Trying some mock up combats

[LoneCamper]

Hey everyone, how's it going?

My group played some Pathfinder 2e quite some time ago, but we ended up craving something other than medieval settings and the campaign died, but now everyone is into high fantasy again, so we will get back to it, hooray!
Unfortunately, we will go back to play it only at the end of october, so I wanted to use this 'free time' to familiarize myself again with the system. I’d like to run some fights, create small scenarios to see the rules in action, and get used to the details.

My idea is to have fights between creatures from the Bestiary, but here comes my first question: are the monsters balanced to fight each other? I remember this was a big issue in D&D 4e, but I haven't seen anything immediately problematic in PF2e.
The second question is: is it allowed to do this here on the forum? Is this the right place? It wouldn’t be exactly a Play-by-Post, but more of a combat showcase to get feedback from the more experienced folks here.

Thanks.

[Easl]

It's not 'monster on monster', but Paizo has published several free one-shot encounters you could use for mock battles. Eye for an Eye, Massacre on the Hill, Torment and Legacy. Download them for free, build some PCs, and go to it!

Can't speak for anyone else, but I'd love to see your write-ups of how your mock battles go appear on this thread.

[yellowpete]

You'll obviously find some favorable matchups, but generally it'll be quite even between two monsters of the same level, yes. Not the worst way to familiarize yourself with common creature abilities.

This also reminds me of Jason Bulmahns short video series where he did essentially what you're proposing here

[Finoan]

LoneCamper wrote:

My idea is to have fights between creatures from the Bestiary, but here comes my first question: are the monsters balanced to fight each other? I remember this was a big issue in D&D 4e, but I haven't seen anything immediately problematic in PF2e.

monster vs monster and PC vs PC are not standard (well, other than summoned creatures - but that is generally a bad option because of how the summoning spells heighten and what creature levels you can get from the spell).

But it works well enough. The numbers aren't so far off that the d20 doesn't still hold sway over the outcome.

LoneCamper wrote:

The second question is: is it allowed to do this here on the forum? Is this the right place? It wouldn’t be exactly a Play-by-Post, but more of a combat showcase to get feedback from the more experienced folks here.

I'm with Easl that seeing the results and writeup after the fact here would be interesting.

For the actual gameplay (or mock-gameplay), it may still be better to do it on a play-by-post thread or campaign if not doing it live in-person. That will help prevent random forum-goers from interrupting things.

If you are wanting random forum-goers to interrupt with feedback, I would suggest the Advice subforum.

[HolyFlamingo!]

Monster-on-monster combat is a delight, enough so that I wish more people tried it (Jason Bulmahn's MAUL series--already linked in this thread--is a great example). I'd also suggest familiarizing yourself with skill actions, as those are the things players tend to forget or have the most questions about. Loot, too, takes some getting used to, as there's a lot of it, some of which is required to keep PC stats on track. It's still kind of a tricky spot for me, lol, and I've been running the same homebrew campaign for three years!

[LoneCamper]

Thanks for all the answers, guys.

Finoan, I actually want people to interrupt me and point to me everything I did wrong, I'm a practical type of learner, I learn better when I try (and miss).
I thought that the General Forum would be the correct one, but, in hindsight, what I'm looking for is... advice, so I will post there, thanks!