Good morning,
Half of my group, including myself, have been playing PF since 1e's inception and are pretty much system masters of 2e.
However, the other half of our group has only been playing PF2 and RPGs/board games in general for 3 years now. They are the type of people who's attention span is very short and usually on their phones in between turns. Despite playing with us for 3 years and completing 2 full adventure paths (currently almost done with 3rd, Outlaws of Alkenstar), they have yet to master even basic advanced play. Unfortunately, they still wait until their turns to decide what to do, and take forever when doing so.
They are our friends and we've talked about their playstyle as best we can without making things awkward and upset, but our sessions are not improving timewise, to the point that anything past 8th level is a slog during combat. I'm the GM for the group and even thought of putting a timer on their turns, but don't want to go that route. We've done our best to try and teach them the game, but even after 3 years they aren't quick at turns and don't use tactics well despite the other half of the group trying our best to teach them better ways to play. Half of combats take 5 rounds or more, causing a single combat with the 4 players and 5 monsters to take almost 2 hours to play out.
We do have fun when we play, though, especially non-combat encounters. We've narrowed it down to the combat encounters themselves and the fact that their decision-making process during combat is what is slowing things down. Without a change, I'm afraid the game isn't fun for me to GM anymore, and the others are not capable or interested in being the GM, so I want to keep playing and playing with them, and I want to keep playing in the world of Golarion so a change will need to be made so I , and they, can keep playing.
I thought I'd get some advice from folks who've had similar experiences or advice that may be helpful.
Like I said above, the 2 players are our friends and we all get along and have fun, but when it comes to combat specifically, they don't pay attention and take forever to decide what to do. They don't have a grasp of the rules or what their characters can really do, even after playing with them all the time. For background, we play at least 3 times a month religiously on Saturday night, and have been doing so for 3 years. There's no reason someone should still be so clueless about the rules and what to do on their turn after playing so long, but alas, this is the case. They're not dumb people, they're adults who have an issue with playing on their phones and attention to detail but like I said we want to adapt the game in order to keep playing.
Their decision-making time during combat is the issue, and I won't tell them to not bring their phones as they use them to look up their pdf rulebooks, and I don't want to kick them out of the group because we like playing with them. We had convos with them but they just don't get it.
One recourse I thought about was instead of playing adventure paths to level 20, adapt the adventure path to end at level 10. I could keep the AP storyline and encounters as written, along with the monsters, but could change the numbers only.
For instance, if I run Age of Ashes, the characters should go to level 20. I could keep the 6 chapters, but make the level up milestones change to be 1st-10th.
I would, of course, need to modify the monsters first and foremost. Is there a useful tool that takes existing monsters and offers the option to lower their level and make the requisite changes, like the Weak/Elite template does? I do use monster.pf2.tools to create monsters, and utilize the JSON files, but there isn't any way to adjust the numbers based on level. For instance, loading a monster JSON will provide all stats, but adjusting the level pull down option won't change any of the stats. Does anyone know of a way to add a template or adjust creature levels?
That way, if they are facing an original level 20 creature at original party level 18 to a level 10 creature at party level 8 can be done fairly quickly.
Thanks for everyone's time!
Is there a useful tool that takes existing monsters and offers the option to lower their level and make the requisite changes, like the Weak/Elite template does?
I know the math/mechanics of how to do it. I don't know of a tool or app that will do it automatically. I haven't used monster.pf2.tools, so I don't know what it is capable of.
The process for downleveling an existing monster is to look up their current stats on the Building Creatures tables for the existing creature's level, then following the column that its value is in up to the desired creature level you are trying to change it to.
For example, a level 11 Goliath Spider has 220 HP, an AC of 30, and an attack bonus of +24 for its fangs and +22 for its web attack.
Changing that to level 6:
220 HP is about half way between High and Moderate on the HP table for level 11. The HP table for level 6 would put that at about 105 HP.
AC of 30 is Moderate for level 11. So the level 6 version should be AC 23.
Single target Attack bonus of +24 is in the High column for level 11, and +22 is Moderate. So that would be +17 for the level 6 Goliath Spider's fangs attack and +15 for the Web.
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So, a level 6 Goliath Spider has 105 HP, AC of 23, attack bonus +17 for fangs and +15 for web.
Comparing that to the Giant Tarantula which is already level 6:
Level 6 Giant Tarantula has 135 HP, AC 21, and attack bonus +17 for fangs and leg attack with no web attack.
Which is reasonably comparable. The Tarantula has a bit more HP, but a bit lower AC. Same attack bonus for their melee attack.