What are some "pro tips " that you think might be worth sharing? They can be as broad, general, specific, or corner case as you like. Whether it's a long time truism, or something that recently occurred to you in the moment, we welcome them all. (Do double check things though; we don't want to be spreading misinformation.)
I'll start:
When you have a thrown weapon with the returning rune and the Ranged Trip trait, such as a bola, consider adding a retrieval prism talisman to your armor as well. "Why do this?" you might ask. The returning rune only returns your weapon after a thrown strike. You use the retrieval prism talisman to return it to your hand as a free action after attempting a ranged trip.
If you get tired of buying and applying such talismans, or want your talisman armor slot available for a different talisman, consider investing in a thrower's bandolier instead. It's only slightly more expensive than the returning rune, fills a similar role, and is more versatile in many respects.
I look forward to seeing what else you guys have.
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Pro Tip (for experienced players of PF1): Don't think of PF2 as the same game as PF1. The mechanics are so different, leave (almost) all of your experience and expectations behind, because they will generally be more harmful to your understanding and enjoyment of the game. Treat this like learning a brand new game, because it pretty much is.
Reactions.
Like it's good to have at least one reliable reaction in the build somewhere, you gain one every turn might as well use it, be it Reactive Strike, Shield Block or even Nimble Dodge.
Same with Spellcasters, have a lot of reaction spells now, so you don't even need to go into archetypes anymore to get it, Blood Vendettas, Interposing Earth, Acid Dragon Bile and so on
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Retreat is almost always a valid option unless there are hostages at stake or your party genuinely has their back to a corner and when encountering a new/unknown foe for the first time is typically the wisest move you can make as it will provide opportunities to rest up, research, and prepare with more knowledge.
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RAW Aid goes crazy. After a few levels the DC becomes trivial and the bonus is often relevant.
Your third action for a +1 or better is nuts.
On a related note... GMs: feel free to change the Aid DC. The book says you can do this and you basically always should. The default DC in legacy was awful in that it was too high at low level (Aid was harder than doing the action) so players would try it, have it go horribly, and never do it again.
The remaster's base DC is low enough that you won't often have that issue anymore, but both of them have another issue where it quickly becomes trivial and a thing you can never fail, making feats to make you better at it utterly pointless.
I generally run Aid as an Easy/Very Easy DC of the check itself, making it so someone can help that is less skilled than the primary person, but not "I can't possibly fail at this" easy unless they actually have invested in it.
I think I got that advice originally from The Rules Lawyer's Youtube, but I've been using it for a long time myself with good effect.
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Players: Recall Knowledge, for the love of everything holy. I've seen so many things as a GM that players make harder for themselves simply because they adamantly refuse to use it. One group of new players in particular was getting their butts handed to them and couldn't understand what they were doing wrong to the point that I practically pleaded with them to Recall Knowledge. When they finally did, the fight got easier very quickly.
GMs: Give your players useful info when they do Recall Knowledge. Some GMs are very stingy on this and it discourages using it, but if a player is spending the action and investing in that ability, let them know stuff. It feels impactful for the player when it makes a difference. I let them ask a specific question, and if they don't have one in mind, I just give them a piece of info relevant to what is going on.
A party of mine was fighting an Astradaemon and did a recall knowledge. The info I gave them was "oh if it starts its turn with someone grabbed, it can devour their soul." As someone WAS grabbed at the time, the player that learned this felt really good and they moved to get that other player free, heh.
I also allow players to try again on a regular failure in combat (but not a critical failure), which is a house rule I like. It makes a failure a wasted action instead of a wasted action and you can't do it again, and it simulates the "I know this but can't quite recall it while under stress on the first try" feeling that some of us have in real life. :)
Know the rules but dont think only in terms of the rules. This is a TTRPG and you can along with GM buyin do anything.
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Pro Tip (for experienced players of PF1): Don't think of PF2 as the same game as PF1. The mechanics are so different, leave (almost) all of your experience and expectations behind, because they will generally be more harmful to your understanding and enjoyment of the game. Treat this like learning a brand new game, because it pretty much is.
Fully agree. I have seen way too many people try and treat PF2 as though it is just an updated version of PF1 and run into problems.
