A good chunk of the people that could answer this are away at the Origins gaming convention - might be a while until you get an official response.
Creative Director
|
This is a great idea! It'd be cool if folk post any more questions they might have about the PFRPG (or ones they think would fit well into a FAQ). Jason's at Origins until next Tuesday, but once he's back I'll chat with him about building this document up.
SO! Until then, keep the questions rolling on in!
I'll take a stab at some of these:
Q: What are the goals of Pathfinder RPG?
Best expressed on the Pathfinder RPG page. Scroll down to "From the Lead Designer:" and "History and Design Goals".
Q: Some of the ideas in the Alpha rules are way out there. How "out there" are the final rules going to be?
Here I'm going to have to venture a guess and only by reading between the lines. Some of the changes made in the Alpha were deliberately 'out-there' to see what people were interested in seeing and push the development of the game. Some of those ideas have gotten a lot of resistance and will likely be dropped. I get the impression that the rules released in the beta will be very close to what will be released in the final product so your best bet might be to wait for the beta and see. Based on the comments from the developers there are still plenty of changes to come though, in particular they are very concerned about...
Q: High-level encounters (in 3.5) take too long because there is too much rolling going on. How are you going to speed things up?
The answer is they don't know yet. This is one of the top priorities of the Paizo's leadership though. You can read a lengthy thread about it here.
|
I HEARTILY agree! An FAQ is a GREAT idea! It should be right there on the main page of the web site!
I have a question (or questions) that I think need to be on this:
"Please explain the difference between Pathfinder, Pathfinder RPG, Pathfinder Chronicles etc."
I actually started a thread about this here
... but I think the various Pathfinder product lines need to be CLEARLY explained in this FAQ.
Thanks!
Q: With the core classes receiving such an immense upgrade, what will prestige classes look like? And will I still be able to use the PrCs from various "older" books?
If you can keep this post updated with the most current/ accurate answers it would be very nice. Then you can point outsiders at this thread.
|
This is a great idea! It'd be cool if folk post any more questions they might have about the PFRPG (or ones they think would fit well into a FAQ). Jason's at Origins until next Tuesday, but once he's back I'll chat with him about building this document up.
SO! Until then, keep the questions rolling on in!
Personally, I'm just waiting for the Beta book (I just preordered the print edition).
However, if I hadn't been reading these forums for the last three months, I guess my questions would be:
* Why are you writing your own game instead of (a) sticking with 3.5 or (b) migrating to 4E?
* What are the main ways that PFRPG will differ from D&D 3.X?
* I've bought a lot of 3.X books. Will I still be able to use the races, classes, feats, spells, items and monsters in those books?
* Will PFRPG be open licensed?
|
Creative Director
|
Q: With the core classes receiving such an immense upgrade, what will prestige classes look like? And will I still be able to use the PrCs from various "older" books?
The goal is to allow the PrCs from older books, but those aren't open content so we won't and CAN'T make an effort to make sure they all work perfect with the new system. That said... I suspect that when we get around to addressing prestige classes we'll talk more about how they work and what to do to convert older PrCs. This info ISN'T in the Beta... it's something we'll be addressing later in the year.
|
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
|
Q: With the core classes receiving such an immense upgrade, what will prestige classes look like? And will I still be able to use the PrCs from various "older" books?The goal is to allow the PrCs from older books, but those aren't open content so we won't and CAN'T make an effort to make sure they all work perfect with the new system. That said... I suspect that when we get around to addressing prestige classes we'll talk more about how they work and what to do to convert older PrCs. This info ISN'T in the Beta... it's something we'll be addressing later in the year.
Does this mean that the DMG prestige classes which are in the SRD aren't in Beta?
|
Creative Director
|
* Why are you writing your own game instead of (a) sticking with 3.5 or (b) migrating to 4E?
