Doctor Futurity
Hero
Your experience really mirrors mine, although early on I leaned on level +3 or +4 foes more frequently and realized that was a huge mistake, and not really necessary for a hard challenge. The game also improved considerably as my players got better at spotting synergies and utilizing the out-of-combat healing.I just want to chime in here, even if I'm late to the party.
PF2 is a fine game. I ran session 46 of a homebrew campaign last Tuesday, and we have introduced no significant rules variants or homebrewes fixes. It simply isn't necessary.
The things that I have changed, at least compared to published APs that have their own problems, are as follows:
- most skill DCs are borrowed from the list of example static skill DCs.
- I tend to use larger numbers of lower level adversaries, and only rarely have +2 or +3 level foes (though more often now that the PCs have reached 11th level). I still haven't used a +4 level adversary, except on a couple rare occasions when I was really foreshadowing a recurring villain, and had the guy cut out of the fight for plot reasons.
- I also tend to seed magic items in loot a little earlier than the expected guidelines suggest. I'm convinced that many items in PF2 have inflated item levels and costs, and so have compensated a bit.
None of those "changes" involve fundamentally rewriting the game, and I recognize no "fundamental flaws" in the game. Like any RPG, a clever DM is going to adjust things on the fly, so as to create a more enjoyable gaming experience for his players.
My only complaint with PF2E is some of the rules are a bit disorganized.....there are some rules where you need to reference two or three unrelated spots to get the big picture (good example: crafting a magic weapon with runes; or how one goes about identifying magic items).