*Moved this post from the wrong forum*
My comments are mostly related to PF Playtest mechanics in general. This is the first scenario where I am writing up a full feedback due to wanting to make sure we learned the rules better, saw habits form, and make sure we could put some things through their paces. At this point, half way through the campaign (we have actually run the scenario after this as well) I can now see some established trends as well as my players' common feedback. Let me preface this by saying, my players are all "munchkins" as it were and they are always seeking to create the strongest character possible.
- (Most important) all of my players, by this point, are not having much fun anymore and are near giving up and returning to PF1.0. We all are excited for 2.0, but the common feeling it is missing the mark in the lot of ways.
-Too Strong-
-Heal and Clerics in general. Strike/Strike(-5)/Heal puts clerics on a tier above everyone else, against any monster type. Especially with them getting so many more Heals through Channel.
-Magic Weapon the Spell. There is no other spell (Other than Heal). Casters with it are better than melee and if they choose the buff melee they are then bored, but it is so strong there just is no other choice of spell at low level. 1-4th level this spell is unrivaled.
-Multiclass Archtype Feat 'Fighter dedication'. All of my non fighter characters began choosing this from clerics to wizards and everything in between. All Armor and Weapons in one class feat is better than any other choice for any other class feat. They then followed this up by choosing low level fighter feats with the next one and soon everyone has AOO, etc.
-d12 weapons with Magic weapon spell or magic weapons. The fist full of d12s starts outpacing everything else due to multiplication
-Ranged Attacking in Melee. For my few players who went all dex they just run into melee and shoot with impunity. No difference between range and melee really.
-Too Weak-
-Spells. Every iteration of d&d- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3.5, PF1.0 and now PF2.0 seems to have declawed spells a little bit more each time. Both my Arcane and Divine casters have found melee/range damage builds far more effective and spells are secondary because most seem too weak.
-Support spells (buffs, etc.) One of my players likes to play support based casters and she specifically asked me to give this comment. She found support spells to be weaker and couldn't find any builds and spells where she had any fun and felt useful and felt forced into a damage roll. It's OK if spells wreck you a fair bit more.
-Bards. Everyone who played a bard complained. My main story line bard rerolled after the 9th level scenario.
-Things that Seem Off-
-Spells (see above)
-RPs and Magic Items. No reason to stop players who would rather have a bunch of weaker items instead of a few meta'd higher level items. I think RPs don't add much and could just be removed.
-Initiative and lack of surprise rounds. Some combats, especially when the characters were setting up ambushes started off very cludgey and i think going back to surprise rounds would fix this. (also go back to normal init)
-AC/TAC After my players learned the metas with armor and everything else, everyone ended up, consistently within 1 ac of everyone else. So all my players had the same AC, wizards and fighters, etc.
-Different classes all feeling the same. Everyone ended up with different variations of melee or ranged damage dealing regardless of class and all felt that the classes mostly felt the same and not unique enough. Buffing spells should help this.
-Money. Small thing here, but it seemed at first that SP was going to be the main-line currency, but within a few levels it went back to GP like before. No real reason to start with SP, just stick with gold.
-Skills. Mostly lore skills. No real definition of how to learn about monsters and too many vague lore skills. It's too open ended.
-Things I love in Playtest vs PF1.0-
-Monsters. They seem much more unique and driven by their unique abilities. Old game monsters seemed to mostly by variations of hitters with some, mostly minor, special abilities. In playtest the abilities are much more defining and unique.
-Simplfying SR into buffing saves was nice.
-Rolling a bunch of dice is fun, but as stated above currently has some complications.
-Having critical successes and failures add additional effects to spells is super cool. Also critting when hitting over 10 is cool.
-Shield Block. We like shields being a little more active, unique and absorbing damage. It makes them better, but i'm still not sure it is as good as a d12 two-hander. Maybe 1 more AC across the board for shields would put it on par. Or 1 more AC on the heavier shields at least. Great concept though.
There are a lot more things I could add, and will in the future, but it's late and I'm tired. I also have no idea if this actually gets read. Anyway, if you do happen to read this and have any questions feel free to reach out. Sorry for the typos.
PS- Regarding the actual DD campaign content now that I am reading some other posts about groups struggling. My group has been fine with it, using a lot of the meta's I mentioned above (namely Magic Weapon spell and Heal/Channel at low levels). I KO'd a Player once with the Water Elemental but he hero pointed up. Other than that my players have either decently beaten or crushed everything so far without me having to pull any punches really. I am running 5 PCs and adjusting encounters per the Monster Manual.
