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Hi everyone,
Long-time fan of Paizo here - since the days of Dungeon Magazine (Shackled City). Never moved from 3.5 onto Pathfinder 1 but super curious about 2nd edition. Was hoping the community could point me to some high-quality reviews of the game. In my experience, it's pretty hard to find reviews of new editions that don't fall into pre-release hype or non-adopter negativity. Would love to read reviews by folks with extensive experience of the game (not just beta playtest).
Any links/pointers welcome. Thank you!
W.
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The obvious place would be EN World. With a little bit of digging I found 2 reviews: One from Morrus himself, and one from dedicated Paizo reporter LongGoneWriter.
I would also recommend checking out the official SRD at Archives of Nethys. Nearly everything that's been published up to now is available there, including a lot of information on the official setting. If you want to read the Core Rulebook in the order it is printed, look at the "Rules" section on that site.
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The obvious place would be EN World. With a little bit of digging I found 2 reviews: One from Morrus himself, and one from dedicated Paizo reporter LongGoneWriter.
I would also recommend checking out the official SRD at Archives of Nethys. Nearly everything that's been published up to now is available there, including a lot of information on the official setting. If you want to read the Core Rulebook in the order it is printed, look at the "Rules" section on that site.
Thank you! Those are great links to begin with.
Note that both reviews were posted on August 1, 2019. Neither review gives the impression of having been written after an extensive playtest of the published rules. The things Morrus complains of are typical for someone who reads the book but hasn't played it much.The Archive of Nethys is pure gold, thanks so much for alerting me of that.
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GeekDad has a great review, too.
Also, please note that quite often the reviewers receive an advanced copy of the final product, so their "day one" review isn't just skimming the book they bought that day.
Thanks for the additional responses, those have been tremendously helpful.
Point taken re: day 1 reviews. Do we know how long in advance of release day sites like Enworld receive their review copies?
Well, 3pps got theirs 2-3 months in advance, and supply warehouses for local stores got their 1 month in advance, so I'm guess 1-2 months ahead, so they can get at least 2 full sessions in before they even start their pre-edit write up. I've also found the YouTube channel QueueTimes that did a playtest review, as well as full rules publish review, and a homebrew campaign. They also review the new splat books on top of all of that, one of my new favorite TTRPG channels on YT, since they do ALL OF THE THINGS!
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There are so many reviews post-release of PF2.
- Gideon's Gaming (Feb. 5, 2020)
- Twin Cities Geek (October 6, 2019)
- The Gamer Sage (October 1, 2019)
- Comic Book Gaming News (August 27, 2019)
- Roleplayers Chronicle (August 24, 2019)
- Geek Dad (August 15, 2019)
- Nerds on Earth (Aug. 6, 2019)
- The Gaming Gang (August 1, 2019)
- Strange Assembly (August 1, 2019)
- Blizzard Watch (August 2019)
- App Trigger (August 2020)
- Ars Technica (July 30, 2019)
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I am a connoisseur for podcast and video reviews of PF2 -- I've been hunting them down for the past 8 months to entertain me when I drive!
These are my favorite 2 reviews at the moment:
Rolling Dice and Taking Names
A father and his two sons geek out over PF2 and compare it to D&D 5e and PF1. They're very enthusiastic about the new edition.
Dungeon Musings
This guy is someone who loves AD&D 2E and really liked D&D 4E. He liked them over 3E. He talks 2.5 hours systematically going through PF2 and loves it and says why. Voluble as well as enthusiastic.
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This is a fairly even-handed comparison of D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e, even if I don't 100% agree with the reviewer.
Just saw this the other day and was about to link it. I think it’s a really well done video and even though I don’t agree everywhere he does make a lot of solid points.
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Right. Even if I don't agree with him, I see where he's coming from. I just value some things differently. And that's the best kind of review – where the reviewer doesn't just say "This is good" or "This is bad", but explains why they think something is good or bad. And if the reviewer says "I liked X because it works like Y", and you go "But I don't like Y", then you can judge for yourself that you probably won't like X.This is a fairly even-handed comparison of D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e, even if I don't 100% agree with the reviewer.Just saw this the other day and was about to link it. I think it’s a really well done video and even though I don’t agree everywhere he does make a lot of solid points.
Thirded. I especially appreciate that the reviewer's assessment is based on how a mechanic works in play. E.g., he says PF2 rules on death and dying are a bloated mess in the rulebook but work wonderfully at the table. That's the kind of feedback/insight I was hoping to get in the OP and it's a great example.
Thank you also to the other person who linked the podcasts. That's another great review format, by all means.
One reason I'm slightly reluctant to pull the purchase trigger yet is that the PF1 core rulebook went through... six? seven? more? iterations of errata. I'd love to get my hands on the PF2 deluxe version but anticipate that it (like its PF1 counterpart) will be out of date before long. Did the deluxe print run even integrate the first round of errata from 2019? Thanks!
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One reason I'm slightly reluctant to pull the purchase trigger yet is that the PF1 core rulebook went through... six? seven? more? iterations of errata. I'd love to get my hands on the PF2 deluxe version but anticipate that it (like its PF1 counterpart) will be out of date before long. Did the deluxe print run even integrate the first round of errata from 2019? Thanks!
I honestly think continuous errata will be less of an issue this edition. The more naturalistic, simulationist language of 1E allowed for more gray areas that required clarification over time. After years of dealing with messageboards and publishing FAQs, the design team went into the new edition trying to preclude the necessity for that. Not to say it's foolproof, but the more programmatic language of PF2 should mean that errata will not come as unforeseen problems arise, but when subsequent publications mean revisiting certain keywords and systems. The 1.0 Errata document is focused on "printing day" errors and very little if anything seems to come from a rules oversight. I think you're fine going with a 2nd printing.
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PF1 language was notoriously prone to generate arguments even on very basic levels, due to inconsistent use of terms. Cue the endless arguments on the difference between attack, attack action, standard action used to attack somebody, "roll to hit" without specifying what action is it or some other weird language.
In PF2, it's just Strikes.
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I'll add a thought that sums up one of my initial thoughts: it plays better than it reads.
I have never played an edition of D&D and Pathfinder where by lvl 11 the players are still getting hammered no matter how hard they try to avoid it. 1E had instant kills and deaths, but that wasn't so much hammered as unlucky. You either died or you lived and crushed the enemy. All other editions of D&D/PF1 the party kind of rolled over standard monsters out of the Monster Manual/Bestiary. In PF2 the fights are naturally knockdown, drag out, bloody fights with lots of back and forth hammering. And that is with monsters pulled out of the Bestiary and tossed on to the table with minimal preparation. Very surprising when coming from 3E/PF. The math in this edition is extremely tight. Not sure how they did it.