It’s LAUNCH DAY For The Pathfinder 2 Playtest!

Today’s the day! You can now download the Pathfinder 2nd Edition playtest book!

Head on over to Paizo.com to download it for free.

Its tinged with a little sadness for those of us who preordered the hard copy, as issues with Amazon means that our copies have been delayed by an indefinite amount.

’’When Paizo was planning this year's Pathfinder Playtest, we expected to exceed our own ability to fulfill orders on a timely basis, so we decided to use Fulfillment by Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon's reports indicate that most customers will not be receiving their orders by tomorrow's release date. They shipped 3 orders on July 28, 3 more on July 29, and no orders on July 30 or 31. Today, they have shipped almost 10% of the outstanding orders, and they are continuing to ship through the night and into tomorrow. They have so far been unable to tell us when they will complete shipping.”

However, at least the PDFs are still available for free in the meantime.

Adventure chapters are also available alongside the rule book, with the first being available today. They are as follows:

1. The Lost Star, Aug 7 - Aug 26 (Also available at Gen Con on Aug 2.)
2. In Pale Mountain’s Shadow, Aug 7 - Sep 9
3. Affair At Sombrefell Hall, Sep 10 - Sep 23
4. The Mirrored Moon, Sep 24 - Oct 8
5. The Heroes Of Undarin, Oct 9 - Oct 21
6. Red Flags, Oct 22 - Nov 4
7. When The Stars Go Dark, Nov 5 - Nov 18

 

[Kaodi]

I know that the a lot of people are hating on the sorcerer right now but I still rather like the flexibility of bloodlines giving access to different spell lists.

Last night I made an attempt at a level 1 witch using the sorcerer and got:

The Witch
female human animal whisperer demonic sorcerer 1, neutral evil
str 10 dex 14 con 12 int 14 wis 10 cha 18
feats familiar (black cat), natural ambition, train animal
trained skills animal lore, athletics, crafting, deception, intimidate, medicine, religion, survival
cantrips - chill touch, detect magic, light, prestidigitation, shield
1st - fear, harm, heal

And honestly that feels pretty good to me.

 

[mellored]

If you can easily get multiple 18's then a 12 or 14 will start to feel like a weakness.

The typical starting array is 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 8
But with a soft cap at 18, and raising 4 out of 6, you tend to round out at you level.

Though, I do agree that reducing it to raising 3 stats (and keeping the soft cap of 20) would make for a more variety.

What's next? Starting with 20 in all abilities, so you never have experience getting only a +4 to your roll?

Works for me.
Or rather, just get rid of ability scores altogether. You can still have all the flavor, without the extra step.


Instead...
Elves get +1 to bows, unarmored AC, initiative, stealth, and reflex saves, and -1 to fort saves.
Dwarves get +1 to axes and hammers, armored AC, athletics, and resist 5 to poison, and -1 to diplomacy.
etc...

 

[Gladius Legis]

Good grief, the Paladin is a dumpster fire in this playtest. I could tell it was from reading it, and it's even more evident running one in a recent session. Designing a class around a reactive ability with a limited trigger DOES. NOT. WORK.

I'm glad to see that a lot of playtesters on the Paizo boards think the same. Maybe it'll get addressed ...

 

[Kaodi]

Now I really want to play a Paladin of Shelyn.

 

[Kaodi]

Or a Goblin Paladin of Sarenrae who wields a horsechopper and has the Fire domain.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm going to take a good look at the "hated" classes and see if they are actually bad or just bad compared to their previous incarnations.

 

[Arakasius]

Power level on everything is a bit down. I think most of the Paladin hate is they went from the strongest offensive physical dps class (melee or ranged just because of smite evil) to a more defensively orientated class. They still do get a couple buffs to damage so they might still have higher dmg/hit than a fighter but not nearly as many tricks. Fighters have things that will raise damage for others or for themselves in the future through things like inflicting flat footed but I didn't see any fighter feats that give a flat boost to damage rolls.

As for Rangers they're going to be very strong archers (especially with the likely longbow change) with any type of bow. How strong they are at melee I'm not as sure on.

 

[Kaodi]

Pirate seems like a bit of a weird dedication. The initial feat and Sea Legs seem a lot better on classes that do not already have Acrobatics and Athletics as signature skills. So I made a Gnome Bard with them. I think she could work in a normal party, .

Sedni Soursail
female gnome sailor maestro bard 4, chaotic evil
str 8 dex 16 con 14 int 12 wis 10 cha 18
background feat underwater marauder
ancestry feat animal accomplice (parrot)
class feats lingering composition, pirate dedication, sea legs
skill feat defencive climber, virtuosic performance (singing)
general feat breathe control
trained skills sailing lore, acrobatics, deception, intimidation, occultism, performance, society, survival
expert skill athletics
cantrips - inspire courage, know direction, light, mage hand, message
1st - magic missile, mending, soothe
2nd - invisibility, silence, sound burst

 

[Zardnaar]

Power level on everything is a bit down. I think most of the Paladin hate is they went from the strongest offensive physical dps class (melee or ranged just because of smite evil) to a more defensively orientated class. They still do get a couple buffs to damage so they might still have higher dmg/hit than a fighter but not nearly as many tricks. Fighters have things that will raise damage for others or for themselves in the future through things like inflicting flat footed but I didn't see any fighter feats that give a flat boost to damage rolls.

As for Rangers they're going to be very strong archers (especially with the likely longbow change) with any type of bow. How strong they are at melee I'm not as sure on.

Yes but you can still min max. For example a +1 Greatsword+ power atack deals 3s12 damage.

Cantrips scale at level 3 and get ability core to damage so 1d8 becomes 2d8+4 at level 3, 3d8+4 level 5, 4d8+4 level 7 etc.

 

[SeanPatrickMcCluskey]

As a D&D 5e player, I just wanted to wish my fellow gamers good fortune with PF 2e. I hope you all enjoy it!

As a Savage Worlds player, I second this emotion.