changing ancestry boost to 2 free boosts isn't alternative rule or variant rule it is just an option that every player can take durring character creation clarification "proficiency bonus" is equal to your lv + number corresponding to your training level and untrained character don't add thier lv some classes starts as expert in perception not just trained casters instead of class DC have spell save DC of corresponding spell tradition just nitpicking in PF2e there aren't weapon properties there are weapon traits nat 20 also move degrees of success one higher
I'll address these in order! 1. Ah! I was under the impression that it was released as an optional rule similar to 5e's Custom Origins rule. I didn't see it when I read through the core rulebook but fair enough! 2. Thanks for that added clarification! I should have added that in there but I didn't even think to since it's fairly intuitive coming from 5e. 3. It's my understanding that some classes that can cast can get both a class DC and a spell save DC? In either case, I actually covered what you're talking about here. You might have missed it! 4. Haha Yeah I could have sworn I said "weapon traits" somewhere but, if I did say "properties" I was referring to the term in a conventional sense. 5. Someone else pointed out the nat 20 rule earlier and I can't believe I forgot to mention that. I pinned their comment but I think yours covers more information in a relatively concise manner so I'll pin yours now! Thank you!!
@@ConstructedChaos 1. this option was added in recent errata about month ago so if you had physical copy or older version of pdf this rule probably wasn't there
@@JacksonOwex The tricky thing is that while they are absolutely synonyms, they don't mean the same thing in this context. "Variant" rules are a very specific thing in Pathfinder 2e and aren't considered part of the "Core" experience, but are alternate rules and systems that are presented as potential modifications to the game at GM's descretion (like Proficiency without Level or Free Archetype). The ability score option is explicitly not a "Variant" (meaning it's not an assumed thing that needs to be specifically allowed by the GM) but instead is a core option and would need to be specifically banned to not be considered available, similar to the GM banning the Barbarian Class or the Dwarf Ancestry.
Thanks so so so much!! That's great praise coming from you and I'm stoked to make your acquaintance! I definitely enjoyed at least a few of your videos as I poured through the core rulebook!
I'm transition my group into Pathfinder 2e as well. I was stunned to find just about everything I homebrewed to fix 5e at my table was here in the base game of PF2. Looking forward to the Pathfinder content.
This was my outlook as well. I'd always heard that the new 5e rules that everyone liked were taken from PF2e and older editions but I didn't expect them to be so exactly similar.
For a crash course you really should mention archives of nethys and how all the rules and basically everything else (except official adventures) exists for free for anyone to use. All in all, it was a great video though! Glad to see you've found enjoyment in the system
I've been playing D&D since 78 and played 3.5 for many years and got back into D&D after a break from the hobby with 5e, i found I missed the customization that 3.5 provided and Pathfinder 2 gives me that with a less complex rule set than 3.5, loving this version of the game and look forward to more content on this and other channels
I was extremely intimidated at first after watching other videos on the topic that misrepresented the apparent complexity of PF2e. Once I took the time to look it over myself, I felt like I had to give my own take!
@@williamwooley2693 I think they can be overwhelming if you just dive into the core rulebook. But once you actually parse out what it says and compare it, it’s much less so! Good luck to you and your group!
As a player who started on, and played for years on, 3.5e, I found myself warming up to 5e after a few months but feeling it still lacked heavily. It's nice feeling like the classes were more balanced, but I hated that spellcasters felt held back to doing only 1 spell per round unless you're a sorcerer or take the feat that gives you points towards the "meta magic feat" abilities that class has. Also, I felt like while you're able to customize your character's playstyle more in 5e with how you get to choose your skills based on class AND background, plus get little tid bit utility stiff from backgrounds, the fact that feats were tied into your class level AND ability modifier improvements made it seem like you couldn't customize nearly as much as 3.5. And worse yet, if you had garbage rolls, you were forced to either raise the stats you use for everything in and out of combat, or pick feats that you really only used in combat and sometimes came at expense to negative rolls. Yeah, a +10 to damage on a hit is a great boost, but at a -5 roll when your base attack (proficiency) bonus is no higher than 6 can be really costly and result in you missing more than you'd likely hit. Even more so when you typically get 1 or 2 hits tops anyways per round. 5e is still a good system, and very enjoyable and you can just as easily fix these issues yourself via homebrew with little confusion, so hopefully someone new seeing this doesn't get warded off from trying to get into the hobby.
Oh yes yes yes. I've been playing Pathfinder 2e primarily since the play test came out (I have a special edition hardcover of it). If you have any questions by all means I'm here! Welcome to Pathfinder!!
