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Owning the old books, I'm getting Player Core 1 and 2. Class revisions and a clearer presentation of the core rules seem worth it. The other two I'll ignore. GMG is a cooler book than GM Core. And I see no use for a Monster Core that mostly exists to remove content for legal reasons. That's corporate lawyer stuff that doesn't benefit me as a gamer.
Just want to go against the grain here and say I don't need anything to be free just because I already bought the books. Make the product good and I'll buy it, simple as that.
I have all the books I want for now. Thanks.
Would love to see a bunch of new diseases, curses, insanity, etc. And also encounter building or room design ideas. Basically problems and dangers aside from monsters. I can't speak for everyone but I need goodies for the table, not generic tabletop advice. That's why I love my 5e Monster Manual but barely read the DMG.
It is a severe encounter from the perspective of a Level 3 party of four. 40xp + 80xp = 120xp = severe encounter budget. Think of it as a challenge rating for the encounter as a whole, derived from the levels of the monsters and traps in the encounter.
As the CRB mentions, don't be afraid to arbitrarily decide that what a player wants to do is a free action, 1 action or 2 actions. For example, saying to your ally "go for the underbelly!" is a free action, but trying to persuade the enemy to switch sides by appealing to their sense of justice and mentioning their sister? That's probably two actions, even though it was 10-15 seconds of talking. You are balancing for player turn length, not just simulationist 6-second rounds.
I am a seasoned 5e DM, never played Pathfinder 1 but always loved the lore and the art. After a lot of thinking and looking into the system I realized I would rather run a P2 game than a 5e game. It's exactly what I want -- crunchy with a lot of options, but not too slow at the table. I like rules but don't always want to be too rigid with them. The 3-action system actually makes it really easy to accommodate improv and crunch even in the same turn, without anyone getting too much time in the spotlight, and without thinking about action types. Example: Player: Can I block the door with the bookshelf?
Is it just me or does the distinction between readied and stowed items have no practical impact on the game? Stowed ones require an Interact action to get, but I assume something like a potion on a bandolier doesn't count as stowed (this isn't clear in the CRB). Nothing says you can't have multiple bandoliers and belt pouches, so I don't see how their capacity is relevant. Even ignoring these containers, obviously a rogue has a dagger in her boot, the archer has a quiver, the cleric has a holy symbol around their neck, the bard keeps their instrument handy, etc. Why not just assume PCs keep everything they might need in combat handy, and it's only making use of it or tossing it etc that requires an action? As a GM, anything else seems pedantic, even as someone who loves tactics and crunch.
For hordes of low-level enemies, I'd handle it the same way I saw Jason handle the hoard of rats; it is like a hazard with a save. Everyone on the front line makes a level-appropriate basic fortitude save for the sheer endurance of fighting an endless hoard of zombies at the door, or all the PCs make a reflex for dodging crossbow bolts from the entire castle guard, etc. As a GM I don't want to have more than 3 or 4 distinct turns per round; it hogs table time and is too much hassle!
How do you intend to use Hero Points in your game? I'm thinking players shouldn't be able to exchange hero points, because it creates a situation where a character can only die if zero hero points are left at the table. Unless I missed it, the CRB doesn't say one way or the other. Also, what's the reasoning behind not having points persist from session to session? My sessions are typically only about two hours once a week, and if someone does something awesome at the end of the encounter, I'd end up giving a reward that's going to vanish before they have occasion to use it. Likewise, ensuring everyone has one at the start of the session means the players are pretty much never in a situation where the dying condition actually means they could die. Maybe I'm too harsh but I feel like hero points might work better if you can't use them to stabilize. Spend 1 point per reroll of anything (including recovery or damage) might be how I use them in my games, but I'd like to hear other thoughts. I usually like to stick to the RAW but I wonder if the stabilize ability takes too much tension away.
It's not class specific, but feel free to use my character sheet instead of these. Link with explanation. And feel free to let me know what would make it more friendly to your favorite class. There are other cool sheets around the community as well.
Awesome, thanks. And congrats on a successful launch of a great game.
I posted this almost two weeks ago, and emailed also. Is anyone home? I know it's a hectic time at Paizo but please at least let me know you've seen this.
Vie, are you a professional graphic designer or something? Thanks for noticing. I design software interfaces for a living.
