Hi all, I'm wondering what the first section of the Playtext you're going to dig into. There are a number of big shake ups that we'll all want to absorb and process but we have to start somewhere. Will it be Ancestries, a particular class, or will go straight to character gen and observe how the nuts and bolts fit together by trying to make a character?
For me it'll be spells, namely the Occult list and what it represents. For me this came out of left field with regard to fantasy RPG legacy on which the game was built.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Character creation is the first section I always turn to when experimenting with new systems personally.
After I understand how a character is made, then I actually go through the rest of the book and skim through the rules for clarifications or such.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Page 1, taking notes on how I think things will work as I go, so that I can see if my impressions are correct in practice later.
If how the mechanics work or feel during play matches up fairly well to my notes, the rules are intuitive. If they are vastly different, then not so much.
Page 17. Lucky number.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Multiclassing and archetypes. See if there’s any info on approximating things from 1st edition. But I also heavily wanna know what they’re looking for data wise. And I’ll try not to stray too far.
Glossary. My pdf reader is slow, so I'll set it to easily flip between the glossary and whatever chapter I'm reading too help me understand the new vocabulary.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Page 1, reading from front to back.
I'll be digging into the martial classes and feats to see what new and interesting combinations and playstyles I can make.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For some reason I've got into the habit of paging through new rulebooks from the back, stopping when a picture, table or section title catches my eye.
I suspect I'll skimread it first in reverse like that and then go to the character generation chapter (although the action-economy section will be a close second, I think - I'm hoping to steal that for other games)
I'll probably quickly skim the first section before diving headlong into the specifics of Character Building. Read in detail the specific Ancestry, Background, (not so much here as we already have this page from Paizocon) and Class. Then I'm going to read what the General feats are like.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'll skim through everything but then I'm probably going to make 20 or so characters (specific NPCs from my Homebrew world and past PCs that I have played) to see if the rules can make character that feels right.
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'll skim through everything but then I'm probably going to make 20 or so characters (specific NPCs from my Homebrew world and past PCs that I have played) to see if the rules can make character that feels right.
I'm definitely doing this, too. I'll probably make a thread. I may make various superheroes as high level characters, just for the heck of it.
Ok, I'm breaking from the mold then. I guess I'm going to start with what was the 'Combat'-chapter.
As GM, Ancestries, Backgrounds and Classes aren't my primary concern, after having checked the blogs. I think I have the general knowledge to be able to skip this for a time and get to the heavy stuff right away.
So yeah, Combat, Encounter modes... that's my first go-to.
Character creation. I've been playing Pathfinder for a little over 2 years now and I've created 17 characters. I've only played 2 of them.
|
|
Character creation. And if it is not the first part of the book, go back to the description of whatever appears in character creation that I do not understand
Litmus test for easy entry in the game IMO
And I will create characters that test some of the systems limits, based on my PFS character :
DEX-based melee Fighter
DEX-based melee Rogue
STR-based melee Fighter for baseline comparison
Max AC and Saves character
Max multiclassed character
Character brimming with 1st-level wands
I have character sheets to design, so character creation will be my first stop, paying particular attention to multi-classing.
After that, skill feats, because I have a specific unanswered question there.
Myself? I'll be checking out combat. Most especially initiative. Not necessarily for PF, but I figure I should be able to adopt it for another system.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Most likely the Barbarian section.
Ah but alchemist is now ahead of the Barb in the alphabet! (You know cause used to be barb was the first class you came too.)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm weird, I want to read the foreword first (if there is one), then the afterword (if there is one), followed by the introduction, then the introduction to each chapter. I like those things. After that I'll go to page 1 and read it all the way through.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I've taken a day of and will possibly devour the book in one go
Classes are the first thing I turned to when I picked up the pathfinder core. Then feats. Now when I picked up 3.0 for the first time I went to equipment then spells.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Coming at it from a DM/Story telling perspective, I will probably jump right into spells and rituals. I am very curious what magic will be capable of accomplishing in this world that it could or could not do before.
I'm going to go check out the bloodlines powers and see if the fey bloodline grants enough enchantment and illusion spells.
Skills most likely, followed by character creation and then skipping around.
Once my initial curiosity is tamed, I’ll go from front to back making notes along the way.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This is a good question.
I think first I will skim through the entire book and look at the art. Then I will go to the beginning and read what they have for introduction. I've heard them talk about the concept of the 2nd edition and the playtest many times by now, but I'm interested to see how they will present it in the book.
Most likely I'll skip the CRB & jump right to Doomsday Dawn & the online bestiary to get a feel for the GM's critters.
Then back to the CRB index to see what stands out, which likely will be the altered systems, like alchemy & skills (especially to see what's gated behind what proficiencies). If skills spark a "woo hoo!" then likely off to Rogue to see what kind of "high-functioning sociopath" I can build.
If not, then I'll construct a sample combat and check the rules as I go.
I'll start with the table of contents for both the playtest rulebook and the playtest module. Then skim them both front to back to getting a feel for the formatting. Then I'll dive in and read them both cover to cover. Afterward, I'll re-read all the encounter and exploration rules. If there are monster and hazard generation rules, I'll reread those too.
Sadly, I won't really get to dive into Character Generation at all during the Playtest. I'm the only GM in my recently decimated table.
Character creation. I've been playing Pathfinder for a little over 2 years now and I've created 17 characters. I've only played 2 of them.
Oh, to be young again...
In all seriousness, I'm right there with you. Character creation is how I wrap my mind around new mechanics.
I'll be going straight to the Combat section of the book for more info on how combat maneuvers will work! Its one of those things that we haven't gotten too much info on. #2 will be Rituals. And #3 will probably be a skim through to work out if certain common questions have been patched (things like: do you count as your own ally, spell manifestations, etc).
After that I probably won't be able to resist and will jump into Character Creation.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I’m taking August 2nd off to read the book. They’ve already covered character creation, so I’ll be jumping straight to class options. I want to know what different bloodlines get you, and what various arcane schools grant for their intro powers. Probably familiar abilities after that, and then what sort of body modification Alchemist can do.
Less than two weeks to go!
Based on the Starfinder launch most of you took August 2nd off to attempt to download the PDFs before you pass out from the failed download drinking game.
Probably front to back thanks to slow PDF reader, yay.
Skill feats are probably going to get a lot of time, I might want to look at the bestiary instead of the book first, and I might want to look at magic items so I can start tinkering.
1) Any/all topics related to multi-classing
2) Arms & Armor charts to just get a better sense of the range of numbers/scope of keywords that we haven't seen.
3) Quick skim of the spell lists
4) Then dive into ancestry feats through character creation
Then need to make a level 5 character for the Arclords Envy playtest scenario.
Based on the Starfinder launch most of you took August 2nd off to attempt to download the PDFs before you pass out from the failed download drinking game.
I can't afford any more days off right now, and I don't feel like spending them playing the download game. My in-depth look will have to wait until the weekend.
Sorcerer...
Then back to races.
Then character creation
Then grinding out characters.
Probably going to skim the classes first, then take a look at multiclassing and archetypes. After that, I'll see how long it takes to build a reasonably leveled character, mostly blind (except for what I've gathered from the blogs, etc), and after that, Page 1.
Page 1 since it's easiest to read PDFs front to back in order.
Page 55?
That is now definitely where I'm going to start.