It took me so long to try it out! Really, it was kinda hard to justify with how well dnd 5e was going for me but I’m glad I’ve dipped my toes! Thanks for the warm welcome!!
One thing worth mentioning: Opportunity Attacks (or "Reactive Strikes" as they are called now) are not a given: Monsters may or may not be able to attack you if you move, but they can be used to counter movement, ranged attacks, and spellcasting that happens within melee range. The only player class that begins the game with the ability to make reactive strikes is the Fighter. Also, with healing: Pathfinder 2e expects players to regularly tend to each other's wounds: And with magical healing being a limited resource, expect to spend time after combat encounters patching each other up with medical supplies, bandages, and potions to "short rest." And you can take feats that let you do this in battle and increase your efficacy with bandages, meaning with the right build, anyone can be the party healer without magic.
SKILL CHECKS MATTER! If you can use INTIMIDATION (a Charisma skill) against the opponent's FLAT DC (that is 10+ their bonus) they become FRIGHTENED 1 or on a critical success, FRIGHTENED 2. Why is this powerful, and a great 3rd action option rather than a -10 attack? A frightened opponent loses their Frightened value to their ARMOR CLASS. So they are two easier to hit AND TO CRIT! Skills are free things you can do with your third action that benefit both YOU and YOUR PARTY. Welcome to the chewy side of Fantasy Role Playing. Where teamwork and tactics matter!
Wow..!!! This has been THE MOST comprehensive video I've EVER seen.. And I served in the Army for ten yrs.. So, the whole video through, I was completely fixated on the system, the difference, the similarities, the "Realness" (as real as one could get in a fantasy game) of it all.. So I'm thinking my next campaign might lean this way.. Hopefully you'll make more of these excellent video tutorial sessions for old-farts like me, who have forgotten more math than we have learned. Thanks again, looking forward to the next one, Jason
I've been slowly converting my longrunning 5e's campaign NPCs to Pathfinder 2e, and I had a similar moment of "Oh... we were already homebrewing all this!" It's been so fun and such a pleasure. Thank you for this great video to help along the way!
Haha it's pretty wild, right? I'm glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the kind words! I'm working on a spellcasting video next and maybe something to cover all of PF2e's conditions after that so there's more to come!
This video is positively incredible! From the tight writing, editing, beautiful showcase of PF2E art, and your skilled delivery it oozes quality. Prospective PF2E players are so lucky to have this video as an introductory resource. Thank you.
Great content! A cool thing that you missed in this video is how spellcasting takes advantage of the 3 action system. As an example, Heal is a level 1 spell. (cures living creatures/damages undead creatures) With 1 action it cures/damages 1d8 HP with a touch range With 2 actions it cures/damages 1d8HP+8 with a range of 30ft With 3 actions it cures/damages 1d8HP to all living/undead creatures in a 30ft burst. Additionally, you can cast this spell with a higher level spell slot. For each level increase, add 1d8 to the roll with an additional +8 on the 2 action version.
Thanks for adding this! I wanted to go more in depth on spellcasting in a subsequent video so I didn't load this one down. It's different but not so different that I felt it needed to be covered in a foundational guide like this!
A very common optional rule is the Free Archetype rule. With this you gain an extra feat specifically for taking dedication feats. I usually rule only 1 type can be free. This doesn't add much extra power, mostly this adds flavor and options.
I heard about this while in the editing room with this particular video but thought not to add it since I'd already been working on this for like a month haha!! I'll definitely try to mention it if and when I do a more robust deep dive on the way "multiclassing" works in PF2e.
I'm a lifelong RPG player - started with the Basic D&D box set in '82, graduated to AD&D later that year, and playing every iteration since (barring 4th). I've played dozens of TSR, Palladium, & FASA RPGs since then, and got my kids into 5th last year. They, in turn, bought me P2e for Christmas. The hardest part of the transition isn't the rules, but finding a group of face-to-face players. It seems there's simply no support for connecting players in a local region for in-person games and the Pathfinder Society system is daunting in so many ways.
You raise a very valid concern here and it was the reason I'd never given pathfinder a chance in the past. But I do think you may find more luck in the future. PF2e is growing extremely fast and the community has been very open and welcoming to all the newcomers!
I simply joined a 5e game (found on corkboard at FLGS) and recruited its members into my pathfinder 2e playtest game after getting to know them. We've been playing for four years now, alternating systems.
When it comes to character creations, in D&D you build your character around your stats where in Pathfinder you build your stats around your character.
