Ok, just out of curiosity what's the difference?  I was under the impression that they were one and the same.
This message was last updated by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 01:12, Mon 18 Aug 2014.

Pathfinder is largely considered D&D 3.X. That is to say that while PF was based on 3.5, they are indeed different games mechanically. They still have many of the same rules and if you were to switch from 3.5 to PF, you'd be able to be up and playing relatively quickly. PF introduced some simplifications for cumbersome mechanics like the grapple rules, condensed some things like skills, as well as changing the way you rank up skills to be more intuitive, and made it so leveling up a class is more exciting than marking off the increase of your new BAB by introducing new skills, class mechanics, and more.

If you want to take a look at what you can expect from Pathfinder, head on over to http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ and check out what they have going. It's a great site that's constantly updated with all of the rules and supplements. They just released their Advanced Class Guide so a bunch of new classes to choose from so now's a great time to try it out!

In reply to Visceri22 (msg # 2):

Thanks.  It was more of an idle curiosity thing for me.  I don't play either.  Just a friend of mine told me it was the same thing and then I noticed games of both being run.

The best summary of what's different: http://rpg.stackexchange.com/q...d-3-5-and-pathfinder
I've referred to that several times.

In my mind the biggest difference is that 3.5 is now a 'dead' system, as in not added to by its publisher, while Pathfinder is alive, and apparently doing well.

Pathfinder is basically a mod of 3.5.

Though 3.0 had certain reference points to reality which Pathfinder has kinda glazed over and thus those things don't relate to reality as well.

Also Pathfinder tends to have more powerful characters with a lot more abilities and such.

Reference points to reality?

Pathfinder was a lot closer to 3.5 at first. IT's branching further and further away from it.

The powerfulness of PF characters is somewhat overstated. The weakest are certainly more powerful; but some of the more powerful 3.5 classes have been downgraded somewhat - druids spring to mind in particular.