r/rpg_gamers • u/JoglidJibGugi • 1d ago
Recommendation request Pathfinder, Path of Exile, Pillars of Eternity
I keep seeing these 3 series recommended by the same type of people, and something about the confusingly similar nomenclature is putting me off trying any of them.
Can someone explain the core aspects of these series to me like I’m a big dumb baby and maybe give me some pros/cons about each one? I’m experiencing some kind of uncanny valley option paralysis but I don’t want to miss out on what I’ve heard are incredible games
(This is a semi joking post please refrain from being angry or too condescending)
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u/YevgenyBlinov 1d ago
They all start with P Hope it helps
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u/Distinct_Cry_3779 1d ago
Lol, reminds me of a joke I had about undergrad degrees in physics, philosophy and psychology having roughly the same utility in looking for jobs. I called them the “P” degrees.
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u/Kafkabest 1d ago
Path of exile isn’t like the others. It’s a Diablo style action rpg. The other two are riffing on early 2000s dnd RPGs like baldurs gate
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u/Plus_Worker6739 1d ago
Pathfinder: Consists of two games, Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous. Big, crunchy, long, sidequest-loaded CRPGs.
Path of Exile: Diablo-style ARPG.
Pillars of Eternity: Long, narrative-heavy, excellent CRPGs. My favorite of the options here. Pillars 2 in particular is great.
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u/Storyteller_Valar 1d ago
Pathfinder and Pillars of Eternity are classic-style CRPGs, the genre to which Baldur's Gate 3 belongs, although they are closer to Baldur's Gate 2 in style. They are excellent games focusing on roleplay and writing. The Pathfinder games are not really connected to each other (minus a couple of small cameos and easter eggs), but the Pillars of Eternity duology is one continuous story. So, you can skip right to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righterous, but you should not start Pillars of Eternity with Deadfire.
Path of Exile is an ARPG, the game genre of Diablo or Titan's Quest. It is a multiplayer game.
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u/Sorry_Cheetah_2230 1d ago
Ok so path of exile has nothing in common with either of these two except for its isometric view. It’s an action rpg.
Pathfinder and pillars of eternity are slow paced CRPGs. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong) I’m pretty sure both of them offer turn based gameplay as an option however they both launched with real time with pause gameplay. These are text heavy, story heavy, games and for the most part have no voice acting so you will essentially be reading a novel delivered in a game format. Very deep RPG systems with pathfinder being incredibly complex if you aren’t familiar with pathfinders rule sets.
Both of these games are incredible however I will throw another couple out there if you haven’t played any in this genre.
Warhammer 40k rogue trader
Divinity original sin 1 and 2
Baldurs gate 3
Pathfinders sequel “wrath of the righteous” is phenomenal and I liked it way more than kingmaker.
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u/Quietus87 1d ago
Pathfinder and Pillars of Eternity games are classic isometric party-based rpgs with rtwp or turn-based combat. Path of Exile games are Diablo-clones.
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u/redraven 1d ago
Pathfinder and Pillars of Eternity are the kind of game that started with Baldur's Gate - isometric party based RPG based on a tabletop gaming system. D&D for Baldur's Gate, Pathfinder that split off from D&D for Pathfinder and a custom one for Pillars.
Path of Exile is a multiplayer RPG in the vein of Diablo II with a seriously huge charcter customisation system & skills. Different from the above.
If you're worried about all the letters, go play the D&D originals - Baldur's Gate I and II, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment.. Oh wait, maybe not the last one. It has THE LETTERS. You can actually meet the embodiment of the letter O in the game. Pity, it's the most unique of all of them.
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u/JoglidJibGugi 1d ago
Dw I’m well versed in the old Infinity engine games, despite the dreaded letters
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u/ApsychicRat 1d ago
id argue calling either diablo or path of exile "multiplayer" is a bit of a lie. can you play with others? yes. but most of the playerbase does not consider other players outside of trade stuff
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u/redraven 1d ago
I did not write that too well. Yeah Diablo II is mainly singleplayer. Path of Exile, I played only briefly and solo but was always under the impression that coop is a big part of the experience. I don't know that game as much as I would like.
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u/ApsychicRat 1d ago
in my limited experiance in path of exile, Co-op does exist, but its a tiny minority of people who do it. you have to group with someone to trade with them so when your trying to get gear youll often join somone's group for 2 minutes, trade, then leave again but thats it as far as i know.
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u/Joshau-k 1d ago
It's quite simple.
PoE2 is a top down hack and slash game like diablo
PoE2 is a top down classic rpg like pathfinder/d&d but with it's own world and game rules.
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u/JoglidJibGugi 1d ago
So what you’re all saying is that I should play Solasta?
