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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
What are the advantages to Pathfinder -- for DMs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 6090656" data-attributes="member: 13966"><p>In my experience (been running my Weird Frontiers campaign of Pathfinder for over a year, and I've been running the Jade Regent Adventure Path for several months now), Pathfinder isn't ANY easier to run than 3.x D&D. The few little things it improves or provides are compensated for with OTHER problems/complications for the DM to deal with or keep track of all the time. For instance, instead of just worrying about how to suitably challenge the party's Wizard or Psion or Druid, I have to deal with the fact that EVERY PC is destroying any monster or NPC I throw at them in 1 or 2 rounds of massive attacks, unless I use a critter or NPC that is equal or superior to them in power and optimized to reliably hit them......in which case it quickly destroys each PC it faces and risks a TPK. Anything already in the Pathfinder rules that is capable of either surviving their absurd damage output and accuracy for a round or more is ALSO capable of laying waste to the PCs (or easily mind-controlling them to make them destroy each other). Everything in PF tends to be either a mook that dies quickly without doing anything to challenge the party or threaten them, or it plays out as a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut or engine of destruction.</p><p></p><p>The PCs can dish out hundreds of damage per round, yet they drop to the first monster or NPC with enough BAB/Str/Dex/whatever to actually hit them as reliably as they hit their foes, because the PCs have less HP than the amount of damage they can personally, individually inflict in one round (or their HP is only barely higher than their typical damage output per round). There's little to be found that is tough enough to survive a few rounds but weak enough not to kill a PC every round or two. I've tried using different numbers of monsters/NPCs of different CRs relative to the party's level, and it's just too broken. I have to fudge or make the monsters perform tactical blunders to avoid a TPK, or I have to just accept the fact that the vast majority of encounters will be utterly boring and identical as the PCs slaughter everything before it can do anything interesting or present any kind of challenge or tactical dilemma for the PCs.</p><p></p><p>That aside, there's way too much stuff to keep track of and check during play or between sessions of Pathfinder, and the system has really odd ways of handling treasure, XP, encounter-building, etc. Really nonsensical in several cases, I've found in practice. It's more work than running 3.0 or 3.5 D&D, and I seem to get less benefit from taking the time to actually prepare NPCs or advanced monsters (more HD, class levels, templates, or whatever) to try and challenge the PCs, which often doesn't even provide enough of a challenge anyway (or quickly turns into a possible TPK, conversely).</p><p></p><p>Running a Paizo adventure path hasn't helped. A few of the critters in those modules can easily kill 1 or 2 PCs in a round or two, and only potentially avoid doing so (in some cases) due to unusual cowardice or idiocy written into the module for their behavior. And yet still, in other parts, their plans or behavior as-written lead to near-TPKs (IIRC there were 1 or 2 PCs left standing in the final fight with Kikonu by the point he finally dropped, and only because those 1 or 2 PCs were the cleric and paladin, who had done some healing, and only because it was a 6-PC group instead of the typical 4-5 PCs; I had to make Kikonu and minions avoid finishing any fallen PCs during the fight, else there would have only been 1 or 2 returning from the adventure). Most of the encounters are cakewalks with little risk to any PC, interspersed with the occasional fatal or near-fatal encounter with a dangerous critter or NPC (who may still die quickly, but may very well take one or more PCs with them).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Arkhandus, post: 6090656, member: 13966"] In my experience (been running my Weird Frontiers campaign of Pathfinder for over a year, and I've been running the Jade Regent Adventure Path for several months now), Pathfinder isn't ANY easier to run than 3.x D&D. The few little things it improves or provides are compensated for with OTHER problems/complications for the DM to deal with or keep track of all the time. For instance, instead of just worrying about how to suitably challenge the party's Wizard or Psion or Druid, I have to deal with the fact that EVERY PC is destroying any monster or NPC I throw at them in 1 or 2 rounds of massive attacks, unless I use a critter or NPC that is equal or superior to them in power and optimized to reliably hit them......in which case it quickly destroys each PC it faces and risks a TPK. Anything already in the Pathfinder rules that is capable of either surviving their absurd damage output and accuracy for a round or more is ALSO capable of laying waste to the PCs (or easily mind-controlling them to make them destroy each other). Everything in PF tends to be either a mook that dies quickly without doing anything to challenge the party or threaten them, or it plays out as a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut or engine of destruction. The PCs can dish out hundreds of damage per round, yet they drop to the first monster or NPC with enough BAB/Str/Dex/whatever to actually hit them as reliably as they hit their foes, because the PCs have less HP than the amount of damage they can personally, individually inflict in one round (or their HP is only barely higher than their typical damage output per round). There's little to be found that is tough enough to survive a few rounds but weak enough not to kill a PC every round or two. I've tried using different numbers of monsters/NPCs of different CRs relative to the party's level, and it's just too broken. I have to fudge or make the monsters perform tactical blunders to avoid a TPK, or I have to just accept the fact that the vast majority of encounters will be utterly boring and identical as the PCs slaughter everything before it can do anything interesting or present any kind of challenge or tactical dilemma for the PCs. That aside, there's way too much stuff to keep track of and check during play or between sessions of Pathfinder, and the system has really odd ways of handling treasure, XP, encounter-building, etc. Really nonsensical in several cases, I've found in practice. It's more work than running 3.0 or 3.5 D&D, and I seem to get less benefit from taking the time to actually prepare NPCs or advanced monsters (more HD, class levels, templates, or whatever) to try and challenge the PCs, which often doesn't even provide enough of a challenge anyway (or quickly turns into a possible TPK, conversely). Running a Paizo adventure path hasn't helped. A few of the critters in those modules can easily kill 1 or 2 PCs in a round or two, and only potentially avoid doing so (in some cases) due to unusual cowardice or idiocy written into the module for their behavior. And yet still, in other parts, their plans or behavior as-written lead to near-TPKs (IIRC there were 1 or 2 PCs left standing in the final fight with Kikonu by the point he finally dropped, and only because those 1 or 2 PCs were the cleric and paladin, who had done some healing, and only because it was a 6-PC group instead of the typical 4-5 PCs; I had to make Kikonu and minions avoid finishing any fallen PCs during the fight, else there would have only been 1 or 2 returning from the adventure). Most of the encounters are cakewalks with little risk to any PC, interspersed with the occasional fatal or near-fatal encounter with a dangerous critter or NPC (who may still die quickly, but may very well take one or more PCs with them). [/QUOTE]
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