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Character Advancement versus Pathfinder
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<blockquote data-quote="hastur_nz" data-source="post: 7419532" data-attributes="member: 40592"><p>Kudos to the great answers above. I'd just add that from a DM / GM perspective, the difference is probably magnified even more. 5e is pretty easy to DM, at least for a good number of levels. Pathfinder, I'd say, quickly becomes quite a burden in terms of the number of rules and complexities that your average DM is expected to try and juggle. D&D 5e hasn't tried to make the DM rule-set quite as simple as it was in 4e, but it's at least struck a better balance - monsters are only just complex enough for the few rounds they will be alive, not overly so. There's not a lot of other complexity for a DM to manage in 5e, everything (except magic) is kept quite simple and logical, you don't need to be constantly referring to a heap of books for rules.</p><p></p><p>Although I've never played Pathfinder, I've followed it from inception, and know people who still play it; I was sick of 3.5 by the end, especially as a DM, so am very happy with 5e, which makes life as a DM much easier. In fact, for a long time I DM'd 5e knowing very few of the rules, I never even read the PHB for a couple of years, I just replied on my players knowing the rules well enough to clarify anything I wasn't 100% on. A game like Pathfinder (which is just 3.5 with some changes then heaps of new add-ons), with so many options and complicated interactions, and terribly complicated monster stat-blocks that refer to countless spells and feats etc that need cross-referencing; these are a real burden on the DM to try and keep on top of, which most never do so in most cases the players stomp over the top of monsters because the DM misses half of their abilities in play. The higher level you go, the worse it gets, in that regard (I could never run a high level 3.5 game without taking hours to highlight and scribble notes all over adventures, especially stat-blocks).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hastur_nz, post: 7419532, member: 40592"] Kudos to the great answers above. I'd just add that from a DM / GM perspective, the difference is probably magnified even more. 5e is pretty easy to DM, at least for a good number of levels. Pathfinder, I'd say, quickly becomes quite a burden in terms of the number of rules and complexities that your average DM is expected to try and juggle. D&D 5e hasn't tried to make the DM rule-set quite as simple as it was in 4e, but it's at least struck a better balance - monsters are only just complex enough for the few rounds they will be alive, not overly so. There's not a lot of other complexity for a DM to manage in 5e, everything (except magic) is kept quite simple and logical, you don't need to be constantly referring to a heap of books for rules. Although I've never played Pathfinder, I've followed it from inception, and know people who still play it; I was sick of 3.5 by the end, especially as a DM, so am very happy with 5e, which makes life as a DM much easier. In fact, for a long time I DM'd 5e knowing very few of the rules, I never even read the PHB for a couple of years, I just replied on my players knowing the rules well enough to clarify anything I wasn't 100% on. A game like Pathfinder (which is just 3.5 with some changes then heaps of new add-ons), with so many options and complicated interactions, and terribly complicated monster stat-blocks that refer to countless spells and feats etc that need cross-referencing; these are a real burden on the DM to try and keep on top of, which most never do so in most cases the players stomp over the top of monsters because the DM misses half of their abilities in play. The higher level you go, the worse it gets, in that regard (I could never run a high level 3.5 game without taking hours to highlight and scribble notes all over adventures, especially stat-blocks). [/QUOTE]
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