The Ninja: PF2e #1 

Check out World Anvil Here! worldanvil.com/?c=D4 - Don't forget the promo code d4 to save 40%!

Fun Pathfinder Tidbit!: Since natural attacks are just another type of unarmed attack in PF2e, you can have ranged unarmed attacks. Many ancestries get ranged unarmed attacks - Leshies that shoot seed pods, and Automota that shoot lasers. This means you can build a monk that, at level 1, can Flurry of Blows with *laser beams.*

I really appreciate you supporting those of us shifting over to Pathfinder. Even though it doesn't fit your channel name it shows a lot of good things about your personal character.

Hi, Colby. I recommend two tables to complete the analysis. First the automatic bonus progression table in the GMG. This allows you to know how much damage dice and item bonus to hit are expected in each level, without assuming magic items. The other one is the monster creation tables in the GMG. Specially the ones about defenses. Looking at party -4 and party +4 numbers let's you know the extremes you will be facing at each level. Moderate numbers for Party -2, Party+0 and party+2 defenses are probably the best to compare to how much you can do. Amazing build, by the way.

Two notes: As mentioned by others, I would recommend using the Automatic Bonus Progression numbers when theorycrafting builds - they're the bonuses the math assumes you'll have at any given level. Also, if you are looking for a stopping point for builds that isn't level 20, level 10 or 11 is a good one, since most classes get some really big feats at 10 and the low level Adventure Paths go from 1-11, so you'd fall right into those. Edit: I lied, here's a third thing: Assurance (Skill) has one more benefit - it also removes the MAP from your skill check. With a monk you get to -10 very easily, so having something to do that doesn't get penalized is great. With Assurance Athletics you can do 3rd action Trip/Grab/Shove at no penalty (other than what you get with Assurance anyway).

As someone who is transitioning from 5e to Pathfinder 2e I really appreciate you continuing to make these videos. I just finished the beginner box as a player and plan to move the game I run over to pf2e after the current campaign is finished. It is nice to have more content that I can point my players towards. Also, can I commission you to read me a bedtime story?

Stay hydrated with the 'Drinking & Designing Deep Dive' game, where you take a swig of your favourite beverage anytime Colby gets confused and says 'D&D' out of force of habit. :)

Some General Building tips: 1) On skill feats I find it's often best to check out Archives of Nethys which has the skill feats organized by their Skill. Thus you can see all the Athletics feats separated by themselves. This is useful because you can only really train up to Master/Legendary 2-3 skills and when you decided which skills you are going to be focusing on you can see what sort of skill feats are available to them which makes it easier to decide what to pick. In this case if you are going for Athletics the Titan Wrestler could be a good Skill feat as it gives you "Disarm, Grapple, Shove, or Trip creatures up to two sizes larger than you" rather than Assurance Acrobatics since your character seems to be going to Athletics route with trip in mind. 2) Assurance only tends to be good on skills you are actually going to increase. So if you are not going to increase Acrobatics it might not be that good as you progress to later levels you won't get the extra boost from being Expert/Master/Legendary to it and thus it will remain at basically 10+Lvl+2 for trained compared to a skill you reach legendary with that would be 6 higher than that. Though it really depends on what kind of DCs your going to be using it for. 3) You don't have to be Human to get Natural Ambition. There is a trick for anyone to get it. The Level 1 General Feat Adopted Ancestry pick Human plus the Level 3 Ancestral Paragon lets you pick a level 1 Ancestry feat so you pick Natural Ambition and get the Class feat. You can use Adopted Ancestry to dabble into multiple ancestries without needing to be a Half-whatever. The result is sacrificing 2 General Feats for 1 Class feat while also unlocking all the other human ancestry feats for later level ancestry feats and depending on the build this could be worth it. 4) Don't chase the Max DPR too hard as you might not be able to get it off all the time. For example with this char you have to be in the stance and next to the enemy to start. So turn 1 is gonna be 1 Action for Stance, 1 Action to Move, and 1 Action Flurry in most cases. If you are already in the stance but there is no enemy next to you and you have to move 1 Action that only leaves 2 actions left and Wolf Drag is a 2 action ability so sure they will be knocked prone if you hit but you can't follow up with the flurry punch. As such it could likely be better to use those 2 actions after the move to Flurry and follow up with an Assurance Trip/Grapple depending on if the enemy's Reflex/Fort is the lower save. In either cases the target is now flat footed for your allies. While they are grappled you don't get synergy from stand still since they don't need to stand at least it's not going to move unless it waste an action to try and escape. And the follow up turn you can do your Wolf Drag/Flurry combo. In closing PF2e character building I feel tends to be more about options and flexibility. As such it'd be cool to see diving a bit deeper on what options the character has at their disposal like I went over in 4 rather than just what their optimal damage output for a single turn is. I also think this sort of approach helps get into the PF2e mindset more as it helps you become aware of your options rather than stressing over not being in that optimal position to dish out max damage. This way it highlights more of what it's like to play the character to see if it fits someone's play style.

