Things You Like About Pathfinder


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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I love the vastness of 3rd party content that allows GMs and players to effectively play an entirely different game.

I love the vastness of themes and setting and playstyles present in the adventure paths.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Joining in on the archetype love here. They really give you way more options for customizing your character to be exactly what you want than the plain classes can sometimes provide.

I also like how most of the rules, etc. and crunchy stuff are freely available online. I think that definitely helps draw in new people because there's no risk to trying out the system. (And it definitely helped me when I was living overseas for a year and didn't have access to all my books!)

Probably my favorite thing about Pathfinder is the setting and lore, though. It's such a detailed world that it gives GMs and PCs a lot to play with, while allowing the freedom to affect that world in whatever way you want. Golarion's a pretty cool place, and I've been having a lot of fun with it. Reading all the adventure paths and campaign settings and whatnot definitely gives you the sense that there are a ton of things they haven't gotten to fully exploring yet, which is always neat in a game world. There are a lot of in-game mysteries that provide both cool background and possible adventure hooks. It's a sandbox, and it gives you a lot of options.

Sovereign Court

I like the PRD. I have the hardcover books for gaming in my house, and I do have quite a few pdfs, but I appreciate the indexing for when I just need to find a rule right that second in the middle of an epic climatic fight.

I appreciate the toolbox nature of the lore - reading through Distant Shores recently made me want to just 'port each city out of Golarion and run a campaign in each, and there was plenty of content to facilitate that!

I very much enjoy some of the unique classes Paizo added to the D&D framework: Alchemist is one of my favourite classes and Bloodrager and Magus nicely allow familiar concepts to be easy and fun to name a few that spring to mind. I also really like the customisation options that archetypes allow, and that Pathfinder allows for most concepts to be represented in roleplaying *and* mechanics.

I greatly appreciate the community engagement and effort put in by the Paizo staff. I also like the constant and visible efforts to improve on their already very good content. Good job, people!


I love all of the different classes. My group has recently switched to 5E and I've yet to find a way to make a good Alchemist, Oracle, Cavalier, or Brawler facsimile. ESPECIALLY Cavalier which I've been dying to do for months.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Belulzebub wrote:
My group has recently switched to 5E and I've yet to find a way to make a good Alchemist, Oracle, Cavalier, or Brawler facsimile. ESPECIALLY Cavalier which I've been dying to do for months.

You could probably get some advice on that over in the "D&D 4th Edition (and beyond)" forum of this site.


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Archetypes - These work great for making class tweaks that really let players match what they wanted in their head, and can give GMs the tools they need to make an awesome but narrow specialist NPC

Everyone gets a toy every level - no boring level ups and more toys.

and especially:

Adventure Paths! - without these I would have given up GMing years ago. I just do not have the time to plan out whole worlds anymore, and don't have more experienced GMs in the area to learn more about adventure design from

EDIT: oh, and one more thing, the overheard thread ;-) When the people making a game seem like, you know, PEOPLE, it is much easier to part with my monies for their stuff.


I love the variety. I can make a Barbarian dozens of ways. Some optimized and some just interesting to play but far less powerful. I've played 3 different Inquisitors that are totally different in every way. I could play pathfinder for the next 5 years and do something different with it every time.

I like other games too but while fun seem to be more limited, not as big of tool kit. As well Pathfinder kind of encourages you to think out side the box and try new things. They give you lots of stuff in Unchained, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Campaign and even a bit in the Game Mastery Guide. Then you come to this site and the house rules section has all kind thing to get you creativity brewing.


Squirrel_Dude wrote:

I love the vastness of 3rd party content that allows GMs and players to effectively play an entirely different game.

I love the vastness of themes and setting and playstyles present in the adventure paths.

This is really good point. Not that I've gotten 3rd party stuff I've seen some interesting stuff. I might even run one some day. Like the Scifi one AP I saw last year. Haven't found anything steam punk but would love that, sure there is something out there.


I only skimmed through the priors, so I don't know for sure if anyone else has mentioned this yet, but: the skills revamp!

I absolutely love what Pathfinder did for the skills; no more buying seach, spot and listen -- no more buying hide and move silently. Perception and Stealth! Awesome.

Also a big fan of Rogue Talents, especially after the expansion of them in the Advanced Players' Guide.

Oracles, and Alchemists.

Anyway, these are some of the things I love about this game.


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I've thanked Paizo over and over on these boards. Their responsiveness to fans in print an online is amazing in this day and age.

I've also mentioned the options before, but not just for character creation. The whole game is modular, which means villains too.

As a GM who finally has some time on their hands once in a while it's nice to think about exactly what villain I'd like to throw at a group of heroes and then BUILD that villain. I've had

- A kobold courtesan who went from villain to NPC

- A fey-tainted bugbear who exuded and reveled in preternatural fear

- A tatzlwyrm ranger who really used natural traps to her advantage

And many others besides. Further I like that because of the balance of some of the numbers I can reskin monsters for whatever I need. Take the simple sprite: a CR 1/3 Tiny creature with some minor at will cantrips and light aura. Change up those powers using other cantrips from the Wizard, Cleric or Druid spell lists and you've got dozens of CR 1/3 to 1/2 (depending on how combat-centric you make them) to add diversity in your game.

Scarab Sages

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voska66 wrote:
Squirrel_Dude wrote:

I love the vastness of 3rd party content that allows GMs and players to effectively play an entirely different game.

I love the vastness of themes and setting and playstyles present in the adventure paths.

This is really good point. Not that I've gotten 3rd party stuff I've seen some interesting stuff. I might even run one some day. Like the Scifi one AP I saw last year. Haven't found anything steam punk but would love that, sure there is something out there.

Pure Steam is a 3pp steampunk setting that has some interesting ideas to it. Zeitgeist is a 3pp steampunk adventure path (and campaign setting) and it is absolutely incredible. My table is about through the first book of it and is loving it.


Di-satisfied with 3.5 failing to fix 3.0, I started work on house rules for my game. Then the Golem apparently stole half of them, almost of my to-do list and published it! And the only REAL gripe I wound up with was the +2 to stats.

Archetypes are a great way to personalize characters and generate intriguing campaign fluff AND grit to make the world just that much more real to the players. The immense crossover with 3pp material (as opposed to the Cold Shoulder) has allowed me to crank the game closer to the game I wish to run, be it the vast array of archetypes produced by a number of creative souls or the hash work I made of Rogue Genius' Spell Points. I reckon you could say I love the great answers to questions I never thought to ask. Umbral Reaver solved my balancing races problem before I really crawled into that Jeffries Tube. Being able to propose an idea and get serious responses and the 'never forget that we're here to have fun' spirit really help with getting overloaded.


Jiggy wrote:
Belulzebub wrote:
My group has recently switched to 5E and I've yet to find a way to make a good Alchemist, Oracle, Cavalier, or Brawler facsimile. ESPECIALLY Cavalier which I've been dying to do for months.
You could probably get some advice on that over in the "D&D 4th Edition (and beyond)" forum of this site.

In fairness I could probably make a Brawler as a Monk/Fighter and Cavalier with a Paladin/Fighter and the "Find Steed" spell even though mounted combat isn't really as exciting as Pathfinder. But Oracle and Alchemist are so unique in their mechanics it's very hard to recreate. (SmiloDan's valiant effort notwithstanding.)

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