Pathfinder 1E Opinions on Pathfinder

[BryonD]

Paizo and I parted company when they went all Pathfinder - by which I don't mean the point in time at which they started to playtest it but when they switched the rest of their product line to Pathfinder.* I'm extremely fiddly when it comes to backwards compatibility and think that the Paizo classes work best with Paizo spells and Paizo monsters. As a result, I never wanted to pick up PF just to mish and mash it with my ongoing 3.5 campaign. Otoh, I'm a 3.5 die hard fan, and more happily run the massive amount of material from Paizo I have from 2004 up to early 2009 than switch systems to enjoy their current offerings.

Can you offer any examples of PF material that is not backward compatible?
I've already been using non-PF stuff in my PF game, and so far everything is transparent.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Proved to be unwise? By who's estimation? Your own personal taste obviously. The sales of a product can be sufficient for one size of company, while inadequate for others. WotC made their decision based on the needs of their company. That is a fact, otherwise they would not have gone in that direction. Whether the move is unwise or not is a matter of opinion. If WotC is meeting its targets relative to the current economy then they made a wise decision. If they are falling short, then they made a mistake. But it's not as black & white as you make it out to be.

And the thing is, we'll never know if theyre hitting their targets or not. Even if someone from WOTC comes here and tells us that everything is fine and theyre making hand over fist It's still heresay unless there are hard numbers shown.

And honestly those numbers are no-one's business, especially a bunch of yahoos on some message board (unless they are stockholders...).

I havent given any money to WOTC since buying the 4E gift set and rightfully so because they are making a game that I have no interest in supporting or playing. But they're still a business and they're still out to make money, not my money, but hey they gotta get paid somehow...

 

[ProfessorCirno]

To all those who think I'm waxing like a country singer, I'm not. I shared my experience and opinion. What I didn't do was "take a crap all over 3E." I explained how it became I system I would only enjoy playing and the problem that arose for myself and the rest of my group regarding DMing it. If you can't take some opinionated discussion on why I left 3.5, too bad.

Not a single goddamn person in this thread cares why you left 3.5. Seriously. That's not the bloody topic here. Go make your own thread.

As for the rest of you, what the christ. How did this become another edition war

:|

 

[Umbran]

It is now time for everyone here to take a chill.

If you don't like what someone else has to say, there are a few options available options - ignore them, respond in a civil manner, or report them if you feel they are somehow in violation of the board's rules. Getting rude is not an acceptable option.

This message should not need repeating, and we are not likely to repeat it.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

As for the rest of you, what the christ. How did this become another edition war

:|

Truthfully, as soon as the OP said pathfinder and Opinion it was open season to say how much you hate 3.5 and how much pathfinder did not fix what needed* fixed

Now some gave opinion others found it to be a good place to fire a few more rounds from the trenches


* Needed changes from person to person

 

[DaveMage]

To date, Paizo has been remarkably responsive to their customer base. Should that change in the future, I expect their customers will let them know.

Right now, Paizo appears to understand what their customer niche wants in a way that threatens to make Paizo an actual real competitor in the marketplace for WotC's own customers. That did not have to be; nevertheless, that's where all of this has ended up.

While I'm not pleased that it all transpired in the manner that it did, I'm very pleased to have a company like Paizo understand our needs and want to make stuff to sell that I want to buy. In terms of my loyalty in the current marketplace, Paizo has certainly earned it.

It's not easy to turn a license and the businss of being a niche publisher into a brand. It takes skill, financial wherewithal and testicles the size of grapefruits -- and an occasional bit of luck.

That Paizo has managed to do all of that with Pathfinder in a manner which is successful enough that other companies wish to use and sublicense the brand demonstrates how far Paizo has come. It also demonstrates, perhaps, how genuinely imprudent it was to license out the publishing of Dragon and Dungeon to Paizo in the first place. Trademarks can be licensed for a limited time, but the credibility and goodwill that comes with that time-limited license can be leveraged to last a lot longer than any license -- or royalties payable thereunder, too.

Food for thought.

James Jacobs (I think) of Paizo said it best. They want to make products that gamers will *want* to buy, not products that they feel they *need* to buy.

However, I maintain that Paizo's #1/best feature is its CEO. She's a gamer. She gets it.

 

[Xyxox]

The Pathfinder PDF was the best ten bucks I ever spent on gaming.

Now, hard copies of everything has become a necessity for me simply because I like the system and want the hard covers.

 

[Mistwell]

One thing I wish Pathfinder had changed were dragons. 4e dragons are, in my opinion, the best version of dragons in any of the editions. I wish Pathfinder had gone that route.

 

[I'm A Banana]

One thing I wish Pathfinder had changed were dragons. 4e dragons are, in my opinion, the best version of dragons in any of the editions. I wish Pathfinder had gone that route.

Just goes to show how different people like different things: I really dislike 4e's dragons. While I don't need dragons that are nearly as complex as 3e's, 4e goes too far in that direction, IMO. I liked the flavorful secondary abilities of the dragons in earlier editions, whether it is the Red's greed emphasized by their divination abilities ("I know exactly who took that third gold coin from the left, and I can find them, chase them down, and kill their families."), or the illusion abilities of the Blue ("Is this a mirage? Is this a gnome? Is this OH GOD A DRAGON"), or the theme of luck running through the Gold, I REALLY liked them.

4e's dragons have some thematic elements, but they're all wrath-and-fury-of-direct-combat, which is less fun for me in such an iconic creature.

I kind of wish 4e simplified dragons without totally up-ending the cool iconic secondary powers, but 4e's approach to monster design pretty much scuttled dragons that do cool stuff aside from kick butt.

 

[Snoweel]

One thing I wish Pathfinder had changed were dragons. 4e dragons are, in my opinion, the best version of dragons in any of the editions. I wish Pathfinder had gone that route.

I love the way 4e handles the combat mechanics of humanoids. I don't think Pathfinder went far enough in making humanoids mechanically distinctive.