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u/Storyteller_Valar 1d ago
Divinity: Original Sin 2, actually.
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u/Zyklon_G- 1d ago
Path of Exile 2 is great if you like arpgs like Diablo.
I haven’t played the first Path of Exile, but hear good things.
Pillars of Eternity is decent, it does some things really well like character creation and the atmosphere and tone of the game, but fails in places like the actual systems regarding your stats and fumbles having your character’s race, class, backgrounds actually matter in anything beyond flavor text- also some combos just make the narrative fall apart.
The second game incorporated sailing (which was cool on paper but sucked in practice) and was in a far less interesting area of the world and the story was worse than the first.
Pathfinder is great if you like Owlcat’s style of crpgs.
It is a better game than Pillars of Eternity.
I’m not a fan of either Pathfinder game, but they are really well done and for people that like that style of game they love them. I’ve only dabbled with Owlcat’s other offering Rogue Trader which is set in the Warhammer 40k universe and is more up my alley than the dnd fare of Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous.
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u/teffarf 1d ago
Pathfinder : Similar to oldschool infinity games, but using the Pathfinder ruleset (differing from DnD). Real time with pause, but includes an optional turn based mode.
Pillars of Eternity : Also similar to infinity games, using a custom ruleset, also real time with pause, also includes optional turn based mode (but that might be a bit undercooked compared to Pathfinder's one).
Path of Exile : Diablo like, made as a successor to Diablo 2. Action RPG, kill/loot/kill gameplay loop.
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u/MajorasShoe Baldur's Gate 1d ago
Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder are crpgs, path of exile is an arpg.
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u/yojimbo12 22h ago
Path of Exile is diablo with spreadsheets. Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder are CRPGs. Pathfinder is based on the titular ttrpg and follows (sorta) the story of their adventure paths. Pillars of Eternity has too many Matt Mercers.
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u/Youknowwhoswitness 1d ago
As far as I know: Path of Exile is a diablolike- I can't say anything about it. From the other two, I personally recommend pillars. Less classes, but much more interesting and diverse imho. Payhfinder has a bunch of classes, but some are just a fighter with a special modifier - I dont know, it did not appeal to me. Also, the world and lore of Pillars is way superior
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u/Einkar_E 1d ago
Pathfinder is table top roleplaying game initially based on dnd 3.5, in context of video games it is refering to 2 games Kingmaker and Wrath of the righteous made by owlcast, they are both isometric crpg based on pathfinder 1e system and adapting titular adventures, they both have option for both turn based and real time with pause that can be switched at any time
Path of Exile is arpg hack and slash, heavily inspired by diablo 2 at least initially, it is life service free to play with regular seasonal content and ever evolving endgame, it has a sequel path of exile 2 with full releae in december
Pillars of eternity is just like pathfinder isometric crpg, it also has a sequel, it was designed for real time with pause but both games have optional turn based mode
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u/bababayee 1d ago
The only thing that's similar across all three of these is that they allow some pretty indepth build crafting, but Path of Exile is a different type of game, more in the vein of Diablo, while Pathfinder and Pillars are CRPGs.
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u/HellraiserMachina 1d ago edited 1d ago
Path of Exile is the crown jewel of the Action RPG genre, it is mostly played solo but with an extremely robust player trade economy and a content model designed for you to play for a while, drop the game, then come back in 3 months to another robust fresh economy and an extreme variety of a decade of well-maintained endgame content from which YOU can choose what's worth your time and what kinda content to get rich off of.
Pathfinder is 'the other Dungeons and Dragons' for people who don't like stuff made to make sense to regular people to participate and instead gives you ten times the amount of options but more than 90% of them are either mathematically wrong or clash with your roleplay.
Pillars of Eternity is a very tightly designed classic RPG set in the Early Modern Period where Souls are a Hard Science that is just being discovered; wonders and massive fuckups alike abound much like the advances in medicine irl. Your character gets the ability to see and speak to souls and tries to solve a local catastrophe that leads them to discovering the secrets of this world and decide what to do with that knowledge. Your char continues to the sequel. Pillars is a lovely game for the feeling of discovering a new universe but beware; there is an extreme amoumt of reading.
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u/crabpoweredcoalmine 1d ago
What nomenclature, specifically?
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u/scytheavatar 1d ago
Grinding Gear Games was heavily influenced by D&D 3E and Chris Wilson used to praise trap options in D&D 3E (and MTG) as the main influence for how they wanted to balance Path of Exile. Of course Pathfinder 1E was derived from D&D 3.5E and because of that there's a lot of shared DNA between Owlcat and Grinding Gear Games. Not clear to me what that has to do with Pillars of Eternity cause Josh Sawyer explicitly designed that game to be a rejection of D&D 3E principals and to be more of a no fun allowed game system.
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