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I did my first playtest today as a Paladin.
Thee are my my observations and opinions. Before I say anything, I respect and admire the creative team at Paizo and Pathfinder I know you all got to be thick skinned when you take something you invested three years in and just sort of lay it out there for critical comment. My initial graduate papers were peer reviewed and contained so much red ink on them, I had to struggle at first to find the white spots on the paper, so I total emphasize with you guys.
I made several characters for this scenario and it took me 3 hours for the first and then about an hour and a half for the other three once I learned the new character building system.
During the adventure as a Paladin, I was knocked down three times to zero hit points. Critical success on the monsters is dangerous and was achieved several times. Our party had a Cleric, Paladin, Sorcerer and a Rogue. During the whole scenario, none of us were able to achieve a critical success at any time.
The party was in a near total party kill scenario three times. If not for Hero Points, it would have been TPK at the Paharasma fountain, the goblin cave and against the Drakus (hobgoblin/bugbear changing blood sucking thing). We ran out of healing after each of those major fights and had to retreat back into town to rest, heal and recuperate.
I used the Athletics skill to force open the door in the final encounter. ONe of the things that did not make sense was why is there an armor check penalty to force open a door? IN the minds of the GM and the whole party, this is just a strength, mass and a bit of knowledge on where to slam into the door and bust it open. Armor should not be a detractor and perhaps the additional bulk actually a benefit. Having forced doors open in real life wearing real body armor that extra 35 pounds came in handy actually. My recommendation is minimally remove the armor check penalty.
I did not run out of resonance points or spell slots but I ran out of spell points three times three times.
I used my Hero Point and each of us did as we each were at one time or another in a various stage of dying.
I do like the action economy, but it is not perfect. Combat encounter time was the same, but as we learned with each encounter it did speed up.
Shields, I get the concept now and its cool, but the amount of damage a shield can absorb verse the cost in giving up retributive strike or another action needs to be critically looked at. I had my shield raised and blocked a hit, absorbing 5 damage and still took 10 damage. My recommendation is increase the number of dents a shield can take as the about of damage it can absorb. I would recommend Caesar's Gallic Wars for some historical examples.
I like what can be done with Sorcerer and Paladin Classes. Lots of freedom to be creative and hopefully more so in the 2E final version and follow on publications.
Spell Casting, based on my initial concerns in reading the rule book and this scenario, it really feels nerfed. The Alchemist would have been severely handicap and our Sorcerer was limited in effectiveness. Worse, in my opinion, he clearly felt of little over all use to the party as was reduced to holding up the light source and casting cantrips only to very limited use.
Concentration checks, while I suspect they were removed to make things simple, I think they have a place in the game. I want to say either the cleric or the sorcerer was casting a spell and got hit, and lost the spell.
Based on three near TPK situations, it is very easy to die in 2E. With spell casters nerfed and missile combat I feel needing to be better worked out I am wondering at this point how you do not have to rest after every or every other fight if you only have one cleric in the party.
Potions, I do not get why it takes a resonance point to consume one. If I misread the rules, I apologize , but in my mind, a potion is a total self contained, idiot/infantry proof item that by design anyone can and should be able to use. The resonance in my mind is in the bottle/vial when it was crafted and why you pay out the nose for such items. I recommend not charging resonance for potions and potentially looking at financial cost or bulk as a way to avoid somebody from buying them by the case load like cheep beer on a Friday night.
That all said, I am not sure at this point if the 1.0 vs. the 2.0 game mechanics is any simpler. Both require a person to read and study and friendly folks at your table to help you sort it out.
While I do like the direction of the Paladin and Sorcerer classes, I do feel that the what you can do to diversify and make your character unique is presently more limited. The options and the ability to make a tailored fit character does not seem to be there. I hope I am wrong, but right now, I am not seeing it.
PnP play under 1.0 seems to work great, I have loved it, and it is how I do 75% of my Pathfinder RPG pursuits. With the Action Economy, I am not sure how this translates and I have not seen many folks post on this as a concern.
I spent a lot of money on Pathfinder 1.0 books and products. I do love 1.0 and I am still scratching my head while a lot of things could not have been addressed in organized play supplement or even a updated core rule book. I cannot help feel like that we might...might...be throwing out the baby with the bathwater and while we have new game with mechanics will we be crating as many if not not more problems down the road.
I'm a casual player, I have only a handful of characters that I have invested a lot into creatively let along almost all of the books in one or more formats. I've played RPGs since I was 10 and luckily with with one of my best friends and groomsman to this very day. I don't always get a lot of time to play when I have to balance a job, my spouse and her career, and three kids. Gear, equipment, even boons, I am not attached too, but to say that there is currently not a place for those characters or some established conversion rule for them in 2.0 and that for organized play I have to start over, that the story cannot continue or carry over into the 2E world, no matter how great we make 2E, may be the single largest reason that when 2E becomes the only officially supported and updated version of Pathfinder, I stay with 1.0 and ride it out in to the sunset.