Pathfinder 2 and the game Paizo should have made

[FrogReaver]

If a character is "breaking the game," I feel it's something that can be dealt with at the table. Have a power gamer abusing the system, throw extra hard enemies at him. Someone accidentally built a too weak character, it can be changed, if the player is feeling unhappy with his choices.

Sadly this behavior just reinforces the idea that he needs to powergame. It also has the rather detrimental side effect of making him believe the other players need to optimize to the same degree lest they die, which either pushes them to do the same or pushes him into frustration when he dies and can lay the blame at the other players feet.

It's soo close to being the 5 minute workday problem. Well I'll ramp up encounter difficulty to challenge my players. Okay they used a lot of resources and now they rest. Which essentially makes the game into rocket tag.

 

[Xenonnonex]

If a character is "breaking the game," I feel it's something that can be dealt with at the table. Have a power gamer abusing the system, throw extra hard enemies at him. Someone accidentally built a too weak character, it can be changed, if the player is feeling unhappy with his choices.

Personally, I'd rather have a game with lots of choice, than reduce the options because of fears that some combinations will break the system. I have made a ton of 3e and PF characters, because I'm one of those geeky people that have fun just making characters. I never accidentally broke one. As for power gamers, we'll, there's no way to rein them in.

But at the same time your also throwing extra hard enemies at the rest of the party. Those who are not optimized would die quickly in this case.

Also getting someone to change their character is going to be really difficult. Especially for those who do not care about their optimization.

Better to talk about expectations from the off.

 

[Campbell]

I am someone who really cares about skilled play being a thing that games reward. However, I do not think that place should be in character build. I prefer for it be mostly expressed in active play with a focus being as much on the fiction as the rules. That way you can seek to get better over time and it kind of happens naturally. You do not need to rebuild your character from square one. There's a smoother curve as well.

One of the things that I really appreciate about Pathfinder Second Edition is that retraining is a downtime activity and that for smaller things like feats or spells for spontaneous casters you only need a week to change them out. That way players are less stuck with a decision that is not working out for them.