Editing Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (section)

==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.

===The Good===
[[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]].

===The Bad===
*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===
*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. 

{{Pathfinder-Classes}}