Here is a screenshot from our 18th-level game from this morning.
As you can see from the icons next to the character names, there are no less 50 active status effects in play.
If you're not using VTT automation, such as Foundry, how on earth do you manage to accurately track all the numerous status conditions that have long since become so common during high level play?
For those of you who have experienced high level play without automated tools, what tips and tricks might you share with the community for successfully managing it all?
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Two answers here.
First as a DM:
I like using Wanderer's Guide for my in person games. The legacy site has an encounter builder that tracks HP, initiative, conditions, and abilities. You can link players to a campaign to keep track of PCs, but it doesn't include playtest stuff (and one character is an exemplar and 1 is a commander) so if there's playtest stuff I use it only for monsters and their abilities.
I also have an excel sheet I developed to help keep track of stuff, including initiative, secret rolls, and also conditions. I'm still fine tuning it, but I tend to use it more than the above since the 2 playtest characters.
I've also made some cheat sheets for my players that I had laminated so they can use to keep track of conditions.
As a Player:
I use my own excel condition tracker (most of my players don't come with laptops or I would give them this).
If I don't have access to a laptop then I use the laminated condition sheet I made.
Pathbuilder for the players. I just keep the monsters listed on my initiative paper and list the conditions and number of turns those conditions last next to their names. Haven't much trouble in tier 4 play. Players have full responsibility of tracking their conditions and staying on top of what values my monsters need to meet on a and saves
The answer is quite simple, my friend:
You forget.
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How do I do it?
By understanding the rules and prioritizing. Status effects do not stack as far as the overall numbers. So if you have two status effects that do the same thing for the same duration, you don't need to track both of them. If one of them has a rule interaction like frightened working with certain abilities like Dread Striker or extra damage from frightened, then prioritize tracking the frightened condition.
Use quick notation on your sheet tracking sheet.
Often the same status bonus or penalty will be on numerous characters, so just know this and you don't have to track it all separately. Write something like Slow 1, identifier for party member or monster using notation, track duration which may vary depending on save
I haven't found it very difficult. Every DM has been tracking all this stuff for years or decades. 3E/PF1 had way, way, way more stuff to track. PF2 status and circumstance tracking is much, much easier than 3E/PF1 with its numerous bonuses and penalties. That was hard to track and unpleasant to do so.
50? uh... are we counting the same way?
LOL. There most certainly WAS. There was another combatant on the field with a host of conditions on it that must have died whilee I was trying to grab the screenshot. I think we topped out at about 54 status effects and ongoing conditions during that encounter.
And that's another thing, they're all constantly shifting around!!! XD
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Some of the conditions are "rider" conditions, like if you're prone you're also off-guard, but in play you dont track both as separate.
Some also are "timer" for the condition for automation, not an actual condition.
I see some PC token image on the PCs, which are most likely "Demoralize" immunity. That's the PC's responsibility to track who they've demoralized, tho even while not actively being remembered the GM probably has a background memory of someone already demoralizing someone and can call out a mistake.
There's also exploration activity marker on the tokens.
All in all, the condition on the enemies are simply:
* Large Enemy 1: Qiuckened, Persistent Fire, Slow, Off-Guard
* Large Enemy 2: Quickened
* Huge Enemy: Persistent Bleed
That shouldn't be too hard to track on paper
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Firstly, a bunch of those aren't needed to be tracked separately and stuff like "raising a shield" is self tracked for players.
Secondly the brain can handle a lot, given that you will have static effects that tend to last all or most of a combat players will just note down what effect is in play and when it expires and ignore the daily ones.
E.g. how much mental effort does it take to track a rank 2 longstrider or haste cast on party members, very little.
You are seeing a bunch of icons, including subordinate effects, but realistically there is not that much that needs active tracking. It is just that foundry needs to have a way to visualise it because people aren't doing it manually.