Pathfinder: Opinions?

[Brian]

Incidentally, I've been wondering just what makes 3.5 classes incompatible to Pathfinder, anyway. I think it's only because a DM wouldn't want to convert things to use CMB/CMD and the sort. But given you're fine with using purely Pathfinder-origin houserules for a 3.5 game, the opposite can surely happen to import any fun PrC or ability from 3.5 over.

I think that's it exactly, actually.

And another cool thing about Pathfinder? The traits and the hero points. Neither is really some innovation, but they're rarely used normally in 3.5 games. The first is essentially fluff feats, like the regional feats or feats that don't really make you that effective in combat, but serve to help define your character better. You get them at chargen! Hero points are... essentially a combination of 'I don't want to be oneshotted' and 'Can I please do something cool by pushing the rules a bit?' mechanic, usable once each level, roughly. It's nice in the sense that you shouldn't feel as boxed in. You can either go for your Big Damn Heroes moment or play it safe and cautious and be able to negate one mistake/bad luck with the dice to just be incapacitated instead of killed (You can still be attacked and killed for good immediately after, of course.) It gives the player, in either case, more control over the life of their character. The DM doesn't have to worry over treating people with kids gloves, and if ingenuity on the player side exists, there's a handy trick up their sleeve to save the day.

I think traits are in 4e, too -- but hero points are a massive win for me.

I didn't take a lot away from my WoD and Storyteller gaming, but it was a love of the Willpower mechanic.  Hero points bring a lot of what I liked about that back.  Admittedly, we used hero points before they were standardized (houseruled) as far back as second edition, so....

[Dracos]

Some of the earliest games I played in had similar notions.

I still like the notion of these kinds of tokens.

[Carthrat]

Honestly, I don't find the PrC thing as much a draw as I used to. It just adds this huge layer of complexity and twinkery to character design. Usually I know what sort of abilities I want to have before I even start flipping through books to find them, so assembling the character I want is more like a jigsaw puzzle than anything. And I have to do it efficiently and correctly to keep up with other people, and all that jazz. The actual use of them tends to involve people taking drops in many different classes to get certain key abilities or synergies.

It was fun once, when ideas were fresh and new! But the more I look at it, the more I appreciate a single class, or at most two classes, you know? I can't help but think all the PrC stuff should've been handled through the feat system, but instead feats are always lackluster and certain prc abilities are always better. It doesn't help that nobody seems to agree on a design standard for PRCs, and that's why you get classes of wildly different power all over the place.