Things Pathfinder does better than 5th ed


5th Edition (And Beyond)

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Knowledge Local was always kind of a weird skill for me. Is it supposed to be Streetwise? Reading books about cities you've never been to, which seems more like History? Picking up that information quickly when you enter a new city, like Gather Information?

I think backgrounds in 5e kind of give you a base for what Local means to your character, and stuff they'll just know due to that.


Hmmmm... might a 'refocus' type option be good? Allowing characters to be proficient in what they're proficient in, but to change that with a reasonably brief training period [say a week in game?] towards new goals for the character?

[As a disclaimer, my game has something like 13 skills. Only full casters are on 2 skills, mid-casters get 4 and martials get 6]


Petty Alchemy wrote:

Knowledge Local was always kind of a weird skill for me. Is it supposed to be Streetwise? Reading books about cities you've never been to, which seems more like History? Picking up that information quickly when you enter a new city, like Gather Information?

I think backgrounds in 5e kind of give you a base for what Local means to your character, and stuff they'll just know due to that.

I blended Knowledge Local and Knowledge History and Knowledge Nobility into Knowledge Humanities.


All that does is trade bonuses so you somehow become worse at things you've been good at all your life and then better at others.

It's the granularity that's important to me.

If I have +7 Sleight of Hand and +3 Perception, I would like the option to raise my Perception to +5 while keeping Sleight of Hand at +7...not lowering it to +4.

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kyrt-ryder wrote:

Hmmmm... might a 'refocus' type option be good? Allowing characters to be proficient in what they're proficient in, but to change that with a reasonably brief training period [say a week in game?] towards new goals for the character?

[As a disclaimer, my game has something like 13 skills. Only full casters are on 2 skills, mid-casters get 4 and martials get 6]

For Pathfinder, I houseruled in a trait that gives you full ranks in a Profession of choice. I could see expanding the knowledges in 5e, and giving everyone 1-2 free proficiencies in them.


I've always seen the proficiencies in 5th to less represent nee things you learn throughout adventuring. But rather to be the putting into practice talentsnyouve had your whole life. They're bigger than just learning to do something on the road.

If I'm proficient in knowledge (arcana) for instance it represents studying for years before my adventuring career and the proficiency bonus increases represent me applying that knowledge in the real world.

I guess the theory is you don't get to wake up one day and decide to be really excellent at medicine or history. That said the Skilled Frat is there for someone who does want to significantly learn new skills on the job so to speak. Albeit at the cost of a feat.

I like the reduced number of skills / it makes the choice more important to your character make up and it becomes a significant part of your character.

Incidentally perceptions and investigation are two totally different skills. The first is spotting what is happening. Investigation is about reasoning and deduction, logical thought and reaching conclusions. They are nothing to do with each other.

Perception: you see the tiny scratch marks on the floors that show where the door swings out, and smell a faint smell of mildew from a dark damp space.

Investigation: you realize there must be something behind that wall because the shape of the adjoining rooms leaves a void which if filled would be too heavy to be supported by the floor below.


Petty Alchemy wrote:

Knowledge Local was always kind of a weird skill for me. Is it supposed to be Streetwise? Reading books about cities you've never been to, which seems more like History? Picking up that information quickly when you enter a new city, like Gather Information?

I think backgrounds in 5e kind of give you a base for what Local means to your character, and stuff they'll just know due to that.

I agree, you shouldn't need to train to know things a person should know in that area.


Sundakan wrote:

All that does is trade bonuses so you somehow become worse at things you've been good at all your life and then better at others.

It's the granularity that's important to me.

If I have +7 Sleight of Hand and +3 Perception, I would like the option to raise my Perception to +5 while keeping Sleight of Hand at +7...not lowering it to +4.

Heh, I may not be able to help you in my game then. I really value the simplicity of the difference between trained and untrained skills being two separate values.

That being said, feats are cheap in my game [one per level] so maybe a feat for an additional skill would be good.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Petty Alchemy wrote:

RE: Guidance -> Bullrush, that'll take a turn to set up, I'd probably rather attempt pushing them twice, than spend a turn getting a +1d4 to the check. Guidance is also a concentration duration spell, so you can't cast it without losing other spells you might have going, such as Bless.

That said, I do think Guidance is too good at low levels and you really need an excuse to not cast it before every out-of-combat skill check. It and Bless are the exceptions to "Let's replace random bonuses with advantage". I think they could just give a bonus of half your proficiency bonus or something, if it must be a bonus.