You're doing Sarenrae's work. Bless you. Also this briefly hit on something that irritated me since 2e came out. Hearing about all these house rules for 5e players that sounds like they were ripped directly out of pf2e, but then refusing to just play pf2e just hurt my soul.
when i transferred to pf2e i realized alot of the house rules we were using in 5e were already RAW in pf2e. i also realized a couple of the more recent rules added to 5e were already in pf2e.
I try not to be that guy but I am always SO happy when someone tries a new system. I'm never get into someone's mentions when they complain about DnD, but every time someone complains about DnD not being good at a specific thing that Pathfinder is good at I REALLY want to let them know as much as I know they're not going to take that advice.
Thank you so much for starting this series. I would love to see more PF2e content from you. If you are to make Class explanation videos, I would love to see what you think of the Alchemist(my fave) and of the Conditions that PF2e has. I am loving the game, though I am still a rookie.
Of course!! Thank you for watching!! I’ll probably post a poll at some point but alchemist should definitely be one of the choices on there since it sounds pretty interesting to me too!
I was converted to pf2 when it came out, and it was love at first sight. However I wish I would had a informative and well presented introductional video like this when I first flaped my Pathfinding wings. :) You earned a new subscriber! Thanks for the video :)
Thanks so much for the sub and the accolades!! I felt exactly the same about the lack of guides when I started so I’ve tried to fill that void a bit over the past few years! Happy adventuring and welcome to the chaos!
Awesome video! I have been GMing Pathfinder 2e for about three years now and haven't looked back at DnD 5e once. It is a system that demands a little bit more of the players BUT makes GMing it a breeze. Gone are the days of constantly having to make up rules while playing and then afterwards trying to remember what rule i made up last time. Almoest everything in Pathfinder is codified in rules and even if you find a fringe case which doesnt have any rules the three action economy makes it easy for the GM to make up a rule that is comparable to other, existant, rules that makes it cost an action or two. Can't wait for your next Pathfinder related video's! (Maybe something showcasing a beginner friendly class, the sorcerer, thats not just a worse wizard like in dnd and has awesome customisability while being the most magicky magic class)
Thanks so much for the accolades!! I felt the same way about this system when writing up this video--GMing should be a lot easier as it seems to imply a lot more self-policing of the rules and mechanics for players and I love that!
Excellent video. One addendum: it is easy to heal up with Treat Wounds (medicine checks when you have training and tools) out of combat. So even though sleeping doesn't restore all HP like in 5e, you can heal people to full HP over the course of several hours if you are trained in medicine. Or have magic healing.
My group switched to PF2 about 2 years ago, and while I'll always love the game DND, playing a one-shot in 5e as a rogue immediately reminded me why I haven't even thought of going back since. I love the sheer options (which are admittedly overwhelming at first), the tiers of proficiency in... everything, the depth to the tactics of combat, how easy it is to build encounters, and the crit fail/success system. Most of all though, I love what you can easily create. I've got a former lab rat turned bomb maker, an orc bard who scares enemies with his war drums (and special note, PF2 is the first system I've played where Bards are actually good, and fun to play in combat), a robot who uses his instruction manual to reprogram himself for the day's needs (Tome implement Thaumaturge), and a barbarian who rushes into combat not to inflict massive damage, but to start suplexing and body slamming enemies. I haven't had this much fun creating, evolving, and playing characters since the early days of DND 3rd edition.
If you are doing Class videos Barbarian would be a good starting point. Easy to show how a 5e Barbarian is the same as any other 5e Barbarian with the subclass only adding a tiny bit of flavour , while PF2 Barbarians can be very diverse, even at level 1
Hell yeah! Someone else suggested the barb and I actually still have to make a barb guide for 5e as well. So, maybe I can make them at the same time and sortof cross-reference things within the videos!
Thank you so much for this video! The party I’m in has been playing a campaign for 3 years now in DnD 5e, but we will all also be playing the next installment of our DM’s world’s story in a new campaign. For this subsequent campaign our DM has decided to switch us to PF 2e, so I’m working on learning the system. This video is getting sent straight to the group chat for its succinctness, enthusiasm, clarity, and broad coverage. Will be checking out more on your channel :)
Love the idea of hero points, it gives you player Caracter a chance to pull of a crazy anime scene without being too op, like imagine your Caracter is about to die, you have hero points, and you explain how somehow by either intervention from the gods, or an internal will. you refuse to die, you will succeed in your cause and you will fight You could have the villain say something to light a fire in the hero, or have the hero replace on all that they would lose if they were to die in that moment, and get that sudden inner strength to keep going, That's one of my favorite parts of anime is when the hero is almost about to give up but gets that second wind, and the fact that pathfinder lets you create those story's, say those inner monologues to your friends and hype up the rest of the table, that made me pick up this game yesterday, (i know you could add that rule into D&D but i just don't like the company)
Can't wait to see your next video! I hope you go deeper into Archetypes in a future video, as well as Versatile Heritages such as Tiefling and Half-Orc.
