Especially, and this is obvious, the Advanced Player's Guide is a terrific resource for players--but that doesn't mean GMs don't have a lot to gain from it!
Just on the strength of classes and ancestries, this book is about 150% the size of the core rulebook. Every existing class gets a major boost of options and feats and the same goes for existing ancestries. Adding in four new classes and five new ancestries on top of that is an amazing boon. True, some get more (or better) options than others, but I would say just on character creation alone, this book well beyond justifies its price point.
And that's just the base.
Add in universal heritages, which seem mechanically reasonable but almost unreasonably bursting with flavor, lore, or character development hooks. Add in the massive chunk of archetypes, which enables so many different nuances of character concepts without always landing on the somewhat clunky multiclassing rules. Add in a shot in the arm to spell lists, item lists, skill and general feat lists, and so on?
I just don't know that more needs to be said. This book is bursting with great content--and it's guaranteed to turn the heads of pretty much any player with at least a couple of its options!
In short, a great book for some GMs and of limited value to others. The distinction rests primarily on how closely you follow prewritten adventures or if you generate all your own content. The further towards the home campaign you get, the more value this book has for you.
The specific encounter types like chases and infiltration are terrific. Solid subsystems and I've made good use adding one or two of these into adventure paths and scenarios I've run. They make definite sense and once players understand them, ratchet up the narrativist play in complex encounters instead of being all about single rolls. One of the biggest problems I've seen in other games is watching group subterfuge always fall apart because one player rolls bad once. This softens that out, adds concepts for how a not-sneaky player can add to a stealth mission, and so on. Really happy about this.
The alternate rules are quite nice and some are highly creative. I haven't gotten to use any at a table yet, but I will when the timing is right (for instance, I'm strongly considering running Agents of Edgewatch with automatic bonus progression to avoid some of the loot troubles that AP appears to have). Dual classing is incredibly popular, I have seen around here and elsewhere, though I haven't had a scenario where it was a particularly good fit.
Other additions are nice. Monster creation rules, NPC codex, and basic GM advice are never bad things, though they are a hard reason to strongly recommend this book.
Not a buy for players, probably shouldn't be one of the first books a new GM buys either. But established GMs, especially ones building campaigns and encounters on the regular, can definitely get some mileage from this book. Overall, not essential but probably beneficial.
Reading through this book, it feels pretty clear that this game is designed to grow and expand and evolve over the course of its lifetime. But don't take that to mean that the core game is insufficient or weak.
This is great stuff.
I don't suppose this needs to be a review of Pathfinder 2e as a system, necessarily. Systems work for those they work for, but for myself and the dozen or more players I've run through in a range from quick scenarios to current ongoing adventure paths, this is a terrific way to game. Personally, I came from the D&D side, not the first edition Pathfinder, so this to me represents a massive improvement in so many ways. Action economy is brilliant. Single-enemy encounters are able to be intense and interesting. The encounter creation rules are great. Modular multiclassing has its upsides and downsides, but in the long run I feel it's been working very well. And the options! Obviously it doesn't have the breadth of its first edition predecessor, but I don't find that to be a reasonable strike against it.
Some of the layout is a bit wonky, especially in regards to focus spells and magic/crafted/alchemical items. Some classes feel a bit more well-rounded and fleshed out than others, and same with ancestries... but let's be honest, that's frankly inevitable, especially in a game this size.
I couldn't be happier with the game, in honesty. And much of my happiness with its structure, rules, and concepts are found right here in the core rulebook, as makes sense. So I can't give this any less than a full rating. Very happy with Paizo's work on this.