Still haven't seen the video yet as I'm writing this comment. My very first D&D character was a shadow monk, I couldn't even get to the point where I got disappointed by DND monks because he was one shot killed before anyone managed to roll initiative. My first experience with DND was awful. But this video is especially exciting for me because this is pretty much the first character concept I was excited to play ever. Thank you wholeheartedly, Colby!

As to getting used to Pathfinder, it is basically like when you started making D&D videos. All you can do is establish a metric and come up with a character that does well on it. It is only after creating enough characters does a ranking system emerge, then you can learn from why the "top" characters are on top and why the bottom ones are on the bottom and start applying that to more advanced builds.

As a person who has been playing Pathfinder second edition for a while, I would like to point out that the stun condition also has one additional effect that you neglected to mention. The stunned condition also specifically says that you cannot act while you have this condition. That means you cannot use any reactions or free actions even if they're triggering requirements have been met.

A nice little bonus with Stun that some people miss: It removes a creature's ability to take reactions ("can't act while stunned"). So if you don't have/use Mobility, or if another party member draws a potential reaction from a creature, you can potentially prevent this with your Stunning Fist.

When deciding what bonuses (runes) to put on your character builds, consider using the Automatic Bonus Progression variant rule. This will add runes and item bonus automatically as your progress in line with Paizo's intended balancing. Also, Pathbuilder 2e might be use useful tool for you when demonstrating these builds

I really love the idea of mixing Pathfinder 2e content into the channel! I put the reputation for "un-optimizability" down to the smaller community and relative youth of the Pathfinder 2e system. If you're looking for some build ideas, the Magus has several options for immense single-target burst damage with the Psychic Archetype Laughing Shadow, multi-target burst damage with the Spellcasting Archetype Inexorable Iron, and survivability with the Sentinel Archetype Sparkling Targe. There are a lot of mechanically distinct ways to scratch the gish itch we share.

One note about choosing Backgrounds for PF2e builds, from my experience so far: you dont necessarily need to limit yourself to a Background that has your primary Ability Score as its primary Boost, since *all* Backgrounds come with the Boost "format" of [Choose 1 of 2 Options + 1 Free] This means as long as one of the options is an Ability score you would have considered as your otherwise Free Boost, you can still youse a given Background and simply choose your primary score as your Free Boost. This has lead to me looking far more at the much more specific Skill Feat for Background selection, although admittedly that will often result in choosing a Background with the fitting Ability Boost anyways, since you will often choose a Skill Feat for your primary Ability Score (at least that's what I end up doing) Really excited to see more PF2e Builds in the future, loving it so far ^^

It's obvious that I wasn't the only one that was refreshed by the monk of 2e actually being good. Likewise, and as a result, monk is the first class I will be using in 2e. I personally decided I wanted to do a sort of "Kung Fury" build. Since my DM is using the Free Archetype optional feature, that allowed me to make a Monk / City Agent with flavorful abilities like Loose Cannon and Flash Your Badge. Pathfinder is a fantastic system that allows me to play as a true Gunk hybrid.

Yay for pathfinder content! I am also learning the game lol.

I love this. I'm working on my first PF2e character build. She's a Dark Fields Kitsune Witch whose familiar is a fox. When I realized her familiar can take traits that let her become essentially a twin, or that she can use her alternate form to become a twin of her familiar... Well, I just can't pass up the endless possibilities for mischief provided!

With the +14 to hit an enemy with 15 AC, you’ll be critting on d20 roll of 11+. That increases the damage of your two straight attacks by 45%, second swing by 25%, and the -8 MAP third swing by 5%. Against enemy AC of 20, your first swings are doing + 25% damage, second and third swings +5%. You probably already knew that but just thought I’d throw it out there. Edit - I forgot to account for the fatal trait. Its very complicated.

Thanks for doing Pathfinder 2e content! We really need more awesome content creators (with amazing voices) like you!

Just a few things from a more experienced PF2 player: 1. When you select Ki Strike, you also need to select the nature of your Ki Strike; is it Divine (Godly or Infernal) or Occult (Things man was not meant to know). This does make a difference to some creatures who have resistances that can be overcome by weapons of the correct type. I recommend working with the GM to figure out which is best for your campaign. 2. When purchasing your gear I would recommend the player purchase the Monk Kit (53 sp), as it has most of the items you listed, leaving you to buy the Healer's Kit and Thief's Tools. The Monk Kit includes 10 darts, which is a good thing. You recommended Shuriken, but Monks do NOT start with proficiency in Shuriken unless they took the Monk Weapons feat. Darts do the same damage, 1d4 piercing, and can be considered the same as real world Bo Shuriken, keeping the feel you are looking for. You can also pick up the Sling as a possible weapon, which does 1d6 bludgeoning damage. The weapon is free, and bullets are 1 cp for 10, making them incredibly cheap and within your budget, but I will admit to bias and am known for putting a sling on pretty much every character, including casters. 3. Something to be aware of, Assurance (Stealth) and Incredible Initiative DO NOT work together. You can either use Assurance (Stealth) to be your default mode of exploration, and therefore your initiative (remembering that Assurance states that it is calculated as 10 + Proficiency, with NO other bonuses), or you can roll your Stealth with Incredible initiative (+2). I would recommend against taking both and choose which is more important to you and drop the other. I would replace the dropped one with Assurance (Medicine), as you should be over the standard DC15 Heal Wounds Medicine check by level 3 (level 5 if you chose CHA instead of WIS during character creation), meaning you will always be healing 2d8, even if you never raise the proficiency again. 4. For any martial character, which includes both Monks and Rogues, I would say it is pretty safe to say that they will have picked up an appropriate +1 Striking weapon for them. This means it is +1 to hit and an extra base damage die, and is one of the more important ways that martials contribute in combat. The Potency (+1) and Striking (extra damage dice) are called Fundamental Runes for a reason. The same is true for the Fundamental Runes for armor, when you get to them. They should be a part of your calculations. The fact that the cost can be spread out over multiple levels by buying the +1 Potency Rune at level 2, and later adding the Striking Rune at level 4, means that it can be achieved by pretty much any character. That said, ignoring property runes is fine since there are so many and figuring out which a given character is going to use would be an exercise in frustration. You might also be able to get away with ignoring Fundamental Runes for casters, depending on the class and build (for instance: you could ignore them on an Enigma Muse Bard, but not on a War Muse Bard). Other than those nit-pics, I really enjoyed the video and look forward to future installments. Edited: Clarity, Spelling

