Experience Budgets and experience from creatures can be a little different or hard to understand if you're new to TTRPGs or coming from a different one, but it's not too hard to understand once you know how it works in P2E!
Love this video topic! I have a 6 party, which basically means I scale up one "step" on the encounter board. Often, with six people, someone will be absent on any given gameday. This, if I'm down 2 players, scales a moderate threat immediately into a Severe threat. What I like to do is keep it going, keep it lethal. They know what they’re supposed to be facing, and a tough fight might see them get taken out, but defeat doesn't always mean character death. You can flee, players can be taken hostage at any Dying stage before 4, maybe even be saved by a passerby. It's important to have fun with it, even during a tough battle.
This is going to be extremely useful. In these encounters it is also good to keep in mind like you stated that there are ways to interact with encounters without combat. The five categories of combat encounters are really useful to know and keep in mind. Have a peaceful day everyone! Thanks for the vid.
Thanks for watching and the comment! I'm glad that the video can help you out! I tried to add a couple tip here and there around encounters but XP Budgets can be so difficult if you're ne or coming from another TTRPG. Don
Nice vid! I didn't know about the Pathbuilder encounter builder! Currently, I'm using Mimic fight club, which is already awesome thanks to its very granular filters, and it has a treasure generator and link to Archive of Nethys, meaning you can have the image of the monster too, which is very useful IMHO. It just lacked Hazards (and I'm pretty please to see Pathbuilder do include the difference of XP for simple hazards). As for the standard encounter template given, I have found that even with Free archetype and a pretty good group, the +2 level monsters don't feel good for a 3-PC party, at least for my group. As they have less action than a 4-member one, and mathematically they have less chance for each action to pass through the saves/AC, it has lead in the past to quite unsatisfying encounters with complete rounds with nothing succeeding on the PC's side. If I'd use them again, I'd give more info/stuff to prepare the group. but for now, having more monsters but at +1 level max feels better overall. On the opposite side, very weak monsters, like -3 to -4, still have their place (even completely alone!) and can actually make the PC waste actions if you give the vermin a little edge (flying monsters, creating difficult terrain or else). I've been quite surprised at how those stupid encounters can set a mood (either they're crushing them and feels good, or get pestered and absolutely hate the bloody thing) in addition to ready the PC to face X or Y type of stuff (flying, poison , etc...). Keep up the good work.
Thanks for watching and the comment! I had heard of Mimic Fight Club before but I had forgot about it (which I shouldn't of)! I'll have to go back a try it again! I would like having the art for tokens. You gave some really good information and experience in your comment and I appreciate it. Technically you can still use Dual-Class PCs but I wish they would not have removed them from GM Core: 2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1328 Don
The encounter builder from Pathbuilder, SUPER useful! Imported a creatue from PDF, flawless. Only thing, themplates, I wish there was a way to manually add additional templates (like undead, or unique or fey etc.)
Thanks for watching and the comment! I do think it's a really helpful tool but I do see what you mean. I hope it gets more tools as it finishes out beta! Don
I'm not sure I understand the note for different party sizes. Say I'm running an adventure path for 4 players, but someone decided not to show up so I'm down to 3 players for that session, and they complete what the path lists as a moderate encounter. Does the note mean I still give them 80 XP, or that I need to recalculate the threat level and give them XP for the new threat? (changing encounters on the fly based on who decided to show up doesn't sit right with me so I don't consider that an option)
Now that is a really good question! The rules are for for Encounter creation. Since the AP encounter would already be created, you would give the same XP. " the XP awards fir the encounter don't change." You could leave the encounter alone or you could adjust the encounter (weak template or something like that) but you would give the same experience points regardless of what you did to adjust.
