Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

2017-11-12T03:07:24Z

2600:8802:500:3D0:1CBB:AC56:77C1:4072: /* Giantslayer */

'''Extra extra! August 2017 saw the release of ''[[Starfinder]]'', the future version of ''Pathfinder'' set IN SPACE. It has space [[ratfolk|ratmen]]!'''

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 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 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.

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), 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.

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.

== Golarion ==
{{main|Golarion}}
[[File:PathfinderExplained.jpg|thumb|350px|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, 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 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 are even more continents and nations, but barely anybody gives a shit about them (including most of Paizo's writers) with the exception of [[China|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 [[murderhobo|raid and slash in your quest for loot]], not to mention the shenanigans you can get into in the other [[plane]]s of the multiverse.

{{Pathfinder-Classes}}

==''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.

== Adventure Paths ==

One of the big draws to the system is the pre-written campaigns Paizo puts out called Adventure Paths, or APs. Each AP is 6 books long and run on average from levels 1 to 15 though some end earlier in levels and at least one takes you to level 20. WARNING: The following may provide spoilers.

=== Rise of the Runelords ===

Pathfinder's 'flagship' AP, RotR hits a lot of more classic tropes. Starts off with the party fighting goblins and an evil Aasimar, moves on to fighting ghouls and a Lamia, then it becomes a mild wilderness game to fight your way to a big ass dam and fight several types of ogres and giants, save a few towns, then go off to fight dragons an ancient evil spellcaster.

=== Curse of the Crimson Throne ===

An Evil Queen and intrigue in and around her court. Popular enough to get an update from 3.5 to Pathfinder just like Runelords did.

=== Second Darkness ===

Drow want to blow everything up, and the elves who send you to stop them are kinda jerks. Not one of the most popular APs.

=== Legacy of Fire ===

Genies and Arabian Nights the adventure Path

=== Council of Thieves ===

Stuff

=== Kingmaker ===

Make Your Own Kingdom the path

=== Serpent's Skull ===

The jungle exploration path with lizardfolk, normally considered one of the weakest APs alongside Second Darkness.

=== Carrion Crown ===

The classic horror monster path

=== Jade Regent ===

Travel to Tian-Xa to get a good heir to the throne, to the throne. A lot of the path is just getting there.

=== Skull & Shackles ===

Pirates! You start pressganged on a ship, and after breaking free you need to make a name for yourself on the high seas.

=== Shattered Star ===

Semi-sequel to Runelords, you need to assemble a powerful artifact and a different villain of ancient Thassilon threatens to rise.

=== Reign of Winter ===

Somebody turned down the thermostat in Taldor, so you go and investigate. Things get out of whack when you fight winter fey in the middle of summer, get teleported to Bumfuck, Icy Nowhere and get roped into a date with a Winter Wolf, and it only escalates from there when you go to another continent, another planet, and another galaxy on your quest to rescue damsel-in-distress Baba Yaga from her uppity daughter and son, Rasputin, and his army of tear gas elementals, WWI Russian soldier zombies, and magically-animated tanks.

=== Wrath of the Righteous ===

The Demons of the Worldwound have decided that being trapped in the area around the Worldwound is a bum game, and break free, inadvertently giving your party mythic power in the process. You progress deeper into the Worldwound and eventually to the Abyss itself to save the world from demonic invasion. Good plot and NPCs, could use some work on the game balance, DMs may want to up the difficulty.

=== Mummy's Mask ===

Ancient Egyptian/Osirion path with ancient tombs, mummies, and floating pyramids. Also an emphasis on moral shades of gray.

=== Iron Gods ===

Travel through Barbarians and scavenged technology land fighting aliens, an organization that wants to monopolize all high technology, and face down an AI that wants to make itself a god.

=== Giantslayer ===

Big Stuff

=== Hell's Rebels ===

In a city at the edge of Cheliax, the Thrunes moved one of their family that even those devil-worshipers find too much. As he cracks down, you rise up. Well developed city.

=== Hell's Vengeance ===

The bad guy path- Cheliax can't focus on the Hell's Rebels rebellion because they're dealing with one of their own, an ill-considered attempt at their capital. You work for the Queen in helping put it down and restoring order in the lands.

=== Strange Aeons ===

Lovecraft the adventure path

=== Ironfang Invasion ===

Stuff

=== Ruins of Azlant ===

Stuff

== Rage ==

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

The ''Pathfinder RPG'' inspires a large amount of nerdrage over its rules, with frequent [[butthurt|bawwing]] over class balance, perceived 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.

== 40k ==
===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===
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.

== Links ==
* [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.
* [http://www.archivesofnethys.com/Default.aspx Archives of Nethys]: Another great repository for more obscure ''Pathfinder'' splatbook content.

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

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game