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NOTE: I posted an abridged version of this on Paizo's Facebook feed and an even shorter version elsewhere on Facebook and the Pathfinder2e group on Reddit, but this is my first time posting my entire review of our partial first play.
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My group and I started the first module of "Doomsday Dawn" a week ago. We maybe completed two-thirds of it before calling it a night (we spent much time role-playing).
Our group consisted of:
- A strong goblin barbarian of the dragon totem (AC 18)
- A wolf-stance gnome monk who loved animals (AC 15)
- A well-armored dwarf cleric of Torag (AC 19?)
- An unarmored sleazy gnome rogue (AC 15?)
- A lightly armored Irissen halfling ranger (AC 14?) with a polar bear cub (AC 12) and a longbow
I had been very nervous about it beforehand. Despite wanting to keep an open mind, the public online disputes for and against the system had been wearing on me. And my group included a variety of experience levels. I didn't want the newer players to have a bad time.
And... we had a great time. A few key points:
- The flow of gameplay was much improved over PF1
- To me, playing it "felt" like I was playing Pathfinder, even with the rule changes
- One's choices of tactics in combat seemed more meaningful
- The game seemed more intuitive to play than PF1, especially for those with little or no PF1 experience
- Most of us used and preferred the play test's dice rolling rules for ability generation, which worked fine. Two of us instead preferred the new standard play test rules for generating abilities.
- Goblins may seem an odd addition to core ancestries, and yet we enjoyed our goblin player character, who didn't seem out of place while still standing out in a good way. The party was scared of her. Of course, the way she played the goblin may have been key to our enjoyment. She was cannibalistic and aggressive, yet not actually disruptive. She was a loyal party member.
- I still think Orcs make much more sense than Goblins as a new core race, but if both were added that would be somehow more fitting than just adding Goblins.
- An ancestral Charisma boost can arguably make sense for player Goblins, but I think Intelligence would be a better and less controversial choice.
- Halflings seemed to have anemic ancestry feats. Where is one based on appreciation for food? Or demonstrating strength of will? Or at least resistance to corruption? Recall their copyrighted literary inspiration for their existence. Or forge a unique path of your own like you did with Goblins. Paizo's treatment of Halflings shows glimmers of uniqueness that never really blossoms. Look to Wayne Reynold's obsessive artwork for halfling versatile equipment to draw some ideas. Make them a grounded yet still impressive contrast to Gnomes and Goblins
- The playtest adventure seemed more cookie cutter and bare bones than normal for a Pathfinder campaign. The GM wasn't impressed
- Half of our group refused to use the Doomsday Dawn character backgrounds, preferring the general ones in the playtest core book. Perhaps modules should have the option of choosing a free background to gain in addition to the regular ones? Or maybe it is not really an issue, as players are free to refuse to use module backgrounds I suppose. It did seem, for some players, that backgrounds were chosen for their bonuses rather than their flavor or fluff. For others, the fluff and flavor mattered more or equally.
- There should be a way to gain a Signature skill outside of class choice, perhaps with a general feat.
- Resonance didn't really come up in our play as none of us tried to use anything that required it. I like Resonance in theory except for its application to potions, which is hard to swallow (pun intended). It also bugs me that wands still have uses per day yet spend Resonance. It seems to contradict the stated intention for introducing Resonance.
- We strongly liked the three-action economy, and the cleric loved the new shield mechanics, though it took us a while to figure out the mechanics of shields as damage reduction. We used shields incorrectly for most of our session, so the cleric may have enjoyed shields under a false understanding of the mechanics. I'm not sure how he felt after we deciphered the rules correctly, but he stopped letting his shield take damage for him, stating he would save that risk of breaking it for when he needed it more
- We're unsure how we would have fared if we didn't have a cleric with us as we weren't equipped with alternate healing sources until the rogue found a potion. Most of us would probably have been barely alive, and we still haven't faced the hobgoblin who we presume is the final boss. Without a cleric, I suspect a TPK would be likely in our future, but still may be as the cleric is out of healing now
- I'm amazed that our ranger, clad only in leather armor, and our rogue, with no armor at all, fared okay in the new system. I expected them to be swiftly knocked out due to the new critical hit rules. The ranger kept at a long range with a longbow, which had a penalty he didn't expect in the close quarters of the adventure, but the rogue fought frontline and did fine. He may have gotten lucky. Our goblin barbarian did drop down to 2 HP before being partly healed by the cleric, and our unarmored gnome rogue went down to 1 or 2 HP also before being partly healed. The polar bear cub likewise nearly was knocked out.
- Ranged combat doesn't seem to synergize at all for the ranger with his animal companion, but it did boost his damage at least and - to my surprise - the polar bear cub never went down
- The barbarian, cleric, and rogue seemed to perform best in damage, but the cleric used up all of his spells by the point we ended our session (two-thirds through “The Lost Star”, as noted before). The rogue, barbarian and polar bear cub came nearest to being knocked out, the monk lost half his hit points, and I’m unsure how the cleric fared. The ranger’s health was fine, sticking to ranged attacks, but his polar bear cub did most of the damage he accomplished due to poor rolls by the ranger.
- I'm unsure how well lock-picking works. The goblin got tired of the gnome rogue's attempts to pick a secret door's lock and used her crowbar twice to open it.
- Overall the new rules seemed to be an improvement on PF1, but they do need fleshing out, fixes, and refinements. The game seems unpolished and lacking in core elements. Some mechanics, in theory, look broken but I don't recall if they came up in play... I vaguely recall a couple of moments when the rules stumped us or didn't make sense, but we side-stepped the rules at those times... and I can't recall that well which rules made us respond that way. Sorry... I think one time involved how to set initiative and another time involved shield mechanics.
- I'm no longer feeling stressed about the playtest or PF2
Thanks for the feedback!