Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Difference between revisions

From 2d4chan
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m (153 revisions imported)
 
(100 intermediate revisions by 45 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{stub}}
{{Game Infobox
|name = Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
|picture = [[File:Pathfinder Logo.jpeg|300px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = Paizo
|authors = Jason Buhlman
|year = 2009
}}


When [[4E|D&D 4th edition]] was announced it was immediately rejected with a lot of negative feelings by a rather large number of people. Realizing a lot of 3 and 3.5 material would suddenly become mostly useless and that [[WotC|Wizards]] will be making a significantly different game, Paizo Publishing decided to cash in on the 4th edition naysayers and appeal to the people who wanted to stick to the old edition, but realized it still needed fixing.
{{Disambiguation|the Roleplaying game made by Paizo|weeb infantry unit|Pathfinder Team}}


Thus Pathfinder came about, usually called D&D 3.75, due to the fact that it largely resembles the 3.5 ruleset but with various non-drastic updates, fixes and changes. Notably, grappling now make something that might be called "sense" (gasp!) and Half-orcs, and Half-elves don't suck anymore. Spellcasters are just as crazy as ever once they've got a few levels in them, while melee classes, generally speaking, got buffed across the board.  Not enough to make them outshine the wizards, but take what you can get. This is assuming that your DM isn't a newfag incapable of compensating.
When [[4E|''D&D'' 4th edition]] was announced it was immediately rejected with a lot of [[butthurt|negative feelings]] by a rather large number of [[neckbeards|people]]. Realizing a lot of [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|3]] and 3.5 [[Splatbook|material]] would suddenly become mostly useless and that [[WotC|Wizards]] would be making a significantly different game, [[Paizo|Paizo Publishing]] decided to cash in on the 4th edition naysayers and appeal to the people who wanted to [[grognard|stick to the old edition]], but realized it still needed to be fixed.


Noted for the mishmash campaign world (which contains elements lifted from pretty much everything, ever, from real-world history to crappy pulp Sci-Fi to LotR with a dash of [[Order of the Stick]] thrown in for good measure), entire published campaigns called Adventure Paths, and decent maturity level (in both senses. Gay people exist, as do bum-fuckin', banjo-playing, inbred hillbilly ogres). The setting is both good and total shit at the same time, no better than any decent [[gamemaster]] can come up with on their own.
Thus the '''''Pathfinder Roleplaying Game''''' came about, usually called ''D&D'' 3.75 or 3.PF or ''Mathfinder'' due to the fact that it largely resembles 3.5's [[d20 System|ruleset]] but with various non-drastic updates, fixes and changes. Notably, grappling now more closely resembles something that might almost be called "sense" (gasp!) and [[Half-orcs]] and [[Half-elves]] don't suck anymore. Spellcasters are just as crazy as ever once they've got a few levels in them, while melee classes, generally speaking, got buffed across the board. Not enough to make them outshine the wizards, but take what you can get. This is assuming that your [[DM]] isn't a newfag incapable of compensating.


Essentially fairly well-done Darker and Edgier D&D. And the adventure paths & modules are pretty good. If you're the sort of skub DM who uses shit like that.
Noted for the mishmash campaign world (which contains elements [[Blood_Ravens|lifted]] from pretty much everything, ever, from real-world history to crappy pulp Sci-Fi to [[Lord of the Rings|LotR]] with a dash of [[Order of the Stick]] thrown in for good measure) and entire published campaigns called Adventure Paths set in that world. The setting is both good and total shit at the same time, no better than any decent [[gamemaster]] can come up with on their own, and tends to include more annoying politics as time's gone on. As far as the mechanics, it's [[skub|divisive]] to say the least. It doubles down on 3.5 in almost every way (hence why it's often referred to as 3.PF), so if you liked 3.5 for its options and crunch, you'll probably like Pathfinder even more. On the other hand, if you disliked 3.5 for its bloat and poor balance, you'll probably hate Pathfinder.