I'm definitely planning to delve deeper into archetypes at some point in the future! It's the main part of the video I felt I couldn't go as deep as I wanted without making it too long.
As a DM, I cannot stress enough just how better combat is in PF2e. In 5e, I have to constantly pull punches, pretend monsters are dumb, or be sad because the 2 claws and a bite meme has affected 3 combats now. in PF2e, I get to play without pulling any punches because the MATH is much tighter, the actions are wildly more varied and NPCs can act like PCs in all regards. They dont need special things to be able to grab or demoralize in their stat blocks like 5e does. The Encounter difficult ratings MEAN something and I can 100% rely on a severe encounter being severe, a low encounter being low. Above all else, I get to play as smart as I can for the NPCs. There is no fumbling rolls pretending a hit is a miss because it would absolutely nuke the battle now or kill a player because of bad math. I have campaigned Strahd, Phandelver, Descent into Avernus for 5e and I did not have as much fun as I do now in PF2e adventures that are written more concisely and better organized in every possible way. WOTC DOESNT SELL COMPLETE PRODUCTS.
Well said! At the very least, I may start slowly incorporating rules from PF2e into my 5e games in the hopes that I can get the players to transition over fully!
@@ConstructedChaos same for me. I'm debating whether it's easier to homebrew both for 5e and do the work myself. Or if I can get my players to learn a new system.
As a PF2e GM I love this video. Been with 2e since it dropped a few years ago and this video does a wonderful job as a nice crisp primer. One other thing I love of PF2e is archetypes not being just from other classes. Seemingly endless other flavors of tropes and lore stuff all wrapped into other archetypes.
Hey friend! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and found it useful! I really feel PF2e does a lot right that 5e gets wrong so I can't wait to see what they do with the newly announced revised version!
Oh wow! Thank you so much for pointing this out! It, I’d course follows that this would be the case and I knew that but I can’t believe I forgot to mention it specifically! I’ll pin your comment so no one is confused on this!
@@ConstructedChaos oh, thank you! I understand why you could forget to mention it, cause nat 20 is rarely something else but crit success, let alone failure or crit failure.
It should be noted that it's not an 'optional rule' to pick +2 to two stats instead of the default option, it's a core rule that you can pick between either. Optional rules are things GMs need to ok, like stamina or bonus archetype.
Ah! I was under the impression that it was released as an optional rule similar to 5e's Custom Origins rule. I didn't see it when I read through the core rulebook but fair enough!
Wow. I watched a few videos to understand the fundamental differences of DND 5E and PF2e and this video was the best narrated and structured of all. 20 minutes staying on topic, good visualizations and interesting narrated. I would like to watch more PF2e stuff from you!
Great summary, although Pathfinder does have short rests in a way. Medicine skill does a lot of healing, and you're pretty much expected to heal to full after each combat and there's a plethora of magical and non magical healing available. Health is not a daily resource but a in combat resource.
Right right. Short rests don’t really exist as they do in dnd 5e. Take special note of my wording here. I didn’t want to burden this video with semantics but I’m sure I’ll be able to cover what you’re talking about as I begin to cover classes and what resources of theirs come back after a “short time” haha. As for the healing, for sure, there is healing available! But, I don’t think my points are invalid with that in mind. Again, this is a topic I’m sure I can deep dive in another video. But, the dying/wounded system of PF2e is still much more threatening than making death saves in DND 5e regardless!
Absolutely love Pathfinder 2e. It’s a bit of a rough transition for at least one of my players since they still can’t stomach the fact that the average chance to hit/beat dc of monsters is usually a 50-60% chance if you don’t set up for flanks, apply buffs or debuffs. I don’t want to deprive them of enjoyment, but at the same time my other players adore the versatility and team emphasis on the new system, which makes it challenging to go back. Perhaps some of this will be mitigated once they reach second level and have more spells and abilities to make rolls easier, but I’m worried next session will set him off (we’re doing the beginner box and the next session will have a kobold with 18 AC).
I’m sure some of the learning curve will come in the form of understanding that team emphasis the more they play in the system! Maybe try mentioning that fact to them so they know to be aware of it! I know I was unaware of that necessary focus until I started really researching and deep diving for this video!
This sounds like one player is a square peg being forced into a round hole. Sweet Jebus, let that player find a game he/she enjoys. Not everyone likes PF2E - my 5e game has PF2E refugees. The player traffic moves in both directions.
