Need Advice on Running the Beta in a 3.5E World

[Elijah Snow]

I consider myself a fairly seasoned 3.5E DM that wants to run the Pathfinder RPG Beta rules with my 3.5E campaign setting and official sourcebooks (WotC and others).

Any guidance on the following questions would be appreciated:

1. Do I have to read and memorize the Beta paperback from cover to cover to use it (in other words, is everything changed)?

2. How different are the basics of combat and spellcasting?

3. If I "pick and choose" rule mods (like channeling energy), are these balanced with 3.5 on their own or only within the context of the entire beta ruleset.

4. Do I force my players to buy the beta as well, or can they use their existing 3.5 PHB?

Thanks.

[tergiver]

1. That's the question one of my seasoned players asked when we decided to playtest the Beta, since he'd missed all the Alpha playtests.

He flipped through the book and determined that yes, everything had changed. I don't think you have to memorize it, though, but definitely read through it cover to cover a few times and maybe take a few notes. Mostly, your players will want to read up on their race and class, feats, and spells.

It would be really great to have a list of "Divergences from 3.5", and I'm sure someone will create that before too long.

2. I don't think the basics are very different. The use of the Combat Maneuver Bonus (CMB) to create a unified mechanic for grapple/disarm/bull rush is the big combat change. There are a number of smaller changes in combat feats, of which I think the power attack, expertise, and cleave changes are the most noticeable.

School, bloodline and domain powers are the biggest spellcasting changes.

3. That's a good question - I would say that it depends on the rule mod. Some may be, some aren't. Channeling energy is kind of unbalanced in a balanced way, if you know what I mean. It's more powerful in some ways than 3.x turning (heals the living, does partial damage), less powerful in others (undead get a will save), but it's designed to keep lower level parties adventuring longer by giving the cleric a broad and shallow source of healing.

On a related note, I'm running my games as:
-) Races mostly from the beta
-) Any LA+1 race is fine to play as LA+0
-) Try to take spells & magic items from the Beta
-) Feats are OK from any book, subject to GM approval
-) Everyone gets a flat +6 HP bonus, including monsters, NPCs, and summoned creatures

I only kept a couple of my house rules, like "First round of combat is a partial action." A couple of my house rules are now in Pathfinder, like "Undead get their charisma bonus to hit points", which makes that easier.

4. Character creation with only one beta is pretty darned tricky. They can download the Beta PDF for free - if there's a way you can all play with laptops out, I recommend it. Otherwise, you're going to get a lot of blocking, at least during character creation. It's too different to really use the PHB. Actual play will hopefully be different.

[Elijah Snow]

That's a very helpful response, thanks. It gives me hope that I can run the beta fairly easily with 3.5.

Just curious- what is the rationale for "Any LA+1 race is fine to play as LA+0"?