I'm just starting the video, but I really think you're going to love creating characters in PF2. The flexibility and variety available feels like it'll gel perfectly with your style of character creation.

Thanks for adding Pathfinder 2e content! One thing to consider is adding optimal gear by level (CRB p509). Items are generally more accessible/craftable in PF2 than DnD so you'll see specific items added to build optimizations where in DnD items are restricted entirely by DM whim.

Great video as always! Just a thing about items, the game assumes you have the base "math-enhancing" items on their levels for balancing. Other items are not generally accounted for. If you want to have a general "guideline" for your calculations, it may be interesting to look at the "Automatic Bonus Progression" table to see on what levels you're expected to get what. Keep up the good work.

For tips on this character concept, I'd be up for suggesting going Rogue with the Thief Racket and then using the Monk Dedication instead, but that's if you want more of a focus on all the ninja-ish things ninja can do outside of combat and a heavier focus on more deceptive fighting. For archetypes in general you can also supplement with Acrobat and Shadow Dancer (for that shadowy ninjutsu). Wolf Stance is perfect for this concept, so no reason to change that. Acrobat allows you to use Acrobatics for jumping (with the Graceful Leaper skill feat), helping you focus on Dexterity, and combining that with Athletics skill feats such as Cloud Jump allows you to leap to the Moon and back (not literally, of course). The biggest disadvantage to going Rogue instead of Monk is that you don't get that crazy good move speed increase, so you won't be as speedy across the battlefield. There's of course also the Assassin and Poisoner archetypes, if you want something more sinister.

So happy to see you putting out Pathfinder content. It's my favorite system and I'm super excited to see what awesome builds you come up with in the crunchier system!

I'm wondering about the damage reports in a new system, this is gonna be interesting

Congratulations on another well-put-together video for PF2e! A couple quick points of advice (which I really hope don't come across as dog-piling as I'm in a bit of a hurry and haven't had time to check the comments): I think if you don't feel ready yet to set out a build all the way to level 20 (which is perfectly understandable), then level 11 is probably the ideal stopping place, for a number of reasons. First, the class feats kind of achieve a new tier of power at levels 10 and 20, broadly speaking, so this will give you sort of a mini-capstone to show off--for example, your ninja monk might take the wind jump focus spell, allowing him to fly-jump Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style. Second, you're able to progress your skills to Master proficiency starting at level 7, so this will let you show off some of the more powerful skill feats--e.g., your ninja monk might want to take Kip Up from Acrobatics to keep enemies from using his own knockdown-centered tactics against him! Third, Paizo's adventure paths always cover either levels 1-20 (for a full-length AP) or 1-10/11-20 (for a short one), so a level 11 build will be either a complete roadmap for those shorter APs that start at level 1 (which is most of them), or a starting character for the ones that cover 11-20. Next, I think there are a few valuable resources you can look to for some objective guidelines when it comes to what sort of enemy statistics to expect at any given level. The Gamemastery Guide has a chapter on building creatures that has very detailed tables--and like all of PF2e's rules, these are available for free online! 2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=995 Looking at the section on AC, you'll see that you've lowballed enemy AC slightly. You can expect that most creatures you're fighting at level 6 will have an AC in the range of ~19-24. And lastly, not wanting to have to search through hundreds of magic items until you're more familiar with the system is, again, perfectly understandable, but luckily the Gamemastery Guide (and/or Archives of Nethys) can help you out here as well! 2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1357 The automatic bonus progression variant rule shows explicitly at what levels the core bonuses that are normally granted by magic items--such as potency runes to enhance your attack bonus, striking runes to boost your damage, etc.--are assumed by the system's math to come online so that a group that wants to eschew lots of magic items can instead bake these bonuses into character progression. You can therefore use this table to see what sorts of bonuses a character of a given level can be expected to have, without having to read through all the individual items. Looking at this chart, we can see that your level 6 ninja monk can be expected to have a +1 bonus to attack rolls & AC, and to have boosted their attacks to two dice. (E.g., 2d8+5 for a wolf jaw strike, +1d6 if the opponent is flat-footed.) I hope all of this helps with future builds, and again, great video overall and I can't wait for the next one!

