nudj12's page

LazarX wrote:

Pathfinder made significant progress in easing that disparity, to the point where it's really the bother of those who theorycraft more than they play, or of GM's who are overly lax with spellcasters.

As others have said, the disparity is only an issue if you make it one.

It tends to come up in our group because a couple of the players enjoy playing wizards and are experienced enough to identify how to get the most out of the class (without being full on optimisers). However, our party's extremely optimised hungry ghost monk is an untouchable killing machine at the moment, so is (almost) holding his own.

Having said that, I think that if anything Pathfinder has made the disparity greater. In my opinion, the benefits wizards get (such as +2 to casting stat (unless for some reason you choose not to play a human, elf, half orc or half elf), increased hit die, extra class features, relaxation on barred schools, concentration no longer being a skill) are better than the new benefits that (say) fighters get.

That hit die change might suck. I might HR that.

Thanks for all the thoughts. I don't really care about imbalance with my kids, I just wanted to get some thoughts because people seem to bring it up. Putting it all together, it sound like:

1. Definitely start with the beginner set

2. Imbalance is only an issue with the new Pathfinder options if you are a munchkin instead of a character bulider are are a 20th level rules-fu master.

3. The old methods of not letting wizards "sleep" in peace between every encounter, not being soft on ambushing, and choosing a variety of obsticles that the players aren't expecting are sufficient to make high level wizards need other people.

Looks like fun! I just hope I haven't ruined my kids with video games.

nudj

I think The Beginner Box would be a great place to start. It's good value, clear and easy-to-follow and limited to fifth level.

The biggest difference I think you'll find from 'the old days' is that rules now are much more complicated and nuanced. The beginner box is less of a culture shock, in my view, than jumping straight into the Core Rulebook.

Well I GM'd some GURPS, so I think I can handle the complexity! However my kids can't so I think you are right about starting with he beginner box. Thanks for alerting me to it.

I am an old 1st edition guy who stopped playing many years ago but is trying to get back in to play with my kids. Basically, I need to decide what to buy. I think Pathfinder is the right choice but, I have one concern that I was hoping people on this forum would address:

Basically tons of people on the internet seem to think that around 15th level I will discover that 3rd edition/Pathfinder has (uniquely among ALL editions) made wizards so insanely powerful and versatile that all other classes are useless.

I'm sure this is an old topic to you, but I have yet to hear anyone defend Pathfinder on this point so I would appreciate some thoughts.

Thanks!