Flat-Footed why -2ac

[vyruxx]

Why Flat-Footed is now -2 Ac and not +2 to the player's attack? Any reason that escapes me?

[Eltacolibre]

Nobody can answer that question here except if a dev decides to answer.

[Slamy Mcbiteo]

I think it has to do with bonus stacking...in PF2 there only 3 bonus types; Item, Status or Circumstance. You can only have one of those of each type, the highest...so it it was added to attack it would take one of those slots or it would be ignore for a higher bonus

Penalties on the other hand have 4,Item, Status, Circumstance and Untyped...the same stacking occurs for the first 3 but for Untyped you get all of those.

CRB reference

That would be my guess why that is...it is to limit the stacking of bonus to 3 total...

That would be my guess....This one of the little changes I like...no more complex bonus stacking to worry about :)

[zean]

It's probably a –2 circumstance penalty to AC so that it stacks with circumstance bonuses to attack rolls for players doing clever stuff.

[Gloom]

It makes things much easier for the DM since they're the only one that needs to remember that something is flatfooted when doing math. Sometimes people forget to add certain bonuses and having to keep track of it can be annoying.

I personally love that they changed it around this way!

[Slamy Mcbiteo]

It is a circumstance penalty :)

Flat-footed

[Tiene]

I think it also feels more “real.” The target is the one that’s flat-footed, therefore its their number that should change instead of everyone else’s. It makes it feel connected to the world instead of arbitrary.

[Captain Morgan]

Flat-footed was never a bonus to hit; it previously denied the target its dex and dodge bonuses to AC. You're thinking of flanking, which does make the target flat-footed.

THAT change is probably because having flanking, tripping, and being undetected all stack would break the crit system.