In the olden days people commonly made some house rules for any given campaign. Often people said "Hey, we're playing Gary's Greyhawk Campaign" or Jim's "Dwimmermount Campaign" rather than saying "We're playing D&D".
Nothing wrong with either, but there were certain assumptions in each. I am moving Maelstrom toward that sort of thinking. For the Maelstrom campaign, it's a rules lite version of 3rd edition. I'm not even drawing an association toward Pathfinder anymore since most of the bones come from either the SRD or blatant theft from 4e (which really, the bones of which are in 3e so it's only sorta blatant.
A few things I will tell you about the new rules, a "What to expect" for what's coming. First of all, the entire Combat chapter is 9 pages long. Compare that to Pathfinder's 28 pages (with itty bitty font) or 4e's 32 pages (with reasonable font).
What's new?
There are 3 action types (Standard, move, and free). FYI Pathfinder had 8 types (including one called "Not an Action").
No Critical confirmation, you roll a 20, you get a crit. Simple as that.
I will use a whopping 16 combat conditions. (down from the SRD's 38 and Pathfinder's list of 34).
I'm going to use 4e's Combat Advantage...because I like it better than "flat-footed".
Cover and Concealment are simplified. Rather than pages of deciding how much cover, the GM just decides and offers a +4 to +8 bonus.
Attack of Opportunity are gone. They are goofy and annoying.
Most of the Special Actions (aid another, bull rush, charge, grapple, etc) have been stripped down to a simpler mechanic.
Natural healing uses the short/extended rest mechanic (or variation thereof) from 4e. I never liked the 3e natural healing.
There is no Dying, recovery, stable, etc mechanic. At 0 hit points, you die. Pure and simple.
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