Pathfinder 2E The playtest is here!!

[Zardnaar]

I might have to go online for this one, theres a bit to much to print and its hard to read its like 4E in some ways just page after page of feats vs powers. The fighter is 9 pages long, struggled to read it and spent almost an hour double side printing the 1st 140 pages.

Its basically a half ream of paper and a IDK how much of an ink cartridge to print it.

As a beta its interesting as a playtest document IDK if this is good.

Where are the multiclass dedication feats?

 

[Reynard]

I just had a kind of random thought: streaming and actual play has become a big thing, due in no small part to Critical Roll, which as I understand it* started out as PF but went 5E with its second season. WHat is the likelihood of PF2 launching with a big budget stream/show, even possibly stealing CR back?

* I have never watched a full episode. They are just too long. Edit that thing down to 45 minutes or so and I'm in, but man...

 

[mellored]

Where are the multiclass dedication feats?

P280

 

[TwoSix]

My first knee-jerk reaction is that this was written by a programmer. Keywords, icons, and so on. But then again I know Mark Seifter is a programmer.

Old RPGs were written by humanities types (history and lit). Or social sciences; Tom Moldvay (one of my favorite creators) had a Master's Degree in Anthropology. This makes them read very differently.

3.X and PF1 are more code-ish than Gygax but less so than PF2. Even the distinction between 'fluff' and 'crunch' is IME a 3E-ism that recalls the way code is split into executable portions and comments. Pre-3E didn't have that separation (again, IME). All of the text had meaning for interpreting an unclear rule.

I think you might be onto something here. I'm a programmer myself, so sorting through blocks of text looking for important info is second nature to me; drawing blocks around each portion of important text, to my mind, is just common sense. But the pushback against both 4e and PF2 in terms of its presentation of information makes me think I'm in the minority on that. The more successful books, like 5e, have only used blocks to separate tables, and used font, bolding, and headers to organize all the other information. Additionally, nothing is organized by number, the level you gain access to something is only spelled out in the text of the power or ability.

I like PF2, but sadly I think popular opinion has already turned against it. I think Paizo would have been better off doing a wide open playtest like 5e, where every aspect of the design was tested for feel, rather than doing work behind the scenes for 3 years and then playtesting an almost finished product.

 

[Azgulor]

I've just noticed... PF2 runs on the Silver standard!

While minor to most, this is just one of the many, many things that this converted PF1-Forever! fan is liking about PF2.

On the more substantive plus side, character creation is far more intuitive for newbies than PF1.

 

[Kaodi]

I think reach weapons might actual be more worthwhile now that you can still attack anyone adjacent to you with them. I expanded the "example" character at the beginning of the book, the female farmhand fighter, into a halberd wielder with furious focus and power attack (using natural ambition). Could be pretty devastating once you get Whirlwind Attack.

 

[Kaodi]

Kind of funny that ki strike and ki blast now have verbal casting, though I imagine those who decry PF2 as too "anime" may feel insulted. When my orc monk shouts "Charging Boar Wave!" and unleashes his Ki Blast though I will smile.

 

[Azgulor]

Kind of funny that ki strike and ki blast now have verbal casting, though I imagine those who decry PF2 as too "anime" may feel insulted. When my orc monk shouts "Charging Boar Wave!" and unleashes his Ki Blast though I will smile.

Anyone who's ever been to a martial arts studio can attest that certain strikes or attacks can, or even should, utilize a vocal cry/exhalation when making the attack. Why you can certain flavor your verbal casting as a catchphrase, I don't think introducing a verbal element automatically triggers "oh no, anime".

 

[Zardnaar]

P280

Hey Pathfinder has learnt a thing from 5E. They put feats like that in a different section and have a useless index to find it. Its like the 5E PHB almost

The one great thing about Pathfinder 1 is the layout and small things like what classes can cast what spells in the spell description.

 

[pemerton]

I'm a programmer myself, so sorting through blocks of text looking for important info is second nature to me; drawing blocks around each portion of important text, to my mind, is just common sense. But the pushback against both 4e and PF2 in terms of its presentation of information makes me think I'm in the minority on that. The more successful books, like 5e, have only used blocks to separate tables, and used font, bolding, and headers to organize all the other information. Additionally, nothing is organized by number, the level you gain access to something is only spelled out in the text of the power or ability.

The weird thing is that the RPG community, and perhaps even moreso the D&D/PF community, seems to have a greater proportion of IT/engineering types than the general population, and outside of some indie-ish games shows rather little influence from the humanities or literary studies.

Clear rules and 4e-style layout force a clear conceptual distinction between reality ("We're a group of friends playing a game together") and fiction ("I just killed a goblin!"). Whereas the Gygax style runs these togther ("I just did 14 hp of damage to that ogre.") I think the Gygax style produces weird reificaiton of the rules that gets in the way of sensible adjudication and narration, but clearly it's very popular.

EDIT: downloaded a playtest bundle, took about 1 minute.