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I am surprised with the absolute ease monsters hit players, especially at the lower levels. This has really caused a drag in my low level campaign as players are frustrated at not being able to play the characters they want. This has especially been pronounced with my barbarian and great weapon fighter. My barbarian player has complained about being a glass cannon and he has even stopped raging as he is too afraid of being hit and the rage benefits at low level seem quite tame. You get 3-4 temp hit points which are gone in first hit, a -1 to AC and a +2 to damage. These benefits seem awfully weak compared to 1PF 1E barbarians. Both players complained how a shield seems a necessity and not an option for a front line character. (I kind of like shields being needed but that's just me :D )

The goblin commando is a real pet peeve. I get that they are Paizo's mascot but come on. A +9 to hit for a level 1 monster seems absurd. That is as strong as an 18 strength fighter at level 1. I don't see goblins on par with the best martials a PC can have. That is utter bunk in my book. All of the monsters seem to be on the fighter attack table which is just dumb IMHO. They should be trained at best and their stats with notable exceptions such as ogres should not be on par with most player characters. My players just don't feel heroic. They feel like its a slog. Its as if Paizo staff calculated that a monster's attack roll or save dc is calculated against the best possible option a player presents in every circumstance to give the common result of a 10 or better for success. My concern is when a power targets a weak point for a character such as dragon's breath hitting character without great reflex scores, giants throwing rocks at clothies, etc. It just seems way overpowered

I looked up the incapacitate trait and it says that any spell that has this modifier functions as one saving throw degree less for creatures of double the spell level. That seems like broken feature as it makes a whole bunch of enchantment spells useless a level after you get them. For example:

Charm - Can only reliably effect creatures of levels 1-2
Paralyze - Can only effect creatures of levels 1-5

This seems like a ridiculous penalty to get a spell and then have it lose its effectiveness in 1 to 2 levels. Just a complete waste of a spell slot. A better option would be to give creatures of a higher level a saving throw every round to shake off its effect. This is how D&D 5E handles this issue. I definitely will not use this feature in any games I DM. This has got to be the WORST feature of PF2E that I have come across so far

Earlier today a thread on death and dying was locked because passions ran too high. I got home too late to add to the thread before it got locked. I wanted to add my two coppers to the conversation.

Monsters being more deadly to dying PC's was initially thought of as a PF2 playtest idea where each monster was assigned a DC death save for unconscious characters. Presumably, goblin DC's were easy. A Red Dragon or Balor would be very difficult. I have no idea what happened to this idea.

Do I feel that it is unfair for a monster to go after helpless PC's. Yes, in most instances I do. I do feel that there are obvious exceptions to this rule that I will outline below. I do not think these should be common exceptions but your game may vary

1) The monster is incredibly evil and foul. Demons delight in causing misery and pain. Ghouls hunger for flesh, Red Dragons would probably eat you in heart beat just to show its dominance and inspire fear in its opponents. The Rancor monster in Return of the Jedi ate the poor Gamorian Guard after it had killed it. Monster do attempt to intimidate players in order to cause them to panic and flee. Certain monsters would revel in this.

2) A monster notices that the PC's heal grievous wounds through magic, potions, innate ability and such. Let me ask you this. If a troll or a vampire regenerates, you will probably focus on finishing it off instead of letting it slowly come back to life. IF PC's just pop up like moles in a whack a mole arcade game, a monster will be within its rights to then attempt multiple attacks on said PC until the person is dead, dead, dead!

3) The PC exhibits such an overwhelming power or ability that the monster feels it has to KILL that individual and make sure they are DEAD! Kill the wizard first is a common symptom of this as monsters will try to avoid martials to kill a weak controller or healer making the combat more painful than it used to be. This can also be the case for martials such as paladins or clerics channeling radiant or good damage vs undead and fiends.

Now there is one simple rule that Paizo can institute to avoid this unfortunate situation. PC's as a general rule DO NOT awaken from unconsciousness during combat regardless of the amount of healing they receive or the results of the death save. The best a PC can hope for is to stabilize during combat so they don't bleed out. If a PC cannot return during combat a monster will have no incentive to attack said character and this could even benefit a character if they cast a spell that would allow them to feign death or if they were hit by a paralyze attack that would knock them prone.

Now could there be exceptions to my proposed change? Of course! PC's by definition are the exception to the rule. Maybe a primal or divine spell exists called resurgence that allowed the PC to function with hit points equal to their constitution score. Or perhaps allow a PC to spend one or two hero points to awaken from unconsciousness to help their companions. Hero fiction has plenty of examples of PC's fighting on in the face of death or defying death to protect their loved ones. Conan is saved by Belit's spirit in the stories and by Valeria's in the Conan movie. Boromir fights heroically to defend the hobbits even though it costs him his life. Obi-Wan sacrifices his life in his duel with Vader. Just be careful about these options for monsters will become aware of them and do their utmost to stop them.

In other threads I noticed a lot of complaints about TPK's and the absolute need for clerics as healers. I didn't see the issues in the first published module as my players made it through with 2 players being knocked out but no deaths. So I figured to run a party through a low level campaign set in the Dragon Lance world. I had the party as evil aligned PC's but left the choice to channel positive as well as negative. I just didn't want the healing domain to skew results. My group came up with the following

Human monk strength based with dragon style and stunning fist
elven fighter AC19 finesse based with shortsword - feat power attack
human wizard (abjurer) with reach spell
dwarven cleric of Takhisis - channeling positive
elven druid of storms

The monk player really liked dragon style. He got hit around 45% but crushed low level threats like goblins and skeletons with dragon style. He did not use stunning fist as often as he thought and would probably retrain it out next level

The fighter hit often but did weak damage without power attack. Her strength was only +1 mod so many times weak monsters like goblins would still be standing after a hit. The agile did not make as much of an impact as we thought it would since it made her +2 to hit, +4 with flank and so second attacks missed often due to poor rolls and she ended up power attacking often.

The cleric and druid suffered from the identical problem of having to heal so often that it took up the majority of their time in combat. They really disliked having to spend so much time healing.

The wizard player didn't complain but stuck to electric spark so he could hit two creatures. He was not happy as even poor rolls of 5 or 6 by goblins making saves allowed them to avoid critical failures on his reflex save rolls. Burning hands was a joke as on average it did 3 points of damage since the goblins easily made saves most of the time

I was very disappointed that heal is not on the occult list and therefore bards cannot heal. I feel that is terrible. Bards were a good substitute for clerics on the healing front in PF1 and certain modules such as King Maker subbed a bard for a cleric. I really miss that aspect greatly. You can heal people through music or inspire them with great oratory and poetry. Please correct this oversight Paizo!

How can you not give barbarians access to the power attack feat? Hitting something hard with a great weapon is the barbarian way! Its swinging for the fences and being reckless. I don't understand how this is a fighter only option. Barbarians have always been offensive combat monsters with little to no regard for defense. I have no problem with not giving barbarians access to shield block and damage resistance. I find it quite at odds to not give them meaningful offensive options