Jeremy,
If your map is made up of various rooms with doors (or just doorways) between them, then you can have a two-level pathfinding system. What I mean is, first find the shortest path between the rooms. To do this, each room is a node in the first level of pathfinding.
If the character is in the same room as the destination location, then switch to level two pathfinding, which is more detailed with a grid on the floor. Most of the time, once the character is in the room, there will be a straight line to the destination unless your individual rooms are like mazes.
Dividing your map up by rooms is basically the same idea as using quadrants like smilertoo said.
If your map is made up of various rooms with doors (or just doorways) between them, then you can have a two-level pathfinding system. What I mean is, first find the shortest path between the rooms. To do this, each room is a node in the first level of pathfinding.
If the character is in the same room as the destination location, then switch to level two pathfinding, which is more detailed with a grid on the floor. Most of the time, once the character is in the room, there will be a straight line to the destination unless your individual rooms are like mazes.
Dividing your map up by rooms is basically the same idea as using quadrants like smilertoo said.