| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
This is a baffling decision whatever the details and circumstances.
Search Posts
- Reducing the number of combat maneuvers you get by default in comparison to PF1 and making them into feats was a conscious design decision to ease up the amount of stuff new players need to learn about combat.If this means making options anyone should have into a choice you need to invest in just to attempt it as a remedy for not having to know about it in the first place to help new players from exploding from knowing too much....it seems like a backwards approach. A new player might ask if they can do something in combat, and might not initially be bombarded with the mechanical options before playing. Only to be told "Yes you can do that...if you have the feat." How has that not increased the amount of "stuff new players need to learn about combat"? To be real, the disarm provoking an AoO isn't the actual problem. Sure, it's strictly worse than not having the feat, but the killer is taking the damage from the AoO as a penalty on the disarm roll. That's the ridiculous part of it. Though to be perfectly fair, the AoO was plenty discouraging even not knowing about the penalty.
I’m of the opinion that there is going to be some things they are going to errata shortly after release because no code is bug free. WatersLethe and Mathmuse insightfully point out that there are all kinds of wording issues with how some of these feats have been presented. I mean... all books have their typos and wording issues, some worse than others. And given they have said there's another ~200 pages in the final release compared to the Playtest doc... I'd be more surprised if there weren't any issues! There'll certainly be a thread in here listing all the potential errors, just as there will be some sort of FAQ/Errata probably out fairly soon after the release. This is a brand new system after all! Some things might need adjustments or clarifications.
Sigh, most of the text said, "Your maximum number of Spell Points is equal to your key ability modifier," as if key ability modifier was something variable, rather than fixed by the same class that gave the spell pointsThis is a bit of a snark against what is essentially nice future proofing language that lets them do things like change a classes key attribute (either through an errata that adds a choice like Ranger got or something like a class archetype) easily without also having to specifically declare all the various places that it changes within a class. Even druids, of all things, have the ability to have Charisma as their casting stat with a certain archetype in PF1.
Joana: I don't think there's a lot of examples of that right now. There's no PC ancestry or class based folks who have powers or spells a PC can't have. There are plenty of unique monster abilities, but I can't think of many that have "spell like" abilities. Monsters largely just get the same spells PCs do. And then you're introducing, what in PF2 is, an 8th level spell effect into a module for 7th level PCs. Or alternatively, you're making an argument that really isn't an argument. Of course, we can play the "everything doesn't fit right can be a custom ability" game, but that's not really productive, is it? And it certainly doesn't help any aspect that involves PC abilities. Even we could just handwave everything, that's not a productive argument.
As an example, though I forget all the details, there's the BBEG of Realm of the Fellnight Queen. She does it to most of her prisoners and during the PCs final battle with her. And this is a Paizo published module for 7th level PCs.
Core class features shouldn't not stack; I don't care how much simpler you want the math to be, it's just stupid. A bard using inspire courage should be able to give everyone a bonus all the time, and not be encouraged to retire if they happen to be in a party full of barbarians. Combat styles need to either be completely separated from classes or the class-specificity should instead be tuned towards giving different bonuses to that combat style, rather than access in the first place.
...and frankly, multiclassing and archetypes need to not have the mutually exclusive set-up they do now. Or at very least, archetypes other than the multiclass ones need to actually be worth taking. I'm looking at you Pirate.
Needing a critical failure to achieve the result of a PF1 failure doesn't require rewriting stories, because you can still achieve the same result even if the odds are shifted. It just means the target rolled worse in this case. It's definitely true that, in some cases, merely shifting the odds is enough. However, there's at least two things that spring to my mind that don't really meet that paradigm so easily. Baleful Polymorph, for instance, needs both a critical failure and to be heightened to 8th level to have any permanent effect. It needing that level of effect to actually be plot-relevant changes when the spell can be reasonably thrown around. Sure, you could further handwave, but that's starting to be a pretty big handwave at the point you're letting, what in PF1 would be, a CR 8 or 9-ish enemy wizard slinging around 8th-level spell effects instead of CR appropriate ones. Heck, that same wizard operating under PF2 rules can't even cast Baleful Polymorph to begin with thanks to its spell level increase. And in addition to all that, the PF2 version even removes a possible outcome compared to PF1's. The PF2 version doesn't allow for a permanent effect while still keeping the target's mind in tact. It has no equivalent to the outcome of failing the Fort save, succeeding on the Will save in PF1. Flesh to Stone is the other example that springs to mind, if only because actually getting the petrification effect seems like it can be a laborious process. Handwaveable, for sure. It's just a little ridiculous with how the PF2 version works with it needing multiple failed saves and its potential for yo-yo'ing through slowed 1 and 2. Aside from that... spell durations are ultimately going to mess with both PCs and NPCs/monsters. Pre-buffing isn't a thing anymore for both sides, and some spells just don't last long enough to do what they did in PF1.