== Golarion ==
==Golarion==
[[File:PathfinderExplained.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The campaign setting explained in one handy graphic.]]
[[File:PathfinderExplained.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The campaign setting explained in one handy graphic.]]
The main setting of Pathfinder is the Inner Sea region (basically the equivalent of the Mediterranean sea zone in our world) on a planet called Golarion. Unlike other D&D settings, the cultures and civilizations of the Inner Sea region are in severe decline after the only deity which represents humans in the Great Beyond (the outer planes), Aroden, died a few centuries ago. To add salt to the wound, this caused a series of events which fucked up the world: the formation of a massive supernatural stationary hurricane that annihilated two entire nations and allowed pirates develop their own kingdoms, the obliteration of a noble barbarian empire by a tear in the tissue of reality opened directly into the Abyss, and most of the prophets and diviners committed mass suicide as an imminent prophesied golden age for mankind suddenly faded into nothing. As if this wasn't enough, the two greatest empires started to collapse in the religious hysteria, Cheliax (the Golarion equivalent of the Holy Roman Empire) suffered a civil war that ultimately put on the throne a noble house with links to the Nine Hells, making worship of the devil (Rock me Azmodeus!) the official state religion. Taldor (a mix of the Byzantine Empire and the Spanish Empire during the Habsburg era) started to lose territories at the hands of the Keleshite Empire (the "Persian" ethnicity in Golarion), while banks owned by brass dragons turned its culture completely decadent and stagnated by the bureaucracy. As this happened some provinces declared independence from Cheliax, creating two new countries, Andoran (which is like the 13 colonies after winning the Revolutionary War, so basically America (fuck yeah) with swords and sorcery) and Galt (France during The Terror with some elements which remind you of the Soviet Union after the end of the Russian civil war).
{{main|Golarion}}
The main setting of ''Pathfinder'' is the Inner Sea region (basically the equivalent of the Mediterranean sea zone in our world) on a planet called Golarion. Unlike other ''D&D'' settings, many of the cultures and civilizations of the Inner Sea region are in severe decline after the only deity which represents humans in the Great Beyond (the outer planes), Aroden, died a few centuries ago. To add salt to the wound, this caused a series of events which fucked up the world: the formation of a massive supernatural stationary hurricane that annihilated two entire nations and allowed [[pirate]]s to develop their own kingdoms, the obliteration of a noble [[barbarian]] empire by [[Eye of Terror|a tear in the tissue of reality]] opened directly into the [[Abyss]], and most of the prophets and diviners committed mass suicide as an imminent prophesied golden age for mankind suddenly faded into nothing. As if this wasn't enough, the two greatest empires started to collapse in the religious hysteria, Cheliax (the Golarion equivalent of the Holy Roman Empire) suffered a civil war that ultimately put on the throne a noble house with links to the Nine Hells, making worship of the [[devil]] (Rock me Azmodeus!) the official state religion. Taldor (a mix of the Byzantine Empire and the Spanish Empire during the Habsburg era) started to lose territories at the hands of the Keleshite Empire (the "Persian" ethnicity in Golarion), while banks owned by brass dragons turned its culture completely decadent and stagnated by the bureaucracy. As this happened some provinces declared independence from Cheliax, creating two new countries, Andoran (which is like the 13 colonies after winning the Revolutionary War, so basically America (fuck yeah) with swords and sorcery) and Galt (France during The Terror with some elements which remind you of the Soviet Union after the end of the Russian civil war).


If all this political fuck up does not seem enough, Golarion is in fact a cage build by the gods for an entity know as Rovagug, basically a massive worm which works like a black hole and represents entropy. It is also connected with the Plateau of Leng and there are cults to the Old Gods (yes, the H.P. Lovecraft ones, so you can roll a CE cleric of Nyarlathotep for the evulz). Of course all of this is hidden by the Pathfinder society (National Geographic meets your standard Adventurers Guild), one of the many factions and secret societies whose selfish intentions are just helping civilization to sink more into the pile of crap it is stuck instead of helping it come out. The remaining deities and their churches aren't helping either, the veteran gods have already seen an apocalypse obliterate the world once and the new ones are just useless adventurers who can't grasp that they aren't mortals anymore.
If all these political fuck ups are not enough, Golarion is in fact a cage built by the gods for an entity known as Rovagug, basically a massive worm which works like a [[Sphere of Annihilation|black hole]] and represents entropy. It's also connected with the Plateau of Leng and there are cults to the [[Old Ones|Old God]]s (yes, the [[H.P. Lovecraft]] ones, so you can roll a [[Alignment|CE]] [[cleric]] of Nyarlathotep for the evulz). Of course all of this is hidden by the Pathfinder Society (imagine National Geographic meets your standard Adventurers' Guild and then, as [[awesome]] as that sounds, make them [[fail|incompetent]]), one of the many factions and secret societies whose selfish intentions are just helping civilization to sink more into the pile of crap it is mired in instead of helping it come out. The remaining deities and their churches aren't helping either, the veteran gods have already seen an apocalypse obliterate the world once and the new ones are just useless adventurers who can't grasp that they aren't mortals anymore.


Beyond the Inner Sea region, there is the continent of Tian Xia, where weabooness and furfaggotry meet; the Darklands (the Underdark of Golarion), divided in three levels, each more deep than the last; and if the planet seems too shitty for you, the whole solar system is full of civilizations and monsters to raid and slash in your quest for loot.
Beyond the Inner Sea region there are even more continents and nations, but barely anybody gives a shit about them (including most of Paizo's writers) with the exception of [[Oriental Adventures|Tian Xia]], where [[weeaboo]]ness and [[furries|furfaggotry]] meet. There's also the Darklands (the [[Underdark]] of Golarion), divided into three levels, each more under and darker than the last. And if the planet seems too shitty for you the whole solar system is full of civilizations and monsters to [[Rip and Tear|rip and tear through in your quest for loot]], not to mention the shenanigans you can get into in the other [[plane]]s of the multiverse.


{{Pathfinder-Classes}}
==Notable Changes from 3.5 to PF1E==
An extensive [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?136890-The-3-5-Pathfinder-Handbook guide] exists walking players through most of these changes, but highlights in core include the following.


