All right, to get back to
@Retreater original premiss, what would an "Essentials" PF2 look like? Or more importantly (to me), what would I want to see?
- Streamline rules and less of them: From what I hear, this is pretty well taken care of in the beginner's box. So I think we already have that checked (I just want all the change in one book).
- A reduction of feats. To keep this balanced what I am thinking is combining feats into larger feats. So instead of a fighter & skill feat at lvl 2 & 4; you get a fighter feat (a combined feat) at lvl 2 and a skill feat (a combined feat) at level 4, or something similar. I might get rid of ancestery feats all together (maybe keep one, and make most of these to your initial ancestry/sub ancestry, or background choice. Ideally I would like half as many feat choices max.
- Simplified classes. I want mean is less reliance on tactical choices. My players are not tactically minded and they just want simple mechanics. Not sure how to do this one.
- Remove the martial reliance on striking runes (this may not be backward compatible). I am think of how "basic" attacks progressed in damage as you leveled up. I think this is in the GMG maybe? But I would prefer it was backed in.
- I would like to get rid of the +1/level. I know this is in the GMG, but I would like it to be the default and monsters already calculated this way. I realize this is not backwards compatible, but this is my wishlist.
As for number 3 the easiest way to handle it is actually to bump the players up a level, I think that could be mentioned in Adventure Paths as an option for GMs explicitly, like 'hey if your players are having trouble and its hurting the fun, don't hesitate to give them an extra level'
actually, side quests that could give opportunities to outpace the book's intended level progression by a bit would be an organic means of providing this as well, if we don't want it to just be a sidebar, but really I'd apply a sidebar that mentions the possibility.
Sadly, I feel like some of these other elements actually damage what make Pathfinder 2e desirable at all, like reductions in player choices. That would start giving it some of the flaws of OSR games and the like, which my players are pretty explicitly against doing as a 'main' thing (though they'd be happy to try a little DCC on the side, which should be fun.)
Less rules is also potentially an issue in that some people already view it (it's in Morrus's review for Enworld, if i'm remembering correctly) as being as simple as 5e, and honestly, it mostly is-- it's also an issue because you might be falling int 5e's pitfalls of not having real support for exploration and downtime.
I do kind of wish ABP was the default (or really, that items as a to-hit increase wasn't really a thing in the first place) but I understand that was a matter of player feedback, and it thankfully isn't hard to change.
