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

 

[Maxperson]

There are a few, but hardly "plenty", and those few are high level. If it weren't for the half-level thing, I'd multi into fighter just because I have nothing better to use those early class feats on.

It's not a feat, and it's not specifically ranged, but Hunt Target is good for ranged combat. At 2nd level(hardly high level) Favored Aim gives you a +2 to hit or ignore some portions of cover. Stalkers Shot(also 2nd level) gives you a free shot against a hunted target that doesn't see you. Then yes, the rest of the good ones are 12th level or higher.

 

[Shasarak]

Think I would be in the 2 hour camp to create a PC as well. On the Paizo forums there have been reports of 3 hours to make one. 10-30 mins for an edition I am familiar with or maybe an hour for something complicated.

My game on Thursday turned into Character creation night so hopefully we can do a little Goblin bashing next week.

 

[Zardnaar]

My game on Thursday turned into Character creation night so hopefully we can do a little Goblin bashing next week.

IDK if I will get to playtest my group was not keen once they saw the PF2 PDF. And there are some things i it I am fundamentally not interested in such as their 3 action round thing. Its better than 3.5/PF but make it simple just give them multiple attacks and rebalance the classes around that.

 

[The Human Target]

I made a character in a half hour, and a lot of that was looking up spells and how skills work.

3 hours is baffling for someone who's played modern d&d type games.

Unless you're reading the rules while making the character, but then what did you expect?

 

[Shasarak]

IDK if I will get to playtest my group was not keen once they saw the PF2 PDF. And there are some things i it I am fundamentally not interested in such as their 3 action round thing. Its better than 3.5/PF but make it simple just give them multiple attacks and rebalance the classes around that.

I dont see how multiple attacks are simpler then having one attack per action except for remembering if you are at +0, -5 or -10 to your attack.

3 hours is baffling for someone who's played modern d&d type games.

Unless you're reading the rules while making the character, but then what did you expect?

How else can you make a character without reading the rules? I have to say that the search function on the pdf was a real time saver.

 

[The Human Target]

I dont see how multiple attacks are simpler then having one attack per action except for remembering if you are at +0, -5 or -10 to your attack.



How else can you make a character without reading the rules? I have to say that the search function on the pdf was a real time saver.

Heh, fair point. I meant for the first time.

 

[cglied]

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!

 

[zztong]

I made a character in a half hour, and a lot of that was looking up spells and how skills work.

3 hours is baffling for someone who's played modern d&d type games.

Unless you're reading the rules while making the character, but then what did you expect?

I probably could have made a character quickly if I would have just chosen things like abilities based on their names. Why would I do that?

I've played D&D type games since the 1977. Three hours didn't even get me a complete character when just using the book. I switched to Hero Lab and then still needed an hour to make one for the first time. Most of the time was spent on differences in terminology, analysis of options, trying to find things I assumed would be present.

I can see where the time it takes could depend on the class. For instance, I started trying to make a Ranger. This class doesn't include a lot of classic Ranger abilities, and I spent time looking for them because I was certain they had to be there. I similarly got hung up in Ancestries trying to figure out why my racial abilities weren't all present from the start. I got hung up on the Lore Skill. I didn't understand it. I still don't understand it. Weapons have traits that have to be reviewed, etc.

Sure, I can throw together a character (sans equipment) in around 10 minutes with Hero Lab now that I've made 15 characters.

 

[Kaodi]

What do you guys think the optimal state distribution is in the endgame? In an absolute point sense the most you can get at level 20 is 19 18 18 18 18 18, thought from a numerical advantage perspective it would probably be better to shoot for 20 18 18 18 18 16. But of course you could sack two more boosts to get a 22 in your prime stat, and maybe even to get 20 in a secondary stat. But... would you really want to? Are we gonna get a situation where at the highest levels of play there are virtually no differences in stat lines, and is that even a bad thing?

 

[Arakasius]

I think you'll always want your class primary stat to be maxed out, just like you do in PF1 and 5e. So starting with it being as high as possible (18) and then put all 4 points into it, leaving you at 22. Then going up to 24 if you got the magic item for that stat. Since getting your to hit high is important as is getting your caster level up I think it will be worthwhile. Every class is always going to have something to not raise, whether that be Dex for high armor characters or Int for some classes. Even charisma is still somewhat a dump stat once your level gets high enough to give you resonance for what you need.