PF advice needed

[Confused Dad]

I'm a dedicated 3.5 junkie with damn near every 3/3.5 book. Looking at joining a PF game (Rise of the Runelords). I have no PF books and no experience with PF. Any suggestions as to what race/class would be the LEAST CONFUSING to an old man?

Open to anything, but prefer a caster of some sort, wizard, cleric, Druid, artificer, even warlock (can you tell I'm not much for melee?)

[Extra Anchovies]

Wizard didn't change much, but there isn't as much metamagic shenanigans available (assuming your DM banned sacred geometry, which they should have). Spell list is different, but you no longer need to devote skill points to concentration (it's a caster level check).

[Jeff the Green]

Well, to start, pretty much everything's OGC and available on the SRD(s) (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/). Pretty much all of the core classes play like their 3.5 counterparts and in addition Magus is similar to Duskblade and Oracle might as well be Favored Soul with much better fluff-crunch coherence. There's a 3rd-party artificer that looks fairly similar to Eberron's too, though I've never seen anything like a Warlock. (I rarely play PF so I haven't read through everything, though.) I'd still recommend one of the spontaneous casters because of the sheer number of published spells and the fact that there have been a number of changes to core ones.

[Extra Anchovies]

I've never seen anything like a Warlock.

There's a third-party Warlock (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/adamant-entertainment/warlock) but it's boring. They choose Wizard school powers instead of having their own invocation list; there's a few unique abilities, most of which are essentially copies of 3.5 invocations, but a few of them are notable for being game-breaking (at-will Summon Monster of any level with duration of 1 day and no cap on simultaneous summons [plus all summons get max HP]; that particular one comes online at level 20, but still).

[MikeB1917]

Arcanist is a fun build. Combo of sorc/wiz, you get special arcanist talents by using a pool of points similar to a monks ki. You can prepare spells like a wiz which helps you stay flexible. I went for a consume magic item arcanist with dimensional slide. I can take a 5ft step and go anywhere I can see at 10ft a level, and when I get low on points I just consume the magic from scrolls I scribed.

[NightbringerGGZ]

I'm a big fan of the Witch. It's not a Tier 1, but you get a nice selection of crowd control spells as well as various Hexes that can be used at will (once per target per day). It makes for a great debuffing / control spell caster.

[Blackhawk748]

The Sorcerer is pretty much what it should have been in 3.5. You get class features, hell you get something almost every level, it may not be a big thing but you get something.

Also humans, as always, are just awesome, but if you want cool RP points play a Half Orc Sorcerer. Yes you can do this now and be just as good as the human.

[JoshuaZ]

I'm a big fan of the Witch. It's not a Tier 1, but you get a nice selection of crowd control spells as well as various Hexes that can be used at will (once per target per day). It makes for a great debuffing / control spell caster.

Can you explain why the witch is not T1? They get a large prepared spell list just like the classical T1s.

They are lacking a wish-equivalent and are lacking the planar binding line (which from a fluff standpoint makes no sense whatsoever) so there's an argument that they aren't T1 at the very highest levels. But the Tier system focuses also on usual levels of play, 5-15 or so.

[Pex]

Cleric changes

No heavy armor, Domain abilities are different, Turn Undead is now Channel Energy which can damage undead or for better use, in my opinion, heal people. If you choose to use it during combat you will want the feat Selective Channeling to avoid healing the enemy. Some spells have been changed.

Wizard changes

Class abilities based on school specialization, many spells have changed their effects, read up on the ones you want. Main difference is save or die spells are save or take 10 damage per caster level.

Sorcerer changes

Have bloodlines which provide class abilities and bonus spells known

Druid changes

Wildshape and the entire polymorph shenanigans have been changed. Polymorph spells have been divided up into different levels based on power level of creature forms. Polymorphing gives you static size bonuses to ability scores and specific abilities from the creature you transform into as specified in the spell description.

There are other spellcasting classes while easy to learn might be best to wait anyway until you are familiar with Pathfinder changes over all.

[Tommy_Dude]

I'm going to agree with the other posters but point out Sorcerer and Wizard are both in the Core Rulebook (kind of the Player's Handbook meets the DMG for Pathfinder) and are.. somewhat easier choices. For races, they haven't changed THAT MUCH (other than half-orcs just getting a floating +2 to a stat rather than the old racial adjustments.) but humans are always simple. Elves have some synergy with magic (sort of a built in smaller spell penetration).

[facelessminion]

If you really have a hankering for the Warlock, the Occult Adventures Playtest has the Kineticist, which is somewhere between warlock and elemental benders.

[Kane0]

Wizard and sorcerer are both solid choices, Arcanist is also great if your feeling adventurous.
Human is as usual amongst the best of the races to play, especially for sorcs.
There are a few differences between 3.5 and PF, but you'll find it largely the same apart from those few things that pop up here and there. Most of your prestige class, spell and feat options aren't around because of the differences in content, but the basics are all there. Just check through some feats and spells a couple levels before you plan on getting them and make sure your DM and fellow players are around to help you with the finer details.
Oh, you get feats every 2 levels now, which is cool. Helps with those metamagic feats and whatnot.

Cleric and druid are also still largely the same, with a few changes to some of their abilities. Spellcasting is largely unchanged, so you should feel right at home.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Can you explain why the witch is not T1? They get a large prepared spell list just like the classical T1s.

They are lacking a wish-equivalent and are lacking the planar binding line (which from a fluff standpoint makes no sense whatsoever) so there's an argument that they aren't T1 at the very highest levels. But the Tier system focuses also on usual levels of play, 5-15 or so.

I don't think they quite hit the mark of "can do everything, often better than classes that do better than that thing". They're close to T1, so the distinction is probably not a big deal, but the limited spell list, smaller number of spells/day and the intense focus on Enchantment spells reduce the number of "things" you can actually be effective at. It's still an excellent class, I just don't think they're quite at the same level as Wizards, Arcanists or Clerics.

[nerghull]

Well I kind off like the bard in pathfinder. It keeps its jake of all trades aspect but becomes really good at it. The mecanics stay the same, but you don't have that feel of waste when you spend your turn singing anymore. Plus, versatile performance and bardic knowledge are real gold in the skill monkey aspect.
Bonus : your everyday spells are gonna stay pretty much the same, so you don't need to dive into these lists of spells. (I always think it is the worst part when I switch from one to the other)