I'm going by the Players guide myself as learning from hard experience it is actually a big power creep as most go for only extra combat power rather than less wild archtypes.
Might loosen it up come the next real war AP in Chelly and do a bit of retcon, but we will see.
What are you GM's doing and what are players requesting ?
Thanks
Tom
My groups have never been ones to optimise (god knows I wish they would sometimes, you should see how indecisive and slow they are with anything, especially combat!)
I did not restrict the free archetypes for Hellbreakers, and our party ended up as:
- Skilled Human Isgeri Reclaimer Champion (Milani) Hellbreaker
- Razertooth Goblin Warrior Fighter Field Propagandist
- Dromaar Orc Varisian Wanderer Thaumaturge Swashbuckler
- Running Awakened Animal Field Medic Commander Medic
- Skilled Human Archdevil Apostate Rogue Crossbow Infiltrator
so it still ended up all pretty thematically fitting, and nothing super broken in either direction
I won't be starting this campaign for about 4 months, but my plans are to allow Free Archetypes, but only for organizations relevant to the conflict. This will include Bellflower Tiller, Blackjacket, Eagle Knight, Firebrand Braggart, Golden Legionnaire, Hellbreaker, Hellknight, Lion Blade, Pathfinder Agent, Rose Warden, Sister of the Golden Erinys, Steel Falcon, Twilight Talon. I'm hoping these organizational archetypes won't be too overpowered by themselves, and they'll also give me more hooks for their characters.
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We actually had our Session Zero last night, plus still starting playing the official AP. Just enough to get the feel of it.
We are running a big group, but our GM is experienced enough to make the adjustments...lol.
We have:
Sansaare Female Hobgoblin (Dragonblood) Rogue (Thief) [Hellbreaker Archetype]
Anansi the Spider Male Hobgoblin (Smoke worker) Alchemist (Toxicologist ) [Eagle Knight/ Twightlight Talon Archetype]
Ellywick "Leeks" Allumeater Female Gnome Cleric of Milani [undecided]
Lucien Hell-Bane Male Human Champion (Paladin) of Cayden Cailen [Marshall Archetype]
Guillame Male Human Swashbuckler (Fencer) [Dandy Archetype]
Gurak Male Goblin Magus (Star lite span) [Sorcerer Archetype]
This will be fun!
So, what happened there was....
We already lost our Champion! Oh, poor Lucien, we've knew thee not well enough....
We have already been presented with a Ranger, who also happens to be new to the League!
Chapter 1 is preparing us for the war!
My group has just finished Season of Ghosts and are moving on to Hellbreakers / Hell's Destiny now. We haven't started yet, but from the discussion and character creation sessions we've had we currently got:
An Orc Guardian who will go the Hellbreakers archetype.
An Infernal Nephilim Thaumaturge who will go the Hellbreakers archetype.
A Human Gunslinger going Way of the Spellshot.
A Human(?) Devil Summoner (reflavoured Demon Eidolon) going Chelaxian Scion archetype.
A Halfling Water/Wood Kineticist who is currently undecided on archetype (she's new to PF2e).
And then there's me, playing a Human Magus who is going the Hellknight archetype (Order of the Scourge fighting the corruption stemming from the House of Thrune).
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This AP is actually both mine and my party's introduction to PF2E, so I've decided to not use any free archtype. We're sticking with standard rules while we learn the system and the game. (We are used to PF1E and D&D 3.5 with some D&D 5.5 experience.)
I will be brutally honest, this AP isn't begginers friendly.
So far my party's got:
- A Jotunnborn Magus with Hellbreaker
- A Jotunnborn Fighter With Mauler
- A Goblin Exemplar with Golden Erynis (He "took inspiration" after seeing them in action)
- A Dwarf Commander with Medic
- A Human Ranger with Snarecrafter
Honestly, as long as they give me a reason they'd have those skills i'm fine with divorcing mechanics from intended backstory, so i'm cool with it.
General rules for FA at my table are that one skill per level needs to be from your actual class, don't game it to stack a pile of damage reduction feats, and run every single archetype by me to make sure they won't be disruptive (Mostly stuff not marked as "rare" is completely fine, though).
Thanks for the posts on this gang.
Running 2 groups through this and its been quite interesting. In both I diched the official starting off point and they start out in the middle of the Battle of Breechill so we are playing out their background backstories, with the help of modified PF 2 Society scenarios.
Then I had all the players list potential friends, enemies, family and or work associates either in Isgur or in Breechill. So quite fun tie ins that those NPC's sprinkled in, to perhaps live and help with the Hellbreakers, or die, giving the PC characters, real reasons to go to war with Chelly, not just going through the motions, working well so far.
And yep, still the official limited archtype list with a couple of extras thrown in.
Tom
Oh, and so far nothing to hard to do in the AP and we have new players in this for PF 2, but milage may vary as usual!!
Oh, and so far nothing to hard to do in the AP and we have new players in this for PF 2, but milage may vary as usual!!
Can have differences between "we have some new players" and "we are all new".
On the other hand, it does take some time before extra mechanics/subsystems get used.
My home group initial 2nd edition AP was Age of Ashes. That is considered one of the most unforgiving APs (true because we TPKed in Book 4).
Learning the system is going to be jittery whichever AP you start with, mostly because the other rules will want to take over.
Whenever you are not exactly sure what a Rule does; look it up. It probably doesn't quite do the same.
Hellbreakers has been very flavorful and fun in Book 1. Enjoy and welcome to 2nd edition!