D&D 4E Basic Questions about Pathfinder (4e considering a move)

[buddhafrog]

I play/DM 4e exclusively. I'm starting to consider making a Pathfinder jump. I'm pretty ignorant about Pathfinder and just started playing 4e after a 25 year rpg absence - the last game I played was AD&D.

I love the D&D 4e character builder. There is nothing like this at all for Pathfinder, right? I'm assuming there are plenty of online character sheets, but that the info needed to make the character must be gathered from the various source books - the info isn't located in one area, right? I have all the 4e books and the idea of needing to buy all the Pathfinder books makes me really hesitant to get into Pathfinder. If there was a sort of Pathfinder character builder, maybe...

4e has the 'power cards'. I understand how magic/divine characters work for Pathfinder, but how do martial characters work? My last reference is AD&D when you had a choice of weapons, but really you used only one weapon... and those were your only options. Is this still true for Pathfinder? I do like how 4e has given martial characters various options each round.

Could anyone enlighten me a little on these few questions... and maybe anything else you think I should know?

Thanks much in advance.

 

[IronWolf]

I love the D&D 4e character builder. There is nothing like this at all for Pathfinder, right? I'm assuming there are plenty of online character sheets, but that the info needed to make the character must be gathered from the various source books - the info isn't located in one area, right?

The official character builder for Pathfinder is Hero Lab. It is not subscription based, but it does require buying the Hero Lab application which will come with one system of your choice. Then you can buy add-on data sets for things like the Advanced Player's Guide, Bestiary, Adventurer's Armory, etc.

This is the one I have primarily been using it. It is great. It makes it super easy to generate a character, support is responsive when needed. You do have to purchase the datasets that you want to use, but really - you can get by with just the core and probably the Advanced Player's Guide.

There are other generators as well. PC Gen is good and is free to use. The betas have a good portion of the APG material I believe. Several people on the Paizo forums have spreadsheet based character builders.

I have all the 4e books and the idea of needing to buy all the Pathfinder books makes me really hesitant to get into Pathfinder. If there was a sort of Pathfinder character builder, maybe...

With Hero Lab you could buy the data sets and not have to buy the book if that is what you were after. Really, these days I think one can pretty easily get along with just the core rulebook, the bestiary and as you get used to the system, the Advanced Players Guide. There are many other supplements, but those three books are the vast majority of the rules at the moment. Also, the PDF versions are dirt cheap at $10 a piece. So if you don't mind PDFs you can have all the main rules for $30.

And on top of that, you can access the vast majority of rules via the freely available Pathfinder SRD. Paizo releases a large amount of their rules as open content, so therefore is published at the SRD site.

4e has the 'power cards'. I understand how magic/divine characters work for Pathfinder, but how do martial characters work? My last reference is AD&D when you had a choice of weapons, but really you used only one weapon... and those were your only options. Is this still true for Pathfinder? I do like how 4e has given martial characters various options each round.

We don't really have powers, but all character classes have received some form of power-up. No dead levels, armor training, weapon training. Barbarians get rage powers and such. The SRD noted above will let you see what a lot of these are about.

Could anyone enlighten me a little on these few questions... and maybe anything else you think I should know?

Hopefully that helped, I am sure others will be along to help answer them as well.

I will just say I think Pathfinder is a great system. Paizo is great as a company and really seem to support the community. Their openness with the rules in my opinion and dirt cheap PDF prices for the rules really keep the barriers low for entry into the system.

With that said, I liked 3.x as well, so it stands to reason that I like Pathfinder as well.

 

[buddhafrog]

Thanks IronWolf. This info is pretty encouraging, really. I'm definitely going to check out HeroLab and others. Intriguing....

 

[BillionSix]

I should point out that Pathfinder is very very different than 4th edition. A lot of the things, like categorizing characters officially as strikers, controllers, et al. doesn't exist in Pathfinder.
In fact, the main reason that Pathfinder was created was as a response to the great difference between 3rd and 4th editions.
Pathfinder only goes up to 20th level, officially, instead of the 30 levels of 4th edition.
You can multi-class, creating characters who are part fighter, part wizard, etc.
There are a lot of other differences, but that's what pops into my head at first.

 

[gamerprinter]

You remember weapon and non-weapon proficiencies, right? Well now there are feats, they are much more powerful, and many feats have a chain of more powerful feats above it that is required prerequisite. Skills are similar in purpose though a bit redressed from 2e.

Lots of 2e spells and magic items are pretty the same as what you might find, though the mechanics may have changed a bit. A ring of regeneration in 1e or Pathfinder is almost identically worded. So while there are some big changes, there are other aspects that didn't change at all.

I don't know 4e, so I can't tell you a thing there.

If you remember how combat and adventuring worked and felt in AD&D, Pathfinder is largely the same (of course there are rule changes) If you liked AD&D you should have no real trouble with Pathfinder.

GP

 

[ruemere]

There are free adventures at Paizo site. There are also previews and story hours.

Have a look at offerings at http://www.paizo.com

Consider Malek's helpful links (Bestiary Previews).

Additionally:
Pathfinder OGL document.
Overview of the core manual.
Free products.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Liquidsabre]

Btw here's a direct link for the free Pathfinder Module DL Master of the Fallen Fortress PDF you'll just have to get a log in, add pdf to your cart, and dowload the pdf!

 

[GreyLord]

I second

Pathfinder_OGC

I asked about the Pathfinder only a few weeks ago, wish I had realized they had the same thing like D&D did with 3e.

This thing can answer a TON of your questions, maybe leave a few up in the air still...but it's GREAT for getting an overview of what the system is like.

 

[darjr]

There are free spell cards that were announced here.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/pathfi...ree-pathfinder-core-rulebook-spell-cards.html

It would be cool if there were class/race feature and/or feat cards. Or even skill cards.

 

[ruemere]

One word of caution though: Pathfinder RPG is using different design philosophy than 4E.
Note: This is not meant to antagonize anyone. I just want to voice my opinion.

Probably, the most fitting way to describe it is that 4E makes everyone equal through very well designed rulesystem, while PFRPG strives to make everyone different.
So, under 4E it is harder to build imbalanced characters, but at the end of the day you may feel that different classes do similar things. Or, at the very least, exhibit similar efficiency when dealing with challenges.
Under PFRPG different classes are different to the point where GM's job requires a lot of imagination to provide equal opportunities for everyone. And some folks feel that they got short end of the stick as they do not get to do cool things like the wizard.

PFRPG is my system of choice because:
- third party support. I'm a Scarred Lands GM through and through, I admire works of Monte Cook (Banewarrens and Ptolus), pluck stuff from Necromancer Games... it's simply
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGQ0pUJCPXY"]fantastich[/ame]

- just browse cool bits and pieces in a PDF store on a rainy day.
- people are not made equal. Characters and monsters, too. You need skill, and you need passion to do stuff.
- same rules apply to everyone. This is my pet peeve with 4E - PCs and the world around them work differently.
- Paizo staff are very responsive. They talk to fans.

Regards,
Ruemere

PS.
*warning* *rant ahead* *read at your own peril*
Finally, this is going to be a political statement of sorts: Paizo Publishing plays fair. Hasbro, and consequently WotC, do not. Instead of at least trying to gracefully abandon OGL (and d20 STL), the third party companies were put in a drag of a wait for GSL, and when GSL finally did appear, using it was as pleasurable as dancing on a broken glass.

I am not going to support a company which does that to the rest of the market. I know that WotC was within their rights to do just that. I know that there may have been various factors involved. It still does not justify the end result - the withering of 3rd party market.
*end of rant*