I’m so happy for your success as of today. I’ve been with you since (I believe) 10k subscribers. Your videos just keep improving in quality, and it really shows. I know that you spend hours editing out “um”s now. I’m so excited for this video, and I’m glad that you finally have a Monk that you can play as and feel like your clone, Critlander. Ps: if you make it this far, please check out the Shadow Dancer archetype. I think you will love it.

I subscribed today because I enjoy your content and delivery and I am done with 5e. Almost a decade of 5e and the designers still haven't addressed 90% of their communities concerns reinforces that WOTC isn't here for the community, but for the profit. Standing on the backs of content creators like you (which gives them free advertising) and stepping on your necks in the name of profit simply reinforces what we already suspected about them. I am here for the journey as I am totally new to PF2e, and the joy, at least for me, is in the adventure of concept creation.

So excited for a new series from you with Pathfinder 2e builds. I really feel like this is something that hasn’t been done yet on youtube, or at least hasn’t become popular yet. But I like your style so I wish you success!

It's weird to see a video still be an hour long, but only go to level 6. That just shows how much nuance there is in PF2e. It's a like a word salad mixed with a buffet of abundant information. Kudos for figuring out the build. I hope you have lots of fun in the online game with this character. Glad you like the monk class. As someone who played the original Core monk from PF1e and the updated Unchained monk from PF1e, I was incredibly sad to see the 5e version. EDIT: Doing a bi-weekly video D&D and then PF2e makes perfect sense. Also, you definitely deserve a break. I hope you recoup nicely.

Glad to see you continuing with Pathfinder content! I’m in the process of switching - and was even before the OGL stuff. I just think it’s an elegant system, and I’m happy you’re breaking it down!

Note that once someone uses Treat Wounds on a target, "The target is then temporarily immune to Treat Wounds actions for 1 hour" - that's not just *your* Treat Wounds, but everyone's. So while having multiple people with Medicine is good (it means there's hopefully always someone conscious to heal the main healer), it's not like you can all line up to treat each other and thus get your HP back super-fast. That's what Continual Recovery is for :)

This is like a whole other world of unexplored content for you. Thank you OGL crisis!!!

I'm really glad to see awesome D&D creators getting into the Pathfinder2e space. We don't have nearly enough content, and I'm enjoying your's a lot. I'm sure you've gotten some recommendations for Skill Feats already, but I thought I'd offer my go-to ones I always look at when building characters that are the most powerful for the most variety of situations: Trained: *Cat Fall*: You already saw how potent this one is, but I can attest that it trivializes a lot of challenges (in a good way) and also opens up some tactical choices to use in combat *Arcane Sense*: Free cantrip *Quick Jump*: Necessary for feats that use Leap, though many of those have a similar ability baked-in *Titan Wrestler*: Bad at level 1, mandatory at level 15 *Bon Mot*: -2 to Will applies to saving throws as well as actions like Demoralize, incredibly powerful for some characters. Unlike Demoralize, it can be used over and over and requires an action to remove *Intimidating Glare*: Basically a +4 to Demoralize in the majority of fights *Additional Lore*: This is the only way I put ranks in Lore skills. Lore can be very powerful but its generally not worth spending skill increases on. This gives you legendary automatically by 15 *Battle Medicine*: I don't know if I need to explain this one *Risky Surgery*: +2 to Treat Wounds and +2d8 to healing. It works with Assurance too, you just don't get the +2 *Natural Medicine*: Nature can be used in a lot more situations than Medicine, so if all you want to do is Treat Wounds, this saves you 4 skill increases *Streetwise*: Allows you to use Society (and Int) to Gather Information, potentially instantly know the information you are trying to learn with Recall Knowledge, and you can still Gather Information normally if you fail. Might be one of the best trained feats along with Bon Mot *Terrain Stalker*: If an encounter takes place around your selected difficulty terrain, you can spy indefinitely and start the combat in a position of your choosing within melee of an enemy. Its somewhat niche but very powerful if it works *Forager*: Needed if you actually want to Subsist in nature *Pickpocket*: Need if you actually want to Steal, which comes up not too infrequently *Assurance*: Assurance. *Dubious Knowledge*: Incredibly fun and flavorful, and makes Recall Knowledge during combat more worth it *Skill Training*: Most of the time you have more than enough Trained skills and Untrained Improvisation is generally better, but this uses a Skill Feat instead of a General Feat *Trick Magic Item*: Unfortunately clunky, but allows martials to use wands and a wizard to cast Heal from a scroll. If you are regularly using them though, a feat dip into a spellcasting archetype might be better though Expert: *Powerful Leap*: Eventually outperformed by Cloud Jump, but for the majority of the time this is a +5 on Long Jump. With this and Fleet, you can automatically Leap 20 feet, ignoring most difficult and hazardous terrain. *Magical Crafting*: Unlocks (nonalchemical) crafting past level 3 *Intimidating Prowess*: +1-2 on Demoralize *Terrifying Resistance*: Basically gives you PF2's equivalent of Spell Resistance *Continual Recovery*: Trivialize Treat Wounds (healing focus spells already do this) *Mortal Healing*: Only applies to yourself, but increases your HP by a huge amount when its needed most *Quiet Allies*: Needed if you want to do anything involving group Stealth. Even if everyone is proficient, this still dramatically increases your chance of success Master: *Kip Up*: Never prone *Inventor*: Any item, on demand, if you have the money and downtime *Battle Cry*: Pretty good at level 7, amazing at level 15 *Terrified Retreat*: Basically a save-or-suck on demand against lower level enemies *Advanced First Aid*: Sickened is one of the worst conditions in PF2 especially when its 2 or greater, and this trivializes that threat *Battle Prayer*: The damage is bad, but it lets you proc weaknesses against those types of foes basically for free. All fiends have weakness to good, for instance *Swift Sneak*: Lets you Sneak places you normally couldn't, especially during combat *Planar Survival*: If you go to another plane, this is needed *Consult the Spirits*: Basically Read Omens 1/day, or 1/hour at level 15 Legendary: All of them These are just the ones I look at first as a baseline or if I don't know what else to choose. All of them offer some advantage that either directly or indirectly helps with combat or another life-and-death situation. Flavor and build comes first though, and most of the time I only need to pick a few from this list because I have a free spot. I know its a long post, but I hope that helps anyone getting into the game trying to figure out what Skill Feats to take

