I converted to Pathfinder the day I learned of this wonderful little idea. I have enjoyed (and my group's have also enjoyed) the updates to our favorite character classes, feats, skills and spells. Recently I joined a play-by-post website where I use Pathfinder as well. What I have begun to notice as I dm/play in +3 games that use the Pathfinder system is there are several glaring problems (at least currently).
My biggest problem with the system is the omission of well memorized third edition rules (like do the same modifiers stack from multiple sources?). In the above mentioned rule, third edition (or 3.5) ended what I believe was the ability score section in the PHB (correct me if I am wrong) with a paragraph or two on how modifiers stack. I have poured over the book several times and failed to find the specific section that talks about how modifiers work. In fact outside of how modifiers that do not from from either a base value or an ability score modifier, I have been hard pressed to find how any modifier functions.
This has proven problematic for several reasons. For me as a DM and my more experienced players, we are forced to kind of hodge podge together a working idea of what the rules should be like in Pathfinder without ever really knowing what the rules should be. For my new players, I am forced to look them in the face and tell them that they really need to know two books (PHB and PF), and exactly what to pay attention to from which source and what to ignore. But still even at best I am forced to direct them to the SRD, where it will tell them why something doesn't work they way they want it but through no fault of their own but just because the book they made their character off of was incomplete.
The next issue that I think arises is a clear omission of several things (which I am sure have been brought up in several other threads but I am merely addressing the concerns of my group here and if you already know this is a problem great). Take for example the mysterious Deft Shield feat mentioned under the Two-Weapon Fighting style of the Ranger, or Control Winds under the druid spell list. For the first, all I can say is if that was a joke designed to get me to dig through your book and the SRD good work because at the end of the day it worked. I can realize that errors or made but the more a system is refined the less time I have to spend digging through a rulebook (in the case of deft shield, 4 people pouring through the entire wizard's library for 15 minutes) and more time doing actual gaming. Now I realize the second one was included in the Web Enhancement for spells and notation is made to where I can find the information but again I think this feeds into my argument in the above paragraph. To gain access to all class features and things listed in the core rulebook of the game I (in the best case scenario) access to another supplement and in the worst case scenario another book entirely. I think this tends to degrade from a founding principle of the game, that conversion work and referencing old work be put to a minimum
I guess what my ideal vision of Pathfinder is something that doesn't require another book or two to be made complete. Something I can just hand players, ask them to read and they will have all the rules they need to make a character function in this game.
The opinion of my many groups and myself is that Pathfinder is making strives in the direction but at the same time isn't built upon the greatest foundation. Pathfinder assumes a preexisting knowledge of DND which I think from my playtesting experience has been harmful for 2 key reasons: 1) It forces DMs to go and teach a system that we are only sort of using but not really (in forcing DMs to educate players on 3.5 and then Pathfinder) and 2) It isn't entirely clear on what portions of DnD 3.5 we should be ignoring and what parts they just forgot to talk about.
At the end of the day, I think that Pathfinder has made a great initial step in terms of giving the world a solid gaming system. But I think that perhaps now would be the time to integrate more of the basic gaming knowledge into the system so gaming groups aren't forced to live in the world of two games.
Note: Apologies if anyone feels this is the wrong thread, but I feel that my playtest experience is the foundation of my general criticism of the system.