Great writeup totoro. I'm planning on running this soon as well. Vague spoilers ahead. Go away players! I like the adventure from what I'm reading. Or rather, I started liking it when I got to part 2. My main concern is with part 1, which feels a little too mundane. I can easily see my players spending like 4 sessions working through a mostly non-fantasy mystery and confronting a non-fantasy enemy in their non-fantasy lair. Some edits I'm thinking about making: 1. There are too many merchant caravan NPCs no one will care about. I may cut it down to just Cooky and Bort, and make it clear they go way back. Might just make it one or two wagons, rather than a whole caravan. Cooky, then, would want the PCs to solve the murder and would probably be a suspect, too. 2. Trin is a teenager who is exceedingly bored of her job at the Feedmill. Is morbidly fascinated by the PCs fight and injuries, rolls her eyes a lot, etc. It's fitting because it already says she wants to get out of this town. For some reason there are no young NPCs as written. I don't need my story to have a bunch of annoying kids, but they're all a bunch of plain, serious, 30+ people. 3. Feedmill is a lame name and an indistinct place. That's probably the point, but I need more flavor. Maybe I'll call it the Tipsy Turnip and make the servers wear turnip-like hats. Teenage Trin would hate that, which is perfect. 4. Give the characters history with Bort. I know cooperative players will generally go along with being pointed toward a quest, but there is really no reason for them to care about him or to be the ones investigating. 5. Make Sir Krent the lawman. As written, there is a useless lawman who does nothing, and an interesting depressed knight of Lastwall who has no relevance to the main plot. 6. Most importantly, find some way to bring in elements of Part 2 early. Having an acid spewing wolf and then nothing weird for too long just isn't to my liking. Alternately, maybe I just need to rush the investigation to make sure it doesn't take more than one session.
Did someone mention fan sheets? The simplified spell sheet on the character sheet I made might be to your liking.
Are you looking at the current version? Instead of "Class/Spell DC" it has "Class DC" and nearby blank spots for other stats.
Okay, there is a 5th version. Probably the last one for a while. Here's the Reddit thread with more context
UPDATE Version 4 is here! Thanks guys. I think we're getting pretty close to finishing the design. I tested it on a cheap monochrome laser printer and it looks solid. @WatersLethe, thanks a ton for taking the time to make a mockup. I looked it over and used some of your ideas in this version.
I actually forgot hero points. I forgot XP too. I made a new revision incorporating some suggestions. Check it out.
Thanks for people who commented on my first preview. I have a finished first draft. Cross-post from reddit: Happy launch day! I redesigned the Pathfinder character sheet from the ground up to be cleaner, more intelligible and printer friendly. Feedback wanted; I'll continue refining it. Creative Commons noncommercial. If you really like it, give a couple bucks to your favorite charity.
Indeed. Fixed.
Just to set expectations, so far I have only a rough draft of the first page (which is also the main page). It completely replaces the first page of the official character sheet which, with respect to Paizo, is poorly designed. The goal is mainly to be highly legible and printer friendly, and therefore somewhat minimalist. If people like it I'll go ahead and create the other pages. Feel free to suggest improvements as well. I realize it is a bit sloppy and inconsistent in places, but I thought I'd release it into the wild for feedback all the same. Thanks for looking!
Sweet Dream focus spell, page 397. Willing target goes to sleep, has a pleasant dream and then gets a tiny bonus for the remaining duration (like +1 to intelligence skill checks). Duration is 10 minutes, but seems like it should be a day or a week, since it bothers to say that when you cast the spell again the previous effect ends.
Got my CRB and and Bestiary today, and I am hyped! However, the bestiary is printed upside down and all the pages are vertically off-center. (Order 7951959) I made a quick phone video so you can see what I'm talking about: https://photos.app.goo.gl/D1zKPd1RiLetc7dy9 Can you send me another one and make sure it's printed correctly? And can I keep the goofed one?
I want to see weird, thematic monsters tied to the Lost Omens setting, like what's in the Inner Sea Bestiary: blighted fey, psychopomp, etc. Monsters with interesting lore that makes me want to create an adventure around them. What I don't want is a bunch more monsters that are just giant animals or random animals mixed together.
When I hear occult, I think of witchcraft, evil monsters and horror. What does that have to do with a charismatic, music-themed support class? The flavor just seems off to me. But maybe I'm not clear on what Paizo means by occult.
This looks so gorgeous, especially the full-page illustrations. The art really speaks to the content next to it. 5e's PHB is beautiful too, but the subject of the art pieces feels more haphazard, as if the publisher said "put some nice fantasy paintings throughout the book."
All good points. I guess as a 5e DM planning to pick up Pathfinder 2e, I would like more 2e adventure paths to choose from. I've never played PF1 due to the ruleset. But as adventures go, WOTC has me spoiled with a bunch of big hardcover campaigns. The 6-part softcover adventure paths are less compelling to me, doubly so if I still have to convert them from 1e. I like the Golarion world setting though and already use it for my 5e and Dungeon World games.
The Kingmaker 2e crowdfund looks like a smashing success. But as someone looking for a less sandboxy campaign, I am really hoping for other AP collections, especially Rise of the Runelords, Return of the Runelords, or even a trilogy boxed set with that whole storyline. If that showed up as a crowdfund, I'd back it. What about you guys? What 2e adventure content do you want to see?
Looks great. The iconics always feel so intentional compared to the seemingly random images in the 5e PHB. Don't get me wrong, the art in WOTC's books is impressive, but Pathfinder's always feels like it has a more careful thought process behind it. Love the way Wayne incorporates the character's culture, personality and gear into a complete design. Coming from a 5e DM looking forward to trying PF2. |
