Pathfinder - Game Role
Wyrd editions - 614 pages, hardbound, color, € 49.90
Pathfinder is a fantasy role-playing game that started as "perfection" of the rules open game of Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition (specifically, version 3.5 manuals). The more than 600 pages of Pathfinder collect more or less everything that was contained in the Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide D & D 3rd edition. Obviously, however, the regulation was revised. We can therefore say that Pathfinder is a further refined version and the 3rd Edition D & D. Cutting short, the question being asked most readers of this review will: is it worth buying? The answer, for those who do not want to read all the way, is yes. In this review I will not dwell on the intrinsic value of the regulation or the game, as it would fall again in the infinite feud between supporters and supporters of the third edition of the fourth. Suffice it to say what I said earlier: Pathfinder is the improved version of the Rules of third edition D & D, so a good product for anyone who loves and wants to still play with that regulation. Here I will focus instead to analyze the presentation and content of the manual. The manual Pathfinder RPG is like a hardcover manual with more than 600 pages, the format of book is smaller than the standard Italian manuals of D & D, but respects the original form in English. The cover is beautifully illustrated by Wayne Reynolds and the introduction of the manual is signed by the author, Jason Buhlman, and the supervisor of the work, the well-known Monte Cook. Leafing through the manual immediately evident the quality with which the pages are decorated with parchment-colored borders and glyphs which resemble the hand of the third edition, in contrast with the white pages of the manuals of the fourth edition. Some might argue that the readability of the manual is less, but honestly I have not found any difficulties whatsoever and indeed I think that the cure in the layout has pushed me to read more. A note of special merit is the presence of a glossary at the end of manual (custom lost in the manuals of Wizards of the Coast), and above all an index really well done, which is essential given the enormous amount of content.
Chapters Gamer
The first chapters of the manual describes the various options for players. The races and classes are the same as the third edition, but many of them have been further "refined" than the version 3.5 of the Rules. Most of these adjustments is extremely common sense, making the classes very attractive especially compared to their previous versions. For example, the dice of almost each class were increased: the d4 has been completely eliminated from the profiles, now the magician and the sorcerer used to determine the d6 hit points per level, while using the bard and thief d8 and the ranger (I personally thank the authors) returns to d10. Each class that allows to call an animal companion, a horse or a pet now has the alternative options in case you do not want to do it. For example, if you give up your animal companion the paladin can forge a bond with the weapon, the ranger with his allies, and a druid can become akin to a particular aspect of the elemental world and acquire a domain. One very positive note is clear from reading the profiles of the classes: each class buys something at every level. The problem of the paladin who went only after the tenth level of inertia has been solved by adding to the profile enhancements for its imposition of hands and other special abilities, the sorcerer acquires powers, feats and spells based on the source of power in his own blood; improves as the warrior training in weapons and armor. Some concerns raised certain powers, such as the new champion of punishing evil, or the retention of the points ki monaco, as made two calculations are very destructive and one wonders if the game was well balanced and playtest, but all in all not the balance was the highlight of this edition of the rules, and close a blind eye to so much good will in shaping nearly every defect. Excellent removal of penalty points for multiclass experience (a new rule would provide hit points or degrees of perk if you continue to grow in their favorite class) and you immediately notice that almost all classes have a super-premium capacity level 20, which was probably inserted to fix a minimum the tendency of players to multiclassing wildly, typical of the third edition. Another welcome addition is the disappearance of cross-class skill (with their annoying half-points): now the class skills ensure a +3 bonus if you are invested at least one degree. Some skills have disappeared and have been grouped in a manner similar to the work done in the fourth edition (Listen and Spot became Perception), but overall the job skills is the least successful: there is still inutilissima Assess skills, which could be replaced by any test of knowledge, craft or profession which is in line with what is assessed, and the removal of skill is making the jump from jumping acrobatics, but it is based on dexterity rather than strength, and there is more skill-based Search on Intelligence, which means that the adventures will require investigative tests in profusion along the same skills, Perception. Maybe I'm petty, but taken together give an impression that the authors have not thought enough. In the chapter of talent if they can find many new ones (on the other hand has become the general rule that if he buys one every odd level, instead of one every three levels) and many others have been enhanced or retouched to make them more attractive . Pathfinder spells have remained virtually unchanged from the version 3.5 of the Rules of D & D, except a few small tweaks here and there due to new rules regarding the domains, the strength and magic attacks.
Chapters of the Game Master
Any changes to these chapters is essentially the need of clarity. The rules for the combat were not increased even when there was really needed (there is still the bonus shares, that the immediate and that the fast ones, and the difference between them is piddling), but remain one of the best compromises regolistici between action and dynamic realism. Of course you can not ask to change the system of class armor, which has become almost a "tradition" of this regulation, but personally I do not expect to see pictures of miniatures and squared the pages of this manual. There are hardcore wargamers who played the third edition with thumbnails and checked and did not proceed to the fourth edition? If there is good that some pages still is part of the manual. Perhaps for all others will be a bit 'useless: after all just a piece of paper and a pencil to mark the positions and you can play safely without Pathfinder miniatures. It is pleasing to note however some things like the progress of differentiated levels (fast, medium, slow) to be decided according to the needs of the master, or the fact that the allocation system of experience points has been revised and greatly simplified. Finally, magic items, which are masterpieces of power, and may therefore make the difference between a character who possesses them, and one that did not have them. That what is good or bad, let him decide our tastes: I think that meet Vorpal sword in his hands that your opponent is really decapitated a feeling that goes beyond any aspiration of balance regolistico.
In conclusion, the manual lacks a bestiary that if sales go well will probably be published in the months to come. My conclusion is that this manual is a required purchase for anyone who has played in its third edition and was disappointed by the fourth: the improvements to the regulation outweigh the defects, and quality graphics and art of the manual goes on to defer a number of errors typos and misprints (but on the other hand, is 600 pages!). Surely they are my 49.90 € better spent in role-playing games the last two years. Nice work.
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