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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 8102289" data-attributes="member: 70468">There are a handful of reasons for the apparent increase in difficulty.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The guidelines for encounter building actually work. Because build optimization could make so much of a difference, they weren’t in PF1. Encounters might be hard or might be easy depending on the players. Consequently, hard encounters in PF2 are hard.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Per the guidelines, higher-thread encounters can end the adventuring day or kill PCs (for severe- and extreme-threat encounters). Moderate-threat encounters are an example of the former, and they’re fairly common in APs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">PF2 shifts system mastery from character building to tactical play. This helps with balance and making the guidelines work reliably, but it means consistently poor tactics gets you wrecked by moderate-threat encounters on a regular basis.</li> </ol>Related to number 3 there is that certain tactics that are okay in other games are a really bad idea in PF2. Charging into combat is usually worse than forcing the enemy to come to you. If you’re standing there, slugging it out because you want to fish for a crit on your third attack, then you’re probably taking damage you could have avoided. It’s much better to retreat and force the enemy to close the distance again.Additionally, another part of tactics is teamwork. If the group is not fighting as a team, it’s going to have a harder time (especially at severe and extreme threats where it’s practically a requirement). For example, a party that casts bless (+1 status bonus to attack), uses Demoralize (−1 or −2 status penalty to AC), and imposes the flat-footed condition (−2 circumstance penalty to AC) on a target has an effectively 20~25% higher hit and crit rate against it than one that doesn’t put much effort into maximizing its effectiveness.Edit: I’m speaking generally here. In this case, there was an apparently nasty hazard involved in the encounter. That can also affect things, though I’d expect it to be factored i to the encounter’s budget.</blockquote>

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