A variant of 1 or 3, probably. With so many totems that grant transformations, 3 rounds on, one round off is awkward and randomness is just worse in that regard.
Why would it be an issue? Dragon Form lasts for a minute or until dismissed. That's way easier to work with than the 3 round/ 1 round setup. Well, I'm afraid that means you don't know what you're talking about all that well. Dragon Transformation (and Animal Rage) both have the "Rage" trait. Thus:
That should make the issue clear, no?
Yup.. this is a problem... Really, I'd say that the problem isn't with the feat-centrism of the system. It's just that class feats are really hot real estate and a lot of stuff's fighting for those slots. Which means that it all has to compete against one another, and thus be comparable to each other (to some degree at least). I don't really know what the solution would be myself. More class feats? More feats and features from class paths? I don't know what the best solution would be. Archetypes ala PF1 may help, though I feel with the addition of class paths to many classes with 1.6 take at least part of their place. Honestly, I don't know how well you could build a PF1-style archetype as is; there's not a whole lot to replace in classes. Though, I suppose it could just also take up some class feats, but that just leads to another competitor.
I'm wondering why none of the class changes appear in the PDF? Am I missing something? Are these summaries not officially a change or is there somewhere else I download the full details? Yeah, no idea why they put it down there.
I'm wondering why none of the class changes appear in the PDF? Am I missing something? Are these summaries not officially a change or is there somewhere else I download the full details? They're in the 1.6 document. The order in which stuff is listed is a bit special, and you'll have to scroll down through the new alchemical items and the heritage changes to get to the 1.6 class changes.
One of the frequent refrains I've seen on this forum is that the Playtest doesn't let you customize your characters all that much compared to PF1. Which I definitely have felt a bit of that building characters, but it's been hard to formulate just where the problem is. But, the last few weeks, I've found myself with a better idea of the issue. As much as I hate the hand-wavyness of "there'll be more options in the final product", lack of options is not the problem. Nor is the strength of options compared to PF1, though that can certainly be a frustration. Instead, I find that the problem is that the Playtest and PF1 have a fundamental divergence in where you can make trade-offs. Playtest characters have a huge bottleneck. Virtually all customization you can do with a Playtest character is made from the same pool: class feats. Archetype? Class feats. Multiclass? Class feats. Class features other than the small number of default features? Class feats. Combat style determining/boosting options? Class feats. Scaling class features? Class feat trees. Basically every major aspect of customization has to be done with class feats. Compared to PF1...
PF1 in comparison has many more places where you can make your trade-offs. This isn't to say PF1 doesn't have some issues, like combat-oriented feats crowding out other options since they're all in the same pool. But, while the Playtest has made more space for non-combat feat options through have Skill Feats and Ancestry feats, it has instead shoved the problem elsewhere and made it worse, honestly. Most major facets of a character are all competing for the same 8 to 11 class feat slots and very little scales without further and constant investment that uses yet more of those slots. This is the bottleneck.
Some Ability scores are flatly better than others (Dex, Con, and Wis at the moment, with Cha maybe fourth depending on how Resonance/Focus turns out). This is an issue and steps should be taken to improve Int and Str.I notice that the number of trained skills is now X+Intelligence modifier, so 16 int now gives 3 extra skills, instead of just 1. That isn't a change. That's how it's been since Day 1 of the playtest.
Oh, and the wizard changes. I'm cool with Vancian casting and all (even if it can be a bit of a hassle at high levels with 'I have access to every spell on my list' classes), but... why isn't the wizard just using arcanist/5e casting at this point with these changes? The combination of the spell slot preparation manipulation and the addition of inherent Quick Preparation really just seem to push the wizard to this weird... semi-sort-of-spontaneous place.
