Pathfinder 1E So what do you think is wrong with Pathfinder? Post your problems and we will fix it.

[I'm A Banana]

For those who don't see it.

Aura of the Grave- Mindless undead within 10 feet can't attack you unless they pass a Will save.

Which is great....and then 5 levels later...

Aura of Death- Undead creatures within 10 feet get a +2 profane bonus to saving throws.

So yep, Seal Breaker gets an aura that makes one of his aura others harder to use. Outstanding.

...I still don't see it? The first stops undead from attacking you, and the second makes undead protecting you a little more robust.

However, I don't think that Golarion is that good of a kitchen sink setting. I've seen better generic settings that have a little more thought put into them.

I think what makes a good kitchen sink is, in part, a good hub. Golarion doesn't have a good hub. It doesn't have an easy way to get from one end to the other in an instant. It doesn't have a central pillar with a strong, unique identity.

My point of comparison is Planescape, which is another intentional kitchen sink. That setting is a unique setting mostly because of Sigil, and the tone and style that the city as a hub imparts on the rest of the planes by association. Sigil and the portal concept make exploring different regions of the kitchen sink easy -- hell one week, heaven the next. And the factions and aesthetics of Sigil leak into the other parts of the setting, too.

I'd struggle to identify Golarion's hub, or what might set it apart and make it special. It's got infinite variety, but good luck coming up with a consistent Golarion experience, vs. a consistent experience in one of its regions.

 

[EnglishLanguage]

...I still don't see it? The first stops undead from attacking you, and the second makes undead protecting you a little more robust.

The aura doesn't specify friendly undead, it boosts all undead saving throws, including the saving throw enemy undead need to make to bypass your "can't attack" aura.

 

[Blackwarder]

My biggest problem with PF is the need to get a degree in it before you can play build your own PC without feeling like you don't contribute anything to the group AKA system mastery, blah!

Warder

 

[I'm A Banana]

The aura doesn't specify friendly undead, it boosts all undead saving throws, including the saving throw enemy undead need to make to bypass your "can't attack" aura.

Ah, that makes sense, yeah.

 

[Greg K]

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I think what makes a good kitchen sink is, in part, a good hub. Golarion doesn't have a good hub. It doesn't have an easy way to get from one end to the other in an instant.

To each their own. I don't care for hubs that take one instantly from one end to the other in an instant. Then again, I also don't like Sigil or Planescape (which rates among my bottom 3 official settings).

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Having gripes with Pathfinder does not mean most fans want Pathfinder 2.0. Not even a little (for many).

Yeah, the sense I got from the recent PF 2e thread that I started on the Paizo forum (whoops, my bad!) is that most PF fans have some issues with it. There are one or two fans at both extremes -- one guy claimed he would boycott Paizo FOREVAAAR! if they ever published a 2e -- but most realize that it'll probably happen at some point, and that some change can benefit the game. How much change a fan is comfortable with tends to range from 'just a tweak here and there' to 'some of this junk just has to go...'

On a related topic, I just statted out two NPCs for a PF one-shot I'm planning to run. It was fairly easy because I went with a 'rules are for players; NPCs exist to be a fun challenge' attitude. (Feats? A dozen class features? NPCs don't need those...)

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Must say: Seeing a lot of problems, and not a lot of solutions.

Oh right, solutions.

A lot of fiddly bits are hidden near the system mastery options, so cut out options. Toss out traits, archetypes, and alternate race/class features. Toss out all feats, except for those gained through class features.

 

[I'm A Banana]

To each their own. I don't care for hubs that take one instantly from one end to the other in an instant. Then again, I also don't like Sigil or Planescape (which rates among my bottom 3 official settings).

To clarify a bit, by "in an instant," I meant in an an instant of table time, not necessarily in an instant of character time. A safe, well-traveled road could serve a similar purpose. Shorter character times are typically better, since most DMs won't let years pass as safe journeys from one end of the globe to the other is undertaken, but the important bit is that you can go anywhere on the map without necessarily having to "play through" the journey. That is, you can have adventures anywhere within the kitchen sink, and you don't need to limit yourself to one particular flavor.

Hubs enable this same idea: they let you actually use the variety of the setting in play, rather than keeping it at the level of hypothetical . Big, cosmopolitan cities are the typical D&D hubs, but hubs could also be mobile homes (giant airships or floating fortresses!) or even different sites connected via teleportation or somesuch.

Without being able to use the kitchen sink's variety and without allowing cross-polination, it's often more about the individual regions' flavor than it is about the setting in and of itself. "Golarion" becomes purely meta-setting, what matters more in play is the details for Chileax or Absalom or whatever more than the world itself. Which, you know, maybe that's working as intended.

 

[Serendipity]

I like Paizo. I love the fact that they foster some of the most creative and talented people on the industry, but it's a pity that they're using those great resources to further support 3.X instead of investing in a faster/simpler game that I actually want to run/play.

See, after having run Pathfinder for the better part of two years, I could adopt this as my sig and feel quite happy about it. I love paizo as a company and I do like a good bit of what they come up with flavour-wise, just not their rules systems.
The Beginner Boxed set might have sold me but they've been pretty adamant about not wanting to support two different rules sets. Oh well. If PF does get a 2.0 I'll look into it, but I think the chances of it not being the hot complicated mess it is at our table that Pathfinder is now is low as that's what most of their customers seem to want, for reasons that baffle me.

 

[Wicht]

... I think the chances of it not being the hot complicated mess it is at our table that Pathfinder is now is low as that's what most of their customers seem to want, for reasons that baffle me.

I wonder how many of these problems are a problem because of DMs who are not willing to stand athwart their game and say "stop."

I love all the options available for Pathfinder. But I have no problems limiting my players and telling them, "You may try this in this game, but not that." You don't have to have every option in every game.