Pathfinder 2E 'Work In Progress' NPCs from Gamemastery Guide

Paizo has shared a page from its upcoming Pathfinder Second Edition: Gamemastery Guide. "You will have a fair selection of prebuilt NPCs to fill your world! Or maybe, have one of them become the villain? How would you tie this NPC into your story?" The book is slated for January 2020.

 

[Campbell]

They have said they really want to lean into the Oracle's Curse and that the new edition gives them the design space to do so. Not sure what that means. They said the Sorcerer design gives them room to breathe and really make the Oracle different.

They also have said Investigator will really lean into the skill system. Also not sure what that means.

 

[CapnZapp]

I don't see why you could not have an NPC that is Level -1 with say Religion of a 10th Level PC. Maybe a lay priest who knows a ritual the PCs need performed that they need to escort to a specific temple.

Yeah, sure, but the question is - are there any such official examples. That's the thing, innit?

(I mean, I'm not chiefly talking about what I can do with the monster building guidelines myself. I'm wondering if they fully go "show don't tell" and include any 10 hp experts in their selection of statted NPCs...

We have already seen multiple cases where monsters in the Bestiary are substantially different from others of their level. Zombie Shamblers only have 2 actions, have much lower than expected armor class and substantially higher hit points than most creatures of their level. Demons have higher hit points but a weakness to good damage. In a lot of cases where they would have used damage reduction in the past they increased hit points and used the weakness mechanic.

Well, to be honest that's something else, something much less radical... Just playing around with the parameters is one thing.

To have 10 hp experts with the skill bonus of a level 5 or 10 player character you must break, not bend, the connection between hit dice / levels on one hand, and skill bonuses on the other.

The Plague Doctor doesn't say.

Or rather, she indicates that Paizo is not willing to have NPCs with skills but not the levels...

That's why I'm interested in more examples!

 

[Zaukrie]

I always just built monsters however I liked. I don't get why any being would be the same as any other, necessarily. I've never played PF, but I'm pretty sure I will now. Everything just looks more interesting in combat than 5e.

 

[Green Onceler]

the Witch

I'm particularly interested to see how the Witch is handled.

It is my favourite class in Pathfinder but, more than that, their entire raison d'être, the save or suck spell, has been greatly weakened in the new game. Will facing a coven still be a terrifying experience, pitting your character's saves against the witches' pimped DCs in a struggle of life or death?

At the moment, I just can't see it. But, I'm very curious to see what they come up with.

 

[CapnZapp]

I'm particularly interested to see how the Witch is handled.

It is my favourite class in Pathfinder but, more than that, their entire raison d'être, the save or suck spell, has been greatly weakened in the new game. Will facing a coven still be a terrifying experience, pitting your character's saves against the witches' pimped DCs in a struggle of life or death?

At the moment, I just can't see it. But, I'm very curious to see what they come up with.

PF2 is much more a balanced game, meaning you should expect few or no shortcuts to depleting the monster's hit points over several rounds of combat.

In the same vein, it should no longer be possible to create a character that defeats foes quickly, bypassing the need for damage.

What magic can do and does do, is facilitate this process by buffing your allies and debuffing the enemies.

I mean, apart from exploding a fireball in their face and such.

While there are only a few bonus types in the game there are lots of different kinds of debuffs (conditions), so I imagine a Witch will be able to shoot lots of little -1's at the BBEG.

What I don't imagine they will be able to do, however, is what the dev team clearly views as a bug and problem with PF1: cast a single save or suck spell that instantly either wins the combat or does absolutely nothing.

 

[Kaodi]

If the Witch is a prepared Occult caster I will be interested to see if they manage to outshine the Bard. I hope that White-Haired Witch is going some kind of option in their "core" set, because that was one of my favourite things about them in PF1. Otherwise the Hag bloodline probably points to some of what we can expect.

 

[Green Onceler]

What I don't imagine they will be able to do, however, is what the dev team clearly views as a bug and problem with PF1: cast a single save or suck spell that instantly either wins the combat or does absolutely nothing.

Indeed. And this is one of several reasons I don't feel this game is for me. Having to grind through hit points of every foe on the battle mat sounds like a real bore to me. That's what I disliked about 5e.

I understand their rationale for this change, it's just not for me. I find there are more enjoyable ways to mitigate save or suck at the table.

 

[Campbell]

Save or suck spells are still pretty good against at level enemies. It's really only higher level enemies they become not good against. A reasonable house rule if this is an issue for you is to simply ignore the Incapacitation trait.

 

[Kaodi]

I still think it is kinda weird that there are no PC ancestry enemies other than goblins in the Bestiary. I mean maybe you can just reskin some of them to be human or elf or dwarf or what not but in general either you believe that a "monster" can be anything or you do not. So either there should be elves and dwarves and gnomes in the Bestiary or there should not be drow, or hobgoblins, or kobolds, or lizardfolk, all ancestries that appeared in the Advanced Race Guide,

 

[dave2008]

I still think it is kinda weird that there are no PC ancestry enemies other than goblins in the Bestiary. I mean maybe you can just reskin some of them to be human or elf or dwarf or what not but in general either you believe that a "monster" can be anything or you do not. So either there should be elves and dwarves and gnomes in the Bestiary or there should not be drow, or hobgoblins, or kobolds, or lizardfolk, all ancestries that appeared in the Advanced Race Guide,

The game just came out - give it some time to fill out!