Review: Pathfinder

Late to the party, you say? Nevertheless, Pathfinder's a great example of some awful design features.

I took a little longer than the rest of the table to make a character, as everyone else had a tablet, with a program.

• Issue 1: When humans resort to software to make your 'pen and paper' RPG characters, something has gone terribly wrong.

I noticed that the Sorcerer and Paladin classes both relied on high Charisma, so I went for a multiclass 'sorcerer/ paladin' elf. I thought it'd make for some nice 'elvish flavour' on top of the paladin class; the pious warrior who also heals, and does elf-magic.

However, multi-classing effectively set my character back a level. When everyone in the group had level 5 class abilities, I had level 2 abilities from one class, and level 3 abilities from another class. So the elf-paladin had exchanged good abilities, for two lots of crappy abilities.

• Issue 2: The rules on multiclassing result in a bad character, even when someone tries to make the two classes blend well.

I picked a sorcerer ability to shoot some kind of holy laser-beam at people. Those of Good alignment would heal 1D4 HP, those with Evil alignment would take 1D4 Damage, and Neutral characters presumably get a little tickle.

So when an adventure began with a mystery at a banquet, I decided to just shoot every notable NPC with the holy laser of 1D4, and see what happened. The GM said it's an offensive thing to do, but I did not see why, since it never harmed anyone who wasn't metaphysically confirmed to be a dick-head.

• Issue 3: The books gave no guidance on the social implications of magical powers.