Trailblazer - Thoughts, reviews, recommendations?

[Marx420]

Me and my semi regular group are settling down into a nice, long, slow xp trek through a celtic+cthulhu flavored kingmaker campaign under pathfinder and all the 3.5 splats. What I am looking for is speed of play enhancements and really any tasty crunch you guys can put forward that would slot in fairly seamlessly into our existing game, and as such I have been looking at the 3pp trailblazer that I've heard oft mentioned on these boards.

A few questions:

Is this in print or pdf only? I much prefer the dead tree materials.

What exactly does it alter? Is it mutually exclusive to a great majority of the pf enhancements?

Power creep?

A few thoughts:

I'm running a few variants from unearthed arcana and rockin old school skills raw from 3.5 and all the skirmisher press books (used variant slow start [Child->Npc level->Apprentice->Career adventurer] rules to create playable backgrounds so there isn't a lack of skill points or hps.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Personally, I think Trailblazer is the best of the 3.75E DnD stuff. It is smoother and more seamless than Pathfinder and less wonky than Monte Cook's Experimental Might.

It is available in pdf for $5.00 or in paperback from Amazon for $19.95.

More threads here.

 

[Votan]

I own a dead tree version so I am sure that they exist. It was definitely worth reading -- I did not agree with all of the ideas in the book but it was a very coherent attempt to refine the 3.X D&D engine.

My favorite part was the inclusion of a magic rating (analogous to a Base Attack Bonus) that made multi-classing with a magic using class a lot more seamless.

 

[Marx420]

Thanks for the quick reply and the linked threads, interesting reads that I probably should have searched for myself .

That is a very good price, and I'm thinking I'll most certainly pick it up now, and I agree that I wasn't feeling experimental might after auditing my friends copy though I loved the older Monte Cook variant PHB.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Power creep?.

My opinion on the matter is in comparison to Pathfinder, Pathfinder took the power creep already visiting 3.5 classes and prestige classes towards the end of the 3.5 era (Fiendish Codex, Complete Champion, Bo9S) and balanced the Pathfinder classes around that power level and quantity of abilities.

To me, Trailblazer took the power of the Core classes of the PHB and balanced those classes against each other. Taking full caster classes down slightly but bringing other classes up. Trailblazer's non-caster classes gain significant extra comparable power when using Trailblazer's action point subsystem, rest mechanic, and combat reactions. Combat reactions, include attacks of opportunities, are actions you can perform on other character's turns.

 

[Stalker0]

I wrote an review in the review section a while ago if you want to check it out.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

I purchased this in pdf when it first came out and would recommend it for someone in your position. If you're looking for a "fix" to speed play, I'm not entirely sure this is it. I have found that strong rules knowledge, and accessories such as spell cards, initiative tracker etc. the best way of speeding up encounter play. However, if you are looking for further (really good) general options and a clearer understanding of the mechanical underpinnings of the system, then trailblazer is front and centre. Could not recommend it more highly!

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

If you're looking for a "fix" to speed play, I'm not entirely sure this is it.

True. There aren't that many things which I can call to mind that speed up play besides minimizing how much debuffing dispel magic causes--the on-the-fly math recalculations would necessitate the math-slow among us (like me) to stop and redo modifiers, the iterative attack change, elimination of "pet" companion characters that bring a whole additional set of actions to adjudicate per round, and maybe even the reduced instances that triggered AoOs such as moving around within an entire threatened area and standing up.

Minimal effect on speeding up play, but I think nice changes.