==Pathfinder Tales==
===The Good===
The series of Novels written for the setting. There are only sixteen at the moment but we are starting to see some [[Forgotten Realms]] authors starting to write for Paizo, most notably Ed Greenwood who made [[Forgotten Realms]]. This may be an indicator of how much [[Wizards of the Coast]] have been messing around with the settings and driving people off.
[[File:3.5 thrives.jpg|thumb]]
*Most things that cause experience points to be lost have been axed, as this was deemed a massive pain in the ass to keep track of everyone having different experience totals, particularly once everyone was different level and got different experience rewards. Most of the time this takes the form of replacing XP costs with GP costs, and changing level loss to negative levels.
** [[Familiar]]s no longer eat your experience when they go splat, making them a class ''feature'' instead of a liability.
*Skill system has been changed to make skills less of a pain in the ass for multiclass characters and punish out of class skills less. Many skills have been combined, and two (Concentration and Use Rope) have been axed entirely.
*Feat rate has been increased from the sluggish first level plus every multiple of three. Feats are now given at every odd level. This makes feat taxes less painful and leaves more room for feats that are fun instead of needed or to make a character versatile (Bow users that take enough feats to make them viable melee combatants are now common).
*Identifying items no longer requires the costly identify spell. Instead anyone with detect magic and spellcraft can figure out what an item does.
*Cantrips are now unlimited. Heal/Inflict Minor Wounds have been nerfed to accompany this, only (de)stabilizing characters under 1 hit point.
*Polymorph effects have been nerfed into the ground. Now they modify your physical ability scores instead of replacing them, their duration are much lower, and they're limited in what abilities they give.
*Some of the best spells have been nerfed. Glitterdust now gives a new save every round, divine power no longer replaces your base attack bonus and doesn't stack with divine favor, grease isn't nearly as OP (though remains pretty good) and more.
*Hit die is now tied to base attack bonus with two exceptions. All full BAB bonus classes/hit die have d10 HD (except Barbarian and Dragon, which get to keep their d12), all medium BAB classes/HD have d8, and all low BAB classes/HD have d6.
*Sneak attack now works on almost everything instead of failing against some of the most common monster types.
*Only full caster classes have dead levels, and some of them avoid even that.
*Barbarian and Rogue get a choice of special abilities at every even level. While the ones in core aren't that great, they would be greatly expanded over the system's lifespan and the majority of non-core classes use this design.
*Bard has slightly better casting progression and genuinely good class features.
*Paladins are massively buffed and now viable if you aren't fighting non-evil foes. They have gained actual class features, a good will save, casting that works off charisma (meaning they can dump wisdom since they get charisma to their will save), a Caster Level is level -3 instead of half level, a smite that is no longer shit, and support for less draconian codes. They've actually risen from an iffy [[Tier System|tier 5 to a comfortable tier 4]], as they're now really good at destroying evil things and diplomacy, but struggle to contribute against neutral foes.
*Rangers now have d10 HD (as above), get to wear medium armor, have better casting, a better animal companion, get their abilities faster, and have a wider variety of combat style options.
*Sorcerers are now more than merely nerfed wizards. Still progress spells slower for no reason.
*Wizards are no longer totally locked out of their Opposition schools, they just have a harder time casting from them.
*The core races have all been buffed, except for ''maybe'' Human. Ability score bonuses are now +2 overall instead of a break even, with most races getting a +2 bonus to two ability scores and -2 penalty to a third while others get +2 to their choice of ability score. Other non-Human race abilities are buffed overall.
*Magic weapons with a proper +3 bonuses bypasses damage reduction overcome by silver and cold iron, +4 does the same for adamantine and +5 does it for alignment DR. This reduces the need for martials to keep a golf bag of weaponry and gives an actual reason to have raw plus bonuses, unlike 3e where they were considered useless because Greater Magic Weapon was a thing.
*Everything except proper names of setting details is released under the [[Open Gaming License]].


==Iron Gods Adventure Path==
===The Bad===
Is well known the kitchen sink nature of Golarion, still one of the kingdoms of said setting always caught the interest of neckbeards more than the others thanks to its cross genre nature, Numeria. Mentioned in one of the tales found in the first Adventure Paths in the 3.5 era, Numeria is Robert E. Howard's Cymmeria meets Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Temple of the Frog and City of the Gods first edition modules, a harsh land populated by warlike nomadic barbarian tribes in which nine thousand years ago crash landed a spaceship the size of Manhattan. Said even made the place even more inhospitable thanks to acid rain, radioactivity, malfunctioning gravitation technology, rogue nanobots, rogue robots, escaped alien fauna and sapient aliens.  
*Maneuvers have been nerfed greatly, killing all the tricks martials had. Now you need to uber specialize to get them functional, as it takes more feats to get the same or less benefit than the 3.5 equivalent and they rely on a busted CMB vs. CMD that never took into account that player characters gain HD slower than monsters.
*A lot of spells that were ignored because they were just slightly worse than another spell have remained unnerfed, and many game breaking spells weren't touched at all. Most useless spells are still useless.
*Except for Paladin and core only Bard, the fixes aren't extensive enough to raise anyone's tier, and martial caster power disparity is still a big thing. Core only Monk is still terrible for anything other than a dip.
*Power Attack is easier to use, but not as useful. Instead of being able to trade any amount of accuracy for an equal amount of damage, you're locked to a fixed amount dependent on your BAB. The better ratio of the trade for two handed weapons remains untouched and the penalty for using it with light weapons has been removed, so it's still a pretty good feat despite this.
*Intimidate no longer stacks with itself, ridding the system of yet another trick mundane characters could use.


