Pathfinder 1E Dming Pathfinder for the first time.

[Theone0581]

I'm switching my 3.5 game to pathfinder and I have some pretty knowledge players of Pathfinder who are going to be in it. I was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers and things that I might want to restrict my players from. I don't want them to take advantage of me and my lack of knowledge and make something OP. Any bit of help will be appcriated. Thanks.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

I'm switching my 3.5 game to pathfinder and I have some pretty knowledge players of Pathfinder who are going to be in it. I was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers and things that I might want to restrict my players from. I don't want them to take advantage of me and my lack of knowledge and make something OP. Any bit of help will be appcriated. Thanks.

I would say keep it to the core classes until you get the hang of it. I wouldn't mess with classes like the Gunslinger and the Firearm rules. I would also start with the "Rise of the Runelords" AP as it is a great introduction into the game. I also recommend using the 15 point buy for stats to keep the game at the "standard fantasy" level.

If anything else comes to mind I will post it.

Good luck.

 

[billd91]

I don't want them to take advantage of me and my lack of knowledge and make something OP.

Do you really think this is likely? If so, they may not be people you want to play with.

Nevertheless, keeping to a limited number of class options isn't a bad bit of advice in general. Allow only the stuff you feel comfortable allowing, expand as you feel you are mastering more content.

 

[timASW]

Read the skills and feats chapter. I didnt the first time and it tripped me up. Most of it is very similar to 3.5 but theres enough changes that you should definitely give it a good read over.

 

[N'raac]

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choice and options for PC's. As GM, you don't need to know every option. You only need to know how the options chosen by the PC's work. Read up on their skills (which, practically, will be pretty much all the skills), classes, archetypes, spells and feats. You don't need to dig deeply into abilities they don't have until/unless their adversaries have those abilities.

 

[Theone0581]

Thanks guys. I know one of my players wanted to make some badass character using 30 points or something like that and lucky for my another player told me that it would be a bad idea for me to let players create their own characters with 30 points. I don't think my characters are trying to bring cheese to the game, but I do know that sometimes we try to take advantage of what we can get away with. I downloaded the conversion guide from the Pazio website, so I'll probably read it cover to cover today seeing how it's not that big. Thanks timASW for the heads-up.

 

[Epametheus]

30 points? Heh. That's about a 40 pt character under 3.5.

Pathfinder Adventure Path books assume a party of 4 15-point characters. I believe Pathfinder Society scenarios assume a party of 4 20-point characters.

You may want to prohibit summoners and gunslingers until you're more comfortable with the system. Firearms are kinda weird, while summoners and their eidolons can be stupidly strong, especially if the player makes a math error somewhere and it isn't caught.

 

[Daniel Grota]

Definitely stick to the core rules and don't assume everything in Pathfinder works as they did in 3.5. The main tripping points I've seen is the fact characters die when they're at a negative hitpoints equal to their Con score, not -10. Favored class bonus is often ignored in my groups, mainly because they think it works similar to 3.5. In PF, you pick a favored class and for every level in that class you get an extra HP or Skill Rank. Quite a welcome and beneficial change that adds up over time. I would also definitely stick to 15 or 20 point buy, 30 is way to high.

 

[Jester David]

Stick to the Core Rulebook for the first 2-3 levels. Allow them to rebuild with different options from other books as time goes on, essentially giving them free retraining to swap in legal options and rebuild.

One idea is to allow books to be "unlocked" as a perk or reward. Every so often, the table earns another unlock and each player picks a book for their character. This limits the number of books for each player and the amount of content you need to worry about.

I'd also lay down the law. Ask them nicely not to take advantage of you and play fair. But warn them if you catch them abusing your rule ignorance there will be harsh character penalties. Experience penalties or the like (such as reduced book unlocks). As long as they don't abuse your naivety they have nothing to worry about.

I'd also appoint someone to be the Official Rules Lawyer. Pick someone who knows the rules but you also trust to be the source of quick rules answers. You are still the arbiter of disputes, but they answer the rules questions for the table and are in charge of looking up rules.

 

[N'raac]

Definitely stick to the core rules and don't assume everything in Pathfinder works as they did in 3.5.

We made a point of looking up even mundane rules when we switched. That identifies the changes pretty fast. Many of the feats commonly used in 3.5 have changed, so ensure you give those a read before anyone commits to taking, much less starts using, them.

I would also definitely stick to 15 or 20 point buy, 30 is way to high.

We've been using 20, which is pretty much equivalent to 28 point buy in 3.5, which highlights another change in that Pathfinder starts characteristics at 10, not 8. So a character with, say, 4 14's and 2 10's who costs 28 points in 3.5 costs 20 in Pathfinder. As a result, especially on the switchover, it's easy to miss the fact that less points can buy the same stats.

Note that the pricing also changes, with the price going up at even, rather than odd, numbers (ie the characteristic point that bumps up your bonus).

For 30 points, you could have 14's across the board, or two 18's, 2 12's and 2 13's. Hey, take 3 18's and 3 10's (if you dump one of those to 7 the other 2 can be 12's).

 

[sheadunne]

The only issue with a 15 point buy is that it hurts characters like the Monk. The monk really needs at least a 20 point buy to be on par with other classes, the same with any MAD character type.

If you're allowing archtypes, just remember that it changes what the characters can do. Rangers opening locks, Monks shooting bows, etc and that they might not be able to do what you would expect since they had to give stuff up to get the new things. You'll need to make sure they you haven't locked down the game because there's a locked door and you expected the rogue to be able to open it, but then realize that the rogue gave up the ability to get something else.

Also don't assume that PF fixed any particular problem you had with 3.5. They only fixed some stuff and left other problems alone. Make a list of the issues you had with 3.5 and then see if they were addressed with PF. I found that many of my issues weren't addressed and I had to house rule almost as much stuff as I did with 3.5, which made me wonder why I bothered to switch at all (other than the ease of running games with the APs).

 

[Thotas]

Absolutely figure out what your comfort zone is and stay in it; that's good advice for any GM no matter the game or the GM's experience with it. Any time you're not sure, err on the side of caution. Also, as has been said, know your player's PCs. Read up on all their Feats, Skills, Special Abilities and Equipment. Make a quick cheat sheet of any rules (or at least where to find them) that your read up makes you think it's likely you'll need to reference in play.

 

[Reecius]

Awesome, this was really helpful! I am returning to 3.5/PF after a long hiatus and am running my first campaign, too. My players are all really experienced, but they are not trying to create OP characters. We're using 20 points and I am allowing archetypes as well as non-core classes. I was pretty dang knowledgeable on 3.5 (at least I like to think so! haha) and with the help of my PCs, I think we will get through it without much issue. Plus, we're all good friends, so I feel like this will be good fun.

I had a question for you sheadunne, you mentioned you had to house rule a bunch of rules issues with PF, what were some of them if you don't mind? Reading through the PF books I see so much cool stuff that I like and feels like an improvement. I would like to avoid any landmines if possible. Thanks!

 

[codpeace]

I wouldn't start with RotR for your first adventure, I'd start with a dungeon crawl like crypt of the everflame or something to shake out all the rules and get accustomed to them. That way you'll be less likely to screw up a plot point in the AP that may affect the game later down the road. Just a thought.