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Reply To: Dungeons and Dragons – where to begin

September 25, 2018 at 1:02 am #1273832

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1981xp

The Pathfinder (1st ed) starter set is a superior product to the D&D 5th starter set. It’s got more, and better quality, components. I bought it and used the adventure and card minis for D&D. It’s not hard to borrow the fluff and swap out stats. I also recommend the Pathfinder Pawns sets. They seem a bit pricey but your basically getting an entire monster manual of minis for 20-30$. I also prefer many of the Pathfinder adventures and adventure paths to the D&D 5 campaign books. More work to convert them but well worth it for the story and artwork.

Pathfinder is a decent game. It’s basically D&D 3.5 edition (they even refered to it as “3.75” in their marketing. There’s a LOT more detail and options in the rules but it can get burdened by the sheer volume of rules. I strongly recommend NOT starting Pathfinder for new players. Mainly due to the imminent release of 2nd edition but also because D&D 5th is a better entry point due its streamlined system. If your group eventually finds D&D 5e a little too “light” and wants to jump into a meatier rule set then I’d suggest looking into Pathfinder 2e.