I'm sorry, I've not preordered anything before on Paizo. Does it mean if you preorder, those orders are shipped out to customers on the 8th? Or is that just when you have inventory? Reason why I ask is the August 1st date.
I just copied all the gear the pregens had.It's easy to switch-out things if needed.
Agreed. I keep rereading the book since my group is trying to decide to continue with Starfinder or go with the playtest, most of us have the playtest though. I had quit playing Starfinder because I found it too busy and unbalanced during play. I keep finding more and more interesting things in P2. I am still VERY impressed with the book. This is what I wanted for Pathfinder. Watching the Gen Con videos are interesting insights into the dev team's thoughts. I would like to see the Relic rules return in some fashion. One thing I don't like in fantasy rpgs, is that you get a +1 sword and eh. You end up selling it at the pawn shop later. A weapon that levels with you (to some extent, maybe every 5 levels), ties it to your character's story. It can be your own Excalibur, or like two scimitars a certain Drow ranger uses. I was also impressed Jason pointed out people's misconceptions of longbows and agree with him on how they work. I practice archery with a sixty pound recurve, that's a shortbow. In tv and movies, that's what you are really seeing. Longbows are those ones tall as a person, think Zen archery or actual English longbow. They really do have different firing distances. I think most people just pick longbow in game for the damage increase and range, and the shortbow gets overlooked. I also feel like most the negativity on the boards are people that don't want to give up a 15+yr system. Most rpgs have a shorter life cycle. It's time to move on and try new things. It's also time to make things simpler for new generations for Pathfinder players. You have tons of them wanting to incorporate it into social technology, it's best not to turn them off. Making the system streamlined, is going to help.
I rather like the class feats, feels similar class paths like D&D 5, but you do have the flexibility of not totally going down one path if you don't want to. Add in mutli-classing, and you can get some neat choices. The feat system also helps new players figure out where to go. Pathfinder 1 can be daunting, that's why I thought the Strategy Guide was great. You kinna need to plot out your character ahead of time to maximize what you can do in Pathfinder 1. If you wanted to be a polearm fighter, you need to do some research. I don't think that works for new players well at all. Plus, I don't like spending hours making a character. It's just nice that it's kinna already spelled out for you in the Playtest. I am also impressed with the sorcerer. You can basically emulate playing a witch, warlock and oracle by your choices. There's loads of things I like. Not having to manage skill points anymore. Being able to craft without loads of rules. There is a lot of very cool things in this book!
Frankly, I'm surprised how many "experts" there are concerning rules, for a game that just came out the other day.Well, here's where I stopped reading, this is just dismissive and rude, some people on this forum have decades of experience with RPGs (mechanics, rules, etc), and some are professional (not that that really means that much), nothing wrong with mentioning concerns, you do not always have to thoroughly playtest every aspect of a game for an extended period of time to see how it rolls. My point was, for a playtest, on the same day it was released, people claimed they knew everything wrong with it, without actually playing it. There are a variety of different systems interacting with each other. At first, some abilities didn't seem worthwhile, but looking through the book, I noticed how they might be better, typically as a player levels. There probably are some rough parts, but I was amazed at how many people thought they knew how to do it better in one day than two years of development. Since the 80s, I've played a plethora of games. Sometimes games look bad or good on paper, until you play them.
I get valid criticisms, it just seemed some threads were heading down some negative roads. I thought it would be great to see some positive threads of what people liked. I hope all feedback just polishes some rough edges. Ultimately, I'd prefer the final version of the game to be pretty close to what the playtest is because this is a game I really want.
I really dig the art and page layout. Huge fan of Wayne Reynolds. I've got prints, his artbook and met him a couple of times. There's a reason why his work is on most the products. It sells. Not just in the respect of money, but it "sells" you on the world and the characters personalities. I really liked the Beginner Box and Strategy Guide, and I think the layout in this book can help new players. It's a hard sell to get someone that never played a rpg, not be intimated by how big of a tome the Player's Guide is. Frankly, I'm surprised how many "experts" there are concerning rules, for a game that just came out the other day. I think there are some wonky things, but, I'm going to try the game out before deeming something broken. I'm more of a rules light player, like Shadow of the Demon Lord and Savage Worlds. I got turned off on Starfinder's complexity. I didn't care for P1's feat system, yet I think it's awesome in P2. I never cared for figuring out where to spend skills points and how many skills never got used, I prefer how it's handled now. Fighters tend to be bland in fantasy games, I really want to try one now. Glad the economy changed to silver. In most rpgs, any currency other than gold becomes pointless too fast. I like how weapons can have different effects. I think the downtime events sound interesting. There is quite a bit of interesting things here that I feel some folks are glossing over. I still have 20% left in the book to read, but I've skimmed the end part. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with it.
If you're a fan of Wayne Reynold's art, I hope you also caught that he's been working on art for the new edition for quite some time now, 2 years if I recall correctly. I'm also looking forward to seeing new works from him. I did not know that. I follow him on Instagram and FB. Got to meet him twice at cons and got him to sign his Art of War book.
Will the playtest have art in it? I seem to remember the previous Beta had some. I'm a big fan of Wayne Reynolds art, so I hope to see his work inside. In particular, I'm loving the concept work posted on the blog. Will this be used in the book? |