A human civilization that thrived in a world without magic nor gods, the Androffans, decided to when full Star Trek and build a fleet of spaceships dependent of a single massive mothership named Divinity. As the Divinity explored new worlds and got closer to the center of the universe, in which Azathoth sleeps, the crew when more and more crazier with the revelations that magic and deities are a very real thing. Shit hit the fan when the Divinity made first contact with an space-faring empire named The Dominion of the Black, a conglomeration of sapient races obsessed with black holes and entropy. The encounter with the lovecrafnian aliens resulted into a mutiny in which most of the crew died and also made the main A.I. in charge of the mothership, Unity, go crazier than Salvador Dalí becoming a sanctioned psyker. The remaining sane crew, seeing that was highly dangerous to go back to Androffa Prime as it could lure the Dominion to their homeworld, they decided to crash the ship in the nearest planet around, a most unfortunate decision. Not only the remaining crew didn't survived the impact, they also brought to an innocent world a plethora of alien creatures, malfunctioning hostile robots and Unity itself, an A.I. with Messiah complex.
===Other/Mixed===
*Since character creation and advancement rules weren't covered by the OGL, the experience chart, wealth by level numbers, and point buy are all different.
*Ability score increasing items are now locked to the belt slot and headband slot. This is good for most classes, since fun items don't have to worry about occupying a slot that may have a mandatory item. Unfortunately it hurts MAD characters even more, as they need to pay even more to boost their ability scores.
*[[Level Adjustment]] no longer exists and there are no rules for playing as monsters. At the same time however all the "enemy" races that were LA +1 for no real reason but what fans deemed "exotic race tax" are now 100% usable as player races. This continued as the system progressed and many "monster" races got mechanical support for player use.
*Bards and Barbarians now work off a number of rounds they can keep their special abilities active instead of a number of uses that last a certain number of rounds. This has many implications that both help and hurt the two classes.  


The kellid tribes living in Numeria always had taboos towards the technology brought by the Rain of Stars, still it brought adventurers interested to master its secrets, soon creating another threat to the already very hospitable land of Numeria. Sidrah Imeruss, a low rank official of the Androffan armada, survived the crash of Divinity thanks to a very resilient cryogenic pod and waken up in the strange world of Golarion. Sidrah, being unaware that the crash happened nine thousand years ago and most likely the Androffa Prime she knew no longer exists, decided to teach what she know about technology to spellcasters with the idea of create a secret organization that could help her go back home.
{{Pathfinder-Classes}}
 
It didn't took long for Sidrah being murdered and her secret ragtag group turn into a mighty organization that now rules Numeria with an iron fist, the Technic League, which also became a puppet of the A.I. Unity when the spellcasters made their first explorations of the Divinity wreck (now known as Silvermount by the natives).
 
Iron Gods Adventure Path takes place after the events of Wrath of the Righteous, as Unity, now aware that the portal to the Abyss has been closed forever and that other major powers of Avistan are focused into cleanse what is left of the demonic corruption, has decided to settle in motion its plan for become a real deity. The only one who oppose Unity is its "son", Hellion, a Chaotic Evil A.I. demigod (yes, he can grant divine spells and everything) that is worshiped by the gangs that inhabit a massive junkyard known as Scrapwall.
In this crossfire between "father-son" are caught the PCs, who discover about Hellion and his cult through events in the first part of the campaign, Firest of Creation, and try to stop him of activating a massive mining vehicle in Scrapwall as well as annihilating his techno-fetishist cult in Lords of Rust.
 
The party then would know about the true treat to the safety of whole Golarion, Unity, as Hellion's cult dogma is mainly based in the A.I.'s obsession with vengeance against his "father". The only way to face an A.I. far more powerful than Hellion is find the corpse of an android oracle named Casandalee, the first prophet of Unity that, like Hellion, flee from the control freak techno-messiah once she realized Unity was even worse than Asmodeus, the Four Horsemen and the Demon Lords of Abyss put together. Casandalee was hunted down and killed by a task force of robots but her body was reclaimed by an ex-member of the Technic League, the wizard Furkas Xourd, so the party must head to the place in which said spellcaster lives, the Choking Tower.
 
This leads the PCs to Iavendeigh, a town of Erastyl fanatics that are also Luddites which could be consider the most hypocrite lawful good oriented community in the whole setting as their soil's extreme fertility is a residual product of malfunctioning nanobots inhabiting the wreckage of an industrial spaceship, the Aurora. The Aurora was intended to be also an androids foundry, so once the party gains the trust of the local council granting them access to the ruined ship, they find it crawling with degenerated construct people and the task force of gearsmen send to kill Casandalee. The corpse is nowhere to be found but a stranded elemental summoned by Furkas plus video footage of the man exploring the wreck confirms that the wizard haves the body of the oracle android.
Furkas Xoud was the member of an ustalavic aristocratic family that worships the minor evil deity Zyphus and also a paraphiliac (his fetish deals with smoke, toxic clouds, fog and similar), seven years ago he died while trying to perform an autopsy to Casandalee, as the android somehow programmed her nanobots to be extremely hostile to anybody that would try to profane her body. This means the Choking Tower is haunted by Furkas, crawling by gas themed monsters and some robots designed by the man (if you hate wizards then you will love to fight Furkas' robotic apprentices).
The party then finds out Casandalee did a copy of her whole mind and uploaded it into a device, missing it in a place named the Spider Scar, a valley that even makes brave kellid warriors soil their loincloths as it is crawling with alien invaders.
 
Remember the guys that made the Divnity crew when insane like a bunch of fennec foxes high on acid and speed? They chase the ship to Golarion, liked the place and had been performing experiments on the natives since then and if that wasn't enough this has brought the attention of their traditional enemies for galactic domination, the mi-go. And the device that now contains the mind of Casandalee? Is now being used to help a technorganic device bring the coordinates of Golarion to the nearest Dominion fleet.
 
After dealing with ghost wizard that get diamonds hard with smoke and aliens obsessed with brains, the party finally gets their greasy hobomurder hands on the datapad device containing an A.I. develop with the memories of Casandalee, heading to Starfall to dealt with the Technic League and Unity.


