Yesterday I was finally able to sit down with some friends and try out the game that seemingly everyone from AD&D 2nd edition to D&D 3.5 has migrated to.  I have had a borrowed copy of the Pathfinder book kicking around my house for a couple months but haven’t really had the chance to crack it open for more than a few minutes at a time.  When I had the chance I flipped through the pages and was immediately attracted to the colorful illustrations, high quality background and Pathfinder logo at the top of each page.  Although aesthetics should not necessarily be considered when weighing the quality of a RPG product, it is still something people look at and could perhaps be the deciding point on if the book makes it to checkout.  Thus, I am taking into account the attractiveness of the illustrations, backgrounds, logos, and character illos.

Before I get too deep into my personal review of Pathfinder let me explain a bit about my gaming past.  I come from a background of over 20 years DMing AD&D 1st and 2nd edition and the transition to 3.5 was admittedly a little forced.  I basically had no choice as everyone in my player lineup now plays the newer systems.  I had been a steadfast hardcore 2nd edition gamer owning every single 2e book as well as the entire collection of Forgotten Realms books and boxed sets- thanks Ed Greenwood!  One concept I quite enjoyed about 3.5 was the elimination of Thac0 which had served only to confuse new players and those who failed basic math.  Also, more strategy was introduced into the combat system along with an extremely set of detailed rules which served to help solve almost any dispute at the table quickly without much room for argument.  With this new book of rules also came a few annoyances to me as a DM.  Since when did 1st level characters become insanely powerful individuals who could already wield a surprising amount of power?  In 1st and 2nd edition it really felt like you would have to earn those abilities through many gaming sessions and although sometimes frustrating and difficult, you appreciated your earned powers that much more.  Also there are so many books for customizing your character in 3.5 that you basically can make any kind of character class you can imagine.  Although this is great for the players, the DM has a huge headache on his hands trying to figure out how to challenge a group who has a warrior who can psionically recharge and focus his attacks causing massive amounts of damage and slaying almost any enemy you throw at him.  Another challenge is overcoming the rule lawyering that comes into play with the advent of all these new and detailed rules.  Although useful when solving certain scenarios the rules sometimes get in the way of the story and when they do I try and remind my players that we’re here to have fun, not scrutinize every little detail and rule of the game.  That’s just a couple examples of the many challenges I have come across running 3.5 games.  I know that as DM I have the final say on these things, but honestly- who has time to keep track of all of this and scrutinize everyone’s character sheets?  Perhaps in high school on summer vacation, but I’m older now and I want to fill my precious free time with writing and DMing adventure, not being a rules lawyer over your characters.  Would Pathfinder be much different?  I had heard that some of the great annoyances of 3.5 had been removed and some new ideas introduced that would simplify a lot of the silliness that went on.