We knew we were going into a dangerous area, but still a bit explory, so I was guidance cycling on myself. So I was Concentrating it, actually rolled a positive initiative, and did the Shove as my first action in combat.


kyrt-ryder wrote:
Sundakan wrote:

All that does is trade bonuses so you somehow become worse at things you've been good at all your life and then better at others.

It's the granularity that's important to me.

If I have +7 Sleight of Hand and +3 Perception, I would like the option to raise my Perception to +5 while keeping Sleight of Hand at +7...not lowering it to +4.

Heh, I may not be able to help you in my game then. I really value the simplicity of the difference between trained and untrained skills being two separate values.

That being said, feats are cheap in my game [one per level] so maybe a feat for an additional skill would be good.

That would change things a bit. As-is with Feats coming once every 4 levels (assuming you want your stats to be the exact number you started the game with), dropping a Feat for an extra skill is not worth the trade.

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SmiloDan wrote:
Petty Alchemy wrote:

RE: Guidance -> Bullrush, that'll take a turn to set up, I'd probably rather attempt pushing them twice, than spend a turn getting a +1d4 to the check. Guidance is also a concentration duration spell, so you can't cast it without losing other spells you might have going, such as Bless.

That said, I do think Guidance is too good at low levels and you really need an excuse to not cast it before every out-of-combat skill check. It and Bless are the exceptions to "Let's replace random bonuses with advantage". I think they could just give a bonus of half your proficiency bonus or something, if it must be a bonus.

We knew we were going into a dangerous area, but still a bit explory, so I was guidance cycling on myself. So I was Concentrating it, actually rolled a positive initiative, and did the Shove as my first action in combat.

There's a trade-off there with Stealth, since casting a spell with a Verbal component every minute will likely give hostiles in the area advance notice.


Sundakan wrote:

Because as-is I can't decide to shift my focus later on. My current skills I'm Proficient in are:

Acrobatics
Sleight of Hand
Investigation
Insight
Deception
Perception

I am really good at these skills.

However, if I some day want to be more good at Intimidation, but let my Acrobatics skills trail off a bit...I can't. In fact, I can't even become more good at Intimidation, because as far as I can tell there is no way to gain new skill proficiencies.

The Skilled feat grants proficiency in 3 skills of your choice (or three tools, but since those can be learned with time and money, it seems like a waste of a feat.)

Multi-classing into Rogue, Bard or Ranger grants a single skill proficiency.

A second level Warlock can take an Invocation that grants proficiency in Deception and Persuasion.

A third level Lore Bard gains 2 skills.

I believe certain cleric domains also grant proficiency in a skill.

So there are definitely methods of increasing your number of proficient skills, though the Skilled feat is definitely the easiest. As with most of 5E it's a matter of weighing your options and going with what works best for the character.

I'm currently playing a tiefling Vengeance Paladin/Assassin Rogue (modeled after a PF Inquisitor) with his Expertise applied to Intimidation and Intuition and took the Skilled feat to round things out. I'm pretty happy with how he plays even though I'm two ability boosts behind the rest of the party due to the feat and multi-classing.

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Arakhor wrote:
All "true" fiends have been able to teleport since at least the Planescape setting, yet very few creatures yet retain that ability in 5E. Maybe they thought it was a peripheral power?

I think they realized how world-shaking a single fiend with teleport at will would be.

Teleport in, murder everyone, heroes arrive, teleport out, murder everyone, new heroes arrive, teleport out, murder everyone, rinse, repeat.

Even dimension door at will means you can go on an uncatchable murder spree.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I really miss being able to dabble in skills.

There is a fix, but it kind of mucks up the elegance.

Instead of getting 2 skills from back ground and 2 to 4 skills from class, you get double that amount in "Skill Points." You can spend up to 2 skill points in any skill or tool proficiency, or on a language.

At levels 5, 9, 13, and 17, you get additional "Skill Points" equal to 2 + 2 to 4, increasing the max by 1, respectively.

Also, if you would get additional proficiencies from feats, racial stuff, class features, or archetypes, etc., you would have to convert them into "Skill Points" too.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Sundakan wrote:

Because as-is I can't decide to shift my focus later on. My current skills I'm Proficient in are:

Acrobatics
Sleight of Hand
Investigation
Insight
Deception
Perception

I am really good at these skills.

However, if I some day want to be more good at Intimidation, but let my Acrobatics skills trail off a bit...I can't. In fact, I can't even become more good at Intimidation, because as far as I can tell there is no way to gain new skill proficiencies.

