Hi!
I was wondering if someone could please help me figure out the difference between the two.
1 Which do you think is harder to play
2 Which do you think is harder to dm
3 Which do you think is more fun to play
Thanks!
If you could respond soon that would be greatly appreciated.
Contributor
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1) Hard to say - it depends on your GM. See point 2.
2) The original is 3.5. Are you playing Pathfinder? If so, while you can try running it without updating, I wouldn't recommend it. So, the GM will have to rebuild pretty much every custom foe.
3) I'd say the AE would be more fun - but again, it depends on your GM and how much they're putting into it.
So... in my opinion, AE all the way. Hope this helps. ^_^
so the new one is better for current pathfinder. also has a lot better advice written through out.
Thanks for responding so quickly
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Obviously, if the group is playing Pathfinder, GMing the AE will be easier because it won't require conversion. Playing isn't as clear-cut, but I would agree with Kalindlara that, overall, the Anniversary Edition is definitely the way to go. It's got more content, a smoother development, the benefit of five years' experience and GM feedback, and an improved system to build upon.
(I would also agree with her that the play group will determine far more than the book will in either case, but that's a different thread.)
Do you think the anniversary edition will be hard?
If you want to see my party here is a link.
PCs in my party
Plz keep the comments coming ;)
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Plz keep the comments coming ;)
don't tell me how to live my life, you're not my real dad.
and it's not hard, just it can spike difficulty suddenly in certain battles to TPK if they're not being cautious.
AE vs original is a very easy question to answer. With a question.
Which player's handbook do you want to be using while playing? The 3.5 PH or the PF Core Rulebook? If the former, the answer is original. If the latter, the answer is AE. The AP versions are specifically written for two different versions of the game and any mismatch of version vs. player expectation will lead to significant DM work/suffering.
As regards your party make-up question, that's as hard a question to answer as if you had asked this forum: Would I like Phantom of the Opera? Answer is similar: How the bejeebers are we supposed to know? It depends on your background, music and entertainment tastes, experience with theatrical performances and so on. You didn't even describe what you meant by Phantom of the Opera - a high school performance, on Broadway, a movie, what?
Party make-up questions are very hard to give even the most basic answers to because there are so many unknown variables: what is your group's play style? how does your DM handle a whole host of issues around balance, combat, treasure, xp, tactics, etc. In a trivial example: there are groups out there where entire campaigns occur where no one makes a sunder check and others where CMB/CMD checks are as common as melee attacks. Some group's play style would lead to frequent TPK's if there isn't a divine caster and with other's they do everything they can to avoid having ANY divine casters. None of these are "wrong" but they sure change party makeup questions.
Maybe the forum should have another sticky: the AP is built for 4 pc's on 15 pt buy. Further the assumption is there is a meat-shield, arcane caster, divine caster and skill monkey. More players will be easier, fewer players will be harder. Higher point buy will be easier, lower point buy harder. Skipping one of the key roles? Could be awful, could be interesting, depending on how your DM adjusts to party composition. The AP is written middle-of-the-road style in what I equate to "normal" difficulty in a video game. Scripted tactics are based on a most common denominator view of the pc's and their assumed approach - monster tactics and enemy composition need to be adjusted by the DM to accommodate specific pc group composition, play style and favored tactics.
Shorter version: can this party makeup <a,b,c,d> succeed at RotR? Answer: How good is your DM? And how committed is s/he to making it work?
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The biggest change is made to one of the monsters in the early books that was responsible for more TPKs than all the other hard encounters in all the APs combined. (excluding Age of Worms). A few of the other encounters in Anniversary Edition are easier as well
AE is better gameplay experience if you use PF rulebook.
But as said above, it's also easier (meaning "just quite hard"). Original Xanesha was a TPK dispenser