Droll Initiative

(Before I begin, I made a mistake in my previous post, where I thought there were only multiclass archetypes and class archetypes. There are also plain archetypes, separate from both. Oops. Carrying on…)

It’s been a few months since I last wrote about PF2E, and in the meantime I’ve bought quite a few of the books, watched several hours of YouTube videos, and even played in a one-shot. It’s quickly become my favorite d20-based fantasy game. I’ve collected a handful of thoughts and observations, which I’ll organize into player and GM sections.

Player

• I still can’t get over how much D&D 4E influence has made its way into this game. There’s obvious stuff like Focus Spells being an adaptation of Encounter Powers, and the heavy keywording of equipment traits, but also how strongly teamwork is emphasized. Part of 4E’s allure to me was how everyone had a role to play in the party, and team composition mattered.
  • While I love 4E, the roles were hard-coded and inflexible. If you wanted to play a Fighter, you were going to be a Defender with a Striker. PF2E gives classes a bit more flexibility into how they approach their place in the party, which I prefer. I know this requires a bit more of a learning curve, however.
• Having Archetypes handle customization outside of a given class is brilliant. The foundations can be found in 4E’s multiclass system, but PF2E expands them into a full, opt-in customization system. I love that it’s just one system that covers multiclassing, variant class features, and diversification, with only minor rules changes between the three. This is awesome for players because we’re no longer locked into a particular path for how our character will progress, and it also means that “breadth” doesn’t have to mean “more combat options”.
  • On that note, I love that Archetype Feats are deliberately undertuned for their level. You trade power for breadth, and that’s very much in keeping with other decisions in the game (most notably, jack-of-all-trades (sub)classes like the Alchemist and the Warpriest).

GM

• Prepping fights couldn’t be easier. This means that I can focus less on paperwork and more on the fiction that might play out. Plus… maybe it’s just me, but I found 4E prep overwhelming, as I felt like I had pressure on me to make sure every battle felt like a setpiece. I think PF2E’s decision to allow more volitional movement, and less forced movement, loosens terrain prep for me as well.
• There are so many options for Ancestry and Class. I was a big fan of the weird-ass shit they dropped into 4E towards the end of its lifecycle, so no surprise that I like it in PF2E as well. Aside from being absolute catnip to me as a player, all of this gives me ready-made content for me to build out a custom world, if I so choose.
• There’s a certain sense of modality in a lot of TTRPGs, between “Combat” and “Not-Combat”. “Not-Combat” is loose and freeform, but things change when the GM draws a map and minis are placed down. I like both sides of the divide, mind you, but the change from freeform, conversational play to rules-forward, board-gamey combat play is a bit jarring. PF2E, for its part, gives rules for moments where it’s not quite combat, but isn’t downtime either. That’s good. Forbidden Lands has a similar love of out-of-combat rules and procedures, and for all of my gripes about that system, I feel like it makes the game feel more cohesive, and less like two games grafted on to one another.
• One minor gripe about the system, before I close up. The system for detecting spells as they’re being cast is a bit clunky for in-person play. Basically, RAW, your character only knows what spell is being cast if they prepared it or it’s in their repertoire. Otherwise, you need a feat to possibly know spells from a certain tradition, and it’s a secret roll. I’d probably take the advice the book gives and, just for this scenario, make the roll non-secret. That way, I’m spared having to know what spells the character knows before I describe what goes down. On a virtual table, I’m sure it’s a lot less cumbersome, but this tweak saves me the step of looking over a spell sheet.