@@simonfernandes6809 Not everyone loves something automatically. It can take time. Going on 13 years ago when me and my group were still playing 3.5 we heard of Pathfinder 1e. When we first looked over the Core Rule Book we didn't like many of the changes, but liked others. Maybe 6 months later we gave Pathfinder 1e a try and never looked. Change can't be disheartening.
@@sacredbeastzenon You need to listen to what you are saying: 'Not everyone loves something automatically.' Square peg. Round hole. If they don't enjoy the game, don't force them. Not everyone likes what you like.
@@simonfernandes6809 So if one out of four players has a problem with an aspect of a system you should do what exactly? Play another system just for their sake? Kick them from the group? I have a hard time understanding what you’re really saying the OP should do.
I was actually moving to PF2E before all the OGL nonsense started, but I'm still learning. The Exploration Modes and healing/dying stuff is what I'm going to be focusing on learning better next.
Good on ya! I've heard a lot of people having the most trouble with the dying mechanics but I think it's pretty easy to remember once it clicks. Happy adventuring!
I really enjoy Pathfinder 2e. There is so much you can do to customize your character. Many variant rules can allow you further customization with the Gm's permission. The one thing we do at my table is Roll for Hit Points rather than take the maximum.
I agree, Oracles were one of my favorite classes in PF1 and seem to have made the transition to 2e much better than some of my other faves (such as Barbarian and Alchemist); and Thaumaturges are just flat out one of the most unique and flavorful classes in all editions of DnD/PF combined, while still being one of the best narrative and aesthetic fits for most standard settings.
Hell yeah! Welcome to the chaos, friend! I'll have a look at both of those soon--though I have heard that the Oracle is pretty complex. I may save that one for a later video as I get more cozy within the mechanics of PF2e.
The treat wounds vs short rest difference in the systems feels like it largely depends on the context of the adventure too. If the party has no current time constraints, nothing seems to really stop them from spending 5 hours to treat wounds over and over until they're back to full HP. On the other hand, if there is time pressure then they have to make the call to press on or not. It feels really context dependant.
That's a fair point but I do feel as though most campaigns and sessions include at least some sense of urgency that prevents such long recovery periods during a given arc.
nice! ditto! recent exile here and definitely enjoying the new system which is more defined and structured. less DM fiat/"mother may i." playing in my 1st campaign as a ranger with a sorc archetype.
Great video, I'm looking into PF2e and so far I'm loving all of it. Really hoping you make more videos like this one, I'm looking forward to making my very first PF2e character after getting to know as many options available as possible!
Thanks so much, Raul! I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I definitely intent to put out some more PF2e content very soon! Probably going to start with some class guides!
just finished making mine in prep for my 1st session this weekend. made my take of an "optimized" ranger coming from my time in 5e. of course pf2e is different but i'm curious how my "5e optimization training" translates well in pf2e.
Hell yeah. Im hoping that more people try playing pathfinder, I am a DnD hater so when newbies understand how great PF 2-e is it brings a smile to my face.
Thanks so much! All that OGL crud couldn't keep me down for long. I said what I had to say and it seems like the internet is ready to consume regular TTRPG content again and that makes me so happy haha.
Note: you can take as many free actions as you want, so long as their triggers or prerequisites are met. Also, treat wounds is so effective, especially at lower levels, and so available that every party will have at least one non-magic healer. Plus the encounter design mechanics would really like you to be at full hitpoints.
That was quite awesome. As someone who started out hoarding 3rd edition, Pathfinder 2e shouldn't be too hard. I mostly just am overwhelmed by the history of new settings like Golarion.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! And you should definitely have an easy time with the transition to PF2. That said, I'm not familiar at all with the lore and settings yet so you might know better than I would!
Welcome to the Math side of things. I love Pathfinder and I'm glad more people are wanting to try it out. If you ever have any questions or need some character artwork let me know. I'm going to be working on the Galoma tokens next week.
2:45 - It's actually not an optional rule to select any two ability scores for +2. It's an Alternative Option. That's not just semantics in PF2E. An Optional Rule is one you need to beg your GM to use. An Alternative Option is an official rule that means by default you can choose between it an the 'other' alternative(s). As in: Not using it is a GM Homebrew. This matters when approaching tables. The end result is the same: the GM could say no, but then they're making a house rule. So most GMs are more likely to 'go with the flow' for Alternatives. Also if a player is getting involved in "Pathfinder Society Games" the difference really matters as house rules are out but Alternative Options are in.