Okay, where to begin really? With 1.6 being toted as this major class, and final playtest, update, I had more or less said to myself, "the contents here will determine how much I care about PF2 when it comes out." Because, well, classes have been among the most disappointing aspects of the playtest for me. They've been drab, uninspiring, serve as a place where a lot of the different aspects of the playtest I dislike coalesce, and many of them and their options don't really do well what they've set out to do. But I'll definitely say that a lot of the class changes thus far have been building them up to be... better than the original playtest versions. But, hoy boy, this update has some issues. The rage changes should be thrown out. Inherent variability probably should not be in a base class feature. It (and the existing implementation of rage) also works against the thematics and expectations of half of the totems, animal and dragon. No barbarian wants to be "hold on a sec, I need to stop being a dragon/using the natural attacks I have for a round in the middle of combat," let alone because they failed a flat roll that they never get any better at! Why can't a high level barbarian rage longer than a level 1 barbarian? That's dumb! The wildshape changes... make it better. It's still, I feel, very much a work-around set of changes that don't actually address a lot of the issues that have been raised, though they are better. But, then, then there's paladin... This paladin update is a mess and shows that the designers definitely have some of their own sacred cows in the playtest outside of +level. To put it simply: there is no way that a PF1 paladin goes to sleep, wakes up in PF2 as this class and can still be called a paladin. This is a holy tank, not a (PF1) paladin. If anything, people should be glad the name is changing. Paladin's are still locked into a reactive playstyle. Retributive Strike and its ilk may get 15ft range now, but it's still a "Paladin's Reaction". It still doesn't inherently let you use ranged weapons or non-reach weapons well, without taking a feat tax. Not to mention that the different reactions of the subclasses are definitely not balanced between each other at all and the Divine Smite class feature makes it even worse. (I'll definitely say that Might Aura is neat though. That one's fairly cool.) It also doesn't make any sense as to how allies get any benefits from the reactions in-universe. Like, you can just declare "I retributive strike" and your ally gets resistance against an attack, despite you actually doing absolutely nothing. It's just weird. As for the new class feats... Quick Block comes too late. The level 12 feat solidifies the NG subclass as the best. And oh, look: "Smite Evil." As a level 12 class feat. And it works like a 3rd edition smite. Ha ha. No. That's completely missing the point. As someone who's currently running a Wrath of the Righteous game, the playtest "paladin" is rather incredibly frustrating on several fronts. It makes the story and background make no sense if I applied it to the world, and my players who have paladin characters would certainly be frustrated if they got this chassis thrust on them. *sigh* 1.6 didn't really make me want to care about PF2 more. I'm sure I'll get a CRB pdf or read a friend's but...
I hope that they're giving the paladin something other than its current Retributive Strike with this update. Though... given the name of the LG subclass, it sounds like they might be tying Retributive Strike to that one and giving the other two something else. Which... I really hope they don't. That would be rather awful generally (and exasperate complains about opening its alignment). Retributive Strike needs to be dropped as a main class feature, given as a class feat option, and by no means be tied to a subclass.
Of course though, whatever they do decide to do with paladin alignment-wise, that doesn't really matter if the class chassis itself isn't getting an overhaul.
I didn't realize my Fighter with +22 hitting a lich with 28 AC at base, before any buffs, feels like a 50% chance. How about you tell me more about that? So, for starters, you've selected the monster of level 12 with the lowest AC. You additionally got its AC wrong. Lich AC is 29. Most of the level 12 monsters have AC 31 or 32. You picked one of the two exceptions. Second, you can't actually have +22 to-hit, assuming you're at level 12, without something other than ability scores, a +2 weapon (+3's aren't available until 13th), level, and proficiency modifying your attack. The math works out as: 12(level)+2(item)+5(strength)+2(proficiency) = +21 to-hit.It's certainly still not 50% to-hit against AC 29 (it's 60%), but let's keep the numbers within the range of the premises and use the correct ones, yeah? Now, if you make the comparison using one of the level 12 monsters that doesn't have the lowest AC of the bunch you end up with...
The level 12 fighter, with no outside help, ends up stacking up as follows against all of the AC values of the level 12 monsters:
So, in conclusion, let's not argue about the math in a tight-math system without actually having the numbers right. Because, you're right, +22 vs AC 28 isn't 50% to-hit, but it also isn't what's happening baseline.
How odd. Grappling a creature doesn't appear to currently move them adjacent to you if you have reach, like what happens in PF1.
In all seriousness, I don't think it would actually do all that much. In PF2, ignoring cantrips, the maximum number of spell slots that you can have is 37 at level 20 as a school wizard or a sorcerer. As a cleric, druid or bard, you only have 28 maximum come level 20. If you decide to include cantrips, the numbers go up to 42 and 32 respectively. In comparison, PF1 has a Sorcerer getting 54 base spell slots by 20th level, and the Wizard getting 45. Add in cantrips to the mix and that's 63 and 49. And we're not even getting to bonus spell slots yet. The burden is already greatly reduced compared to PF1. Even just looking at base slots that's a ~16% and 50% reduction. Add in the fact that spells, with some exceptions, don't do all that much if they're not close to your highest level and that burden reduces it further. it creates a false expectation that low level spells should stay relevant the entire game. No, I believe you can attribute that to the game being called Pathfinder 2 more than anything. Notably: Paizo already has a version of this, and it's a better version at that. And this better system already gimps casters.
PF2's multiclassing is frankly terrible at doing any multiclassing that isn't planned at character creation. (I'd say that the system itself is pretty bad at this, but that's another topic.) It very much so gets in the way of "natural" or "based on in-game events" multiclassing. Thanks to being class feat based, you can only do it every other level. This prevents a character taking the dedication feat at an appropriate time, unless they happen to be leveling to an even level. And then the dedication feats with their 16-in-an-ability-score requirement further limit your ability to take one. This forces you to wait up to five levels to take your dedication when you have only a 14 in that ability score. And that's if you have a 14 (which, to be fair, you probably should have if you're trying to multiclass into something). Oh, and I hope you didn't already have an archetype! Of course, if you had planned your multiclass originally, no problem! You've likely already solved those issues. Or, you could just be playing PF1 and just multiclass into the dang class at any level, provided you met alignment requirements, of which three classes had any, and if you had an archetype already, who cares! That doesn't matter!