In the fifth part of the AP the PC must dealt with two main dungeons, one is the Black Sovereign's palace and the other is the Technic League's main HQ. The focus of the module is the palace, as it contains perhaps one of the most powerful NPCs in the whole campaign, Kevoth Kul. Thanks to his addiction to Numerian fluids (the seepage of many spaceships wrecks which pretty much is liked Warp stone) the man is immortal and haves the physical stats of a demigod, making him a Conan 5.0. As the PC are most likely by now be wanted criminals by the Technic League, they must keep a low profile as they stay on the capital and get involved into the political intrigues on both the court of the Black Sovereign and the Technic League. The situation is as easy to fix as getting close to the behemoth of a man that is Kevoth Kul and cast on him a healing spell or use a pharmaceutic that makes the man clean of his addiction. Good luck to approach a guy which is high pretty much all the time, prone to violent outburst and haves a libido that could make a Slaaneshi paladin be proud (and I did mention the man is bisexual and he likes to force himself on characters with a high CHAR? No? Then better have a CMD high as fuark or your anus is going to turn into a bag of holding).
==''Pathfinder Tales''==
The series of novels written for the setting. There are over thirty of them now, with some ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' authors occasionally writing for Paizo, most notably [[Ed Greenwood]] who <u>made</u> ''Forgotten Realms''. This may be an indicator of how much [[Wizards of the Coast]] messing around with the settings drove people off.


Finally, after so much suffering, the PCs can explore Silvermount (a.k.a. Divinity) and cleanse it of Unity's presence. Things would become System Shock on cocainum as soon as the PCs' party put their feet into a monorail as the place is crawling with xboaxhueg bots, undead security guards, aliens that are unaware of being trapped in a wrecked spaceship and the annoying nagging of Unity's cameras equipped with lazor turrets. The most dangerous encounters in this part of the campaign, a part of Unity itself, are Ophelia, a cyborg gargoyle who is the high-priestess of the mad A.I., and Bastion, the main security chief of the Divinity which is also a '''noqual''' alloy made extreme combat robotic unit.
==Adventure Paths==
One of the big draws to the system is the pre-written campaigns Paizo puts out called [[Adventure Path]]s, or APs. Continuing from the ''Shackled City'', ''Age of Worms'' and ''Savage Tide'' adventures Paizo created when running ''[[Dungeon Magazine]]'', each AP is 6 books long and, unlike the Dungeon Magazine adventures which went 1-21, run on average from levels 1 to ~15, though two go all the way to 20. These are detailed on the [[Adventure Path]] page.


== Rage ==
==Rage==
''Pathfinder's'' barbarians are champion swimmers, but only when [[rage|raging]].


Pathfinder's barbarians are champion swimmers, but only when raging.
The ''Pathfinder RPG'' inspires a large amount of nerdrage over its rules, with frequent [[butthurt|bawwing]] over class balance, nonsensical nerfs to [[fighter]]s, buffed [[CoDzilla]] and [[wizard]]s and general [[troll|troll]]age. Any discussion of the differences between ''Pathfinder'' ("3.75" for fanboys) and regular 3.5 is almost guaranteed to produce a flamewar.


==Third Party==
Thanks to almost all rules content being released under the [[Open Gaming License]], a generous compatibility license (a publisher can put a "Pathfinder compatible" logo on the cover and reference the hardcover books by name as long as they don't pretend to be official, sell it non-exclusively on Paizo's site and don't try to make a sequel to the ''[[Book of Erotic Fantasy]]'') and the system's large market scale have given it substantial third party support. The most notable and high quality non-module third party support include Dreamscarred Press (who have remade 3.5 [[Psionics]], [[Incarnum]] and [[Book of Nine Swords]] with the love Wizards of the Coast never gave these systems), Drop Dead Studios ([[Spheres of Power]]), and Legendary Games ([[Epic Levels|Mythic]], but also a good deal of expansion on the less supported parts of Pathfinder). Many third party generic fantasy modules support Pathfinder alongside [[Old School Roleplaying|OSR]] and [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5E]].


The Pathfinder RPG inspires a large amount of nerdrage over its rules, with frequent bawwing over class balance, perceived nonsensical nerfs to [[fighter]]s, buffed [[CoDzilla]] and [[wizard]]s and general trollage. Any discussion of the differences between Pathfinder ("3.75" for fanboys) and regular 3.5 is almost guaranteed to produce a flamewar.
==Second Edition==
Paizo eventually released [[Pathfinder Second Edition|second edition of Pathfinder]] in August of 2019. It made several changes, like both [[goblin]]s and [[alchemist]]s being core choices. Takes a lot of inspiration from both classic and modern roleplaying games, perhaps most surprisingly seeing heavy influence from the good parts of 4e (More on that later). Also, after years of deflecting criticism with "4e, bluh bluh," the devs naturally put in a dig at the infamous 4e Forgotten Realms while listing what they would ''not'' do to Golarion stating all changes would be the passage of time and that every AP happened. The playtest hit August 2nd 2018.


== 40k ==
The dig at 4e is hilarious because, as /tg/ has pointed out, many of the mechanics are ''literally'' exactly the same kind of mechanics that 4e did itself.
===Tau Pathfinders===
They're the scouts and snipers of the Tau army. They're typically armed with light Pulse Carbines (which allows them to pin enemy units down) if they're scouts or Rail rifles, which are essentially bluemangroup-portable [[railgun]]s, if they're assigned to do sniper support. The main use of Pathfinders are their Markerlights, which allows them to paint enemy units and allow everything targeting it to <s>fire with greater accuracy</s> fuck shit up even better. [[Tau Pathfinder|We've also got an article on the them.]]


