Argyle King
Legend
Some time ago, I had started a thread here on Enworld in which I asked questions about Pathfinder. It turned out -at that time- that I never did buy the game. I still appreciate the answers everyone gave; it was a very helpful, but -until yesterday- I had not actually played a full session of the game.
I am involved in several gaming groups. One of the face-to-face groups I participate in plays on Wednesdays. I recently wrapped up a game I was running, so it was time for somebody else to DM. One of the group had originally wanted to run a D&D 3rd Edition game. We had not played the game in a long time, but he had recently had a somewhat negative experience with 4th Edition and wanted a break from 4th. Unfortunately (or fortunately I guess,) he could not find his old 3rd Edition books. So it was that he decided to buy the Pathfinder Beginner's Box.
I was unsure what to expect going into the game. One of the things which had prevented me from buying material before was that I did not understand why I would buy a game which I already owned. I knew there had been changes made from 3.5 to PF, but I could not fully wrap my head around the concept of re-buying what I had thought be essentially the same game.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that my initial impression had been wrong. While the game was familiar enough that I easily got back in the saddle and started rolling dice, the changes which were made were significant enough to make me feel as though they were an improvement to the game. My experience with the PF Beginner's Box shifted my opinion of PF in a much more positive direction.
One thing which helped right away was feeling as though the PF boxed set was a better value when compared to price than the most recent D&D Red Box. (Note: that is in no way meant as an edition war comment; it's quite simply my sincere opinion.) I highly preferred the cardboard figures with standies over the D&D pogs. The flip mat was also a very nice product. However, if I really had to pick out one thing which made my experience worthwhile, it was the quality of the sample adventure. Perhaps that sounds silly, but I really felt as though I had a better sense of the game and the world the game takes place in when playing through the PF adventure. Aesthetic feel is subjective though, so, if I were to point to a more solid hook, it would be the ability to play until level 5.
For my character, I created a dwarven wizard who was part of the universalist school; his name is Thorgrin Spellhammer. My companions for the adventure would be Welf -the elven rogue, Xan Nightstalker -human fighter, and the pregen cleric which the DM ran as a DMPC since we only had 3 players.
The first encounter with the two goblins by the moss curtain did not last long; the party pretty easily defeated them. Next came the fountain. Following the fountain was another encounter with some goblins. We were later told by the DM that we could have tried diplomacy with the second set of goblins, but the racial prejudice of Thorgrin ran pretty deep, and Xan was not a fan of goblins either (especially since our home town of Sandpoint often had problems with them.) Due to poor rolling, the second goblin encounter was a little rougher, but we prevailed. There were other things we did during the adventure as well, but I don't want to put too many spoilers in this post.
I had a really good time playing the game. The other players did as well, and the guy who purchased the boxed set seemed happy as well. The group has discussed picking up more Pathfinder material. The game is not perfect, and I did notice a few of the old 3.5 problems peeking through during one or two situations, but -overall- I feel PF is an improvement over 3rd Edition. Enough that I would feel comfortable buying products in the future. I am familiar with some of the adventures because I had bought a few to run under other rules systems, but I have not yet purchased the PF rules. The experience I had yesterday might change that.
I did notice a few things though. In particular, I could not find how opportunity attacks work in PF. Were they removed from the game or does the boxed set omit them to make a beginning experience go smoother?
Also, there were a few times when creating my wizard character in which it said to add my 'INT' to a value. It seemed reasonable to assume what was meant was my INT modifier, but I was not entirely sure. That could have been made cleared in the beginner box. My assumption came from having previous experience with the game PF is based on; if someone were completely new to rpgs and PF, I think it would be confusing.
I am involved in several gaming groups. One of the face-to-face groups I participate in plays on Wednesdays. I recently wrapped up a game I was running, so it was time for somebody else to DM. One of the group had originally wanted to run a D&D 3rd Edition game. We had not played the game in a long time, but he had recently had a somewhat negative experience with 4th Edition and wanted a break from 4th. Unfortunately (or fortunately I guess,) he could not find his old 3rd Edition books. So it was that he decided to buy the Pathfinder Beginner's Box.
I was unsure what to expect going into the game. One of the things which had prevented me from buying material before was that I did not understand why I would buy a game which I already owned. I knew there had been changes made from 3.5 to PF, but I could not fully wrap my head around the concept of re-buying what I had thought be essentially the same game.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that my initial impression had been wrong. While the game was familiar enough that I easily got back in the saddle and started rolling dice, the changes which were made were significant enough to make me feel as though they were an improvement to the game. My experience with the PF Beginner's Box shifted my opinion of PF in a much more positive direction.
One thing which helped right away was feeling as though the PF boxed set was a better value when compared to price than the most recent D&D Red Box. (Note: that is in no way meant as an edition war comment; it's quite simply my sincere opinion.) I highly preferred the cardboard figures with standies over the D&D pogs. The flip mat was also a very nice product. However, if I really had to pick out one thing which made my experience worthwhile, it was the quality of the sample adventure. Perhaps that sounds silly, but I really felt as though I had a better sense of the game and the world the game takes place in when playing through the PF adventure. Aesthetic feel is subjective though, so, if I were to point to a more solid hook, it would be the ability to play until level 5.
For my character, I created a dwarven wizard who was part of the universalist school; his name is Thorgrin Spellhammer. My companions for the adventure would be Welf -the elven rogue, Xan Nightstalker -human fighter, and the pregen cleric which the DM ran as a DMPC since we only had 3 players.
The first encounter with the two goblins by the moss curtain did not last long; the party pretty easily defeated them. Next came the fountain. Following the fountain was another encounter with some goblins. We were later told by the DM that we could have tried diplomacy with the second set of goblins, but the racial prejudice of Thorgrin ran pretty deep, and Xan was not a fan of goblins either (especially since our home town of Sandpoint often had problems with them.) Due to poor rolling, the second goblin encounter was a little rougher, but we prevailed. There were other things we did during the adventure as well, but I don't want to put too many spoilers in this post.
I had a really good time playing the game. The other players did as well, and the guy who purchased the boxed set seemed happy as well. The group has discussed picking up more Pathfinder material. The game is not perfect, and I did notice a few of the old 3.5 problems peeking through during one or two situations, but -overall- I feel PF is an improvement over 3rd Edition. Enough that I would feel comfortable buying products in the future. I am familiar with some of the adventures because I had bought a few to run under other rules systems, but I have not yet purchased the PF rules. The experience I had yesterday might change that.
I did notice a few things though. In particular, I could not find how opportunity attacks work in PF. Were they removed from the game or does the boxed set omit them to make a beginning experience go smoother?
Also, there were a few times when creating my wizard character in which it said to add my 'INT' to a value. It seemed reasonable to assume what was meant was my INT modifier, but I was not entirely sure. That could have been made cleared in the beginner box. My assumption came from having previous experience with the game PF is based on; if someone were completely new to rpgs and PF, I think it would be confusing.
. I hope some of this help.I cant seem to get the link to work right so just copy paste it without the http part 
sorry 