I can sympathize with your frustrations. However, I don't think these issues represent serious obstacles if you look at them closely.

First, apart from class options, there is a Feat that grants you more skills.

Second, you don't need a skill to dabble in Intimidation. You can just try it. The DCs in 5e are set so that heroic characters should be able to attempt most things.

Third, if you raise your Charisma, that will also make you better at Intimidation. Until fairly high level, your ability scores matter a lot more than your proficiency bonus, unless you are bringing Expertise into it.

Fourth, you are essentially complaining that you can't become relatively worse that Sleight of Hand in order to become slightly better at Intimidation. Why is that a goal? How will your life be improved by moving a couple of points of bonus from one skill to another?

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Fifth, there are training rules.

It might cost 1 to 10 gp per day, and take 250 days, but you can train with a mentor to get proficient in a skill. There are other training options, too, for languages and tools.


Can you train skill proficiencies? I thought that was only for tools and languages.


SmiloDan wrote:

I think they realized how world-shaking a single fiend with teleport at will would be.

Teleport in, murder everyone, heroes arrive, teleport out, murder everyone, new heroes arrive, teleport out, murder everyone, rinse, repeat.

Even dimension door at will means you can go on an uncatchable murder spree.

Well, teleport without error doesn't allow you to jump planes and fiends are normally encountered only on the planes. Besides, we've had literal decades of whole planes full of fiends with that Sp power and I doubt that it's broken anyone's campaigns in that time.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Mainly, by ignoring it.


RJGrady wrote:


Fourth, you are essentially complaining that you can't become relatively worse that Sleight of Hand in order to become slightly better at Intimidation. Why is that a goal? How will your life be improved by moving a couple of points of bonus from one skill to another?

It gives me more freedom of choice, particularly in how a character can shift focus as they advance. My background is Charlatan. Presume I stop grifting people, and try to go into legitimate politics and become Honest Abe or something, as an example. I stop practicing my Deception and Sleight of Hand, and pick up better skills in Knowledge: History and Persuasion instead.

But, because of the way this system is set up, while I can become better at those with a Feat apparently, I cannot STOP getting better at another. And, in fact, those two skills remain my Expertise, meaning I will always BE better at those things than my new profession.

It's not a huge deal but it niggles a bit. I like the granularity, the shades of in-between instead of how most of this system seems to work on a binary on/off.

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The lack of granularity in the skill system is part of the elegance of 5th Edition. You only have adjust your Attacks, Ability Checks, and Saving Throw DCs at levels 5, 9, 13, and 17 (and possibly 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19 if you don't choose feats).

It's a trade-off between complexity and simplicity.


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Sundakan wrote:

It gives me more freedom of choice, particularly in how a character can shift focus as they advance. My background is Charlatan. Presume I stop grifting people, and try to go into legitimate politics and become Honest Abe or something, as an example. I stop practicing my Deception and Sleight of Hand, and pick up better skills in Knowledge: History and Persuasion instead.

But, because of the way this system is set up, while I can become better at those with a Feat apparently, I cannot STOP getting better at another. And, in fact, those two skills remain my Expertise, meaning I will always BE better at those things than my new profession.

It's not a huge deal but it niggles a bit. I like the granularity, the shades of in-between instead of how most of this system seems to work on a binary on/off.

I see what you mean. FWIW, given the reliance on DM fiat in 5E, I think it would be hard to argue that you shouldn't be allowed to train out your expertise (as you evolve from charlatan to politican, to cite your example). The DMG explicitly advocates allowing PCs to tweak classes as necessary to match their vision of the character they want to play - it's not much of a stretch to allow the rogue to evolve in that way. Nothing is going to break if you say yes, in my opinion, so why say no?

The proficiency is kind of an 'inbuilt awesomeness' that just applies across the board (and I agree is clunky as opposed to the granularity you're looking for) however modelling a PC switching focus by exchanging their expertise selection would be an automatic yes, at my table.


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One nice feature in 5E is the extra flexibility you get via the cosmetic change that there is no such thing as a skill check but rather making everything an attribute check.

So you can make a DEX(athletics) check, a STR(athletics) check or a CON(athletics) check as required. That's a nice tweak, in my view (I'm not sure if it's also that way in PF).


Steve Geddes wrote:
Can you train skill proficiencies? I thought that was only for tools and languages.

