D&D 3.75 aka Pathfinder RPG: An Alpha Review

So a company I've not known a lot about till recently named Paizo has decided to put out a new version of D&D. They're doing it under the OGL from Wizards of the Coast. Why would they do this you ask? Because WotC has seen fit to Obsolete dozens of books: 4.0 is not compatible with the 3.x stuff, and there's not even any real way of converting it over.

Now, I've never taken count, and I almost always get my books on discount, but that's still an easy twenty bucks a pop for thirty+ game books. That's an easy six hundred to a thousand bucks, and WotC has simply said "Nah, go buy all new shit."

I like a lot of the 4.0 changes, but I don't like the lack of conversions. I played Magic the Gathering pretty heavily for a while, and it's got that same feel of churning out product and forcing players to always have to use new stuff, without much support for old school players. I know they've got to make money, but sometimes that need pushes things a little too far.

I suppose I can bitch about this a lot, but it's hardly the first time. This happens a lot in the uber-nerd gaming world. Shadowrun, which was big for a little while, had some similar growing pains between first and second edition. AD&D 2nd edition was another big obsolescence snafu when 3.x came out.

The thing here is, 3.x isn't broken, or bad. It's got flaws, sure, but it's a pretty sound system. It doesn't need to be scrapped and replaced, just fixed.

So Paizo, in a fit of marketing genius, has decided to put out a new version they're calling Pathfinder. It's basically D&D 3.75. They've cleaned up some of the rules, and most of their changes are quite good.

For starters, the base races have been buped up a bit. Half Elves and Half Orcs don't suck, And Humans aren't just an "I'm so desperate for a feat" race pick. Race changes: All good, and holy shit, they still have gnomes as a PC race!

:stupid:

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So the next big change they've got that's really noteworthy is feat progression. The old system had a feat at first, and then another every 3rd level. Now, you get a feat every odd level. This change is good. There are SO many bloody feats now, and so many are dependant on each other, that the old number was entirely inadequate. Flaws helped a little bit, but only if allowed.

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Next is skills. This is major: There are no more skill points to allocate. Yes, that's right, no more skill points. The way it works now is that you pick skills equal to the number of skill selections the classes have always had (8 for rogues, for example). Those skills are always at their maximum value (Stat + 3 + level) as if they were under the old system, or if they're cross class they're maxed for the cross class value. Instead of getting points per level, you get new skill choices as you level up.

This is both good and bad. It's bad, because it removes some customization and individualization for characters, and cuts down on versatility and skill point splashing. It would also seem to kill skill tricks (introduced in complete scoundrel) entirely, and synergies seem to have been removed as well, which I can't say I'll shed a tear over (pointless arbitrary bonuses = lame).

The good part of it is that it cuts down on tedious number crunching dramatically, and avoids the "1 point knowledge" splash that a lot of players do just so they can make a trained check for a lot of skills. I'm still not sure how this will work out, to be honest. Without testing on the face of it this looks better than the old system, which was time consuming at best, but the homogenous feel of it I'm unsure of. Of course, most characters would have their key skills maxed out anyway, but I don't see so much room for versatility.

And speaking of skills, many of them have been condensed now, so the need to splash points has been cut dramaticaly.

• Listen + spot = Perception
• hide + move silent = Stealth
• Speak Language + Decipher Script + and Forgery = Linguistics (and picking up extra languages has been adjusted a bit to be more realistic)
• Use Rope = Sucks, and is gone
• Tumble + Balance + Jump = Acrobatics
• Bluff + Sense Motive = Deception

Those are just a few, and there are other condensed skills as well. I'm still iffy on the "no skill point" rule, but this new and condensed skill list is an excellent idea, and even if I don't use the no skill point stuff I'd use this new list.

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Next are the base classes. They've not updated all of them yet, but the updates are very, very good. They've gotten rid of the "dead level" problem that really plagued 3.0 and carried into 3.x to a lesser degree. They've increased the HD on most classes, so that it now corresponds with BAB progression. This means sorcerers and wizards get a d6, Rogues are d8, and Rangers are bumped back up to d10.

They've added a lot of special class abilities too, and not just first level stuff, but new abilities to snag as you level. Rogues can start picking up nifty abilities starting from early on, not just after level ten, although ten is the cutoff where better abilities become available. They've expanded the functionality of sneak attack. Specialist wizards aren't just able to cast their specialty more often, they start picking up slick abilities starting from level one. Cleric domains also grant abilities as you progress in levels. Fighters are no longer just a feat-splash, you can start picking up weapon and armor hit and AC bonuses from enhanced training, so they're far more interesting than before.

The class changes are probably the parts I'm most happy with, I admit.

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The feats have been tweaked a little too, obviously. One thing they've done is to add a class of combat feats, of which you can only use one per round. This, I'm not sure of. The change to feats like dodge, power attack, expertise, and especially cleave and great cleave are excellent, I'm just unsure of the limitations on only using one combat feat per round. It may work out well though, forcing more tactical decisions. Many advanced combat feats require a chain of actions using pre-req feats before they can be used (great cleave, for example), and so far it looks promising. I won't know till it gets a good testing.

There are other changes and tweaks, especially in combat (grapple doesn't suck anymore, and combat maneuvers are simplified dramatically), most of which appear solid. The designers have clearly put some good thought into this, and overall this is an excellent idea. There's still much to do, but I'm definitely behind this move.

So far, their alpha for Pathfinder is free. Yes, that's right, free. They're making a very good decision in trying to get gamers involved in brainstorming and requesting feedback through the entire process, rather than keeping everything super-secret up until release day.

Anyway, give it a look, this is really good stuff for any D&D geek who's extremely uncomfortable with trashing their old 3.x stuff.

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So anyway, to sum up, for their efforts Paizo gets:

Plognark's Official Stamp of Approvalâ„¢ for D&D 3.75 / Pathfinder