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Some questions regarding Pathfinder 2e.

1. Free Archetype
Are there specific Archetypes I should be restricting due to issues of balance, or are they all reasonably balanced? Any that I should keep my eye out for to ensure they don't break my game?

2. Classes, Ancestries, et cetera Beyond the Core Rulebook
I just started with the core rulebook only, since I am a neophyte to the system, but there is an understandable eagerness of the player base to delve into the newer, shinier toys. This is something I am a tad reticent as power creep in splat books is a real concern, though I would love to give them room to soar.

How do later books, such as the APG and beyond, compare power-wise to the what's in the core rulebook - any glaring concerns?

3. Shield Block
With Shield Block (pg. 266) the line "You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield", if 10 damage is leftover after the Hardness does it split 5 and 5 for you and your shield, or do you read it as you and your shield both take 10 damage?

4. Refocus
The requirements for Refocus (pg. 300) are a bit confusing to me as they state, "...and you have spent at least 1 Focus Point since you last regained any Focus Points".

My druid has 2 Focus Points, which can used to cast Tempest Surge, by my reading it seems he would have to Refocus between each casting as he could not Refocus the second time he has not spent any Focus Points since his last Refocus and can only get 1 Focus Point of the two back. If that's right, it appears the upside is that he can drop a Focus Spells twice in a single combat, but only once in a day.

Appreciate any help that can be tossed my way.

I am looking to convert/update the EverQuest RPG to Pathfinder, which raises a fairly significant issue as the races have an extremely wide variance of power. As an example the Troll has a +4 to STR, and +6 to STA, Darkvision, and Regen, which immediately overshadows almost all of the races.

I have seen a number of techniques to rectify the power disparity, which all do not appear to be the answer in and of themselves:

1. All manner of negatives to attributes to offset the positive attribute bonuses. I understand the thinking behind this, but I find this problematic, since it typically affects attributes that mean next to nothing to the player's power (e.g. horrific CHA does next to nothing to mitigate the power of the above Troll warrior). There is also another reason why I do not adhere to negative attributes, and it is that it paints players into corners. I would rather have a world where the STR-based Gnome warrior is only hampered by small size and smaller weaponry, rather than also slamming a STR deficit on top of it (YMMV).

2. D&D v3.0 and v3.5 did experience negatives/ECL/LA, which all make sense on some level in their argument that the more powerful races need more challenging encounters to progress. Colossus and Wolverine are the perfect example of this, where Colossus has all the power, but is new, and Wolverine has all the skills one would imagine and decades of experience on him (read: higher level). While I understand the logic behind this thinking I would love the ability for everyone to start at level 1 together and proceed together. I also never use Experience (ditched it years ago and unnecessary bookkeeping) and just have the group all Ding to the next level at points when it appears that they have struggled enough to justify it.

3. Paizo has offered a "Creating New Races" way of tracking abilities and bonuses in a way to achieve balance, but I find it far from balanced, though probably an updated version would be a great way to start.

Rather than attacking the power of one race, I would love the ability to raise up the other races to all be balanced together. Nothing is perfect, but I am looking for a way to get much more balanced.

Would anyone have any suggestions? Ideas?

Some thoughts:
- Wondering if Small Size should cost something as well. If it costs to be large (upside to melee) it also provides a benefit to being small (upside to caster).

- I do like that everything has not been watered down until the difference between races is the exact same. Ogres should be scary strong, and I want to keep that. Perhaps I need to treat each race like it is a juvenile, with lower stats for a time, and have them grow into their full power as they level. I do not love this idea though, since it seems to just push the problem until later on one sip at a time.

- Perhaps the more powerful races should not get access to Favourite class bonuses to Skills/Hit Points, and/or maybe the less powerful races should get access to both.

- One of the ways I mitigated the difference was to give profoundly different point buys to the different races, so the Ogre/Troll/Iksar were really struggling and the Human was nigh perfect.

What a surprise. It’s snowing in Chicago in January. As the wind howls outside, you thank the runner gods that you’re in a nice warm pub or, even better, in a nice warm bed, and not somewhere running around the Containment Zone for a fistful of nuyen or whatever barter you’d have to scrounge.

Then your commlink flashes the face of your fixer, Finn. “Catch you at a bad time?”

Then again, it is nice to make a living.

Finn goes on. “It’s strange. No sooner does the new mayor announce the reclamation program that the biz starts lining up. I got a job for you, omae, headed into the CZ. Johnson would like to meet in person in two hours. There’s a table reserved at Chicago’s Own Pizzeria in Northside. Watch the slip-n-slide out there, chummer.”

We need a fraggin' plan so we know what we're deviating from chummer.

Starting a new game with private recruitment.

Belly up to the bar, imbibe your fill of whatever libation fancies your suit, it is going to be a bloody ride.

We each dwell upon an island forged by our ignorance amidst the black seas of infinity.

Should your feeble mind correlate the seemingly disassociated contents of your skull, thus affording you an opportunity to leave your island behind, terrifying vistas of reality will entomb you and you will never know peace.

It was only a matter of time...every species can spell its own extinction. The last ones left wont have a pretty time of it.

Starting a new game with private recruitment initially.