Old School 1E AD&D looking at Pathfinder... help!

Well, I used to play 2nd Edition D&D. This is in some respects easier to grasp for people not versed in THAC0. No negative numbers for anything other than Ability scores, and Modifiers. Non-weapon proficiencies have become skills and feats. Skills being climb,swim,and other physical and mental checks. Feats & traits are trained abilities like weapon and armor proficiencies and abilities like great fortitude that would give you a bonus to your fortitude saving throw. Saving throws are simplified as reflex,fortitude,or will. Pathfinder is built on the open gaming license for d20 rules based on D&D 3.5e. It is published by Paizo publishing and you can head over to there website. Navigate to the pathfinder area on the left side. They used to have a pdf of the beta rules for free download, I don't know if they still do. But the core rulebook is the DM and players guide in a single volume.

And I agree about 4th ed. It is like a mindless video game, I played it for a little while. I found pathfinder is a more roleplaying friendly environment. I got sick of the superpower abilities every class had, no one just rolled an attack, everyone was doing "at-will" or once a day, once an encounter abilities. And that is all my local hobby store has events for. I live in Michigan, and so far I've been getting my pathfinder fix every few months at small cons in Illinois and Wisconsin. I first played it at Gencon last year and I purchased Hero Lab and D20PRO at the con. I also purchased Fantasy Grounds 2. I am just starting to get into using the d20pro system, and looking forward to taking in a demo next month to get it figured out a little better. lol

 

Hi Alpharius

i'm playing PFRPG since last september. This game is a real improvement of the 3.5 on many points :

- Base classes have been rewrite and each of them is very interesting to play, even at low level. The players have a good vision of their character evolution, with great choices to do.
- The number of skills have been reduced
- The feats are more comprehensive and have been balanced
- Fight rules are smart and easy to use, even with newbies. Far more interesting than 4E with great option for all characters.

The main difference with the 3.5 is the "fluidity" of the game.

And the Paizo's work is just incredible. The campaign setting take the best of FR, Eberron and Greyhawk to put it on a higher level of epic fantasy. I think it's the best setting ever write for heroic-fantasy RPG.
The modules are pretty good but the Adventure Path campaigns are milestones. The current one (Kingmaker) take players to level 1 as an exploring group and drive them to built a nation : management, diplomacy, exploration...

So, if you are looking for a great game/setting with plenty of incredible ressources, PF is for you

 

As long as you're OK with the idea of some changes then yes, I think you'll like it. Our group switched over to 2E from 1st (over the course of a couple years) and it was a little like pulling teeth with some of the grognards that were better with combat tables instead of Thac0 (the Dark Sun campaign really sold us on it though). We switched over to the 3.x rules almost on release and they were very easy to learn and start playing with. I think you'll be more than happy with the Pathfinder rules, I certainly like them a good bit more than 4E.

 

I agree, I have a lot more fun with Pathfinder, than I ever did with 4E, which I found boring and not conducive to the richer roleplaying I have found in Pathfinder, I know it has to do with WHO you play with as much as WHAT you play. But for me, I do not regret going to pathfinder and leaving D&D behind.

 

I started playing in 1st Edition myself. Moved onto 2nd, then 3rd, 3.5, 4th, and now back to 3.75 (Pathfinder).

Here is my best advice to be able to enjoy Pathfinder. Do not compare it to the mechanics in 1st edition. What happens to a lot of people who try a new edition, if they go in thinking "Man I liked the way X worked back in Y edition. I think it is dumb to allow dwarves to be mages." Then you are going to self defeat yourself. Approach it with an open mind, and that of a newbie. Put your years of playing DND aside to learn how the system works from the ground up, as if it is the first time you have played DND and I can assure you, that you will like Pathfinder.

The game mechanics work better, makes game play more exciting too. Not to mention the books have color pictures in them and not just black and white. hahahahaha
You can still play with a 1st edition feel for game play using Pathfinder rule set, but it is best to learn the system from the ground up then tweak it to the play style you like best.

Out of all the systems of DND I like Pathfinder, they balanced out the powers of the classes a little, but did not go all crazy and make it so a 1st level guy is a dragon slayer out of the box.