Pathfinder 1E So far not impressed with Pathfinder

[Squirrel Dude]

Pathfinder is facing the same problem that 3.5 did. As the game expands, the amount of errors in judgement expand too. It's not a problem if you are able to pick up the game from the beginning, and adjust or remove percieved errors for your group as the game goes on, but it can start to be overwhelming if your a new player or DM and have well over 10 different books (3000+ pages) with sometimes conflicting information to look through.

 

[ggeilman]

Yeah, it sounds like less system anyways, and more like group dynamics. Sent some XP your way... have fun with your game, and as always, play what you like

We had our Friday game tonight 5 players and had a much better time. I know that at least most of us had fun! I know I did and it played much better. Sorry, didn't mean the huge slam to 4E. In our 6 months the game was engaging and fun. It just wasn't D&D to us so we quit playing it. I would say that it was a failure "for us" would be a more accurate statement. I know it is hard to communicate in text sometimes, but I AM actually listening to the comments and suggestions being made here. If I were not, I would not be coming back to comment. I brought many of them to our exective committee this evening prior to the game as suggestions for improvement.

 

[Sunseeker]

We had our Friday game tonight 5 players and had a much better time. I know that at least most of us had fun! I know I did and it played much better. Sorry, didn't mean the huge slam to 4E. In our 6 months the game was engaging and fun. It just wasn't D&D to us so we quit playing it. I would say that it was a failure "for us" would be a more accurate statement. I know it is hard to communicate in text sometimes, but I AM actually listening to the comments and suggestions being made here. If I were not, I would not be coming back to comment. I brought many of them to our exective committee this evening prior to the game as suggestions for improvement.

I'm glad fewer players are working better for you. I found the same thing happened when I started a new game with 4 instead of 8 players.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, really, 8 players with a game like 4e or 3e or Pathfinder is probably a really bad idea. There are just too many fiddly bits and that just gets exploded with so many players.

Good grief, combat in any of those editions is slow enough with 4 or 5. With 8 or more? It would be easily half an hour between player turns during combat. Yeurgh.

 

[Campbell]

Even with a relatively simple game like L5R 4e the Sunday night game I play in can often feel like there's too much going on with ~7-8 players. Of course it's not a party-centered game in the same way most D&D games are. We pretty much all have different irons in the fire.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Sure PF (or any brand of D&D) will put in some extra work, but it's extremely hard to have any kind of coherent game or story with eight or nine or more people in a room. People talk over each other, and the quiet ones get lost in the mix. Even LotR broke up the fellowship of nine pretty quickly. There's a reason why D&D is usually played with 4 or so people, because that number works.

Even with a rules-lite, fast-playing game, I wouldn't want that many players. And I've run extended games with groups sized two to ten.

 

[Starfox]

I agree. Another way to put it is that DnD with 7 or more players becomes a squad-level wargame. That can still be very fun. But it is different from what you get with fewer players.

 

[MagusOfAtlan]

I've been playing in a DnD 4e, a Pathfinder, and a DnD 3.5 campaign for a while. The 4e doesn't feel as versatile, but guarantees that everyone will be on roughly the same playing field. The 3.5 has too many ways to break the rules. The Pathfinder I'm the least familiar with, but feels the most balanced without forcing people into an MMORPG set of character classes.

Edit: Added note: The DnD 4e does work well with miniatures, however.

 

[Starfox]

4E could work well with many players if you only condensed the action economy even further - too much shenanigans going on with minor actions and interrupts slowing down play.

 

[frankthedm]

I had high hopes for pathfinder, but a few key issues really killed things for me. One of the biggest was removing area dispel from Dispel Magic. Then on top of that, having Dispel Magic only effect one spell killed one of the few failsafes against overbuffing.