1 gp per day for 250 days gets you one new language or training in a set of tools or other options allowed by the DM. So the answer is "maybe". I'd certainly go for it. For that matter, I'd also allow it for, say, a drow living on the surface to get used to daylight and get rid of that sunlight sensitivity.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I'm not sure it's actually reasonable to change your Expertise. Expertise is not something you just pick. That would be the equivalent of shifting some skill ranks around and changing your Skill Focus from one skill to the other. Still, if the GM is down for it, you could implement something similar to Pathfinder's retraining rules.


RJGrady wrote:
I'm not sure it's actually reasonable to change your Expertise. Expertise is not something you just pick. That would be the equivalent of shifting some skill ranks around and changing your Skill Focus from one skill to the other. Still, if the GM is down for it, you could implement something similar to Pathfinder's retraining rules.

I'm with Steve on this way. 5th ed seems to be all about making your character's choices matter first. If a player said they were leaving their criminal ways behind and demonstrated that in the game, then I'd allow them to swap if there was a good rationale. Where is the harm in it?


As far as I can see all fiends have lost teleport without error, which was a real shock.

The demons and a few others have a limited teleport but it's short range and can only be to places they can see. So no more teleporting into a room either way.

I'm also a bit disappointed that the higher fiends aren't legendary. It feels like a Balor or Pit fiends should be legendary and arguably many of the true friends.


Pan wrote:
Saithor wrote:
Lack of actual content. It's been what, two years since 5th edition has been released? How many books besides the big three have been made, not counting 3rd party? Paizo does a much better job of getting content out there.

WOTC has decided to dramatically scale back the mechanics offerings this edition. Folks complain about too much complexity and rules bloat have their ear this time around. The belief is that a tighter easier to grok edition will have longer legs. There are online articles and the DM's guild that offer the new options. You need to go online for them as they are not published in hard copy at this point.

Saithor wrote:
Oh, and the skill system. Why they never bothered to actually list any DC for skill tasks I will never get.
Another design philosophy of 5E is rulings over rules. GMs are empowered to call it off the cuff in 5E.

I've read the Unearthed Arcana options, while nice, still not that great. And nobody thought leaving skill DC's to GM's may not work with people playing/GMing D&D for the first time?

I agree that rules bloat is something that needs to be cut, but they took it too far. It wasn't that the Feat system itself made the game over complicated, it was that there were too many feats (I know that you can trade ASI for them, but I have never seen this happen).


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I think the expectation is that GMs will learn DCs by running published material a few times.

You can't stop the feats. There's already a couple of third party books that give you 100+ feats to choose from, and Wizards will do the same when they see profit in it. Assuming Mearls has already cooked up a dozen or so weapon feats, and another dozen skill and tool feats, they are probably well on their way.

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I think a transition over time would make sense more than a quick one. Ex. you might level up after a few weeks of adventuring time, that doesn't seem like enough time to go from charlatan to honest politician. But if several years of in-game time pass, sure, you might lose your edge in Sleight Of Hand and get better at Persuasion.

Of course, it's rare for timeskips like that to happen, but some groups do it. It can also be an epilogue type thing, if the next campaign is set in the same world ~20 years later or whatever, to say the charlatan changed his ways and became a great leader.


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All DCs, saves, AC, etc in 5e are:

5 very easy
10 easy
15 typical challenge
20 hard
25 very hard
30 virtually impossible

You only ask for a dice roll when there is a chance for failure that you (as DM) can define, ideally with an answer to a conversation that begins with:

Yes, and something beneficial happens
Yes, but something bad happens
No, but something beneficial happens
No, and something unexpected happens

If you can only think of "yes" there should be no roll (success is guaranteed), and if you can only think of "no" there should be no roll (the task cannot happen without something changing). The exception being when you are in initiative and you want to cycle quickly with a yes/no to an action to keep the action moving.

I agree 5e does this basic explaination terribly, but the advice in most popular systems is godawful.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

The Sword wrote:

As far as I can see all fiends have lost teleport without error, which was a real shock.

The demons and a few others have a limited teleport but it's short range and can only be to places they can see. So no more teleporting into a room either way.

I'm also a bit disappointed that the higher fiends aren't legendary. It feels like a Balor or Pit fiends should be legendary and arguably many of the true friends.

I think it was a bit of an oversight. I recently made a CR 4 or 5 Yagnaloth for five 3rd level PCs to fight, and I gave it Legendary Actions.

Legendary Actions are probably the best thing to happen to monsters in 5th Edition. It's a really fun way to balance out the action economy of 1 monster vs. 3 to 6 PCs. I use them a lot in my homebrew monsters. That, and Lair Actions.

