NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 5390040" data-attributes="member: 5834">My experienceI've played both Pathfinder and 4E and all other versions of D&D.Pathfinder is easier than 4E, but longer than 1E or 2E because of advanced options.I DM Pathfinder right now. I run it very quickly most of the battles. What it comes down to run Pathfinder quickly:1. Rules familiarity: If the DM and/or players are always looking rules up, the game takes far longer. You should not have to look rules up as much with the new CMD/CMB system. It slowed the game down because many of the maneuvers in 3.5 had rule subsets you had to look up, whereas Pathfinder uses CMB/CMD which makes the use of maneuvers easier on the DM. As long as the DM knows the base effect, he doesn't have to figure out the roll for each maneuver used. It is all handled by the CMB/CMD mechanic.This greatly increased the speed of the game for my group and myself as DM.2. Do not overuse the battlemat: If you're fighting weak, easily slain monsters. Don't even bother drawing out an individual map. Just toss the minis on the battlemat some reasonable distance apart and let the two sides fight. Characters can whack out yard trash like movies or books in Pathfinder. It is long and drawn out like 4E for every combat.3. The lack of powers and ongoing conditions make combat faster: Pathfinder doesn't give every player a plethora of choices they don't need over half the time. Melee types whack stuff with weapons rarely needing more than that to win battles. Casters drop some damaging spells. Every fight doesn't require you to look up some stupid power and use it for that encounter because you feel like  you must because you have the power per encounter.The DM doesn't have to make sure to track each ongoing condition with colored coded markers to designate marked, slowed, combat advantage, or any of the numerous round to round conditions that 4E grants from powers.That aspect that slows down 4E combat isn't there.Pathfinder characters kill stuff by the most effective and quickest means in their arsenal. Easy enemies die quickly, tougher enemies make for the epic fights. You focus on those when they happen. And even then a lucky crit or missed save can bring down that epic enemy much quicker than in 4E or any other version of D&D.4. Get rid of 'that guy': We used to have one player who almost always did useless things and did them slowly. Every character he played moved into combat slowly and cautiously. So he didn't do any damage while everyone else was engaged for a few rounds. He took forever to decide what he was going to do. When he played the wizard or cleric, he took forever to make a spell choice and move into range to do it. He didn't grasp movement well. He didn't bother to read the rules the majority of the time. He spent his downtime between turns surfing the Internet. Then when his turn came around he hemmed and hawed and took his time and asked rules questions he should know.Without 'that guy' there, the game sped up.</blockquote>

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