PurpleGoblinofDoom's page

I don't know if this is allowed explicitly in the rulebook, but it makes sense to me. Consult your GM; this is specific enough to be in his/her domain.

The villain 'shifted' the planes so that the links between the planes were inaccessable. Perhaps, spells and scrolls prepared before big baddie cut off the material plane already carved their own path through these planar links, making them functional. Then, the PCs would have to scour dungeons and battle wizards to get their hands on scrolls of gate and plane shift. Then, they could unite the bickering and befuzzled deities and battle big baddie (who is a clever and powerful god with many minions) for control of the omniverse.

I am preparing for a Rise of the Runelords campaign, and one of the players pointed out to me that since we had and alchemist, wizard, and druid in the party who could cast healing spells, perhaps we didn't need a healing character like a cleric. I always had based a well balanced party off of the classic fighter-rogue-cleric-wizard combo. I'm still not certain that a cleric is needed in the party, but I want to know, based on your experiences, what you think makes a well balanced party. This is my method:

- 1 part defence. This part absorbs damage and leads enemies away from the other members of the party.

- 1 part attack. This part does the real damage.

- 1 part healing/support. This part heals and supports the other parts of the party.

- 1 part utility. This part does skill checks, makes magic items, and helps the party when not in battle.

Notice I said 'part' not 'PC'. Each part of the party can be split up among many players, but the overall ratio should remain balanced. This is my strategy, please tell me what you think about this topic. Can a party of one class be balanced well? Can one player alone fill in all these rolls? What parts of the ratio can be changed? What do you think?

I think that, though ambitious, a modular rule system would be best. Paizo could develop a modular and open source general rule system for RPG's. GM's and game designers would be able to do whatever they want with it, but paizo gets the credit. Then, paizo could make the rules for the races, classes, spells, items, and general details of Golarion proprietary, so paizo still makes money off the complete pathfinder game. They could sell a beginner box containing something like this:
- The basic rules
- Character sheets
- Player's Guide (with pathfinder specific races, classes, spells, items, etc.)
- A high quality adventure that takes them up to 5 levels and gives them a good intro to RPG's
- Character sheets
- Dice
One of the potentially bad things about pathfinder and DnD is the fact that you need a rule book, a beastiary, and an adventure if you don't have time to set one up yourself. This could be intimidating for people who are just looking for a casual family game. I definitely think pathfinder is the best game humans have ever invented, but consider the following scenario. George Franklin and his wife are browsing the aisles of Game Empire*, looking for an interesting game to play with their kids over the weekend. They see the rows upon rows of pathfinder books, and it looks interesting. But, they don't know what to get, and they definitely don't want to buy the whole store. Luckily for them, Game Empire has very helpful staff who could get them started in pathfinder without confusion. Al the same, as BB has shown, there are many people who want a game with simple rules and a massive possibility for fun. This 'pathfinder box' should be supplemented with a publication not unlike DnD's dungeon/dragon magazine. The problem with pathfinder rules is that they're designed around a set of premade classes. This makes it hard to adapt them to, say, a sci-fi setting.

*Big board game/RPG store In LA