Hahaha understandable--it is over 600 pages after all! I'll probably move to create some class guides next and maybe some videos that cover differences in spellcasting rules and other mechanics!
Great video. Sounds like the whole dying/wounded mechanic could use it's own video. Going to watch that section again, but I was definitely rocking the the 'huh' expression after that section.
Thanks so much! And, yeah, haha. I had to read over it a few times to make sure I understood but the concept itself isn't too hard to remember once you grasp it and I think it makes for some really interesting combats when you have a dying party member on the battlefield!
Athletics is a very useful skill, as it is used for a lot of combat tricks, such as tripping, grabbing fo a grapple, and disarming. These can be very useful as they put different conditions on an opponent, depending upon your level of success.
I felt everything was right on point. I just bought the 2.E pathfinder book and starter box last week. And I feel like easier to grasp and more content
I am learning PF2e to DM for my friends. The more I learn about the system the more I'm loving it. The balancing is sooo much better. Character creation with the heritages and backgrounds really helps create some depth to who the character is. Even for people who don't normally create a backstory. The Rune system for magic items is fantastic and allows you to use your great great grandpa's sword through the entire campaign without falling behind. Also, Paizo (PF2e publisher) supports Archives of Nethys and shown that they care about the community by their stance they took when WOTC tried pulling their BS.
Also, one tip for character creation. For some reason its not called out real well. But your character gets 4 free ability boosts during creation. It's outlined in step 6 of the character creation process in the core rulebook and can be easy to overlook.
I think for class comparison, it may make sense to start with martials and within that scope with fighters so you have a good point of reference in terms of their abilities and damage output comparatively.
this is such a well produced video and i loved it. but one thing i think should be mentioned is the mindset is completeley different. there is way more emphasis on team work that you just dont see in 5e. this is because of the buffs and debuffs that happen during combat. trying to get your barbarian that crit by reducing that +10 threshold to crit and seeing that they are coming up in the turn order really changes the game. this is the same for casters and thats why people say they are nerfed but dont understand that they are more team players than individual burst novas. i think this should be reallllly stressed when coming into this system.
Thanks so much for the accolades! I did touch on this point very briefly a couple of times but I didn't want to dwell on it too long since the video was already approaching the 30min mark. I'll be sure to make an "advanced combat guide" at some point in the future as well as other companion videos like "advanced spellcasting". This one was just to get the foundation laid and the ball rolling!
Love PF2e... Biggest thing to keep in mind when changing over: 1) in pf2e AC= not getting hit, AC= Avoiding Crits. You will get hit and often, your AC is what is there to help keep those hits from being crits. 2) "Teamwork makes the Dream work" ; the party must work together to debuff the enemies and buff each other. NPC AC and to hit will be higher than 5e. 3) Due to the Multi-Attack Penalties (MAP) you do not want to use all 3 actions to just attack. Use those actions tactically to also move, debuff, buff, flank and defend, as well as attack. 4) Lower levels, especially when learning, arc lethal. Be prepared to get knocked out and possibly die. But that said, as you learn and level that becomes less of a worry. The enemies are still tough, but you know better how to handle them and will have more tools in your toolbox to work with. Have fun! It's well worth the changeover!
3 attacks can be fine with martials. Going down to -10 penalty baseline can often result in a likely hit mathwise. Best skill comes with realizing with that penalty isn't the end of the world. You get to feel monsters level with recall knowledge and paying attention to numbers (what miss, what doesn't).
@@Goldeneye3336 -Depends on the type of Martial, in my experience. Also, I think it's better to learn to use those additional actions, when to use them, how to use them, and then start testing the waters on when you can effectively use that 3rd action for attacks, which, as you say, can be effective at appropriate moments. Mainly because once you develop the "bad" habit of "swing. swing, swing" it can be damn hard to break.
Yes more Pathfinder pls. The more I look into it the more it becomes apparent that so many things people try to '"fx" about 5e (Level Up, ODnD, MCDM) are things that PF2 did ages ago way more elegantly. It's actually really embarrassing watching people desperately trying to fix 5e when there is a system *right there* that already does all the things that they say they want. It's *right there* people. I do get now why the PF2 community was often so exasperated. What PF2 does really, really badly however is being accessible to new players. And the PF2 community often makes this worse by blaming the prospective new players for this, instead of taking responsibility and learning from it. I am committed to PF2 because.... reasons.... but hot damn I have flipped the table (metaphorically) and almost walked away so many times now, and I have been playing RPGs since 2e. I'm very interested in seeing more of your journey.
