RM’s RPG Blog

 

Last month I gave my review of the Pathfinder RPG Alpha. This week, Paizo released it’s 2nd update of the alpha.

 

I gave it a quick readthrough the other day and saw that they had improved their revision of the skill system. I know that I seemed positive about the first alpha’s simpler skill system, but I changed my mind the more I thought about it. Because the original proposal “fixed” a part of SRD 3.5 that didn’t really need fixing. Their new proposal actually addresses a part of the skill system I have always thought stupid: class skills. I might like this change. But, yes, I’ve said that before.

 

 

I still have a hard time caring less about the changes to races. At least gnomes now have favored class, “bard or sorcerer”. I guess that’s an improvement.

 

 

This update includes barbarians, druids, paladins, and sorcerors. Nothing about barbarians jumped out at me. Probably a sign that I haven’t been on the player side of the game often enough. They split druids into 2 “paths”, one with animal companions, one with … uh … human companions? Hang on … oh, yeah. Mother Nature companion (cleric domains of air, etc). Similarly, paladins can choose to “bond” with a spirit or a mount. Sorcerors get “bloodlines”, which provide variations in powers. They still get skill-shafted and feat-shafted. Why don’t game designers like sorcerers?

 

The other classes from the earlier release are tweaked some more. Probably for the better. I didn’t read that deeply.

 

 

Alpha 2 totally redesigns the skill system–back to much closer to SRD 3.5. But simpler:

 

I like simple. I might even like this. It’s very similar to my own house rule for skills.

 

 

Blah blah blah. More feats. Same stupid rule about using one “combat feat” per round–and you have to declare your using it before you roll. They either need to further sub-divide combat feats into “active” and “passive”, or just drop that idea. It adds complexity, reduces options, and provides no real value that I can see.

 

 

I still think the combat manuevers idea is sound. This update adds the new states “grappled” and “pinned”. I think if nothing else, the new rules for grapple are quite snazzy. Simple. Easy to use.

 

 

This update tackles the age-old polymorph issue. Maybe they did a good job.

 

Here’s a thought for the wizard school powers: How letting the player decide which spells he chooses as abilities/powers? Limit the choices based on the particular school. Same for clerics. Why dictate when you can offer options? After all, most of the powers are “blah blah x/day as the spell”.

 

 

I think Paizo was surprised by the number of people who held them to the “compatibility” part of their design goals. People want more options they can use. Not a whole nuther set of rules they have to memorize.

 

I think they’re on the right track with their ideas. I remain interested in how Pathfinder RPG will develop over time.

 

-David