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Message: <blockquote data-quote="!DWolf" data-source="post: 8154730" data-attributes="member: 7026314">I wasn’t going to post this because I have said it all before but:Being a GM is like being a craftsman in that you have a set of tools which you use to build adventures/ sessions. There are a lot of different tools but one of the first ones that most D20 fantasy style GMs learn is the “monster leaps out of the brush/darkness, moves up, and melee attacks until dead” and it’s not necessarily a bad tool, it certainly has its uses, but it’s very common and almost every player knows exactly how to deal with it.What is happening here is that Cody either has a very limited selection of tools such that he has to repeatedly rely on the same tool for every fight or when he read the AP he assumed that every encounter had to use his favorite/most familiar tool, ignored everything that contradicted that, and attempted to run the game using nothing but that tool – to predictably poor results.Now I haven’t watched the second video (and I’m not going to since I have better things to spend my time and data on) but I’m betting he is going to bring up a couple encounter examples using his favorite tool and then try to illustrate how one combat routine is clearly ‘optimal’ (the sequence won’t actually be ‘optimal’ and have some flaws that people on the forums will point out if they haven’t lost interest already, but that’s beside the point). What he won’t do is bring out six different tools (say hit-and-fade, a deathtrap, combatants mixed with non-combatants, sentry removal/raid, the classic monster burst out of the brush, and attacking prepared defenses as examples) and give examples showing how the same sequence is optimal for all of them even though that would support his argument while a certain sequence being optimal in a certain situation will not (unless of course that is the only situation the players will ever encounter – which for a good GM it won’t be).Because of the way pathfinder 2e works characters tend to get a broader range of actions as they progress. This makes it a fantastic system for GMs who like to mix up their tools as you will be less likely to find those “I’m completely useless in this situation” moments (which is incidentally why some GMs rely so heavily on the ‘monster burst out of … and melee attacks until dead’ tool because players almost always have an option they can use in that situation and the GMs feel bad when they create situations in which characters can do nothing).BTW: if any of you do have the ‘optimal’ build/sequence/routine for all situations for a class please post it! I’m doing sanity checks on a bunch of boss battles and death traps and would love some ‘optimized’ test characters to balance them against.</blockquote>

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