| Starrak |
Let me preface my remarks by saying that I was invested to the tune of 25 hardcover 3.5 books, so the prospect of an upcoming noncompatible(!) revision to the D@D system annoyed me greatly--at first. I was pretty determined not to reinvest all that money into a 4th edition, and had I not changed my mind I would be using Pathfinder as my "update" edition. I have read the beta rules and they take everything I liked about 3.5 and buff it up till it shines. I'm happy for all the folks who are switching to it--Pathfinder looks very good, indeed.
Unfortunately, it doesn't--and maybe CAN'T--fix the problem with 3rd edition I found so vexing that I gave it the boot from game table, and that problem is monsters. When I started my 3rd edition campaign (it's a Dungeon Master's lament you are reading here, good folks) I was deeply impressed with the sheer volume of possibilities for player characters built into the rules. The jump forward from 2nd edition was dramatic, most of the changes were for the better--that is, if you were a player.
Where it broke down for me was running combat. Combat had been slowed to the point where it no longer felt like D@D, since fast combat had been a hallmark of the system since the earliest versions of the game. The designers built the same complexity and variety into the monsters as the did the players, but it slowed down the gameplay far too much. Even after nearly 3 years of use, this problem never really went away. The rules assumed a massive amount of prep time on the part of the DM, and even fully prepped, a 3rd edition monster is a slow moving beast when the dice hit the table.
If Paizo wants me to consider Pathfinder this must be resolved. It's what you'd call a non-negotiable demand. I come from the First Edition days, and my style as a DM is very extemporaneous. I need to be able to execute my ideas on the fly, since my very best material comes to me during the game itself. That's where 4th edition sold me, and that's why I am running it now. Everything is laid out like it ought to be, everything resolves quickly, and the gameplay feels like D@D even if so much else is new.
That's my commentary, folks, and good luck to Paizo and to all of you. Paizo will be selling me downloads and tile sets, but they won't be selling me Pathfinder--for now.