7) A barbarian should not be able to switch from Mighty Rage to Rage to Greater Rage with a corresponding change in their ability modifiers.
8) Two equal characters attempting a combat maneuever on each other should have about a 50% chance of success.
That's it.
There are a few other things I'd like to see. I think that Tumble was a great skill and that Acrobatics is overpowered, but I could live with it. I think that 3.5 Power Attack was better than Pathfinder Power Attack, but I could live with it. As you can see half of my concerns are related to skills. I think that is the one area in 3.5 that pretty much sucks. I think that Pathfinder does some things better with regard to skills, but every change should be an improvement. I'm not willing to switch to a system that does 25% of the things better, 50% of them the same and 25% worse.
I don't expect that Paizo will bend over to accomodate me. They have a lot of other customers, and it is quite obvious from reading the boards that pretty much every customer has a different opinion about how the game should be designed. But I also don't expect any of those customers to support Paizo when they know they're getting a product that they know that they don't want. Now, I have ideas on how to achieve each of those 8 points that I consider critical to my switching to Pathfinder, but for most of them my 'desired solution' isn't the only one. I'm also not trying to influence any one else's decision. Paizo requests that cancellations be done on their public forum, so for that reason providing an explanation is certainly a good idea, but it is also time consuming, so depends entirely upon how much leisure time I have to provide it.
If I'm wrong and the final product that Paizo releases hits those points, I'll probably resubscribe to all of their products. If they don't, well, I don't need a new edition of the game, I have plenty of material. If Paizo incorporates all of those points into their Beta 2 or Beta 3, I might consider changing my mind earlier, but that is because my hope for getting the product I want would be restored. I'm going to be completely selfish about this. I'll spend my money on a product that I want, not one that I don't.
I hope nobody here feels that my personal decision is anything other than that (it's not 'taking my ball and going home') and it should not be considered as an attack or disapproval of the people who enjoy the form Pathfinder is in right now. Just like 4th edition is not right for me, Pathfinder does not seem to be right for me. I had hoped it would be.
I no longer have that hope, but I will continue watching lest I be surprised.
Oh, I empathize about the day care costs. We spend over $800 a month on them now. We used to spend more, but our oldest is now old enough to be a latch-key kid after school.
It's just that your initial cancellation read kind of like the lack of 4 skill points per level was the cause of the cancellations, which I thought was really weird for Planet Stories...
