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hawkmoon100
November 5th, 2013, 14:02
I am new to Fantasy grounds (cant believe how long this amazing program has been around with out me realising it existed). Bought it as soon as I realised what I had been missing.
I am currently writing/converting my old ADnD planescape adventures to use in Fantasy grounds and was wondering what peoples opinions are on Pathfinder over 3.5E, either in general or in regards to running games in Fantasy grounds. I have played a lot of ADnD and DnD 3E, not seen much of 3.5E although I like the changes which were made in. I have never played Pathfinder but have been told it is basically just better.
To my question, would people suggest biting the bullet and just learning Pathfinder and using that for my Fantasy grounds game or would it really not make much difference.
I know its a bit of a woolly question and I don't really expect a definitive answer just opinions and or suggestions.

Thanks in advance..

kleamovich
November 5th, 2013, 14:46
If you are thinking about a Pathfinder game, there is a good amount of players here that enjoy Pathfinder. Personally, I feel that Pathfinder can give more options to players, for instance - archetypes. If you want players to have more options I would go with Pathfinder.

Let's say you have two level one Barbarians in 3.5e, they are going to be very similar - in a general sense.

Now if you have two level one Barbarians in Pathfinder, one could be a normal Barbarian and the other could be a Mad Dog Barbarian.

Nickademus
November 5th, 2013, 15:25
Totally bias here, but the way I see, Pathfinder was made by the people that made 3.0 and 3.5 D&D and has been called 'D&D 3.75'. I wouldn't want to play an older, outdated version of the game thus I play 3.75e. Just seems logical.

hawkmoon100
November 5th, 2013, 15:46
Well unanimous so far. As I am mostly converting stuff from ADnD (with a lot of poetic licence) I may as well just do it in Pathfinder. More options for characters makes a lot of sence in planescape anyway. Time to invest in some Pathfinder books.

Trenloe
November 5th, 2013, 16:39
Pathfinder was built on top of 3.5e and to be compatible with 3.5e.

There were some rules changes from 3.5e to Pathfinder: Some skills changed, e.g. there is a single Perception skill that covers spot, search, listen. Grappling has changed and there is the introduction of the combat maneuvers to cover a lot of special attacks in combat (trip, disarm, sunder, bull rush, grapple/pin, etc.). Some of the low HP classes have a higher hit dice - e.g. wizards use a d6 rather than a d4. And a few other changes.

There is a free conversion doc here: https://paizo.com/products/btpy89m6?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Conversion-Guide

Pathfinder characters are generally seen as being a bit tougher than their 3.5e equivalent, so if you end up converting 3.5e stuff to Pathfinder keep that in mind. But, as you're using 2e that shouldn't be an issue...

Pathfinder is an actively developed RPG system with lots of support from both Paizo and third party publishers. It's covered by the Open Gaming License (OGL) so there is a lot of splat you can find out there for free (legally). Any new Pathfinder hard back rulebook that is released by Paizo is included in their PRD (Pathfinder Reference Document) so you have access to all of the core/main rules for free: https://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ Other Paizo OGL content is available here: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/

If this is all daunting, just stick with the Core Rulebook at first (there is lots in that 576 page book to keep you going).

hawkmoon100
November 5th, 2013, 17:35
Thanks for all the great info. Pathfinder seems like the way forward for me. Did not know how close it was to 3.5E, Every change I have found so far has just added to an already great system.