Yeah, but looking at it in retrospective, the ending of Kung Fu Hustle was kind of silly, even for Kung Fu Hustle. It was fun to be sure. But the fact that basically a thousand axers weren't even up to the task of making him sweat kind of makes the fight boring aside from the fact that it was simply too comical in nature. If you'd played that out at a table, people would be yawning their arses off by the time he got to the BBEG.
Well, in an actual game, you could not only have a thousand fodder incapable of hurting you, but a few more level appropriate elites that could still cause you some harm, leading to the boss monster and their personal guard that's a major threat to you.
The fodder can show how much you've progressed (maybe it's made up of foes that once wrecked you at lower levels) while also letting you show off (three action Ki Blast at level 20 would do 18d6 damage on a failure for the Fort save in the 60 foot cone, 36d6 on a Critical Failure, which is likely for low level fodder), the higher ups let you warm up, your status/HP depending upon how smart you played it, and then the big fight where you're not entirely sure if you'll make it unless you really go in with a plan.
I agree. This is one reason why I prefer low-magic games or even games where wizardry is largely the domain of NPCs. In PF1, we used house rules to limit Wizards. Its much easier to keep them from casting.
You, for instance cite Beowulf and might point to the 2007 movie as an example. I too would cite Beowulf, but I would point to Eaters of the Dead, aka the 13th Warrior.
Alas, the DM of PF2 game I'm in generally likes the ultra-fantastic. He's a good friend. I just have to live with it. My other regular game stayed with PF1 and has all the house rules. At least half the time I get a game I can usually remain immersed.
It seems we take issue with the same problem (Caster>>>Martial), we just have different solutions to that problem. You like bringing the caster down in a low magic setting, whereas I like bringing the martial up in a high fantasy setting. Each can be a fantastic solution to the problem, the one you choose just depends on the group.
I ended up retraining late game to take Serpent Fire Adept for my Unchained Monk in our PF1 game partially because I felt like it could close that gap (it also fit where my Monk was at the time, finally turning inwards to focus on his spiritual side after ignoring it for too long due to story reasons, so it was a win-win).
I like the idea of the game having options to do Legendary things in default, rather than having to dig for the right (and probably broken) archetype to get that feel.
I'm also rather fond of how much skills matter, and that they're not as negatable by a caster as had been the case in the past.