Happy to oblige! I think the learning curve can be a bit steep but I've actually found a lot of helpful people in the PF2e community that are happy to break down rules and mechanics. Maybe it was as you say in the past but I haven't found that to be the case now!
My DM is slowly switching over to Pathfinder via switching out mechanics here and there and this video helped a lot. I'm just not sure where I can access info on how to make characters and learn the basic rules like I can with DND 5e where there's already a website dedicated to making characters and synthesizing source material. Thanks for the informative video!
I think that there’s something in the works to that end but hopefully this video series can serve as a good substitute until then! Thanks for watching and I’m glad that it seemed to have helped!! Happy adventuring!
the entire ruleset is available for free on Archives of Nethys (and fully legally). popular character builder are pathbuilder2e and wanderer's guide, where pathbuilder loads better whilst wanderer's has more guidance. the people who initially made dndbeyand actually made pathfinder nexus, where they are working on a character builder, though currently they just have all the books with pdfs optimized for digital screens.
That's been around. If you just want stat blocks for monsters, descriptions for items, and class overviews, go to Archives Of Nethys. If you want to be able to build a character, use Pathbuilder 2e. I'm sure there's a different service out there, and I'm sure plenty of people in the PF2e community have some form of gripe with how Pathbuilder 2e works, but it still works all the same.
The interesting thing with pf2 monsters is how they make you think. Often a hard to hit monster can be trounced by save spells and SKILLS either doing direct damage or debuffing it into something manageable.
The skills represent the 4 fonts of magic. The traditions are paired with each skill. Arcana with Arcane Occultism with Occult Nature with Nature Religion with Divine
@Constructed Chaos my cohost and I did a bunch of pathfinder videos when pathfinder came out. If you have any questions or want suggestions. Our crew has done Fate, Call of Cthulhu, and Starfinder as well.
I started with D&D 3.5 so all of the pathfinder mechanics are awesome in my book, plus some of the grievances I had with 3.5 have been addressed in PF2E so looking forward to GMing my first table since 3.5 because I had to take a step back from ttrpg because of work and a few medical issues, but I am back in it and to tell you the truth I played some 5E and missed many of the 3.5 rules.
nice! i started dnd with 3.5e myself and definitely missed certain stuff there like how they handled psions compared to 4/5E. i haven't checked out the psychic yet but i'm glad to have made the switch from 5e to pf2e recently as alot of of my grievances of 5e are handled better in pf2e. plus pf2e resources are so accessible!
I began with 5e but I'd always wanted to try 3.5e. It seemed like the most popular edition besides. And, now it makes sense to me why 5e saw such mass adoption but 3.5 is still hailed by many hardcore fans as being the best.
@@ConstructedChaos my take is that 3.5E appealed to the gamer. 5E tried to appeal more to the casual/newbie while trying to balance not to lose the hardcore gamer customer base. can't blame wotc for this approach though because at the end of the day it's about making the most amount of money for them. not necessarily putting out the best product. a balance can eventually be struck imo but not with their current leadership of money-hungry executives who don't really care for nor are passionate for the game.
@@TheRobversion1 I think that's a great assessment. I'll hold out hope for the future but I'll be happy enough with anything that gets more people into the hobby--even if that means I move to PF2e permanently.
This is really good video, one of the better ones I've seen on the subject, and I've been watching quite a few. But I always feel like an idiot when I hear so many people talk about PF2's "perceived complexity" because it really seems like that perception is reality. That said, I'm also an idiot, so that may be where the feeling comes from. For all the amazing things that I'm looking forward to when I start running a game like the action economy, the crit system, the character customization, etc, it's still really difficult not to become overwhelmed by the idea of knowing dozens and dozens of Encounter Actions, Skill Actions, Conditions, the differences in the states of detection like Undetected and Unnoticed. It's very overwhelming. Videos like this are helpful, so thanks. I'll definitely be looking for more.
feel free to ask questions here. As a fellow 5e immigrant, i'm enjoying learning the pf2e rules and would be nice to get more pf2e discussion going on in this channel.
Haha you're not an idiot! I had to read a few rules over and over to get them into my own thick skull bc reading comprehension is hard. But, thinking back, it took me a while to fully grasp 5e rules when I first started my TTRPG adventures!
@TheRobversion1 @@ConstructedChaos I think a big source of the complexity is the rigidity of the system. In 5e, the rules were basically, "Take what your players want to do, find an applicable skill, set a DC, and ask for a roll." Simple. Too simple to be honest; simple to a fault. It seems like Pathfinder overcorrects this problem. With PF, I'm worried that when a player tells you what they want to do, it's going to require a lot of back and forth to the book to look at the list of like 3-dozen Skill Actions to see if what they're referring to is already laid out in the rules. Then, with each of those actions having like 2 or 3 "tags" associated with it and having to check to see if any of the 40-some conditions affect actions with those tags... it just seems like it'll take a lot of referencing. Admittedly, we don't start our game until next week, so perhaps in practice it'll play better than it reads. But even though it's an in-person game, I'm still running it in Foundry VTT, cuz it's an awful lot to wrap my head around.