Finally a monk that lives up to the promise of it's awesome flavor! D&D didn't do them justice...

Hey man, long time viewer! Glad to see you finally make the jump to PF2, but I want to posit a question about the title: why not let this one be #1 so those who like PF don't feel like they're jumping into the middle of a preexisting series and put it in a Pathfinder playlist? Been learning the game myself and hope to learn a thing or three from you!

Personally, when I was growing up you were either Team Ninja or Team Pirate. I'm happy to see my team (and that cool Snake Eyes Tee!) was represented first but I would like to suggest a future Pathfinder build for a swashbuckling Pirate so we can finally settle this once and for all! #TeamNinja

Love the video and would stick around for more pathfinder! For future reference, I’d recommend looking at the “Automatic Character Progression” house rule specifically for the attack and striking bonuses. A good number of tables assume loot to be out by this level, or use this house rule to assume these effects for martial attacks

Can't say enough how much I appreciate you helping those of us who are transitioning from DD5e to PF2e. Thank you!... and hope to see more videos soon after your rest! 🍃

I’m one of those that enjoys the character build as much as the actual playing the game. However, I had gotten to the point with D&D 5e that there wasn’t too much more to learn and had therefore dropped my membership of your channel. With PF2e, character creation is all of a sudden really fun again, so I’m excited for these videos and am rejoining

That intro is just so wholesome and amazing

You should create an unbreakable goblin build. With their 13th LvL ancestry feat, they're basically Gummi bears

One thing worth noting about monks is that shields, weirdly, are really easy to fit into the monks kit. There is very little that you need two free hands for (climbing I guess? but the combat climber skill feat exists) and you can make unarmed attacks using kicks or headbutts even if both your hands are full (say a shield in one hand and an enemy grappled in the other). With flurry of blows you spend a single action and are already at max MAP, so you really want some flexibility with those last two actions. You could even go all out with a tower shield and go Flurry -> raise shield -> take cover for a MASSIVE +4 to your AC. It's kinda annoying how universally good shields are for monks because you don't typically imagine the kung fu master lugging around a big steel shield, but mechanically it is very strong, and often has no opportunity cost. Remember that every + to AC makes you less likely to get hit AND crit, making each boost twice as valuable.

It's always fun to see people's eyes shine as they realise how fun you can have making characters in 2e (martials included this time!)

I love the foray into Pathfinder! I'd love to see a build for a Magus, it's definitely the class that intrigues me the most (specifically an Inexorable Iron magus, but you do what sticks out to you).

I love how joyfully chaotic this video was; I feel like so many people are flailing together, trying to grok PF2e right now, that it almost looks like a party if you squint! Your DPR calculations are definitely a bit less widely applicable in this system, but I still support the spreadsheet - PF2e combat has a pronounced windup>knockout structure, where you're trying to use teamwork (flanking, demoralize, aid, status buffs) to set up a massive killing blow from one of your strikers; it's all Fastball Special, all the time. So it _is_ useful to know what one's "perfect round" would be. But, on its own, this kind of round is a hail mary; it would require team support in order for one to enact it consistently. Round to round, it would be more beneficial to know what tactics to employ in which situations. For example, without anyone to flank with, it's useful to know that the Feint action doesn't have the Attack trait, so you can use your Deception to make the enemy flat-footed for your first action, and then Wolf Drag or Flurry of Blows at your full attack bonus. Or, for example, it's useful to have backups if the enemy AC is too high (a very common occurrence with severe encounters), or if they have resistance to your damage types (ditto), what other weapons you can pull out and what actions you can take to eat away at the enemy's numerical advantage. I really like that, alongside being a "slave to the spreadsheet", you pay attention to round out your D&D builds - give them support options, healing, control, access to skills, etc. I think that kind of "these are all the tools you have access to, this is how you use them"-approach will be even more useful for PF2e buildcraft videos. When I first found PF2e, one of the things that scared me away is how little you can count on your own character. As a devout 5e optimizer, I felt spurned that I couldn't just cover all my bases during character creation. As it turns out, that's not quite true - yeah, optimization at character creation is less impactful, and you definitely can't just bludgeon enemies with your build, but knowing what your options are, when to employ them, and how to make yourself better at more of them (targeting multiple defenses, a variety of damage types, support options when you're ineffective against a specific foe) are what you really optimize for. And it's quite the involved optimization scene, just a slightly more hidden one.

