The new game still features many of the common conceits of Dungeons &Dragons – “Vancian” or memorized spells, the core classes of Fighter, Wizards, Rogue, etc. the typical fantasy races of elf, dwarf, man and half-elves and a combat system laden with modifiers and sometimes complex combat and situational rules.
Where Pathfinder makes changes to these conceits however is where it shines. Many of the core D&D classes received major reworking to balance their power progression out a bit more. Races in the game now see bigger statistical bonuses and racial abilities are tweaked to have a bit more impact over the life of the character, not just in the initial phases. Even humans, the traditional “no-bonus” races now get a selectable +2 statistic bonus increase to differentiate them and represent the versatility that the D&D system always implied was the defining trait of humanity in a fantasy setting.
These tweaks and changes are subtle enough that even those well versed with the d20 3.5 rules might have to do a double take to recognize them. Many of the choices made play well in the system and make it obvious that the Pathfinder designers were listening to D&D players and where possible attempted to address the oddities or uneven parts of the rule implementations.
Pathfinder is more than a rules tweek for D&D 3.5 though. With Wizards having moved on to their new rules, Paizo is aiming to capture the disenfranchised d20 players who were not interested in the fairly drastic changes to their beloved D&D without splitting the market with yet another rule system. One of the key design goals stated at numerous points in the games’ development – backward compatibility – is well maintained with this new game.
Before the Pathfinder game saw print Paizo worked to create a free D20/D&D 3.5 Conversion guide. This supplementary document is freely available on the Paizo website and covers all the core changes as well as giving guidance to Pathfinder GMs and players looking to move over characters, items and monsters from any of the d20/3.5 compatible products published by the many 3rd party companies over the years.
Pathfinder at this stage is fairly close to the last revisions made by Wizards of the Coast before they moved on to the new edition. There are hints however that while compatibility will be maintained that Paizo intends to expand the game and allow others to play in their sandbox and publish new rules and options that expand outside the more generic places Wizards stayed within during their development of the game system.
Fans of d20/Dungeons & Dragons 3.x should take the time to check out Pathfinder, while its not a “mandatory” upgrade to your existing games there are many rule tweaks and new ideas presented in the core rulebook worth considering and integrating into your home campaigns.
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