You're trying to argue from a PF1 cantrip paradigm about PF2 cantrips. That doesn't follow. PF2 cantrips are in a very different situation. One that ultimately is not caused by cantrips themselves, but the rest of the system around them. That being: your actual spell slot spells are ineffective more times than not and that you don't have, or have limited options, for a third action each round. They're really more comparable to warlock blasts than PF1 cantrips on a whole, anyway. The damage ones at least.
No. Spellcasters get three of each level base, plus one more if they're a wizard with a school or a sorcerer.
You cannot get reduced to 0 hp as a result of Drained, because the most you can have is Drained 4. For starters, a page number would be good. Mere reference to a rule isn't all that helpful in as new a game as this. Secondly, if that is in fact the case, I guess we can throw that (a high level severely drained character) onto the pile of narrative things in PF1 that can't happen in PF2. Great.
Unless you're talking about monsters flinging them at PCs, really, we need to reach a point where crit fails actually happen (on creatures not below APL) before considering that sort of thing.
To be honest, when you have nerfs to prestidigitation of all things, I think you had some warning signs that you'd gone too far even without any playtest feedback.
Basically, no. I believe one of them mentioned off-hand in a stream that they were getting some feedback that people were dissatisfied with magic. The big magic thread and the unofficial magic survey thread were closed with a "we'll have a magic survey eventually guys!" And of course there was the whole: "we're nerfing fighter dedication because its too good for wizards." It really sucks that today's dev posting regarding focus and people's concerns about it being Cha-based for Wiz/Monk/Druid/Alch is the closest we've come to anything at all being said.
One of my favorite little distinctions is the invisibility potion. If you only need to move into a combat and make an attack while invisible, you can drink the potion to get 1d4 rounds of invisibility. However, if you have a lot of sneaking around to do before you plan on fighting, you can extend the effect to 10 minutes instead by spending a Focus Point! I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, you're spending both a use of a daily resource and a consumable to get a 10 minute invisibility. On the other hand, you're getting an effect 1000% better than using a scroll (which is the same item level) or someone actually casting invisibility. That... that doesn't really feel right.
Aside from the headache I find these rules to be in general, at very, very least either the condition removal spells or the counteract conditions rules need to actually list what to roll. There is no reason for the spells to not say something like "Roll caster level for your counteract check." Or alternatively (or perhaps in addition too), maybe have some examples in the counteract rules? While medicine is certainly an easy assumption for poison and disease, there's other stuff out there! I really don't like that there's two places in the rules that lack specificity that would make the rules either actually work (Recall Knowledge) or make handling those rules easier (Counteracting). I really hope this isn't a design trend. This doesn't even give power to the GM (or something), it just gives them more and unnecessary work.
Except you're pretty blatantly going out of your way to use two options that weren't in the PF1 CRB. That's all well and good that you can make that goblin alchemist with the PF2 CRB, but that's pretty a misrepresentative rebuttal. The point is there's builds that can't be done in PF2 that could be in PF1. Pretty simple ones at that. Archer paladin's another popular one to bring up. It's great that we have new stuff moved into CRB territory and some new options for PF2! However, we should be able to still do most things in the PF1 CRB. Maybe it'll be true in the final product, but we certainly aren't seeing that right now.
this post sort of sums up everything I love about the playtest. I was reminded again, when I played kingmaker the CRPG all this week and last, and I was reminded just how how easy it was to break the pathfinder 1st edition system, how two level 12 characters could be miles apart in power level, how the game became rocket tag once the characters reached around 10th level. This for sure. Bad instances of rocket tag can leave you unsatisfied, especially if it was supposed to be a big encounter. But, at least you can move on with the game. Bad instances of bullet sponges eat your both enthusiasm and session time and leave everyone hating the encounter. Long combat =/= good combat.
Yup. That's pretty much my take on it along with teleportation nerfs being an issue. Half the books here have plot points of various sizes dealing with long-term enchantment magic (and I didn't list anything Book 3 recommends doing with the aboleth), four out of six have monsters of varying plot relevance using teleportation magic to escape encounters. Though there is one thing that I did forget to mention in my summary in the original post; there is other one semi-big issue: ability checks. They're mentioned in Clumsy, but... How do ability checks actually work, if they're supposed to exist in this ruleset? d20+Ability mod? d20+Ability mod+Level? It's not listed anywhere that I could find.
