Helmic's page

I know it's not quite as cute as having an ABC character system (Ancestry, Background, Class), but virtually anyone with any experience in nearly any RPG will advise their players to pick a class first instead of an ancestry. Sure, ABC makes sense in terms of chronological order of events - you're born, you go through life, and then you become a level 1 adventurer - but in terms of making life much easier for new players, most should be picking a class that looks fun/cool and then]/i] picking an ancestry and background.

I know it won't ever really be changed in PF2e, but maybe by PF3e we could make that small change to set players up for success, especially those that really need a step-by-step list to learn. Obviously anyone can do any of the steps out of order, but that requires a certain level of confidence that a player not used to very crunchy RPG's might not yet have, and since they are unlikely to have any set preferences about the "right" way to make a character that's a prime opportunity to nudge them closer to what seems to work for [i]most people.

Attribute Boosts

An attribute boost normally increases an attribute modifier’s value by 1. However, if the attribute modifier to which you’re applying an attribute boost is already +4
or higher, instead mark “partial boost” on the character sheet for that attribute. If the attribute already has a partial boost invested in it, increase the modifier by 1
and uncheck the box. At 1st level, a character can never have any attribute modifier that’s higher than +4.

When your character receives an attribute boost, the rules indicate whether it must be applied to a specific attribute modifier, to one of a limited list, or whether
it’s a “free” attribute boost that can be applied to any attribute modifier of your choice. Dwarves, for example, receive an attribute boost to their Constitution modifier and their Wisdom modifier, as well as one free attribute boost, which can be applied to any other attribute.

When you gain multiple attribute boosts at the same time, you must apply each one to a different modifier. This means you can’t apply a partial boost to an attribute modifier and apply another boost simultaneously to increase it.

I was really hoping Paizo would take the opportunity of the new Core books to address the annoying problem of there being a five level stretch where players are expected to be down a boost in order to have a higher attack modifier later, a kind of exchange that the system overall tries to discourage. The "partial boosts" are also a bit less elegant than the original boost of 18 to 19 to 20 even if mechanically they're identical.

I would have much rather the math be changed up a tiny bit to avoid the need for having that awkward five level period. In practice all we really want is for players to need to spend 2 boosts instead of 1 past a +4 modifier, and to also limit how many attributes can be boosted in that way to force relatively well-rounded characters no matter what, the five level period feels more like a vestigal side effect of a clumsy attempt to accomplish that rather than something that Paizo intentionally believes is a necessary drawback to balance the power of a higher to-hit.

What I've been doing has just been allowing my players to just respec on level up regardless, including attribute scores, so it's not like there isn't a way to work around this, under the logic that if a player having four functional boosts isn't a problem from levels 5 through 9 and a player having a higher to hit isn't a problem at levels 10 through 14, then it shouldn't be a problem if a player goes through both scenarios. It's just mildly unsatisfying for the RAW method to still be so penalizing.

Tiny little things that maybe don't have a big overall impact but fix some annoyance you have. For me, I want leaning from cover to be codified as an actual action. As it currently exists, you *can* lean around cover for one action to attack (or for free if you're shooting through a slit or similar), but it's buried in the cover rules where it's hard to find and reference. Myself and players alike just assume that it would be an action if it existed and start thinking we misremembered it or something, only to find where it is in the rules after the session. I wanna be able to add that action to a character sheet in Foundry and just click it so everyone can see the rules and see the action being spent.

Right now, all races except Humans have a fixed attribute for their racial malus in addition to two fixed attribute bonuses and a free boost.

This is way more flexible than PF1, where most races were very tightly shoehorned into specific classes and vice versa, but it still ends up with odd situations like dwarves not making terribly great paladins due to their penalty in CHA. Even if you spend all possible boosts on CHA, the highest you'll get it at level 1 is 16 and the highest you'll be able to get your ever-important STR is to 14. Or you can swap those around for a 16 in STR and a 14 in CHA. Not great.

I think a reasonable alternative is to let at least some races choose between one of two stats to take a penalty in.

• Dwarf
  +CON +WIS +FREE
  -CHA or -DEX

• Elf
  +DEX +INT +FREE
  -CON or -STR

• Gnome
  +CON +CHA +FREE
  -STR or -WIS

• Goblin
  +DEX +CHA +FREE
  -WIS or -INT

• Halfling
  +DEX +WIS +FREE
  -STR or -CON

• Human
  +FREE +FREE
  

I admit I couldn't always think of two appropriate attributes that could be weaknesses and I imagine some races are probably fine enough being unable to pick their penalty. But the intent is to make it so that there are more viable race/class combinations. Free boosts don't do enough by themselves to counteract penalties and it can lead to weird stuff like a shortage of dwarven paladins.

Alternatively, the option to spend both of your boosts from your background on your racial malus would allow certain races to get an 18 to play against type so long they have a good excuse in their background for being such a charismatic dwarf. They're a diplomat, they had to be good at their job!

I don't have a whole lot to say about balancing humans against all this except that they should not be getting feats or heritages that can be converted into higher tier feats like general or class feats. I feel like if they lose that they might be a little subpar against some races, but I think that can be shored up with something intrinsic that humans get rather than must-pick options. I feel like giving them another free boost and then also letting them pick a penalty is a bit much.