I have been playing pathfinder for several years on and off. Two of my biggest issues (and in fact many of my co-players as well) have been.
1. Power level of the players.
2. Complexity of rules.
Without going into a bunch of details that have been outlined in countless other threads the basic theme of Pathfinder is make the characters very powerful and hard to defeat. For some this is great, for others it makes the game lose a lot of the element of danger and fear and even respect of the players. My group will walk into just about any encounter with almost not a care in the world. They fully expect to win and if they do end up seriously injured they furl their eyebrows in confusion. Gone are the old school days of the players arguing about who has to go first, now its a race to the front of the pack to be the one to slay the monsters. Like I said, some like this others miss the fear players used to have in older games. Btw, this is just from the Core Rules, we haven't tried adding Mythic powers. I can't imagine why you would need them. My players already feel like gods on earth. And yes, I know you can find ways to challenge them (Please spare me the posts explaining how you do it as I already have my own ways that work), but the game system is arguably designed with player power baked in and at the forefront. And it only continues to grow and grow and grow with each new release.
D&D Next seems to be trying to find more of a balance by lowering the power level of the players from the start. This I really like and look forward to seeing how it develops. But everything I have read I like so far, like lower Armor Classes for the characters.
As for complexity, lets face it we have a zillion feats, spells, class powers, archetypes, monsters, monster templates, conditions, prestige classes, race abilities...heck we even have story feats. I am all for options but after several years I have only used Core, Bestiary 1, 2, some adventure path stuff and some background stuff. That's it and we still haven't scratched the surface. Creating an encounter for a higher level group takes time. It takes time to build out detailed NPCs. It takes time to build out unique monsters.
I don't know that D&D next is going to be able to fix this, however I have read that they are taking a more modular approach to the rules, maybe this will allow simplification I don't know. Honestly for this one, I don't know if there is an answer other than moving to a simpler system which in fact I am currently exploring.
I have enjoyed playing Pathfinder and likely will continue to do so, but I am looking for a game that brings back the danger element and if it can give me the ability to throw together encounters quickly with cool monsters and NPC's then awesome. D&D Next may turn out to be that system, so far I like the direction they are going in.
As a side note, I am also currently reading Castles and Crusades and it is very interesting merge of old school and new school. This will likely see some play time as well and see how it goes. I think my players will be stunned at the lack of mega weapons and powers but when the fear kicks in after seeing their friend go down from a simple goblin, it just might create a more vivid and memorable gaming experience.
I guess I could summarize Pathfinder as the Wal-Mart of RPG's for players. Its got anything and everything and its all cheap. I think me and my group want something smaller and more expensive. When the players get a new power or magic item it will be a big deal to them. I think it will mean more to them. We shall see, I will begin play testing in a couple weeks and will gladly share my findings.
