The reason why some things are non-actions (drawing and knocking arrow is the only example I can think of) is that free actions can only be done during your turn and so they made drawing an arrow a non-action so that it could be used with the Snap Shot line of feats.
PF1:
You have a Standard, Move, and Swift action on your turn. You can trade a Standard for a Move but not a Move for a Swift, and you can't trade the other direction for either. You can use both a Standard and Move to do a Full-Round Action, but that's different from a 1-Round action which takes your turn and goes off at the start of your next turn assuming you don't get interrupted. You also have Free actions which cost nothing and can be done as many times as you like until your GM begs you to stop, and Non-Actions which aren't the same as Free Actions for some reason. You can also get an Immediate Action during other people's turns, but you only get one and it takes your next turn's Swift Action to do it - don't worry if you forget about that, because I probably will too. You also get one Attack of Opportunity if you're wielding a weapon that triggers based on stuff the enemy does, and you can get more if you take a certain feat, but they're not like Immediate Actions so they cost nothing to use. One of your available actions, the 5' Step, allows you to move 5' if it's the only movement you make during that turn - specifically a Move action to Move, or a Charge, or Run, or Long/High Jump, but not standing up, or being pushed or pulled, or teleporting. Except you can't take actions after you teleport, so remember that. But a 5' Step isn't an action, it's a Non-Action, so...? Oh yeah, you can draw a single weapon as part of a Move action to Move or a Charge, but only if your BAB is +1. Getting an item out is a Move action, but only if it's easily accessible - stuff in your bag takes a Standard. You can Charge as a Standard action if you're limited to just a Standard action, such as during a Surprise Round or when you're Slowed, but you only move half the distance. Some conditions can take away actions, but they vary in what actions get taken away and they're way worse for martial characters than casters. Etc etc etc ad infinitum.PF2:
You get three Actions, plus occasionally a single Reaction and/or...
And what's crazy is that, in PF1, if you were a non-caster there usually was not much variance on what you did from turn to turn.
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And what's crazy is that, in PF1, if you were a non-caster there usually was not much variance on what you did from turn to turn.
Yeah, if you weren't a spell caster your basic round was:
Move + single attack or5ft step + full attack or
Full Attack (because the enemy didn't 5ft step away)
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And what's crazy is that, in PF1, if you were a non-caster there usually was not much variance on what you did from turn to turn.Yeah, if you weren't a spell caster your basic round was:
Move + single attack or
5ft step + full attack or
Full Attack (because the enemy didn't 5ft step away)
Usually trying to min/max some way to get pounce (or its off brand), to be honest.
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In PF1, combat maneuvers were unusable unless you were specifically feated for them. I can't count the number of times someone brought up combat maneuver in a situation where it was perfectly legitimate to use it to no avail as he was not fit for them. Combat maneuvers in PF1 was mostly monster abilities. In my opinion, in PF2 they are not "as good as many people say they are", but they are clearly not as bad as in PF1. And when it is legitimate to use them, they work properly.
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People forget that many martials used things like Intimidate and combat maneuvers; and had ways to do those as part of attacking.
Its no different than saying spellcasters are only casting spells, ignoring what the spell actually did.
Its also literally the same thing PF2 does, but for some reason people remember combat maneuvers when talking about PF2 but not PF1.
Specialized builds did, but generic martials did not.
They worked well enough. But I will admit that it required specialists to really make use of them.
The point in general was, that there is more than just full attacking as people often put it. But its so relatively easy/efficient people only remember that.
Honestly I mostly play martial characters and could probably count the number of times where I used a combat maneuver (as a character that didn't specialize into doing them) on one hand. It happens, but I would say it's very rare.
Like the BBEG is standing in front of a ledge to a lethal fall rare.
Now martial characters, especially those using a two-handed weapon and power attack, typically had an easy time adding something onto their character that they could specialize in that was more than full attacking, but again that was a specialization. If you didn't build your character to support it, you're weren't going to do it.
I've build martial characters that used Intimidate, but they also had Cornugon Smash and other feats to become specialized into it. Without the feat support you were typically better off just full attacking.
So really, the generic martial default action is full attack, or move and attack. That doesn't mean a specific character can't do more, but generic martial characters as a subset of available characters pretty much only have full attacks.
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They worked well enough. But I will admit that it required specialists to really make use of them.
The point in general was, that there is more than just full attacking as people often put it. But its so relatively easy/efficient people only remember that.
The maneuvers were insane when you have builds specialized in them, which in turn made these builds useless when they didn't apply. This kind of feast or famine design isn't healthy to the game, IMO. I like PF2e's design much more, they're easy to apply, don't require heavy investment but they also have smaller effects. A trip in PF2e is nowhere near as hurtful as it was in PF1e, specially when you consider that the latter was designed around full-attacking every round and suffering any condition would screw that up a lot.
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Feast or famine is a result of over specialization, and it still happens in PF2. However, the limit is much smaller.
Get the feats you need and spend the rest some where else. That principle has always been the case for the best rounded characters in both editions.
In any case my original comment was just about there being more options that people forget. Its the equivalent of people only talking about Strikes in PF2, ignoring all the other feats and actions a martial can do.
My experience was that "well rounded characters" were lack luster in PF1. If you didn't specialize hard into something you didn't excel at something, and other people did. By comparison you looked ineffective in general.
In PF2 my experience has been that you can't specialize enough into anything to be profoundly better at something.
But that also means you're much more likely to try various different kinds of actions as may best fit the situation.
You don't run into a situation where your shtick doesn't apply.
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Feast or famine is a result of over specialization, and it still happens in PF2. However, the limit is much smaller.
Get the feats you need and spend the rest some where else. That principle has always been the case for the best rounded characters in both editions.
In any case my original comment was just about there being more options that people forget. Its the equivalent of people only talking about Strikes in PF2, ignoring all the other feats and actions a martial can do.
The big difference is that in PF2 there are a lot of actions you can take without having to specifically build for them. A generic martial couldn't viably do many things without specifically building towards it. In PF2, your character can viably trip, shove, grapple, and demoralize during combat with no feats. They can also do things like draw and drink a potion and still have an action to move across the room or hit an opponent.
That, and new tactical options are the norm for feats now. You rarely have an opportunity cost of a math enhancer instead.