An excuse for not giving Balors and Pit Fiends Legendary Actions is that they're not encountered alone. They have armies of fiends to back them up, plus optional summoned demons and devils.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

You could add legendary actions to a balor and call it a Balor Lord, which would fit in well with the lore.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I run my campaigns in roll20 so pathfinder's high level modifier calculation isn't really problem when you just need to remember it once, fill it on sheet and then push a button to roll it with all modifiers :D

Like seriously, on paper its just pain to erase and write modifiers all the time, that will end up ruining the paper too.

But yeah, I do like both systems, but D&D 5e player options just don't inspire me. Once you made a character, you know how they are going to end up since most of choices are made for you when you get that 3rd level class path thing, you don't really have a lot of choices and sometimes you don't get even much of interesting stuff on levels. On pathfinder, though it depends on class, you have lots of customization opportunities with feats and whatever.(D&D does have feats, but it feels they aren't always worth for the class :P Like for monk, I think it really hurts them to not take ability score updates since they need that dex and wisdom for ac) Simplicity of D&D 5e does make it easier to process, but its not as flavorful.

Like, Cypher System does flavorful simple options much better in my opinion :p In D&D I don't think that race/class combos are much different besides stat differences and some bonus options while in Cypher descriptor and foci combos really feel different.

Also, since magic loot is rarer in D&D 5e, while it does make them more special, it results in that "Umm, so what do we adventurers do with this ton of gold we found? We want to adventure, not retire and buy castle!" since you can't just buy it with gold


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You are not an adventurer, you're not how much gold you have in the haversack. You are not the mount you ride. You're not the contents of your bag of holding. You are not your f@#$ing padded armor. You are all singing, all dancing crap of the campaign.


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In the words of Arthur King of the Britains

People talk about gold and 5th ed a lot. Having played AD&D before I never saw ththe lack of magic mart a problem. In fact it, I'd largely cut it out of Pathfinder, allowing item purchase in game as part of quest lines. That hasn't changed with 5th ed.

Also to put it another way. What you a person in this world do with huge amounts of gold? Enjoy it probably.

Jon Brazer Enterprises

Official options.

When I'm playing 5e with a new group, I always feel like I have to take something from the core book until I get to know the group and try something I am actually interested in playing. When I play adventure's league, I feel shackled to the core book.

I actually miss the mountain of options we had from Wizards back in 3e.


I think a lot of those options are so easily convertible to 5th ed though. Pretty any prestige class or race can fit so easily. As for feats, just group a few together.

I guess the reason we're not seeing wholesale conversion is the copyright issue of 3e books even if from the forgotten realms.

I've also found it really easy or convert a lot of the spells and items from AD&D into 5th. In one easier than converting into 3.0/Pathfinder.

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The Sword wrote:

In the words of Arthur King of the Britains

People talk about gold and 5th ed a lot. Having played AD&D before I never saw ththe lack of magic mart a problem. In fact it, I'd largely cut it out of Pathfinder, allowing item purchase in game as part of quest lines. That hasn't changed with 5th ed.

Also to put it another way. What you a person in this world do with huge amounts of gold? Enjoy it probably.

I didn't vote for you.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
The Sword wrote:

In the words of Arthur King of the Britains

People talk about gold and 5th ed a lot. Having played AD&D before I never saw ththe lack of magic mart a problem. In fact it, I'd largely cut it out of Pathfinder, allowing item purchase in game as part of quest lines. That hasn't changed with 5th ed.

Also to put it another way. What you a person in this world do with huge amounts of gold? Enjoy it probably.

You do notice that a lot of time you ask question and when people tell their opinions you just rebut all of them? :D Its nice and reminds me of philosophical debates, but just bit of warning that it can annoy people if they think you are trying to start an argument.

Anyway, just to note, I nor my characters care about gold. I've made like two monk characters(asceticism and constant gold flow don't really mix) in D&D 5e campaigns and one gnome sorcerer who just wanted to build a sauna. Thats why its boring when all official campaigns keep churning out gold as rewards along the journey of the adventure(along with rare magic loot of course). Why do I keep getting gold if character is just out to see new sights or save the world and it doesn't help with that at all in these remote village locations? I don't mind not getting loot all, I mind getting loot I have no idea why I keep getting it.


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At the risk of rebutting your response, I don't think I rebut all of people's opinions.

That said I like my opinions to be challenged because that's how they become tested. Several posts on here have changed my mind about how I view 5th edition and as I'm not interested in organised play I can pinch things from Pathfinder to improve 5th ed just like I pinched things from 5th ed to improve Pathfinder.

