RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
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Ok. So the legendary PFRPG will be released within a month. I'm debating picking it up.
Sell, or unsell me on it. Of course, there's a twist. :)
I generally play variant handbooks such as Iron Heroes or Arcana Evolved. With this in mind, what's in Pathfinder rpg that would be applicable to the variant handbooks?
Pick up the free Beta. If you don't like it, then it's probably not for you. That's the best sales pitch out there and you can't argue with free.
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I think it fits well with Arcana Evolved. The new classes mostly have something interesting going on every two levels at least, with something always cool at 1st level. (A lot like the AE classes, in that regard)
I can imagine a Litorian Wizard, or a Sibeccai Bard very easily because the feeling of the classes of PF and AE are so similar.
Iron Heroes has (at least for me) always been a unique setting, with its own rules. It is a low-fantasy game, where the special rules presented in Iron Heroes help each character attain heroism. If you wanted to modify Iron Heroes to a medium or high fantasy game, it could be somewhat compatible with Pathfinder.
I think that a lot of stuff was "borrowed" from Iron Heroes and Arcana Evolved, so the fighter, rogue, barbarian, and ranger feel very similar to Iron Heroes. (At least they do to me right now. I haven't yet made or played one of these classes). The combat options have really been opened up for the nonmagic classes, mainly because of the increased options given to the classes at every (or almost every) level.
So, to summarize.... The magic classes feel like AE classes, and the nonmagic classes feel like IH classes. It's not 100% directly compatible, but the feeling is definitely there and if you wanted to plane-jump a character from Iron Heroes to Arcana Evolved, Pathfinder would likely be right in between them.
I think the wonderful thing about Pathfinder is what one of my players pointed out. There is something you can do at first level. 3e and 3.5 failed to bring out first level awesomeness, which is something both AE and IH have done... Pathfinder brings that back again.
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Pick up the free Beta. If you don't like it, then it's probably not for you. That's the best sales pitch out there and you can't argue with free.Ok. So the legendary PFRPG will be released within a month. I'm debating picking it up.
Sell, or unsell me on it. Of course, there's a twist. :)
I generally play variant handbooks such as Iron Heroes or Arcana Evolved. With this in mind, what's in Pathfinder rpg that would be applicable to the variant handbooks?
That's sums it up. Check out the character previews, the advance mini bestiary, check out the beta, play the game—it speaks for itself.
I like that every class gets a class feature (or at least a new spell level) every level. No empty levels.
I also like getting more feats (every odd level), because there have been lots and lots of new feats added over the years, but some of the original ones are almost compulsory. Adding a few extra feats gives everyone a little wiggle room on their builds.
I also like how the skills were combined and simplfied without losing anything (except Use Rope--which I actually a lot in my swashbuckling seagoing 3.5 campaign!).
I like the new talents rogues get and uses of rage and rage points Barbarians get. I like the idea of a point pool for activating powers and abilities. Monks and Paladins also get point-based abilities, I believe.
It's just....neat.
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I like that every class gets a class feature (or at least a new spell level) every level. No empty levels.
I also like getting more feats (every odd level), because there have been lots and lots of new feats added over the years, but some of the original ones are almost compulsory. Adding a few extra feats gives everyone a little wiggle room on their builds.
I also like how the skills were combined and simplfied without losing anything (except Use Rope--which I actually a lot in my swashbuckling seagoing 3.5 campaign!).
I like the new talents rogues get and uses of rage and rage points Barbarians get. I like the idea of a point pool for activating powers and abilities. Monks and Paladins also get point-based abilities, I believe.
It's just....neat.
See the talents, and point pools are very similar to Iron Heroes mechanics. I think its quite possible to bring in the Iron Heroes classes with their abilities (but not their feats) without imbalancing the game. The same with Arcana Evolved classes. I will have to test this, and put some IH classes against PF classes. Could be a very interesting experiment.
The Pathfinder RPG makes every level interesting for characters, from 1st to 20th. Druids can have cool animal companions at first level, and never have to give up their old ones. There are some neat new spells, and a lot of problems 3.5 had were fixed according to the opinions of over ten thousand expert gamers, many of which were around in AD&D. And, bear in mind that these are the people who worked on Dragon and Dungeon, and who did lots of awesome work. These are professionals, and they are very good at what they do. They've worked with D&D for a while. They aren't just another upstart company. It's my opinion that Pathfinder is as much of a scion to 3.5 as Kobold Quarterly is to Dragon.
Anyways, my two cp.
Also, welcome.
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Funnily enough, I personally don't like D&D that much in any incarnation as far as role playing goes (though I'll agree that it does dungeon crawls brilliantly). It's mostly because the classes are too separate - in 3.5, single class Fighters, for example, can never be much good at moving around stealthily because their maximum is half their level +1 as opposed to their level +3; same with any kind of speech that doesn't involve threatening to pound someone's face in with a mallet or treating injuries. This makes no sense to me, quite frankly. A class should determine the skills you're already trained in, not the skills you can train with in the future.
Bear in mind that the following is from the Beta, and I'm not sure what will be included in the full game:
Skills work differently in Pathfinder; you can only put one rank per level into a skill and it costs the same regardless of whether the skill is a class skill or not. Class skills then get a +3 bonus, meaning that while a single class Fighter will never be as good at moving stealthily as a rogue of the same level and dexterity (and indeed shouldn't be), he can be almost as good at it. The skills have also been streamlined; rarely used skills have been absorbed into other ones, spot, listen and search have been merged into perception while hide and move silently have been merged into stealth. The grappling rules are clearer and, in my opinion, considerably better, and the new feats add some rather interesting options.
Races have all been adjusted as well; they all get extra weapon proficiencies (humans just pick a Martial weapon, while the rest gain proficiencies based on culture), gain an extra ability bonus (humans pick an ability and add +2) and choose a favoured class (most choose from one of two, for example elves may choose between Wizard and Ranger; humans and half elves may pick any class) at character creation.
Most classes are a little more robust, as Rangers now have a d10 hit die, bards, rogues and clerics a d8, and wizards and sorcerers a d6. They all have extra features, such as bonus feats for specific wizard specialities and cleric domains, and sources of power for sorcerers that provide various abilities. Fighters, for example, gain bonuses against fear effects, and learn to use weapons and armour considerably more effectively than other classes.
All told, this is one of only two d20 systems I'd use for anything other than a dungeon crawl.
There are some things that you could easily cherry-pick for Arcana Evolved (new feats, for instance, or merging some of the fighter's class abilities with the warmain). Iron Heroes is different enough that it's harder to convert regular 3.5 stuff.
DBlue, since you are new, you might not be aware of it, but there is an entire section of the messageboards dedicated to PFRPG. My guess is if you posted in that area you'd get alot more responses, since the people really interested in PFRPG usually hang out in that area.
Good Gaming.
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DBlue, since you are new, you might not be aware of it, but there is an entire section of the messageboards dedicated to PFRPG. My guess is if you posted in that area you'd get alot more responses, since the people really interested in PFRPG usually hang out in that area.
Good Gaming.
Here's the link. Welcome to the Paizo boards, DBlue.