Pathfinder 2E Regarding Competence

[Thomas Shey]

I still think 13th age has the best solution, which is to put hp caps on strong debuffs. This has two advantages:

1. You can still use them as finishers on powerful foes, you just have to rough them up a bit first.

2. You can fine-tune the hp limit based on the spell, so a spell that stuns a foe for a round has a higher hp cap than one that paralyzes them for a minute.

Yeah, the 13A version has its virtues too (though there can always be a question about what damaging does to make that work), but I'll still say the PF2e approach is better than the 3e/PF1e one. I know it doesn't suit some people, and I get why, but that "stall the monster until it fails a save" thing never seemed a virtue.

 

[Staffan]

Yeah, the 13A version has its virtues too (though there can always be a question about what damaging does to make that work), but I'll still say the PF2e approach is better than the 3e/PF1e one. I know it doesn't suit some people, and I get why, but that "stall the monster until it fails a save" thing never seemed a virtue.

Way I see it, hit points represent an awful lot of different things but they boil down to plot armor. Knock enough plot armor off, and you become vulnerable to more things.

I mean, it's a mechanic that already exists in 5e, just not on all that many spells: sleep, color spray, the power words. Maybe others, but those are the ones that come to mind.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Way I see it, hit points represent an awful lot of different things but they boil down to plot armor. Knock enough plot armor off, and you become vulnerable to more things.

I mean, it's a mechanic that already exists in 5e, just not on all that many spells: sleep, color spray, the power words. Maybe others, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Well, I'm not a person who's going to consider the fact D&D5e does something in a particular similar way a compliment.

 

[dave2008]

Well, I'm not a person who's going to consider the fact D&D5e does something in a particular similar way a compliment.

Than you must really hate Pathfinder!

 

[Thomas Shey]

Than you must really hate Pathfinder!

Naw. Its still a D&D derivative, but it at least has enough moving parts in both character generation and play to be a somewhat satisfactory one, and it doesn't have much that actively annoys me the way Advantage/Disadvantage does other than, well, being a D&D derivative.