===Eldar Pathfinders===
* [http://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo5lkl9 Announcement on the main Paizo blog.]
The veteran rangers of [[craftworld]]s, mostly [[Alaitoc]], become Pathfinders. They function much like Rangers, in which they're primarily used for scouting or sniper support, however, their centuries of experience in the field makes them incredibly daunting opponents to take down while in cover.
* [http://paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest The main page for the playtest.]
* [http://paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest/faq The FAQ for the playtest and 2e in general.]


== Links ==
Also of note is the existence of Corefinder: Essentially third-party publisher Legendary Games' attempt to distill 1E to its basest aspects while also addressing some of the greatest issues with it (essentially doing for Pathfinder 1e what Pathfinder did for D&D 3.5e). As it stands, it's still heavily WIP, but it might yet remain a potent force in the RPG marketplace even after its death.
* [http://paizo.com/pathfinder Pathfinder] at Paizo Publishing, for those too damn lazy to use Google.
* [http://pathfinderwiki.com Pathfinder Wiki] because every goddamn thing has a wiki these days.
* [http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ Pathfinder SRD] For those of you who are too lazy and/or cheap to get the books.


==Links==
* [http://paizo.com/pathfinder ''Pathfinder''] at Paizo Publishing, for convenience.
* [http://pathfinderwiki.com Pathfinder Wiki], because everything has a wiki these days.
* [http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ Pathfinder SRD]: Without the hassle of getting the books. Also includes plenty of third-party material, chiefly [[Psionics]] and [[Book of Nine Swords|Path of War]]
* [https://www.aonprd.com/ Archives of Nethys]: The SRD for the system. Once a great fanmade alternative to the official SRD, Paizo decided they couldn't be bothered to maintain the official one anymore and hired the owner to make it the official one.


[[category:Pathfinder]][[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]

Latest revision as of 09:22, 22 June 2023

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
RPG published by
Paizo
Authors Jason Buhlman
First Publication 2009


This page is for the Roleplaying game made by Paizo. If you are looking for the page about weeb infantry unit, please see Pathfinder Team.


When D&D 4th edition was announced it was immediately rejected with a lot of negative feelings by a rather large number of people. Realizing a lot of 3 and 3.5 material would suddenly become mostly useless and that Wizards would be making a significantly different game, Paizo Publishing decided to cash in on the 4th edition naysayers and appeal to the people who wanted to stick to the old edition, but realized it still needed to be fixed.

Thus the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game came about, usually called D&D 3.75 or 3.PF or Mathfinder due to the fact that it largely resembles 3.5's ruleset but with various non-drastic updates, fixes and changes. Notably, grappling now more closely resembles something that might almost be called "sense" (gasp!) and Half-orcs and Half-elves don't suck anymore. Spellcasters are just as crazy as ever once they've got a few levels in them, while melee classes, generally speaking, got buffed across the board. Not enough to make them outshine the wizards, but take what you can get. This is assuming that your DM isn't a newfag incapable of compensating.

Noted for the mishmash campaign world (which contains elements lifted from pretty much everything, ever, from real-world history to crappy pulp Sci-Fi to LotR with a dash of Order of the Stick thrown in for good measure) and entire published campaigns called Adventure Paths set in that world. The setting is both good and total shit at the same time, no better than any decent gamemaster can come up with on their own, and tends to include more annoying politics as time's gone on. As far as the mechanics, it's divisive to say the least. It doubles down on 3.5 in almost every way (hence why it's often referred to as 3.PF), so if you liked 3.5 for its options and crunch, you'll probably like Pathfinder even more. On the other hand, if you disliked 3.5 for its bloat and poor balance, you'll probably hate Pathfinder.

Golarion[edit]

The campaign setting explained in one handy graphic.
Main article: Golarion

The main setting of Pathfinder is the Inner Sea region (basically the equivalent of the Mediterranean sea zone in our world) on a planet called Golarion. Unlike other D&D settings, many of the cultures and civilizations of the Inner Sea region are in severe decline after the only deity which represents humans in the Great Beyond (the outer planes), Aroden, died a few centuries ago. To add salt to the wound, this caused a series of events which fucked up the world: the formation of a massive supernatural stationary hurricane that annihilated two entire nations and allowed pirates to develop their own kingdoms, the obliteration of a noble barbarian empire by a tear in the tissue of reality opened directly into the Abyss, and most of the prophets and diviners committed mass suicide as an imminent prophesied golden age for mankind suddenly faded into nothing. As if this wasn't enough, the two greatest empires started to collapse in the religious hysteria, Cheliax (the Golarion equivalent of the Holy Roman Empire) suffered a civil war that ultimately put on the throne a noble house with links to the Nine Hells, making worship of the devil (Rock me Azmodeus!) the official state religion. Taldor (a mix of the Byzantine Empire and the Spanish Empire during the Habsburg era) started to lose territories at the hands of the Keleshite Empire (the "Persian" ethnicity in Golarion), while banks owned by brass dragons turned its culture completely decadent and stagnated by the bureaucracy. As this happened some provinces declared independence from Cheliax, creating two new countries, Andoran (which is like the 13 colonies after winning the Revolutionary War, so basically America (fuck yeah) with swords and sorcery) and Galt (France during The Terror with some elements which remind you of the Soviet Union after the end of the Russian civil war).

