@Lessah. That looks good to me! How do you feel about finally being Level 1?
@Asta that seems pretty great, channeling the anger into precise strikes is a great character quirk plus you get the extra flexibility of choosing to use your reaction for either a AOO or shield.
@Karma, You're onto the next stage. The post from 3rd Jan on Stage 6 applies to you!
Since Oracles are Spontaneous you have access to the entire divine spell list plus those you get from the mysteries and you add a small section of them to you selection of 'known spells', PF2 calls that your 'Spell Repertoire'. How many spell slots you have to cast them is on the Oracle table.
Let me know if you have any questions.
@Asta, let me know when you've made your changes. Also how do you see your career in the Guard progressing too as you start to *really* outstrip your colleagues with all the fighter class goodies you're getting?
I chose the spells already in the previous phase, so I think all left here is the ability boosts and gear.
Final stats in the profile.
A name, too(!) Maybe :D
Are we working with PF canon? I'd like her to be a failed
Asta kicks around pretty aimless for a while. She was elite and recruited for the special guard metioned above, but never saw much action herself. She's also pretty disillusioned with her former life, and looking to put her talents to use adventuring.
FYI I've got my year 3 tenure file due in a couple of weeks, so posting is going to be slow on my end. Please bot as needed.
Profile updated! I guess I need equipment next?
It feel weird, it's a pf character all right but some things look all wrong. Not unpleasant though. Just weird.
Process was fun though :)
Yeah Asta, I'll put up a scene for the disillusionment phase just to test out the fighter goodies you got and then it's really the gear to end it off.
And since I made you guys fill out the character sheet manually, now that you're used to it, there's a lot of character creators for free out there. The best I think is pathbuilder2 which is a web app and an android app. You can recreate your character there and check it.
so what do you guys think of pathfinder 2 overall and my tutorial/backstory elaboration/character creation subsystem? I'm really hoping that something like this is useful even for people who are experienced with the system as a session zero tool.
Would love some feedback on that.
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Your character generation game was great. It was really fun to add something to the character little by little, and not really knowing where I'll end up. And also it was really refreshing to "create the world" with the posts instead of just reacting to events. I don't know if this would work on a live table, but at least on PBP works very well.
I had played a bit (but not much) of PF2 already, so I cannot comment on the mechanics learning part so much.
As for PF2 itself, I haven't got that interested in it (so far). It has some good things (3 action system is great, losing the tracking of every pound of equipment makes sense, etc). But somehow it feels too mechanical, and I guess that leaves me a bit cold.
My pet peeve is the classes... It's quite hard to figure out what a class does by just quickly browsing them. It's like, "ok, I get a feat here, what does it do... <turn pages> oh, it gives me a spell <turn pages again> etc, etc." Somehow I'm getting the same vibes as from DND 4E.
Plus the couple of games I've had, weren't very good experiences either.
Buuut, having said that, I'm still up to give it another chance :)
It was helpful, fun. Seems great for pbp. Perhaps a bit time consuming on the GM's part? That's not a player problem though :p
There were some 'glitches' where certain features referred forward to things not yet explained, mainly the feat things, but other then that I can't think of any problems.
pf2 feels a bit more boxed in then pf1, for better or worse. Not a comment on bloat, I foresee pf2 getting that in a few splatbooks too, but on a more limited character building. It's probably harder to make a totally deadweight pf2 char then pf1 :p
You guys are right. The game is tight where first edition was loose and that definitely has pros and cons.
While the giant chart first edition gives for classes certainly took a lot of space you could tell at a glance which characters had spells and what kind of BAB they had, second edition could do with some highlighting of the equivalent in second edition which is the proficiency system.
For example if it was easier to tell that the Magus gets weapon expertise at 5, and weapon mastery at 13 as compared to the oracle which only gets weapon expertise at 11, while fighters get weapon mastery at 5 and legend at 13... then you can really quickly figure out what the classes are supposed to do. As is that info takes system mastery to glean.
They say though the game's balance holds up till level 20 and the fact you can throw any skill check in for initiative as long as it makes sense is pretty grand. It's become my favorite system.
That's cool that it has become your favorite system. What are the "pros" of PF2E in your opinion? It sounds like viability of high-level play is one? I never played PF1E at high levels b/c the system just broke down so much, so that is attractive to me.
Like -Karma-, I get some 4E vibes from the system. But, I don't understand the mechanics well enough yet to have a good handle on things. The thing I didn't like about 4E was that each class was basically the same thing, with reskinned flavor. For all its warts, PF1E has classes that feel distinct to me (well, mostly). A medium looks and plays very different from a fighter from an oracle.
As for the session 0 - you've developed a good system. If you are going to run session 0s in the future, one thing I'd recommend is some sort of written documentation in the campaign tab, e.g. so you can say in discussion, congratulations, you've now moved to stage 3 and players can consult the documentation to see what mechanical steps are needed.
