Pathfinder 1E New Pathfinder Is Up

[Lizard]

My comments from RPG.net:

re:Low-light vision while raging. Uhm....yeah. WTF? I'd rather make it a feat only barbarians, rogues, or rangers can take -- "You are so used to prowling the night that you see in it as well as races born to it".

Overall, I like the rage point concept, because I like the idea of classes having strong mechanical differences, different ways of doing things. Every class having the same power structure is boring.

Fighters: I still say what they need is weapon mastery feats which build off the basic class power. This gives them the weapon-based flavor fighters currently lack and cool options no other class can take, making it worth building to high levels in fighter, not just dipping for the feats.

(Of course, if Paizo REALLY wants to make Lizard happy, they will drop the idea of 'all feats are created equal' and introduce Feat Points. You gain 1 Feat Point/level. The default 3x feat is worth 3 points. Feats known to be lame (Toughness) can cost 1 point, while exceptionally useful feats (Say, Natural Caster) might cost 4 or even 5 feat points.)

I like the multiple options for druids and paladins. I'd like to see paladins get 'Piety Points' or 'Holy Points' or whatever, like the Barbarian, and use them to power Cool Abilities instead of gaining cleric spells, but that breaks 3x compatibility too much. Hmm. I may have my first Pathfinder PDF idea.

I find the pseudo-polymorphs to be a bit too '4e' for my taste, but I recognize the gameplay necessity. Me, I'd probably have gone with specific forms, but I see flexibility+simplicity as trumping mechanical consistency for most people.

Love, love, love the bloodlines. One of the first things I wrote for 3e was variant sorcerer backgrounds for FFGs Spells&Sorcery. I'd like to claim I was the first, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, these are better than mine.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Love, love, love the bloodlines.

Well, yeah-- they're certainly cool. No argument. But I am not sure there is a need for them. This is typical splatbook stuff.

Jason can go nutz with cool designs all day long, and I am sure I would enjoy almost everything, but it seems outside the design scope of Pathfinder.

At least, as I envision it.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Before Someone Asks

Hunter's Cry has been renamed Intimidating Glare. Terrifying Howl (p. 11) requires Hunter's Cry, but Hunter's Cry is not present. In the the blog 2 weeks ago, Paizo gave a tease of the Barbarian powers. People complained that the rage powers there sounded like the names of powers that a scholar inworld sat down and documented (or like 4E powers) as opposed to something a barbarian could discuss ingame. Descriptive names were recommended.

 

[Gundark]

meh.....it's still like hanging paintings over the holes over the walls rather than fixing the holes

 

[Greg K]

Likes:
- I like the change back to skill points and removal of 1/2 rank for cross class skills.
- I like the removal of XP to cast spells
- The change to sneak attack
- The sorcerer, but see comment below

Dislikes:
Barbarian
-Night Sight. What does rage have to do with seeing in the dark?
- Elemental Rage. What does elemental damage have to do with rage?

Sorcerer
- Fey: I don't like Fist of Thorns. It just doesn't feel fey to me.


I would like to see
a) all characters receive a minimum of 4 skill points

b) Armor and Weapon Proficiencies gained through feat choices rather than granted as automatic proficiencies. Just provide certain classes with extra bonus feats only avaiable to first level characters with which to select class specific feats.

c) Some of the UA variants as customization options: Barbarian Hunter (unless ranger becomes a non-spellcaster), Battle Sorcerer, Cloistered Cleric, Wilderness Rogue to provide some more fantasy archetypes.

d) Paladin options (I have never been a fan of Paladins or Rangers suddenly gaining spells after first level)
- An option for giving up spellcasting
- An option for gaining a bard's spell progression

e) Something done about characters gaining multiple +2 bonuses to the same save through multiclassing. Maybe starting Good saves off with a +1 bonus and granting characters an additional +1 bonus to the good save(s) of the class they take at first level.

 

[MadMaxim]

I still like what I'm seeing so far. I like the options for raging Barbarians, and more smite for the Paladins and more awesome auras to make them the anchor in the party

 

[WhatGravitas]

meh.....it's still like hanging paintings over the holes over the walls rather than fixing the holes

Well, Pathfinder is supposed to be 3.5++, not a completely new edition. I see that every time I tinker with 3.5E - change a thing here (like spellcasting... or attacks...) and it cascades down. How much cascades can you bear, until the compatibility goes below an acceptable level.

And I really like the skill system - a nice fix/compromise. And their grapple system is also pretty cool.

The barbarian rage is a bit odd. It looks a bit like psionics mashed up with the druid and the barbarian. Not sure about that, especially because the Barbarian was among the nicest classes.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Wicht]

(Of course, if Paizo REALLY wants to make Lizard happy, they will drop the idea of 'all feats are created equal' and introduce Feat Points. You gain 1 Feat Point/level. The default 3x feat is worth 3 points. Feats known to be lame (Toughness) can cost 1 point, while exceptionally useful feats (Say, Natural Caster) might cost 4 or even 5 feat points.)

Have you checked out the rewritten Toughness feat in pathfinder? 3hp +1 hp/HD.

 

[joela]

backwards

Well, Pathfinder is supposed to be 3.5++, not a completely new edition. I see that every time I tinker with 3.5E - change a thing here (like spellcasting... or attacks...) and it cascades down. How much cascades can you bear, until the compatibility goes below an acceptable level.

And that's the kicker. Paizo, as it stated in its mission statement, knows it's walking a fine line between presenting an evolved 3.x that'll still work with prior 3.x materials. Every time I see alternatives posted on the forums, I raise my eyes at how much work it would take to all plethora of modules to work with them. (Here's looking at you, skill and point-based magic systems.)

 

[Darrin Drader]

To be fair, how do the class/non-class skill changes affect compatibility? Yes, that might mean that your 3.5 opponents might have a few less ranks in things, but power level comes up primarily in combat situations. How often do skills come into play during combat? I am accounting for the fact that Bluff, Concentration, and Hide are big ones, but other than that?