Joe Mucchiello's page

Why does it cost 25 sp to buy a dagger you receive during your coming of age rite? 20-30 years could easily pass between the rite and your adventurer career starting.

Under what circumstance does a shield receive a dent? It seems that the way Shield Block is worded, the shield only takes as much damage as its hardness. So how can it take more damage?

And please do not discuss attempts to attack the shield or an unattended shield. I'm specifically talking about shields that are in the raised position.

I'm not happy about 1 being an automatic critical failure. Rolling 1 is going to happen to the PCs infinitely more often than it will to any individual monsters. Rolling a 1 should just be automatic failure. It will frequently, but not always be 10 less than the required DC. Critical Failure does not need the boost that Critical Success does.

I could be convinced that 20 should just be automatic success as well. But success is always more fun. :)

Because they didn't like the choice of backgrounds in the playtest adventure.

Let me demonstrate with goblins.

So, goblins have two Heritage feats. One gives them sharp pointy teeth, the other one makes their skin thick.

This means, when you meet a goblin in the wild, it will either have sharp teeth, fire retardant skin, or neither. You will never find one with both features. That is some weird genetics.

Some gnomes have keen sense of smell and other just pretend.
Elves ditto but for hearing.
Halfling ditto for eyesight.

And where is the general feat that allows you to take another heretage feat at first level.

The spells per day chart stops at 9th level. So how does a spell heightened to 10th level get cast?

Why, if feats go from 1st to 20th level and characters and monsters go from 1st to 20th level, do spells only go from 1st to 10th level? If you are going to make everything have "level" why are some levels spread over 20 values but others only over 10 values?

If the damage you take is equal to or greater than your
level

Well, that makes readying attacks on spellcasters more fun. What fighter cannot cause damage greater than the level of an opponent caster? :)

I might be alone in this but I find the sample character sheet ugly as sin. I can't imagine telling someone "Pathfinder 2 is simpler and easier for getting people into the game." And then handing them that thing. All those proficiency pip holes make it look like a wargame battle card.

So really, why are powers granted by feats located in the spells list, but feats aren't? Why separate them? Or why include powers in a spells list? Rituals have their own section, why not powers?

Or why not just shove everything into one big list? Class and Race descriptions drop to 3 and 1 page each. The feats section go away. And then you have 150 pages of nothing but similarly formatted chaos.

Sorting the spells by level, then name, since spells no longer have different levels for different caster types, would make it much easier to generate a character.

Removing the powers and sorting them by class, level and name would be a godsend.

Skill and general feats should be ordered by type (trait, sorry) then level, then name.

And finally race feats should have heritage feats in a separate section so you don't miss any of them. And at 5th level, you know to just ignore those feats.

I know everyone thought 3e D&D's sorting of spells by name was a great idea. But it actually wasn't. It makes it harder to understand what goes with what power level. If level were the first sort criteria, it would make the book less intimidating.

"Now pick spells?"
"I have to read that 86 page spells chapter?"
"No, you only have to look at the 8 pages of 1st level spells and 4 pages of cantrips."
"Oh, that's much better."

How about weapons? Can they become dented and broken?

The shield thing may be realistic but are fighters supposed to carry a dozen shields with them into a dungeon?

I can just seen the fighter with his pack mule covered in shields. In the middle of combat he shouts, "Squire, hand me your shield and go back to the mule for another. And don't forget to avoid the pit trap this time!!"

In the playtest adventure, there's a background that grants the Terrain Stalker (rubble) feat. That feat requires that Stealth is Trained as a prereq. Does the background override the prereq?

There's little to no information in the backgrounds chapter beyond the list of backgrounds.

(Yes, I'm the GM and of course this is the first character build for the playtest that I'm checking for mistakes. :) )