Last time, I talked about the basic races for Pathfinder.
Now, I’ve gone a bit further in the book and am ready to give a brief overview
of the classes. First, this is where I first start noticing some basic editing
errors. Some are merely preferences, some are just basic rules of grammar and
punctuation. It’s okay, though, because I still know what the writer is trying
to say. The classes do finally seem a bit more levels out. At the same time, I
am seeing no dead levels, which is important. I like seeing bonuses come up
over time, even if it is only a little bit at a time.
I had this discussion with someone earlier about the small
percentage increases for adding a +1 to a skill in D&D 3e really were small
when you took the time to think about it. However, I am okay with that, because
I have trained myself to think of it kind of like a bubble filling up in a
video game or MMO (which I do not play that often….anymore). I am okay with the
little bonuses, because little bonuses add up.
Once again, the team did an excellent job with the artwork
for this chapter, balancing healthy, athletic male and female counterparts in
realistic armor and clothing. I do not see anything immediately insulating or
challenging to anyone’s sensibilities. I also like how everything in the art
seems functional. Then, you have a warrior standing there, blades damaged from
many fine battles.
Meanwhile, I am not going to go through each and every one
of these classes. To do that, it’d probably be a post for each class, maybe
more. Overall, they remind me of slightly more bad ass versions of DnD 3x base
classes. They stayed with the ex-class rules, which I’m not sure I enjoy
completely, but that’s kind of been a staple for some time now, so we’ll go
with it.
I do like that domain explanations are given right along
with the cleric class. This is a logical decision as it makes sense to find
information on this here rather than digging back through later parts of the
book. It certainly will help speed up creation a bit. I also like how the
breakdown and expand upon the animal companion rules for the druid. They made
the fighter useful and able to stand on their own without relying on the
spell-like abilities of 4th edition, which is cool. The monk was
always meant to be a bad ass. #rd edition watered it down in the text. Here, in
Pathfinder, the monk regains their martial prowess and seems more like the
ancient warrior I expect them to be rather than the scholar warriors of 3rd
edition. There is a difference and I certainly like this one much better.
For the ranger, mostly unchanged. I sure don’t remember
favored terrain from earlier version, but I like it. I’m not sure why the
ranger cannot use their abilities in heavy armor, as there are several reasons
the realistically could, but I suppose it’s just a choice for flavor and
balance. I do like the addition of rogue talents. These help to specialize what
could otherwise be a generalized character.
The lack of skills for the sorcerer is a bit disappointing, but
acceptable, especially with the sorcerous bloodlines. These really seem to help
level the playing field and give some pretty nifty ideas for characters. I move
on to the wizard and see their skills are limited as well. My problem here is
that I think back to the sorcerers and wizards in epic fantasy—the type of game
I am hoping to play—and they all seem well experienced and skilled. And here we
have added a familiar. I always thought the familiar as a tertiary piece of
window dressing. Here, with the Pathfinder Wizard, it seems to be a key class
feature. I am not that keen on it and would have preferred seeing something
else in place here. I could see that leading to a totally different class, but
that’s just my personal opinion.
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