Pathfinder 1E Monte Cook joins Pathfinder team

[Kristian Serrano]

In that case WotC would not be coming to the rescue of a market segment that had been abandoned.
Your context changes the great thing that Paizo is doing into a questionable thing that WotC only did in your hypothetical. And yeah, the response between the two would be quite appropriately very different.

At the same time, continuing support for v3.5 and changing are also very different. The point was that Paizo is slightly changing 3.5 more than 3.5 changed 3.0, and back then people complained about incompatibilities between the two. If WotC had done that, people would be pissed.

To stay on topic, I don't think Monte Cook will do much to ensure that Pathfinder RPG is the streamlined system that Paizo wants it to be.

 

[GlassJaw]

To stay on topic, I don't think Monte Cook will do much to ensure that Pathfinder RPG is the streamlined system that Paizo wants it to be.

Whoever said Paizo wants Pathfinder to be streamlined? Certainly not Paizo, especially given what we've seen in the Alphe releases. I think Monte is a perfect fit for what Paizo is trying to accomplish with Pathfinder.

 

[DM_Jeff]

The 3.5 to 3.0 to what PF is to 3.5 is actually an example used by Paizo when we were first asking about how different the systems would be. This is good news! "Exactly the same as 3.5", no, "easily converted on the fly for someone who still wants to use an old 3.5 PHB he adores", that's great!

-DM Jeff

 

[BryonD]

At the same time, continuing support for v3.5 and changing are also very different. The point was that Paizo is slightly changing 3.5 more than 3.5 changed 3.0, and back then people complained about incompatibilities between the two. If WotC had done that, people would be pissed.

The difference between WotC changing the system and Paizo rescuing a system that WotC has left behind remains. That is a huge difference and completely invalidates the comparison you are making.

I'm thrilling with Paizo doing this and would be pretty indifferent is WotC had. And the difference is perfectly consistent, reasonable, and logical.

To stay on topic, I don't think Monte Cook will do much to ensure that Pathfinder RPG is the streamlined system that Paizo wants it to be.

Noted.

I think that a few simple suggestions here and there on ideas can do a great deal to make the Pathfinder RPG even more of the new and fresh take on a solid game core that Paizo wants it to be.

I also think that by simply endorsing Pathfinder, Monte has provided a great support.

 

[bento]

This is not the place for people to argue about 3e vs 4e. It's a thread to discuss the great fact that Monte is joining the Pathfinder team as a rules consultant, and what that means. Please keep the thread on topic.

My apologies PC. I stay away from the 4E threads for this reason.

I'm not sure how I feel about Monte's participation. I wasn't playing D&D when 3E came out, and while I've looked over his Arcana Evolved books, they don't strike me as the kind of game I want to play. Same for Ptlolus. I enjoyed his work on Planescape though.

Regardless of this, I hope that he provides Jason with the soundboard needed to keep Pathfinder RPG flexible and fun!

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Nice marketing move on Paizo's part. And that's about all it really is, a marketing move.

 

[catsclaw227]

I also try to keep close to the PC generation rules, but to save time I start taking short cuts. The only cases where I don't take short cuts is if the NPC travels with the players on their adventures. In those cases, I don't cut corners. But for most other NPCs, even big wig spell casting opponents, you can take some shortcuts.

That was one of my main concerns with the power creep in Pathfinder - if you are using a published adventure for 3.5E, the Pathfinder built players should have an easier time of it. However, I tend to tweak just about all published adventures a little bit anyway that it wasn't such a big deal for me. It might be for someone who was especially pressed for time. In their case, they might be able to consider the Pathfinder built characters a level higher or something. Or they could just add one additional encounter or increase the difficulty a slight bit with the finale. It's not perfcet, but at least it doesn't have to be an awful lot of work.

Yea -- I agree with this. Sometimes I get too caught up in tweaking the NPCs to the nth degree. And I ended up doing just this with monsters after all was said and done. I wish I had more time to adventure tinker, but often times I need to run it fairly out-of-the-box. It's hard to squeeze hours out of the week for prep.

Back on topic... I will restate my opinion that Monte Cook acting as a developer sounding board for PRPG is A Very Good Thing. Even though I may become a certified 4on, I may also be a pathgrinder as well.

 

[Voadam]

This is where I must've misunderstood. I thought that they were trying to be backwards compatible with 3.5 in general, not just BC with the 3.5 SRD. There are a lot of mechanics that came out of supplemental books that are not 3.5 core or SRD, such as reserve feats, divine metamagic, classes with newer "always on" abilities (like Dragon Shaman aura), martial maneuvers, etc... and these are being used (I imagine) quite extensively by many current 3.5 players.

Good question.

I play in a lot of pbp games and a large number of them are core rules (PH/DMG/MM) only.

A bunch are any WotC books and some are any WotC books but no Bo9S or psionics.

For the Core rules only crowd Pathfinder is a power bump across the board (the PF fighter gets everything the core fighter gets plus more AC and attack bonuses, etc.). For those who use everything PF seems deliberately balanced against the top performers of 3.5 such as warforged race and Bo9S classes.

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

Nice marketing move on Paizo's part. And that's about all it really is, a marketing move.

Perhaps, but such is how successful product lines are made.

 

[Voadam]

Another backwards compatible aspect is when they make their PF modules designed for the PF level of PC power. Paizo 3.5 adventures have a rep for being very tough for the suggested levels as is. Bump them up for PF default and a group using 3.5 core only and just looking for continued Dungeon style adventures will get more chewed up than they did in Age of Worms.