Pathfinder 2E Is it fun to play a caster in PF2?

[W'rkncacnter]

I had a player playing a Warpriest Cleric and he found it to be very very boring and not fun at all.

to be fair, that's probably more warpriest clerics sucking then casters in general sucking.

 

[BigZebra]

to be fair, that's probably more warpriest clerics sucking then casters in general sucking.

Yes, that could be the case of course.

 

[Staffan]

I had a player playing a Warpriest Cleric and he found it to be very very boring and not fun at all. Casters being nurfed is definitely one of the most common PF2 complaints. Personally I find that casters do not tap in the whole 3-action system very creatively. And then there's the whole Vancian casting thing. I was kind of baffled that someone would design an RPG in 2019 and default to Vancian casting (they later introduced stuff like wave casting etc.).

Sometimes I wonder if I lucked into playing That One Fun Caster with my elemental sorcerer. As an elemental sorcerer, my initial bloodline focus spell is elemental toss which is a 1-action spell dealing 1d8/spell level damage. It's not spectacular, but it gives me something to do with the third action. Other than that I do the occasional Recall Knowledge or Intimidation, when I don't need to move.

Other casters I've seen have used their third actions for sustaining spells, shield, or (for bards) inspire courage.

 

[BigZebra]

Sometimes I wonder if I lucked into playing That One Fun Caster with my elemental sorcerer. As an elemental sorcerer, my initial bloodline focus spell is elemental toss which is a 1-action spell dealing 1d8/spell level damage. It's not spectacular, but it gives me something to do with the third action. Other than that I do the occasional Recall Knowledge or Intimidation, when I don't need to move.

Other casters I've seen have used their third actions for sustaining spells, shield, or (for bards) inspire courage.

That actually sounds nice. I will remember this if we get back to PF2.

 

[payn]

The big impact is the whole crit fail, fail, save, crit save dynamic. It changes casting greatly from a largely binary system of the past. Combine that with level scaling and casters play and feel very different. The fun part is how you feel about that.

 

[Staffan]

The big impact is the whole crit fail, fail, save, crit save dynamic. It changes casting greatly from a largely binary system of the past. Combine that with level scaling and casters play and feel very different. The fun part is how you feel about that.

That's part of it, but it seems that every time someone disses PF2 casters I come in and say "Well I had fun, and I did this thing and that thing".

And not to devalue my own experiences, but if the choices I made are some of the few that actually lead to fun gameplay that indicates that there are problems with caster design. Just because I managed to walk through the minefield it doesn't mean the mines aren't there.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Sometimes I wonder if I lucked into playing That One Fun Caster with my elemental sorcerer. As an elemental sorcerer, my initial bloodline focus spell is elemental toss which is a 1-action spell dealing 1d8/spell level damage. It's not spectacular, but it gives me something to do with the third action. Other than that I do the occasional Recall Knowledge or Intimidation, when I don't need to move.

Other casters I've seen have used their third actions for sustaining spells, shield, or (for bards) inspire courage.

Though I wasn't focused on it (because hybrid) I didn't find the Bard magic (which is to say, occult list) on my Champion/Bard hybrid uninteresting. The occult list isn't a massive ass-kicker, but there's a lot of interesting bits and bobs on the spell list to play with. (And yes, Shield was often my third action).

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's part of it, but it seems that every time someone disses PF2 casters I come in and say "Well I had fun, and I did this thing and that thing".

And not to devalue my own experiences, but if the choices I made are some of the few that actually lead to fun gameplay that indicates that there are problems with caster design. Just because I managed to walk through the minefield it doesn't mean the mines aren't there.

I try to not be super-critical to people about this, but I really think a lot of things have to do with expectations set by PF1e, and D&D3e and 5e. I will sometimes cynically suggest that, yeah, when you're used to the overbaked character of D&D spellcasting aren't always going to be happy with a game that has pushed spellcasters and martials closer together, too, but that's being uncharitable.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's part of it, but it seems that every time someone disses PF2 casters I come in and say "Well I had fun, and I did this thing and that thing".

And not to devalue my own experiences, but if the choices I made are some of the few that actually lead to fun gameplay that indicates that there are problems with caster design. Just because I managed to walk through the minefield it doesn't mean the mines aren't there.

I've watched some extensive discussion in places, and I'm kind of willing to acknowledge that low-end wizards may have some problems; I found the arguments at least convincing. Its really hard for me to take it seriously when talking sorcerers, though, since I've watched one in play three times now (one of our players has, shall we say, a type).

 

[payn]

I try to not be super-critical to people about this, but I really think a lot of things have to do with expectations set by PF1e, and D&D3e and 5e. I will sometimes cynically suggest that, yeah, when you're used to the overbaked character of D&D spellcasting aren't always going to be happy with a game that has pushed spellcasters and martials closer together, too, but that's being uncharitable.

I think you have two different takes from casters are no fun crowd. Those that don't understand the system, and thus are falling back on preconceptions. Then, you have those who do understand the new system, but still dont like it. How I take criticism depends on how they present it.