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My brain is telling me something the more I read about these classes.
Daredevil is not great, it really is a limiting 8 hit point none caster. It's on the same level as Gunslinger for me. Something even with the remastered, I'd consider nearly useless to play since in my mind Classes in PF-2E have Archetypes, Niches or Play-styles? That is something that you expect when you play them and it feels like soem classes avoid this like the plague.
Examples of what I am talking about.
- There are, as of the Playtest 7 classes which have 8 hit points a level.
- 3 of them are skill related, Investigator, Rogue & Thaumaturge
- 4 of them are not skill related, Alchemist, Daredevil, Gunslinger & Inventor.
(Honestly a bit of an interruption, Gunslinger & Inventor could be a 10 hit point class since Swashbuckler gets auto-scaling Acrobatics/Other Skill.)
This is where I'd like to ask for the Daredevil to get the Swashbuckler treatment. Where Swashbucklers get 10 hit points a level and auto-scaling on Acrobatics, which sadly but to shame Alchemist, Daredevbil and Inventor.
For Daredevil to be good it needs more hit points because right now it is a rather squishy and has no reward out side of wanting to build battle medicine and go into the Medic Archetype. Their level 1 Class Feature basically all but confirms they want to try to hit Medic Dedication ad build for Wisdom.
Slayer Next isn't it?
It's just diet Ranger with a single Thaumaturge Implement. There is not much to honestly say on the matter of Slayer other then it has no base way to increase base damage unless you choice the Blade as your Special Gear, Which is kinda bad since unlike Exemplar you start with 3 Ikons... You know let's just be honest here. Without any way to increase damage, Slayers are going to feel less complete and I do know some of you are going to be pointing out "What about flurry ranger?" and that is a good point but unlike Slayer, they get more damage the same way monks do, they have feats and/or class features which allow them to either reduce MAP or make 2 Attacks for 1 Action.
Sure Ranger and Monk do not have a way to increase their base damage, Flurry Ranger eventually just hit more with multiple attacks allowing them to crit fish and Monk, well Monk kinda just wants to Flurry of Blows every turn whenever possible. Slayer doesn't seem to do either of these two things unless you choose to do this with your unique class feature.
Am I missing something about Slayer? I really do not have a clue if I am or not.
I agree the Daredevil right now is too squishy for their own good. Whereas most other 8 HP/level martials can engage in hit-and-run playstyles, protect themselves, or have strong enough features to justify their low survivability, the Daredevil has to get into really messy melee combat, and is built to trigger lots of Reactive Strikes as well. I'd want to avoid increasing their HP if possible, but I certainly think they'd benefit from a feature that'd let them avoid getting downed, like a version of Orc Ferocity without a daily frequency limit.
As for the Slayer, the class is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion, because they're largely terrible at actually slaying creatures at most levels and shine mostly through utility. I think their signature tools are terribly-designed and definitely believe they should have some measure of killing power built into their kit as a baseline, ideally some kind of execution ability against their quarry. I actually quite like their tool feats, though, and feel that the class could actually be really interesting if they got their core features sorted out. Decoupling their quarry from trophies and making quarry easier to mark I think would go a long way towards making their gameplay loop smoother, as would actually letting them use their special Lore skill to find and mark quarry before a combat encounter.
In general, the impression I have of both classes is that they're an experiment in high-risk, high-reward gameplay, the idea being that they can have more low moments than other classes but more high moments to compensate. In my humble opinion, that experiment has failed. Not because the classes are too risky, though their propensity to become unable to use their core mechanics is certainly a problem, but because I don't think either delivers on the "high-reward" component: even when the stars align and you find yourself in a situation tailor-made for a Daredevil or a Slayer, neither class finds themselves shining that bright. For all the risks involved, both classes are timidly-balanced in a way that highlights Paizo's reluctance to let characters punch significantly above their weight in this edition, and the end result is a couple of classes that spend a lot of time barely working at all just on the off-chance that they perform about as well as any other in a small subset of ideal circumstances. The two biggest points of feedback I have to give on this playtest are to make sure neither class stops functioning in encounters, which ought to mean lessening or removing the many arbitrary restrictions on their mechanics, and to amp up the rewards to playing these classes as intended, whether it's by giving the Daredevil lots of great action compression or making the Slayer much more lethal against their quarry.