If all these political fuck ups are not enough, Golarion is in fact a cage built by the gods for an entity known as Rovagug, basically a massive worm which works like a black hole and represents entropy. It's also connected with the Plateau of Leng and there are cults to the Old Gods (yes, the H.P. Lovecraft ones, so you can roll a CE cleric of Nyarlathotep for the evulz). Of course all of this is hidden by the Pathfinder Society (imagine National Geographic meets your standard Adventurers' Guild and then, as awesome as that sounds, make them incompetent), one of the many factions and secret societies whose selfish intentions are just helping civilization to sink more into the pile of crap it is mired in instead of helping it come out. The remaining deities and their churches aren't helping either, the veteran gods have already seen an apocalypse obliterate the world once and the new ones are just useless adventurers who can't grasp that they aren't mortals anymore.

Beyond the Inner Sea region there are even more continents and nations, but barely anybody gives a shit about them (including most of Paizo's writers) with the exception of Tian Xia, where weeabooness and furfaggotry meet. There's also the Darklands (the Underdark of Golarion), divided into three levels, each more under and darker than the last. And if the planet seems too shitty for you the whole solar system is full of civilizations and monsters to rip and tear through in your quest for loot, not to mention the shenanigans you can get into in the other planes of the multiverse.

Notable Changes from 3.5 to PF1E[edit]

An extensive guide exists walking players through most of these changes, but highlights in core include the following.

The Good[edit]

  • Most things that cause experience points to be lost have been axed, as this was deemed a massive pain in the ass to keep track of everyone having different experience totals, particularly once everyone was different level and got different experience rewards. Most of the time this takes the form of replacing XP costs with GP costs, and changing level loss to negative levels.
    • Familiars no longer eat your experience when they go splat, making them a class feature instead of a liability.
  • Skill system has been changed to make skills less of a pain in the ass for multiclass characters and punish out of class skills less. Many skills have been combined, and two (Concentration and Use Rope) have been axed entirely.
  • Feat rate has been increased from the sluggish first level plus every multiple of three. Feats are now given at every odd level. This makes feat taxes less painful and leaves more room for feats that are fun instead of needed or to make a character versatile (Bow users that take enough feats to make them viable melee combatants are now common).
  • Identifying items no longer requires the costly identify spell. Instead anyone with detect magic and spellcraft can figure out what an item does.
  • Cantrips are now unlimited. Heal/Inflict Minor Wounds have been nerfed to accompany this, only (de)stabilizing characters under 1 hit point.
  • Polymorph effects have been nerfed into the ground. Now they modify your physical ability scores instead of replacing them, their duration are much lower, and they're limited in what abilities they give.
  • Some of the best spells have been nerfed. Glitterdust now gives a new save every round, divine power no longer replaces your base attack bonus and doesn't stack with divine favor, grease isn't nearly as OP (though remains pretty good) and more.
  • Hit die is now tied to base attack bonus with two exceptions. All full BAB bonus classes/hit die have d10 HD (except Barbarian and Dragon, which get to keep their d12), all medium BAB classes/HD have d8, and all low BAB classes/HD have d6.
  • Sneak attack now works on almost everything instead of failing against some of the most common monster types.
  • Only full caster classes have dead levels, and some of them avoid even that.
  • Barbarian and Rogue get a choice of special abilities at every even level. While the ones in core aren't that great, they would be greatly expanded over the system's lifespan and the majority of non-core classes use this design.
  • Bard has slightly better casting progression and genuinely good class features.
  • Paladins are massively buffed and now viable if you aren't fighting non-evil foes. They have gained actual class features, a good will save, casting that works off charisma (meaning they can dump wisdom since they get charisma to their will save), a Caster Level is level -3 instead of half level, a smite that is no longer shit, and support for less draconian codes. They've actually risen from an iffy tier 5 to a comfortable tier 4, as they're now really good at destroying evil things and diplomacy, but struggle to contribute against neutral foes.
  • Rangers now have d10 HD (as above), get to wear medium armor, have better casting, a better animal companion, get their abilities faster, and have a wider variety of combat style options.
  • Sorcerers are now more than merely nerfed wizards. Still progress spells slower for no reason.
  • Wizards are no longer totally locked out of their Opposition schools, they just have a harder time casting from them.
  • The core races have all been buffed, except for maybe Human. Ability score bonuses are now +2 overall instead of a break even, with most races getting a +2 bonus to two ability scores and -2 penalty to a third while others get +2 to their choice of ability score. Other non-Human race abilities are buffed overall.
  • Magic weapons with a proper +3 bonuses bypasses damage reduction overcome by silver and cold iron, +4 does the same for adamantine and +5 does it for alignment DR. This reduces the need for martials to keep a golf bag of weaponry and gives an actual reason to have raw plus bonuses, unlike 3e where they were considered useless because Greater Magic Weapon was a thing.
  • Everything except proper names of setting details is released under the Open Gaming License.

The Bad[edit]

  • Maneuvers have been nerfed greatly, killing all the tricks martials had. Now you need to uber specialize to get them functional, as it takes more feats to get the same or less benefit than the 3.5 equivalent and they rely on a busted CMB vs. CMD that never took into account that player characters gain HD slower than monsters.
  • A lot of spells that were ignored because they were just slightly worse than another spell have remained unnerfed, and many game breaking spells weren't touched at all. Most useless spells are still useless.
  • Except for Paladin and core only Bard, the fixes aren't extensive enough to raise anyone's tier, and martial caster power disparity is still a big thing. Core only Monk is still terrible for anything other than a dip.
  • Power Attack is easier to use, but not as useful. Instead of being able to trade any amount of accuracy for an equal amount of damage, you're locked to a fixed amount dependent on your BAB. The better ratio of the trade for two handed weapons remains untouched and the penalty for using it with light weapons has been removed, so it's still a pretty good feat despite this.
  • Intimidate no longer stacks with itself, ridding the system of yet another trick mundane characters could use.