Well, from both memory and skimming through the designer comments on both monster blogs, there aren't any mentions of what the custom monster rules are, or suggestions of those rules will be, unless they're buried pretty deep in the comment threads. Now, what is mentioned is that monster math should be closer to PC math than PF1. Which is and isn't true. They certainly get +level like PCs, but monsters also get their, compared to PCs, free advancement on skills, to-hit, and damage dice. Without knowing the actual guidelines on such things it's difficult to advance something rather significantly. We can try to reverse-engineering certainly, but again, that comes with difficulty beyond slapping class levels on the creature. I pointed it out, less because the Playtest is lacking in such rules (as we've already been told they won't be in the Playtest), but more to make the point that those rules really need to work well if there's any hope of emulating a PF1 AP, especially when it comes to adding classes to monsters. As for regeneration, well...
Villains, powerful monsters, enemies with healers or regeneration, and any other NPCs at the GM’s discretion are knocked out like a PC as well. Yeah, it's kinda dumb right now.
After accidentally stumbling on the fact that Wrath of Righteous, under PF2 rules, ends rather unceremoniously in the opening scene (death by Feather Fall nerfs), I thought it would be interesting to go all the way through an Adventure Path and see what other stumbling blocks I might find operating under the Playtest rules. It could help expose places where the Playtest rules are lacking, and it would help me better learn the Playtest rules. I choose to look through Serpent's Skull. This was the best (read: most convenient) AP to look through for a number of reasons: I'd run it before, I own physical copies of the books (which are much easier to skim, imo), and it's a relatively old Adventure Path, having been coming out right around when the APG released. This last bit meant that the AP is operating largely under CRB and GMG rules, with one or two splats scattered about. Additionally... the campaign is pretty beat-sticky overall; it doesn't have huge amounts of magic required. Before I start listing out my notes, I did have a few caveats. I didn't consider PC effectiveness in these scenarios, save one or two instances. I have mostly ignored skill challenges, pre-battle buff routines, and whether or not creatures actually exist in the Playtest Bestiary. I won't be counting these things as stumbling blocks, though there are a few exceptions here and there. But: skill challenges are easy to adjust DC-wise, and I frankly just didn't look closely enough to compare skill functionality assumptions. Pre-battle buff routines, while definitely something that can no longer happen, are partially mitigated by how enemies in PF2 are going to be built, aka they'll have all the stats they need for the most part. And dinging the game for not having a full Bestiary yet, well, would be too easy and just not helpful. I'm going to provide a rating for each occurrence of how difficult it is to handle each situation, in my opinion.
Souls for Smuggler's Shiv:
In the Adventure Background: Yarzoth, an Advanced(not the template) Serpentfolk, uses periodic use of Suggestion on the ship captain to set up the adventure. Rating: Hand-Waveable. There are some believability issues (Suggested for 1 minute vs hours), but ultimately, the GM can have the captain fail narratively. Yarzoth uses Dominate Person to cause Captain Kovack to crash the ship on Smuggler's Shiv, and then to have him as her ally as she travels Smuggler's Shiv.
Captain Kovack is infected and dies to ghoul fever, but before his death, Dominate Person runs out and he writes down a confession.
Side-note: Survival changes make finding food for the party actually difficult without the Forager skill feat. Not sure how I feel about that. The PCs potentially need knowledge of Aklo to active the Tide Stone to enter the final area of this book.
Yarzoth uses the Find Traps spell to avoid the traps in the Azlanti Temple, and thus make it the final dungeon of the book.
A trap in the dungeon also suggests use of Detect Magic to more easily find the 'stop the trap' button.
Yarzoth herself is currently impossible, as there are no rules for adding class levels, a class template, or any template really, to creatures. And with creature math being separate from PC math, stitching classes levels onto creatures doesn't work that great. ...This is going to turn out to be a theme of these notes.
Racing to Ruin:
When encountering Umargo, a barbarian insurgent, he first is supposed to cut an NPC hostage's throat putting them at -1 and dying. Rating: Hand-waveable/Impossible. Everything except PCs dies at 0, and there's not really an in-between state between being conscious or being dead. It is the thing that can be easily fiated, but I really don't think fiat should be necessary for this scenario. Umargo is a TWF barbarian.
Chirok the Stormbird's encounter can be bypassed via knowing Auren and using Diplomacy.
The PCs can obtain a one-use magical item that can cast Dispel Evil, to potentially make a future encounter with a shadow demon easier.
Members of a rival faction ambush the PCs at the building that they are staying in. The leader of the ambush uses a wand of Glyph of Warding to set blasting runes at the doors to discourage the PCs from leaving.
Lack of bane arrows make an encounter with lower level enemies relatively pointless.
The PCs encounter three priestesses that have been dominated and tricked into accepting profane gifts by a succubus.
Charau-ka cleric. A creature with class levels.
Side note: Interesting that domains don't give any passive or class feature-esque abilities, only powers, now. Permanent Magic Mouths.
Advanced Serpentfolk Wizard. Creature with class levels, solo encounter.
