I am curious. How many players and DMs would support hexagons in Pathfinder in place of squares while keeping all the other rules the same which means the hexagons would be 5 ft across?
I'm guessing your using this? http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/hexGrid.htm
When I'm doing my RL games we mostly go no grid unless things get prickly with AoOs.
I've recently taken to using hexes when DMing 3.5 and PF (after using them for 2eAD&D to excellent effect). Movement and area of effect spells are both smoother. The only time I've run into any trouble at all is tight spaces indoors which requires the DM being comfortable quickly adjucating movement potentially ending in partial hexes on the fly. As far as 3.5/PF goes I'll never use square maps again.
Thanks for the link, I wasn't using that but now I may.
Also I would like to mention one solution to the partial hex issue is to just treat it as a full hex for purposes of combat and movement...shouldn't be a big deal. Gurps does it that way and it was fine for my games. Small price to pay for all the gain in ease of use over squares.
Personally, I like hexes a lot better. It eliminates the clumsiness of diagonal movement. and areas of effect are much cleaner. I use it for outdoors or rough natural caverns, but for normal indoors situations I use grid to avoid partial hex issues.
+1.
I am a huge fan of hexes, and I used to use hexes exclusively in my campaign maps.
But now I mostly use squares because that is what people are generally more comfortable with and used to.
Each has tactical and practical advantages.
Hexes more realistically and simply handle movement in any direction and make effects which have a radius much more realistic and simple to calculate.
Squares allow you to move forward and sideways at the same rate. Hexes do not. Hexes have six axis of movement, squares have eight. That means that movement on squares is 90 degrees symmetrical, while hexes are 60 degrees symmetrical. Especially when mapping buildings and towns, squares are far more comfortable to deal with. Even in natural terrain people tend to view moving as being in one of the four cardinal directions, and in hexes you can only move in two of the cardinal directions (either North/South or East/West) and movement in the other cardinal directions requires zig-zagging back and forth along the 60 degree axis. This feels awkward and unnatural to many people.
I prefer hexagons in wilderness areas while urban areas are better off with squares
I think a combination hex and square grid works that best. Movement on hex grids works best but drawing out building and corridors work best with square grids. So draw out your map using the square grid and use the hex grid for the combat.
I feel like if there was more support out there for hex it would be a good option. In practice I find it is more trouble then it's worth because I cant for instance easily find dry erase boards with 1inch hexes on them, or miniatures of the appropriate scale. Sure movement becomes easier but everything else the battle map is for gets harder.
I am a huge fan of hexes, and I used to use hexes exclusively in my campaign maps.
But now I mostly use squares because that is what people are generally more comfortable with and used to.
Each has tactical and practical advantages.
Hexes more realistically and simply handle movement in any direction and make effects which have a radius much more realistic and simple to calculate.
Squares allow you to move forward and sideways at the same rate. Hexes do not. Hexes have six axis of movement, squares have eight. That means that movement on squares is 90 degrees symmetrical, while hexes are 60 degrees symmetrical. Especially when mapping buildings and towns, squares are far more comfortable to deal with. Even in natural terrain people tend to view moving as being in one of the four cardinal directions, and in hexes you can only move in two of the cardinal directions (either North/South or East/West) and movement in the other cardinal directions requires zig-zagging back and forth along the 60 degree axis. This feels awkward and unnatural to many people.
This. My group's used a hex map for years and I still feel awkward when I mark off a straight-line charge. Hurts my brain some days.
I use hex whenever I dm pathfinder. The only real issue I have run into is when drawing up dungeon maps from an adventure.
Things that are nice and easy to draw out on a square grid are not so easy to draw out on a hex grid. Especially if they are done on a 10ft grid.