So I came across the guided weapon property and got really excited, but was confused at the lack of the sound of monk enthusiasts' heads exploding. I'm guessing this is because of the source of the property, which seemed weird to me since it is paizo material.
So, what I'm asking for is an organized classification of the different types of sources. Which are for simple games, which are for the advanced, which aren't used for some reason (when and why) etc.
It's because pf#10 a history of ashes, is from Curse of the Crimson Throne AP, released in 2008. Which was before PFRPG was released in 2009. The guided weapon property is a d&d 3.5 option.
Edit: So anything from pf#1-18 will be 3.5. That's Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and Second Darkness. ROTR has since been converted , and the conversions can be used.
Pf#19+ was published under PFRPG rules. I think starting with Council of Thieves.
It's because pf#10 a history of ashes, is from Curse of the Crimson Throne AP, released in 2008. Which was before PFRPG was released in 2009. The guided weapon property is a d&d 3.5 option.
Edit: So anything from pf#1-18 will be 3.5. That's Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and Second Darkness. ROTR has since been converted , and the conversions can be used.
Pf#19+ was published under PFRPG rules. I think starting with Council of Thieves.
Small correction:
The 3.5-rules APs published by Paizo directly (as opposed to the Dungeon ones) are Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, and Legacy of Fire (i.e., the first four). They didn't start the Pathfinder-rules APs until the fifth one, Council of Thieves (AP instalments 25-30).
That answers my question exactly. Thanks a lot.
There's also the Core line of books, which are generally all the hardbacks that don't deal with the Campaign Setting itself (the Inner Sea, Golarion, etc.).
Then there's the Campaign Setting material. Within the Campaign Setting material, you have the Pathfinder Companion, Adventure Module, and Adventure Path subset of books.
Just for completeness' sake.
It's because pf#10 a history of ashes, is from Curse of the Crimson Throne AP, released in 2008. Which was before PFRPG was released in 2009. The guided weapon property is a d&d 3.5 option.
Edit: So anything from pf#1-18 will be 3.5. That's Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and Second Darkness. ROTR has since been converted , and the conversions can be used.
Pf#19+ was published under PFRPG rules. I think starting with Council of Thieves.
Small correction:
The 3.5-rules APs published by Paizo directly (as opposed to the Dungeon ones) are Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, and Legacy of Fire (i.e., the first four). They didn't start the Pathfinder-rules APs until the fifth one, Council of Thieves (AP instalments 25-30).
Dang, I felt like I missed one but I didn't go check. :P
good catch!
What about extensions like magical market place? Is there a reason not to use them in a home game?
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What about extensions like magical market place? Is there a reason not to use them in a home game?
None whatsoever.
Technically it's Golarion-themed, but it is by Paizo for Pathfinder, so there's no reason not to allow it in a home game, and most of the stuff in it would be allowed in Pathfinder Society as well.
To be honest, There's no real reason to disallow the stuff in the 3.5 Paizo stuff either. If a player wants one of those prestige classes, they'll work fine, even if they are slightly less powerful than some of the newer stuff.
Feats, Magic Items, and Spells though? Those should basically work fine as is. The only 3.5 stuff that isn't entirely Pathfinder compatible are Classes and Monsters; and both are perfectly usable in Pathfinder, they just tend to have a bit less Oomph than the Pathfinder edition stuff.
However, that being said, different gaming groups have different (largely arbitrary) rules as to what sources are allowed. I've played in games where only the hardcover books were allowed, games where any Pathfinder/Paizo products were allowed, games where any Paizo Product was allowed (including stuff from curse of the crimson throne, second darkness, and the like), and games where Any Paizo Product + Some combination of D&D 3.5 Products were allowed. All of them worked out fine unless a player brought something to the GM that was a really broken exploit, and those have cropped up in every one of those sets "allowable sources".
In Pathfinder Society, of course, it has its own list of allowed sources, and it bans many things in even the hardover Pathfinder books.
