First impressions from first level

[The Great Potato]

Sup guys!

I finally had the chance to play through 2e for the first time today - here are my first thoughts! I know "first impressions" is kind of a thread retread, but the other ones near the top seem to have turned immediately into edition competition threads :\

First off, I'm kind of surprised there's no general feedback forum. I played through two scenarios today and I want to provide more general feedback before I head to the scenario sections.

Actions and Combat:

• Wow, the action economy is on the money! It feels right, doesn't overly extend turns, and allowed both my caster and my paladin to feel active. Many systems leave casters bored out of their minds for the first few levels.
• Maybe it's just my groups' unfamiliarity with the new system, but tanking the multiattack penalty and just attacking a bunch often felt like the best option for fighters, even when the opportunity to assist or use a combat maneuver presented itself.
• The encounters were often super weaksauce, more than usual for level 1 quest scenarios. I'll go into more detail in the appropriate scenario feedback sections.

Classes and Options:

So. Much. This. I like to build unconventional characters, and this one book enables that as much as 2-3 years worth of content in other systems.

• Choice: 2e did a good job of incorporating a solid amount of choice in one book. Classes include all of their relevant feats, and often many of the less extensive archetypes from 1e.
• Archetypes: I like this a lot - it's a fantastic way to reconcile prestige classes and archetypes! I've got more to say on this matter, but I'll do so in another thread.
• I'm somewhat less excited about the general feats. They sometimes do cool stuff, but many just don't feel impactful. Maybe it's because I've spent so much time in the minmax territory of pfs.

Armor:

• Shield Block: The Seelah I played with in doomesday dawn went through two shields and I don't think that was a scenario-specific occurrence. They break quick.

Weapons:

• Reach weapons: the versatility of reach without any significant drawback kind of broke combat in one of my games. We had a lance fighter and a Valeros - they were both melee powerhouses, but the Valeros (and our poor enemies) were just hopelessly outclassed by the lance.
• Bows: the reload value of zero puzzles me a little. I know bows tend to be machine guns in fantasy (eg Legolas), but the way they played out at my tables stretched my suspension of disbelief. Bumping up the damage and reload values of all bows and crossbows might be worth experimenting with.
• "Deadly": the example for this keyword is pretty ambiguous, and that came up a lot. I think it would help if it showed the entire dice pool for a non-magical rapier crit, instead of just the deadly dice.

Magic Items:

• Resonance. I have some concerns, but I like the reason it exists. I'll wait to pass along my feedback until I've experimented with it a bit more.
• Staves: this is a cool direction to take them. Again, I'll have to wait until I can use one.

Organization:

Certain parts of the book were not intuitive for me to navigate. I had to look up a ton more keywords in the index than usual: Dents and Item Damage, Resonance, class powers, and a few others were hard to find.

The spells section could be broken into different buckets for cantrips, powers, and proper spells since those three operate vastly differently from each other.

Overall, I like the new mechanics! Even the concepts I'm not sure about have solid reasons for existence. This playtest has me optimistic about 2e.