I would say the biggest difference is in the actual build of the classes. Pathfinder made it a point that A: Every class has some element of choice in their build outside of feats [which in 3.5 was often not so much a choice as simply picking the feats that work with your class] and giving every class some class feature every level. Barbarians get rage powers, Fighters got a slew of new bonuses and buffs, Sorcerers get to pick from level one, out of a wide variety of choices, the source of their power [draconic is still available, just no longer the default]. Also, now every class has something after lvl 15 that makes the class worth seeing through to the end. Where before, there was no advantage to not going into a prestige class after a certain amount of, for example, Fighter, now they pick up Armor Mastery at 18 and Weapon Mastery at 20, both of which give a slew of awesome bonuses. One class level 20 isn't just for spellcasters anymore.

Aside from that, the skill system got tweaked in a matter that makes cross-class training more of an option, and Grapple/Trip/Disarm got rolled into one mechanic, that is now resolved with one die roll rather than two. Aside from that, some feats got changed [Power Attack/Cleave], some got added [the slew of new Crit feats], multiclassing and favored classes got a major overhaul, they removed the XP cost from magic item crafting, and... oh yeah, every class that had a pet as part of their class features gets a non-pet option now. The material published later has less of a focus on prestige classes than their 3.5 counterparts, and more of a focus on new base classes and alternate versions of the base classes [something 3.5 played around with in the PHB2, with much less fruitful results].

I'm sure there are more differences I haven't remembered to put down, but there is a good example.

I liked the "what motivates this kind of player" discussion. You could maybe explore that more in future episodes.

It is 11:40 pm.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.759494,139.541367

Which fiscussion was this?

The part where the hosts were talking about min/maxers. You could turn that into a discussion about different kinds of players (not just the min/maxer), what motivates them, what they want, and so on.

In short, Pathfinder changes 3.5 in ways that Chad doesn't care about.

I could fill an encyclopedia with the parts of gaming Chad doesn't care about, doesn't make them any less important.

No offense, Chad.

That's one of my favorite RPG stumps, I could totally do a whole episode about it.

None taken at all. Preference does not equal universal truth.

One of the things that I love about GMing is that the chances of getting several people around the table who all want the exact same things out of a game is pretty low (not impossible or unheard of) but you still have to make the game fun for all of them. Just running exactly how I want to run (MY STYLE!) doesn't work. I have to mix elements of what all the players want into a cohesive game without turning it into a hot mess or selling out my own experience with the game.

The fun thing about con games is that I can run something that 100% my style with people who are signing up for exactly that kind of experience.

just finished listening to the episode entertaining as always and if you guys want a Icelandic role player on your show let me know.