Some pathfinder questions

[Leeham]

Ok

1) What's the format? Is it like one book that adds new rules to my 3.5 stuff or is it 3 whole new books i need to buy?

2) Why should buy this instead of playing good ol' 3.5? What's new? What improves the gameplay? Any fun new non-combat mechanics?

3) Why is fly a skill?

Thanks for your replies

[Edwin]

Ok

1) What's the format? Is it like one book that adds new rules to my 3.5 stuff or is it 3 whole new books i need to buy?

2) Why should buy this instead of playing good ol' 3.5? What's new? What improves the gameplay? Any fun new non-combat mechanics?

3) Why is fly a skill?

Thanks for your replies

1; New system. The basic part is free, though.

2; It fixes some if not all of the most basic problems with 3.5, and some of the bigger ones, too.

3; It determines how well you fly, such as when using the Fly spell.

[Leeham]

Thanks. Awesome. Whaere can i get the basic part?

[Rixx]

You can access the rules at http://www.d20pfsrd.com. Give it a go! I'm having a lot more fun with Pathfinder than I did with 3.5.

[UglyPanda]

Your mileage may vary.

A number of people have groused that it doesn't fix anything.

[Mongoose87]

Your mileage may vary.

A number of people have groused that it doesn't fix anything.

It's a very divisive topic - people generally either think it's great, or think it's awful, and many of the threads on it degenerate into massive arguments, often ending in unfortunate flame wars.

[Gnaeus]

It is actually only 2 books. The Pathfinder Core Rulebook is huge, because it is essentially the PHB+DMG. You could probably play fine without buying the Beastiary, if you have the 3.5 Monster Manual, but Paizo would probably rather you bought it also.

[Starbuck_II]

Ok

1) What's the format? Is it like one book that adds new rules to my 3.5 stuff or is it 3 whole new books i need to buy?

2) Why should buy this instead of playing good ol' 3.5? What's new? What improves the gameplay? Any fun new non-combat mechanics?

3) Why is fly a skill?

Thanks for your replies

1) Basically, like going from 3.0 to 3.5. Lots of little easy to miss changes all over.
Sadly, never any document listing every change. Every class is changed (even Fighter who gained class features).

Makes some classes better, others worse, and some little difference. The extent of how changes are is debateable. (I thought Bard was nerfed but some say otherwise).

2) Well, curiousity, can be fun, and because it is new with pretty pictures.

3) They thought fly was too easy.

[BobVosh]

You can access the rules at http://www.d20pfsrd.com. Give it a go! I'm having a lot more fun with Pathfinder than I did with 3.5.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ Here is the PRD by Paizo.

The books come in DMG+PHB in one. Then they have the monster manual. All books come in PDF for 10 bucks, while the hardcover books are more.

I recommend download the free conversion guide, it highlights a lot of the changes.

Fly is a skill in an attempt to balance fly. All it leads to is some really weird rules for it. Creatures that couldn't hover before can now hover...in a tornado.

[oxybe]

since our 3rd ed GM is going with PF instead of normal 3.5 after we're done running the Savage Tide, i was hesitant in buying PF.

it's a big book, essentially the PHB+DMG rolled into one, but it's still an upgrade i need to do again unless i'm going to go borrowing someone's books for the next 2 years or so.

i checked it out and there were, sure enough, enough changes to require purchase. now, some of those changes are subtle, others, not so much.

character creation is different. while you can still 4d6 drop lowest, they offer a few options like 2d6+6. point buy is a little different if that's your cup of tea.

races all have an extra +2 to another stat, while humans just pick a stat to get that +2 a few changes. chapter 2 is pretty boring as far as crunch & changes are concerned with one exception: half-orc. major kudos on this guy and making the viable green-skinned wizard, sorc or bard an actual possibility.

chapter 3 are the classes, which have pretty much all changed. and one of the biggest reasons to buy the book. all classes seem have been turned up a notch. the only issue i have with this is that while they seem to have dialed the fighter from 5 to 6, they also dialed up the wizard from 11 to 12. there are no more racial fav classes, you pick a class upon character creation and everytime you level, you get either a bonus skill point or extra HP.

on this note: one very cool thing is that cantrips and orisons are now "at will" effects. so this means the wizard picks 3 (+1 from his specialized school, if applicable) from the list of all level 0 spells, and can cast them as often as he likes. so Detect Magic, Prestidigitation & Mending on one day, Resistance, Acid Splash & Ghost sound on the next. the sorc knows 4 at level one that he can cast as often as he likes and this goes up to 9 at 10th level

skills, chapter 4, are a mixed bag. something between 3.5 & 4th ed in that they consolidated skills but still use skill points. instead of getting 4x your normal starting amount you just get your normal amount. so an 18 int gnome wiz would get 2+int points, so 6 (7 if it's his fav class and he chooses that option), while in normal 3.5 he would have 24 points.

here's where things get interesting: there are no "cross class" skills. each class has a "class skill" list. if you have a single rank in a "class skill" it you get a +3 trained bonus.

while multiclassing won't allow you to "stack" class skills (so a wizard1/cleric1, won't have a +6 to spellcraft, it being on both lists) a wiz1/rogue1 would have a much longer list of skills that he can apply the +3 trained bonus to.

your max skill points you can allot to any given skill is = your HD. this ends up with your total = ranks+stat+training+racial/feat/item/misc.

the fly skill is there to eat up your wizard's 7-8 skill points.

ch. 5, feats, are a mixed bag. there are a LOT of feats. some got a boost (thoughness is effectively improved thoughness from CW) and it seems to have almost cannibalized feats from other books (there seem to be a heavy PHB2 influence on fighter bonus feats) but others, like power attack, seem to have gotten the nerf gun applied.

your equipment list should feel familiar.

a few rules still seem in weird places, like height/weight/age rules in chapter 7 (additional rules) instead of the first 2 chapters (getting started/races). but whatver.

chapter 8 is combat, i've yet to go through that chapter.

chapter 9, magic, is what you expect of it. p.215 is nice though, for having the "spell area" sidebar, showing how they should look on the old 1x1 inch grid.

ch10, spells... oy.... this is 132 pages of spells, almost a fourth of the book. SoDs seem to be nerfed into Harm+++, but i've really not looked over the finer points yet.

Ch11 are PrCs. like ch.8, i've yet to really go over it.

12 is the backend of GMing which i'll promptly ignore for now, and 13 is environment, again, mostly a GM thing.

14 would be clumped together with 12 & 13 if not for one thing: p452... FARMER WITH PIG. the guy sorta looks like my dad, only with a vicious scythe, a half eaten apple and a grumpy pig. something about this oh-so-bored-looking fellow protecting his pig screams "I'm a retired level 20 barkeep." and we all know all barkeeps are retired level 20 fighters...

15 is magic items, and it describes all the slots needed to make your PC glow like a christmas tree to detect magic. also: cursed items, intelligent items & artifacts. new creation rules seem interesting, haven't seen them in play though.

then the appendicies. w00t appendicies... i guess?

all in all, it's ok. lots of stuff to take in, lots of stuff i've yet to touch. stuff i might not even touch. i still need to see in play to get my final verdict on whether it's a good buy or bad buy. does seem to be a YMMV.

[Stephen_E]

The biggest advantage of the Beastiary is that it has the CMB (Combat manuver bonus) and CMD (Combat Manuver Defense) for all the creatures, so you don't have to work them out.

These are the numbers used for tripping, grappling, bullrushes ect.
It also has additional animal companions and some rules, that I haven't been able to borrow a copy long enough to look at, about magical beast cohorts.

Stephen E