I really like how you've broken down the differences in choices that we made and what options we have - the way you describe what makes a choice interesting was very helpful.
Oofff work.
But yeah, I never played or read 4e myself, just went straight into pathfinder 1 around 2014 or so. I have read that there are a lot of 4e ideas in pf2e though.
I think why I glommed onto pf2 so hard is that it seems like all the complaints I had about pf1 are kind of very thoughtfully addressed in the second edition while keeping the best feature of 1e intact, which was the system's ability to add and accommodate just a ton of character options.
I had a very hard time getting into pf1 because the first time I ever needed to pick a feat I was bonked in the face with hundreds and hundreds of options with no guidance on what was a good choice or not.
PF2 keeping all the options but parcelling them out into small buckets of feats makes that much more manageable.
Also 'combat' feats aren't fighting nearly as much with other kinds of feats with the distinction between general/skill feats and class feats.
Also the combat in PF1 was almost won and lost at character creation rather than in the game itself since it became such a game of bonus stacking. Plus there really was only one optimal strategy for martials which was, 1. get into position to full attack 2. full attack. rty with different levels of system mastery. It's much easier in pf2.
PF2 really restricts the bonuses so an published AP or GM can tell with a lot more precision what any character will have as a bonus for pretty much everything thanks to the unified proficiency system. And know the exceptions like Champions being really good at defense and Fighters being really good at offense.
I mean I enjoyed building a character in pf1 that could grapple Storm Giants on a roll of a 5 but... it's really hard as a GM to work with a party with differing levels of system matery.
The classes all feel distinct because of how they play with the action economy in different ways. That plus the lack of AOOs and the crit system really really makes the tactical game really rich too in a different way.
They really should have gotten rid of ability scores and vancian casting though... For me it's a good sign where the things I don't like about the system is where they didn't go far enough with changes.
Do you want to finish off Asta's backstory by the way?
Also I've got a bit of a idea for an open ended campaign in Golarion if you're interested.
>.> <.< >.>
Someone said 'cool campaign idea'? :p
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Fair points there, GM Stargin.
They really did fix many things that were broken in PF1. And maybe the boxed system reduces the minmax possibilities. As you said, cheesy character building in PF1 is a fun sport on its own, but they might not work so well in a campaign.
(I've been lately getting into 5e, which is completely different approach. But fun, too.)
And yes for a campaign idea :) This has been a great group, I'd enjoy to keep on playing.
The pf2 thing that rhymes the worst with me is that monsters and PC no longer use the same system and aren't really compatible. Even if compatible is a bit strong of a word to use with pf1s class+hd system, it existed, and it looked nice and felt symmetric and fair.
But I only had to build 2-3 monsters/NPCs per year tops. I don't GM much if at all.
So I recognize that my feelings of neatness isn't the 1st priority. Nor should they be. Doesn't make me feel any less entitled though :p
Sorry, I got totally bowled over in trying to get my file submitted and stay on top of my regular work duties and the start of the semester.
I'd be happy to keep playing too. I'm fine with moving forward with Asta or another PC, depending on what the campaign is. I don't think we need to finish Asta's backstory though. I've got a lot of it figured out, and I'm still digging out of work at the moment.
Alright guys I am serious about starting a free formish campaign, makes sense to start it in a winter night in Korvosa so will be taking advantage of Golarion as a setting. I'm aiming for a light hearted campaign though there will be a underlying goal to keep the characters motivated.
I will still bot, but considering how busy life is in general it'll be a few times a week rather than the daily goal we had with Dead Suns.
Are you three interested? How about any lurkers out there?
Oh yeah and use pathbuilder 2e to build characters. It makes it ridiculously easy
Mm sounds good. And we know how to make 2e characters now :p
Sure, sounds good!
Alright! I've had a ridiculous work week, but I think I'll try and start it up Monday. You three have really well rounded characters I think for a three person team.
Question for you before I start. It's going to be in Korvosa, which is native to one of you, not far at all from the southern parts of Belkzen and Erytheis grw up in a forest area which is easily near Korvosa.
Do you guys want to know each other before hand and be on a level 1 quest to start or be thrown into a particular situation on a snowy night in the streets of Korvosa that the three of you happen to be in at the same time and that's what brings the three of you together?
Mm good question. Introductions are fun, but sometimes they too take time in pbps.
Maybe something super vague for familiarity and then a leap into action?
Ehhmhm tbh either works fine. Helpful I know :p
In media res sounds good to me!
https://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75ivmc1/discussion&page=last
Enter in please!
Of course anyone lurking is more than welcome to join in as well :)
Thank you! I just was able to get into the site after being unable to log in for a couple of days.
I'll get caught up and a post in very soon!
Once you're in Asta. I'll start the countdown to shut this one down. I think I have what I need from the playtest.
I'm in!
Alright all, any final comments before I inactivate the campaign? Really appreciate the help and I think we all had fun which is always the goal.
Mm it's been neat :)
Yes, thank you, GM!