Pathfinder: First Impressions

Campaign Diaries

I’ve now run my first two Pathfinder sessions and I have to say I’m mostly pleased. While character generation seemed to take an awfully long time (especially as we had one rulebook to share amongst four players and a GM), it truly prepped us to have successful encounters later on in the game.

My PC party is comprised of two human sorcerers and two half-Orcs (one a ranger, the other a fighter). They are in a Viking-esque region of my campaign world and have now encountered a small band of marauding Orcs, a handful of bloody, regenerating skeletons, and the eldritch horror of an ancient temple. The combat encounters went fairly smoothly from behind the screens and we even got to use The Box of Doom™ (the ominous black box that I’ve placed critical and fumble decks in for drawing). I think the players are having fun with it–which is the most important thing.

We also tried out the “take 10” and “take 20” rules. I’m not sure if I handled them correctly and felt like I was getting munchkined a bit. Nevertheless, I think it helped with my overall philosophy of giving the players the benefit of the doubt. Plus, no harm was done. I’m just used to rolling for nearly everything as we go along and these rules–which make perfect sense–are a new experience for us as a group.

I really like the way combat flows fairly smoothly. I was afraid that we would get bogged down in minutiae but so far, so good. Even the “attacks of opportunity” rules (which I was very worried about) seemed to flow pretty well and make sense.

So, overall, a successful beginning to the campaign. Now if I can just keep it on track and keep things moving forward…