Powerlevels are usually as follows: Class feats > archetype feats > ancestry/general feat (depending on the feat) > skill feat meaning human's ability to turn a ancestry feat into a class feat is generally really good if the class has good lvl 1 feats.

Pathfinder video. Let's gooo!

At first I thought I wouldn't like videos like this one, because my group is going to keep playing 5E (and probably 6E) and not PF2. But your previous PF videos actually aroused my curiosity, so I've been trying out some PF2 builds on my own (which I don't think I'll ever get to use, but it's lots of fun nonetheless). And the truth is that I was really really looking to watch this video so I could "compare our damages" XD.

I have a dwarf monk named Ook who was raised by gorillas. Gorilla stance, does strength damage when he grapples, whirling throw which is fantastic. Monks in PF2 are so fun!

32:02 when you're talking about Stunning Fist, it's worth noting that its an incapacitation effect, and I don't think everyone watching is going to know what that means. It might be worth going over that in future videos for now, or maybe with a side video like with the free archetype rule, since it has a pretty big impact on how the ability works in play.

For your damage reports you can maybe use the automatic bonus progression on page 195 of the gamemastery guide as that is designed to scale your character according to the math of the system without magic items Edit: NVM everyone else already said this

So excited for this deep dive! I know monks are good in pf2e and I like their feat options, but I haven't figured out a proper build for them.

Colby you are doing GREAT. It is so good to see you test out the PF2E olympic size pool. Any PF2E vet worth their salt welcomes anyone making honest beginners mistakes so no worries! Also you are nailing it with the "concept first" style of character creation because PF2E has without hyperbole hundreds of thousands of unique builds across: Ancestry, Background, and Class. You can be lost if you don't know what you're looking for in the myriad choices. Excellent perspective on the system

Cheers for the shout out! Happy to help put more pathfinder goodness into the world

Just an FYI: Stunned is a bit better than just taking away some actions on the creatures next turn (if it only did that it would be almost the same as the slowed condition). It also says "You can't act while stunned" which means as long as someone is stunned they cannot use reactions, so you go stun that Hydra!

I'm stoked you're doing Pf2e now! I can't wait to see what you do next!

Really happy to see so many D&D vets trying pathfinder it’s an awesome system and coming from a long time GM whose run dozens of different systems, 2e has by far been my favorite just do to the depth and wide array of options it gives while still maintaining a strong balance and a good encounter building system. Also honestly teamwork and strategy actually teamwork trump optimized builds in 2e’s system which is honestly fantastic because it means while your build will effect gameplay you can choose flavor based options and still be competitive which I’m really glad you caught on to.

Thank you Colby, for these videos. I’ve been playing pathfinder second edition since it first came out, with the exception of some breaks for pandemic and moving lol. With your builds referencing a lot of different rules, I find him reminded of rules that I either missed or glossed over earlier while learning the game. Again, thank you so much and I’m loving these videos and have subscribed.

I am really appreciating all the helpful comments from the Pathfinder guys!

I just made the switch to PF2e and learning it similar to 5E

This is what I've been waiting for. I really enjoy how you analyze and dive into mechanics and possibilities for 5e. I am so glad that you are doing it for PF2. Looking forward to when you are comfortable enough to go to higher levels.

I think lawful damage is something like that meme from Phoenix Wright, when the guy screams OBJECTION! Also happy to see that you make your first build to PF2! Love your work, It's like a favorite evening show, when I take my dinner and enjoy 1 hour of peace :D

First pathfinder video and under an hour? Great job! Edit: ah. The level cap makes sense. Regardless, good job! I'll continue to be here for the builds

One thing to remember with stunning fist is that the stunning effect has the incapacitation trait. That means creatures above your level get one category higher than they roll. Stunning fist is amazing against mooks, but more of a just "oooh, I manage to get a stun 1 for free" pretty rarely against bosses.

