Pathfinder 2E Pathfinder 2 Core Layout

[SilverfireSage]

Recently picked up the Pathfinder 2e core book, and while I still reserve judgement on my impressions of the system as a whole, one thing that I can't abide is the labyrinthian nature of how the book is written. I'll give an example.

Say you want to know what Wild Shape does as you make your druid. You read the druidic order Wild, which says you gain the Wild Shape druid feat. You go to the druid feats and find Wild Shape which says you gain the wild shape order spell. So you flip 300 pages to the order spells (which are different from normal spells and in a different section) and find Wild shape. It states that you can polymorph into any form listed in the spell pest form. So you flip back a hundred pages to the pest form spell, listed under the normal spells, to find that it says you can turn into any tiny animal and they all have the same stats anyway.

For a player trying to get into roleplaying games for the first time, this is ridiculous. Instead of having any one of these things listed directly under the Wild Shape feat or under the Wild Shape spell, you have to flip hundreds of pages several more times to find the right thing. This is true for a lot of abilities in many of the classes, and I have no idea why these weren't simply listed with the abilities in question.

 

[mewzard]

If I had to guess why the book did this so often, it was probably to save page space. The book is already 640 pages long. I imagine if they didn't do this, the book could have easily jumped more than a hundred pages of text that is basically copypasted from elsewhere in the book (like, say, every single Summon spell noting the same heighten rate).

 

[Mycroft]

Yes, I find it byzantine, and maybe due to my eye condition, I find it very unpleasant on the eye; dislike the colour coding, the fonts are unattractive, detest the icons. I have a hard time telling the difference between the 2 and 3 action icon at a glance.
I mentioned all of this in the surveys.

 

[CapnZapp]

I will be purchasing the physical book to have as a rules reference during play, but I will do all my rules studying on my new 34" monitor with the PDF text enlarged

 

[mach1.9pants]

I really don't like the new layout style either, not a deal breaker, but I agree as mentioned in the review here, the character sheet looks like a tax form. And the overly bold colours everywhere are a literal eyesore. But I'm liking what I've read so far tho

 

[niklinna]

I agree. To add insult to injury, none of the chapter or page references in the PDF are hyperlinks. So annoying.

What they could have done to ease the burden and save page duplication would be to have multiple references. For example, with wild shape, they could have listed all of those references you mentioned, instead of just the first one. It could have been inline or a little table, but either way it would have let you go directly to what you want to look up instead of having to hunt through a trail of five references!

 

[niklinna]

I really don't like the new layout style either, not a deal breaker, but I agree as mentioned in the review here, the character sheet looks like a tax form. And the overly bold colours everywhere are a literal eyesore. But I'm liking what I've read so far tho

Oh that character sheet is a travesty. I look forward to fan-created versions.

 

[DragonBelow]

I like the layout of the book, and even though I need reading glasses I have no trouble with the fonts, icons etc. The character sheet though makes me want to pull my eyes out . Who wastes color ink on a character sheet anyway? very minor gripe though.

 

[muppetmuppet]

It is divinely inspired compared to the 5e PHB index

 

[SilverfireSage]

It is divinely inspired compared to the 5e PHB index

Agreed that the index is far better in P2e, but the layout of the content in the book is my gripe.