Modoru Redgrave

haydenmccullen's page

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 59 posts (345 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 2 aliases.



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Any tips? This is probably my favorite AP, so I've decided to try to convert it over.


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Hello, all! I just wanted to drop in and do my part in discussing the playtest. It's awesome that Paizo lets its players contribute this way, and I fully intend to make the most of it.

So I read through the playtest rulebook. I won't claim to have memorized it, because that's not what I was going for, but I really like what I've seen so far. Here are a few particulars:

1. Transition from GP to SP as the main currency of adventuring (but not treasure values). This keeps numbers small, and keeps the currency usage in-line with most real-world applications; almost no one in Golarion gets large amounts of gold pieces. Having everything in SP makes things make more sense, and Paizo scaled their numbers back enough that I don't feel like characters will have to cart around wheelbarrows of silver.

2. The multiclass and prestige feats. These seem fantastic to me. I like playing gish characters, I like playing combo characters, but optimization and rulesets have always made this a problem. I want a wizard/fighter? Lose your spellcasting, or go into a prestige class that may or may not be in-flavor for you, or suboptimal. The feats allow us to choose how much of the other classes we want, without allowing abusive "dipping" as happened in previous editions of the World's Most Popular Fantasy Roleplaying Game (TM). I look forward to trying some "multiclass" characters out during the playtest.

3. Feats in general. Dividing into ancestral, skill, class, and general feats seems great. It gives more ways to customize the characters while discouraging the type of focus that only Batman would subscribe to - in 1E, it'd be easy for a Fighter who wanted to focus on a particular combat style to have, by level 20, more than 15 feats associated with that style...and almost nothing else. Also, the feats really help differentiate characters, making elves different from other elves and rogues different from other rogues. Archetypes did this in 1E, and alternate racial traits, but it was always a balancing act - what do I trade away vs what do I gain? This seems more organic and more fun.

4. The stat system. Taking the confusing math out of point-buy is a win. Paizo created a clean, elegant chargen system that builds the PC from the ground up, and I'm excited to try it out. Also, the stat boosts being worth more for below-18 stats is an interesting idea that will, again, encourage well-rounded characters (but not carbon copies), or force players to make the hard choices to squeeze out that +1 bonus to Intelligence or whatever.

5. The crafting system seems...useful? But complicated. Having only read through the book once, I don't have much to say about it, other than that I hope it makes crafting worthwhile, as it often wasn't in 1E.

6. Exploration mode - this just seems like what everyone was doing anyway, given some rules and particular descriptions. Go for it. I don't expect to use this much, but it might be helpful if someone is attempting something that I don't know how to accommodate - I can refer to the exploration actions and map it over as best I can.

7. Changes to skills - I really like the proficiency model; I first saw it in 5E D&D, and Paizo seems to have improved it. Giving different levels of proficiency is a simple way to calculate things without having to assign ranks every level, making sure you've put in the right amount of points and added all your bonuses. Less paperwork is good, both for GMs and players.

8. Magic items- I have to see how this works in practice. Resonance seems like a different way to enforce the "slot" system, plus limit item use per day. Okay...in 1E that didn't come up much for my groups, but I can see how it could have been a problem. The different levels (common, uncommon, rare) is great, and I look forward to introducing that idea so that some things are awe-inspiring to the characters. Runes and swapping them out is just different than before, but I imagine that it'll accomplish its goal well enough.

So that's what I've got for now. I'll be updating this thread with further thoughts, both as I read through more material and as I play the game with my group. Feel free to comment (kindly! There is no wrongbadfun here!) or ask questions for clarification if you'd like.

Happy gaming!