Versatile Heritage and Natural Ambition shenanigans hahaha yeah it's an instant pick, I love it. You're right, Class feats are generally more powerful than Ancestry feats, but some open new playstyles (think about a Human Viking Wizard!). Ki Strike is a nice pick, but if you're not going for a Monk that alternate stances, Ki Rush is a deceptive tanky ability! But the possibility to do 2d8+8+2+2d6 damage at level 1 as a Monk feels like a dream. Assurance Athletics is hilariously good, since you can attack reliably either Fortitude or Reflex DCs, climb and swim without problems, jump... so many things! Rogue Dedication is one of the best really, has a nice progression and offers skill increases, which are great. Another one that could help with the ninja feeling would be Assassin (also offers sneak attack, surprise attack, can improve the backstabber trait etc) but its feats come online a bit later, so Rogue still rules. Incredible Initiative also got my 5e brain go: 'initiative good, want better initiative', and Monks aren't great in the Perception progression. Oh, look at the Steady Balance feat, fighting while on a rooftop/rope is awesome and makes use of Monks speed. To do the Damage Report, I'd recommend using this damage calculator: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MPdyDwLkIW8AGdgwAPWQPJWucabC3cUng_v9xOO_Vig/edit#gid=1710909840 made by u/Platypusbills101. It's not that friendly as other tools, but it compasses a lot of options, even for Alchemists (who weirdly will deal damage on a Miss). Here's a quick guide: www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/tvjp7z/pf2e_weapon_damage_calculator/ and also, consider looking at the Automatic Bonus Progression rule to have a comparison for what levels are expected to have damage increasing runes! I've loved your video!

Love the splitting of the channel between the two systems! I've recently started pf2 and am super handy to have a known face talking about builds for it

The fact that in pf2 you can actually say "pick something else if you want" and you wont lost a lot in terms of power in the build THAT'S HUGE. In 5e if you mess up one single feat you lose 4 lvl and sometimes something huge like a +10 to damage or some key feat. I really hope that your videos will help all player to slowly move to Pathfinder 2 to at least "pick what you want" and not only play 5e

A note about taking Wisdom over Charisma: Wisdom is (usually) the initiative score in pathfinder, though I'm pretty sure, as a ninja anyway, that you can use Stealth in lots of situations, so it might not matter much for this build, but I think it's worth considering too

Don't worry about not being an expert at Pathfinder 2e. You're on a journey, and we're happy to come along.

Hey, there's something that can help you to make pathfinder builds: the automatic bonus progression rule. This rule is made for games without runes and magic items that gives you numerical bonus. It just let's you have the numbers at the expected levels without the items and if you want to crunch numbers without worrying about what item to choose to each build, it can be really useful.

Only level six? Such restraint, much self control, very bravery. Thank you for keeping the pace sensible!

My take on the medicine skill is that it's very useful to have at least one person who *hard* specs into it, or a bunch of people who dabble in it. If you get one player who gets all the medicine skill feats and/or the medic archetype you will basically be fully healed between each encounter no problem.

Something of note(that I just recently figured out) about stun- Stun and slow sound very similar in practice. Both cause you to reduce your actions on the next turn. However, a key aspect of stun is that you can't act while you are stunned. That means that until their turn comes up, they also can't do any reactions.

Another way to explain building in PF2e is that while there are options to increase your numbers, the game focuses a lot more on your choices giving you new ways to use your numbers.

I played with this build idea last night and would love to see your take on it. Kobolds have ancestry traits that allow them to better make snares. Rangers have class features to improve the snares, and there is an archetype all about snare crafting. I'd love to see how you'd put together a Tucker's Kobold PC sometime down the road.

As a reminder, Assurance does not include your ability bonus, so at level 2 you would get a 14 total for your trip attacks. Having said that, it also doesn't take into account any other bonuses or penalties, so it's just as effective as your third attack as your first.

I'm glad to see Colby stumble upon something I also discovered early in my PF2e journey - _Constitution isn't crucial!_ In 5e, it's the automatic second-place score if you don't want to have miserable amounts of HP, which really sucks for MAD builds or multiclassing. In PF2e, it's good, but people already get plenty of HP from their ancestry, class, and level ups; even the Toughness feat adds only 1 HP per level instead of 2. As a result, the difference in HP totals isn't as pronounced among PF2e characters, and it's even less important in actual play - defensive movement and options like shields are much more impactful. You definitely want a good Con if you're planning on standing your ground in melee, but everyone else can get by with Con 10-12. And also, everyone can pick it up at level 5 or 10 with Ability Boosts, so it's usually not staying 10 forever. Also, no concentration checks! Con has even more of a stranglehold over casters in 5e, and a poorly justified one I think. If they don't want to pathetically lose concentration and thus be stupidly inefficient, any mage one makes tends to have either high Con, Con save proficiency, War Caster or some other concentration-protecting measure (Mind Sharpener infusion, Eldritch Mind invocation, etc.). They're often beefier than my martial characters, which makes no damn sense. Iconic frail mages like Raistlin are almost unplayable in 5e.

The ever present problem with Pathfinder (regardless of version) is that there are a million Feats, but only a small percentage of them are worthwhile.

Colby I'm not sure how you land the coolest sponsors but keep it up! Loved every one so far almost as much and I love your channel!

One thing that's great about this build is that not only is it super-flavourful and a good damage dealing build -- it also does a great job at supporting the party. Knocking the enemy prone is great because as long as they don't go directly after you in initiative, it means your allies are also benefitting from the enemy being prone on their turns too. Furthermore, what makes trip so great is the action-economy denial. The enemy only has 3 actions, and they are going to have to use one of them to stand up every turn, basically only giving them two useful actions. Now combined with stunning strike, even assuming only stun 1, you have essentially reduced them to a single useful action for that turn. In the case of spellcasters, this severely limits what spells they can cast. See a dangerous foe? You stick to them like glue, knock them down (making everyone else more likely to hit and crit,) while you sap their action economy. Beautiful, and very ninja-like.

