Stealing bits of Pathfinder....

[Absol197]

Most of what Andreaz is saying is spot on. Pathfinder makes for a greater amount of character customization, what with every class (just about) gaining additional class features that you get to choose from, feats every odd level, and cross-class skills no longer being pointless.

Now, full disclosure, just like Andreaz, I'm not saying that Pathfinder fixed all of the balance issues with 3.5. It's not for every group. But for those groups (like mine) that aren't super-optimizers, it's perfect.

Some of the up-sides:
--New classes give greater customization, and you almost always gain something every level;
--Feats every two levels increase customization;
--Intriguing new feats have been added, and some old feats have been given reworks to make them more useable (I'm particularly partial to the change of Power Attack, but I know that many people don't like it);
--The skill rework was drastically needed, and allows cross-class skills to be taken and still be useful, encourages spreading yoru skill points out, and skill consolidation makes individual skill points a bit more useful.
--Spell are basically the same, but some of the more blatant abuses have been nixed. Cantrips at-will both makes sense (to me, at least) and works well;
--The combat maneuvers system simplifies what was nearly a dozen-odd individual mechanics into one system, making it easier to remember and use. The system of feats relating thereto is iffy, and it might be best to use the standard 3.5 ones in this case.

I would also recommend stealing from SAGA Edition, and giving 2 ability points per 4 levels. This allows characters to continuously biuld their strongest ability, while also shoring up some of their others.

I think you can tell which I prefer, huh? I'd give the whole thing a try, and see what you think. It's not that hard to convert back and forth, and who knows? You might enjoy it more than you thought!


~Phoenix

EDIT: And to answer your other question, yes, I've tried just adding bits of Pathfinder to a 3.5 game. That's how I'm getting my team to switch over. I started with skills and combat maneuvers, and then have been adding a bit more every time.