I guess traditionally, wizards spent gold on spell research (and those spell components can be bloody expensive)

Clerics spend it on the faithful, either good acts or items to glory the church - decorate the local temple, soup kitchen etc.

Rogues and fighters are trickier if you aren't interested in founding some kind of organisation. Though acquisition of wealth is its own reward to some.

It is a fair question though.


There are quite a few gold alternatives in the PHB, but the official campaigns are fairly magic item heavy too so I like peppering consumable ones in when I run one.

Worst case I'll just steal the gold back if my players complain and suddenly that gold is what they wanted most in the world above their friends and family.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Yeah, I'm looking for alt-gold quest bait.


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Golarian. I like it much better than forgotten realms.

Rules arguments. 5e forums aren't as prolific, and sometimes I miss the PF forums here on Paizo.

Adherence to RAW. Some people like sticking to RAW and like knowing exactly what the rules say. 5e is more fluid and relies much more on the DM making a ruling. Some people don't like that.

Player Protection from a Bad GM. RAW can be used to protect players, especially when Rule Zero is used to punish players.

Magical Items Market. 5e practically ignores this.

Magic Item Creation. Doesn't exist in 5e.

Tactical War Gaming. A combination of RAW and complex rules makes PF much better for Tactical War Gaming than 5e. For those who enjoy this style of play, PF is better then 5e.

PF also has some concepts that can't really be replicated without homebrew, such as the alchemist and the summoner class. However, 5e is much better for homebrew design, so for me that makes up for it.

And lastly: the Paizo Messageboards. The Messageboards here on the Paizo website is much better than any of the other 5e forums I've been to.


5E forums?

Y U NO LIKE Twitter/FB????


Things Pathfinder does better than 5th ed:

Be bloated with worthless feats designed only to trick you into making a junk character.

Wasting player and Gm time going through mountains of books and then checking the erratas, only to find what once was good is now trash.

Edit: Making feats feel necessary to match the difficulty level rather than a special ability that gives you an edge over them.


I never check errata.

Nor have I felt the need to buy every book.

Worthless feats were worse in 3.5.


bookrat wrote:
Player Protection from a Bad GM. RAW can be used to protect players, especially when Rule Zero is used to punish players.

I've played both, though a lot more PF than 5e, which we've only tested in a single adventure. I do hope to possibly run a 5e campaign or two down the road, transplanting them into Golarion.

However, I did wish to note that RAW, when adhered to correctly, just as often works against the player's creativity as it can be used to protect the players. Feat requirements to do some of the most trivial things in combat or outside of it can do more to restrict player desires than anything. We've found this to happen a lot in our PF games, where a player wants his character to do this or that, and I have to ask them if they have this or that feat which permits their being able to do what they want. Obviously, people can forego feat requirements if they choose, but now you're also foregoing RAW, which can set ugly precedents for down the road, too.

I guess all I'm saying is that the whole "RAW adherence" thing has its benefits and drawbacks for players. Which it might be depends entirely on how creative your players and GM really are. I'd argue the more creative a play style a group has, the less RAW adherence will benefit them.


So, after last night's session, I have one thing I can say 5e does unequivocally better than 3.5/Pathfinder: Letting people flee from combat. Particularly Rogues. We had to make a tactical retreat (not a euphemism for once, we fell back to a more defensible position and then slaughtered them) and instead of my Rogue being fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked while surrounded by 4 goblin mooks, a chief, and a hobgoblin (and a spellcaster not far away) I could: Disengage (Bonus action), then run like hell. And then make three move actions the next turn (or as on one occasion, dart back to the leading pursuer, shank him with Booming Blade, flee, and laugh as he exploded trying to chase me and died).

It is SO HARD to run away from fights in PF.

On the flipside, I don't like that Identify is necessary to identify magic items, and I ESPECIALLY don't like that you can't ready to disrupt a caster while they're casting any more (and while we're on Readied actions...why does Readying eat an attack action AND a Reaction?). I'm fine with them being able to cat in melee no issue but not being able to disrupt a casting hurts.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

You don't need Identify to identify magic items, you can figure 'em out by spending a short rest in contact with the magic item.

Disrupting casters is even more baked into the system due to Concentration spells, which I think is a better way to do it. At least you get the effect of the spell for a turn, rather than just being unable to cast entirely if some foe is dedicating their turns to following you and waiting for you to try to cast.

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