City of Seven Spears:
Side-note: No creature templates other than Elite and Weak? Side-note: Looking at encounters of low-level creatures designed to use magic items to boost their effectiveness makes item level seem a bit silly. Side-note: The advanced aboleth in Saventh-Yhi is always going to surpass the PCs levels in this adventure, making using its presence more questionable. Also, we really don't have aboleths in the Bestiary? Dominate nerfs actually hurt them a lot from a story perspective... Charau-ka with class levels as patrolling encounters.
Olujimi, an angazhani, is supposed to use dimension door to escape and then set up another encounter.
Charau-ka cleric 7.
Petrified Half-fiend dire ape revived with stone salve.
Boggard oracle 7. Long-term dominated by the aboleth.
Green hag sorcerer. Sorcerer bloodline goes a long way to explaining her character.
Side-note: The 'grandfathering' clause of the performance check that aids the party in allying with the Radiant Muse probably will be too difficult +/-10 rules. The Radiant Muse is a lilend with class levels.
Boggard barbarians as a part of patrolling encounters.
Boggard fighter.
Troglodyte cleric as part of patrolling encounters.
Troglodyte cleric/fighter.
Serpentfolk ghast necromancer wizard.
It's at this point that I was surprised just how many enemies had class levels in addition to creature HD.
Vaults of Madness:
Juliver is a Pathfinder hit with a Feeblemind spell. The PCs need to cure her affliction to continue the adventure. The adventure offers several ways of getting Heal(PF1) scrolls. Rating: Hand-waveable. The lack of PF1 Heal and Limited Wish make this a bit less simple. A scroll of Remove Curse (7th) is required to guarantee a cure. Side-note: Remove Curse is irritatingly vague and sends you off to a section to read just to understand it. Counteracting Conditions isn't a very clear read. It took far too much effort just to figure out how to cure a Feeblemind effect. Especially when Feeblemind doesn't list what fixes it. Side-note: Wish and Miracle no longer have their condition removal text. Doesn't actually limit them, but slightly odd. Side-note: No Limited Wish? Going to ignore the usage of insanity rules in this adventure for the sake of my sanity. I don't want to go back to Counteracting Conditions. The Gorilla King presents the PCs with three tests. The PCs have to succeed on two of three to proceed without having to fight the Gorilla King (who vastly out CRs them) and his retainers.
Gorilla King is an awakened animal with fighter levels.
Shaitan Rogue.
Advanced Serpentfolk fighter/sorcerers.
Vampire Rogue.
Templated Boggard Fighters.
Corpsespinner tactics include using Plane Shift to flee the encounter.
Charau-ka barbarians.
Ogre Mage Monks.
Boggard fighters.
Charau-ka cleric.
Intellect Devourer sorcerer.
Side-note: We don't have portable holes?
The Thousand Fangs Below:
I'm, uh, not going to list ratings for creatures with class levels in this one... Cloaker Rogue.
Side-note: Rings of invisibility are mentioned in the Perception section, but aren't actually in the Playtest. Huh. Urdefhan cleric.
Side-note: Has this really just become listing monsters with class levels? Side-note: The fortress in this adventure actually accounts for use of Teleport. Various areas are affected by Forbiddence and Dimensional Lock. Lots of serpentfolk fighters. Selaxasp is a succubus rogue/master spy that was called via a Gate spell to keep an eye on BBEG's underlings.
Selaxasp uses Greater Teleport to report to the BBEG, if not killed by the PCs.
Urdefhan fighter.
Advanced Serpentfolk evoker with contigent teleport as an escape.
Even more serpentfolk fighters.
Sanctum of the Serpent God:
Again, with the skipping... Urdefhan fighter/rogues.
Serpentfolk use a Reincarnate-like process to inflitrate PCs camp with little chance of detection.
Sorcerer/assassins that use Teleport to escape and attempt to kill the PCs again later.
Morlock barbarian/rogues
Side-note: Even with heightening, the new Form spells seem really hard to have enemies use in similar ways to PF1, due to forms just not being relevant at that some levels. Also no earth glide for earth elemental form? Another advanced Serpentfolk transmuter. This one with Teleport escape tactics...
Said transmuter also attempts to gather up various artifacts, scrolls, and texts into bags of holding before the PCs get there.
Serpentfolk fighter/ranger.
The Avatar of Yderius has regeneration and can only be killed by decapitation, either by vorpal or by coup de grace.
Side-note: Not only does regeneration not actually have a description in the Playtest outside of the Regenerate spell, why the heck is it "to the GM's discretion" whether creatures with regeneration not die at 0 HP?! It's kind of the point that they don't!
In summary, this AP didn't have a whole lot of its story that heavily relied on PF1 magic, thus, it should be relatively easy to run it in PF2. However, I did find that:
To be perfectly fair, I fully expect the first one will be solved in the final release. We just don't have a lot of tools for building creatures at the moment, which, I guess, for a play focused Playtest is fine; it's not what's being tested. But it does make conversion rather difficult and improvised.
