Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder RPG Beta Release is available!

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

To be fair, since the 4E PDFs were leaked two weeks before the release, 4E players had the same choice if they downloaded the books early.

Not exactly - the pirated copy is still illegal. Pathfinder Beta PDF is not.

I never understood the excitement about buying the print version of Pathfinder Beta. After all the 4e detractors whine and scream about it not being a complete edition or not being playtested enough they then go line up for an incomplete game and the chance to pay to be a playtester. Does not compute.

Well, the difference might be that the Beta is marked as such. I don't agree with the notion that 4E is "incomplete" (but I agree there is still a lot left to explore - the Dragon content and the previews for the next books prove that - but I see that only as a good thing - I am not sure I "needed" all those "Completes" I bought... ). But anyone that thinks this way will feel a little cheated by it (and that little easily gets blown out of proportion on the web) - There is no "4E Final", there's no warning sign.

Of course, another reason is because the Beta is intented for playtesting and to influence what the final will look like. It's your buy-in to be a contributor to a D&D game system. I bet some people would also given money if they could have been 4E playtesters...

The only time I might say that people are acting really irrational or inconsistent if they buy the Pathfinder Beta but complain that Starwars Saga and the Book of Nine Swords where "playtest" versions and they are somehow offended or disappointed by it. But I am not sure that such a straw man person exists.

 

[Sonny]

Can we keep on topic and not turn this into another fourth edition vs. pathfinder? Please?

Gonna download right now, eeeeee! The previous alphas looked good, here's hoping enough on the DMing side has been improved so it'll take less time to prepare a game.

 

[Remus Lupin]

My hard copy is en route. Gonna download the PDF right now.

 

[dmccoy1693]

got my pdf and my softcover is on the way.

 

[The Highway Man]

Could we cut the crap on the sniping between PRPG and 4E, please? That's quite enough. Whatever pseudo-side you're one, please simply stop answering to each other. Thank you!

I just downloaded the PDF and can't wait for the Print version to arrive. This is going to be a blast!

 

[Angellis_ater]

*excited* This will be awesome! I'm getting my Amazon order of 4E (and PFRPG-Beta) in a few weeks so this will tide me well for the next month.

 

[dm4hire]

Best of luck to Paizo. I downloaded my copy and waiting for the hard copy. My gaming group is looking forward to it as we plan on starting up the PF Society along with the new LFR through the RPGA.

 

[Droogie]

I find it a bit annoying that we have content spill-over in a PDF that won't be part of the hard copy. Kinda defeats some of the purpose of a hard copy in the first place: saving some time and ink. If I can't find a spell, do I need to fire up the PC to look it up? Minor nitpick, really. I will still pick up my copy at first chance.

 

[knightofround]

You know, if pathfinder didn't release this as a free PDF I never would've paid much attention to them. However I really like the majority of changes. To me it looks like the only things they missed were 1. the bard class still blows and 2. high level combat still sucks. 3. Making dwarves have base 10 feet movement was an overly harsh change imho; sure, the dwarf race was a little too good, however cutting their movement speed in half was too much of a nerf.

Looking at Pathfinder though, its easy to see why WotC wanted a stricter OGL. This sort of product makes the WotC PHB & DMG obsolete. Its not a bad thing, just like how 3.0 was made obsolete by 3.5. But I can see how WotC would want to be the ones making a profit off of the cycle, rather than a 3PP such as Paizo.

I really love the artwork inside the product. Far, far, better than the usual WotC stuff. The particularly awesome pieces are the barbarian, druid, ranger, and wizard art profiles. Everything is great though.

If I'm ever in another 3.5 campaign I'm going to try to sneak many of these changes in.

 

[Knightfall]

I got my copy of the PDF. I'll have to wait for the print version as I'm completely broke. The end of the month can't come soon enough.