For our party there is a problem with the game. The average character kill rate is one character for every 3 sessions. In both cases, the characters died because they didn't make their fortitude saves against a Monster's DC, and not because of a tactical error.
This problem is only going to get worse as we level.
The reason is DC table 10-2, which many DM's are using for Monster DC's.
If we look at the rate of change per level, we get the following
type | player | trivial | low | high | extreme | severe
change/level | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5
The consequence is that chance of failure increases by %5 ever two levels. A save that has 50% chance of failure at level one will fail 75% of the time at level 11.
There are some mitigations such as the 5% boost from stats every five levels and magic items. Unfortunately there have to be lots of powerful magic items (+2 at 5th, +4 at 9th) as the above DCs apply to all skills & saves.
Lastly my experience is that the starting values are set high. At 2nd level, my character had an 80% chance of failure per save and needed two saves. After that experience, I seriously considered quitting Pathfinder altogether and not returning. Instead I decided that this was an opportunity to play every single class.
I am very interested to hear what fixes people have for the above Math that doesn't involve lots of magic items.
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I agree with you. For reference, 4e had a similar system (but no Hero Points). Death Saves were basically a DC 10 flat check, and three failures meant death. First Aid to stabilize was also a DC 15 check (and no healer's kit requirement). There was definitely a sense of urgency when a PC was down (sometimes resulting in multiple untrained first aid checks), but you didn't NEED magical healing or a Hero Point to have a realistic chance of survival.
The current pf2 system seems to assume magical healing or Hero Points.
... There are some mitigations such as the 5% boost from stats every five levels and magic items. Unfortunately there have to be lots of powerful magic items (+2 at 5th, +4 at 9th) as the above DCs apply to all skills & saves...
If this is true, then what was the point of getting rid of the "Big Six"? I thought this new system was supposed to work without demanding characters to buy certain items so that the math can work as expected. Seriously. If we're really expected to have boosting items than Paizo straight up lied with their statement regarding those items from PF1e.
If you're investing in an item that's boosting something, it must put will above the curve for that particular stat, not being a baseline requirement for the character to be able to be on the expected power-level.
I really appreciate Zman0’s link to his table above. Good stuff - a little hard core but I am going to try to sell it to my DM.
If this is true, then what was the point of getting rid of the "Big Six"? I thought this new system was supposed to work without demanding characters to buy certain items so that the math can work as expected. Seriously. If we're really expected to have boosting items than Paizo
If you're investing in an item that's boosting something, it must put will above the curve for that particular stat, not being a baseline requirement for the character to be able to be on the expected power-level.
I agree. Requiring magic items just to stay level is painful.
My real hope here is that someone from Paizo might drop very big hints about what they are planning so that it can be playtested. {fingers crossed}