Well, according to Bastards of Golarion, half-dwarves and half-gnomes don't exist. Outside of stuff like Wishes. So, that should make you happy.
I wonder if there's a disconnect between the story writers and the rules writers. Funny you mention WotR, actually. That campaign, following PF2 RAW, can't even get off the ground, let alone to mythic content. The Feather Fall nerf TPKs the PCs in the opening act.
In the blog post thread, I mentioned that I didn't think most of the games I had played of PF1 wouldn't be translatable to PF2. I even went so far as to suggest that PF1 APs will not translate. Which, to at least some extent is hyperbole, but I do stand by it. Late reply, but generally the instances I was thinking of apply to NPC magic-use in APs. Though, in addition to that, the change in capabilities, whether magic-based or class-based or skill-based, would definitely cause translation issues. And, of course, there's the toted example of "why should I be scared of Karzoug now?" But, beyond that: Serpent's Skull:
Souls for the Smuggler's Shiv has its background rooted in frequent use of the suggestion spell, for instance. 1 minute of being suggested is much different than multiple hours.
Though this particular case could be more of 1 hour vs. multiple given that it's the BBEG of the first book using the spell against some expert that's a ship captain. But at a DC 16 (meaning critical failure is only so likely) in the new Bestiary, the scenario has its believability reduced. Though, considering it again, in SS's case, it's the lack of rules for Serpentfolk advancement at higher HD (or I suppose level for PF2) that would mess with the challenges in the later books. Not an impossible thing to accommodate for, but still something. Rise of the Runelords:
Not a game I've personally run, but having played in it: in the third book, if Lucretia's information gathering that causes the ogre invasion of Fort Ranick relies on magic, that's another case of less believability. A lot of what I spoiler'd is pretty easy to fiat, admittedly, but I think that having the 'behind the scenes' parts of adventures still be reasonable scenarios is important to keep a sense of immersion. I'd have to go to my AP books for other examples. It's been a while since I ran SS and CotCT, and thus far WotR (only just finished Book 1) has minimal issues... other than the whole "paladins can't smite" thing... Wow, that's actually pretty bad now that I think of it. ...wait. Feather Fall only targets one person now and only lasts 1 minute!? Okay. Nevermind what I said. Wrath of the Righteous is actually just a TPK machine if Feather Fall is one person only.
Wrath of the Righteous: At the start of the first book of WotR, the party, and three important NPCs, is saved from an otherwise deadly fall by the last actions of a dragon that casts Feather Fall on all of them. There are even explicitly dead bodies where they land, "citizens whom the dragon could not save." The PCs only live due to Feather Fall.
I guess that pile's going to be a bit bigger under PF2 rules. Assuming silver dragons don't get to cheat with their SLAs.
And what, exactly, does anyone else get? What about clerics or martially-focused bards? What about Sorcerers or Wizards that take Magical Striker? Shouldn't they also be able to meaningfully crit? Saying "they'll auto-hit" isn't any sort of consolation prize: 20s on a die are already more than likely to hit. Frankly, this is just not a suggestion that will result in fun. There's no reason to take crits away from only *some* players in a particularly critical focused edition. It'll just result in disappointment and less fun when someone not with the 'feature' rolls a nat 20 on their attack. And removing them generally would just further destroy verisimilitude on top of it. Basic mechanics should work the same for everyone at the base-line. Monsters being deadly with crits cannot be properly fixed by taking away crits with fiat. It changes none of the reasons why those monsters are getting those crits, or why they are so deadly with them, in the first place. Removing crits won't stop monsters from currently being overtuned, or that the math currently really doesn't like equal-level or higher encounters. A change like removing crits would just be ignoring the cause for the symptoms.
In the blog post thread, I mentioned that I didn't think most of the games I had played of PF1 wouldn't be translatable to PF2. I even went so far as to suggest that PF1 APs will not translate. Which, to at least some extent is hyperbole, but I do stand by it. To a large extent, this is due to the magic changes. But, frankly, the whole system takes part. But, yes, various changes to how magic works breaks parts of plots and encounters in APs, whether that be rendering any plot points involving enchantment magic less believable or infeasible, not allowing escape tactics with teleportation nerfs, or simply making "X casts these buff spells prior to combat given the chance" rather completely impossible. And of course, none of that accounts for spell level changes. Even ignoring magic, the system as a whole doesn't exactly encourage stuff to operate similarly enough. There's a noticeable power gap between the playtest and PF1, and that's got nothing to do with optimization in PF1. The playtest's 50/50-at-same-level nature just makes characters less effective. And what the math results in, frankly, would make me nervous to run boss encounters. But, really what I don't get is this dismissal of "I can't play my PF1 character in PF2" in regards to the second design goal. I mean, sure, no, you're not going to be able to play the exact same character. But, is it not a problem that a close-enough version of core archetypes isn't available? Or that the version you get just isn't as good? Or heck, just can't be made thanks to combat styles being class locked? Player characters are the way that players interact with the game, the game world, and the story that is being told. If a design goal is be able to "tell the same stories," PCs need to be able to be similar to their PF1 counterparts. After all, it's a bit hard to have a story about a paladin of Erastil when you can't exactly be an archer paladin or any other PF1 CRB concept the system doesn't actively support. A paladin should be able to have the same narrative moments of smiting down evil. Spellcasters should get those moments when a failed save swings an encounter. The skill monkey should get moments where he is just that good that he easily succeeds at an important check. Everyone should be able to have their power moments. I don't think the system as is supports that. I don't think I can have three PCs narrowly escape a TPK with teleport and later return to rescue their fallen party members. I don't think that my WotR party's scythe bard would get the amazing time of confirming a crit against the boss encounter, while three levels under it. I don't think that I could have as many characters that managed to live through ridiculous circumstances. I just don't think that many stories that I've had with my gaming group could ever happen with this ruleset.