Specific advice:
* Team synergy is more valuable than any particular character build.
* Build for breadth of choices rather than trying (and failing) to break the power ceiling with one favorite move.
* Enemies have special abilities too - powerful combat moves, resistances, weaknesses, favored tactics... Recall Knowledge to learn about them in order to fight them better.
* Heal allies before they drop.
* Yes, you can full attack starting at level 1. Multiple Attack Penalty ensures that it isn't a good idea - ever .
* Spend some actions on your defenses. It can save your life.
* Don't try to hit above your weight class. When a battle isn't going your way, the longer the battle goes it will get worse, not better. And it happens fast.
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Pro Tip (for experienced players of PF1): Don't think of PF2 as the same game as PF1. The mechanics are so different, leave (almost) all of your experience and expectations behind, because they will generally be more harmful to your understanding and enjoyment of the game. Treat this like learning a brand new game, because it pretty much is.Fully agree. I have seen way too many people try and treat PF2 as though it is just an updated version of PF1 and run into problems.
Specific advice:
* Team synergy is more valuable than any particular character build.
* Build for breadth of choices rather than trying (and failing) to break the power ceiling with one favorite move.
Those two in particular are ones that really stand out for me.
Coming from PF1, you "won" combat by having your individual character be exceptionally good at one thing. And as long as the combat situation didn't prevent your character from doing that, have a lone super optimized character could pretty much carry the entire group. That is outright impossible in PF2. You will never "punch that far above your weight class". The most optimized character might be 10%, maybe 20% better than an "average baseline" and a poorly built character (ignoring actively sabotaging of your character) is only 10-20% worse worse than the baseline. The cieling and floor for character builds are much tighter than they were before.
As a result, having good character synergy and builds that work together is way more important and those things can exceed the expected output for the party in very significant ways.
And rather than than trying to outperform a curve you're never going to get to far ahead of, having more options that you can potentially combine with the other players options means more opportunities to synergize.
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-Read spell descriptions carefully to understand how they work with the four levels of success and failure.
-Understand the incapacitation trait.
-Slow is your friend as a caster.
-Trip is the alpha combat maneuver the majority of the time.
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* You need a proper front line. If you don't have a front line, melee monsters will chase your back line all over the map leading to horrible action economy losses.
* The game's math is balanced so that a single character is not tanky enough to take all the hits for the whole group. Sometimes as a wizard it makes sense to take a hit for the fighter. But best is to have at least two front row martials.
* Pure healing is not efficient, because it doesn't stop enemies from doing more damage. But healing another character before they drop is more efficient than only blasting yourself, because all of the actions to get someone back on their feet are really expensive.
* As a caster, you have to think a round ahead where you want to be next round, and what range your spells are. Don't outmaneuver yourself by casting Shield when nobody's gonna attack you anyway, or using Reach Spell instead of closing in a bit.
* Take the time to understand the abilities of everyone in your group. Talk about when it's good to Delay, so that for example the bard can first do their Courageous Anthem, or someone do their Demoralize before you Strike.
* Searching really is the best exploration tactic. You need a good reason to do anything else. There is real statistical value in many people doing Searching. Hazards hurt.
* Understand that the game is fundamentally designed against one trick ponies. No single tactic is meant to work all of the time. Try to have different things you can do that won't all fail at the same time.
* Don't be too afraid of Failure. Failing a save is bad but generally game balance means it's not the end of the world. Failing a skill check in a skill challenge that takes many rounds is definitely not worth a hero point. Save them for something that matters, like a critical failure on a save.
* With how the math is set up, "mooks" still have good to hit, and can help the boss flank. PF1 taught us to focus fire the boss. In PF2, it can be better to first kill all the mooks. It's easier to kill a mook and that immediately reduces damage your party is taking. Killing the boss usually takes longer and all of that all the enemies are hurting you.
* Trading full attacks is only okay if you're stronger than them. If the boss hits you easily on a third attack, don't give him the opportunity.
* If a boss has a nasty reaction like Reactive Strike, the value of abilities that take that away (Laughing Fit; works even if they save) is not to be underestimated.
* Don't fight the way the enemy wants you to fight. If you're swarmed by rogues, don't stand around and let them flank you.