Even the Perception roll for initiative doesn't determine if you actually spot an ambusher.Yeah, that's right. I kinda misstated how it worked in my earlier post.
But most folks tend to reserve it for the moment hostile intent comes into the picture."most folks" have all manner of ways they rule while playing a new game, or new edition of a game, that don't line up with what the rule book actually says because they don't realize what the new rule book says is different from what an old rule book says - or they do realize it but, for a variety of reasons, would rather change the new rules than change how they play.
People don't often bother with that activity though....do they not? My group pretty much always has someone in the party Search, Scout, and Detect Magic when in exploration mode.
I might be overgeneralizing. And kind of oversimplifying. On Scout: It is a +1 bonus that doesn't stack with most other things, including cover, Battlefield Surveyor, Scout's Warning, or a bunch of other feats. It is good if people don't have those and you can spare a person.
But Defending and Avoiding Notice are better for appropriate characters. And Detect Magic and Search are more important, and anyone who has good Perception proficiency should probably be Searching instead of Scouting. +1 to initiative isn't worth giving up a chance to spot a Hazard and bypass an encounter completely. So you are generally best off only Scouting if you have bad perception, which decreases the odds of you winning initiative anyway.
So my house rule would be pretty unlikely to come up, anyway.
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Great discussion, lots of fun!
I'm curious, how do players choose to target the opposition?
In general, our rule was to focus on the dangerous first, the weak second, support/healing third and leadership last.
Obviously these things overlap quite a bit, but in practice it makes focusing fire pretty simple,and fluid.
It also means we could be focusing on the front line or the back, plus hitting a target marked it for death.
In 3.5 attacking an adventuring party with no more information than what we could see meant targeting Arcane casters first,Divine next, everone else then fighters dead last, because they just weren't that dangerous.
How would you as players plan an an attack on a group of PF2 adventurers?
if we are talking about an actual combat assessment, and not considering how the players would end up feeling (with repeatedly being targeted and falling)... melee rogues, clerics, bards, etc.
Each of these are at the forefront, so they are easy to target, but they lack the HP pool and damage mitigation of other frontline classes. While classes like the fighter provide damage and the champion provides defense to allies, they are also harder targets to take down in their own right.
Rogues have good damage, often hitting as well as greatswords, but with agile weapons. They require set up, but they also have plenty of set up options, as well as debuffs. At the very least, they can provide a flanking bonus to the crit heavy fighter of the party.
Clerics and bards have a variety of buffs and debuffs, many of which require minimal upkeep and affect all allies within their radius.
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In general, our rule was to focus on the dangerous first, the weak second, support/healing third and leadership last.
Healers 1st, dangerous 2nd, and the rest depends. Not taking out someone healing just slows down taking anything else down.
How would you as players plan an an attack on a group of PF2 adventurers?
That really depends of the group. A group full of armored martial types requires different tactics to a highly mobile group, an all ranged group or a caster heavy group.
Easiest to attack first. It's in general the best tactic, especially in 2e where creatures have very similar defenses and offenses.
If the enemies are direct strikers, most likely not, if anything because the martials don't allow them to. Casters on the other hand frequently aim for the magic users.
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If the enemies are direct strikers, most likely not, if anything because the martials don't allow them to. Casters on the other hand frequently aim for the magic users.
Fair enough. Casters usually have the range to target the back line, aand stopping enemy ranged characters from picking off your front line is as good an option as any.