...that is impressively unintuitive. Not only is that different than the PF1 condition, there is no way that anyone coming into the game is going to see "all checks" and think that it applies to their DCs, let alone that AC is a DC. Checks involve rolls by the character: neither a character's DC or AC do. Even assuming that we know that our DCs are also "checks" (because that's not confusing), no one's going to assume that DCs also means AC. That's honestly just terribly written for any sort of clarity. And if anywhere else has similar phrasing and intention, it needs to be rewritten. "Checks" is going to get shorthanded in a player's mind based on prior experience. The writing should not be hostile to previous experience.
Ensure that the new version of the game allows us to tell the same stories and share in the same worlds as the previous edition, but also makes room for new stories and new worlds wherever possible. Frankly. With the PF2 system as it is currently, telling the same stories is just not possible. Heroes are just simply at a lower power level and magic just does not operate well outside of combat. Heroes are comparably incompetent and the magic that could be used to fuel plots cannot be used in the same ways anymore.
Like... regardless of I think of PF2 as is, I can only think of perhaps one or two PF1 games out of many that would have been at all similar using PF2. And that's including APs. The same stories just cannot be told.
What's that with this Angel Summoner reference? Is this something American that I don't get because I'm European? They're referring to this, a comedy sketch.
Personally, I don't see issue with casters using weapons at low levels; that's fine and not really a problem at that point. I'd say that there's definitely a problem with the relative lack of third actions for casters later on other than metamagic however. And metamagic's not going to be applying to every spell.
But encounters where the PCs spend 9 rounds doing the same thing over and over and over again because that is literally the best thing they can do is absolutely horrible. Final hits v misses were 9/11 for the brain collector (81%) and 12/46 (26%) for the party. I feel like you missed this completely. Of course that wasn't fun. A 26% hit rate overall for the players is the kind of thing that feels terrible; it just feels like a slog in play, especially with declining to-hit chances. That's the kind of thing that gets you "did I roll 15+? No? Pass." and tuned-out players all around the table.There's a difference between "difficult and exhilarating" and "difficult and 'just end it already'". Difficult, barely-squeak-by fights are not inherently fun. They certainly can be, definitely; I've had more than a few! But, they have to be kept from becoming a hopeless or 'bs' encounter. Having it feel like you can actually do something in the encounter is generally a good way to combat that. Effectively missing 34 times, while the boss casts mirror image repeatedly, probably didn't promote that feeling this time unfortunately.
Two characters with absolutely identical choices can be role played completely differently.I would consider that a near-fatal flaw in a game system. Why...? I'm actually curious why you would think this.Individual players are always going to add their own flair to character, even when they have made the exact same mechanical choices.
To be frank... a blog post about saving on word count isn't really what I would have liked to see as the weekly post, even limiting to just the topic of organization in the document. Even if it is repetitive, I think it would be better to keep the current format over having yet another thing that requires flipping through the book to find a rule. There's already far too much of that in the Playtest document. I really can't say I think that another new bit of terminology is a good thing
Honestly, the fact that Wild Order gets Intimidate as a signature skill still confuses me. Yeah, it fits a bit with the idea of a feral druid, but that's not every wildshaper. As pointed out above, you already want Str, Con and Wis; even with the new stat ups, adding Cha to that group can be difficult. Not to mention you probably want a little bit of Dex early to boost your AC out of shapeshifting, as Pest Form is a terrible combat option especially with how high low-level monster attack rolls are!
The biggest problem I see with this, is the fact that we are already giving up Point Buy stats for something weaker, unless we build optimally for a 16/14/12/12/10/10 stat build before racial modifiers. 18/16/14/12/10/10 after racial modifiers. That's not actually a point...? Humans have one fewer boost in both PF2e and 1e compared to other races/ancestries in exchange for no flaw and boost flexibility. It's a trade-off. And humans got a bonus feat in 1e to top it off, which 2e still has to a lesser degree.
|