Reading PF2 APs for the first time...

[Raith, Lightlord]

Hey folks

What in Abadars lost keys is up with the encounter headings in this game?

I'll see an encounter with 3 weak things (say lvl -1 skellies) listed as moderate 1 (which I assume is read as 'a moderate challenge for lvl 1 party) and then two pages later a lvl 3 monster also rated as 'moderate 1' when those two are in no way, shape or form close to each other in the threat level they present or the ressources the party can expect to burn.

now I realise the old PF1 system of just going CRX wasn't much better, but this just feels... off to me.

Am I just being weird about this?

[Rysky]

A part of four have 12 actions per round.

One monster has 3 actions per round.

Three monsters have 9 actions per round.

[Perpdepog]

Rysky wrote:

A part of four have 12 actions per round.

One monster has 3 actions per round.

Three monsters have 9 actions per round.

It should also be noted that monster math is a lot tighter, and counts for a lot more in this system. By and large you can trust encounter budget guidelines to give you what they tell you and not to be notional levels of difficulty like 1E's CR system.

That being said, I've heard multiple people say that higher level threats are more extreme at lower levels than higher ones. A level +2 enemy will be more difficult for a 1st-2nd level party to deal with than a level +2 enemy being faced by a 6th-7th level party.

[Thebazilly]

Encounter Building Rules

A Skeleton is a Level -1 creature, so 2 levels below the party. 3 Skeletons would be 60XP, for a Low difficulty encounter. 4 skeletons would be Moderate.

A Level 3 monster is 2 levels above a level 1 party, for 80XP, which is a Moderate encounter.

The game is built to make encounters with a single high level enemy viable boss battles, since it's a staple of the genre. You're correct that the level disparity is much more pronounced at low level. It smooths out a lot once your players are level 3-5 or so.

[CorvusMask]

The encounter building difficulty is much more accurate than in 1e, though they are obviously some cases where different sense applies (like on low level solo moderate is much more difficult than mook moderate one, on higher level the difference isn't as pronounced)