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Char Ops Playtest wrote:

Lessen Injury (Su)

As a reaction when you or an ally within 100 feet of you takes
damage, you can spend 1 RP to change the amount of damage dealt
to the lowest possible value. [...]

How does this work with area effects?

The particular case that came up was a trap that did 3d6 electricity damage in an area that happened to include all 4 PCs.

I thought it was clear that Lessen Injury could be used against this effect ("you or an ally ... takes damage"), but was less clear on whether the witchwarper needed to choose a single target or single source of damage to effect.

Since I only roll damage once for these types of effects (don't know if that's RAW or not!), after consideration I ruled that the paradigm shift would apply to the effect and lessen its damage for everyone.

Grateful for feedback & maybe worth clarification in the final? If this works, it's a great ability against area effects!

the class, right?

Any chance he has a spare moment to chime in and clarify it? I haven't found anything else on a specific ruling, and it'll be October before we see any official publication of the class, and any revision of the text. Appreciate it!

The +1/level is a redundant carryover that serves little purpose, other than to establish an illusion of increasing power, beyond the various training ranks that seem to serve an actual purpose.

Given that Skill DCs scale with level, too, with Trivial/Low/High/Severe/Extreme DCs set corresponding to level, and that the Spell/Effect DCs and Monster ACs/saves also have the level/training component, it becomes redundant in the interaction of check vs. DC, could serve the entire game to just pull out the superfluous level modifier treadmill from everything and just rely on the Training rank modifiers vs. static DC (or minor range of DCs) at each DC Tier. Checks already use ability modifiers and training mods, and DCs also are calculated, to some extent, based on the same. Level scaling just adds overcomplication.

At higher levels, the level mod also removes the viability of low level creatures as even remote threats en masse. If PF2 doesn't want to directly rip 5E's bounded accuracy, the training rank system is a workaround that can accomplish the same thing, but with some increased flexibility for the customization expected from PF's brand. Instead of the proficiency bumps just scaling with level directly, the players have the option of adding bumps where they want, and leaving other skills/proficiencies at lower levels of training, giving a more nuanced, and simulationist, approach to training impact compared to 5E. Aside from Expertise, all training is the same in 5E, scaling with level. Training ranks, with gate access at certain levels perhaps, would allow specializations that some players are missing in 5E.

I really like it, as it is reminiscent of D&D4's multiclassing, where spending feats got you a "lateral" sliver of power rather than a "vertical" one, as PF1's multiclassing does. Now, you can exercise powers commensurate with a character of a different class within one or two levels of you, but still not be powerful enough to obviate the need for someone who is fully into that second class. If it works as well as I think it will, I want to see more of it.

On the down side, it does crimp the style of those who wanted to roleplay "ex-fighters turned mages" but if retraining is designed to handle that, I think that this is not too terrible a loss. (If it does not, maybe that's an idea for expansion?) I know it doesn't affect my local group, as we have never had anyone go down that path.

I was a huge fan of the idea of 4E multiclassing, but not the actual multiclassing in practice. It unfortunately didn't work, effectively giving a minor taste of the 2nd class, even with the scaling feats. On top of that, you needed to burn feats to even get access to the second class's feat options. In practice, the implementation of it was so bad, it's likely why they didn't bother to even include it in the D&D Essentials soft reboot of the system, and they reverted to a variation on 3E/Star Wars Saga Edition style multiclassing for 5E. Given that these multiclass feats attempt a very similar model, down to multiclass feats that act as gates to class feats, I worry that PF2 is about to make the same mistake that 4E had.