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Differences of Pathfinder and Savage Worlds Combat and how they relate to Savage Design


Hello again folks. While reacquainting myself with Savage Worlds, I read an Interview from 2021, given around the Savage Pathfinder Kickstarter. In it I think Mike Barbeau said the following:

"If you boil Pathfinder combat down to its barest essence, you're making a bunch of decisions managing your most important resource: hit points. You can still see the influence of grandaddy Chainmail in Pathfinder's design. You have so many tools to shift the flow of hit points in battle that you’re constantly discovering new strategies and tactics as you play. It's still a wargame at heart, which makes the decisions in combat feel so vital and fun.

While Savage Worlds still has tactical combat that follows the same generalized principles as Pathfinder, when you take a hit, we want to scare the player. Taking a Wound is a big deal, especially since you can only take three before you're taken out. That said, Wounds modify your ability to succeed at rolls and negatively impact your actions. Tests, Support, Bennies, etc., all focus on altering your ability to succeed on a roll. The bonus and penalties to your rolls are the resources you manage in Savage Worlds. So long as you're still on your feet, you still have a chance to make a big difference in combat."

This is an incredibly clear and very important distinction between the two games. Something that was always implicitly clear to me, but seeing it spelt out like that was eye-opening. Many new players to Savage Worlds struggle to understand what's really important in combat and how to approach it compared to D&D. These two paragraphs clearly mark the difference. Explaining this to new players can shift their perspective where it needs to be. 
This is also a good guideline for when I am thinking about Savage Space and how to approach ship edges and ship combat. I don't like giving creatures more wounds. It can be done in exceptional cases, but I avoid it as much as I can. Just my preference. Instead, I can focus on reducing the penalties from Wounds or getting better modifiers on rolls for the opposition and the players. Manoeuvres, Edges and all the other fun toys SWADE is giving us are more interesting than simply more hitpoints.
I'm not sure where this all fits into the reboot, but I will keep it in mind when I re-examine my old work.

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