You nailed it, Colby! Appreciate your effort to learn and understand the game to put a fun concept build so quickly, its just so good to be able to have those characters ideas and being able to represent it in game, thank you!

Thank you, Colby!! I have been eager to see your builds for PF2! This is fantastic!

Thanks for doing Pathfinder builds! I'm just now finding you, thanks to your being on The Rules Lawyer and I really enjoy your enthusiasm as a newcomer to PF2E. The only quibble I would have with your build is taking Assurance on so many skills. For some skills, particularly Medicine, it can be great, but you have to be careful that it's not scaling well with enemies saves and Perception. Anyway, welcome to the community! All are welcome here.

I played an Gymnast Acrobat with Athletics and Acrobatics as my focuses. Assurance is cool, but you really want to start increasing the number of ways you can use your skills. Starting out, i really like the Steady Balance(Acrobatics), Rapid Mantle(Athletics), and Quick Jump (Athletics) skill feats. Steady Balance gives you the ability to fight while balancing, and it makes it easier. it also allows for replacing your reflex save with an Acrobatics Check when grabbing a ledge. Rapid Mantle allows to pull yourself up and stand as a free action when you grab a ledge. it also allows for replacing your reflex save with an Athletics Check when grabbing a ledge. Quick Jump allows you to jump in a single action, and you don't need a running start. They have some overlap in funcionality, but combined they really give your ninja a "Domain" of their own. I've used these feats to my advantage in several fights to be impossible to pin down, and even cause enemies without my feats to waste actions fighting me in my Aerial domain.

After watching your episodes teaching Pathfinder 2e as a D&D veteran, I finally started taking a look at the rules for the first time. I've been playing D&D for 22 years now. I grew up with 3rd edition, and honestly missed a lot of what that ruleset had to offer. I had no idea that Pathfinder was not only an evolution of 3rd edition D&D rules, but an amazing evolution at that. All the issues I've had running games from 3rd through 5th editions (yes, I'm the group's "forever DM") are solved in Pathfinder 2e. Players constantly min/maxing with completely broken multiclass builds, though allowed by the rules, make it incredibly difficult to balance encounters and threats. Comparatively, this is a non-issue in Pathfinder 2e. I could go on, but what I'd like to say is: Thank you Colby. You've shown me the thing I didn't know I was missing :) Now I just have to convince my players to switch rule systems lol. Wish me luck!

I truly love the outtakes. Also thank you for the pathfinder monk build. I was trying to convert mine and got a little bit overwhelmed. Also the free architype things is great, glad to hear it as I haven't actually got to the gamemastery guide yet.

Love the concept and choices you made to fit the concept. The action economy at level 6 seems solid to me, even if making an attack at a -8. The purpose of the last action as flurry of blows is to have two chances to inflict stun 1 which means that on the enemy turn they only get a single action instead of three (standing up from prone uses an action too). Throw in the extra reaction punch as they stand up and it is brilliant! Thanks for learning as much as you can as quickly as you can. Looking forward to more of your future builds!

Yes! PF2e content! On Stunning strike, one very important thing to note is that it has the incapacitate trait, that means higher level enemies treat their save as one level higher. You still get it for free so there's no opportunity cost loss, just know boss monsters will shrug it off 95% of the time.

Thank you Colby! It’s great to see you dipping into PF2e. I started out with PF over 5e but as everyone I knew was playing 5e I ended up switching. Your videos on 5e were essential in helping me learn the system. I’m excited to have your voice join in as so many of move to/go back to PF2e!

Just got the PF e2 my stubbing through the gym book was stressful so finding these videos made it a bit easier to understand. So thank you very much!

Love the video, and as someone who's been an advocate for PF2e since release, I've been loving seeing people dabble in it~ I'm commenting to firstly just, show RU-vid this is a cool video more people can see and hopefully make it easier for future videos to get that traction, and add my support to what many people have already said, which is the automatic progression table in the GMG. Pathfinder just requires those item boosts, so trying to do any DPR checks without them isn't really going to give you any idea of what your real damage is, especially if/when you start going into higher levels than 6th. Regardless though, fantastic job, and as someone who has also always been instantly drawn to monks in any system, it's great to see them getting love!

Thanks for devoting so much time to this. As a newcomer to PF2 I appreciate how much there is to learn. Its really no harder or crunchier than 5e. Its just the time to learn a new system after spending years learning the nuances of 5e.

I love both 5E and Pathfinder theory crafting so i will be here for the long haul. look forward to all the new builds and watching you learn a system I love the predecessor of.

I've been following your channel for a while, watching all of the dnd builds. Incredibly excited for pf2e builds!

You have done well. That is quite a reasonable PF2 Monk. Good luck.

Yay! Thank you for the pathfinder content. I am so excited to see some builds for this game. My first video of yours was the intro to pathfinder, and I am loving the videos so far.

I dabbled in PF1 a long time ago. Now getting into PF2 with my gaming group. I am glad this is a collective journey.