| MarshallP |
I should preface this with the note that I have not played Pathfinder before. For a while I was considering jumping into the game (I usually play a lot of 5e and DCC), and when this play test came out, I thought it was a good time to get in on the ground floor of a new edition. That being said, you have been warned, my thoughts are from a non-pathfinder player, getting into a new system.
Now, let's get to the thoughts:
Firstly with ancestries. I like them overall. The selection of ancestries present is pretty standard outside of goblin for a core book, which is fine, you have to start with a good foundation. Although, I do like Goblin and I honestly think it will be the most fun to create ridiculously convoluted Goblin characters.
I think taking half-elves and half-orcs and placing as sorta, sub-ancestries under Human is a smart move. I've never been a huge fan of half-races in RPGs, primarily because it isn't ever really explained all that well how two different species can sexually reproduce. Still, they are pretty popular, so short of them not being in fantasy gaming, I like placing them under the umbrella of human.
I like how stripped down the ancestries are. Compared to other RPGs, there are very few ancestry features here, which would probably be a problem, if it weren't for ancestry feats. Ancestry feats are a way to have two Dwarves or two Elves that are totally not the same, not just in terms of their class and skill features, but in terms of their cultural and ancestral background. Perhaps one dwarf was raised in the mines of an ancient city state, and another was a blacksmith in a human village. 5e handles this concept with sub-races, but personally I prefer the ancestry feats, especially as more content is released, the old races will continue to be fun and exciting to play as they were when the game was first released.
I think the speed balance is good. Compared to 5e for example, in which you either have 25ft of movement (if you are short) or 30ft of movement (if you are tall), or compared to DCC where you have 20ft of movement (if you are short) or 30ft of movement (if you are tall), I like that they are allowing themselves to have just a little more variety here. For example, giving goblins a speed on par with humans makes sense, because they have shorter legs, but are probably a lot more flexible, and are definitely a lot lighter and leaner.
Getting a hit point bonus from your race is interesting. I think it may lead to some pretty tanky first level characters. For example, a barbarian dwarf with 18 con at 1st level will have 26 hp, which is pretty amazing. This could be a problem, but I suppose it is mainly an issue of just scaling up the amount or intensity of level 1 combat from what it would traditionally be, which can definitely be a good thing.
As a final note about ancestries, a minor note at that, I like the idea of calling them ancestries a lot. I've always thought the term race was a bit archaic when talking about what are basically different species, but of course referring to them as species gives the fantasy RPG too much of a modern or futuristic feel to it. Ancestry is a perfect solution to this problem for me, although a minor problem it was.
I don't have as much to say on Backgrounds, because obviously they aren't as influential in the game as ancestries are.
From what I understand Backgrounds weren't in Pathfinder 1e (correct me if I'm wrong), and I think they are a nice addition. I enjoy that they aren't as cumbersome to read through as the 5e Backgrounds are, which include a bunch of extra crap that players don't really need, and most don't want. These backgrounds are simple, to the point, establish a core building block of your character's backstory, and give you a little more mechanical customization at 1st level, giving you a skill up, a lore skill up, a skill feat, and a stat boost.
I also think the selection of Backgrounds is plenty, a really good variety to start with. I think it is cool that there are some very boring backgrounds, like laborer or farmhand. Old School RPGs have a very strong basis in the idea of beginning as literal peasants and rising through the ranks, and I like when the rules allow for that to be played to the fullest extent possible, should players wish it.
I will continue to post occasionally on the playtest as I go through it. Thanks for reading if you made it all the way through.