Looking at the Pathfinder Strategy Guide

This is going to sound odd, but I'm still reading Pathfinder books, and even collecting them. Yes, I got rid of a significant chunk of my Pathfinder collection....and yes, I have implied or outright stated I don't plan to run it again (but I said the same thing about virtually every edition at one point, so whadda I know). I've suggested that the elegance of D&D 5th edition has arrived and replaced Pathfinder, which was merely a placeholder in fantasy gaming for the Big Dog's return. But....well....I am thinking I will be running it again, and it does have a place. It's nestled at the top of the food chain in terms of "D&D likes," reveling in it's mechanical complexity, with only Fantasy Craft and D&D 3.5 nesting alongside it. There is no greater edition of D&D out there right now for mechanical rigor and tactical focus, and since I've had over a year away from the game now I have found time to restore my old appreciation for it.

I doubt I'll get to run it much, mind you, because D&D 5E is so damned easy to run as a DM it's hard to want to look elwhere....but books like the Pathfinder Strategy Guide actually make me want to at least play it, even if only as a player. I had fully expected this book to be a terrible slog through esoteric tactical advice, weird new rules, detailed explanations of system mastery and mechanical rigor to extremes only delusional internet fanboys could conceivably imagine....clearly a sign I've been hanging out at certain forums online too much. In reality it's a wonderful beginner's book, an effort to create a sort of "Idiot's Guide to Pathfinder" without actually calling it that.

The Strategy Guide gives you literally everything you need to understand a given class and all its choices through level 20, talks about different features of Pathfinder games and RPGs in general with tips on how to role play in different contexts and environments....advice good for any D&D or Pathfinder game, to be honest. It is presented in a clean, friendly format with lots of layout styles cribbed from the Pathfinder Beginner box....indeed, this book could be regarded as an excellent second step from that book (though it does not subsitute for the Pathfinder Core Rules).

It's just really, really neat. I want to have this available to hand to my players who need help. There are at least two at my table right now who could use the general advice.....and if I run Pathfinder it really looks like a necessity for my table, already. I did not expect that.

We get really used to playing with old vets, seasoned "system mastery" specialists, min/maxers and the whole specialized lot of 3rd edition era/Pathfinder players, it's easy to forget how many of them are not like the elite. In fact, realizing that as much as I have enjoyed Pathfinder as GM in the past (and sometimes not) I have always been a middling player due to my general disdain for builds and optization....here however is a book which teaches how to play the game, make smart choices, and not feel like you have to jerry-rig the game to get something to wow the table. Who knew?

I'd like to see them make a real GM's book like this now. I think it would be very interesting to see what a Pathfinder GM's Strategies book looks like. The old Gamemastery Guide had some useful content, but nowhere near what this tome does for players.

Meanwhile in Pathfinder News

Since the last few weeks have been pretty much all D&D 5E all the time when it comes to the spider-web of blogs and odd chat sites that comprise the news resources for all thing tabletop RPG, I thought I'd do something no one else is doing and talk about what Pathfinder has going. I have a vested interest, as my Saturday group is returning to Pathfinder next session, and my Wednesday group has already rebelled and is returning to Pathfinder this week.

I'm cool with it. If there's one thing I've learned from 13th Age it's that I like a slower and more methodical game system, with a bit more nuance. 13th Age handles a certain style of play extremely well (gonzo heroic) but it's pace and feel, while great for an occasional romp, is not suited to my default style of play.

So....what's up with Pathfinder?

Paizo of course needs to throw some stuff out for later this year that will look equally attractive next to the onslaught of D&D tomes about to hit. They've got the usual fine Reynolds art lined up, with a great cover for the looming Advanced Class Guide scheduled for sometime in August (probably for GenCon):

You can still get the Advanced Class Guide playtest document and take the ten new classes contained within for a spin. Each class is a hybrid of two core classes. It's an interesting concept, another subversive strike from Pathfinder against the 3rd edition method of multi-classing, right behind archetypes and the idea of classes that are more fun for 20 whole levels. Given how rarely my players multi-class, I guess their war against the habit is working.

Next up is the Pathfinder Strategy Guide slated for sometime in Octoberish:

Bound to be the ruination of campaigns everywhere as players who like to make interesting and role-play focused characters read it and learn how to min-max like a pro....

After that we have the Monster Codex, also scheduled for "October" so expect it by December:

This one has me excited. It focuses on twenty popular monsters from the Bestiaries, looking in great depth on them. It sounds like a combination ecology guide/race guide/stat block heaven lineup in which the GM can lean on this book for lots of pre-statted orcs and other monsters that make for interesting encounters without having to do all the footwork; the most excruciating part of Pathfinder and 3E for many a GM, of course, is those horrendous stat blocks. If this game offers up a mess of interesting pre-made villain NPCS, consider me sold.

Most of the slim books haven't been grabbing me, but this one is an exception- the Pathfinder Technology Guide:

The descriptions suggests that this book actually has some real meat to it (sort of what I wished Distant Worlds had been), with loads of equipment and useful material for adding sci-fi fantasy tech to your campaign setting, or blending it to make your own planetary romance/gamma world knock off. Could be interesting....the Technology Guide looms large this August. Maybe next year Paizo will pull the trigger and release a full-blown hard cover high tech planetary romance manual, a "Ultimate Space Campaigns" book or something......