@@nextlevel8822 I do think the system lends itself better to TTRPG veterans. A lot of the mechanics make sense enough that you can reasonably infer them 90% of the time but, for a new player with not much TTRPG experience, I can see how the practice of truly knowing how your character works could be overwhelming and not fully understood. That's to say that I mostly agree with the points you raise here! I just think it'll get easier as you play with the system!
Excellent vid. I'm learning alot and yes we as a table have taken a break from dnd (and ttrpgs in general) but we've all agreed that this "downtime" is to be spent learning PF2E both as a player and eventually as a DM. so most definitely i'm all in on more vids like this to learn the game. i don't foresee myself returning to 5E for some time. i'd rather learn PF2E or play video games i've had on my docket for awhile. some things i liked and didn't liked: 1. some of the systems like dying sounds a bit ore complicated. i prefer the simplicity of 5e in this case. however, it seems to me that a dedicated healer (and avoiding combat encounters) is more viable in PF2E than in 5e. i could be wrong though. 2. i like that the system seems similar to dnd 3.5 where i used to optimize and build theorycraft as well. excited to hear your take on the classes. perhaps eventually a step by step build a character video as well like with one of those apps like pathbuilder? 3. i like how ancestry (race) is handled here and how class progression doesnt provide dead levels (which discourages multiclassing). i do love multiclassing though so i'm happy there's still some form of it here by picking up the dedication stuff. but just to make sure i'm understanding it correctly, there's no alchemist champion here in the "5e sense" right? 4. i liked the feat variety and weapon traits as it helps characters feel more unique but imo the number of conditions can be simplified and trimmed down. 40 is a bit much. 5. i liked how criticals work and it does encourage stacking numbers. i like numbers. :)
Haha thanks as always, Rob! I like numbers too--but maybe not as much as you do! Seems like you're enjoying your PF2e adventures as well so I'm looking forward to learning alongside ya!
@@ConstructedChaos yeah also nice to learn new world lore along with the mechanics of PCs. i like how the rules are more defined in pf2e (except for recall knowledge).
i got tired of wotc’s shenanigans and switched to pf2e, and all my players agreed to it. the most daunting thing about pf is that there are more options for everything - character customization in the form of feats and skills, the amount of basic and special actions, and the skill actions (and when each can be used) however, i really like this system because most of the time i don’t have to homebrew a rule, as well as how customizable and tactical it is, so i like to call it “THE power fantasy system”
If you do end up doing PF2 class overviews, I think the Ranger is a good one to start, considering how underwhelming they are in DnD5 and how PF2 actually does them justice.
The ranger has gotten a lot better in 5e since Tasha's came out. But, it's one of my favorite classes conceptually so I wouldn't mind starting there with PF2e!
Hmm. Suggestions and requests, huh? Let's see... Fighter is the classic "starter" class but also one of the most straightforwardly powerful, so you could do that to benefit new arrivals. Alchemist is much less intuitive, but I'd love to see a new take on it.
I’m subscribing in the hopes there will be more Pathfinder 2e content. I just picked up the players guide after the WOTC debacle and comments from Kyle Brink and I’m excited to learn the system so I can run it at my table.
Thanks and welcome to the chaos!! There will definitely be more pathfinder down as we go but I'll probably continue to publish DND-related material as well. WOTC opened the door for me to explore other TTRPGs. I'm hoping they don't push me away from DND entirely in the future but who knows?
My regular play group has been pretty receptive towards switching if I decide we should! However, DND is still the larger TTRPG so that's what we're playing for now.
Just one correction on the healing part. Actually healing in Pathfinder is free. As you can threat wounds once every hour, for a substatial healing. So you gain few hit points from only resting, but you can threat wound before you go to sleep and when you wake up. So you are expected to be always at close to max HP in encounters.
Yes, they have! I’m mostly happy with what they’ve done but I do think they could’ve changed it more. It really feels like a light refresh of 5e rather than a new system.
@ConstructedChaos I did like that I was able to make a more unique character. I was the only martial character in a group of spellcasters, so being a Tiefling who could cast one spell was interesting. He only used Thaumaturgy to promote his lawyer business though. The booming voice thing was a great marketing tactic.
