Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG – My First Impressions

 

After reading through the alpha release put out by Paizo for their Pathfinder RPG I have to say I’m more than a little exicited about the possibilities it holds.

The document itself is more about mechanics and where they are deviating from the SRD and OGL which is fine since it is designed to work with those documents and not be replacement for them. It also only covers the four “core” classes – Cleric, Figher, Rogue and Wizard – the remainder will be covered in future alpha releases along with some of the other modifications they’re making.

On the whole I like the graphics and layout as they match up with what we’ve come to expect for publications in this genre of gaming. The designer notes that are included are a nice touch and tie back to the open nature of the design process that Paizo is taking – they want those that are playing the game to have input and in my experience the best way to get quality feedback is to share the whys behind something.

As for the mechanics and game play – only time will tell and I’m hoping to run at least a few session under the alpha version with my group – I like a lot of what they’ve done. I’m not going to go into every detail (that’s what their rulebook is for) but I will share a few of the things I do like.

First, the slight changes to the races. In a departure from “the norm” they’ve opted to give both half-elves and humans a small bump (+2) on a single attribute, not much in the grand scheme of things but does allow you a bit of customization that wasn’t there before. Human can also now pick a favored class, which grants a +1 to hit points for every level taken in that class – the same benefit gained by the other races when achieving levels in their favored classes.

Second, I really like the changes to the skill system. Gone are skill points and the apparently redundant skills and it’s been replaced with a simpler system which uses the character’s level as part of the modifiers. Also in this system you select a number of skills at character creation and as you go up in level you add skills – no points to figure out just add the skill to your list and move on.

The four classes they included also had some additions. Now you get to add a new feat at every level odd level and a new skill at every even level so there’s always something new to look forward to. They’ve done away with bonus spells for specialist schools (wizards) and domains (clerics) and replaced them with powers that are granted at various levels and both the fighter and rogue now gain abilities at every level.

On the whole the mechanics are designed to streamline what is already available in D&D 3.5 and I would say based on the read they’ve done just that. They’ve also taken the time to write up methods for designing encounters which in my opinion are much easier to follow and look to scale better than what we currently have as well as how to convert from SRD to Pathfinder so you can bring over your favorite PC, NPC or creature.

So now for those of us that play D&D we have three choices when it comes to staying with the system, stay with 3.5, move up to 4.0 or move over to Pathfinder which I think is a really good option at this point and would recommend that if your group is looking to move off 3.5 that you give it a look.

Have you read the Pathfinder Alpha 1 release? If so I would really like to get your thoughts on it.

May your dice roll well.

Other takes on Paizo sticking with 3.5 can be found at Critical Hits and Musings of the Chatty DM