Pathfinder 1E Are people still playing Pathfinder 1e?

[aglondier]

I just don't have the funds to invest in multiple new editions. I am happy with pf 1e. I may consider adopting pf 4 or 5 e when we get to it...

 

[Thrawn007]

This is fascinating to hear. Kinda speaks to the dangers of doing a drawn-out public playtest

Some of the things we all hated about the math during the playtest, I've come to appreciate. Most of my worst PF1 one experiences are due to ridiculous bonus stacking. Kitsune fey-blooded sorcerers throwing around confusion in every enounter makes things boring for everyone at the table. Martials that can't be hit except on a 20, and consistently drop foes in one round, don't need the rest of the party to be there. Intimidation that sends enemies running with no counerplay gets boring and redundant. Stealth at levels where you can take 1 and enemies still can't spot you on a 20 lets the rest of the party just disengage and not worry about the game. Anyone can show "system mastery" and make ridiculous characters. I've reached the point where I'm sick of seeing these character types and 2e eliminates that.

 

[payn]

Some of the things we all hated about the math during the playtest, I've come to appreciate. Most of my worst PF1 one experiences are due to ridiculous bonus stacking. Kitsune fey-blooded sorcerers throwing around confusion in every enounter makes things boring for everyone at the table. Martials that can't be hit except on a 20, and consistently drop foes in one round, don't need the rest of the party to be there. Intimidation that sends enemies running with no counerplay gets boring and redundant. Stealth at levels where you can take 1 and enemies still can't spot you on a 20 lets the rest of the party just disengage and not worry about the game. Anyone can show "system mastery" and make ridiculous characters. I've reached the point where I'm sick of seeing these char

AS much as I love the variety and ability to fully customize a character, there is a lot of shenanigans GMs have to look out for.

 

[Thrawn007]

AS much as I love the variety and ability to fully customize a character, there is a lot of shenanigans GMs have to look out for.

I gmed PFS games for years (close to 1000 tables) and you can't do much about broken characters in that environment. Now playing home games I'm finding people generally want to play even more broken stuff once the PFS rails are off. Been a definite turn off.

 

[payn]

I gmed PFS games for years (close to 1000 tables) and you can't do much about broken characters in that environment. Now playing home games I'm finding people generally want to play even more broken stuff once the PFS rails are off. Been a definite turn off.

I noticed the opposite. Folks in PFS all read forums and knew the best trick builds and aimed for that. My home games folks were more relaxed and made more organic characters.

 

[doctorhook]

I noticed the opposite. Folks in PFS all read forums and knew the best trick builds and aimed for that. My home games folks were more relaxed and made more organic characters.

I can’t speak the PFS, but my own experience was that optimization guides took all the magic out of character building. Once there’s “right” and “wrong” character choices, you start discounting concepts because they’re merely not good enough. Playing a net build meant someone else did the work of deciding your character for you; might as well let that guy just play the character too. But alas, I can’t stop others from enjoying that.

 

[payn]

I can’t speak the PFS, but my own experience was that optimization guides took all the magic out of character building. Once there’s “right” and “wrong” character choices, you start discounting concepts because they’re merely not good enough. Playing a net build meant someone else did the work of deciding your character for you; might as well let that guy just play the character too. But alas, I can’t stop others from enjoying that.

I think the main culprit was just how much better optimized characters could be even among optimized characters. It's one of the reasons I really like bounded accuracy I think it keeps things grounded and reduces that gulf and pressure on chargen. Makes the game easier to run for GMs too, since the disparity isn't such a gulf.

 

[Thrawn007]

I noticed the opposite. Folks in PFS all read forums and knew the best trick builds and aimed for that. My home games folks were more relaxed and made more organic characters.

For better or worse, a lot of the players I'm currently playing with are the types who'd create builds that would later become the internet power builds.

 

[Thrawn007]

I think the main culprit was just how much better optimized characters could be even among optimized characters. It's one of the reasons I really like bounded accuracy I think it keeps things grounded and reduces that gulf and pressure on chargen. Makes the game easier to run for GMs too, since the disparity isn't such a gulf.

This is exactly what brought me back around to PF2.

 

[payn]

For better or worse, a lot of the players I'm currently playing with are the types who'd create builds that would later become the internet power builds.

Im sure that has a lot to do with it. My folks were not too driven to find the best builds, just ones that worked good enough to live.