Keith Symcox's page

I start out by saying that I like what I am seeing in the pathfinder system. This, however, has not been enough in the past to keep a system alive, as the gaming graveyards are filled with good systems that didn't get enough play to stay in print.

The problem I see with this system is that it requires the 3.5 books to play, and those will shortly go out of print as WOTC bails on 3.5 and goes to 4E.

Since you are going to have to fight against WOTC and their muscle to get this system accepted, have you considered launching a living campaign using pathfinder? This is a lot of work for someone, but at least one of the authors is from the circle in the LG campaign and so knows how to get it started.

All indications are that the new 4E living campaign (LFR) is going to gut the regional system that made LG interesting. There is an opportunity to not only capture the gamers who like the regional system, but also develop a vehicle that exposes new gamers to the system.

One thing that has always been a "reality break" in 3.5 is the concept of using a 2 handed melee weapon off of horseback. As far as I know, there has never been a military unit that used a two handed melee weapon from horseback for the simple reason that you would cut off your horse's head and then fall ignominiously out of the saddle because you had no balance. Even the lance or spear was "couched" so that it could be used in one hand while charging. The bastard sword is called the hand and a half sword because it can only be used one handed while on horseback, where the horse does all the momentum work.

Yet in 3.5, I see people using greatswords off of horseback so that they can get their x2 power attack.

Can we fix this in pathfinder?

I propose that this new edition make a blanket statement that all spells that are detrimental to the opponent must have SR. Too many 3.5 combats are nerfed by glitterdust and the whole array of no SR conjuration spells from CA that mimic the evocation school.

Monster CRs are usually calcuated factoring in SR. If spells with no SR are allowed to defeat them, the effective CR is much lower than the putative SR. e.g. a golem is supposed to be almost immune to magic, but their will save is poor. Seldom does one ever fight a golem that isn't blind (from glitterdust) and these days the wizards simply ray of xxxx them to death.