Other/Mixed[edit]

  • Since character creation and advancement rules weren't covered by the OGL, the experience chart, wealth by level numbers, and point buy are all different.
  • Ability score increasing items are now locked to the belt slot and headband slot. This is good for most classes, since fun items don't have to worry about occupying a slot that may have a mandatory item. Unfortunately it hurts MAD characters even more, as they need to pay even more to boost their ability scores.
  • Level Adjustment no longer exists and there are no rules for playing as monsters. At the same time however all the "enemy" races that were LA +1 for no real reason but what fans deemed "exotic race tax" are now 100% usable as player races. This continued as the system progressed and many "monster" races got mechanical support for player use.
  • Bards and Barbarians now work off a number of rounds they can keep their special abilities active instead of a number of uses that last a certain number of rounds. This has many implications that both help and hurt the two classes.
The Classes of Pathfinder 1st Edition
Core Classes: Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Druid - Fighter - Monk
Paladin - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard
Advanced
Player's Guide:		 Alchemist - Antipaladin - Cavalier
Inquisitor - Oracle - Summoner - Witch
Advanced
Class Guide:		 Arcanist - Bloodrager - Brawler - Hunter - Investigator
Shaman - Skald - Slayer - Swashbuckler - Warpriest
Occult
Adventures:		 Kineticist - Medium - Mesmerist
Occultist - Psychic - Spiritualist
Ultimate X: Gunslinger - Magus - Ninja - Samurai - Shifter - Vigilante

Pathfinder Tales[edit]

The series of novels written for the setting. There are over thirty of them now, with some Forgotten Realms authors occasionally writing for Paizo, most notably Ed Greenwood who made Forgotten Realms. This may be an indicator of how much Wizards of the Coast messing around with the settings drove people off.

Adventure Paths[edit]

One of the big draws to the system is the pre-written campaigns Paizo puts out called Adventure Paths, or APs. Continuing from the Shackled City, Age of Worms and Savage Tide adventures Paizo created when running Dungeon Magazine, each AP is 6 books long and, unlike the Dungeon Magazine adventures which went 1-21, run on average from levels 1 to ~15, though two go all the way to 20. These are detailed on the Adventure Path page.

Rage[edit]

Pathfinder's barbarians are champion swimmers, but only when raging.

The Pathfinder RPG inspires a large amount of nerdrage over its rules, with frequent bawwing over class balance, nonsensical nerfs to fighters, buffed CoDzilla and wizards and general trollage. Any discussion of the differences between Pathfinder ("3.75" for fanboys) and regular 3.5 is almost guaranteed to produce a flamewar.

Third Party[edit]

Thanks to almost all rules content being released under the Open Gaming License, a generous compatibility license (a publisher can put a "Pathfinder compatible" logo on the cover and reference the hardcover books by name as long as they don't pretend to be official, sell it non-exclusively on Paizo's site and don't try to make a sequel to the Book of Erotic Fantasy) and the system's large market scale have given it substantial third party support. The most notable and high quality non-module third party support include Dreamscarred Press (who have remade 3.5 Psionics, Incarnum and Book of Nine Swords with the love Wizards of the Coast never gave these systems), Drop Dead Studios (Spheres of Power), and Legendary Games (Mythic, but also a good deal of expansion on the less supported parts of Pathfinder). Many third party generic fantasy modules support Pathfinder alongside OSR and 5E.

Second Edition[edit]

Paizo eventually released second edition of Pathfinder in August of 2019. It made several changes, like both goblins and alchemists being core choices. Takes a lot of inspiration from both classic and modern roleplaying games, perhaps most surprisingly seeing heavy influence from the good parts of 4e (More on that later). Also, after years of deflecting criticism with "4e, bluh bluh," the devs naturally put in a dig at the infamous 4e Forgotten Realms while listing what they would not do to Golarion stating all changes would be the passage of time and that every AP happened. The playtest hit August 2nd 2018.

The dig at 4e is hilarious because, as /tg/ has pointed out, many of the mechanics are literally exactly the same kind of mechanics that 4e did itself.

Also of note is the existence of Corefinder: Essentially third-party publisher Legendary Games' attempt to distill 1E to its basest aspects while also addressing some of the greatest issues with it (essentially doing for Pathfinder 1e what Pathfinder did for D&D 3.5e). As it stands, it's still heavily WIP, but it might yet remain a potent force in the RPG marketplace even after its death.

Links[edit]

  • Pathfinder at Paizo Publishing, for convenience.
  • Pathfinder Wiki, because everything has a wiki these days.
  • Pathfinder SRD: Without the hassle of getting the books. Also includes plenty of third-party material, chiefly Psionics and Path of War
  • Archives of Nethys: The SRD for the system. Once a great fanmade alternative to the official SRD, Paizo decided they couldn't be bothered to maintain the official one anymore and hired the owner to make it the official one.
Retrieved from "http://23.235.193.55/mediawiki/index.php?title=Pathfinder_Roleplaying_Game&oldid=390461"