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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dungeonHamster" data-source="post: 7824449" data-attributes="member: 7011568">Yeah I'm a DM coming from 5e. In an effort to keep interest with my players, I switched systems to 2E.What are your actual experiences in running the game?I guess we have 8 sessions under our belt now. We adopted the remnants of a 5E campaign where the party TPK'd so that the players could continue the story with fresh level 1 adventurers with the plot hook that they were uncovering what happened to the advanced level'd TPK party.What works for you in practice and why? It's been said to death so I wont' elaborate further, but the three action economy is a godsend both for my players engagement and for my own interest in running the monsters.  Speaking of which, I really dig all the neat little abilities they give monsters in the manual. So far my favorite are the goblins and their assorted pals (like Goblin dogs). The abilities are fun and fluffy and constantly surprise the players in ways they're not used to.Feats are huge. While I really dug (and still do dig) 5e's approach to theatrical combat, in practice people would be paralyzed by options and just attack or cantrip. Feats give things narrative flair that don't overheat my player's braincells in trying to come up with "cool attack variation a" and combat is already highly varied by level 3 with all the different abilities players switch between depending on the situation.I really like how things are broken down into exploration activities: even though all of those options are available in other rpgs, somehow codifying it makes it easier on my players.Experience: it's great that we know how much is needed for next level without looking up some table. Monsters/traps giving scaling xp based on threat makes sense.Shields: my fighter players LOVE how shields take damage. As a DM, I'm not exactly sure how useful it is, but thematically its great! I would be willing to bet this depends highly on how useful your players think the Shield Block reaction is.NotEveryoneGetsOpportunity: My players keep guessing which monsters have it, which is great fun as a DM, and my fighters like that they have something special others have to feat for. I also dig that there are different types, which is especially fun for the players. The amount of "high fives" on the table has been increasing.Character Construction: I really liked how easy and fast it was to create a character, though I have some complaints on that below. What really sped things up was that the "boost" system made getting stats a snap. It feels fun to use to go through and, were it not for the deluge of feats, I'm sure my players would quickly roll up new characters.Numbers: I like that we have more than just "advantage/disadvantage" but at the same time...... see below.Three action economy: crap I mentioned that already didn't I?Three action economy: Seriously though, I'm stealing this if we ever go back to 5e.Something else I'm stealing for 5e:Doing initiative based upon the skill that brought about combat. In practice, this is almost always stealth, perception, or diplomacy, but it's great that players are rolling on the ability that initiated combat!Weapons: It's a pain to get used to their special abilities, but once you do, it's fun as hell. The thematic flair of a glaive actually having its own niche is great. All my martials, and even my wizards & friends, use different weapons and love them. That's awesome.TL<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />R I like a lot of things, but my players like things more.If something isn't working for you in practice, why is that?This might be more due to my transition from 5e, but I could swear the spell list is even more confusing than 5e's and harder to reference. Modifiers: stacking -2 modifiers is hard to keep track of. As a DM, I have to enforce it since my players will conveniently forget when they're flat footed but will never fail to remind me that a monster is. Add on various things like "sickened" or disarmed and it becomes a nightmare to keep track of everything. I guess I could use tokens and the condition cards though... wait, did they make it like this to sell me more stuff?  (Players dig it so long as I do the work). Feats: Yeah yeah yeah, my players love this and I love that they have so much choice, but I have to look things up constantly because players often times mix things up with 5e feats or don't read things correctly.  Probably solvable if you can force your players to write down their feats verbatim, but good luck with that.Lack of Legendary Monsters/Layer Actions: I get that Pathfinder monsters have more actions on the aggregate, but I really dug how a 5e Dragon affected the very terrain it occupied in a gameplay manner. Character Construction: Just like my players are paralyzed by choice in 5e action to the point where they just end up attacking, my players take forever to make new characters. I have the type of player who doesn't read the rules outside of the game so every new PK is at least a two hour wait while the player creates a new character. It's the fact that feats are in ancestries, skills, general, and classes. There are so many, which is awesome, but my players will NOT read that stuff outside of gametime so it's a huge time sink.I also have some "dang this was great in 5e why isn't it here?" wishes  in terms of skills. Specifically persuasion (is that just diplomacy?) and insight (is that society?).Also, are you coming to PF2E from PF1E or 5e? We're coming from 5e.If so, what have you noticed are the major differences in actual play between the games?  three action economy I know I know, but seriously this is thing my players applaud most about the entire system. Players have more interesting turns, they still go quickly, and it feels like they're making real choices. I know I am with the monsters at least.fighters and friends: wizards act like support and my martials, of which I have three out of six, feel more engaged. Their turn is never just "attack three times." It's "attack into exacting strike with my glaive oh man I hit again that's more damage!" and the table goes wild. wizards are significantly less powerful: I'm not sure if this is a positive or a negative and my guys are still level 5. I do like that martials get a lot more spotlight.magic items: I've caught myself giving out more magic items since there is a table with suggestions how many I should give at which levels. I've noticed that D&D official adventures tend to have next to none while I've heard that Paizo official adventures tend to have tons. Not sure how I feel about this, but my players seem to like it.This is an important question: are you completely new to D&D style games? No, we picked up D&D with 5e about a year and a half ago due to critical role. I wouldn't say I'm a veteran, but I'm definitely not new anymore. We've done Phandelver, Dragon Horde, Strahd, and Dragon Heist.As an addendum, my players are deadset on making a permanent switch to Pathfinder, but honestly I want to see what Paizo adventure paths are like before I commit myself. We're diving into Rise of the Runelords converted into 2e. TBH this looks really promising, but the D&D official stuff has been phenomenal so we'll see.</blockquote>

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