When I had the chance to sit down yesterday and dig a little further than skin deep I found basically the same rules for character creation as D&D 3.5, but a lot simpler.  We all decided to create characters and although I usually DM I requested the chance to try out this new RPG from the player position.  A fellow player agreed to take the DM throne and run a short and simple game, but first came character creation.  I rolled my stats a couple times and finally decided on a character with one strong stat, a few average and a couple weak.  I like characters that vary a bit and are not powerful across the board.  In fact I believe there is a strong advantage in playing a character that has a handicap.  It requires you to come up with some interesting ways to overcome that weakness.  So, I made a halfling bard with 3 STR named Cardamon Jolst along with a slew of other aliases, his true name being a secret that even he doesn’t remember after all his years traveling from village to village working the locals and extracting information and plundering coin.  The first thing I noticed while generating my character was that the character generation information was all laid out for me similar to the way 3.5 was presented.  If you’re coming from a 3.5 background Pathfinder should be a welcome change of pace without throwing you out of your realm too much.  I followed the directions for my race which were all neatly presented in a little box at the bottom of the page.  Once that was in order I moved on to my class of bard and started from the top working my way down.  It seems that they spent a lot of time narrowing down just the right balance of lore and game rules.  I was able to glean a few ideas for my character while at the same time writing down all my skills and special abilities.  When I filled out my skills one of the first things I noticed was that the Search, Spot, and one other ability I cannot recall but obviously do not miss were absent.  In their place was a familiar skill called “Perception”, something we had come up with on our own when running 2nd edition games all those years ago.  Perception in our games had been obtained by adding up INT, WIS, and CHA, dividing your result by 3 and using that number as a basis for checks involving anything requiring a perception check- the equivalent of spot and search checks in 3.5.  Now in Pathfinder they finally eliminated all those unnecessary redundancies and replaced them with the Perception check.  Simpler is smarter, I like it.  Also when you place a rank in a class skill you automatically get a bonus 3 points in that skill the first time you plug a rank in that slot.  This is nice because you can instantly begin using your new abilities without worrying about constantly failing.  When starting out a new character this is nice because instead of having a sleight of hand of say 5, you end up with an 8 which is much more likely to actually succeed should you decide to use that skill.  You can really concentrate of specific skills and customize your base class character without going bonkers with prestige classes like they did in 3.5.  There is definitely something to be said about the core classes and honing their abilities so that each is unique and a required presence within the party.  You can’t survive without your fighter, priest, thief, or mage.  All four must be present or at least skills distributed equally so that all ground is covered and exploration can take place with each person holding a very specific set of skills or abilities that allow the group to succeed by working together.  I love the group dynamic and I think Pathfinder has found a way to work that in quite well.

After our characters were rolled up (which despite my ignorance in the Pathfinder system didn’t take as long as I would have thought) we started a short intro game to get us accustomed to this new system.  A couple of the guys had already played and run Pathfinder games in the past and were really excited that the rest of us were willing to give it a shot.  Hell, I’ll try anything at least once!  What do I have to lose?  So, we started our adventure of which I must spare the details as this was a pre-made adventure and I do not wish to spoil it for any of my readers.  Throughout the adventure I utilized my skills and special abilities.  As a bard it was very interesting realizing that in combat I was mostly ineffective at causing more than a couple points of damage (if that!) per round.  In fact, I was mostly a support character singing my silly songs (which I made sure were contextually correct and quite emotionally abusive to the goblins we were combating, as well as rhythmically engaging) and buffing up my fellow adventurers.  The Paladin and Monk were tanks while the cleric and I helped keep the party alive and successful in combat.  I had a couple spells of 1st level which I decided to save in case there was a more difficult battle on the horizon which never did come in our short gaming session.  I did not get the chance to use my abilities for adventuring or exploration purposes on this session, but my first experience playing Pathfinder left me with a good enough taste in my mouth that I decided not to rinse and came home, hopped online, and promptly ordered the core book through Amazon.

If you too have been sitting on the fence in regards to the Pathfinder RPG I suggest hopping down on my side and grabbing a copy of this book.  Give it a shot, what have you got to lose?  You’ll be out $30 for a used copy that you could pass onto a friend should you not enjoy the game.  Although if you like everything that the original TSR and WOTC authors produced, I think you will find Pathfinder a welcome addition to your RPG collection.

If you enjoyed these Pathfinder character images you will love the artwork provided in the Pathfinder Core Rules book as this was gleaned from that source!  Well, all of them save one- this last picture is Jenny Poussin, a gorgeous gal who enjoys Pathfinder almost as much as she does modeling!  Check her out on Facebook and add her to your friends. You’ll love her cosplay pictures of various RPG and video game characters!  While you are on Facebook make sure you “like” NERD TREK which will automatically enter you in all of our future contests and giveaways!  Check out our Facebook page or NERDTREK.com homepage to see what kind of Nerd goodies we’re giving away today!

Here’s a link to some great prices on new and used copies of Pathfinder on Amazon.  When I last checked there was still a brand new copy for $31 with free shipping!  Enjoy!