Any ToB inspiration in Ultimate Combat?

[Dragonblade]

I'm mostly a 4e guy, but I admire what Paizo is doing with Pathfinder. I read the Ultimate Combat blurb and was wondering if any of the combat options in there will be inspired by Tome of Battle.

I know some people disliked it. But it was my favorite 3.5 book of all time. I loved everything about it. I loved how it put warrior classes on par with casters for the first time and provided a flavorful and fun combat subsystem for warrior classes with all the different maneuvers.

One of my (few) disappointments with 4e is that they moved away from that design paradigm. Honestly, I would have been happy with something closer to how Pathfinder/SW Saga turned out, but with ToB style maneuvers and some improvements on the DM side of the shield, like self-contained stat blocks.

If Paizo were to release a Pathfinder flavored version of ToB, that would go a long way to getting me to really invest in Pathfinder as a system as opposed to solely playing 4e.

Anyone know anything more about it?

 

[Shisumo]

Honestly, this far out, I'm not even sure that Paizo has much information on exactly what will be in it. It might be something like ToB, but I really think I'd be doing you a disservice if I encouraged that kind of hope. I know, for instance, that James Jacobs has never read ToB (he's said as much several times); I don't think the book has much of a following among the Paizo staff, though by the same token I don't know that there are many detractors either. I think we're just going to have to grit our teeth and wait a bit to find out...

 

[Gorbacz]

Also, ToB is not open content, so porting it directly to Pathfinder is not possible.

 

[Dragonblade]

Also, ToB is not open content, so porting it directly to Pathfinder is not possible.

Right, it would definitely have to be original material. Well, I'll keep an eye on it as the release date gets closer. Thanks for the replies!

 

[IronWolf]

I'm mostly a 4e guy, but I admire what Paizo is doing with Pathfinder. I read the Ultimate Combat blurb and was wondering if any of the combat options in there will be inspired by Tome of Battle.

I will be frank and say I hope not. Tome of Battle seems to me to be some of the early steps towards 4e and some of the very things I didn't like. I don't really have any desire for maneuvers and such.

Now I have no idea what Ultimate Combat will include, but I think Paizo sees that a lot of us really enjoyed 3.5 and are quite content to just have the relatively small tweaks to the system.

 

[Tambryn]

I allow ToB to be used with little change in my Pathfinder games. The classes are about on par with PF's core classes. Really no need for there to be a PF ToBesque book.

Tam

 

[Shisumo]

Now I have no idea what Ultimate Combat will include, but I think Paizo sees that a lot of us really enjoyed 3.5 and are quite content to just have the relatively small tweaks to the system.

Since Ultimate magic is going to include a variant magic system, some variant combat systems don't really seem out of the realm of possibility - the Ultimate books are apparently going to be about not-small tweaks to the system, at least in part. Given the "words of power" spellcasting that we're going to see, something that resembles the Sublime Way wouldn't really strike me as bizarre. It's just that there's no reason to expect it, either.

 

[IronWolf]

Since Ultimate magic is going to include a variant magic system, some variant combat systems don't really seem out of the realm of possibility - the Ultimate books are apparently going to be about not-small tweaks to the system, at least in part. Given the "words of power" spellcasting that we're going to see, something that resembles the Sublime Way wouldn't really strike me as bizarre. It's just that there's no reason to expect it, either.

Quite possible. I'm having a hard time getting excited about any of the Ultimate books thus far as I feel like I have a pretty complete game between the Core Rulebook and the APG and don't really feel the need to throw more rule variations and such at it.

 

[pawsplay]

I definitely have reservations about letting fighters chop through adamantine walls in one blow.

 

[Nifft]

I allow ToB to be used with little change in my Pathfinder games. The classes are about on par with PF's core classes. Really no need for there to be a PF ToBesque book.

ToB was the first attempt at a non-sucky martial class system. While excellent, there's still plenty of room for improvement, and Paizo could do much worse when seeking 3.x inspiration.

Cheers, -- N