The main allowable source collections I've seen have been:
1. "Anything Published By Paizo with the word Pathfinder on it (regardless of if it was published before Pathfinder Core or not)."
2. "Any Paizo or Wizards of the Coast source, but no infinite combos or the like."
Much of the Pathfinder 3rd Party stuff is also great, however, and I think you'e doing yourselves a disservice if you ban them.
My own ruling is
"I will audit your character before play, and I do have a ban list (which I give them a link to, and update as things come up), but taking that into consideration, anything made by Paizo, WotC, or a Pathfinder 3pp, but your sheet must be accessible and up to date via google docs, and if it's not available on d20pfsrd or paizo's prd, you need to include/link the rules text with your sheet."
So far (since Pathfinder came out) its worked out very well. The players get to use whatever sources they like, they get to play the kinds of characters they want to play, and I very rarely run into huge power disparities. When I do, it's usually been from the hardcover Paizo books anyways, so banning other sources would not have helped.
Nothing is going to fall apart if you allow almost every source, but you should know what abilities your players' characters have when you plan your game, and you should be comfortable with telling your players no if they took some combination that goes infinite or the like. It helps to skim through their abilities and make a quick note of any unusual abilities that are likely to come up, so that your plot doesn't collapse when they do.
As things come up that you feel are harming your game, be prepared to discuss with your players (between game sessions ideally) how/why you aren't comfortable with it, and try to work with them to rebuild their character without it.
However, if you disallow something, or change a rule, make sure you keep a record of it (preferably online somewhere your players can read it). Your players should be able to easily know what the rules are. Nobody wants to hear an option they have planned around is suddenly not available or does not work as described in the book.
If you can get your players to give you their planned 20-level progression in addition to their current level (In My Experience many players plan their characters all the way up long before they see the table anyways), then you can see if there's anything there you object to well before it comes up.
And having them post their character stats on Google Docs in some format you're okay with also means people can't lose their character sheet and that both you and the player have access to the character at all times.
I'd suggest that a character sheet template (I base mine on the bestiary monster blocks, but I know some of my players have preferred ones with sections based on the actual character sheet), copy it for each player, and share it with them/give them editing privileges. It makes them easy to find, and you can track the changes.
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Feats, Magic Items, and Spells though? Those should basically work fine as is. The only 3.5 stuff that isn't entirely Pathfinder compatible are Classes and Monsters; and both are perfectly usable in Pathfinder, they just tend to have a bit less Oomph than the Pathfinder edition stuff.
I disagree with that, especially for spells.
In the passage from the 3.5 to Pathfinder a large part of polymorph spells have been heavily changed, same thing for save or die spells.Introducing a spell, item or feat from the 3.5 that was based on the older polymorph mechanics or the older save or die spells will change how the game work.
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I disagree with that, especially for spells.
In the passage from the 3.5 to Pathfinder a large part of polymorph spells have been heavily changed, same thing for save or die spells.
Introducing a spell, item or feat from the 3.5 that was based on the older polymorph mechanics or the older save or die spells will change how the game work.
I forgot about those. You are correct; they made significant changes to both of those kinds of spells (in addition to changing XP requirements into gold requirements).
But if you take a 3.5 Blasting spell, or summoning spell, and put it in pathfinder they work largely the same (other than the fact that summon monster in 3.5 had an ever expanding list of potential summons, and pathfinder has fixed lists (and suggests introducing alternate versions of the spell if they have different options). But for instance, summon undead should work fine in Pathfinder.
Most feats *should* transfer over as well (obviously if there is a pathfinder version, just use that version).
And for magic items, yeah, pathfinder made all physical boosters into belts, and all mental boosters into headbands, but that's not a massive change, and for magic items that don't have a pathfinder equivalent it works alright without any real changes.
Aside from the polymorph and SoD changes though, the differences are small enough that they haven't ever made a big difference in games where I have allowed them, from games where I only allowed Paizo stuff.