Pathfinder a Bite at a Time: Presentation

Unsure about Pathfinder? Not quite ready to lay down hard gp for yet another 3.5 product? Wondering if it’s worth the scratch?

As a longtime 3.5 player and DM, allow me to be your guide to the good and the bad of Paizo’s Pathfinder in this, the first in my series of Pathfinder reviews, a bite at a time.

The Core Rulebook and Campaign Setting

Presentation

The Pathfinder Core Rulebook looks and feels great. It is 576 perfect-bound glossy pages smashing the PH and DMG together into one package that is just a few millimetres wider and taller than previous sourcebooks. Years from now I’m certain the corners will be mashed, and more than a few pages ripped or bent, but this is a quality product that will last with a bit of care.

The layout and decorative art are similar to previous incarnations of the ruleset, but with an updated look and feel that may be refreshing simply because they’re new. The interior pages are packed with text, stylized headers, folios, and margins. The index is 4 pages long, so time will tell if it’s as useful as we’d like it to be, but everything is easy to read and familiar to navigate.

Great art and a familiar layout.

The art is very pretty—a stylized realism that combines clean lines with tons of detail. Each chapter starts with a two-page spread of the Pathfinder archetypes in action, accompanied by a dramatic description of the scene.

The art is close, if not equal to, the core 4E art, and overall the re-imagined ogres, goblins, and characters look awesome. I’m especially fond of the half-orc-assassin, gnome bard, small druid, and elf rogue, each of which is done in a style that is Pathfinder’s alone.