With Wizards of the Coast switching to 4th edition, the core rulebooks for 3.5 are going out of print. They'll swiftly become more and more difficult for new players to find for sale, and eventually you'll have to resort to locations like eBay, used bookstores, and other places to track them down. The SRD will of course still be online, but there NEEDS to be a line of Core Rules available for purchase as a physical copy, so once the 3.5 rulebooks are gone, Paizo needs to do something about that. We aren't switching to the 4th Edition rules because we feel that those rules do not support the types of stories we want to tell, and because the GSL (Game System License) for those rules is far too restrictive to be a viable option for us. Which basically leaves us with one option; to create a new ruleset. We could, of course, simply reprint the SRD rules, but we instead chose to invest more work in it and polish up the 3.5 rules a bit more, just as WotC did with the 3.5 rules versus the 3.0 rules. We're combining both our own long experience with the rules and feedback from tens of thousands of our customers to ensure that these changes and fixes and upgrades are the ones we all want, and hope to end up with a new iteration of the 3rd edition rules that, while remaining compatible with 3.0 and 3.5, has a lot of the problem areas fixed.
* What are the main ways that PFRPG will differ from D&D 3.X?
There's a lot of little differences, but not many big ones, actually. One of the main ones, though, is that characters will be a little more powerful at lower level, with slightly better stats and hit points. This is to address the dread problem of how fragile 1st level characters are. These benefits will become increasingly less apparent as you level up, I suspect; the difference of an additional 4 hit points is pretty big at 1st level, for example, but nearly meaningless at 10th or 20th.
* I've bought a lot of 3.X books. Will I still be able to use the races, classes, feats, spells, items and monsters in those books?
That's the goal, yes. There'll be a little conversion work on your part to play a raptor or a goliath or a beguiler, I suspect, but it shouldn't be much conversion work.
* Will PFRPG be open licensed?
Yes. It's based on the OGL and SRD, after all, and will be as open as that was.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
However, if I hadn't been reading these forums for the last three months, I guess my questions would be:
* Why are you writing your own game instead of (a) sticking with 3.5 or (b) migrating to 4E?
* What are the main ways that PFRPG will differ from D&D 3.X?
* I've bought a lot of 3.X books. Will I still be able to use the races, classes, feats, spells, items and monsters in those books?
* Will PFRPG be open licensed?
Most of that is answered directly on the Pathfinder RPG page, which is hopefully one of the first things people are reading....
|
Creative Director
|
Does this mean that the DMG prestige classes which are in the SRD aren't in Beta?Q: With the core classes receiving such an immense upgrade, what will prestige classes look like? And will I still be able to use the PrCs from various "older" books?The goal is to allow the PrCs from older books, but those aren't open content so we won't and CAN'T make an effort to make sure they all work perfect with the new system. That said... I suspect that when we get around to addressing prestige classes we'll talk more about how they work and what to do to convert older PrCs. This info ISN'T in the Beta... it's something we'll be addressing later in the year.
Correct. Neither are artifacts or cursed items. We didn't have room to include them, and since these items are things that tend to pop up with less frequency in games or only at higher levels, we chose to set them aside for now. We'll be doing regular updates to the Beta though; I suspect that prestige classes will be among the first of those updates.
We'll be doing regular updates to the Beta though; I suspect that prestige classes will be among the first of those updates.
Are these regular updates to the beta going to be rolled out to the testers? In what format? Obviously you aren't going to be reprinting the book multiple times but will there be revisions to the Beta PDF or supplemental PDFs?
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
We'll be doing regular updates to the Beta though; I suspect that prestige classes will be among the first of those updates.Are these regular updates to the beta going to be rolled out to the testers? In what format? Obviously you aren't going to be reprinting the book multiple times but will there be revisions to the Beta PDF or supplemental PDFs?
Updates will come in the form of PDF supplements. (We don't want to "penalize" anybody for buying the book.)
Updates will come in the form of PDF supplements. (We don't want to "penalize" anybody for buying the book.)We'll be doing regular updates to the Beta though; I suspect that prestige classes will be among the first of those updates.Are these regular updates to the beta going to be rolled out to the testers? In what format? Obviously you aren't going to be reprinting the book multiple times but will there be revisions to the Beta PDF or supplemental PDFs?
Awesome! You made my day.
|
|
Does this mean that the DMG prestige classes which are in the SRD aren't in Beta?Correct. Neither are artifacts or cursed items. We didn't have room to include them, and since these items are things that tend to pop up with less frequency in games or only at higher levels, we chose to set them aside for now. We'll be doing regular updates to the Beta though; I suspect that prestige classes will be among the first of those updates.
Jason was weak and needed sleep before the deadline. ;-)